Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 207 Suspended Tile Armor

In a sense, Okabe Ikeno is also an engineering student who relies on technology to solve problems.

He did not rush to find Yuanye to discuss his son's enrollment. He put practical work first and took his son and apprentices to work in the small workshop assigned to them. It took them seven or eight days to make a large number of "models" according to Yuanye's requirements. He also asked the guard troops to assist in certain experiments before notifying Yuanye.

Yuanye rushed over as soon as possible. When he entered the door, he ignored the models of "horse ship" and "Kansabune", and his eyes were immediately drawn to several models of "Da'anzhai Iron Ship".

These large Ataka ship models are similar and when placed together on the table, they look like a pile of wooden boxes.

The sides of these ships were covered with a thick wall of planks to protect the rowers, with smaller loopholes for guns and arrows, while the upper deck was open and protected by a low bulwark - actually an extension of the side planks.

In some models of the "Da'an Zhaichuan" model, there is an equally sturdy "hut" on the deck, or there is even a watchtower on the top.

There was not much difference in the propulsion system, except for the oars and the mast, from which hung a huge rigid sail with a printed and painted gourd emblem.

In addition, Yuanye tried it out and found that the mast of the "Oantakusen" could be folded down from the center, and additional protection for the protruding oars could be achieved by supporting bamboo curtains hanging outside the ship's side.

These life-size ship models are all very beautifully made, fully demonstrating Okabe Igen's excellent carpentry skills. If he lived in modern times, with his model-making skills, it would not be a dream for him to earn a million dollars a year.

Even if he starts a live broadcast, someone might even beg him to help them make something.

Yuanye was watching seriously, and Okabe Yiyan was observing his expression carefully. Seeing a smile on his face, he felt relieved and immediately began to introduce to him the differences between these ship types and their advantages and disadvantages in naval battles.

Yuanye listened patiently for a while, but he was not too anxious about these things. As for the ship model, he still needed to refer to the opinions of the navy coach Yu Da, Aman's grandfather Quan Heiji and others. He politely waited for Okabe Yiyan's explanation to finish, and immediately pointed to the side of the model and asked, "Regarding the method of copper coating the hull, has Lord Okabe figured it out?"

"Your Highness, please look!"

Okabe Yiyan was well prepared. He confidently asked his son and apprentices to bring a large rack, on which was a small section of "copper-clad side armor" simulated according to Yuanye's requirements.

Yuanye's eyes became more focused and after a closer look, he discovered that this copper-clad armor was not a flat piece, but was hung up layer by layer. The edge of the upper layer covered the top of the lower layer a little bit, like tiles, with a fish-scale beauty.

It was very beautiful, the copper skin was smooth and regular, the arrangement was neat, and it was shining with red gold light, giving it the feel of a work of art. But... it was different from the armor he had imagined!

What he wants is not to show off or to look good, but to be practical!

He pondered for a moment and asked politely, "Can't these copper sheets be nailed on directly?"

"No, Your Highness. We have tried it. Nailing it directly will cause too much damage to the hull. Seawater will seep into the hull through the nail holes, and the wood will easily rot. Moreover..." Okabe Yiyan said this, and ordered his son and apprentice to bring another rack, pointing and saying, "You see, if we nail it directly, the defense capability is very poor."

Yuanye immediately bent down to take a closer look at the straight-spike armor and discovered that a large hole had been made in the thin copper skin by the cannon, exposing the wood underneath. In order to defend against cannonballs at close range, the fine iron plates on the armor were generally required to be 2-3 centimeters thick. Now that they had been replaced with copper, the thickness had shrunk by nearly ten times, which was the same as having nothing.

Moreover, he provided Okabe Izumi with four specifications of iron copper plates, and just like Kuki Yoshitaka in history, Okabe Izumi chose the thinnest one, which was 0.3 cm thick.

Yuanye pondered for a moment and asked, "Can't we make the armor thicker? Don't worry about the cost. We can still get tens of thousands of pounds of copper..."

Okabe Yiyan would not give in on technical issues and was much bolder. He immediately interrupted him and said, "No, Your Highness. If the armor is thickened, the speed of the ship will drop significantly."

"What's the ship's speed now?"

"It is estimated that it is only two-thirds of the normal Ataka ship. If the armor is thickened, the speed will only be slower." So that's how it is...

Yuanye nodded slightly and calculated in his mind that if a normal Antaku ship was travelling with the wind and current in its favor, it could run about 9 knots per hour. But now the speed of the "Big Antaku Copper Boat" was only two-thirds of that, which was 6 knots per hour - and against the wind and current, the speed would drop by almost half again, to only 3 knots per hour, which was comparable to the speed of the turtles coming ashore.

6 knots per hour is already extremely slow at sea, and can only be said to be barely maneuverable. If the armor were ten times thicker, reaching 3 centimeters, the ship would probably sink as soon as it goes into the sea.

Even if it doesn't sink, it is probably impossible to move it. It is a floating copper coffin.

It is indeed difficult to build an ironclad ship without a steam engine...

Yuanye had given up. Some things could not be solved by imagination alone, so he immediately threw aside the idea of covering the nails with copper. Okabe Yiyan felt uneasy when he saw his serious expression. After all, Yuanye planned to cover the ship with copper just to prevent fire attacks, and did not have high requirements for defending against iron cannons. His emphasis on this point seemed a bit redundant - on the one hand, he wanted the work to be perfect, and on the other hand, he felt that Yuanye treated him as a national hero, and he also hoped that the ship could be stronger so that Wanjin could win the battle.

He hesitated for a moment, then said, "If Your Highness doesn't care too much about the ship's defense and lifespan, straight nails will work..."

Yuanye came back to his senses and waved his hands quickly: "No, no, no, no, I don't understand these things. Everything is up to Lord Okabe. It's great to be able to improve the defense capabilities of the iron cannon. You are thoughtful."

It can resist both fire and cannon fire, which would definitely give it a huge advantage in a sea battle. What fool would refuse it?
But will this work?
As he spoke, his eyes moved to the "suspended tiled fish-scale armor plate" and asked with concern: "Can this kind of stacked suspension defend against cannon fire?"

"Yes!" Okabe Yiyan also thought of this technology on a whim. He immediately asked someone to bring over another wooden frame and pointed at it, saying, "Please look, I asked your guards to test it with a cannon. The effect is better than expected. It didn't penetrate at a distance of forty rooms."

"Even forty chambers were not penetrated?" Yuanye did not understand ships or armor, but he knew the power of his own cannons. If Wanjin's cannons could not penetrate forty chambers, the messy imitation matchlock guns in the hands of ordinary pirates could also defend against close shooting within thirty chambers.

However, the thickness of the copper plate is quite high, so straight nails cannot prevent it, but hanging plates can. What's the reason for this?
He looked at the hit part carefully for a while and found that the "tiles" of the armor that were hit were just deflated, but they had not been penetrated. He was good at physics, so he thought about it carefully and understood it - the suspended tile-like armor was stacked layer by layer, which dispersed the impact force. The armor pieces also had an inclined angle, so the musket's bullets had no power to hit them and bounced away.

This is really a wonderful idea, with a strange beauty that makes the impossible possible.

If you look at it this way, Okabe Igen is a really good guy. He might even be better than the "O-Antaku Iron Ship" made by Kuki Yoshitaka. It's really worth the money to hire him.

Yuanye asked himself honestly that he could never think of such a method, but he became interested in this ancient "hanging armor". After fiddling with the "model" for a while, he praised sincerely: "How did Lord Okabe come up with this method? It's amazing!"

Okabe Yiyan was very honest and did not take credit for anything. He shook his head and said, "Your Highness, you are joking. This is the overlapping mortise and tenon joint method in the Fifteen Arts of Carpentry. I just used it on the boat."

Is it a mortise and tenon structure?
No wonder I didn’t see a single nail…

Yuanye pulled hard a few more times, and seeing that the armor didn't budge, he felt relieved and immediately agreed: "Let's do it this way first, and then we can build the ship and see the effect."

…………

With the armor problem solved, the biggest difficulty of the "Da'an Zhai Copper Ship" was also solved. Yuanye also invited the naval instructor Yu Da, the knowledgeable Aman's grandfather Quan Heiji, and the main naval officers to serve as the "expert jury" together. From a practical perspective, they finalized the ship type of the "Da'an Zhai Copper Ship".

Firepower type, 30 meters long and 13.8 meters wide, equipped with 6 small-caliber cannons, 6 iron cannon flags, 20 armed sailors, and 40 armed rowers - sailors and rowers drive the boat on a daily basis, and when necessary, they pick up swords and guns and put on armor to serve as the front row of pikemen for boarding or landing operations.

Of course, the current Wanjin Navy is actually a large transport team. It does not have so many people available for combat, and the troops need to be expanded quickly. Yuanye has also put these on the agenda - the army is not of much use now, and all the iron cannon flags will be directly learned to swim and transferred onto the ships, and the vacancies will be filled slowly by the army itself.

At the same time, the Wanjin Shipyard was finally established, and Okabe Iori became the first factory director. It was expected that the first experimental "Dayanzhai Copper Boat" would be delivered in five months.

(End of this chapter)