Zhu Chengxiu squinted his eyes and stood on the shore of the Pyongyang port, looking at the dozens of piers being built. As the commander of the Revolutionary Army, he had no sense of existence in the army. Compared to the Imperial Guard, which was famous on land and had outstanding military achievements, the navy was simply a fishing team and a transport team.
Zhou Qingfeng had captured Zhu Chengxiu to form the navy because he had no other manpower and only wanted to deal with pirates. As for the Ming Army navy, they were worse than pirates and did not need too much attention. The pirates had limited combat power, so they did not need a particularly powerful warship to deal with them. They just had to make do.
In addition, the Revolutionary Army had just been established, and the demand for foreign trade was increasing, so there was an urgent need for a large number of transport forces. In the case of limited civilian ships, the navy could be used as a transport fleet.
Especially after taking over Tianjin, the demand for shipping skyrocketed. At first, the shipyard could only build 100-ton cargo ships, but soon they built 500-ton ships. This led to the navy being temporarily transferred to run transport. It was lucky to run transport, but if they were unlucky, they would have to go fishing.
Zhu Chengxiu was born in a navy family. His family had worked in the Tianjin navy for more than a hundred years. But in recent decades, there were not many people in his family who knew how to operate a ship and even fewer who knew how to fight on the sea. The people of the Daming Navy had long been reduced to merchants, specializing in shipping goods to make money.
Originally, Zhu Chengxiu only wanted to be a frivolous young master. However, Master Zhu felt that the foundation of his family was the ship. If he left the sea, his family would be finished, so he forced him to learn. Fortunately, he knew how to operate a ship. Otherwise, he would have been beheaded after being captured in Wanghai Castle.
But when the Revolutionary Army developed steam ships, the navy's method was immediately outdated. Zhu Chengxiu's method of operating a hard sailboat was completely unsuitable for steam ships. Of course, steam ships were better. They could run fast without wind, and their tonnage was extremely large. Their maneuverability was much better than sailboats. But steam ships were complicated. Just how to take care of the steam engine was a great knowledge.
Zhu Chengxiu was a navy commander, but he could only take more than a thousand captains and sailors to enter the Jinzhou Machinery Factory as apprentices. They had to learn again, accept the baptism of industrialization, and master completely different knowledge. From sail power to steam power, Zhu Chengxiu spent the past six months in school and the machinery factory.
The whole learning process was too painful, too cruel. Zhu Chengxiu racked her brains to find more than a thousand Navy personnel, but half of them were eliminated during the learning process. Many old seagulls who spent most of their time at sea had no learning ability when faced with pen and paper, so they could only be demoted to running merchant ships. The Navy had to replenish a group of junior and senior high school students and retrain them.
There were still people to teach him about machinery, but he had to learn and practice the skills of steering a boat by himself. Not only were there no transmigrators who understood it, there were also very few books. Zhao Ze lent them two small steamships for teaching purposes. The two training ships often broke down when they went out to sea, and when they broke down, they were repaired, and when they were repaired, they broke down again. All the people in the Navy were tormented by the training ship.
The result was that he spent half a year writing a few thick Steam Ship Operating Manuals, Marine Steam Engine Maintenance Specifications, and Naval Ship Combat Drill Manual in half a year. They were all newly published books, and there were still many mistakes and contradictions in them. They were waiting for more practical tests and adjustments.
With these manuals and the remaining few hundred usable Navy personnel, Zhou Qingfeng ordered the expansion of the Navy. The goal of the first phase was five warships and thirty auxiliary ships for transporting coal, troops, supplies, and commuting. Zhu Chengxiu calculated his own assets and found that it was still the life of the transport team.
Most of the Ming Army Navy used four to five hundred tons of Fu ships as warships. These ships were small in tonnage and couldn't be equipped with any cannons. Naval battles often relied on jumping ships or even setting fire to the ships. The cannons of the Navy could only hit some iron sand and shoot it at the opponent's deck at close range. There was no hope for other tricks.
Zhu Chengxiu originally didn't think that his Navy could be special. The Revolutionary Army's shipyard had a good production capacity recently, and soon he was equipped with all kinds of auxiliary ships. For example, a commuter boat with a displacement of only a few dozen tons could run at a maximum speed of 12 knots on the sea with a steam engine of 100 horsepower. It could also run at about 8 knots in cruise mode.
As for the standard 500-ton warship equipped with heavy cannons, that thing had two steam engines of 250 horsepower and a maximum speed of 10 knots. The performance didn't look bad, but Zhao Ze's blueprint hadn't been completed yet. The only armed thing under Zhu Chengxiu was the 50-ton commuter boat. Zhao Ze's pitiful Navy currently only had transport ships, so he installed a cannon on the bow of the commuter boat.
A 50-ton boat couldn't count on any cannons. Zhao Ze modified the cavalry cannon, increasing the caliber from 50 millimeters to 70 millimeters, and the barrel was forged to be 1.5 meters. The barrel was thickened to adapt to the strong charge, and the rifling was pulled out in the barrel to increase the firing speed. There was no need for ricochet attacks in naval battles, so he used a conical bullet to increase penetration and an inflated tail to strengthen air holding.
There was only one cannon on the whole ship. Zhao Ze was very extravagant to design a semi-enclosed revolving turret for this cannon. The front of the turret was loaded with a retractable recoil, and the barrel was retracted into the turret. The front of the turret was reinforced with steel plates. From the outside, the bow of the commuter boat looked like a small house.
Zhu Chengxiu drove such a small broken ship from Lushun to provide the minimum level of maritime security and protection for Grand Marshal's North Korea strategy. On the sea, the Revolutionary Army's fleet was not afraid of encountering pirates. The steam ship could use its power advantage to easily shake off the enemy. However, due to the fixed route when entering and leaving the port, it was much more dangerous.
When the ship sailed to Pyongyang, Zhu Chengxiu needed to dock to add water and coal to the boiler. The steam engine had requirements for water and coal, and the development of the industrial system also had requirements for the quality of personnel. It was not uncommon for the entire Revolutionary Army to be punished for carelessly adding water and coal to the steam engine. They forced Zhou Qingfeng to give the steam engine operators a high salary and carry out strict training, severely punishing low-level mistakes.
Zhu Chengxiu finally got a ship with a cannon, so he naturally treasured it. He personally went ashore to check the work of the port's water and coal bureau to ensure that his precious ship was not damaged. When he finally confirmed that there were no problems with the water and coal, he had time to look at the foreign scenery in front of him.
North Korea was known as' Little China '…
"Pfft! How can we Chinese women wear such shameless clothes that expose our breasts?" Zhu Chengxiu looked at the North Korean women wearing breasts on the road outside the city with his eyes wide open and said in disdain, "How can these two lumps of black and loose skin look good? The creamy, white, and smooth pigeon breasts were the best. These North Koreans really don't know how to love! "
Zhu Chengxiu complained as he looked back and forth at the port. The port by the Datong River was being built rapidly. Half a month ago, it was just a piece of muddy land, but half a month later, there were rows of warehouses and a large number of trestles. The skinny and small North Korean coolies were working hard. They did not need any supervisors, nor did they need a single cent of salary. It was enough as long as they were provided with food.
There were a few foremen at the port. One look and one could tell that they were exiled from Shandong. These people had been tyrannical in their original place for hundreds of years. In the end, they were all transported to North Korea when they encountered a ruthless person like the Grand Marshal. If they were unlucky, they would have died.
Behind Zhu Chengxiu was a large group of barefoot North Korean children. There were also many young women with fluffy hair and ragged clothes. These were the untouchables near Pyongyang. Those who could work had already been recruited. These people in front of him could only beg for a living. As for those women, most of them were 12 or 13 years old. Occasionally, there were some 14 or 15 years old, but they had already started to sell their bodies.
"Sigh … Grand Marshal is not good at all, but he's really good to our Han children." Zhu Chengxiu looked at these foreign children and remembered the large number of children under the rule of the Revolutionary Army. Poor and run-down families often sold their children. In the past, those who bought children would either end up as servants or beggars. Both were lives worse than death.
However, the Revolutionary Army treated the children like young masters and young ladies. Not only did they provide food and clothes, but they also taught the children to read and write. They took care of these poor people in every possible way. Zhu Chengxiu looked at these foreign children and thought about how loyal the children under the rule of the Revolutionary Army would be after 10 or 20 years.
A few North Korean girls seemed to want to do some business with Zhu Chengxiu, but Zhu Chengxiu didn't like these dirty little guys. He casually took out a few pancakes from his pocket and threw them out. He shouted, "Go, go, go … Don't come here and make trouble."
When the pancakes fell to the ground, the North Korean children rushed up to grab them. The older ones naturally had the advantage. They didn't care about the mud on the pancakes and grabbed them and stuffed them into their mouths. Those who couldn't grab them could only stretch out their hands and look up at Zhu Chengxiu.
Zhu Chengxiu had goosebumps when he was stared at by these children. He raised his hand and shouted, "Go away, go away! Don't bother me. "
The group of children refused to leave. They knew that although these Han people looked fierce, they rarely bullied children. Only when a North Korean official lashed them with a whip did they scatter in all directions. After the North Korean official chased the child away, he smiled and bowed to Zhu Chengxiu, trying to curry favor with her. Zhu Chengxiu could only throw another penny to the official before he left in satisfaction.
"Aiya, tsk tsk tsk …" Zhu Chengxiu looked at everything in front of him with disgust, "If it wasn't for the mission, I wouldn't have come to North Korea. Look at the people here, they are really shameless. The Central Plains is so big, why does the Grand Marshal want to come to this goddamn place where even birds don't shit? He also wants to give money to the people here and build the port here. I heard that he wants to open a mine and a factory here. "
The news of a loan of 50 million silver dollars to North Korea had slowly spread from the high level of the Revolutionary Army. It was publicly reported in the newspapers. The common people in Tianjin didn't understand this at all. They didn't dare to go to the Grand Marshal's mansion to ask, so they went to the newspaper office to ask — 50 million silver dollars, how much money was that! With so much money, what could he do?
Did someone deceive the Grand Marshal? What good could he get by investing so much money in North Korea? He might as well spend the money in the Central Plains. He could buy the whole country. The Revolutionary Army didn't even have 50 million people. If this money was divided equally, each person could get more than ten yuan.
The public opinion of the people was like this. Regardless of whether people understood it or not, the Revolutionary Army was under Zhou Qingfeng's control. He said he wanted to invest 50 million in North Korea, so he invested 50 million. No matter how others objected, it was useless.
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