Chapter 440: Is it a surprise to become a close neighbor of the Tang Dynasty?
pier.
Brother Su Wochi put on a pair of children's clothes specially made by a tailor and followed Guo Yuanzhen and An Zhongjing in a very dignified manner.
At first he was still walking step by step, but when he secretly glanced at the ship in the distance, he was stunned, his legs became weak, and he seemed to have seen a miracle.
Guo Yuanzhen and An Zhongjing were chatting when they suddenly noticed that there were no footsteps behind them. When they turned around, they could not help but see that Brother Su Wo was bowing to a yellow dragon boat in the distance.
An Zhongjing frowned: "Is this the Japanese people who have been following you recently? Are they doing sacrifices to the Japanese people?"
Guo Yuanzhen burst out laughing: "It's not a sacrifice, these people are so excited that they can't help themselves when they see my big ship from the Celestial Empire."
An Zhongjing was speechless: "What's so exciting about this? It's just a Huanglong ship. If it were replaced by a five-tooth ship like the previous dynasty, people would have to die?"
In "The Legend of Two Dragons of the Tang Dynasty", at the beginning, Yu Wenhuaji sailed to Yangzhou on the Five-Toothed Ship. The Five-Toothed Ship that he was riding on actually existed in history. Later, there was a restored model of it in the Ancient War Hall of the Beijing Military Museum.
The so-called Wuya means that the battleship has a five-story structure and is more than a hundred feet high. There are six shooting poles on the left and right, fifty feet high. When the Sui Dynasty destroyed Chen, the Sui army also used the Wuya warship to attack the enemy's formation, using both sides of the battleship.
He whipped the pole and sank more than ten enemy ships in a row. Chen Jun was frightened and demoralized when he saw the news.
After all, it is a warship with a total length of more than 50 meters and can accommodate 800 soldiers. It is indeed a behemoth on the sea in this era. However, with the national power of the Sui Dynasty, the number of five-tooth warships was also very small. It is estimated that only four of them were built.
Five ships, their deterrent effect exceeds their actual combat significance. The more practical one is the second-class Huanglong ship, which can carry more than a hundred people. There are also small boats with various functions such as flat rides and dinghys.
What was moored at the pier at the moment was the renovated three-story Huanglong boat. Seeing Brother Su Wa Chi running up to catch up after paying homage, Guo Yuanzhen said coldly: "These boats are all made in Dengzhou. In addition to transporting grain and grass,
It’s also to guard against your Japanese reinforcements to Silla.”
Brother Su Wochi was shocked and turned pale. He quickly knelt down and kowtowed. He was so frightened that he even spoke out his hometown dialect: "Red bean paste is private in Marseille! Please forgive Guo Shangchen. The Japanese slave country will never dare to use force against the Holy Dynasty! It will never dare!"
"
After this period of getting along, Guo Yuanzhen couldn't understand other Japanese words, so he heard this sentence the most. He waved his hand impatiently: "Get up and follow me, don't waste my time waiting!"
An Zhongjing was a little surprised when he saw Guo Yuanzhen on the side. Guo Yuanzhen has always been good at winning people. No matter how poor his background is, he can respect him, so he can be used by people from all walks of life. This is the first time he has seen him treat others so rudely.
Brother Su Wa Chi became more and more obedient, got up and started jogging.
Seeing hundreds of Huanglong boats lined up spectacularly, with no end in sight, Guo Yuanzhen said leisurely: "Huanglong boats are warships. They can only travel in familiar waters and are not suitable for long voyages. This time we are going to the Japanese country, let you
Let’s take a look at our Tang Dynasty’s ship that can travel far, the sea falcon ship built in Jiangnan.”
"Yes Yes!"
Brother Su Wochi responded repeatedly, his face turned pale when he thought of the statement that made him shake when he summoned him yesterday.
This man from the Tang Dynasty actually wanted to send his entourage to the Japanese country to carefully examine the situation of the country and then decide whether to include it as a vassal state of the Tang Dynasty.
It is said that sending envoys to other countries was originally the responsibility of the internal defense. His immediate boss also served as an envoy to another great country, Tibet, and brought prosperous changes there.
To be fair, brother Su Gachi was very reluctant, but he didn't dare to refuse, so he could only follow him early in the morning to check on the ships traveling to Japan. The more he looked at it, the more frightened he became.
If such a fleet really goes to Japan, who can stop it? The king who just killed his nephew just a few years ago may be forced to death again...
The key is that according to what the other party said, these ships are not the best in the Tang Dynasty at all, and the ships built in Jiangnan are even more powerful.
Regarding this point, Guo Yuanzhen did not brag.
The Huanglong boats seen so far were all made in Dengzhou, which was later known as Penglai County, Yantai, Shandong Province. The boats were built from there, and you could get on the boats and head east to the Liaodong Peninsula. This was for convenience and speed.
The most technological shipbuilding center in the Tang Dynasty was still in Jiangnan.
For example, Yangzhou, located at the mouth of the Yangtze River, has developed water transportation and is a famous shipbuilding town. Before Li Shimin conquered Korea, he ordered craftsmen from twelve states in the south of the Yangtze River to build hundreds of large ships in Yangzhou.
Not only along the coast, there are also many inland. For example, today's Jizhou in Jiangnan Province and later Ji'an in Jiangxi once set a record of annual production of more than 1,300 ships, followed by Mingzhou and Wenzhou, which also produced more than 600 ships of various types annually.
shipbuilding center.
Compared with the general level of this era, the Tang Dynasty's shipbuilding industry was particularly developed due to the war dividends of the Northern and Southern Dynasties. According to "Yuanjian Lei Han", a national boat and ship expo was held in Guanzhong during the Tang Dynasty
, "Each boat was stationed in its own county, and the produce was laid out on top of it." "They all joined each other tail to tail, and they continued for dozens of miles. The people in Guanzhong didn't know how to connect the raft and the oar, and the onlookers were astonished."
The people in Guanzhong were all horrified, let alone the small neighboring countries. Brother Su Wochi followed him tremblingly, and soon came to the other side of the dock. The internal guards had already begun to transport goods to a large ship.
Guo Yuanzhen stopped and admired this strange-looking ship: "This is the Sea Falcon ship built in Jiangnan. The most eye-catching feature is that the floating plates on the left and right sides are like the wings of a falcon to help the ship with the wind. When the time comes, even if
When encountering rough waves and strong winds, it can also reduce roll."
This kind of sea falcon ship is indeed the highest technology of this era. The design similar to the side wave breakers can effectively improve the ship's swing resistance against wind and waves. However, Guo Yuanzhen is also an amateur. In fact, compared to foreign ships, the most advantageous thing here is not
Sea Falcon, but the watertight compartment technology below.
There are nine watertight compartments under the Sea Falcon ship. This technology, which began to appear in the Southern Dynasties, has now been completely applied to the hull. The principle is actually very simple. It consists of the bottom, the ribs on both sides and the beam ring below the deck.
When the ship encounters a collision and part of the cabin is damaged and flooded, other watertight compartments that have not been affected can continue to provide buoyancy for the ship and reduce the risk of the ship sinking immediately.
It is no exaggeration to say that the safety structure technology of watertight cabins was ancient China's great contribution to human shipbuilding civilization. Together with the compass, it opened up a new era of world ocean navigation, and then it was all learned away.
Li Yan was not completely sure about this. After asking the craftsmen and learning that this structure had indeed been used in practice, he agreed to let the inner guard take a compass and take a sea falcon ship with a watertight cabin to go to Japan.
In fact, it is very close to Japan from Silla. If everything goes well, it can be reached by water in one day.
Li Yan's preparations like this were mainly to reduce the risk of shipwreck as much as possible. After all, the inner guards were going to go, and if the Japanese were to return home, just sending a random ship would be enough.
At this time, Guo Yuanzhen warned his confidants and said to Brother Soga who turned pale: "After you return to Japan, you should do business first and lead them to find the Park family who immigrated to Silla, especially a relative of Park Jung-eun.
, bring them all back, let the locals contact them first, lower their vigilance, and then arrest them, do you understand?"
Although he saw that the Emperor of Japan was scheduled to catch the prisoner, Brother Soga still nodded repeatedly: "Yes! Yes!"
Guo Yuanzhen said with a smile: "Don't be nervous. Anyway, we and you will be close neighbors from now on. If this trip goes well, and when the waterway mentioned by Liu Lang is finalized, I will visit your Japanese country soon."
Brother Su Wochi's blood pressure soared when he heard that, and he didn't have time to reply. Guo Yuanzhen's eyes suddenly turned cold: "What? We are not welcome to go to the Japanese country in the Sea Falcon boat? What about our Tang Dynasty Heavenly Army going in the Huanglong boat?"
"
Brother Su Wochi reacted conditionedly and kowtowed to the ground: "Red bean paste private Marseille! Please forgive me, Guo Shangchen! Forgive me!"
Guo Yuanzhen snorted and waved his hand: "Go!"
Seeing Brother Su Wo kowtow respectfully on the ground, trot all the way to the deck, and nod and bow to the inner guards who boarded the ship, An Zhongjing understood: "The barbarians are afraid of power but not moral. If you don't give him a good look, he will
On the contrary, he is very honest.”
Guo Yuanzhen curled his lips: "In fact, everyone is more or less afraid of power and unethical, but according to my observation, the wild people of this island country are particularly serious, and you cannot be polite to these Japanese slaves!"
Having said this, he smiled and said: "But if the Japanese island is really rich in gold and silver, it will be great news. I hope Neiwei will have smooth sailing!"
The two returned from the pier, arrived at the Governor's Mansion, and walked straight to the house where Li Yan was.
In the past few days, Li Yan has been commuting to and from get off work on time again. This is not surprising. What is strange is that this person did not go to the martial arts training ground to practice.
At this time, the two of them walked in and saw Li Yan sitting on the table, chewing ginseng slowly.
There was no Korean ginseng in this era. It was not until the Wang Dynasty's Korean era that ginseng began to be widely cultivated. After it was introduced to the Central Plains, it was highly praised by the emperor, and its reputation skyrocketed.
However, the climate, soil, and temperature of the Liaodong Peninsula are indeed very suitable for growing ginseng. The royal family also has a lot of natural wild ginseng stored in it. At this time, it was offered to Li Yan and was chewed by Li Yan.
Guo Yuanzhen and An Zhongjing looked strange.
When they practiced martial arts, they also applied ointments to promote blood circulation and vitality, or used nourishing food to replenish qi and blood...
But when has this person ever needed those bells and whistles?
When I was killing Zhou Zhou Liucheng before, I had that unrivaled style when I was riding a thousand horses. Now, when I take ginseng to nourish me, the contrast is so huge!
An Zhongjing looked at Li Yan's face and saw that he was weak. He suddenly showed concern and asked softly: "Liu Lang, are you okay?"
Li Yan was immersed in the carving of basic internal skills. After waiting for a while, he came back to his senses and nodded: "It's okay."
In just three words, the light in his eyes skyrocketed, his energy and blood surged, his physique recovered, and a feeling of oppression that was as solid as substance erupted.
Both of them were breathing heavily, but instead of being surprised, they were happy and relieved.
He doesn't look like a human being at all, this is the familiar Rokuro!
Li Yan summed up what he had just realized and smiled slightly: "You are here just in time. I have summarized my experience these days and improved the basic internal skills. I have finally achieved some success. You can also practice this article on refining qi.