Volume 3: Confrontation! The Run of Civilization Chapter 461 Entering the Iron Age (I)
In February of the third year of the Tianqi reign, it was still chilly in spring. Tianjin Port.
Zhu Youdong brought officials from the Ministry of War, Ministry of Works, Imperial Household Department, Imperial Horse Department, East Factory, Jinyiwei and many other departments, as well as many teachers and students from Fangshan, and many veteran generals of the Ming military. Of course, they came to watch the trial voyage of the two Ming ironclad ships.
However, in this warm and expectant atmosphere, there is also something a little bit different.
"Your Majesty, can you please give me a definite answer? I will be able to go back and do my work only if I have the news."
Among the figures in crimson high-ranking official uniforms, a man in cyan middle-level official uniform stood out. Although he looked tired, his eyes were still very bright. He boldly pulled Zhu Youdong's sleeves with both hands and said, "Your Majesty, I don't ask for much. One hundred thousand, one hundred thousand for the first batch. This can be considered a gradual and steady approach, right?"
"F*ck me~!" The official who could speak to Zhu Youdong in such a time-travel-like manner could only be Li Jia, who was from the Fangshan faction and is currently the governor of Singapore.
This guy left Singapore in early December and arrived in Beijing in mid-January. Then he heard that the court was planning to organize a migration of 300,000 people this year. He was overjoyed and asked again, and the result was that 120,000 would be divided among the shipping and engineering teams, and the remaining 180,000 would be divided equally between the five states in Central and South China and Taiwan Prefecture. Disappointed, he quickly relied on his teacher-student relationship to ask for an audience with Zhu Youdong, and the first thing he said was: Your Majesty, we in Singapore will take care of all these 180,000 people.
Then Zhu Youdong picked up the memorial on the table and beat him all over the head.
Your state of Singapore now has only 20,000 people, including soldiers and their families. How can you take in 180,000 people? If so many people come in at once, how can you accommodate them?
As a result, this guy shamelessly kept pestering, and every time he was beaten, he would take the initiative to reduce the salary by 10,000 yuan, from Beijing to Tianjin. Well, he didn't just reduce the salary by 10,000 yuan every time, but he always submitted a very detailed resettlement plan: how many people do you give me, how do I resettle them, what situations will occur in the plan, and how to deal with these situations or make contingency plans - if there were no resettlement plans, how could Zhu Youdong tolerate this guy's suicidal behavior?
Seeing Li Jia acting so pretentiously in front of Zhu Youdong, Sun Chuanting, who stood obediently by his official title, felt nervous: this Li Jia was his classmate. When the locust plague hit North China, as newly-appointed Jinshi, they had been hunted down together when they went down to supervise the distribution of relief grain. They could be considered as close friends. But now the two sides were in a competitive relationship, so they had to put aside their friendship: if Singapore State had taken 100,000 Han Chinese, but he, the prefect of Taiwan, had only brought back a few thousand, how would he explain to his colleagues?
"Well, my dear brother Yunong, I am not from Fangshan, so I am not close enough to the emperor. Are you..."
"What?" Chen Xiaotian, who was standing next to Sun Chuanting and also graduated from Fangshan School and currently served as a captain of the Jinyiwei Taiwan Prefecture, almost jumped up: "Prefect, you won't let me be like that shameless guy Li Jia and lick the emperor's boots, right? Well, although we are all students of Fangshan, everyone has different personalities. I can't do that kind of thing!"
Looking at the silent Sun Chuanting, Chen Xiaotian thought for a moment and said, "Governor, you don't have to worry. Whether in terms of geographical location, development level or the number of Han people, Taiwan is far better than Singapore. If Singapore can settle 100,000 Han people, then Taiwan can easily settle 200,000. You know, the court actually has millions of Han people who need to be settled, but the emperor wants to be safe and plans to relocate 180,000 people to the sea in the first year. I think, let that idiot surnamed Li make trouble. As long as he can make 100,000, we will naturally have 200,000."
"Ah? Hahaha, what Yunong said makes sense. Let's just wait and see what happens."
Because most of the people who came here today were high-ranking officials of the imperial court above the third rank, Sun Chuanting and Chen Xiaotian were actually standing at the side . At the other end of the team, there was also a young official in a blue official uniform, staring at Li Jia who was pulling Zhu Youdong's sleeve.
This is of course the governor of Yangon State, Hong Chengchou.
"Oh, I've really lost my mind. I went back to Beijing to snatch people. Why didn't I bring at least one of my colleagues from Fangshan with me ? No, I have to go find someone later. I heard that Xu Xianchun, the co-director of the Jinyiwei, also arrived last night. I don't know where he is now. Although I rarely come into contact with them on weekdays, his office is in Yangon after all. No matter what, he must speak for our Yangon State! It's not easy for our Yangon State. Across the Yangon River is the Portuguese, no, now it's the Spanish colonial stronghold of Thanlyin. Among the five overseas states, Yangon State has the greatest border defense pressure. How can we not settle more Han Chinese in our state?"
Just as the officials from the overseas states were having different thoughts, suddenly, a shout came from the crowd: "It's out!"
Then everyone's eyes were focused on the sea.
As an inland sea surrounded by the two giant hands of Shandong Peninsula and Liaodong Peninsula, the Bohai Sea is generally calm. Therefore, Zhu Youdong simply ordered the two ironclad ships to sail directly to the sea for inspection.
The first one to sail out was temporarily called Tiejia No. 1. The chief designer was Bi Maokang, and naval generals such as Li Guozhu and Yan Siqi also spent a lot of effort on it . In short, this ship was purely a product designed by people of this era after the steam engine was invented.
The ship is 65 meters long and 13 meters wide. On both sides of the ship's midship, there is a huge wheel-shaped iron cover, inside which is a paddle wheel like a waterwheel. On the deck of the hull, there are still three masts designed to hang sails.
After the ship sailed out, except for a few people like Zhu Youdong, everyone else exclaimed in surprise.
"It's really armor!"
"Oh my, this is incredible, can a piece of iron float on the sea?"
"Sir, the ship's frame is actually made of wood, but it's covered with a layer of iron."
"Oh, I see. But this is incredible! Although are not good at naval battles, we know that after the iron sheet is wrapped, the enemy's shells will not be able to penetrate our warships!"
"Haha, what the father-in-law said is absolutely right!"
Faintly hearing the exclamation from the shore, Li Guozhu and Yan Siqi, who were commanding the ship, smiled at each other. Then Li Guozhu shouted at the brass tube near the command seat: "What's the current speed?"
After a while, a voice came from the brass tube: "Speed now, six knots!"
"Tell the brothers on deck to fill the sails and increase the boiler pressure to maximum! Run at full speed!"
"Yes, sir!"
Soon, under the control of the sailors of the No. 1 ship, the three huge sails of the warship were also raised. The speed of the entire warship quickly increased to nearly ten knots. The bow of the ship split a huge wave, which made the people on the shore cheer again.
"Hahaha~" Sitting in the command room, leaving the door open, listening to the cheers and waving flags from the shore. After a burst of laughter, Li Guozhu shouted to another brass pipe: "Lookout, did you see the target ship?"
"Yes, our ship is at six o'clock, and the current distance is two thousand meters."
"Okay, turn around, and start shelling when you get within a thousand meters. Brothers, work hard! If you hit us within three rounds, I will get off the ship and treat all the brothers on the ship to Piaoxiangyuan!"
These words were shouted at a row of brass tubes, and then very quickly, many voices came back from each of the brass tubes: "The Admiral is mighty!"
Ship No. 1 turned quickly, approached the target ship and began to fire. It should be said that the officers and men of this ship had done serious training and careful preparation for today's appearance. So, very soon, the shells fired by the 150mm cannon set off huge water columns around the target ship. When it came to the second round of shelling, a huge click sounded - it hit.
The cheers on the shore became louder, but Zhu Youdong's brows furrowed even more.
What the hell is this ship? The length-to-width ratio is only 5:1! In the future, except for aircraft carriers, other ships will not have such a small length-to-width ratio.
It's okay for a boat this flat, but the key is the power, which is powered by paddle wheels. So, the boat can only run at 10 knots now, which is the limit - and that's because of the help of the sails.
Of course, no matter how badly the ship was designed, as an emperor, he had to protect the enthusiasm of the scientific researchers of this era. Even if they took a detour due to historical limitations, he had to pay attention to the methods and means to pull them back.
While Zhu Youdong was thinking, the target ship that was hit continuously finally broke into pieces: because of the smokeless gunpowder, the guns on the No. 1 ship were now breech-loading guns. The range and power of the shells were much stronger. In addition, it was a close-range shooting. Therefore, this already old and dilapidated target ship quickly disintegrated.
Amidst the even louder cheers from the crowd on the viewing stand on the shore, Li Guozhu and Yan Siqi came out of the command room, climbed onto the ship's tower, waved to the people on the shore, and left with satisfaction.
When the temperature on the viewing stand dropped slightly, a slender warship came into people's sight.
