"Ship No. 5 was shot in the head...... How is the deck? Their shells fell from above, and they also broke a flying sail! Without Kong Pei's report, Hong Tao could also see that the triangular sail on the bow of the No. 5 ship was broken, and at the same time, the flag bearer of the No. 5 ship was also reporting the battle situation to the flagship in flag language, and the information he sent was that the bow deck was shot, which made Kong Pei very confused.

"Order, evacuate at high speed, the deck must be busy, the more like escaping, the better......" Hong Tao put down the binoculars, and the corners of his mouth showed a wicked smile.

"Don't see it? I haven't understood it yet...... High-speed evacuation! Kong Pei was a little unwilling, but he still carried out Hong Tao's order. The order of the captain on the battleship is the final ruling, and if there is a problem, it can be discussed afterwards, but it must not be questioned on the spot, this is a felony!

"Hehe, don't worry, I know what their cannon probably is, let the No. 5 ship send that shell over in a while, and see its caliber clearly." Hong Tao knew Kong Pei's doubts, but he had already understood that if he continued to probe heavily, he might suffer greater losses, so there was no need.

At this time, the royal fleet that received the order was turning north, and the fourth round of artillery bombardment also came, but this time they were not so lucky, and they did not hit the two battleships that were departing at high speed, but the Mongolian fleet erupted in cheers one after another. It is clear that the enemy was repulsed by them, or defeated by their new weapons, and it is entirely worth rejoicing. The commander of this Mongol fleet was also a sensible man, he did not command the fleet to catch up, it seems that he knew the speed of his own battleships and the enemy's warships, and knew that he could not catch up. Simply maintain the existing formation and course. Continue to the northeast.

"Holy! Or a flowering bomb! "After the detachment of the fleets of both sides. The No. 5 ship sent a small boat to deliver the shell that hit the bow to the flagship, and Hong Tao only glanced at it and exclaimed. Because this cannonball has been broken into three petals, it is actually hollow, and there are small iron balls and black gunpowder in it.

"It's cast directly from pig iron into two semicircles, and then welded together, which is too brittle without heat treatment. It shatters when you fall. The fuse is fine, it's a good imitation. Squatting next to this pile of scrap iron, Hong Tao took a good look at the flowering bombs made by the Mongol Empire.

This shell is basically the same as the flowering shell made in Jinhewan, especially the fuse part, which is exactly the same, and the curvature of the gunpowder channel in the cork is not bad at all. Don't ask, it's a copycat. As for how the Mongols got the prototype shells, it is very simple, Hong Tao used flowering shells in Lion's Mouth and Jinzhou, and Kong Pei almost ran out of shells on the ship under Xiangyang City. There are also some flowering bombs in it. Although the flowering bombs produced by Jinhewan have done a good job of heat treatment, they do not dare to guarantee that every shot will explode. Most likely, the Mongols will have more than one sample in their hands. The difficulty of this thing is difficult in the later heat treatment and fuze, the overall technology is not high, it is easy to imitate, the effect is good, the dud rate is estimated to be very high, it is better to use solid bullets directly.

"It's going to be 250 millimeters! Do they have such a large-caliber cannon? Kong Pei was still struggling with the cannon of the Mongolian sailors, especially after seeing the caliber of this shell, two words were written on his face, worried!

"The caliber is true, but what they made is not our cannon, but mortar. This thing has a very short barrel and a thick wall, so you don't have to worry about blowing it up. However, the barrel has a low pressure in the short chamber, so the shells it fires cannot fly in a straight line, but are hoisted. It seems that they haven't come up with a bronze alloy with enough strength yet, so they have to make do with a mortar first. This kind of cannon is not suitable for use on the sea, and the direct shot is not accurate, and the hanging shot can only kill the blind cat and the mouse. Not to mention, they really ran into it today. While analyzing the situation of the Mongolian naval guns for Kong Pei, Hong Tao picked up a fragment of a cannonball and drew a simple schematic diagram of the mortar cannon for Kong Pei on the deck.

"Isn't this similar to the grenade launcher we used before?" Kong Pei listened and watched, and quickly figured out the principle of the mortar cannon, and gave an example.

"That's right, the principle is the same, but the caliber of the mortar cannon can be very large, and if you really want it to smash it, whether it is a flowering bullet or a solid bullet, it is enough to bear it. It seems that the Mongols' firing and shooting charges are not too high, and the range is not too long. But as long as you keep experimenting, sooner or later you will find the right match. Okay, let's go directly to Mingzhou, this victory will make their morale even higher, maybe they will equip each of their ships with a few mortars, hehehe...... When they're almost done, let's go and snatch all those mortars back, they're all good copper. "Now Hong Tao has a bottom in his heart, the Mongol artillery is not much of a threat to the royal fleet, so leave them alone for now, and continue to implement the arms race strategy is the best plan. Hong Tao also had to warn the Great Song Dynasty that although the mortar was a waste for naval warfare, it was very suitable for siege warfare, and if there were enough of them and the caliber was large enough, it could quickly smash down a section of the city wall.

At present, the top brass of the Mongol Empire may not be aware of the correct use of mortars, or because the weight is too large to solve the transportation problem, so it does not appear on the land battlefield. But sooner or later, once the Mongolian cavalry has the siege weapon of mortar artillery, the Southern Song Dynasty court may not be able to stop the drop by cement alone.

Entering the Yongjiang River again, the Jinhe was still harassed by small boats, and now this fleet with the rat head flag has been well known to the common people of the Great Song Dynasty, and the legends about it have gradually increased, most of which are positive, and the people of the Great Song Dynasty are full of good feelings for this fleet from overseas and helping their own families to deal with the Mongols. The Song people like to join in the fun, and they are very bold, and the last time the Jinhe hit and sank the boat, it did not make them flinch, but became more enthusiastic.

However, this time the harassment method is different from the last time, last time it was a bit of a bullying of foreigners, the means are relatively inferior, and the front and back are not ignored. This time, everyone chose to follow the Jinhe, whether it was selling goods or watching the lively ships, they did not block the normal navigation of the Jinhe, which was more polite. Hong Tao is a donkey, others respect us and are polite to us, and he is also willing to respect others and treat others with courtesy. How do you treat people with courtesy? Just fire a salute, it will disturb these Great Song people, they don't have this habit.

Standing on the slope is more appropriate, Hong Tao asked all the sailors on the Jinhe to change into clean uniforms except for the sailman, and then went to starboard to stand from the bow to the stern, of course, he himself changed into the new uniform, with a suit and a hat of gold, stood at the end of the line, smiled and waved at the ships below. I don't know if his military uniform is really good-looking, or if his attitude is more friendly, the starboard side of the Jinhe soon became a sea of flowers, all kinds of flowers were thrown up, the Southern Song Dynasty people really love flowers, why don't you forget to put two flowers on your head and body.

After having had enough of the military and civilian fish and water conditions, the Jinhe also began to slowly lower its sails and drop anchor, and the boat transfer made the warehouse dock arrive. The shore has been cleared of broken bricks and weeds, the ground has been covered with green bricks, the docks have been reinforced with cement, and several cement paths lead to several nearby warehouses. The original dilapidated warehouse has also been renovated, the most conspicuous is a two-story building in the middle of the courtyard, it is not too high, not too big, but the architectural style is completely different from the surrounding area, but it is similar to the house in Jinhe City, the square big flat roof, at a glance, Wen Nan plagiarized his original design.

"Youlao's parents, you didn't come here today, did you?" In addition to Luo Youde and Wen Nan standing on the dock, there was also a purple-robed Song official, none other than Wu Qian, the coastal envoy who had a very speculative chat with Hong Tao at the beginning.

"Naturally, I came here to wait, Mr. Hong is rare to see, and there are still many questions to ask Mr. Wu Qian's attitude towards Hong Tao is much better than last time, there is no high-ranking official frame at all, it seems that he has had a good life for more than a year, the cement plant and the dam repair are going well, and he is in a good mood.

"Lord Wu is too polite, let's go into the house and say, the river is windy on the dock, please ......" Hong Tao didn't know why Wu Qian deliberately came over to see him, Wen Nan and Luo Youde didn't give themselves enough hints, and it is estimated that they didn't know either. Since it's not clear, let's talk about it, it's nothing more than the construction of dams and cement plants.

"Shipyard!" Everyone entered the two-story building in Wennan, and before the polite words were finished, Wu Qian proposed something that made Hong Tao frown. He actually offered to hire craftsmen from Jinhewan to work in Mingzhou, and to build a larger shipyard on the Yongjiang River to build large sea ships.

This is not the first time Hong Tao has heard this kind of thing, every time the board of directors of the Straits Company meets, as long as he attends, there will definitely be maritime businessmen on various occasions to put forward the intention of shipbuilding cooperation. Hong Tao generally does not refuse, but he will not agree to it all. He would advise those interested in commercial shipbuilding to invest in the Zhenzhou shipyard and expand the scale of the shipyard. Shipbuilding is a very manpower-consuming and financially resource-intensive business, and the benefits of a large shipyard are much higher than those of ten small shipyards, and there is no point in building a large number of small shipbuilding workshops, and the money is wasted on infrastructure construction. It is better to invest all these funds in Zhenzhou Shipyard, so that its output can increase exponentially, I dare not say that it can fully meet the shipbuilding needs of southern coastal cities, but it is absolutely no problem to meet high-end demand. Hong Tao, a ship of other grades, did not want to interfere, the technical content was too low, and the added value was also low, so it was just left to the original small shipyard in the Southern Song Dynasty.

(To be continued.) )