Seeing that Dong You and Li Xiangjun looked like sisters and harmonious, Lotus Flower didn't understand a little. Pen fun pavilion www.biquge.info she has followed Dong You since she was a child, although she is said to be a master and servant, but in fact she is a little similar to her sisters, this day Li Xiangjun asked people to send a few fresh fruits over, and the lotus flower ordered someone to soak these fruits in well water to cool, and then brought them up herself.

"Miss, that Aunt Li asked someone to send these fruits again." Lotus Flower placed the fruit plate on Dong You's coffee table. Dong You picked up a mangosteen and smiled at the lotus flower: "It's hard for her to always think about us." This is a new thing that the minister sent to Nanyang to introduce back, and the idlers don't talk about eating, even if they haven't heard of it. But it tastes good, you can also try it. So saying, he handed it to her.

Lotus Flower was not polite, took it and said while breaking it open: "This thing looks so big, but it is actually full of thick skin, and the skin is removed, and the real meat in the heart is only so little." After saying this, seeing that Dong You didn't seem to be aware of it, he bit his lip and said, "Miss really treats Aunt Li as a sister?" Who knows what people think in their hearts, and I don't know if there is such a big sincerity. ”

"You girl!" Dong You feigned anger, picked up a mangosteen and made it look like he was going to throw it over and smash her, "Where did you hear these unruly nonsense, but you came to me to chew your tongue!" ”

Lotus Flower smiled and said: "Miss has taught me a lesson, Lotus Flower will never dare to talk nonsense anymore." ”

"That's pretty much it." Dong You put down the raised mangosteen. The lotus flower handed the one that had been peeled in her hand to Dong You: "Miss, you eat this, I'll peel another one myself." ”

Dong You took the mangosteen handed by the lotus flower and said, "You, don't learn those things with a careful eye." In short, according to the rules, people treat us as sisters, and we treat her as sisters. ”

"You're not afraid of being too good to her, but she doesn't know how to lift, she is pampered and arrogant, and she will turn the sky upside down when the time comes." The lotus flower had already peeled one for herself by this time, and she said as she put a petal of flesh into her mouth.

"You like these little clevernesses. Aunt Li is a smart person and wouldn't do such a stupid thing. Dong You shook his head and said, "If she wants to make trouble, there must be a reason, right?" Could it be that she can still be a lady in the house? ”

"Just her? How is that possible? Lotus pouted. After all, Li Xiangjun is a woman from the Qinglou, although she is a Qing man, but if she enters the Qinglou, she will not be able to wash it for the rest of her life. With her identity, in the Zheng family, it is impossible to become the lady of the main room no matter what. This truth is actually known to lotus flowers.

"So, she can't fight with me, but I don't need to fight with her." Dong You smiled, "She is such a smart person, and she won't be unable to understand such a simple thing." As for being pampered and arrogant, Xianggong is not a nerd who is easily deceived. It's not good to use too much thought in front of him. If you want to say pampered and proud, only you can be pampered and proud in front of me. ”

"Miss, what you said, slaves can't afford to be ......" Lotus also smiled.

That night, Zheng Sen returned to the small courtyard, Dong You greeted him, and Zheng Sen said, "Everything is ready, and you can set off tomorrow afternoon." Everything is ready, right? ”

Dong You smiled and said, "I've been preparing for so many days, and everything is naturally ready." Sister Li Xiang and I both prepared gifts for my mother-in-law and younger brother. I just don't know if they like it or not. ”

"As long as it's sent by you, how can the old man not like it." Zheng Sen smiled, "It's just that we haven't prepared the gift that the old man wants the most." ”

Zheng Sen planned to wait for Dong You to ask "I don't know what kind of gift it is", so he threw out words like "There is still a lack of a grandson for the old man to hug", who knew that Dong You's face was slightly red, but he did not take the words.

"Oh, let Lotus Flower go and talk to Li Xiang too." Zheng Sen commanded again.

At noon on the second day, Zheng Sen and others set off with the fleet.

This fleet consisted of five cargo ships and two warships. These five cargo ships are all Daifuku ships with 500 to 800 materials, and they are loaded with various commodities that are transported to Japan. The other two warships were the latest so-called fast cruisers to be launched. These warships have just joined the fleet and need to form combat effectiveness through long voyages.

"This boat is a little smaller than the one you rode in when you married into my family, about half the weight of the boat. But it's a big ship. These two boats are not much slower than the Feiyan, but because the ships are much larger, they will be relatively more comfortable. Originally, I planned to take the 'Endeavour,' but unfortunately, some of the 'Endeavour' and her warships of the same class were being maintained, and some were not in Taiwan. On the tail platform of the fast cruiser Pinghai, Zheng Sen was introducing Dong You and Li Xiangjun to the ship they were on this trip.

"This ship is also very stable, and it feels no worse than the last 'Endeavour'." Dong You said.

"That's because we haven't had time to go out to sea, and there's no wind at this time." Zheng Sen shook his head and smiled. Because the Zheng family's warships have not considered going to other oceans for the time being, especially the Atlantic Ocean, where sea conditions have always been crumbling, they have always placed more emphasis on speed and seaworthiness in their choice of speed. Of course, this also led to the fact that the comfort of the Zheng family's warship in the wind and waves was actually not as good as that of other ships of the same size. Even, if there were wind and waves, the comfort of this warship of about 1,000 tons would not even be as good as that of the largest 800-material fortune ship in the same fleet. It was only for safety reasons that Zheng Sen and the others stayed on the Pinghai.

"Mazu Niangniang bless, I hope it will be smooth all the way." Li Xiangjun said.

To say that their luck is really good, at least the first few days have been sunny and windy. Space on board was limited, Zheng Sen and Dong You shared a cabin, while Li Xiangjun and Lotus Flower were crammed together in another, smaller cabin. As for Li Xiangjun's maid Huan'er, because she is always seasick and dizzy, she is not on the boat this time.

The speed of the Fukufu is much lower than that of the fast cruiser, but it also gives the fast cruiser a lot of training for other purposes. For example, sailing in formation, changing course, and gunnery training.

The Zheng family's warships have now formed their own style, that is, sacrificing seaworthiness for speed under certain conditions, and sacrificing the number of guns for protection and endurance. One of the reasons why Zheng Jianeng designed warships in this way was because of their superiority in artillery technology, which made their guns have a higher range and power than their opponents.

Another task on the voyage of the Pinghai fast cruiser was to test a completely new gun: a steel front-loading rifled gun.

On the lower deck of the Pinghai there is a steel rifled gun that can be called a "golden cannon". It was a long cannon of the same caliber as a 12-pounder bronze cannon, and the length of the barrel reached an unprecedented thirty times the caliber, which made the cannon look extraordinarily long, about a third longer than the other bronze cannons.

The barrel of this cannon is made of expensive crucible steel, and the Zheng family already has the technology to manufacture crucible steel, which has greatly increased the steel output, but although the output and quality of the crucible steelmaking method are far more than the steel filling method and the frying steel method, it still cannot be compared with the open-hearth steelmaking of later generations, so even now, steel is still a fairly expensive metal material.

The price of this cannon is not only because of its material, but also because of the difficulty of processing. First of all, when it came to drilling the barrels, the workers encountered unprecedented difficulties. The strength of crucible steel is so much stronger than that of bronze, and a steel drill bit that could easily drill holes in bronze cannot drill the barrel of crucible steel at all. In this era, even if Zheng Sen couldn't make corundum, or tungsten carbide drill bits, he could only use drill bits of high-carbon steel that were also smelted with crucibles, and the result was naturally that a lot of drill bits were broken, and it took a lot of time to drill a pipe. Then pull out the rifling, which is time-consuming, laborious and costly. Fortunately, the *in Zheng Sen's hand is still ordinary*, and there is no need to wind steel wire and add a double-layer barrel. Otherwise, the cost is even more ......

However, the high cost also brings super performance. The 30-caliber steel cannon fired pig iron-clad lead shells weighing up to 40 pounds (the weight of the shells for this cannon was greatly increased due to the use of pointed cylindrical shells.) At a distance of about 400 meters, it can easily penetrate even the planks of the "Endeavour", that is, at the usual distance of naval battles, the planks of no ship in the world can block the shells of this gun. And if there is a stable firing platform, the accuracy of this cannon is also surprising, and at a distance where an ordinary bronze cannon can aim at the enemy's ships and fire, this cannon can already aim at such a target as the opponent's mast. Therefore, in naval battles, this cannon was of great significance, and it greatly increased the efficiency of the Zheng family's warships when attacking the masts of enemy ships.

"You're the first time you've seen a cannon, right? Xiangjun had seen it once before. Zheng Sen asked Dong You and Li Xiangjun who were on the side. Now he was taking them to watch the first sea test of the steel rifled gun from the lower gun deck.

Originally, Dong You, who was everyone's lady, was unwilling to show his face on such an occasion. But Zheng Sen told her: "Trade and warfare at sea are the foundation of my family. This is especially true when the world is in turmoil. My father, my uncle, my brothers and I all had the experience of fighting at sea. As the housewife of the Zheng family, if you haven't even seen a cannon fire, it's not very good. So Dong You also came.

"Where did the concubine go before to see the cannon?" Dong You said, "I don't know which one is louder than the sound or the thunder." ”

The gunners had already stuffed a large silk medicine bag into the chamber of the gun, pressed it tightly with the ramrod, and were holding up a shell to be filled into the chamber. It was a columnar shell, smaller than the caliber of the barrel, but in the back half of the shell, it was a circle of lead apron-like things. When the * is ignited, the soft lead apron expands under the action of gunpowder gases, embeds itself in the rifling, and then spun and flies out with the cannonball. The principle is actually similar.

The gunners loaded the shells with all their hands, and an officer ran over, saluted Zheng Sen and said, "Major General, the preparations for firing have been made." Ask the Major General to move to the upper deck. ”