prosperous age

At the dock of Longjiang Shipyard, Wei Guangde suddenly had the idea of ​​establishing a naval academy again.

Unlike the army, the navy does require stronger professional skills and is a typical technical branch of the military.

Wei Guangde could also understand from the shipyard workers that the Western way of handling sails was more complicated and completely different from the way sails were used in the Ming Dynasty.

While it's possible to attach the Ming Dynasty's rigid sails, it would require modifications to the hull.

The reason for imitating Western ship designs was that Yu Dayou, after repeated verification, concluded that Western-style sailing ships were better.

Even if Western-style sailing ships were combined with Ming Dynasty sails, they would still not be as suitable as Western-style sails.

Therefore, Wei Guangde did not care about private merchant ships, but he had to start Westernizing his naval warships.

Training a large number of sailors became a key step in strengthening the Ming Dynasty's navy.

This has nothing to do with patriotism. From a practical point of view, we should choose the ship type that has the best equipment and the strongest combat power.

If traditional Chinese ship designs are indeed unsuitable for future naval warfare, then they must be modified; we cannot throw the baby out with the bathwater.

In fact, the Chinese are quite pragmatic. When they discovered the superior firearms of the foreigners, they immediately changed their approach, as evidenced by their imitation of arquebuses and breech-loading cannons, rather than trying to improve the existing firearms of the Ming Dynasty.

"Good loans, does the navy need major overhauls?"

As he disembarked from the Western-style warship, Xu Bangrui asked him in a low voice.

Although he didn't say much this time and remained silent the whole time, he could still figure out Wei Guangde's attitude.

"Yu Dayou told me that he had carefully considered the differences between Ming Dynasty warships and Western warships, and finally concluded that Western warships would be more powerful in the future naval warfare mode that would be dominated by artillery strikes."

His viewpoint was similar to my judgment; the warships of our Great Ming Dynasty were originally designed with cannons placed at the fore and aft for easy attack and retreat.

But those were people who fought against our Ming army in the rivers, lakes and seas before the founding of the dynasty, such as Chen Youliang, Zhang Shicheng, Fang Guozhen and others.

The waterway is narrow, unlike the vastness of the sea.

Brother may not know, but according to the information we have gathered, most naval battles in Europe nowadays involve first setting up ships at a distance and engaging in cannon fire until the enemy's formation is broken up before engaging in close combat.

Therefore, the Western ships we see often have a large number of cannons mounted on both sides to bombard the enemy with concentrated firepower.

Moreover, based on past battle examples, especially the experience of deploying a large number of artillery pieces, Yu Dayou had clearly determined that the future might be characterized by…

Wei Guangde hesitated slightly at this point, as it involved the South China Sea Fleet's exploration of naval warfare models.

Given the temperament of the Ming Dynasty court and its nobles, once the news is told to them, it will soon spread throughout the land.

"With what?"

Xu Bangrui was completely unaware of this and asked with great interest.

"It is perfectly acceptable to tell my brother now, but please keep this a secret and do not let it be spread outside, not even to the nobles in Jinling City."

Wei Guangde finally spoke.

"Uh."

Upon hearing Wei Guangde's words, Xu Bangrui understood that there were no secrets in the imperial court. The Ming Dynasty's confidentiality regulations were based on the Neo-Confucian principle that "a minister who does not keep secrets will lose his life," which was a widespread idea rather than a system of the court.

After a slight hesitation, Xu Bangrui's gossip-fueled curiosity finally kicked in; he wanted to know how the navy would fight in the future.

In any case, he also held the position of Nanjing garrison commander. If it weren't for the constraints imposed by the Ministry of War in Beijing, he could have commanded almost all the Ming army in Jiangnan.

As for the Ministry of War in Nanjing, it had a restraining effect on him, but not a great one, since it mainly controlled the appointment and removal of low-ranking military officers and, most importantly, the distribution of food, pay, and military supplies.

"I know this matter must not be revealed to anyone."

With Xu Bangrui making this statement, Wei Guangde couldn't continue, so he quietly explained the "battle line" tactic that he and Yu Dayou had come up with.

Yu Dayou only had the idea, but it was Wei Guangde who perfected it.

After all, naval battles between sailing warships and powered warships are frequently depicted in movies and TV shows, with both sides operating in columns to maximize the effectiveness of the ship's cannons.

"Oh, what if the opponent uses a cone formation with a straight-line thrust?"

Since Xu Bangrui had taken over the position of garrison commander of Nanjing, he naturally needed to understand military affairs. His father, Xu Pengju, had originally intended to send him out as a guard commander so that he could secure his own future.

Back then, they even sent him to the Ministry of War to study military strategy.

"This involves seizing the upwind position so that the warships can use the wind power to increase their speed as much as possible."

Even if the enemy breaks through the battle line, the battle line can still turn and attack the enemy from the side.

"The enemy can only retaliate if their ships are flanked by our own; the rest are blocked by our own ships."

Wei Guangde casually mentioned another solution, which was all Yu Dayou's idea. Wei Guangde thought it was good after deducing it, and that was the final battle plan.

"Ah."

Xu Bangrui nodded slightly upon hearing this, though he was probably already making calculations in his mind.

The Nanjing garrison was an official position that emerged after the Yongle Emperor moved the capital to Beijing. Especially after the Xuande Emperor, the "two-capital system" gradually took shape, with Beijing as the capital and Nanjing as the secondary capital, making the Nanjing garrison even more important.

In fact, the highest military and political officials in Nanjing were divided into three positions: the Garrison Minister, the Garrison Eunuch, and the Advisor on Military Affairs, in order to achieve a check and balance among them.

Xu Bangrui's position as Nanjing Garrison Commander was actually the same as the Garrison Minister, which was the most powerful of the three positions.

However, starting from the Zhengde reign, the power of the garrison eunuchs grew, and due to their relationship with the inner court, they often showed a tendency to overshadow the garrison ministers.

In truth, those who were appointed as garrison ministers and garrison eunuchs were all trusted confidants of the emperor.

Ultimately, who has the most power depends entirely on their standing in the emperor's eyes.

The advantage of eunuchs was that they were in the palace, serving as the emperor's servants, making it very difficult for them to challenge their position.

This resulted in the fact that although the garrison commanders were nominally the highest-ranking military and political officials in Nanjing, from the mid-Ming Dynasty onwards, the garrison eunuchs, as the emperor's most direct representatives, had actually become the real top leaders.

The heavy reliance on eunuchs was a fundamental system in the Ming Dynasty. In the capital, the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs checked the Grand Secretariat, while on the frontier, eunuch supervisors oversaw the generals.

Similarly, in Nanjing, which was a secondary capital, the garrison eunuchs represented imperial power, and from the mid-Ming Dynasty onwards, their influence completely overshadowed that of the garrison officials.

In the beginning, the Nanjing Counselor was merely an assistant to a meritorious official in charge of defense.

The term "counselor" is easy to understand literally; it clearly implies assistance and planning.

In the early Ming Dynasty, many civil officials were assigned to the army as advisors with the title of counselor.

As the system of "civilian command over military affairs" was gradually implemented throughout the country in the mid-Ming Dynasty, the civil officials in charge of the military mainly held high-ranking imperial commissioner titles such as governor-general, governor, and admiral, or concurrently held the title of "assistant in military affairs." With this concurrent title, civil officials were legally given the function of controlling military officials at all levels, which is the same as the later title of governor-general concurrently serving as minister of war.

After the formal establishment of the governor-general system in the Ming Dynasty, the military affairs of Nanjing were generally concurrently held by the Minister of War in Nanjing. Moreover, in the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty, the power of the military affairs of Nanjing's military affairs officers continued to rise along with the rise of the civil official group, and to a large extent, they overshadowed the garrison commanders and meritorious officials.

For example, after Li Zicheng captured Beijing in 1644, the bureaucratic group in Jiangnan, led by Shi Kefa, temporarily took charge of the military affairs. At that time, Shi Kefa was the Minister of War and the Nanjing Military Advisor, directly abandoning the garrison ministers. This was also an important manifestation of the decline of imperial power and the loss of power of meritorious officials at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

It was already afternoon when we left Longjiang Shipyard. After all, the shipyard is so big and has a full range of facilities, so there was a lot to see after walking around.

Wei Guangde felt that he had now reached the beginner level in shipbuilding and could speak eloquently about the sailing ships of this era.

Yes, he didn't just skim the surface; he asked detailed questions about many places.

He even carefully examined the dozens of cannons stored in the warehouse, and was just short of having them taken out and fired a couple of shots.

The long-barreled heavy cannons here are too cumbersome, but they are indeed powerful weapons in naval warfare. The smaller medium-sized cannons are mounted on the second gun deck, which is much lighter.

Of course, there were also seven or eight large breech-loading cannons, which were mounted at the fore and aft of the warships to strafe the people on the enemy's decks during boarding maneuvers.

"Tomorrow, let's go and take a look at the Ministry of Works' armory."

Wei Guangde said to Xu Bangrui.

"By the way, Shan Dai, now that you're in Jinling, aren't you going back to Jiujiang to visit?"

Xu Bangrui and Wei Guangde walked towards the sedan chair not far away, asking questions as they went.

"You cannot return without permission unless you find a suitable reason."

Wei Guangde sighed softly.

In fact, his itinerary was already set in Beijing and could be changed, but only to a limited extent.

His itinerary did not include Jiangxi, so he could not detour home just because it was only a two- or three-day journey.

It won't be a big deal, but if the censor finds out, it could be a pretext for impeachment.

trouble.

After Wei Guangde finished speaking to Xu Bangrui, the two of them each got into a sedan chair, which was carried by sedan chair bearers and headed into the city.

Wei Guangde didn't know if the Chongming Island navy had sent anyone to inform Yu Dayou that he couldn't stay in Nanjing for too long, even though he had already sent a memorial to the capital.

However, the copy of the memorial sent from the mission to Beijing last time instructed him to return to Beijing as soon as possible.

That evening, another banquet was held at the Duke of Wei's residence. This time, it was not a welcome banquet, but rather an invitation from Xu Bangrui to the nobles and dignitaries in Jinling, including the commander of the Nanjing garrison.

Although many of them did not hold noble titles, they were still among the highest-ranking military officers, wielding real power and having intricate connections with various families.

The next day, when Wei Guangde went to the Ordnance Bureau, the Nanjing Ministry of Works also gave him the green light all the way.

The relationship between the Minister of Works in the capital and Wei Guangde is well known, and Wei Guangde himself also manages a lot of affairs in the Ministry of Works.

Okay, he's under my direct supervisor.

The cannons cast in the Ming Dynasty were long-barreled cannons. Although they were later called "Hongyi cannons," they were actually divided into large, medium, and small sizes, and their uses were naturally different.

Large cannons were used in important cities and on warships, while medium and small cannons could be used to defend cities, serve as naval guns, and also be used as field guns.

"Grand Secretary Wei, when comparing the live-fire tests of the cannons we cast with those brought back from the trenches, our ordnance bureau has a clear advantage in casting light cannons, both in terms of weight and range."

The medium-sized cannons are basically the same, with a slight disadvantage in range. As for the heavy cannons, since it is impossible to obtain actual examples, the cannons that can be compared are those obtained from shipwrecks salvaged in earlier years.

However, according to the intelligence gathered, the barbarians' heavy artillery is superior to our cannons in every aspect.

Han Chongxin, the Vice Minister of Works who was accompanying the group, began to introduce them.

The long-barreled cannons were cast based on European cannons, and Western cannon casting techniques were referenced in the process, so there are existing physical examples for comparison.

It is said that the cannons of the Ming Dynasty at the end of the Ming Dynasty reached the advanced level of the West, at least a certain level of technology. However, there was still a gap, especially in the casting of heavy cannons and super-large cannons, where the Ming Dynasty lacked technical experience.

According to inquiries, the Urban Cannon is over five meters long, weighs seventeen tons, and has a barrel about 20 centimeters thick to withstand the enormous impact of firing. Its caliber is as high as 30 inches, or 762 millimeters, enough to accommodate an adult.

The granite shells used weighed 1500 pounds, or about 680 kilograms, making them the most powerful firearms of that era.

In January 1453, Mehmed II ordered the first test firing outside the palace. The cannon was placed outside the palace gates. The loading process was lengthy but smooth. With a deafening roar, the cannonball sank into the mud a mile away and was six feet deep.

The Ming Dynasty did not pursue large-scale cannon casting, but rather focused on appropriate caliber and rapid production. Therefore, it lacked experience in the trial production of heavy cannons.

Of course, the Ming army did not seem to have any need for such a large cannon.

However, this is at least reflected in the large number of heavy long cannons equipped by the Ming Dynasty navy, whose power was still somewhat weaker than that of European cannons.

If you don't start fighting directly, of course you can't tell.

However, after the delegation from the three countries visited the Ming Dynasty last time and saw and handled the artillery with their own eyes, they already knew the gap between the Ming Dynasty's heavy artillery and theirs.

It's actually quite simple. In order to increase the power of their cannons, Europeans tried every possible method and experimented repeatedly. It's safe to say that they probably scrapped hundreds of cannons before finding a suitable process.

This involved both cannon casting techniques and material selection; they added many other elements to the copper to improve the cannon's load-bearing capacity.

Meanwhile, the Ming Dynasty was still using heavy cannons made of copper, without considering adding anything else to improve their ductility.

Western cannons were also made of bronze, and both sides had previously agreed that they were made of similar materials.

As for the iron-cast cannons of the Ming Dynasty, they were actually all small cannons, barely even medium-sized ones.

However, the West continued its research for the next two or three decades and finally developed heavy iron cannons, thus surpassing the East's cannon-casting technology.

Wei Guangde didn't understand these things, but he knew to leave them to the professionals.

Now that cannon makers all say that copper is good for casting cannons, the imperial court will naturally have to allocate copper to the Ministry of Works for cannon production.

But he also knew the value of intelligence, so he arranged for people to keep an eye on the development of firearms in Europe and learn from it. It wouldn't cost him any extra money, so why not?

Knowing the gap between Eastern and Western cannons, Wei Guangde quickly realized that if he wanted to sell artillery to Europe, the key was to focus on field artillery, that is, light artillery, and use the advantage of scale to open up the market.

The artisans of the Ming Dynasty were capable of mass-producing light cannons in a short period of time. In fact, the Ming arsenal also had a number of large and medium-sized breech-loading cannons, which could be sold to Europe.

There is a later claim that Europeans abandoned the development of the breech-loading cannon after the 16th century, but this is actually incorrect.

Modern European warships and merchant ships certainly have breech-loading cannons on their upper decks.

However, Europeans believed that it had a short range and insufficient power, so it was removed from the ranks of main combat weapons, but there were still quite a few of them in service.

Pointing to a newly assembled light cannon, he said, "Focus on researching this type of light cannon, reducing costs without changing its power, and designing a more practical artillery carriage." (End of Chapter)