Datang: What's wrong with my fief being a billion points larger?

Chapter 172: The sailboat is completed, the age of navigation has arrived, Xi Jun buys a plan

Li Yuanji stopped thinking about it and started making some gadgets to relieve his boredom. This was very simple because what he made was mahjong, which is a game that is easy to get addicted to. In this era when there is no other entertainment, mahjong will be a good entertainment activity.

After Li Yuanji completed his daily tasks and obtained five contribution points, he started the project of making mahjong. In less than half a day, the mahjong was ready and there was no challenge at all.

Looking at the mahjong, Li Yuanji felt a little happy for a moment. He hadn't played it for a long time. When he had time, he had to get these people together to play.

Although his skills are not that good, he is the only one who knows how to play mahjong. How can others learn mahjong without paying some tuition?

Li Yuanji was laughing foolishly by himself when Xie Shufang hurried in.

"My king, good news! The sailboat you asked the craftsmen to build has been completed! It is now docked at the newly built port on East Island!"

Li Yuanji stood up immediately and threw all the mahjong aside.

"The sailboat is finished? Let's go and take a look."

Li Yuanji was full of excitement. He had been waiting for this sailboat for a long time. He had completed two population tasks, but there was no movement from the sailboat. Now, good news finally came. Li Yuanji was full of excitement.

With sailing ships, his business could go all over the world, and his navy, no, it could be called a navy at that time, could go anywhere, as long as he didn't get lost.

Sailboats are of great significance to him. They can connect with countries around the world and travel far overseas. Although this is only a first-generation sailboat, its real long-distance sailing capability is still somewhat insufficient and it is still inferior to the multi-masted sailing ships of the real Age of Discovery.

Otherwise, how could this sailboat be exchanged for only 4,000 contribution points? But no matter what, compared to the current large ships, this ship can be said to be a complete crushing force.

In Li Yuanji's eyes, this is enough for now. As for the subsequent demand, it will be greater and the foundation has been laid. It will be easier to build more advanced multi-masted sailing ships at that time. If it is really impossible to make it, just exchange it according to the situation.

Li Yuanji came to the port and took a boat to Dongdao. When he arrived at the newly built port of Dongdao, he saw the sailboats that had already entered the water.

Li Yuanji was shocked at the first sight. The sail on the mast had not been raised yet, but just looking at it, he could tell it was big. It was even bigger than the big ships today.

When he gave the production drawings to the craftsmen, they included methods for building three types of sailing ships: small, medium and large. This was because a fleet had to have ships of various types when going out to sea. For example, large ships were relatively slow and slow to turn.

These shortcomings make it easy to be targeted when encountering the enemy, so small or medium-sized sailboats are needed for assistance. Small boats are faster, more flexible, and can deal with the enemy well.

However, when it comes to storing and transporting supplies, large ships have absolute space that small ships cannot match.

On a long voyage, a large ship provides a better rest environment and the bumpy feeling is much less than that of a small ship.

Li Yuanji came closer, and the leading craftsman Liu San came in front of Li Yuanji.

"Your Majesty, the large sailing ship has been built. We first made a small sailing ship to practice, and then started to build the large ship. After more than half a year, it was finally completed. The first time we built it, we didn't have much experience, so the speed was much slower.

When we build it later, it will definitely take less time than it does now. If we have enough manpower, we can build a large ship like this in three or four months."

Li Yuanji watched for a while and listened to Liu San's words without blaming him. In his opinion, it was already very good that it could be built in more than half a year. Although there were craftsmanship and drawings, it was the first time after all, so it was reasonable that it was slow.

Then Li Yuanji looked at Liu San.

"It doesn't matter the time. Now that you've built the first ship, you've gained experience. That's good. Now let me ask you, has this ship been put on trial?"

New ships need to be tested after they are built, otherwise they will not know where the problems are. If they are just sailed out, what should they do if they encounter problems? These problems must be found out through sea trials, and then solved before they can be delivered.

Liu San shook his head immediately upon hearing this.

"Your Majesty, the sea trial has not yet been carried out. Now that the construction has just been completed, I want to report to Your Majesty first."

Li Yuanji nodded after hearing this, and then spoke again.

"Let's go and take a look on the boat."

Li Yuanji couldn't wait to get on the boat. The boat looked quite big. After getting on it, it suddenly felt even bigger. Li Yuanji looked at everything on the hull for more than an hour before finally getting off.

"Now that the ship has been built, let's start the sea trial. This ship is designed to be able to sail long distances. After the near-sea sea trial, we will have to sail to the open sea for testing. Have you prepared the compass? Once you enter the deep sea, it is easy to get lost without a compass."

Liu San was completely confused when he heard this. Compass? What is that? He had never heard of it.

Li Yuanji was also stunned when he saw this. He knew very well that there were already compasses in this period, so why was this man still so confused?
Then Liu San's words cleared up his doubts.

"Your Majesty, I really don't know what a compass is, but we all use a compass to determine direction."

After hearing this, Li Yuanji suddenly realized what was going on. He also realized at this time that this thing is not called this name nowadays. The compass has a more ancient name, which has existed since the Warring States Period, called Sinan.

Today, the compass has made another progress and is now called a compass. It was not until the Kaiyuan period of the Tang Dynasty that the compass made another breakthrough and the magnetic needle was invented. It was not until the Northern Song Dynasty that the compass was fully developed and gradually became perfect, and the name changed again.

Li Yuanji was also speechless. This incident caused a direct embarrassment, but it was not really embarrassing. After all, the compass Li Yuanji was talking about was not the compass we have today.

Then Li Yuanji spoke.

"Don't use the compass for now. I will teach you how to make a compass. You go and make this compass. It will be more user-friendly and convenient than the current compass." Li Yuanji then told Liu San how to make a compass. Liu San started making it immediately. The compass was not difficult, especially now that he had a certain foundation. After Liu San made the compass, Li Yuanji ordered a trial run of the sailboat.

Even for a sea trial, we have to prepare supplies and manpower. Nowadays, the power of large ships depends on people, and there is no steam engine to replace it. Preparation also takes a certain amount of time. The sea trial is estimated to start in two or three days.

In fact, it took two days to complete the preparations, and then the sailboat began to sail out of the port. Li Yuanji did not get on it. He did not want to go on a long voyage unless it was absolutely necessary. He did not know if there would be any problems, and this thing only had the initial ability to sail.

At least he didn't want to try it until there were better multi-masted sailing ships behind him. Having the ability to sail long distances didn't mean the boat wouldn't capsize. If it encountered a storm and rough waves, it would probably sink.

The deployment of the sailboat immediately attracted everyone's attention. This thing is really a bit like a behemoth nowadays. Compared with this one, the original large ships are just medium-sized ships.

"Your Majesty, is this the new ship that has been under construction? It's incredible!"

Cen Wenben looked at the sailboat on the sea and sighed and asked questions. Cen Wenben really didn't expect that Li Yuanji actually had a big trick. He had never seen such a big ship before. Not only the size, but also the appearance was very different from the previous ships.

Wei Ting listened to Cen Wenben's words and looked at Li Yuanji with admiration. Although he didn't know the details of such a big ship, he knew without thinking that it was definitely better than the previous one. Otherwise, why would Li Yuanji go to so much trouble to build it?
Especially the different appearance, which reveals its extraordinaryness everywhere. The most important thing is that it seems that nothing that comes out of Li Yuanji's hands is ordinary.

Even simple ones that can be learned at a glance have their mysteries, not to mention the extraordinary-looking ship in front of us.

Li Yuanji smiled and said proudly: "Yes, this is the newly built big ship. This sailboat can be said to crush the previous big ship in all aspects. The most important thing is that as long as there is no problem with this trial voyage, we will have the ability to sail long distances in the future.

Is there land on the other side of the ocean, are there people, are there any forces, and what is it like over there? Do you want to know?

By then, this big ship will be able to go to the other side of the ocean and see those distant places. We know and understand too little about this world. Next, it is time to go out and see it.”

Cen Wenben, Wei Ting and others were shocked. There was land on the other side of the ocean? There were people?
They had not thought about these things originally. To be more precise, they had no way of thinking about them. In their eyes, the Tang Dynasty was the center, so they would never think about these things. But now, after listening to Li Yuanji's words, their curiosity was also aroused.

What is on the other side of the ocean? They are also very curious, wondering if there is a dynasty as powerful and rich as the Tang Dynasty.

At this moment, everyone had high expectations for this sailboat. Everyone hoped that this sailboat could let them know as soon as possible what was on the other side of the ocean.

After nearly a month of sea trials and another half month of modifications, the sailboat was finally finalized. Li Yuanji immediately ordered the shipyard to build a large ship. At the same time, he dispatched a lot of manpower to strive to build multiple ships at one time. If they were built one by one, Li Yuanji didn't know when he would be able to form a fleet capable of long-distance voyages.

While Li Yuanji was busy here, Xi Junmai and Tan Dian had led their troops to fight against the Linyi army several times, and successively captured several Linyi cities.

On this day, Xi Junmai and Tan Dian both looked solemn.

"General Xi, how can we defeat the enemy with these elephant soldiers from Linyi and the rattan armor they wear?"

Xi Junmai frowned and thought. Since they started to use troops against Linyi, they have won victory after victory. The gap between the Linyi army and theirs is too big. Most of them are not wearing armor. Even the Linyi soldiers who have armor are of very poor quality.

Because of the backward smelting technology, the Linyi army was very vulnerable compared to the Tang army which was armed to the teeth.

This was also the reason why Xi Junmai and Tan Dian were able to capture several cities in just one month and were about to advance into the heart of Linyi.

After entering Linyi, Linyi King Fan Fanzhi sent out his most powerful elephant soldiers to fight. At the same time, he sent out two envoys directly to Lingnan Haikang and Chang'an to meet Li Yuanji and Li Yuan respectively.

Fan Fanzhi was really scared this time. He really didn't expect that Li Yuanji, the loser who had failed in the battle in Chang'an, would actually start to attack him directly. The combat power of his army was ridiculously strong.

Yes, in the eyes of Linyi people like Fan Fanzhi, Li Yuanji's army was an incredibly powerful existence, which made Fan Fanzhi and others dare not imagine that if a King of Qi was so powerful, how powerful would the Tang Dynasty be?
Xi Junmai pondered for a while before speaking slowly.

"When Liu Fang, a former Sui general, conquered Linyi, he also encountered Linyi elephant soldiers. He dug pits in the ground and pretended to be defeated to lure the elephant soldiers into the pits, thus defeating Linyi. The Linyi King Fan Fanzhi fled to the sea.

But we can't use this trick anymore. Linyi has suffered a loss once, so it will be cautious. Let's try another method this time. I have two methods. You can decide which one is better. "

After Xi Junmai finished speaking, Tan Dian also looked expectant. Anyway, he couldn't think of any effective way to defeat the enemy. He really admired Xi Junmai. What Xi Junmai had shown in the fighting during this period made him realize the gap between him and the generals of the Tang Dynasty.

Xi Junmai then spoke slowly.

"The first method is to wait for the weapons to be delivered from the rear, and then use the crossbows to directly shoot the Linyi elephant soldiers. The crossbows are extremely lethal and can penetrate even the city walls. Although the elephant soldiers are wearing armor, you also know how poor the Linyi armor is. The crossbows will definitely be able to penetrate the armor and directly kill the elephants.

However, these war elephants have strong vitality, and it is difficult to make them collapse to the ground unless the wound is fatal, but they can be seriously injured.

Another method is to use fire attack. These war elephants are afraid of fire, and the rattan armor worn by the Linyi soldiers is also afraid of fire attack. When the time comes, we can attack them with fire and then our army will follow up to kill them, and Linyi will inevitably be defeated.

Which of these two methods do you think is better? "

Upon hearing this, Tan Dian fell into deep thought. He didn't know which of the two methods would be better, but what excited him was that he wanted to use both methods together.

After a while, Tan Dian spoke tentatively.

"General Xi, can we use these two methods together? First use fire attack, and then shoot with crossbows, and finally lead the army to kill. In this way, Linyi will definitely not be able to hold on, and our army can go straight to Linyi's capital."

Xi Junmai glanced at Tan Dian and immediately laughed.

"Haha, if that's the case, then let's use them together. We'll start preparing now!"

(End of this chapter)