Chapter 124: The Artillery Problem

Ten large ships docked at the Grand Staff. These ten ships are all five-masted ships, which are not much larger than the ships in Xu Dong's sailors, and most of the ships in Xu Dong's sailors are used for many years, although they are well repaired, but they are not new ships after all, where can they compare to these ten big ships. It's all the fault of the official factory, Zhu Houhuang also used enough silver, and there is never a place to save a little bit of fine wood. These ten brand-new big ships are coveted by everyone.

Zhu Houhuang looked at these ten big ships, although this ship was smaller than the tens of thousands of tons of big ships in later generations, I don't know how many times. But Zhu Houhuang estimated that there are at least a few hundred tons of displacement.

"It's not small, when the republic was just established, the ships were so big." Zhu Houhuang didn't know whether it was a bad taste or to comfort himself.

He boarded the ship and asked, "Old Zhao, how is this ship?" ”

Zhu Houhuang doesn't understand the doorway here, but there are people around him who do.

This old Zhao is the shipbuilding expert that Zhu Houhuang took away from Qingjiangpu. Don't look at his old appearance, but in shipbuilding, he is quite conceited,

Zhao Lao squinted his eyes slightly, walked along the side of the ship, and then walked around the cabin, and said: "It's okay, it's just that shipbuilders are used to building merchant ships, and they don't know how to build warships, so there is a little problem." ”

Zhu Houhuang asked, "Oh, I don't know what the problem is. ”

Zhao Lao said: "The construction method of the lucky ship is to erect the keel first, then build the ribs, order the bulkhead, complete the frame of the ship, and then nail the bottom shell plate. Then build a house, nail the ship's mast, rudder, etc., all of which must be made putty seams and painted. This ship, even if it is completed, in fact, shipbuilding is like this, it is just the same. Fuzhou is also a veteran of shipbuilding. There is no place to cut corners, and the details are also well done. It's just that they forgot that this was to build warships. ”

Zhu Houhuang asked, "Where did this come from?" ”

Zhao Lao said: "Your Highness, you see, although there are gun emplacements left on the side of this ship, there are still a lot, but he has not noticed the weight of the artillery. Especially what His Highness wants is a cannon, not a tiger squat cannon and a small cannon. I noticed that he left more than twenty gun emplacements, but these more than twenty cannons added up must weigh more than tens of thousands of pounds, and in this way, the ship will be unstable. ”

Zhu Houhuang patted the side of the boat and said: "It's a matter of center of gravity." ”

Zhao Laoyi patted his head and said: "Yes, His Highness said this, it is a matter of gravity." ”

Zhao Lao has a lot of respect for Zhu Houhuang, not just because Zhu Houhuang is the King of Yong. Or is it because Zhu Houhuang gave Zhao Lao a lot of guidance on shipbuilding, such as the focus of gravity just mentioned, although Zhao Lao is experienced and has already noticed a little bit of this, but he has never refined and summarized.

Zhu Houhuang's brows furrowed slightly, and he secretly made a mistake in his heart.

He has so many things to do in Dongyong, so naturally he can't go to Fujian to keep an eye on the shipbuilder. And what's the use of him staring at it?

Although this ship is not like an airplane, it has to be completely redesigned if you move a little anywhere. But shipbuilding is also a job that involves the whole body. Zhu Houhuang didn't have the time to do it, and he went to figure out how to build the ship little by little. That's not what he's supposed to do.

"I can only modify it little by little." Zhu Houhuang secretly comforted himself in his heart and said: "Anyway, there shouldn't be a warship in the West now, that kind of warship with three decks and hundreds of heavy guns. There's still time. ”

Zhu Houhuang calmed down and asked, "How many cannons can this ship hold?" Can you give an estimate? ”

Zhao Lao pondered for a while and said: "There should be no problem with installing six to eight guns, but this is just an estimate, and the accuracy can only be determined by seeing the artillery." ”

Zhu Houhuang thought about it, turned around and asked Wu Xingzhi and said: "This is a small ship, based on the calculation of eight guns per ship, eighty guns are needed, is the money enough?" Can I buy it? ”

Wu Xingzhi's face immediately turned pale, and he said, "Your Highness, absolutely not." Absolutely impossible. ”

Zhu Houhuang said with some doubts: "Why is the money not enough?" He remembered that since Yang Shen came, the interests of the Nanyang Waterway and the income of Penghu Customs, the income of these two sides combined, there were tens of thousands of taels of income every month.

This is already a lot, plus the grain is purchased directly from Nanyang, although there have always been immigrants from the mainland, but except for the prisoners sent by Wang Shourenping's rebellion, the rest are a trickle. It doesn't take so much money to settle. In addition, the construction of Dayuan City is nearing completion, and the general outline is there. Yang Shen left the finishing work to Dayuan County. Not to mention Penghu, there is also a lot of surplus.

In this way, Wu Xingzhi should have a lot of balance in his hands.

Wu Xingzhi said: "It's not that the household division has no money, but that it can't be sold if it has money." ”

Zhu Houhuang asked, "What's going on?" ”

Wu Xingzhi said: "The firearms of the National Dynasty, generally speaking, there are as many small firearms as there are, but this kind of tribute cannon that His Highness wants. But it's not something you can have if you want it. ”

Zhu Houhuang asked, "What's going on?" ”

Wu Xingzhi said: "Lord Yang said, such as the fire system, the bowl mouth system, these firearms, Beijing can make thousands of records every year. His Royal Highness can buy it as long as he wants, but like a general's cannon, a tribute cannon, such a cannon, the weight of a thousand catties is moved, and every time a cannon is made, it must be made with mud. It takes a long time, and it takes months for a cannon to be built. Moreover, the southern guard post is abandoned, and now the talents who can cast cannons are all in the north, and eighty artillery pieces can only be made up by demolishing the cannons at the head of Nanjing. Moreover, each of these cannons costs 10,000 taels of silver. Eighty cannons need at least 500,000 taels of silver, and we can't take out so much silver for a while? ”

Wu Xingzhi didn't say one thing yet, His Royal Highness wants so many cannons, isn't he afraid of touching the nerves of the one in Beijing?

Zhu Houhuang didn't think about it so much, but he felt a headache about the astronomical figure of 500,000 taels. The richer you are, the more you feel that you don't have enough money.

Zhu Houhuang thought that he had an income of tens of thousands of taels, which was enough for him to develop for a while, but he never thought of it. After a few months, I felt that the money was not enough.

"You can't spend money like that." Zhu Houhuang immediately thought of it. "It's not difficult to cast cannons, I remember that in the Qing Dynasty, there was a method of casting cannons with iron fan, and the cost could be suppressed. However, even this requires a large amount of iron. In this way, the order of my conquest of Dongyong will be changed. ”

Zhu Houhuang originally wanted to open up the whole of Taiwan from the south to the north. But at this moment, for the sake of iron, a large amount of iron, Zhu Houhuang decided to take Taipei first, and then come back to count the belly kingdom.

In his vague memory, he can still remember that although Tainan was developed first, it is just Taiwan's agricultural base, and Taiwan's industrial base is in Taipei, because Taipei has coal and iron. Even gold.

With the continuous development of Dongyong, iron has become an important material purchased by Dongyong from the mainland. Even with Dongyong's purchase, the price of iron rose and rose, and even Luo Lun, who never dared to care about Zhu Houhuang, wrote to persuade Zhu Houhuang to buy less iron.

Although Zhu Houhuang didn't think that the little iron he bought could push up the price of iron in the entire south, Luo Lun said that he naturally had to make an appearance.

"It seems that it will be without further ado." Zhu Houhuang made up his mind. I didn't want to look at the ship anymore, but I heard the footsteps behind me, and saw a man boarding the boat from the dock. When he came to Zhu Houhuang's side, he knelt down and said, "Minister, Xu Dong, the commander of the water division, has seen His Royal Highness. ”

Zhu Houhuang said: "Xu Qing is exempt. What do you think of this ship? ”

Xu Dong was born in the sea, and only when he was in the wind and waves that could destroy the world repeatedly, did he know how important a good ship is. Those who sail the seas regard ships as their lives. As soon as Xu Dong came up, his eyes were beads as if they were not his own, and he looked around, as if he wanted to deeply inlay the entire ship into his eye beads. After listening to Zhu Houhuang's question, he immediately said: "Your Highness, this ship is good, better than the ships of the Westerners, so it is not bad." ”

"Really?" Zhu Houhuang said: "Since this is the case, you have to make a choice. Do you want such ships, or those ships that preceded you. ”