Chapter 972: The extra chapter brings civilization to the barbarians

Li Su was preparing for more than a month in Juzhang, handling local government affairs every day.

The new ship under construction was finally launched. In the final installation stage, Li Su also personally provided some improvement instructions on minor repairs and repairs to the superstructure.

Li Su is also very self-aware. He dared not command the main structure of the hull at all. Moreover, most of the ships were built at that time, and any tossing could bring back the consequences. Even if you have any good ideas, you will not be in a hurry. In the future, it can be realized in subsequent fleet construction.

Therefore, Li Su's improvement was just to guide the craftsmen to better set up flying trusses and sails. For example, the sea ships made by Han people generally did not consider "the sails that were wider than the hull were erected horizontally on the mast and were erected in length on the hull."

Of course, this is also related to the fact that Chinese civilization has used hard sails since ancient times, so there is insufficient experience in applying soft sails and horizontal sails.

At the same time, even if there are cross sails in the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean Romans, they rarely significantly exceed the width of the ship, and there are multiple rows of sails arranged side by side.

This thing was popularized and improved in Europe, and it was only when the Galen ship appeared in later generations.

The widest sails of the Garen and the Clippers, the width of the sails can reach three times the hull, which is equivalent to extending out to the left and right sides of the ship so far away. The area of ​​wind is greatly increased, and the utilization rate of wind power is also doubled.

Li Su now proposed these design concepts in advance, so that the hull structure does not require damage to the muscles and bones, just lengthen the cross truss on the mast. Even if the sail is too wide and is prone to unstable in strong winds, just roll up part of the sail. In fact, when encountering a storm, you can cut off a piece of the cross truss and throw it away, so it is very safe and purely beneficial or harmless.

It is a sailor who masts are more dangerous. The ancient Chinese people did not have the mast sailors who needed masts or even cross-truss operations, but this could be solved by adding money. Li Su also knew that naval and mast merchants needed high treatment to gather talents. In this regard, Liu Bei was always advised not to be stingy.

Even in Europe's era of navigation, the salaries of mast top operations are the highest, and they can be two or three times higher than deck operations. After all, it is a high-altitude operation, but in a strong wind environment, there is no safety protection, so of course you have to pay more high-altitude operation fees.

Considering the dangers of early navigation, the ship's technology was relatively poor and it was not good to resist wind and waves. Nowadays, the military salary of ordinary naval sailors in the Han Dynasty is at least six or seven times the cost of corvee labor stipulated by the state.

The labor price stipulated by the Rental and Message Transfer Law is twenty cents per day, and the labor service is nine hundred cents per month and one and a half months of service is deducted from nine hundred cents.

The wages of naval grassroots sailors reached 4,000 yuan per month, which was equivalent to 130 yuan a day.

Now Li Su has created the first batch of "high-altitude mast operators", and his wages are tripled by another average sailor, which is twenty times the official price of corvee labor, with 400 yuan a day and 12,000 yuan a month. The danger is obvious to all. For example, when he set sail for the first time, he was blown to death by the strong wind.

But the adventure career is always dangerous, and Li Su also has to try to arouse the Han people's desire to explore.

...

Finally, in early May, Li Su was finally able to catch up with the completion of the new ship. Taking advantage of the early summer wind, he led the escort fleet to set sail together.

In the entire fleet, there are only a few new ships built with improved technology, and most of them are the previous Dafu ships. After all, it is impossible to build ships so quickly.

The best new ship is enough to protect the safety of Prime Minister Li and Zhuge Envoys, etc.

Ordinary soldiers are skilled in water and martial arts, and they are not afraid of taking old-fashioned boats. After all, they all followed Gan Ning back and forth four or five times. If they have experience, the probability of accidents will naturally be minimized.

Li Su himself was quite excited because it had been 20 years since he traveled to this world. This was the first time he had personally sailed on the ocean.

It was his first experience of a sea boat when he was in Jiaozhou ten years ago. It was built by Lusu at that time, but it was only for nearly a hundred miles of coastline. It was wandering around and was not even needed to spend the night on the sea.

Now we are going to sail more than 2,000 miles across the East China Sea at one time, and the difficulty and stimulation are incomparable.

After setting off for more than half an hour, I could no longer see the distant land when I stood on the stern of the boat.

Li Su was a little nervous and wandered in the most luxurious cabin in the stern building for a quarter of an hour. He felt that he couldn't sit still, so he went to the observation platform in the middle of the main mast, which was three or four meters taller than the stern building, so he could see farther and farther.

There are two upper and lower observation platforms on the main mast. The one below is between the main mast and the main mast top sail. It is not made into an open-air platform, but is specially made into a box-cage structure.

There are several people standing inside, which are similar to the revolving restaurants of high-rise buildings in later generations, or the sightseeing floor of the TV tower.

No other ships are designed like this. Only Li Su's flagship and other few ships that can undertake fleet command tasks in the future are made like this, which is also convenient for civil servants who are not diligent in climbing up to observe.

Going further up, there is also a lookout tower behind the main mast sail three meters high.

But that place is not closed, it is just a basket type, with no top on it, and the wind will be very strong, which is for sailing and looking out of the sky to climb.

Moreover, people who look up the top mast strictly require that they should not weigh more than 250 kilograms (about 110 kilograms in contemporary times). They are also shorter, they are more flexible and not easy to catch wind and fall. It is best to be about six feet (1 meter 45)

Li Su is so cautious, of course he wouldn't go to the top terrace, just to check out the rotating restaurant-style private room in the middle. And he thought the private room was too windy. After all, for the sake of observation, the surrounding bamboo blinds could not be pulled up, and there were no glass windows in this era.

Fortunately it was May of the lunar calendar, and the weather was already a little hot, so it would be fine if the sea breeze was blowing. Li Su was wearing a large long telescope in front of him. Through this thing, even if it had been two hours to go out to sea and was more than fifty miles away from the shore, he could still barely see the land.

Obviously, these new enlarged versions of long telescopes are also newly built by Zhuge Liang in the past two years.

In principle, there is nothing complicated, but the lens grinding accuracy is insufficient, and the amount of light entering after increasing the magnitude is too small, so the lens barrel has to be long and the diameter of the objective lens is much thicker.

Originally, the early telescopes of the Han army had only a diameter of more than two inches on one side of the objective lens. The new navigation version now has a diameter of six inches, which looks as stupid, big, black and thick as the rangefinder of the ironclad gun in the Middle Ages.

However, the optical rangefinder of the 19th century ironclad ship must have a magnification of more than 30 times. But Zhuge Liang's appearance was just as big as a rangefinder, but in fact it was only six to eight times the magnification, and the difference in industrial accuracy was still very obvious.

An eight-fold mirror must be three feet long and six inches thick, so it must not be placed on a tripod to use it, otherwise Li Su will not be able to hold it.

Fortunately, the effect is indeed good. Li Su also believes that Gan Ning has relied on this new thing, combined with seabird navigation and cloud navigation, so that he did not miss the Liuqiu Islands and achieved ocean exploration.

The fleet sailed for about an hour, and it was already afternoon. Even at the top of the fleet's highest mast, with the highest-speed telescope, I could not see the land anymore, and I could only see some clouds in the sky.

Li Su also had a desire for knowledge and called Gan Ning to ask him to personally give instructions on how to view the cloud and confirm the land.

Gan Ning told him frankly: Wherever it is close to the mainland, the method of Yizhou Island Man is not easy to use because there are too many clouds and it is too messy. Only an isolated island above the ocean can that method be used.

Li Su was a little disappointed, but he quickly let it go, saying that he would verify it himself when he traveled through Liu Qiu in a few days.

After that, it took ten days of voyages and never saw land again. It turned out that Li Su was a little depressed when sailing.

Occasionally, I would think randomly, "I don't know if there were any unexpected events in the political situation in the court during these days when I was isolated from the Central Plains News, and whether there is any important matter that I don't know how to make a decision if I am not with the emperor."

He also took a cruise ship in his previous life, but it was only about a week at most, and there were many entertainment facilities on the cruise ship. Even so, every time he boarded a cruise ship in his previous life, he would have to get at least five kilograms when he got off the ship. There was a 24-hour buffet restaurant on the cruise ship. He was idle every day and couldn't flirt with women, and he would get tired of playing games, sports and swimming, so he would not be allowed to eat and drink.

Fortunately, Li Su planned to go abroad for one or two years this time, so he must bring his family. The flagship captain's room and even the lower half-level cabin were occupied by his family and maids, and no one dared to mention feudal superstitions to the prime minister and prevent women from getting on board. Li Su was not so bored.

Moreover, this era itself is not so particular, and even Mazu worshipped by the navigator class has not appeared.

Li Su was very excited to watch the sea three days ago, but he was tired of eating, sleeping and watching the scene on the fourth day. His concubines and maids saw even less, so he only watched it for five days.

Starting from the sixth day, the storms on the sea became heavier and heavier. Many of the female relatives brought by Li Su were scared. Li Su was also a little seasick, but he knew that this was the best condition that could be enjoyed in this era, and there was nothing to blame.

The largest of the other big blessed ships in the fleet is only sixteen or seventeen meters long, which is nearly forty meters long, three or four meters wide, with a displacement of seven or eight hundred tons, which is about the same as the largest five-tooth warship used in the inland river.

This year, this batch of new ships successfully increased the length of the hull to more than twenty meters because of the keel forged by steel, and the tonnage generally exceeded one thousand tons.

The one Li Su himself sat on was twenty-four zhang long and five zhang wide, with a draw of one zhang and three zhang, and a displacement of one thousand three zhang and four hundred tons.

In terms of weight, this is equivalent to the tonnage of the "Spanish Sailing Boat" used by the Spanish when they first opened up the trans-Pacific trade route from Mexico to the Philippines in the 1580s.

That is, the ships encountered by Zheng Zhilong and Zheng Chenggong and his son from Acapulco, Mexico, transporting American silver to Manila, which were strictly considered a revision of the large Galen ship.

However, Li Su's boat type and other designs are not as scientific and reliable as Spanish sailing ships, and they still need to accumulate and improve.

After three days of storm, the timid Zhen Mi couldn't help but huddled on the captain's bed in the captain's room and didn't dare to get up. She occasionally observed the situation through the porthole and asked her husband:

"Husband, why do these new ships seem to be sailing faster and more smoothly than the lucky ships that General Gan originally brought? It has been bumpy for so many days. I saw that other lucky ships have been reclaiming sails several times waiting for our ship. It seems that the larger the ship, the more stable the ship is."

Li Su had obviously asked these questions to the people below, and knew it in his heart, so he could naturally comfort his wives and concubines: "You don't understand these, just stay there. The new ship was built for voyages, and when it comes to the smooth sailing sea, it will naturally be more stable.

But the wind direction near the ocean current suddenly changes, so it is indeed better to use a lucky boat with a hard bamboo sail to flexibly grab the wind. Just bear it for a few more days, although it is a bit bumpy, there is nothing else to do."

Not all bumps are bad things! At least some aerobic exercises that originally required a lot of physical energy, but now they can rely on the inertia of the boat to compensate. After bumping for a long time, they can prevent kidney stones.

After carrying it for a few more days, as the fleet sailed out of the Liuqiu Islands and broke through the first island chain, the sea conditions were indeed completely different.

The wind and waves in the offshore of East Asia are famous for their changes. After breaking through the first island chain, ocean currents and sea breezes are affected much less. Only a few very regular conditions such as sea and land atmospheric exchange, cold and temperature circulation, and ground-turning bias force are needed.

In the Pacific Ocean, the closest to the equator is the windless belt and no currents.

In the lower latitudes of the North equator and the South equator, the wind direction and ocean current flow from west to east, from Mexico to the Philippines. Historically, the Spanish route through the Pacific Ocean drifted along the warm current and east wind of the North equator, and there was no need to drive the sails throughout the journey.

Unfortunately, Li Su is now sailing from east to west, so he cannot take advantage of the low-latitude east wind and equatorial warm current.

The currents and monsoons in the North Pacific Ocean from east to west can only go along the coast of Japan to the northeast, and go all the way to the Chiba Islands, Kamchatka and Aleutian Islands, which have passed along the way, also known as the "Black Tide".

Before arriving in the Aleutian Islands in Alaska, the flow of the Black Tide and the wind direction of the Black Tide area were very stable southeastern winds. However, after arriving in the Aleutian Islands, the north wind will gradually become stronger and there is almost no east-west wind. If you want to continue to go to the Americas, you can only use 90 degrees of crosswind.

In addition, when it is almost winter, the Siberian cold wave will be stronger, and the power of the Chiba cold current heading south will also surpass the Japanese warm current heading north.

However, it is only Mayday now, so there is no need to consider these issues at all. It can only be said that if the Han Han's expedition fleet really plans to go to North America with the wind of the Aleutian Islands, they must ensure that they will sail through the northernmost end of the Aleutian Islands route before the cold winter. In this way, when the north wind is together, they can continue to blow the fleet southeast until the area equivalent to later Vancouver and Seattle.

Of course, these are a bit far off.

...

"So this is the island cloud hat. It's hard for Zhou Yu to learn this method of observing clouds from those Yizhou Island barbarians. He has been away from Liuqiu Main Island for a day and a night, and has been away at least more than 200 miles.

You can also see the cloud caps on the island with a high-power mirror on the mast lookout. No wonder Xingba did not miss it when he attacked Gongsun Kang's retreat on an expedition.

From here, you can see at least two island cloud caps in the northwest and southwest, each two hundred miles away from us, and they are at least three hundred miles from each other. In other words, as long as there are two adjacent islands on a chain, the distance between the two adjacent islands is no more than three hundred miles, you won’t miss it by just observing the cloud caps with a telescope. Only when it is far away is needed, warships and birds are needed."

The day after passing Liuqiu Islands, Li Su got up and climbed the observation deck to observe again. Only after getting satisfactory results were met were relieved.

It has been driving for a day and a night, and you can still see the island clouds. You feel very safe and don’t be afraid of getting lost in the vast Pacific Ocean.

Zhen Mi and Li Su's maids and concubines also completely put away their worries about the bumpy wind and waves, because after passing the Liuqiu Island chain, the wind direction was really stable and the ocean currents were also stable.

Even if the boat does not operate anything, as long as the sailing rudder is placed in line with the right direction, it will naturally float along the east coast of the Japanese archipelago to the northeast, and it can float out at least 200 miles every day, and its speed will become faster than when it is near the sea.

For the first time, Li Su's ship had to put away a few sails and wait for the other lucky ships in the first-class fleet to enter the depths of the Pacific Ocean. The wind-snatched offshore ship, the speed of the ocean-snatched ship, was already thrown away by the wide-span ocean-going ship.

The thing about navigation really has to respect science. The Yellow Sea uses a ship, the East China Sea and the South China Sea. When you reach the Pacific Ocean, you have to develop a third type, climb a branch of a science and technology tree, and each has a clear division of labor.

After passing Liuqiu Island Chain, I floated to the fifth day again. It has been half a month since I set sail. Gan Ning has tested enough navigation data. I have to ask Li Su whether he should turn north and try to get close to the coast of the Fusang Islands.

After all, if you float down, you may miss the entire Fuso Island. Ganning has not sailed to the end of Japan yet. The map is still dark for him. The Han people of this era do not know how long the Fuso Island is.

The previous year when he was developing colonial in Tsuzu Island and surveyed the surrounding regimes, the farthest civilized regime that Gan Ning and Zhou Yu found was only at the end of the Seto Inland Sea on Fuso Island.

In other words, they knew that there was indeed civilization and land along the coast of Osaka Bay in later generations, and they didn’t know anything further east of Osaka Bay.

The small Dongyi country visited by Zhou Yu of Ganning was actually the "Yamato Kingdom" in the area of ​​Osaka Bay, Lake Biwa, and the Ooyu Plain at that time. They were savages even further east.

Li Su looked at the incomplete chart that Gan Ning had explored last year, and then looked at Gan Ning's current location, so he agreed to turn. This time he would probably land near Osaka Bay, away from the landing point on Kyushu Island last year, but it doesn't matter.

No matter where they landed, the barbarians had not even entered the Iron Age. As long as they were seen by the Han people, they would be naturalized and killed if they were not convinced.

In history, the Japanese were not introduced to iron tools until the end of the Eastern Jin Dynasty of the Central Plains. Now, even bronze tools have just been introduced for about a hundred years, and their combat effectiveness and productivity are all slag.

Most medieval continental civilizations in the world have at least five or six hundred years of time difference when they entered the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, and only then will the technical accumulation gradually evolve and develop to the next stage.

The Japanese were relatively lucky, and they all depended on external input. Their bronzes and Iron Ages were only two hundred years apart, similar to the civilized players stole Eureka from their neighbors with high technology next door.
Chapter completed!