Concentricity

Mo Jinyan returned to Changle unhappy, and there was still more than a month before the Chinese New Year.He got the opportunity to practice on the building boat, the big building boat is big, but it is extremely old, its shape is not even as good as the model boat made by his father, it is the oldest style of building boat, and it is extremely heavy, I don't know when it was passed down from generation to generation of.Docked in the bay all day, I don't know if it can still sail. It is impossible to rely on such a ship to defend against the enemy.

Mo Jinyan had a strong desire to build a boat by himself, even if it is a small boat, it is better than watching the Japanese boat slip away from the shore.

But these days, ordinary large ships are not allowed to be built privately, not to mention warships, if one is not good, it will bring disaster to himself, so he has no choice but to suppress this thought in his heart.

During the Chinese New Year, the two brothers took three days off and went back to spend the New Year with Zhuang Jin.When Mo Jinyan had time, he went to study the model boats he had rescued from the ruins of his own house.Both grandfather and father's craftsmanship are extremely exquisite, and the ship models they make are extremely beautiful and delicate, with such a complicated structure, every detail is not missed.

He looked at a walker made by his grandfather, and couldn't help thinking of taking it apart for a closer look.When his father taught him how to make model boats, every piece of wood was cleverly snapped together without using a single nail. He guessed that his grandfather should do the same.

He carefully dismantled every piece of wood from the walkway, and while dismantling, he carefully looked at it and memorized silently. After dismantling, he put the whole ship model back together.After several times of disassembly and assembly like this, there was a feeling of enlightenment. He felt that if he asked himself to make a boat now, he could do it nine out of ten.

Zhuang Xu opened the door and came in. He saw Mo Jinyan sitting at the table tinkering with his precious ship model. There was a table of broken wood on the table. He was surprised: "Xiaoyan, what are you doing? How did you dismantle it?"

Mo Jinyan was concentrating on assembling the model ship, and his mind was on the work at hand. Hearing his question, he just waved his hand and didn't answer.

Zhuang Xu came over and sat at the table, watching him try to put the small pieces of wood back together one by one.After about a quarter of an hour, those fragments finally turned into a complete model ship.

Mo Jinyan let out a long breath: "Brother Xu, you are here."

"What are you doing?" Zhuang Xu asked again.

"My grandfather made the walker. I took it apart to see the structure, and then put it back together." Mo Jinyan replied.

Zhuang Xu looked at the model ship in his hand, and then at him: "Xiaoyan, do you want to build a boat?"

"Ah?" Mo Jinyan was taken aback by this sentence, as if someone had glimpsed his thoughts, a blush appeared on his face, "No, I just want to play with the model boat."

Zhuang Xu chuckled, and stretched out his arms to wrap his shoulders: "Isn't it obvious that you are so careful? What else is there to hide from my brother? Just think about it. What's the big deal? Zhuang Xu guessed that his grandfather was implicated in shipbuilding, so he might be more sensitive to shipbuilding.

Sure enough, Mo Jinyan said: "Didn't the imperial court ban private shipbuilding, let alone this is a warship?"

Zhuang Xu laughed loudly: "What are you now? Now that you have entered the military camp, how can you be considered a civilian? If you build a ship for the navy, are you afraid of being accused of building a ship without permission?"

Mo Jinyan's eyes gleamed: "Brother Xu, are you serious about what you said?"

Zhuang Xu nodded: "Of course, when did my brother lie to you? But we need to discuss with Zhong Yong first, and get his consent, so we don't have to worry about building any ship. I don't think he will refuse this proposal " Zhuang Xu stroked his chin. He had heard Zhong Yong complain more than once that there were too few warships and he was often stretched. Now that he has the opportunity to add a few more ships, he should be happy before it's too late.

Mo Jinyan smiled, and showed Zhuang Xu the model boat: "Brother Xu, let's build this kind of boat first."

Zhuang Xu looked at the boat, it was simple in shape and small in shape: "What kind of boat is this?"

"This is called Zouge." Mo Jinyan began to introduce it eloquently, "The Zouge is much smaller than a tall ship. The cabin is on the bottom, and the deck is on the top. There is a parapet around the deck. The oarsmen are in the cabin, and the archers are in the cabin." Shooting arrows behind the parapet on the deck. The walking speed is much faster than that of the building boats. Because it is small, the movement is extremely convenient, and a small flag can control one. At that time, we only need to send a few small flags to the river and the coast. By patrolling, we can monitor the movements of the Japanese pirates, and if necessary, we can eliminate them before they come ashore. I don’t think we can wait on the shore all the time, it’s impossible to guard against it, and the effect is too weak.”

"Sounds very good. But you have to make sure that you really know how to build a boat. Shipbuilding is not the same as a ship model." Zhuang Xu couldn't help reminding him.

Mo Jinyan patted his chest and promised: "I will definitely build it." It is not without reason that he is confident. This is his first time building a boat. As for the baby pattern for him, the iron wooden box found under the cabinet last time contained the shipbuilding pattern left by his grandfather.

Zhong Yong was really happy to see Mo Jinyan's shipbuilding ideal, and gave him full support.Mo Jinyan got the approval, and began to prepare various matters for shipbuilding.He found that he thought things too simply, in fact, building a warship was very difficult.

First of all, he can never do such a huge project by himself.It’s not as simple as building a fishing boat. Take a few pieces of wood, saw them into sections, saw them into boards, plan them, nail them together with wedges, put them together, and the boat will be ready. Put tung oil on it, let it dry, and when the time comes Then soak it in water, and that's it.Although Zouge is a small ship among battleships, it is still a big ship after all, and it cannot be built by one person in ten and a half months.

To build a warship, you need good wood and good helpers. To put it bluntly, you need a lot of money.Mo Jinyan didn't have any of these things, a clever woman can't cook without rice, even if he has all the skills and enthusiasm, he can only start building the ship after Zhong Yong arranges all these.

In order to build the walking boat well, Mo Jinyan did a lot of preparatory work, drawing sketches and estimating various materials.He even thought that if he could go to the shipyard in Fuzhou and study with the masters for a period of time, he would be more familiar with the road.But this can only be thought about, because the shipyard is not something that outsiders can go to casually, and everything has to be explored by themselves.

Today, when he was shooting arrows in his archery range, Zhong Yong came.

Zhong Yong saw Mo Jinyan shoot a barrel of arrows before calling out to him: "Mo Jinyan."

Mo Jinyan came over with a bow and arrow on his back, and said with a smile: "Master Zhong, do you want to have a competition?"

Zhong Yong looked at him with a smile, this kid is so confident, it is admirable: "Okay, three arrows will determine the outcome."

Mo Jinyan raised his head: "Three arrows are three arrows."

Zhong Yong stretched out his hand, and someone immediately handed him a bow and arrow: "How do you compare?"

Mo Jinyan naturally knew how powerful Zhong Yong was, so simple things would definitely not trouble him, so he pointed to the farthest target and said, "From here, shoot at the farthest target."

Where they stood, the farthest target was about forty feet away, forty feet is almost the maximum shooting range of ordinary shooters, and if you want to hit the target, you have to shoot farther than this, which is right The toughness of the bow and the arm strength of the archer have extremely high requirements.

Zhong Yong grinned, this kid likes to take on difficult challenges, and he really likes his appetite: "Success, the farthest is the farthest."

All the soldiers who were practicing in the archery field gathered around, Mo Jinyan said that this ignorant boy wanted to challenge the archers of their crossbow battalion, it was really audacious!

Mo Jinyan said again: "My lord, let's each take an arrow and take turns?"

"Okay, will you come first or should I come first?" Zhong Yong always had a smile on his face, as if it was not a challenge at all.

"Then come first, my lord." Mo Jinyan bowed and made a gesture of invitation.

Many soldiers who had a good relationship with Zhong Yong laughed and said, "My lord, show this kid some color." It turns out that within three months after Mo Jinyan came to the bow and crossbow camp, he challenged all the bow and crossbowmen, but none One person can defeat him, which makes a group of veterans of the bow and crossbow battalion hate him so much that they wish someone could teach this kid a lesson.

Meng Changling stood among a group of recruits, his face flushed with excitement, and he waved his fist: "Brother Jinyan, I support you!"

Mo Jinyan smiled so much that he showed his white teeth, and waved his hand to express his thanks.

Zhong Yong just stood where he was, nodding his arrow, bending his bow, and aiming. The bow was almost drawn into a full moon shape, and the people around him dispersed, holding their breath and waiting for him to release the arrow.With a "swish", the arrow flew steadily towards the target, and hit the bull's-eye in the blink of an eye.Everyone clapped their hands and cheered, waiting for Mo Jinyan to shoot arrows.

Mo Jinyan smiled, his eyes were crooked, his smile was so confident that even veteran soldiers couldn't help but want to punch him.

And Meng Changling's face was flushed, with a kind of complacency and pride in watching his brother teach the naughty boy who bullied him.

Mo Jinyan changed his position a little bit, stood up, took the bow, took the arrow, nocked the arrow, bent the bow, aimed, and it took twice as long as Zhong Yong.He still can't shoot arrows at the target like Zhong Yong, in fact, from this point of view, he is already inferior to Zhong Yong.

But now who cares about the details, everyone cares about the result, because no matter how much time you spend, whether it is short or long, as long as you hit it, it is a victory.

Mo Jinyan's arrow flew out, followed Zhong Yong's arrow steadily, and also stuck in the target, hitting the red heart.Veterans sigh, recruits jump for joy.There is no way, who told this group of veterans to always rely on their seniority to bully a group of newcomers, and only Mo Jinyan can convince the veterans with an overwhelming advantage.

Zhong Yong saw that he had hit the target, smiled slightly, continued to shoot another arrow, and was hit again, followed by Mo Jinyan.When it came to the third arrow, Mo Jinyan missed his aim and shot slightly sideways. "I lost, but you are still brave." He smiled and put away his bow.

Zhong Yong looked at the last arrow that missed by a point, and smiled. This kid actually knows how to flatter others: "Concession and concession. Let's go, I need to find you."

Mo Jinyan was overjoyed, knowing that the master shipbuilders had been invited, he hurriedly followed, and asked in a low voice, "But the masters are here?" There was no fanfare about the shipbuilding, only a few people at the top knew about it.

Zhong Yong nodded: "Exactly."

Mo Jinyan smiled and said, "Then we can start working tomorrow?" All the wood and tools have been purchased a few days ago, and we are waiting for the master.

Zhong Yong looked at the bow on his shoulder: "It is possible, but you don't practice anymore?"

Mo Jinyan scratched the back of his head, this is a difficult choice, if you want to build a ship, you can't practice, Mo Jinyan thinks that he has not reached the point where he does not need to practice: "Then what should I do?"

Zhong Yong said: "Didn't you draw a sketch, see if the group of masters understand it, if you understand it, then you don't need to worry about it, just leave it to them, if you don't understand it, then you have to preside over it yourself. "

Mo Jinyan nodded: "Let's see first."