The disgraced official I took care of was actually Zhu Houcong's childhood friend.

Chapter 160

As for warships, Zhou Chu had already begun preparations. The craftsmen who built Zheng He's treasure ships during the Yongle era were gradually laid off, but their descendants mostly worked in shipyards in the countryside. These people were far more skilled at building warships than ordinary people, and many even had treasure ship blueprints passed down to their families.

As early as when Zhou Chu had just become the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, he sent out many Embroidered Uniform Guards to search for the whereabouts of these people, paying them well and offering them official positions in the Baoyuan Bureau.

The Baoyuan Bureau was established in Yingtian Prefecture during the Hongwu era, mainly for minting coins. During the Yongle era, it was also responsible for casting treasure ships for Zheng He. By now, the Baoyuan Bureau was basically defunct, with only the function of minting coins remaining. Countless people were drawing salaries without working, so Jiajing did not mind squeezing some positions into it.

Nearly two months ago, when Zhou Chu sent Chu Li ten million strings of cash, he instructed her to purchase an inconspicuous private shipyard in Suzhou Prefecture and then arrange for people to work there. The money was plentiful, and the sole objective was to build warships similar to Zheng He's treasure ships.

Even after nearly two hundred years, in terms of warship technology alone, Zheng He's treasure ships are still at the pinnacle. In the past two hundred years, shipbuilding technology has suffered various suppressions and has not only failed to progress but has also declined to some extent.

However, the construction of the treasure ships takes time. Even with hundreds of craftsmen working together, it would take about two months to build the smallest treasure ship. The first treasure ship is now nearing completion and is in the final stages of construction.

It's a pity Zhou Chu didn't know the blueprints for the steam engine; otherwise, if he had developed it, he wouldn't have needed to build treasure ships, and could have directly built steel warships.

Zhou Chu originally thought that the Ming Dynasty's iron casting technology was not mature, after all, that's what history recorded. It wasn't until he saw the Embroidered Spring Blade used by the Embroidered Uniform Guard that Zhou Chu realized that the historical records were not entirely accurate. The Ming Dynasty did have high-quality iron, but it just hadn't been able to reach the common people.

However, at this stage, the treasure ships are more than enough for both Zhou Chu and the Ming Dynasty. In fact, the treasure ships are invincible in naval battles of the same period. The West would not have invented the steam engine for at least 300 years. Without the steam engine, the West was nothing but trash in front of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhou Chu's men quickly made contact with Chu Huizu and obtained the information provided by him.

The most important of these was the sea outlet controlled by the Jiangnan Chamber of Commerce. Most of their smuggled goods were shipped out to sea via the Mekong River in Annam, which had the largest throughput. Of course, a small portion was shipped through other sea outlets, such as a wharf in Suzhou Prefecture, but these outlets could not accommodate very large ships, so the volume was very small.

After receiving this information, Zhou Chu pondered. It seemed that these people had long been in cahoots with Annam. No wonder Jiajing later wanted to recover Annam; his goal was to control the Mekong River estuary in the southeast and thus control the maritime trade along the southeast coast.

The recapture of Annam laid a solid foundation for the opening of the sea in Longqing. Without this largest outlet to the sea, smuggling groups would have to agree to open the sea if they wanted to go abroad.

Other outlets to the sea in Southeast Asia have extremely limited transport capacity, far less than the Mekong River outlets.

Upon receiving this crucial information, Zhou Chu's eyes lit up, and he began to plan how to recover Annam for the Ming Dynasty decades earlier.

With this in mind, Zhou Chu wrote a secret edict and sent it to the capital by fast horse.

As for the other things Chu Huizu mentioned, such as the Jiangnan Chamber of Commerce discussing how to deal with him, Zhou Chu thought they were trivial matters. When he saw the honey trap, Zhou Chu almost burst out laughing, wondering which genius had come up with the scheme.