In the Anglo-Spanish naval battle that took place nineteen years later, the invincible fleet sent by Spain had 128 large warships, more than 3,000 cast cannons, tens of thousands of skilled sailors, and nearly 20,000 elite naval soldiers.

Although the British did not have as many giant ships as the Spanish, they far outnumbered the Spanish in terms of number, with 197 warships equipped with 6,500 guns!

In the coming 17th century, the Dutch, who played a leading role and truly defeated Spain and dominated the ocean for a hundred years, had hundreds of shipyards in the capital Amsterdam alone, and hundreds of ships could be built at the same time across the country. At its peak, the Dutch navy almost doubled the number of ships in the British and French navies!

The French, who realized the situation later, also put all their efforts into building ships, so they did not miss the feast of dividing the world.

In the future, a standard maritime power must have at least a dozen first-class battleships, more than a hundred third-class battleships, and several hundred cruisers and frigates. Add to that daily training, maintenance, wartime losses, shipyard construction, and related supporting facilities and affiliated factories, and it will definitely be a super-large industrial system.

In short, the navy is a money-burning machine. Players in the Age of Discovery must use the power of the whole country to build their own super fleet, otherwise there will be absolutely no chance.

Because the only thing that could defeat the sailing battleship was the sailing battleship, until the ironclad ship appeared.

Can Master Zhao skip the wooden battleship and go directly to the ironclad ship?

That would be great, but the answer is peaches...

That was the forefront of fierce competition, with countless manpower and resources invested by various countries, but it still took 300 years to complete this journey!

Ironclad ships are the crystallization of human industry that was born after the rapid development of several heavy industries such as metallurgy, mechanical processing and manufacturing, shipbuilding, and steam power! Don’t even think about it if you haven’t completed the Industrial Revolution, or even the Second Industrial Revolution!

Even though two industrial revolutions have been completed, it still requires a little bit of accumulation, step-by-step improvement, and relying on the accumulation of progress over time to build a real ironclad ship.

Although Zhao Hao knew the correct direction of development and could even outline the key points of the technology, he could only shorten the time and could not omit every step of industrial evolution.

Zhao Hao is not bragging, but the chance of him building an ironclad ship within fifty years is probably lower than the chance of winning the first prize in the Welfare Lottery.

Because that means that he single-handedly promoted the Ming Dynasty and completed two industrial revolutions!

Is this something a human being can do? As long as Mr. Zhao is still a human being, he should not daydream about this, okay?

Therefore, he set a goal for himself, that is, to see the launch of the first ship of the "Niubi" class ironclad warship named after "Master Zhao" before he died, so that he would have no regrets in this life.

If he wants to compete with the great powers in his lifetime, he must use the whole country's strength to build his own super fleet. There is no other way.

But the Ming Dynasty was poor, and Mr. Zhao could not mobilize the strength of his own country, so he had to mobilize the strength of other countries.

The target of his blood sucking is Japan.

In addition to normal trade, we also have to directly rob the daimyos’ mines!

Zhao Hao told his generals that if they sailed 400 miles east from Chengshan, they would reach the three islands of Japan. Yes, there are only three islands in Japan now. If you ask any Japanese, they will not tell you that there are four islands...

Then, 800 miles north along the Japanese coastline, you will reach Japan’s largest silver mine - Iwami Ginzan, which produces 38 tons of silver annually!

"Thirty-eight tons? How many taels is that?" Wang Rulong counted on his fingers.

"One million taels." Jin Ke's arithmetic ability and understanding of new weights and measures were obviously better than Lao Wang's.

"Yes, the silver mines in Japan currently produce 200 tons of silver per year, and the output of Iwami Silver Mine alone accounts for nearly one-fifth of the total." Young Master Zhao wiped his saliva and said leisurely, "If Jiangnan Group comes to mine, I am confident that the annual output can be doubled!"

"That's two million taels!" Wang Rulong was immediately overjoyed and said, "Then we don't have to worry about the money for building the ship!"

"Sir, is the Iwami Silver Mine within the range of our ship's guns?" Jin Ke asked calmly. Since the output of Iwami Silver Mine is so high, the owner must be regarded as a forbidden delicacy.

"It's ten miles from the seashore, and our artillery can't reach it at the moment." Zhao Hao adjusted the red silk on his straw hat. In fact, even if the artillery has a sufficient range in the future, it still can't reach it, because the silver mine is inside the mountain.

"How strong is the feudal lord who controls the silver mountain?" Jin Ke asked again.

"That's pretty sad." Young Master Zhao put on his straw hat with a guilty conscience, thinking to himself, I've played a trick on him before...

Since learning the ash-blowing refining technology from the Ming Dynasty thirty years ago, Iwami Ginzan has greatly increased its silver production, which naturally attracted competition from daimyos.

Among them, the Ouchi family in Yamaguchi, the Amago family in Izumo Province, and the Mori family in Hiroshima are the strongest. Seven years ago, Mori Motonari defeated the Amago family and became the new owner of Iwami Ginzan.

The Mori family gained a huge source of wealth and increased their power, quickly becoming the largest power in western Japan that ruled over ten countries, with a territory of more than 1.2 million koku. They were one of the most powerful lords in Japan, even surpassing Takeda Shingen and Oda Nobunaga.

The head of the family, Mori Motonari, was known as the "wisest general in the west" and the "god of strategy in the Warring States period." Although the Japanese were as good at boasting as the Joseon people, Mori Motonari was also worthy of being called a resourceful and ambitious overlord.

Such a great figure who is famous for his strategy and can mobilize tens of thousands of troops at any time is obviously not someone that the Jiangnan Group can afford to provoke at this stage.

So Mr. Zhao sighed and said, "So Ishimi Silver Mine is not the goal at this stage."

In any case, in two years, Mori Motonari would pass away. Moreover, Mori Motonari's eldest son had died, and his second and youngest sons were adopted out, so his grandson Mori Terumoto took over as the head of the Mori family.

The child Mori Terumoto is mediocre in ability, far inferior to his grandfather. It will not be too late to seize the Iwami Silver Mine when the time comes.

"Uh..." Wang Rulong's mouth twitched, his excitement was in vain.

"Then we should also plan early and wait for the opportunity to come." Jin Ke's level is higher than Lao Wang's, no wonder he is the chief and Wang Rulong is the deputy.

"Yes, there will be a chance soon." Zhao Hao smiled faintly, and said without elaborating: "We can't rush the Iwami Silver Mine, so let's put it aside for now and concentrate on the other gold mountain."

"Gold Mountain?" The two men were much calmer this time. Wang Rulong asked carefully, "Where is this Golden Mountain? Who owns it?"

"Don't worry, it's much easier to take over the gold mine." Zhao Hao smiled and pointed to the northeastern sea. "From the location of Iwami Silver Mine, continue northeast along the coastline for 1,200 miles. There is an island called Sado. The gold mine on the island is even more powerful than that of Iwami Silver Mine. Moreover, Sado Island is 70 miles away from the coastline. There is no decent force on the island. There are only about 10,000 people, men, women, old and young, and they are divided into several factions, and they have become feuds for generations."

"It's a clan fight." The two Yiwu fellow villagers felt very familiar with this. It was when Qi Jiguang passed by Yiwu that he witnessed the protracted and extremely high-level clan fights there, and that's when he decided to recruit soldiers in Yiwu.

"That's right." Zhao Hao said calmly: "We only need to send out a brigade to firmly control the local situation."

"Since the Sado Gold Mine is more powerful than the Iwami Silver Mine, will the Japanese princes allow us to occupy Sado Island?" Wang Rulong asked puzzledly.

"Yes." Young Master Zhao touched his nose awkwardly and said, "Because the local gold mountain has not been discovered yet. At present, there are only two very insignificant silver mountains, with an annual output of only tens of thousands of taels of silver, like chicken ribs. Therefore, the Echigo Dragon who ruled the other side of the strait has never thought of crossing the sea to conquer and take Sado Island for himself."

"Who is the Dragon of Echigo?" King Jin was stunned. He wondered what the level of these Japanese lords was, but their nicknames were so famous. What about the Bear of Hizen, the wisest general, and now there is the Dragon of Echigo. "Is there another Tiger?"

"Really." Zhao Hao couldn't help but laugh and said, "The old rival of 'Echigo Dragon' Uesugi Kenshin, Takeda Shingen, is also known as the 'Tiger of Kai'. When the two of them competed in a dragon-tiger fight, their brains were almost blown out."

"This is much simpler. If that 'Thicker Paper Dragon' dares to get angry with us, we can join forces with that 'Fat Paper Tiger' and beat the hell out of him together. I guarantee that even if he is a dragon, he will be coiled up." Jin Ke said with a smile.

"Well, that's right, that's what I think, but the iron must be hard to forge." Zhao Hao nodded and said, "We will still station troops on the island and build artillery batteries, and send a squadron to stay on Sado Island to eliminate all invading enemies!"

"Yes!" Jinke's Wang Rulong quickly put his legs together and answered loudly.

Then Lao Wang couldn't help but ask curiously, "How did you know that there is a gold mountain that even the Japanese don't know about?"

"Uh, this..." Young Master Zhao rolled his eyes, paused for a long time, and said in a muffled voice: "This is the power of science."

Then he told them in all seriousness why Japan was rich in gold, silver and copper. It was because it was originally located in a volcanic earthquake zone. Millions of years ago, volcanic earthquakes occurred frequently, and various precious metals such as gold, silver and copper in the earth's crust moved to the surface along with the magma and the earth's crust. After the magma cooled, it formed a mountain of gold, silver and copper...

Through scientific geological research, Master Zhao deduced from the locations of existing gold, silver and copper mines in Japan that Sado Island must have large gold and silver associated mines, and that they must be larger than the Iwami Silver Mine.

After hearing what King Jin and the other two understood, their admiration for the young master reached a new level.

"Yes, you are a great scientist who can predict earthquakes!" Jin Ke said sincerely, "When I retire in the future, I will definitely study science with you."

"No one knows more about underground things than you." Old Wang's eyes sparkled. He felt that he had fallen in love with someone else. Now in his heart, Marshal Qi was not as important as Young Master Zhao.