Chongzhen and I became partners

Chapter 437 Steamship
Soon, the group arrived at the shipyard not far from the yamen, and Zheng Zhilong saw a ship docked at the pier without any line of sight blocking.

Just by looking at it, he knew that this ship was the ship that Tech Bo said was undergoing a transformation experiment.

Because this ship is so special, no matter how many fleets this ship is placed in, it can get attention immediately.

I saw that this ship was probably the largest among the warships of the Daming Navy at present, which is actually nothing, at least Zheng Zhilong's subordinates also had many such warships.But the key problem is that there is a cylindrical thing towering around the middle of the warship, and there are two big wheels on both sides of the ship.

Zheng Zhilong couldn't guess what that cylinder was for, but he knew the wheels on both sides of the boat.

In fact, there are also some boats under his command, but they are all small boats, and the mechanism can be stepped on by manpower, which can drive the two wheels to rotate, making the speed of the boat faster than that of paddling.

However, there is a problem, that is, this kind of boat can only be used in inland river basins or calm harbors. Otherwise, on the sea, this kind of boat is too small, and if the waves are big, it is obviously not easy to use a boat with sails.

And if this kind of wheel is used on a big ship, many people must step on the mechanism to make the wheel turn.But if there are too many people, it is not suitable, and it is driven by manpower, and it cannot last.

Thinking of this in his heart, Zheng Zhilong was a little puzzled, what the science and technology man said was the boat?

Song Yingxing didn't realize it at all, but with a smile, he told his subordinates to let the boat demonstrate first.And he himself took Zheng Zhilong and his brothers to the stands to watch.

Naturally, Zheng Zhilong would not take the initiative to say about the shortcomings of this kind of ship, that would be to slap the face of the technocrat and the emperor's favorite minister, and he would not do such a thing.

Therefore, pretend that you don't know, and Song Yingxing smiles, so he also laughs, and if you turn around and ask the tech guy, just show your level without any trace, and say it without hurting the tech guy's face.

While he was thinking this way, he suddenly saw smoke coming out of that strange cylinder in the remodeled warship.

"No, it's on fire!" Zheng Hongkui exclaimed before he said anything.

The ship caught fire, it was a disaster!

However, Song Yingxing just smiled and said: "No, it's just the smoke caused by burning coal."

Hearing what he said and seeing how calm he meant, Zheng Hongkui knew that he had misunderstood, so he wanted to ask, what was the purpose of burning coal on board?

cooking?As for what?

However, at this moment, hearing his brother, Zheng Zhilong exclaimed: "Is this the head of the steam train? No, is there a steam engine? Is there a steam engine on board?"

Zheng Zhilong was obviously smarter than his fourth brother, so he immediately thought of it, and immediately lost the city and became restless.

Because he thought that the steam engine can pull even something as heavy as a train, and it can last forever, so if it is moved to a boat, wouldn't it solve the shortcoming of relying on human power!
Sure enough, after hearing what he said, Song Yingxing turned to look at him, nodded approvingly and said, "That's right, the steam engine is used to drive the ship's wheel."

One advantage of talking to smart people is that you don't need to introduce everything in detail, but just a little bit, and the other party can understand.

After hearing this, Zheng Zhilong stared intently at the remodeled warship, wondering what would happen to this ship?
I don't know why, but he was really looking forward to it. Will this ship be the same as he imagined?
After seeing the smoke from the chimney on the boat for a while, the boat started to move.

The wheels turned slowly, from slow to fast, and drove out of the pier, moving in the sea on the Tianjin Port side.

Both Zheng Zhilong and Zheng Hongkui stared at her without blinking, as if a womanizer had discovered a stunning beauty.

They didn't come back to their senses until Song Yingxing asked them questions when the new warship sailed back to the pier.

"You are all famous sea generals that are rare in Ming Dynasty, don't you know that this ship might be in sight?"

Hearing this, Zheng Hongkui immediately patted his thigh and said excitedly: "That's great, this boat is great..."

On the other hand, Zheng Zhilong, although excited, still maintained his image, and said to Song Yingxing, "That's right, it's really good!"

"Tell me!" Song Yingxing asked after hearing this, looking at Zheng Zhilong with great interest.

Zheng Hongkui next to him was ignored, but he himself didn't care, he just looked at his elder brother, and was ready to listen to what his elder brother had to say.

I only heard Zheng Zhilong looking at the new warship and said: "Before this, all ships, including Xiyi's ships, were limited by the wind direction and wind force. They must go with the wind, and the wind force determines the speed of the ship and so on; Warships, however, have broken through the limitations of wind direction and wind force, and will definitely become the overlord of the sea. In the future, wherever you want to go at sea, you don’t have to wait for the wind direction to change, you can go and come whenever you want, and the shipping of Ming Dynasty will prosper!”

Song Yingxing listened with a smile, nodded from time to time, but did not speak.

Zheng Zhilong continued on there: "In sea warfare, one must gain the upper hand, so as to be able to deal with enemy ships flexibly. But this new type of warship has no such restrictions at all. Besides, the general also saw it just now, and the speed of this ship Soon, as long as there is not too much wind on the sea, the speed of this ship will surpass that of the sailboats of Xiyi. But if the wind is too strong, the height of the waves will not be conducive to war, and generally speaking, the ship will not go to sea."

"In addition, the steering of this new type of warship is very flexible. One wheel turns and the other wheel does not move, so you can turn the direction. The arc of this turning direction is definitely smaller than that of a sailboat!"

When Zheng Zhilong said this, he couldn't help but said with emotion: "If Daming has more warships like this, it will be no problem to travel across the South Seas, but I don't know how much it will cost?"

"The ship has not yet been finalized, and the cost is hard to say, but it is definitely not cheap!" Song Yingxing replied with a smile after hearing this, and then asked Zheng Zhilong, "In your eyes, is this ship valuable?" Are there any shortcomings, or areas that need to be improved? I want to be honest, and I want to hear the most about this aspect. Don’t have any worries, and help improve this ship together!"

Hearing this, Zheng Zhilong's face straightened, and he could feel that the Science and Technology Boy was not being polite to him, but really wanted to hear it.

So, he said seriously: "So, I will just say something based on my personal opinion. If I'm wrong, please forgive me!"

"Speak!" Song Yingxing listened, and responded seriously, "Say it!"

Therefore, Zheng Zhilong said to Song Yingxing: "First, what is the cost of this ship? If it is too high, the cost of losing a ship is too high, and the gain is not worth the loss. It is impossible to build such a ship on a large scale. Look at God, it's not uncommon for people and ships to disappear. And if this ship goes to war with Xiyi, it will suffer losses."

Song Yingxing listened, and said with a serious face: "Not bad, what else?"

"Secondly, this new type of warship is driven by two wheels. If it is Xiyi in the end, it will definitely focus on destroying these two wheels. In this way, as long as one is destroyed, the ship will be useless!"

Speaking of this, Song Yingxing nodded again, but there was no surprise on his face, and he knew that Song Yingxing probably thought of this, so he continued: "Of course, this new type of warship cannot fight alone. There are other types of warships. It will be much better with the cover of the boat!"

Song Yingxing heard that he seemed to have finished speaking, so he stretched out his hand to signal Zheng Zhilong to follow him to get off the stands and go to the pier. Obviously, Zheng Zhilong still won his respect.

As he walked, he introduced to Zheng Zhilong: "You are right. It is His Majesty's order to start renovating warships. At least in the short term, it is impossible to lower the cost."

Having said that, after he paused, he continued to ask the second question: "As for the protection of the ship's wheels, I have already thought about it. The first is to build the wheels in the water, but the experiment is not feasible. The second The wheels are smaller, but the speed of the boat cannot be increased. So I thought about repairing the iron armor to protect the wheels."

Zheng Zhilong listened, and felt that the tech man had put a lot of thought into it, and he couldn't help feeling that this kind of down-to-earth person worked hard, and his respect for the tech man increased a little.

"In addition, according to His Majesty's will, the shell of the warship will be covered with iron sheets to enhance the defense of this warship. Although the cost will be higher, it can reduce the damage to it in naval battles!"

Hearing Song Yingxing's words, Zheng Zhilong couldn't help being surprised.It was the first time he had heard of this idea.

But he is a smart person, and immediately looked at the new-style warships that were getting closer, and immediately thought that even if this kind of warships were covered with iron sheets and increased in weight; however, the power of this ship was a steam engine, even the steam engine The train can be pulled, so the added weight of the iron sheet does not seem to have much effect.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help staring at the new-style warship again. At the same time, he thought in his heart: Will this thing become an iron-clad monster in the future?

After he was shocked for a while, Zheng Zhilong suddenly thought, it seems that from the introduction of the Science and Technology Boss, everything about this new warship comes from the emperor's idea!

The emperor has been in the Forbidden City, how did he come up with these ideas?
At least after seeing the steam train, I never thought of using the steam engine on the boat!
Thinking of it this way, I feel a little more reverence for today, who I haven't met yet.

At this time, they had already set foot on the steamship, Song Yingxing said with a smile: "Your Majesty also said that after we have more shipbuilding technology reserves in the future, we can even build warships that are all made of steel. The wheel-driven warship is also a transitional type of ship, mainly because it can transform existing warships, and the cost will be much lower. In the future, this kind of ship will not be used!"

Zheng Zhilong was already shocked, but when he heard this, he couldn't help being even more shocked!

(End of this chapter)