Damn it, I'm in the garbage book I wrote

Chapter 741 Get moving, all of you!
Navigation is an extremely difficult field, as it integrates all the most cutting-edge technologies of the current era. It requires considerable expertise in everything from architecture to astrology and even meteorology; otherwise, no matter how large the ship, it can only skim the edge.

When did super-large ships appear in Middle-earth? Historically, multi-spanning ships already existed during the Spring and Autumn Period. The four states of Chu, Wu, Yue, and Qi, situated along rivers and the sea, all established massive naval forces, representing the earliest naval forces in Chinese history. The *Zhuangzi* (Chapter 13, "Free and Easy Wandering") records wars between Wu and Yue in the late Spring and Autumn Period, which were often naval battles.

However, it wasn't until the Ming Dynasty that naval warfare truly transformed into sea warfare, and the concept of seafaring became a reality. An army could complete a transformation from a traditional elite force to a new elite force within ten years, with completely overhauled firearms, tactics, and so on, enabling it to deliver a devastating blow to traditional armies.

The situation at sea was completely different. Firstly, Middle-earth was indeed somewhat arrogant. Most of the time, the people of this land did not take other countries and peoples seriously. They devoted a great deal of energy and wisdom to dealing with their own kind, who posed a greater threat, while neglecting the conquest of the vast ocean.

It's not that there's no navigation technology at present, but that the current technology cannot meet Xia Lin's requirements. He has accumulated a lot of ship technology from the beginning, but due to the overall situation in previous years, the army was obviously the first echelon in the construction sequence.

So if we have to say what regrets are destined to come in life, it is that a person's life, whether in length or breadth, is very limited, and it is impossible to have both at the same time.

But now he has only given his subordinates seven days. Xia Lin is also looking forward to seeing how far they will go in these seven days, after all, this is the first time he has put pressure on these guys.

At this moment, at the Ningbo Shipyard, the shipyard director, twelve key technicians, and seven thousand shipbuilders were all in the dock. In front of them was the largest merchant ship in terms of displacement, about twenty zhang long, which is equivalent to about sixty meters long. Their task was to convert this ship into the warship that Xia Lin needed within seven days.

Seven days, only seven days.

"Its sturdiness is definitely not a problem, so we only need to modify three things right now. One is to add reinforcing ribs and fishbone grilles to the hull, and then remove all the useless parts and add counterweights in three sections to make it more resistant to wind and waves and to make the waterline deeper."

"Another thing is to increase the number of gun ports on the hull, dividing it into three sections, with a total of twenty-four guns on both sides."

"What about speed? What are you going to do about speed?"

Everyone sat there looking at each other. Then one of them held up a finger and said, "Could we turn one mainmast into one mainmast and three auxiliary masts? That way, the ship could pull out twelve times more sails, and with the current wind speed, the ship's speed could increase by almost double."

"Multi-mast..."

The master craftsman stroked his chin thoughtfully: "There's no precedent for this, and I don't know if it will work."

"Could we change the sails on the mast from rectangular to triangular? This would maintain power when there is wind and also make it easier to adjust the sails to keep the boat angled to cut through the water and maintain power when there is no wind or a crosswind."

"Please draw a diagram."

Soon they began to draw their imagined sailing warship on paper according to their current ideas. With twelve more sails, the overall design was much better than the current ship.

Xia Shanzhang once told them something that they still agree with: whether it's a car, a boat, or even a weapon, if it looks good in its simplest form, then it must be useful.

Now, when they see designs on paper, they immediately think they are so beautiful, like a flawless work of art.

"Build a model!"

In just one morning, they created a model at a scale of twenty. They tested the boat's stability and maneuverability in a pond and quickly discovered that with just a few minor adjustments, they could easily control the boat without changing the crew's previous driving habits. The only difference was that they would need more people to operate the sails.

Other improvements include, but are not limited to, adding internal and external counterweights to the bow, increasing the ram angle, and reducing deck compartments.

Of course, this is all just theory. The actual renovation is not that simple. All the available boatmen in Ningbo were brought in, and they worked in three shifts around the clock to start dismantling and modifying the boats. Without affecting the main structure, they had to complete the work that would normally take three or even half a year in just seven days, so they had to expand the workforce.

The shipyard was bustling with activity, and progress was extremely rapid given the demanding requirements that disregarded cost.

By evening of the first day, most of the parts that needed to be dismantled had been taken down. Then, the focus was on making adjustments to the parts that needed modification. This merchant ship, which was considered a giant ship in the eyes of people of this era, was hanging there like a young girl from a brothel waiting to be trained, with people inside and out.

By the evening of the third day, the reinforcement bars and fishbone grates had begun to be installed. These are not things that can be added casually; they are a key difference between warships and merchant ships. Only after these things are installed can the integrity of the hull be maintained under repeated full rudder and impacts.

The next challenge was how to fit twenty-four cannons in. Heavy cannons were definitely out of the question, but light cannons were obviously not powerful enough. So, they came up with a quick solution and removed the cannons from the city wall and put them in. However, this was still a bit too heavy, so they continued to remove many unnecessary things, such as removing all the sailors' rest cabins and making them into a single bunk bed.

By the fifth day, it was basically complete. The only remaining issue was the multi-mast setup. They dismantled four merchant ships to convert them into this warship. As this multi-masted monster was slowly lowered from the dock into the flooded dock, no one felt confident.

"At this point, we can only try anything, and there's no time for a test voyage. I'll just get on the ship. If it sinks, I'll go down with it. That will be a way of giving the headmaster an explanation."

The boatmen, chanting their work songs, dragged the strange creature out of the dock. Its unique shape made it seem like a completely different thing compared to the merchant ships next to it.

Its appearance, with its masts sticking out of it, led the boat captain next to it to jokingly call it a sea hedgehog.

But the moment the sails are unfurled, the huge, multi-layered rectangular and trapezoidal sails swell in the wind, and the triangular sails at the bow and stern make the ship look exceptionally beautiful.

The evening wind propelled the sailboat smoothly out of the harbor. They adjusted the sails on board. Although operating the complex sails was indeed strenuous, it was not much more difficult than before after a little practice. It just required several sail operators to work in sync.

The boat captains, who were now bored and had nothing better to do, steered their small boats to follow and see what was going on, to see if this strange creature would suddenly capsize.

But they soon realized something was wrong. The strange-looking boat was initially steady and slow, but after they determined the course and adjusted the sails, it started to go faster and faster, quickly leaving the light and fast boats far behind.

Those on the ship watched as their hastily constructed contraption drew a white line across the azure waves, leaving the traditional vessels far behind. They danced and sang on the deck.

In late spring and early summer, with the winds blowing strong, this brand-new, expensive ship, strangely shaped yet exuding geometric beauty, sailed against the winds and waves from Ningbo towards Xia Lin's current location. Around the morning of the second day, around the seven-day mark, they had approached the area. Just then, several tall ships appeared on the sea, sailing towards them from the opposite direction. Those familiar with the sea knew that these tall ships were mainly used by Japanese merchant fleets, although some pirates would also use them to disguise themselves as merchants and intercept ships at sea for plunder.

But their sudden appearance caught the monster ship completely off guard. After all, it was a massive 20-zhang (approximately 63 meters) monster, and the faster it went, the less maneuverable it became. The opposing 7-zhang (approximately 3.3 meters) boat was already within sight, and the flag bearer on the mast quickly signaled for them to turn and give way.

After fighting for a while, the opposing ships not only did not give way, but instead spread out slightly and came towards them in a pincer movement.

"Goodness, are they really that arrogant? Don't they have eyes?"

"Senior brother, there are no reference points at sea, and they don't have a divisor, so they have no idea how big we are."

"Go wake up our senior brother and prepare for the impact!"

As they were talking, the multi-masted warship with full winds crashed into the enemy ship at an unexpected speed. The steel ram, the heavy body, and the super-strong and stable hull smashed the enemy's tall ship to pieces.

Just then, the eldest brother, who had just stayed up all night observing the ship's condition, suddenly woke up. Looking out the porthole, he saw that the sea and sky outside were still blue. He touched his head and said, "Are the waves this big today? Go back to sleep... I'm just scaring myself."

At this moment, the opposing Japanese pirate fleet could only watch helplessly as the enemy ship rammed and smashed their flagship, then passed by without even slowing down.

They didn't even realize how huge the ship was until it came right up to them. The key point was that such a huge body could have such an incredible speed. And they wondered if there were cannons sticking out of its hull.

Whose good person is loading cannons onto their boat?

They wanted to turn around and chase after it, but they soon discovered that the giant ship was too fast for them to catch up with. It was like a lightning bolt cutting through the waves at sea, rushing forward with a whooshing sound.

"Return to port immediately! Imperial warships are approaching!"

They rescued their fallen companions, but out of the more than one hundred people on board, only a dozen or so could be salvaged. Most of them were swept to the seabed by the turbulence generated by the giant ship and died as fish and shrimp.

At this moment, the giant ship, which was like a speed bump on a national highway, had not even figured out how to stop. Even with the sails retracted, the inertia still propelled it forward a great distance.

Xia Lin, who was supposed to meet the ship at the dock, saw this strange multi-masted sailboat frantically and spectacularly rush past her...

Honestly, it was the first time he had ever seen the word "chaotic" on a ship.

Those on the shore stared wide-eyed as the large ship darted past them. Xia Lin turned to Emperor Jingtai and said, "They might not be familiar with it yet."

Emperor Jingtai, holding a telescope, looked at the giant ship that had already turned around in the distance: "Why does this ship look so strange?"

"It doesn't matter, as long as it works."

Xia Lin said this, but he was secretly alarmed because the design style of this ship was very close to the design concept of 17th and 18th century sailing warships. Although the overall structure was still different and traces of merchant ship conversion could be seen, this concept had indeed reached the pinnacle of sailing ships. Going further would basically mean taking a big step into the steam engine era.

As this rudimentary sailing battleship slowly docked, its massive 60-meter body and the oppressive aura it exuded delighted Xia Lin. He hadn't expected those bastards to be so bold and capable, managing to create such a contraption in just a few days.

After he boarded the ship, he couldn't help but chuckle, because apart from some functional facilities, the entire ship was empty and completely unfinished, like a bare shell. The cannons were taken from the city wall, with scattered firing angles and poor fixed positions.

But seven days, and they managed to mess things up like this in just seven days, what more could you ask for?

Emperor Jingtai was standing on the deck, experiencing the sense of superiority brought by the warship with its extremely wide field of vision, while Li Shimin had already climbed to the top of the mast. Compared with Emperor Jingtai, he preferred the visual impact of being high above and looking down on all the mountains.

How much does a ship cost?

"I don't know, but I heard that the renovations alone cost over ten thousand taels of silver." The sailor, who was huddled on the mast eating canned food, shook his head and said, "The ship itself must have cost ten thousand taels too, right? I'm not too sure."

Upon hearing this, Li Shimin shrank back: "Goodness, a ship is that expensive?"

"Yeah, they're expensive. Some cost three to five thousand taels. We crashed one of them on the way."

"Broken?"

When the lookout told Li Shimin about how he had crashed into someone's boat on the road, Li Shimin's eyes widened in disbelief, and he asked, "It was just smashed like that?"

"Yeah, we ran them over. This ship must be fifty times heavier than them. It also has a ram at the bow, which they couldn't withstand. We only shuddered after the impact."

Li Shimin was immediately tempted. Although his Li Tang dynasty was an inland country, what real man could resist the temptation of these cannons and giant ships?
Big is good, huge is powerful! If one day I could stand on the bow of this giant ship and watch the beast beneath me tear apart the enemy's small, broken ship, it would be like a dream come true.

"Even if it's expensive, I must get the technology!" Li Shimin made up his mind.

(End of this chapter)