Chapter 70 Giant Ship (Central)

When Xu Liang talked about the crossbow, his eyes lit up. He quickly said, "I obey the order. However, I think. If it is a crossbow, it is better to ask Lord Tao to introduce it."

"Master Tao?" I raised my eyebrows. What's wrong with the old fox of Tao Qian? As he said that, his eyes followed Xu Liang's expectation, but he saw Tao Yingying walking towards me. I suddenly realized that the Lord Tao he was talking about was Tao Yingying.

"My minister Tao Ziying has seen the emperor." Tao Yingying bowed. At this moment, she was not wearing court clothes, but a tight black suit, obviously wearing it because of her flexible movement.

"Ziying, let's take you to see your newly designed crossbow." I smiled softly and waved.

"Your Majesty, there are two crossbows set up on the bow and stern of this warship, two rows of armed turrets are set up on the second deck, and twelve crossbows are set up on the second deck. Therefore, there are twenty-eight crossbows on the entire warship." Tao Yingying answered softly, and led us to the bow at the same time.

Although the bow of the ship is square, it is much narrower than the center of the hull, about four or five meters wide. At this distance, it is more than enough to mount two crossbows.

As soon as I reached the bow of the ship, I saw the crossbows designed by Tao Yingying and Tang Yi. At first glance, this kind of crossbows is not much different from traditional guns. It is also a black gun barrel standing there, but there is a different world at the tail of the gun barrel. Under the clever design of Yingying and Tang Yi, it has a rotating equipment and a strike-type crossbow needle.

All civil and military officials, when they saw this strange crossbow, all showed a puzzled look. They whispered and discussed it. They couldn't figure out what this black crossbow was for?

"Yingying, demonstrate the operation of this kind of crossbow." I believed the power of this kind of crossbow, so I said with a smile.

"When you go back to the emperor, the ship is now staying on the dock, so it is probably inconvenient to conduct a demonstration. It is better to conduct a crossbow demonstration during the trial voyage." Tao Yingying replied.

I thought for a moment and said indifferently: "It's good that way. Xu Liang, who is the command of this ship at present?"

Xu Liang hurriedly stepped forward and said respectfully: "It was Lord Tao who personally directed it."

"Ziying?" I looked surprised: "Do you actually know how to command ships?"

"Your Majesty, Ziying has been reading a lot since he was a child and is very interested in ships." Tao Yingying said slowly: "In addition, this warship was designed and manufactured by Yingying himself. She knows everything about her surname and every detail. No one in the world is more suitable to command this warship than Ziying."

"This?" I hesitated and frowned slightly. This warship will be on the battlefield sooner or later. I don't want my woman to stay on the battlefield all day long, which is too dangerous.

"Your Majesty, please be kind." Tao Yingying knelt down and bowed with a decisive look on her face.

"Get up." I sighed and waved my hand: "Let you command this warship. Start the trial sail immediately."

Tao Yingying's face suddenly became happy, and with a wave of her hand, the squadrons gathered next to her.

"Send orders, fire a cannon." Tao Yingying's face turned right, showing a serious temperament.

The messenger behind him immediately waved the flags in his hand. At the same time, deafening sounds of firecrackers came from the dock.

"Send the order, raise the anchor." Tao Yingying ordered another order.

The sailors on the deck were immediately busy and pulled the anchor up with a winch with a whisper. The whole ship shook slightly and slowly swayed with the water flow.

"Prepare for the sail." Tao Yingying immediately shouted again: "Raise the soft sail."

As she issued accurate and powerful orders one after another, the entire warship started to operate. After the hull trembled, the sails were filled with wind. The warship slowly moved forward.

"Turn the right rudder." Tao Yingying ordered it quickly.

Under Tao Yingying's command, the giant warship finally slowly drove to the center of the Yangtze River. Because the ship was very huge, the Yangtze River was wide, but it still seemed a little narrow for such a giant.

"Ziying, let's go to the East China Sea for a walk." I smiled and said, "It's not a big deal to delay the court affairs."

After Tao Yingying got the order, she adjusted the direction of the ship and stood up half a sail. Sure enough, the speed of the ship was further increased.

Huge sails are flying in the air, like white clouds, which is beautiful.

I stood at the bow of the ship with my hands on my back. I watched the warships break through the waves and enjoyed the pleasure brought by the river breeze on my face.

All the court officials also enjoyed the pleasure of riding on such a giant warship for the first time.

It took the warship a full two days to bypass Chongming Island and enter the East China Sea. This warship could not play its maximum speed in the narrow Yangtze River. Only in this vast sea can it be like a fish returning to nature, galloping freely.

In order to test the maximum speed of the warship, Tao Yingying pulled the huge sails with the wind. The entire warship was sailing rapidly in the East China Sea like a giant fortress.

The sailors suddenly came up and reported that the speed had reached eighteen knots. I was really shocked. How did they know the speed of the knots, this speed?

Seeing that I was confused, Tao Yingying explained: "Your Majesty, according to the blueprint left by the Spaniard, there is a device to test the speed of the ship. Use a long rope to tie it into one knot at a certain distance, and then put it in the sea. According to the number of knots to be dragged out, the speed will be as many knots. Seeing that this speed measurement method is good, Weichen quoted it."

I was relieved. It turned out that there was a record on the blueprint, which almost scared me.

This kind of warship was able to reach 18 knots after its first voyage, which is very powerful.

Yingying then began to test the warship's turn and other talents, and the results were very satisfactory. Finally, she wanted to test the power of the crossbow. However, in the East China Sea, there was a vast area of ​​water, so where could she find a suitable target to attack?

Suddenly, the sailor who was acting as a warning on the watchtower immediately sent out an alarm signal.

We hurried to the bow of the boat and looked at the position indicated by the sailor. Looking down at the narrow view, we saw several small black dots appearing at the point where the blue sea was connected.

"Ziying, go up and take a look." I smiled: "It's better to be some merchant ships, so that I can also come and play the pirates."

Our giant warship drew a huge arc on the sea surface, inserted it horizontally from the front left, and cut it off in the direction of the movement of the black dots.

In a moment, the black spots were getting bigger and bigger. It can be clearly seen that they were several sailing ships. The Great Wu Empire has always implemented a maritime ban policy. The ships sailing on the sea were either Japanese ships, smuggling ships, or finally the Great Wu navy.

Those ships also saw our giant warship from afar. Suddenly, they turned one rudder and rushed to the other direction.

I was excited and shouted anxiously: "Catch up quickly, it must be not the navy of Dawu." If the navy of Dawu, as soon as he saw a ship entering his own sea area, he would definitely intercept and interrogate. How could he turn around and escape if he met?

Under Yingying's command, the giant warship immediately increased its speed to the extreme and intercepted it horizontally.

At the same time, several ships emerged from afar, and the ships chased the previous ships from afar. It was obviously tracking them. According to reason, it is very likely that they were our friendly ships.

Our new warship sailed very fast. In one hour, we had tracked more than a thousand steps. At this distance, we could clearly see the structure and flags of the five ships escaping opposite. The sailors transferred from our warship were all experienced naval members selected from the coast of the country, so we could naturally identify the origins of these warships.

The sailor shouted, "That's the Japanese pirates' ship."

I heard it again. The Japanese pirate ship is so good. I was worried that there was no place to demonstrate the operation of the crossbow, and now it is the best demonstration tool to deliver to my door.

"Ziying, I will hand over these Japanese ships to you." I sneered, "Don't be ruthless, think about the evil deeds they committed on the coast of Dawu. Even if they die a hundred times, they deserve it."

"Preparation of the bow crossbow gunner." With Tao Yingying's order, the four crossbow gunners immediately carried two boxes of finished shells to the bow. It can be seen that the design of this crossbow gun, similar to the design of the crossbow gun, has specially made finished ammunition.

This alone can make the design of this kind of crossbow far more advanced than that of any other country.

Those crossbow gunners were obviously trained for a long time. They skillfully put the shells into the big revolver. They used the power of the mechanism to bore the shells, and then pulled the crossbow strings designed like crossbow guns, and the firing needles hanging on the crossbow strings were aimed at the back of the shells through the track.

I smiled and said, "This is a post-bore cannon. Yingying and Tang Yi are indeed both geniuses, one is a genius in mechanism design and the other is a firearm design genius.

The loading of this kind of crossbow cannon only takes about twenty seconds to install each shell. It is really convenient and fast.

Our giant warship is less than a thousand steps away from the nearest Japanese ship. The Japanese ship is not big in size, only five or six feet from beginning to end.

"Aim at the Japanese ship in front of you." Tao Yingying ordered in a deep voice, paused for a while before shouting: "Shoot."

"Boom." The huge roar of artillery sounded, and the recoil of the artillery made the front deck tremble violently.
Chapter completed!