Iron Dynasty

Running around every day at Bowen College and Wangfuzhong, another new year will soon pass.

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

The people can enjoy the New Year until the fifteenth day of the middle month, but Xiao Ming can't indulge in it.

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

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

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

In 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 was never idle. All the craftsmen worked day and night to finally deliver all the 150 naval guns.

Since Xiao Ming went to Cangzhou, this naval gun has been produced for three months, with an average of fifty guns produced per month.

Similar to the city defense artillery in Chengtou, the naval artillery is a heavy artillery, which belongs to the 32-pounder in Qingzhou's artillery standard, and 60% of the shells on board this time are normal solid shells, and the rest Forty percent is grape bombs.

According to Xiao Ming, grape bombs are actually naval artillery shells, which are specially used to bombard other 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 careful when you go out this time, this Galen ship cost 300,000 taels of silver to build, this is not a ship , this is silver.

Chen Qi added: That's not all, the naval guns on the ship this time are all 8000 to 9000 catties, and the cost of each gun is around 5,000 taels, and the one hundred and fifty guns are seventy-five. Ten thousand taels of silver.

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

What they said is also true. These three Galen ships have more than one million taels of silver. Yue Yun, you can't fool around when you are at sea. Remember your mission, not to fight, but to explore. Although our ship is small, but The most expensive thing is flexibility, if you run, basically others will not be able to catch up. Xiao Ming couldn't possibly not feel distressed at all.

Because this sea is much more dangerous than the Great Yu Kingdom. In the Great Yu Kingdom, he is a prince, and there are many people who give him face.

When it comes to sea, who cares that this is the battleship of the Seventh Prince of the Great Yu Kingdom, when Yue Yun and the others can come back, he will have to burn high incense.

But even so, he had to do it.

Because in the age of great voyages, whoever mastered the maritime hegemony mastered the trade routes.

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

As long as there are places where goods are dumped, Qingzhou's industry can thrive.

All three of them said that, Yue Yun became more and more precious about his Galen boat, he said, Yes, Your Highness, Yue Yun remembered it.

All the gunboats were on board, and the three Galen ships were all ready. At this time, Xiao Ming and Yue Yun boarded the flagship Qingzhou in the 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, Yue Yun will practice the navigation knowledge he has mastered.

Zhang Liang got on the boat immediately, 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 at Weihaiwei in the southeast of Dengzhou.

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

Weihaiwei is close to the Yellow Sea on three sides in the north and southeast, opposite to the Liaodong Peninsula in the north, and across the sea from the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese archipelago in the east and southeast. The geographical position is very dangerous.

Once he gained a firm foothold in Weihaiwei, Xiao Ming would have seized the route of Goryeo and Japanese to the south, and he could face the Ryukyu Islands.

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

Let the sails go.

On the Galen's boat, a loud horn recalled, and the sails on the mast plunged straight down like a waterfall.

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

The Galen ship at the back followed closely with the flagship to pull anchor and set sail.

The water surface of the Xiaoqing River is wide, and the Galen boat went all the way down the lake to the east. It arrived at the mouth of the sea in less than a day. When he saw the wide ocean, Xiao Ming said, Let's start the exercise.

Yue Yun nodded and shouted, Start the drill.

At this moment, the flag-bearer who was wearing it immediately stood at the stern of Galen's boat, and sloganed one after another towards the Galen's boat behind.

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

On the Qingzhou, Yue Yun took out the quadrant and recorded the position of the reflection of the stick on the quadrant. He immediately calculated the formula and took out the form Xiao Ming gave him.

Because he had already recorded it once when he was in Qingzhou, this time he calculated his location again and quickly came up with his location, Your Highness, we are at the fifty-three degrees north latitude, ninety-seven nautical miles away from Qingzhou.

After half an hour, Yue Yun told Xiao Ming the data obtained.

Xiao Ming nodded. When they were in Qingzhou, the latitude of Yue Yun's computing was 49 degrees north latitude. Now they are walking diagonally for a while.

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

He was already satisfied with this result. After all, in this era, instruments are all inaccurate, and they cannot be so accurate. It is already quite remarkable to be able to roughly determine his position.

When Yue Yun was leaving, Xiao Ming also gave him the latitude and longitude map he had drawn. According to the map, Yue Yun could basically figure out his current geographic location.

After measuring the latitude and longitude, Xiao Ming said, Speed ​​and time.

The crew on the ship immediately acted at this time, and a seaman hurriedly opened the hourglass.

This is what the glasshouse has recently handed over, and the sand flows out and the clock begins, while another sailor throws into the sea a triangular plank tied with a rope, one hand holding the twine wrapped in a spindle.

At this time, the triangular plank floats on the sea, and as the ship sails forward, the equidistantly knotted rope is continuously released from the spindle and passed through the palm of the seaman.

Stop! After waiting for a while, Yue Yun suddenly called out, 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 that passed through his palm during the time the hourglass was timing.

After calculating, Yue Yun said, Your Highness, the current speed is eight knots.