Sperm whales, which can weigh up to forty to fifty tons, are giants in the sea and have no natural predators in nature. But when it comes across a whaling ship, the sperm whale has no choice but to flee for its life. But even if they escaped, sperm whales couldn't escape the whaling ship. The speed of the whaling ship with sails and oars can reach 167 knots, while the speed of the sperm whale is relatively slow, with a maximum speed of only more than 10 kilometers per hour.

The whaling ship was getting closer and closer to the target, and when it was only about thirty meters away from the sperm whale, Wang Xiuqi, who was standing on the helm tower, shouted: "Release!" ”

The soldier in charge of operating the bed crossbow turned the bed crossbow, aimed at the sperm whale fleeing in front, pulled the hanging knife, only to hear a loud sound from the bowstring, and the whaling fork with the rope shot towards the sperm whale in the sea more than 30 meters away. However, because of the rope, the trajectory was affected, and the whaling fork failed to hit the target.

"Wind, put it back!" Wang Xiuqi shouted.

Several soldiers pulled the winch, and the huge bowstring was pulled apart. A new whaling fork was then loaded onto the bed crossbow. On the side of the ship, a few soldiers pulled the winch and retrieved the whaling fork that had just failed to hit the target back onto the ship.

When the sperm whale surfaced again for ventilation, the soldier who operated the bed crossbow decisively pressed down the hanging knife.

"Bang" was another huge bowstring sound, and a huge whaling fork roared out, piercing the sperm whale accurately. I saw a dazzling bloody arrow spraying out of the sea, and the whaling fork pierced the body of the sperm whale.

The three-bow bed crossbow, which can reach a range of more than a mile, has great kinetic energy, and the sharp whaling fork easily tears through the thick back of the sperm whale, piercing the fat layer and muscles, and firmly penetrating the body. Because of the barb on the whaling fork, the sperm whale that was hit by the fork could not get rid of this huge fork at all.

The sperm whale let out a cry of pain up to two hundred decibels, and the jet of water that erupted from the breathing hole was a blinding red, and a large area of sea water was stained red. The sperm whale dives again, trying to break free from the fork on its back.

The soldiers on the ship slowly pulled the winch, and let the sperm whale sail forward with the ship. When the sperm whale dives into the depths of the ocean, the ship's soldiers loosen the winch to prevent the strong force from causing the ship to lose balance. When the sperm whale resurfaced and was ready to breathe, the bed crossbow fired a second whaling fork.

After nearly an hour of pursuit, the sperm whale that was hit by three whaling forks finally ran out of blood, exhausted its physical strength, and floated helplessly on the water, and the whale boat slowly pulled to the side of the boat.

"Killed! Finally killed! The ship's soldiers let out a shout of excitement.

The sperm whale was pulled to the side of the boat, and several sailors got into the boat, rowed to the side of the sperm whale's carcass, tied the sperm whale firmly with a rope, and pulled out the whaling fork. The cable was attached to the ship, and the whaling ship towed the sperm whale back to the ship.

"Kill the dragon! The Jiao Trap is back! "There were people shouting at the pier by the sea.

The people of Shanghai came out of their homes and came to the Huangpu River to see the captured behemoth.

"It's huge! It's four or five feet long! It is estimated that there are seventy or eighty thousand catties! Someone exclaimed.

The middle-aged woman who was still teasing Wang Xinyu yesterday exclaimed: "The king of Nanhai County really killed the crown prince of the Dragon King of the East China Sea!" ”

Another middle-aged woman said: "I just said, the king of Nanhai County is Nezha, and what is the crown prince of the Dragon King of the East China Sea!" Even if the old dragon king came in person, he was not plucked by the third prince of Nezha! ”

And Chen Python and a group of old troops of the Yuan Zheng family, although they felt a little incredible, they were not too surprised. Because in the minds of the old Zheng family's army, Wang Yu is the apprentice of the sea god. Just imagine, if he hadn't obtained the true legend of the sea god, how could he have known that there was still a large piece of land in the far southeast? If he hadn't been guided by the god of the sea, how could he have predicted that the prophet would rush to Myanmar in time to rescue the Son of Heaven? If it weren't for the guidance of the sea god, how could it have been possible to go all the way north and find Sakhalin?

As for why you didn't dare to kill whales before? After all, he is the crown prince of the Dragon King! Even Poseidon's students have to give face to the Dragon King, right? But now that Wang Yu is getting stronger and stronger, it's nothing to make the Dragon Prince cramp like Nezha.

Such a huge sperm whale was pulled to the shore, and Wang Xinyu commanded the manpower to pluck the sperm whale and cramp it. First, the skin of the whale is cut with a knife, and after the skin is cut, the pale pink substance underneath is the blubber layer. More than one-third of a whale's body weight is fat. By heating these blubbers, the most rudimentary whale oil can be obtained, and then filtered and boiled at high temperatures, whale oil becomes a honey-like viscous substance, which is a very high-grade industrial lubricant that neither dilutes nor solidifies at temperatures of several hundred degrees.

Underneath the fat layer is whale meat, the quality of whale meat is actually similar to beef, except for the coarse fiber, the taste is even better than beef, it is a very high-quality meat food.

Whale skin is a very good raw material for leather products, which can be used to produce leather boots and leather armor, leather boots made of whale skin are resistant to wear and tear, and the defense effect of leather armor is better than that of cotton armor, as long as a layer of silk lining is added to the leather armor, it can be used as the armor of the musketeer, and the effect of resisting bows and arrows is very good. Even if it is pierced by a bird's gun, as long as the silk lining is pulled, the projectile can be pulled out, and the function is equivalent to cotton armor, and the defensive effect exceeds that of cotton armor. And leather armor, which is also made of cowhide, is not as defensive as whale skin.

In addition, whale bones are also very useful, the bones can be boiled glue, the best marine adhesive, with whale bone glue and the boat board is not only waterproof, but also can prevent moth-eaten. The most important thing is that the glue yield of whalebone is very high, and a few large bones can boil out several kilograms of glue, which is of great practical value for the large-scale shipbuilding industry.

The whale skin is very thick, and it is not easy to cut the whale skin, and hundreds of people are busy on the river beach, and after a whole morning, the whale skin is peeled off, and the whale fat and whale meat are cut into pieces of meat the size of a wooden box.

Fortunately, it was a cold winter, and if it was summer, after a day and a night of hauling at sea, it would take a whole day to cut and decompose the whale after arriving on the shore, and the whale meat and blubber would have deteriorated long ago.

After the whale meat is cut, it is first given to the army and their families for tasting. Originally, Wang Xinyu planned to sell whale meat to meat dealers, but because no one had eaten this kind of thing, the meat dealers did not dare to accept whale meat, and the people in the city did not dare to taste it, so they could only give it to the army first.

Large trucks pulled whale meat and transported it to the major military camps nearby.

At the beginning of dinner, a pot of meat similar to braised beef is served on the table. But when the soldiers heard about the whale meat, they didn't dare to use chopsticks at first, and it was the officers who took the lead in eating whale meat and demonstrated it to the soldiers.

An officer took the lead in picking up a piece of whale meat, put it in his mouth, chewed it a few times, and said, "It tastes good!" Eat and see! It tastes no different from beef! ”

But the soldiers still looked at the officers dumbfounded, and none of them dared to put down the chopsticks to clip the whale meat, they all thought that the officers must be lying to them, because if the officers did not take the lead in eating, and did not say anything delicious, where would the soldiers dare to do it.

"I have to finish the whale meat on the table tonight! If you can't finish eating, everyone won't be allowed to eat all day tomorrow! The officer was furious and gave the order.

Under the strong order, there were finally more daring soldiers who picked up the whale meat.

"Huh? It tastes pretty good! It's really no different from beef! One of the more daring soldiers said after taking a sip.

Another soldier also tasted it: "It's really good! It's almost the same as eating beef! It's delicious! ”

Someone took the lead, and the other soldiers stretched out their chopsticks. Whale meat in the mouth, it feels very similar to beef, that is, the fiber is a little thicker, but there is more oil, the taste is good, the fly in the ointment is that whales and other wild animal meat, there are some wild animal fishy smell.

After a while, a large basin of braised whale meat on the table was swept away by the soldiers.

In addition to being used for braised whale meat, it can also be cut into thin slices and grilled, and it can also be stir-fried. But there was too much meat for a whale to be eaten by the troops near Shanghai, so the firehead soldiers pickled the meat and made it into jerky.

At this time, Nanyang Company's canning factory had not yet opened in Shanghai, otherwise Wang Xinyu would definitely make canned whale meat.

Besides, when the soldiers were having dinner, Wang Xinyu took a group of craftsmen to process the blubber.

Craftsmen cut blubber into pieces the size of watermelon, which are then sliced into thin slices. The craftsmen set up a large cauldron on the beach by the river, lit a fire underneath, and slowly boiled it over a simmer.

After a short time, the white fat mass is gradually boiled and turns into white transparent whale oil. The obtained whale oil is not easy to spoil and can be packed into clay pots and sent to the lubricating oil processing plant in Dongfan Island for processing.

Wang Xinyu, who studied chemical engineering, naturally knows how to process whale oil: it is first filtered, and then heated to a high temperature of several hundred degrees with a sealed jar to turn it into lubricating oil.

Five days later, the first batch of lubricants made from whale oil was put into use.

At the Dongfandao lubricant processing plant, cans of whale fat lubricant are produced, which are transported to the bearing warehouse. A large number of craftsmen began to fill some of the bearings that had just been shipped from the Qiongzhou Bearing Factory with lubricating oil. I saw a worker pick up a thin iron needle-spout pot specially used to hold lubricating oil, put the lubricating oil into the pot, and then rotate the upper part of the pot up. After that, I picked up the bearing that had just been transported and had not yet been filled with lubricating oil, aimed at the bearing with a pointed nozzle, and squeezed the lubricating oil into it.

Dai Zi picked up a bearing and turned it a few times in his hand, only to see that the bearing was rotating fast and the friction was very small. Such bearings are used to be placed on a gun cart, or on a large cart, which can reduce a lot of friction and make the car run easier.

Dai Cang watched his son's movements, stood up, stroked his beard and said with satisfaction: "This lubricant is really good!" With it, we can produce more vehicles! ”

"There's going to be a big battle against the Tartars soon! We need to work overtime to build more weapons! Song Yingxing said.

"Old Man Song, you are old, you should rest more, we will be fine with the things here." Dai Cangdao.

Song Yingxing's son also came up to persuade him: "Father, go and rest, there are children here, although the children are not as good as their fathers, but what their fathers have taught, the children have learned." ”

"Seniors, Brother Dai Zi, leave these car-making things to me." Xu Zhengming said.

Xu Zhengming, who was also a genius in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, came to Dongfan by himself to ask to join the arsenal. Although he is younger than Dai Zi, he has already shown the ability to be a genius. Xu Zhengming has liked to explore all kinds of machinery since he was a child, and in real history, Xu Zhengming built a flying car! It's a pity that the Manchu rulers didn't pay attention to it at all, and Xu Zhengming exhausted all his property because of building a flying car, and died in poverty at a young age. After his death, his wife ran out of family property because of the flying car, and in a fit of anger, she burned down the flying car that Xu Zhengming had built with all his life's hard work.

And in this time and space, Xu Zhengming no longer has to worry about the embarrassment of life, because after he came to Dongfan, his talent was affirmed by Song Yingxing, the president of the Academy of Sciences, Xu Zhengming, who was only thirteen years old, has become a senior technician.

In ancient Chinese history, there were many young talents, and in terms of martial arts, Xiang Yu and Ran Min were already martial arts masters in their teens and could lead troops to the battlefield. The Confucian general Chen Qingzhi began to gather soldiers at the age of eighteen and train a strong army; In terms of text, Yin Shu was admitted to the top prize at the age of nine, Cao Chong was called an elephant at the age of six, and Sima Guang was already famous at the age of twelve!

So don't underestimate teenagers, with young talents like Dai Zi and Xu Zhengming, plus heroes like Song Yingxing, Dongfan's development in science and technology has advanced by leaps and bounds.

Xu Zhengming is mainly responsible for building cars, and he is most familiar with machinery; Dai Cang's father and son were responsible for improving and manufacturing all kinds of new weapons; Song Yingxing's father and son mainly made gunpowder, explosives and various ammunition. Thanks to their efforts, brand-new artillery pieces and brand-new wagons were sent out of the factory and loaded onto ships to be shipped to Jiangnan.

Wang Xinyu pays more attention to artillery, there are hundreds of cannons on the battlefield to fire salvos, no matter how many elite soldiers the opponent has to turn into powder!

In winter, all over the south of the Yangtze River, every household is drying bacon, making sausages, and making duck to prepare for the upcoming Spring Festival. The Qiongzhou Army, the Zheng Family Army and the Zhejiang Army stationed in the south of the Yangtze River were not idle, and the armies from all walks of life were preparing to go out in full swing.

The city of Suzhou has been turned into an impregnable military castle, with a series of fortresses protruding from the city walls, all of which are built with iron cores and cement, and the city walls have also been reinforced.

In various parts of the south of the Yangtze River, dense fortress groups were built, and the Zhejiang army, which had relatively poor combat effectiveness, could be stationed in various fortresses to resist Aobai's counterattack under the protection of the fortresses.

With these castle complexes providing a line of defense, Wang Xinyu had no worries, and was able to lead a large army to attack southern Zhejiang and Fujian until he took Guangdong and Guangxi, and completely eliminated Shang Kexi and Kong Sizhen. As long as Guangdong and Guangxi are captured, the Ming army will be able to attack Hunan and Hubei, and eventually the Northern Expedition to the Central Plains. (To be continued.) )