In fact, Yang Qing's converter is still just a test product......

This thing is too restrictive.

The ore must be low phosphorus and low sulfur, so only Hainan Island, there is almost no second place in the whole Ming Dynasty, although Anshan's is also OK, but the grade is much worse than that of Hainan Island, the only advantage is that the manganese content is high. However, the iron ore from Hainan Island must be transported to Nandu by sea, because of the monsoon and ocean current restrictions, it can only be transported in large quantities in spring and summer, and it is difficult to really maintain transportation in autumn and winter, except for a small number of schooners.

In fact, his capacity is also tight.

Because the most important thing for his fleet is not to transport iron ore, but to transport guano, which is more important than iron ore, after all, the steel of the Ming Dynasty is not too tight, but the grain is not sloppy at all, with the north taking over, the relief of the hungry there has almost emptied his granary.

Guano is the most important thing.

Of course, this problem will be solved with the use of new steamships.

But until then, the converter will not make a real difference.

Because the same quality of steel can also be smelted by the crucible method, or even better quality, the steel of the converter is not as good as the crucible steel, and the advantage is only that the smelting speed is fast and the output is large. As for the low-end ones, the mixing method is very mature, and in fact it can also smelt steel of poor quality, and the mixing method has low requirements for iron ore, even the ore from Daye and Ma'anshan can also be used. In short, the new steelmaking furnace has brought about limited substantial changes, it has only increased the supply of low-carbon steel, but in the short term, it is still the wrought iron that uses Daye and Maanshan iron ore that form the basis of Daming's iron and steel industry.

But......

It brought a magic weapon to the Ming Navy.

Zhoushan.

On the middle gun deck of the battleship Hongwu of the Ming Navy......

"Cast steel blossom bomb!"

Yang Qing said to Zheng Cai holding a spherical cannonball with a wooden stock.

"It's expensive, isn't it?"

The commander of the Nanyang Navy Division exclaimed.

Obviously, his mind is still in the era of crucible steel, three hours of thirty catties of crucible steel is very expensive, plus pig iron charcoal smelting, stirring method to smelt mature iron, forging into high-quality wrought iron, and then wrought iron and then cutting and re-melting this set of tedious processes, and finally smelting and casting such a cannonball, the cost is almost the same weight of copper.

Da Ming is rich and generous, and he doesn't dare to play like this.

"It's so much cheaper now!"

Yang Qing said with a smile.

Pouring molten pig iron directly into the converter, a new steelmaking furnace of one ton can be smelted in ten minutes, so that the cost of this shell plummets.

"Load it in and take a look!"

He said.

Zheng Cai immediately took the shell, the subordinates next to him handed the fuse, several artillerymen loaded a 24-pound short heavy gun with propellant at the fastest speed, Zheng Cai stuffed the shell loaded with the fuse directly into the muzzle, took the push lever and pushed it to the end, the gun commander loaded the flintlock with the flintlock powder in the back, and then held the cannon rope to their commander with both hands......

Zheng Cai looked at Yang Qing.

"Don't worry, it won't blow up!"

Yang Qing said.

The navy did not dare to use flowering shells before, because those cast-iron flowering shells could not withstand the bore pressure of short and heavy guns, and would shatter at the moment of firing, and the charge inside would be directly detonated in the barrel of the gun, and then the entire cannon would be blown apart together. The army used only mortar guns and mountain howitzers, the latter of which had only slightly longer barrels than mortars, and killed a few artillery pieces even if they were blown up on land, but they were blown up as soon as the battleship was blown up. The entire artillery deck is almost straight, and all the cannons have spare gunpowder next to them, and the force of the explosion will sweep through this small space, igniting all the gunpowder that can be ignited, turning the entire battleship into a spectacular fireworks at sea.

But cast-steel shells will not.

In fact, the power behind Bessemer's research on the converter in history was because the British army's flowering bombs could not withstand high chamber pressure.

"Aim at the target ship!"

Zheng Cai immediately shouted.

The artillerymen quickly aimed the cannon, which was actually a thirty-two-pounder Caron cannon, at a target ship floating two hundred paces away.

"Put!"

After Zheng Cai finished speaking, he immediately pulled the cannon rope.

The flintlock machine struck quickly, and the ignited gunpowder immediately detonated the breech propellant, and the huge force propelled the cannonball with the wooden butt to fly, and at the same time ignited the woodpipe fuse.

The butt is shattered at the moment of discharge.

The cast-steel blossom bomb with the incendiary fuse hit the target ship in the next moment......

Everyone was staring at the target ship.

Suddenly the flames of the explosion erupted from the hole in the target ship, along with the shattered planks of the splintered planks upward, and when the smoke cleared, the sea water had poured into the cracked rift. Soon, as the hull sank sharply, the hole that had been blown up several times larger also began to sink into the water line, and the target ship could be declared sunk in just two minutes under everyone's gaze.

Zheng Cai took a deep breath.

"With this artifact, who can defeat my Ming warship at sea!"

He said excitedly.

At the same time, the sailors cheered.

"Then go and conquer the South Seas!"

Yang Qing said with satisfaction.

Zheng Cai came to receive the eleventh and twelfth battleships of the Nanyang Naval Division, which were also the two largest, as the future flagship of the Nanyang Naval Division, named after the two era names of Hongwu and Yongle, and equipped with ninety cannons. This is also the first batch of three-tier artillery decks of the Ming Navy, and the previous ones, including six seventy-four-gun battleships, were two-tier artillery decks, which were actually two first-class ships of this era.

Also were the two largest battleships in the entire Indian and Pacific Oceans.

In second place were the six seventy-four gunboats.

In the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean, neither Britain nor the Netherlands, plus the two teeth and France and Denmark, did not have the level of 74 guns.

In fact, the Dutch East India Company mainly armed merchant ships, and in order to cope with the rise of the Ming Navy in recent years, it was ruthless to build six battleships, but they were all third-class ships with forty or fifty guns. After all, they are just a company, everything is based on the pursuit of interests, and it is impossible to play any maritime arms race with Daming in the East. They also built battleships only to prevent the Ming army from attacking Java, and the Dutch navy, although it was powerful, could not come here......

In fact, their navy cannot be said to be very strong.

It is even difficult to say that there is a navy.

The Dutch Republic actually had five navies belonging to five provinces, which were under the command of the councils of their respective provinces, and although they had a large number of warships, none of them were very strong. For example, Tromp's flagship in the Battle of Downs, the Emilia, had only 57 guns, and the battleship Briderod, which Tromp had killed in the First Anglo-Dutch War, also had only 54 guns. During the entire Anglo-Dutch War, although the two sides invested hundreds of warships, in fact, most of them were thirty or forty guns, and the combat effectiveness of a single ship was not much stronger than that of the Ming cruisers. As for the Sea King only to frighten people, in reality it did not have much success, this famous battleship was loaded with too many cannons to be top-heavy, and despite being the flagship of Admiral Black, His Excellency Admiral was accustomed to quickly change ships as soon as he fought.

The father of the Royal Navy didn't like to sit on this.

However, after the First Anglo-Dutch War, both sides immediately began to upgrade their fleets, and by the time of the Second Anglo-Dutch War, it was already the 73-gun Unity against the 80-gun Royal Charles.

But now they are not much stronger than the current Ming Navy.

At least the same level.

At this time, Britain only had one first-class ship, and there were a bunch of forty or fifty guns left, not even seventy-four gunboats, and the Dutch did not even have first-class ships, if there was a Dutch fleet expedition to the East, the result would also be beaten by the Ming navy fighting at home, and its end would not be much stronger than the Russian fleet during the Russo-Japanese War.

Of course, none of them will come to the East.

According to the time calculation, the war between the Netherlands and Britain has begun, but the news has not yet reached that it is too far away, and this war, which lasted for nearly two years, is the national war between the two sides. Therefore, the expedition of the South Sea Naval Division was at most the six battleships of the Dutch East India Company, and a large number of armed merchant ships. But Zheng Cai's fleet had twelve battleships, including two de facto first-class ships, and he also had fifty cruisers, and the Dutch would not have the courage to provoke in the face of such strength.

If they dare to ......

Then go and destroy Batavia together.

"Please rest assured, Your Majesty, the ministers and sailors will sweep away all the ministers for the Ming Dynasty."

Zheng Cai saluted and said.

"I believe in you!"

Yang Qing said.

The Nanyang Naval Division of the Ming Navy, with his flagship and another ship of the same class, sailed away from Zhoushan like this......

There is no need to swear a teacher.

In fact, the main force of the Nanyang Naval Division is currently preparing to set sail on Hainan Island, and the fleet must also rely on the wind and ocean currents to go south. The north-to-south coastal currents still control the flow of the sea, and this cold current, which runs from north to south, crosses the Taiwan Strait and turns southwest to Java in the South China Sea and extends to the equator. However, in April and May, as the wind changes, the warm currents over the South China Sea will push the sea northward, so the expedition fleet will try to sail from Hainan Island to Longyamen during these two months.

As for their battles......

Then there is no need for Yang Qing to worry about it, Zheng Hongkui and Zheng Cai are the core of the Zheng family, they are more familiar with the South Seas than Yang Qing, a powerful fleet plus a whole army of marines, and if they can't solve this little thing, then I'm really sorry for his preferential treatment of the Zheng family.

And next......

Then it's time for his battle to begin.

"Fight with the sky, fight with the earth, fight with people, it's endless fun!"

The Protector looked at the two giant ships in the distance and sighed.

"Let's go, go back and have a good fight with them!"

Then he turned around and said.

The guards behind hurriedly handed him the reins of an Andalusian horse, and the Protector turned over and quickly left the docks to return to Nandu, also running towards his battlefield......