On the eighth day of the third month, the treasure ship was launched.

It is a behemoth with a length of 60 meters, a width of 18 meters, five masts, a displacement of more than 2,000 tons, and a combination of sails and spinnakers. The ship carried eight two-kilogram guns, ten thousand-kilogram cannons, thirty-two five-hundred-kilogram cannons, and twenty-six large ballistae (specializing in rockets).

Its firepower is so fierce that it has already lost its heart!

In history, including Zheng Zhilong's ships, there is no Daming sea ship that can compare. The warship with the strongest firepower under Zheng Zhilong is only equipped with thirty-six guns, and this treasure ship is fifty guns when it comes out of the water.

Although the mobility is a little lacking, it is really fatal to bombard, and if you attack the port of Malacca, you will definitely be able to show your might.

"Good ship, good ship!"

Zhu Houzhao stood on the shore and clapped his hands in admiration, and ordered: "Open the cannon window and show all the artillery!" ”

Facing the side of the cabin on the shore, the dark gun window suddenly opened, and the dense crowd made people's scalps tingle.

Camillo, who was following the emperor, couldn't help but draw a cross on his chest, and muttered inwardly: "Poor Portugal, you have met an opponent in the East." Unless the Great Henry is sent, how can it withstand such a cannon giant? ”

Camilo has nothing to do with Portugal because he's Italian.

Belch...... Italy was a city-state, the birthplace of Camilo and was ruled by the Austrian Habsburgs. So, he was supposed to be Austrian? But he had no sense of identity with Austria, and he didn't know which one to consider his motherland.

Seeing the supership of the Ming Dynasty, Camilo was not ready to remind Portugal. He looked down on Portugal a little, it was that all-round contempt, like looking at a bunch of dirt buns.

White supremacy?

European superiority?

Don't talk nonsense, a person who doesn't even have a motherland, let alone any racial concepts.

In Camillo's view, Daming is the superior country. It was natural for the Ming Dynasty to defeat Portugal and dominate the Eastern Trade Route. He can't stop it at all, and he has no obligation to stop it, what he should do is to spread the gospel of God in China and let this great country in the East bathe in the gospel of God.

In order to achieve this glorious goal, Camilo could even betray Portugal in exchange for the trust of the Ming Emperor in him.

Zhu Houzhao asked: "Ke Qing, is there anyone who can defeat this ship?" ”

Camilo, that is, Ke Yudao, has been made an official by the emperor, and now belongs to the serious Ming officials - Qin Tianjian, Dr. Omitted, from the nine products, to put it bluntly, is the royal clock administrator.

Camillo replied, "Your Majesty, the largest ship of Tessie is less than two-thirds the size of this treasure ship. However, the Grand Henry of Portugal had eighty guns; Portugal also had the Regent, which had one hundred and eighty guns. ”

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 the treasure ship with two hundred cannons, and you can't lose to the Taixi barbarians!" ”

"Yes." Wang Yuan arched his hand and said.

Zhu Houzhao said with a smile: "In this battle on the sea, it is difficult to meet each other in short arms, and it is necessary to have more artillery. ”

Wang Yuan said yes again and again, and asked Camilo: "Dr. Ke, the sailing ship of Taixi, can there be such a crosssail and spinnaker system?" ”

Camilo replied: "Yes, about twenty years ago, the Portuguese as far as the Cape of Good Hope began to add ocean-going capabilities to Caravel galleons. So, they changed the two-mast to a three-mast and combined the crosssail with the jib to increase the speed of sailing against the wind. In fact, Tessie's carrak sailboat used to be crosssailed. The difference is that Chinese sea boats have hard sails, and Karak sailboats have soft sails. ”

Wang Yuan said with a smile: "This treasure ship has also been changed to soft sails. ”

The soft sail had a fatal flaw and could not take advantage of the eight-sided wind, and the lift sail was particularly complex to operate.

But the hard sails are too heavy, and if this treasure ship uses hard sails, it will take at least a hundred sailors to raise the sails, and even more than two hundred sailors for large treasure ships.

And since it is combined with the spinnaker, it is not good to use a hard sail for the crosssail. Because there are too many spinnaker ropes, the nearby hard (horizontal) sail loses flexibility, so it is better to learn the European soft (horizontal) sail directly.

The combination of sails and spinnakers is actually not very technical at all.

The Portuguese easily came up with it, and the shipbuilders of the Ming Dynasty also touched the same way, and they all thought of going together.

Zhu Houzhao took Wang Yuan and others to board the ship, he stood on the bow deck, drew his sword and shouted: "Go out of the port!" ”

Dozens of oared offshore vessels are responsible for towing the treasure ships out of port. At the same time, the sailors on the treasure ship began to raise their sails, and the thing was a mess.

There is no way, the Daming sailors have never played with soft sails before, and the dense ropes make people blind. Although I have learned theoretical knowledge in advance, it is enough to really operate, and it takes half a day to raise the sail.

However, sail handling both out and into the port requires extremely delicate and spicy skills. Especially in headwinds and crosswinds, the maneuvering of the jib is particularly important, and although these sailors raise the sails, they pull dozens of tugboats towards the shore.

For a full two quarters of an hour, the treasure ship did not move at all, and the scene was extremely embarrassing.

Zhu Houzhao was originally ambitious, fantasizing that he would sail a giant boat to the sea and sail thousands of miles to sweep the universe. Who would have thought that he couldn't even get out of the port, and he was so angry that he wanted to cut down those sailors.

Wang Yuan saw that the emperor's face was ugly, and hurriedly advised: "Your Majesty is angry, the sailor of the Ming Dynasty used to only manipulate hard quality sails. It was their first time to get their hands on soft sails and spinnakers, and it was very rare for them to be able to raise the sails smoothly. It's like a foot soldier who hasn't touched a war horse, and you let him ride directly to kill the enemy, which is absolutely impossible. ”

Zhu Houzhao didn't bother to stay on the boat any longer, and said to Man Zheng: "General Man, you still need more training for the sailors!" ”

"Your Majesty atons for your sins, and the ministers must do their best." Man Zheng was so frightened that he broke out in a cold sweat.

Wang Yuan quickly followed the emperor to leave the ship, and he didn't expect that after the treasure ship was launched, it would not be able to sail out of the shipyard harbor. I can only sigh that the navy is really a technical branch!

There is a follow-up to this matter......

The treasure ship finally left the port and sailed north with a southeast wind (crosswind). Man Zheng originally wanted to test the ship in the waters near Hangzhou, but because of the unfavorable operation of the sails, Shengsheng was blown to Chongming Island, and he was stuck there and didn't know how to come back. This belongs to the generals who led the troops to cross the line, and the general army of Su Song Bei was alarmed, and Nanzhili directly dispatched a naval division to surround the treasure ship that had just been launched.

Although after the explanation was clear, and he became proficient in soft sail operation, the treasure ship successfully returned to Hangzhou. However, Zhu Houzhao's play with treasure ships in Hangzhou was known to the officials of the six ministries in Nanjing, and they all advised the emperor not to work hard and lose money.

Although Zhu Houzhao ignored this kind of recital, he was so angry that he scolded Man Zheng.

Man Zheng has been in charge of the Qiantang Sailor for the past two years, and he has gone to sea to do business, and he has robbed smuggling ships, which can be described as a bumper harvest of power and wealth. He was already a little fluttering, and was reprimanded by the emperor, but finally fully recovered his IQ, and after learning from the pain, he personally led the sailors to train sail skills.

When the Qiantang sailors were able to skillfully operate the treasure ship, 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 cultivated in Spain. Corn was even introduced to Italy and became a staple food in Europe, mainly used to make corn porridge to satisfy hunger.

The Portuguese viceroy of India brought these two crops with great difficulty, but it took a lot of time to travel back and forth between Europe and Asia.

In addition, the Portuguese brought peanuts, which were also imported from the Americas. Although some people say that peanuts have been cultivated in China for a long time, at least Wang Yuan has not seen them in Daming.

As for potatoes, Europe itself has not yet begun to grow them.