This is the second time the two have met!

When he saw Shi Si again, Zhu Mingzhong couldn't help but sigh at the strangeness of fate, the last time they met, he had just joined the Zheng Army, and he only held Jiangyin. And now, in just two months, he has become a Jianghuai Jingluo, although it is not as majestic as Hong Chengchou's "Five Provinces Jingluo", but compared to the No. 1 hardcore traitor in Tianzi, he can be said to have a heavy army!

In troubled times, military power is the biggest reliance!

Perhaps, Zhu Mingzhong never felt that he was a warlord, but since he was a child, he was exposed to the phrase "power comes out of the barrel of a gun", which made him convinced that compared to others, this military power is the most practical!

And he is confident that with the addition of 50,000 strong stove dings, the current loyal army can be described as strong and strong. If it weren't for the fact that he was from Zheng Jun and couldn't change the identity of Zheng Chenggong's subordinates, I am afraid that he now has the capital to be on an equal footing with Zheng Chenggong, of course, this idea is just a flash, in this era, the most taboo is the betrayal of the boss by his subordinates, in any case, out of Zheng Jun, Zhu Mingzhong, who was rewarded by Zheng Chenggong, has long been branded with the brand of the Zheng family, and this brand is not so easy to remove.

When Zhu Mingzhong lamented the vagaries of fate, Shi Si also looked at the young and surprising general in front of him, and his experience was more like a legend, in his opinion, if the legend of this general spread to Europe, it would definitely cause an unprecedented sensation in the whole of Europe, and I don't know how many women would fall for him because of his heroic feats.

"Shi Si, see General Zhu."

While Shi Si bowed according to Chinese etiquette, Zhu Mingzhong greeted him and said with a smile.

"Shi Si, how about we meet again? Did it go well? ”

When thinking of that type of ship, Zhu Mingzhong naturally thought of the Shi Si he had seen when he was in Guazhou, although there were many craftsmen who built ships in Qinghe, but they were only good at building Chinese-style ships, and they had no understanding of European ships at all, and China's traditional ships were not suitable for naval warfare in the artillery era. Of all the people, only Shi Si, an adventurer from England, knew how to build European ships. It is precisely because of this that he invited him to come to Qinghe, and naturally he also needs to pay some price - he transferred a thousand acres of land outside Nanjing to Gan Hui, which is the price of Shi Si and others.

"Thanks to the general's concern, this journey has been very smooth, and I have not congratulated the general on his great victory in Jiangbei!"

Although he has been in China for many years, the Chinese spoken by Shi Si is still a bit stiff although it is very standard.

"Thank you for your congratulations!"

Zhu Mingzhong was not willing to be polite to him, but directly expressed his intention to invite others.

"I heard that you recently made some drawings and made models in Nanjing, how about it, did you bring them all?"

For all this, Shi Si had been prepared for a long time, since he knew that Zhu Mingzhong was the young general he saw on the river embankment, he knew that his dream would become a reality here.

After a while, Zhang Di helped Shi Si show a wooden model of a sailing ship, which was the "Slupp ship" mentioned by Zhu Mingzhong.

"As you have mentioned, the Slupp was a small vessel, but it was used extensively in Europe for its offshore trade and patrolling operations with the colonies, and was designed for speed and agility from bow to stern, with a hull length of about 80 feet, usually with only one or two occasional tilted masts, one or two sails and a large diagonal mainsail, which from a distance looked like the dorsal fin of a shark as it cruised on the water. Whether crosswind or downwind, this type of boat can achieve a huge sail area to propel the hull forward. Its signature long bow mast is like a sharp sword straight ahead, and the large bow mast sail on it provides excellent steering and headwind sailing......"

When Shi Si told about the advantages of the "Slupp ship", Zhu Mingzhong just looked at this model with a smile, compared with a cruiser equipped with dozens of guns, this kind of small warship with a displacement of about 100 tons is the most suitable for himself, in the change from the navy to the navy, this kind of small warship has low cost, fast construction, simple operation, and is more suitable for the training of recruits.

"A large Slupp ship with a displacement of 100 tons can carry about 100 heavily armed sailors and up to 14 cannons. It is a perfect illustration of the principle of warfare, "You can't beat me if you can outrun me, and you can't outrun me" as you can quickly catch up with an escaped merchant ship and force it to surrender, or you can sail off into the distance as soon as a stronger enemy emerges from the horizon ......

When Shi Si explained the advantages of this kind of warship, Li Chengqian, the commander of the left army of the navy, Pan Ziqin, the commander of the right army, and Wang Anmin, the commander of the Chinese army, looked at this small model, and their expressions seemed a little complicated, for Li Chengqian and Pan Ziqin, they did not have any requirements for warships, but for Wang Anmin, who had seen large sea ships in Nanjing, what he thought was a large sea ship like Zheng Jiajun.

"After a while, this ship is inevitably too small, and it seems that our army does not imitate the construction of a Dafu ship......

Without waiting for Wang Anmin to finish speaking, Shi Si immediately retorted.

"Your Excellency Admiral, don't you understand that since the appearance of artillery on the sea, the situation in naval warfare has changed, and the Chinese ship type is not suitable for naval warfare at all!"

As a naval engineer, Shi Si has inspected Chinese seagoing ships more than once, and naturally has a very good understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of Chinese seagoing ships.

"Although China's seagoing ships are fast and low-cost, Chinese sailboats still have their own inherent shortcomings, just like Chinese hard sails belong to the longitudinal sail category, which is highly efficient by wind; It can be rotated around the mast, can be used against the wind, and can be used in both downwind and crosswind. Because the hard sail has a support bone, the sail quality requirements are very low, even if there are many holes, it doesn't matter. The operation is relatively simple, when lifting the sail, there is no need for the crew to climb up and down on the mast, especially the sail is particularly convenient, the use of the sail in bad sea conditions is very safe, and the hard sail has a wind capacity per unit area more than the soft sail of the West, but due to the material problem of the hard sail, the area of the sail can not be compared with the Western sailing ship at all, and the hard sail has a large advantage from the same weight and the same area of the sail, and the cost is much lower. However, the soft sail ship generally has a very large sail area and a high mast, which offsets this advantage, but the high sail is also a mast that makes the mast easy to break, so the mast of the Western-style sailing ship has a reinforcing cable to stabilize the mast, but this makes the sail unable to rotate around the mast, so the efficiency of the Western sail is very low in crosswind, but this problem can be solved with a radiant sail, in general, the total area of the sail of the Western sailing ship beats the efficiency per unit area of the Chinese sailing ship ,......"

When it comes to the efficiency of the sails mentioned by Shi Si, whether it is Li Chengqian, Pan Ziqin, or Wang Anmin, they are also confused, and Zhu Mingzhong knows very well that as the ship gets bigger and bigger, the advantages of Western-style soft sails become more and more obvious, while Chinese-style hard sails are more and more obvious to their various shortcomings.

"However, the most fundamental problem of Chinese sailing ships is the problem of gun positions and defense, but the cause of these two problems is caused by one reason, that is, the unique design of the water trap of Chinese sailing ships, because each water trap needs to open a window for personnel and goods to enter and exit, so the deck is divided, so that the deck area is limited, and because there is a partition of the compartment to support the structure, either the rib is not used when building, or very little is used, and the sailing ships of European countries do not have a compartment to support the structure, Therefore, a large number of ribs need to be used, especially for warships, almost one is connected to one, and these ribs with a thickness of more than 20 inches provide a good defensive effect for warships, and even some warships will use 30-inch and thicker ribs, which makes the shells of 12-pounder guns not even cause decisive damage to the ship at a distance of 300 yards, and they cannot penetrate at close range, so the rate of warships sunk in naval battles in Europe is very small, and most of them are captured. ”

Zhu Mingzhong naturally had a certain understanding of all that Shi Si said, and it was precisely because he knew the shortcomings of Chinese sailing ships that he invited Shi Si over. However, he also noticed that the faces of his three naval commanders had become unsightly, and he seemed to be very dissatisfied with Shi Si's disparagement of Chinese sailing ships.

And Zhang Di, who was standing next to Shi Si, looked at the three people with unhappy faces, when he discussed the Chinese ship with Shi Si for the first time, his face was also ugly, and he was also unwilling to believe all this, but in the end, he had to face the fact that the Chinese ship was indeed not suitable for naval warfare, and was not suitable for naval warfare in the artillery era.

It is precisely because of this that Zhang Di will learn from him by the side of Shi Si, understand the construction and use of Western ships, although he does not think that the Northern Expedition needs Western-style warships, but from Shi Si's words, Zhang Di knows that outside of China, there is a broader world, perhaps, one day, China will also send its own warships to the West, and that kind of warship must not be the kind of Chinese-style ship with only four inches of "thin plates", it should be the same as the Western ship, the hull has a large number of ribs reinforced warship, Only in this way can we be invincible in the confrontation with the warships of the Westerners.

"Hmph, Mr. Shi, according to what you say, the Chinese ship is not worth mentioning in your eyes at all!"

Wang Anmin sneered that although he didn't know much about Western ships, he didn't want outsiders to belittle Chinese ships so much. Zhu Mingzhong still did not speak to the rebuttal of his subordinates, he knew that these people might not be able to accept these for a while, but in the end they would understand that Chinese-style ships were not suitable for naval warfare in this era.

"No, Your Excellency!"

Shaking his head, Shi Si said affirmatively.

"It's not that it's not worth mentioning, but Chinese ships are not suitable for the needs of naval warfare!"