Chapter 273: Zhu Yuanzhang was misled by the strength of the Yuan Dynasty navy and overestimated the naval combat power of Japan
Countless people of the Song Dynasty sailed across the turbulent sea to the south, traveling to every corner of the world to carry out overseas trade activities.

Because of this, the shipbuilding technology level possessed by the navy during the Song Dynasty was undoubtedly fully qualified to take on the role of leading the trend of the entire world.

According to the "Sanchao Beimeng Huibian" carefully compiled by Xu Mengxin in the Southern Song Dynasty, "Among the navy of our dynasty, none of the large and solid boats can compare with the horse boats.

Each team of the official army consists of fifty people.

Even a huge horse ship like this could not carry eight teams of this size."

So what are the amazing sizes of these mysterious horse boats?

When we open the ancient book entitled "Yu Hai Bing Zhi Shi Si Ma Zheng Xia", we can find the answer.

“All horses must be over four feet two inches tall to be selected.

Every hundred of these tall and mighty horses are grouped into one category."

This means that a horse ship can accommodate a full one hundred majestic war horses at the same time.

Even when viewed from the perspective of later generations, the scale of these warships from the Southern Song Dynasty had reached an incredible level.

The scale of this ship far exceeds the famous tower ships in the distant era of the Three Kingdoms.

Not only that, each horse ship was also fully armed with a variety of offensive and defensive weapons and equipment, including bows and crossbows, catapults, ramming hammers, ash bombs, and poison water.

In addition, people have been creative in giving them distinctive warship names such as "Sea Eel" according to their unique performance characteristics.

Therefore, these unique vehicles and ships naturally became the standard ship types followed by the Southern Song Dynasty naval warships.

Those huge and powerful horse boats and other types of large warships in the Southern Song Dynasty were actually equipped with hot weapons powered by gunpowder.

Especially the eye-catching "arquebus" and "fierce oil tank", which are regarded as mass-produced and standardized equipment and are widely installed in giant warships.

The powerful force demonstrated by these two is simply enough to make them stand out from the crowd and be unrivaled in the world!
According to the "Song History·Military Records", "The fire lance is made of a huge bamboo into a cylindrical shape, with a bullet nest placed inside.

Once it is fired, the fire dies down and the bullet nest is ejected.”

In short, its working principle is almost the same as that of privately-owned muskets, and it can be completely called an enhanced version of the ancient "shotgun"!
This type of weapon installed on a giant ship has the ability to cause effective damage to soldiers on enemy ships within a distance of just one hundred meters.

In addition, the large-scale use of "fierce oil tanks" on Southern Song ships caused the ancient ships, which were originally built mainly of wood, to emit shrill cries of despair.

According to the ancient and mysterious "Wu Jing Zong Yao", "This is a magical thing called 'Fierce Fire Oil Cabinet'.

It is carefully crafted from carefully selected wrought copper, and the cabinet is supported by four extremely sturdy feet.

There are four exquisite scrolls arranged on the top, and a huge cylinder is placed horizontally on each scroll. These parts are all connected to the inside of the cabinet.

When people stand behind and pull the wooden stick hard, a powerful force will cause the oil in the cabinet to gush out.

The oil shot out from the fire tower in an instant like a raging flame.

Once hit by this flame, the human body will suffer extremely severe burns, and may even become unrecognizable and horrible.

Even the raging river water cannot put it out.”

From the above detailed description of the fierce fire oil tank, it is not difficult to see that the function and operating principle of this weapon in the Southern Song Dynasty are quite similar to the flamethrower of later generations.

It is particularly worth mentioning that the fuel used by the fierce fire oil tank is precious and rare petroleum.

You should know that in ancient times, most ships were built of wood. In this way, the appearance of the fierce fire oil tank is simply like adding wings to a tiger, with unimaginable lethality.

Just imagine, when the raging fire spread mercilessly with the help of the power of the "fire oil tank", how could those wooden warships escape the fate of being burned?

Let’s review the specific battle example, the thrilling naval battle in the 31st year of Shaoxing in the Southern Song Dynasty.

At that time, the famous naval general Li Bao, with only 7,000 troops, successfully defeated the huge fleet of 70,000 troops under the command of Jin lord Wanyan Liang.

In this fierce battle, the raging fire oil tank demonstrated its terrifying power.

Those towering warships are equipped with such exquisite firearms.

This suddenly increased the naval strength of the Southern Song Dynasty to an unprecedented level.

It is no exaggeration to say that they have become one of the top and most powerful combat forces in the world at that time.

As the Mongolian cavalry advanced southward at lightning speed, they were like a large net, recruiting many skilled craftsmen who were good at building warships and proficient in making firearms.

The addition of these people was like injecting a powerful source of power into the Yuan Dynasty navy.

This has resulted in an unprecedented improvement in its overall strength.

This transformation was fully demonstrated in the subsequent thrilling Battle of Yashan.

Zhang Hongfan led this reborn navy and eventually defeated the Southern Song regime.

There is no doubt that if we were to evaluate the combat effectiveness of the navies of various dynasties at that time, the Yuan Dynasty established by the Mongols would definitely be among the best.

It is not an exaggeration to say that the Yuan Dynasty's maritime navy was not inferior to that of the Southern Song Dynasty.

Just as Yelu Chucai, who came from a Khitan aristocratic family and held the high position of Zhongshu Ling, said.

"The iron hoof of our Great Yuan Empire is invincible, whether it is the sky or the sea, we can gallop freely!"

This sentence fully reflects the unparalleled heroism and confidence of the Yuan Dynasty army.

What is unexpected is that it is such a Mongolian navy with super combat power.

When he led his troops eastward in an attempt to conquer the Japanese mainland, he suffered two extremely tragic defeats in succession.

This result not only shocked the world, but also brought great shock and impact to Zhu Yuanzhang, who inherited part of the Yuan Dynasty system.

Faced with such an unexpected battle situation, Lao Zhu couldn't help but fall into deep thought.

What exactly caused the defeat of the Yuan Dynasty navy?

How can I learn from it and avoid making the same mistakes again?

However, due to their own limitations and those of the times, Zhu Yuanzhang and his think tanks could only come up with the bad idea of ​​opening a "sea ban".

However, Zhu Gang, who had lived two lifetimes, knew very well that the West had now entered the Age of Discovery.

This is the best time and the worst time.

The book written by Marco Polo not only introduced the prosperous and wealthy East to the Western world, but also had a profound impact on Europeans' pursuit of wealth and the opening up of new routes to the East.

(End of this chapter)