Chapter 400 Chapter 18 Tang Military Industry (I)
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In fact, not only Wei Chigong was surprised, but even Cheng Yanjin and Li Ji, when they recalled the scene when they saw Gao Ming on the beach, they felt very incredible.
When Cheng Yanjin and Li Ji led their troops to the expedition, they originally thought that they would encounter some resistance after arriving at Liuqiu Island, but what they didn't expect was that when they landed on the island, they didn't even encounter any sporadic resistance.
It turned out that as early as the Sui Dynasty, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty sent people to Liuqiuci, the first two times were just to investigate, and when it came to the first time, he directly killed and kidnapped thousands of Liuqiu.
However, after Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty sent troops to kidnap people, within a few years, smoke spread everywhere, and some of the beggers took advantage of the war and ran back.
Isolated from the world, after more than 20 years, the Liuqiu people did not know that the Sui Dynasty had fallen, and when they found a large number of Tang troops landing on the island, they thought that they were coming to kidnap people again.
They were afraid that they would be slaughtered again, so they chose to hide, and even if they were accidentally discovered by the Tang army, they did not dare to resist.
In this way, Cheng Yanjin and Li Jibing conquered Liuqiu without blood, and then continued to sail south and entered Luzon.
Coincidentally, the situation in Luzon can be said to be the same as that of Liuqiu.
When 100,000 Tang troops landed on Luzon Island on the Haihu warship, looking at these Tang troops wearing bright armor and holding sharp weapons, the Luzon people surrendered without much resistance.
In other words, in fact, Cheng Yanjin and Li Ji did not spend much effort to conquer Liuqiu and Luzon, and most of their time was spent on shipbuilding.
Although with the cooperation of the two prefectures and counties of Quanzhou and Fuzhou, it still took nearly two months to build a warship that could allow 100,000 troops to cross the sea together.
You must know that it took more than a month for Cheng Yanjin and Li Ji to arrive in Quanzhou from Chang'an, plus the time for shipbuilding and sailing, it was naturally impossible for the two of them to return to Chang'an before Wei Chigong.
Even Cheng Yanjin and Li Ji felt that as long as they could return to Chang'an before the Chinese New Year, they would already be very good.
And when the two arrived in Fuzhou, they saw a person they didn't expect.
That's Gao Ming!
They remember that Gao Ming stood on a "strange ship" with no oars or sails, but a large chimney, and invited them.
"Two generals, this is my newly built big ship, do you want to try it?"
Cheng Yanjin and Li Ji were stunned at that time, they really couldn't imagine how a ship like this would work.
However, since Gao Ming invited them to board the ship, they were not easy to refuse, so the two gritted their teeth and boarded the big ship.
And everything that followed was completely beyond their imagination.
With Gao Ming's order, black smoke began to rise from the chimney of this "strange ship", and then the big ship began to move slowly.
At first, the speed of the boat was not fast, it was about the same speed as the soldiers used to row the sea bird warship, but it didn't take long for Cheng Yanjin and Li Jizhen to be surprised to find that the speed of the big ship was about the same as the speed of riding a horse at this time!
In Datang, the fastest means of transportation is horses, which has become common sense for everyone, but now this clever ship has broken this common sense!
At that time, Cheng Yanjin and Li Ji thought that there was some monster pulling the big boat running, which made Gao Ming a little crying and laughing, so he could only take them to the inside of the big ship to see what was going on.
When the two saw the steam and transmission in the cabin, they were shocked again and did not speak for a long time.
In fact, this large ship is a steam ship, and the power system inside is also the first steam made by the ordnance supervisor with a mold.
At that time, when this steam was built, Gao Ming found that it was a bit large, and it was unrealistic to use it to make a steam car, so he simply designed a propeller and installed them on a big ship.
At the beginning, Gao Ming was just testing the boat in the Grand Canal, and later the Grand Canal could not satisfy him, so he simply took Ye Feng and Zhang Sizheng and others, and came to the bay of Fuzhou by boat.
After arriving in Fuzhou, Gao Ming learned that Li Ji and others had conquered Liuqiu and Luzon Island, and he was in a good mood and simply waited in Fuzhou for a few days, and then used his newly built steam ship to pull Li Ji and Cheng Yanjin back to Chang'an.
The steamship departed from Fuzhou, first arrived in Qingzhou, and then entered the Grand Canal from Qingzhou to Luoyang, and after arriving in Luoyang, Gao Ming and others rode back to Chang'an.
The maximum speed of this large steam ship was about fifteen knots, that is, about twenty-eight kilometers per hour, so it only took Gao Ming and them ten days to return to Chang'an from Fuzhou.
It is equivalent to five times the speed of Li Ji's rapid march!
Li Ji and Cheng Yanjin don't know the principle of a steamboat, but they know what it means to be a soldier and a nobleman!
With such a large steam ship, the Tang army would be able to reach the southernmost part of the Tang Dynasty within ten days, and in this way, the Tang Dynasty's control over the south would reach an unprecedented level!
What's more, with such a big steam ship, it only takes a day to travel from Dengju to Goguryeo!
So after Cheng Yanjin and Li Ji returned to Chang'an, they immediately went to see Li Shimin and asked Li Shimin to order the construction of a thousand steam ships to cooperate with the future military operations of the Tang Dynasty.
It is no exaggeration to say that the steamship has brought too much shock to Cheng Yanjin and Li Ji, and it has completely subverted their common sense, if they hadn't ridden it themselves, they wouldn't have dared to believe that there was such a fast ship.
And now, it was Yu Chigong's turn to be shocked.
"It only took ten days to travel from Fuzhou to Chang'an by sea? That's impossible! ”
Wei Chigong's reaction had long been expected by Cheng Yanjin, so he immediately grinned.
"Hahahaha, now this big ship is moored in the Grand Canal outside Luoyang City, if Brother Jingde doesn't believe it, just go and see it, and when you see it, you will know that Lao Cheng is not lying."
Hearing Cheng Yanjin's words, Wei Chigong immediately set his eyes on Li Ji again, but saw that Li Ji also nodded.
"What Zhijie said is indeed right, and now, Luoyang City is making every effort to build such a big ship, and the Ministry of Military Industry is also building steam."
"Ministry of Military Industry?"
Hearing this department, Wei Chigong frowned again, revealing a look of confusion.
"What's that?"
Looking at his puzzled look, Gao Ming smiled at him without waiting for Li Ji and the others to speak.
"Haha, Eguogong, the Ministry of Military Industry is the former Ordnance Superintendent, in order to complete the new weapons such as steam, cannons, and Fudo Ming Wang Lei, so the Ordnance Superintendent was changed to the Ministry of Military Industry, if Eguo Gong is interested, I'll take you to see when I go back?"
"Good!"
Hearing Gao Ming's words, Wei Chigong immediately agreed, and at the same time, there were more mysteries in his heart.
"Chang'an has changed too fast, what has happened in the more than five months since I left?"