Xie Hong's concept of building small ships first is correct, the Black Pearl is not large, and the most technical part is also solved by him personally, but in the trial voyage, there are still many problems. [No pop-up novel network]

Of course, these problems are not big and were quickly resolved, but one can imagine how much trouble you will encounter if you really build a large ship from the beginning.

Two days later, the minor problems encountered have been repaired, and the various tests of the offshore voyage have been completed, Xie Hong believes that further tests can be carried out, that is, the test of the long voyage, and the destination is, of course, the estuary of the Yalu River.

The lumberyard has been operating there for a while, and with the hacksaw specially built by Xie Hong, the progress of the work will not be slow, and now it is time to start transporting materials through the sea trial.

After the sea trial passed, the next most important thing is to catch up with the shipbuilding, the time is actually very tight, it is already March, if you can't complete all the preparations before May, then you will miss the best time, it is really not Xie Hong is not in a hurry.

"Master Hou, after all, the Black Pearl is on its first voyage, so it's better to be cautious, and you still don't go in person." Although he knew why Xie Hong was in a hurry, Wang Yun still felt that it was a little inappropriate for him to personally participate in this trial voyage, and persuaded him again before leaving.

"It's okay, I'm going to use this ship as a model in the future, if I don't watch it myself, I can't feel at ease, and there's nothing dangerous about it, although it's a long voyage, but the route is not far from the coastline, there are Lu family brothers, it doesn't matter if it's a little accident." Xie Hong waved his hand and said disapprerovitically.

"And there is one thing, Brother Xie, it is said that the wood used for shipbuilding should be used to dry the wood for a year or two, and the wood that has just been cut down is not applicable, the wood used by the Black Pearl is the old wood collected nearby, although the wood from Changbai Mountain you said is good, it is ......."

"It's okay." Xie Hong shook his head, he also knew this precautions, the purpose of air drying is probably to fully dehydrate the wood, and the plant cells will die completely, so as to ensure that the water will not be absorbed and deformed after entering the water, and the scientific method is to dry it for a year or two before it can be used.

However, Xie Hong didn't have so much time to wait, not to mention that the boat made of fresh wood didn't fall apart when launched, and it could always deal with it for a few months.

"Anyway, the existing wood is not enough, at most two or three more ships will be built, or make do with fresh wood first, it will be regarded as practice, and after three or five months, it will be directly eliminated and replaced with new ships."

"That's okay......" Wang Yun thought about it, anyway, the materials and labor are sufficient, even if they are changed every three months, it is not much waste, and Xie Hong has already made up his mind, and it is useless to persuade again, he shook his head and sighed lightly: "Then do it according to your wishes, I hope there will be no trouble." ”

"Don't worry, there won't be trouble, maybe you can use the old boat to make a fortune then." Xie Hong laughed, patted Wang Yun on the shoulder, and then raised his voice to greet: "Wu Qianhu, bring your people, get on the boat together, bring things with you, and practice by the way." ”

"Yes." Wu Yongjian is the gunner of the Shenji Battalion, and now he has been promoted to a thousand households. He was also attracted by Xie Hong's storytelling, and he longed for the sea, believing that naval warfare was a battlefield where artillery could be played.

However, he was a little disappointed that the current naval warfare was not the same as he imagined, and the cannon was completely useless, and it was replaced by another weapon.

Although it is a bit similar to a cannon, in fact, both the range and the power are far from the same, if it weren't for the person who designed this weapon is Xie Hong, and Xie Hong also said in public that this weapon is actually infinitely powerful, he must not have the slightest confidence.

In line with Xie Hong's advocacy that soldiers should obey orders unconditionally, as well as his confidence in Xie Hong, Wu Yongjian did not hesitate, not only worked hard to train new weapons in the previous days, but also strictly supervised the artillery under his command.

At present, he is quite proficient in the work of the new weapon, as long as he has experienced the actual combat drill on the ship, he will soon be able to see the true power of the new weapon that Xie Hong said, and he has some expectations for it.

In fact, there are many islands in the sea area on the east and west sides of the Liaodong Peninsula, all the way to the mouth of the Yalu River. In its original history, these islands were also the bases of the Dongjiang Army, which insisted on fighting behind enemy lines.

Therefore, as long as the seafarers do not use sampans, then the voyage from Lushun to the mouth of the Yalu River is not as dangerous as imagined.

In the spring season, the sea breeze still carries a bit of coldness, but Xie Hong's mood is very good, now that everything is going well, the plan will soon enter the next stage, looking at the scene of blue waves, how can he be in a bad mood.

"Master Hou, the wind on the sea in the spring is not directional, but with you following, God is helping, and the southwest wind is blowing, so let's go all the way." Halfway through the voyage, the southwest wind blew all the way, and Lu Renyi smiled and complimented Xie Hong.

"What does it have to do with me, it's just a coincidence, but it's okay, just let the brothers save some energy, and it won't be so hard when you go to Kuandian along the river." Although he also thought it was a coincidence, Xie Hong would not be flustered, he just smiled and turned to Wu Yongjian again.

"Wu Qianhu, let's start here too, just target the reef in the east and see how the target is."

"Whoa." Wu Yongjian responded with his fists clenched, and then beckoned a few of his subordinates to get busy around a strange machine.

The main body of this thing is a ladder frame with a long boom at the top, and several pisos hanging from the end of the boom...... Obviously, Xie Hong's so-called new weapon is a trebuchet.

"Ready."

"Put!"

"Prepare ......"

"Put!"

…… In China, trebuchets are not a rare thing, the earliest can even be traced back to the Spring and Autumn Period, there is a clear record that in the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Ying ordered Liu Ye to make a thunderbolt, is a kind of trebuchet.

In the Song Dynasty, trebuchets were already widely used in the military field, but like many divine weapons in the Song Dynasty, in the late Northern Song Dynasty, these weapons had gradually disappeared.

In the Southern Song Dynasty, when the Mongols attacked Xiangyang City, the so-called Huihui cannon was also a kind of trebuchet, which should be called a counterweight trebuchet strictly speaking, a heavy trebuchet.

In the Ming Dynasty, because of the great progress and application of firearms, trebuchets have withdrawn from the sequence of the Ming army, but after all, there are records to be checked, so whether it is Wang Yun or Wu Yongjian, they are not very unfamiliar with this thing.

Due to the limitation of the size of the ship, the flywheel battleship cannot be equipped with cannons, and of course it cannot accommodate heavy trebuchets, Xie Hong designed this kind of light trebuchet, relying on twisted ropes to generate power ejection, which is a kind of elastic trebuchet, which is close to the bed crossbow in the army.

After several months of training, Wu Yongjian and others were already very proficient in the trebuchet that Xie Hong named the thunderbolt cannon, so they also achieved good results.

"Master Hou, this thunderbolt shot quite far, and the accuracy is not bad, but this power is too bad, right? With this, can you smash someone else's ship into a sink? After watching for a while, the monkey also looked out of the doorway, so he also raised his own questions.

The range of this trebuchet is not bad, it can even reach up to 200 paces at most, which is not as good as a general's cannon, but it is stronger than an ordinary bow and crossbow. Because the production is also relatively fine, the whole body is made of stainless steel fittings, so the accuracy is relatively high.

However, like the Black Pearl, due to its size, the power of this trebuchet is not great, and things that are too heavy cannot be launched, so it can only project projectiles weighing about two or three catties.

If such a projectile hits someone, it's fine, but if it hits a ship, the effect is really debatable, and whether it can break the deck is a question.

The monkey's question is also of concern to everyone, and when they heard the two of them answering each other here, except for the boss of the Lu family who was at the helm, the rest of the people came over and listened attentively, wondering what kind of medicine Xie Hong's gourd was selling.

"It doesn't matter, that's enough." Xie Hong smiled mysteriously, but he sold it, "Brother Hou, I can't tell you now, when it's time for the actual battle, you will know it when you see it, hehe." ”

When the monkey was about to ask again, Xie Hong suddenly raised his head, pointed to the north and said loudly: "Okay, let's not talk about this, we have already arrived at the place, let the brothers below cheer up, we will go up the river." ”

"Oh!"

Everyone followed the sound and saw that at the junction of the sea and sky in the north, a black line was gradually enlarged, and it was slowly connected, but it was on the bank of the Yalu River.

If it is an ordinary sea ship, if it wants to go against the river, it must have a proper wind direction, and the flywheel battleship is much simpler.

Jiang Bin's work efficiency is really high, near the river has been vacated here, the originally dense forest has become full of wooden piles, and the project is still extending deep into the forest. There are also people busy next to the logs stacked on the riverside, and they have to tie them into wooden rows.

Of course, it was not Jiang Bin and his men who did the work, but the Jurchens captured in the previous sweep operation, and under the threat of leather whips and steel knives, these people also exerted considerable strength, and carried out the indiscriminate logging that later generations of environmentalists hated very efficiently.

Alas, brother is about to bear a stigma again, Xie Hong sighed quietly, but thinking about the scale of the forest in the Changbai Mountains now, he is also relieved, compared to the huge forest, what he is cutting down now is just a drop in the bucket, if you want to develop, you have to pay sacrifices.

"Master Hou is here!"

The arrival of Xie Hong and the others was not small, and the people on the shore were also alarmed, but after the overseers were surprised, they were all elated, and the cheers rang out from near and far.

At the beginning, the slaves who had been taken captive from Korea and the Jurchens did not react to it, and they could not be distracted while working, which was a lesson of blood and tears in exchange for a whip, and they had already formed a knee-jerk reaction.

However, many of these people knew Chinese, and after hearing the cheers of the border soldiers, many slaves also raised their heads and looked at the Black Pearl with eyes full of fear and hatred.

Master Hou! Although it was the wolf and tiger Ming army who did it, the slaves all knew that the culprit who destroyed their homes, killed their relatives, and abducted them as slaves was this person known as Hou Ye.

"What are you doing? Want to die? Master Hou is also what you can see? Get to work, get to work! ”

Xie Hong is the devil in the eyes of the slaves, but he is the Buddha of the people of Liaodong, whether it is Jiang Bin's subordinates, or the border army of Liaozhen, they are full of fanatical support for Xie Hong, where can these slaves be so disrespectful, the sound of whip waving and scolding sounded one after another, and the slaves lowered their heads in fear.

Seeing such a scene, Xie Hong was also a little unbearable in his heart, but he shook his head and quickly regained his firmness. There is no way, the accumulation of capital is bloody, and on the road to development, there are always people to sacrifice, since I can't let the people of the Central Plains suffer, then I have to wronged you.

"Brother Xie!" Not long after, Jiang Bin came out of the depths of the forest sea, he had a big bald head, reflecting the sun, and he looked very energetic.

"Well, Brother Jiang, this hairstyle really suits you very well, haha."

"Big brother, do you also want to learn to become a monk? Otherwise, why did you keep a bald head? ”

"Hey, don't mention it, it's not what Brother Xie said, you have to dress up a little bit when you cross the river, but the pig's tail is really ugly, so I just shaved my hair, and I wore a wig when I crossed the river, and I took it off when I came back. It's also strange to say, why are these Tartars so unaesthetic? What to do with a pig's tail. Jiang Bin touched his bald head and complained angrily.

"Brother Xie, shall we start here?" Scarface didn't pay much attention to his personal image, so he complained casually, immediately put his troubles aside, and asked Xie Hong anxiously: "When the wood is transported to Lushun, is it time to sail?" ”

"That's right, let's start today, Brother Jiang, wait a minute, you will divide some people to go to the sea, well, just sit on the wooden raft, and our boat will be pulled in front...... When you get there, pull up the chain directly, and then the wooden rafts here can be put down one by one, stopped at the mouth of the sea, and after accumulating a certain number, pull Lushun together, it is estimated that it will run more than a dozen times, and it should be about the same. ”

After explaining the work, Xie Hong remembered something again, pointed to the other side of the river, and said: "In addition, don't cut down the forest here too much, in fact, the forest on the other side of the river is quite dense, and there is no one else anyway, so ...... When these are all arranged, this place will be handed over to Brother Wu, and when the boat comes again, Brother Jiang, you will follow back to Lushun. ”

"Okay." Jiang Bin waited for Xie Hong's words for a long time, and happily agreed.

(To be continued)