Daming Crazy Emperor

Chapter 257 Dragon Fang Battleship
Wubei City, like giant square walls, Taichang looked into the distance with a binoculars.

At this moment, both the shipyard and the cannon factory have been completed, and the cannon factory has already started to cast cannons. The shipyard has already built fifty Spike warships. The hull has also left the dock, quietly floating on the waterway, undergoing final assembly and debugging.

He stood on the city wall between the shipyard and the cannon factory. Looking around, huge squares were already visible. The musket factory, chariot factory, armor factory, etc. were all under construction. Countless craftsmen and five The soldiers of the military camp were busy back and forth like ants.

On the Haihe River, there are even more ships, more than [-] wheels and [-] newly built Spike warships are constantly shuttling in the river, transporting ship after ship of supplies to the densely packed area on the south bank of the Hai River. On the riverside pier.

At this time, there were not many ships, and even a series of newly-built docks along the river were not enough to stop. If the number of ships was enough to fill the docks on both sides of the river, and each square filled the two sides of the Haihe River, then I really don’t know. What a spectacular scene.

Oh, I'm really looking forward to it!
While Taichang was sighing, a Jin Yiwei suddenly walked up to him, walked up to him, bowed his hands and said, "Your Majesty, Mr. Wang said that the building and gunboats are almost ready for adjustment, and you can go out to sea for a try."

OK!

Taichang immediately walked down the city wall with a group of master guards, and walked towards the direction of the large dock and waterway.

The shipyard at this moment is not just a few docks and a few waterways. The huge square is already filled with various buildings, such as the courtyard where the craftsmen live, the wood processing shed, and the pile of various materials. Warehouses, etc. have all been built.

Taichang led the people all the way through the densely packed courtyards, through a row of workshop sheds flying sawdust, and then through a row of huge warehouses. It took them more than a quarter of an hour to come to the huge dock waterway.

At this time, a brand-new building boat and gunboat had been exposed, and the surrounding area of ​​the huge hull had been cleaned up, and Wang Zheng was standing on the deck waiting eagerly.

Taichang quickly boarded the processing platform next to the waterway, stepped over the springboard in the middle with a few strides, and came to the deck.

When Wang Zheng saw him coming, he cupped his hands excitedly and said, "Your Majesty, we can finally go to sea for a test ship."

Just go to sea and test the ship?

Taichang looked at the guards who were quickly boarding the ship behind him, and then at the sailors and soldiers neatly arranged in the three-story gun tower. He always felt that something was missing.

He was frowning and thinking, when Yuan Keli, Shen Yourong and Zhang Yuanfang had already come out of the first floor of the blockhouse, and bowed their hands with excitement on their faces, "See you, Your Majesty."

By the way, these three guys are missing.

This is the main battleship of the navy, and the generals of the navy are not here, so what to try?
It turned out that these guys went into the gun tower to watch the artillery.

Since they are all there, it is natural to try.

Taichang nodded slightly and said, "Okay, since we're all here, let's set sail."

When Wang Zheng heard this, he quickly ordered: "Quickly, pull out the diving board, pull up the cables, and burn the boiler."

The lower half of the ship is actually the structure of Zheng He’s treasure ship for reference. Except for replacing the sail and mast with a steam engine and a water wheel, the other structures on the two floors below the deck have basically remained unchanged.

In other words, below the deck is a mature structure that has gone through countless sea trials, and there will be no problems at all.

The above structure is actually not complicated, that is, the original three-story cabin is replaced by a three-story gun tower. Except for the need to balance the weight of the artillery, there are basically no other problems.

That's why Taichang dared to board a test ship for the first time.

Zheng He has taken this kind of boat to the Western Ocean seven times, and it will definitely not turn over. The main thing to try now is the sailing speed and steering sensitivity.

Of course, if there are no problems with these, you can also fire a few shots to try the coverage of more than 100 artillery pieces in the three-story gun tower.

In short, as long as there is no problem with the sailing speed and steering, the gunship of this building is considered to be successfully developed.

Soon, there were bursts of gray smoke from the neat chimneys on both sides of the deck, and the siren sounded one after another representing the completion of the steam. Seeing this, Wang Zheng couldn't wait to say: "Your Majesty, why don't we go up and sail the ship?" .”

I really don't know how this ship opened Taichang, because when the gunboat was assembled, it was densely packed with people, and there were wood everywhere, so he had to watch carefully even the place where the pins were inserted, so he didn't squeeze in to see .

So, how did this gunboat drive?

In fact, the wheelhouse of the Louchuan gunship is on the top of the three-story gunship near the stern, because the Zheng He treasure ship uses a stern rudder, and there is no motor to drive it, so it is impossible to control it at a long distance. The steering wheel can be loaded in the middle of the stern.

The most important thing in the pilothouse is the steering wheel that controls the direction of the ship. The steering wheel is in the middle of the stern, so the pilothouse is naturally in the middle of the stern.

However, the structure of this cab is a bit strange.

Taichang led the crowd to follow Wang Zheng to the top of the three-story gun tower, and he couldn't help being dumbfounded.

The pilothouse of this gunboat is actually like a gazebo, except for the half-person-high wooden boards surrounding it, the four sides are basically empty!

Why is the cab the same as a gazebo?

Naturally, this is for widening the view. If the walls are blocked on all sides, then the outside situation will be invisible. The boat will probably bump into everywhere when it sails out!
There was no way to solve this problem before, is there still no way to solve it now?

Taichang couldn't help laughing and said, "Liangfu, isn't there glass now? You should at least install glass on all sides, otherwise, the helmsman who is operating the ship will not be drowned in a storm at sea!"

At this moment, Daming's glass-making technology is indeed extremely mature, and some windows in the palace have already been replaced with glass windows. Naturally, it is no problem to install glass in the wheelhouse of this ship.

Wang Zheng scratched his head in embarrassment and said: "The emperor forgives the sin, this is the first time for me to draw such a big ship, and I only want to try to follow the original structure as much as possible in my mind, and there were no such things as glass windows on the treasure ship back then. The glass servant really didn't expect it."

Taichang nodded slightly and said: "Okay, it's easy to add a few glass windows, let's try the ship first, by the way, remember to thicken the glass, the window glass used in the palace is not good, anything that is blown by the storm If you hit it, it would probably break."

Wang Zheng nodded again and again, "I understand!"

After finishing speaking, he quickly walked into the cab, held the steering wheel, and said loudly: "Quick, stand on both sides, I'm going to sail."

Hearing the words, several disciples under his sect hurried to the wooden guardrails on both sides of the city wall like arrow piles, and stretched their heads to look down.

For such a big ship, standing in the middle of the three-story gun tower, you can't see the two sides. Therefore, when leaving the port, someone has to cooperate and stand on both sides to watch.

Seeing that his disciples were all in their positions, Wang Zheng immediately grabbed a pull rope and pulled it hard a few times.

This should inform the people below to open the steam valve and prepare to sail.

Sure enough, as soon as he pulled the pull rope a few times, a whistle sounded from below, and then the disciples on both sides said loudly: "It's moving, it's moving, teacher, the water wheel is moving."

Hearing this, Wang Zheng quickly turned the steering wheel to adjust the course, and the huge ship slowly left the processing rack next to it and drove to the middle of the waterway.

It seems that there should be no problem with low speed. Leaving the processing rack is actually similar to leaving the port. At least, it is very smooth when leaving the port.

Immediately afterwards, Wang Zheng pulled the other pull rope a few times, and the speed of the Louchuan gunboat gradually increased. After a while, the Louchuan gunboat drove out of the waterway of the dock and directly entered the sea.

There is no city wall on the side of the shipyard facing the sea, because more than ten waterways are all connected to the sea, and it is too troublesome to build a city wall in the middle, so Taichang just ordered people to build a fortress at the end of the city walls on both sides.

To be honest, this giant ship is different when it goes to sea. At low speed, it is like walking on flat ground.

Soon, several escorting Spike warships also came out of the Haihe River, closely following the gunboat.

Seeing this, Wang Zheng couldn't help but excitedly said: "Your Majesty, I'm going to try the fastest speed."

Taichang nodded without hesitation and said, "Okay, just try."

Hearing this, Wang Zheng immediately pulled another red rope.

This giant ship started to speed up again, but the rate of growth was not very large.

After a while, Wang Zheng said awkwardly: "Your Majesty, the speed of this gunboat seems to be so fast."

How fast is that?
There is no reference object on this vast sea, no speedometer, Taichang doesn't know how fast it is!
He thought for a while, and then said to Wang Zheng: "Let the Spike warship behind go to the fastest speed, and drive over from both sides to have a look."

Wang Zheng hastily waved his hand, ordering a student holding a command flag to issue a semaphore.

After a while, two Spike warships came out from the side and drove forward slowly.

In fact, the Spike is already running at the highest speed, but the building boat gunboat is also running at the highest speed, so it seems that the Spike is moving forward slowly.

Taichang made a rough estimate, then nodded and said: "Well, that's fine, this speed is almost the same."

This speed should be above 25 yards, maybe around [-] yards, which is enough for the current battleship.

There was no problem with this speed, and Wang Zheng began to try turning again.

It is impossible for such a huge battleship to turn around as fast as a wheeled ship and a wolf-toothed warship, but it is much faster than a sailed warship.

Taichang nodded slightly again: "Okay, there is no problem with sailing and steering, let's try the artillery."

Hearing this, Shen Yourong hurriedly walked up to the guardrail in front, and shouted at the bottom: "Get ready, all the artillery, fire a salvo."

"Wow", there was a sound of footsteps, followed by the sound of cannonballs being loaded neatly from the cabin below, and soon, the ready flags were raised one by one, and Shen Yourong immediately shouted without hesitation: "Fire! "

"Boom boom boom", a violent artillery roar sounded, and the whole building, boat and gunboat visibly trembled.

Immediately afterwards, rows of water jets rose into the sky on the sea surface on both sides of the Louchuan Gunboat.

No problem, at least there is no problem with this kind of building and gunboat going out to fight.

Daming finally has his own building and gunboat!
Taichang couldn't help but clenched his fist excitedly.

But Wang Zheng asked excitedly: "Your Majesty, what is the name of this building and gunboat?"

Hearing this, Taichang couldn't help but look at the wolf heads and fangs painted on the prows of several wolf-tooth warships behind.

He thought for a while, and then said in a deep voice: "This gunboat is called the Dragon Tooth Battleship. Paint the dragon's head and dragon teeth on the bow, and draw the aura of the dragon!"

(End of this chapter)