For the sake of calculation, the test rope was not knotted every forty-three feet, but every thirty-eighty-six meters, and as the ship moved rapidly, one knot after another slipped through the hands of the temple man, and he screamed every time a knot passed through his hand. The speed of the ship was definitely more than twelve knots, so every five or six seconds a knot slid through his palm and pulled overboard. And every time he shouts, the temple people who record it will make a record.

The speed of the pulp sailing ship is generally between seven and ten knots, and the speed of the Huai water is about four knots, which is unprecedented. The faster the speed, the smaller the waves, the more the boat jolts, and the whole ship does not sail on the water, but between the waves.

The section of the river that measured the speed turned into the east of the Yingdu waterway, close to the section of the river near Wabu Lake, Rao is so, this drumming and flying warship still surprised the people nearby, Mi Xuan was standing on the Qinghan boat at this time, she wanted to take a look at the prosperity of the mother country Yingdu, but she didn't expect a drum sound on her side, and turned her head to see a big ship speeding east. She didn't notice anything, but the maid next to her pointed to the flag on the boat and said, "Son-in-law, it's Chu, the king of Chu!" ”

"Brother Wang?" Mi Xuanyu covered her forehead with her hand, and she did see the flag fluttering in the wind, which was the king's banner.

The news of his arrival today spread to Yingdu very early, and Mi Xuan was full of hope that Brother Wang would welcome him in person, and he didn't want others to be absent from Yingdu, but on a warship on the Huai River outside Yingdu, he suddenly felt a little disappointed and felt a little aggrieved. She didn't look at the scenery anymore and went straight back to the cabin.

"Stop!" The last grain of sand in the hourglass ran out, and the temple people shouted to stop, and the rope was immediately pulled.

The recorded temple people shouted, "Tell the king, eleven verses." ”

"Tell the king, the remaining rope is 0.73." In addition to the eleven knots, a lot of rope was pulled out. The speed of the ship was about 11.7 knots. However, the so-called hourglass of one minute is not necessarily exactly one minute—although Sikong Tang Miao had previously divided the day into exactly sixteen parts, and now he only divided one of them into exactly sixty parts again and again, there are still many errors.

The drums had stopped, and the speed of the ship had slowed down. A few temple people did and shouted, although Hong Zhen, Ou Zhe and others didn't quite understand, but when they saw the rope thrown down, they watched the temple people measure the time with a timekeeping hourglass, and they also realized that this was measuring the speed of the ship. Ship speed has always been a vague concept, and it has never been measured so precisely.

Looking at the boat generals who were looking at each other, Xiong Jing said: "You find a dozen people who have been to the sea to come out, and then pick dozens of young people who have studied to come out, and you have to teach them to sail in person." ”

Most of the people who have gone to sea are Yue people, and Zhuyue all rely on sea communication, and Chu people rarely go to sea. But very few of the Yue people have read books, not to mention that after the annexation of the Yue Kingdom, the Zhou Division was commanded by the Chu people, and Ou Zhe was only after the Yue Kingdom surrendered to the generals. No one dared to speak outright, although they knew each other very well. The red man saluted and said loudly: "Respectfully accept the order!" ”

"How many ships do I still have in the Chu Kingdom that can fight?" While Xiong Jing asked, the five temple people were moving again. They ran from side to side, rocking the ship constantly. The men below the deck were a little panicked, and the left and right Shi and Temple people behind Gong Yijian and Xiong Jing began to get seasick, but Xiong Jing was still standing steadily, and these people could only hold on.

"Tell the truth, I will not cure your sins." Xiong Jing added that he was worried that Red was lying.

The "minister......" red is also a child of the Gong family. His ancestor is Xiong Zhi, the second son of Xiong Qu, who calls himself 'I am a barbarian'.

After Xiong Qu's death that year, the eldest son died early, Xiong Zhi ascended the throne, and the third son Xiong Yan refused to accept the coup d'état and seized the throne. In fact, the so-called coup d'état was just a battle between the people who supported Xiong Zhi and the people who supported Xiong Yan, and it was even very likely that it was just a duel between the two in front of the people of the Gongguo, and they used each other's life and death to decide who was the king of Chu - there were many tribal customs in the early Chu State, so that Xiang Yu was still used to using such a 'single duel' method to decide the overlord of the world.

The strong are respected, and all the people of the victorious clan will be surrendered, and the defeated will not be killed. After Xiong Zhi's death, his descendants were still alive, but they did not dare to take Xiong anymore, but took their father's character red as their name to show their submission to the new king.

The ancestors had such a history, and the red man was extremely cautious, so cautious that he was a little introverted. After Xiong Jing finished speaking, he still hesitated for a while before he said: "Tell the king: Although there are more than 1,500 warships, this is the number of 80 years ago. Eighty years ago, the ships of the current division were all built a few years ago, and there are more than a thousand of them, but the warships decay very quickly, so far only 509 remain, but less than half of them are combated, of which there are 121 large wings, 150 middle wings, and 238 small wings. ”

"Only five hundred and nine?" Although Xiong Jing was mentally prepared, he was still surprised. "Why? What kind of wood was the warship made? ”

"Tell the king, most of the warships are made of pines and cypresses." The red man replied a little strangely, he felt that the king was good at shipbuilding, so he could naturally recognize the kind of wood used on the ship. Who thinks that Xiong Jing is just a scholar, and the ships he has built are only models, but he knows that those timbers can build ships, and those timbers can't, but he doesn't know much wood.

"Made of pines and cypresses?" Xiong Jing knew something in his heart. Pine is not really suitable for shipbuilding, it is only suitable for masts, and the trunks of the trees used to make masts are very straight and towering like clouds. Unlike oak, which is more than 150 years old, the trunk used for shipbuilding is only a short six meters, so Western-style sailing ships are made of oak for the hull and pine for the mast.

Cypress is also not suitable for shipbuilding, and cypress is a cork like pine. Hardwoods are needed for shipbuilding, but hardwoods are difficult to machine. According to the report of Gong Yin Dao, in the territory of Chu State, there are many oak wood (Nanmu), yellow oak wood (Huangqi), and camphor wood for hundreds of years and thousands of years, which are all excellent shipbuilding materials, but because they are hardwood, it is difficult to cut down and difficult to process with bronze tools. Now ships do not have masts, and the construction of ships with pines and cypresses is certainly not used as masts, and with the current shipbuilding technology, it is no wonder that the ships are not durable.

"In the future, it's best not to build ships with pines and cypresses," thinking that a large wing will cost thirty gold, and although the size of the medium-wing small wing ship is small, it will also cost one or twenty gold, Xiong Jing couldn't help but say. "In addition, each ship must establish a registry, paint and maintain it every year, and the ship's officials are responsible for it."

"Respectfully obey the order!" Red said yes loudly, and so did the others.

The boat was still rocking, and by this time several temple people who were running back and forth had stopped. This was to test the initial stability of the ship, and Xiong Jing remembered the Swede's Vasa, and the poor ship capsized on its maiden voyage. Of course, the schooner is very stable, it has only one deck on it, and then there is a drum and a rudder, and there is no other excess weight, so the initial stability of such a ship is excellent.

"In May, I went to Daliang to fight with the Qin people, how to arrange the battleship?" Xiong Jing asked about the current situation.

"Tell the king: There are forty-three new ships, and it is reasonable to mobilize another fifty-four ships to enter Wei and fight with the Qin people." Red Rock Road. "However, the Qin people have always been untrustworthy, and our army boat division must not be moved lightly, and the ministers think that they think it is ......."

"Why do you think so?" Xiong Jing understood his concerns. A small half of the Chu Guozhou division was in Dongtingjun, and most of the rest were stationed in Xiayi and Ezhou. Especially in Ezhou, where copper mines are involved, a lot of iron ore for iron smelting also comes from here.

"Tell the king: The minister thinks that only the boat master of Dongting Jun can be adjusted, and the boat master of Xiayi and Ezhou cannot be adjusted." Red Mo said loudly.

"Dare to ask the king, can you agree with the Qin people that the two countries will make an appointment to fight somewhere in Dongtingjun and Xiayi." Lu Zhuo said loudly.

"Then the Qin army was defeated, which made my Nanjun Chu people even more thoughtful?" Xiong Jing asked rhetorically, and Lu Zhuo was immediately speechless. There is a price for the good alliance between Chu and Qin, and the price is that the Chu State recognizes Nanjun as owned by the Qin State. Whether it is Dongtingjun or Xiayi, it is good that the Chu army is defeated, and the Chu people of Nanjun will definitely be restless if they win, looking forward to the Chu division recovering the old Ying.

Speaking of Nanjun Xiong Jing's brows, he asked Hongji again: "As far as you can see, can forty-three new-style warships defeat the hundred warships of the Qin people?" ”

"Huh?!" Hongji was shocked, "King, the enemy is twice as good as me, and the minister is afraid of accidents." ”

"Great King, the minister thinks that forty-three new boats can defeat the Qin people." Ou Zhe said loudly, and the person also took two steps forward.

"What if you win?" Xiong Jing asked.

"Tell the king, forty-three large wings can fill the waterway, and our army can hit the Qin warships against the water. After the collision, our army retreats, and if it collides again at the right time, it will inevitably win a great victory. "The new warship has ramming angles and is fast, and Ou Zhe thinks that there is no need for hand-to-hand combat at all.

"Tell the king, the minister thinks otherwise." Hongmu hurriedly said: "The topmost wood pulp of the new wing extends out more than two sides and three feet, and the two ships are separated by seven feet. The Qin army is in the upper reaches, our army must not stop, it must paddle, the big wing of the Qin army must come along the gap between the two boats, and it is difficult for our army to collide. ”

"Tell the king, General Red only said that the first line, if the second line of our army's wings is arranged in the gap of seven feet ahead, it will definitely be able to hit it." Ou Zhe is stationed in Dongting County, and Hongzhu is stationed in Xiayi and Ezhou, although the two have personal relations, when it comes to the war, they have always refused to give in: "The minister is willing to ask for his life, and use this forty-three big wings to break the Qin division." ”

"King, there is no need for land warfare in water warfare, and if you don't see a place for fierce battles, how can you talk about victory or defeat in battle?" After Hongzhu finished speaking, he also said, "The minister asked the king to allow ten new-style wings to be transferred to Dongting County and Xiayi, and the Qin people's abnormal movements were shown to the new-style wings, so that they knew that we also had new-style wings in the two places, and then transferred sixty-seven ships from Dongting and Ezhou to Daliang to fight with the Qin army." That's the safest thing to do. ”

"This method is indeed safe, but thirty-four new-style warships go to Daliang......" Xiong Jing couldn't help but nod, the red method seems to be safer, the Qin people really want to take the opportunity to make trouble, five new-style warships should be able to scare away, but there are fewer new-style shipbuilding to Daliang.

"Tell the king: the new ship is like a huge iron, the old ship is like a defeat, and our army has a great chance of winning this battle." Honglu explained: "Ranchen thinks: Wei is the dog of Qin, and it is necessary to beware of Wei people in the battle of Daliang. ”