Prime Minister Bizen

Chapter 314 Yuxiduo's Shipbuilding and Cannon Casting

Nasafune Sadakin used to be in charge of Ukido's armament and business affairs. As far as he knew, Ukido's annual business income was about 30 guan, which already exceeded the sum of the income of many Warring States daimyos.

In his opinion, Yuxi's family has such a high business income, which is enough to reflect the strong strength of the family, and it can be regarded as a secret on the bright side.

Who would have thought that this Yuxi family still has so many secrets that he does not know, and what he heard about the Northern Territory today is already a bit shocking. Where did this copper mining business come from?

You must know that after Toyotomi Hideyoshi became Guanbai, he issued an order to his daimyo, requiring them to truthfully report the farmland and business income, and even demanding that all the mineral resources in the world be brought under the direct control of the Toyotomi family. There are 3 red lines.

Although he had already made mental preparations before taking the position, he knew that this position was not easy to do, but he didn't expect to hear such explosive news just after he took the position, which made his little heart jump in fright.

He turned his head to look at Akashi Jingqin beside him, trying to read the information from his expression.Who would have thought that Akashi Jingqin's performance was calmer than him, obviously he knew the things inside better than himself.

Akashi Jing personally bowed slightly to the Xiu family and replied, "I have sent people to seal off the two counties where the new residence is in Umo, and all the rich families in the county have been transferred to other counties for resettlement. Now the two counties are all under the control of my family. The captain of the military equipment, Gao Shanxuanfan, led the Suzaku equipment to be responsible for the defense.

Chen et al. found that there are rich gold and silver resources in the mountains in the east of Niiju County and the west of Umo County. There is a lake in the Hirano Valley of Umo County called Jinsha Lake by the locals. It is rumored that the lake bed here can be found in the past. gold dust.

When we explored in Xinju County and traced the source of Saruta River along the upper reaches of Jinsha Lake, we all converged on Chifeng Mountain in the southeast of Xinju.Copper resources here are extremely rich, and the entire mountain is like red copper.

The local people don't know its essence, and they just worship it as a miracle. We have already seized Shengzi Mountain City, the main road into the mountain, and tentatively mined some rough stones to the craftsmen for inspection, confirming that the mountain stones are rich in red copper. , accompanied by a small amount of gold, silver and other associated ores, the reserves have not been proven. "

Akashi Jingqin said this, took out a rough stone from his arms, and handed it to Xiu's family for inspection.The whole stone is orange-yellow, covered by a large amount of sandstone outside, but there are intermittent yellow ore crystals in the middle of the sandstone.

Naturally, the Xiu family didn't recognize these ores, so they just took a cursory glance and nodded to Osafune Sadakin for confirmation, and said to Akashi Jingqin, "The mining of the Besshi Copper Mine will be prepared soon, before the end of this year I want Besshi Copper Mine to be able to produce copper stably.

I need to submit the figure of annual copper production to His Highness Guan Bai.You must hurry up and prepare for this matter.You can talk to me about the money, food and miners you need. When necessary, I will ask the merchants of the Ming Dynasty to borrow people.

Another issue is the smelting of gold, silver and copper mines. My hometown is rich in iron ore, but I don’t know anything about the mining and smelting of gold, silver and copper. This matter is also entrusted to you. I will build a craftsman town under Shengzishan City. I have other uses for smelting copper ore.

The two things operate at the same time, and Meizuo is responsible for the right to cooperate, without any delay or negligence.If there is no problem, you can go down first, and ask the Seto family outside to come in after leaving Misaku. "

Akashi Zento and Seto Yamasa were handed in just now, purely for the sake of getting to know Osafune Sada, and after the confession was finished, they were signaled out by Hideo.

After all, they each perform their duties, and they have nothing to know about the Beszi Copper Mountain. As for this kind of resource secret that has a huge impact, the fewer people know, the better.

But because of the incident at the Besshi Copper Mine, Hideka suddenly remembered the matter of the Konomai Mine far away in Ezo. The Seto family seemed to have not reported it this time, so Akashi Jingqin asked the Seto family to climb up for a while. , Come in again after Longchuan Zhenqin leaves.

Changchuan Zhenqin looked at the old buddy beside him, he never thought that Akashi Jingqin would be involved in the affairs of the Northern Territory and Tongshan.

In comparison, my own writer is like a vulture who doesn't know anything, and the difference between the two makes him a little out of balance.

"Misaku Mamoru?" After Akashi Jingqin withdrew, Hideka's call brought Osafune Sadaomi who was in deep thought back to reality, Osafune Sadaomi stared at Hideka waiting for his announcement with wide-eyed eyes.

Xiujia leaned forward slightly, and softly asked Longchuan Zhenqin, "How is the imitation of the bronze cannon and the Nanman ship going?"

From the 12th year of Tianzheng, when the Xiu family rented the Nanban cannon for the first time on the battlefield, Yu Xiduo paid more attention to firearms than other famous masters.

After the Nagamune family was defeated in the Battle of Sanuki, Ukita had his own artillery unit, although the artillery he carried was only a 6-pound cannon.

But it doesn't matter!
At the end of the 12th year of Tianzheng, after Xiujia bought the lost Francis brothers from Sakai Port, they asked them to build a cannon casting workshop in Whetstone City to cast cannons for their family.And the Clark galleon was handed over to the navy for imitation.

Now that two years have passed, the Xiu family had forgotten about these two things because they were busy with other things, but now because of the incident at Besko Copper Mountain, they suddenly remembered, and took the initiative to ask Nasafun Sadakin.

Longchuan Zhenqin heard that the Xiu family asked about these two matters, and said with a look of embarrassment, "It is difficult to imitate Nanman ships. It seems that there is no timber for Nanman ships in our country."

The wood required to build a ship like the Clark Galleon must be hard and dense, and the preferred wood is iron pear.

However, iron pear wood is not produced in Japan. It is mainly produced in Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, Thailand and other places in the subtropical regions, while Japan's main output wood is mostly fir, cypress and pine.

Even in the place of origin, the price of iron pear wood is very expensive. After all, the growth cycle of this tree species is long, and a tree with a DBH of 20 cm needs to be hundreds of years old.

In fact, pine, fir, and cypress are also good woods for building ships, but they are mainly used for masts, oars and other objects, while the main beams and hulls of Zhicheng ships are rarely used.

There is a saying in "The Ninth Boat and Car" in "Tiangong Kaiwu": "All wooden masts are made of straight fir, and if they are not long enough, they are connected, and the iron hoops on the outside are surrounded inch by inch. mast.

The middle mast of every tree is combined with several huge boats to carry it, and its long cables are tied to the table.Phoebe, Chinese oak, camphor, elm, and locust wood are used for beams and beams. (Camphorwood that is felled in spring and summer will be rotten for a long time.) The pallets are not limited to any kind of wood.The rudder stock is made of elm, palm and oak.The closing stick is made of Zhou wood and Lang wood.The scull is made of fir, cypress, and catalpa.This is a big cloud. "

In other words, the types of wood in Japan limit the development of large ships in Japan, which is why ships like the Ataka ship can be called giant ships in Japan.

However, it is undeniable that Japan has embarked on the same path as Europe in the technology of enlarging and strengthening ships, excessively pursuing the height of the hull, while ignoring the width of the hull, which makes the Ataka ship look a little out of balance, with a kind of The feeling of a small boat against a giant building.

Such ships cannot withstand any wind and waves. Their center of gravity is too high, and even a little crosswind can blow the ship over.

It is also because of this problem that the Europeans modified the Carrick sailing ship in the 16th century. While reducing the volume, the structure was refined, and finally a more flexible Galen sailing ship was created.

"There is no wood that can be purchased from other countries. As far as I know, the keel of this ship is made of iron pear wood, and the hull is made of oak wood for the walls."

Xiujia shared what he knew about Carrick's sailing boats, and was stunned by what Longchuan Zhenqin said.

Although Changchuan Zhenqin was in charge of shipbuilding, he didn't know anything about it. Naturally, it was handed over to Yu Xi's family of sailors and the Nanman people.

Now that the Xiu family mentioned a bunch of tree names he had never heard of, he could only bite the bullet and nod in agreement, and then explained, "When I found out that there was no timber in my country, I was like a Nanban merchant and a Ming merchant asking for timber.

However, all the wood needed was in the remote south, and the income from transporting the wood from there was far less than that from transshipment of porcelain, silk and other materials. Finally, it was difficult to buy a piece of wood.

However, after the wood is purchased, it still needs to be dried for 3 years, and the varnish that is watered and cracked is applied from time to time, so that it can be used as a keel. Therefore, there is no progress in shipbuilding. Your Highness, please punish. "

Hideka knows that Osafune Sadachi is also very difficult. The fact that there is no specific wood is determined by the geographical location of Japan.He can also understand the idea of ​​merchants pursuing profit and refusing to transport timber.

However, the Xiu family had a long-standing idea of ​​developing a large navy. Could it be because of this incident that they gave up halfway?
The Xiu family scratched their foreheads, and said helplessly, "If it really doesn't work, you can send people to Quanzhou or Macau to apply for a private shipyard, and directly build ships for your family in Ming Dynasty. For specific matters, you can contact Ming merchants. connection."

Since the end of the [-]th century, the Ming Dynasty has implemented closed-door policies such as sea bans, and does not allow coastal areas to go to sea.

But this does not mean that the exchanges between the Ming Dynasty and foreign countries were interrupted. Quanzhou in Fujian and Panyu in Guangdong were the ports that the Ming Dynasty allowed to open to Nanban merchants. Goods from all over the world were transferred here, and the civilizations of the East and the West blended here. .

At that time, the main means of transportation between China Unicom and the West was sea-going ships. When there were too many ships, ship repairs were naturally required. Therefore, there were many government-run and private-owned shipyards in Quanzhou and Panyu, which specialized in repairing domestic and Nanman ships.

As more ships were repaired, they would naturally be imitated. Therefore, by the end of the Ming Dynasty, many ships in the south had abandoned the old Fuchuan design and switched to Western-style Clark galleons and Galen sailboats.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the flagship of the Zheng family in Taiwan was a galleon with 18 cannons.

Considering the hostility of the Ming people to the Japanese pirates, if Quanzhou did not go well, the Xiu family also gave Changchuan Zhenqin a second choice, which was to build ships in Macau.

After all, this is the territory of the Portuguese. If the Portuguese want to trade with Japan, it is inevitable to open up to Japan appropriately.

The benefits of locating the shipyard in the Ming Dynasty South China Sea instead of the Seto Inland Sea are obvious. At least the purchase and use of wood is much cheaper.

Moreover, there are relatively skilled boatmen in the local area who can be hired directly, and they can take Japanese boatmen to build boats to improve their craftsmanship, which is better than crossing the river blindly like now.

But Hideyoshi is also very nervous. After all, the window period left for Hideyoshi is not long. Hideyoshi will launch a war of invasion of Korea in at most seven years. At that time, both the shipyards in Quanzhou and Macau will be closed under pressure. Stop, Xiujia must race against time and build no less than 7 Carrick sailboats within 7 years.

After asking about the shipbuilding, the Xiu family asked Osafune Sada-chan about the casting and running. At this point, Nasafune Sada-chan finally relaxed, and reported to the Xiu family with great interest, "Just after His Royal Highness went to Hokuriku, Not long after, the family's first cast small gold cannon was cast and successfully fired. The effect was comparable to the Nanban small gold cannon. According to His Highness's suggestion, brackets were cast on both sides of the cannon body and directly inserted into wooden wheels for easy movement. "

The so-called small gold cannon is what Yuxijia called it. In fact, it is a small European-style 6-pound cannon. It was named because of its golden body.

Correspondingly, the European-style 12-pound cannon is called the Daikin Cannon, the 18-pound cannon is called the mighty cannon, and the taller 24-pound cannon is called the "Hachiman Cannon" by a very Japanese name.

In fact, at the beginning of casting the cannon, Francis almost revealed his secrets.This man from Italy has only studied at the Florence Academy for a few years, and has never actually cast cannons. He is just talking on paper.

At the beginning of casting the cannon, there were constant problems, which wasted a lot of copper materials from Yuxi's family. Fortunately, Xiu's family was prepared for trial and error, and he has been using various problems to shirk responsibility.

Fortunately, finally this year, a 6-pound gun was successfully cast, which can be regarded as a harvest.

In fact, for now, whether it is the navy or the army, a 6-pound gun is enough. Things like 18-pound guns are useless on land, and the Xiu family's sea-going ships have not yet landed, so they can be put away temporarily.

Xiujia asked Chang Chuanzhen, "Is it convenient to transfer the small golden cannon after it is installed on the wooden wheel? Can it be moved by manpower alone? If it is led by a horse, can it be moved quickly?"

All the Changchuan Zhenqin replied, "It takes four people to move smoothly, two to hold the pole, and two to push the wheel. If you tie the horse, it will be relatively less laborious."

This answer made the Xiu family very satisfied. Longchuan Zhenqin was like telling the Xiu family that they already had the ability to manufacture a fast-moving infantry cannon.

Hideka was overjoyed and told Osafune Sadakin, "After the Iyobesko copper is successfully mined in the future, the cost of copper will be greatly reduced. At that time, the production of small gold cannons will be increased, and no less than 5 pieces will be cast every year.

In addition, the imitation of the Dajin Cannon and the Weiwu Cannon must continue, and the more open the casting, the better.

In order to express your gratitude to those craftsmen, you ordered that each person be rewarded with 20 Guanwen as a reward for casting a small golden cannon.

In addition, you have to sum up the reasons for the failure of casting cannons, whether it is because of copper smelting problems, or the problem of air bubbles entering when pouring copper, and find a way to correct it.

For craftsmen who put forward improvement suggestions and prove to be effective, a reward of 100 runes will be given.

Finally, you have to establish a perfect reward and punishment system, divide the craftsmen into different casting groups and cast them separately. In the future, each person in the group will be rewarded with 1 Guanwen for each casting. A reward of 50 stanzas.

But if the casting of the cannon fails, they will be punished and given a fine of no less than 300 Wen, which can be used to offset the bounty after the successful casting of the cannon. "

Although Xiujia knows that the current cannon-casting technology is very backward, and the backward cannon-casting technology determines the extremely low yield rate, but this is not the reason for the stagnant technology.

No matter how difficult it is, the problem of good products must be solved. If there are only rewards and no punishment, the craftsmen will not pay attention to the casting of cannons. Anyway, even if they fail, there is nothing wrong with it. If there is a success, there will be rewards.

In the end, the only real loss was the copper wasted by Yu Xijia.

Only the combination of rewards and punishments can help them understand that they have no way out, and try their best to improve the process, increase the yield rate, and reduce the waste of Yuxiduo's copper materials.

At the end, the Xiu family did not forget to tell the chairman Chuanzhen personally, "Give that Francis a reward of 500 gold, count it as his reward for casting a small golden cannon for us, and tell him that I will make a big golden cannon and a mighty cannon in the future." Do not begrudge rewards."

(End of this chapter)