Chapter 402: Navigation

The next day.

Naval Academy.

Zhang Yazi stood awkwardly on the general platform in front of the Naval Academy.

Below are one hundred and fifty trainees selected from naval soldiers to be trained to become captains, first officers and other generals.

At this moment, even though Zhang Yazi had changed into the new clothes Tsui Hark bought for him, he still couldn't help but feel nervous when seeing so many people.

Zhao Xu and Zhou Yi were also on the podium.

Zhou Yi looked at Zhang Yazi with interest.

After hearing from the King of Yan that Zhang Yazi was sailing alone from Goryeo back to Yanzhou, he decided to make a decision on this person.

"This is a new student, named Zhang Yazi, and we will be brothers from now on." Zhou Yi introduced.

Then, he told Zhang Yazi about his return to Yanzhou from Goryeo.

The students' eyes when they looked at Zhang Yazi suddenly changed.

Many of these students are fishermen, so they naturally understand the difficulty of sailing in the sea.

Pointing to a place for Zhang Yazi to sit down, Zhao Xu said at this time: "It takes a thousand days to raise troops but only one moment to use them. Soon, your navy will have an important task. What this task is, I can't say yet, but it requires you to pilot it." Use the warships built by Pingcheng to destroy the enemy's warships."

Zhou Yi nodded.

When he came, King Yan had already told him the next plan.

He only had one feeling, and that was excitement.

The recruitment of naval soldiers has ended long ago. The first batch of soldiers he recruited personally trained on the warships in the lake for three or four months.

Now they are training in fighting and artillery drills in Nanda Camp.

He is quite skilled in both fighting and gunnery, and he is just waiting to get on the ship.

He thought this would have to wait until the end of the year.

But I didn’t expect that due to the Northern Expedition, it would be advanced by more than three months.

"There's going to be a war." The students heard the hidden message in King Yan's words, and there was a sudden burst of whispers.

"During this period, I have taught you some basic things, such as how to judge the square shape of ocean currents according to the seasons, and semaphores to facilitate command at sea. But the most important thing for you is how to control the warship. Now, you go back and clean up Soon, we will go to Pingcheng in the afternoon." Zhao Xu said.

"Yes, Your Highness." All the students stood up.

After bowing to King Yan, they left the room in an orderly manner.

At this time, Zhao Xu said to Zhou Yi, "You lead the students to Pingcheng first. I will explain some things before going to the party."

"Yes, Your Highness."

Zhou Yi's dark face showed a smile.

During this time, he was training with other students at Nanda Camp, and he was as tanned as black charcoal.

But he looks more and more like a general.

After leaving the Naval Academy, Zhao Xu went straight back to the palace.

In the study, he drew a drawing.

The thing on this drawing looks like a compass with two legs separated, but there is an arc-shaped metal scale bar connecting the two legs.

There is also a short telescope on the top of the compass.

This object is none other than the sextant, a navigational artifact known as the Age of Discovery.

This kind of thing appeared in the early eighteenth century, around 1730.

After that, ships sailing at sea can use the sextant to locate their longitude and latitude and determine where they are at sea.

This time Zhang Yazi naturally crossed the Bohai Bay alone, but his route still deviated a lot.

Relying on this level of sailing, it is impossible to sail to a specific location.

So this time, in addition to letting the students go to Pingcheng to operate battleships, his focus was to let the students master the sextant.

However, because the warship was originally due to be delivered at the end of the year, he had not yet asked the Military Division to build the sextant.

Next he will go to the Military Division.

After drawing the structure of the sextant, Zhao Xu drew another navigation chart.

This picture is full of horizontal and vertical lines, which are the longitude and latitude lines.

The sextant can only function according to the standard longitude and latitude lines, otherwise it will be impossible to compare the location after measurement.

If the naval cadets mastered these two things, it would be equivalent to a direct jump in navigation technology to the level after the 18th century.

His warships would be able to go wherever they wanted without having to sail along land.

After all, before there were satellites in the sky, warships relied on this method to find their own routes.

After drawing out the two pictures, Zhao Xu took the picture of the sextant to the Military War Department and asked Wang Ying to hand it over to the craftsmen for making it.

With Bingzhansi's precision scale tools, it is not a problem to build such a thing.

And most importantly, Yanzhou’s monocular telescope technology has matured.

Without any link, this sextant cannot be created.

Now that you have both, it is naturally simple.

"As soon as you build it, send it to Pingcheng." Zhao Xu told Wang Ying.

Before the sextant, he had to teach students how to calculate angles, so Wang Ying was given plenty of time.

After explaining the matter, Zhao Xu returned to the palace.

The next day, he went to Pingcheng.

Chen Shou was slightly surprised when he learned the purpose of Zhao Xu's visit.

"Not dried in the sun?" Chen Shou asked in surprise, very disappointed.

When building this kind of warship for the first time, he always hoped for perfection.

But after learning the reason, he had no choice but to accept it. After all, the survival of King Yan was more important than the battleship.

"The war is coming, and we don't have so much time. Although we can't dry it naturally, you can build some stoves in the dry dock to dry it." Zhao Xu said.

In fact, not only the grassland people like to fight in autumn, but the Central Plains dynasties also generally fight in autumn and winter.

It is true that the grassland people have fat horses in autumn, and war horses are afraid of heat.

But the Central Plains dynasty also has to harvest rice after entering autumn.

Such a large-scale war mobilized countless manpower and material resources.

Only after the autumn harvest can people have some free time, and there will be sufficient food and grass.

Therefore, Zhao Hengheng's three-way attack on Liang was on October 5, October 5 in the 23rd year of Taihe.

"Yes, Your Highness." Chen Shou said, this is also a last resort when warships are urgently needed.

After agreeing on this matter, Zhao Xu said to Zhou Yi: "Let's go, I will introduce the warships to you."

Now the main body of the warship has been completed.

Only some fragmentary structures are left, such as the fence on the deck.

Now, twelve huge warships are lying in the dry dock, which is very spectacular.

The sailing warship is divided into five levels. The first-level sailing warship has a capacity of more than 800 people and is equipped with more than 100 cannons.

The second-level warship has a capacity of more than 600 people and is equipped with about 90 cannons.

The third-level warship is equipped with about 80 cannons and ammunition for about 500 people.

The fourth-level warship has a crew of more than 300 people and is equipped with about 50 guns.

The fifth-level warship has a crew of more than 200 people and is equipped with about 30 guns.

Among these five-level warships, the third-level warship is the most commonly used.

The firepower of this warship is stronger than that of low-level warships, and it is more flexible than high-level warships.

He asked Chen Shou to build this third-level sailing warship.

It is 75 meters long, 16 meters wide, equipped with 82 guns, and has a crew of 500 people.