Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 450 Yuanwang Launched (asking for monthly ticket)
After Lu Jin returned to Jiankang, the entire central government began to get busy preparing for this year's war. Li Shanchang was organizing the allocation of food and fodder, and the Ministry of Personnel was selecting officials to take up posts in the newly conquered territories.

Many county magistrates who had served for just one year during the Eastern Expedition last year were selected for their outstanding performance and sent to the newly annexed areas to serve as prefects and co-magistrates. The original prefects in eastern Zhejiang were transferred to the new territories to serve as provincial councilors.

Some of the county magistrates in eastern Zhejiang will also be transferred to new territories to serve as county magistrates. The vacancies left by the transferred magistrates will be filled by chief clerks and county magistrates who have performed well in various places. The new officials selected in the imperial examinations this autumn will be transferred to the original territories to serve as new county magistrates and chief clerks.

Just like cell fission, the old and the new take turns and one batch is promoted after another. Lu Jin does not lack officials now, but he is actually not satisfied with these officials. They are still traditional civil servants. If he wants to train new-style government officials, he has to wait for the education system to be fully rolled out, but this takes time. There is no other way. Reform must be done step by step.

In addition, the royal palace also made a round of adjustments to the administrative divisions, newly establishing the Jiangxi Province, Henan Province, and Shandong Province, three first-level administrative regions, as well as the previously temporarily established Huainan Province. As Huizhou Road was taken over, it has now been officially merged with Anqing and Luzhou and renamed Anhui Province, with its capital still in Hefei, Luzhou.

Luzhou, as the birthplace of Lujin, has its own Luzhou Iron Factory and is surrounded by rich coal and iron resources. The pyrite in Lujiang, the salt mine in Dingyuan, and the quartz mine in Haozhou are all either being mined or being targeted by Lujin.

Moreover, Luzhou itself is close to Jiankang, which makes it convenient for the court to control. Lu Jin has already planned a series of heavy industrial projects such as steel, mining, chemical industry, and machinery manufacturing for Anhui in his plan. The development of Hefei is bound to far exceed that of another time and space and become one of the first industrialized regions in the new dynasty and even the entire world.

Of course, the main reason is that Anhui is rich in mineral resources. Other places want to do it, but they can't do it without mines.

There are also parts of Jiangsu and Zhejiang that were conquered last year. In order to implement a tiered tax system, they had never been set up as separate provinces. They were all directly under the jurisdiction of the military governor's office. Now they have been set up as separate provinces, Zhejiang Province, with Hangzhou as its capital. Hangzhou prefect Bao Heng was promoted to the right governor of Zhejiang, and the position of left governor is temporarily vacant.

Bao Heng was the first civil servant to defect to Lu Jin, and later served as the head of the Ministry of Finance and Households of the Academy of Literature for a long time, which was equivalent to the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue. He was then sent to serve as the prefect of Hangzhou. It is reasonable for him to be promoted to the right governor now. In the future, he will be transferred to other provinces to serve as the left governor, and then he can be transferred directly back to the center.

The new Jiangsu Province was established, with its capital in Yangzhou, which is located right in the center of Jiangsu and is an important transportation hub on the Grand Canal. It is at least better than Xuzhou and Suzhou, which are located in the northernmost and southernmost respectively, and are both too remote compared to Jiangsu Province.

Anyway, the Thirteen Guardians of Jiangsu have no sense of belonging to the province, so it doesn't matter where the provincial capital is placed.
As for the plan of establishing a Jianghuai Province with Xuzhou as the center, there is no need for it, because modern administrative divisions themselves are designed to prevent local separatism and deliberately divide local forces. The geographical key points of each province, where passes are easily formed, are all assigned to the neighboring provinces.

There is no harmony within your province? Isn't that better? Why do you want to create a Central Plains cultural circle with Xuzhou as the center?

Even if the Jianghuai Province was created, do you think Xuzhou would be quiet? It would definitely fight for territory with Shandong in the north. When have the borders of Jiangsu, Anhui, Henan, and Shandong ever been quiet? When a fight breaks out, the central government has to intervene.
Finally, "Shuntian Prefecture" where Jiankang is located was designated as a Zhili Prefecture and was directly under the jurisdiction of the central government. Now Anhui and Jiangsu don't have to fight for Nanjing anymore, as no one will give it to them!

At the same time, the area of ​​Shuntian Prefecture was expanded compared to Jiqing Road in the Yuan Dynasty, and Liuhe and Zhenzhou (Yizheng) on ​​the north bank of the Yangtze River were also included. In addition, a new Jiangpu County, namely Pukou, was established. The southern terminus of the Jinpu Railway was also assigned to Shuntian Prefecture.

In addition, the Right Governor of Jiangsu Province was transferred from Qin Li, the former Right Governor of Huainan Province, and the Left Governor was temporarily vacant. This minor official of the Yuan Dynasty, who had led Chao County to surrender to Lu Jin, is now in charge of a province himself.

In terms of military affairs, after Lu Jin came back, the three major staff officers of the Privy Council were each responsible for the war in one direction. Xia Yu focused on the Central Plains, Zhan Ding focused on Jiangxi and Hubei, and the newcomer Ning Anqing focused on Shandong. The three of them received front-line battle reports every day, summarized the latest battle reports and reported to Lu Jin on the progress of the battles on various fronts. Bao Yuzong was in charge of intelligence from all parties, Feng Guoyong coordinated the entire army, and Lu Jin was in the middle of deploying troops.

On August 15, while the battles on the southern front and in the Central Plains were still in the preparation stage, the troops participating in the Shandong battle in the north began to move.

After Yang Jing's First Army arrived at Liujiagang in Taicang, they began to board naval ships and head to Haining Prefecture (Lianyungang) in batches for assembly, in order to shorten the assault starting distance from the rear to the front line and avoid the need for a refueling tactic. They had to ensure that the first batch of landing personnel were sufficient so that they could quickly open up the situation.

At the same time, on the same day, after several days of covert marching, Zhu Liangzu also led two armies of the Fifth Front Army and took advantage of the Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15, when the Yuan army was celebrating the festival and the defense was relaxed, to launch a surprise attack on Linyi and Tengzhou in Shandong, clearing obstacles for the subsequent three armies to advance simultaneously, which was considered an advance preparation for the battle.

When Zhu Liangzu suddenly appeared outside the city of Tengzhou on the evening of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Yuan army in the city had just hurriedly climbed up to the top of the city wall, but was directly captured by Feng Sheng's 36th Army in a fierce attack.

The Sixth Army led by Liao Yongzhong, Hu Hai and Mao Gui is still waiting in Dangshan and Peixian for the time being, awaiting reinforcements from the rear.

Because the number of soldiers added in the large-scale military expansion at the beginning of the year was too large, although the total size of the army has increased, the armor rate has also dropped sharply, and many new recruits do not have armor for the time being.

Xu Jichuan from the Construction Bureau started building the Dangtu Iron Works and the Xuzhou Iron Works in the first month of the year. After half a year of construction and training, they officially started full production in April. The three iron works combined could produce 27000 pieces of standard armor per month, which was enough for an army. However, it was still not enough for the entire army.

By the beginning of May, a total of more than 40,000 pieces of armor had been produced, all of which were given to Chang Yuchun's Fifth Front Army, bringing the armor rate of the Fifth Front Army to more than half, allowing him to launch the Southern Anhui Campaign.

Afterwards, the production in May was given to Liao Yongan's First Front Army, the production in June was given to the Fourth Front Army in the Central Plains direction, the production in July was also divided equally between the two of them, and finally the production plan for August was given to Zhu Liangzu's Second Front Army.

In this way, before the September battle, each of their four newly expanded fronts could replenish at least 45 to pieces of armor, raising the average armor rate of the entire army to more than %, thereby improving the combat effectiveness of the Shengwu Army.

On August 20, as the battle reports from the Shandong front came in, Tengzhou, Linyi and Feixian were successively conquered by Zhu Liangzu, and the participating troops on the southern front were almost assembled, Wang Dayuan, who was in charge of supervising the construction of ships, also brought good news to Lu Jin.

"Your Highness, the Yuanwang is about to be launched. Your Highness, would you like to preside over the launching ceremony?"

Lu Jin was surprised when he heard this, "So fast? Has it been built?"

Wang Dayuan immediately replied, "The hull, paint and mast have all been installed. The only missing parts are the sail ropes and anchors. There are also some internal tables, chairs, stoves and other items that have not been installed. The weapons have not been installed either. Everything else is complete. The paint on the outside of the hull has been drying for a month and has long been dry. There is no problem launching it now. The sails and rigging can also be installed after launching it."

Lu Jin was a little dazed. He had been busy with various things recently and almost forgot about this ship. But in fact, the construction of Yuanwang had been going on for almost a year. If we count from the preparation of wood, it would be even earlier. As early as when Lu Jin just conquered Luzhou and Lu'an, he had been cutting wood in the Dabie Mountains.

The wood had been prepared long ago, and the dock was built at the end of last year, but the official construction started at the beginning of this year. He originally expected it to be completed by the end of September or early October, but now the progress is actually about the same. The hull and paint are complete, and only the final outfitting is left, which is estimated to take more than a month.

However, the construction speed is only average. In the 19th century, shipyards on the west coast of the United States used steam saws to process wood, and it only took one or two hundred workers a month to launch a sailing merchant ship. However, it took more than 7,000 people nearly a year to build the Yuanwang.
There were the two thousand shipbuilding craftsmen he had captured from Kang Maocai, the two thousand craftsmen sent by Fang Guozhen, as well as prisoners of war and prisoners who did only hard labor, and blacksmiths collected from all over the place, totaling more than seven thousand people. Even though this warship was larger and more complicated than an ordinary merchant ship, its efficiency was still quite slow.

After hearing this, Lu Jin thought for a moment before asking, "Have the water pipes of the surrounding scaffolding and dock been cleared?"

"The pipeline has been cleared, the gate has been checked, and the scaffolding has been removed. Only the two supporting poles are left. We can launch the vessel anytime in the next few days." Wang Dayuan replied immediately. "Then we will officially launch the vessel tomorrow. I will bring people over. Please prepare first, sir."

"Yes, I will arrange it right away."

So the next day, Lu Jin took his two students, Meng Zhifang and Tao Guangyi, and five new "great scholars" to the Longjiang Shipyard.

During the previous institutional reform meeting, Lu Jin said that textbooks and teaching materials should be compiled, and officials from the central government could recommend talented people they knew, so they actually recommended a group of people.

Among them is Zhu Sheng, a native of Huizhou, who was the one who gave Zhu the nine-character advice in the original history: "Build high walls, store up grain, and slowly claim the throne";

There was also Tao Kai from Taizhou, who was a teacher in the Yuan Dynasty and was recommended by Zhan Ding;

Song Lian from Jinhua, needless to say, was a famous person in the late Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty, Zhu Biao's teacher, and was recommended by Tao An;

Zhan Tong, a native of Wuyuan, was a juren in the Yuan Dynasty. He came here after the Southern Anhui Campaign on the recommendation of Hu Dahai.

Luo Ben, a native of Suzhou, with the courtesy name Guanzhong, was a student of Shi Nai'an. He came here on the recommendation of his teacher. To be precise, it was not Shi Nai'an who recommended him, but Luo Guanzhong wanted to come here himself, but was afraid that he would not be able to pass the imperial examination as recommended by Lu Jin, so he took the initiative to write a letter to his teacher, asking his teacher to recommend him to Lu Jin.

This kid is only 23 years old now, two years younger than Lu Jin. It is hard to imagine that he is the future writer of the historical fiction masterpiece "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".

As soon as the group arrived at the shipyard, they were deeply shocked by the huge ship in front of them. The huge hull was painted red and white, with a length of 72 meters, about 22 zhang, a width of 12 meters, nearly 6.4 zhang, a draft of 3900 meters, and a standard displacement of about tons. Standing at the edge of the dock and looking up at the side of the ship was like looking at a three-story building.

The masts are even more exaggerated. The two main masts in the middle are 54 meters high, which is the height of an -story building. Standing below and looking up at the top of the mast, it feels like it is reaching the sky.

"What a big ship, what a tall mast!" Luo Guanzhong could not help but exclaimed when he saw the ship for the first time, which led Zhu Sheng and Tao Kai to look up at the top of the mast. However, as the two men were old, they craned their necks to look up and almost lost their balance and fell to the ground. They were quickly supported by Robben next to them.

"Be careful, gentlemen."

"Thank you." After the two men stood firmly, Zhu Sheng said with emotion, "I have never seen such a tall ship in my life. Is this a naval warship built by Your Highness?"

"I guess so, but we are not going to use it for combat now. Such a huge ship has difficulty turning in the river. Its real destination should be the vast ocean. Compared with combat, it has a more important mission. Whether the people of the world can fill their stomachs in the future and whether the words 'a year of great famine, people cannibalizing each other' can be eliminated from history books depends on this ship."

Lu Jin also looked up at the tall ship in front of him and sighed.

The few people who didn't know the inside story were immediately confused and looked at each other, not understanding what Lu Jin meant.

Lu Jin led everyone around the ship to check the appearance of the hull. The overall exterior paint was very good. The paint below the waterline was red, and the paint above the waterline was white. It had the feel of a modern ship, so he asked Wang Dayuan.

"Mr. Huanzhang, is this paint prepared according to the formula I mentioned?"

"Yes, it's all made according to the recipe given by His Highness. The paint used below the waterline is made of red lead, rust, chalk, and water-fed powder, which is then mixed with tung oil and sesame oil. The wood inside is first painted with a layer of coal tar to prevent water, insects and corrosion, and then painted with red topcoat.

“The paint above the waterline is made of a mixture of lead white, chalk, tung oil and sesame oil. The craftsmen followed the formula Your Highness told them, and after adding lead white, the paint dried faster than before.” Wang Dayuan introduced immediately.

Lu Jin nodded with satisfaction. The most feared thing about wooden sailboats is that the maggots in the sea will eat the wooden boards, which can easily cause leaks. There will also be many marine organisms attached to the hull, such as barnacles, sheathing, etc. Once the hull is attached in large numbers, it will cause the hull to become heavier and the wooden boards will be eaten. The key is that with such a large burden, the speed of the ship will also slow down.

As a result, Britain, a major naval power, developed the technology of covering the bottom of the ship with copper plates and nailing the thin copper plates to the hull with nails. However, this technology was too expensive, and Lu Jin was reluctant to use it. He simply came up with the lead-containing poison paint that was commonly used in later generations.

The main ingredient of red anti-fouling paint for ship bottoms is lead tetroxide, which is toxic. Its toxicity can be used to reduce biological attachment. This thing has existed in ancient China and is called red lead. It is a kind of external Chinese medicine used to treat some sore skin diseases. It was able to be refined on a large scale in the Song Dynasty, and mass production is not a problem.

The lead white used above the waterline is scientifically called basic lead carbonate. In fact, in ancient times, this thing was called lead white, which was used as a cosmetic for women during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. However, putting it in the paint can not only adjust the color, but also be used as a quick-drying agent, which can improve the adhesion and drying speed of the paint.
Logically speaking, paint should have been invented in the ironclad ship era to solve the problem of steel hulls rusting in sea water, but Lu Jin was reluctant to cover it with copper plates, and the main ingredients of anti-fouling paint were already available in ancient China, so he made it in advance and used it.

After walking around the ship and visiting the exterior, Lu Jin took everyone for a tour inside the ship. The Yuanwang has a total of four and a half floors, with two floors below the waterline. It uses watertight bulkhead technology and is divided into a total of ten compartments. They cannot be connected in series, and one can only go down to the corresponding compartment from the gun deck above. It is mainly used to hold food, fresh water, ammunition and cargo, and different compartments are used to hold different things.

The two main artillery decks on the top are all long. Currently, nothing is installed on them and one can see the end at a glance. There are only a few rows of pillars in the middle, which makes it look very empty.

Finally, everyone came to the top 1/4 deck and stood on the bow overlooking the Yangtze River. Looking at the to -meter-long river ships on the river, everyone realized how small those ships were.

Lu Jin then asked everyone, "What do you think of this ship?"

Zhu Sheng thought for a moment before saying, "It is a work of extraordinary skill and ingenuity. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would never have believed that such a large and sophisticated ship could be built in the world."

But before he finished speaking, Zhu Sheng showed a worried look on his face, as if he wanted to say something but hesitated. Without him opening his mouth, Lu Jin knew from his expression that these great scholars who were concerned about the country and the people were going to advise him again.——
ps: The second chapter will be later, before three o'clock, please give me a monthly ticket

(End of this chapter)