On the eighth day of March, the treasure ship was launched.
This is a giant ship with a length of 60 meters and a width of 18 meters, with five masts, a displacement of more than 2,000 tons, and a combination of square sails and triangle sails. The ship carries eight two-thousand-jin guns, ten thousand-jin cannons, and thirty-two thousand-jin cannons.
One 500-pound cannon and twenty-six large ballistae (specialized in shooting rockets).
Its firepower is so ferocious that it is insane!
In history, including Zheng Zhilong's ships, no Ming Dynasty ship could compare. Zheng Zhilong's most powerful warship only had thirty-six cannons. This treasure ship had fifty guns once it was launched.
.
Although its maneuverability is slightly lacking, it is really deadly when attacked. If it attacks the port of Malacca, it will definitely show its prowess.
"Good ship, good ship!"
Zhu Houzhao stood on the shore, clapped his hands in admiration, and ordered: "Open the gun windows and show all the artillery!"
Facing the side of the cabin facing the shore, the dark gun window suddenly opened, and the sight of so many people was so dense that it made one's scalp numb.
Camilo, who was following the emperor, couldn't help but make the sign of the cross on his chest and muttered in his heart: "Poor Portugal, it has met its opponent in the east. How can it resist such a big cannon ship unless it sends the Henry?"
"
Camilo has nothing to do with Portugal because he is Italian.
Uh... Italy is in a city-state state, and the hometown of Camillo is being ruled by the Austrian Habsburg dynasty. So, he should be an Austrian? But he has no sense of identity with Austria, and he doesn't know which one to identify with.
motherland.
Seeing the Ming Dynasty's super giant ship, Camilo was not prepared to remind Portugal. He looked down on Portugal a little, with all-round contempt, just like looking at a bunch of bumpkins.
White supremacy?
Is Europe superior?
Stop talking nonsense, a person who doesn’t even have a motherland, let alone any racial concepts.
In Camilo's view, the Ming Dynasty was a superior country. It was a natural thing for the Ming Dynasty to defeat Portugal and dominate the Eastern trade routes. He could not stop it at all, and had no obligation to stop it. The main thing he should do was to spread God's message in China
Gospel, let this great eastern country be bathed in the gospel of God.
In order to achieve this glorious goal, Camilo could even betray Portugal in exchange for the Ming Emperor's trust in him.
Zhu Houzhao asked: "Ke Qing, is there anyone in Taixi who can defeat this ship?"
Camilo, also known as Ke Yudao, has been granted an official title by the emperor, and now belongs to a serious Ming Dynasty official - Qin Tianjian, Doctor of Lukeng, from the ninth rank, to be honest, he is the royal watchkeeper.
Camilo raised his hand and replied: "Your Majesty, the largest battleship in the West is less than two-thirds of the size of this treasure ship. However, the Portuguese Henry has eighty cannons; the Portuguese also has the Regent, which has eighty cannons.
One hundred and eighty doors."
Zhu Houzhao was stunned and asked Wang Yuan: "Why does my treasure ship only have fifty cannons?"
Wang Yuan could only reply: "It is being cast."
Zhu Houzhao waved his hand and ordered: "Equip two hundred cannons to the treasure ship. We cannot lose to the barbarians in the West!"
"Yes." Wang Yuan said, cupping his hands.
Zhu Houzhao said with a smile: "In this sea battle, it is difficult to fight hand-to-hand. It just requires more artillery."
Wang Yuan repeatedly said yes, and then asked Camilo: "Dr. Ke, do the sailing ships of the West have such a standard of square sails and jibs?"
Camilo replied: "Yes, about twenty years ago, the Portuguese influence reached as far as the Cape of Good Hope and began to add ocean-going capabilities to the Caravel. So they changed the two-mast to a three-mast and combined the square sail with the triangular sail.
In order to increase the sailing speed against the wind. In fact, the Thai and Western Karak sailing ships used to use square sails. The difference is that Chinese seagoing ships use hard sails and Karak sailing ships use soft sails."
Wang Yuan smiled and said: "This treasure ship also uses soft sails."
The soft sail has a fatal flaw: it cannot take advantage of the wind from all directions, and the operation of raising and lowering the sail is particularly complicated.
But hard sails are too heavy. If this treasure ship uses hard sails, it would take at least a hundred sailors to raise the sails, and even more than 200 sailors would be required to raise the sails of a large treasure ship.
And since it is combined with the jib, it is not easy to use a hard sail for the square sail. Because the jib has too many ropes, causing the nearby hard (hung sail) to lose its flexibility, it is better to just learn from Europe and use soft (hung sail)
Woolen cloth.
The combined use of square sails and jib sails is actually not very technical at all.
The Portuguese did it easily, and the shipbuilders of the Ming Dynasty also learned by analogy and thought of going together.
Zhu Houzhao took Wang Yuan and others aboard the ship. He stood on the bow deck, drew his sword and shouted: "Get out of the port!"
Dozens of rowing offshore boats were responsible for towing the treasure ship out of the port. At the same time, the sailors on the treasure ship also began to raise the sail, and the thing was raised in a mess.
There was no way, the sailors of the Ming Dynasty had never played with soft sails before, and the dense ropes made people scratch their heads. Although they had learned the theoretical knowledge in advance, the actual operation was quite difficult, and it took a long time to raise the sail.
However, the operation of the sails when leaving and entering the port requires extremely delicate and sophisticated skills. Especially when there is a headwind or crosswind, the control of the jib is particularly important. Although these sailors raised the sails, they actually blocked dozens of tow boats.
Pull to the shore.
For two quarters of an hour, the treasure ship remained motionless, making the scene extremely embarrassing.
Zhu Houzhao was originally very ambitious. He imagined that he would sail out to sea in a huge boat and sail thousands of miles with his troops to sweep away Yunei. Who would have thought that he could not even get out of the port, and he was so angry that he wanted to kill the sailors.
Seeing the emperor's ugly face, Wang Yuan quickly advised him: "Your Majesty, calm down. The sailors of the Ming Dynasty had only sailed hard sails before. It was their first time contacting soft sails and triangle sails, and they were able to raise the sails smoothly.
It's very rare. Just like an infantryman who has never touched a war horse, if you let him directly ride a horse to kill the enemy, it is absolutely impossible."
Zhu Houzhao was too lazy to stay on the boat anymore and said to Man Zheng: "Commander Man, the navy under your command still needs more training!"
"Your Majesty will atone for his sins, and I will do my best." Man Zheng was so frightened that he broke into a cold sweat.
Wang Yuan quickly followed the emperor off the ship and landed. He did not expect that after the treasure ship was launched, it could not sail out of the shipyard harbor. He could only sigh, the navy is indeed a technical branch!
There is still a follow-up to this matter...
The treasure ship finally left the port and sailed northward with the southeast wind (crosswind). Manzheng originally wanted to test the ship in the waters near Hangzhou, but due to poor sail operation, it was blown to Chongming Island. He was stuck there and did not know how to get back.
.This is because the general led his troops to cross the border and alerted Su Songbei's Japanese soldiers. The Nanzhili side directly dispatched the navy to surround the newly launched treasure ship.
Although he explained clearly and became proficient in operating the soft sail, the treasure ship successfully returned to Hangzhou. However, the fact that Zhu Houzhao was playing with the treasure ship in Hangzhou was known to the officials of the Six Ministries of Nanjing, and they all wrote letters to advise the emperor not to waste people and money.
Although Zhu Houzhao ignored this memorial, he was so angry that he scolded Man Zheng.
Manzheng has been in charge of the Qiantang Navy for the past two years, doing business at sea and robbing smuggling ships. It can be said that he has gained both power and wealth. He was already a little arrogant. After being reprimanded by the emperor, he finally fully recovered his IQ. After learning from the pain, he personally led
Sailors train sailing techniques.
When the Qiantang navy became proficient in operating treasure ships, another group of Portuguese merchant ships came to Hangzhou and brought sweet potatoes and corn as promised.
During the Zhengde period, sweet potatoes were widely planted in Spain. Corn was even introduced to Italy and became a staple food in Europe. It was mainly used to make polenta to satisfy hunger.
The Portuguese Governor-General of India brought these two crops without any effort, but it took a lot of time to travel between Europe and Asia.
In addition, the Portuguese also brought peanuts, which were also introduced from the Americas. Although some people say that China has cultivated peanuts for a long time, at least Wang Yuan has not seen them in the Ming Dynasty.
As for potatoes, Europe has not yet started growing them.