Prince of Tang Dynasty

Chapter 414

In fact, not only Yu Chigong was surprised, even Cheng Yaojin and Li Ji, when they recalled the scene when they saw Gao Ming at the seaside, they felt very incredible.

When Cheng Yaojin and Li Ji led the troops to set off, they thought they would encounter some resistance after they arrived at Liuqiu Island, but what they didn't expect was that when they landed on the island, they didn't even encounter any sporadic resistance.

It turned out that as early as the Sui Dynasty, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty sent people to Liuqiu three times. The first two times were just to inquire, but the third time, he directly killed and kidnapped thousands of Liuqiu people.

However, after Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty sent troops to take people captive, within a few years, wars broke out everywhere, and some exiles took advantage of the chaos and ran back.

Liuqiu Island is isolated from the outside world. After more than 20 years, Liuqiu people did not know that the Sui Dynasty had perished. When they found a large number of Tang troops landing on the island, they thought they were here again to take people captive.

They were worried that they would be massacred again, so they chose to hide. Even if they were accidentally discovered by Tang Jun, they did not dare to resist.

In this way, Cheng Yaojin and Li Ji conquered Liuqiu without bloodshed, and then continued southward by boat and entered Luzon Island.

Coincidentally, the situation in Luzon Island and Liuqiu Island can be said to be exactly the same.

When the [-] Tang troops landed on Luzon Island on a Haihu warship, looking at these Tang troops wearing bright armor and holding sharp weapons in their hands, the people of Luzon surrendered without much resistance.

In other words, in fact, Cheng Yaojin and Li Ji did not spend much effort on conquering Liuqiu and Luzon Island. They spent most of their time building ships.

Although with the cooperation of Quanzhou and Fuzhou, it still took nearly two months to build a warship that could allow [-] troops to cross the sea together.

You know, it took Cheng Yaojin and Li Ji more than a month to arrive in Quanzhou from Chang'an, plus the time spent building and sailing the ship, it was naturally impossible for the two of them to return to Chang'an before Yu Chigong.

Even Cheng Yaojin and Li Ji felt that as long as they could return to Chang'an before the Chinese New Year, they would be doing well.

But when the two arrived in Fuzhou, they saw someone unexpected.

That is Gao Ming!
They still remembered that Gao Ming was standing on a "strange ship" with no oars or sails, but a big chimney, and extended an invitation to them.

"Two generals, this is my new big ship. Would you like to sit on it and try it?"

Cheng Yaojin and Li Ji were stunned at the time, they couldn't imagine how such a ship would sail.

But since Gao Ming invited them to board the ship, they couldn't refuse, so they gritted their teeth and boarded the big ship.

And what happened next was completely beyond their imagination.

Following Gao Ming's order, black smoke began to emit from the chimney of this "strange ship", and then the big ship began to drive slowly.

At the beginning, the speed of the ships was not fast, which was about the same as that of the soldiers rowing the warships. But after a while, Cheng Yaojin and Li Jizhen were surprised to find that the speed of the big ships was already as fast as riding a horse. about there!

In Datang, horses are the fastest means of transportation, which has become common sense for everyone, but now this big ship of Gao Ming has broken this common sense!
At that time, Cheng Yaojin and Li Ji thought that there was some monster pulling the big boat and Gao Ming couldn't laugh or cry, so they had to take them to the inside of the big boat to see what happened.

And when the two saw the steam engine and transmission in the cabin, they were shocked again, and they didn't speak for a long time.

In fact, this big ship is a steam ship, and the power system inside is also the first steam engine made from molds used by the Ordnance Supervision.

When the steam engine was built, Gao Ming found that it was a bit big, and it was not realistic to use it to make a steam locomotive, so he simply designed another propeller and installed them on the big ship. .

In the beginning, Gao Ming just tested the boat in the Grand Canal, but later the Grand Canal couldn't satisfy him, so he simply took Ye Feng, Zhang Sizheng and others with him, and came to the bay of Fuzhou by boat.

After arriving in Fuzhou, Gao Ming knew that Li Ji and others had already conquered Liuqiu and Luzon Island. In a good mood, he simply waited in Fuzhou for a few days, and then used his newly built steam ship to pull Li Ji and Cheng Yaojin Back to Chang'an.

The steamship departed from Fuzhou, first arrived at Qingzhou, and then entered the Grand Canal from Qingzhou to Luoyang. After arriving in Luoyang, Gao Ming and others rode back to Chang'an.

The maximum speed of this large steam ship was about fifteen knots, or about 28 kilometers per hour, so it only took Gao Ming and the others ten days to return to Chang'an from Fuzhou.

It is equivalent to five times the speed of Li Ji's rapid march!
Li Ji and Cheng Yaojin didn't know the principle of steamships, but they did know what war is expensive and fast!
With such a large steamship, the Tang army can reach the southernmost point of Datang within ten days. In this way, Datang's control over the south will reach an unprecedented level!
More importantly, with such a large steam ship, it only takes one day to travel from Dengzhou to Koguryo!

So after Cheng Yaojin and Li Ji returned to Chang'an, they immediately ran to see Li Shimin and asked Li Shimin to order to build a thousand steamships to cooperate with Datang's future military operations.

It is no exaggeration to say that the steamboat gave Cheng Yaojin and Li Ji too much shock, and it has completely overturned their common sense. If they hadn't been on it themselves, they would not have believed that there is such a fast boat.

And now, it was Yuchi Gong's turn to be shocked.

"It only took ten days to travel from Fuzhou to Chang'an by sea? This is impossible!"

Yu Chigong's reaction was already expected by Cheng Yaojin, so he immediately grinned widely.

"Hahahaha, now this big ship is moored in the Grand Canal outside Luoyang City. Brother Jingde, if you don't believe it, just go and see it. When you see it, you will know that I, Old Cheng, have not lied."

Hearing Cheng Yaojin's words, Yu Chigong immediately turned his attention to Li Ji again, only to see that Li Ji also nodded.

"What Zhijie said is indeed true, and now, Luoyang City is making every effort to build such a big ship, and the Ministry of Military Industry is also building steam engines."

"Military Industry Department?"

Hearing this department, Yu Chigong frowned again, revealing his doubts.

"What's that place?"

Seeing his puzzled look, before Li Ji and others could speak, Gao Ming smiled at him.

"Haha, Lord E, the Ministry of Military Industry is the former Military Weapons Supervisor. In order to complete new weapons such as steam engines, cannons, and Fudo Mingwang Lei, the General Weapons Supervisor was changed to the Military Industry Department. If Duke E is interested, wait a minute How about I take you to see when I go back?"

"it is good!"

Hearing Gao Ming's words, Yu Chigong immediately agreed, and at the same time, there were more mysteries in his heart.

"Chang'an has changed too fast. What happened during the five months I left?"

(End of this chapter)