Iron Dynasty

I rushed to Bowen Academy and Wangfuzhong every day, and another new year passed quickly.

On the fifth day of the first month, Qingzhou government agencies basically resumed normal operations.

The common people can enjoy the New Year until the fifteenth of the middle moon, but Xiao Ming can't indulge in it and think about danger in peace. This is what he always reminds himself.

For the course of maritime positioning, Xiao Ming taught for a month, during which he also taught how to test the speed.

After a month of theory, Xiao Ming decided to let Yue Yun and others practice it.

"His Royal Highness, all the naval guns are now on board, and the mission of our military workshop has finally been completed."

At the Xiaoqinghe Shipyard, Chen Qi slowly breathed a sigh of relief as he watched the last naval gun being hoisted onto the ship.

During the Chinese New Year, the military workshop has not been idle, all the craftsmen worked day and night, and finally delivered all 150 naval guns.

Counting from the time Xiao Ming went to Cangzhou, this naval gun has been produced for a total of three months, with an average of 50 guns per month.

Similar to the defensive artillery at the head of the city, the naval gun is a heavy artillery. It belongs to the 32-pounder artillery standard in Qingzhou. And 60% of the artillery shells on board this time are normal solid shells, and the rest Forty percent are grape bullets.

According to Xiao Ming, grape bombs are actually naval shells, specially used to bombard the opponent's ships.

Zhang Liang looked at the Galen ship and the artillery on the ship and said to Yue Yun: "Yue Yun, you have to be more careful when you go out this time. The construction of this Galen ship cost 300,000 taels of silver. This is not a ship. , This is silver."

Chen Qi added: "This is more than that. The guns on board this time are all eight or nine thousand jin. The cost of each gun is about five thousand taels of silver. This one hundred and fifty guns is seventy-five. Ten thousand dollars."

When the two said this, Yue Yun suddenly sweated his forehead, and he looked at Xiao Ming: "His Royal Highness, look at the two of them, how can I drive the Galen ship out to sea."

"What they said is also the truth. These three Galen ships are worth more than one million taels of silver. Yue Yun, you can't go crazy when you get to the sea. Remember your mission, not to fight, but to explore. Our ship is small, but The most important thing is flexibility. If you run, basically others can't catch up." Xiao Ming couldn't be unhappy at all.

Because this sea is much more dangerous than the country of Da Yu, he is a prince in Da Yu, and how many people give him face.

When this arrives at sea, whoever cares that this is the battleship of the Seventh Prince of the Kingdom of Da Yu, when Yue Yun and the others can come back, he will have to burn incense.

But despite this, he had to do it.

Because in the era of great navigation, whoever has mastered maritime hegemony has mastered the trade routes.

Now that the Silk Road on the road is cut off by the Ottoman Empire, and there are barbarians in the north, it is impossible for him to trade through this road, and he may still use his own advantages to monopolize the trade routes of East Asia and Southeast Asia.

As long as there are commodity dumping sites, Qingzhou's industry can thrive.

The three of them said so, Yue Yun became more and more precious to pick up his Galen ship, and he said: "Yes, Your Highness, Yue Yun remembered it."

The gunboats were all boarded, and all the three Galen ships were ready. At this time, Xiao Ming and Yue Yun boarded the flagship Qingzhou of Galen ships.

This time he will follow Yue Yun along the Xiaoqing River to the estuary of Bohai Bay, and then arrive at Dengzhou from the estuary. Through this route, he will let Yue Yun practice his sailing knowledge.

Zhang Liang immediately got on the boat, Xiaoqinghe Shipyard will be managed by his son, and he will go to Dengzhou to be in charge of Dengzhou Shipyard.

After all, the Xiao Ming naval base was selected in Weihaiwei, southeast of Dengzhou.

Many people must be familiar with this place, because the Battle of Weihaiwei was part of the Sino-Japanese War of Jiawu.

Weihaiwei is bordered by the Yellow Sea on three sides in the north, southeast, and the Liaodong Peninsula in the north, and across the sea from the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese islands in the east and southeast. The geographical position is very dangerous.

Once he had a firm foothold in Weihaiwei, Xiao Ming was equivalent to pinching the route of Goryeo and Waguo to the south, and he could face the Ryukyu Islands.

At the same time, the choice of the naval base in this place, as the name suggests, is also for a plot of personal mood. The dignity that was lost here, now he wants to find it again.

"Set sail."

On the Galen boat, a loud chant was remembered, and the sails on the mast fell straight down like a waterfall.

Then the strong wind blew the canvas up, and the first mate put on immediately took the helm and controlled the Galen ship to change away from the dock under the push of the wind.

The Galen ship at the back followed the flagship and set sail.

The Xiaoqing River is wide, and the Galen boat descends eastward along the lake. It reached the estuary within a day and saw the wide ocean. At this time, Xiao Ming said, "Let’s start the exercise."

Yue Yun nodded and shouted: "Start the drill."

At this time, the flag-bearer put on immediately stood at the stern of the Galen ship and sent a flag to the Galen ship behind.

The Galen ship behind saw the semaphore, and the captain who put it on immediately began to command the navigator to measure the dimensionality and calculate his position.

On the Qingzhou, Yue Yun took out the quadrant and recorded the position of the reflection of the wooden stick on the quadrant. He immediately set up a formula to calculate it, and at the same time took out the form Xiao Ming gave him.

Because when he was in Qingzhou, he had already recorded it once. This time he calculated again and quickly found his location, "His Royal Highness, we are at 53 degrees north latitude, and we have already walked 97 nautical miles from Qingzhou."

Half an hour later, Yue Yun told Xiao Ming the data he had obtained.

Xiao Ming nodded. In Qingzhou, the latitude calculated by Yue Yun was forty-nine degrees north latitude, and now they are walking diagonally.

Then he calculated it again, basically the same as Yue Yun's calculation.

He was satisfied with this result. After all, in this era, the instruments are all error-prone, and it is impossible to be so accurate. It is already great to be able to roughly figure out his position.

When Yue Yun was leaving, Xiao Ming also gave him the latitude and longitude map he had drawn. According to the drawings, Yue Yun could basically figure out his current geographic location ~www.wuxiaspot.com~After the latitude and longitude measurement, Xiao Ming said : "Speed ​​and time."

The crew on the ship immediately started to take action. At this time, a seaman quickly opened the hourglass.

This is the last thing handed over in the glass workshop. The sand flows out and the time starts. At the same time, another seaman threw a triangular plank tied with a rope into the sea, holding the hemp rope wrapped in the spindle with one hand.

At this time, the triangular plank floated on the sea, and as the ship sailed forward, the ropes tied at equal distances were loosened from the spindle and passed through the palm of the seaman's hand.

"Stop!" After waiting for a while, Yue Yun called out suddenly, and a crew member immediately stopped the hourglass.

The seaman in charge of the rope counted the knots and reported a number. Yue Yun then calculated the number of knots passing through the palm of his hand during the hourglass timing.

After calculating, Yue Yun said: "His Royal Highness, the current speed is eight knots."

(To be continued.) Enable new URL