At the beginning of the civil castle, the Ming God of War was a little panicked

Chapter 354 Ironclad Ship

Ningbo Shipyard, Jin Ying has been waiting for a long time after receiving the news.

He is now a garrison eunuch in Ningbo, supervising the construction of ironclad ships in the Governor's Shipyard.

At first glance, this identity seems to be inferior to that of the eunuch in charge of the supervisor of ceremonies, but he knows in his heart that times have changed, and the emperor is no longer the rebellious boy he used to be.

The current emperor values ​​the ability to apply what he has learned. The continuous growth of the Academy of Sciences and the laying of railways across the country are enough to illustrate the problem.

From then on, the power of the Supervisor of Ceremonies will only shrink, and the situation like Wang Zhen's covering the sky with one hand will never happen again.

The Ningbo Shipyard is the next railway bureau.

The technology of steam trains has become more and more mature, and the construction of ironclad ships cannot be delayed. Therefore, he lives and eats in the shipyard every day, and hardly lives in the mansion that his godsons respect.

Finally, with the efforts of scientific researchers all over the world, after two and a half years, the first steam-powered ironclad ship of Ming Dynasty was successfully launched.

Zhu Qizhen set off from Nanjing and arrived in Ningbo without stopping along the way.

In fact, when he heard that the ironclad ship had been built, he was very surprised.

Such a huge ship, let alone Daming with such a weak basic industry, even in later generations, there is no guarantee that it will be completed in two and a half years.

Jin Yinghe Shipyard would definitely not dare to lie about it. This kind of thing, the crime of deceiving the emperor, will punish the nine clans.

The only explanation is that under the premise of disregarding the cost input, the manpower and resources of the whole country were collected, and it was really built.

Technically speaking, the technical difficulty in building an ironclad ship is not only huge, but even more difficult is that it needs a steam engine with enough power to carry such a nearly [-]-ton hull.

Since the steam engine appeared, a prototype was sent to Ningbo at the same time as the vehicle-mounted steam engine was developed, and the research and development of the ship-borne steam engine was carried out almost simultaneously.

Although the principles of the two models are the same, the research and development directions are different.

The on-board steam engine needs to consider its own weight. If it is built as big as a house, it cannot run on the rails.

The ship-borne steam engine is different, and there is no need to consider this point at all. Even if a three-story building is stuffed into the cabin, as long as the power is large enough, it is theoretically feasible.

And the price of doing this is... 3000 million taels!

It took two and a half years to build, and it cost the treasury 3000 million taels of silver!

When seeing this number, no matter how generous Zhu Qizhen was, he couldn't help but bleed.

Silver, white silver!

It is equivalent to spending 100 million taels every month. This kind of money burning speed is almost like moving the silver out of the treasury, and then transporting it to Ningbo and stacking it in the sea.

Whenever he saw the accounts reported by the shipyard, he wanted to fly to Ningbo Port immediately to see if his money was really piled up in the sea...

When Sheng Jia arrived in Ningbo, he was headed by the guard eunuch Jin Ying, the chief envoy of Zhejiang, the prefect of Ningbo, local officials of all sizes, and the main person in charge of the shipyard, all came to welcome him.

Now Zhu Qizhen only wanted to see the iron-clad ships piled up with silver, but it was getting late and he couldn't see anything clearly at night, so he had to give up.

After the dinner, just as I was about to fall asleep, I received a memorial.

This memorial was sent six hundred miles from Zhancheng, Zhu Qizhen was a little puzzled, what could happen to Zhancheng?

Now Champa has been renamed Linyi. After Annan and Champa were destroyed one after another, Jiaozhi Chief Commissioner was established and divided into three states, from north to south, Annan Prefecture, Xianglin Prefecture and Linyi Prefecture.

At the very beginning, the entire Jiaozhi chief envoy was guarded by Zhu Qiyu, the king of Yi. Later, when Zhu Qiyu went to Luzon, Zhang Fu, the king of Jing'an County, was in charge, and Mu Bin, the Duke of Qianguo, was in charge.

This memorial was sent by Mu Bin.

The content is very simple, only a few lines: Ma Dao in the south of Linyi Prefecture is occupied by unidentified enemies. Moreover, the target of these people does not seem to be Ma Dao. At present, there are boats that have bypassed Linyi and turned to the north. It is very likely to enter the coast of Daming!
Located at the junction of Linyi Prefecture and Zhenwa Country, Ma Island is an isolated island hanging overseas.

Over the years, since Champa and Zhenwa both wanted to take the Falklands as their own, there have been many conflicts between the two countries, but none of them succeeded in the end.

Ever since Champa was defeated by Annan, and there was no time to care about the Falkland Islands overseas, Zhenwa took advantage of the fire to loot and finally got what it wanted.

However, the result of the war between Champa and Annan was that the two countries were included in the territory of Ming Dynasty.

After gaining the control of Champa, Mu Bin, Lord of the State of Qian, learned that there was an island in the south, which originally belonged to Champa, but was later taken over by Zhenhua. Can this be tolerated?

Ever since, the battle for the Falkland Islands started again.

The Real Wax Kingdom is afraid of Daming's strength, and dare not be arrogant anymore. In order to show that he is a kingdom of heaven, Ming is unwilling to initiate a war. After negotiations, the two countries have reached a consensus to withdraw from the Falkland Islands.

Who would have imagined that the situation of peaceful coexistence between the two countries was originally taken advantage of by outsiders.

A group of people from an unknown country from the West saw that no one lived on this island, so they came to occupy the magpie's nest and directly built a base on the island.

Whether it is real wax or Champa, there is a lack of ships with combat effectiveness.

Daming did have them, but the main warships were all in the hands of Shi Heng, patrolling around the Wa country, and the other ships were all treasure ships, not capable of fighting.

On Luzon Island across the sea, Zhu Qiyu didn't have a ship that could compete with it, so he had to ask the court for help, hoping to arrange the fleet to Linyi in case of emergency.

Zhu Qizhen saw the memorial and began to think about it.

In this era, the great voyage of the West has not yet begun, so it should not be Francois, who would it be?

Europe's understanding of the Central Plains is mainly from the archer named Marco Polo in the Yuan Dynasty... No, he was a Western traveler.

The whole of Europe is basically a mess. After experiencing the millennium-long Middle Ages, it suddenly reflected on itself and began to actively seek changes.

Because everyone has fought in a daze for thousands of years, not only has society not progressed, but because of various plagues and wars, more than half of the population has been wiped out.

If this continues, the major branches of the Germanic people may be finished.

Therefore, everyone began to calm down and reflect, so the famous Renaissance era came.

During this period of active thinking, more people went out to play... no, it was study tours.

Among them was the son of a wealthy Italian businessman, who was on his way to the East. His name was Marco Polo.

This guy is a very powerful bastard, he has food everywhere he goes, and he learned Mongolian and Chinese when he arrived in the Central Plains, and even got a job with the emperor Kublai Khan of the Yuan Dynasty.

Speaking of Mr. Ma's work, everyone's eyes are envious.

——To inspect various places by order!
It is public-funded travel, public-funded food and drink, so, in the next 17 years, Mr. Ma traveled all over China.

After he returned to Europe, he wrote what he saw and heard into a book called "Marco Polo's Travels".

Because the Europeans at that time did not understand the mysterious East, and Mr. Ma was very good at using exaggerated techniques to describe the East as a rich paradise full of gold.

As a result, a group of Europeans with halazi began to be fascinated by the East.

The age of great exploration in Europe began at this time.

However, even Portugal and Spain, who were the first to explore the ocean, were the so-called Francines. Their ships had to go around the Cape of Good Hope, reach India along the coastline of Africa, and then head east to reach Daming.

The difficulty with this is the need for a way...

Thinking of this, Zhu Qizhen suddenly understood!
According to time, these ships are not from the Franz, but from the Ottomans or the Byzantines!
Now is the 18th year of orthodoxy, which is probably the time when the Ottomans broke through Constantinople and completely replaced the Byzantine Empire.

Think again, Peng Qing's fleet has just returned from Kunlun Island, and it will definitely pass through their territory.

In this way, the ship full of jewels and gold will inevitably be missed.

It seems that those ships in the Falkland Islands are enemies rather than friends!
"Come on!"

Hearing the order, the figure outside flickered, and Fan Zhong pushed the door open and walked in.

"emperor!"

Zhu Qizhen picked up the pen and wrote a letter, explaining: "Immediately send a fast horse to Jiaozhi, and tell Jing'an County King and Qian Guogong to be on guard!"

"Yes!"

Fan Zhong took the letter, turned around and withdrew.

After doing all this, Zhu Qizhen lay on the bed, and his mind began to think wildly.

In terms of shipbuilding technology, during the Zheng He period, there were amazing treasure ships. However, apart from being visually stunning, these behemoths were not very capable in actual combat.

Because the main function of treasure ships is to carry people and cargo, they are usually not equipped with artillery, or only carry a small amount of artillery.

This is understandable. At that time, Da Ming had never encountered an evenly matched opponent at sea. In this way, the ships were built bigger and bigger, just to load more materials and personnel.

However, the concept of Westerners is not like this.

In Europe, the territory of those countries is not large, and it is almost impossible to build such a huge treasure ship on the sea.

Because... no money, poor!
However, being poor also has its advantages. For example, the Qi family army in later generations only went to Yiwu to recruit soldiers, not elsewhere.

Because Yiwu was poor at that time, except for mountains and water, there were not a few acres of fertile land at all. In order to compete for limited resources, everyone was either fighting or on the way to fight every day.

This is the case in Europe. In order to survive, they can only fight wars, fight non-stop, and fight indiscriminately, with no rules at all.

For example, in order to compete for maritime supremacy, Spain and Portugal basically fight a small fight a year and fight a big fight every three years.

Wars are precious, because every war allows them to gain a wealth of experience, and the improvement of ships has also been continuously deepened through countless actual battles.

In contrast, Daming, as a uniquely endowed central country, does not have such conditions at all.

However, in this situation, who should I turn to for a fight...

In a daze, Zhu Qizhen seemed to have seen the enemy, and he rushed towards him in a boat. He shouted excitedly: "Go to the missile, fuck it!"

"emperor……"

Zhu Qizhen opened his eyes, and saw a face in front of him less than a punch away.

He stepped back involuntarily, only then did he see clearly that it was Jin Ying.

"The servant waits for the emperor to dress!"

Jin Ying finally waited for the opportunity and came to wait early in the morning.

After eating breakfast, Zhu Qizhen came to the shipyard impatiently, and then saw a magnificent scene.

The huge ship is already moored on the sea.

This battleship is no smaller than Fuchuan, because it is impossible to be small because it needs to carry a huge steam boiler.

A chimney stands in the middle, and sails are still set up, a hybrid of sails and steam.

Because of the huge size of the giant ship, the entire giant ship is divided into three decks, and even horses can be run on the outermost deck.

Zhu Qizhen felt very surprised, it seems that 3000 taels of silver was not in vain!

Under the leadership of Jin Ying, the monarch and his ministers walked on the deck.

When viewed from a distance, this huge ship is amazing. When standing on the deck and looking at it from the hull, it is even more incredible.

In addition to a large number of cabins on the ship, a gun cabin is also specially set up.

Sixty cannons on the left and right are lined up and covered with baffles on weekdays. Once a war breaks out, just open the baffles, and 120 guns will pass through the slide rails and protrude out of the hull, revealing the ferocious muzzles.

Holding a file in his hand, Jin Ying introduced: "My Majesty, this ship is equipped with a boiler. In order to strengthen the hull, a steel keel was laid on the bottom layer. It is integrally formed. All structures are built around this keel. "

Belin couldn't help asking: "How is the power of this boat?"

Jin Ying replied: "Scholar Pei must want to say that the larger the hull, the greater the power requirements. Therefore, warships are often light and flexible, but because this ship is equipped with a steam boiler, it can also be used on weekdays." Sails are used to assist, so the speed of this ship is not lower than that of ordinary warships."

Belin nodded, and asked again: "Are there too many cannons? If there is a real fight, sixty cannons are enough to overturn the entire ship."

"This has also been taken into account. The artillery used on the ship is a lightweight Flying Tiger cannon. In case of a battle, the sixty artillery pieces will fire alternately. Slide rails are installed under the artillery pieces to offset the recoil force."

"And here..." He pointed to the structure of a ship's hull on the drawing: "This place has been strengthened to strengthen the hull, and here... here..."

"When building the steamship, we spent a lot of money. The hull used a lot of steel, and the wood was the best. In order to solve the problem of matching the boiler and strengthening the hull, we had to overcome various difficulties, large and small. In more than five hundred places, the bachelors and craftsmen of the shipyard worked day and night, and finally overcame all kinds of difficulties to build the ship."

At this time, Tang Xinggu asked with a strange expression: "The steel hull and the matching steam engine boiler will not sink after the boiler is turned on?"

Jin Ying replied: "Theoretically, it will not sink."

"Theoretically?"

Tang Xinggu's face became even more ugly. What is theory?

Jin Ying was silent for a while, then said: "It should...not sink, right?"

(End of this chapter)