Chapter 532 - 50: Accident
The workers pedaling bicycles to work were like locusts, growing from a few to dozens in just a few months.
Their bicycles were very rudimentary, without shock absorbers, and the wooden wheels clattered on the road, making for a truly bumpy ride, and after riding for a while, their buttocks would ache from the vibration.
But no matter what, it was a symbol of status. Enduring a little hardship was worth it as long as they could enjoy the envious glances from others.
...
The development of the bicycle industry created the island’s first batch of "upstarts." Carpenters of all skills, whether craftsmen or those with mediocre skills, received orders to manufacture bicycles.
Sugar cubes flooded into their pockets like mad from the other islanders, and as the number of bicycles increased, their assets swelled accordingly.
Moreover, some visionary individuals even taught themselves to collect "after-sales service fees" —
Although they didn’t know what after-sales service was, they understood that bicycles would break down and inevitably require frequent repairs.
Compared to one-off deals, bicycle repair and maintenance, while less profitable, were more of a long-term business.
Whether replacing parts, maintaining wheels, or even customizing unique decorations for the bike body, these were all new projects developed by the islanders themselves.
As part of the "car owners club," those working in the shipyard were mostly willing to part with a sugar cube or two to put some shine on their reputation and to catch the eye of female workers; they were more than willing to do so.
...
One dry season passed, and another rainy season arrived.
The shipyard’s sheds, which sheltered against wind and rain, stood by the sea, enduring the trials of storms and successfully withstood several torrential rains.
A "parking lot" specifically for bicycles appeared on the dock, and months later, another batch of people owned bicycles.
Besides the shipyard workers, even the young men in the guard team were equipped with bicycles, speeding up their patrols.
A few carpenters who hadn’t yet moved into their own small houses brought their tools near the shipyard, waiting on the way from work to solve minor issues for the "car owners," such as patching wheels or changing axles.
Those with good skills naturally earned sugar cubes. With sugar cubes in hand, they went on to exchange them for other materials, thus promoting the circulation of resources on the island.
When Chen Zhou listened to reports, he could sense from the changes on the island what a vibrant vitality the current island powers contained.
However, using sugar cubes as currency was ultimately not a long-term solution. For the island’s economy to develop steadily, it would be best to implement actual metal currency.
The sugarcane fields on the island were expanding year by year, and the quantity of sugar cubes produced would gradually increase in the future. If sugar cubes continued as currency and bartered, it wouldn’t be long before inflation set in.
...
With the idea of implementing a currency system in mind, Chen Zhou even tried melting metal to mint a batch of round coins.
But considering the island’s insufficient population, the lack of necessity for establishing a separate mint, and the insufficient and overly homogeneous quantity of metal available for minting, he had yet to implement it officially.
From the end of the dry season in 1665 to the early part of the second rainy season, besides helping shipyard workers assemble steam power systems, most of his energy was focused on research into naval cannons.
...
In 17th-century naval warfare, aside from the ship’s durability, speed, and the fighting spirit of the sailors, it was the cannons that played a decisive role.
While transporting materials from wrecked ships, Chen Zhou had observed the cannons of this period.
Generally speaking, the structure of 17th-century cannons still remained at a very primitive stage.
At that time, the cannonballs were mainly solid shot, and the way to attack enemy ships was through kinetic damage. They were very effective against the wooden sailing ships of the time, with one broadside volley from a large ship sufficient to destroy the enemy ship’s hull during engagements.
However, the accuracy and firing rate of the naval cannons were noticeably insufficient at this time. The complex loading process of muzzle-loading smoothbore cannons, much like matchlock guns, severely limited the firing rate.
Moreover, due to the cannonballs being excessively heavy, the firing rate of cannons lagged far behind matchlock guns.
As for accuracy, it depended entirely on the gunner’s experience. Maritime combat was inherently bumpy, and the cannons themselves had considerable flaws, making it clearly unrealistic to rely on cannon fire to directly destroy enemy ships.
If encountered by a large ship, hitting it dozens of times might not even be enough to sink it, at most causing leaking or structural collapse, which clearly required luck.
While pondering 17th-century naval warfare cannons, Chen Zhou also recalled several other types of cannonballs widely used in naval battles at the time.
For example, grapeshot, pre-loaded with metal fragments and nails. This type of shot caused insufficient damage to ship hulls and had limited range, primarily used against enemy sailors. When two ships closed the distance, a few rounds of grapeshot could cover the entire deck, rapidly clearing out the enemy’s living forces, thus initiating boarding actions, creating favorable conditions for their sailors.
Then there were chain shot designed for masts; a type of projectile consisting of two half-spherical balls connected by iron chains. When fired, they would spin in the air, damaging enemy ship masts or tangling the rigging, stripping them of mobility.
Similarly impairing enemy ship mobility was a type of projectile known as bar shot or scissor shot, and its principle was much like that of chain shot.
As far as Chen Zhou knew, more reliable explosive shells began appearing around the 18th century. In the 17th century, explosive shells were still experimental, with unreliable fuses prone to backfiring, so they weren’t used in naval cannons.
Imagining contemporary Spanish armed merchant ships or British and Dutch vessels as hypothetical enemies significantly reduced the pressure on cannon improvements—