Chapter 923 1012 Aiming at the Treasure Ship

"Think of a way. Since we know there is it in Nanyang, we should be able to get it back, as well as the craftsmen.

Nanyang must also go. "

Wei Guangde had already made up his mind after knowing that the Ming Dynasty was short of wood for building warships and that Nanyang still had sufficient wood for use.

"Mr. Wei Ge, building a centipede ship only consumes wood, and there is no shortage of craftsmen and technology. But if we want to build such a big ship, even if we can find craftsmen from Nanyang and obtain construction technology, the cost of this ship will be quite high. ”

Yu Dayou said with some embarrassment at this time, "I also planned to build a ship like this to try the actual combat effect, but after consulting some craftsmen, I learned that even the smallest armed merchant ship would cost no more than our Dafu There are few boats.

Moreover, a large number of artillery pieces must be installed on them. The artillery used by the Yi people on this kind of ship is not the Fran cannon we use, but a new type of artillery similar to the general cannon. At present, we have not yet obtained the artillery casting technology. "

"Build ships first. There must be good reasons for the Yi people to make this choice, otherwise they would never give up such a powerful weapon as the Fran cannon."

Wei Guangde immediately said: "When I first learned about the problem of the insufficient range of the Fran cannon, I asked the Ministry of War to study similar artillery, but so far it has not been successful. It was not until you wrote that I learned that the Yi people already had this kind of artillery.

Obviously, they also gave up this weapon because they found that the Folan cannon had a short range.

However, I believe that this kind of, um, Manila galleon will definitely be equipped with Fran cannons. For example, after being approached by the enemy and jumping off the ship, the Fran cannons are still powerful. "

When Wei Guangde mentioned the failed research of the Ministry of Industry, he was actually reminding Yu Dayou that the imperial court, or rather him, was actually no worse at thinking than the barbarians.

The imperial court has long been aware of the lack of power of current naval warfare weapons and has begun to improve them. However, the craftsmen in the Ministry of Industry are not skilled enough and have not been able to make them.

“I still say the same thing, get the Yi people’s construction technology of Manila galleons and the casting technology of new artillery at all costs.

No matter how much money is spent, it will be recorded in the Ministry of Industry's account. If they can't develop it, they will have to ask for money. "

Wei Guangde didn't care at this moment that the director of the engineering department was Zhu Heng, and he was his staunch supporter.

Anyway, if he makes a request, Zhu Heng will definitely support it.

It's just that the money from the Ministry of Industry is needed, and it is not given to anyone.

Yu Dayou originally wanted to say that this kind of Manila galleon has a complex structure and many sailboats, but it is a type of ship that is difficult to master in navigation skills. However, he saw that Wei Guangde was very interested in barbarian ships, so he did not bother to talk about it. These.

Anyway, even if he raised a problem, Wei Guangde would just ask him to find a way to solve it.

Of course, Yu Dayou actually had a solution, which was to poach the Han people who worked on the Yi ships, and to spend a lot of money to recruit the Yi crew members and hire them.

Yes, after he went to Haojing, he discovered that these Yi people seemed to have come to the distant Ming Dynasty just for money.

Therefore, as long as the money is in place, they seem to dare to say and teach anything, and will not consider at all who the enemy Ming will deal with after learning these techniques.

Of course, Yu Dayou also vaguely heard someone mention that the kingdom of the Yi people in Haojing seemed to have been annexed by another more powerful kingdom.

Perhaps this is why they are willing to sell technology.

Yes, there is actually a seller of cannon-casting technology, but the price has not been agreed upon, and it seems that the other party has some concerns, so the deal has not been concluded yet.

In fact, Yu Dayou could more or less guess the other party's worries, that is, although selling artillery technology can make a lot of money, it is a one-time deal.

He preferred to sell him the artillery they made rather than sell his artillery casting technology.

As for the Han people on the ship, they can still be contacted.

Yu Dayou did not think that they were Ming people, because they were mostly descendants of the Han people who fled to the sea in the early years, and they also inherited the Han people.

The last album of sea-going ships left is a sea-going ship with high sterns at the front and rear of the hull. The appearance gives people an uncoordinated and immature feeling.

Similar to the Manila galleon seen earlier, this is also a three-masted or four-masted sailing ship with a huge curved stern and a huge bowsprit, and it is equipped with several square sails on the foremast and topmast. , the mizzen mast is equipped with a jib.

"This kind of warship is commonly used among the barbarians. It can be large or small. It is said that the ocean navigation performance is also good. It has as many decks as the Manila galleon and can place a large number of artillery to shoot on the side.

However, I heard that this kind of boat is afraid of wind. The tall turrets at the front and rear may roll over if the boat is not operated carefully in strong winds. "

Yu Dayou also explained the last type of ship, a barbarian warship.

In fact, it was Ming's lack of understanding of the development history of European warships that led to such misunderstanding.

The last so-called warship displayed by Yu Dayou was actually a ship type earlier than the Manila galleon. It was a type of carrack. The Manila galleon was a ship type that was improved after improvements to address the shortcomings of the carrack. It has more advantages in all aspects.

It's just that although the Karak sailing ship is suitable for ocean navigation, it is afraid of wind after all, so not many people come to the Far East. Therefore, Yu Dayou takes it seriously, thinking it is a new warship of the Yi people, and finally shows it to Wei Guangde.

In fact, the Karak sailing ship is a typical inland sea warship with low combat effectiveness under complex weather conditions.

Western sailing ship technology is indeed advanced and progressing rapidly, but it did not happen overnight.

In the early days, when the ancient countries in the East had established a complete political system, Europe was still in the primitive era of eating raw meat and drinking blood.

Western civilization first developed from the Mediterranean, so their seafaring technology started with the Mediterranean trireme.

Later, the understanding of sails began to evolve from paddle boats to sailing paddle boats, and then there were European sailboats.

Later, the Nordic countries used cogs, a type of ship that looked a bit like an Arab triangular sailboat, which developed in Europe. Because of the appearance of the Nordic pirates, Europeans first knew the concept of ocean-going sailing ships.

Cogs generally have only one mast, a square sail with four corners, and the hull is built by overlapping.

The overlapping method was a common method of shipbuilding in the early years. This method has a layer of shipboard on top of another layer. Compared with the pressure of dealing with the seams, the pressure is smaller, and the hull can be relatively strong, but the problem is that the shipboard cannot be too thick using this method, or it is impossible to use multiple layers of vertical staggering to increase the strength.

Here I would like to add one more thing. In fact, when human technology was not developed in the early days, ships were not durable goods. They were often disposable or secondary equipment.

It was only later that shipbuilding technology became more and more developed, ships became more and more durable, and the price became more and more expensive, which made them durable goods.

The biggest problem with the cog is that it is impossible to build a large ship because it is built by overlapping. The larger the ship, the more fragile it is. Therefore, it is imperative to improve the ship type for long-distance voyages.

A short and fat ship with a high forecastle and poop gradually appeared in Europe. It uses three or four masts and uses the seaming method to build the hull. This ship is called a carrack.

The carrack uses a high forecastle, which greatly improves the wave resistance performance. The high poop effectively expands the hull space. The use of multiple masts and sails can make more effective use of wind power.

The hull is seamed, which is also the inevitable development trend of the shipbuilding industry after mastering the stitching process. Generally speaking, it is similar around the world. Since putty or asphalt can be used to make seams, the hull can be staggered vertically in multiple layers, connected by nails in the middle, and the thickness of the hull can increase as the ship increases, so that the hull strength is insufficient after the hull increases.

More importantly, a large number of cannons can be arranged on the forecastle and poop, which enhances its ability as a warship.

However, due to the high forecastle and poop of the carrack, it is easy to catch wind when sailing, and the hull is difficult to control. A large number of cannons are arranged on the forecastle and poop, and the hull also has multiple layers of cannons. The center of gravity is too high, and it is easy to cause the ship to capsize when encountering crosswinds.

In response to these problems, various countries have made targeted improvements for a long time, and the result of the improvement is the galleon.

Initially, the galleon was smaller than the carrack, but there was no towering forecastle and poop. Instead, the number of layers of the hull increased, making the hull look taller.

The hull, especially the underwater part, is more streamlined, and there are also ship emblems for repairing the shape. Sometimes it is also covered with copper to reduce drag.

In addition, in addition to the bow wall, there are only three masts, and the arrangement of the sails has also been optimized. The sails that act as air rudders on the rear mast have been added, which greatly improves the seaworthiness and maneuverability.

Initially, due to the different focuses of various countries in improving the galleon, different appearance characteristics were formed. For example, the Spanish galleon looked low in the bow, long and thin in the beak, and tall in the stern; the Dutch galleon had a strong inward tilt of the side edge; the galleons of Britain and France were regular and stable in performance.

What Wei Guangde saw before was the galleon with Spanish characteristics, or the so-called Manila Galleon was actually a Spanish galleon.

Although the galleon was not considered a successful ship type from the perspective of later generations, it must be admitted that the galleon was indeed the best ship type in this era.

Thanks to the TV series, Wei Guangde recognized the galleon at first sight and insisted on choosing this type of sailing ship as the main ship type of the future Ming Dynasty Navy, instead of the carrack ship that Yu Dayou regarded as a new warship.

"Tell me about the treasure ship. How much information have you heard from them?"

Wei Guangde withdrew his eyes from the atlas and looked at Yu Dayou and asked.

Yu Dayou shook his head and said, "Those ships are controlled by the barbarians themselves, and the coolies who move the goods onto the ship are mostly local people in Nanyang. The barbarians will not let the Han people get on board."

"Is that so."

Wei Guangde nodded slightly, and then said, "Send people to pay more attention, especially the time and route of this kind of ship.

Since it is called a treasure ship, the goods on the ship must be worth a fortune.

Just think about the crazy purchases made by the barbarians every time they come to my Ming Dynasty, and you can know how much silver they have."

Influenced by the online essays of later generations, in Wei Guangde's mind, the Spanish treasure ship is said to be loaded with huge gold and silver, as well as various gems, all of which are treasures looted from various colonies and shipped back to Spain.

Although Wei Guangde is not sure how much gold and silver treasures there are, he can imagine it from the huge hull. Wei Guangde can't help but wonder if there are really more than one million taels of property on a ship.

You know, the Ming Dynasty only collected so much tax in a year. If they could seize two such treasure ships, it would be the Ming Dynasty's cash income for a year.

Such a huge fortune would inevitably tempt him.

However, although Wei Guangde was injured and had a fleet, he was not a professional pirate after all and could not play the business of robbing ships.

If the Spanish could rob, couldn't the Ming Dynasty rob?

I heard that the British also came up with a privateering certificate. With this thing, it seems like you are a pirate under orders and can plunder foreign ships at will.

Wei Guangde was thinking at this moment, whether to trick the little emperor into writing this thing and hand it over to Yu Dayou, so that the Ming Navy can also plunder on the vast ocean.

In fact, this also reflects Wei Guangde's ignorance of history. The privateering certificate is a privateering license. That thing is not a certificate issued to formal naval officers and soldiers to plunder.

Privateering refers to the act of issuing a privateering license by the state to authorize individuals to attack or plunder ships of other countries.

Ships that carry out privateering are usually called privateers or armed civilian ships, and the captain is usually called a privateer captain.

Moreover, the privateering certificate is not useful at all times, because its use actually has a prerequisite, that is, during war.

It is only a formal official document that authorizes privateers to drive armed civilian ships to attack, capture and rob enemy merchant ships during war. If it is not during war, it is a pirate act.

The reason why privateering licenses were so popular was that most European countries were at war at that time, and they coveted each other's wealth from colonies, especially the emerging maritime power Britain, which was jealous of Spain's huge wealth from America and other places.

In the next hundred years, Britain and Spain fought for overseas colonies.

Of course, the final result was that the British won and replaced Spain as the "Empire on which the Sun Never Sets".

Of course, in the chaotic Europe, the logic of robbers prevailed at this time, and it was also very easy to issue privateering licenses.

For example, if a Dutch merchant's goods were stolen in Germany, and he could not obtain compensation for his losses through legal or diplomatic means, he could get a privateering license authorized by the Dutch government, which allowed him to capture German merchant ships to make up for his losses.

This is the logic of the British king's issuing privateering licenses. As long as the merchant reported that his goods were lost in a certain country and could not be found, he could obtain the king's authorization on the premise of agreeing to share the benefits with the king.

As the first to issue such licenses, Britain naturally gained huge benefits from it.

British merchants stopped focusing on business and instead targeted Spanish treasure ships, hoping to make huge profits.

Of course, in the history of hundreds of years, there were only a handful of Spanish treasure ships that were successfully hijacked by the British, but if they couldn't rob a treasure ship that was armed to the teeth, merchant ships could indeed be easily plundered.

Wei Guangde didn't know this. When Spanish treasure ships appeared, they were often accompanied by several warships for protection, so it was not so easy to rob them.

So, the task of investigation once again fell gloriously on Yu Dayou's head. (End of this chapter)