The cold wind sweeps away the fallen leaves, and Chang'an is clear in the depths of winter.

The footsteps of time stepped into the end of the first year of Zhenguan, with the cold wind, the pedestrians who came out to buy New Year's goods on Suzaku Street wrapped their clothes vigorously, thinking that they would quickly return to their homes after buying and light a furnace of warm honeycomb coal to drive away the cold on their bodies.

Today is the 27th day of the twelfth lunar month, and in three days it will be Chinese New Year's Eve, and Chang'an, which has two snowfalls, is obviously lively, in order to prepare for the expulsion activities, the whole Chang'an is in jubilation, and sometimes you can see children playing on the road, and there is no curfew for three days, which is a rare happy time that Chang'an residents dream of.

The residents of Chang'an don't know, and the people of Datang don't know, that the fleet on the side of the Taicang wharf is already eager to try, and they are about to usher in the greatest era of discovery.

The Age of Discovery, also known as the Great Geographical Discovery, was a human feat that time, which directly created a century in which Europe dominated the world. As a result, Europe began to lead the world in politics, economy, and culture, and its influence can be seen.

Columbus, da Gama, Cabrral, Dias, de Leon, and Magellan are a series of names that have been recorded in the annals of history and are even more well-known by later generations.

But now, future generations will never know these names again, because Xu Yang's fleet is almost finished.

This 21st century man from the modern era, like a small butterfly, the breeze set off by the wings is enough to transform the world, with Xu Yang from the computer printed countless charts, ships, models, Taicang Wharf century fleet built very quickly, although into the winter, but only lasted three months, the main ships of the fleet have been basically completed.

The compass, the sextant, the chart, the spinnaker, the stern, the three-masted galleon, the old cow now spends his days studying these things, like a competent sailing captain.

Today's Taicang wharf is almost crammed with built ships, and the docks are more than five times larger, and countless pieces of timber are transported here every day and then processed into parts for large ships.

Li Er personally came to the shipyard to inspect it and said a lot of words of encouragement, which made the shipyard workers more enthusiastic.

Now Xu Yang, who is dressed in thick cotton clothes, is shocked by the scene in front of him when he comes to Taicang Wharf, and everywhere he sees is the raised sails, the tall sea ships are like wooden beasts, and the entire Yangtze River along the entire Taicang coast is full of ships on the Yangtze River that is not frozen.

"Uncle Niu, the inside of these ships has also been built?" Xu Yang shrunk his head in his cotton coat and asked with a white breath, he has been busy with the construction of the academy for the past three months, but he can be regarded as busy with everything, the academy is now preparing to recruit the first batch of students after the beginning of spring, and he will come to see how the fleet construction is.

On a cold day, Lao Niu was only wearing a thin coat, Xu Yang felt cold when he looked at it, but Niu Jinda didn't seem to care at all. "Haha, boy, these are official ships, built from the inside out, and these ships can be boarded and directly launched into the sea."

"Uncle Niu, what about the boat I confessed?" Xu Yang said with some eagerness.

"Haha, the sea ships you want have also been built, all of them are built according to your will, thousands of wooden planks inlaid with iron nails, strong ones can hit hills, and the steam engines provided by those people in your fiefdom, the speed is called a fast, after the sails are full, they can run to the speed of eleven or twelve knots, the official steam engines are not comparable at all, and those cannons on the flanks, so far they have not tried their power at sea, but they are enough to be kings on land, Your Majesty has explained, this kind of thing can only equip a small number of ships, It can't be equipped on a large scale, but the cost of this ship is also very large, just His Majesty allocated two thousand taels of silver, and the nine thousand taels you gave, and one ship cost more than 11,000 taels of silver, which is enough to build four ships of the same size. The old cow chattered and wanted to continue, but as soon as he saw Xu Yang's impatient face, he knew that he wanted to see the boat he had ordered to build, so he didn't say much, and took him towards the dock.

Far away, Xu Yang saw a different ship, the ship was very modern inlaid with a lot of big-headed iron nails, which could not be seen on other ships, Xu Yang knew that it was his 'car'.

"Hou Ye boarded the ship!" Liu Qi was angry, shouted at the top of his voice, and soon a large wooden board was put down on the boat, and several people dressed as housekeepers stood respectfully on the boat, waiting for the Hou Ye to board the ship.

Xu Yang was very satisfied and walked on the boat, he had done several boats in his previous life, but the time was very short, and the sightseeing boat was not so cheap. So he's looking forward to having a boat of his own.

Boarding the big ship, the one on the deck is very clear, the arm-thick rope is wrapped around and around, the bow is a huge eight-ox crossbow, and the wood on the deck looks to be coated with a layer of waterproof and anti-corrosion paint, which looks very clean.

The deck is very large, after all, Xu Yang's request is to build a relatively large ship with a displacement of 2,000 tons, which is already the largest ship in the shipyard outside of warships.

Walk into the captain's room, the huge nautical chart is pasted on the wooden door, the glass in front of the captain's room looks very clear, both can block the wind and rain and can see the vision clearly, this is the latest batch of thickened weighted glass in the glass factory, extremely unfragile, now Chang'an's glass factory has been set up, the price of glass has fallen too fast, from each piece of ten to now a piece of six hundred, now as long as the family is a little richer can buy a few pieces of glass products, the glass factory is now also beginning to develop some other glass products, As for this thickened and weighted glass, it is the latest product.

Then enter the interior of the cabin, the interior of the cabin is a set of Xu Yang's construction ideas combined with the most advanced shipbuilding technology of Datang, set up a dining area, a rest area, an arsenal, a food storage area, a fresh water area, a rescue cabin, a steam engine engine engine area and other necessary cabins for navigation, the hull is divided into the main part and the superstructure part, the superstructure is the captain's room and the control room, and the main part is the living area.

Xu Yang then visited the various areas inside the cabin one by one, and was very satisfied, especially the steam engine, which was a large furnace, into which three workers usually shoveled coal, and the ship would still have enough power to sail when there was no monsoon.

The ships used in the whole fleet are mostly the fortune ships of the Chinese Ming Dynasty, and a few are the European Galen ship style, after all, both kinds of ships have completed long voyages in history, one is the one that Zheng He took when he went to the West, and the other was Magellan's trip around the world, Xu Yang felt that his ships with steam engines were far beyond the two of them, after all, the speed of his ships was more than ten knots, and the average speed of the ship was only a few knots by virtue of the wind alone.

This time Xu Yang actually has his own careful thoughts, according to him a modern person, although he has confidence in the ancient ships, but he will never be in danger, it is better to explore the ocean and leave it to a fierce man like Lao Niu to do it, he is not destined to be a character who has been passed down through the ages, so this time he went to sea, he just went to sea along the edge of China's land to Sanya, Hainan and would get off the boat, and then help Lao Niu to make a big rear, stable on land, waiting for Lao Niu to return from their exploration.

After he told Niu Jinda about this idea, Niu Jinda did not have any objections, the chart was in hand, and there were also compasses and sextants such as sailing weapons, and finally there were a bunch of subordinates who knew how to sail, and it would be strange to find high-yield crops, so Niu Jinda had no opinion on whether Xu Yang would go to sea with the fleet.

Now that the fleet has entered the final construction, Cheng Chumo and Xu Yang are Li Erqin's candidates to go to sea, but Wei Chi Baolin, Li Dejian, Li Chongyi, Changsun Chong, and Changsun Yang are also yearning for overseas and want to go to sea together.

Taicang Wharf, just in everyone's expectation, is ready to usher in the era of exploration that belongs to the Tang Dynasty.

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