The ironclad ship's trial voyage took only two hours from departure to return.
About half of the coal in the fuel bunker has been consumed. However, because Jin Ying is good at making suggestions, only 20% of the fuel is available in the huge bunker.
Zhu Qizhen made a rough calculation and found that if the warehouse is fully loaded, theoretically, the battery life can reach ten hours, which is twenty hours.
This does not include the use of sail power. If taken into consideration, the endurance can be increased by at least 30%.
Overall, this trial voyage was very successful.
Although during the sea trial, some problems still occurred more or less. For example, some rivets at the seams of the iron sheets became loose. When the four boilers were started at the same time, the temperature in the boiler room was too high, and other minor problems.
All are recorded one by one. After docking, the craftsmen of the shipyard will repair and improve them as soon as possible.
Zhu Qizhen was very satisfied because he witnessed the launch of Ming Dynasty's first ironclad ship.
The body of steel and steam power are enough to crush any ship in this era.
Looking at the huge ship in front of him, he sighed in his heart, it was worth all the money spent!
For others, the feeling is more of shock.
However, Zhu Qizhen knew the importance of this ship very well.
The Age of Discovery has begun, and the birth of the ironclad marks that the Ming Dynasty's navy will soon rule the entire world.
From now on, there will never be another Columbus or Magellan.
There will never be that sun that never sets again... If there is, it will be the Ming Dynasty that the sun never sets!
"Jinying!"
"The slave is here!"
Zhu Qizhen stared at the giant ship closely and asked: "How long will it take to complete the comprehensive overhaul?"
"This..."
Jin Ying hesitated for a moment, and then said uncertainly: "It will probably take a month."
"One month?"
"Probably, maybe... twenty days is also possible..."
Zhu Qizhen asked again: "Are you sure it will take twenty days to answer these questions?"
Jin Ying wiped the sweat from his forehead and said: "Even if the slaves and craftsmen don't eat or sleep, it will take at least... half a month!"
Zhu Qizhen said dissatisfied: "There are so many problems that need to be dealt with, how can you be careless? I will give you one month, and after one month, we will conduct a full load trial!"
Jin Ying breathed a sigh of relief. It turned out that he had thought wrong.
"My slave obeys the order!"
The accompanying officials couldn't sit still when they learned that the emperor suddenly decided not to leave and would have to wait a month for another trial voyage.
In particular, Cao Yi, the chief envoy of Zhejiang, and Zhang Chun, the prefect of Ningbo, were completely unprepared because the Holy Emperor's inspection of Ningbo was impromptu and without any advance notice.
I thought that the ironclad ship's trial voyage was successful and that the emperor should return to Beijing, but now he can't leave.
In desperation, the two discussed a countermeasure overnight. First, they would report on the important achievements of the Zhejiang Chief Envoy, especially the Ningbo Government, since the New Deal.
So, here comes the problem. The biggest achievement now is the shipyard, which is the ironclad ship. However, the two of them have no idea about the ironclad ship at all.
Because Ningbo Shipyard is directly under the imperial court, whether it is site selection, factory construction, recruitment...including large or small personnel appointments, all procedures do not go through Ningbo Prefecture at all, and are all directly appointed by the imperial court.
In other words, the Ningbo Prefecture maintains such a large shipyard, and the imperial court keeps moving money, but the Ningbo Prefecture can only watch helplessly and cannot get involved at all.
If in the past, the imperial court allocated 30 million taels of silver, the Chief Envoy of Zhejiang would still have to eat millions of taels. Next, the Ningbo government would eat millions more taels. After being peeled off layer by layer, what would be left at the shipyard?
The second half is considered good.
But now, neither Cao Yi nor Zhang Chun have seen a single tael of silver!
What's even more annoying is that people at the shipyard don't look down on them on weekdays, and they never come to visit them during holidays.
These two people were Jinshi during the Yongle period. They had gone through four dynasties and dealt with countless people. They had never suffered such a loss, so they began to think of ways to use their authority to cause obstacles for the shipyard.
For example, don’t you need to purchase steel and wood? Well, I’ll add commercial tax!
Don’t you want to hire a large number of workers? I will issue a restraining order to the people.
Also, to feed so many people, we must purchase a large amount of supplies on weekdays, so I will talk to the local merchants and remind them, will they dare to sell you things in the future?
In short, if you don’t take me seriously, I will definitely not make it easy for you.
As a result, the shipyard did encounter a lot of trouble. However, these people seemed to have no clue in their minds and actually organized a group to come to the prefect's Yamen to ask for an explanation.
Zhang Chun has been an official for twenty-eight years, and this is the first time he has encountered such a situation.
Are all people from the Academy of Sciences so arrogant?
Don’t you know whose territory this is?
Therefore, Zhang Chunyi did not stop and directly detained Hanlin and the craftsmen of the shipyard for the crime of provoking trouble.
Just when the conflict between the shipyard and the Ningbo government was in full swing, the imperial court issued an order and sent Jin Ying, the former chief eunuch and eunuch to guard Ningbo for too long, as governor of the shipyard.
This time, Zhang Chun finally became honest.
The emperor sent all the most trusted eunuchs around him. What does it mean?
Let him go, I really can’t afford to offend him!
From then on, the shipyard and Ningbo Prefecture did not interfere with each other. Zhang Chun also never asked about the shipyard's affairs. Now the emperor is patrolling Ningbo. However, the emperor did not even ask about local government affairs and plunged into the shipyard.
Zhang Chun suddenly realized that he might have miscalculated!
In the eyes of the emperor, the shipyard was far more important than Ningbo Prefecture, and his prefecture was completely turned into a decoration.
This is not going to be easy...
He found Cao Yi overnight and began to discuss countermeasures.
The emperor finally came to this opportunity. What a good opportunity. If you can't seize it, it will be difficult in the future.
Cao Yi felt the same as him. Although Ningbo Mansion was far less famous than Hangzhou Mansion in Zhejiang, the emperor was not interested in Hangzhou. Not only did he want to stay here to prepare for the second trial voyage, he even lived directly in the shipbuilding industry.
factory, accompanying the craftsmen around on the boat every day.
"Don't ask me what to do. When the imperial court decreed the establishment of the shipyard, you made things difficult for others. Now you know you are afraid?"
Zhang Chun said helplessly: "Master Cao, why did you say this? Those things... I have already reported to you in my humble position."
"What did you say?"
Cao Yi was anxious and said quickly: "You mean, those things you did were all ordered by me?"
"This... humble position is not what it means..."
Zhang Chun cursed secretly in his heart, he is such an old fox, he just ignored him when something happened.
Cao Yi narrowed his eyes and said: "Now, that eggless Jin Ying will definitely sue you in front of the emperor. I advise you to be fully prepared!"
"I am about to ask Mr. Cao for advice, how should I prepare?"
Zhang Chun was very panicked. At that time, he had caused many obstacles to the shipyard. He even detained the Hanlin and craftsmen who came to ask for explanations. Now that they have the support of the emperor, will they still get good results? Cao Yi looked at him with contempt and said, "Do you want me to teach you everything by myself?"
Zhang Chun said with a bitter face: "I really have no choice in this humble position, so I would like to ask Mr. Cao to give me some advice."
Cao Yi sighed helplessly and said, "Do you still remember that when the factory was first built, there was a murder case?"
Zhang Chun's eyes suddenly lit up. At that time, he secretly instigated some local gangsters to go to the shipyard to cause trouble. There was a conflict between the two parties. Unexpectedly, the gang from the Academy of Sciences was so fierce that they beat the local gangsters until they ran away.
Originally, this matter was over, but three days later, one of them, Niu Dabao, had an argument with someone on the street and was hit on the head with a brick. He died on the spot.
This case was an ordinary fight and violent killing. However, the family of the attacker had some background and was a well-known family in the local area. He sent Zhang Chun 500 taels of silver in an attempt to settle the matter. p>
Zhang Chun didn't take it seriously at first. Niu Dabao was just a street gangster. He had no family, no relatives or friends, so he just died. He recorded it as a sudden illness and the case was closed.
Suddenly, he suddenly remembered that three days ago, Niu Dabao went to the shipyard to cause trouble and had a conflict with someone.
I am worried that I can’t find fault with the shipyard, isn’t this coming!
So, someone sent a petition the next day to express his injustice for Niu Dabao.
For this matter, the shipyard had to apologize and pay a large sum of money. Zhang Chun finally found the opportunity, but he was not willing to let them go so easily. Therefore, he must insist on punishing the real culprit severely and giving life for life. p>
This case continued to ferment for a long time, until Jin Ying's arrival, Zhang Chun became wary, and then the case was hastily closed.
Yes, I want the evil person to complain first... No, how did I become the evil person?
Zhang Chun shook his head and threw away this strange idea.
In short, you must strike first. It is better for me to sue you than for you to sue me.
Regarding the cause of Niu Dabao's death, the shipyard did not know the details at all, and always thought that it was in the wrong. Well, let's just say that the shipyard relied on the emperor's favor to oppress the people in Ningbo Prefecture and even caused deaths...
As a result, the emperor must have felt disgusted, and perhaps even lost interest in the ironclad ship.
Besides, that thing is just a big toy. It looks very overbearing, but what is its actual use?
With so much steel and wood, what kind of steam engine could there be? The cargo carrying capacity is not as good as a treasure ship. Wasn’t it built just to please the emperor?
So Zhang Chun wrote a memorial overnight and personally delivered it to Zhu Qizhen's bedside.
However, Zhu Qizhen has been spending time at the shipyard these days. Zhang Chun couldn't wait for anyone, so he had to leave the memorial and go back to wait for news.
------------------
"What is the reason why these rivets are loose? Can we guarantee that there will be no looseness in other places?"
"Back to the emperor, most of the rivets used on the ship are hot rivets, which are very strong. During the sea trial, perhaps due to the vibration of the ship's hull, some of the rivets resonated, and then they became loose."
Zhu Qizhen nodded. The Academy of Sciences has now even studied resonance. It seems that the knowledge reserves in his belly are not enough.
For example, what is hot riveting?
Why won’t hot riveting become loose?
After the craftsman's explanation, he understood that hot riveting is to drill holes in the two steel plates that need to be connected, and then heat the rivets red. After passing through the holes in the steel plates, hit the rivets with a mold to quickly make the rivets
The head is formed, and when the rivet cools down, it will use thermal expansion and contraction to automatically connect the two steel plates more closely.
In this era without welding technology, hot riveting is the main method to complete hull splicing.
I have to sigh that human wisdom is really unimaginable. There is nothing we can't imagine but nothing we can't do.
"Your Majesty..."
Yuan Bin suddenly came to him. It seemed that he had something to report.
Zhu Qizhen waved at him, then came to a small warehouse, closed the door, and asked: "Is there any news from Shi Heng?"
"Back to the emperor, General Shi wrote a letter saying that the treasure trove of the rebel Wanyan Gunaha has been found, and it is on Jeju Island."
"Jeju Island...the territory of North Korea?"
"It nominally belongs to North Korea, but it was bought by the then Jianzhou Guard with a lot of money more than ten years ago, and later became the home of Wanyan Gunaha. Over the years, the money he earned through smuggling
, are all hidden on that island."
Zhu Qizhen lowered his face and said: "Tell North Korea that this island now belongs to the Ming Dynasty. Also, go find out how many shameful things they have done behind my back. I will settle the matter with them."
!"
"Yes!"
Yuan Bin nodded and said: "I also found out something."
"What's the matter?"
"When I was looking through the list of Wanyan Gunaha's comrades, I found a person named Niu Dabao."
"What... treasure?"
"It's a gangster named Niu Dabao."
"Gangster?"
Zhu Qizhen was even more confused. Wanyan Gunaha was an extremely scheming person, how could he associate with gangsters?
Yuan Bin replied: "According to the confession, Wanyan Gunaha once found many such gangsters to go to the shipyard to cause trouble."
Zhu Qizhen was a little confused and asked: "Why is this?"
Yuan Bin thought for a while and said: "When General Shi got these confessions, he did not dig deeper and executed all the rebels. However, I think... there seems to be some problem with this."
Zhu Qizhen also felt that there was a problem. Why did Wanyan Gunaha find a group of gangsters to cause trouble in the shipyard?
What is his purpose?
Is it just causing trouble for the court?
If that's the case, why not do some sabotage?
For example, get some gunpowder and blow up an important workshop.
Wouldn’t it slow down the progress of the ironclad even more?
What's the use of causing trouble...
Yuan Bin looked extremely cautious and said: "I have a guess, I don't know..."
"Speak!"
"Based on my understanding of this person, he must have a plan for doing things, and the biggest secret of Ningbo Shipyard is the iron-clad ship!"
After Zhu Qizhen heard this, his expression became heavy. Could it be that...this guy is planning to steal the armored ship?
No, how could he steal a 10,000-ton giant ship?
Could it be...stealing the blueprints?
"That guy named Bao, is he still alive?"
Yuan Bin shook his head gently and said: "He is already dead."
Zhu Qizhen sighed helplessly and said: "This guy Shi Heng, I asked him not to survive, but he was really obedient!"
Yuan Bin added: "Your Majesty, Niu Dabao died two years ago."