"Find a way. Since we know that Nanyang is there, we should be able to get it back, as well as craftsmen.
Nanyang, we must also go."
After knowing that the Ming Dynasty has lacked the wood to build warships, and After there was still enough wood available in Nanyang, Wei Guangde had already made up his mind.
"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, it depends on this The cost of the ship is also 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 not cost more than ours.
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 the ship first. The Yi people must have good reasons for 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 Franco machine gun, 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 knew that the Yi people had already With this kind of artillery.
Obviously, they also gave up this weapon because they found that the Folan cannon had a short range.
But 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 power of the Fran cannons will still be some. ”
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 Manila galleon construction technology of the Yi people at all costs, and the cannon casting technology of new artillery.
No matter how much money is spent, remember it all If they can't develop it in the accounts of the Ministry of Industry, they will have to ask for money."
Wei Guangde doesn't care that the director of the Ministry of Industry is Zhu Heng, he is his staunch supporter.
Anyway, if he makes a request, Zhu Heng will definitely support it.
It’s just money from the Ministry of Industry, and it’s 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 I don’t bother to talk about this.
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.
So, 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 on Haojing seems to have been annexed by another more powerful kingdom.
Perhaps this is also the reason 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 and 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 would rather sell him the cannons they made than sell the cannon-casting technology.
As for the Han people on the ship, they can still be contacted.
Yu Dayou also does not think that they are Ming people, because they are mostly descendants of the Han people who fled to the sea in the early years, and they also inherited the Han people
The last type of sea-going ship in the album is It is a kind of sea-going ship with tall buildings at the front and rear of the hull. Its 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 its ocean navigation performance is also good. It has as many decks as the Manila galleon and can deploy a large number of artillery to the sides to fire.< br>
However, I heard that this kind of boat is afraid of wind, and the tall turrets at the front and rear may roll over if it is not operated carefully. ”
Yu Dayou also explained the last type of boat, a kind of Yi. Human battleship.
In fact, it was Ming's lack of understanding of the history of European warship development 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.
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 look.
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 eating raw materials and drinking blood.
Western civilization initially developed in the Mediterranean, so their navigation technology originally started with the Mediterranean triremes.
After that, the understanding of sailing began to evolve from paddle boats to sailing boats, and then there were European sailing boats.
Then the Nordic countries used Kirk ships, a type of ship whose hull looked a bit like an Arabian dhow. It was developed in Europe because the presence of the Vikings made Europeans aware of the ocean for the first time. Sailing ship concept.
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 using this method In this way, the ship plate cannot be too thick, or it is impossible to use multi-layer vertical staggering to increase the 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, high forecastle and stern, using three or four masts, and using the seaming method to build the hull. This kind of ship is called Called a karak ship.
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, which can easily cause the boat to capsize when encountering cross winds.
In response to these problems, various countries have made targeted improvements for a long time, and the result of the improvements is the Galen ship.
At first, 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 inclined wall, there are only three masts, and the arrangement of the sails has also been optimized, adding a sail on the rear mast that acts as an air rudder, 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 had a low bow, a long and thin beak, and a tall stern; the Dutch ship had a low bow. Galen ships have a strong inclination of the gunwale; Galen ships from Britain and France are quite satisfactory and have stable performance.
What Wei Guangde saw before was a Galen ship with Spanish characteristics, or the so-called Manila Galleon was actually a Spanish Galen ship.
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 and 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 Nanyang locals. The Yi people will not let the Han people on 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 loaded on the ship must be priceless.
< br>Think about the crazy purchases that the Yi people made every time they came to our Ming Dynasty. Do you know how much silver they have?”
Influenced by later Internet essays, in Wei Guangde’s consciousness, the Spanish treasure ship was said to be loaded with gold, silver, and various gems of great value. The treasures looted from various colonies were to be shipped 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, the Ming Dynasty's annual tax revenue is only so much. As long as you can grab two of these treasure ships, it seems to be the Ming Dynasty's cash income for the year.
Such a huge wealth will inevitably keep him from being tempted.
However, although Wei Guangde was injured and had a fleet, he was not a professional pirate after all, and he 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 issuing a privateering license by a country, authorizing individuals to attack or rob other countries' ships.
The ship that performs 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 became so popular was that most European countries were at war at this time, and they coveted the wealth obtained from each other's colonies. In particular, Britain, the emerging maritime power, was interested in Spain's purchases from America and other places. The desire to obtain huge wealth.
In the next hundred years, Britain and Spain fought 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, gangster logic prevailed at this time, and 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 loss 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 gained huge benefits from it.
The British businessmen no longer focused on 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.
So, the heavy responsibility of investigation once again fell gloriously on Yu Dayou. (End of this chapter)