Chapter 620: The Steam Engine

Zhu Youxiao was idle, but the people beneath him were bustling about.

If the Emperor wanted to see it, they naturally had to satisfy him—and they had to do it seriously enough, well enough, that they couldn't let the Emperor down. If the Emperor was disappointed, everything would be wasted.

On the third day, when the sky was just beginning to lighten, Zhu Youxiao rose early.

Today was finally the official start date, and the preparatory work had been completed—that was good news.

Zhu Youxiao tidied himself up briefly, ate breakfast, and headed straight out.

Yi Wang, the Crown Prince of Joseon, stayed close by Zhu Youxiao's side.

Over the past two days, Yi Wang's men had been helping out, but the Great Ming side was mostly asking for information, and they would also send people over to invite some Joseon men to come help.

But as for what exactly they were doing, although Yi Wang had heard the reports from his men, he still didn't have much of a clue in his heart, so he decided to follow along and see this time.

Aside from his confusion, Yi Wang also felt a bit of anticipation. After all, it was something the Great Ming Emperor was personally going to see—it shouldn't be too bad.

The group soon arrived at the docks.

Quite a few people were already waiting there.

Yu Zigao and Qi Yuanbi were both present, along with many others.

And in the harbor, a very broad vessel was moored, with quite a few naval soldiers standing around it. Their faces were all stern, and their stances were perfectly standard.

Seeing this scene, Yi Wang couldn't help but sigh, "As expected of the Great Ming's Imperial Navy!"

Zhu Youxiao looked at the warship before him, an excited expression on his face as well.

This was the second batch of warships from the Great Ming Imperial Shipyard—one could say it was the second batch to be finalized. It had sturdier defenses, greater speed and faster sailing, mounted more and more advanced cannons, and the hull had been reworked to withstand greater cannon recoil.

Standing below the ship, one couldn't see what was going on above. That showed just how tall this vessel was.

"Let's board." Zhu Youxiao said directly.

The group quickly boarded the ship and stepped straight onto the deck.

The deck was very spacious; there wasn't much to see at the rear. At the front was a massive naval cannon, much larger than a field cannon.

This was a specially developed cannon—its bore reached a full two hundred and thirty millimeters, specially made by the Hundred Crafts Institute. And it wasn't just one mounted; a full four were fitted.

The enormous muzzles pointed skyward, exuding an oppressive sense of pressure.

In later ages, main guns on warships would be on the verge of obsolescence, but in this day and age, main guns were still extremely, extremely useful—long range, immense power, and they would play a major role in pursuit.

After boarding the ship, Yi Wang immediately felt somewhat overwhelmed by what he saw.

Those main guns left him baffled—he knew they were cannons, but he had no idea how there could be cannons this large.

The power of these things shouldn't be insignificant, right?

If these were used in battle, what kind of power would they have?

Zhu Youxiao glanced at Qi Yuanbi beside him and said, "Once everything is about ready, let's set off."

"Yes, Your Majesty." Qi Yuanbi hastily acknowledged.

With a single command, the entire great ship, from top to bottom, began to bustle with activity.

Oars were pulled and sails were raised, and the great ship slowly began to move.

In fact, the ship moved very slowly, because the sailing speed hadn't picked up yet; even once it did, relying on wind and human power, the speed wouldn't increase by much. After all, the vessel was too large—even turning around was difficult, and its running speed wasn't all that fast either.

Zhu Youxiao stood at the bow, his mood somewhat complicated.

Who knew when they'd be able to use steam-powered ironclad ships?

In comparison, those were the truly epoch-making products.

Powerful propulsion, greater speed, stronger defensive capability—combined with the Great Ming's current cannons, they would absolutely be a dominant presence on the seas.

The Great Ming's development had now reached a bottleneck, and the bottleneck constraining the Great Ming's development was, in fact, the steam engine.

To put it plainly, they lacked a sustainable, massive power system.

And for Zhu Youxiao, who came from a later age, he knew the solution—and that was the steam engine.

Last year, the Eastern Depot and the Embroidered Uniform Guard finally got word—they had obtained rubber seeds from the Portuguese and had already planted them.

Only with rubber could the steam engine's airtightness problem be solved.

With a steam engine, if it leaked air, that would be very troublesome. If this problem wasn't solved, manufacturing a steam engine would be simply impossible.

In fact, the Hundred Crafts Institute had already produced a prototype steam engine, but there were still many problems, and the likelihood of a breakthrough in the short term wasn't very high.

For the Great Ming to solve this need for sustained, massive power, it might still have to wait a while.

Once the Great Ming was the first to develop the steam engine, then railways, trains, and ironclad warships would all be put on the agenda.

Given the Great Ming's current scale, these things would add wings to the Great Ming's soaring ascent. At that point, it would truly be a dragon flying through the nine heavens.

Zhu Youxiao stood at the bow pondering these questions, and no one around dared to come up and disturb him.

Even their voices were much quieter, afraid of disturbing the Emperor.

After quite a while, the ship finally sailed out of the harbor.

Zhu Youxiao also snapped back to his senses.

As the great ship began sailing on the open sea, its speed gradually picked up.

Zhu Youxiao cast aside those wistful thoughts and began looking around, an expression of keen interest on his face.

Although the Great Ming's Imperial Navy hadn't yet undertaken ocean voyages, they had already conducted training and study. With the Portuguese as their teachers, their progress was still quite fast.

You see, the Eastern Depot had brought quite a few Portuguese from Macau to Tianjin in previous years, and these Portuguese had been no small help around here over the past few years.

Of course, Zhu Youxiao had also given the Portuguese plenty of money—all in genuine gold and silver.

On one hand, there was mortal danger; on the other, the temptation of real gold and silver. When it came to such matters, making a choice didn't seem too difficult. For these colonists running all over the world in this era, integrity wasn't something worth thinking about—these Portuguese were very dedicated and had helped a great deal at the shipyard as well.

The Macau cannon factory had also provided considerable assistance to the Great Ming in the early stages. After all, they were merchants—they'd sell cannons to whoever bought them. Otherwise, where would the cannons on Zheng Zhilong's ships have come from?

These Portuguese had given the Great Ming great help. Of course, as for them leaving the Great Ming—that probably wasn't going to happen.

They had participated in the construction of the Great Ming's military bases, and their figures could be seen at the shipyards and cannon factories. There was definitely no chance of leaving—Zhu Youxiao wasn't going to let them go.

In fact, around where the Portuguese lived, the Eastern Depot and the Embroidered Uniform Guard had long since planted their informants, and even these people's final arrangements had already been made.

Once the Portuguese died, he would set aside a dedicated cemetery for them, called the Sino-Portuguese Friendship Cemetery, with their deeds carved on the great stone stele at the entrance and recorded in the history books so they would be remembered forever.

As for how to record it—Zhu Youxiao had far too much experience with that.

They were friends of the people of Great Ming. After living in Portugal for many years, they came to Great Ming, drawn by admiration for it, and so they lived here, helped Great Ming, and bore witness to the friendly exchanges between Great Ming and Portugal.

The fact that they had originally been captured and brought here, and the critical role the Eastern Depot had played in that—those matters need not be mentioned.

It never happened at all. Don't slander me—they all stayed in Great Ming of their own free will.

Look at the treatment I gave them—did I stint on real gold and silver? Did I stint on their treatment after death?

Zhu Youxiao had already prepared himself: once he had swept the north clean (and that north naturally included the Wa nation), when Great Ming wanted to turn southward, he would go find the Portuguese.

Speaking of it, among these colonizers, the only ones capable of cooperating with Great Ming and worthy of Great Ming's cooperation were the Portuguese.

The Portuguese were weak now, and their interests in the East could not be guaranteed at all. The Dutch, the Spanish, the English, and the French were all expanding like mad; the Portuguese were the punching bag—people like that were Great Ming's best partners, one could even say their guides.

The Portuguese had sailed over from Europe by sea; they had experience and maps. If both sides cooperated, they could obtain greater benefits.

The world was so big that the advantages couldn't all be taken in one go.

Zhu Youxiao was thinking about the Portuguese while the great ship continued sailing on.

The great ship soon arrived at a harbor.

Zhu Youxiao looked over and saw many old, worn-out ships moored there—some were parked and couldn't move at all, while others could still raise their sails and run a bit.

Glancing at Qi Yuanbi beside him, Zhu Youxiao asked, "Are you about ready here? When do we start?"

"Your Majesty, we can start at any time." Qi Yuanbi said hurriedly.

"Then let's begin." Zhu Youxiao nodded and said.

At Zhu Youxiao's command, the warships following behind this great ship began to speed out swiftly.

Zhu Youxiao reached out and called over Yi Wang, then smiled and took a telescope, handing it to him as he said, "Take a look."

Telescopes were already quite common in Great Ming, and there were some abroad as well. But compared to Great Ming's telescopes, they were far inferior in precision and viewing distance.

Although Yi Wang was the Crown Prince of Joseon, a telescope was still a novel thing to him.

He took it and looked through it carefully.

After the warships charged forward, they quickly slid in sideways.

These ships weren't as large as Zhu Youxiao's, but their speed and maneuverability were much better.

As they slid sideways, the gunports on their sides were revealed. Even the small ones had over a dozen cannons on each side, while the large ones had a full forty or fifty.

At the command, they opened fire—thump, thump, thump—the sound instantly resounding across the entire sea.

Cannonballs shot forth from the barrels, spinning as they flew toward the target ships in the distance.

Then came flames shooting into the sky and explosions erupting everywhere—many ships were blown to pieces outright.

The high-speed Ming warships could hit their targets with precision.

Zhu Youxiao also raised his telescope and kept watching along the warships' trajectories.

Watching the fragments blasted into the air and the splashes of water as they fell onto the sea's surface, Zhu Youxiao was very satisfied.