Ningbo Shipyard, Jin Ying got the news and has been waiting for a long time.
He is now the garrison eunuch of Ningbo and the governor of the shipyard for the construction of ironclad ships.
At first glance, this identity seemed to be inferior to that of the eunuch in charge of the ceremony, but he knew in his heart that times had changed, and the emperor was no longer the rebellious young man before, who favored the eunuchs in order to go against the ministers in the court.
The current emperor pays more attention to the ability to apply what he has learned. The continuous growth of the Academy of Sciences and the laying of railways across the country are enough to illustrate the problem.
From now on, the power of the Supervisor of Ceremonies will only shrink, and a situation like Wang Zhen's that covers the sky with one hand will never happen again.
Ningbo Shipyard is the next railway bureau.
The technology of steam trains has become increasingly mature, and the construction of ironclads cannot be delayed. Therefore, he lives and eats in the shipyard every day, and rarely lives in the big house where his godsons respect him.
Finally, with the efforts of scientific researchers from all over the world, and after two and a half years, the first steam-powered ironclad ship of the Ming Dynasty was successfully launched.
Zhu Qizhen started from Nanjing and went directly to Ningbo without stopping along the way.
In fact, when he heard that the ironclad ship had been built, he was very surprised.
Such a huge ship, let alone the Ming Dynasty, which had such weak basic industry, even future generations cannot guarantee that it can be completed in two and a half years.
Jin Yinghe and the shipyard will definitely not dare to lie about this kind of thing. The crime of deceiving the emperor will be punished by the nine tribes.
The only explanation is that we gathered all the manpower and resources from across the country and really made it without considering the cost.
Technically speaking, the technical difficulty in building an ironclad ship is not only that it is huge and huge, but what is even more difficult is that it requires a steam engine with sufficient power to lift such a hull of nearly 10,000 tons.
Since the emergence of steam engines, prototypes have been sent to Ningbo at the same time as the development of vehicle-mounted steam engines. The research and development of ship-mounted steam engines has been carried out almost simultaneously.
Although the two models have the same principle, their research and development directions are different.
The vehicle-mounted steam engine needs to consider its own weight. If it is built as big as a house, it cannot run on the rails.
The ship-borne steam engine is different. There is no need to consider this at all. Even if you build a three-story building and stuff it into the cabin, as long as the power is large enough, it is theoretically feasible.
And the cost of doing this is... it costs 30 million taels!
The construction took two and a half years and cost the national treasury thirty million taels of silver!
When I saw this number, no matter how generous Zhu Qizhen was, my heart couldn't help but bleed.
Silver, white and colorful silver!
It's equivalent to spending one million taels every month. At such a rate of money burning, it's almost like moving money out of the treasury, transporting it to Ningbo, and stacking it in the sea.
Whenever he saw the accounts reported by the shipyard, he wanted to fly to Ningbo Port immediately to see if his money was really piled in the sea...
When the Holy Emperor arrived in Ningbo, headed by the garrison eunuch Jin Ying, Zhejiang Chief Envoy, Ningbo Magistrate, local officials of all sizes, and the main persons in charge of the shipyard came to greet him.
Zhu Qizhen now only wanted to see the armored ships piled up with silver, but it was getting late and he couldn't see anything clearly at night, so he had to give up...
After the dinner, just as I was about to fall asleep, I received a memorial.
This memorial was sent six hundred miles from Champa on an urgent basis. Zhu Qizhen was a little confused. What could happen to Champa?
Nowadays, Champa has been renamed Linyi. After Annan and Champa were destroyed one after another, the Chief Envoy of Jiaozhi was established and divided into three states, namely Annan Prefecture, Xianglin Prefecture and Linyi Prefecture from north to south. At the beginning, the entire Jiaozhi Chief Envoy Department was guarded by Zhu Qiyu, King of Qi. Later, when Zhu Qiyu went to Luzon, it was changed to Zhang Fu, King of Jing'an County, and was assisted by Mu Bin, Duke of Guizhou.
This memorial was sent by Mu Bin.
The content is very simple, with only a few lines: Ma Island in the south of Linyi Prefecture is occupied by unidentified enemies. Moreover, these people’s goal does not seem to be Ma Island. There are already ships bypassing Linyi and turning to the north.
Likely to enter
Entering the coast of Ming Dynasty!
Ma Island is located at the junction of Linyi Prefecture and Zhenwa State. It is an isolated island overseas.
Over the years, because both the Champa Kingdom and the Zhenwa Kingdom wanted to take the Falklands as their own, there have been many conflicts between the two countries, but in the end they failed.
Since Champa was defeated by Annan, it no longer had time to take care of the overseas islands. The Zhenwa Kingdom took advantage of the situation and finally got what it wanted.
However, the war between Champa and Annan resulted in the two countries being included in the territory of the Ming Dynasty.
After gaining control of Champa, Mu Bin, Duke of Guizhou, learned that there was an island to the south that originally belonged to Champa but was later occupied by Zhenwa. Can he bear this?
Ever since, the battle for Falklands has begun again.
The Zhenwa Kingdom was afraid of the strength of the Ming Dynasty and did not dare to be arrogant anymore. In order to show that it was a sovereign country, the Ming Dynasty was unwilling to initiate a war. After negotiations, the two countries reached a consensus and jointly withdraw from the Falklands.
Who would have imagined that it was originally a situation where the two countries coexisted peacefully, but outsiders took advantage of it.
A group of people from the West came from an unknown country. Seeing that there was no one living on the island, they came to occupy the magpie's nest and built a base directly on the island.
Whether it is Zhenwa or Zhancheng, they lack combat-effective ships.
The Ming Dynasty did have it, but the main warships were controlled by Shi Heng and patrolled the Japanese area. The other ships were treasure ships and did not have combat effectiveness.
On Luzon Island across the sea, Zhu Qiyu did not have a comparable ship. Therefore, he had to ask the court for help, hoping to arrange the fleet to Linyi in case of emergency.<
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Zhu Qizhen saw the memorial and began to think about it.
In this era, the great voyage of the West has not yet begun. It should not be the Francois, then who could it be?
Europe's understanding of the Central Plains mainly comes from the archer named Marco Polo during the Yuan Dynasty... No, it's a Western traveler.
The whole of Europe is basically a mess. After experiencing the thousand-year Middle Ages, it suddenly reflected on itself and began to actively seek change.
Because everyone has been fighting for thousands of years, not only has society not progressed, but more than half of the population has been wiped out due to various plagues and wars.
If this continues, all major branches of the Germanic people may be dead.
Therefore, everyone began to calm down and reflect, and thus the famous Renaissance era arrived...
During this period of relatively active thinking, more and more people are going out for fun... no, study tours.
Among them was the son of a wealthy Italian businessman who embarked on the road to the East. His name was Marco Polo.
This guy was a very powerful bastard. He had food wherever he went. When he arrived in the Central Plains, he also learned Mongolian and Chinese, and even worked as an errand beside the Emperor Kublai Khan of the Yuan Dynasty.
Speaking of Mr. Ma’s work, everyone is envious after seeing it.
——Visiting various places according to orders!
They traveled and ate and drank at public expense. So, in the next seventeen years, Mr. Ma traveled all over China.
After he returned to Europe, he wrote a book called "Marco Polo's Travels" about what he saw and heard.
Because Europeans at that time did not understand the mysterious East, and Mr. Ma was good at using exaggeration to describe the East as a wealthy paradise full of gold.
As a result, a group of Europeans with a lot of bad habits began to be fascinated by the East.
The Age of Discovery in Europe began at this time.
However, even Portugal and Spain, the so-called Francois who were the first to explore the ocean, had to sail around the Cape of Good Hope, along the African coastline to India, and then go east to reach the Ming Dynasty.
The difficulty is that we need a way...
Thinking of this, Zhu Qizhen suddenly understood!
According to the time, these ships are not from the Francons, but from the Ottomans or Byzantines!
It is now the eighteenth year of Orthodoxy, which is probably when the Ottomans conquered Constantinople and completely replaced Byzantium
The time of empire.
Think about it again, Peng Qing's fleet has just returned from Kunlun Island and will definitely pass through their territory.
In this way, the ship loaded with jewels and gold will inevitably be noticed.
It seems that the ships on the Falklands are enemies rather than friends!
"Come here!"
After hearing the order, a figure flashed outside, and Fan Zhong opened the door and walked in.
"Your Majesty!"
Zhu Qizhen picked up his pen and wrote a letter, explaining: "Immediately send a fast horse to Jiaozhi, and tell the King of Jing'an County and the Duke of Guizhou to be on guard!"
"Yes!"
Fan Zhong took the letter, turned around and left.
After doing all this, Zhu Qizhen lay on the bed and began to think wildly.
Speaking of shipbuilding technology, during the Zheng He period, there were amazing treasure ships. However, apart from being visually stunning, these behemoths were not very capable in actual combat.
[In view of the general environment, because the main function of treasure ships is to carry people and cargo, they are usually not equipped with artillery, or only carry a small number of artillery.
This is understandable. At that time, the Ming Dynasty had never encountered an evenly matched opponent at sea. As a result, the ships were getting bigger and bigger, just to carry more materials and personnel.
However, Westerners’ concepts are not like this.
In Europe, the territories of those countries are not large, and it is almost impossible to build such a huge treasure ship at sea.
Because...no money, poor!…
However, being poor also has its advantages. For example, the Qi family army in later generations only went to Yiwu to recruit troops and did not recruit troops from other places.
Because Yiwu was poor at that time, with only mountains and water, and few acres of fertile farmland. In order to compete for limited resources, everyone was either fighting or on the way to fight every day.
This is the case in Europe. In order to survive, it can only fight, keep fighting, and fight randomly, without any rules at all.
For example, in order to compete for maritime hegemony, Spain and Portugal basically fight a small war every year and a big war every three years.
War is precious, because every war allows them to gain rich experience, and the improvement of ships has been continuously deepened through countless actual combats.
In contrast, the Ming Dynasty, as a central country with unique advantages, does not have such conditions at all.
However, in this situation, who should we turn to to fight...
In the midst of Mimi Lake, Zhu Qizhen seemed to have seen the enemy and rushed over in his boat. He shouted excitedly: "Load the missiles and fuck them!"
"Your Majesty..."
Zhu Qizhen opened his eyes and saw a face less than a punch away in front of him.
He stepped back involuntarily, and then he saw clearly that it was Jin Ying.
"The servants serve the emperor and dress him!"
Jin Ying finally waited for the opportunity and came over early in the morning to wait.
After breakfast, Zhu Qizhen rushed to the shipyard impatiently, and then saw a spectacular sight.
The huge ship has been moored on the sea.
This battleship is actually no smaller than the Fu Ship, because it has to carry a huge steam boiler, so the hull cannot be small.
A chimney stands in the middle, and there are still sails, sails and steam hybrids.
Because of the huge size of the giant ship, the entire giant ship is divided into three decks, and horses can even be raced on the outermost deck.
Zhu Qizhen felt very surprised. It seemed that the three thousand taels of silver were not wasted!
Under the leadership of Jin Ying, the monarch and his ministers walked onto the deck.
When viewed from a distance, this huge ship is amazing. When standing on the deck and looking from the hull, it is even more incredible.
In addition to a large number of cabins, the ship also has a dedicated gun cabin.
There are sixty gun ports on the left and right, arranged in rows. They are usually covered with baffles. In the event of a war, you only need to open the baffles, and one hundred and twenty cannons will pass through the slide rails and stick out of the hull, revealing the ferocious cannons. Muzzle.
Jin Ying holds a dossier in her hand
The introduction said: "Your Majesty, this ship is equipped with a boiler. In order to strengthen the hull, a steel keel is laid on the bottom layer, which is formed in one piece. All structures are built around this keel."
Beilin couldn't help but ask: "What's the power of this ship?"
Jin Ying replied: "Sister Bei must say that the larger the hull, the greater the power requirements. Therefore, battleships are often light and flexible. But because this ship is equipped with a steam boiler, it can also be used on weekdays. It uses sails to assist, so the speed of this ship is not lower than that of ordinary battleships."
Beilin nodded and asked: "Are these cannons too many? If they really fire, sixty cannons will be enough to capsize the entire ship."
"This has also been taken into consideration. The artillery used on the ship are all lightweight Flying Tiger cannons. If a battle breaks out, the sixty artillery pieces will fire alternately, and there are slide rails under the artillery to offset the recoil."
"And here..." He pointed to the structure of a ship's hull on the drawing: "It has been strengthened here to strengthen the hull, and here...here..."
"When we built the steamship, we spent countless dollars. The hull used a lot of steel and the best wood. In order to solve the problems of matching the boiler and strengthening the hull, we had to overcome many difficulties, large and small. More than 500 times, the shipyard's bachelors and craftsmen worked day and night, and finally overcame various difficulties and built the ship."
At this time, Tang Xinggu asked with a strange expression: "The steel hull is equipped with a steam engine boiler. When the boiler is turned on, will it not sink?"
Jin Ying replied: "Theoretically, it won't sink."
"Theoretically?"
Tang Xinggu's face became even more ugly. What does theory mean?
Jin Ying was silent for a while and said: "It should...not sink, right?".