The Rise of the European Emperor

After resting for a while, Amerigo finally decided to set off again, looking for the return route. And Kong Tai, and the 100 masons and 50 soldiers he brought, as well as their families, will stay and manage the new stronghold of Majiabao.

When seeing off Amerigo and his party on the newly built Long Bridge Wharf, Liu Laogen, the mayor of Jilong Village, suddenly pulled La Kongtai's arm and said in a low voice:

"My lord, how many sailors can the Yada (Amerigo) leave behind who are good at sailing?"

"Why?" Kong Tai was a little puzzled.

Liu Laogen said in a low voice:

"My lord, you won't just guard this island like this?"

"Then what else can you do?"

"We can send a boat to the mainland of Ming Dynasty to buy things. We need sailors to steer the boat!" After finishing speaking, Liu Laogen pointed to the dozens of tons of Japanese boats that were captured by Japanese pirates parked in Keelung Bay.

"Didn't the Ming Dynasty impose a sea ban? Oh, I see, you mean to smuggle?"

"Exactly! We are not short of grain or salt, but we are short of everything else, my lord! We have no oxen, and iron tools you brought. We have no cloth, no iron pots, no needles and threads, no Sauce and vinegar... nothing, need to go to land to buy..."

Kong Tai nodded and asked:

"You can just drive the boat and buy it yourself, why do you need our sailors?"

Speaking of this, Liu Laogen's face collapsed:

"My lord, our villagers command and control small fishing boats. They are not good at steering this kind of big boats! And the small fishing boats, the loading capacity... you know... and the small fishing boats go through the Dongfan Island Strait, where the wind is high and the waves are rough. Extremely dangerous..."

Kong Tai nodded, and ran to discuss with Amerigo. Amerigo is heading back anyway, so it's no big deal. So, he let Kong Tai choose by himself, and kept 20 sailors. These 20 sailors are not only good at manipulating ships, but they also know how to repair ships, and some of them can even build ships...

"What, do you still know how to build ships?" Amerigo was also speechless about the omnipotent attributes of the middle-aged sailors. Why can't they go to the sky if they are so omnipotent?

"Yeah, but I'm not very proficient. When we didn't wrap the bottom of the ship with tin plate, the ship had to be overhauled after each voyage. Then, we often helped those craftsmen to repair the ship together. As we repaired, our craftsmanship improved. ..."

"Okay, don't say anything. From now on, you are senior craftsmen in Majiabao, and you will get double wages. Your task is to use the wood you got on land to build ships! By the way, that kind of message delivery Do you know how to build a speedboat?"

The speedboat that Kong Tai mentioned is actually a variant of the Kirk sailboat. Marin asked the shipbuilders to make the hull of the Kirk sailboat thinner, the bow became sharper, and a streamlined structure was adopted under the waterline to reduce seawater resistance. Then, the sails were changed to Chinese-style lift-type hard sails, and a double-sail speedboat was produced. Of course, the Chinese-style hard sails that Marin asked the shipbuilders to modify were not real Chinese-style hard sails, but just dismantled the crossbars that were originally fixed to the mast and sewed them together with the sails. In this way, a square sail similar to a Chinese-style hard sail appeared with only three or four horizontal batons (the Chinese-style hard sail has a lot of square batons and is very heavy, so it is not high). Then, Marin learned from the way of raising the national flag in later generations, and changed the way the horizontal sail used to be hung downwards to rising from the bottom. Then, a movable horizontal sail similar to a Chinese-style hard sail was made, and a speedboat was made.

This kind of speedboat generally only has a displacement of 30 to 40 tons. With two movable horizontal sails that can be rotated, the speed can reach a relatively high level. Because the hull is too small to withstand the Atlantic storm).

At this time, a middle-aged sailor named Karoo stood up and said:

"I have participated in the maintenance of this speedboat and know its structure!"

"Okay, from now on you will be the chief engineer of shipbuilding, and your salary is three times that of ordinary people! Your task is to use the wood obtained from the island to supervise the construction of this speedboat!"

The reason why Kong Tai adopted this speedboat is that

It is for smuggling. The so-called smuggling must be shady. In the Ming Dynasty, there were coastal defense stations such as Pinghaiwei, Yongningwei, and Zhenhaiwei on the coast of Hujian. Although the southeast coastal guards have been corrupted in the middle and late stages, they have little combat effectiveness. However, it is no problem to deal with one or two smuggling boats.

Therefore, if you want to smuggle, you must avoid the naval warships of these coastal defense stations. Even if they are discovered, they must be able to escape.

Therefore, Kong Tai planned to build a speedboat. The speed boat is fast, because there is no need for water combat, the hull design is very narrow. In order to be stable and not capsize, warships are often wider. In this case, using the two-masted speedboat of the Beihai State, you can run away under the noses of the naval warships of the Ming Dynasty and avoid being caught. These days, being caught by the government army like bandits will not end well. The sailors under Conte are all Europeans, let alone caught. Otherwise, there will be a big diplomatic accident. Even, it will affect Marin's plan. Therefore, Kong Tai did not dare to take risks, so he could only use a two-masted speedboat with fast speed but average cargo capacity.

Carew, who had just been appointed as the chief shipbuilder, thought about it and made a request for shipbuilding:

"Master Kong Tai, we have no shortage of shipbuilding tools. We just took them off the ship. However, we are short of shipbuilding materials!"

"What is missing?"

"It's mainly nails for nailing boards, as well as linseed oil (similar to tung oil) and glue, etc..."

Kong Tai thought for a while and said:

"How about this, let's let the people from Jilong Village go to Daming to buy nails, glue and... By the way, linseed oil is not available, but according to the Grand Duke, the tung oil that is abundant in Daming is better than sesame oil. And cheap!"

"That's good..." Karu nodded, but quickly raised his head again:

"By the way, there is also the canvas needed for the sail!"

"Don't worry, the Ming Empire doesn't lack these things, and the materials are cheap!"

"By the way, Master Kong Tai, how often do you want a boat?"

"The sooner the better!"

"However, the wood used for shipbuilding needs to be air-dried for a year or two..."

"No, we can't wait that long! By the way, what's the impact of using dried wood?" Kong Tai asked.

"Dried wood... this will greatly affect the quality of the ship, for example, the ship only has a few years of life..."

"Enough! We just have a time difference, and we will use it within one or two years! I will send people ashore to cut wood, and you will pick and identify which kind of wood is suitable for shipbuilding. In short, we must use the fastest speed to build a speedboat. The life expectancy is not high, even if it can only be used for one year. Anyway, the cost of wood is low..." Kong Taihao said dryly.

He has personally made large purchases in Guangzhou, so he naturally knows how low prices are in Daming. In addition, there is no cost to cut timber on Dongfan Island, so the cost of shipbuilding will be very low, at least several times cheaper than shipbuilding in Europe. Even if the life expectancy is low, it is acceptable.

At this time, Karu suddenly cast his eyes on the Japanese boat parked on the shore...

"Master Kong Tai, maybe...we can dismantle this ship and use the wood on it. It's all good enough old material!"

Kong Tai frowned and said:

"I originally planned to use that boat to go fishing. You know, I brought a few trawl nets. We don't have enough food. We need to go fishing to get enough food!"

This is also the characteristic of Marin's colonization-whenever you colonize a certain place, you must bring fishing nets and sailors who can fish. In this way, even if there is a shortage of food, there will never be a shortage of food. Because, the fish caught by the trawl net are enough to provide food...

"This... How about you dispatch this boat to catch enough fish first, and then salt them into salted fish. Then, we will dismantle the boat?"

"Good idea, that's it. Let's send people to go fishing first. I'll inform Village Chief Liu Laogen to send people to Daming to buy enough nails, tung oil and canvas!" After finishing speaking, Kong Tai went to get the money first. up. Marin was not short of money, and Kong Tai brought a lot of money. Right now, it just comes in handy...

...

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