Chapter 277 Aiding Korea and Fighting Japan (7) Taking Stock of the Japanese Navy
The emperor actually knew that Gao Jingshi had a fleet left in Japan. Not only that, the emperor also knew that Gao Jingshi had left a small number of armed servants (Lu division) in Japan. However, there is an understanding here.
difference.
Regarding the fleet issue, Zhu Yijun has never regarded the fleet of the Sea Trade Alliance as an armed force. In his eyes, Jinghua's maritime force only counts those serious warships newly built in recent years, so there are only a few in total.
According to the information he obtained, there is only one battleship in the Jinghua Kanto Squadron of the Sea Trade Alliance, and the rest are all armed transport ships, so the combat effectiveness may be very worrying.
Maybe the word "transport" in the armed transport ship is too misleading. Anyway, in Zhu Yijun's mind, that squadron can probably fight pirates, and serious combat has nothing to do with them. How big this misunderstanding is, it is simply unnecessary.
Analyzes.
As for the issue of the mainland army, the information Zhu Yijun received at the beginning was: "The great Situ left 1,800 servants in Misaki Castle near the sea to provide assistance to his in-laws, the Narita clan's Yusheng Castle."
In other words, Zhu Yijun only knew that Gao Jingshi had left 1,800 armed servants in Misaki Castle, and the purpose was to embolden the concubine Narita Kai's natal family and the Narita clan's Yusou Castle.
One thing to say is that if it was a few years ago, Zhu Yijun would have felt that the 1,800-man servant army was quite powerful. However, due to the large scale of the Ming Dynasty's Conquest of Yuan Dynasty, a full 600,000 troops were dispatched.
This led to the emperor becoming less sensitive to numbers after the war.
With only 1,800 people, what can they do? No wonder they can only embolden the Narita family! This made Zhu Yijun obviously underestimate the so-called Lu division, thinking that it was just sending some people to help the Narita family.
Look at home, at most it can add some defensive strength to Misaki Castle, the main anchorage of the Maritime Trade Alliance in Kanto, Japan, and the rest can be ignored.
But what is the reality? The Japanese believe that the strength of the Jinghua Squadron is "more than 30 giant ships, nearly 10,000 elite soldiers with iron artillery, supporting fortified cities, and erecting large cannons, which cannot be easily overcome."
In fact, this estimate is relatively accurate in terms of the total number of people, because although the regular force sent at that time, the Marine Corps, was only about 1,800 people, there were many naval personnel, the most important of which were the accompanying ships of thirty armed transport ships.
personnel.
According to the establishment of Jinghua armed transport ships, each armed transport ship has a capacity of 180 people. Thirty ships have a capacity of 5,400 people. Add in the Kanto Squadron flagship "Left-wing Hussars" with a capacity of about 300 people, which is close to 6,000 people.
In addition, due to early predictions, Luo Yuan believed that he would either need to rebuild Misaki Castle or directly deploy defenses on Castle Island. Therefore, with Gao Pangshi's approval, he mobilized more than a thousand design craftsmen and Qiang Qiang from Jinghua Infrastructure.
Labor, in fact the entire fleet brought about 9,000 people.
However, the Japanese did not know the actual number of crew members on each ship, so the estimate was a little low, but it is not harmful.
As for the combat effectiveness of these people, ask Toyotomi Hidekatsu, who had four broken ribs, he will probably have a better say.
Zhu Yijun did not take the Kanto Squadron as a big deal. Instead, he asked Gao Jingshi about the main strength of the Japanese navy, hoping that Gao Jingshi could give him a more accurate judgment on the strength of the Japanese navy.
This point of high pragmatism is somewhat difficult to state clearly, because looking back now, the so-called "main force of the Japanese navy" may have had its core strength established with Jinghua's help!
At the beginning, Toyotomi Hideyoshi took the initiative to discuss secretly with Kyōka, hoping to exchange Tamora Castle for Ninja Castle, and asked Kyōhwa to no longer support Odawara Castle. To this end, he sent his younger brother Toyotomi Hideyoshi to meet with Luo Yuan, and this was achieved.
Some terms of cooperation.
Toyotomi Hidenaga mentioned a big deal during the meeting. On behalf of the Toyotomi family, he formally proposed arms purchase to the Maritime Trade Alliance!
Yes, it's the kind of arms purchase that everyone knows: buying warships, buying artillery, buying muskets, buying gunpowder... He even wants to introduce some production lines - of course he doesn't know the word production line, but his expression undoubtedly means this:
"Build the necessary facilities and tools for us to build relevant warships, artillery, muskets and other items. If we need to teach and train craftsmen, please send someone to guide us. We are willing to pay the corresponding cash for this." He then added.
One sentence: "The price is negotiable."
Unfortunately, Commander Luo rejected him cleanly and said: "I am only the commander of the Kanto Squadron, and I rarely get involved in specific business matters. But as far as I know, our factories in Jinghua only sell products and have never sold production technology.
thing."
Toyotomi Hidenaga was obviously a little disappointed, but having said that, he was disappointed, which was actually what he expected, so he also had a backup plan. The backup plan was very simple. There was nothing he could do if the production line could not buy it for the time being. He had to buy some finished products first to deal with emergencies.
It's also good. However, these finished products are "customized services" and must be discussed in detail with Jinghua.
Take warships as an example. In the past, Jinghua only sold armed transport ships to domestic maritime merchants in the Ming Dynasty. However, due to its high pragmatism and emphasis on standardization (this was due to cost considerations, including production and maintenance), Jinghua’s armed transport ships were all of the same specification.
, very unified.
Of course, specifically, there are also certain "customized services", but this kind of customization service is relatively simple, mainly due to the difference in gun load, which is divided into four categories: standard gun load, medium load gun, small amount of gun load, and no gun load.
Class - The thirty armed transport ships ordered by Toyotomi Hideyoshi before were the lowest standard unloaded gun models. Of course, that was mainly because Gao Pragmatic refused to sell him guns.
However, the warship the Toyotomi family proposed to purchase this time had to be customized even in model, because they felt that the armed transport ship was too big and the various costs were a bit expensive, so they needed a smaller warship.
Because most of the Japanese naval forces were upgraded by recruiting pirates, they are accustomed to using smaller ships, and they do not yet have the "giant ship and cannon" doctrine, so they believe that it is not cost-effective to upgrade all to Kyoto-style armed transport ships, so
He proposed a plan for two customized warships, hoping that Jinghua could design and build a batch specifically for them.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! According to the plan proposed by Toyotomi Hidenaga at the time, the Toyotomi family first needed to use the size of the house ships as a rough standard, and asked Kyocera to design and build a batch of new house ships. The main ones
The requirement is to significantly increase the speed without reducing its defense capability and carrying capacity.
The second customized warship is the new Kanfune. The requirements are opposite to those of the new Anzha ship. It is to strengthen its defense while maintaining its speed, and it is best to increase its carrying capacity.
Theoretically speaking, if shipbuilding technology reaches a certain level, the relationship between these three standards is nothing more than that if you are strong, I will be weak, and if you are weak, I will be strong. There is no premise of maintaining one or two dimensions and improving the other.
Dimension. But the problem is that Japan's shipbuilding technology is quite backward at this time, and there is still a lot of room for improvement in the technical level of Anzha and Kanfune, so in fact, Jinghua is capable of technological upgrades for them.
This kind of technological upgrade does not even require Jinghua to spend too much effort, because at this moment, apart from Jinghua, the Ming Dynasty's own shipbuilding level can almost meet the requirements of the Toyotomi family - of course this refers to the warship level of the Ming Dynasty's regular navy
, rather than referring to the products of private shipyards, which are too complicated and have mixed quality.
Jinghua can use the common lucky ships of the Ming Dynasty (there are many kinds, pick two of them) and slightly improve them to meet the needs of Japan. The only issue to consider is the price.
Before Luo Yuan went to Japan, Gao Jingshi personally briefed him on the matter, and then granted him considerable authority, including authority over arms transactions.
However, the authority Gao Pragmatic gave him was not to allow him to trade, but to tell him what he could not trade. Gao Pragmatic's original words at the beginning were "My most important weapon cannot be given to others."
However, it was Luo Yuan's first time to shoulder an important task, and he was afraid that his understanding would be biased, so he asked "What are important weapons?" Gao pragmatically replied: "Among the weapons assigned to the garrison, the most powerful ones, and the latest ones are important weapons.
"Now Luo Yuan is relieved.
According to Gao Pragmatic's explanation, Luo Yuan believes that the arms purchase proposed by the Toyotomi family is overall feasible - because the largest battleship they want is less than the size of an armed transport ship, and the armament on the ship is of course mediocre, at least it is impossible to carry the No. 1 gun
.
The No. 1 gun is the largest artillery currently equipped by the Jinghua garrison and various armed servants in the Ming Dynasty. It is generally used for bastion defense in key areas, mainly in southern Xinjiang.
Of course, more of them may be installed on warships in the future - only pure warships will be equipped with them, and armed transport ships will not be installed, because the load-bearing capacity of the artillery deck is not enough, and the deck may be damaged during salvos. Due to the current number of pure warships
is limited, so the number of "production lines" for the No. 1 gun has never been large, and the production capacity is also relatively limited.
In Luo Yuan's opinion, the No. 2 cannon is no longer within the highly pragmatic ban on sale, and can be sold to the Toyotomi family - in fact, the Toyotomi family had originally obtained it from some nobles in the Sea Trade Alliance.
Some, in fact, I can't help but think the difference is not big.
So Luo Yuan asked Toyotomi Hidenaga in detail, and the latter said that the new Daifuku ship they wanted should be equipped with twenty giant large barrels (No. 2 guns). However, Luo Yuan told Toyotomi Hidenaga based on his own professional vision that with the new type of ship
The size of the Daifuku ship cannot carry more than eighteen artillery pieces. Otherwise, if the cannons are fired, the deck may be shattered. Secondly, it may also affect the speed and seaworthiness. It is definitely not worth the gain.
At first, Toyotomi Hidenaga thought that Luo Yuan was just selfish and didn't want Japan to get more artillery. After careful questioning, he found that Luo Yuan spoke eloquently, and he didn't understand many of the explanations at all - but he "didn't know how serious it was", so in the end
Adopting Luo Yuan's opinion, the number of guns carried by the Dafu ship was set at eighteen, including six No. 2 guns and twelve No. 3 guns.
The new-style Kofuchuan is actually not small, and is one size larger than the ordinary Kansai ships in Japan. It was finally determined to carry two No. 2 cannons and ten No. 3 cannons.
Next, it’s time to talk about the price. Although Luo Yuan is not from the shipyard, he has worked his way from an ordinary technical employee in Jinghua to the captain of the pure warship "Left Cavalry". As for the cost price and ex-factory price of the ship, that is
He knew everything. So he first quoted a price of 60,000 taels of kuping silver for a new big fortune boat and 40,000 taels of kuping silver for a new small fortune boat.
Toyotomi Hidenaga was shocked when he heard this and asked Luo Yuan why it was so expensive. Luo Yuan said: "After all, it is customized. Jinghua has to specially redesign and form a new production system to build it, so the price is naturally a bit more expensive.
.”
The good one is "a bit" more expensive. The armed transport ship is about 30% larger than the new Daifuku ship. It carries 28 guns, including eight No. 2 guns, but the price of a single ship is only 55,000 taels. It is obviously smaller than it.
He actually quoted a price of 60,000 taels for a circle of new large fortune ships, and a new small fortune ship that was only two-fifths the size of an armed transport ship, he actually quoted 40,000 taels.
This is not killing people, this is killing pigs!
However, Toyotomi Hidenaga had done his homework and knew the price of armed transport ships within the Ming Dynasty, so he immediately raised a tactful question. However, Luo Yuan said plausibly without a blushing face and a heartbeat: "Your Majesty the Great Nayan.
What I said is a bit unprofessional. My husband is not His Majesty the Emperor. How can we not handle this important matter of selling military and national weapons to neighboring countries? How expensive is it to deal with it? Dai Nayan might as well think about the Japanese ministers.
"
Toyotomi Hidenaga was stunned and speechless. What you said makes sense, but I was speechless. However, he finally came up with a trump card and said: "What if our Toyotomi family purchases in large quantities? This can always be a little better on the price."
Are you more accommodating?"
Luo Yuan had been waiting for the words "bulk purchase" for a long time. When Toyotomi Hideucha said this, he immediately asked: "What is a large quantity? How much is this large quantity?"
Toyotomi Hideucha laughed and replied boldly: "Your Highness, to be honest, our Toyotomi family will need as much as Kyoka can build these two new types of lucky ships!"
In terms of money business, since Luo Yuan did not have the final say, the two parties could only roughly confirm their intentions at the time. In terms of price, the final result of the negotiations was 55,000 taels each for the new large fortune ships and 30,000 taels each for the new small fortune ships.
The price reduction of the Dafu ship is not that big, and it still remains at the price of an armed transport ship; however, the small Fu ship is indeed too small, and its armament level is really not that good in Luo Yuan's opinion, so the price is compressed a little more severely.
The price dropped from 40,000 taels to 10,000 taels. In the end, each boat was 30,000 taels, which was not cheap at all.
Of course, another key to Luo Yuan's daring to agree to such a deal is that the Toyotomi family is a real big buyer. The intention reached by both parties is that Jinghua will deliver twenty large fortune ships and forty small fortune ships every year, with a total value of
A whopping 2.3 million taels of silver!
This "intention" was finally approved by the Sea Trade Alliance - in fact, Gao Pragmatic was hesitant at the time, but was later approved because of the strong support of the nobles, coupled with the "Vision of the Beijing-China Two-Ocean Fleet in the Twenty-Year Wanli Years"
, the strength of the "Kwantung Squadron" will also be greatly increased, so Gao Pragmatic finally agreed.
It is precisely because of Jinghua's "strong support" that the real core force of the Japanese navy is far from the defective products in the original history, but the thirty Jinghua armed transport ships (without original guns, but Japan secretly improved them, and the actual main force
(covered with iron sheets), twenty Jinghua ships were converted into large fortune ships, and forty Jinghua ships were converted into small fortune ships.
None of these new warships have yet appeared on the Korean battlefield, and they are the real trump card of the Japanese Navy!
Unexpectedly, the main force of Japan's naval force was actually produced by Jinghua. Zhu Yijun's face could not help but darken, and he did not speak for a long time.
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