On the afternoon of the day when he received the compensation, Zhao Xin decided to raise anchor and set sail after discussing with Liu Sheng and others.
We can no longer stay in Nagasaki. If we stay any longer, the armies of the vassals from Kyushu and Shikoku will come. When tens of thousands of people swarm forward, they will be able to kill all of them with just their lives.
As for Difan, Zhao Xin decided not to go this time. Without him, the Ogi clan in this era, like the Satsuma clan, owed a lot of bad debts; even if they went to find trouble to blackmail, they would not get much money.
(Historically, by 1836, Difan's foreign debt totaled 90,000 taels of silver. It was always one thousand taels of silver, and 60 taels of silver were exchanged for one tael of gold.)
So after a long whistle, the Thor turned around and headed toward the southeastern sea. The far-sighted person at Yemujia Observatory did not let out a long breath until the Thunder God disappeared on the sea level. This "devil's ship" that turned Nagasaki upside down is finally gone!
On the way back to Sendai Domain, Zhao Xin and others held a small meeting. The main content is to review this trip to Nagasaki and summarize the lessons learned.
First of all, there is a serious shortage of manpower traveling with the ship. The main reason is that there is a shortage of qualified sailors, and the ability of the sailors currently trained in island countries cannot keep up.
Now every time we go on a voyage, Zhao Xin, Liu Sheng and Deng Fei are responsible for everything on the ship, both at the management level and at the operational level, with others assisting. From driving, docking, cargo loading and unloading, engine maintenance and repair, to the use and maintenance of main propulsion equipment and various auxiliary systems, all require the participation of Hyundai.
It is said that being on duty in the cockpit of the Thor is a very hard job.
There is no satellite navigation in this era, so the person in charge of the duty needs to maintain radar observation at all times, conduct visual lookout, be responsible for positioning, correct the course, and at the same time, deal with emergency alerts when encountering them. The most troublesome thing is that you often have to manually steer.
There is no chair in the cockpit, so the person in charge of the shift can only stand or walk back and forth. Each shift lasts four hours and rotates six times a day. A logbook must also be recorded during each shift.
Even Zhao Xin, a second-hand man, cannot take a nap because he is tired while on duty, because there is an "anti-drowsy system" (navigation watch alarm system on the bridge) in the cockpit. This thing will sound a harsh buzzer every 12 minutes. If you don't press the "RESET" button at this time, the cockpit alarm will be activated; if you don't press it again, the buzzer in the captain's cabin will sound. If you don't press the button in the captain's cabin, the whole ship will sound the alarm.
Although the alarm sound is very harsh, for the sake of safety during navigation, no one will turn off the alarm system completely.
As for the maintenance and upkeep of general facilities on the deck and shipbuilding, several modern people have to guide the island sailors to operate them.
Not counting the above, once there is a battle, you still have to participate.
It can be done once or twice in a short period of time, but no one can bear it as time goes by. This voyage was very tiring for Liu Sheng and Deng Fei, because Zhao Xin, Ding Guofeng and Zhao Liang couldn't help at all with some highly technical tasks.
The effectiveness of modern equipment depends on the people who can operate it skillfully. Without a group of people who are proficient in modern knowledge, it will be useless even to bring in aircraft and tanks.
Therefore, Zhao Xin decided that after returning to Beihai this time, the first thing to do is to increase the number of sailors and conduct intensive training for three to four weeks. After that, regular and long training will be required.
If this problem is not solved, modern equipment will become a drag, and in the end we will have to go back to using wooden sailing ships that meet the conditions of the current era, and then recruit a group of sailors of this era. Picture what?
The second problem is the serious shortage of soldiers.
This time the Saga Domain almost succeeded in a sneak attack because there were insufficient guards on the deck. If Liu Sheng and Zhao Liang hadn't used machine guns to control the main deck later, Zhao Xin would have led Pingtai and others to retreat to the ship building.
Faced with this problem, it is unrealistic to expect to wait until next year to recruit a group of Shandong people. So everyone decided to continue to expand their military strength after returning to Beihai this time, and began to equip these soldiers with SKS semi-automatic rifles.
This batch of SKS rifles was the first batch of goods that Zhao Xin bought from Andrew.
Considering that there are many countries and manufacturers producing 7.62x39mm bullets in another time and space, with huge production and inventory, and low prices, Zhao Xincai decided to purchase 5,000 bullets.
However, the SKS semi-automatic rifle also has many shortcomings. It has large vertical recoil and quick recoil recovery; it relies on accessories; it is difficult to control when firing continuously and rapidly.
The most fatal shortcoming is that it is prone to fire. Zhao Xin asked Andrew to install a firing pin spring on every rifle. Otherwise, even if it is cheap and good, he would not dare to ask for it.
Considering the physical conditions of the islanders in the eighteenth century, Zhao Xin had been hesitant to use it.
However, this time in the battle with the Saga Domain, the problem of insufficient firepower on the deck was very prominent. After Heita and the others quickly fired the nine bullets of the lever rifle at first, loading one bullet after another became a huge waste of time. There were even several people who were so nervous that they couldn't even insert bullets into them, and they dropped them all over the floor.
It seems that SKS must be taken out.
After discussing the crew, troops and weapons, Liu Sheng asked Zhao Xin a question that everyone was very concerned about: "How much can we exchange for the 150,000 taels of island country gold coins we got this time?"
Zhao Xin made a rough estimate with a calculator and replied: "It is definitely not possible to sell gold coins directly. The island country gold coins we got this time are all Yuanwen small gold coins, and the gold content is about 65%. We When we go back, we have to melt these gold coins and refine them into pure gold. According to the current spot price of gold, it is about more than 80 million US dollars."
Deng Fei asked curiously: "What is the other 35%?"
"Silver, and lead and tin."
"Eighty million dollars can buy a lot of weapons, right?"
"Brother, if you buy it, you have to have someone who knows how to use it. If I bring a tank, who will use the cannon? You can't just let us charge forward all the time, right? We teach people how to fish, not go fishing by ourselves every day. "
When several people heard Zhao Xin's words, they thought about the same truth.
"And when the wasteland over Lao Chen is developed, the subsequent large-scale agricultural machinery and equipment will have to keep up."
At this point in the conversation, Zhao Xin smiled and asked Liu Sheng and others: "Have you ever driven a million-dollar luxury car?"
Everyone shook their heads in confusion.
"I haven't driven one either. But the two tractors ordered for Lao Chen this time are worth 1.7 million each."
Several people couldn't help but exclaimed after hearing this: "My dear! A tractor is so expensive!"
Zhao Xindao: "Lao Chen is an expert in agriculture, so it is natural that it is expensive. I have seen the real products with my own eyes, and domestic products are really incomparable."
The two tractors Chen Qingsong asked Zhao Xin to purchase are the famous "John Deer" 8R series wheeled tractors. Its engine horsepower ranges from 245 to 370, equipped with a 9.0-liter PowerTech engine, a 6-cylinder 9.0-liter 24-valve high-pressure common rail engine with a reserve torque of up to 44%.
However, what Zhao Xin values most about "JohnDeer" is not how many advanced technologies it uses, but that it has achieved the ultimate in user experience. The large number of one-click operations can greatly reduce the driver's learning costs. of reduction.
The manufacturer's slogan is to make the tractor as easy to operate as an automatic transmission car. Even the seats and steering wheel in the cab are wrapped in leather.
Several people talked about the crooked building and the tractor, and then they would think of oil.
Deng Fei said at this time: "Mr. Zhao, we have to refuel the ship. I took a look this morning and found that the heavy oil in the tank is only enough for us to run again."
Zhao Xin had told Deng Fei and others before that they should stop calling themselves "boss" all the time. We are all brothers who have fought together, so just call them by their first names. But Deng Fei and others all said "Mr. Zhao, Mr. Zhao" so easily that they couldn't change it for a while.
"How much heavy oil should I buy this time?"
"Fifty tons are definitely needed."
It is said that the main reason why large ocean-going ships use heavy oil is that it is cheap. If all diesel is used, the cost will be so high that even a rich man like Zhao Xin will not be able to afford it. Of course, the transmission performance of heavy oil-burning engines is poor, so the Thor has to use a diesel engine when entering port to facilitate frequent acceleration and deceleration.
The ice-free port in another time and space is the end of a famous oil pipeline, so the purchase of heavy oil is relatively convenient.
For modern large ships to refuel, they usually anchor at an anchorage, and then the oil supply ship berths, and then connects through oil pipelines or land tankers to inject fuel into the oil tanks of the sailing ship.
It is said that refueling a ship is not like refueling a car. You just fill it up and drive away. No one fills up the oil tank at once. They only add that much oil after calculating the oil loss during the transportation distance, and then add the oil for the return journey when they reach the destination.
Before each refueling, the original stored oil needs to be barged into the tank, and the added oil should be put into the empty tank to avoid incompatibility of fuels from different fuel companies. It also facilitates measurement and calculation and reduces the risk of oil spills.
Before refueling, all oil tanks need to be measured and the height, depth and temperature recorded. Taking into account the trim and heel, use the tank capacity table to calculate the fuel volume, and use the density and temperature tables to convert the fuel in this volume unit into the volume and weight at standard temperature.
Finally, check the fuel type and quantity to see if the viscosity, density and sulfur content meet the requirements.
Buying heavy oil is a big move that requires a lot of preparation in advance, and also requires the construction of a small oil storage depot in the North Sea.
Several people discussed it for a long time and finally decided to build an underground oil depot similar to a gas station to mainly store ship oil and diesel.
The advantages of underground tanks are strong concealment, high safety, small oil and gas loss, and the risk of fire and explosion can also be greatly reduced. Moreover, the oil depot is not easily discovered when placed underground, which can reduce the chance of damage caused by man-made and natural factors, and is conducive to fire prevention, explosion prevention, and earthquake prevention.
Before occupying the oil-producing area of Heilong Island in the north, Zhao Xin could only let him go back and forth. However, you can't buy oil too frequently. One purchase must meet at least half a year's usage; and you also need to establish local relationships in another time and space to accomplish this.
Zhao Xin thought about it while recording it in his notebook, and in the end he wrote seven or eight pages of purchasing content. Seeing that he had so many things to do, Zhao Xin felt like he was going crazy.
At this time Deng Fei said: "Mr. Zhao, are we going to Ezo Land this time?"
"Go. It's necessary. Except for Ezochi, we need to rest for a while when we go back this time. Lay the foundation and make economic and military preparations for our large-scale farmland reclamation next year and our march south to Shandong."
