Eighteen drummers beat the drums, and amid the rumbling drums, the chief shipwright directed the soldiers to remove the giant trees supporting the giant ship one by one.
Every time a support was removed, a burst of cheers erupted from the venue.
When all the supports were removed and the cheers reached their peak, the giant ship only slid a little and stopped.
The scene was completely silent, and everyone looked at the General.
But I saw Ashikaga Yoshimitsu calmly saying: "Don't panic, the weight of the giant ship is too great, and the bottom of the ship is flat, so it is normal that it cannot slide down."
"Then what should we do?" everyone asked.
"I, the general, have already thought about it, so I chose this location to build the ship." General Ashikaga shook his paper fan proudly, as if he had a pearl of wisdom in his hands.
Lake Bipa is like an inverted Pipa. The water surface gets wider towards the north and narrower towards the south. By the time we reach the Tang Bridge, it has become as thin as a river, otherwise there would be no way to build a bridge across it.
In this way, the slipway is built on the east bank of the river, and the rope can be used to pull it on the west bank of the river.
Everyone saw five thick ropes thrown down the side of the giant ship, and a small boat caught them in the lake. Then the soldiers rowed the ropes to the west bank and connected them to the cattle that had been prepared long ago.
Twenty cows were divided into five groups, each group was connected by a crossbar, and ropes were tied to the crossbar.
Following the officer's order, the soldiers waved their whips together, urging the cattle forward and stretching the ropes straight.
But no matter how hard the twenty oxen exerted their strength, the giant ship remained motionless.
"Twenty more!" Ashikaga Yoshimitsu ordered, and the soldiers quickly connected five more rows of cattle with shaft wood.
In this way, the number continued to increase, until at eighty oxen, the giant ship finally moved slowly with a huge creaking sound.
"Okay!" Ashikaga Yoshimitsu waved his hands excitedly and said, "Add the last twenty heads too!"
A group of Northern Dynasty monarchs and ministers, who were protecting the Daimyo, completely forgot about themselves. They shouted and encouraged a hundred cows regardless of their appearance. The atmosphere in the venue reached a boiling point!
Finally, under the desperate pulling of a hundred cows, the huge warship finally followed the slope and fell heavily into the water!
The huge splashes of water continued to wet everyone on the Tang Bridge. But no one cared. Everyone screamed with excitement. They jumped and jumped, venting their joy, and almost
The bridge collapsed.
However, when the water splashed down, the cheers on the bridge suddenly died down. They were replaced by the hissing sound of gasping for air.
Because they discovered that the giant ship was missing...
"Where is my boat? Where is such a big boat?!" Ashikaga Yoshimitsu also noticed the abnormality. His eyes nearly popped out, and he roared at the top of his lungs: "Where have you done my boat?!"
There was complete silence on the Tang Bridge. Everyone stared with wide eyes, searching the lake, and soon it became clear that the giant ship had indeed entered the water, but it disintegrated the moment it entered the water.
After the boat disintegrated, various parts fell into the water one after another, which is why the water splashed so big and for so long.
The wreckage of the ship floating all over the lake is proof.
Especially the castle tower with its richly carved edifices and the banner of the Satoshi family, "Er Yin Liang", was definitely built on the deck of a giant ship originally, but now it is floating sideways in the water.
"Anyway, I did go into the water." Looking at Ashikaga Yoshimitsu's face that turned into an eggplant color, His Majesty the Emperor said quietly, happily.
The others didn't dare to say a word, for fear of becoming the general's punching bag.
"Get out! Get out!" Ashikaga Yoshimitsu glared at the Emperor fiercely, roared and drove everyone away. He also got on the sedan chair and left Lake Biwa without looking back.
~~
As soon as he returned to the Imperial Palace, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu became autistic and did not see Hatakeyama Motokuni for ten whole days.
The maid gently opened the shoji door, and Hatakeyama Motokuni bowed in. He saw his master lying in the arms of several beauties with black teeth and white faces, drinking wine with open arms and listening to shamisen. He felt completely filled with depression.
"General, please cheer up!" Hatakeyama Motokuni was so shocked that he quickly reminded: "The great cause has not yet been accomplished, so you must not be knocked down by temporary setbacks!"
"It's not a temporary setback," the handsome young general, with a face full of world-weariness, cried out to the accompaniment of shamisen, "it's a hurdle that will never be overcome, Jiguo."
"It's not that serious. It's our first time to build such a big ship, so failure is inevitable. Let's learn from the lesson and rebuild it!" The young family boss encouraged the general loudly.
"You don't understand." Ashikaga Yoshimitsu shook his head dejectedly and said, "In the past ten days, the shipwrights have investigated the cause of the failure."
After a pause, he pointed out: "Our wood is not hard enough. Our ship has no keel. It is only made of thick wooden boards connected flat. It cannot support such a large hull at all. If it were not for the support of those logs, it would have collapsed when it was built.
fall apart,"
As he spoke, he almost shed tears of sadness: "There's no need to bother studying cannons. Once you install them, they can shatter the cannons..."
"Is there no way to solve these?" Hatakeyama Motokuni asked in a low voice.
"There is no way." Ashikaga Yoshimitsu murmured: "There is no wood in the whole of Japan to build big ships, and there are no shipwrights who know how to build big ships. It is useless to just follow the gourd and draw the gourd..."
"As long as you know where the problem is, can you solve it bit by bit?" In order to stop the depression of the master, Hatakeyama Motokuni did not pour cold water on him, but instead poured chicken soup. "No matter how far the distance is, if you move forward a little bit every day, it will not be the distance."
Is the target a little closer?"
"You don't understand." Ashikaga Yoshimitsu said dejectedly: "Well, actually I don't understand either. The shipbuilders before were bragging and were tortured before admitting that building a treasure ship like the Ming army requires more
Hundreds of different types of work can only be completed if they work together and work together. Even if we try to find a few shipwrights from Ming Dynasty, it will be useless."
"..." Hatakeyama Motokuni also fell silent. There is really no way to solve it.
"Then we have to face reality, General." After a while, he said in a deep voice: "The Ming army has already reached the Seto Inland Sea. If we don't find a way to retreat from the enemy, the pressure from the government and the opposition will be too great. Those
A powerful daimyo who finally surrendered will definitely become a monster again."
"Yes." Ashikaga Yoshimitsu nodded, closed his eyes in pain and said, "Accept the conditions of the Ming army."
"But General, it is no longer the original three." Hatakeyama Motokuni said bitterly: "Every time we delay for a while, Mingguo will add one more, and now it is a full ten. And the fourth article also stipulates that every time we delay,
One day, I have to compensate them for one million taels of silver in military expenses. Three months have passed..."
"Sell me to compensate them!" Ashikaga Yoshimitsu broke the wine glass and said angrily, "What have you been doing?!"
"It was the general who instructed Shiba Biji to delay the time." Hatakeyama Motokuni said depressedly: "The general said that as long as we build a giant ship, we can counterattack. Shiba Biji has worked hard to delay it until today..."
"..." Ashikaga Yoshimitsu held it in for a long time before he choked out two sentences: "Why don't you remonstrate? It's all the fault of you sycophants!"
Hatakeyama Motokun was so angry that he vomited blood on the spot.
