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"Zhou Qiang? He asked me about the design of the ship? Call him in! Yu Ming couldn't help but smile bitterly: "I don't understand this technology, what's the use of asking me?" ”

After Guo Yi heard this, his expression was a little weird, and he glanced at the eldest grandson Wuji, trembling and not daring to say anything.

Seeing this, the eldest grandson Wujian snorted coldly, and said to Yu Ming: "Husband, let's talk about it." This Lord Zhou must have sued me to you! ”

"Oh? What's going on? When Yu Ming heard this, he couldn't help but be surprised.

The eldest grandson Wujian sighed and said: "Here's the thing, not long after you led the army to the expedition, Zhou Qiang reported to me, saying that he had developed a large warship, which could carry more than 1,000 people and had a displacement of more than 10,000 stone (600 tons), far exceeding the largest sailing ship used by the existing Sui army sailors. I was asked to pull out the money to build it. But I asked Admiral Zhou Tao about the situation, but he felt that such a ship was useless......"

In Zhou Tao's words, the volume and carrying capacity are large, but the speed is much slower than the previous battleships, and it is difficult to avoid the enemy's attacks. In this way, it will become a living target at sea, and in addition, it has been very difficult to settle immigrants and build cities in Liaodong recently, so I raised my objections......"

Just as the eldest grandson Wujian was talking about this matter, a neutral voice sounded in the courtyard: "Princess, although the speed of this large warship developed by Xia Guan is slow, it mainly relies on wind power to sail, which can save a lot of sailors, plus the hull is huge, so the carrying capacity is amazing, even if it can't be used as a warship to fight at sea, it can also be used as a transport ship and can be used for sea landing." How can you be killed with a stick? ”

Yu Mingding looked at it, and saw Zhou Qiang striding into the mansion, looking angry, obviously very unhappy in his heart.

When the eldest grandson Wujian heard him say this, Dai Mei frowned suddenly, and immediately retorted: "Lord Zhou, there is only one shipyard in Liaodong right now, I heard Brother Ling say that it is too late to build a battleship, how can you have time to build your large sailing ship?" Nowadays, our merchant ships in Liaodong are all ordered in the area south of the Yangtze River. The construction of your big ship is too expensive, so it's better to delay the construction for a year! ”

When Zhou Qiang heard this, he was so angry that he almost jumped up. Regardless of the identity of the eldest grandson Wujian is the princess, even if he argues with her.

Yu Ming listened for a long time before he finally figured out what was going on.

It turned out that Zhou Tao, the commander of the naval division, had always wanted to build a large warship so that he could gain the upper hand in the future when attacking the Central Plains and confronting the naval warships of the imperial court. And this has become the focus of his younger brother Zhou Qiang's development of new warships.

Zhou Qiang was inspired by Mubashaf's Arab sailing ship and developed a large sailing ship with horn sails as the main power.

This large sailing ship has a large carrying capacity, can carry more than 15,000 stone of cargo at a time, and transport more than 1,000 people.

In Zhou Qiang's view, as long as this kind of large sailing ship is improved in terms of sailing speed in the future, it will definitely win the imperial court sailors when fighting at sea.

However, after asking Zhou Tao, the commander of the navy, the eldest grandson Wujian thought that this kind of sailing ship was not practical in war, and it turned slowly, and it was as fast as a turtle crawling when the wind was headwind, and it was a live target for enemy ships.

Zhou Qiang also knew this, so he directly started to build a prototype ship, and he planned to use the performance of this sample ship to convince the eldest grandson Wujian and Zhou Tao.

However, there is only one shipyard in Liaodong, and the shipbuilding berth is only ten zhang wide. And this kind of sailing ship is very large, accounting for 20 zhang wide. In this way, when the shipyard was building this big ship, there would not be many berths to build the battleships urgently needed by the Liaodong Naval Division.

In this way, Zhou Tao naturally opposed the construction of this large sailing ship. Zhou Qiang was not to be outdone, and after arguing with his brother to no avail, he directly applied to the eldest grandson Wujian and asked for enough money to build this big ship.

The eldest grandson Wujian was caught between the two brothers, and it was not a withdrawal, nor was it a withdrawal. Red Sleeves, Du Ruhui and Wei Zheng and others also came forward to mediate, but they couldn't think of a way to get the best of both worlds. This has been the case until now.

After listening to the statement that the two of them held their own words, Yu Ming also felt very embarrassed. After thinking for a moment, Fang said, "That's it! I'll go and see this big sailing ship on the ground first, and then I'll think about it! ”

Zhou Qiang and the eldest grandson Wujian stopped the noise, and the two accompanied Yuming to the shipyard by the sea to check the large sailing ship that had been half built.

"Such a big sailboat?"

At the Liaodong Shipyard at the mouth of the Liao River, Yu Ming looked at the big ship like a hill and couldn't help but be amazed.

I saw that this large sailing ship stood on the shore about twenty feet high, and from the keel of the hull, it was almost completed, but the deck and various cabins in the ship had not yet been installed, but the mast had already been set, and the five towering masts ran through the center of the bow to the stern, and it was conceivable how big the sails could be hung. Although the heavy iron anchor was not carried on board, it can be seen from the large pile of iron chains and anchor heads piled on the open ground that the iron anchor alone weighed thousands of pounds.

Seeing Yu Ming's surprised look, Zhou Qiang couldn't help but say a little proudly: "His Royal Highness King Zhou, this ship is sixty zhang long and eighteen zhang wide. It uses a new five-seat mast developed by Zhou, which can hang 25 large and small sails, with wind as the main power, even in crosswinds, it can accelerate travel. It is faster than a small ship in a downwind, but it is a little worse than a normal ship in a headwind, and it does not rotate flexibly......"

"It is for this reason that my brother strongly opposes the focus of shipbuilding on the construction of this big ship. However, as long as His Royal Highness the King of Zhou and the princess are willing to give Zhou some more time, his subordinates will definitely be able to work out a solution, and they will definitely be able to increase the speed of the ship against the wind, improve the inflexibility of rotation, and make it an invincible warship of our Liaodong Navy Division across the sea! He said expectantly.

Yu Ming stared at this large sailing ship, and couldn't help but secretly admire Zhou Qiang's shipbuilding skills. Of course, he saw the benefits of this ship, it was fast when it was downwind and crosswind, it was slower when it was headwind, and it had a large carrying capacity, and one such large sailing ship was equivalent to the load of two previous large warships.

He also knows that the larger the vessel per unit volume, the higher the loading ratio. And if he wants to trade with the Great Food Country in the future, it is essential to build large warships. Therefore, the study of such a large ship cannot be allowed to stop in any way.

It's just that at present, the world is in turmoil, and the naval division must also cooperate with the army to fight. How can we get the best of both worlds without focusing on the construction of naval warships that can be put into practical use now?

After thinking about it for a long time, Yu Ming suddenly had a flash of inspiration in his mind, and he thought of a solution to the speed of the ship.

He asked in a deep voice, "Lord Zhou, if you pull out enough money, how much time can you complete this ship?" ”

When Zhou Qiang heard this, he was secretly happy in his heart, and hurriedly said: "As long as His Royal Highness King Zhou can pull out the full amount of shipbuilding costs, I can complete it within a month!" ”

"Good! I give you permission to continue building this ship, but I hope to do it as fast as possible while maintaining quality! Because I'm going to put it in the battleship sequence! "Yu Ming is colorful.

"What? Included in the battleship sequence? The eldest grandson Wujian and Zhou Qiang were shocked when they heard this.

"Husband, this giant sailing ship is big enough, but it is really slow, and it can be used as a merchant ship to carry goods, how can it be used as a warship?"

"Moreover, with such a large hull, even the enemy can shoot with his eyes closed, and it is also made of wood, and there are so many sails hanging on the deck, it is easy to catch fire! When the rocket is hit, it will burn, and even the biggest ship will be coke! When the eldest grandson Wujian heard this, he immediately shook his head again and again.

Since Zhou Qiang often came to her during this period of time, she also asked Zhou Tao about shipbuilding in detail. Now she doesn't know anything about ships as she once did.

Even Zhou Qiang said with some caution: "His Royal Highness King Zhou, I'm afraid it will take some time for this ship to be installed as a warship!" Because it is large, it does not rotate flexibly and the speed is a little slow. If used in naval warfare, it may become a target for enemy ships. The subordinates suggest that it is more appropriate to wait for us to improve it before arguing! ”

He did not dare to oppose it directly, for fear that the matter of building a big ship would also be ruined.

After hearing this, Yu Ming smiled slightly and said, "Lord Zhou, innocent, I know your worries. In fact, I already have a solution for how to increase the speed and protection of this large sailing boat. ”

"Oh?" At this time, the eldest grandson Wujian and Zhou Qiang were both surprised in their hearts.

The eldest grandson is just fine, and she is no longer surprised by Yuming's novel ideas.

But Zhou Qiang didn't believe it, he didn't believe that Yuming also had research on ship transformation.

He asked suspiciously, "Your Royal Highness King Zhou, what do you mean, how to transform?" ”

Yu Ming smiled mysteriously at this time: "Lord Zhou, do you have paper and pen here?" ”

"Of course!" Zhou Qiang nodded.

He immediately ordered the craftsman to bring white paper and drawing pens from his design room.

Yu Ming took a look at it and found that the pen used to design the drawing was made of graphite, similar to the pencil of later generations. It's just wrapped in a bamboo tube on the outside.

He then drew a wheel axle and four blades on the white paper. Then he said, "Lord Gao, this thing is called a propeller, and when it turns in the water, it can propel the ship forward, and the power is much stronger than the wheels of the paddle wheel." If the propeller is mounted next to the stern rudder, the speed of the ship will be greatly increased! ”

"Is this thing really faster than manual padding?" Zhou Qiang and Eldest Sun Wujian looked at the propeller on the picture, both with some expressions of disbelief.

Yuming looked confident and confident.

...