During the Qin and Han dynasties, the development of China's shipbuilding industry appeared at its first peak. Qin Shi Huang organized a large fleet of ships capable of transporting 500,000 stone of grain during the war to unify southern China.

By the time of the Han Dynasty, the sailors with Lou Chuan as the main force were already very powerful. It is said that after a campaign, the central government of the Han Dynasty was able to dispatch more than 2,000 ships and 200,000 sailors. However, the building ship is not conducive to naval warfare, and is only suitable for inland river use.

Sima Shu took the guards from Donglai County to Jimo County, Changguang County, and then came to the south of Laoshan Mountain, he looked at the somewhat desolate small village, how could not believe that this was the world's famous livable city - Qingdao in the future. However, now it is not called Qingdao, but Laoshan. The shipyard built by the imperial court was located here.

Since the shipbuilding industry had a certain foundation in the Jin Dynasty, it would not allow Sima Shu to start from scratch like the navy. Moreover, Qingzhou was originally near the sea, and although the shipbuilding industry here was not as profound as Jiangdong, the shipbuilding industry soon flourished after the theoretical technology from Sima Shu and the financial support of the imperial court.

Qingzhou had just been pacified, and Sima Shu immediately put forward a shipbuilding plan, which was not an ordinary civilian ship, but a warship specifically for the navy.

He wants to have his own special warship! He's going to have his own special fleet! He wants to have his own characteristic navy!

So, in the coastal area of Qingdao in the later generations, it soon became busy. A large amount of silver poured out, and workers and materials quickly gathered here. The idle labor force that had been liberated from the land began to gather here. Some poor people came to work in order to earn money in exchange for food to support themselves.

Meantime. The thick oak wood, the chestnut wood, the iron wood, the hawthorn wood, the pine wood, the rotten wood, and so on, were all cut down. As long as the caliber is above the thickness of the bowl mouth, it will be transported to the inside. As a result, the shipyard was filled with all kinds of materials, and they all quickly piled up.

Sima Shu knows that shipbuilding is a systematic project, involving many aspects. There are many issues of principle that must be determined before the official start of construction. Otherwise, there is no chance of revision later.

The first one, first of all, is to determine the size of the warship.

Since the building boat can't be used. Sima Shu intended to use the warships of the Ming Dynasty in later generations. The two most commonly used ships in the later Ming Dynasty. One is a lucky ship, and the other is a treasure ship. Information on the treasure ship. In the Hereafter it has been lost and cannot be built. All Sima Shu knew was the fortune boat.

Fukubune are divided into four different types according to their size. No. 4 Fukufu is the smallest. It's about a hundred. The No. 3 Fukufu is slightly larger. It's about 200 ingredients. The No. 2 Fukufu ship is larger. It's about 300 ingredients. The No. 1 Fuku ship is the largest, about 500 materials. (A ship of 500 materials is equivalent to a displacement of about 250 tons)

The ship itself is actually used as a merchant ship, and as a warship is just a side job. Fukufu ships are generally not suitable for warships. If it is to be used as a professional warship, there are a large number of special parts that need to be reinforced, which makes it itself a lot heavier.

The reason why Sima Shu asked the shipyard to build a Fu ship was mainly to accumulate experience, after all, the shipbuilders of the Western Jin Dynasty basically did not build a ship for sea navigation. Therefore, before the official construction of a warship, there needs to be something to practice your hands, and a dual-use ship like a fortune ship is more suitable.

In addition to the Fu ship, Sima Shu also decided to build a small special warship, which was the Cangshan ship of the Ming Dynasty

The Cangshan boat is a professional combat ship of the Ming Dynasty sailors in later generations, the ship is relatively small, the total length is less than 20 meters, the width is about 4 meters, and the draft is about 5 feet. There are oars on the boat, and if the wind is good, the sail will be raised, and the wind will swing. The ship was light and dexterous, and was mainly used to chase the enemy and capture the head.

According to the preparation of the Daming Water Division, it is equipped with 2 jack Buddha machines, 3 bowls, 4 Lumi guns, 40 spray cans, 60 chimneys, 30 fire bricks, 100 rockets, 4 medicine crossbows, and 100 crossbow arrows. There were 37 people on board, 4 sailors, 33 soldiers, and a third class. The first armor is a franc machine and a shotgun, the third armor is a firearm, and the second armor is a cold weapon.

Of course, after Sima Shu consulted with the master craftsmen, combined with everyone's shipbuilding experience. It was decided to slightly expand the volume of the Cangshan ship, with a displacement of about 30 tons. In addition, this kind of ship is only equipped with two light guns that can fire two-kilogram shells in the bow and stern, and this kind of ship mainly uses muskets as a means of attack, and is used as reconnaissance and cruising in coastal waters.

There was a good reason why Sima Shu chose the Cangshan ship as a combat ship at the beginning: first, the warship of fifty materials was relatively easy to build and relatively mature in technology. The shipbuilding technology mastered by the craftsmen of the Western Jin Dynasty was not difficult at all. Second, the speed of construction is relatively fast. According to the estimation of the shipyard masters, such a Cangshan ship can be completed in about three months under the guarantee of manpower, material and financial resources. If you start building multiple ships at the same time, it will be faster. Third, it is easier to find the keel of the boat. For a warship, the keel is a very crucial element and must be made of the best wood possible.

The keel of a large ship requires a sturdy huge hardwood. The bigger the better, the longer the better, and the older the tree, the better. If there are trees that are more than three hundred years old, even better. Ordinary decades-old wood, if used to make keel, will not take long before it will be eroded by the sea and rot. However, hardwoods that are more than 300 years old are difficult to find in other places unless they are found in the deep mountains and old forests of eastern Liaodong.

If you have a warship, you must have tactics to match it, otherwise it will only give full play to the power of the warship, and 'ants bite and kill elephants' and 'wolf pack tactics', which are the principles of naval operations established by Sima Shu when the navy was first established.

With Sima Shu's current economic and technical strength, it won't be long before large warships can be built. But even if he built a battleship, I'm afraid no one would pilot him. Without a large number of skilled sailors and a large number of experienced commanders, it is simply impossible to operate a large warship.

Therefore, at the beginning of equipping a large number of small boats, it was possible to train a large number of sailors, a large number of commanders. Moreover, the combat effectiveness of dozens of small warships is not necessarily worse than that of one large warship, and the key is the use of tactics.

And. From a strategic point of view, it seems that large warships will not be needed if there is no rush to a long voyage.

The main task of the imperial navy at present is still coastal defense, that is, to guard against the attack of the Jiangdong naval army. Therefore, there is no need for warships that are too large. On the contrary, considering the need for patrols and vigilance, the number of warships is more important. Otherwise, rotation is not possible.

The second is to determine the type of sail.

"In the end, it's a hard sail. Or with a soft sail? ”

For the sake of this question. Sima Shu also hesitated for a long time. You must know that the choice of sail is a very crucial element of the warship, and he must not ignore it.

Most of the sailing ships in China have used hard sails, and the hard sails are generally woven with thin bamboo or pampas leaves. The benefit of a hard sail is its high overall efficiency. Can be rotated around the mast. It is even possible to fully utilize the wind in all directions. Comparison of hard and soft sails per unit area. Hard sails are much more efficient for wind power than soft sails. Generally speaking, a hard sail is faster than a soft sail with the same wind force.

But. The disadvantages of hard sails are also very obvious. Since the hard sails are joined together, they cannot be hung separately and must be raised and lowered in one piece. Therefore, the weight of the hard sail is generally larger, and the larger the sail, the heavier the sail, and some large ships even "cannot move without hundreds of people". For this reason, the area of the hard sail should not be too large, otherwise people will not be able to pull it. The height of the mast should not be too high, otherwise the strength of the mast will be affected.

The soft sails used by Western ships had to be built very high because of the low overall efficiency of the sail surface, and the mast was too high, which brought about the strength of the mast. In order to increase the strength of the mast, it is necessary to tie numerous ropes to the mast to enhance the strength of the mast. In this way, the sail surface cannot rotate around the mast like a Chinese hard sail, and he cannot use part of the wind, even if he uses it, and because it is a soft sail, the utilization efficiency is extremely low.

Of course, in modern times, except for those sailboats built for tourism, the sails used on cargo ships to save energy have all been hard sails, but modern hard sails are made of aluminum alloy materials, fully computer-controlled hard sails.

It seems that the ancient intelligent Chinese discovered the shortcomings of soft sails early, and abandoned the soft sailing ships in favor of efficient hard sails, these greatly advanced consciousness, but due to the backwardness of science and technology at that time, they failed to form a de facto advantage.

In ancient times, when the use of materials was restricted, each of the three types of sail outfits had its own benefits and could not be generalized. For circumnavigation around the world, large transverse soft sails are most suitable for long-distance navigation in the deep sea; For freight in an area, hard sails with fewer users are a better economical choice, which can save transportation costs.

For smaller clippers known for their speed, the spinnaker effect is better.

After some careful consideration, Sima Shu decided to continue to use the hard sail for the time being, and at the same time, add an auxiliary spinnaker at the top of the mast. When the technology is mature, we will develop soft sails suitable for long-sea sailing!

The third is the question of whether to introduce a watertight cabin.

Chinese sailing ships are far superior to those of the West in terms of sinking resistance due to the extensive use of watertight shelving technology, the use of ribs, and the strength of the hull supported by the partitions of the watertight compartments. However, it is precisely because of the extensive use of watertight compartment technology by Chinese ships that the hull is not strong enough in the lateral direction to carry the recoil of a large number of artillery fires.

And such a hull construction simply cannot be adapted to the all-purpose artillery decks of the West. The invention of artillery deck technology and side-chord gun technology, which is unique to the West, was also slowly developed after artillery gradually became more and more important.

However, China's naval warfare theory has always been based on the tactics of man-to-sea tactics to determine victory or defeat, and the theoretical development of artillery on ships and the supremacy of firepower has not been formed on a large scale, and it can be said that it is later than that of the West.

Moreover, the Chinese hull is not strong enough, and its recoil in the event of fire makes the ship more dangerous. There are two ways to solve this problem, one is to improve the accuracy of naval gun casting and the strength of the casting materials; The second is the use of gunboats. This golden idea was come up with by an Englishman. He mounted the guns on the lower deck and opened the doors on the sides of the hull to allow the guns to fire, and when not in use, the doors were closed with hinged door covers. Since then, artillery battleships have had a large-scale firepower output and have real power.

Western sailing ships do not have watertight compartments, so they do not have good sinking resistance, but the West uses a lot of ribs and increases the thickness of the hull, especially the ribs of battleships are almost one after another, and the ribs provide good protection for the hull.

Ships in the Age of Sail were required to carry as many heavy guns as possible on the side chord in order to maximize firepower output, and the longest and heaviest guns of sail ships were generally arranged on the lower gun deck, and the caliber weight of each deck above them decreased in turn.

In the case of the battleship "Victory", the guns on the gun deck from the bottom to the top were 32 pounds, 24 pounds, and 12 pounds (except for the 68-pound short guns, of course, because of the use of reduced charges, the weight of the gun body was also lighter).

The V-shaped hull of the Chinese sailing ship has a small bottom area, which is not suitable for arranging long and heavy guns at all, and the bottom layer is still a watertight compartment instead of a transverse rib type all-through gun deck, and the number of heavy guns it can be equipped with can be imagined.

However, the lack of Western hulls at the same time solved this problem, and the Western hull adopted a U-shape, and the bottom was larger than the upper part, so the advantage was that the spacious gun deck at the bottom could be arranged with more guns, and the caliber and weight were reduced in turn from floor to floor, and the top deck was the smallest place in the whole ship.

Therefore, the unique hull structure of the East and the West doomed the weight and number of artillery carried by Western warships far exceeding that of Chinese ships. Generally speaking, the ancient Chinese warships were not conducive to large-scale naval battles, and were only suitable for use in coastal waters or inland waterways.

In general, traditional Chinese sailing ships, including treasure ships and fortune ships, are an excellent type of offshore boat, requiring much more sailors than soft-sail Western sailing ships due to the use of hard sails, and better sinking resistance than Western sailing ships due to the use of bulkhead design, and low cost. According to the estimates of the boatmen, the cost of a lucky ship is only thousands of dollars.

However, due to speed, gun positions and defense, neither the fortune ship nor the treasure ship was suitable for use as artillery, especially for ocean-going warships with solid shells as the main attack method. Due to the lack of speed and the problem of center of gravity, traditional Chinese sailing ships are not suitable for ocean exploration.

Of course, it is a digression, but I still have to admire the intelligent ancient Chinese according to the waterfowl invention of the Fu ship type is still in line with the development of modern hull technology: two hundred years later, modern warships are generally arranged on the deck with a small number of large-caliber guns, two-string side small-caliber light guns, and the use of watertight cabin technology invented by the Chinese to increase sinking resistance (the more famous is the Italian battleship's Plecee underwater defense system).

It is a pity that Chinese advanced ingenuity is still regrettable due to the backwardness of ancient hull material strength and artillery science and technology...... This point can't be solved even by Sima Shu, who is a traverser!

On the contrary, in comparison, the wooden sail battleship of the West seems to be a freak in the history of the development of ships, of course, after the West used the mature fruits of the industrial revolution, modern warships completely eliminated the sail warships that have dominated the seas for centuries.

For shipbuilding technology, Sima Shu is not only concerned about warships. When warships were developed, maritime trade was also the focus of his attention. (To be continued......)