In order to adapt to future naval battles, Li Zhi decided to make some grenades.
At present, the grenades that Li Zhi can make are only black powder grenades with matchlock fuses. To light this kind of grenade, you must carry a fire. It is very troublesome to carry a fire with you and affects the combat effectiveness of the troops.
For field battles, this kind of grenade is not very useful, because black powder grenades are very heavy, weighing at least seven or eight kilograms. If they are not so heavy, they have no power. And such heavy grenades cannot be thrown very far.
Twenty meters is good. At a distance of twenty meters, the enemy will rush up after running a few steps, and it is easy to avoid the damage of the grenade. Instead of throwing a grenade at the enemy, it is better to fire a shot.
Therefore, Li Zhi never developed grenades.
But if it's a naval battle, it's different.
The space aboard the ship is narrow and people are densely packed, which is where grenades come into play.
During a naval battle, the ship is like two cities. There are guardrails to block bullets. Attacking the opponent's ship is like siege. If the enemy hides under the guardrail of the ship's side, the rifle will not be able to find the target, and it will not even be able to shoot through the thick wall.
The ship's side guardrail. The side battle is like a siege and street battle. Without grenades, you can only fight the enemy hand-to-hand.
With grenades, you can bomb the enemy. In a naval battle, when two ships are getting closer, no matter whether the opponent is hiding behind the guardrail or the mast, throwing dozens of grenades over will blow the opponent into pieces. Moreover, grenades can be placed on ship buildings.
By bouncing upward, it can blow up enemy soldiers hiding on the lower deck - the entrances and exits between decks are very small, making it very inconvenient to get in and out. If there are no grenades, it can easily be defended by the opponent with a few matchlock guns or a few broadswords.
The earliest grenadiers in the West were deployed for siege. Li Zhi used grenades to attack enemy ships for the same reason.
In order to win the future naval battle, Li Zhi asked the craftsmen who were casting dragon tail carts to stop what they were doing and start casting grenades. There were a large number of dragon tail carts in Li Zhi's warehouse, enough to satisfy this batch of newly reclaimed farmland.
demand, there is no need to create new ones.
The hand grenade made by Li Zhi weighs eight pounds, is wrapped in cast iron, and contains black powder and broken iron slag. The black powder is ignited and explodes, sending sharp iron slag into the surrounding area, killing and injuring enemy personnel.
A wooden handle is made under the grenade, and there is a fuse on the handle. The iron cover is usually screwed on top of the fuse, and it is only turned away when it is necessary to ignite.
Li Zhi put the grenade next to the scarecrow and lit it, and found that this grenade could probably kill enemies within one step of the surrounding area. Such lethality was quite impressive.
Li Zhi was in Tianjin, where it was very convenient to buy saltpeter and gunpowder. Li Zhi had a lot of black powder materials stored in his warehouse. The craftsmen in the Longwei Cart Workshop made molds and quickly cast more than 2,000 grenades.
Li Zhi put the grenades into the warehouse and prepared to arm future sailors.
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On June 15, Li Zhi took a large group of men, horses, vehicles, cannons, steam engines and specially made large bearings to Wangjiawan to equip his new ship.
On the beach of Wangjiawan, Li Zhi's first ship is almost completed, and only needs to be painted and rigged with sails. Although this ship is smaller than the 10,000-ton giant ships of later generations, it is well-deserved in this era.
It is a huge ship. The ship is four stories high. From a distance, it looks like a wooden castle standing on the seaside, very majestic.
Boss Wang saw Li Zhi's team approaching and came to greet them from a distance.
Li Zhi looked at the big ship and asked: "Boss Wang, my cannon and steam engine weigh several thousand kilograms, how can I get on the ship?"
Boss Wang said: "Don't worry, sir. I have already made a dirt ramp behind the ship. Later, my craftsmen will drag and push your cannon together and drag the cannon onto the ship from the ramp."
Li Zhi nodded and said to his craftsmen: "Go up and install the bearings, paddle wheel and steam engine."
Seeing his men dragging the steam engine to the ship, Li Zhi asked again: "Boss Wang, where do these sailors usually hire?"
Boss Wang said: "It is a prohibited business to operate a boat and go to sea. The boatmen are brought out from one village after another. They are all taught by familiar boatmen and newcomers step by step. If you hire them temporarily, you may not be able to hire them!"
"
Li Zhi was stunned and asked: "What key positions on the ship require veterans?"
Boss Wang said: "Every position on the ship is indispensable and indispensable. But if it is not possible, the most important thing is to have an experienced fire chief, guide and helmsman. The fire chief is the captain of the ship and is responsible for the management of the entire ship. The guide measures the channel,
It is also key to ensure that the ship stays on course. Controlling the direction of the ship by steering the rudder."
Li Zhi looked embarrassed for a moment and secretly asked where he could find these shipping staff?
Boss Wang looked at Li Zhi's face and said, "The worst option is to hire a new helmsman. I will be the chief of the fire myself, but a guide is definitely needed. If you sail on the sea without a guide, you will run into rocks."
Li Zhi asked: "Boss Wang, do you have a familiar guide?"
Boss Wang was stunned for a moment and said: "I happen to know an experienced guide, but sir, he may not dare to go to sea with you, a newbie on the boat."
Li Zhi said: "I will give him a big price to go to sea!"
Boss Wang licked his lips and said, "This is not a matter of money, this is a matter of life."
Li Zhi was stunned for a moment, and secretly thought that it was really not possible for this newbie to go to sea, so it seemed that he would have to ask Zha Yunke to help hire an experienced sailor.
Li Zhi asked: "How long and wide are these two ships, and how many sailors are needed?"
Boss Wang said: "Both these two ships are eleven feet and one foot long, one foot and nine feet wide, and have four decks. The ships usually have one fire captain, two helmsmen, one guide, and one general manager.
When something happens on the ship, he calls on behalf of the ship owner. There is one person in Zhiku, responsible for managing the weapons. One person, Aban, is responsible for looking out on the masts. Two people, Si Ding, are responsible for managing the ballast stones. Two people, Da Liao and Er Liao, and one Si Zhen.
, are responsible for managing the compass. The main store, and several others in the second store are responsible for commanding the battle. These are the officials in charge of the ship. In addition, there must be forty ordinary shipwrights to operate such a large ship."
Li Zhi nodded, took Boss Wang up the ladder and boarded the ship, and asked, "Where will the crew sleep on the ship?"
Boss Wang said: "Sir, I have never built a ship with so many cannons. Originally, the second deck was for cooking and storing water, the third deck was for sleeping, and the fourth deck was for loading cargo. But now, sir, you
With so many cannons installed on the second deck, we can only store fresh water, cook, and sleep in the third deck. If the cannons and gunpowder are properly managed, there will be no space next to the cannons on the second deck.
You can install a hammock for sleeping. The fourth deck is still loaded with cargo.”
Li Zhi asked again: "How many sailors can this ship carry?"
Boss Wang thought for a while and said, "It depends on which channel it takes. If it goes to sea for ten days, it only has ten days of fresh water, and there are people sleeping next to the cannon on the second deck, the ship can carry more than two hundred sailors.
If you want to run a long-distance route and load more supplies, there will naturally be fewer sailors to carry them."
Li Zhi nodded.
Li Zhi was chatting with Mr. Wang there, while the craftsmen on the ship were installing steam engines, bearings and paddle wheels under the command of Zheng Kaida. After two hours of busy work, Li Zhi was so hungry that he suddenly saw Zheng Kaida running excitedly.
Came over.
"My lord, the paddle wheel and steam engine are installed!"
Li Zhi looked up and saw that the paddle wheel had indeed been installed on the side of the ship.
