The Prosperous Era of Longwan

"Think of a way. Since we know there is it in Nanyang, we should be able to get it back, as well as the craftsmen.

Nanyang must also go. "

Wei Guangde had already made up his mind after knowing that the Ming Dynasty was short of wood for building warships and that Nanyang still had sufficient wood for use.

"Mr. Wei Ge, building a centipede ship only consumes wood, and there is no shortage of craftsmen and technology. But if we want to build such a big ship, even if we can find craftsmen from Nanyang and obtain construction technology, the cost of this ship will be quite high. .”

Yu Dayou said with some embarrassment at this time, "I also planned to build a ship like this to try the actual combat effect, but after consulting some craftsmen, I learned that even the smallest armed merchant ship would cost no more than our Dafu There are few boats.

Moreover, a large number of artillery pieces must be installed on them. The artillery used by the Yi people on this kind of ship is not the Fran cannon we use, but a new type of artillery similar to the general cannon. At present, we have not yet obtained the artillery casting technology. "

"Build ships first. There must be good reasons for the Yi people to make this choice, otherwise they would never give up such a powerful weapon as the Fran cannon."

Wei Guangde immediately said: "When I first learned about the problem of the insufficient range of the Fran cannon, I asked the Ministry of War to study similar artillery, but so far it has not been successful. It was not until you wrote that I learned that the Yi people already had this kind of artillery.

Obviously, they also gave up this weapon because they found that the Folan cannon had a short range.

However, I believe that this kind of, um, Manila galleon will definitely be equipped with Fran cannons. For example, after being approached by the enemy and jumping off the ship, the Fran cannons are still powerful. "

When Wei Guangde mentioned the failed research of the Ministry of Industry, he was actually reminding Yu Dayou that the imperial court, or rather him, was actually no worse at thinking than the barbarians.

The imperial court has long been aware of the lack of power of current naval warfare weapons and has begun to improve them. However, the craftsmen in the Ministry of Industry are not skilled enough and have not been able to make them.

“I still say the same thing, get the Yi people’s construction technology of Manila galleons and the casting technology of new artillery at all costs.

No matter how much money is spent, it will be recorded in the Ministry of Industry's account. If they can't develop it, they will have to ask for money. "

Wei Guangde didn't care at this moment that the director of the engineering department was Zhu Heng, and he was his staunch supporter.

Anyway, if he makes a request, Zhu Heng will definitely support it.

It's just that the money from the Ministry of Industry is needed, and it is not given to anyone.

Yu Dayou originally wanted to say that this kind of Manila galleon has a complex structure and many sailboats, but it is a type of ship that is difficult to master in navigation skills. However, he saw that Wei Guangde was very interested in barbarian ships, so he did not bother to say anything. These.

Anyway, even if he raised a problem, Wei Guangde would just ask him to find a way to solve it.

Of course, Yu Dayou actually had a solution, which was to poach the Han people who worked on the Yi ships, and to spend a lot of money to recruit the Yi crew members and hire them.

Yes, after he went to Haojing, he discovered that these Yi people seemed to have come to the distant Ming Dynasty just for money.

Therefore, as long as the money is in place, they seem to dare to say and teach anything, and will not consider at all who the enemy Ming will deal with after learning these techniques.

Of course, Yu Dayou also vaguely heard someone mention that the kingdom of the Yi people in Haojing seemed to have been annexed by another more powerful kingdom.

Perhaps this is why they are willing to sell technology.

Yes, there is actually a seller of cannon-casting technology, but the price has not been agreed upon, and it seems that the other party has some concerns, so the deal has not been concluded yet.

In fact, Yu Dayou could more or less guess the other party's worries, that is, although selling artillery technology can make a lot of money, it is a one-time deal.

He preferred to sell him the artillery they made rather than sell his artillery casting technology.

As for the Han people on the ship, they can still be contacted.

Yu Dayou did not think that they were Ming people, because they were mostly descendants of the Han people who fled to the sea in the early years, and they also inherited the Han people.

The last album of sea-going ships left is a sea-going ship with high sterns at the front and rear of the hull. The appearance gives people an uncoordinated and immature feeling.

Similar to the Manila galleon seen earlier, this is also a three-masted or four-masted sailing ship with a huge curved stern and a huge bowsprit, and it is equipped with several square sails on the foremast and topmast. , the mizzen mast is equipped with a jib.

"This kind of warship is commonly used among the barbarians. It can be large or small. It is said that the ocean navigation performance is also good. It has as many decks as the Manila galleon and can place a large number of artillery to shoot on the side.

However, I heard that this kind of boat is afraid of wind. The tall turrets at the front and rear may roll over if the boat is not operated carefully in strong winds. "

Yu Dayou also explained the last type of ship, a barbarian warship.

In fact, it was Ming's lack of understanding of the development history of European warships that led to such misunderstanding.

The last so-called warship displayed by Yu Dayou was actually a ship type earlier than the Manila galleon. It was a type of carrack. The Manila galleon was a ship type that was improved after improvements to address the shortcomings of the carrack. It has more advantages in all aspects.

It's just that although the Karak sailing ship is suitable for ocean navigation, it is afraid of wind after all, so not many people come to the Far East. Therefore, Yu Dayou takes it seriously, thinking it is a new warship of the Yi people, and finally shows it to Wei Guangde.

In fact, the Karak sailing ship is a typical inland sea warship with low combat effectiveness under complex weather conditions.

Western sailing ship technology is indeed advanced and progressing rapidly, but it did not happen overnight.

In the early days, when the ancient Eastern countries had established a complete political system, Europe was actually still in the primitive era of feeding on hair and blood.

Western civilization initially developed in the Mediterranean, so their navigation technology initially started with the Mediterranean triremes.

Later, the understanding of sailing began to evolve from paddle boats to sailing boats, and then there were European sailing boats.

Later, the Nordic countries used Kirk ships. A ship type whose hull looked a bit like an Arabian dhow was developed in Europe. Because of the presence of Vikings, Europeans first learned about the concept of ocean-going sailing ships.

Kirk ships generally have only one mast, hang a square sail, and use the lap method to build the hull.

The overlapping method was a commonly used method for shipbuilding in the early years. In this method, the ship plates are laid one layer at a time. Compared with the seam processing, the pressure is smaller, and the hull can be made relatively stronger. However, the problem is that it is impossible to use this method to build the ship plates. Too thick, or it is impossible to use multiple layers of vertical staggering to increase strength.

One more thing to say here is that in fact, when human technology was underdeveloped in the early days, ships were not a durable product and were often disposable or secondary equipment.

It was only later that ship construction technology became more and more developed, ships became more durable and more expensive, and they became durable goods.

The biggest problem with the Kirk ship is that due to the lap joint method of construction, the ship cannot be built too big. The larger it is, the more fragile it is. Therefore, it is imperative to improve the ship type for the needs of long-distance voyages.

A kind of ship gradually appeared in Europe with a short and fat hull, a high forecastle and stern, using three or four masts, and using a seam method to build the hull. This kind of ship is called a carrack.

The Karak ship adopts a high forecastle, which greatly improves its wave resistance. The high stern effectively expands the hull space. The use of multiple masts and sails can make more effective use of wind power.

The hull is seamed, which is also the inevitable development trend of the shipbuilding industry after mastering the caulking process. Generally speaking, it is similar around the world. Since the seams can be caulked with putty or asphalt, the hull can be made of multi-layer vertical staggered layers connected with iron nails in the middle. The thickness of the hull can increase as the ship increases, thus ensuring that the hull becomes larger. The hull is not strong enough.

More importantly, the forecastle and stern can be equipped with a large number of artillery, which enhances its ability as a warship.

However, because the Karak ship has a very high forecastle and stern, it is easy to attract wind when sailing, and the hull is difficult to control. There are a large number of artillery on the forecastle and stern, and the hull also has multiple layers of artillery. The center of gravity is too high, and it encounters lateral Winds can easily cause boats to capsize.

In response to these problems, various countries have carried out targeted improvements for a long time, and the result of the improvements is the Galen ship.

Initially, the Galen ship was smaller than the Karak ship, but it did not have a towering forecastle and stern. Instead, the overall number of layers in the hull increased, making the hull look taller.

The hull, especially the underwater part, is more streamlined. It is also equipped with ship emblems for shaping, and is sometimes covered with copper to reduce drag.

In addition, in addition to the bow wall, there are only three masts. The arrangement of the sails has also been optimized, and a sail on the rear mast that acts as an air rudder has been added, which greatly improves the seaworthiness and maneuverability.

Initially, each country had its own emphasis on improving the Galen ship, resulting in different appearance characteristics. For example, the Spanish Galen ship has a low bow, a long and thin beak, and a high stern; the Dutch Galen ship has a strong The gunwale is inwardly inclined; the British and French Galen ships are quite satisfactory and have stable performance.

What Wei Guangde saw before was a Galenic ship with Spanish characteristics, or the so-called Manila Galleon was actually a Galenic ship with Spanish characteristics.

Although from the perspective of later generations, the Galen ship is not a successful ship type, it must be admitted that in this era, the Galen ship is indeed the best ship type.

Thanks to movies and TV shows, Wei Guangde recognized the Galen ship at a glance and insisted on choosing this sailing ship as the main ship type of the Ming Navy in the future, instead of choosing the Karak ship, which Yu Dayou regarded as a new type of warship.

"Tell me about the treasure ship. How much information have you heard from there?"

Wei Guangde looked away from the album, looked at Yu Dayou and asked.

Yu Dayou shook his head and said: "That kind of ship is controlled by the Yi people themselves, and the coolies who carry the goods on the ship are mostly locals from Nanyang. The Yi people will not let the Han people board the ship."

"That's it."

Wei Guangde nodded slightly, and then said: "Send people to pay more attention, especially the time and route of this kind of ship.

Since it is called a treasure ship, the goods carried on it must be priceless.

Just think about the crazy shopping that the Yi people did every time they came to our Ming Dynasty to know how much silver they had. "

Influenced by later Internet essays, in Wei Guangde's consciousness, the Spanish treasure ship was said to be loaded with gold, silver, and various gemstones of huge value. They were treasures looted from various colonies and were to be transported back to Spain.

Although Wei Guangde was not sure how much gold and silver treasure there would be, considering the huge hull of the ship, Wei Guangde couldn't help but think about whether more than one million taels worth of property could really be carried on one ship.

You know, Ming Dynasty's annual tax revenue is only so much. As long as we can seize two of these treasure ships, it seems to be Ming Dynasty's cash income for a year.

Such huge wealth will inevitably keep him from being tempted.

However, although Wei Guangde was injured and still had a fleet, he was not a professional pirate after all and could not engage in the business of robbing ships.

The Spaniards can rob it, but why can’t the Ming Dynasty rob it?

I heard that the British also created some kind of privateering certificate. With this thing, it seems that they are ordered to be pirates and can rob foreign ships at will.

At this moment, Wei Guangde was thinking about whether he could trick the little emperor into writing something like this and hand it over to Yu Dayou, so that the Ming Dynasty's navy could also plunder it on the vast sea.

In fact, this also reflects Wei Guangde's ignorance of history. The privateering certificate is the privateering license. That thing is not a certificate issued to official naval officers and soldiers for robbery.

Privateering refers to the act of a country issuing a privateering license authorizing an individual to attack or rob other countries' ships.

The ship that carries out privateering is usually called a privateer or an armed civilian ship, and the captain is usually called a privateer captain.

Moreover, the privateering voucher is not useful at all times, because its use actually has a prerequisite, and that is during the war.

A formal official document that is valid only if it authorizes private individuals to sail armed civilian ships to attack, capture, and rob enemy merchant ships during times of war. If not during war, then it is an act of piracy.

The reason why privateering licenses were so popular was that most European countries were at war at this time, and they coveted each other's wealth obtained from the colonies. In particular, Britain, the emerging maritime power, was eyeing Spain's huge wealth obtained from the Americas and other places.

In the next hundred years, Britain and Spain fought fiercely for overseas colonies.

Of course, the final result was that the British won and replaced Spain as the "Empire on which the Sun Never Sets."

Of course, in chaotic Europe, where banditry logic prevailed at this time, it was very easy to issue privateering licenses.

For example, if a Dutch merchant's goods were stolen in Germany, and he could not obtain compensation for his losses through legal or diplomatic means, he could obtain a privateering license authorized by the Dutch government. Such a license would allow He compensated for his losses by capturing German merchant ships.

This is the logic behind the British king's large-scale issuing of privateering licenses. As long as a merchant reports that his goods are lost in a certain country and cannot be found, he can obtain the king's authorization on the premise of promising the king a share of the profits.

As the first country to issue such a license, the UK has naturally benefited greatly from it.

The British merchants no longer concentrated on doing business, but instead focused on the Spanish treasure ships, hoping to make huge profits.

Of course, in fact, in hundreds of years of history, only a handful of Spanish treasure ships were successfully hijacked by the British. However, treasure ships armed to the teeth cannot be robbed, and merchant ships can indeed be privately robbed easily.

Wei Guangde didn't know this. Spanish treasure ships were often accompanied by several warships to protect them, so they were not so easy to snatch.

Therefore, the important task of investigation once again fell gloriously on Yu Dayou. (End of chapter)