One day in early November, in the southeast sea area of the Ming Dynasty, ten Weiyuan battleships were escorting a Zhenyuan cruiser slowly heading north, the huge hull crossed the sea, leaving strings of white foam, following the waves, graceful like a dragon.

At this time, there are almost more than 30 degrees in Malacca, but the east is already cold and windy, and the temperature is getting lower and lower, but Zhang Bin's heart is getting hotter and hotter, and he is about to go home, and he will soon see his lovely daughter and newborn son.

When he set out on the expedition, Hong Rong'er was about to give birth, and not long after he defeated Batavia, the good news came that Hong Rong'er gave birth to a son for him!

At this moment, he can be said to be like an arrow, a slender coastline appeared in front of him, Dongfan finally arrived, he couldn't help but raise the telescope, and couldn't wait to look forward, the majestic castle of Geranza suddenly appeared in front of him, the course was very accurate, there was no error, and he was about to arrive home.

The reason why he hurried back was not only to see his children, but also to have a more important matter, that is, the problem of artillery, the newly built fortress of Malacca needed artillery, and the fortification of Batavia also needed artillery, and the two places together needed more than 2,000 artillery!

However, at this time, the Kaohsiung Artillery Foundry can cast more than 400 thousand-pound Franc machines in a month, and it will take at least half a year to complete the artillery in the two places, and in this half year, it will also produce the Weiyuan battleship, if all the artillery is taken to Malacca Fortress and Batavia, then the artillery of the Weiyuan battleship will be gone.

This question really gave him a headache for a long time, and in the end, he thought of the thirty super battleships that the Dutch had sunk and burned, if the guns on them could be salvaged, the artillery of the Malacca fortress and Batavia would be completely enough, and it could also strengthen the defense of Dayuan, Yuegang and Zhuhai.

However, salvage artillery is not so simple, there is no oxygen cylinder at this time, although the thirty super battleships were all sunk off the coast of Dongfan, but the water depth there is also forty or fifty meters, ordinary people can dive down more than ten meters with their breath is good, forty or fifty meters, not to mention salvage artillery, just diving down will suffocate due to lack of oxygen!

The main purpose of his rush back was to salvage these artillery, and of course, "by the way" he could also accompany his children.

After anxiously waiting for nearly a quarter of an hour, the Zhenyuan cruiser finally docked at the Dayuan Wharf, Zhang Bin couldn't wait to run down, and hurried back to the governor's palace after a few words of greeting with the military generals who came to greet him.

Seeing his babbling daughter and babbling son, his heart was about to melt, and at this moment he only felt that he was missing a pair of hands, holding his son and wanting to hold his daughter, holding his daughter and wanting to hold his son, how could he not hold enough.

The names of the children have been chosen, he felt that his daughter was fragrant, so he named Zhang Xiang, and when his son was born, he just laid Batavia, in order to commemorate the Ming Dynasty once again shocked Nanyang, he specially named his son Zhang Yang.

spent a happy day at home, and the next morning, he rushed to the east of the avant-garde Kaohsiung New Town, and gathered Wang Zheng, Sun Yuanhua and Song Yingxing together to discuss.

The location is still Sun Yuanhua's study, because there is a small table of eight immortals, which is suitable for several people to gather together to discuss things.

Zhang Bin deliberately took a set of pen, ink, paper and inkstone and put it in front of him, and as soon as everyone sat down, he said directly: "Liangfu, Chuyang, Chang Gung, I want to salvage the artillery sunk by the Dutch near the castle of Geranza, do you have any way?" ”

It's a pity that at this time, there is no oxygen tank, no rubber, no plastic, and even a pipe is impossible to aspirate, people want to dive, they can only rely on holding their breath, and it is good to be able to play back and forth at a depth of more than ten meters, dozens of meters deep, Wang Zheng, Sun Yuanhua and Song Yingxing have no way.

Seeing that they were embarrassed and speechless, Zhang Bin immediately picked up a brush and drew an oxygen tank, and then asked: "If you make a tank like this and let people dive down, will you be able to dive to the bottom of the sea more than ten zhang deep?" ”

Wang Zheng and several of them are quite interested in inventing new things, as soon as they saw this thing drawn by Zhang Bin, they immediately studied it with great interest, and after looking at it for a while, Wang Zheng was eager to try: "My lord, why don't we try it now?" ”

Zhang Bin also wanted to try it immediately, so everyone came to a workshop in the machinery factory together, where there is a place for processing copper pipes, some thin copper pipes are rolled up with thin copper sheets and then burned together with hot melt welding, the copper sheets are ready-made, and there are many skilled coppersmiths, it is not difficult to make such an oxygen tank.

Wang Zheng recruited a few skilled coppersmiths, Zhang Bin guided on the side, and everyone was busy for about an hour, and a simple oxygen tank, or air tank, was born.

The structure of this jar is very simple, that is, a thigh-thick, about a foot long copper jar, with a thin curved copper tube on the outside, and if you put the copper jar on your back, the thin copper tube is just stuffed in your mouth.

After it was done, Zhang Bin happily led everyone to the coast, wanting to try the effect, Zhang Cha volunteered, put the copper jar on his back, and jumped into the sea with a thin copper pipe in his mouth.

Soon, however, he came up and panted and said, "My lord, I can't breathe out the breath here!" ”

Zhang Bin looked at the copper jar, and suddenly realized a problem, a sealed bottle, just a mouth, to suck out the air inside, this is not the same as vacuuming, let people use their mouths to vacuum, isn't there anything wrong with this!

He slapped his forehead and fell into deep thought.

If you don't use your mouth to block it, the water will flow in, and it will be full in a while, and the gas will be squeezed out, what's the use!

Maybe you can add a pipe and add a valve to try, open the valve on this side of the water to stay in, that side of the gas will come out, suck two breaths, and close the valve, so that it may last a little longer.

Zhang Bin said his thoughts, and everyone went back to the machinery factory to process it, and after about half an hour, the copper jar was processed, that is, a small tail was added to the bottom, and a valve was added on it.

This time, it was replaced by Zhao Rushang, because Zhang Cha was already shivering with cold, in order to prevent him from catching a cold, Zhang Bin asked him to find a dry clothes to change into, and went to the fire.

They all grew up in the seaside guard, and the water nature is naturally good, Zhao Ru quickly took off his coat, and left a single coat, then tied the copper jar to his back, and bit the copper pipe into his mouth, and then jumped into the sea with a swish.

After he dived, he did not immediately surface, only a bubble popped up on the surface from time to time.

A cup of tea time passed, and everyone's faces showed a look of worry, ordinary people can't dive in the water for so long, but don't have any accidents.

After the two tea times passed, Zhang Bin was a little drumming in his heart, if something went wrong and suffocated people in the water, it would be really ridiculous.

After a while, there was a "bang", and a human head appeared on the water, it was Zhao Ru, who coughed violently for a while, and then gasped: "My lord, this thing is okay, but the last one, the water poured straight into my mouth, and I choked accidentally." ”

It's nothing to choke, Zhang Bin sighed, and then asked, "How is it, how deep is the dive?" ”

Zhao Ru said embarrassedly: "I just dived hard, and I didn't pay attention to how deep." ”

It is not difficult to know how deep he dived, Zhang Bin asked people to find a bundle of rope, and then released the water in the copper jar, and asked Zhao Ru to hold the rope and try to dive again.

This time it was almost two tea times, and according to the length of the rope, Zhao Ru actually didn't dive deep, it was about four or five zhang, and if it was changed to rice, it would be about fifteen meters.

Fifteen meters is not enough, at least forty meters, and you have to grope under the water for a while, because it is impossible for a person to dive down, and if you just step on a cannon, you have to look for it to find it.

In this way, it will take another tea time, that is, at least a four-foot-long copper jar!

Four-foot long, how can people carry it, that's not in the way!

Zhang Bin was hesitating, Zhao Ru suddenly proposed: "My lord, if you want to dive, in fact, it's not so troublesome, I remember that once I went out to sea with someone to fish, encountered a strong wind and waves, and overturned the boat, a few of us were just detained under the boat, and the boat was upside down and there was a lot of gas in it, and a few of us stayed under the water for about a quarter of an hour before we floated up, and there was nothing wrong." ”

When Zhang Bin heard this, his eyes lit up, making a boat-shaped thing and buckling it upside down in the water may be a good way.

So, the group returned to the machinery factory, made a barrel about half the size of a person with copper skin, and then ran to the water's edge to try it, this time it was Zhao Ru, with Zhang Cha's experience, Zhang Bin directly asked people to prepare dry clothes and wait on the shore, he didn't shiver with cold, but this bucket was detained in the water, and it was embarrassing, because there was too much gas in it, and it couldn't be suppressed at all.

The crowd brainstormed and soon came up with a solution, which was to tie a few lumps of iron around the barrel so that the bucket could be pressed into the water.

For the sake of insurance, Zhang Bin asked Zhao Ru to carry the copper jar on his back, so that even if there was a problem with the barrel, he could borrow the air from the copper jar to float up.

Ready for everything, everyone came to the shore again, and the four guards put the iron lump into the water together, and the big bucket was upside down in the water and slowly sank, and Zhao Ru also jumped into the water with a whoosh.

This time, there was no movement on the water at all, Zhao Ru seemed to have disappeared into the water, one tea time, two tea times, three tea times, there was still no movement on the water surface, and everyone's faces couldn't help but show anxious looks, this diving is not a joke, diving into the water dozens of meters deep, it was accidentally drowned!

It wasn't until about a quarter of an hour later that the water suddenly churned again, and the sinking copper bucket actually emerged from the water, and then, Zhao Ru came out from under the copper bucket, raised his hand excitedly and said: "My lord, I have dived to the bottom of the sea, you see." ”

Zhang Bin took a look, this guy actually grabbed this big mussel shell in his hand, it seems that he really dived to the bottom of the sea!

At this point, even if the test is successful, Zhao Ru can even find the mussel shell, and it is naturally not a problem to find a larger target artillery on the bottom of the sea.

Of course, such a simple thing cannot be used to salvage artillery, because the weight of the artillery is not something that a person can carry up from the bottom of the sea, even with the help of buoyancy, and ropes must be prepared, and after the artillery is lifted out of the water, it is necessary to use a hoist to lift it onto the ship, otherwise thousands of pounds of things, even if there is a rope, a few people will not be able to pull the boat.

Zhang Bin simply summoned a wheel boat, transformed it, made a wooden frame with a wooden pillar thick with thighs on it, hung a hoist in the middle, and hung four pulleys around it, so that a simple salvage boat was made.

As for the diving equipment, the copper bucket, he simply ordered someone to make it the size of a person, surrounded by a circle of holes for hanging ropes, which can be tied to both ropes and iron, and the iron blocks tied to the four sides have also been specially calculated and tested, just enough to buckle the barrel of this gas to take down, and it is not too heavy, so that people can easily fall up.

It took almost three days to complete such a set of salvage equipment, but as long as this set of salvage equipment can really salvage the artillery, it will be worth it even if it takes a month.

The salvage equipment was done, Zhang Bin naturally couldn't wait to try the effect, and even Wang Zheng and them expressed great interest in the salvage operation, Zhang Bin simply took them to Dayuan City and let them take a look together.

At noon on this day, the sea outside the castle of Geranza can be described as very lively, a Zhenyuan cruiser and more than ten wheels surrounded a strange wheelship in the middle, Zhang Bin, Wang Zheng, Sun Yuanhua and Song Yingxing are all on the wheel, and Zhang Cha and Zhao Ru are both carrying two copper jars and wearing a tights, standing next to Zhang Bin, with a eager expression, as if they want to jump into the sea immediately.

More than a dozen guards were busy on the deck for a while, and at last two large copper buckets of strange shapes were ready, on which not only were iron blocks, but also several long ropes were tied, and the other end of those long ropes was hung on the pulleys of the wooden frame.

Everything was ready, Zhang Bin gave an order, and more than ten guards carried copper buckets and iron pieces and carefully hung them into the water, and then Zhang Cha and Zhao Ru also jumped into the water together.

This is the area where more than 20 super battleships were burned and sunk, and there are more than 2,000 artillery pieces below, so it depends on whether Zhang Cha and Zhao Ru can find the artillery and hang it up.

Six groups of guards, more than 700 people, including Zhang Bin and Wang Zheng, all stared nervously at the ropes on the water, their faces full of hope.

After all, there are more than 3,000 Hongyi cannons on the bottom of the sea, just one or two people go to salvage, I don't know when to fish, if the salvage is successful, Zhang Bin will also make more than ten sets of salvage equipment, let these guards take turns to salvage, and strive to salvage these artillery as soon as possible.

After about a quarter of an hour, the rope on a pulley finally shook violently, of course, it was not the fish that had been hooked, but the signal given by Zhang Cha and Zhao Ru, which meant that they had tied a cannon to the rope.

Without Zhang Bin's order, several guards who grabbed the rope immediately pulled the rope up, and soon, a gun with a gun carriage was exposed to the water, and the two guards who had already prepared immediately took off their coats, jumped into the water, and hung the cannon on the hoist, and the other two guards pulled the chain on the hoist very tacitly, and after a while, a naval gun with a gun carriage was hoisted to the deck, and the salvage was successful!

Immediately afterwards, another rope shook violently, and everyone pulled violently, and another cannon with an artillery truck came out of the water, just like that, a total of four cannons were hoisted up, Zhang Cha and Zhao Rucai floated up with the bucket, not that the oxygen in the bucket was not enough, mainly because there were only four ropes tied around the barrel.

Zhang Bin is already quite satisfied with this effect, there are four guns at a time, and it is less than half an hour in total, that is to say, a set of salvage equipment can salvage at least forty or fifty artillery pieces every day, and ten sets of such salvage equipment can be salvaged in less than ten days, and more than 3,000 artillery pieces can be salvaged in less than ten days!

To his surprise, the simple salvage equipment he made was soon taken by the fishermen on the southeast coast, and they followed suit, used to salvage the seabed aquatic products, the number of aquatic products in the southeast coast suddenly skyrocketed, what sea cucumbers, sea anemones, starfish, oysters, pearl scallops and other rare seabed products The output has doubled, and the coastal fishermen have since had another way to make money.