Chapter 352

Qin Huan and his army were still a little slow after all. When more than 10000 people and horses rushed through the state and across the county to Yingcheng, 60000 troops who withdrew with the state had passed Yingcheng a day earlier and went south.

Qin Huan was also a secret way. Unfortunately, he regretted that he accepted Tianfu city first. He didn't expect that the other party would be so fast.

If 60000 troops withdraw at this speed, 10000 or 20000 people will definitely fall on the way.

In the afternoon, Qin tie also pursued Yingcheng with a large army, one by one equally depressed.

The other party's 60000 troops withdrew under their eyes, but they didn't catch up and slowed down for a whole day. It's really embarrassing.

"The last general is incompetent. Please punish the king!"

As soon as they met, Qin tie knelt down on one knee and apologized.

"Forget it, you can't blame it." Qin Huan waved his hand.

He knew that the reason why the first town and the second town were so slow was that there must be soldiers and horses intercepting along the way. In addition, all States and counties were still in the hands of the Ming army. The other party could let go, but they didn't dare to chase recklessly.

Second, most of the two towns are northerners. They are still not used to coming to the south for the first time, especially in the wet and rainy weather in spring.

After the two armies joined, there were more than 40000 troops. After attacking Yingcheng, Qin Huan took the army south as the rear base camp. Three days later, the army finally arrived at the entrance of the Han River.

At this time, the soldiers and horses withdrawn from Suizhou had already crossed the Yangtze River and arrived at Wuchang City on the south bank.

Looking at the large and small warships on the wide Yangtze River, Qin Huan frowned. He knew it would be difficult to fight this battle.

Wuchang area is the intersection of the Han River and the Yangtze River. The river is wide and has several miles.

Moreover, if you can't control the river and rush across the river to attack Wuchang City, the risk is still great.

Although Wuchang is located on the South Bank of the Yangtze River, it guards the mouth of the Han River and the lake as well. Guangdong enters the south of the Yangtze River without taking Wuchang City, let alone going south to attack Yuezhou and east to attack the south of the Yangtze River. I'm afraid it will be threatened at any time to the north of the Yangtze River. The navy can take a boat upstream along the Han River and fight wherever it wants.

At this time, Hankou on the East Bank of Hanjiang River and Hanyang on the West Bank are either a large wasteland of beaches or a paddy Town, which is far less than Wuchang on the south bank.

Therefore, there is no saying that the three towns in Wuhan really developed in the Qing Dynasty.

"How many ships were collected?"

"Back to the king, except for more than ten small boats, there was no big boat of more than 20 loads. All of them were collected and scraped to the south bank by the Ming army." Qin tie replied helplessly.

"It seems that we have to build our own ship." Qin Huan also sighed. He had already guessed that it would be this result.

Although some merchant ships can be collected from both sides of the Han River, he doesn't have to think about it. He also knows that these merchant ships can't beat the Navy warships.

In the following days, Qin Huan had to look at the river and sigh. He decided to attack Xiaogan, Huangpi and Yunmeng counties on the north bank first, and then build warships and recruit sailors in Hankou area.

At the same time, let the intelligence service contact the Xiao family in the city.

Lu Xiangsheng on the south bank was also not idle. While strengthening the river defense, he built firearm warships and recruited new soldiers. He was ready to defend Wuchang.

After Lu Xiangsheng came to Huguang, although he also established a navy, most of them were transformed by merchant ships, that is, more than 200 large ships with some firearms on them, and the largest one was about 500 loads.

But even so, in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and the Dongting Lake Basin, no one can afford to exist. Water warfare is no more important than land warfare, and equipment has been more important than people since ancient times.

However, a 500 DWT ship sounds terrible, but in fact it is not worth mentioning compared with a sea ship.

500 kilos, as the name suggests, can hold 500 kilos of things, that is, about 50000 kilograms, which can be converted into a displacement of 25 tons.

Compared with the 20000 DWT treasure ship, it's nothing. 20000 DWT is 2 million kg, which is converted into a displacement of 1000 tons.

In ancient times, large wooden ships with more than 1000 tons can imagine how terrible it was.

It is said that the largest treasure ship has reached 50000 loads. I don't know if it is true.

During this period, the largest seagoing ships in the West were only three or four hundred tons, usually one or two hundred tons, and few more than 500 tons.

Qin Huan didn't know anything about shipbuilding. He didn't intend to build treasure ships, but he didn't want to build some small boats. After all, it's impossible to fight in the south of the Yangtze River without a navy in the future. Fighting in Yuezhou also needs warships.

Once the war reaches the Yangtze River, the war horse will have little use. What really plays a vital role is the warship and firearms.

In order to prevent the other side's Navy from making trouble and damage, Qin Huan had to put the shipyard on the East Bank of the Han River, and scuttled dozens of merchant ships to block up the mouth of the Han River.

There's no way. If we don't block the Hanjiang estuary and rely on the other party's more than 200 transformed warships, no matter where we hide to build ships, we will end up with a pile of sawdust.

……

"King, this is the model of the warship that the little old people beat up according to the king. Please have a look at it."

An old craftsman who had built a hundred load ship and several carpenters came to Qin Huan with two small building ships, one large and one small.

The big one is four meters long and the small one is only two meters long.

"Well, can you make it?"

Qin Huan walked around the two models, but he was still very satisfied. He didn't expect that they could get the models out so soon.

These are two 1:10 models, that is to say, after being built, the large length will reach about 40 meters, 8 meters wide and 15 meters high, with a total of three floors.

The small is 20 meters long, 5 meters wide and 10 meters high, with two floors.

In peacetime, the sails are sailed, and in wartime, the sails are retracted and rowed manually. The large bottom warehouse can accommodate 60 people rowing at the same time, and the two-story building above the deck.

On both sides of the first deck, five thousand kilogram Fran machine guns can be placed respectively for long-range combat, and on the second floor, eight 400 kilogram Fran machine guns can be placed for close combat shooting of shrapnel. In addition, 30 gunners, 20 rocket men, helmsman, rower and gunner, the whole ship needs about 150 crew members, and the estimated displacement is about 400 loads, about 20 tons.

Forty people paddle in the small bottom warehouse. There is only one floor above the deck, and the estimated displacement is about 10 tons.

"Back to the king, this kind of building ship is very simple. The little old man is sure to build it." The leading teacher almost didn't bang his chest.

"Well, with sufficient manpower, how long will it take to build one?" Qin Huan didn't doubt that the reason why he built this flat bottom building ship was because it was simple.

"Back to the king, if you have enough wood and tung oil, you can ship in March and small in January." The old man calculated.

"It's too slow. You can divide your work and cooperate, determine the size of each part, and then assemble..."

Qin Huan waved his hand and explained to them the concept of modular assembly, that is, first determine how many wooden parts a ship needs, and then make these wooden parts on the shore before assembly.

Seeing that they were confused, Qin Huan thought for a moment and said again, "well, first build a ship, don't brush tung oil, but completely disassemble the ship, don't damage the wood parts, and then classify a large number of copies according to the removed wood parts..."

These ships need to travel in the Yangtze River, so the firmness does not need to be strong. In this way, the master who knows how to build ships is responsible for assembling and processing wood parts, and can be handed over to ordinary carpenters. As long as their rulers are unified, modular assembly can be achieved.

But I plan to build 100 large ships and 200 small boats within half a year, so only this way can I do it. After all, ordinary carpenters need as many as they want.

Hearing Qin Huan's words, the old men finally understood what was going on.