Chapter 059
The cold wind is howling and snowflakes are falling.
In the cold wind, the towering walls of Penglai Water City wind up and down on the ground like a crouching dragon, extending towards the sea, encompassing not only Dengzhou and Danya Mountain, but also the entire port.
Under the protection of the city wall, two to three hundred ships stayed quietly in the calm harbor. Most of these ships were small and medium-sized warships. The 400-material gunboat equipped with eight Folang rapid-fire cannons was the main warship of the Ming Dynasty at this time.
However, on the other side, there are fifteen huge warships. Even if you don't know how to calculate, you can visually compare the gunboats with 400 materials (125 tons), just like the difference between Smart and George Patton. These large battleships are definitely giant battleships with a level of 4,000 materials.
In this era, such giant battleships are not weak even when compared with the navies of various European countries. It can also prove that it is still the most powerful country on the planet, even though it has declined.
It is a pity that these new giant ships did not play their due role. They neither opened up territory for the Ming Dynasty nor protected the sea routes to ensure the safety of maritime trade. In the end, they were taken to Liaodong by Kong Youde to surrender the slaves, which made For the first time, Jiannu had maritime military strength.
The Ming Dynasty had the largest navy in the world at that time, but it was attacked by Japanese pirates, not only in Jiangnan, but also in Shandong. For this reason, Shandong also established a Shandong Bei Japanese Dusi. This was the contradiction of the Ming Dynasty. In the early stage, it was too Strong, but too weak in the later stage.
In the Ming Dynasty, the provinces had the Dusi (Capital Command Department), the Chief Secretary (the Chief Secretary), and the Anchasi (the Department of Punishment and Inspection), which were responsible for military affairs, civil affairs, and justice. They were collectively referred to as the three departments. Dusi is responsible for military affairs. Generally speaking, each province has a Dusi.
However, there are three Dusi in Shandong, namely Shandong Dusi, Shandong Beiwa Dusi and Liaodong Dusi. The Shandong Dudu Commandery Department was originally located in Qingzhou City, Qingzhou Prefecture. It moved to Jinan City, Jinan Prefecture in the 19th year of Hongwu. The Shandong Beiwa Dusi, which was founded in the 6th year of Yongle, was stationed in Penglai Water City, located about five miles northwest of Dengzhou.
Penglai Water City was built on the basis of the Swordfish Village of the Song Dynasty. The area itself is not large, only 250,000 square meters, equivalent to 375 acres of land, and is not even as big as the Qiao Family Courtyard.
However, because Sun Yuanhua, a cadre of the Western French Party, served as the governor of Denglai, during his tenure, he not only formed a Western-style new Denglai army, but also built six bastions and six forts in the European style in Penglai Water City.
Twelve 48-pound cannons were built on these forts. The eight Franco machine guns given to Cheng Shijie by Sun Yuanhua were 18-pound cannons. The muzzle velocity of the artillery shells was more than three ounces, with a range of more than a thousand meters and a muzzle velocity of 200-200 meters. 260 meters/second, ballistic curve. It is generally used for sieges or equipped on warships, and can also be used in field battles.
This kind of artillery is very light. The net weight of the barrel is only fifty-seven kilograms. With the design of the gun hoe, gun wheel, gun shaft, and runner gear set, the total weight is just over one hundred kilograms. Even in complex road conditions, four soldiers can disassemble and carry it on their backs.
But this forty-eight-pound gun weighs more than three tons. Of course, this kind of gun is very powerful, and it is also a new type of naval gun that is not equipped by European navies.
Another advantage of the Ming Dynasty was that all European countries sold everything. Most of the artillery sold to the Ming Dynasty by Portugal were directly disassembled from battleships.
Seeing the shocked look on Cheng Shijie's face, Sun Yuanhua smiled proudly and said, "Shijie, is it spectacular?"
"Spectacular, I have never seen such a big battleship before!"
Of course Cheng Shijie was panicking. In later generations, he had seen giant ships that were more than ten times or dozens of times larger than this.
Sun Yuanhua said very proudly: "Since I took office, I have made continuous heavy moves. I finally got more than one million taels of silver, and I smashed it here!"
Cheng Shijie suddenly understood why everyone in the court wanted Sun Yuanhua to die after the Dengzhou rebellion. This was because Sun Yuanhua, the governor, had dealt with many powerful people in Shandong after he came to Shandong.
That's right, the Pojia County Magistrate and the Miemen Prefecture Yin are not joking.
From this perspective, Kong Youde's rebellion was not a conspiracy. He was able to quickly gain momentum. Shandong's tycoons and gentry were indispensable. It was not just the strike but the lack of food that forced Kong Youde to rebel. I am afraid that those people contributed a lot when Kong Youde rebelled. .
Cheng Shijie looked at these warships and secretly made up his mind that even if they were all burned, they would never be able to build slaves easily.
"Of course you haven't seen it... Looking at the world, only the Ming Dynasty has the ability to build such a giant ship."
Sun Yuanhua slowly said: "Shijie, do you know that two hundred years ago, the warships Zheng He took when he sailed to the West were even bigger than these, probably ten times bigger than the largest one of 4,700 pieces. times, so large that sailors could pile dirt on the deck to create an area for growing vegetables."
One piece of material is equivalent to 0.325 tons. Doesn't the largest warship exceed 1,500 tons?
"Oh my God!"
"It's a pity that there are not even one of these legendary craftsmen left. It took a lot of effort to find less than 300 of them. Back then, there were over a million of these craftsmen."
Sun Yuanhua pointed at these battleships and said: "The Ning Navy needs inland navigation, and the ships are too big. The 400-material battleship is just right!"
The length of the 400-material battleship is eight point nine and a half feet, which is equivalent to more than twenty-eight meters. It is about one foot two feet eight inches wide and more than four meters wide. Its draft is six feet, less than two meters.
Unless there is a dry season, such a boat can navigate many rivers.
Cheng Shijie followed Sun Yuanhua to participate in the entire Penglai Water City, which was a purely military fortress, different from Dengzhou City, on a huge dock.
Originally, the Dengzhou Navy only had 157 warships of various types. However, due to the internal strife in the Dongjiang Army, Shen Shikui, the deputy commander-in-chief of the Dongjiang Army and Mao Wenlong's father-in-law, led the navy to defect to Sun Yuanhua. Sun Yuanhua's naval forces suddenly increased. Half of the warships were captured, and the total number exceeded 300.
It is precisely because of Shen Shikui's support that Sun Yuanhua now has a serious surplus of naval forces. The navy is a more expensive branch than artillery and cavalry. The cost of feeding ten infantrymen is about the same as one cavalry, but one cannon It ranges from a few hundred taels of silver to more than 2,500 taels of silver, and it takes more than fifty taels of silver to feed a cavalry for a year (military pay, armament, war horses plus fodder, because war horses are used for an average of two to three years, and one The average annual consumption of a war horse is equivalent to seventeen taels of silver (Guan Ningjun).
As for the battleships, the cost is even greater. Even the Ming Dynasty's ordinary 400-material gunboat is equipped with eight Franco machine cannons. The cost of the cannons alone is enough to make people shudder. Warships of this period needed to rely on sails for power and did not consume fuel. However, the problem was that once they went to sea, they needed to repair the warships and use asphalt to fill the gaps. Asphalt was considered garbage in later generations. In this era, it was ridiculously expensive. More expensive than oil.
Sun Yuanhua allocated Cheng Shijie six 400-stone gunboats and fifteen 500-stone flat-bottomed boats. These boats were about 18 meters long, three meters wide, and had a draft of only three feet. Fully loaded with five feet, the passability is better. As the name suggests, the five-hundred-stone ship can carry five hundred stones and is also the main ship for water transportation. This kind of ship is about 2.8 inches thick, but it has no artillery.
There were 21 ships of various sizes, plus more than 500 sailors from the Dongjiang Army. The leader was a commander named Li Zhixiang.
"Greetings to the Lord Guard!"
"No gift!"
Cheng Shijie said: "Boss Li, take your people and get ready. Let's return to Ning Haijun station."
Ning Haijun's military camp is in Purple Mountain, but that doesn't mean that Cheng Shijie doesn't have a navy station. He does have one, and that is the Hot Spring Salt Factory. The Hot Spring Salt Factory started as a 100-household facility. Later, Cheng Shijie transferred 500 people there. While drying the salt, build a permanent military camp.
There was no other way. Zhou Yandong was guarding the coast and was afraid of being attacked by Japanese pirates or pirates. They were drying salt in Ninghai. This was stealing food from the salt merchants. There was nothing that the salt merchants did not dare to do.
After receiving these twenty-one ships and more than five hundred soldiers, Sun Yuanhua said earnestly: "Shijie, Shandong will be left to you. Although Ning Haijun has only been in the army for a short time and his training is insufficient, Saint It is hard to disobey orders, His Majesty ordered me to rush to Liaodong to help, and I need to take Denglai's new army to Liaodong."
"Unless the subordinate dies, otherwise..."
Before Cheng Shijie could finish speaking, Sun Yuanhua said with a smile: "It's bad luck to say it's immortal. When Ben Xian comes back from Liaodong, let's design the carriage house together. I think there's still room for improvement in this carriage house!"
Sun Yuanhua fell in love with the horse-drawn carriage and RV designed by Cheng Shijie. This kind of RV is so convenient and has excellent shock absorption effect. In the past, riding in a horse-drawn carriage was extremely bumpy.
With this kind of RV, traveling by car is simply a kind of enjoyment.
Sun Yuanhua has a large number of craftsmen at his disposal. He is now building a luxurious version of a carriage and RV, using fine wood and engraved with exquisite patterns, and is preparing to give it to his teacher Xu Guangqi as a gift for entering the cabinet.
However, the problem is that Sun Yuanhua, who considers himself a technical expert, cannot solve the steering problem of the four-wheeled carriage. This device is a large bearing brought by Cheng Shijie from later generations. He can only carry one at a time, weighing more than fifty kilograms.
"I wish Mr. Futai a great victory in advance!"
Cheng Shijie took his soldiers and his 500 new subordinates all the way along the coast to the hot springs. The Hot Spring Hundred Houses said it was a hundred households place, but it was actually larger than Penglai Water City.
Incredible, right?
Because when building this hundred-household residence, Zhou Yandong learned Cheng Shijie's method. Although he didn't have much food, he did have salt. Even the people living by the sea couldn't cook the salt by themselves, and boiling the salt from sea water also required Analysis, purification, disinfection, purification treatment, and cannot be eaten directly.
Zhou Yandong used salt as wages and attracted a large number of people to come and work. In just over two months, he built a 100-household residence covering an area of more than 700 acres. Of course, this was an expansion on the original site, and the amount of work was relatively small. smaller.
As Cheng Shijie headed to his new station, these naval officers and soldiers were very anxious. They didn't know what their future was like or what would happen tomorrow.
In the cold wind, these Dongjiang Army navy soldiers saw a hazy city. Their new home, Hot Spring Town, had arrived.
PS: La la la... The second update is here. This weekend, Lao Cheng continues to code. Routinely asking for votes.
