Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 158 Frozen World, Rebels Rise Suddenly (Part 2)

In the dead of winter, the world is frozen solid.

With the New Year approaching, the capital of the Ming Dynasty seemed unaffected by the severe cold, and the common people appeared to be in high spirits.

People could be seen everywhere on the streets and alleys, especially in the inner city, where countless ordinary people had squeezed in. The streets were teeming with people, shoulder to shoulder, all busy buying New Year's goods.

At this time, the population of the capital of the Ming Dynasty was quite large. The number of commoners who entered through the newly built eight outer city walls alone was in the hundreds of thousands. Adding to this the original commoners in Tongzhou City and the artisans who moved from the capital region, the population was approaching two million.

This year, they also brought in more than 100,000 artisan households from Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Henan, and the population of the capital city has exceeded 2.5 million.

With so many people flocking into the inner city to buy New Year's goods, you can imagine how crowded it was.

Around 9 a.m., the streets were already bustling with traffic and crowds of people.

Zhu Jue, Zheng Zhilong, and the others could no longer ride at full speed; they could only stroll slowly through the streets.

They were heading to the shipyard in Dongcheng because Wang Zheng had spent more than two months working on the blueprints for the new ship.

There are just too many people in the inner city; they're completely blocked and can't move at all.

It used to take only about 15 minutes to get from Dong'anmen to Chaoyangmen.

Fifteen minutes have passed, and they are still strolling slowly along Shiwangfu Street.

Zhu Jue looked at the rosy-cheeked faces of the people on both sides and couldn't help but show a hint of curiosity.

Aren't these people cold?
He took off his gloves and touched his cheek; it really wasn't cold!
It was already past 11:45 AM, the sun was shining brightly, and there was no howling wind in the inner city. In addition, the streets were crowded with people, and many shops had installed heating, making them warm and cozy. It wasn't cold at all on the street.

As for why there was no howling cold wind in the inner city, it was probably due to the structure of the outer city.

The Nine Palaces Formation consists of eight outer walls, each like a tofu block, surrounding the inner city. No matter which direction the howling cold wind blows from, it is greatly reduced by the outer walls. In addition, the towering inner walls further block the wind, making it virtually impossible for the cold wind to get in.

This is a good thing. Since it's not cold, there's no harm in squeezing in.

It took them about half an hour to squeeze through Chaoyang Gate.

There were fewer people on Chaoyangmen Outer Street, and the pedestrians automatically moved to the sides instead of blocking the middle, so they could finally ride their horses at full speed.

After a hurried journey of nearly 15 minutes, they finally arrived at the shipyard and entered the dock where Wang Zheng was located.

By this time, the shipyard's docks had been fitted with glass and wooden walls to block the direction of the waterways, and each dock was equipped with several boilers, making it warm and cozy.

It wasn't that the shipyard craftsmen were indulging in leisure and wasting boilers and even coal; the key issue was that they had to work even in the dead of winter, and the sawing machines required steam engines.

Nowadays, each dock has several sawing machines. They use steam to power the sawing machines, which solves the heating problem in the process.

Right now, Wang Zheng is busy working on a saw, gesturing wildly.

Zhu Jue walked over and looked, then asked curiously, "Liangfu, are you starting work already?"

Wang Zheng turned around and saw it. He quickly cupped his hands and bowed, then nodded repeatedly and said, "Yes, Your Majesty, it will take time for the planks to set. I plan to saw all the planks before the New Year, tie them to the molds to set them, so that we can assemble the ship soon after the New Year."

Your idea is quite good, but the problem is, can you mass-produce your newly developed ship without even verifying it?

Zhu Jue thought for a moment and then asked, "Liangfu, do you think the newly developed ship has no problems at all?"

of course.

Wang Zheng nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty, after much thought, I have decided to double the size of the original eight hundred pieces and make about sixteen hundred pieces."

This way, the structure remains unchanged, so there shouldn't be any problems. Furthermore, this method allows us to use the timber from a thousand-ton Fujian ship to build a steamship of about sixteen hundred tons, saving us a lot of large timbers to build even larger steamships.

So you were just being straightforward and crude, simply enlarging the 800-ton ship by about twice its original size!
There probably won't be any problems with doing it this way, at least structurally. As for the rest, let's wait and see.

Zhu Jue thought for a moment, then waved his hand and said, "Liangfu, let's go take a look at the blueprints."

Upon hearing this, Wang Zheng quickly led him to a large table to the side and pointed to a huge blueprint, saying, "Your Majesty, look, this is the overall exterior design of the new ship."

This ship looks somewhat like a cruise ship from later times, wide and slightly bulky, not at all like a warship. It is slender and long, and it is even less like the Fujian ships of today with a capacity of one or two thousand liters.

This is because the ship looks much wider than the Fujian ship. A Fujian ship with a length of 1,000 liang is 10 zhang and 3 chi long and about 3 zhang wide, while a Fujian ship with a length of 2,000 liang is 15 zhang long and about 4 zhang wide.

In other words, the length-to-width ratio of Fujian ships was greater than 3:1, and the larger the Fujian ship, the greater this ratio was. This was mainly to make the hull narrow and long, thus reducing resistance.

This guy, the new ship that Wang Zheng developed is 10.3 feet long, but more than 5.3 feet wide!
Zhu Jue examined it carefully and then asked, "Liangfu, aren't you afraid of making it so wide that there will be too much resistance?"

Wang Zheng explained in detail: "Your Majesty, such a wide ship would definitely have greater resistance than a two-thousand-ton ship. However, judging from the speed of an eight-hundred-ton steamship, it would not be a problem for us to reach a speed of over a hundred li per hour after we replace it with a two-foot large steam engine and a large waterwheel."

The key advantage of this new steamship is that it can make a large ship of 1,600 liang (a unit of length) using the timber of a 1,000-liang (another unit of length) Fujian ship. Timber of about 10 zhang (a unit of length) is easy to find, but timber of 15 zhang (a unit of length) is hard to find.

For example, consider the draft. A 1,000-liao (a unit of length) Fujian-style ship, even empty, has a draft exceeding one zhang (a unit of length), posing a risk of running aground when fully loaded in the canal. This newly developed steamship, however, has a draft of less than nine chi (a unit of length), and can navigate the canal without any problem when fully loaded.

Yes, those all make sense.

Although the canal has been dug to a depth of more than two zhang (approximately 6.6 meters), the silt blockage and uneven water level mean that a draft of more than one zhang (approximately 3.3 meters) could really cause it to run aground.

There's also the issue of timber. Timber of about ten zhang (approximately 33 meters) would be equivalent to trees over thirty meters tall, and timber of about fifteen zhang (approximately 36 meters) would be equivalent to trees over fifty meters tall.

In those days, timber was not over-harvested, and trees over thirty meters tall were indeed common, which was one of the reasons why thousand-ton Fujian ships were easy to build.

If you want to find a tree that is over 50 feet tall, you have to go deep into the mountains and forests. This is one of the reasons why the Ming Dynasty has basically not built any more 2,000-ton Fujian ships since the Yongle reign.

As for why a tree about ten zhang long must be made of timber about ten zhang long, it's because in those days, the hull of a ship was mainly sealed with hull material. Therefore, the hull and bottom of the ship could not be made of two or even three pieces of timber spliced ​​together. Once the splice was slightly deformed, the hull material would fall off, and the ship would leak.

Perhaps, using rubber to seal the joints of the wooden boards could help.

If they could piece together planks, they wouldn't lack wood to build even the largest ships.

Let's leave that aside for now.

Zhu Jue pondered for a while and then asked, "Won't this axle break if it's made to be over five zhang long?"

That's naturally impossible to break.

Wang Zheng explained carefully: "Your Majesty, the axle of this ship is not the axle of a carriage. The axle of a carriage has to bear the weight of the cargo, so it is in danger of breaking."

The axle of a ship is simply for driving the waterwheel; it doesn't bear any heavy pressure. Besides, the axles made of medium carbon steel at this time are very sturdy, and after forging, they are virtually impossible to break.

Hmm, that makes sense.

Are there any other questions?

Zhu Jue was pondering this when suddenly the sound of rapid hoofbeats came from outside.

A moment later, Fang Zhenghua hurried over with a memorial in his hand, bowed and said, "Your Majesty, Governor-General Yang of the Three Borders has sent an urgent report from eight hundred li away."

Yang He?

Zhu Jue took the memorial and glanced at it; his expression changed slightly.

Governor-General Yang He reported that a large number of rebels had fled back to Yansui Town and even Guanzhong via the frozen river, making it useless for them to hold the Tongguan line!

This is troublesome; the frozen river has actually done the rebels a great favor!
(End of this chapter)