Ji Han Da Sima

Chapter 174 Beifu and the Navy

September, it’s autumn.

Three months had passed since Sun Quan's surrender. Huo Jun and his two Qiaos led an army back from Wu County.Huo Jun returned to Wan County. In addition to farming and reassuring the people, he then focused on building the army.

In order to advance to the Jianghuai River, Governor Huo asked Liu Qi for a military name, "Beifu", on the grounds that Poyang County was located in the north of the Yangtze River.With a stroke of his pen, Liu Qi satisfied Huo's bad taste and gave him the title "Beifu".Huo Jun, the Jingbei General, was also called the "Beifu General" by his contemporaries.

After asking for the bugle, Huo Jun also lost the meaning of controlling the two navies due to the end of the Jiangzuo war.Especially when Liu Bei moved to Jingkou, he needed naval force to protect him.Gan Ning led his 500 men back to Liu Bei's tent, and formed a force with Lu Meng to control Jingkou and the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

The Beifu soldiers lost Gan Ning's headquarters. Huo Jun wanted to redeploy the army and simply restructure the army.

As the general of Jingbei, Huo Jun supervised tens of thousands of troops and recruited more than 500 new troops to fill the vacancies left by Gan Ning's troops.Since Huo Du and Gao Xiang entered Jiangzuo, they have made many meritorious deeds. For example, Huo Du made a surprise attack on the beacon tower, bravely captured Beigu Mountain, and was appointed General Yamen. Gao Xiang led the navy to defeat the enemy, and was promoted to General Pi, each leading five thousand troops.Chen Yue, Xu Sheng, Yu Shao, and Huo Yuan all came to Zhonglang General, each with [-] troops...

From the Beifu army of ten thousand people, Governor Huo selected a thousand brave and elite soldiers, and appointed Ding Feng as a brave captain, who often led thousands of sharp soldiers.500 good knights were also selected and temporarily led by Shiren.

After the issue of military establishment was initially resolved, Huo Jun focused on building naval warships.From the pacification of the Poyang water thieves, to the defeat of Sun Yu in the Battle of Wanshui River to seize the large warships, and then to the Taihu Water Battle, Huo Jun had almost no time to think about the deployment of naval warships and soldiers due to the intense fighting.

In order to prepare for Cao Cao, who might move south in the future, and to fully control the water and sea control of the Yangtze River, Huo Jun gathered more than 600 shipwrights from Yuzhang and Poyang counties, and recruited more than a thousand shipwrights to build a shipyard in Fanyang County (today's Duchang) , and carried out the warship innovations that had been thought about for many years.

The towels were gradually spread out, and Huo Jun and five or six sailors gathered in front of the warship graphics.

Huo Jun pointed to the drawing of the fighting ship and said: "Look, everyone, I want to install a new racket pole on the fighting ship. It is shaped like a large mast, with a huge stone on top, a hemp rope running through it, and a winch on the bottom, which is placed on the bow of the fighting ship. How about it?"

The racket, a weapon used in water warfare, was used in water warfare in the Northern and Southern Dynasties and was used until the Ming Dynasty.In the naval establishment of the Ming Dynasty, the racket stick was once retained in the river ship navy. It was not until the further development of artillery that it gradually replaced the racket stick.

The reason why China has a unique water warfare weapon like the racket is essentially to make up for the lack of collision damage of river warships.After all, except for a few rare cases, water battles in the Yangtze River are almost always based on boarding battles + long-distance battles, without angular battles in the Mediterranean.

In order to increase the fighting style of water warfare, levers were combined with boulders, which were smashed down from high places to cause capsizing or damage to enemy ships.

Huo Jun didn't know the specific style and specifications of the racket stick, but based on his memory from his previous life and the simple lever principle, he designed a V-shaped racket stick according to the requirements on the bucket boat.

The captain in charge of making the mast looked at it carefully and suggested: "Master Fu, there is a huge stone hanging on the pole. The head is heavy and the stern is light. It is difficult for the ship to turn and there is a danger of capsizing. You can put another pole at the stern. There are racking poles at the bow and stern of the fighting boat. Although it is difficult to turn, it can avoid losing weight and causing the boat to capsize."

"You can do as you say!"

Huo Jun looked at the other captain and said, "Is it possible to place the winch below the deck and open a window on the bow to identify incoming enemies?"

The captain who built the cabin pondered for a while and said: "It's not difficult, but there is a rudder at the stern, and the tail racket needs to be placed on the deck, but there is a parapet around it to block arrows."

As he said that, the captain bravely pointed his finger at the keel under the fighting boat and asked doubtfully: "I have been building ships for many years and have never seen this thing before. May I ask my Lord what this is?"

Seeing that the boatmen on both sides were confused, Huo Jun explained: "Some people call this thing a keel, which connects the bow to the stern of the ship. In ancient times, when the river was windy and rough, ships often capsized. Now add a racket to make the ship heavier. If it encounters There are strong winds and waves, and this ship can easily capsize.”

"Someone thought deeply and thought that good wood could be used as the bottom, with ribs on the left and right sides reinforced, and a pointed shape as the bottom of the wave-breaking ship. Whenever the wind turns to the side, or sails against the wind, the keel can be tilted, which is beneficial to the stable navigation of the ship. That is, When encountering strong winds and waves, the ship is not easy to capsize." Huo Jun held up the model he made by himself and said: "The sea is rough and the waves are rough, and the old sailboats are in danger of capsizing when encountering wind and waves, so they often need to avoid the wind and waves. Ships with this keel , not only can you enter the river, but you can also enter the sea. Can Captain Zhou do that?"

The shipwright Zhou mentioned by Huo Jun is Zhou Yu, a well-known shipbuilder in Yuzhang area. His nickname is Bo'an. He has been engaged in shipbuilding since his ancestors and has profound shipbuilding skills.After the shipyard was established, Huo Jun appointed Zhou Yu to be in charge of the shipyard and to be in charge of the shipyard with technical personnel.

The shipyard is divided into five groups. Each group has a shipmaster in charge, and there are shipwrights and shipwrights working under it.These people were counted as officials and received official salaries, which were supported by Jiang Zuo.

Zhou Yu, whose temples were turning white, looked shocked.He has built sea-going ships and knows the difference between river ships and sea-going ships.There is a V-shape on the bottom of sea-going ships, but there is no such structure.

Having been building ships for many years, he can vaguely realize that whether it is a river ship or a sea ship, the ability of the ship to withstand wind and waves will be greatly improved by replacing it with this kind of keel boat.If a keel boat is used against an old-style ship, the performance of the ship will be different.

This Lord Huo is not only a navy general, but also a master shipbuilder!

Zhou Yu said in a respectful tone: "This keel boat has never been built in Yu. But I only heard it from the prince's mouth, and I think it is feasible. However, the thickness and width of the keel need to be discussed carefully. If the boat is easily built and launched into the water, the bones may be broken. Danger."

As a veteran shipbuilder, Zhou Yu relied on his many years of shipbuilding skills to still see the merits of keel boats. He needed time to verify how many wide, narrow, and thick keels the bucket boat could adapt to.

After a pause, Zhou Yu said: "Master Fu, although the keel boat can avoid wind and waves, its bottom is pointed and the draft is quite deep. Can we still build an old-style fighting boat?"

"There is no need to build old-style fighting ships for the time being. Now we will build new keel fighting ships with rackets at the head and tail. Twenty ships will be built within three months, which is urgently needed by the military." Huo Jun said.

Zhou Yu looked troubled and said: "I would like to inform you, if it is an old-style fighting ship, it can be completed in March. But Yu has no experience in building the new keel fighting ship, so it may be difficult to build it in March. And the ship in March, It can only be used for two or three years, not for a long time.”

Huo Jun thought about it for a while and said: "You are allowed half a year, but forty more ships must be built. And the keels must be put on the stern. After the fighting boats are built, the keels and sterns must be built."

"No!" Zhou Yu gritted his teeth and agreed.

Huo Jun plans to eliminate all old-fashioned ships and replace them with ships with keels.The fighting ship equipped with a racket will be the main ship of Huo Jun Navy.Due to its large size and lack of maneuverability, it is mostly used as the flagship of generals except for war needs.

Huo Jun was not prepared to touch a large inland river vessel like a building ship. Apart from being bulky and able to carry more soldiers, it was almost useless. It could easily tilt in strong winds and waves, making it unsuitable for river warfare.

Huo Jun had already considered the issue of draft depth in inland rivers and just reduced the size of the bucket boats.

In fact, the navy of the Ming Dynasty also operated in the same way as Huo Jun. In the naval system of the Ming Dynasty, almost all the large river ships of four to five hundred materials were used as flagships of generals.Two hundred ships (fighting ships) were equipped with rackets and became the main ships in river warfare.

Taking into account the draft problem, the 150-material ship was reduced into a [-]-material warship. It usually cooperates with the [-]-material warship in combat, and becomes the main warship in shallow water areas.

According to Huo Jun's naval planning and construction, each ship of Chima (scouts) has more than 160 soldiers, each ship of Maotu (raid) has [-] infantry, and each ship of Douchan (main force) has [-] soldiers. There are [-] people in the 艨艉, and [-] people in the large 艨艉.According to his current navy of ten thousand people, the standard number of large and small ships is at least about three hundred.

ps: Thanks to the leader of xxc1005, I will add more updates.In the past few days, even the leader of the alliance from last time has been updated together!
　It is extremely difficult to find ancient naval information. I can only research and arrange the naval warships based on the Ming Dynasty navy and naval warships of previous dynasties.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)