Daming Crazy Emperor

Chapter 935 Conquering the Ice Sea
In North Taiping City, it took only five days for Taichang to lead the fleet to arrive, and the follow-up Aegis ships, armed merchant ships and large fishing boats came over.

At this moment, almost all the ice blocks in the entire bay have been pushed to the shore by them, and there is no problem with the huge expedition fleet mooring inside.

The problem is that there are still too few piers here, and the 30 elite soldiers from the Peking University Camp have to take turns to land, and I don’t know how long it will take to move the supplies on the armed merchant ships ashore.

On the city wall, Taichang looked at the Aegis ships that were docking in turn, and couldn't help frowning slightly: "Mr. Li, there are too few and too small piers at this pier. We have to expand it."

Well, in fact, the pier here is not small.

If it is only docked horizontally, ten Aegis ships can be docked side by side on the left and right sides of a pier.

Now the Aegis ship must be disembarked, so it must stand upright on the pier, and four Aegis ships can be docked on the left and right sides of a pier.

As for the number of piers here, it is really a bit small.

Yuan Keli said helplessly: "Your Majesty, the docks here were originally built to accommodate a hundred large ships and two hundred Spike warships, so ten large docks and ten small docks are enough.

There are thousands of large and small ships in the expedition fleet, so the docks here are naturally not enough.

In the past, the ocean-going fleet of the Western Company was basically about a hundred armed merchant ships, and even the Spike warships were rarely brought along, so it was just right to dock here.

Therefore, Weichen didn't think about expanding the pier here. "

Well, Ming did not have so many ocean-going ships in the past, and this was just a supply point and a stop. Basically, the navy fleet or the fleet of the Western Merchant Company replenished some food and fresh water here and left. The pier here Indeed enough.

However, it is different now. Daming's armed merchant ships have reached thousands of ships at this moment, and there will even be tens of thousands of ships in the future.

Moreover, the navigation time of the Arctic Ocean is too short, and a hundred armed merchant ships are definitely not enough to transfer supplies each time. The fleet going to the Arctic Ocean via here in the future is estimated to be at least a thousand ships.

Taichang thought about it carefully, and then confessed: "Let's expand the large docks here to one hundred. As for the small docks, forget it. If it weren't for the war, it would be impossible for an ordinary fleet to bring so many wolves." Tooth warship.

Bo Ying, you led the [-] Beidaying elite to expand the port terminal, and it must be completed within a month. "

Yuan Shu hurriedly cupped his hands and said, "I understand."

Taichang immediately ordered: "Wen Zhao and Bianjiao, each of you will lead [-] elite soldiers from the Peking Army to build an acropolis of the same size on both sides of the North Taiping City.

One is full of warehouses to store food and supplies, and the other has more pools to store fresh water.

It must also be completed within one month. "

Cao Wenzhao and Cao Bianjiao hurriedly cupped their hands and said, "I understand."

Taichang then ordered: "Sun Quan, you lead [-] soldiers from the Northern Army to dig a canal ten feet wide and one foot deep to bring the lake water from the northeast to this place. It must be completed within a month."

Sun Quan hurriedly cupped his hands and said, "I understand."

Taichang looked at the sky, stretched out his hand to feel the temperature, and said decisively: "Li Qing, why don't we set off later and continue exploring north."

This one.

Yuan Keli thought for a while, and then advised him: "Your Majesty, there are too many ice floes in the Bering Sea right now, and it is too troublesome to clean them up. Why don't we wait another ten days and a half months until the temperature rises again?" higher?"

Taichang shook his head slightly, and said firmly: "Don't wait, no matter how much ice there is, we can advance a thousand miles in ten days.

The ice floes in the Bering Sea will not completely melt until next month, so it doesn’t make much sense for us to wait any longer, so let’s go north and continue exploring. "

The ice floes in the Bering Sea are really scary right now.

Originally, the Bering Sea was basically not completely frozen, but now it is the Little Ice Age, and the temperature in winter is too low. Not to mention the Bering Sea, even the Bohai Sea is often frozen for thousands of miles.

Taichang turned the large binoculars and looked at the densely packed ice floes on the sea, his scalp felt a little numb.

Last time they advanced here and went back, because the sea was almost filled with ice floes, big and small, and it looked so desperate.

Fortunately, after a few days of warming up, the ice floes are no longer so dense. At least, sea water can still be seen in some places.

He frowned and scanned for a while, then gritted his teeth and ordered: "Liqing, let's start."

After waving the command flag, five thousand Spike warships stepped forward slowly, forming a neat row of ten.

Immediately afterwards, the two rows of [-] Spike warships in the middle sailed out of the array and pushed forward slowly.

The speed of their progress was quite slow, as slow as when they entered the port and docked at the pier, they were simply moving slowly on the sea.

There is no way, there are too many ice floes in front, and the two iron rods with ice picks in front of a ship are not enough. They have to take out all the hooks and sickles on the ship to slowly push the ice floes forward.

Just like that, the two boats in the front row couldn't move even after pushing and pushing.

At this time, the two ships following behind will slowly push the ice floes away to both sides, and then lean over to help push forward together.

A thousand Spike warships were slowly lined up like an arrow and plunged into the icy sea.

If there wasn't a lot of ice floes, they would have no problem pushing ten miles at a time. However, there was too much ice floes here, and they couldn't push it after only about five miles.

They had no choice but to slowly push the ice floes to the sides, then circle back, turn to the back of the array, and slowly return to the original starting position.

Immediately afterwards, the two rows of Spike warships next to it slowly sailed out of the array and continued to push forward.

Looking at the turning back of the sailors and soldiers who were shivering from the cold, Taichang couldn't help but secretly sighed.

At this moment, the temperature in the air should be more than ten degrees, but the place close to the ice surface must still be around zero degrees. These soldiers pushed forward for nearly two quarters of an hour against the zero-degree ice, so it was naturally too cold. up.

Fortunately, the Spike or the ship has its own heating.

After they return to the queue, they can squeeze into the cabin below the deck, sit next to the boiler or steam pipe, and only need to leave one person on duty to take turns.

This is also the main reason why Taichang dared to bring sailors to advance in the ice sea.

Because the cabin below the deck is very warm, even if it is not close to the boiler or steam pipe, it is more than 20 degrees.

If it is close to a boiler or a steam pipe, then there are as many degrees as you want.

In this way, no matter how low the outside temperature is, the sailors will not suffer from frostbite.

They only need to work for a quarter of an hour or so, and they can hide in the cabin below the deck and bake for about an hour. Although it is inevitable that they will suffer from the cold for a while, it is still very unlikely that frostbite their hands and feet.

Alas, there is no way, if he is not in a hurry, he will not let the soldiers suffer this crime.

Taichang sighed secretly, and then asked: "Lang'er, do you think the sailors on the Spike have worked hard?"

Zhu Cihong nodded repeatedly and said, "They worked very hard."

Taichang continued to ask: "Then do you think we should do something?"

Hearing this, Zhu Cilang had an idea and said, "Grandfather, we should give them red envelopes."

Are you afraid that you are addicted to red envelopes?
Taichang smiled and shook his head and said: "There are actually many ways to reward, and we can't give out red envelopes every time.

They are different from the soldiers in Northern Taiping City. They have been stationed in the bitter cold for many years, and they only worked hard for one or two months.

Besides, the number of sailors on the Spike Warship is not one or two thousand, even if there are only two or thirty people on each ship, that is more than one hundred thousand.

We give each person a red envelope of 100 taels, which is more than 1000 million taels.

You have to consider this too, if you can’t spend money recklessly, if you spend more than 1000 million taels a day, no matter how rich Daming is, it won’t be enough for you to spend! "

Hearing this, Zhu Cilang couldn't help asking weakly: "Grandfather, what should we do then?"

Taichang explained in detail: "We can do this according to the degree of hard work. They have worked hard for a month or two, and they should be rewarded with more than ten taels of silver.

At this moment, the salary of the navy officers and soldiers is almost five or six taels of silver per month, so we can almost double their salary for these two months. "

It turns out that the food and wages can be doubled.

Hearing this, Zhu Cilang nodded repeatedly and said, "Grandson understands."

At the end of the day, the sailors on the Spike were really exhausted.

Originally, they wouldn't be so tired when there were not many ice cubes.

Because the iron rods with ice picks are connected to both sides of the bow, it is like a seesaw.

They only need to press the back down, tilt up the front ice pick, and then let go of their hands, let the iron rod bring the ice pick to the ice floe, and it's almost the same.

After the ice pick plunged into the ice floe, they only needed to hold the other end of the iron rod to prevent the iron rod from spinning around, basically without much effort.

The problem is that there are too many ice floes here, and they even have to use the hook and sickle.

The hook sickle was not fixed on the boat, and they had to push the hook sickle hard if they wanted to push the ice floe away.

The ice floes here are at least half a foot thick, and a piece is at least a few hundred catties. Even if you push it on the water, it is not an ordinary effort.

Seeing that the sky was getting dark, Taichang immediately ordered: "Mr. Li, let them come back, connect the boats, and cook."

There was another wave of command flags, and the [-] Spike warships in front immediately turned back in a neat array, one by one connected to the two sides of the dragon warship.

It didn't take long for each Flying Dragon warship to grow four long legs on both sides, connecting to nearly a hundred Spike warships.

Immediately afterwards, there was another burst of flag waving, and the ten sailor generals and guerrilla generals in charge rushed to the flagship immediately and lined up neatly in front of Taichang.

Taichang didn't bother, and said directly: "Soldiers have worked hard, you go and pass on my word of mouth, all the sailors on the Spike Warship have doubled their food and salaries in the past two months."

The ten participating generals and guerrilla generals bowed away with gratitude.

Soon, bursts of cheers came from the Spike Battleship.

The food and salary for these two months is doubled, and working for one month is equivalent to three months, and working for two months is equivalent to half a year.

The sailors on the Spike were naturally very excited.

Early the next morning, they were full of energy, and the speed of clearing the ice floes was even faster than the previous day.

More than [-] ships have been busy in the icy sea for more than ten days, and finally advanced to a temporary stop about a thousand miles away.

There are actually many bays here, but they have been frozen for too long, so basically no one builds any ports here.

Taichang glanced at the huge and calm bay, nodded slightly and said: "Well, yes, Li Qing, the first stop of the Arctic Ocean route is set here."

(End of this chapter)