please make me king

"What, is Feng Zhou here?"

"The boat is here!"

"This...how is this possible?" Zhang Shun felt that this matter was simply unbelievable.

Such a big "huge ship" just sailed all the way along the coast?
"After asking the sailors who operated the ship, it is said that after the ship's mission to Ryukyu, it was damaged and the imperial court did not have special funds to repair it, so it has been moored in Changle Port." Gao Qiqian couldn't help answering.

"Based on slavery, it must be that this ship is not trivial. People in Fujian dare not use it easily, and there is no money for repairs, so it has been delayed until now."

"It just so happened that His Majesty issued an edict, so they threw this 'hot potato' over."

"Is this a hot potato?" Zhang Shun couldn't laugh or cry when he heard this, and at the same time he had some understanding of the bureaucratic style in the late Ming Dynasty.

To put it bluntly, this ship is very precious, but it requires money to repair it. Where does the money come from?

Second, once it is repaired, what should the court do if it is transferred away?
Even if the court doesn't transfer him away, wouldn't the gain outweigh the loss if he remembered to ask about this one day and pursued a crime of misuse of his own?
Now that it has been repaired, it will only be bad for me, not good for me. Naturally, this huge ship can only stay in the port.

It just so happened that "His Majesty" came to order, and everyone was eager to drive the ship away as soon as possible, so as to save the annual maintenance cost.

In fact, the real situation of this matter is quite different from Gao Qiqian's guess.

It turned out that when Du Sance, Yang Lun and others were returning from their mission to Ryukyu, they encountered a "hurricane", broke the main mast, and drifted with the wind. Fortunately, they turned back to Fujian.

After completing their mission, everyone naturally returned to Beijing to return to their orders, but this boat was stranded in Fujian.

At that time, the coastal seas of Fujian were seriously affected, and they were threatened by the thieves Liu Xiang, Zheng Zhilong, and the Dutch colonists who occupied Taiwan.

The two governors of Fujian before and after inspected this ship, and they had the idea of ​​transforming it into a warship.

However, one is that the sealed boat is extremely huge, which is not conducive to offshore maneuvering, and the other is that the main mast is broken, which is difficult to repair.

The reason why it is difficult to repair is because the material of the main mast is not trivial, but it is made of golden nanmu produced in Shaanxi.

This golden nanmu is a large tree, "the tallest is more than ten feet long, and the thickest is tens of weeks".

Key structures such as palace columns and beams in the Ming Dynasty are often made of this material.

It is precisely because of the great advantages of golden nanmu that when Zhang Zizhou built the boat, more than [-] people were enlisted to transport it from the Qinling area of ​​Shaanxi to Fujian for shipbuilding.

Now that the mission to Ryukyu is over, how can the governor of Fujian have the ability to enlist young men and transport timber for thousands of miles, so he can only stare blankly at the huge sealed boat, looking at the ocean and sighing.

"Your Majesty, Zhang Zizhou, director of Tianjin Shipyard, seeks to see you!" Just as Zhang Shun and Gao Qiqian were analyzing the matter of Feng Zhou's return to the north, the eunuch had already reported it.

"Oh? Hurry up, please hurry up!" Zhang Shun certainly knew why he was asking for an interview at this time, so he couldn't help but hastily ordered.

"Your Highness, Your Highness, this is really a happy event!" Zhang Zizhou said excitedly as soon as he entered the hall, regardless of salutes.

"It's a happy event, but it also needs the help of Ai Qing!" Zhang Shun also laughed.

It is of course a happy event to get a big ship for no reason.

"Your Highness, I have inspected the boat personally, and the boat is well preserved. Except for the broken main mast and broken rigging, there is almost no damage!" Having said that, Zhang Zizhou, who was once the supervisor of the construction, expressed his gratitude to the boat. This is also quite proud of.

"Okay, it's all made by Aiqing!" Seeing this, Zhang Shun praised Zhang Zizhou without pushing the boat along.

Zhang Zizhou refused after a while, and he suffered it.

Then he smiled and said: "Originally there is one thing that is the most difficult to handle, and that is the big mast. This big mast is ten feet long and is made of golden nanmu."

"Originally, I wanted to ask His Highness for an order to go to southern Shaanxi to harvest. Unexpectedly, Dongjiang Town sent a boat yesterday to ask His Highness to send troops, and sent more than ten black birches in one go."

"The length of them varies from seven to ten feet, and the largest one reaches ten feet and nine feet. It is suitable for this mast."

"Okay, this relationship is good, God is helping me!" Zhang Shun couldn't help but said with joy when he heard the words.

"It's just that I don't know how you plan to modify this ship. Can you make up your mind?"

"Your Highness, this minister thinks so!" Hearing that, Zhang Zizhou quickly presented the drawings and said, "I intend to strengthen the three-layer plywood first, and then open the gun holes on the left and right sides of the ship."

"I plan to open 28 gun holes in the bottom layer, 62 holes in the middle layer, and [-] holes in the upper layer, with a total of [-] gun holes."

"There are ten more Hongyi cannons on the bow, twelve more on the stern, fourteen gun holes on the poop, and ten more on the plywood."

"A total of [-] cannons were set up. The firepower is so strong that it has never been seen since ancient times. Everything blocked will be smashed!"

"One hundred and eight gates? Okay, follow this!" Zhang Shun was refreshed when he heard the words, and suddenly found that this modified battleship seemed to have touched the threshold of a sailing battleship.

In fact, Zhang Shun was ignorant.

If it is refitted according to Zhang Zizhou's plan, such a sailing battleship will already surpass the large sailing battleship "Sovereign of the Seas" that was just built by the United Kingdom.

Not only is the hull much larger than it, but the cannons also exceed the one hundred and four it was designed for.

Of course, Zhang Shun doesn't know these yet, but this does not prevent him from continuing to put forward some effective suggestions.

"By the way, is there any additional armor on this ship?" As Zhang Shun, who once played the game "Great Voyage 4 Power Enhanced Edition", he naturally has some experience in modifying ships.

"Armor? What are you doing with this?" Zhang Zizhou was taken aback when he heard the words, and he couldn't help explaining quickly, "The hull of this sealed boat has two layers, each layer is three inches and five cents thick, and it can't be broken easily."

"Even if it is damaged, there is a watertight cabin underneath to make it unsinkable."

"Although it is not sinking, it will ultimately affect the speed of the ship, which in turn will affect the victory of the sea battle!" Unexpectedly, Zhang Shun shook his head when he heard the words.

"If iron armor is added to these two sides, I'm afraid it will be extremely heavy and the ship will be hard to carry." Zhang Zizhou pondered for a moment when he heard the words, and couldn't help reminding.

Zhang Shun thought about it carefully, and it was the same reason.

After all, this ship is a sail-powered wooden ship, not a steam, fuel-powered or steel behemoth. Naturally, it cannot be designed according to the standards of future warships.

Thinking of this, Zhang Shun still shook his head and said, "Since this is the case, there is no need to do so,"

"It's just that the key parts of the ship still need to be reinforced with iron parts and thick hard wood boards. Otherwise, if it is damaged, all the soldiers on the ship will be buried in the sea!"

"This minister encourages me to do it!" Zhang Zizhou was taken aback when he heard the words, and then realized that fighting at sea and going to a vassal state are two different things.

The latter only needs a strong ship and can successfully cross the sea, while the latter not only needs to meet the above requirements, but also has to fight against enemy ships, so the requirements of the two are quite different.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but hastily said: "Since that's the case, I'm going to thicken the hull by another three inches to make it one foot thick. Then strengthen the ribs, just in case."

"Okay, do it like this!" Zhang Shun nodded in satisfaction when he heard this, and then added, "By the way, if the sailors who sailed back to the north are willing to stay, they should also stay with a lot of money. Of."

Although it was going north along the coast, it was considered a good skill for these people to be able to drive a big ship north with a broken main mast.

Now is the time for employing people, and we should try our best to recruit them.

However, neither Zhang Shun nor Zhang Zizhou thought that starting from this refitted "giant ship", China also had its first sailing battleship, which became a symbol of China's entry into the era of great navigation on this world line. event.

Although this battleship still has many deficiencies, it verified the technology and explored the direction for the newly built sail battleship. It took the opportunity to train a navy capable of manipulating large surface warships, and established a powerful naval force for the new dynasty. Teacher, laid a solid foundation.