With the 10,000-jin Hongyi cannon, Zhang Bin's mind couldn't help but become active.

Originally, he still wanted to have a war of attrition with the Dutch, you and I fought a few rounds, and when the number of Weiyuan battleships on his side exceeded the number of super battleships of the Dutch, the battle would almost be resolved.

However, now with the 10,000-jin Hongyi cannon, it is different, with the Dutch's dedication to Dongfan, they will definitely come to attack the big man, attack the castle of Geranza, sixty 10,000 catties of Hongyi cannon to the castle of Geranza, the comparison of the strength of the enemy and us is completely different.

At this time, the strength in his hands was not much weaker than that of the Dutch, and it may not be realistic to go to Batavia to take the headquarters of the East India Company, but it was more than enough to defend the southeast coast and the east.

In June, the number of Weiyuan battleships in his hands will reach twenty, which is enough to match the twenty super battleships of the Dutch, and even has an absolute advantage in maneuverability and artillery rate of fire.

In addition, the five captured super battleships and more than 20 armed merchant ships, plus the more than 300 warships in his hands, did not have any problem resisting 20 super battleships, and it was a big deal to sink dozens of them, as long as they were pasted to the side, the Dutch would have to lie down.

There are also more than 200 wheels, and it is not a problem to surround more than a dozen super battleships, and as for the armed merchant ships of the Dutch, they can be dealt with with the Zhenyuan battleship, that is to say, with the current comparison of strength, not counting the coastal defense batteries and fortresses, there is actually not much difference between the two sides of the sea forces.

If the 10,000-pound Hongyi cannon can kill more than ten super battleships of the opponent, then the advantage of his side is quite obvious, and it is not impossible to annihilate the main fleet of the Dutch East India Company in one fell swoop.

As long as the main fleet of the Dutch East India Company can be wiped out, it will be easy to conquer Batavia, and at that time, the entire South Seas will be the world of the Ming Dynasty.

Of course, there is a premise for all this, that is, the enemy's reinforcements should not exceed ten super battleships, and if they exceed ten, it is basically impossible to decide the outcome of the first battle.

It is not known how many reinforcements the enemy will send, but since there is hope of annihilating the main fleet of the Dutch East India Company in one fell swoop, this opportunity cannot be missed, and after the problem of casting cannons is solved, he organizes the naval fleet to begin drills.

This time, there were captured super battleships and armed merchant ships as targets, and the drill was more effective, but this drill was not only a drill to seize ships, but also set fire to ships.

Last time, he wanted to grab a super battleship to make a sample, so naturally he mainly practiced seizing ships, but this time he wanted to completely annihilate the main fleet of the Dutch, and burning ships seemed to be faster and simpler than seizing ships.

This drill burned the boat, Zhang Bin found a very embarrassing problem, this boat is really not so easy to burn, last time he was really lucky, met a layman, to meet an insider would be miserable, because just rely on Molotov cocktails don't even think about lighting other people's boats.

The real experts will prepare a lot of fine sand or even wet quilts, the fire is smaller, a bucket of sand is poured up, extinguished, the fire is bigger, a bed of wet quilts is covered, and the same is extinguished.

After he practiced burning ships with Yu Chenglong and Zheng Zhilong, two experts, he found that it is not so simple to set fire to the enemy's ship, ignition is only one aspect, you have to prevent the enemy from extinguishing the fire, as long as people are prepared, no matter how big the fire you are, they can extinguish it for you!

Originally, when there were no muskets and artillery, naval warfare was mainly about receiving ships and burning ships, and most of the ships used were rockets and fireships.

Rockets are the most commonly used means, because rockets can not only ignite, but also hurt people, generally rockets are constantly thrown at an area, which can not only increase the fire, but also prevent people from extinguishing fires, of course, if you meet an experienced commander, rockets are not much use, people send a few people to carry wet quilts to extinguish the fire, you don't have a problem with him.

It's the same with a fireboat, if you go up next to it, and a few buckets of sand or even a few buckets of water fall down, your fire is basically extinguished.

Therefore, when setting fire to a ship, how to prevent people from putting out the fire is more important than setting it on fire.

This is more embarrassing, Zhang Bin found that he now has nothing else to equip except for a bow and a bucket of rockets for everyone on the arson boat.

Like muskets, the non-commissioned officers of the arsonist ship are useless, because the arsonist ship is much lower than the armed merchant ships, and it is about ten meters lower than the super battleship, and the musket cannot hit the people on the deck at all, and only by projectile can it cause damage to the enemy on the deck.

Throwing weapons that injured the enemy, Zhang Bin quickly thought of grenades or grenades, at this time, it didn't seem difficult to make grenades, thinking of this, he immediately handed over the drill to Yu Chenglong and Zheng Zhilong to be responsible, and he himself went to Kaohsiung City to find Sun Yuanhua and them to discuss the manufacture of grenades.

At this time, the sand turning workshop of Kaohsiung Cannon Foundry is in full swing, here in Shatian, hundreds of people under the command of Sun Yuanhua surrounded ten pieces of sand with a base, digging pits, erecting iron molds, filling sand and pouring, and one by one pagoda-shaped iron molds from time to time from the huge sand pit to reveal a towering figure, which looks extremely spectacular; On the other side of the furnace, under the command of Song Yingxing, hundreds of people surrounded the ten largest furnaces, adding blister copper, coal, and smelting fires, and they were very busy.

As soon as Zhang Bin walked into the workshop, he suddenly felt that it was extremely hot, although the outside was already in full bloom, but it was far worse than the inside, and it was even hotter than midsummer.

Sun Yuanhua and Song Yingxing seem to be very busy at this time, and they didn't even pay attention to him when he came in, looking at their busy figures Zhang Bin was a little embarrassed, they were busy casting cannons at this time, and looking for them to make grenades, it seemed to be a bit of a squeeze for labor.

However, this grenade is as important as the 10,000-jin Hongyi cannon, so he still has to trouble them, he walked over and patted Sun Yuanhua on the shoulder, and said slightly apologetically: "Chuyang, are you free?" ”

Sun Yuanhua looked back and couldn't help but be surprised, "My lord, why are you here, is there something wrong?" ”

Zhang Bin was a little embarrassed and said, "I want to trouble you to make another thing, are you busy coming here?" ”

Sun Yuanhua wiped his sweat and said with a smile: "What are you busy with, we are just worried that we will not be able to make the artillery on time, so we came here to supervise, in fact, even if we are not there, they will not be slow." ”

Zhang Bin was pleased: "That's good, call Chang Geng, and let's go and discuss it together." ”

When Sun Yuanhua heard this, he immediately beckoned Song Yingxing to accompany Zhang Bin to his study, and the three of them sat down, Zhang Bin immediately drew a sketch of a wooden-handled grenade and a pineapple grenade, and then pointed to the picture and introduced: "What I want to do is roughly like this, this is gunpowder, which can be ignited with a fuse, or ignited with a flintlock device, and after ignition, it is directly thrown out to injure the enemy." ”

After listening to his introduction, Sun Yuanhua and Song Yingxing couldn't help but glance at each other dumbly, and then Sun Yuanhua got up and ran to the bookshelf and took out a book at random, flipped through it, and then spread it out in front of Zhang Bin and asked, "What the adults are talking about is the earth-shaking thunder, right?" ”

Zhang Bin looked at the book, and sure enough, the things drawn on it were basically the same as the ones he drew, but one was gourd-shaped, the other was pure round, and there were leads on it, but when he looked at the introduction, he immediately found a problem, because the diameter of the thing described in the picture was about seven inches to one foot, and he probably compared it, which was bigger than two fists.

Why do you want to make it so big, it's very simple, because the gunpowder explosion power at this time is not great, and it is far worse than the gunpowder power of later generations, if it is made about the same size as the wooden handle grenade and pineapple grenade of later generations, it is estimated that it will not even be able to explode the iron shell outside!

However, it would be easy to do if this thing was ready-made, and he combined the wooden-handled grenade with the pineapple grenade and the earth-shaking thunder, and drew the appearance of a hammer in eighteen weapons, but the hammer was not round but pineapple-shaped, and the handle of the hammer was not a thin rod, but a cylinder the thickness of a child's arm.

Sun Yuanhua saw him draw such a strange thing, and couldn't help but ask curiously: "My lord, why do you want to make it like this, you can't cast it with a handle!" ”

Zhang Bin explained: "This handle is not iron, it is wooden, and the reason why we need to add a handle is because this earth-shaking thunder is too big, and you have to hold it with both hands to throw it out, so you can't throw it far at all." You didn't read it and it said that if you want to get far, you need to throw it with a catapult. This thing itself is only a few catties, the reason why it can't be thrown far is because it's not easy to take, it's easy to take it with a handle, hold the handle and throw it out, it's not a problem to throw it dozens of steps away. A hole is drilled in the middle of this wooden handle, which is just right for the lead, so that as long as it is lit, the water will not be splashed. ”

When Sun Yuanhua heard this, he couldn't help but nod suddenly: "Well, it's still thoughtful to adults, it turns out that this thing can only be thrown down when defending the city, or thrown out with a catapult, and it's easy to throw it with this handle." My lord, is this in a hurry, if you are in a hurry, I will let someone open the mold. ”

This is not enough for one or two, at least tens of thousands, of course, the sooner you make it, the better, Zhang Bin immediately nodded and said: "Well, the sooner the better, one or two of these things are not of much use, each soldier needs to be equipped with at least five or more, so that it is at least tens of thousands." ”

Sun Yuanhua was frightened by this amount, tens of thousands at every turn, and he didn't know how long it would take, he immediately recruited a skilled carpenter, probably as soon as he said it, he immediately began to make molds, under the guidance of Zhang Bin, this mold was quickly made, and it was very simple to cast a ball less than a foot large, and the sample was made on the same day.

However, after loading the sand and trying, Zhang Bin found a very embarrassing problem, the wooden handle could not be fixed at all, because the contact surface was too small, and he shook it hard, and before the earth-shaking thunder was thrown, the iron ball in front fell from the wooden handle.

This is not difficult to solve, change the mold, directly from the opening to stretch out an inch of about an inch of round sleeve, but the inner hole of the round sleeve and the front end of the wooden handle should be processed on the lathe to make a tight fit, so that it will not fall.

After the sample was made, Zhang Bin personally did a series of tests.

He first ordered someone to load it with sand and try to throw it, but it could only be thrown out about twenty meters, which seemed to be a little too heavy;

Then he ordered someone to throw the sand and throw it, but it was not more than thirty meters, which seemed to be a little not enough;

In the end, he ordered someone to load gunpowder and use a wooden stake to test the power of the explosion, which was quite powerful, and could be embedded in the stake within a radius of ten meters.

The first sample was tried by him, and the overall effect was not satisfactory, but the throwing distance was a bit short, according to the height difference between the arson ship and the super battleship, it was almost more than thirty meters to be thrown to the deck.

This is a matter of proficiency, so within a few days, the beach near Dayuan Port was lively, and thousands of sailors practiced throwing there with earth-shaking thunder every day.

Zhang Bin set a strict standard for this training, and only by throwing 20 steps can he be considered qualified, and if he can't throw so far, he will continue to practice.

On the sea, the drill of seizing the ship and igniting the ship has also been going on, on this day, Zhang Bin was directing the overboard battle drill on the sea outside the castle of Geranza, a wheel suddenly sailed out of the inner sea of the Taijiang River and rushed to the handsome ship, Zhang Bin swept the binoculars, and couldn't help but chuckle in his heart, it turned out to be his second brother Zhang Guan, could it be that something happened at home!

Soon, the wheel boat approached the handsome ship, Zhang Bin couldn't wait to run to the side of the ship, and asked loudly below: "Second brother, what's wrong, why did you run over?" ”

Zhang Guan shouted excitedly at him: "Old Five, come home with me, Fang Huagang suddenly felt unbearable abdominal pain, and Wen Po said that she was going to give birth!" ”

When Zhang Bin heard this, he almost jumped off the flagship without excitement, he was going to give birth, he was going to be a father, he had already calculated it last year, he was almost born in March this year, and it was already March at this time, and he was so busy that he forgot!

Maybe it's because I watched Qi Fanghua talk and laugh with her family every day with a big belly, and I got used to watching it for a few months, and I forgot that she was about to give birth.

He roared and ordered the men to lower the hanging ladder, climbed down from the flagship with a puff of smoke, and immediately urged the wheels to hurry back.

It took nearly two quarters of an hour to finally rush back to the Governor's Palace, at this time Qi Fanghua's courtyard was already crowded with people, his own parents, Qi Fanghua's parents, as well as Hong Rong'er and other wives and concubines and their families, as well as his second brother Zhang Guan's family, as well as Zheng Chenggong's brothers and Tian Chuan's family, etc., the huge courtyard was a little crowded at this time.

As soon as Zhang Bin ran in, Huang came up and hugged his arm and said nervously: "Fifth girl, Fanghua is about to give birth, Fanghua is going to be born." ”

Zhang Bin was more nervous than her at this time, listening to Qi Fanghua's faint screams, he felt that his heart and liver were trembling, his head was chaotic, and he still had the heart to talk to his mother.

Zhang Chengde was calm, as soon as he saw Zhang Bin's nervous appearance, he immediately pulled Huang aside and scolded with a smile: "Don't make trouble for the fifth child, he is more panicked than you at this moment." ”

At this time, Hong Rong'er also walked over with a stomach, hugged his arm and said nervously: "Brother Bin, I'm a little scared." ”

Zhang Bin habitually touched her head, and subconsciously comforted: "Rong'er, don't be afraid, you will have a child soon." ”

As soon as his words fell, there was a loud cry of a baby in the room, born, really born.

Soon, a maid ran out and said happily: "Congratulations to the master, you are a daughter, and the mother and daughter are safe." ”

As soon as the girl's words came out, Zhang Chengde and his wife seemed to be stunned for a moment, but Zhang Bin said happily: "Okay, good, look at it." ”

He doesn't have any pressure to inherit the lineage, his four elder brothers all have sons, and it's good to have a daughter, and he will be as strong in martial arts as Qi Fanghua in the future!

He was secretly having fun here, Zheng Chenggong suddenly hugged his younger brother and said happily: "It's a little sister, it's a little sister." ”

Zhang Bin glanced at him instinctively, and said in his heart: "Boy, if you want to beat my daughter, you owe a beating!" ”