Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 311 Rebels Launch a Surprise Attack on Hanzhong, a Crisis Imminent (Part 2)
Huang Taiji led the Jurchen cavalry back to Liaodong, but Zhang Xianzhong was secretly gathering troops to prepare for an attack.

This guy actually secretly gathered his 150,000 troops in Mei County, west of Xi'an, and then launched a surprise attack on Baoxie Road without any warning!
The Baoxie Road is considered one of the easier roads to travel among the six roads in the Qinling Mountains. This is because the Baoxie Road starts from the Xiehe River, a tributary of the Wei River, in the north and connects to the Baohe River, a tributary of the Han River, in the south. The entire road is almost entirely located in the valleys of the two rivers, and the terrain is relatively flat. The mountain range between the two rivers is only about ten miles long.

Zhang Xianzhong's surprise attack on Baoxie Road was clearly premeditated, and the Hanzhong army was truly caught off guard.

This is because at this time, the main attack direction of the Hanzhong army is in Shanxi to the north, and Pan Yunteng has only left 100,000 troops to garrison Hanzhong and the vast Central Plains to the south.

There are too many places in Hanzhong Prefecture that need to be garrisoned. Just the six routes of the Qinling Mountains and the mountain roads leading to Sichuan alone number no less than ten. Pan Yunteng only left 10,000 troops to garrison the entire Baoxie Road.

The disparity between 10,000 and 150,000 is too great. No matter how powerful the Hanzhong army is, it is impossible for one to fight 150,000.

Fortunately, Pan Yunteng had built many fortresses in the six passes of the Qinling Mountains beforehand as a precaution.

Although Zhang Xianzhong launched a frenzied attack, he failed to break through the Baoxie Road and enter Hanzhong in one fell swoop.

However, no matter how hard the Hanzhong army was, it was impossible for 10,000 soldiers to defeat Zhang Xianzhong's 150,000 troops. It seemed only a matter of time before the Baoxie Road was breached.

Hanzhong was in grave danger, and Pan Yunteng was extremely anxious. He disregarded everything and abandoned his army along the Wangwu Mountain and Taihang Mountain lines, boarding a fast naval ship and heading straight for the capital.

Zhu Jue never expected Zhang Xianzhong to launch a surprise attack like a madman. He was preparing to build the Zhenyuan warship to reclaim the South Seas.

That morning, around 9 a.m., he had just finished reviewing the memorials and then, together with Zheng Zhilong, Wang Chengen, Fang Zhenghua, and others, headed straight for the Haihe Shipyard.

The spacious waterways of the Haihe Shipyard were already empty by now, and all the craftsmen were busy working in the dock.

Wang Zheng was also busily working in a dock, gesturing wildly as if he had been injected with chicken blood.

When Zhu Jue walked into the dock, he was completely baffled. What was this guy so excited about?

The shipyard doesn't seem to have started construction yet; the slipway is empty.

He walked over and took a closer look, and found that the man was directing the craftsmen to shape the ship planks.

These standard-shaped ship planks are probably as thick as ten fingers put together, and they are all over twenty feet long. It would take four craftsmen to lift them with huge ropes and carrying poles on both sides.

They would heat and soften the ship planks by placing them in a boiling oil tank, then use a hoist to lift the huge mold and slowly press it down until the mold on top fits into the oil tank. After that, they would lift the huge mold again, then lift the shaped wooden planks out of the oil tank and place them on the upside-down mold on one side, using hemp rope to tie the ship planks and the mold together.

He had seen this process many times before, and he really didn't know what Wang Zheng was so excited about.

He looked at it carefully for a while before leaning closer and asking, "Liangfu, are you busy?"

Upon hearing this, Wang Zheng turned around, repeatedly cupped his hands, and bowed, saying, "Your humble servant greets Your Majesty."

Zhu Jue waved his hand and asked again, "Have you made any improvements to this fixed-shape thing?"

Wang Zheng nodded repeatedly and excitedly introduced, "Yes, Your Majesty, in the past we had to heat the tung oil inside by lighting a fire below, which was very troublesome, and the longer the boat plank, the more troublesome it was."

Your humble servant has come up with a solution: two holes are drilled at the other end. The upper hole is for oil to enter, and the lower hole is for oil to exit. Each time the upper mold is pressed down, the excess oil will flow from the lower hole into the large barrel buried underground.

The craftsmen simply scoop out the oil from the large vat that isn't hot enough, pour it into a specially made boiler to heat it, and then, once the upper mold is hoisted up, open the valve to allow the heated oil to be poured back into the lower mold. It's incredibly convenient.

Oh, so that boiler over there was specially made. You even thought of digging a hole in the ground and burying a big barrel there!
Zhu Jue looked up at the other end of the mold and understood.

Originally, shaping the boat planks was quite troublesome, because the planks were too thick and needed to be soaked in boiling hot oil to a certain extent before they could be bent.

Their original method was similar to setting up a pot to boil water. They would cast a huge iron trough underneath, burn coal to heat the tung oil inside, and then immerse the lower part of the mold directly in the tung oil in the iron trough.

Heating in that way is really troublesome, because the longer the ship planks are, the longer the iron troughs need to be. Although they can use copper sheets to seal the iron troughs and cast them into sections, it is still very troublesome to heat the iron troughs, which are often more than ten feet long, evenly and continuously.

They used to cast each section of iron trough like a coal stove, with a separate furnace door and a flue connected to a chimney. Each furnace door had to be watched by a craftsman who would continuously add coal into it.

This time it's different. You only need one craftsman to run the boiler, and the heat is concentrated, so the oil heats up quickly. Not to mention saving a little coal, the key is that it saves a lot of time and a lot of craftsmen.

He looked at it carefully, then slowly nodded and said, "Hmm, not bad, your idea is really good."

Actually, you could also add something like a waterwheel to the large barrel on the other side, using a steam engine to drive a string of small barrels, continuously drawing oil from them and adding it to a specially made boiler on top.

This way, the craftsmen won't have to carry the oil bucket by bucket, and it will also prevent them from getting injured. After all, even if the hot oil cools down a little, it's still practically boiling water.

Yes, you can also use a steam engine to power a waterwheel to pump oil!

Upon hearing this, Wang Zheng nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty is wise, I understand."

Zhu Jue looked at the empty slipway again and then asked, "Liangfu, it seems that it will take at least a month or two to finalize the design of this ship plan. When will this batch of Zhenyuan warships be completed? Can you build two more batches of Zhenyuan warships this year?"

It's almost May now. It will take a month or so to finalize the design, and then at least two or three months for assembly. The first batch won't be completed until August or September at the earliest. That leaves only a little over two months. Can we make another batch?

Wang Zheng nodded without hesitation and said, "Your Majesty, rest assured, there will be no problem in making two batches this year."

The reason I'm here watching the ship planks being finalized is because this new thing has just been made, and I want to see how it turns out.

In fact, we had already finalized many ship plates when we were building the previous batch of ships. The ship plates for more than 600 small Zhenyuan warships were all finalized, and we have also finalized more than half of the ship plates for these more than 600 medium-sized Zhenyuan warships.

The reason we still need to wait for the ship planks to be finalized for this batch is because we almost used up the 20-zhang (approximately 6.6 meters) long timber last year, and we have to wait for it to be shipped from Southeast Asia and the Americas.

The next batch will be different. In the next three months, enough timber will definitely arrive from Southeast Asia and the Americas. We can also finalize the ship planks in advance, and then all that's left is assembly. We can definitely finish building the second batch before the ice freezes.”

That's good.

Upon hearing this, Zhu Jue nodded slightly and said, "Yes, we don't lack timber now. The key is that timber over twenty feet in length is being consumed too quickly. You should tell Youzhen and Hongkui to prioritize transporting timber over twenty feet in length. As long as it is harvested in the South Seas and the Americas, transport it all over here."

Wang Zheng nodded repeatedly and said, "I understand."

As they were discussing, Fang Zhenghua suddenly strode in, cupped his hands and bowed, saying, "Your Majesty, General Pan requests an audience."

Pan Yunteng?
What's this guy doing here?

Zhu Jue paused for a moment before nodding and saying, "Summon."

(End of this chapter)