Chapter 502

The naval construction of the Ming Dynasty once came to a standstill because of the emergence of the fire ox, that is, the steam engine.

However, after consulting later sources, it was found that the steam engine was actually a working model of the first steam engine built by the French physicist Denis Barpen in the seventeenth century (1679), an early industrial steam engine built by Thomas Seville in 1698 and Thomas Newcomen in 1712, and the first steam locomotive developed by Stephenson in 1814.

Of course, this is a Western historical record, if according to the historical records of the Ming Dynasty, then the earliest information about the steam engine is in the 38th year of Jiajing (1559)

"A woman sits deeper in a small boat, and does not need a canopy or a canopy. Zi Neng hurriedly crossed the river, and the offender was fierce with anger. ”

The boat in this poem does not need to be rocked, nor does it need sails, it can cross the river on its own, it is very fast, and it is also jetting, and the air is still very strong, and the person who encounters this gas is fierce.

This is contained in the "Tang Jingchuan Compilation of the Wu Edition", which is a military book, edited by Tang Shunzhi of the Ming Dynasty (November 9, 1507 - April 25, 1560).

In addition, there is Wang Zheng's "fire boat to go", Wang Yuanchun's law car: "A line of copper wheel rotation method, plus fire and steam transportation, called the law car." ”

The shadow of the steam engine can be seen to some extent, and it is not an isolated evidence, because of the limitations of classical Chinese, it cannot be described in detail like the vernacular, and it can be basically inferred that there was a prototype of the steam engine in the Ming Dynasty.

Even according to Western historical data, from the invention of the steam engine to the appearance of the world's first steam engine steamship, the time span is more than 100 years.

It will take more than a hundred years to enter the era of ironclad steamships, and Cheng Shijie no longer insists that there is still a long way to go from the steam engine as the driving force of the ship, just like now the fire ox is a kind of machinery of the Ming Dynasty, which is widely used in various fields, and there are more and more derivative versions, even if there is no interference by himself, the steam engine steamer will appear.

In this case, the development of the Ming Dynasty began to accelerate again, namely Lushun Shipyard, Jinzhou Shipyard, Dengzhou Shipyard, Fujian Shipyard, Shanghai Shipyard and Jiangnan Shipyard started construction at the same time, and started to build 48 giant shark class ships at one time.

The construction time was as long as six and a half months, however, since then, the speed of shipbuilding in the Ming Dynasty has risen sharply, due to the increase in the number of warships, Cheng Shijie is ready to expand the original four fleets to nine fleets, and the temporary fleets located in Zhanzhou and Xinming have been expanded into formal formations.

At the same time, Cheng Shijie is preparing to set up three ocean-going fleets, namely the Pacific Fleet, the Atlantic Fleet, and the Indian Ocean Fleet.

In fact, it is enough for the Ming Dynasty, and the biggest opponents of the Ming Dynasty are the Dutch East India Company and the British East India Company, these two countries in the name of the company, are not the opponents of the Ming Navy at all. As for the Indian Ocean Fleet, it is stationed in Ceylon, which is an overseas territory taken by Li Zhixiang.

Originally, Europe did not have a foothold for the Ming Dynasty, but now that there is, Venice is willing to cede half of Crete to the Ming Dynasty, so the Ming Dynasty has enough footholds, as for the Americas, there is no need for anyone's consent, and the Spanish people do not dare to say a word.

Since the Ming Dynasty began to get involved in the Great Voyage, rich results have been achieved, more and more people have a strong sense of maritime rights, it can be said that the caravan of the Ming Dynasty contributed 90% of the current tax revenue of the Ming Dynasty, Cheng Shijie is ready to leave the gift to his son Cheng Jialong, if Cheng Jialong ascends the throne in the future, it is announced that the Ming will be exempted from agricultural taxes and forced labor, and only personal income tax will be retained.

Then, Cheng Jialong can at least get the title of a benevolent monarch or virtuous monarch, and now Cheng Shijie's interference in Europe is actually a test of the attitude of European countries.

Why do you want to do business when you can use robbery? Since they dare to be the first year of junior high school, Cheng Shijie naturally dares to be fifteen.

Following Cheng Shijie's order, Li Xin, who was in charge of foreign affairs, took an interpreter to meet with Ilminster, the representative of the French Far East Trading Company, Guy the representative of the Portuguese Far East Trading Group, Francesco, the Spanish ambassador to Daming, Davis, the governor of the British East India Company, and the Far East trade representative of the Holy Roman Empire.

After three rounds of drinking, Li Xin finally said the purpose of the trip: "Ladies and gentlemen, I know that there have been some frictions between Venice and other countries before, and I hope that we will be able to forget those unpleasantness as soon as possible, after all, we do not want things to evolve to a level beyond our control." ”

Ilminster smiled slightly: "Lord Li, we in France have always wanted to maintain friendly relations with Venice, but unfortunately it seems that some people in Venice do not think so, if you understand the situation, you will know that the current situation, most of the responsibility lies in Venice, not that we France deliberately caused trouble......"

Siegfried, who came with Li Xin, heard the translator's words and immediately retorted: "You are talking nonsense......"

Li Xin raised his hand and said calmly: "The Republic of Venice is the closest ally of our Ming Dynasty in Europe, and it is absolutely impossible for our Ming Dynasty to sit idly by and watch our allies suffer a catastrophe, gentlemen, face the reality!" ”

"What is facing reality?"

Davis had a vague feeling that something was wrong.

Li Xindao: "The reality now is that the regent of the Ming Dynasty is very angry about this, if you want, we can sit down together and discuss how to solve the problem of Venice." ”

The delegates were silent.

Li Xin then smiled and said: "It seems that your attitude speaks for itself, the Ming Dynasty can be regarded as a disagreement, then you must be prepared for a protracted war, more than 30 years ago, the Ming Dynasty was extremely difficult, in the face of the invasion of our Ming vassal country Korea by more than 200,000 troops, the Ming Dynasty will spare no effort to send troops, I hope you will do it yourself!" ”

Davis said: "Is this a threat to the Ming Empire?" ”

"However, it is not!"

Li Xin looked at the representatives and smiled faintly: "The Ming Empire and the Ming Royal Army and the Royal Navy have no possibility of easing, the war will break out tomorrow, you can leave the Ming Dynasty on your own, the Ming Dynasty will not embarrass you, the Ming Dynasty is a state of etiquette!" ”

"Wait, Master Li!"

Ilminster hurriedly said: "We can talk!" ”

Li Xin stretched out his hand and pointed: "This Venice represents ......"

"Siegfried Erizzo, Archon Francesco Erizzo is my father!"

Siegfried said: "I can negotiate with you on behalf of Venice!" ”

……

War is inhuman and unscrupulous. As the Battle of Venice in Europe entered a white-hot phase, a large number of Venetian merchant ships were seized by various countries.

To be precise, these were all non-war personnel, but these non-war personnel were taken en masse to the front line positions on the island of Cree, and at least more than 2,000 Venetians were bound hand and foot to serve as human shields.

Crete was the crown of the Venetian city-state, and the Venetians had already lost more than 6,000 people in battle to defend the island, which had a total area of just over 8,000 square kilometers.

If it is placed in other countries, more than 6,000 people killed in the battle are quite acceptable, but the problem is that Venice is too small, even if it learns the development method of the Ming Dynasty, immigrates from the Holy Roman Empire and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and the population has expanded to more than one million, despite this, Venice is still a small place compared to the Ottoman Empire.

Moreover, almost all the countries in Europe, except for the Spanish Empire, are now attacking Venice, either attacking Venetian merchant ships, directly attacking Venice itself, or attacking Crete with the Ottoman Empire.

The Ottomans' desire for territory knew no limits, and Crete's strategic location and wealth made it the perfect target for the Ottomans to grab.

The war between the Venetians and the Ottomans broke out for more than 200 years, and the Venetians suppressed the Ottomans in the Mediterranean again and again with their excellent navy, but the Ottomans' strong national power made the Venetians feel a sense of despair that they were fighting against the boulders rolling down from the mountains.

Venice won numerous victories, but they were never able to break the Ottomans, who made them suffer time and again.

Sixty years ago, the combined fleet of Venice, Spain, and the papacy defeated the Ottoman fleet at the Battle of Lepanto and won a great victory, but the war ended with Venice paying the Ottomans an indemnity of 300,000 gold coins.

Therefore, in the past few decades, Venice has been strengthening its armaments and developing new weapons and warships to avoid the recurrence of the tragedy of 60 years ago.

Through the purchase of artillery and rocket artillery from the Ming Dynasty, as well as the "Daming-class" warships produced by the United Daming, of course, the so-called Daming-class battleships, in fact, are the foreign trade version of the Daming Sea Shark class, adopting the same setting and construction style as the Sea Shark-class battleships, which are different from the Daming, and the steel ramming angle is installed at the bow position.

For this device, the Ming Dynasty does not need it, because in the combat concept of the Ming Navy, there is no gang fighting, and the Venetians often have to face pirate raids, and it is a more economical way to use warships to ram the opponent's pirate ship.

The superiority in equipment was compensated for by the Ottomans' absolute superiority in numbers, and they even pulled in Great Britain, the Netherlands, and France.

Now the busiest in Venice were their diplomats, who began to actively look for allies. To his despair, it seemed that all of Europe had become an enemy of Venice, and no matter how much he tried to maneuver, he could not find a reliable ally!

The most powerful nations in all of Europe were attacking them, and even the city-states of the same language on the Italian peninsula were fighting against them, even harder than the Ottomans!

The Europeans accused Venice of forgetting the horrors of the Mongols and providing the damned Ming with the most advanced navigation technology in Europe, so that the Ming had the ability to sail to the sea to seize a large number of European colonies, seriously damaging the interests of the Europeans, and they wanted to make the Venetians pay for it!

Archon Francesco Erizzo was also speechless, in fact the Venetians learned from the Ming that they had larger loads, faster speeds, and safer warships and navigational techniques.

But the question is, if the wolf wants to eat the sheep, why worry about no excuse? In the words of Da Ming, if you want to add sin, there is no excuse! Francesco Erizzo can be regarded as seeing through the fact that Venice's wealth has snowballed through trade with the Ming Dynasty over the years, and it has carved a large piece of the cake from the Portuguese, Spaniards, and Dutch, and has also attracted the jealousy of these three countries.

The fires in Britain need to find a target to divert the attention of the people, and it is better to obtain a large indemnity from Venice to improve the financial situation; France's treacherous Prime Minister Richelieu feared Venice's dominance of the Mediterranean because of the growing strength of the Venetian navy......

As for the Italian city-states, they simply do not want Venice to continue to grow and have the strength to unify Italy, in short, each country, each force has its own interests, and each force wants to bite a big piece of meat from Venice!

The consul Francesco Erizzo was almost desperate, even if he cut the whole of Venice into pieces and sent them out, he couldn't feed these wolves, so he thought of Catherine in desperation, and immediately wrote two letters to her, so that the countess, who had a good personal relationship with the emperor of the Ming Empire, came forward to mediate, asking the Ming Emperor to send troops to support Venice, and Venice was willing to become an overseas vassal of the Ming Dynasty!

It had been months since the letter was sent, and it had sunk like a stone in the sea, with no reply, and the fighting was getting more and more fierce. Consul Francesco Erizzo ordered the abandonment of some of the undefended overseas territories, and the shrinking of forces to hold on to the mainland and core territories such as Crete.

Francesco Erizzo firmly believed that Catherine, who was shrewd and capable, and had outstanding appearance and temperament, could exert great influence in the Ming Dynasty and draw the attention of the Ming Dynasty to Europe.

This is a behemoth bigger than all of Europe combined, and if he could stand on Venice's side, even if it was only verbal support, it would greatly improve the situation of Venice!

It's just that...... How long will it take to hear back?

The lord of Gandia and Catherine's brother, the Count of Greco, clad in plate armor, stood in the harbor of Rethymnon and looked into the distance, silent.

In the harbor, eighteen scar battleships were moored there, and the most seriously wounded one had even the mainmast broken, and it was a mess, and the black holes of the bow and the three-inch guns on both sides of the ship were held high, like eyes glaring at the Aegean Sea. Over the course of the past year, these cannons have turned countless enemy ships into fireballs, leaving the Ottomans, the French, the British, the Dutch, the Portuguese, the Genoese, and the Neapolitans...... Let everyone who has ever had to face its anger be terrified.

It was by virtue of the superiority in naval artillery that Venice was able to survive this war of great disparity and did not show signs of defeat prematurely. But the situation is deteriorating dramatically, and it is not something that one or two weapons can change, even the most powerful naval guns are useless!

Now they had few shells, and to add insult to injury, more than two thousand Venetian merchants and their dependents were now used as meat shields to stand in front of the Ottomans.

They did not dare to open fire at all in the face of their compatriots and loved ones.

In the face of the Ottomans who were getting closer and closer, and those captives.

Count Greco shouted: "The Venetians will never be slaves, but will fight to the death!" ”

"Family, you bless us in heaven, we are together!"

"Fight to the death!"

An atmosphere of despair and misery permeated the harbor, and both the Venetian navy and sailors, both generals and soldiers, gritted their teeth and wrapped their hands and weapons with strips of cloth, ready to die.

Count Greco shouted: "Shoot out all the shells, bombard the Ottomans, run out of shells, set all the ships on fire, and prepare for the final decisive battle...... Ready to fire ......"

At this moment, the Ottomans suddenly stopped attacking, and several Ottomans with white flags walked in the direction of the port.

"What the hell are they doing?"

(End of chapter)