In fact, Gu Zhong is still conservative, and the cost of transporting goods by steam ship is three times less than that of ordinary sailing ships.

The first is speed.

Su Baiyi stood at the bow of the boat, picked up the binoculars and looked at the sea for a long time, and said to the lookout with a smile: "Let them reduce their speed, we have to practice while traveling this time, and strive to train your coordination when it comes to Fuchun in Guangnan." ”

"Yes!" The lookout took the horn and said downward, "Slow down, cut the speed in half." ”

If the speed of the flagship is not reduced, it will not be long before the sailboats behind it will not even be visible.

After the speed of the big ship slowed down, a student from Yuyuan ran up from the cabin below, walked up to Su Baiyi and saluted respectfully.

Su Baiyi nodded.

This student should be a second-generation student of Yuyuan, who looks about twenty years old, and was recommended to Su Baiyi for training because of his particularly good performance.

"What's your name?" Su Baiyi has too many students, and it is impossible to remember all the names one by one.

The student bowed again and said, "Mr. Hui's words, the student Second Lieutenant Liu, the second-generation disciple of the Yuyuan, is a person from Songjiang Mansion. ”

"Oh?" Su Baiyi was slightly surprised and said, "That's a good place." Songjiang Mansion is the Shanghai of later generations, so Su Baiyi is a little sensitive to this place, and suddenly thought that Gu Changzuo, Xu Guangqi's in-law who came to buy railway shares last time, is also from Songjiang Mansion, so he asked casually: "Can you know Gu Changzuo?" ”

Second Lieutenant Liu said: "Gu Gong is a student grandfather!" ”

"Oh......" Su Baiyi smiled and said, "Okay, good, you are a thousand-mile horse of the Gu family." He asked, "How did you just measure?" ”

Second Lieutenant Liu said: "Mr. Hui's words, the student just measured that our boat is running at full speed, and the fastest speed is about twenty-five kilometers per hour. ”

"Hmm!" Su Baiyi nodded, waved his hand and said, "Okay, I know, you go down and get busy." ”

If you want to walk south from the mouth of the Yellow River and go around the southern coast of China, you can reach the city of Fuquan in Quang Nam, Annam, which is the territory of the Nguyen lord south of the Ling River.

For a long time, Su Baiyi thought that Annan was very far away, and indeed, it was 2,500 kilometers away from Lianyungang by sea, which was very far away. The distance from Lianyungang to Sanya, Hainan Province is 2,200 kilometers, and it is only 300 kilometers from Sanya to Fuchun.

It's far away, but it doesn't seem too far.

Now the speed of the ship is 25 kilometers per hour, and it can travel 600 kilometers in one day and one night.

According to this speed, from Lianyungang to Fuchun, it will only take more than four days at the earliest, and five days will be enough to remove some other stops on the road and the instability of speed.

But what is the concept of the speed of a sailing ship of the same era at sea?

Su Baiyi remembered that in the nineteenth century, the United States made a very oxen-broken sailing ship, called the flying clipping boat, and the theoretical maximum speed of the flying clipping boat was 12 knots, which was about 22 kilometers per hour when converted into kilometers per hour.

But this is a theoretical speed in a smooth sailing situation, and it is actually very difficult to achieve.

Moreover, during the test, it was carrying people rather than bulk goods, and if it was transporting grain, sugar, and ore, the speed of the clipper would definitely not reach 12 knots.

Of course, some racing sailboats can even reach a terrifying speed of 100 kilometers per hour, but that is a racing sailing, and racing sailing and practical sailing at sea are completely different things, and it can be said that they are two kinds of boats.

What is the speed of ships that transport large quantities of goods at the same time?

In the case of a ship in the Ming Dynasty, for example, its speed in a downwind condition was about 4-6 knots.

At a maximum of six knots, the speed of travel is less than 11 kilometers per hour.

Again, this is an ideal situation with a tailwind.

According to the calculation from Fuchun in Annan to Haizhou (Lianyungang), the steamer takes ten days to go back and forth, plus the time of loading and unloading in the middle, a maximum of 12 days.

For galleons, it can take 12 days when the wind is downwind, and at least 25 days to a month when the wind is upwind, and about 50 days for the round trip.

The difference in time is more than four times as much.

There is also the volume of shipments.

The largest known sailing ship is the treasure ship of Zheng He during the Yongle period, with a length of 140 meters and a width of 56 meters. But steamships can be far bigger.

Therefore, from these two perspectives, the cost of steam ships is reduced, and the convenience and advancement of use are far more than five times that of sailing ships.

Moreover, steamships still have room to be raised, while sailboats do not.

Su Baiyi did not raise the sails along the way, only hung a tall Daming regimental dragon flag on the main mast, sometimes in front, sometimes in the back, all the way south, while walking while training sailors to control the steamship.

Seven days later, the fleet crossed the Taiwan Strait and began to bend southwest along the coastline.

Six days later, the fleet crossed the southernmost tip of Hainan Island.

Two days later, we finally reached the sea off Quang Nam.

Su Baiyi stood at the bow of the boat, looking into the distance, seeing the coast like a line from afar, from time to time setting off a burst of silver-white broken jade-like waves, behind the coast, there was a flat area of about several kilometers in between, and then behind it was the towering mountains. Directly in the direction of the bow of the ship is a large gentle river that flows into the sea.

Su Baiyi said: "This is Fuchun?" ”

Mulberry said in a daze: "It's not like ah, my lord, we seem to be going the wrong way!" ”

"Wrong way, how did you lead the way?" Su Baiyi glanced at the sea, trembling. Raise your eyes again and look around.

Okay!

On all sides of the sea, the black and oppressive fleets rushed in unison, and there were at least twenty or thirty large ships cruising left and right on the periphery that were not weaker than Su Baiyifu's boats, and there were still people shouting on the boats.

Su Baiyi took out the binoculars and looked at it, and his heart suddenly burst out.

Mother, every ship is equipped with light guns, and if these are enemy ships, one of them will be forced to stop.

When did the navy of Annam become so powerful?

Seeing this situation, Su Baiyi's brows furrowed again, and the idea of maritime hegemony in his heart became more urgent. With such powerful naval warships in all the small countries of Annam, wouldn't the powerful countries of the West that have already stepped into the sea even more powerful?

A sub-ship was untied on the No. 2 boat, and Hou Fangyu He Guzhong got off the sub-boat, and under the leadership of the sailors, rowed directly in the direction of the Annan ships besieging the Daming fleet.

Then Hou Fangyu boarded the boat, and he didn't know what to say to the people on the boat, anyway, after some negotiations, Hou Fangyu got off the ship again, came back in the sub-boat, and got on the flagship where Su Baiyi was.

"What's going on?" Su Baiyi asked Hou Fangyu with a frown.

Hou Fangyu said bitterly on his face: "Sir, we took the wrong way, it was about early when we landed on the shore, and Fuchun City was still about a hundred miles south of this place. ”

"Oh!" Su Baiyi nodded, and did not blame anything.

After all, after sailing on the sea for half a month, in this era without satellite navigation, it is normal for some deviations to occur when docking.

"Who are these?" Su Baiyi asked again by pointing to the surrounding fleets of Annan.

"Don't worry, sir, they have no ill intentions!" Hou Fangyu said: "These are the fleets of Lord Quang Nam Ruan, it is said that they have a total of more than 100 ships of this kind, each of which is equipped with light artillery, and their combat effectiveness at sea is extremely strong. ”

"Where did they get light artillery?" Su Baiyi asked.

"This ......" Hou Fangyu's face was slightly bitter: "This, the student doesn't know either." ”

"Okay!" Su Baiyi looked at the gentle estuary again, raised his eyebrows and said, "Do you know where this is?" ”

"This is Lingjiangkou!"

"Lingjiangkou ......" Su Baiyi's eyes narrowed slightly.

At this time, Vietnam was divided into two major forces in the north and south, the south was the territory of Nguyen Phuc Yuan, the Duke of Nguyen Nhon Nhon in Quang Nam, and the territory of Zheng Zhuang, the king of the Qing capital, Zheng Zhuang coerced the princes of the Son of Heaven, and the two started a tug-of-war with the Lingjiang River as the boundary, and I heard that it had been fighting for five years.

"This is Lingjiang!" Su Baiyi's gaze swept over the surface of the Lingjiang River, and then fell on the mountains behind him, and muttered: "Hook mountains and seas, there is a big river in the middle, this is a natural danger, even more dangerous than the Liaodong Shanhaiguan, no wonder the Ruan clan can rely on this to defend and finally unify Vietnam, it is really visionary." ”

"What did you say, sir?" Hou Fangyu asked puzzled.

"It's nothing ......" Su Baiyi turned around, his eyes fell on the sea again, and a sub-ship also came down from the flagship of Lord Ruan's fleet, carrying several men in strong suits towards the flagship of Su Baiyi's fleet.

Su Baiyi asked people to go down the wooden ladder to pick up those people.

Hou Fangyu stepped forward and said to the man: "General Ruan, this is our Ming Dynasty's Ping Dongbo, the main envoy of this mission. ”

"Ruan Fuyu has seen angels!" Ruan Fuyu spoke authentic Chinese, spoke extremely fluently, and his voice was Fengyang official dialect, which made Su Baiyi's brows stretch and be surprised.

"General Ruan, you're welcome!" Su Baiyi smiled and said: "This envoy came to Guangnan to add the title of Lord Ruan of Renguo, and he didn't want to go a different way on the sea, so he ran to this Lingjiang for no reason. After saying that, he smiled slightly embarrassed.

Lingjiang is the focus of the entanglement of the two forces of the north and the south, and it is not uncommon to encounter a large number of Guangnan fleets here.

"Ruan Fuyu was ordered to patrol the sea to prevent Zheng thieves from attacking, I didn't know it was Lord Angel and your fleet just now, so please forgive Lord Angel." Ruan Fuyu said again: "If the adults are not familiar with the sea route, the villain can find someone to show the way for the adults." ”

Su Baiyi smiled and said, "Then thank you General Ruan." He glanced up in the direction of Lingjiang and asked, "This is Lingjiang?" ”

Ruan Fuyu nodded and said, "Yes, my lord!" ”

Su Baiyi asked: "The official wants to go in and take a look at the scenery on both sides of the Lingjiang River, is he noncommittal?" ”

Ruan Fuyu was stunned.

This Lingjiang is the dividing point of Zheng Ruan's rivalry, with Zheng's army on one side and Nguyen's defenders on the other, and there are often warships from both sides cruising in the Lingjiang River, and occasionally they will shoot each other's two cannons. Isn't this big tomorrow going crazy, and you have nothing to do to play here?

Su Baiyi didn't really want to see it, he just said it in passing, but he didn't expect Ruan Fuyu to agree very happily.

"If it was in normal times, it would be better for Lord Lingjiang not to enter, but now, you can go in and have a tour!" Ruan Fuyu patted his chest and reassured.