"Bang! Sound! Syllable! ”

In the Ushijima dock, the sound of firecrackers is endless.

On the largest slipway, the 600-material ship named "Chaoyang" by Chu Fan was draped in red; From the high stern of the ship, red firecrackers hung down, exploding orange-red flames; The outside of the dock was crowded with people, and the entire north side of Ushijima was immersed in a festive and uplifting mood.

This is the launching ceremony of the Chaoyang, in order to celebrate the successful creation of the first self-made ship of the Fuliao Army, Chu Fan let all the groups of Niu Island have a holiday, so there is this grand scene.

The most excited in the crowd were the children led by Niu Niu, who laughed and screamed and crawled through the crowd, adding a lot of joy to the festive atmosphere.

Before the last firecracker was finished, Ming Ye's excited shout was heard.

"Open the gates! Water! ”

As the wooden gate slowly opened, the sea rushed in, and soon, the Chaoyang shuddered slightly and floated.

On the top of the stern cabin, in the observation pavilion in front of the two horizontal ballistas, Ge Bi was so excited that his face was flushed, and he shouted in a long voice as if he was drunk, "Rise~~Lord~~ sail!" From this day onwards, this new ship will officially become the flagship of the First Fleet, and as the commander of the First Fleet, he is of course satisfied.

On the deck, the elite sailors drawn from the various ships were in full swing and carried out their duties with great skill.

As the pulley at the top of the mainmast slowly turned, a brand-new bamboo-ribbed hard sail slowly rose; In the gentle sea breeze, the huge body of the Chaoyang moved, sliding down the channel like a small mountain into the bay.

"Down the left waist rudder! ~~ Raise the wings! ~~ Raise the spinnaker! ~~ Turn the sails to the C position! ～～”

A series of commands were issued from the lookout pavilion, and the sails on the Chaoyang were dazzlingly opened one by one, like a butterfly breaking out of the chrysalis, slowly spreading its brilliant wings.

There are many small boats in the bay. Amid the praise and cheers of the sailors on board, the Chaoyang became faster and faster, and after making a beautiful arc, it sped past the northeastern corner of the bay like an island, and moved at full speed with the northwest wind.

On deck, under the wingsails. Chu Fan was looking up at the new type of wingsail that had been improved and made of two triangular sails stacked on top of each other - the Feiyan was in a hurry that day, and he didn't even take a closer look at Situ Xiong's new invention.

"Childe, this sail is not bad, right?" Situ Xiong boasted a little proudly, "When I first saw the winged sail invented by Childe, I had this idea...... Since ****** sail can increase the speed of the boat, the upper and lower ****** sails should be raised even more. ”

Chu Fan smiled and glanced at the Cantonese with an appreciative gaze - compared to Ming Ye's calm and steadfastness, Situ Xiong was a little more flexible and intelligent, and the two of them complemented each other perfectly.

"My idea of ****** sail is just a matter of course, if it weren't for Mingye's suggestion. I can't figure it out at all," Chu Fan was humble at first, and then praised Situ Xiong without words, "It's like Situ You have learned so many things in the Hongmao shipyard, and if you change it casually, you will double the effect of my winged sail...... Situ, this time you have made a great contribution and won the award! …… This month you will be given a bonus of 300 taels of silver. Also inform the whole Ushijima! ”

300 taels?!

Situ Xiong's face suddenly turned into a flower, and he thanked him repeatedly-300 taels of silver is the highest reward for Ushishima so far. The last time the homemade flint fire gun was successfully set, Chu Fan rewarded Tang Jiniu with 200 taels of silver, and he was so happy that guy was so happy, he bragged about it every day when he saw people, and now he Situ Xiong can suppress Old Tang!

When it comes to rewarding new ideas and technologies, Chu Fan has never been stingy. He knows that as long as there is a fair reward system, the Chinese can burst out like a volcano with enthusiasm for innovation - the Chinese have never lacked wisdom and wisdom, all they lack is a suitable environment!

Chu Fan hopes that he will be more like the brick in "Throwing Bricks and Attracting Jade", which will be more of a guide for craftsmen like Situ Xiong, guiding them to invent and discover more and more practical technologies and processes; One day, thousands of Situ Xiong will know how to use their brains, they can use their brains, and they will all use their brains. China's Industrial Revolution is not far off!

"Childe, I still have an idea, I don't know if I should talk about it?" He was thinking about it when Situ Xiong spoke again.

"Well, you say!" Chu Fan looked at Situ Xiong, who was full of red face, with great interest, and said, "If there are any new ideas, just talk about them, as long as they are feasible, I will definitely reward them heavily!" ”

"I don't know," Situ Xiong hesitated for a moment before saying, "I was thinking that the bigger the sail, the more wind it would eat, and the faster the boat would be...... If you can connect the winged sail with the mainsail, then you should eat more wind...... It's just that in this case, the manipulation is troublesome...... And the hull needs to be wider to do......"

The mainsail and wingsail are connected!

This sentence made Chu Fan's eyes light up, he seemed to think of something, but he couldn't grasp it vaguely; He tried so hard to catch it that he didn't even listen to what Situ Xiong said later.

"Childe, the tachometer wheel has been installed!" Doudou's shout interrupted Chu Fan's thoughts-Chu Fan originally planned to let Doudou cultivate for a period of time, but the little guy didn't give up, and in the end Chu Fan had to hand over his new dozen or so guards to him.

After smiling apologetically at Situ Xiong, Chu Fan walked briskly to the middle side of the ship, where a Chu Fan-designed speed measuring wheel was installed.

The speed measuring wheel is actually just a different name, all the structures are the same as the water wheel of the hydraulic wire drawing machine, the only difference is that it has a slightly larger diameter, reaching 7 meters, and of course there is no longer that coaxial bronze gear.

The shaft of the tachometer wheel is directly installed on the side of the ship, and it is fully lubricated with vegetable oil to ensure that the influence of friction on the rotation of the tachymeter wheel is minimized; And because the height of the Chaoyang's side is less than 3 meters, a small part of the lower half of the speed wheel is submerged under the surface.

As the Chaoyang advances, the sea water pushes the speed of the speed wheel to rotate, and after a certain period of time, the speed of the speed of the speed wheel is basically equal to the speed of the Chaoyang ship.

There is a red paint mark on the rim of the speed wheel, and all the tester needs to do is record the number of times the red dot passes over the side of the ship in a certain period of time.

Chu Fan personally made the first observation: within 1 minute, the red dot passed through the side of the ship 15 times, a little more; That means that the boat has traveled 330 to 340 meters, which is about 20 miles per hour, or 11 knots.

This is the first time that Chu Fan has measured the speed of a ship at sea since he came to this era, which makes him very excited - of course, considering the accuracy of measuring tools such as pocket watches in this era, this data will inevitably be different, but it can already be used as a reference.

20 miles, a speed that can be described as turtle speed in the previous life, is actually a speed that is difficult for most sea ships to achieve in this era!

At this moment, the Chaoyang met the cruising Dawn, which immediately turned around and walked side by side with the Chaoyang; The sailors on both ships cheered and waved to each other, and the atmosphere became lively.

After all, the speed of the Dawn was slower than that of the Chaoyang, and I saw that the distance between it and the Chaoyang was slowly widening.

Suddenly, Chu Fan thought of the thought that he couldn't think about just now, as if a lightning bolt had struck, and he suddenly understood.

It turned out to be it! (To be continued.) )