Chapter 3 The Xiurong Warship The Emperor's New Move

Hearing that a holy decree was coming, Ouyang He said beside him: "I also think that the holy decree should come!" ”

Zhang Zhimu immediately understood, "The emperor came to borrow silver again?" ”

Ouyang He nodded and said, "For ordinary trivial matters, he just asked Gonggong Li to send a letter." According to the time, it is time for the emperor to borrow silver. Everyone else has harvested in autumn, and the emperor also needs to collect cash. ”

"Let's go, Mr. Lu let them go to Lingshui Pier first! You go back with me first. Zhang Zhimu said: "The emperor's silver should be given or must be given." ”

"You're just not coming back!" Lu Chengxiang had a big head when he heard that the emperor had borrowed silver.

"Hehe, let's go!" Zhang Zhimu said: "This matter can't be avoided. ”

Lu Chengxiang had no choice but to follow Zhang Zhimu back to the command center.

Seeing Zhang Zhimu coming back, Gonggong Li cleared his throat and shouted, "Zhang Dongjia, take the order!" ”

Zhang Zhimu and Lu Chengxiang had no choice but to kneel down to accept the order. Zhang Zhimu is used to kneeling, and now he doesn't feel very uncomfortable kneeling. Human adaptability is still very strong.

Sure enough, as Ouyang He said, the emperor came to borrow silver again. This time I didn't say any reason, but said that the military salary was not good, and he borrowed 2 million taels of silver from the Yaogang people.

Zhang Zhimu thought to himself, "This Emperor Chongzhen is really, two million taels of silver, you are leaving with one mouth?" ”

If it is one million taels of silver, Zhang Zhimu is ready to let Lu Chengxiang give it to him directly. Now Zhang Zhimu feels that not only can he not give two million taels, but he can't give one million taels immediately.

Zhang Zhimu saw Lu Chengxiang's painful expression, and he was afraid that Zhang Zhimu would agree to Emperor Chongzhen's request. Zhang Zhimu said to Gonggong Li: "You know, we have not collected a penny of silver in Shanxi for nearly two years. We also spend a lot of money every year to help those needy families in Shanxi. And I won't tell you that we are expanding our army and are going to fight Li Zicheng, and you said that we don't need money there. Besides, we just sent a lot of silver to the emperor after the New Year, and you took it away years ago, how much silver is this? Why did the emperor borrow silver again? ”

"The emperor has the emperor's difficulties," said Gonggong Li, "where do you say that the army outside the border and the officials of the DPRK and China do not use silver?" ”

"Then you can't just stare at our family?" Zhang Zhimu looked helpless.

Gonggong Li knew in his heart that no matter how poor you were, the emperor's silver had to be borrowed, so Gonggong Li didn't speak.

Zhang Zhimu also understood Gonggong Li's idea, and said, "Okay, you go back first, let's see how much silver we can raise?" ”

"You give me a quasi-letter, when will I come and get the money?" Gonggong Li asked.

"I have to have silver before you can pull it, right?" Zhang Zhimu said: "You go back and wait for our letter." ”

"Zhang Dongjia, there must be an approximate time." Father-in-law Li is not more serious.

"Come and see before the end of the year!" Zhang Zhimu was even more polite, he knew that he couldn't tell him too much.

"That's not going to work!" Father-in-law Li quit.

"And when are you talking about it?" Zhang Zhimu asked rhetorically.

"This...," Grandpa Li still didn't come up.

"I won't keep you, we're going to Lingshui Pier now, there's something going on over there." After speaking, Zhang Zhimu got up and walked out with Lu Chengxiang, who was snickering psychologically.

Gonggong Li is so depressed in his heart! It's time for the emperor to scold himself for being incompetent again. But the matter of borrowing money is not up to oneself. Borrowing silver is someone giving you the emperor's face, and not borrowing silver is also your emperor's facelessness.

Leaving Gonggong Li, Lu Chengxiang said: "Oops! I'm really worried that you've agreed. ”

"The emperor's appetite is getting bigger and bigger, and as soon as he opens his mouth, it is two million taels of silver. He thought the silver had been dug out of the ground? Zhang Zhimu felt that the emperor had opened his mouth with a lion.

When Zhang Zhimu and Lu Chengxiang arrived at Lingshui Wharf by boat, everyone was waiting for them.

Chen Yufeng asked, "Why did you finish it so quickly?" ”

Ouyang He said: "I think Zhang always didn't give them silver. ”

"Mr. Ouyang is right, Emperor Chongzhen is now a lion's mouth. One mouth is two million taels of silver. Zhang Zhimu said hatefully.

"I think all the taxes of the imperial court can't be collected." Ouyang He said: "But there should be less place for them to spend money." Now they don't care about many border gates. ”

"It's too easy to get money from us, that's why they open their mouths." Chen Yufeng said: "It's time for us to change their temper. There are two million taels of silver a year, and we will take care of the border in the north. ”

"It's not just about money." Ouyang He said: "Let the emperor share our worries for us." ”

"Haha!" Everyone in the kiln gang burst into laughter.

"I've heard that there are people who share the emperor's worries, but I haven't heard that the emperor shares our worries." Yan Xing said.

At this time, Fan Chengkun came over and said, "Mr. Zhang, are we going to the dock?" ”

"Good! It's up to you today. Zhang Zhimu said.

Zhang Zhimu and the others came to the dock, Li Zhi leaned over and asked quietly: "Mr. Zhang, should Li Zicheng's point at Lingshui Wharf be cleared?" Otherwise, the information on our dock side would not be able to hide from them at all. ”

"Keep it! If you can see the enemy, the threat will not be great. If you clear them, Li Zicheng will send someone else. We didn't move at this point, and they thought it was good to hide. It's better to keep them playing. It was useless for them to send back the news. Zhang Zhimu said.

"Okay!" Li Zhi agreed and left.

Following Lin Zongwei's suggestion and considering the need to navigate inland rivers such as the Fen River and the Yellow River, the Xiu Rong adopted the style of a sand boat. In this way, the boat has a shallow draft on the flat bottom, but the boat is slightly wider, although such a ship will affect the speed, but the seakeeping is good, and the stability of the ship is better when sailing. The displacement of the first ship was one and a half thousand tons. Originally, the size was designed according to the size of the No. 2 Fu ship, but after continuous improvement and design, the first ship finally reached more than 1,500 tons.

On the foredeck of the ship are two twin 130 gun turrets in the front and rear and one twin gun turret on the aft deck. In order to compensate for the lack of short-range firepower, the sides of the ship were equipped with a number of heavy machine guns.

Li Yunhe said that in the future, after the development of 12.7 caliber heavy machine guns, they can be replaced with 12.7 caliber heavy machine guns. Zhang Zhimu told Li Yunhe that the 12.7-caliber heavy machine gun used on the ship could be water-cooled, so as to ensure the continuity of firing. Because the weapons on the ship do not need to be moved, and the water on the ship is easy to solve.

Zhang Zhimu knew that in his previous life, shipbuilding was built on a guide rail on the shore, and the ship was built on the gantry. After the boat was built, the boat slid into the water along the rails. But Zhang Zhimu felt that it was not safe, so Xiurong was built in the dock. Once when the boat is about to be launched, you need to open the small gate of the dock first, put it into the water, the water in the dock will float the boat, and wait for the water surface in the dock to be flat with the water outside the dock, and then open the dock gate, and the boat will go out.

The launch of this ship not only attracted several giants in Yaogang, but also attracted many people on the Lingshui wharf. Many people still want to see if this steel-hulled ship can float, they all know that wood is light so it can build ships, but they have never heard of it, and this much heavier steel than water can also build ships. There are quite a few people who think that such a ship must not be able to float.

When the water in the dock lifted the boat up, there was a cheer from the people around the dock. The photojournalists of "Yaogang Weekly" and "Yaogang Daily" ran around taking pictures non-stop.

After the boat floated, a large amount of coal and water were added to the boat with a gantry crane. The two main boilers began to add coal and fire, and the original boiler that generated electricity never went out. The ship's electricity is generated on the ship's own.

After the water level inside the dock and the water level outside the dock were leveled, Zhang Zhimu and the others came to the Xiurong through a trestle. Mu Yi had already greeted Zhang Zhimu here, and Zhang Zhimu shook hands with Mu Yi and said, "Congratulations on having a real warship!" ”

"Yes, Mr. Zhang, this is the real warship." Mu Yi was a little excited.

Zhang Zhimu came to the spacious and bright cab and asked, "Mu Yi!" Will you be able to control this new ship? ”

"We are all using such a boat for the first time, and we dare not say that we have mastered it. But we have experience with steam ships, and we have studied the options for operating ships in various situations. The first boat has two propellers and should be much better maneuverable than the Fuku. Besides, without sails, this ship should be more nimble. Mu Yi replied.

"Good! Then I will rest assured to follow you on the first voyage. Zhang Zhimu said.

"This, Mr. Zhang, this is the first time to go into the water, we still try it and you can come up again." Mu Yi was a little anxious.

"None of you are afraid, and I am not afraid. You don't have to worry about me, just try what you expect. Zhang Zhimu said.

Fan Chengkun looked at Mu Yi, who was embarrassed, and said, "Since Mr. Zhang wants to participate in our sea trial. It's a great trust in us, so let's try whatever we want. ”

After the Xiurong ignited the fire in the dock, after a period of time, the boiler pressure reached the specified pressure, and the vent valve deflated with a snort. Lin Zongwei on the boat, they were busy going back and forth to carry out various inspections. After the pressure of the two boilers reached the standard, Lin Zongwei signaled that Mu Yi could start.

Lin Zongwei commanded the start, and the steam turbine began to rumble. The two propellers began to rotate slowly, and the whistle "woo-" sounded, and the Xiurong began to slowly start. The steel giant ship slowly left the dock, and after sailing out of the dock, the Xiurong turned into the Fen River, and then turned against the current to the north.

The Xiurong continued to accelerate northward, and Zhang Zhimu felt that the vibration and noise of the Xiurong were much smaller than those rebuilt lucky ships. This is because when Lin Zongwei was building this ship, he went to the Fu ship several times to study the cause of the noise on the Fu ship, and when he came back, he took a lot of vibration isolation measures on the Xiurong. To minimize the noise, Zhang Zhimu knows that in this era, it is not easy to reduce the noise to the current level. Even in the previous life, the vibration and noise of the ship were also a problem.

The strong thrust generated by the two propellers of the Xiurong made the Rong move forward against the current at high speed, and the Fu ship that followed the Xiurong on trial voyage was quickly left behind.

After sailing back and forth on the Fen River several times, Xiurong sailed back and forth on the Fen River with a single left pulp and a single right paddle respectively. When the Xiurong sailed north again, Li Wei came to the wheelhouse and said to Zhang Zhimu: "Mr. Zhang, the show is about to start." ”

Zhang Zhimu knew that Li Wei and they were going to test the naval gun, which was the main event. Because no matter what kind of ship it is, it is a toothless tiger without artillery.

Zhang Zhimu said: "What do you think your cannon can do?" ”

"There should be no problem, Fan Chengkun's artillery has been testing 130 guns with us, and when the naval guns were designed, they have also been following the tests. Now, I see that they are all half experts. Li Wei is very clear about these things, and for this 130 cannons, Li Wei has delayed the matter of following Chen Yufeng out of the customs.

At this time, Zhang Zhimu saw the gunners of the Xiurong begin to practice the artillery, and saw that the artillery moved very flexibly up and down, left and right. Li Wei couldn't help but say: "It is convenient to use the cannon after it is put on the ship." Now they can operate the cannon electrically and manually. You can see the large rangefinder on the roof of the ship at least thirty miles away to measure the distance of the enemy ship. Our naval gun sight has also been integrated with the gun's rangefinder, so that aiming and firing the gun is much easier. ”

"Good! Let's see how you try. Zhang Zhimu said.

At this time, Xiurong began to slow down, and Li Wei left the cab. Everyone's eyes were on the left side of the Xiurong, because the six guns on the Xiurong were all pointing to the left side of the ship. Zhang Zhimu also came to the left, only to see a large area of white ash painted on the bare rock on a mountain on the left.

Before Zhang Zhimu could ask how far the target was, the front main gun "banged" and fired a cannon, and the sound of the cannon shook Xiurong. However, Zhang Zhimu felt that the vibration was not as loud as he imagined, and the sound was not as loud as he had heard before, because the guns on the ship had a closed turret, and the sound was not easy to come out. This shot was obviously bottomed, and it was some distance away from that target. Corrected, there was a "bang", and the main gun fired another shot. The shell hit the target accurately. The white-gray target was punched out of a piece of black. At this time, the other two guns on the foredeck fired another shot, and then the two guns on the aft deck also fired two shots, and several shells all hit the target.

Everyone on the Xiurong cheered. At this time, Li Wei came in, and Zhang Zhimu asked, "How far is the goal?" ”

"Fifteen hundred meters. I didn't count today, and I didn't have a good fight. Li Wei said: "I'm going to try it today, if you can't hit it so far, forget it." ”

"I don't think the recoil of this cannon is as great as I thought." Zhang Zhimu said.

"Of course, the ship's system and withdrawal can be specially designed, unlike on land, which should be considered convenient for transportation." Li Wei said.

"I think our ships can be equipped with such 130 guns, what do you think?" Zhang Zhimu asked.

"I think it's okay, why don't you try it, I think the Fu ship can put a 130 cannon in the front and rear. However, their fore and aft decks had to be replaced with a single piece of steel. It's a nuisance. Li Wei said.

The trial voyage of Xiurong was a complete success, and the whole kiln gang was very happy. Fan Chengkun held a banquet at Lingshui Wharf to celebrate, and Zhang Zhimu and several other leaders of the kiln gang lived at Lingshui Wharf.

However, before drinking, Zhang Zhimu assigned Lin Zongwei and Fan Chengkun the task of doing the 130 cannon on the Fu ship for testing.

Lin Zongwei said: "Don't worry, Mr. Zhang, we have also studied this matter with Commander Fan before. But it has not been known how much recoil the 130 guns will have. So I didn't dare to experiment. Today it seems that the recoil of the 130 gun is not very large, and I think that as long as we reinforce the deck of our Fuship, it should not be a big problem. ”

"Good, very good!" Zhang Zhimu said: "I wish you a successful experiment. If all our lucky ships are converted with 130 cannons, the combat power of our naval army will be greatly improved. Go for it! ”

Fan Chengkun saw that the leaders of the kiln gang were here today, felt that the opportunity was rare, got up and said: "Today is a happy day, our Xiurong made its maiden voyage successfully, we have been busy day and night in the past two years, it is worth it." The next step for Xiurong is to carry out various experimental debugging. It is estimated that it will be able to sail and fight next year. Today, Mr. Zhang and all the leaders are here, can we set up the next two such warships for production? Now our second dockyard is almost complete. The main thing is that we already have experience in building such warships, and it will not take us two years to produce such warships. ”

After listening to Fan Chengkun's words, everyone laughed.

Chen Yufeng deliberately said: "You kid, do you know that such a ship is made of silver?" Two ships will be built in one mouth, and who does not know that such ships are good. ”

Fan Chengkun didn't know what to say all of a sudden, "No, no, if it doesn't work, it's okay to build another one!" ”

"Haha!" Zhang Zhimu smiled and said, "Don't worry, Chen always teases you." We have already discussed, as long as today's sea trials are successful, we will settle today, and now we will start preparations, and we have agreed to build two warships of the same type at the same time. ”

Zhang Zhimu's words attracted cheers and applause, especially Fan Chengkun's generals of the navy.

I am so happy today, Zhang Zhimu and Chen Yufeng have not lost their wine.

Until the end of the meal in the morning, Zhang Zhimu felt a little dizzy.

Zhang Zhimu also wanted to see the site of the paper mill that Lu Bingyi and the others finally chose. Because the place they finally chose was here at Lingshui Wharf, near the edge of the Fen River.

But Ouyang He said, "Mr. Zhang, let's go back." Last night, I got news from home that Emperor Chongzhen sent back to Shanxi to command the envoys, the political envoys, and the three officials of the probationary envoys, and now they have arrived in Taiyuan. They asked to enter their former yamen. The officials in Taiyuan didn't agree to them, and they were in a stalemate! ”

When Zhang Zhimu heard this, he said, "I didn't lend them our money. It's okay, let our officials pour out the yamen for them. However, our Taiyuan City is not allowed to enter or leave without an ID card. A few of their officials can give them special passes. No matter who they are, one person enters and exits with a certificate, and if they break in without a certificate, they will be directly imprisoned, and they will be honest after a few times. They were never allowed to bring their troops into Taiyuan. They can't do anything, I see what they're doing there. Tell our people, if they have to come to Heng, don't be polite, do things according to the rules. When you go to us, you have to do according to our rules. ”

When Ouyang He heard this, he said: "I think not only that, but if the emperor doesn't make this matter clear, our silver really can't be lent to them." ”

"Let's go back together!" Zhang Zhimu said: "I want to see with Mr. Lu where the paper mill was built. ”

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The Song army occupied Hokkaido, and Yuankou landed on the island of Kyushu. Opening up the Japanese battlefield. --Progress of "Memories of the Southern Song Dynasty".