northernbook Chapter 398: Divide the River and Rule.
Chapter 398: Divide the River and Rule.
Ye Kun smiled:
"Song Poliu. When he comes back, I will split the current naval forces and train a navy force. As long as the navy force is established, we can act simultaneously by land and sea and control the southern coastal areas."
Zhuge Feng looked at the globe and smiled, "I'm afraid this model of the earth is not accurate enough. The navy will get lost when they go to sea."
"It's roughly accurate, don't worry."
Ye Kun rolled his eyes at Zhuge Feng.
This old guy, what he said is so unlucky!
Taking the issue of sea transportation into consideration, Ye Kun had already issued an order to treat Jiangdong's talents in shipbuilding and navigation well, and to spend a lot of money to recruit talents from the public.
Years ago, Ye Kun convened the first symposium. The participants were officials in Jiangdong who were in charge of maritime transport, river transport, and shipbuilding, as well as technicians and seafarers.
According to what we learned at the symposium, Jiangdong’s navigation capabilities are quite good.
Their previous flat-bottomed boats could go as far south as Jiaozhi and as far north as Liaodong.
I have also been to Fuso Guizi Island and Wanwan Island.
However, due to the lack of overall understanding of the earth, the lack of telescopes and accurate compasses, and the poor equipment of the ships, the sailors were in danger of death.
Moreover, none of Jiangdong’s navigation talents knew that the Yellow Sea was a semi-closed structure!
Ye Kun demonstrated a globe on site, pointing out the areas of the Yellow Sea, Bohai Sea and South China Sea, as well as Fuso, Wanwan and Hainan Island, and told everyone a more accurate distance.
The Jiangdong experts didn't quite believe it and suspected that Ye Kun was bragging.
Ye Kun smiled and said, "The width of the Qiongzhou Strait is only more than 50 miles at its narrowest point. You can ask the seafarers to confirm this. The data and maps I provided are not too accurate, but they are basically good."
Next, Ye Kun demonstrated the compass, telescope, clock, and thermometer, and explained the purpose and use of these things.
Just a telescope made all the experts in Jiangdong admire it.
They knew what it meant to have an accurate compass and telescope in the vast ocean.
Ye Kun said again:
"Besides our Huaxia country, there are several huge continents with rich resources. We must vigorously develop our navigation capabilities and build a strong navy. Only with a strong navy can we truly conquer the world.
How do you think we can build a strong navy?"
The Jiangdong official said, "It will cost a lot of money to build a navy."
"It will definitely cost money." Ye Kun smiled and said:
"Technically, we need to do three things. First, build ships of different sizes that are suitable for sailing. Second, solve the problem of sailing against the wind. Third, learn how to use the stars to locate the direction and confirm the coordinates in the sea."
The Jiangdong experts were dumbfounded.
Because I don't understand.
Some experts boldly asked: "How can we sail against the wind?"
Ye Kun smiled faintly, took out the prepared 'coaxial reverse gear assembly', let everyone play with it, and explained:
"The technology of sailing against the wind is achievable, and I will demonstrate it to you on the first batch of new boats. The simplest way is to use the principle of coaxial reverse rotation, connecting an underwater propeller or paddle wheel, and it can be done. There are other mechanical structures that can also do it.
We can also set up wind blade-shaped sails or human-powered propellers as auxiliary driving forces to control the steering of large ships."
Everyone still didn't quite understand.
These people may have more sailing experience, but their basic knowledge is not as good as Ye Kun’s shipyard masters.
Ye Kun dropped the topic and explained the star-tracking positioning.
Star-guided positioning was very mature and was used to perfection during the period when Zheng He sailed to the West.
To put it simply, it is to refer to the stars, confirm your coordinates on the ocean, and correct the direction.
Later, people invented the sextant and abandoned the star-gazing method.
In the age of exploration of Columbus and Magellan, they probably didn’t even know how to use the stars to locate their positions. They could only look at the North Star and a compass and rely on luck for their adventures.
That was a suicidal sea voyage adventure. If it succeeded, it would be the hope of the whole village. If it failed, the whole village would be in trouble.
Ye Kun understood the principle of the sextant and felt that if he tried harder and rubbed the sextant with his hands, he might succeed.
A ship helmsman asked Ye Kun:
"According to the Lord's model of the earth, the vast ocean is boundless and larger than the continent. How can we locate it? The ocean is all blue water and looks exactly the same. You can't give each area of the sea a name!"
Ye Kun chuckled: "That's a good question. Now I will tell you how to locate a palm-sized area of sea."
Everyone laughed together.
Can you locate a sea area as small as a palm? Can you give it a name?
Ye Kun said seriously:
"Everyone has seen weaving, right? There are longitude and latitude. We mark the longitude and latitude on the earth model. Each intersection of the longitude and latitude is a coordinate. Subdivide the longitude and latitude into 10,000 parts each and cross them, and there will be 100 million coordinate points. If that is not enough, we can continue to subdivide it. It is not difficult to locate a sea area the size of a palm."
Another globe with complete longitude and latitude lines marked on it had already been prepared.
In ancient times, China only had a vague concept of latitude, no concept of longitude, and did not know that the earth was round, so it was impossible to locate on the sea.
As soon as Ye Kun's latitude and longitude globe appeared, the Jiangdong experts immediately understood.
This is equivalent to a piece of cloth, and each eye of the cloth is a coordinate.
Ye Kun continued, "Longitude and latitude coordinates are not only applicable to the sea, but also to land. For example, the coordinates of our Jinling City are at 31 degrees north latitude and 20 to 118 degrees east longitude. This coordinate will never change, not even in ten thousand years!"
An official said: "But there are no such lines on the sea."
Ye Kun almost vomited blood and said with a smile: "I will make an instrument to let you see these lines."
Another official said: "All of this must be done to ensure that the earth is round. If the earth is not round, then..."
"Everyone, let me explain to you again why the earth is round."
Ye Kun sighed, drank a sip of tea, and continued with the class.
Ye Kun has explained the fact that the earth is round a thousand times.
In college, there is also a professional textbook that specifically explains why the earth is round.
However, the vast majority of people in Dading Kingdom still did not understand and thought Ye Kun was talking nonsense.
This made Ye Kun feel powerless.
Ye Kun held a sailing conference for two days.
The outcome of the meeting was the establishment of a Navigation Research Institute and a Ship Design Institute to be responsible for technical research.
Before the Chinese New Year, Qin Chou and Jiang Youbao escorted Ye Kun's family to Jinling for a reunion.
Some officials from Yizhou and Jingzhou also rushed to Jinling to participate in governance.
Coincidentally, Xiahou Chang also sent an envoy to ask to see Ye Kun.
Ye Kun summoned the messenger and asked, "Xiahou Chang and I have been fighting hard for half a year, and we have suffered heavy casualties. What do you want to do by sending an envoy now?"
The messenger said: "My lord Xiahou Chang is willing to divide the river with the King of Hanzhong and rule them separately, so that we can become two countries and not invade each other. My lord said that if the King of Hanzhong becomes emperor, he will congratulate him."
Ye Kun was a little surprised: "Xiahou Chang wants me to be emperor?"