Daqin Engineering Corps

Cang Ben still wanted to find an excuse, but thought about it again, if he wants to enter the navy in the future, how can he be afraid of water?So I had to muster up the courage to take a few craftsmen on board.

But I saw several carpenters standing on the wooden poles, striding on the pedals while holding the poles, the wheels gradually turned, and the warship moved forward slowly.

Then the wheels turned faster and faster, and the speed of the warship became faster and faster, and soon it was shuttled back and forth on the river like a fish.

Cang shouted excitedly:

"Captain, I'll be able to steer the boat later!"

"I don't want this boat to be so easy. If you step on it, you will go fast, if you don't step on it, you will go slowly..."

"Pair that with the helm for total control!"

This scene startled Wei Wei and the soldiers on the shore.

You must know that they are soldiers of the state of Wei with dense water networks, and many of them have boat operators.

Although it is not difficult to operate a boat, it is not as simple as this. A few people who can't handle a boat at all can climb on the boat and drive very fast.

Among them, Wei Xi was the one who was particularly shocked.

He originally thought that the warship without wooden oars could not move forward, but he didn't want to not only be able to move forward, but also go much faster than the wooden oars.

Look at the carpenters on the boat, there are no more than seven of them, only four of them are treading the wheel, one is steering, and the other two are shouting.

In other words... this wheeled warship can be controlled by only five people?

Wei Wei looked at Shen Bing in surprise:

"Captain, this..."

"Forgive me for your stupidity, how can this chariot ship be able to advance like flying with just five people?"

Shen Bing explained:

"Because they stomp with their feet instead of paddling with their hands!"

Wei Wei couldn't help but "oh", half-understood, secretly thinking that this is probably the so-called "arms can't twist the thighs".

But it's not as simple as it sounds.

If it is rowing, it is difficult to use the force of six jun (about 100 jin in modern times) even with the strength of both hands, and even if you can use such force, it will not last.

But stomping is different.

Pedaling doesn't have to be sideways like paddling, it just steps up and then uses the weight of the body to press the wood down... which is obviously less effort and easier to maintain.

This is more conducive to the long-term voyage of the warship.

Moreover, because only five people are required to control it, they can replace each other and rest, so there is a lot of manpower redundancy.

But if you really count the number of people, it is actually not that large, because the old warship needs five people to steer because the helmsman needs someone to cover.

And if the helmsman is shot by the enemy, he must be replaced in time.

These people can't be saved in the chariot with wheels.

A comparison, that is, 15 people to nine people.

After thinking about it, Wei Wei nodded and praised:

"This boat is great!"

"If only nine people are required to control it, we will have 16 people in each ship for combat."

"But the enemy has only ten people fighting, so the combat power is far from that."

You must know that most of this water battle is to shoot arrows at each other. If there are more people, it means more arrows. More arrows means stronger combat power, so this fight...

Of course Shen Bing knew this.

And Shen Bing knew more than this.

This is not just a simple question of combat effectiveness.

If an old-fashioned warship requires 15 people to operate the ship, these 15 people will become the enemy's target, and once one of the 15 people is shot down, someone must be replaced...

So it won't take long for the old warships to have a serious problem due to lack of manpower:

If you fight, you can't operate the boat normally, so you can only stop the boat and wait for death.

If you operate a boat, you can't fight, you can only fight back.

No matter which one you choose, you will die, that is, you will lose your combat effectiveness.

The wheel warship will be much more flexible in this regard because of its greater manpower redundancy.

There are also battlespace benefits:

The oarsmen of the old warships had to occupy positions on both sides to row, which would cause great trouble to the combat personnel.

The power of the wheel warship, that is, the wheels, are distributed at the bow and stern. Not only is the crew safer, but also the middle part can be vacated for the combat personnel.

More importantly...

The wheel and the ship are fast.

Four people can reach the speed of an old-style warship by stepping on a boat, so what if eight people step on a boat?

Isn't it the same speed as rowing a dragon boat?

If there are several factors that can determine the outcome on the battlefield, speed must be one of them.Be it water or land.

It's just that the ancients didn't realize this, so they didn't pay much attention to it.

However, Shen Bing was not very satisfied with the warship. He called Cang and his party who were having fun in the water back, and then used a branch to measure the position of the wheel, and said:

"Move the axle down an inch."

"Bold the wheel guards."

Cang was a little puzzled:

"But Captain, there is no need to thicken the guard when the wheel hits the water..."

Shen Bing only stared at him, Cang didn't dare to say anything more.

Chapter 161 The Saw

Then Shen Bing asked the soldiers to build boats, to build their own boats.

This is fair, every group of 25 people do everything from logging to cutting to boat making by themselves. If anyone builds a boat that is not of good quality, he will be lucky after launching it into the water.

Even for training, walking in the river in such a cold day is not pleasant.

Of course, these are all carried out under the guidance of Cang and other craftsmen.

Shen Bing believes that after building one or two ships in this way, they will be no strangers to shipbuilding.

This is very necessary, because with this ability, as long as there are forests in the future, there is no need to worry about running out of boats.

In this era, forests can be said to be everywhere, so there are boats everywhere.

One problem is the hand saw used for sawing wood... Shen Bing has always wanted to replace this thing since he was an engineer.

Qin Jun's hand saws are all single-use short saws, with the handle directly above the saw blade, making sawing wood very inconvenient and time-consuming.

As the saying goes, "If a worker wants to be good at his work, he must first sharpen his tools." If the tool is not used well, it will greatly prolong the time for the army to make ships, which is not a good thing.

So Shen Bing drew a sketch to Cang, and confessed:

"Go make this thing out."

Cang turned around without saying a word and went to do it.

This is not a difficult thing, it is a modern saw, which was made according to the drawing in less than an hour.

He flashed the saw in front of Shen Bing, and said:

"Brother, this thing is still a bit troublesome."

"Because the blade has to be joined together by two handsaws to have this length."

"For this reason, I even went to find a favor from the blade master. He was the one who fused the hand saw together."

Shen Bing gave a "hmm" and took the saw and looked it over. The only difference from modern saws was that the saw blade was thicker.

this is normal.

Because the saw is simple and not simple. If the sawing speed is too fast, it will "frictionally generate heat", and then the saw blade will easily break.

Modern saw blades use steel saw blades with better toughness, and bronze is used at this time, which is of course made thicker.

Cang continued:

"Senior brother, Master Yan said that he would also follow you, look..."

Shen Bing replied without thinking:

"Go back to him, and learn how to ride a horse!"

Blade masters maintain bows, swords and other weapons and equipment. Of course, the navy needs talents in this area, and there is nothing wrong with hiring them exceptionally.

Cang happily responded, turned around and was about to answer, but let out a "huh".

It turned out that Shen Bing had already held the saw and tried it on a piece of wood, but there was a rhythmic sawing sound of "Xi Ru Xi Su", and a piece of thigh-thick wood was sawed into two pieces in a short while.

This would have taken a quarter of an hour with a handsaw.

Cang is a carpenter, he can ignore Shen Bing's other inventions, but the saw in front of him is no different from a sword in the hands of a swordsman.

So he immediately stopped his feet and turned around, looking at the saw and swallowing hard:

"Senior brother, this...only this change will have this benefit?"

"Can you cut wood so quickly?"

Shen Bing raised the saw and explained:

"Simple, change the saw blade to the length just enough to open and close with one hand."

"With the addition of grips on both sides, you can hold it sideways, so there is this benefit."

Cang nodded in a daze, and it took a while to react, saying:

"I'm going to ask the blade master to make another one..."

As soon as he spoke, he disappeared.

Of course Shen Bing didn't care about Cang's imitation.

In fact, he had to ask the blade master to make several hundred more, so that it would be enough for the navy to use.

Shen Bing took the time to find Yang Duanhe.

Shen Bing was there to complain and sell misery:

"General, I'm afraid that my subordinates will not be able to do anything about the formation of the navy!"

"The general should hire someone else!"

Yang Duan and Qi said:

"Why?"

Shen Bing replied:

"That group of soldiers are all surrendered soldiers from the State of Wei."

"There is no armor, no crossbow and no arrows in the whole army."

"General, the naval army can rely on bows and crossbows to win. If there is only a sword in the waist...how can it defeat the enemy?"

Yang Duan said "oh", and then replied:

"The bow and crossbow will be sent to the navy soon."

"As for the armor... that needs to be achieved after military achievements!"

This is also normal, the no-jue was originally used as a crossbowman on the battlefield, but the armor will not be distributed until the second-level nobility, that is, Shangzao.

Shen Bing was not content with this:

"General, but now we have no chance to make meritorious service and be promoted to noble rank."