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Li Cun led his army south this time, mainly to destroy the Li Dynasty and Zhancheng, kill chickens and monkeys, pacify the south, and establish a safe maritime trade route.

Nowadays, as long as it passes the Angkor Dynasty, Dingnan Port, Annan Port, Qiongzhou Port, Guangzhou Port, Quanzhou Port, Liuqiu Port, Wenzhou Port, Mingzhou Port, Hangzhou Port, Xiuzhou Port, Jiangyin Port, all of them are first-class ports in the world, with complete facilities and everything.

The key is that there are no pirates in Li Cun's territory.

It can be said that Li Cun's territory has the best trade environment in the world.

Moreover, because Li Cun divided the long coastline into short distances one after another, every other day's voyage, he could reach the next port.

This not only greatly strengthened the safety and convenience of maritime trade in the territory of Li Cun, but also provided a safe and convenient guarantee for the Hu Benjun's own shipping.

In addition to strengthening the construction of the port, Li Cun is also vigorously developing his own sea vessels.

In fact, Li Cun had already started his own treasure ship plan.

This plan had already begun to be implemented when Li Cun had just received the request for it.

- Half of Li Cun's first batch of people sent to Liuqiu were actually prepared for the treasure ship.

It's just that before you build a ship, you need to build a shipyard first.

In addition, the wood needed for shipbuilding needs to be air-dried.

The key to the success of shipbuilding is to choose fully dried timber that has been stored for several years and the moisture content has dropped to less than 20 percent, the ideal situation is to use dry timber to build the ship slowly, let the frame and shell of the ship dry naturally, the timber is usually cut down and stored in the winter, so that it is easy to keep dry, and this kind of wood is generally not necessarily dry in two or three years, and if the local environment is relatively humid and the temperature is not high, it will take more time, so that it may take three to six years to build a ship.

However, there are no absolutes in everything, and in a hurry, you can actually build a good ship in six months.

- In this case, only wood that is not dry enough or has a slightly inferior dry quality can be used for shipbuilding.

However, if a ship is made of wood that does not dry it, it may rot over a few years, the strength of the wooden joints will gradually decrease, the frame and timber of the ship will loosen, and finally it will sink into the water.

In addition, Li Cun provided a drying technique for craftsmen.

This method requires temperature control, and the experience in all aspects is very high, otherwise it is very easy to crack, and once the wood is cracked, it is impossible to make a watertight cabin.

So it's best to dry in the shade.

If there is time, Li Cun will definitely hope for the best.

But how could Li Cun have time to wait three to six years before letting the ship go to sea?

Therefore, Li Cun asked Tian Zhuang, the general person in charge of the treasure ship, to build a batch of treasure ships first by sacrificing some materials and using wood that is not dry enough or of slightly inferior dry quality to build a batch of treasure ships first, and then replace them with good quality treasure ships later.

As for these treasure ships that will be eliminated in the future, you can try to find a big boss to sell them.

After two years of construction, the first batch of 100 treasure ships has been launched and can be used.

Among the 100 treasure ships, the largest one is 44 zhang long and 18 zhang wide, and, unlike other treasure ships, this treasure ship is a pointed bottom - the other treasure ships are all flat-bottomed sand ship types.

The culet has more underwater parts, taking this culet as an example, it has a draft of up to seven meters, so it can use the underwater area to stabilize the hull, so the culet is more suitable for sailing at sea, but it is much more troublesome to install and distribute cargo than a flat-bottomed boat.

Large punts can still sail to the sea, but they have a shallow draft, and the drafts of the many punts that were launched with this pointed treasure ship are only four to five meters.

To be on the safe side, these flat-bottomed treasure boats are best sailed to the ocean when the sea is calm.

It is worth mentioning that there is a theory that the treasure ships used by Zheng He to go to the West were flat-bottomed.

Li Yuanzhi, a veteran shipping shipwright who worked in the Dada Steamship Company of Zhang Jian, an industrialist in the late Qing Dynasty, once said that there was a flat-bottomed wooden ship that was about as wide as a treasure ship

The door was used to get out to sea, and they called it "Sending with the Wind."

Compared with the pointed bottom boat, the large flat-bottomed boat has many advantages - it is relatively simple to work, can hold more cargo, and can walk in shallow draft, deep and shallow water, has less resistance at sea, is fast, and can walk in eight winds.

These characteristics are very much in line with the natural conditions of the treasure ship in Nanjing.

The main reason for Li Cun's flat-bottomed treasure ship is to save trouble, be fast, and have a large volume.

Another is that Li Cun's ports are dense, basically, if there is no delay, you can travel from one port to the next in one day, you can try to pick good weather to sail, bad weather, enter the port to avoid the wind.

——That's how Li Cun came when he went south.

When these 100 treasure ships arrived at Dingnan Port, the envoys of Khmer, Dali, the Queen's Kingdom, Bagan, Falla Bodi, Java, Srivijaya and Siam had not yet left.

- It was Li Cun who deliberately left them behind, let them see Li Cun's treasure ship, and deter them, lest their country make trouble for Li Cun under impulse.

Based on this purpose, when the treasure ship came, Li Cun took a group of envoys to Dingnan Port, and said that he had prepared some return gifts for them, and asked them to go to the port with him to pick them up, and then they could leave.

When the envoys of various countries saw a hundred treasure ships coming from a distance, they were all shocked to the point of incomprehension, just like a person who had never seen an aircraft carrier in the later generations suddenly saw an aircraft carrier, and he saw a hundred aircraft carriers at one time.

The son of Suryavarman II couldn't help but babble.

Liu Xuan hurriedly translated for Li Cun: "The Metropolitan Governor, the Khmer prince said, it is incredible that there are big ships in the world......

And this shock, when the treasure ship came to the port, reached its limit.

——When you stand under the treasure ship that looks like a hill, you really realize what it is to be shocked from the bottom of your heart.

Soon, Tian Zhuang got off the spired treasure ship.

After getting off the ship, Tian Zhuang immediately led a group of generals of the East China Sea Army who drove the treasure ship to Li Cun, and they all bowed to him: "The minister greets the governor!"

The Tian family where Tian Zhuang is located is actually not a real family, but only a wealthy family.

To put it bluntly, the Tian family is a wealthy businessman, a wealthy businessman who has built ships for generations, not a family of scholars.

In Tian Zhuang's generation, the Tian family's shipbuilding technology can almost be said to be the first in the world.

Among them, Tian Zhuang's shipbuilding skills are the highest, in the words of other shipyard stewards and craftsmen, Tian Zhuang is a shipbuilding genius, and when he was about thirty years old, his shipbuilding skills were rarely matched.

However, Tian Zhuang has never been proud of his shipbuilding skills, and he doesn't even like money.

——It may be that under the influence of the rank of Shinong Industry and Commerce, Tian Zhuang likes to be an official very much, and in two words, Tian Zhuang is an "official fan".

Ke Tian Zhuang was pressed by his father to learn shipbuilding technology in the shipyard since he was a child, and he has been dealing with shipbuilding all his life, and he has never had the opportunity to learn the Four Books and Five Classics, let alone go to Taixue and take the imperial examination.

Later, Tian Zhuang transferred his dream to Tian Maung and his brothers, and wanted one of them to be an official.

Who would have thought that Tian Zhuang finally sent Tian Maung and a few of them to study in Taixue, but because the Tian family had no official background and relationship, none of them could fill the official position.

Just when Tian Zhuang thought that there might not be anyone who was an official in the Tian family, Li Cun was born.

This made Tian Zhuang see the opportunity for the Tian family to become an official.

Therefore, Tian Zhuang sent his only daughter Tian Jing to Li Cun's harem, expecting Li Cun to see Tian Jing's face and give Tian Maung an official and a half-position among their brothers.

However, what Tian Zhuang never expected was that in the end, Li Cun made him a big official because of his shipbuilding skills that he didn't like.

All of this made Tian Zhuang feel like a dream.

After Tian Zhuang reacted, he decisively led the Tian family

He voted for Li Cun and personally helped Li Cun build a warship.

At that time, all the shipyards in Li Cun's territory, whether official or private, were all building warships for Li Cun.

Tian Zhuang had to travel to many places every day to check the progress and quality of the warship, and often rushed under the stars.

But Tian Zhuang didn't feel tired at all.

With Tian Zhuang's efforts, Li Cun obtained hundreds of warships, many of which were Wuya warships restored by Tian Zhuang according to ancient books.

In addition, Li Cun seized the gang boat, horse boat, seat boat and other ships at that time.

Li Cun had a total of thousands of large ships and countless small boats.

This made it easy for the Huben Water Army to crush the Song Water Army, which had long been abandoned, and helped Li Cun gain enough time for development.

Tian Zhuang's gamble and Tian Zhuang's efforts have been duly rewarded.

Although Li Cun did not restructure the Jianyuan system, he had already sealed Tian Zhuang as the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, so that Tian Zhuang could be one of the six books with Qian Zai, He Shi and others.

Qian Zai is from the Qian family, the first family of the two Zhejiang, the ancestors were emperors, and He Shi's ancestor He Zhizhang, together with Zhang Ruoxu, Zhang Xu, and Bao Rong, is called the "Four Scholars of Wuzhong"; and Li Bai, Li Shizhi and others are called "Eight Immortals in Drinking"; He is also known as the "Ten Friends of Xianzong" with Chen Ziang, Lu Zangyong, Song Zhiwen, Wang Shi, Bi Gou, Li Bai, Meng Haoran, Wang Wei, and Sima Chengzhen.

Being able to compete with the head of the Qian family and the He family made Tian Zhuang extremely grateful to Li Cun, and then did his best to build a ship for Li Cun.

Let's put it this way, if you ask who has been to Liuqiu the most times in the past two years, there is absolutely no one who can compare with Tian Zhuang, and Tian Zhuang sometimes stays in Liuqiu for three or five months.

If Li Cun hadn't asked Tian Zhuang to build a super-large shipyard in Qiongzhou, Tian Zhuang might have been rooted in Liuqiu to build treasure ships for Li Cun.

Undoubtedly, Tian Zhuang is the biggest contributor to the creation of the treasure ship.

Seeing that Tian Zhuang was no longer obese two years ago, but had become much stronger, Li Cun knew that Tian Zhuang must have endured hardships in the past two years.

Li Cun didn't say anything superfluous, he just introduced Tian Zhuang to the envoys of various countries and said, "This is Tian Zhuang, my important minister."

Hearing Li Cun evaluate him with the word "heavy minister", Tian Zhuang's bones suddenly lightened a little.

How dare the envoys of various countries not buy Li Cun's account, they all greeted Tian Zhuang.

Tian Zhuang hurriedly returned the salute one by one.

After Tian Zhuang had met with the envoys of various countries, Li Cun asked, "Do you want to go to my treasure ship to have a look?"

The envoys of various countries could not be unwilling, and they expressed their honor.

Seeing this, Tian Zhuang hurriedly led Li Cun and a group of envoys to board the pointed bottom treasure ship.

As soon as they arrived at the treasure ship, the envoys of various countries all exclaimed, thinking that this was a sea palace, and they were all amazed by the shipbuilding skills of the Tiger Army.

Like the envoys of the Srivijaya Kingdom, they couldn't help but ask, "Oh my God, how did you build such a big ship?"

Tian Zhuang looked at Li Cun.

Li Cun nodded.

Tian Zhuang then replied: "China has a long history of shipbuilding, as far back as the Han Dynasty more than 1,000 years ago, China's shipbuilding technology was already the best in the world.

At this time, the largest ships that could be built by the Great Eclipse Countries, the Tianzhu Countries, and the Western Countries were less than one-fifth of the treasure ship, and the displacement was even worse by a hundred times.

There is no doubt that China's shipbuilding technology is shaky and leads the world.

Therefore, the envoys of various countries believed in Tian Zhuang's words, and then became more in awe of Li Cun.

The envoy of the Queen's kingdom asked, "How can such a great ship be able to orient itself on the sea?"

Tian Zhuang glanced at Li Cun again.

Li Cun nodded.

Only then did Tian Zhuang reply: "There are two treasures on our treasure ship, the floating compass and the transoceanic star map."

After a pause, Tian Zhuang explained in detail: "The floating compass is the application of the compass to the ship, which can be used in conjunction with the azimuth disk to determine the direction; The oceanic star chart is an astronomical observation and navigation technique used in navigation, and it is measured by the star drawing board

The height of the stars of the earth, and then the geographical latitude of the place was calculated, and the specific course of the ship was determined."

Tian Zhuang said proudly: "With these two treasures, thousands of miles of ocean are like walking on the ground."

The envoys of various countries listened with fascination.

Then, someone asked if we could see these two treasures.

But he was rejected by Li Cun.

At this time, a large fish swam in the distance.

Li Chu saw that this was an extremely large great white shark.

Li Cun smiled and said, "This shark's fin is extremely delicious, who will shoot it with me?"

At this time, suddenly one of the generals came out and said, "The minister is willing to try."

Li Cun didn't need to look to know that the person who spoke was the commander of the East China Sea army.

This Sheng Zheng is also one of Li Cun's cheap uncles - his sister Sheng Xia is the Sheng family who competes with Yan Zhen's aunt.

Unlike Li Cun's uncle, Sheng Zheng did not take the literati route, but a rare military general route.

What is even more rare is that Sheng Zheng has been familiar with military books and tactics since he was a child, and he has particularly studied the tactics and training of the navy.

At the beginning, Li Cun defeated the Song army in the water battle, and Sheng Zheng was the commander-in-chief of the front.

Later, Li Cun felt that his navy was not enough, and he was ready to train 100,000 sailors, which was to help Li Cun select suitable sources of soldiers, and then train them little by little.

It can be said that Li Cuneng has such a powerful naval army, and the contribution to the competition is indispensable.

What is rare is that Sheng Zheng is a low-key, calm and unassuming person, and he never forms a gang, and is dedicated to helping Li Cun lead the East China Sea army.

Now, Sheng Zheng has become Li Cun's well-deserved No. 1 general in the navy, in charge of more than half of Li Cun's navy.

Seeing that Sheng Zheng, who had never liked to be in the limelight, rushed to stand up this time, Li Cun estimated that Sheng Zheng should be afraid that others would ask for his life, and if he missed the shot, it would be easy to spoil Li Cun's affairs, so he took the initiative to stand up.

Li Cun never doubted Sheng Zheng's ability - otherwise Li Cun would not have been able to hand over his largest naval army to Sheng Zheng's management.

Therefore, seeing that Sheng Zheng took the initiative to stand up, Li Cun bluntly spit out two words: "Go."

Sheng Zheng came to a bed crossbow at the ship's gang.

didn't see how Sheng Zheng aimed, so Sheng Zheng pulled the trigger.

After a "boom", the huge great white shark three hundred paces away flipped over.

The envoys of all countries were dumbfounded!

- They were shocked by the power and range of the bed crossbow, as well as the archery of the battle!

And Sheng Zheng bowed to Li Cun on the ground: "The minister is fortunate not to be dishonored."

Li Cun nodded, motioned for Sheng Zheng to join the ranks, and then said to the envoys of various countries, "Today I will invite you to wait for a shark fin feast."

Without Li Cun's orders, someone put down the boat and dragged the giant great white shark back.

Seeing that the crossbow arrow shot through the great white shark, which was almost more than seven meters long, the envoys of various countries were even more shocked.

At this time, someone brought up a large number of glass products and soap, and then Liu Xuan and other translators introduced these glass products and soap to the envoys of various countries, saying that this was the return gift given to them by the Metropolitan Governor.

Amid the astonishment of the envoys of various countries, Li Zheng, accompanied by Chen Hoopang, Wu Lan, Tian Zhuang, Sheng Zheng and other civil and military ministers, went to his own lounge in the cabin.

After sitting down in his chair, Li Cun announced, "The matter in the south is over, and we are ready to triumph."

……

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