On July 24, 1791, a three-masted sailboat with graceful lines and full of white sails sailed quickly across the sea south of Beihai Town. The sharp, upturned and forward-extending bow was reflected on the calm sea. , like an open pair of scissors, made the workers busy on the dock gasp in admiration for a while.
"This boat is really beautiful."
"Yeah, I heard he's new to the water."
"...Sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty!" A dock worker practiced counting twice in a row, and then said in surprise: What a guy! Eight-sided sail, why are there so many sails on it? All I saw on the Rongcheng Sea before were black hard sails. "
"You don't even understand this? My second elementary school heard it from my husband in school, and he told me again when I got home. There are so many sails, but the important thing is to have a strong wind and fast speed..."
This newly launched sailboat is named "Feiyun". It is the third flying shear sailboat imitated by the Beihai Town Shipyard based on drawings and scale models obtained by Zhao Xin from another time and space.
The ship has a total length of 48.46 meters, a hull length of 46.97 meters, a width of 9.69 meters, a depth of 9.69 meters, a draft of 6.13 meters, and a load capacity of 860 tons. From the hull to the bow mast and the three main masts, they are all made of steel, and even the rigging is made of steel wire ropes.
The ship is equipped with a total of two small diesel generators to drive three electric sail winches, a windlass, hydraulic steering gear, and water pumps. With the assistance of the electric power system, driving and maneuvering have become relatively easier. Compared with the more than 200 crew members of the sailing ship with the same load, the "Feiyun" only has a total of 35 crew members.
Ever since Zhao Xin had the idea of sending immigrants to the other side of the ocean, the shipyard in Beihai Town has been imitating clipper ships. The first one is a 500-ton wooden clipper ship, purely for workers to practice their skills, and later used as a training ship for navigation schools; the second one is the same size as the first one, but uses steel and welding technology, but because The workers were not good at mast welding and keel welding, and the hull was stopped halfway through.
Generally speaking, someone who is one step ahead in technology is a genius, and two steps ahead is often a madman. The use of advanced technology must be supported by industrial workers with corresponding abilities.
The main reason why welding technology is used to build ships is that Beihai Town is very short of wood for manufacturing sea-going ships.
Whether it is teak or iron wood, Zhao Xin needs to buy it from another time and space, or he has to send a ship to Macau to purchase it. Moreover, Beihai Town already has four sailboats captured from Tsarist Russia, and there are also more than a dozen large ships purchased from Siam. Most of the wood must be used for these ships.
Another reason is that ships built with steel not only cost far less than wood, but are also lighter and can carry more goods and people.
Although Zhang Bo has taught his welding skills without reservation, the best welders in Beihai Town are currently in the shipyard, and these people have no problem welding boilers or anything like that.
However, boiler welding and ship welding are not the same thing at all. Ship welding is a highly technical and professional project. The construction cost can be ignored. There must be no problems with the structural strength and function of the material.
Zhang Bo's welding skills may be fine for small projects, but not for large projects. It is important to know that whether it is slag inclusions or pores during the welding process, or undercuts or cracks, it will cause changes in the hull structure, thereby affecting the strength of the ship.
For example, the total number of pores cannot exceed 5% of the working interface. Otherwise, it will affect the tensile strength of the weld and reduce the mechanical properties of the metal. Furthermore, those parts that are not fully welded or fused cause greater damage to the strength, which is more serious than pores and slag inclusions, and are very likely to cause brittle fractures in the welded parts.
There will definitely be no chance of pointing this matter at Zhang Bo, and he has been busy with the oil extraction and refining business in Beihai Town in recent years. As a result, the Portuguese-Chinese mixed-race engineer who was responsible for supervising the entire shipbuilding project decided to take a step back to avoid "stirring things up" again. After consulting Zhao Xin and gaining approval, the keel and hull were still made of oak, while non-tight connections in the mast, strakes, deck side plates, and superstructure were all riveted and welded.
In this way, after more than a year of repeated exploration, it was not until mid-July this year that the "Feiyun" was finally launched into the water. The ship has now undergone a five-day sea trial, and will make two trips to Jeju Island and Southern Kyushu before the end of the year to find out the defects and shortcomings in the construction and make improvements.
Zhao Xin is actually not very anxious about sending immigrants to the other side of the ocean. Although the "Westward Movement" has begun, it is still wandering east of the Mississippi River, let alone the Rocky Mountains. So whether it is Sacramento or Colorado, they are still far from the doorstep of Americans.
Zhao Xin has a plan in mind, but he hasn't told anyone else about it yet. He planned to cut off the beard at that time, so that Jefferson's plan to purchase Louisiana would fail. At present, the ruler of the Louisiana region has become Spain, but in a few years, when Napoleon comes to power, with the signing of the "Secret Treaty of San Ildefonso", the Louisiana region will return to the hands of the French.
After that, you just have to take the time to find the rhythm, build relationships with the French, and get ahead of the Americans step by step. In this era, "" was only a silver coin, and gold was a precious metal. When Hamilton comes up with the "Coinage Act" next year, the silver content of each "" will be 24.0566 grams, which is comparable to the Spanish double-column silver coin.
The silver content of one Beihai dollar is 6.9005 grams, so the ratio of one U.S. dollar to Beihai silver dollar is 3.4862:1.
Does Yin Zi still call Zhao Xin a problem? You must know that in the treasury in Beihai Town, there are five caves containing silver bars. Each cave is the size of two basketball courts, and they are almost full.
"follow me."
On the beach, Zhao Xin crossed his arms and looked at the "Feiyun" in the distance. He took his thoughts back from thousands of miles away, and then said something to Wang Zhenyi beside him without thinking.
More than ten seconds passed, but Wang Zhenyi did not respond. Her eyes turned from the sea to the sky, so Zhao Xin repeated it again. This time, Wang Zhenyi spoke.
"Where to go?"
"Siberia, Red Rock City on the Qian River, let me tell you, the rocks on the river bank there are all red, and it is beautiful at dusk. If you have nothing to do, take a boat, look at the scenery, and catch a fish, no, It would be great to catch a fish or something.”
"What about my family?" Wang Zhenyi bit her lower lip. In order to avoid being implicated, her family moved to Beihai Town from Jiangning Mansion at the end of the year before last.
Zhao Xin turned around and said with a smile: "Why don't you let them follow? Then build a hospital and let your father be the director."
Wang Zhenyi gritted her teeth and said, "Do you think my father is not busy enough now, and you plan to tire him out?" As soon as she finished speaking, she sighed softly, and said quietly: "You have no name or status, how can I follow you? Did they speak?"
"Well......"
Zhao Xin didn't dare to answer the call. Forget it, don’t go if you don’t want to go. At worst, I’ll come back a few more times. So when he and Wang Zhenyi parted ways and returned home from the beach, when he saw A Miao walking out, he casually said: "A Miao, will you follow me in two days?"
"Really?!" A Miao immediately stood still and stared blankly at Zhao Xin with her big eyes, which meant "Did I hear you correctly?"
"It's more real than real gold. We're going by boat this time. It's a long journey. I'm afraid we won't be able to get there in a month or two. Do you want to go?"
"Of course I want to go!" A Miao almost jumped up with joy, her eyes full of joy. She then asked: "Do you want to bring Duofu with you?"
"You can take her with you if you want." Zhao Xin laughed, thinking that the day of beautiful girls and cats as companions was coming again.
In fact, the reason why he wanted to take the boat was to take this opportunity to visit various places along the way. First, he wanted to know how the people from the pass lived, and second, he wanted to see the current situation of the border residents in the Ussuri River and Heilongjiang. living situation.
Now Beihai Town's territory is getting bigger and bigger, and more and more officials are being appointed and promoted. The time-traveling people are currently high up, each in charge of a large stall. Even Chen Qingsong rarely has time to go down there now. He is entangled in a large number of documents every day.
Are the people dissatisfied with the officials who were photographed? Are you satisfied with Beihai Trading Company? How much impact will the arrival of a large number of immigrants from the border have on the living environment of border residents? What conflicts exist between the two sides?
Zhao Xin planned to take this opportunity to see with his own eyes and listen with his own ears.
In the early morning of July 27, Zhao Xin and the blessed A Miao boarded the carriage under the watch of Shen Xuan and his son, Wu Siyu, Zhao Liang, Yu Deli, Li Ji, Zhinai and Wan Zao's wife. This time, in addition to twenty guards in disguise, Wang Zhong was also among them.
Wang Zhong has been coming to Beihai Town for several years. He has been to Boli Town to attend the train opening ceremony and has always wanted to find an opportunity to visit the upper reaches of Heilongjiang. As soon as he left, fifty-six-year-old Duan Yucai temporarily took over as the vice principal of the primary school; at the same time, Lao You's position as principal was also taken over by a teacher Li who taught physics.
After several black carriages left the city, they just picked up speed. The first carriage suddenly came to an emergency stop, and Zhao Xin, who was sitting in the second carriage and was talking to Wang Zhong, also stopped. He was about to ask what was going on when he saw Wukanbei, who was the security guard, coming over and saluted: "Sir, something has happened. It seems that someone is waiting for you on the roadside."
"Who?"
"You'd better see it for yourself."
Zhao Xin got off the carriage suspiciously and saw a woman standing seven or eight steps away. She was wearing a bamboo hat covered with gauze and a moon-white plum blossom dark pattern vertical collar and slanted lapel top, with some edges of her lower body exposed. A light green pleated skirt, covered with an azurite double-breasted and collared cloak. The first two sentences of a poem written by someone immediately came to his mind: a sudden attack of faint fragrance, a cold and charming pavilion.
However, what obviously did not match this outfit was that beside the woman, there were two large cowhide boxes half as tall as a person, which looked bulky and heavy.
"You're here." After saying this nonsense, Zhao Xin asked another nonsense: "Did your father and your mother agree?"
The lice on the bald man's head - it's obvious. If you really disagree, Wang Zhenyi can't move those two big boxes alone.
Wang Zhen spat softly and looked at Zhao Xinda through the veil: "That's not true! I made an appointment with Mr. Rong Fu to go see the beautiful scenery of the North together. It's just a matter of hitchhiking along the way."
At this moment, Wang Zhong's hearty laughter was heard behind him, and he immediately said: "Your Highness, it is indeed true. Brother Xichen came to the door in person to mention this matter to Wang the day before yesterday, and asked me to take care of Deqing along the way."
Hehe, Zhao Xinxin said I believe you, you are a ghost! But the bad old man is not bad at all, he is very helpful.
