Sun Quan is in a good mood these days, Cao Rui sent him a messenger, nominally to congratulate the New Year, but in fact it is to propose further alliances, hoping to cooperate with Sun Quan to fight a big battle in the Xiangyang area, it is best to eat the 30,000 Shu army in Fangling, and then Cao Wei attacked the fortification, Sun Quan attacked Chengdu, and the two roads went together to destroy Shu and divide the world.

What moved Sun Quan the most was that Cao Rui's envoy hinted that as long as Sun Quan was willing to accept this plan, then Cao Wei could not express his position on the matter of Sun Quan becoming emperor. If you don't express your position, you are acquiescing, and you won't send troops to fight, even if it's for show.

Although Cao Rui refused to admit Sun Quan as emperor, Sun Quan understood that this was already the biggest concession he could make, which was enough, and it was enough to avoid being attacked on both sides, which was the result that Sun Quan hoped the most. Now Wei Shu is in a big war, but he is the most leisurely one, as long as they don't join forces, neither side can defeat him.

Compared with Zhuge Liang's delay, Cao Rui's decisive concession made Sun Quan more satisfied. Sun Quan therefore put Fei Yi under house arrest, and was ready to force him and Zhuge Liang again, hoping that Zhuge Liang would also give in and immediately recognize his status. In this way, he can sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight again.

Just when he was making a wishful calculation, Zhu Huan came angrily and reported the news he got from Fei Yi to Sun Quan.

Sun Quan was stunned for a moment: "Really? Could it be a ploy? ”

Zhu Huan said angrily: "King, I'll just say that Cao Rui is not Cao Pi, and he is not a person who is so easy to give into. For so many years, Cao Wei has never sent a messenger, and this time he suddenly sent someone, there must be a conspiracy. ”

Zhu Huan's attitude was very disrespectful, but Sun Quan was used to it and knew that there was no problem with his loyalty. Sun Quan ignored him, turned around and asked Zhuge Ke and Yang Wei, "What do you think?" Is this Cao Rui's trick, or Fei Yi's lie? ”

Zhuge Ke arched his hand and said: "King, whether it is Cao Rui's tricks or Fei Yi's lies. None of us can be gullible. Chen felt that it would be better to send someone to inquire about the news first, if Cao Wei was indeed building a warship. Then we can't afford to be on guard. ”

Yang Wei also agreed with Zhuge Ke's opinion, but Sun Quan pondered for a long time, but still couldn't make a decision. On the one hand, he sent people to inquire about the news, and on the other hand, he wrote to Lu Xun. Inform Lu Xun of the new intelligence department that has just appeared, and see what his opinion is.

As Zhuge Ke said, no matter what the reason is. As long as Cao Rui was building a warship, the threat to Jiangdong was far greater than the threat to Shu Han, and Sun Quan had to guard against it.

Five days later, Sun Quan received news confirming that Cao Wei was building a warship, and the person in charge was Ma Jun, who had just played a major role in Tongguan. In addition to Ma Jun, Xiangyang also saw Xiahouba's battle flag. It can be further confirmed that Cao Wei was increasing his troops to Xiangyang. As for whether it was aimed at the Shu army in Fangling or the Wu army, it is impossible to judge.

Sun Quan was furious and immediately made an appointment to meet Cao Wei's envoy. When Cao Wei's envoy came, Ma Jun had not yet arrived in Xiangyang. He didn't know about it at all, and was dumbfounded by Sun Quan's question, and flatly denied it. It's good that he didn't deny it, but as soon as he denied it, Sun Quan's speculation was even more confirmed. Sun Quan roared and blasted the messenger out, and wrote a strongly-worded letter, asking Cao Rui what was going on.

Immediately afterwards, Sun Quan received Lu Xun's reply. Compared with the fierce reaction of Sun Quan and others, Lu Xun was much calmer. He analyzed that even if Cao Rui was building warships, Cao Wei was still not our army's opponent in water warfare, so it was unlikely to be aimed at our army in the short term, but it was likely to be aimed at the Shu army. Therefore, the most important countermeasure for our side is to remain vigilant, not to react excessively, and wait for the further development of the war situation.

After reading Lu Xun's reply, Sun Quan regretted it a little. However, he only regretted it a little, and he still couldn't let go of Cao Wei's secret construction of the warship. Water war is his advantage, how can he let Cao Wei take the lead. Besides, how many broken ships can the Shu army have, Cao Wei's Xiangyang Naval Division alone is enough to deal with it, if there is no other conspiracy, Weishenme wants to suddenly build a warship?

In any case, because of the warship, the relationship between Wei and Wu, which had just been hot, stagnated, and Sun Quan watched the every move of Cao Jun in Xiangyang vigilantly.

Just when Sun Quan was trying to guess what Cao Rui wanted to do, Wei Ba was refitting the warship in Fangling day and night. He removed the oars from the sides of the ship and added huge wheels. Half of these wheels are on the water and half are underwater, and as long as they appear on the battlefield, they will be discovered by the enemy, so Wei Ba added a platform to the wheels in order to protect Jishu's secrets as much as possible. This platform stretched out from both sides of the ship's side, equivalent to the horse's face on the city wall, and could both hide the wheels and protect the main body of the warship, and allow soldiers to jump on it and fight the enemy at close range. From a balance point of view, this is equivalent to widening the ship and increasing the balance performance.

After the modification was completed, Wei Ba and Feng Jin went to the cabin together to take a closer look. The use of wheels is familiar to Wei Balai, whether it is a water mill or a ballista or a winding device for a thunderbolt car, it is realized with wheels. The wheels can be varied with different radii to increase the torque and reduce the required force. What's more, the wheel moves in a circular motion, which makes it more efficient to do work than a linear motion.

This may be the reason why Chinese philosophy reveres the circle.

After checking every detail of the warship, looking at the Feng family's troops who were also shirtless in the winter, standing at their posts with their heads held high, Wei Ba said to Feng Jin: "It seems that you are ready for battle. ”

Feng Jin nodded happily: "No, I'm looking forward to being able to go into battle sooner." He thumped the chest of a soldier next to him: "Listen, this is the sound of war drums urging us into battle." ”

Wei Ba couldn't help but smile and looked around: "Okay, let's see if this warship can achieve our purpose and raise the speed." ”

"Try, try, I've wanted to try it for a long time." Feng Jin said impatiently.

"Okay, let's draw up Shiyan's plan first."

"Do you want a plan?" Feng Jin's eyes widened in surprise: "Just move the boat and see how fast it is?" What else do you want to come up with? ”

Wei Ba couldn't cry or laugh: "Wenju, I didn't say you, you think too simply." Just to get the boat moving? Are you going to drive a mile or two to see the fastest speed, or are you going to try a thirty or fifty mile long range? ”

Feng Jin rolled his eyes and had nothing to say. Don't look at him to know anything about warships, but when it comes to the process of industrial shiyan, he is far less familiar with Wei Ba. Don't talk about him, even if Zhuge Liang comes, I'm afraid that the consideration may not be as comprehensive as Wei Ba. It's not that Wei Ba is smarter than all of them, but because Wei Ba has experienced a mature industrialization process, design, development, shiyan, and delivery, each process is the accumulation of countless people's hard work, and it is slowly tempered by countless successes and failures, not something that can be imagined by any one person's inspiration.

In fact, industrialization does not emphasize genius compared to scientific research, but relies more on collective wisdom.

Under Wei Ba's accusations, they quickly drew up a detailed Shiyan plan. Feng Jin was dizzy when he saw those charts, and would rather go inside the warship than stand beside Wei Ba.

The first shiyan started, and the content was sprint speed. Because there was no prepared timing tool, Wei Ba decided to use a reference object to let a standard Meng Chong act together to make a comparison. At the sound of an order, the two ships started at the same time, and the oarsmen on Meng Chong shouted in unison, exerting their strength together, and Meng Chong rushed out like a swordfish, leaving the armored boat behind the two hulls in a blink of an eye.

Wu Yi, who came to visit, frowned and stopped talking. However, he glanced at Wei Ba and saw that Wei Ba did not react, so he put down his uneasy mood and continued to watch.

After two or three breaths, the armored ship began to move, the huge wooden wheel was obscured, and the rotation of the wooden wheel could not be seen, but the rolling waves overflowed from under the blinds, stirring the river, and the ship began to move forward slowly. After three or five breaths, the warship began to accelerate, although the distance between it and Meng Chong was still getting farther and farther, but the speed of its acceleration still surprised Wu Yi.

"Can it be so fast?" Wu Yi looked at the armored ship that was chasing after him, and he was so surprised that he pulled off a beard, and his old face twitched in pain.

"It should be a little faster." Wei Ba looked at the warship that was gradually moving away, and flew on his horse: "General, let's follow and see how they turn." ”

"Good!" Wu Yi was also excited. He took the reins of the horse from the guard, got on the horse, and galloped side by side with Wei Ba, glancing from time to time at the two warships that were chasing in the distant water. He believed what Wei Ba said, after all, the sailors were not familiar with this ship for the first time, and when they became proficient, the speed could be further improved.

In fact, at this speed alone, he was satisfied. He looked at Wei Ba, although Wei Ba was talking to him, he didn't look at him from beginning to end, his two eyes stared intently at the two boats in the water, muttering to himself from time to time. Seeing that Wei Ba was so focused, Wu Yi not only did not get angry, but secretly sighed. This young man has extraordinary intelligence, but also a rare spirit of concentration and hardship, has the strength of Zhuge Liang, but also has the pride that Zhuge Liang does not have, and his future achievements will be extraordinary. It seems that it was the right choice to decide to support him at the beginning, maybe the Wu family can really rise with his help.

Wei Ba didn't know what Wu Yi was thinking, his whole body and mind were on those two ships. In the end, the armored ship failed to catch up with Meng Chong, and the speed was only about seventy percent of that of Meng Chong's boat, but this speed was already very good. If nothing else, ideally, it would be twice as fast as an armored ship with oars, and a conservative estimate would be two-thirds faster.

Speed is the foundation of surprise, and with speed, Wei Ba has the capital to use wonder.

Wei Ba raised his fist and put it on the tip of his nose, sniffed it gently, and a satisfied smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

Ma Jun, I admit that you are a smart person, but can you have jishu resources like me, can you have power and freedom like mine?

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On Monday, ask for a recommendation ticket, ask for a monthly pass! Recommend nervous, naked Lao Zhuang had to ask for your help. (To be continued.) )