The rise of the prince

Chapter 864 Two Options
Outside Kaiyuan City, Li Xingzhou and many lieutenant generals boarded the first ship.

This ship is the prototype ship of Tieniu and Guan Zhong. In terms of size, it is only half of the big ship of the Wangfu, and the draft is even smaller.

However, its length is astonishingly comparable to that of the royal ship.

The draft is much shallower, but the length has not been reduced, which makes the hull of this new ship extraordinarily slender.

This is a design designed to maximize the advantage of firepower. The higher the hull, the more guns can be installed on both sides. Finally, a balance point is found between firepower and maneuverability.

In terms of power, it still adopts the stepping power of the Wangfu big ship, and retains the sail as an auxiliary, which is the same as the previous big ship.

The ship has two decks. Because of the long and narrow hull, twelve new cannons can be placed on each side of the upper and lower decks. The two decks are twenty guns. Adding up the two sides, such a ship can always have 48 guns.

If necessary, 68 additional guns can be installed on the upper deck, reaching a terrifying [-] guns!
For the first time, Li Xingzhou felt a ferocious beast of steel and gunpowder under his feet.

The faces of many generals of the new army were also flushed. A gunboat with 68 guns was all Type [-] new guns.

Li Xingzhou was not so surprised. In the age of sails, the three-barrel sailboats of some ocean powers often had hundreds of guns.

However, their guns are incomparable with the new Type [-] guns of the Wangfu. They are purely using quantity to gather accuracy and firepower.

"68 guns! If you want to attack a city, you only need two such gunboats, within five miles, no city can last for half a day!" Shen Lin stroked the railing of the bow excitedly.

"The main thing is the shallow draft, the small hull, and the ability to navigate the waterways of large rivers. This way, marching to the Hetao will be of great use!" Di Zhi was also very pleasantly surprised.

Yelu Dashi said with emotion, "Chinese craftsmen are the best in the world, and no one can match them."

Guan Zhong and Tieniu were very proud, and many generals even began to discuss how to conquer the Xia Kingdom along the Yellow River.

It was evident that they were very pleased with the ship.

The people took the new boat and walked around the big river outside Kaiyuan City, carefully inspecting the hull structure, and the boatmen showed the maneuverability and operation of the new boat. It was not until the afternoon that everyone disembarked the boat full of praise.

Originally planning to see Qiuer and Zhao Si's plans that day, they had to wait until the next day.

The boats of Zhao Si, Qiu'er and others have been moored at the port. Actually, they saw it today, but they couldn't understand it.

Although generals in the army are not shipbuilders, they still know how to ship, just like they can't make guns, but everyone can use guns.

Another new ship docked at the ferry has a strange shape. First of all, it is not as slender as the other new ship, which means it can carry fewer artillery pieces.

Secondly, its hull is made of wood, but the middle is indeed made of metal and some wooden boards with iron edges. Logically speaking, shouldn't the hull protection be on the outer layer?When fighting Liaodong, Di Zhi and the others did similar things. In Chenzhou, in order to protect the ferry boats, they nailed iron plates on the outside of the wooden boards in important places.

The new boat also has sails, but it is not as tall as before, and the whole thing looks a bit bulky.

The next day, everyone gathered at the ferry again, ready to observe and experience the sample ship of the second option.

Everyone gathered at the ferry, led by Li Xingzhou, Zhao Si, Qiu'er and more than a dozen craftsmen led the way.

After approaching the ferry, everyone finally saw this weird big ship more clearly.

Except for what I saw in the distance yesterday, it looks even weirder now. First of all, there is a large water wheel with a height of three people on each side of its hull, like two water wheels.

Everyone wondered, is it necessary to turn these two huge water wheels to drive the boat forward?But how can it be driven, not by a horse?
Then there were actually big chimneys on both sides of the mast!

Everyone looked at each other in blank dismay, even if the crew wanted to eat on board, it didn't need to be so big, this is a warship.

But before the boat started, the sails were not raised, and the boatman said that he needed to warm up the furnace to let everyone see the structure of the boat. Everyone was a little confused, why is it so troublesome to start the boat?

After visiting, the generals were really disappointed with the ship.

Compared with yesterday's ship, because the hull is not so slender, and there is some "fighting machine" in the central section, and it sounds like a big guy, it runs through the upper and lower decks, resulting in a large area in the central area that cannot carry firepower.

This allowed the ship to carry only fourteen guns on each side, for a total of twenty-eight guns.

The center of the upper deck is protruding due to the chimney and central steam engine structure, and it cannot carry all the firepower normally, so even if it is fully loaded, the ship can only carry a total of forty guns.

It is far from the 68 doors of yesterday's ship.

Zhao Si was sweating on his forehead, and he could hear everyone's disappointment with this ship, but Zhao Si obviously had a typical science and engineering man's thinking, and he explained repeatedly: "Because no longer bearings can be made at present, and the transmission distance is limited, it is impossible to move the ship to the ship. The hull is made longer, but it can save manpower, sail for a long time, and with the aid of sails, there is no place you can’t go on the sea, which will definitely change the mode of sailing backwards.”

Li Xingzhou shook his head. As a craftsman, Zhao Si explained the problems in engineering construction, but these generals cared about the lack of cannons. They didn't understand engineering problems, so it's strange that people can understand them.

Sure enough, the generals were bewildered and dispirited. They were afraid that they would like yesterday's gunboat even more. Zhao Si's explanations did not change the status quo.

Li Xingzhou understood Zhao Si and Qiu'er's design very well. Since the steam engine was not powerful enough, sails were used as an aid to make up for it. At the same time, the size of the ship was reduced as much as possible, and the ship was widened to increase stability.

This design sacrifices load, volume and even some mobility.

So what can you gain by sacrificing so much?

The answer is steam power.

After warming up for nearly half an hour, with an order, the huge water wheels on both sides slowly rotated with the puffing and puffing clouds, stirring up water splashes, tending to make the ships slowly leave the port.

At this time, everyone finally discovered the unusualness of this ship.

Although it is smaller than yesterday's boat, has fewer cannons than yesterday's boat, and looks bulkier than yesterday's boat, it has neither sailed nor stepped on, let alone set oars, and it just moves by itself!

Most of the generals were even more frightened, and they all grabbed the railing and hugged the mast and dared not let go, making ugly appearances.

Qiu'er explained the principle to them, but not many people could understand it in detail, but she could understand most of it with the example of boiling water.

As time went by, the boat moved faster and faster. After leaving the ferry and merging into the big river basin, when it was speeding on a river that was one or two miles wide without relying on the wind or people, everyone's jaws dropped in shock.

After recovering from the shock, everyone began to discuss and almost quarreled. Some people still said that yesterday’s boat was good. After all, there were 28 more guns, and the load was more than this. It didn’t take half an hour before sailing. Warm up and prepare.

Some people say that today's boat is good, partly because they find it novel, and some people are looking at the long-term.

Those who reacted the most were the two senior naval officers, Shen Lin and Di Zhi.

Di Zhi said excitedly: "In the past, when a large army sailed downstream, it was fine. If it was against the current, even if it was to step on the big boat, the boatman would get tired very easily. He had to change people to rest. If you go downstream for hundreds of miles, you can travel every day against the current. The itinerary is very limited.

Therefore, in ancient times, it has always been easy for soldiers to attack the downstream, and it is difficult for the downstream to attack the upstream, but if there is such a ship, then it is not a problem!

This time we are attacking Xia, we have to go upstream, if we use this boat, the people of Xia would never have imagined the speed of our advance, nor would they have imagined that we would arrive sooner or later. "

Shen Lin thinks further: "Not only that, when sailing in rivers and lakes, human power is the main force, and wind power is the auxiliary force.

The wind power can be used as the main force when sailing on the sea, and the manpower is the auxiliary force.

Therefore, you must have a skilled boatman who knows the direction of the wind and the changes of the wind direction of the envoys. You dare not go too far away from the land, because if you are not careful, you will get lost at sea. It is often trapped at sea.

Now that we have such a boat, we don’t have to look at the face of the sky anymore, we can go wherever we want, and we don’t have to worry about getting lost and being trapped at sea! "

Shen Lin said excitedly: "Your Highness, in my opinion, today's ships are indeed not as many as yesterday's ships, with fewer small cannons and less supplies.

But choosing yesterday's boat is only for short-term benefits, not long-term benefits. Choosing today's boat, inheriting and continuing this skill, and constantly tempering it, will definitely have long-term benefits! "

After listening to them, Li Xingzhou listened to some objections, mainly from conservatives in the military. The opinion was that the priority should be given to attacking Xia. So Guan Zhong and Tieniu's boat is safe.

After the audience finished speaking, Li Xingzhou asked them to go back, each wrote down their opinions and reasons, and sent them to the Privy Council within three days, and decided by voting which ship would be mass-produced and passed on to the new army.

This will be the last major event that will fall into the dust in the first year of Zhangwu.

(End of this chapter)