open sea

Chapter 640 New Ship
Under the care of the Dagukou Banner Army, the goods transported from Beijing were unloaded from sea ships, loaded onto tank ships, and sailed from Weihe River to Tianjin.

The preparations for the upcoming voyage kept the Beiyang military mansion busy. All kinds of raw materials were sent to the military mansion from the canal in a steady stream, and were processed into usable armaments at the Beiyang Armament Bureau.

"There is not much time left, how about I give you a long vacation and go back to your hometown in Fujian?"

In the backyard of Beiyang Yamen, in the mansion belonging to Chen Mu, the heroic Yang Tingxiang was invited by Chen Mu, "You have been at sea for more than a year, and you should have been allowed to rest for a while, but the Eastern Expedition is coming soon, and the fleet needs you to lead it. Go back now. In a few days, when the final preparations of the military mansion are ready, we will be leaving—I heard that you have been eating and living with the craftsmen at the Beiyang Shipyard recently?"

Speaking of which, since the Nanyang Jing transport ship arrived, it was colliding with Beiyang Yi's expedition. Chen Mu hadn't paid attention to Yang Tingxiang. When he suddenly remembered to inquire, he heard that Yang Tingxiang had been working in Beiyang Shipyard all the time.

Beiyang Shipyard has a big name, and Chen Mu's shipyard has a big positioning. It is a shipyard that specializes in building large ships with more than a thousand materials.

As early as the beginning of the establishment of the factory, a group of skilled old shipbuilders were transferred from Xiangshan, Nanyang and other places, and many craftsman apprentices were recruited by corvee to build twelve dry docks with a length of eighteen feet.

But in the end, the completion time is still short. The construction of twelve thousand-material Chihai-class warships has just begun. Moreover, this kind of large ship requires far more materials than ordinary ships. It is estimated that the earliest launch time will be at the end of this autumn. If it is not good early, it will be delayed until the next spring.

"Thank you, Chen Shuai, for your kindness. However, I would rather stay in the shipyard until the fleet sets sail." Yang Tingxiang had a calm demeanor, took a small sip from the porcelain tea bowl, and then looked at Chen Mu and said, " This voyage to the Western Kingdom has been wandering at sea for a full year, and most of the time I have been planning new warships, Chen Shuai also knows."

As he said that, Yang Tingxiang smiled subduedly, and said: "Your Majesty studied warships in the Martial Arts Hall of the Navy. My father and brother are both craftsmen, and my ancestors who were fortunate to be appointed as long-time historians in the palace because of their superb craftsmanship, I deeply feel that craftsmen don't know Soldiers do not know how to do military affairs, and they want to design a warship shape for the imperial court that is more suitable for today's naval warfare."

More suitable, the warship shape of today's naval battles?

"Jun Zan thinks that the shark boat is no longer suitable?"

Sai Lvgong suddenly felt very sympathetic to Mr. Ge and Qi Shuai. He would often put forward his own improvements in front of Zhang Juzheng and Qi Jiguang with the same appearance and even the same tone as Yang Ting.

It's really... not attractive!

"Chen Shuai is overthinking. What I mean is not that shark ships are no longer suitable. On the contrary, I saw many large Panyi ships on the way to the Western Kingdom. Their country is poor and close to the sea, and they can only rely on maritime affairs to obtain what they need. Even so, the Sharkship is no weaker than any other ship configuration I've seen below."

"Since Chen Shuai, the Yishui division has been in the navy, commanding general Zhenshuo's guns and shark boats, weak fire boats and heavy artillery battles, firing a salvo of longitudinal broadside guns, destroying all the attackers, and being a first-class excellent in the world. Battleship."

Chen Mu nodded slowly and listened. In his mind, the shark ship might not be that good, but for Da Ming, it was an epoch-making standard warship that changed the form of naval warfare.

Similarly, he also heard what Yang Tingxiang meant. He must have said that when he discovered a problem, so he simply said: "But?"

Yang Tingxiang smiled embarrassedly, seeing that Chen Mu was not in a hurry, and said: "But shark ships are still suitable for offshore warfare, whether it is a small shark ship with [-] materials or a large shark ship with [-] materials in the hands of fishermen from Fujian and Guangxi. Or the larger Chihai class and Liudingliujia class, with limited deck size and more artillery... Carrying less sailors, the cabin is overcrowded, and there are no cargo stores."

"A Qianliao Chihai-class battleship can be equipped with [-] to [-] artillery pieces, and can carry a force of one or two hundred households. The water and food carried on the ship is only enough for the sailors to eat for fifteen days, and the cabin is small but crowded. More pawns were put in, and the limited powder magazines were filled with shells and powder, and there was no room for anything else on board."

"In Nanyang, [-] days of voyage is enough for the fleet to cruise the coast. Starting from Nanyang Wei, Sulu, Luzon, and Borneo can all sail to Sulu, Luzon, and Borneo. It is perfect to supply supplies along the way; but every long voyage, it is very suitable. To prepare grain ships, such as this Eastern Expedition, I heard that the military government will prepare three [-] grain ships for each hundred households."

"More food ships require more excellent captains, and they also have to bear the risk of a larger ship drifting away, but fortunately, there are advantages of more ship guns; but that was in the past when the ship was equipped with the five-jin general Zhenshuo cannon, and now The enemies we are facing are the big ships of Xiyi and Puyi, and most of the time the five-jin cannon can no longer penetrate the hull of the enemy ship."

"When the Chihai-class warships are equipped with forty cannons, most of them are five-pound cannons, and even many small two-pound cannons are mixed in; if they are replaced with ten-pound cannons and five-pound cannons, they can only be equipped with eight ten-pound cannons. , Eighteen five-pound cannons, if the twenty-pound heavy cannons and ten-pound cannons cast by our foundry are mixed, then only six heavy cannons can be loaded, and twelve ten-pound cannons... This is not because the ship cannot fit, It's that there's no room in the hold for more shells."

General Zhenshuo used 33 times the diameter, which is long and heavy in itself, and the bigger the shell, the heavier the shell, and the heavier the artillery.

Chen Mu nodded slowly, and Yang Tingxiang grasped the key to the strong combat effectiveness of the shark ships, because their ships sacrificed their cargo and their artillery was relatively smaller.

"What you said makes sense. After all, when we designed the shark ship, we only had two-pound cannons and five-pound cannons. Later, the development was too fast—let me see what your plan is."

On the map of the Spanish ship brought back by Yang Tingxiang, the large ship with a size of [-] to [-] materials is roughly equipped with more than [-] cannons, but the [-] cannons are different from the [-] cannons of the Chihai ship. The largest heavy gun on the bow has a caliber of six inches. According to the Ming system, it is a heavy gun that uses more than [-] catties of shells.

Even ordinary bow guns can still match the [-]-jin heavy guns of the Ming Dynasty.

However, perhaps because of the nearly annihilated results of the Linlai naval battle, the Spaniards did not seem to have learned the lesson of the broadside salvo, and they still attached the most importance to the bow gun.

"I haven't designed the ship plan yet, but the general direction is already in place, mainly to increase the width of the waterline and the warehouse, reduce the number of sailors carried, reduce the number of artillery, increase the weight of the artillery, and toilets." Yang Tingxiang said with a smile, Said: "There is no toilet on the ship. The corridor outside the ship's side of the Western ship is very good. It can be used to arrange several toilets, which can effectively improve the environment of long-distance sailing."

At this moment, Wu Bian, the guard in charge, entered the hall and reported: "Commander, Du Qianhu is back."

Du Qianhu is Juniper, he leads his family Dingguan to live in Qianhu, and was sent by Chen Mu to Beijing to inquire about news from the court.

After getting Chen Mu's permission, Juniper came in just a moment later, glanced at Yang Tingxiang, and whispered to Chen Mu.

"Handsome, Old Ge's father, passed away."

　Good morning!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)