It turned out that after Emperor Chongzhen opened the drawings, he could only understand one drawing of a complete ship shape, and could not understand the other drawings.
He raised his head, looked at Song Yingxing and said, "Is this drawing correct?"
Song Yingxing quickly replied: "I heard from the people who presented this drawing that his ancestor was the head shipwright of Nanjing Longjiang Shipyard. Because he could not bear the destruction of the drawing, he secretly hid a copy. During the Jiajing period, due to the rebellion caused by Japanese pirates,
He moved to Daming Mansion to live. This time he saw that the imperial court was determined to build a navy, so he dedicated it."
When Song Yingxing was talking, the drawings had already arrived in Zhong Jinwei's hands. He looked at them carefully and found that he couldn't understand them either. He couldn't help but said: "I didn't expect these drawings to be so difficult to understand!"
When Song Yingxing heard this, he explained with a smile: "Each craftsman has different habits, so most of the contents of this drawing are probably understood only by the person who presented it."
After hearing this, Zhong Jinwei frowned and told Song Yingxing: "From now on, all units of measurement in each research institute, including the design of this drawing and other contents, must be standardized. In other words, they must be unified. Only he can see the things of this craftsman.
Got it, got it?"
After hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen knew that Zhong Jinwei was popularizing the concept of standard parts again, so he affirmed: "This matter must be focused on and cannot be ignored."
"Yes, Your Majesty." Song Yingxing agreed.
Zhong Jinwei still had questions, so he confirmed to Song Yingxing: "Uncle Wei, does this big ship with six thousand materials really exist?"
"It exists in the legend. I checked "Longjiang Shipyard Chronicles" and "Southern Ship Chronicles", and there is data about treasure ships in them. There are indeed six thousand materials." Song Yingxing seems to have done his homework.
He immediately answered with reason.
If Zhong Jinwei had read the "Zheng He Research Correspondence" in later generations, he would know clearly that later generations also calculated based on the two books mentioned by Song Yingxing, plus the 11-meter rudder stock unearthed from the archaeological site of the Nanjing Longjiang Shipyard, based on the Japanese
A reasonable estimate of the proportions of unearthed Chinese ships from the Ming Dynasty can lead to the conclusion of six thousand materials.
To convert this into later units, the ship's length is approximately 70 meters, its displacement is approximately 2,000 tons, and its load capacity is approximately 1,000 tons.
The largest sailing ship in Europe is the "Sea King", which was built in 1637 with a displacement of only 1,500 tons. After Zhong Jinwei later learned about this, he couldn't help but sigh that the wisdom of our ancestors has allowed future generations to
Be proud of yourself and be ashamed of yourself!
But now, more than two hundred years have passed since the glorious maritime era of the Ming Dynasty, and many things have been lost in history. Emperor Chongzhen, like Zhong Jinwei, had doubts about whether such a huge fortune ship could be built.
Therefore, Emperor Chongzhen summoned the person who presented the drawings, Hu Hengxin, and after praising him, he asked him to take the lead in building a treasure ship with a bow of 6,000 materials. If he could succeed, then the reward would be a big deal.
Zhong Jinwei came out of the Forbidden City and saw that it was still early, so he turned to the military battle station.
As soon as he saw Fan Jun, the eunuch in charge of the Military War Bureau, Zhong Jinwei immediately asked: "Eunuch Fan, the flintlock must be delivered on time, otherwise it will affect the war against the captives."
Fan Jun smiled after hearing this, and while leading Zhong Jinwei inside, he replied: "Don't worry, Lord Marquis, the emperor has already issued an imperial edict, ordering our family to complete it on time with quality and quantity. Our family has mobilized many blacksmiths, guns and cannons from all over the Ming Dynasty.
The craftsman came over. The size of the workshop that makes flintlock guns now has more than tripled compared to before."
Zhong Jinwei nodded repeatedly and said, "Yes, Eunuch Fan is interested."
To be honest, flintlock muskets are still made of wrought iron by blacksmiths according to the previous craftsmanship. This time they ordered 10,000 more flintlock muskets than originally planned. Zhong Jinwei was really worried that the war bureau would not be able to deliver the goods, or that he would not be able to deliver them.
Goods, but quality is not up to par.
Now when I hear Fan Jun say that the scale of manufacturing flintlock guns has more than tripled, I feel relieved.
Accompanied by Fan Jun, he visited the flintlock workshop. Seeing countless craftsmen working hard to build flintlock guns, he felt truly relieved.
After the visit, the two of them sat down to drink tea in the living room of the Bingzhan Bureau.
"Eunuch Fan, in the future, all armies of the Ming Dynasty will be equipped with firearms, and the demand for these flintlock guns will be huge. You have to find ways to improve the production process of this flintlock gun." Zhong Jinwei reminded Fan Jundao.
Fan Jun had already expected this. When Zhong Jinwei said this, he still made a sad face and asked with a glimmer of hope: "Zhongxing Hou, what do you think, please give us some advice!"
Zhong Jinwei said this just because he had some ideas. Now when Fan Junxiang asked, he reminded him: "I don't have the specifics. I just want to remind my father-in-law that some manpower can be replaced by water power. You can visit the cement factory.
And the glass factory, where water power is used."
He paused for a moment, then continued: "Also, you can ask Mr. Xu Guangqi, Minister of the Ministry of Industry, who has some experience in using hydraulic power. Then there is the director of the institute, Weibo Song Yingxing, who has also seen many applications of hydraulic power.
, if you all add up, you might gain something."
In order to put more pressure on Fan Jun, Zhong Jinwei said again: "You don't have to worry about too many flintlock guns. If the Ming Dynasty uses up all of them, you can sell them to neighboring countries. The profit is very high. You don't have to doubt that the imperial court has decided to sell arms."
, if you increase the speed of making guns as soon as possible, you can make money for the emperor as soon as possible."
Fan Jun suddenly felt a lot of pressure and made up his mind to improve the production process of flintlock guns.
"Every time I talk to Mr. Hou, I will gain something. Mr. Hou's knowledge is really beyond praise!" Fan Jun raised his thumb and flattered him.
After Zhong Jinwei heard this, a strange smile suddenly appeared on his face, which made Fan Jun feel a thump in his heart and secretly said something bad.
Sure enough, Marquis Zhongxing made a request: "When Eunuch Fan has time, he can also study a flintlock gun with ammunition in the breech and see if it can be produced."
Fan Jun was speechless after hearing this. After a while, he said: "Master Hou, how is this possible?"
"What's impossible about this? I tell you, this must be possible, and the future trend will also be in this direction. If you can build this kind of breech-loaded flintlock gun, you will be a big contributor!" Zhong Jinwei
While talking, he imitated Fan Jun's behavior just now and gave him a thumbs up.
If we really want to talk about credit, Fan Jun actually has a lot. But people's hearts are always insufficient, and no amount of credit will be too much. He has never been promoted, and he has found reasons to occupy the position of eunuch in charge of the military battle bureau for a long time.
Position, just because this position is easy to make meritorious deeds, he can continue to make meritorious deeds.
After dealing with Zhong Jinwei for so long, he also knew that Zhongxing Hou would never lie to him. Therefore, after Fan Jun hesitated for a while, he agreed and prepared to allocate some of the most experienced gunsmiths to study the proposal proposed by Zhongxing Hou.