If what is most lacking in a 300-year-old weakened empire? That is undoubtedly upward vitality. In Chinese history, the last years of any long dynasty were gloomy, like a person dying. But in this deep twilight, sometimes there is a little bit of vitality like a spark.

This kind of vigor is where the hope of the nation lies, and it is the beginning of another rise.

Now, Guangyang Island, where Chen Dexing is located, is such a vibrant place. All people, all things, all things, all show a vigorous and upward spirit.

Uninterrupted ideological education is still working, and everyone believes in it...... Or pretend to believe that the Han people are higher than a qiē, and believe that only by eliminating the Tatars and restoring the northern land can they live a good life. This kind of army that fights for the nation, in the early days of its birth, naturally possessed extraordinary spiritual power.

And the spiritual power is transformed into matter! There is no doubt that an army armed with a certain ideology can accept lower material treatment and very strict discipline. The material benefits saved were converted into gunpowder, armor, spears, crossbows, stone generators, warships, food supplies, copper and iron, and craftsmen who had been collected at high prices. This qiē is continuously purchased and transported, or produced in the workshop on Guangyang Island.

Chen Dexing is now stockpiling all kinds of supplies - preparing for his departure in the near future! Departure is a must! It's not as simple as marrying a princess and not being able to hold power. Instead, the entire country of the Southern Song Dynasty was gloomy, and the army and officialdom of the Southern Song Dynasty were even more rotten to the extreme.

Chen Dexing, who came from later generations, knew that this kind of twilight, this kind of decay, would be contagious! Don't look at the current Thunderbolt Army's heart is like iron, and they are united. As long as they truly integrate into the two big dye vat of officialdom and the army in the Southern Song Dynasty. Not for a year. It will begin to decay, and in three years at most, it will learn all the bad problems of the officialdom and army of the Southern Song Dynasty. Even the bottom line of the national army cannot be maintained - because what has changed now is only the atmosphere in the Perak army. In the entire Southern Song Dynasty society, the righteousness of the monarch and the minister was the most mainstream thought. National righteousness is only a supplement...... When the Mongols invaded the south, the tone was higher, and as soon as the Mongols left, the tone was lowered. Even Chen Dexing's agitation could not have turned the entire Southern Song Dynasty society into fascist Germany or militaristic Japan. Because, he is not a Song Dynasty official, and there is no way to take the entire twilight bureaucracy!

Therefore, he could only leave after his group had grown to a certain extent, and go somewhere in the north to establish his own state, a country belonging to the Han nation. A nation-state! The history of later generations has repeatedly proved that what the various Tartars in this world fear most is the modern nation-state, whether it is the Tatar dynasty that rules hundreds of millions of people, or the various descendants of Genghis Khan, or the true God Tartars of Turkey and North Africa.

As part of the preparations for the establishment of a nation-state in the north, the development of bronze artillery was already on the agenda - a 13th-century weapon of mass destruction! And it is also the biggest scientific and technological gold finger that Chen Dexing can imagine at present.

After all, the technology of casting bronzes was relatively mature as early as the Yin and Shang periods - just look at the various large-scale bronze ritual and sacrificial vessels of the Shang and Zhou dynasties unearthed in later generations. At least the shape of those things is much more complicated than cannons! Theoretically, China during the Shang and Zhou dynasties. You can forge a bronze cannon!

“…… Don't think about the cast iron cannon for the time being, just use bronze! This thing was used in the Zhou Dynasty...... Seventy and a half brass and two and a half tin. ”

Outside a foundry workshop, Chen Dexing, dressed in coarse cloth, stands in front of a wooden cannon model. Huang Zhishen, Daoist Ren and Qi Ta, who were in charge of the right army (craftsman troops) of the Perak Water Army, explained the matter of casting cannons.

"I know this recipe, copper is easy to melt after adding tin, and it is easy to cast." Zita was born as a blacksmith, but he also knew a little bit about the work of a coppersmith. "But...... Pig iron should also be able to be used to cast cannons, and pig iron is much cheaper than copper. ”

"It's still difficult to start with simplicity, bronze is much easier to cast...... When the bronze cannon is cast, let's make the cast iron cannon. Chen Dexing shook his head and dismissed Zeta's opinion.

He knew that history until before the 19th century. Bronze was the main raw material for Europeans to cast cannons.

Because the melting point of bronze is only 800 degrees Celsius, while the melting point of iron is as high as more than 1500 degrees Celsius! For the craftsmen of the 13th century. The difference of 700 degrees Celsius is like a chasm! Moreover, the hardness and toughness of bronze are also better than those of pig iron, and it is not easy to blow up.

Other than that. The corrosion resistance also exceeds that of pig iron. On a battleship with a lot of salt and humidity, the iron cannon can easily get rusty, while the bronze cannon will not have the problem of rusting.

"You still have to come step by step to cast the cannon!"

Chen Dexing patted the wooden cannon lightly and pondered: "Although the wooden cannon helps us solve the problem of cannon shape and gun carriage, we still can't get an inch and a half or even a three-inch copper cannon in one step. There are still many problems that need to be tested, such as how thick the cannon wall should be so that it is not easy to explode - this cannon wall thickness should have a rough ratio to the caliber of the cannon. For example, how long is the gun body appropriate? The results of the wooden cannon test showed that the longer the barrel, the farther the shell hit. There are also problems encountered in the casting process, such as will there be too many pores? What to do with the bore of a cannon? How do you open the fire door? Do you want to put an iron hoop on the outside of the gun body? We don't know these questions now, and we can only find the answers through trial and error.

So, I mean to set up a special artillery work, which is personally responsible for the old seven (Zita), and I am directly under the jurisdiction of the above! Specializing in cannons, first make small and short ones, and then slowly enlarge them to make them longer. It would be enough to come up with a few usable bronze cannons in a few months. When we have our own territory, it's not too late to produce in large quantities. In addition, the brothers in this artillery work must implement the strictest secrecy discipline, and they are not allowed to leave the barracks without my approval! ”

In fact, Chen Dexing's army does not need bronze cannons for the time being, and it has the cooperation of hair stones, heavenly thunder and strong crossbows, plus the brainwashed national army, which is enough to deal with the Mongols. But the technical reserve of the cannon is still very important. After all, Chen Dexing was not an expert in metallurgy in his previous life, although he knew what the shape of the bronze cannon looked like, but he didn't know how they were cast and what problems needed to be paid attention to. Therefore, he can only point out a general direction to Zita and the others now, and how to do it can only rely on them to figure it out.

In addition to artillery, another aspect that is in dire need of technical reserves is navigation! Yes, although Chen Dexing was a senior seafarer in his previous life, he was not familiar with sailing ships! When it comes to sailing, he just knows the basics. For example, the general direction of ocean currents, the direction and timing of the monsoon, and the way a sailboat sails against the wind.

Of course, this is only theoretical knowledge, in fact, Chen Dexing does not know how to sail a sailboat! That's why he chose to go to sea with a backward galleys instead of a tall multi-masted schooner! Moreover, most of the sea ships operating along the coast of China in this era were hard sails, and only the Arabian Maritime Chamber of Commerce used dhows. So it was very difficult to hire sailors who could handle soft sails and spinnakers. If Chen Dexing really asked people to build a few soft sailboats, most of them would not even be able to go out to sea.

Therefore, the type of ship that Chen Dexing chose for his future navy was a large galleys. The deadweight tonnage of this galley is several times larger than that of the three-decker batters currently equipped by the Thunderbolt Navy, and the hull is much wider, and the use of a pointed bottom design greatly increases the seaworthiness. Although it is still 174 oars, each oar has grown a lot, and it takes two oarsmen to paddle at the same time!

While using the oars as the main power, Chen also chose the Chinese hard sail as the source of auxiliary power. According to his estimates, if sailed with hard sails alone, the galleys could reach speeds of 4 to 5 knots with a downwind of 5 to 6 degrees. With the oars and paddling at the same time, the speed can be increased to more than 12 knots! Far more than any other type of ship currently sailing the Eastern Seas. If such a high-speed battleship can be equipped with a deck gun, it will be enough for them to go sideways in the Eastern Sea!

Of course, such a design is not without drawbacks, because there are too many oarsmen, and more materials need to be consumed during the voyage, and the endurance will naturally decrease. Of course, there is no problem as a warship, but it is not possible to use it to transport goods.

Fortunately, Chen Dexing is not a good person, he never planned to do business honestly, there are so many Arab tyrants in East Asia and the South Seas, they can't grab it, what kind of business do they do......

After arranging the development of the bronze cannon, Chen Dexing asked Huang Zhishen about the situation of the galleys—the fifteen galleys had been completed, and the Huang family firm had hired some experienced old shipwrights. Just match these galleys with oarsmen and you'll be out to sea in no time!

I thought that it wouldn't be long before I could break away from the gloomy Southern Song Dynasty and create an imperial cause. Chen Dexing's mood became very happy, humming a little song all the way back to his house in Guangyang City. When I stepped into the courtyard, I saw Monk Liu and Chen Defang coming out of the house. Both of them were happy, and as soon as they met, they heard Chen Defang shouting loudly.

"Second brother, great joy, great joy...... The official family has already promised you the princess of the ascension to the country! Adults make you feel like you're going back to Lin'an, and you've done the happy event early! (To be continued) R580