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Saturday, May 8, 1621, sunny.

Snow-white seabirds, flying in circles over the docks in the Brooklyn Industrial Area, and the faint blood fluttering over the river harbor attracted the urgent curiosity of these carnivorous birds.

With a turquoise inlet and a sailboat that has dropped most of its sails slowly approaching the pier, the Mermaid, a Dutch merchant ship turned Manhattan community whaling ship, is once again fully loaded. The sailors laughed and waved their arms, but today there was a noticeably smaller crowd on the shore.

Most of the people waiting for the Mermaid to be unloaded were Indian hired men, with the exception of a few Dutch sailors who had never left the port with the ship. This made Monty, the acting captain of the Dutch who had enjoyed several cheering receptions, a little disappointed.

Since heeding the hint of a "U.S. homeland security officer" more than a month ago and decisively choosing to take refuge, the former boatswain of the Mermaid has become the acting captain of the ship, taking his son Ruyter out to sea to hunt whales all day long.

In the 17th century, the coast of North America was rich in whales, and they could be caught in a day or two after leaving the port. Large quantities of whale meat, whale oil, and whalebone quickly enriched the Manhattan community's food plates and even the Department of Industry's raw material warehouse. Thanks to the traditional whaling and skilled processing skills of Dutch sailors, a large amount of whaling processing can be completed on the ship, much to the delight of the two-knife engineers in the Brooklyn Industrial Area.

But today, no one seems to be interested in the dozen tons of whale products being unloaded by the Mermaid, and the entire industrial area unloading dock seems deserted, making Monty feel a little wrong.

"Captain Monty!" A familiar voice came from behind him, it was Sun Yang, the "Lieutenant of the U.S. Maritime Guard" who was accompanying the ship, a young man who had once said nothing when interrogating himself.

"Mr. Lieutenant, is today a special holiday for the people of your country?" Monty held back for a long time before he asked cautiously in English with a red face. He couldn't understand why these American ** officials always used that kind of remote and ugly English language.

"No, Mr. Captain, today is May 8th, just the weekend." Sun Yang was also a little surprised why a familiar Manhattan resident suddenly disappeared from the usually lively dock in the industrial area, but he seemed to think of something, and immediately changed his expression to Yan Sù, "Mr. Monty, I recommend that you speed up the progress of learning Chinese, I don't want the officials of the Homeland Security Agency to come and ask about your situation again......

"Look, Daddy, there!" Ruytel, who was still in the rebellious period of his youth, suddenly stretched out his arms and pointed to the Brooklyn Dockyard harbor in the distance, "There are so many people! It seems that the beautiful battleship I saw before is about to be launched! ”

The future Dutch admiral of history, the current mermaid sailor, raised his heels and shouted impatiently, his eyes shining with a fiery light.

Oh?! That battleship with a triangular sharp bow? Monty was also stunned, but immediately came to his senses, and gave a respectful salute to the naval officer who showed surprise beside him: "Mr. Lieutenant, can you visit the launch of your country's newest warship, do you know...... Michelle has loved battleships since he was a child......"

"Hehe, no problem! Ruyter is more qualified than other kids to check it out! Sun Yang smiled meaningfully, and led the Dutch father and son towards the northeast.

……

……

Slipway No. 1 at Brooklyn Shipyard was surrounded by a sea of people, and Zheng Quan, a member of the committee's military security committee, led a kind of maritime guard officer, was standing beside Shi Yige, the head of the shipyard, and You Qi, the ship's design engineer, with a red light on their faces.

At this stage, the young Maritime Guard officers, who are almost outsiders in the control of sailboats, pointed at the snow-white hull in front of them, which is almost 70 meters long and nearly 11 meters wide, with a beautiful flying clipper bow and streamlined hull structure.

Not far away, on slipway No. 2, which was completed at the end of last month, the keel of an 800-ton flying shear sailboat of the same type has also been laid.

"Oh...... I can imagine how beautiful it would be when the mast was erected and draped over the sails! No shipyard in Amsterdam could have designed such a beautiful work of art......"

Verus, the Dutch captain of the Mermaid, is still a European-American mechanic at the shipyard, but he still stands on the slipway side as the representative of the boatmen, talking to the equally surprised former boatswain Monty and his son.

"Uh...... Mr. Verus, don't you think it's too short? Monty was a little embarrassed to show up in front of his former boss. For the safety of his son, he decisively "turned back", making him always think that he was a "traitor" to the Mermaid.

"Well, it seems like there's only one gun deck? I'm curious how it can be a battleship...... It didn't fire any cannon doors, so was it going to hit it with its pretty point? Looking sideways at his former subordinates, who had been greatly used by the U.S. government, the fat man Verus actually stared at each other with a playful smile: "Monty, you seem to be nervous...... To be honest, you're lucky, I'm only a day behind you, so I can only work here......"

Looking at his former boss in astonishment, Monty suddenly found that he seemed to be worried, and none of his colleagues on the Mermaid and St. Nicholas seemed to be worse off than him, could it be that they had also "betrayed the revolution"?

Just as Monty was uneasy, a middle-aged man from the viewing table not far away stood up, with a bright smile on his ruddy face like a young man.

“…… Today is an important day, first of all, to thank all the shipyard leaders and employees for their tireless efforts to accomplish an almost impossible task. In just 45 days, the main construction of our first sail ship was completed, and more than 200 skilled workers and Delaware's friends worked hard for it......"

Qi Jianjun shook his head and read the congratulatory speech, and the young people on the side had a little anxious expression.

“…… Now, we ask Comrade Liu Mingjun, chairman of the community committee, to ...... for our first ship," Qi Jianjun also turned around and gently asked a certain officer of the Maritime Garrison beside him, and then quickly picked up, "The first sail light cruiser 'Enterprise' presided over the launching ceremony!" ”

"Enterprise number?" Sun Yang, who was at the back of the crowd, almost didn't stand firm on his feet, and then looked at the boss at the front of the crowd, Zheng Quan, the military security commissioner, and seemed to find that his face did not change and he did not panic.

It seems that there is no shortage of bad tastes anywhere. Sun Yang sneered in his heart.

A bottle of corn wine instead of imported champagne smashed into the red and green bow of the Enterprise, shattered glass fragments and golden liquor splattered in all directions. Such a nondescript salute made You Qi clench his fist and press it to his mouth on the spot and cough lightly.

As the Indian hired men removed the slideways one by one, the Enterprise's massive hull began to glide slowly into the waterway connecting the slipway.

Over the next two months, the light cruiser Enterprise will carry out the next work on the masts, superstructure, structural details of the ship, and the outfitting of weapons and equipment. The first sea trials will take place at least after July.

At the far corner of the cheering crowd, two men in ordinary labor protection uniforms and Maritime Guard officer uniforms were whispering.

"Chief Engineer Lin, you give me a letter of approval, when will the cannon be launched, such a narrow flying cut hull, it is obviously not feasible to use Napoleon's 12-pounder gunwales! And the configuration of 4 naval guns is simply outrageous, even merchant ships can't deal with it in this era! Wang Tiehammer forgot about the battleship in the distance, and his heart was surging, but he also knew that the Enterprise was still a cut away from the real battleship, and the most important thing was that he had not yet found a suitable naval gun armament plan.

In order to familiarize himself with the control of the sailboat, Wang Tiehammer spent a lot of time on the former Mayflower and Mermaid, including putting down his identity and learning the work of ordinary crew members of those European sailors, and almost everyone of those European sailors could pronounce his name in Chinese.

But even so, Wang Tiehammer can only be regarded as a half-tone 17th-century ordinary trainee sailor. If you really want to command the Enterprise to sea, you must also equip him with a seasoned European first mate and boatswain.

"What are you anxious about?" Lin Youde glanced at the other party, took out a splint from under his armpit, and handed it to Wang Tiezhu, the first captain of the Enterprise in the future.

On the paper, a peculiar naval gun is drawn by hand, and the inner diameter of the muzzle is actually hexagonal! Wang Tiehammer, who was familiar with the relevant naval historical materials, gradually came up with a piece of history in his mind.

"Wisworth Hexagonal Cannon?!" Wang Tiezhu looked at the chief engineer of the Ministry of Industry beside him in surprise. He expressed his bewilderment at such a historical freak between a smoothbore gun and a real rifled gun. In history, the gunboat Yangwu of the Qing Dynasty used such European naval guns.

"Uh-huh! That's right, that's it, we don't have really reliable rifled barrel processing technology yet, but in order to meet your dual requirements for long-range artillery combat and accuracy, we can only choose such a hexagonal rifled naval gun. If possible, I try to change it to the rear load. Lin Youde picked at the back of his head, and lit the parameters written on the side of the paper like a child, "The caliber is 90 mm, plus the gun shield of the gun mount, the whole gun weighs 3.8 tons, the 7-person gun crew uses 18-pound, that is, about 8 kg of round-headed cylindrical wrought iron high-explosive shells, containing 1.5 kg of nitro explosives, and the fuse device adopts a simple ......"

Speaking of which, Lin Youde's mind appeared in the scene of some of the sufferers of the Ministry of Chemical Industry pouring out the early lead chamber method to produce sulfuric acid before the more advanced tower method production equipment was put in place.

"Nitro explosives!" Wang Tiehammer almost jumped up when he heard this.

"Hey, it's expensive, so it can only be regarded as trial production." Lin Youde spread his hands with a bitter face, "I gritted my teeth and came up with the last batch of cannons, but the masters of the Ministry of Chemical Industry didn't say that the process of producing sulfuric acid and nitric acid was not much more advanced than the current European hillbillies." If they're going to be serious with you, at least 20 Spanish silver dollars a cannonball, and only a small number of them have been trial-made for fuse safety testing. I'm still building yì yì you are more equipped with solid bullets...... Or I'll get you some black powder shells, and I won't mix sand!" ”

Looking blankly at the chief engineer of the Ministry of Industry who was pretending to complain to him, Wang Tiezhu suddenly had a desolate experience of a certain pipe belt of the Beiyang Naval Division.

Patting the captain of the Future Enterprise on the shoulder, Lin Youde hummed a little song and left.

……

……

The excitement of the Brooklyn shipyard has not yet dissipated, and in the office building where the Manhattan Community Council is located, a more unique "industry and technology opening meeting" is underway.

The judges of the demonstration meeting are the heads of various production departments or technical chief engineers, and in view of such an important program as the launch of the enterprise, Jiang Zhaolong, the head of the Ministry of Industry, presided over the demonstration meeting.

"Next!" Jiang Zhaolong drove away another whimsical literary young man, and shouted at the door at the top of his voice.

The well-mannered young man walked in with wide-rimmed glasses and an arrogant face, and pasted a large "mural" paper on the wooden board opposite the judges' bench.

"This is a Jenny spinning machine that I restored from my laptop! And many innovations and improvements have been made, and its prototype is the British ...... in the 18th century, "the excited expression of the literary and artistic youth is incomprehensible, as if a great industrial revolution will be born in his hands."

"Stop! The judges who are here know about history! You have put a lot of thought into your textile technology and industrial planning, but ...... Not feasible! Without waiting for the other judges to express their opinions, Jiang Zhaolong put a pencil on the table and sentenced him to death.

"Mr. Jiang, why do you say that my plan doesn't work? Do you know what that means? It's a huge boost in productivity! ”

The young man was stunned for a moment, and helped his glasses, as if he expressed a kind of regret for the other party's incredible attitude.

"How many spinning machines do you need to form the scale of the industry you are talking about? How many ingredients do you need? How many skilled workers are needed? How much matching power is needed? Jiang Zhaolong wiped his forehead and looked haggard, "Xiao Zhao, I know that you have a good relationship with the female garment factory workers in those tour groups, but in our current situation, the limited manpower and industrial equipment manufacturing must be placed in more important industries, all kinds of textile fabrics we can also import from Europe for substitution, if you want to establish a garment processing department to serve the community, then we can consider it." ”

After speaking, Jiang Zhaolong smiled apologetically at the few judges beside him who had not expressed their position, and made a gesture of please.

"Bureaucracy! I don't understand science! Xiao Nianqing's face was flushed, and he pulled off his hard work and strode out of the conference room.

"This ...... This Xiao Zhao, standing and talking doesn't hurt his back! Everyone in the room burst out laughing, and Jiang Zhaolong couldn't cry or laugh for a while.

Another young man came in, and it seemed that the composition of the sling wire was much greater than the content of Wenqing.

"Hehe, judges, what I want to recommend today is the result of my research." The youth hung his drawings on the wooden board and coughed, "I found that in the past few months, the community has received a large number of scrapped electronic devices from the ruins of the docks, as well as more electronic devices from scrapped cars and ships, and even small electronic devices that have run out of electricity and become scrapped in their hands. ”

"Oh? How do you know we've got it all organized? Not only Jiang Zhaolong, but even several female members of the temporary guest judges listened very carefully.

In this Manhattan neighborhood, which has almost said goodbye to electric culture, people's desire to return to the electric age is growing day by day, and once they hear the word electricity, in addition to those diesel motors in the factory, it is the colorful pictures and sounds that tick in the head.

"A few friends and I like electronic products plan to set up a small department, which is to collect all the electronic components we can find, including coils and all kinds of tools, and then modify and design several useful electronic products, such as this ......" The young man clicked on the drawings and shook his head proudly, "Wired transmitter!" And this, more advanced, shortwave radio! And this, mechanical phonograph......"

"Wait! You say you're sure of this? Jiang Zhaolong slammed the table and stood up.

In the eyes of several bigwigs in the Ministry of Industry, they may not have time to take care of these "non-technical" things or non-important products, so they will not be distracted until the real large-scale urgent needs come out. But Jiang Zhaolong, as a member of the community committee, had to consider the significance of these technology products from other aspects.

"We have sorted out the things that we have found in our hands at present, as long as the key components are reliable, there should be no big problem, if there is really something missing, as long as the material problem is solved, the difficulty of processing by the Ministry of Industry is not very high. I used to be a handmade electronics enthusiast, and the craft was so-so......" The young man stood in front of the judges with his head held high, smiling confidently.

"Okay, Tong Guò!"

"Well, I agree!"

A few hands were raised, and the judges and the young man reached a win-win situation.

The subsequent deliberations, including several extremely critical but time-consuming, laborious and difficult technical proposals that no one took the initiative to take over, surprised Jiang Zhaolong and other judges, and it seems that there are still many people in the Manhattan community who have ideas.

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