Volume 1: Birth! Seven time travelers Chapter 123 His Highness’s New Toy (I)
Above the East China Sea, the waves are sparkling and the sky is clear.
On the blue sea, seven sailboats were lined up in a straight line, with only half sails hoisted. Each of them left a few wisps of green smoke and slowly sailed southeast.
Because the people on the ship were making a fire to cook, a large group of seagulls followed the smell and came over, circling around the huge mast.
With a loud "bang", a seagull in the sky fell down, and the other seagulls cried loudly in panic, and then quickly disappeared without a trace.
"Kojiro! Your hands are naughty!"
"Hey, hey, hey, young master, this short iron cannon given by His Royal Highness the Great Ming Crown Prince is really powerful ! It doesn't need a matchlock and has great accuracy. I couldn't bear it any longer and fired another one."
"Keng-keng", a loud bang sounded above Kojiro's head: "Laozi, no, I have told you so many times, we are now good people, uh, no, we are recruited. We are not sea merchants anymore, we are the Ming army! From now on, don't call me Laozi, uh, don't call me Young Master, call me General."
"Hi Yi!"
"You haven't been beaten enough, have you? You're still saying 'Hi'. It should be 'obeying your orders'. Just say 'yes'. Also, we are the official army of the Ming Dynasty now. You don't need to add the word 'Ming Dynasty' when you call him Your Highness. Hey~~" After yelling these, Li Guozhu covered his forehead with his hand dejectedly: "These idiots, when will they behave like the official army?"
Kojiro, who was hit on the head again, turned around aggrievedly and muttered in a low voice: "What are you talking about us? You are the same. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has personally given me the surname Inuyanga, and you still call me Kojiro..."
"What are you mumbling about there, Kojiro?"
"Yiyi, no, nothing happened. Uh, I have no complaints against the general."
"You are itching..."
"Young Master! The lookout sent a message that a fleet appeared thirty miles southwest of our team. There are about twenty 2,000-ton ships."
"You bastards are going to piss me off to death, aren't you? His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has issued an order to unify the weights and measures. Don't mention vague things like stone and material. From now on, it's all kilograms and tons! Hmm~~ Two thousand materials, two fives ten, two threes six, doesn't that mean it's a fat sheep of 700 tons? Tiedan, quickly organize the people to raise the sails. Kojiro, organize the people to prepare for boarding. Notify the old drunkard below the deck to prepare the artillery!"
After issuing various orders one after another, Li Guozhu quickly ran up to the command platform and quickly turned the steering wheel: "Raise the flag, all ships follow the flagship's turn!"
It was June 25, 1608. Fifteen months had passed since Li Guozhu first met Zhu Youdong.
During this year and more, both Zhu Youdong and Li Dan did a lot of things.
First of all, the identities of Li Guozhu and others needed to be resolved.
After all, the murder of Wang Zhi in the past caused the Ming government's low credibility, so Li Dan was still unwilling to leave Japan and return to China. However, after listening to the reports of Li Guozhu and Yan Siqi, he still sent about one-third of his men and ships, led by Li Guozhu, back to China to serve under Zhu Youdong.
As for Yan Siqi? The King of Kaitai didn't have a ship of his own at the moment, he was just hanging around. Therefore, his attitude was the most resolute.
Among the people brought back by Li Guozhu, in addition to some overseas Chinese, there were of course quite a few Japanese. Zhu Youdong did not discriminate against these people. He personally met with these guys one by one. For the ronin with names, he gave his own character "Dong", so that all their descendants would use "Dong" as a common character. For the civilian seamen who had no surnames, he gave them powerful and noble surnames such as "Inugami", "Zhu Tu", and "Xiongpi" one by one - there was no way, there were no large cats such as tigers and lions on the Japanese archipelago. Wild boars and black bears are the top creatures in the ecological chain of the Japanese archipelago. If you give them a name like a lion or a tiger, they won't feel it.
In short, after they had gathered their hearts, Zhu Youdong directly asked these more than 1,000 heroes to join the Ming army. Their native place was set in Chongmingsha, Baoshanwei.
Nanjing Minister of War Xu Honggang fully supports this matter: the escape of Ming military households has occurred since the founding of the country. Until now, the north is slightly better because of the constant border pressure, but the entire southern garrison system has long been rotten. At this time, there are people willing to join the Ming military households, and most of them are Ming natives, so they must be supported - the garrison soldiers do not need money from the court, on the contrary, they have to pay money to the court every year!
Therefore, the naturalization was easily completed. Li Guozhu was also appointed as the commander of the Chongming Sand Command. He was also given the title of guerrilla in Funing Town, Fujian, and could indeed be honored as a general by his subordinates.
As for Yan Siqi, for well-known reasons, he was handed over to Li Ruzhang, and his military registration was registered with the Yangtze River Navy. Zhu Youdong gave him the title of Dusi.
After solving the personnel identity issue, the next issue is of course the equipment issue.
A century-old navy is no joke. Cao Sanxi prepared 100,000 taels of silver for Li Guozhu and others who were about to arrive, thinking that it would be enough. But after more than a year, Cao Sanxi has gone from surprise to anger to rage and then to numbness - whatever, this navy is a bottomless pit.
After seeing the 2,000-ton sea ship that Li Guozhu had brought, which Li Dan had always been proud of, Zhu Youdong simply sneered.
Sometimes, Zhu Youdong really has to thank the Kingdom of Spain. If they hadn't annexed Portugal at this time, causing the Portuguese people who were wandering around the world to fall into confusion and helplessness, he really wouldn't be able to get the Portuguese people's unreserved and full cooperation so smoothly.
Mirror grinders, watchmakers, mechanical engineers... whatever talents there were, Zhu Youdong's Fangshan base had them all, and they were all Portuguese. Now, there were even shipbuilders!
On the Internet in the 21st century, various factions have been arguing over the pros and cons of Chinese and Western sailing ships in this era. Zhu Youdong was a guy who was interested in 20th century battleships and had no idea about sailing ships. However, due to the various restrictions of this era, it was not realistic to directly use steam ironclad ships - for example, stainless steel and anti-rust paint technology did not meet the standards, and ironclad ships would rot and leak after being soaked in the sea for a short time, so sailing warships were a necessary transition. Therefore, Zhu Youdong carried forward his usual local tyrant style: Ming's own shipwrights and hired Portuguese shipbuilding engineers each led a group of people, and used the same budget to build a ship for testing and comparison!
After Li Guozhu and his team came to Nanjing to report again, they spent more than a year on shipbuilding and various related experiments. Chinese and Portuguese craftsmen, scientists such as Xu Guangqi, sea merchants such as Li Guozhu and Yan Siqi, and Zhu Youdong, a time traveler, all put in a lot of effort.
In January 1608, the first generation of new sailing warships for the future navy of the Ming Dynasty was finally finalized on the blueprint. After that, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince mobilized nearly a thousand craftsmen who had been gathered long ago, and in May of that year, the first batch of ten warships were completed and put into use.
This generation of warships was named Jinling class, with a length of 50 meters and a maximum width of 8.5 meters. Above the watertight compartment below the waterline, there were three levels of cabins, with 20 twelve-pound guns on each side. On the deck above the cabin, the forecastle was completely cut off, and the poop was also suppressed to be short and low.
On the deck, there are three masts up to 40 meters high, all with soft sails. The fabric used is the latest canvas provided by the Material Laboratory of Fangshan Base, which is strong, durable and water-permeable. In addition to the three main masts, there is a slanting sail at the bow and stern.
The waistline of the hull is straight, and the stern is also square. The whole thing looks like a rectangular box.
The standard displacement of the whole ship is about 600 tons, the full load is 850 tons, and the full load draft is 4 meters. Each ship has a standard crew of 180 people. When the sails are full and the wind is strong, the speed can reach about 10 knots (18.52 kilometers per hour).
As a test piece, this generation of warships was rushed. According to the Portuguese shipbuilders' estimates, the first batch of ten warships could only stay in the water for half a year at most. But Zhu Youdong didn't care: half a year was enough. With this half year, he could slowly select good enough wood and slowly train professional shipbuilders. Before the metallurgical technology and marine steam engine technology were fully developed, the Ming Dynasty should at least not lag behind in the field of sailing battleships.
Of course, what Zhu Youdong didn’t know was that the finished product that he and his men had come up with through various scientific planning, design, and continuous trial and error was already infinitely close to the medium-sized galleons that the British used to travel the oceans in the 17th century!
