Chapter 174 Western Shipbuilder

Of course, Xiao Tianjian will not forget the Western shipbuilders brought by the missionaries. Now for the West, there is no awareness of technical protection, and shipbuilders can also move freely. Xiao Tianjian fooled Robert and others, saying that it can provide rich salaries for shipbuilders and smart sailors, which is for this For some people, there is no doubt that it has a considerable ** power.

At this time in Europe, it is also rumored that there is an extremely rich country in the East, full of gold. For some restless guys, this is undoubtedly a considerable ** power. In order to find the wealth of dreams, many Westerners have set foot on ships to the East, various European maritime powers, this At that time, they all fixed their eyes on the rich land of the East.

It is rich in wonderful tea, gorgeous and exquisite silk, and all kinds of exquisite porcelain, which is too attractive to Europeans.

Now when I heard a group of missionaries say that the king of this great power in the East was willing to hire them with a good salary, there were quite a lot of applicants, and as a result, these people were brought back to China by Robert.

Xiao Tianjian gave each of them the price of 50 taels of silver a month for this group of sailors and shipbuilders from European countries, and then took time to meet these sailors and craftsmen from Europe in person.

Through communication with these craftsmen, Xiao Tianjian learned some knowledge about European sailing. Nowadays, Chinese people have a general term for Western ships, that is, splint boats, but such a name is not accurate, because it can't distinguish various types of Western sailing ships, just literally. Western-style sailboats can have two decks, so it is called a splint ship.

But in fact, for today's Europeans, since they got rid of Spanish rule, the Dutch have vigorously developed industry and commerce. Dutch businessmen have done business around the world and quickly gathered huge wealth. At the same time, they have also vigorously developed the shipbuilding industry, so that the number of ships they own has exceeded As many as 15,000, known as the sea coachman.

There are many types of ships in Europe, including the early Caravel fast sailboats, the Clark sailboats that are popular on the sea, the Galion sailboats developed from the Clark sailboats, and the Galen ships that have risen in recent decades. These ships can not only transport goods, but also be used as combat ships. The displacement varies from 100 tons to more than 1,000 tons, which constitutes the main force of prosperous European maritime transportation.

However, the shipbuilding technology of European sailing in this era has surpassed China. After Zheng He went to the West during the Yongle period of China, China's shipbuilding industry has fallen into a stagnation or even a regression. However, Europeans have used more than 100 years to cater to the needs of European countries. With high-speed development, many types of ships suitable for ocean-going trade and naval warfare have been developed.

The biggest difference between European sailboats and Chinese sailboats lies in the hull structure and the application of sails. Chinese sailboats, whether it is a wide ship or a lucky ship, or a sand ship, mostly use ribbed to replace the ship's ribs and form a watertight compartment. In this way, the ship's sink resistance is better, but the hull structure is limited, which makes Sailing can't create more than two-story decks like Western sailing ships.

Although European sailing ships did not use watertight compartment technology, they used a large number of dense ribs and thickened the thickness of the ship's plate. Although the sink resistance was affected, the structural strength of the hull was strengthened through dense and thick ribs, forming the hull. The long deck makes Western-style sailboats load more cargo. At the same time, it is convenient to place more artillery on the ship, and can also withstand the huge recoil force when the artillery fires, which allows European sailboats to cross the sea, often a few European sailboats, which can withstand the siege of hundreds of Chinese sailboats, and Be able to be invincible.

Although Zheng Zhilong has ruled the sea of the South China Sea over the years, the reason why the Zheng family's sailors can defeat the Dutch or the Spanish and Portuguese fleets depends not on the quality advantage, but on the absolute advantage in quantity to control the South Sea. But even so, the Dutchman or Spain People's sailboats can still travel freely to and from the Southern Ocean.

This time, Robert and others traveled to Europe by taking the sailboat of the Dutch East India Company. Even if the Zheng family is currently hostile to Dazhong Dynasty, they still came directly to Ningbo to get off the ship, which also shows that the Western sailing ship is relatively powerful.

In addition, there is another big difference between Chinese and Western sails, that is, the application of sails. Chinese sails all use hard sails without exception. The advantage of such hard sails is that it is easy to adjust sails, easy to raise and fall sails, and it is easy to use the wind direction of sails, and it is highly efficient. It can also save a lot of manpower and save a small number of crew members. The sail can be operated, which can be said to be full of Chinese wisdom, but this also causes the Chinese sails. It must rely on a higher mast, and the sails cannot be too wide. In this way, it will affect the use of larger sails, and the high mast will affect the stability of the ship.

Western-style sailboats are all soft sails. Although it is not as convenient as Chinese sailboats to use the wind direction, the efficiency is not high, and it is very inconvenient to lift sail and fall sails. It is also dangerous to use a large number of sailors to operate.

However, Western-style sailboats use triangular sails to solve the problem. At the same time, they can make the mast higher, and the area of the sail can also be made larger, which makes it possible for Western-style sailboats to greatly surpass the speed of Chinese sailboats.

Coupled with the unique deck structure of Western-style sailboats, their ships can be loaded with a large number of cannons and have strong combat effectiveness. Even if it is only armed merchant ships, it is now far more powerful than the lucky ships used by the Chinese and North Korean navies. To deal with them, the Chinese people now have to rely on the absolute advantage of quantity. It can win the naval battle.

And Xiao Tianjian knows better than anyone that the mode of naval warfare will develop in the future. Before the invention of the steam engine, Western-style sail warships will dominate the earth and the sea for nearly 300 years. For a long time to come, it will still see whose ship is bigger and the number of cannons loaded. Therefore, if we don't learn Western shipbuilding now. In terms of technology, it won't take long for the Chinese people to be left behind.

Of course, because of the emergence of Xiao Tianjian, it may greatly promote the development of the machinery manufacturing industry in the future. If possible, in Xiao Tianjian's lifetime, it is completely possible for the Chinese people to build a steam engine. In this way, China can enter the era of steam engines earlier than any other country and use steam power. Sailing power, but after all, it will take quite a long time. In a short time, in order to get a powerful navy available, we must first learn Western shipbuilding technology.

Therefore, Xiao Tianjian also attached great importance to these shipbuilders and sailors that Robert searched for him from Europe. Under his will, these Western shipbuilders first made several models of various Western-style sailboats for him, making Xiao Tianjian more It intuitively understands the advantages and disadvantages of these Western-style sailboats, and also tests whether they are real materials through the craftsmanship of these European shipbuilders to make ship models.

Fortunately, this group of shipbuilders have also been screened by missionaries. Most of their craftsmanship is not bad, but it is obvious that there are also high and low. Some craftsmen have design experience, but most craftsmen are at a lower level. They are limited to specializing in individual work and cannot build the whole ship independently. So these people were quickly divided into three groups. Xiao Tianjian personally selected three masters who could independently design and supervise the construction of ships as chief engineers, and the rest of the craftsmen were assigned to the subordinates of the three chief engineers and obeyed their orders.

As for the treatment of these craftsmen, Xiao Tianjian not only gave the three chief engineers a very satisfactory salary, but also the other craftsmen who belonged to them also received a very generous salary, and also arranged special translation for them to help them work in China in the future. This made the group of European shipbuilders who were fooled by missionaries to search for gold in the eastern giants were very satisfied.

However, shipbuilding is a systematic supporting project. Not only do you have wood and shipbuilding craftsmen, but you can build a good ship. At the same time, you also need various supporting industries to support it. For example, shipbuilding requires all kinds of steel products. In addition, cables and sails and other things must also be matched with it. These things are easy to say, but on the issue of sails, the Great China and North Korea obviously have shortcomings.

In this era, Chinese sailboats mostly use hard sails. These hard sails are mostly made of bamboo. Speaking of China, China is a country that is good at weaving and can produce a variety of textiles, especially the exquisite silk woven. However, Western ships basically use soft sails, and sails are used. Strong, wear-resistant and tight canvas. In this era, China does not have this kind of demand, so there is no good canvas for sails.

But Xiao Tianjian was not difficult at this point, so he waved his pen and ordered the Ministry of Industry to immediately recruit textile craftsmen around Hangzhou to develop sail canvas. For Chinese people, since exquisite silk can be woven out, there must be no big problem with this kind of coarse woven canvas.

In addition, in the late Ming Dynasty, cotton had already begun to be widely cultivated in China, and some varieties of plush cotton have been selected and bred. Cotton has gradually replaced linen and become a necessity for people's lives. Now after the north has calmed down, a large area of land has been re-cultivated, and the cotton planting area will become larger and larger in the future, so raw materials It's not a problem. If this matter had been done a few years ago, it would have been really difficult for him to solve, but now that he has ascended the throne and controlled the huge territorial resources, such things can be solved in one sentence.

(Today, I would like to thank the two brothers Feng Mu Chunjiang and General Mao Mao again for the reward!)