From Chief to Ball

It didn't take long for the clansmen in the previous life to go from the canoe to the sinking boat.If it is said that boats built as Liang in the Book of Songs prove that there were boats at the end of the Shang Dynasty, then some records in the oracle bone inscriptions of the Yin Ruins prove that wooden boats other than canoes appeared in the early Shang Dynasty: the slave riots in the Shang capital, the Shang Dynasty King Divination learned that these slaves could be caught on a certain day, but the slaves escaped decisively across the river. The King of Shang called boats to cross the river to arrest them, but it was still a few days later than the time of divination. This matter was regarded as a big event was recorded.

There must have been no iron nails at that time, and the connection between the planks was nothing more than mortise and tenon and natural waterproof glue. This proves that under the condition that the hull does not need to withstand huge wind and waves, it is possible to make a passable boat under the current conditions.

The first boat made didn’t need to be too big. Chen Jian chose a 12-meter-long pine as the keel of the sailboat, and let the slaves transport it to the dug pit. If there is water, the boat can float.

Since it is an inland river boat, the square-bottomed sand boat of the previous generations is an excellent template. I don’t know how to build it, but the principle can be guessed that this kind of flat-bottomed boat can well adapt to inland river transportation because of its wide bottom.

After cutting the pine wood used as the keel into rectangular strips, two thinner ones were selected as the side keels, and they were placed side by side as the bottom of the boat. The width of the hull is about four meters.

After calculating the number of boards, ribs and decks needed, the [-] slaves were divided into [-] groups. Each group used simple tools to cut the boards, and the subsequent mortise and tenon was completed by the city's carpenters.

The twelve-step-long keel is divided into five sections, and each section is reinforced with ribs, tilted to the sides, glued with mortise and tenon and natural glue, and then air-dried. goods.

After the supporting structure of the hull is completed, the wooden boards cut by the slaves are laid, and after fixing, a mixture of wood paint, lime, and kudzu grass is applied to some gaps.

The planks swell when exposed to water, squeezing these fillers together, thereby waterproofing them.

After laying the outer planks, turpentine and wood paint are applied, and two long wooden strips are selected as the longitudinal beams of the deck, which is two meters higher than the bottom of the ship.

There is a one-meter-sized wooden rudder at the stern, and the winch is used to control the angle. The role of the wooden rudder is to disturb the water flow and provide a weak lateral force. However, because the ship is relatively long, it is equivalent to a lever, so the weak steering force utilizes the hull’s Natural leverage allows the boat to turn.

The mast is slightly forward of the hull, and there are a large number of beams fixed in the cabin below the deck, which is enough to resist the strength of the sail.

What Chen Jian used was not a Western soft sail, but a hard sail with the Chinese characteristics of his previous life. The sails were connected by crossbars, similar to an accordion.

Hard sails are very convenient, and only need a pulley to lift them up and down. There is no need for sailors climbing up and down on the mast in the movies of the Great Voyage Age. Maybe ocean sailing is not an advantage, but inland rivers can give full play to their advantages.

The most important thing is that the operation is simple, not many people are needed to raise and lower the sails, and it is easier to train.

This simple sailing boat was built in a short period of time, and has many shortcomings, such as unbalanced left and right, poor watertightness, smooth side panels, too heavy, and no streamlined hull, etc. Chen Jian estimates that the service life will be short. In a year or two.But at least you can accumulate experience and find out the shortcomings so that you can improve next time. These experiences are invaluable.

The entire ship is thirteen steps long and four steps wide, and the deck is two and a half steps higher than the bottom of the ship. The huge lacquered linen cloth is connected together by wooden strips. The load capacity is not large, but in the eyes of Xiacheng people, it is already It can be regarded as a giant, at least more qualified to be called a ship than those bark boats.

This simple boat was expensive to build, and it took six hundred slaves, the carpenters of the entire city for more than half a month, and a ten-day rest for the whole city to work voluntarily; not counting the food and lodging of the slaves and the city people, and the wood was not felled at that time. Even if it has no cost, it still consumes about [-] copper shells in exchange for wood paint, linen, etc. It can be said that this is the most expensive product in Xiacheng so far.

The two-meter-high hull is like a toy in the eyes of Chen Jian, who is used to looking at giant ships, but in the eyes of Xiacheng people, it is a creation that needs to be admired.

The day when the project was completed happened to be the tenth day of the seventh lunar month, and it was during the ten-day holiday. There were huge crowds of people near the dock, and even some people from Xiacheng who were far away in the shopping mall and Heyin came here to watch, marveling at this "monster".

Listening to the voices of people around, Chen Jian silently prayed that the ship would not sink during its maiden voyage. Smelling the smell of turpentine and wood paint on the ship, Chen Jian gritted his teeth and waved his hand towards the distance.

A few firecrackers made of clay were ignited, and the clansmen learned to cover their ears. After the smoke, all the carpenters involved in the construction took up shovels, blocked the channel leading to the Xiaqu in the puddle, and dug the embankment of the Caohe River .

The river rushed into the pit, and Chen Jian and a few others stood on the boat, their hearts pounding, and they opened the deck to check the water seepage of the hull.

The originally dry lime and ballast stones in the cabin gradually became wet, but the water did not pour in too much. After soaking for a while, those gaps were gradually squeezed.

Chen Jian secretly breathed a sigh of relief. As the water rose, the boat gradually rose, and the final waterline was two feet above the bottom of the boat. It seemed that the workmanship was still too heavy, and there was still a lot of room for improvement.

When the water surface gradually stabilized, Chen Jian waved his hand, and more than a hundred slaves pulled the rope, and dragged the boat out of the dock little by little, and drove into the Caohe River.

The Caohe River is very stable. The boat went down the river. At the widest point, Chen Jian turned the winch to drive the wooden rudder. The coming east wind wrinkled the surface of the water.

"Raise the sails!"

Two people pulled the rope under the pulley to hang up the hard sail with wooden sticks horizontally. Chen Jian and several people adjusted the angle, and there was a burst of cheers from the river bank.

A flock of geese and geese are floating on the water, following the current to the east, chasing the blades of grass floating on the water, which is also heading east. This is nothing more than natural, because everyone in Xiacheng knows the principle of going down the water.

Such a natural thing will not arouse cheers. What arouses cheers is that this wooden boat is completely different from those drifting geese and grass blades, and it is moving slowly against the current.The speed is slow, but while the water goes east, it goes west.

Chapter 1 Carnival and Hegemony ([-])

After the sea trial, the sailboat approached the pier, and many people climbed onto the boat, touched left and right, and bang bang, especially people from other tribes such as Su He and E Strider, who praised this boat that can go against the current. Looking at Xiacheng's astonishing efficiency, but knowing that it can only be envied, it is impossible for my own city to be like this.

Slaves are not eligible to board the ship at this time. Their chances of boarding the ship are either to carry goods upwards or to be sold to other cities for exchange, even though they cut most of the planks of the ship.

Yu Qian'er looked at the boat with a smile, pushed away everyone and ran to Chen Jianjian's side and said, "Brother, with this boat, I can get a lot of things. There are many small settlements along the river. The pottery that we disdain to use can be exchanged with those settlements, and they are not willing to ask them to exchange such expensive black pottery. In the past, there was no way to transport it back, but now we have a ship. You can use this ship Can you let me take care of it?"

Chen Jian smiled and said, "What did you trade for? What do you trade for those settlements?"

"Fur. We can provide them with tanning, and teach them how to tan fur, especially the fur of mink, weasel, and fox. I guess a few clay pots can be exchanged from those small settlements, but transported to The Acropolis of E City is more than just a few clay pots."

Yu Qian'er happily shook her head and said, "I thought about changing it like this before, but the ox carts transported too little, and I had to send people to protect it, so I couldn't make much money going back and forth. You can build a few more ships. Well, if you give me ten boats, I will sell our goods from Xiacheng four hundred miles away."

Chen Jian raised his forehead and said, "Ten boats... I'm afraid I will get it next year. Nearly 700 people have been busy for a month, and ten boats are [-] working days. You are a cargo carrier, and the boats can be given to you, but most of the traffic must be set aside. Echeng. Many goods in Echeng cannot be transported, so you can transport them by boat. The people in Echeng also know that using ox carts is too much loss. You help them transport, and you can collect part of their grain, as long as it is better than using cattle With less wear and tear on the car, they'll be happy."

"Well, I'll ask you another question. After you've been busy for a while, you can calculate the difference between the loss of the same one hundred catties of grain, whether it is transported by ship or by ox cart? As a cargo carrier, you must You can’t make a decision with a pat on the head, you have to figure it out, because numbers don’t lie.”

Yu Qian'er nodded and asked, "Then how much can this ship hold? How long will it take to return from E City to Xia City?"

"This is something that the secretary should be in charge of. Don't ask me. After the fifteenth day, I will take you to the city of E by boat, and I will know everything. As a secretary, you will be in charge of more and more things. .”

Chen Jian turned around and looked around, and said in a low voice: "After autumn, I will follow Suhe to visit the tribes on both sides of the river. You and Hongyu are in charge of the city affairs. I don't feel relieved to leave it to others."

Yu Qian'er pouted and said, "I want to go too."

"There will be opportunities in the future."

Yu Qian'er thought about it, and knew that this matter was very important, so she said helplessly: "Then let's stop the work on my side for a while, and I will give you more slaves, and build more ships. This ship is so big. They must be surprised to go to those tribes in such a boat."

"You don't need too much, your business is also very important. If you are satisfied with farm tools, food, and warehouses, Xiacheng is naturally strong. Even without sailboats, it is still a big city. But if there are insufficient warehouses, even if you have sailboats and gunpowder, it is just for others. Yes. Let's go, I'll take you on a boat tour, I still have a lot of things to do after dark."

On the boat, Yu Qian'er sat on the bow with her chin resting on her cheeks, looking at the broken water, hearing the laughter of Chen Jian chatting with the clansmen, she sighed faintly.

"It's always so busy and there's always so much to do."

"Perhaps...it's always good to be busy. When you get busy, you don't have the heart to think about anything else."

……

Three days later, on the thirteenth day of the seventh month, Xiacheng became busy. Those who had never left Xiacheng saw many new faces, but because of the similarities in clothing and hair, they didn't feel any strangeness.

The streets have been cleaned up, temporary residences have also been set up, many pottery pots and pots are cooking various kinds of food, the public production produces grain and money, and all expenses are paid from public production. This is the first time for people to enjoy this kind of joyful festival.

There are a lot of people from outside, and many people have seen a lot of things, but everything in Xia City is still impressed by these people who have seen a lot of things.The food conquered their taste buds, the kite conquered their imagination, and the sailboat conquered their common sense.

The power of the two great victories a year, the exchange of slave trade, the force deterrence of the Three Cities Alliance... Many small settlements within three or four hundred miles around have sent people to offer their tribute to show their submission.

These tributes could not be seen by the people of Xiacheng at all. According to the purchase and exchange price in Fangshi, the gifts returned became food dozens of times that of these tributes.

Chen Jian never tires of it, personally receiving the leaders of those small settlements, talking with them, or asking about their lives, or asking about the surrounding terrain or special products.

The leaders of the small settlement liked the pottery, salt and other goods given back very much, but the amount of feedback was not enough, so they asked Chen Jian if they could exchange it with other things.

There were also leaders of several settlements who asked about the usefulness of these things with the Taobei copper shells that Chen Jian gave back to them, and expressed deep doubts that these things could be exchanged for other things.

Chen Jian stood up, called Yu Qianer, and accompanied the leaders of these tribal settlements to check the warehouses and workshops in Xiacheng.