My life skills in Daming Liver.

Chapter 288 It's time to start speeding up!

Sitting on the clipper boat returning to Changningwei, Su Ze was listening to Lin Liangjun talking about the situation in Fujian.

Now Lin Liangjun is taller than Lin Mojun. In the past year, Lin Mojun has entrusted him with many affairs of Changning Guard. This guy handles them well. Lin Mojun also praised him in the letter My own brother.

The clipper ship was sailing fast on the sea. Su Ze watched the clipper ship surpass one ship after another. He asked with some doubts:

"Didn't it mean that there were Japanese pirates in Fujian? Why are there so many boats at sea?"

Lin Liangjun said: "These slow ones are official ships."

"Official ship?"

Lin Liangjun said: "Now there are two land passages in and out of Fujian, one is Xianxia Pass in Jianning Mansion, and the other is Wuyi Mountain Road in Shaowu Mansion. Now they have been occupied by rebels. The imperial court ordered them to be sent to Fujian. , it can only be transported by boat.”

"Fujian has reached this point?"

Lin Liangjun nodded and said: "Brother Aze, you will know when you go back to Changningwei. Now Fujian can be said to be full of wars."

As soon as Lin Liangjun finished speaking, he saw two flags with black sails appearing ahead.

"Japanese pirates! There are Japanese pirates ahead!"

The watchman shouted loudly, and Lin Liangjun immediately walked to the bow, and he said to Su Ze:

"Don't worry, Brother Aze, they won't catch up with us! The official ship behind is their target."

Immediately afterwards, Lin Liangjun shouted: "Full Sail!"

The sailors quickly opened the sails, just as a gust of wind blew over, the clipper boat rushed out of the sea immediately, skimmed the sea and glided for a distance, the two black pirate ships couldn't stop them at all, they could only watch the flying boat Shearing the boat away.

However, the slow-moving official ships of the imperial court were not so lucky. The two Japanese pirate ships sailed faster, and they came head-on, and soon made a beautiful turn of the rudder and seized the upper air of the official ship. Location.

Relying on the speed advantage of the upwind, the Japanese pirate ship gradually moved closer to the official ship, and a large number of iron hooks were thrown from the Japanese pirate ship, locking the official ship tightly.

Su Ze didn't need to look at the next result. With the unbearable fighting power of the official army, as long as the Japanese pirates boarded the ship, it was already defeated. Sure enough, within a short while, the black flags were also raised on the two official ships.

"Fujian Japanese pirates are so rampant." Su Ze said with emotion.

Lin Liangjun said: "It's not because of the government's violent expropriation. Brother Aze, you don't know how dark the hearts of these officials are. They even dare to embezzle the military rations, which caused several guards to mutiny."

"Since last year, there have been more and more Japanese pirates at sea, but the government has imposed more and more exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes. They have also kept recruiting civilians, and many coastal fishermen have become Japanese pirates."

Another point is that Wang Zhi was killed. Those Japanese pirates who were engaged in smuggling trade had no hope of doing business with the Ming Dynasty, so they simply joined forces with the predators and started to rob directly.

Su Ze asked again: "How is the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Department?"

Lin Liangjun smiled and said, "How is it? Mr. Tao has a headache. Now that the Japanese invasion is so serious, Ryukyu merchant ships are afraid to enter the port. I heard that the Shipbuilding Department has built more than 20 warships, but I can't find one that can. The officers and soldiers who go to sea to fight, hahahaha!"

Su Ze also laughed. Fuzhou Wei watched Lin Liangjun's father die in battle, so Lin Liangjun didn't like the officers and soldiers of Fuzhou Wei.

Fuzhou is now the most important port in Fujian, so it is naturally the target of the Japanese pirates' attention. The trade of the city ship company has been cut off, so how can Mr. Tao be in a hurry.

But this is what Su Ze wants. If Fujian is not chaotic, how can he take advantage of troubled waters to rebel, oh no, "anti-Japanese".

The Japanese pirates also want to resist, and they also want to rebel.

When Su Ze arrived at Changningwei, Lin Mojun was already standing on the pier, looking forward to it.

"Brother! Brother Aze, I brought it back for you!"

Lin Liangjun jumped off the boat, and then ran away in a hurry, leaving only Su Ze and Lin Mojun looking at each other.

Lin Mojun lowered her head and said, "Are you back?"

Su Ze said, "I'm back."

"Aren't you leaving this time?"

Su Ze nodded: "I won't leave this time."

Su Ze looked at Changning Guard. The dilapidated coastal guard had completely changed.

On the cliffs near the sea, gun towers have been built, and ships that are not Changningwei will be attacked by the gun towers when they approach.

The Baihusuo was still built on the hilltop of Changningwei, but it has been repaired and expanded.

The pier is paved with bluestone slabs, and the pontoon bridge stretching out to the sea has doubled in size.

Both the New World and Changningwei's original blessing ship were docked at the pier, and Su Ze saw that there was a new ship in the pier.

This is a lucky ship of more than [-] tons, and there are still signs of damage on the hull. It should have just experienced a naval battle.

Three hundred tons, converted into the shipbuilding unit of Daming, that is a huge ship with thousands of materials.

Following Su Ze's gaze, Lin Mojun said triumphantly, "This is the spoil I captured at sea last month."

"In the hands of Japanese pirates?"

Lin Mojun nodded and said, "But the Japanese pirates also robbed the officers and soldiers, and I just robbed them back."

"Has the government started to build thousands of material ships?"

Su Ze asked in surprise.

Before the crossing, the main battleships of the coastal guards in Fujian were all small ships of [-] or [-] materials.

Lin Mojun smiled and said, "This is made by your old friend."

"Eunuch Tao?"

"It was Mr. Tao. Because the Japanese invasion cut off the Ryukyu tribute trade, Mr. Tao became anxious. He asked someone to find out the shipbuilding manual of the Yongle Year from the treasury of Fuzhou Prefecture, and ordered the craftsmen to build a large ship with a thousand materials at the port of Fuzhou. .”

It turns out that the Ming Dynasty did not have the technology to build large ships. When Zheng He sailed to the West, he built large wooden sailboats with two thousand materials (about 600 tons of draft).

It's just that after the Yongle Year, the imperial court once again restored the sea ban policy of Zhu Yuanzhang's period. After there was no need for oceangoing, the technology of the Ming Dynasty's shipbuilding industry declined rapidly, and even the blueprints for building a thousand-material ship were lost.

It's a pity that no matter how good a ship is, it still needs people to drive and control it. Lin Mojun said: "I didn't expect that the people of Fuzhou Wei are so useless. They encountered Japanese pirates on the first trial voyage. From the captain to the sailors, they were all killed by Japanese pirates Captured."

"How did this ship fall into our hands?"

Lin Mojun said triumphantly: "It's not that these Japanese pirates are overthinking their capabilities. After they robbed this ship, they wanted to attack Dong'ao Island. After being defeated by me, this ship has also become our trophy!"

Compared with the western sailing ships like the New World, Lin Mojun naturally prefers Fu Chuan.

This thousand-material blessing boat has become her treasure. After the repair, Lin Mojun installed three cannons on the boat, and it has become a feared existence for the nearby Japanese pirates.

Because of the comprehensive westernization movement of later generations, modern people underestimated the ancient Chinese shipbuilding technology too much. In fact, Fuchuan also had its advantages in being able to become the main combat ship in the Ming Dynasty.

The advantage of Western-style sailboats is the deep draft, because of the deep draft and keel structure, Western-style sailboats can build higher masts, so that more and larger sails can be hung.

The advantage of this is that Western-style sailboats are faster when sailing in the ocean, and because of the overall lower deck, more naval guns can be placed on the deck of Western-style sailboats, and the firepower is stronger than that of Chinese-style sailboats.

But in a real naval battle, it doesn't mean that the bigger the ship, the better.

The draft is deep and the sail is large, which is not necessarily an advantage when sailing in offshore areas.

The deep draft is easy to hit the rocks and sink, and the large sail is not easy to control, and more sailors are needed.

In the Battle of Tuen Mun, the Daming Navy took advantage of the cumbersome characteristics of Western ships and the mobility of small ships to besiege large Western ships, and finally won.

Compared with Western ships, Fuchuan uses partition boards as the main structure, unlike Western-style hulls whose structural strength relies entirely on keels, so Chinese-style hulls do not have high requirements for keels.

Correspondingly, the hull is lighter and the cost is greatly reduced.Moreover, the structure of the watertight cabin has better anti-sinking performance, and the subdivided hull is more suitable for loading and fixing cargo.

However, due to the problem of the partition compartment, the Chinese sailing ship has no overall lower deck except the open deck, that is to say, there is no multi-layer full-through gun deck, which fundamentally limits the number of artillery of the Chinese warship.

Moreover, the underwater part of this structure is shallow and the hull is light, so higher and larger sails cannot be used.

So to sum up, Chinese style sailboats are suitable for use as small, medium, and short-range commercial ships, or as offshore mobile fleets, especially suitable for monsoon climate sea areas with changeable wind directions.

This also began at the end of the Qing Dynasty. Although the West dismissed the combat effectiveness of Chinese sailboats, Chinese sailboat trade was still widely used throughout East Asia and Southeast Asia. It was not until steamships appeared that they replaced Chinese sailboats, but steamships also replaced them. Western style sailboat.

In fact, Chinese and Western sailing ships have their own advantages, and the Japanese pirates who are raging along the southeast coast actually don’t have very good ships. Daming’s own lucky boats are actually enough to deal with them.

During the Wanli period to fight against the Japanese and aid Korea, the Daming navy also had a ship advantage over the Japanese navy.

But to say the least, no matter how good a ship is, it needs people to steer it.

The warships of the Daming Navy are not bad. It is because the coastal guards have low combat effectiveness, and the soldiers are not willing to work for the Ming court, which is why the record is so low.

Su Ze asked again: "Where are the sailors? Are there enough sailors on these ships?"

Lin Mojun smiled mysteriously and said, "Of course, the most indispensable thing in Fujian these days is experienced sailors."

"Because of Japanese riots?"

Lin Mojun nodded and said: "Since the Japanese invasion became serious, there are many experienced sailors on the Yuegang side. I took people to recruit a group, first placed them on Dayuan Island, and then selected a group to board the ship."

Sure enough.

Before the Japanese invasion in Fujian was not so fierce, maritime merchants, smugglers and Japanese pirates maintained a delicate balanced relationship, and they could transform into each other under certain circumstances.

Some maritime merchants will also work part-time as Japanese pirates, and some Japanese pirates will also sell some goods.

However, with the intensification of the Japanese invasion and the looting faction began to dominate, the first unlucky ones were the Fujian maritime merchants who had previously supported the Japanese pirates.

The Japanese invasion has completely cut off trade, and even Yuegang is declining day by day.

Nowadays, ordinary small businessmen dare not come out at all, and even big businessmen have to form a fleet to have the courage to go to sea.

But now there are more and more Japanese pirates at sea. Last month, a large fleet in the Zhangzhou sea was robbed by Japanese pirates. Now even those big maritime merchants dare not go to sea.

With the cessation of maritime trade, there will be many unemployed seamen and sailors at the docks along the coast. Lin Mojun took the opportunity to recruit a group.

Su Ze nodded and said, "But this is still too slow."

"too slow?"

Su Ze said: "It's still too slow to wipe out the pirates."

When Su Ze returned to Fujian, the first thing he had to do was to fight against the Japanese pirates in the Fujian sea area.

The Japanese pirates at sea are all real Japanese, and the maritime trade cut off by Fujian Japanese pirates also cut off the transit trade of Ryukyu.

Therefore, the elimination of Japanese pirates at sea must be done both in public and in private.

Before the clipper ship docked, Su Ze had already thought of a solution, and he said to Lin Mojun:
"Tomorrow I will go to Fuzhou."

There was nothing to say all night, because there were too many Japanese pirates near Fuzhou Port, and even Lin Liangjun was not sure to break through the Japanese pirates' blockade when driving a clipper boat, so Su Ze still chose the land route.

It was already July, and the fields beside the road were already full of ears of wheat at this time, but this year the entire official road was very barren.

Several official post stations along the way were abandoned, and it seemed like a lifetime away from when Su Ze went to Fuzhou to take the Juren exam two years ago.

Along the way, I also encountered several bandits who robbed me. They were bandits, and some of them were ordinary people who couldn't survive nearby.

Su Ze would drop some food at first when encountering those bandits who were yellow and emaciated and had no weapons, but soon he became numb, so he simply asked the escorting soldiers to ride on horseback and hurry up.

When Su Ze arrived in Fuzhou City, he was also surprised by the withered scene of Fuzhou City.

It's just that I haven't been here for two years. The once bustling market on the edge of Fuzhou's city wall has disappeared. The queues waiting to enter the city before are also sparse, and the entire city has lost its vitality.

When Su Ze entered the city, he went straight to the Shibo Department, only to see that the Shibo Department's office was empty, and there were only ships of Fuzhou Wei in the port, but there were no sailors for training.

There was not a ship in the once prosperous Fuzhou Port for a long time. Su Ze asked the little eunuch at the door to pass the news to Eunuch Tao, and he saw Eunuch Tao in a hurry.

"Mr. Su!"

Eunuch Tao enthusiastically pulled Su Ze, his face had more wrinkles, and his temple hair was all white.

Su Ze recalled the successful minting of coins and Eunuch Tao's high-spirited appearance. He seemed ten years older after not seeing Eunuch Tao in just one year.

Recently, Eunuch Tao couldn’t sleep because of the flood of Japanese pirates, the cut off of Ryukyu’s tribute, and the backlog of silk in the Shibo Department had to be exchanged for silver.

Eunuch Tao was also forced to do nothing, and the Shipbuilding Department even paid for the shipbuilding, but how did he know that Fuzhou Wei was so unbearable?The newly built warship was captured by Japanese pirates.

Eunuch Tao looked at Su Ze with longing eyes.

(End of this chapter)