I am Emperor Wanli

Chapter 748: Flying Ship
Early in the morning of the sixteenth day, medical staff from the Batam Isolation Center and officials from the Health and Epidemic Prevention Center came to the yard where Leon and Marcelo were.

They solemnly announced it to Leon and Marcelo and the twelve others.

"After fifteen days of legal quarantine, no symptoms of infectious diseases were found in the twelve of you. From today, the quarantine is approved to end, and the clearance papers for traveling to the mainland are issued."

After saying that, he handed over a stack of customs clearance papers and their entry papers.

"Can we leave now?"

"Yes. You should have breakfast now and then pack your luggage. In an hour we will send a carriage to take you to the port, where a ship will be waiting for you."

After breakfast, the staff of the quarantine center sent Leon, Marcelo and twelve others to Bataan Port, and then they boarded a paddle boat and arrived at Bintan Port.

Here, they were received by border officers who checked their entry papers and customs clearance papers issued by the Health and Epidemic Prevention Bureau.

"The Luxi will set sail in two hours. You can go directly to the ship."

"Lu Xi, number?"

“Yes, Luxi is a newly established county in Hunan Province. When the new ship was launched, it happened to be the time when a rebellion was suppressed and a victory was won there. Luxi was the headquarters of the suppression of the rebellion, so the people in the Navy Department gave the new ship this name.

That’s probably the origin of it.”

The border officer grinned, revealing his yellowed teeth. "I haven't even been to Hunan, let alone where Luxi County is."

"Can we catch up?"

"We will definitely make it. The Port Authority received an urgent order from the Governor's Office to wait for you. Let's go quickly."

The border officer waved his hand, and four freight carriages came over. Everyone worked together to load the luggage onto the carriages.

The border officer pointed to the north and said, "The Luxi is parked at Pier 4, 500 meters away from here. Just follow the carriage."

When they arrived at Pier 4, Leon and Marcelo saw a strangely shaped sailboat.

The ship has a slender hull, low side and stern, and the bow is slanted forward like a pair of long scissors.

In addition to the three masts, there is also a long oblique mast extending from the bow. The horizontal poles on the masts are wrapped with canvas, like a bunch of folded umbrellas.

There are five or six horizontal poles slanted on the mast, which are also bulging like folded umbrellas.

Luxi!
Clipper ship!
"Leon, how long do you think this ship is?"

"More than fifty meters."

That’s right, Leon was talking about the Ming Dynasty rice.

At that time in Europe, there was no standard of measurement. Even a village or a town had its own standards of length and weight.

As far as Leon knows, in France, north of Portugal, there are tens of thousands of standards of measurement.

After arriving in Ming, Leon, like other Portuguese, was first shocked by the fact that the whole country of Ming used the same measurement standard. So they continued to use the gold coin unit that had been used for hundreds of years, with one ducat being roughly equivalent to one tael of silver in Ming.

Meters, kilometers, grams, kilograms, kilometres, tons, cubic decimeters, and liters, these were the new measurements created by the Ming Dynasty. The Ming people themselves were still slowly and painfully adapting to them, but the Portuguese adapted to them at the first opportunity and mastered them skillfully.

We had nothing before and our minds were blank, so of course it was easy to adapt.

Marcelo de Leon had explained the Ming Dynasty's measures on the way, so he had a clear idea of ​​it.

"Fifty meters. Our ship is at most twenty meters. How heavy do you think it could be?"

"According to the Ming people, the displacement of this ship is already over one thousand tons."

"One thousand tons? The Guangshun No. 1, which we took from Goa to Longya Port, was only 600 tons. In our eyes, it was already a giant ship."

Leon shrugged, saying nothing.

There was no extra time to look at the ship. The captain greeted Leon, Marcelo and his group on the shore. After a few polite words, he urged everyone on.

"Everyone, please get on board and load your luggage into the cabin. We will be setting sail soon."

The luggage was secured in the cabin, and the sailor took Leon and others to their respective rooms.

Leon and Marcelo were treated preferentially, each with a room, a one-meter-wide bed, a small desk against the wall, and two glass-covered lamps hanging on the wall.

The navy blue sheets and quilts looked newly changed.

It's narrow, but looks neat.

Condorcet and others shared a room with two people, with bunk beds and no desks.

Leon and Marcelo took one look and rushed to the deck.

The captain is directing the ship to set sail.

"Boatswain, raise the sail a third of the way. Mate, weigh the anchor and cast off the ropes."

"Yes."

The sailors climbed up the lowest crossbars of the three masts, untied the ropes and spread out the sails.

"They are square sails, and they are not big." Leon whispered to Marcelo, "From the horizontal bar, the fore and aft masts have five square sails."

"Our sailboats usually have one mast and one sail. Leon, how about a sail?"

Marcelo mainly commanded army operations and knew little about naval ships.

"My Lord Marquis, as far as I know, having many sails is very beneficial because it is easy to make full use of the wind and control the speed of the ship. However, it is very troublesome to control.

Given the average ability of shipbuilding, sailing and navigation, the fewer sails the better."

Marcelo turned to look at Leon, "Are you saying that the Chinese's shipbuilding, ship driving and navigation capabilities are far beyond ours?"

Leon hesitated for a moment and replied, "Ninety years before Columbus discovered the American continent, the Ming people had sent a fleet of more than 10,000 people to what is now East Africa."

Marcelo remained silent.

History is there to comment on current achievements and add icing on the cake.

If the present achievements are brilliant, then the glorious history of the past is a continuation of the past.

If the achievements are dim now, then the glorious history of the past is self-degradation.

The sailors standing on the crossbar gradually lowered the lowest cross sails of the three masts, and the southeast wind blew them up.

With the creaking sound of the ropes tightening, the Luxi slowly left the dock and sailed through the wide waterway of the port. On both sides were forests of masts, and it seemed like a deer lightly jumping out of the woods, running towards the vast sea outside the port.

As we sailed out of the right cape of the harbor, the lighthouse there flashed three times, and there was a loud bang from the nearby artillery platform, and a blank shot was fired.

A gun on the starboard side of the Luxi fired a single blow and also fired a blank shot in response.

After more than thirty minutes, the wind on the sea surface became noticeably stronger, and Bintan Island became smaller and smaller in sight, like a small stone on the horizon.

The Sanbao Peninsula on the left is a black line on the seashore. In front of the Luxi is a vast and calm blue sea. Under the blue sky and white clouds, the sea is green like a huge and boundless gem.

The captain of the Luxi received the surveyor's position report, the boatswain's speed report, and the first mate's wind speed and direction report, and gave decisive orders.

"Set sail at full speed. Add two lookouts to keep an eye on the sand island and ships ahead."

"Yes!"

The boatswain's brass whistle blew, and it was like a huge seabird flying over the deck.
Hundreds of sailors ran onto the deck, climbed up the mast, stood on the crossbar in an orderly manner, untied the ropes and lowered the sails layer by layer.

One after another, the sails were set out, and the southeast wind blew them into buns. In less than twenty minutes, the three masts were filled with sails, like layers of clouds.

On the bow mast, triangular sails were spread out on the horizontal bar of the mast and blown up.

The Luxi ran faster and faster, like a horse galloping freely in the boundless blue sea.

The faster the speed, the higher its bow rises, like a sharp machete, splitting the waves that sweep in one after another.

The wider the sea, the stronger the southeast wind, and the stronger the wind, the faster the Luxi will go with full sails.

Standing on the deck, Leon and Marcelo felt that the entire ship was like an arrow shot out, passing through the waves.

"Leon, I feel like I'm flying."

Marcelo shouted, screaming into the wind.

"Mr. Marquis, the ship's speed may exceed fourteen knots. We are really flying!"

"It's incredible! The Guangshun No. 1's speed of eight knots was very fast to us. We never thought that the Ming people had a ship that could travel at twelve knots."

“That’s why it’s called a clipper ship, a flying ship.”

Condorcet, who was enjoying the sea breeze nearby, suddenly pointed to the right and shouted.

"My Lord Marquis, my Lord Baron, look over there!"

When everyone heard the sound and looked, they saw a fleet on the right, slowly approaching from the northeast.

This fleet has sixteen ships, the smallest of which is similar to Guangshun No. 1, but it is slender and runs faster.

Of the six largest warships, four were twice as large as Guangshun No. 1, with sails on three masts hung at an angle, trying to catch the wind blowing from the southeast.

There are two more that are larger than those four.

Leon and Marcelo didn't know that they were the newly launched Class A battleships of the Ming Dynasty. They weighed 2,100 tons, were equipped with 102 naval guns, and were strategic-class battleships of the navy.

They were originally scheduled to be launched in the third year of the Longqing reign, but the navy put forward its own new requirements after several years of naval warfare experience.

Based on their requirements and the data obtained by onboard engineers, the Ship Design Institute redesigned two new Class A battleships. After several sea trials, the six prototype ships were finally finalized in the third year of the Wanli period.

Marcelo remained silent as he watched the fleet passing by at a distance of 500 meters, and looked at these warships that looked so huge from a distance.

Leon added in time, "My Lord Marquis, this should be a squadron of the Suzaku Navy. The Suzaku Navy may have three or four squadrons."

Marcelo's eyes widened.

"The Ming Dynasty has four large naval fleets like the Suzaku Fleet, named after the four great mythical beasts in their ancient legends. One of them, the Azure Dragon Fleet, is fighting Spain in the New World."

Marcelo couldn't help but make the sign of the cross on his chest, "Merciful God, please save their souls."

In the Ziguang Pavilion in the Western Garden of the capital, Zhu Yijun was listening to the four senior officials of the Advisory Bureau and members of the military government about the situation on the western front.

The person who made the report was Qi Jiguang, the deputy commander of the Central Army and the chief of staff, and the Duke of Laiyang.

"Your Majesty, gentlemen, I will now brief you on the situation on the Western Front.

At present, the main forces of the Kazakh Khanate on the western front of our dynasty have been completely annihilated, and its Khan and more than a hundred princes and nobles have been either killed or captured. A few remnants have fled to Persia, Khorasan and Transoxiana. Now the remnants are being cleared up in the Kazakh Khanate area, and it is expected to be incorporated into part of the Mongolian front wing.

The most important enemy on the Western Front is the Principality of Moscow. I will now present the most important intelligence about it to the Emperor and the other nobles."

Finally got in touch with the big hairy bear.

Zhu Yijun nodded and added, "The Principality of Moscow was once a small vassal state of the Golden Horde. It is growing stronger and now calls itself Tsarist Russia. It will be the biggest obstacle on the road to the westward expedition of the Ming Dynasty."

Qi Jiguang received Zhu Yijun's gaze and continued to introduce: "Your Majesty is wise and has already made clear the threat of the Principality of Moscow.

According to intelligence collected by the Military Intelligence Bureau of the General Staff, the Grand Duchy of Moscow originated from Kiev and was established from the Principality of Vladimir. It has always claimed to be the successor of the Eastern Roman Empire, that is, the Byzantine Empire.

After the Golden Horde was conquered by Timur, it split into the Kazakh Khanate, the Kazan Khanate, the Crimean Khanate, the Astrakhan Khanate, the Siberian Khanate, the Nogai Khanate, etc.

Now the Kazakh Khanate has been destroyed by our Ming Dynasty. The Nogai Khanate has been annexed by the Qingxi of Moscow Principality, the western part by the Crimean Khanate, and the eastern part by the Kazakh Khanate. At present, our Caspian Dusi is continuing to clear out the remnants in that area.

The Khanates of Astrakhan and Kazan were invaded and annexed by the Grand Duchy of Moscow."

Zhu Yijun interrupted him and said, "Yuan Jing, please briefly describe the process of the Grand Duchy of Moscow's invasion and annexation of the Khanates of Astrakhan and Kazan, so that everyone can have a preliminary understanding of this Western bear."

"According to the decree!
I will start with the annexation of the Khanate of Kazan by the Principality of Moscow.

In the 1516th year of Zhengde (), Amin, the Khan of Kazan Khanate, died of illness, and the royal family of Kazan Khanate became extinct. The nobles agreed to nominate a Khan from the side branches.

The Crimean Khanate and the Principality of Moscow intervened in the selection of the new Khan of Kazan, both wanting to put their own people in power, which was somewhat similar to the story of Prince Bai of Qi and Chong'er of Jin in the Spring and Autumn Period.

In the end, the people of the Crimean Khanate became the Khan of Kazan, formed an alliance with the Crimean Khanate and the Nogai Khanate, and launched an army to besiege Moscow.

Soon, the Khanate of Kazan became dependent on the Ottoman Empire.

From the 1545th to the 1549th year of the Jiajing reign (-), Ivan IV, the monarch of the Principality of Moscow, launched military campaigns against the Khanate of Kazan three times, but was defeated each time.

In the 1551th year of Jiajing (15), the Principality of Moscow built the Sviyazhsk Fortress and assembled heavy troops in preparation for a decisive battle. The following year, Ivan IV personally led an army of 150 with cannons to attack Kazan City and destroy the Khanate of Kazan.

Tan Lun stroked his beard and asked, "One hundred and fifty thousand men, but only one hundred and fifty cannons?"

"Yes, Mr. Tan."

"A little less."

Qi Jiguang smiled, "Mr. Tan is right, it is a little too little. The iron smelting technology of the Principality of Moscow is not advanced. Among their 150 cannons, only 30 are main cannons, most of which were purchased from the Ottoman Empire.

It weighed several thousand pounds and required twenty or thirty oxen to pull it, but it could only fire ten-pound shells, which were stone shells, because iron was too expensive for them.

The rest of the artillery fire is just for show, to scare the barbarians in the far west."

"We still destroyed the Khanate of Kazan."

"Yes, Mr. Tan!"

Zhu Yijun looked at Tan Lun and asked, "Mr. Tan, do you think the Grand Duchy of Moscow is a strong enemy or a weak enemy?"

Everyone looked at Tan Lun.

(End of this chapter)