"The bow of the No. 5 ship was shot... Why is it the deck? Their shells fell from above and broke a flying sail!" Without Kong Pei's report, Hong Tao could also see that the triangular flying sail on the bow of the No. 5 ship was broken. At the same time, the flagship bearer of the No. 5 ship was also reporting the battle situation to the flagship in flag language. The message he sent was that the bow deck was shot, which made Kong Pei very confused.

"Transfer the order, evacuate at high speed, and be busy on the deck. The more you look like you run away, the better..." Hong Tao put down the telescope, and a smirk appeared on the corner of his mouth.

"Don't you see it? I haven't understood it yet... evacuate at high speed!" Kong Pei was a little unwilling, but he still executed Hong Tao's order. The captain's order on the warship was the final ruling. If there is any problem, you can discuss it later, but you must not question it on the spot. This is a serious crime!

"Haha, don't worry, I know what their cannon is. Let the No. 5 ship send the shell over later and see its caliber." Hong Tao knew Kong Pei's doubts, but he had already understood it. If he continued to test, he might suffer greater losses, and there was no need.

At this time, the Royal Fleet that received the order was turning north, and the opponent's fourth round of artillery attacks came, but this time they were not so lucky. They did not hit the two warships that were leaving at high speed, but bursts of cheers broke out in the Mongolian fleet. It was obvious that the enemy was defeated by them and was defeated by their new weapons, which was completely delighted. The commander of this Mongolian fleet was also a sensible person. He did not command the fleet to chase. It seemed that he knew the speed of his warships and enemy warships. He knew that he could not catch up, so he simply maintained his current formation and course and continued to rush to the northeast.

"Damn! Still a flowering bullet!" After the fleets of both sides left, the No. 5 ship sent a small boat to send the shell that hit the bow to the flagship. Hong Tao only glanced at it and exclaimed. Because the shell had fallen into three petals, it was hollow, with small iron balls and black gunpowder inside.

"It is made of pig iron to directly cast two semicircles. Then welded them together. They are too brittle and broken when they are thrown. The fuse is fine. It is very imitated." Squatting next to this pile of scrap iron, Hong Tao carefully studied the flowering bullets made by the Mongolian Empire.

This shell is basically the same as the flowering shell made in Jinhewan, especially the fuse part, and the bending form of the gunpowder channel in the cork is not bad at all. Don't ask. This is a copycat product. As for how the Mongolians got the prototype shell, it is very simple. Hong Tao has used flowering shells in Lionkou and Jinzhou. Kong Pei almost wiped out the shells on the ship under Xiangyang City, and some flowering shells were also some flowering shells inside. Although the flowering shells produced in Jinhewan are well treated with heat treatment, they cannot guarantee that each shot will explode. The Mongolians may have more than one sample in their hands. The difficulty of this thing lies in the post-stage heat treatment and fuse. The overall technology is not high, and it is easy to imitate, and the effect is. The dud rate is estimated to be very high, so it is better to use solid bullets directly.

"This must be 250 mm! Do they have such a large caliber gun?" Kong Pei was still worried about the Mongolian navy's cannon, especially after seeing the caliber of the shell, his face was filled with two words, worried!

"The caliber is right, but what they created was not our guns, but mortars. This thing has a short gun and a thick wall, so there is basically no need to worry about the blow-off problem. However, the gun barrel is short and the pressure is low, so the shells it fires cannot fly straight and instead shoot. It seems that they have not yet made enough bronze alloys with sufficient strength, so they have to use mortars first. This kind of gun is not suitable for use in the sea. If it is direct shooting, it will only hit the rats if it is blind. Not to mention it. Today, they really encountered it." While analyzing the situation of the Mongolian naval gun for Kong Pei, Hong Tao picked up a piece of shell fragment and drew a simple mortar diagram for Kong Pei on the deck.

"Isn't this similar to the grenade launcher we used before?" Kong Pei listened and looked, and quickly understood the principle of the mortar and gave an example.

"That's right, the same reason. But the caliber of the mortar can be made very large. If it is really a blow, it will be enough to hit it, whether it is a flowering bullet or a solid bullet. It seems that the Mongols' launch medicine is not too far, and the range is not too far. But as long as this thing is constantly tested, it will sooner or later find a suitable ratio. Okay, go directly to Mingzhou. This victory will make them more energetic. Maybe they will equip each of their ships with several mortar cannons, hehe... waiting for them to make trouble

It's almost done, let's take back all the mortars, it's all good copper." Now Hong Tao has a clear mind. The Mongols' cannons do not have much threat to the Royal Fleet, so don't worry about them for now. Continuing to implement the arms race strategy is the best solution. Hong Tao also has to warn the Song Dynasty that although mortars are useless for naval battles, they are very suitable for siege battles. If there are enough numbers and large calibers, a section of the city wall can be quickly collapsed.

At present, the top leaders of the Mongolian Empire may not have realized the correct use of the mortar cannon, or because the weight is too high to solve the transportation problem, it did not appear on the land battlefield. But sooner or later, once the Mongolian cavalry has the mortar cannon as a powerful weapon for siege, the Southern Song Dynasty court may not be able to stop relying solely on cement.

When entering Yongjiang again, the Jinhe was still harassed by the boat. Now this fleet with the rat-headed flag has been well known to the people of the Song Dynasty, and there are more and more legends about it, most of which are positive. The people of the Song Dynasty were full of favor for this fleet from overseas and helped them deal with the Mongolians. The Song people like to join in the fun and are very brave. The last time the Jinhe crashed and sank the boat did not make them retreat, but became more enthusiastic.

However, the harassment method this time is different from last time. Last time, he was a bit of a bully foreigner. The means were relatively inferior, and he was blocked from the front and pushed back without caring. This time, everyone chose to follow the Jinhe River. Whether it was selling goods or watching the fun, they did not stop the normal navigation of the Jinhe River. They were more polite. Hong Tao was just a donkey. Others respected us and were polite to us. He was willing to respect others and treat others with courtesy. How could he treat others with courtesy? Just fire the cannons, but it would disturb these people of the Song Dynasty. They did not have this habit.

It is more appropriate to stand the slope. Hong Tao asked the sailors on the Jinhe River to change into clean uniforms except for sailing players, and then went to starboard to stand from the bow to the stern. Of course, he changed his new uniform, wearing a dress with a golden light, and stood at the last one of the team, smiling and waved to the ships below. I don’t know if his military uniform is really good-looking or his attitude is friendly. The starboard side of the Jinhe River quickly became a sea of ​​flowers, and all kinds of flowers were thrown up. The Southern Song people really loved flowers, and they didn’t forget to put two flowers on their heads and put them on their bodies.

After having enough fun in the military and civilian relationship, the Jinhe River also began to slowly lower sails, land anchors, and ships transferred the warehouse wharf. This place had earth-shaking changes from the last time. The broken bricks and weeds on the shore had been cleaned up, the ground was covered with blue bricks, and the wharf was reinforced with cement. Several cement paths led to several nearby warehouses. The originally dilapidated warehouses were also rested and the most conspicuous was a two-story building in the middle of the yard. It was not too high or too big, but the architectural style was completely different from the surrounding area. It was similar to the houses in Jinhe City. The square and large flat roof was obvious that Wen Nan plagiarized his original design.

"I'm sorry, Lord, you came here on purpose today, right?" In addition to Luo Youde and Wen Nan, there was also an official in the Song Dynasty wearing a purple robe. He was no one else, but Wu Qian, the coastal commander who had a very speculative chat with Hong Tao at the time.

"Of course I came here to wait here. Mr. Hong was rarely seen. I still have many questions to ask him for advice." Wu Qian's attitude towards Hong Tao was much better than last time, and he did not have the airs of a high-ranking official. It seemed that he had been doing well over the past year. The cement factory and the dam were all progressing smoothly, and he was in a good mood.

"Master Wu is so polite. Let's go into the house and talk. The wind is strong on the dock. Please..." Hong Tao didn't know why Wu Qian came to see him. Wen Nan and Luo Youde didn't give him enough hints, so they probably didn't know either. Since they didn't know, let's talk about it. It was nothing more than the construction of dams and cement plants.

"Shipyard!" Everyone entered the second-story building in Wennan. Before they finished speaking, Wu Qian proposed something that forced Hong Tao to frown. He actually proposed to hire craftsmen from Jinhewan to work in Mingzhou and build a larger shipyard on the Yongjiang River, specifically for building a sea ship.

This is not the first time Hong Tao has heard of this kind of thing. Every time the Strait Company holds a board meeting, as long as he attends, there will definitely be marine merchants who will propose cooperation in shipbuilding on various occasions. Hong Tao generally will not refuse, but he will not agree. He will suggest that those who are willing to engage in commercial shipbuilding invest in Zhenzhou Shipyard and expand the scale of Zhenzhou Shipyard. Shipbuilding is a very labor-intensive and financial transaction. The benefits generated by a large shipyard are much higher than those of ten small shipyards. It is meaningless to build a large number of small shipbuilding workshops, and money is wasted on infrastructure construction. It is better to invest all of these funds in Zhenzhou Shipyard to allow its output to grow exponentially. I dare not say that it can all meet the shipbuilding needs of southern coastal cities, but it is absolutely no problem to meet high-end needs. Hong Tao, of other grades, does not want to intervene, the technical content is too low and the added value is also low, which is just left to the original small shipyard of the Southern Song Dynasty.
Chapter completed!