My eunuch godfather

Chapter 125 Ship Models

Tianjin Wei, Gao Mansion.

Zhang Kun had too many guests to entertain, and the three large houses on Guyi Street couldn't accommodate them all.

The Gao family had been prosperous in Tianjin for three generations, and there were more than fifty people living in the mansion, not counting wives, concubines and servants.

Therefore, Zhang Kun instructed Shengzhou Ship to purchase the Gao family's residence for 1,200 taels of silver at market price, making it the flagship store of Shengzhou Ship.

With the shop in the front and the residence in the back, only Gao Ping's family remained living in the Gao residence, including Sun Shouqian, who was still an apprentice.

Gao Ping supported this, and he had previously used the marriage controversy to further concentrate the power of the Gao family in his own hands.

Now, taking advantage of the acquisition of the Gao family mansion, they have driven all the troublesome Gao family members out of the mansion.

The Gao family did not have much opposition to this matter.

First, this decision was made by Zhang Kun, and no one dared to oppose it.

Secondly, given the Gao family's current development, it's time for them to separate and live their own lives.

It's more comfortable for everyone to live their own lives, to make their own decisions behind closed doors, than to have a patriarch over them.

In fact, many members of the Gao family no longer live in the Gao Mansion, but in their own villas or mansions.

However, the person in charge of the Gao family is Gao Ping, the son-in-law who moved in with the family. The Gao family is worried about the division of the family property being unfair, which is why they have been dragging their feet.

Now, under the influence of Zhang Kun, an "external force," the Gao family has been forced to begin dividing their assets.

Under Gao Ping's supervision, all of the Gao family's land outside of Shengzhou were divided up.

Gao Ping was very generous, allowing members of the Gao family outside his own household to receive a large share, to the point that his wife, Gao Shi, even cried and made a scene.

This time, Gao could not get the support of his brothers and cousins, and in the end he had no choice but to accept it.

However, the Gao family did not receive any of their 30% stake in the Shengzhou ship.

First, the 20,000 taels of silver that Zhang Kun used to acquire shares in the Gao family's business had already been returned to the Shengzhou ship by Gao Ping.

Secondly, if this asset were divided up, the Gao family would be completely torn apart.

They imitated Zhang Kun in establishing the Shengzhou Society and the Gao Family Society, transferring the Gao family's 30% stake in the Shengzhou Company to the Gao Family Society.

Then the shares of the Gao family were distributed to each family, with the Gao family holding the majority, about 60%.

"Commander Zhang!"

Portuguese shipbuilding engineer João da Silva directed two apprentices to carry a model ship into the council chamber of the Shengzhou.

Through the Jesuit missionary Ruohan, he respectfully said to Zhang Kun, "This is a model we created according to your requirements..."

""

João is in his forties, in the prime of his life, and is the chief engineer of the Xiangshan'ao Lychee Bowl Shipyard.

Although he had never built large ships, Ruo'ang had built dozens of small and medium-sized ships and was very experienced.

Zhang Kun originally planned to follow the example of the Edo Shogunate in Japan and directly build light battleships with a displacement of over 500 tons.

However, once the project actually began, they found that the difficulties were still too great.

Although Japan's overall national strength was not as great as that of the Ming Dynasty, it was still a large country with a population of 1300 million.

Looking at the world, ranking in the top five might be a stretch, but ranking in the top ten is definitely not a problem.

Zhang Kun's Shengzhou was far inferior to the Edo Shogunate, which ruled all of Japan.

Therefore, Zhang Kun changed his approach and decided to adopt a "small steps, quick progress" strategy:

We'll start by building a single-deck light cruiser with a displacement of over 200 tons.

Besides the Portuguese in Xiangshan'ao, the Dutch in Batavia also received the news and transferred people from Nagasaki, Japan.

William Jansen, shipbuilding engineer and captain of the HMS Lucky.

He claims to have worked as an engineering assistant at a shipyard in Amsterdam, where he participated in the construction of heavy battleships.

To assess the shipbuilding technology of both sides, Zhang Kun decided to have each side build a ship model first.

Single-deck light cruisers are common in European countries, and the differences in their designs are not significant.

Three guns, square sail, hull length-to-width ratio of 5:1.

The main difference lies in the height of the gunwale; the Dutch gunwale is much higher than that of the Portuguese.

"General, my design is clearly superior!"

William Jansen speaks a little Mandarin, though with a heavy Minnan accent.

Fortunately, Zhang Kun could speak some English, and with the help of the Japanese translator brought by the Dutch, communication was relatively smooth: "The ship has a high gunwale, so the deck is less likely to take on water when it is hit by wind and waves."

Light cruisers only have a single deck, and if too much water gets in, all their guns will become unusable!

With the cannons unusable, is that ship still capable of fighting? And what about those pope worshippers...?

""

"Commander Zhang!"

The Portuguese João gestured to Lu Ruohan to interrupt William Jansen and explained to Zhang Kun: "This heretic is obviously being lazy. Your warships mainly sail in coastal waters, so there is no need to design the hull to be too high!"

A ship with high gunwales and a high deck will have a high center of gravity! Since cannons are on the deck, the center of gravity will be even higher!

With a high center of gravity, the warships are not maneuverable enough and are prone to tilting when making sharp turns, even throwing their cannons off!

Secondly, the inability to mount high-powered artillery would also reduce combat effectiveness!

Although Isaac Newton was not yet born, people at the time had already figured out the existence of the center of gravity.

It's just like the parabola of an artillery firing table; it can't be calculated precisely yet.

"The Peninsula Cheese Man!"

The Netherlands was ruled by Spain for a long time and is still fighting for independence.

Spanish and Portuguese are very similar, and Portugal is still under Spanish rule.

Therefore, William Jansen could understand some Portuguese and angrily said, "What nonsense are you spouting? This Ming general is going to build battleships later, how could he only be in coastal waters..."

'

"That's after that, you lowland miser! Commander Zhang still needs to train a group of sailors first."

Their argument grew increasingly heated, and soon even the translator couldn't keep up.

Zhang Kun had no choice but to stop them and announce some good news: one ship would be built for each of the two plans.

The budget is quite generous, 6000 taels each, with room for additional funding later.

At that time, the actual quality of the warships and the cost of their construction will be used to evaluate the team's skill level.

The fact that Zhang Kun hired a shipwright named Fulang did not cause any trouble.

As the old saying goes, some things don't weigh much until they're weighed on a scale.

In the original timeline, Xu Guangqi repeatedly failed to introduce technology.

A very important reason is that bringing this matter to the forefront has sparked discussion among both the government and the public.

Moreover, Xu Guangqi needed the court to cover the expenses, so this matter had to be brought to the forefront.

Now Zhang Kun is raising funds on his own, and he tries to be vague when reporting to the imperial court.

Apart from a few enlightened officials such as Bi Ziyan and Xu Guangqi, few people knew the truth.

Even if you put it on the table, what difference will it make?

The imperial court had already opened up the seas during the Longqing era, and Zhang Kun could be considered to have built ships for the country—after all, the situation in Liaodong was visibly unstable.

Nurhaci proclaimed himself "Wise Khan" last year, adopted the reign title Tianming, and established the puppet Jin regime.

They launched frequent attacks, attempting to completely annex the Haixi Jurchen and unify the entire Jurchen people.

Meanwhile, the Ming Dynasty was also sending troops to support the Yehe tribe of the Haixi Jurchens, for example, by stationing troops in Yehe City.

When the fighting begins in Liaodong, Tianjin will become a crucial supply depot, and those large ships will be put to good use.

Zhang Kun knew that Nurhaci would raise the so-called "Seven Grievances" next year and launch an attack on Liaodong.

The question now is whether Zhang Kun can afford the huge amount of money spent on the initial phase of the Bohai Bay shipyard.