My Daming New Empire

Zheng He read out the ensuing expedition letter, and Zhu Zhanji did not steal the limelight from his generals. Zhu Zhanji appeared in person only when soldiers were rewarded with silver.

Since money is to be distributed, it is necessary to let everyone know who actually distributed the money.

Different from the usual broken silver, the reward silver here is all silver coins die-cast by the Silver Work Bureau.

The appearance of silver dollars is not uncommon. In recent months, the imperial palace newspaper has compared the difference between silver dollars and broken silver for many days, and the people have also accepted silver dollars that are more fidelity than broken silver.

Many soldiers excitedly held the silver coins between their fingers, blew on them, and then put them in their ears to listen to the echo intoxicated.

November fourteenth.Jiazi month.Bingxu day.

It is advisable to migrate and open the market.Avoid entering the house and burial.

Amidst the sound of drums, Zhu Zhanji and Zheng He wore military uniforms and boarded a giant treasure ship refitted from a blessing ship.

This treasure ship has occupied the throne of the world's largest ship in its 400-year history.

Treasure ships use iron wood as the ridge, and first build watertight cabins one by one, then arrange the watertight cabins neatly, and use the assembled mode to connect the watertight cabins together.

After that, iron wood was used to carve the outside of the watertight cabin, and the double-layer plywood design was adopted to connect the surrounding thick giant trees closely to form a double-layer peripheral deck.

The thick and long giant wood is dried, soaked in tung oil, fastened with wooden nails, iron bolts and hemp rope, and then solidified with pine gum and oyster shell powder as an adhesive to form a strong structure.

This treasure ship was nearly 140 meters long and nearly 50 meters wide.It takes more than 200 people to winch an anchor, and each of the twelve fan-shaped sails requires more than 50 people to winch.

According to Zhu Zhanji's estimate, such a treasure ship should have a displacement of about [-] tons and a cargo capacity of [-] tons.

Aboard this ship, he took the same pride as he had aboard his Ranger.

Seeing such a huge ship, Zhu Zhanji was really amazed at the exquisite skills of today's craftsmen.

However, this kind of ship is also a huge waste of resources, like the giant wood of the ship's shell, I don't know how many towering trees have been consumed.

Zhu Zhanji suspects that later generations will never be able to build such a treasure ship. On the one hand, it is due to the loss of technology, and more likely, it is possible that there will be no giant wood suitable for building treasure ships in the future.

The deck of the treasure ship is a concave shape, low in the middle and high at both ends.There are four floors above the stern deck, and the drop from the middle deck is nearly ten meters.

The first time he boarded such a huge ship, Zhu Zhanji was completely shocked.Although he had seen countless ships bigger than this one in later generations, they were far less shocking to him than this one.

Zheng He was already used to this kind of ship, because he usually used this kind of treasure ship as his flagship when he went on missions to the Western Regions.

This ship alone requires more than 1000 sailors during the voyage, and nearly a thousand people are needed in two shifts.Coupled with maintenance personnel and logistics personnel, this ship can carry more than [-] or [-] people.

"Your Highness, would you like to see around?"

Only then did Zhu Zhanji come back to his senses, looked at the excited soldiers around and said: "Everything is focused on going out, and after the ship sets sail, I will look around alone."

Zheng He said with a smile: "Then please His Highness personally beat the expedition drum to boost morale."

This time, Zhu Zhanji did not refuse. Under the leadership of Zheng He and Shi Guorui, the commander of the treasure ship, he climbed the wooden stairs all the way to the top of the stern deck.

The three big drums were set up on a high platform about five or six meters high from the deck. This time, Zhu Zhanji just went up to the high platform with a strong drummer, and then stood in front of the big drum with a diameter of nearly two meters.

The sound of drums in the Ming Dynasty has clear regulations, and there are different rhythms for expeditions, celebrations, and sacrifices.

Zhu Zhanji is no stranger to these things, he just confirmed with the drummer and held the drumsticks with both hands.Boom, boom, boom... the drums sounded.

Thousands of soldiers gathered on the deck, knelt down on one knee, and shouted loudly: "Long live the Ming Dynasty, and win the Ming Dynasty."

After three consecutive shouts, the other two big drums also beat the big drums following Zhu Zhanji's rhythm. The sound of the drums spread farther and farther, and the big drums on other ships also sounded.

Amidst the sound of drums, all the soldiers moved quickly.They either worked hard to heave the anchor, or to raise the sails, or to push the lowered paddle wheels on both sides of the ship in the cabin close to the water.

It is the most troublesome to start this kind of large sea-going ship when it has not entered the driving rhythm.Just wanting to move this behemoth requires countless manpower to work together.

According to the formation of the fleet, other ships have begun to slowly leave the port.Amidst the sound of gongs and drums, and with the joint efforts of everyone, the flagship also started slowly.

Zhu Zhanji handed the drumsticks to the drummer, got off the high platform, and watched the hard sails rise, his heart was agitated.

Such a large ship is a miracle of this era.With him in one day, this miracle will never be allowed to disappear.

Lying on the guardrail, which was half a person high, Zhu Zhanji probed his head and watched the rudder made of a whole tree more than ten meters long adjust its direction in the water.Yiqingzi and Xuanzhen held his belt tightly, for fear that he would accidentally fall down.

In the era when there was no communication system, from the guide on the watchtower at the bow, the direction adjustment of the ship was transmitted layer by layer to the wheelhouse below the stern, requiring the cooperation of more than a dozen people.

Although the technology was not up to the mark, Daming cleverly used manpower to make up for the gap in technology.

The ancients may be inferior to later generations in knowledge, experience, and understanding of society, but it does not mean that they are stupid than later generations.

In terms of intelligence, there are people who excel in all ages.

"Your Highness, do you want to go to the herald room or your bedroom first?"

Zhu Zhanji turned around and waved his hands and said, "No hurry, Gu has to take a good look at this big ship. Commander Shi, take Gu to look around, including the place where the guards live, Gu must go and see."

Shi Guorui said with some embarrassment: "Your Highness, the bottom of the boat is not elegant, and I'm afraid it will insult His Highness's elegance."

Zhu Zhanji said disapprovingly: "I'm not afraid of being alone...Let's lead the way."

Above the deck, there are three turrets at the bow and stern, and only one turret at the belly.

Zhu Zhanji and the senior generals all lived on the upper deck of the stern, but below the deck, it was like entering another world.

Such a large ship, without modern equipment, went below the deck, and the sight everywhere was much worse.

The crew lived around the ship and could only rely on a little light from the patio on the deck.

Everyone lives in bunks, about five people live in a pigeon cage, each person's space is less than two square meters and the height is only one meter.

That is to say, everyone can't stand up on their own bed at all, at most they can just sit down, and they need to stuff themselves in to sleep.

The space here is smaller than that of a prison, and the air is more polluted.This is still a sunny day. If it rains and the patio is covered, the environment here will be even worse. I am afraid there will be no light at all.

The next floor is the operation room.This place is a little higher than the waterline, and there is a transmission compartment driven by paddle wheels. Most of the people are naked, holding a wooden stick in their hands, pushing hard on the pedals, and turning the paddle wheels.

In the rudder room, there is a bit of the industrial beauty of the steampunk era. Each of the huge sculls requires the cooperation of fifteen people to row.

There are ten people who need to push hard. After pushing the scull into place, five people below will press the scull up with their own weight using ropes. The scull is fixed at an angle. to the original position.

In order to save fabrics, almost no one wears clothes. Although it is November, everyone is steaming.

Li Liang looked enviously at the fleshy muscles of the sailors, then at his own little arms and legs, and couldn't help sighing.

Of course, what he envied even more was that they still had two eggs hanging from their crotches, while he had only one gun left.

The lowest and middle parts of the ship are warehouses, with more than a dozen patios with booms, where goods can be loaded into the cabin or hoisted out.

Although the industrial atmosphere is not yet obvious, it is undeniable that before the establishment of the Jiajiang Industrial Zone, this is the closest place in the entire Ming Dynasty to industrial civilization.