As expected, there are a lot of good wood in the carved beams and painted buildings in the Forbidden City of the Yuan Dynasty. The demolition team demolished it for more than a month and obtained tens of thousands of cubic meters of wood. This wood is enough to build six large Zhenyuan warships. However, Shuntian Prefecture still lacks financial resources. In a short time,
Unable to smelt so much steel to use as keels, Wan Lei temporarily planned to build two Zhenyuan ships, four Weiyuan ships and some small auxiliary warships. The remaining wood was temporarily stored in storage for later use.
The skills of the shipwrights introduced by Zen Master Mu Dao were not impressive. With sufficient raw materials, they assembled the warships very quickly. Within a month, the two Zhenyuan warships were completed. The next step was
Install masts, rudders, anchors, build shipbuildings, and install cannons.
Since it is necessary to install a newly cast large steel cannon, which has a large caliber, a long range, high power and large recoil, the requirements for the hull are much higher. It not only requires a large number of ribs to thicken the hull, but also
Use thick wooden boards to thicken the ship's planks to prevent it from being shaken apart by the strong recoil.
The mast of the Zhenyuan is a steel pipe one foot thick and thirty meters high. It is very strong and can be equipped with sails of more than 600 square meters. Although it has not been tried out yet, it is certain that the speed will be very high when the wind is downwind.
Chizzy.
During the period when the warship was being assembled, Wan Lei stayed at the dock for food and accommodation, and sometimes had to run back and forth. In short, he was so busy that he often passed through the house three times without even entering. Every time Zhao Xueer saw him, she always
He would joke that if he didn't go home, Sister Wei'er would be abducted by others. Of course he wasn't worried, and said that if Wei'er ran away, only Jing Zhongwei would ask.
It is not a secret to Liu Wan that the Peiping Army builds warships, and the shipyard is not far from Dagu Port. Liu Wan often sends people over to visit, and even some shipwrights come to exchange experiences. Wan Lei
No matter what, Liu Wan couldn't imitate it anyway. After all, this thing uses too much steel and steel cannons, which is not something ordinary people can make.
In addition to visiting the warships, Liu Wan will also send people over to train and exercise with the Peking Army's navy. People who don't know this might think that these people are from the same army. It has to be said that Liu Wan's soldiers are also
Brave and unafraid of death, Wan Lei didn't even know where Madam Liu got these people.
In actual combat, the newly established navy is obviously inferior to Mrs. Liu's troops, but there is nothing that can be done about it. After all, the navy is different from the army. Before the warships are built, the navy cannot go to sea for actual combat exercises. It lacks regular training of swords, lights, blood and shadows.
Significantly improve combat effectiveness.
Moreover, the navy is also in urgent need of sailing talents, lacks sailors who are familiar with ocean currents and monsoons, and lacks sailing personnel and navigation personnel. Without training, Wan Lei does not dare to let warships sail long distances to fight, because the sea is inherently violent.
Impermanence, if you are not careful, you will die without a burial place.
In addition, sailing is different from traveling on the road. Although there is a compass to distinguish east, west, north and south, it is not enough on the vast sea. Because many times, people do not know where their ship has sailed.
If you are somewhere, you cannot find the direction of your destination, and you are undoubtedly lost.
Getting lost at sea is a very scary thing, because you don’t even have the chance to ask anyone for directions, and you can only sail blindly in one direction. If you go in the wrong direction, it’s even scarier. You might not see a piece of land for several months.
, the people on the boat would die of thirst, if not starvation.
In fact, many dynasties before the Ming Dynasty had fleets go to sea on a large scale, accumulated a lot of navigation experience, and invented the technique of star-crossing as a navigation technology. The so-called star-crossing technique is to use a star board to measure the North Star.
, Vega, Busi, Horizontal Star (Carina A), Big Dipper, Canopy Star, Lantern Bone Star and other constellation heights, and then calculate the location of the place.
Since there are too many constellations to be observed, and the operation of the star board is complex and the calculations are complex, a special Yin and Yang person must be responsible for the observation. If it is cloudy, you will still be lost like a blind man.
Moreover, those Yin and Yang students can only rely on the experience accumulated by their predecessors to lock the fleet on the inherent route. If the fleet deviates from the inherent route, it must first return to the inherent route before it can continue to move forward. Such technology has many advantages.
Big flaw, Wan Lei certainly does not intend to use this kind of overseas star-finding technique.
Fortunately, Shuntianfu invented clocks. Although these clocks are not accurate enough and cannot be miniaturized, you can use them to keep time and measure the time difference at noon in the location, and then you can calculate the longitude. Add the Big Dipper to determine the latitude, and the longitude and latitude intersect.
Able to determine the location of the location.
Of course, for this method to be effective, there must be a globe with a rough world map drawn on it as the original sea chart. This is not difficult for Wan Lei. He can draw it from memory, although there will inevitably be deviations.
, but as long as the deviation is not large, there will be no problem. In the future, as navigation technology improves, people will be sent to conduct on-site surveying and mapping of more precise maps.
In addition, new rules for longitude and latitude lines must be established. Latitude is easy to determine, and the latitude can be determined according to the angle of the Big Dipper. Longitude must first set a prime meridian, that is, the zero-degree longitude, before other longitudes can be determined. Since the city of Peiping is
have
There is a century clock, and the prime meridian naturally passes through the century clock. East longitude is east longitude, and west longitude is west longitude. Each is divided into 180 degrees, and can be divided into twenty-four time zones. Each time zone is exactly fifteen
degrees, that is, four minutes per degree.
At noon that day, just as Wanlei was explaining rough navigation knowledge to the crew in the war room of the shipbuilding, a sound of gongs came from the sentry. After hearing this, all the officers and soldiers immediately stood up from their seats and went to the deck to gather.
The formation was completed within minutes. The organization and discipline were very strict, and Wan Lei was very satisfied.
At this time, the sentry sent out flags to inform the officers and soldiers on the ship: There were three ships out on the sea, no flags were hoisted, and the enemy and friends were unknown.
"Sir, what should I do?" Wan Lei was present, and Liu Wenxiu hurriedly came over to ask for instructions.
"You are the commander of the navy. You have full command here. You don't need to ask for my opinion. I just hope that the secrets here will not be exposed as much as possible." Wan Lei did not take power. He was self-aware and knew that he was the leader when it came to leading troops to fight.
Nope.
Seeing Wan Lei delegating power, Liu Wenxiu gave a military salute and went down to deliver the order. In fact, although the warships had not yet been built, there were still many forts near the port to protect the safety of the port, so he immediately asked the garrison to quickly
He went to the fort and prepared to fire on the incoming ship. At the same time, he also sent a few frogmen in a small boat to shout out the identity of the incoming ship.
The military port has just dispatched personnel, and the warships from Dagu Port have also been dispatched. Although there is only one warship, it has the home field advantage, and Liu Wan is not afraid. The incoming ships are all small ships, and the largest one is only thirty
When a Fuchuan, which is about 30 meters tall and as tall as a building, faces a small boat like this, it doesn't need cannons to bombard it, it can just be rammed.
Soon, the incoming ship approached the coast and entered the range of the artillery, and the frogman sent to shout was already in place, warning the other party to stop the ship immediately and inform the ship of its intention, otherwise it would be regarded as provoking a war, and the consequences would be at your own risk.
When the incoming ship heard the shouting, it did not stop immediately. The frogman in charge warned the other party again but still did not listen, so he raised a flag and asked the fort on the shore to fire a warning immediately. Only a loud "boom" was heard, and hundreds of people were killed.
lead bullets flew by
, fell near the incoming boat, stirring up a large sea of flowers, shaking the boat up and down. The people who came finally knew what the rules were, stopped the boat immediately, and shouted on the boat, but it was not in Chinese, they were gibbering.
I don't understand it at all.
The visitor shouted for a while, and when he saw that there were no more cannons fired from the shore, he wanted to sail again. But just as the ship moved forward a few meters, there were two loud "boom" sounds again, and this time the slings and stones no longer fell into the sea.
Instead, it hit the top of a ship hard, knocking off half of the top in one go. Sawdust and planks flew around, injuring dozens of people, and screams and screams were heard.
"This is the territorial waters of Shuntian Prefecture. Stop the ship immediately and accept inspection. Otherwise, we will kill you without mercy!" The frogman responsible for shouting issued an ultimatum. Of course, this is not a strong protest and serious negotiation. If the other party dares not to listen, then they will continue to fire.
, until they are blown to pieces.
"No, don't fire, I, we are Koreans, I, we have something important to report to the Celestial Empire." A man in brocade robes appeared on the boat, but he spoke broken Chinese. He was definitely not Han.
"This is the territorial waters of Shuntian Prefecture. We will anchor down and stop the ship immediately. If you need anything, come ashore and tell us in person."
Half of the ship's building was blown away, and the visitors had to anchor down and stop the ship without daring to move any more. At the same time, a small boat was pulled down, and a dozen armored soldiers rowed towards the shore.
Come on. Of course, Wan Lei does not need to meet this kind of little brat in person, but only a political commissar in charge of the navy's ideological work.
Shuntian Prefecture had already stepped in to calm down the incoming ships, but Liu Wan still had her warships keep an eye on the incoming ships at a short distance to prevent any accidents from happening, while she went to the military port in person to inquire about the whereabouts and purpose of these people.
After listening to the people's statements, Wan Lei finally figured out the whole story. It turned out that these people were from North Korea and wanted to ask for help from the Ming Dynasty.
As early as a month ago, an army of unknown origin appeared in North Korea. It killed everyone and attacked the city. It was overwhelming. Ping An Road and Hwanghae Road fell one after another. It was about to attack Gyeonggi Road. North Korea was about to
To fall, the king of Korea had no choice but to ask for help from the suzerain country, the Ming Dynasty, hoping that the Ming Dynasty would help his younger brother.
Wan Lei didn't have much favorable impressions of the country North Korea, but he wanted to know who invaded North Korea and could actually beat North Korea to pieces. You know, North Korea had just been founded not long ago, and its military's combat capabilities
There is still some, but it has not completely rotted away.
"Those thieves seem to be Jurchens. They are extremely cruel by nature. They kill people and drink blood. They are no different from barbarians. However, the thieves are very powerful, with tens of thousands of horses and horses moving around with iron hooves. It is difficult for our army to match them. There are also artillery among the thieves. We have several
All the fortified cities were destroyed by artillery fire." The visitor said with a sad and pitiful look on his face.
Now that he knew the general outline of the matter, Wan Lei waved his hand, and the officer in charge of the reception understood and said: "You guys stay here first, and we will arrange for you to go south and explain the matter directly to your face."
A few soldiers took these envoys away. Wan Lei read the record of the meeting carefully before handing it to Liu Wenxiu and asked, "What do you think?"
Liu Wenxiu is about the same age as Wan Lei, and his brain is as flexible as Wan Lei, otherwise he would not be promoted to the commander of the First Army at such a young age. He took a look at the records and said: "From what they introduced, this so-called
The rebel army came from Liaodong, and Liaodong is the territory of the Yan rebels, so there must be something fishy here."
"Your analysis is good. I think that the so-called thief army is probably faked by the Yan rebels. Even if it is not faked by them, it still has something to do with them." Wan Lei said sternly.
It has to be said that the Yan rebels played a good game. They had just accepted the canonization of the imperial court and could not attack the vassal states of the Ming Dynasty openly, so they pretended to be Jurchens and invaded North Korea to cause trouble, and then pretended to support them.
In the name of pacifying the traitors, North Korea sent troops to North Korea openly, and then came to occupy the magpie's nest, and North Korea became their territory.
"Sir, these Koreans said that this bandit army has cannons, and they are probably the ones who robbed the warships." Liu Wenxiu said again.
"It's not very possible, but it's certain that the three missing warships must have been hijacked by the Yan rebels. It seems that my prediction is good. The Yan rebels openly accepted the canonization of the imperial court, but secretly were still building warships.
, as for the purpose, it must be to wait for an opportunity to take the sea route south and approach Nanjing."
"Sir, what should we do? Should we..."
"We are not in a hurry, let's just sit back and watch the fight between tigers and tigers. To forge iron, you still need to be strong. The most important thing now is to build the warships and train the navy well."
"Then, do you want to share this news?"
"We don't need to detain people or block the news. Let these people go to the court to complain and see how the emperor reacts."