Outside Shuixi Gate, on the banks of the Qinhuai River, the spring breeze blew in the face, and the grass stretched to the sky. A group of generals from the Beijing army, led by the Duke of Guo, came down to practice for Liu Ziguang. Before leaving, Liu Ziguang had a few more drinks with them, and everyone was drunk.
After we met, Peng Jinrong was not idle either. She scattered a lot of gifts. A small group of ladies and ladies from high-ranking families in Beijing also came to say goodbye. There were a bunch of men and a bunch of women. The men set up a full table.
They took turns to toast to their little brother General Liu. The women held the hands of the Peng sisters and looked at each other with tears in their eyes. "Sister (sister) should come to the capital to see me often."
After seeing you off for thousands of miles, there is always a farewell. After the whistle of the paddle steamer blew three times, the farewell finally ended in an atmosphere of reluctance. Liu Ziguang and the two ladies boarded the ship with large and small bags of gifts from friends in Beijing.
.
The Queen Mother has been furious recently. A number of officials in the capital have been dismissed and investigated. The common people are also very unlucky. They must undergo strict inspections when entering and exiting the city gates. There are so many people and carriages entering and leaving the capital every day that it is impossible to check them. The people are boiling and complaining.
When Liu Ziguang and the others left the city, they were sent out by the Duke of Guo and a group of generals. The officers and soldiers guarding the gate and the Jin Yiwei who were responsible for the search did not dare to interrogate them. This was how the ancient paintings were taken out.
The paddle steamer takes the Qinhuai River and enters the Yangtze River, and goes down the river. It passes thousands of sails along the way, and returns home like an arrow.
The waterway from Nanjing to Yangzhou is very busy. There are as many cargo ships, passenger ships, and fishing boats on the Yangtze River as there are schools of fish in the river. Liu Ziguang always feels that there is an eye staring at him from the many ships behind him, but after careful observation, he doesn't see it.
If you find a suspicious object, is it because you are nervous?
At noon, the boat stopped at a small pier by the river. Everyone was eating in the cabin. Suddenly, they heard a loud noise from outside. When they came out, they saw that a fishing boat next to them was broken in the middle, and the white stubble was broken.
It shows that the ship hit something hard. There are no reefs in this section of the waterway, and people on the water know the waterway very well. How could they break the ship?
The fishermen who fell into the water were as frightened as if they had seen a ghost, and swam desperately to the shore. As they swam, they made a miserable cry, "The water monster has appeared~~~ Run away." The surrounding boats that were busy hurriedly pulled their anchors.
They raised their sails and fled in a hurry. After a while, all the ships escaped completely, leaving only the ironworks paddle steamer parked at the dock. The ships passing by on the distant waterway did not know what was happening here, and they remained
Drive as usual.
The captain was also confused. After a few days in Nanjing, there was a water monster here. It was really new. The people on the dock also dispersed in a hurry. Finally, he found an old man who had difficulty running away and asked about it. The old man said
, the river has not been peaceful recently, and a black dragon has come from the bottom of the water, often capsizing the river. Last time, several fishing boats owned by Ma Liuye in the capital were sunk and injured. Moreover, this black dragon has never seen its head or tail, and no one has seen his face clearly.
Liu Ziguang took out his telescope and looked at the water surface where the accident occurred. There seemed to be a black shadow standing still below. Could it be a prehistoric creature like the "Loch Ness Monster"? He suddenly became interested and asked the captain to prepare a water support and put down the small
Boat, I want to see the face of this water monster for myself.
Soon everything was ready. Liu Ziguang put on a tight-fitting sharkskin water bag, brought a sharp knife, and dived into the water alone. After a closer look, he first denied the black dragon and the water monster. It was definitely not a living organism.
It's a man-made boat.
A black submarine sank at the bottom of the river. It looks like a cartoon dragon. There is a dragon head and fangs vividly painted on the front, and dragon scales are painted on the body. This dragon is obviously fatter and its body is close to a cylinder. The boat
A large hole was torn open in the iron skin of the boat, and there was a half-man-high control tower on the back. There were air inlets and periscopes on the tower. The hull of the boat was made of riveted metal plates and was coated with a layer of waterproofing.
The paint. There is a propeller on the butt of the dragon at the back. It is made of pure copper. The workmanship and shape are more exquisite and scientific than the one made by Zhu Youxiao. The propeller is tightly entangled in the fishing net. It seems that it suddenly encountered a fishing boat just now. It shows that it is entangled.
The fishing net then lost control and hit the fishing boat. The submarine's water storage tank was damaged and its power was lost. It is now sitting at the bottom of the river.
When did the navy of the Ming Dynasty equip themselves with such advanced gadgets? No, the little emperor didn't even know about propellers. How could there be a submarine? It seems there is only one answer, and that is from the Song Dynasty!
No matter whose ship it is, it always needs to be rescued when it encounters a shipwreck. Liu Ziguang pulled out a sharp knife and cut off the fishing net. He turned around and was about to leave when he was shocked to find a man in a black rubber diving suit pointing a strange-looking gun at him.
, the man wore a glass mask on his face and a tube in his mouth. The tube was connected to the airbag on his back, and a string of bubbles came out of his nostrils from time to time. I don’t know what the gun in his hand was powered by. It felt like
Like a shooting harpoon.
Unable to speak underwater, Liu Ziguang pointed to the short knife in his hand, and then to the cut fishing net. The diver understood, put away the harpoon gun, and floated upwards. Liu Ziguang also surfaced after holding in his breath for a long time.
As soon as the two men showed their heads on the river, the man lifted his mask, revealing a pale and handsome face. He clasped his hands and saluted: "Is that General Liu? This is Lieutenant Colonel Zhao Jing of the Song Dynasty Navy."
First they climbed onto the boat, then climbed the ladder onto the paddle steamer. The two took off their wet wet suits on the deck. The man's black rubber wet suit was obviously lighter and softer than Liu Ziguang's fish skin. The ducks on his feet
The palm-shaped flippers were also very strange. The sailors were very curious and gathered around to watch the fun.
Liu Ziguang hurriedly drove the sailors away and invited Zhao Jing into the cabin. Zhao Jing was wearing a navy navy suit and golden dragon epaulettes under his diving suit, but he still wore traditional Chinese clothes. The hem of his clothes was embroidered with sea water and river cliffs.
pattern.
"Major Zhao, right? You are pretending to be a dragon king in the river in broad daylight. Has it sunk to the bottom? Tell me, what is the purpose of following me?" Liu Ziguang finally understood why he felt that there were eyes watching behind him. It turned out to be the periscope of the submarine.
"Didn't you just want to go up to the surface to pay tribute to the general? Unexpectedly, the fishing boat suddenly came over and you couldn't dodge. I'm ashamed. The handling performance of the Hunjianglong still needs to be improved." Zhao Jing was a little embarrassed, but a fishing boat let him
The submarine has crashed. It’s a bit embarrassing to spread the news. “There is also an envoy from my country in the boat, as well as a crew. I would like to ask General Liu to come and rescue us!”
"How to rescue? Why did you get out? Why don't they just get out?" Liu Ziguang asked curiously. It turns out that the mission was here to talk to me about buying paintings. They even used a submarine. It seems that a lot of effort was put into it.
"This...I came out here to check the damage. There is a hole in the water storage tank. It cannot discharge the ballast water and floats on its own. The propeller is entangled in the fishing net, causing the motor to burn out. The entire boat is now like a dead fish. Envoy
Your Excellency must have been furious, for letting him come up from the bottom of the river in embarrassment, he must have held a grudge, and my life in the navy would have been difficult. Also, the captain abandoning the ship would be a dead end in the Song Dynasty Navy..."
Major Zhao said with a sad face.
"Well, how can I help you?" If we don't get these people out of the water, the transaction can't proceed normally. So I must help you.
So and so... Zhao Jing was a technical officer after all, so he immediately came up with a plan.
According to Zhao Jing's plan, Liu Ziguang asked the captain to place the paddle steamer across the waterway and stopped two grain ships. This is a standard flat tank boat with a bottom of seven feet and two feet long and a width of one foot, one foot and five inches.
It contains three thousand shi of grain and is now being loaded with goods to be transported to the north. The fully loaded ship's side is close to the water.
The cable is made of finely chopped green bamboo. The bamboo slices are boiled in a pot and then twisted. It can withstand tens of thousands of pounds of force. Several divers climbed out of the submarine and tied the cable to a special hook on the hull.
on the boat, and the other end was firmly tied to the mast of the ship, and the rope was very tight.
The principle of this plan is to use the buoyancy of the ship to pull the submarine up. The conventional method of salvaging a sunken ship is to first find a few ships full of ballast (preferably stones), fix the sunken ship, then throw away the ballast, and use buoyancy to pull the submarine up.
The sunken ship was pulled up.
Time is tight and there is no way to find any ballast. If you wait a little longer, someone may be suffocated. The only way to save time is to throw away the grain in the tanker as ballast. Liu Ziguang glanced over and followed the guards.
The knife was unsheathed, threatening the boatmen and throwing bags of food into the river. The hull gradually floated, and the taut cable slowly pulled the submarine up from the bottom. However, the floating distance was limited, and the submarine could not be completely lifted.
Pulled out of the water. The submarine also threw heavy objects out through the watertight door to reduce its own weight. But it was still hanging in the river and could not come up.
At the critical moment, Addison came up with a plan. He found a long cable, one end of which was connected to the steam-driven axle of the paddle steamer, the other end was connected to the cable of the tank boat pulling the submarine, and a few labor-saving pulleys were added in the middle.
There are a lot of such parts in my possessions, and they come in handy now.
The paddle steamer drove forward at full speed, with thick black smoke coming out of the chimney. The sailor threw away his big shovel and shoveled charcoal to burn the stove. The ship moved forward with difficulty. The cable moved through the power of several pulleys, gradually pulling the submarine from the river.
After pulling it out, the huge dragon head rushed out of the water, which startled the sailors. After a closer look, they realized that it was a strange dragon boat.
The first person to come out of the command tower was the deputy history officer of the envoy to the Song Dynasty, who had a delicate appearance and looked like a woman. This person was dressed in plain white and had a handsome appearance. He looked at Liu Ziguang from a distance and saluted: "General, you are here well."
No, Wen Juan is being polite."
Liu Ziguang's eyes were as big as eggs. Is this person a boy or a girl? He wears both men's and women's clothes. Not only does he look so delicate, but his name is also a bit feminine.
The submarine drained the water in the water storage tank. The motor was broken and had to be towed behind the paddle steamer. In order to cover it up, it was covered with a layer of fishing nets and some water plants were planted on it. The two complaining tank boat owners got Liu Ziguang's
After being given enough money to buy more food, I left happily.
The captain's cabin of the paddle steamer temporarily served as a negotiation venue. A guard from the death battalion and a navy soldier from the Song Dynasty stood guard at the door. In the room, Liu Ziguang and Peng Jingrong were on one side, and Wen Juan and Zhao Jing were sitting on the other side of the table.
negotiated.
"I am Shi Wenjun, the deputy director of the Honglu Temple Shaoqing Envoy to the Ming Dynasty, who is on duty in front of the Lieutenant Colonel Hall of the Royal Forest Army, a hereditary loyal prince of the Song Dynasty. I have been ordered by the emperor to come to collect the relics of the late emperor."
"I am the Prince of the Taiping Group of the Song Dynasty, Lieutenant Commander of the Hunjianglong, Zhao Jing." This man's name is not as long as Wen Jun's, and he is also less impressive in terms of momentum. It seems that the Prince of the Group does not live as well as Zhongguo Gong.
ah.
Liu Ziguang was confused and did not understand the meaning of this long list of names. Peng Jingrong explained in a low voice: "The beautiful pretty boy has a great background. He is a hereditary duke in the Song Dynasty and a councilor in the House of Lords. He is among the emperor's troops.
He also has an official title, and is also the number two person in the department in charge of foreign affairs. He is both civil and military. You can understand that the not-so-pretty pretty boy is the prince of the group. Don’t confuse the relationship between the two of them as superiors and subordinates. "
Liu Ziguang nodded, put his posture into full gear and said:
"I am...Liu Ziguang, the painting is on my hand." His titles as deputy general of the iron factory and chief accountant were not available, and his title of general who protected the country and fought against rebellion had not yet been fulfilled, so he had to skip the lengthy introduction.
, let’s just say his name, since his details are all public anyway. He also added a nonsense sentence “The painting is in my hand”, just like the kidnapper’s line “The hostage is in my hand”.
Wen Juan smiled, with two wine dimples showing on his fair cheeks, "I know this. I have identified those two pages. They are the autographs of Emperor Wen, Rende, Xianci and Xianfilial Piety.
Please make an offer, and I, on behalf of the imperial court, will immediately respond to your request."
"Then I'll say it," Liu Ziguang took out a small piece of paper, which he had prepared a long time ago. He glanced at Wen Juan sinisterly and asked him to speak loudly.