The Great Ming Dynasty Dominate Overseas

Chapter 223: Transform the battleship

   Regardless of the three or seventy-one, he immediately emptied the Beigang dock and upgraded the two old battleships. The funds first embezzled the reserve funds of the Southeast Mansion’s bank.

   Yan Changwu postponed the plan to send troops to Guangdong, and went to the Debei Port dock to organize a "consultation" with engineers to make a plan to rebuild the ship.

   First draw the structure diagram of the big ship and find out its key stress points. At this time, the cartography taught by Phineas Petr comes in handy.

   Yan Changwu is also a shipbuilder, and he drew various structural drawings himself.

   Work on the map, formulate the transformation plan, decide on labor and materials, and no longer care about the cost, and talk about the fastest and best without the most economical.

   He set an example. He stayed out of the dock for ten days, fought for ten days, almost all night, and came up with a perfect renovation plan.

It is nothing more than lowering the height of the fore and stern towers of the large ship, removing unnecessary decorations. Some of them have been removed before. Now all unnecessary decorations have been removed more thoroughly, the hull structure has been strengthened and modified, and the gun door has been strengthened. The strength of the wall protection, the update and modification of the sail gear, and so on.

Due to the lack of a **** and the adjustment of the cabin, the plan decided to subtract a pair of gun positions at the rear of the upper gun deck, but it was equipped with 18-pounder guns (the gun structure was strengthened), a total of 24 guns, originally 12-pounder guns ( There are 26 doors in total), and the firepower of the entire floor does not decrease but increases.

   There are still 26 24-pounders on the lower gun deck, and 18 6-pounders on the open deck.

But when the plan came out, when Yan Changwu was complacent about transforming the firepower of the battleship, he piled up heavy artillery there, and the shipbuilder Barents had already seen that it was wrong: "... Your structure here is changed, and the front and back are unbalanced. , The front is heavy and the rear is light, which makes it easy to bury your head. Once there is a swell, your open deck will not be able to stand on people at all, and you will not even be able to run!"

   "What should I do?"

   "Reduce the artillery ahead," Barents gave a suggestion, but it made Yan Changwu sad, my artillery!

   For Yan Changwu, who is a great artillery man, every loss of a pair of heavy artillery makes him feel like a knife.

   But without reducing the artillery, the seaworthiness of the big ship will be very poor, but it will be counterproductive.

After discussion, two pairs of 18-pounder guns were reduced at the front of the upper gun deck, and a pair of 24-pounder guns were reduced at the front of the lower gun deck, and 18 6-pound deck plates became 6 12-pounder deck guns. All are placed in the rear so that the bow of the ship can move forward through the waves.

Such a new battleship has a total of 24 pound guns/24, 18 pound/20 guns, 12 pound/6 guns, a major change, and became 50 guns, with a total pounds of 1008, compared to the previous 70 guns (24 The total number of pound cannons/26, 12-pounder/26, 6-pounder/18) is 1044, which is a bit less (36 pounds less, equal to 1 pair of 18-pounders), but it is acceptable.

   The key is that it has been modified to make it streamlined, its seaworthiness has been greatly increased, its speed is faster, and it can keep up with the cruise ship formation.

   It used to be as clumsy as a hippopotamus, and it turned terribly slow, but now it is as strong as a lion pounce!

   The designers talked loudly there. Captain Yan Donglai could only listen carefully. Everyone comforted him that there was nothing wrong with missing a pair of 18-pounder guns. Yan Donglai was in a dark belly, yes, nothing, but that's not your battleship!

   Every captain loves the warships under his command as his wife, and it is intolerable to lose a pair of heavy artillery.

   Well, after the modification is completed and launched, I will "fine-tune" it!

   His idea was to install a pair of heavy artillery on his battleship, let’s take a look. If the logistics department refuses to complete it, then buy it yourself! Yan Donglai said fiercely.

The so-called black near the ink, the red near the Zhu, the guy near Yan Changwu screaming: "I want firepower, I want to output", other captains and deputy captains (he is in charge of the gun deck) plus the gunner. Even crazier than him, it is quite normal to install larger-caliber artillery on one's warship!

   Hey, it's better than Nanhai class! Its firepower is (24-pounder/26, 18-pounder/26, 12-pounder/6, and 12-pounder). With a salvo of side cannons on one side, it can throw 618-pound metal cannonballs. It weighs 1,236 pounds. Compared to the Southeast, there are ten more 18-pound guns on one side. It's tickling to think about it!

   But think about it, the latest two Nanhai-class battleship captains are definitely not his turn, after all, no good things can be taken by him.

   But the next batch of Nanhai-class battleships, as long as they perform better assault, hey, it’s not mine or whoever!

   Yan Donglai secretly made up his mind!

  ……

   After the designers are finished, Yan Changwu entrusts Barents to watch the progress, and he is ready to lead the team on the expedition.

   And Barents, as the chief designer, had to run on both sides of Beigang (modified ship) and Kaohsiung (battleship under construction), which was hard enough.

After the start of construction and mobilization, the dock workers in Beigang have entered the period of "battle of the general assembly". This is also the characteristic of the country and the dynasty brought by Yan Changwu. , No vacation, be sure to complete the first pair of battleship modifications within three months.

  All the materials needed are available, which is also the benefit of paying attention to the collection and storage of materials.

  ……

   Before the expedition, Yan Changwu asked the financial officer Chen Hebin about their million-dollar bond issuance, and Chen Hebin said easily, "It's sold out!"

"what!"

   With Yan Changwu's nerves, he couldn't help being shocked.

When they decided to issue bonds to the public, they wanted to do nothing, and they would issue a million silver dollars (Spanish silver dollars) bonds with an interest of 10%, 200,000 yuan in the next year, and 300,000 yuan in the next year. , And 500,000 yuan in the third year.

   They just sent invitations to wealthy businessmen in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Fujian provinces. As a result, they were all sold out within ten days!

   900,000 yuan is not enough to sell, it can be said to be a rush (100,000 yuan is subscribed by the southeast government), most people have not bought it, and the late buyers still ask them if they still have to buy?

   It seems that it is not a big deal for them to eat more than 3 million or even 5 million silver dollars, because there are at least 20 people who came here one after another, and they got nothing.

  The buyers are all mainlanders, among them, the representative of Quanzhou Shipping's boss Wang Zhidong, Wang Gongzi, ate 300,000 silver dollars in one go! There is also a pair of unsurprising Chen brothers from Nanjing~lightnovelpub.net~ They also ate 300,000 silver dollars, plus three people from Jiangsu and Zhejiang, they each ate 100,000 silver dollars, so six people. Swallowed up nine hundred thousand silver dollar bonds.

   According to Chen Hebin, those guys should be representatives of the government and businessmen in the Southeast.

   Yan Changwu is really amazed at the wealth of the people of Ming Dynasty!

  Daming folks are indeed rich!

Because Daming’s silk porcelain and other commodities, Japanese silver and Spanish silver poured in like a high tide. Almost two-thirds of the world’s silver went to Daming, China, and there was no commercial tax. The bulk of the silver was taken by the private sector. , The imperial court only charged a small amount of silver for tax collection.

   Divergent thinking, poor Emperor Ming, poor Ming court!

   I gave him a tear!

  Think about Emperor Chongzhen's lack of money. He laid down his face and dignity as an emperor. He went to ask ministers and relatives to donate money to the soldiers guarding Beijing.

As a result, the chief minister of the cabinet, Wei Zaode, donated five hundred taels; Wang Zhixin, the richest eunuch, donated ten thousand taels; state chief Zhou Kui, donated thirteen thousand taels (this is Zhou Kui, who donated ten thousand taels himself, he His daughter is the queen who gave him five thousand taels of silver and asked him to donate them on his behalf. He donated three thousand taels and deducted two thousand taels by himself. When Li Zicheng came, he tortured him for 5.3 million taels of silver!)

   It is said that Li Zicheng found 60 million taels of silver in the capital of Ming Dynasty, and how rich it is in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Fujian, where the Donglin Party is nestled!

  ……

   Chen Hebin felt strange when he saw that Yan Changwu was not happy and annoyed. He complimented Yan Changwu and said: "...They all said they believed in the character of the warlord!"

   Yan Changwu smiled bitterly: "They believe in my cannon!"