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Chapter 259

Just after New Year's Eve in the sixth year of Jingyang, a two-masted sailboat flying the bright sun and moon flag slowly sailed to the south of Lingding Mountain against the northeast wind. A larger sailboat was already anchored in the sea not far away.

Due to Japan's invasion of Ryukyu, the emperor ordered the navy to send two warships to the shogunate to protest in person. The three-masted warship that could have gone to Guangzhou together was temporarily transferred. Yuan Yingtai had to change to a smaller two-masted faster with the new Guangdong commander Li Rumei. Boat.

On the [-]th of the twelfth lunar month, we set off from the Tianjin Wei Shipyard Pier. We ran to Songjiangfu in six days and transferred to another two-masted clipper. After another four days, we arrived in Quanzhou and changed to another two-masted clipper. Today is the third day. , I heard that this isolated island can be entered into Lingding Ocean two hours north.

Including the three days of changing ships and resting in Songjiangfu and Quanzhou, it only took sixteen days to get from Tianjin Wei to Guangzhou, and from Tianjin Wei to the capital, it took at least one day and half a day.

If you don't take the sea route, you can take the land or water route instead. Take the students who went to Beijing to take the exam in previous years as an example. It usually took more than 2 months and 3 months to arrive.If you encounter bad weather on the way, it will take even longer.

Apart from being uncomfortable with seasickness, traveling by sea is relatively comfortable, and it doesn't matter if you are older.If you travel by land or water, even with mules and horses, it is still a big challenge for those who are elderly or in poor health.

The safest way is to walk for a few days and rest for two days, but this will increase the total time by about one-third, which is five to six times that of taking the sea route.

No wonder the emperor was rolling around in the court and tried every means to persuade the courtiers to agree to the maritime ban.Let’s not talk about how much tax revenue will be brought by trade with the East, South, and West. Just shortening the transportation time alone will save considerable costs.

Of course, shipping by sea is not without its drawbacks.The ship boss said that it has been eight years since Yuan Keli took office as governor of water transportation in the first year of Jingyang and secretly built sea ships in Tianjin to train sailors.

Among the more than 200 sailors who practiced sailing on the small windsurfing board with him, at least 30 of them ended up sleeping on the seabed due to accidents such as operational errors, illness during the journey, or the ship ran aground and sank.

Most of them died in the first three years. At that time, everyone was relatively unfamiliar with new sea-going ships, and they were not used to living at sea for at least three or two months.After passing the unfamiliar period and becoming familiar with the operation of the new sailboat, the casualty rate was significantly reduced.

As long as you sail in familiar waters and have relatively experienced sailors and pilots, the safety of ocean navigation is still guaranteed.But in unfamiliar waters and bad weather, the chance of shipwreck and death will double, and no one can argue with God.

Yuan Yingtai wore the same black clothes and pants as the sailors. He held the helm with one hand and a telescope with the other, chatting with the navigator next to him while watching.In just half a month, he had become somewhat accustomed to life on board.

Bitter, indeed bitter.The sun shines during the day and the cold wind blows at night, so the cabin is always damp.If you don't go ashore, the food will always be dried vegetables, dried meat and a kind of hard biscuit.You can only see two or three kinds of scenery from morning to night every day, black and blue sea water, blue sky, or haze together.

But compared with the hardships endured by the guardsmen, being a navy sailor seems to be a blessing.During a normal voyage, a group of sailors only worked two hours a day before resting, and could earn 5 taels of silver per month.There is no charge for food and drink, and no charge for clothes. As long as you don't make mistakes and get punished, you can earn at least 60 taels of silver a year.

This income level is not low in modern times. Farmers in Shuntian Prefecture and Wanping County rely on the capital to earn a slightly higher income, which is only equivalent to about 15 taels of silver a year on average.

The salary of the soap officials who buy firewood, boil water and do chores for the officials is only 20 taels per year, the horse driver is 40 taels per year, and the seventh-grade county magistrate is eight stones of rice and millet per month or 45 taels of silver per year.In addition, as a sailor in the navy, in addition to receiving a sufficient monthly salary, you can also read and learn numeracy from the navigator.Even if he doesn't serve as a soldier in the future, he can still find a good job back home with his ability in writing and calculation.

Speaking of the navigator, Yuan Yingtai's admiration for the emperor had to deepen again.Those magical figures who hold telescopes and sextants and can identify directions and paths on the sea are all young eunuchs aged seventeen or eighteen.

No need to ask, it must and can only be the emperor's handiwork.Judging by his age, the current Holy Emperor has been secretly arranging many steps for the future since the day he ascended the throne, and he will not be late at all.

In other words, most of today's changes were designed by the emperor six or seven years ago. In addition to admiration and admiration, there is also deep fear.With just a few calculations, one could determine life and death five years ago. This is almost out of the realm of mortals!

Are navigators really that powerful?In order to confirm their level, finding opportunities to chat with the two navigators has become an essential daily arrangement for half a month.The final conclusion is...the level fluctuates up and down, elusive.

Forget about navigation skills, that's what people do. Without a few brushes, it's impossible for sailors, including those in charge of hundreds of households, to treat them with respect and care like they're caring for their eyes.

In terms of classics and history, it can only be regarded as enlightenment, and the level is not as good as that of Tong Sheng.But he is very proficient in counting and observing things, and I am afraid that even if he finds the most calculating official in Qintian Prison, he will be defeated.

But the most surprising thing is his broad horizons. Even though he is just an adult, he can speak Korean, Japanese and Spanish casually, and he can talk endlessly about all things in the world, and his imagination is unlimited.

I don’t know where they learned so many miscellaneous things. Don’t ask, it’s just what they got from traveling around the world. It’s a bit like what the ancients said about traveling thousands of miles and reading thousands of books.

"Liu Linghang, what kind of ship is that in front?"

Putting down the telescope, Yuan Yingtai started the topic again.Along the way, my ears were almost filled with confusion about the performance of the navy's new sailboat.All kinds of powerful, all kinds of invincible, just like the navy's ships are not made of wood, but magic weapons from nine days away.

"It is a local Guangzhou ship, originating from Dongguan's Wuwei ship and Xinhui Hengjiang ship. It is medium in size, with a suspended hollow stern at the rear, holes in the rudder, and a stabilizer plate under the keel to resist rolling. The sail is like a folding fan for easy sending and receiving. .

Warships were mostly made of Nanyang ironwood, which was thick and solid. There were a number of bronze pits of various sizes on the bow and both sides of the deck.The heavy one weighs more than 500 kilograms and is equipped with a wooden wheel cart, which can be moved forward and backward for easy loading.The projectile weighs 4 kilograms and has a charge of about 2 kilograms. It can penetrate a four-inch pine board from a hundred paces away. "

When talking about the ship's pilot, he stopped looking at the sky with his sextant and immediately started talking non-stop.He might have been bored on the ship, but he suddenly met a senior official who was willing to ask questions. He was very curious, and it was better to be a teacher. As long as it was not a secret, he would answer everything.

(End of this chapter)