In the middle of October, the seventh year of Jian'an.
The first warship built under the leadership of Lu Yan was finally successfully completed.
The news of the successful construction of the warship made Cao Cao very happy. After all, Lu Yan's warship was his hope to defeat Jiangdong and Jingzhou.
In order to witness the birth of the new battleship, Lao Cao specially brought his four sons, Cao Ang, Cao Pi, Cao Zhang, and Cao Zhi, to Chenliu County.
The sky is still a little dark, but the shipyard is already bustling with activity.
Cao Cao, Xi Zhicai, Guo Jia and others were standing together, chatting about recent anecdotes.
The important officials of the imperial court gathered around Liu Xie, who was holding the little princess, and quietly waited for Lu Yan's arrival.
There was still a quarter of an hour before Chen Shi, and Lu Yan, accompanied by Zhuge Liang, Sima Yi and others, finally arrived at the shipyard.
Lu Yan and others went straight to Liu Xie and saluted, "See you, Your Majesty!"
"I love you, no courtesy!" Liu Xie came to Lu Yan, his excitement was beyond words, "Let's start quickly, we are already impatient to wait!"
Lu Yan glanced at the porcelain doll-like little princess, and then said to Zhuge Liang: "Kong Ming, you can start."
Zhuge Liang received Lu Yan's order, saluted Liu Xie and other ministers, and then went straight into the shipyard.
As Zhuge Liang entered, orders immediately sounded in the shipyard.
"Crunch!"
The door that separated the shipyard from the outside of the shipyard slowly opened.
When everyone's eyes suddenly opened up, a huge and shocking warship suddenly appeared in front of everyone!
Viewed from a distance, the appearance of this warship is completely different from warships of any previous period.
The new warship is different from the traditional flat-bottomed boat. It is wider at the top and narrower at the bottom, and the bow is a shear type suitable for ocean navigation. This shape is more conducive to breaking waves, and the warship sails faster than the flat-bottomed boat.
Under Zhuge Liang's introduction, everyone learned some basic information about the ship.
It is about twenty feet long, about six to seven feet wide, and several feet high. It has two decks in total, and its load capacity can reach ten thousand stones, which is more than 300 tons.
There are more than 30 cannons in each row beside the ship, totaling more than 60 cannons. The cannons can shoot four to five miles, and the fishing boat will be smashed immediately after being hit.
Although this ship is not the largest ship today, and its load capacity is not as high as that of the largest building ships in Soochow, its shape is more angular and it looks more aggressive.
The new battleship is different from the previous single-masted ship. It has a mast at the front, middle and rear on the deck. It is a three-masted ship.
Although after some modifications, it is slightly different from the three-masted sailing ships of the European Great Navigation Period, they are also highly flexible, allowing the warship to provide more power to the ship when the wind direction at sea is uncertain.
The part of the hull above the waterline is covered with a thin layer of wrought iron, which not only strengthens the hull but also prevents attacks from enemy fireships.
The bottom of the ship also uses a new technology that has never been seen before, that is, a watertight cabin.
The function of the watertight cabin is to separate the cabins on the ship with wooden boards and not connect with each other. Even if one cabin is damaged and water enters, it will not affect other cabins and prevent the ship from sinking quickly.
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What puzzled Liu Xie, Cao Cao and others was that there were many large holes blocked by wooden boards on the hull, both on the upper level and in the middle of the ship.
Guo Jia counted and found that there were thirty-two large holes on one side, and the two sides added up to sixty-four.
Lao Cao pulled Lu Yan to Liu Xie and asked, "Mr. Lu, are the big holes in your boat used for archers to release arrows?"
"But is the hole too big?" Liu Xie then asked.
Yang Biao looked at the warship curiously, exclaiming from time to time: "I heard that this ship was designed by Lu Changsheng himself, but it looks decent... When did this guy become proficient in shipbuilding again?"
Regarding Liu Xie and Cao Cao's issues, Lu Yan just smiled mysteriously and did not explain too much.
He turned and said: "Don't worry about the rest... Now, please invite Your Majesty, Duke Cao, and Duke Yang to cut the ribbon for our new warship first!"
"Ribbon cutting?"
"What the hell?"
Cao Cao and Liu Xie looked at each other and saw the black question marks on each other's heads.
"It's just a small ceremony, just borrowing the hands of His Majesty and other important ministers to bring good luck to the new warship." Lu Yan replied.
"You're the only one with so many tricks up his sleeve." Yang Biao said, "You are the one who wants to challenge Lu Yan, but your body is already a little eager to try."
Under the guidance of Lu Yan, Liu Xie, Cao Cao, Yang Biao and others came to the warship.
Someone had already prepared a red ribbon and brought it in front of them. There were also a number of colored balls tied to the ribbon, and a person happened to be standing between the two colored balls.
After the big bosses who cut the ribbon stood up according to their positions, Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi presented them with small scissors.
After Lu Yan said "the ceremony begins", the shipyard was filled with the sound of firecrackers, and then the ribbon was cut.
After a series of processes were completed, Liu Xie, Cao Cao and others finally cut off the red silk in their hands, which also announced the official completion of the three-masted warship.
After the ceremony, the warship began to enter the water.
With a "crash", the Han Dynasty's first three-masted warship finally took its first step in dominating the river and sea in the Yellow River!
Seeing the warship floating quietly and steadily on the water, the shipbuilders who worked hard day and night were excited and burst into cheers.
This ship embodies the hard work of countless of them!
Liu Xie, Cao Cao, Yang Biao and others, led by Lu Yan and Zhuge Liang, stepped onto the warship and came to the deck.
Looking around, in addition to various conventional ship parts on the deck, there is also a huge racket on the hull. This thing can cause huge damage to those ships that are close to it.
At the hole in the ship's side, there were many unknown objects covered with black cloth.
After looking around for a week, Guo Jia asked with some confusion: "Why didn't I see weapons like trebuchets and ballistas? Isn't the lethality of bows and arrows alone not enough?"
Xi Zhicai pointed to the things covered by black cloth and said: "Fengxiao, look at those things covered, maybe they are the weapons of this ship."
"But if it's a catapult, the height is wrong... Could it be that it's just a ballista?" Guo Jia couldn't think of a reason no matter how hard he thought about it. Finally, he came to Lu Yan's side, pulled Lu Yan's arm and asked directly.
: "Changsheng, what are the weapons of this ship?"
Seeing Lao Cao, the emperor and others looked at him curiously. Lu Yan calmly slapped Guo Jia's hand away and said: "New warships naturally need new weapons... but the new weapons are a bit too powerful.
, so we won’t do demonstrations temporarily when there are many people.”
Lu Yan's words whetted everyone's appetite.
Too powerful? Not suitable for demonstration with too many people?
Then let's go down and you can demonstrate it yourself!
Unable to withstand the instigation of Boss Cao and Liu Xie,
Lu Yan finally agreed to demonstrate it to everyone.