Wang Qun was a little puzzled: "Da Lang, isn't Zhen Shi in the Shengsi Islands?" Why don't you let Zhen Shi be involved in this matter? ”

Zhen Qian nodded approvingly, Wang Qun is now over half a hundred, his temples have gray hair, his body is quite strong, he used to be his mother's housekeeper, he has some knowledge, if Wang Qun is ten years younger, he may be able to become his right-hand man.

"You are right, this time to the Wa Kingdom, if you take the South Island route just through Zhen Shi's territory, but don't forget, the Tang Dynasty maritime merchants to the Wa Kingdom also take this route, it is too early to expose our hole cards, but it is easy to attract the peeps of other maritime merchants, so Zhen Jiu is in the light, Zhen Shi is in the dark, the biggest purpose is to inform the sea road to the Wa Kingdom!"

After the Sui Dynasty, the economy of the Central Plains has gradually begun to shift to the south, and the economically prosperous southern navigation industry is also more developed than the north, and many large trading ports have appeared.

Zhen Jiu and Zhen Shi happened to be one south and one north, sometimes maritime merchants and sometimes pirates, and the real purpose was to expand the sea route.

The attitude of the Tang Dynasty towards pirates was very strange, neither cracking down nor restraining them, as if pirates had little to do with the Tang Dynasty, perhaps because there was no coastal defense in the modern sense, and many officers and soldiers of the Navy Division were also involved in smuggling activities, because there were not many wars, and the discipline of the Tang Navy Division was rarely seen in historical documents in the middle and late Tang Dynasty. Zhen Qian was very puzzled at first, but after research, he found that the countries around the Datang coastline only symbolically existed some naval divisions (not yet considered navies), and the low status of naval divisions resulted in low combat effectiveness, and he didn't regard naval divisions as a thing at all, let alone the concept of a navy in later generations.

Until the 14th century, the whole world was dominated by land, and most of the ships traveled around the coastline, and rarely really crossed the ocean, on the contrary, after the Song Dynasty, the rise of maritime trade, the Silk Road also gradually declined because of the maritime trade routes, and the eyes of the entire Central Plains Dynasty also shifted from the Western Regions to the southern coastal areas.

It was precisely because of this understanding that Zhen Qian was able to lay out the layout at sea one step ahead, but unfortunately the plan could not catch up with the changes, and it was impossible to build a large-scale fleet in just three or four months.

The construction of ships, the training of sailors, and the exploration of sea routes do not require the accumulation of time, material resources, and manpower, and it is simply impossible to use normal means without four or five years.

However, there is a shortcut to everything, it takes two or three years to build a ship, Zhen Qian naturally does not have time to wait slowly, then buy a ready-made ship, if it doesn't work, grab it, naturally the situation of sailors is the same, but the object of robbery has become fishermen and pirates, and a large-scale pirate army has been formed in a very short time.

Since Zhen Qian's plan had just begun to be implemented, Zhen Jiu's scope of activities was still limited to the Bohai Sea area, and Zhen Shi was wandering among the southern maritime merchants, looking for undiscovered islands as development bases.

After weighing the pros and cons, Zhen Qian chose Zhen Jiu as his backup, from the early stage of development, the maritime trade with the Wa State was more convenient and profitable than the southern Zhancheng, Zhenla and other places, as for the sequelae of using Zhen Jiu can no longer be considered.

PS: As an aside, there are few documents in the history of the middle and late Tang Dynasty where sailors went on expeditions, but the sailors in the early Tang Dynasty were not weak, in the nineteenth year of Zhenguan, Zhang Liang led "40,000 strong soldiers, 500 warships, and approached Pyongyang from Laizhou to Pyongyang", attacking Goguryeo from the sea route, and then several consecutive cross-sea expeditions.

From August 27 to August 28, 663, a large-scale water battle was fought between the Tang Dynasty and the Silla coalition forces and the Wa and Baekje coalition forces at the mouth of the Baekgang River (present-day Jingang estuary in South Korea). The Japanese army (42,000, more than 1,000 warships) and the Tang army (13,000, 170 warships) fought a fierce naval battle at the mouth of the Baekje Baekgang River. Tang commanded Liu Renliang to change the formation, divided into two teams, left and right, and surrounded the Japanese army, whose ships collided with each other and could not maneuver, and the soldiers were in chaos. In the end, all the Japanese warships were burned, and tens of thousands of Japanese soldiers were killed or drowned, which is known as the Battle of Baijiangkou, also known as the Battle of Baicun River.

At that time, there were six types of Tang military ships: building ships, ships, fighting ships, boats, yachts, and sea falcons.

The building ship of the Tang Dynasty, Du You said: "The ship built three buildings, the column of women's walls, the battle grid, the tree flags, the crossbow window spear hole, the throwing car barrier stone iron juice, like a city fortress." In the event of a sudden storm, manpower cannot be controlled, and this is not a convenient matter, but it is necessary for the naval army to set up a situation." The building ship was the most important combat ship in the equipment of the naval division at that time, and it was fully equipped with weapons.

It adopts a closed structure, equipped with armor (raw cowhide), small and flexible shape, fast speed, and is mainly used for raids, reconnaissance, and communication contacts. Du You said: "Meng Chong, cover the boat with raw cow skin, open the holes in both compartments, there are crossbow windows and spear holes on the left and right, the enemy can not get close, and the arrows and stones cannot be attacked. This does not need a big ship, but is fast, and it is not a ship that can be taken advantage of, and it is not a ship of war."

The fighting ship is a cascade duplex structure, the sailors can be arranged in steps to meet the enemy, and the rowers are hidden in the boat, rowing through the holes, and it is the main combat ship of the naval division at that time. Du You said: "Fighting ship, there is a women's wall on the ship, it can be three feet high, the hole is opened under the wall, the shed is built five feet in the boat, and the women's wall is built, and the women's wall is built on the shed, the enemy is re-arranged, there is no back, the front and back are left and right, the tree tooth flag, the flag, the golden drum, this warship is also."

The speed of the boat is fast, and when it is mainly used for raids and shocks, it is a sharp weapon for attacking at sea. Du You said: "Go to the boat, set up a women's wall on the board, place more husbands, fewer soldiers, all choose the brave elite, go back and forth like a flying gull, take people out of time, the golden drum, the flag is listed on it, and this warship is also."

The yacht is mainly used for command and dispatch and military reconnaissance, and it is very mobile and generally not large. Du You said: "Yachts, no women's walls, paddle beds on the side, left and right with the size of the length, four feet a bed, the plan will advance and stop, return to the army, turn the formation, its speed is like the wind, Yu waits for it, and it is not a warship."

The floating plate equipped with the sea falcon is a special balancing device, which can keep the ship stable when encountering strong wind and waves, and this device can greatly enhance the ship's resistance to wind and waves, and has great advantages in river or sea operations under harsh weather conditions. Du You said: "The head is low and the tail is high, the front is big and the back is small, like a falcon." The floating plate (plate) is placed on the left and right sides of the board, which is shaped like a falcon's wings, so as to help its ship, although the wind and waves are rising, so as not to tilt. On the back of the left and right Zhang Shengniu leather for the city, the tooth flag, the golden drum as usual, the river and the sea in the warship also."

Ancient sailors (there is a reason why they could not become navies) had to be equipped with matching weapons in addition to ships, otherwise they could not fight. According to the technology at that time, in addition to the commonly used knives, swords, spears, guns, bows, and crossbows, the main weapons of the sailors should include winch crossbows, shooting rods, gun carriages, and supporting arrows and stones.

The crossbows of the Tang Dynasty were divided into seven types: the Zhang crossbow, the horn bow crossbow, the wooden single crossbow, the large wooden single crossbow, the bamboo pole crossbow, the large bamboo pole crossbow and the Fuyuan crossbow. At that time, the most famous was the winch crossbow, which was recorded in the "Tongdian Bing II", "The winch crossbow, in seven hundred steps (about 1,000 meters), was used for siege fortifications." …… The crossbow must be placed at its height, compete for mountains and waters, guard the pass, break the fruit and trap the fruit, and the crossbow will not be restrained."

The gun carriage, or throwing car, that is, the stone throwing machine, was the same heavy long-range weapon as the crossbow at that time. The shape of the Tang Dynasty artillery carriage was larger than in the past, and there was even a car operated by 200 people, also known as the "general cannon" or "stone car", and the gun carriage on the ship was relatively small and much less powerful.

The slapping rod is to use the principle of levers to build a large T-shaped movable frame on the boat, tie the boulder to the rope, set it on the crossbar, hang the stone at one end, and pull the rope at the other end to maintain balance. When approaching an enemy ship, turn the boulder over the enemy ship, then release the rope pulled by the man, and the boulder will be smashed into the enemy ship. The boulder can be used repeatedly and can be operated flexibly. "Military Ships on Warships": "The one who shoots the rod is on the big ship...... Every time the enemy ship is pressed, the rod will be fired, and the ship will be shattered."

Let's talk about the navigation and shipbuilding technology of the Tang Dynasty.

The tenon method of nailing and tenon was widely used in Tang ships, while the European method of connecting ship plates was still in the stage of using leather rope to tie it. A large wooden ship in the Tang Dynasty had a water-sealed bulkhead inside, which divided the inner part of the ship into many parts. This structure effectively maintained the ship's resistance to sinking and became the norm for wooden boat construction in China. The outer plate of this ship adopts the flat jointing method, and the inner bulkhead and the hatch sleepers are connected with the left and right sides, and the ship's side is made of four large logs and is nailed in a flat row...... Compared with the lap method, this flat joint method has the advantages that the joint is not easy to loosen and fall off, the hull is smooth, and the resistance is reduced, and the wood is saved, and the weight of the hull itself is reduced.

The two wings of the sea falcon are equipped with floating plates to increase stability and resist wind and waves.

The building ship is divided into several floors, the lower deck can be equipped with iron and stone ballast, the middle deck can be lodging and living, the upper deck and the two sides can be arranged in layers to fight, condescendingly use crossbows and cannons, often can defeat the enemy, and the hull is tall, the structure is solid, and the wind pressure can often plow and sink the enemy ship, the power is powerful, and it is at the world's leading level at that time.

According to research, the ships sent to the Tang Dynasty at that time were "very fragile, with little tension between the front and rear hulls, and once they hit the reef or were bumped by huge waves, they would immediately break off from the middle", and most of them were single-deck ships. The envoy ship sent to the Tang Dynasty should be the most advanced ship of the Wa State at that time, and if so, the technical level of its mass-produced warships can be imagined.

In the era of cold weapons, the power of warships mainly came from wind and manpower, and even the impulse of the current.

The use of wind power mainly depends on sails, China has a long history of using sails, the Tang Dynasty not only has a large number of sails, but also the technology of hanging sails is also very high, there are a variety of sail shapes, sail loading methods and sail technology to adapt to the ever-changing natural wind, through the tuning technology can use all natural winds except for strong headwinds. Superb sailing skills can not only solve the power of the warship's navigation, but also enhance the stability of the warship's navigation. When there was no wind or could not use the wind, the navigation of the warship mainly relied on manpower, and the tools were oars, slurs and poles, and shallow water could also be used. 棹, 楫 and 篙 have a long history of use and are simple to operate.

The Tang Dynasty also achieved unprecedented development in navigation technology, which was able to measure the distance and height of topographic features on the coast and in the sea, as seen in the "Island Sutra".

Astronomical navigation technology has also made new progress, astronomical directional navigation technology is popular and mature, and began to develop from astronomical directional navigation to astronomical positioning and navigation, when the astronomical positioning and navigation technology in the embryonic state, although it is only a vague estimation method in practice, but it is undoubtedly a valuable and convenient navigation means for an experienced seafarer.

Compass navigation began to be popular in the Song Dynasty, but the history of invention and application of Chinese guide tools Sinan and guide car is very long, Sinan in the Han Dynasty is very famous, and there is a guide boat in the Jin Dynasty, although there is no relevant record in the Tang Dynasty sailors, but it is not known whether the relevant technology is used at sea.

In the Tang Dynasty, the understanding of the monsoon was improved and applied to the practice of navigation, "the Jianghuai ship went up the river, waiting for the northeast wind, called the trade wind, there was a letter in July and August, a bird letter in March, and a wheat letter in May." The understanding of typhoons has also improved, and they have begun to know how to avoid typhoons based on experience; In addition, awareness of ocean tides has increased.

In short, the navigation technology of the early Tang Dynasty has reached a new level, in the forefront of the world at that time, much more advanced than Japan, according to Wang Zaijin's "Compendium of Coastal Defense", until the Ming Dynasty, the Japanese ship still "does not use iron nails and hemp catties, tung oil, only iron sheets, with grass to plug the gaps, labor-intensive, material-intensive, cloth sails are in the middle of the mast, not like China's partial Pa live...... Only a good wind, not a headwind".