November 7 is the day of Xu Yang's wedding, and now it is just the end of October, and the entire Xu family Zhuangzi has begun to decorate the lanterns, Xu Yang has been accompanying Liu Mengli for the past two days, after all, he will go to sea as soon as the marriage is over, and he has no time to continue to accompany her.

Li Er's holy decree has come down, appointing Niu Jinda as the general of Zhenhai, Xu Yang as the general of the left guard, and Cheng Chumo as the general of the right guard, in charge of navigation.

Xu Yang's fiefdom is in full swing, Liu Dongliang is not touching the ground during this time, and he sends invitations widely, with the face of Mrs. Liu's four-grade civil official, there are still some nobles who plan to congratulate him at the wedding.

Xu Yang accompanied Liu Mengli to walk around the yard a few times today, and then he was Niu Jindala to see how the sea ship was made.

Drove the carriage, along the repaired mountain road out of Zhongnan Mountain, and from Chang'an Mingde Gate along the west for thirty miles, to Taicang Wharf.

Taicang wharf from the Han Dynasty, Han, Sui, Tang Dynasty when the great prosperity of Cao Yun, the grain is stored in Taicang, and later developed into a port-type wharf with shipping and grain storage, located at the junction of the Wei River and the Yangtze River, its shipbuilding industry is very prosperous, the waterway of Luoyang, Chang'an and the ships of the Yangtze River basin are generally built here.

There are six or seven shipyards with more than 500 people at Taicang Wharf, and the two largest of them have reached the scale of more than 1,000 people.

After Lao Niu took Xu Yang to Taicang Wharf, the housekeeper of Lao Niu's family immediately asked the directors of the two shipyards to call, one surnamed Sun, an old man in his fifties, who was responsible for the military shipyard that manufactured warships, and the other was a middle-aged man surnamed Zong, who was responsible for manufacturing the civilian shipyard for foreign sales.

"Old grandson, how are all the things that the old man ordered you to prepare?" Niu Jinda said in a loud voice.

The old man surnamed Sun respectfully hugged his fist at Niu Jinda and said: "Back to General Niu, all the timber and craftsmen have been prepared, and now just wait for the general's order, the warship can start to be manufactured on a large scale." ”

When Niu Jinda heard this, he smiled excitedly and said, "Lead the way ahead, the old man wants to see it for himself." ”

Taicang wharf is very large, along the Yangtze River more than three miles are full of wharf shipyards, Xu Yang saw a lot of craftsmen along the way to make some civilian ships, most of them are some sand ships and other cargo ships, some of which are four or five hundred tons of ships, the largest is only eight hundred tons, although these ships are not big in Xu Yang's opinion, but in the era of the Tang Dynasty, these ships are extremely advanced and huge ships in East Asia and even the whole world.

After that, Lao Niu and Xu Yang followed the old grandson to the prepared military shipyard, a large number of shaved planks and various woods were piled up, and a small number of new ships were being built in the distance, all of which were some Mengchong, fighting ships, walking boats and other warships, among which there were four huge building ships were also under construction.

After the introduction of Lao Sun Tou, Xu Yang learned that the four building ships under construction were called Wuya Ships, which were five stories high, could accommodate five hundred soldiers, had more than 40 long oars, and had huge levers in front and back, which could be used to attack approaching boats.

Xu Yang felt very painful for the building ship, which is far more ornamental than practical, and built five layers, once this thing reaches the sea, it will be blown into pieces in minutes, and you don't even have to think about it, the center of gravity of this kind of ship is extremely unstable, and it will sway from side to side if there is a slight wind and waves, not to mention the storm at sea.

Lao Niu didn't seem to know the defects of this kind of building boat, and nodded with satisfaction, just as he wanted to praise this old grandson for a few words, he was interrupted by Xu Yang.

"Master Sun, this kind of ship should be ordered to stop construction as soon as possible, and the planks can be removed if it has already been built, and this kind of ship cannot go to sea, let alone sail far."

Niu Jinda said with a puzzled face: "Why do you want to stop building?" The old man feels very good when he looks at this boat, why can't he go to sea? ”

Xu Yang said the disadvantages of this kind of ship being afraid of wind and waves, Lao Niu's face was also a little bad, he had read sailing books for so long, and he also knew the importance of the ship's solidity to the crew, if the ship was blown away in a strong wind, no matter how fancy it was, it was just a more delicate coffin.

"So what's the case now? The most advanced warship in my Datang is this kind of five-tooth ship, since this kind of ship can't go to sea, boy, hurry up and take out the Guigu sea ship you said. Niu Jinda suddenly remembered Xu Yang's sue sù his Guigu sea boat.

Xu Yang smiled slightly and said, "Uncle Niu, have you seen this Guigu sea boat, do you remember those sea ship models I gave you before?" ”

Niu Jinda suddenly remembered that when he came to Xujia Zhuangzi to ask for a book, Xu Yang did give him a few boat models, but he thought it was just some children's toys at the time, and he didn't pay attention to it after just a few glances, but he didn't expect it to be the Guigu Sea Boat.

Xu Yang clapped his hands, and eight big men came up carrying two large boxes with a chirp, Xu Yang ordered them to open the boxes, and two miniature warships came into everyone's eyes.

I saw that this warship has three towers, the bottom is wide on the top, the head and tail are high, the bow is raised and opened, the tail is towering, the side of the ship is inlaid with a layer of metal, not only the ship's side, the hull, the tower, the ship's pillars are inlaid with a layer of iron metal, there are hundreds of round holes on both sides of the hull, I don't know what, there are hundreds of large oars in the lower round holes, and there is a huge iron cigarette barrel in the stern, which looks very weird.

Everyone was stunned by the strange warship in front of them, and Niu Jinda also stumbled and said, "This? This is the Guigu Sea Boat? ”

Xu Yang is very satisfied with the attitude of everyone, how can this enhanced version of the Ming Dynasty Fu war ship be more than Zheng He's ship cattle in the Western Ocean, the two kinds of sailing pinnacles that he has reached Baidu, one is the Ming Dynasty's Fu ship, the other is the Galen ship, the only difference between the two is that one is the peak of China's local shipbuilding, and the other is that European shipbuilding has reached its peak, and after the addition of steam engines, the sailing speed increases at a geometric speed, once the system is completed, it is simply an invincible artifact of long-distance warfare in this era.

"This kind of ship, which I named 'Guigu No. 1', is an important type of ship in this voyage, mainly responsible for cruising, combat, and landing, and the other one." Xu Yang pointed to the larger one in the other box and said: "This one is named 'Guigu No. 2' and is mainly responsible for transportation, supply, and support, of course, I still have special ships that I haven't brought, so I will build them according to the model of these two big ships first." ”

Lao Niu looked around the two battleship models, and it felt very novel. "Boy, how do I think the oars of this model of a battleship can still move?"

Xu Yang smiled and didn't answer, but just led everyone to move to the Yangtze River, added some burning coal to the 'Guigu No. 1', and then saw bursts of black smoke coming out of the big chimney on the model of the sea boat, and then hundreds of wooden oars moved, and the model rowed fast on the river, and more than a dozen boatmen had already driven the boat to chase it.

Seeing this scene, even the stewards of the shipyard were stunned.

Xu Yang clapped his hands and said: "The steam engine can already be used, with this thing, our fleet can travel faster, okay, the drawings are in the box, they are all explained in detail, Master Sun, Master Zong, you can go to the drawings and prepare to build a ship, I will transfer a group of craftsmen who can use the steam engine to assist after a while." With such a reminder, the two principals suddenly went to get the drawings and prepared to call the workers to start work.

Niu Jinda came up and asked softly, "Boy, is this the boat you said you could go back and forth in half a year?" ”

Xu Yang smiled lightly at the corner of his mouth and said, "That's right, it's a steam engine ship." ”