The Rise of Ming Dynasty 1646

Chapter 282 The Power of Propaganda

At the same time, the hulls of battleships are generally made of extremely hard elm, oak, beech, etc., and the thick hull can even block shells with relatively small incident angles.

Therefore, although the Galen ship does not have a watertight cabin, its survivability in artillery battles is not too weak.Of course, once it is penetrated below the waterline, there will be ten deaths and no life, which is not as good as the blessing boat.

Finally, the sails of Galenic ships are also very different from those of Fuchuan.

The former uses a soft sail made of a whole piece of canvas, which is light in weight, can build a very high mast, and is easy to make into any shape. With reasonable arrangements, it can achieve a large wind-eating area and a very high maximum speed.

The latter uses a large number of parallel cross-bars to prop up the sail. The advantage is that it is easy to operate the sail and sail, and the sail turns quickly.

But what follows is that the whole sail is very heavy. If the mast is too high, it will seriously affect the center of gravity of the hull.Therefore, the area of ​​the hard sail is small, and the maximum speed is not as good as that of the soft sail.

In naval battles of wooden sailboats, whoever can seize the upper wind will gain a huge advantage, while the battle between Fuchuan and Galen boats often loses the upper hand due to the lower speed.

So on the whole, as a warship, Galen has a lot of advantages.Of course, if it is a merchant ship, Fuchuan, which is easy to operate, good in sinking resistance, and cheap in construction, is definitely more advantageous.

Because of this, when Zheng Chenggong recovered Taiwan in history, he used 100 big boats, more than [-] Fuchuan with a weight of more than [-] tons, and more than [-] fast boats and sentry boats.

The Dutch main fleet only had two 400-ton Tier [-] warships, three [-]-ton armed merchant ships, and [-] to [-] small merchant ships.

But even with such a disparity in military strength, Zheng Chenggong finally defeated the Dutch fleet only by setting fire to the ship and jumping gang battles, and the battle losses of the two sides were as high as ten to one.

Had it not been for the stormy waves of the Dutch reinforcement fleet that came from Indonesia later, Zheng Chenggong would have taken a long time to recover Taiwan in history.

This shows the great advantage of the Galen ship as a warship.

Zhu Linming planned to build five to six [-]-ton and two [-]-ton Galen ships as the main force, supplemented by some small Galen and fast ships, so as to suppress the Dutch fleet.

He would never allow the Daming navy to fight the enemy desperately when the warships were weaker than the Dutch.

When the Daming Navy is completed, the control of maritime trade will return to Daming's hands. Even the trade volume in Southeast Asia is enough to solve the financial problems of the imperial court.

It's just that the only Nan'an shipyard that can build large ships currently lacks craftsmen who can build Galen ships.

The Galen ships they built under the command of Nanyang craftsmen were only [-] to [-] tons. To be on the safe side, Zhu Linmi planned to let them build two of the same size first, and then go on to a [-]-ton ship.

During this period, the largest berth in the shipyard was also empty, and it was better to simply build a large boat than nothing.When there are more warships in the future, this big boat can be converted into commercial use.

Not long after, the prototype of the 260-ton Galen ship was handed over to Zhu Linming.

This miniature is like an extremely delicate model, with all the internal and external structures of the ship clearly visible, exactly the same as the drawings he gave to the craftsmen.

He checked the sample again carefully, and after confirming that there was no problem, he ordered the craftsmen to start building immediately.

With the accurate sample and the experience of these craftsmen in making similar ship shapes, Zhu Linmi completely let them do it.

In the afternoon of that day, he and Shi Lin rushed to Yongbeili together with Shi Lin, while Pang Zhu took care of Nan'an temporarily.In fact, he doesn't know anything about the specific construction process, so even if he stays, he won't be able to exert himself.

As soon as he stepped into the car, a person behind him rushed over, approached, nodded on one knee and said, "My lord, Your Highness. My subordinates have been investigating near the Chengji shipyard recently, and they have gained a lot."

Zhu Linmi turned her head to look, and it was Ma Yanzhen, who was in charge of Nan'an Shipyard, from a hundred households of Jinyiwei.

"go on."

"Your Highness, my subordinates have found out that Chengji Shipyard is the property of the eldest son of Li Guangchun, Minister of Rites." Ma Yanzhen said with a smug face, "And he has been building large sea-going ships against the regulations for more than ten years and selling them. He also owns large ships and Ryukyu ships. contacts."

"Oh?" Zhu Linmei smiled and nodded when she heard the words, "Since it is the property of 'one of my own', it will be easy to handle.

"Ma Yanzhen, you did a good job."

"Thank you, Your Highness. This subordinate should try its best to serve His Highness."

Zhu Lin drove north in the carriage, and he wrote a note on the wooden table in the carriage, ordering his soldiers to return to Fujing and hand it over to Hong Si, a doctor of the Xuanbu, and then squinted his eyes to think about the construction of Yongbeili.

A few days later, the missionaries in Tianxing Mansion and surrounding areas began to present a new play, which was written by Tian Zhuangfei himself, and it was about the end of the Song Dynasty.The court of Zhao Bing needed to build a warship, so he bought a large amount of wood, but some profiteers ignored the righteousness of the country and took the opportunity to drive up the price and hoard it.In the end, the Song and Yuan naval divisions fought a shocking battle in Yashan. The Song naval division, which could have been sure of winning, was too expensive because of the high price of wood, resulting in half of the warships built less than expected, and the entire army was wiped out in the battle.

The play was performed for two days before Li Guangchun finally heard his niece mention it.

He couldn't help wondering, it was quite inexplicable for the Propaganda Department to arrange such a move, and he immediately thought about the fact that the Dutch bombarded the Yixiba Niya grain ship and angered the assistant king.

It seemed that the imperial court was going to build a ship in Nan'an recently, and he was taken aback for a moment. As an old man in the officialdom, he vaguely smelled something strange, so he hurriedly sent his confidant to Nan'an to have a look.

When the confidant came back to report to Li Guangchun, he was so frightened that he broke out in a cold sweat, and someone called the eldest son, who picked up a stick and beat him up.

"You kid, you let the money get stuck in the seven orifices! Do you dare to start with anyone's money? Come here, don't hide! His Royal Highness is in Nan'an, do you think I can't make it in the hall of Li's house?!"

When he was tired from beating, he casually threw the stick aside, and called his confidant to give him instructions.

Soon, Pang Zhu received a message from Chengji Shipyard, saying that the shopkeeper was confused about the previous wood, and he quoted the price of "ten pieces" instead of one, and asked him whether he wanted to make up the wood or refund the money.

Tianxing Mansion has a plethora of sharp-sighted officials. On the day Cheng Ji changed the price, a censor impeached Li Guangchun's son for hoarding, with the intention of disrupting the construction of the court's navy.

Li Guangchun was so shocked that he went home and "fixed" his son again.It wasn't until he learned that it was a misunderstanding that the imperial court went to Nan'an to investigate, that his heart returned to his stomach.

In Yongbeili, Zhu Linmi received reports from Ma Yanzhen and Hong Si about the previous situation and consequences of the incident, and she couldn't help smiling and saying to herself, "The power of propaganda is only a little revealed. Future generations will be afraid of TV stations even for presidential elections, so they can't handle you?"

Then he ordered people to go to Nan'an again, and ordered Pang Zhu to buy all the ten times the timber promised by Cheng Ji, and there were still a large number of warships to be built in the future.

(End of this chapter)