"Nephew Qingzhixian, you just said to build a three-layer oared battleship to verify its effectiveness...... What does this mean? ”

At the beginning of the banquet, when the dishes were served one by one, Jia Rudao asked about the details of building a three-layer oared battleship. At this time, the banquet of the Southern Song Dynasty scholars was extremely luxurious, and there were always more than a dozen delicacies of all kinds, and there were beautiful concubines to serve during the banquet, and the guests and hosts usually used poetry to help the fun.

However, Jia Yidao's interest seems to be above the war - the battle between the two Huai has ended, the Mongol army has been defeated, and now the question is whether Xia Gui can intercept the remnants of the Mongol deputy marshal Bohua at the Huai River. However, the war situation in Sichuan was still severe, the Diaoyu City was besieged, and the Sichuan River channel was cut off by the Mongols with pontoon bridges. Moreover, the Mongols also built more than 200 warships with the help of the rebel generals of the Song army, Yang Dayuan, Zhang Dayue, Liu Yuan and others, relying on the advantage of occupying the upstream downstream, several times repelled the Lü Wende Department who tried to go westward against the current - it is still the early winter when the current is slow, if the water rises in spring and summer, the water flow of the Sichuan River is fast enough to make it difficult for ordinary vehicles and ships to move forward.

Chen Dexing said with a smile: "Xianggong, Xia Guan wants to build a three-layer oared ship to test its speed and collision angle effect. ”

Jia Rudao pondered for a long time, as if he was pondering whether it was necessary to waste two or three hundred thousand yuan to build a "test ship", and finally said: "Qingzhi, how fast is this ship?" ”

Chen Dexing said: "If there is no wind and no waves, the fastest can reach eighty miles per hour!" ”

"Eighty miles in an hour? Wouldn't that be a day? Dong Songchen on the side was taken aback and blurted out.

Chen Dexing shook his head: "It is impossible to travel thousands of miles in a day, after all, manpower is limited, and it should be exhausted if you run the oars with all your strength for half an hour." ”

"That's forty miles, what's the use?" Dong Songchen shook his head again and again.

Jia Rudao said: "What if it's against the current? This ship is in the reverse current, how fast can this ship go? ”

Jia Rudao didn't think about using this kind of three-layer paddle ship to fight a naval battle, and what gave him a headache right now was the battle of the Sichuan River! In the countercurrent, it was difficult for the Song army's warships to advance. When you are marching, you can still rely on a slender man, but you can't use a slender man to go into battle! So he wanted a clipper that could maintain a certain speed in the countercurrent.

Chen Dexing asked: "Then it depends on how fast the water flows?" ”

"What if it's in the middle of the river?"

"...... of the Sichuan River" Chen Dexing frowned and thought, although he was the second mate on the sea ship in his previous life, he was no stranger to the hydrological data of the Sichuan River.

When the Three Gorges Dam was not built, the maximum flow speed of the Sichuan River was above 14.5 km/h in the summer, and although the city of Xilin in Fuzhou, where the Mongols erected the pontoon bridge, was not in the Three Gorges area where the water flow was most urgent, the water flow speed was not lower than 10 km/h when it was most urgent. It is impossible for a ship with a speed of less than 5 knots to sail against the current in the river by its own strength, and can only be dragged by a slender man.

The theoretical cruising speed of the three-layer oared warship can reach more than seven and a half knots, that is, close to 14 km/h. It is also possible to sprint at full speed and reach speeds of more than eleven knots, that is, more than 20 km/h.

"If it is in the area of Xilin City, Fuzhou, where the troops are currently fighting, in the season of rising water in spring and summer, it is still possible to sail at a constant speed, and it is still possible to travel eight miles every hour." Chen Dexing silently calculated and replied. "If you go all out, you can reach forty miles per hour!"

"Eight to forty miles per hour...... Jia Rudao stroked his beard and whispered to himself, "It's not slow. If the pontoon bridge is destroyed with stones and thunder, the soldiers can reach the Diaoyu City! ”

Liao Yingzhong, who was accompanying her, said with a smile: "If this is the case, the waterway of the Sichuan River will be unblocked, and the battle of Sichuan and Shu from the west will be a complete victory." ”

Dong Songchen also hurriedly smiled and said: "If such a big ginseng can solve the crisis in Sichuan, maybe he can also leave the life of the Great Khan of the Northern Captives under Diaoyu City!" ”

This eunuch really has a crow's mouth! Didn't this Meng Ge Khan die under the Diaoyu City?

Chen Dexing glanced at Dong Songchen, and said in an unmoved voice: "Xianggong, if the verification is successful, the lower official hopes to change the artillery army into a naval army, and personally supervise the construction of 36 three-layer oar-block warships, which will lead the western aid army." ”

Jia Rudao smiled slightly, noncommittal, but turned his head to look at Dong Songchen: "How?" Is it a teenage hero? ”

"It's true that heroes are young!" Dong Songchen smiled and provoked a thumbs up and praised.

Jia Rudao smiled and nodded, waved his hand and said, "Qingzhi, the old man has allowed you to invite." ”

"Xie Xianggong, the lower official has another uninvited invitation."

"Say it."

"The oarsmen of these three-tiered battleships are a bit hard to find, not only to be physically strong, but also to endure hard work. Moreover, oarsmen will not go into battle, and it is difficult to have the opportunity to kill the enemy and make meritorious contributions, and ordinary soldiers may not be willing to take on the role. Therefore, Xia Guan wanted to use the seven or eight thousand Han troops captured a few days ago as oarsmen. ”

The oarsman of a three-story battleship is indeed a chore! In today's West, it is usually the slaves who act as oarsmen. Chen Dexing knows this. And it is indeed not easy to recruit thousands of men with rough arms to serve as oarsmen in the current Southern Song Dynasty. So Chen Dexing fell in love with the seven or eight thousand prisoners of war of the Mongol and Han soldiers...... One of them is also Zhang Hongfan.

"Are these reformers reliable?" Jia Rudao shook his head, "It's better to break it up and integrate it into the armies for selection." ”

The captured Han army was called "reformed people" by the Southern Song Dynasty, which was very untrustworthy, and it was not the same concept as the northerners who took the initiative to return south. Normally, the Song army would break up these reformers and integrate them into the armies, and let them serve as cannon fodder in battle. And Chen Dexing's proposal to integrate seven or eight thousand reformed people into the first army does not sound very safe.

Chen Dexing said: "Please rest assured, the lower officials will let people strictly guard these reformers, and will not give them weapons and armor, but only let them act as oarsmen." ”

Jia Rudao turned back to Liao Yingzhong and said, "Qunyu, what do you see? ”

"Xianggong, the students think it's good to use a reformed person as an oarsman." Liao Yingzhong gently turned the wine glass in his hand and thought, "It's just that there are more than 170 generals in each oar, and there are only dozens of soldiers...... Is it a little less? ”

Jia Rudao looked at Chen Dexing, and he also felt that dozens of armor soldiers were too few. There are about 200 armor soldiers on the 20-odd wheels!

Chen Dexing said confidently: "The number of soldiers is not in the many, but in the fine, and the oarship does not kill the enemy with hand-to-hand combat and bows and crossbows, but by ramming and sending stones to break the enemy, and the number of people is not too many." ”

"Do you break the enemy with a stone or a thunderbolt? What if the North Captives counterattacked with rockets and detonated the thunder? Jia Rudao frowned and interjected. Obviously, the traitor is now seriously considering the battle on the Sichuan River.

"No need for thunder." Chen Dexing smiled, "Just use an iron ball." ”

"Iron balls?"

"Burning red iron balls." Chen Dexing explained, "You can set a stove on the oar, burn the red iron ball and throw it out, and use the iron ball as a fire starter. ”

This method was originally common in the era of sail battleships. At that time, arson bombs on battleships were hot iron balls, and blasting shells filled with gunpowder were not gradually popularized until the second half of the 19th century due to various technical difficulties.

"Iron balls can also set fires?" Jia Yidao asked in surprise.

Chen Dexing smiled: "The minister can send people to test." ”

No, you have to try it to know. This seems to have become the principle of Chen Dexing's technological progress.

Jia Rudao waved his hand and said, "No need, you have already tried it if you want to come to Qingzhi." Qingzhi, the matter of building a three-layer oared warship will be handed over to you first. If it is true, and the ship can sail on the river, the old man will grant you what you ask, change the artillery army into a naval army, and entrust you with 8,000 reformers. However, you have to pass on the art of forging hair stones and heavenly thunder to the craftsmen of the Yangzhou Metropolitan Academy and the Imperial Armory. ”