In the eastern suburbs of Badong City, on the lakeside on the west side of the East Lake, in the Navy Camp shipyard, three huge rectangular pools have dried up. Three pointed-bottomed ships are now quietly parked on the wooden frame at the bottom of the pool, and many craftsmen are inspecting the hull and the bottom of the ship.

This kind of pool is called a dock. It is a working platform for ship construction and repair. It originally appeared in the Song Dynasty and is already a common building in the Huangzhou Navy Shipyard. Thanks to the emergence of docks, the construction and repair of ships have been accelerated a lot.

The docks here are all digging grounds as pools, and some docks also have movable ceilings, which are not afraid of wind and rain. Whether it is wind or rain, shipbuilding can be carried out. After the hull is built, the ceiling can be removed and the mast can be erected.

If the situation is urgent, you can light a torch at night to work. Of course, you should be careful at this time to avoid the fire from getting out of the fire.

Huangzhou General Manager, Wang Yuwen Wen of Xiyang, stood by a dock and looked at a large ship in the dock carefully. This was a finished product made by craftsmen racking their brains. It has condensed the efforts of countless people. Now that I have returned from a long voyage, I have a sense of vicissitudes.

The jingling sound rang out from time to time, and some boatmen were holding chisels and hammers, beating on both sides and bottom of the hull. They were removing barnacles and mussels attached to the hull, bottom of the hull.

When ships sailing on the sea, they will be attached to creatures such as barnacle mussels. These creatures will refine their homes outside the hull. Over time, the smooth hull will become rough and cause the ship to descend significantly.

Not to mention wooden boats, even the steel hulls in later generations cannot escape the parasitic misfortune. Therefore, when returning from sea, one of the most important maintenance items for the ship is to remove barnacles and mussels attached to the hull.

Although it took only more than a month to enter the sea, the subtle bulges of the waterlines of these three ships can be seen at once. If they cannot be removed in time, they will become more and more and more over time, until the entire ship grows out of a "beard".

Yuwen Wen watched for a while, walked onto the deck of the ship and entered the cabin to continue visiting. Although he had come up to see the ship when it was built, he had a different feeling when he looked at it again. After all, these ships brought him back gold, silver and sulfur.

Shipbuilding technologies such as watertight compartments, mortise (sticked) nailing, and porous rudder plates that were only mature in the Tang Dynasty in history have already taken shape in this era. They are now all used on these three ships and are then promoted to naval warships.

Of course, he himself does not know the actual shipbuilding technology, and shipbuilding relies on "foreign aid".

Huangzhou is located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and ship workers basically have no experience in manufacturing sea ships, so Yuwen Wen used various means to invite several skilled shipbuilders from Chen State to serve as technical guidance for building new ships.

The ship has a pointed tail with a wide tail and a raised end. The tail seal structure is horseshoe-shaped, with both sides arched outwards. There are wide flat decks and continuous hatches. The side of the side is reinforced by thick wooden boards, which is very strong.

The cabin is a live water cabin, also known as an anti-swing cabin. As the ship rises or falls, the water in the live water cabin can flow in or out, reducing the swaying of the ship. There are rows of diamond-shaped holes on the rudder plate of the stern balance rudder, so it is very labor-saving to operate.

The entire hull is made of a pair of tenons and iron nails. The two sides and the ship compartment are nailed in rows of nails. The iron nails are divided into two rows, and are nailed up and down. This method of overlapping nails is called herringbone seams.

Twist seam technology has also been innovative. The twisting material that fills the gap is made of lime and tung oil, and then the thread silk is repeatedly pounded and mixed into it. In this way, the water-blocking effect of the twisted material is very good.

The most important technology used by the new ship is the watertight compartment. This is actually a ship structure. It is a major innovation in the shipbuilding technology of the Central Plains. It is to use compartment plates to divide the compartment into a disconnected compartment area.

Once the hull is damaged, causing one of the compartments to enter water, the other compartments are still intact, which can ensure the buoyancy of the ship and increase the resistance to sinking. The compartment plate itself also plays a role in strengthening structural strength and making the hull stronger.

The person who first used watertight compartments on the ship was said to be the leader of the rebel army in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. The "Eight-trough ship" he built should be a ship with eight watertight compartments.

After hundreds of years of development, watertight compartment technology has gradually become popular in the shipbuilding industry. Thanks to the application of mortise and joint nailing technology, the structural strength of the three new large ships is quite strong.

The watertight compartment bulkheads of each ship are composed of the bottom and sides of the ribs and the beam rings under the deck. The previous bulkheads in the middle of the ship are installed before the ribs, and the bulkheads in the middle are installed behind the ribs.

This installation method can prevent the bulkhead from moving, so that the ship's side and bulkhead are closely linked, firmly supporting both sides, and strengthening the lateral strength of the hull.

Under Yu Wen Wen's strong request, an additional keel bone was added to the ship. The keel bone was made of a whole piece of dry wood, which strengthened the longitudinal strength of the ship like a human spine.

Because the longitudinal and transverse strength of the hull have been strengthened, coupled with cloth reinforced streak hard sails and pointed bottoms, it is very suitable for ocean navigation.

While the boatmen were inspecting the ship inside and outside, the large crossbow carried on the ship was unloaded. Because of the erosion of seawater vapor, its performance had decreased significantly.

This is the ship's self-defense weapon, so it is not easy to be careless. The newly installed self-defense weapon is the latest new equipment developed by Yuwen Wen's black workshop: Qianxing's first-year-old ship-based reverse side jetting cannon.

In fact, it is a quicklime jet device that can spray a large amount of quicklime powder in an instant, specifically used to deal with pirates who are preparing to board the ship. The reason why "cannon" is used instead of "cannon" in the name is because this thing is not gunpowder as the firing power.

In addition, the "huge (expensive) hand-shot flame bomb" was a mere pirate who dared to take the sidelines to seek death. Yuwen Wen decided to strengthen the arming of his fleet so that those thieves would never return.

Not only that, we also need to increase the carrying capacity of bows and crossbows. We would rather load less cargo for this, and we should ensure the ship's self-defense ability.

He only has these few boats, and there are not many crew members available. Once something happens, it will be a big deal. Therefore, even if he makes less money, he must give priority to ensuring safety.

In the cabin, Zhang Yu was holding drawings and discussing with the craftsmen that they would add cabins on the ship to accommodate more people, who would be armed sailors ready to fight against the pirates who were on the deck at any time.

6 The upstream merchants have escorts from escorts. The maritime sailing can only rely on the armed forces of the ships themselves to defend themselves. After thinking about it, Zhang Yu still felt that increasing the sailors on each ship and strengthening the armed forces of the ships is the best choice to deal with pirates.

To increase sailors, corresponding water, grain and other supplies must be added, which will also occupy the space in the cargo hold, but this is a price that must be paid. Zhang Yu wants those who are malicious to realize that his fleet is not a fat sheep at the slaughter of others.

The matter was settled, and Zhang Yu was about to report the specific situation to the Langzhu Yuwen Wen. Seeing that he looked at the dock beside him, he couldn't help but look in the direction.

There was a newly built new ship there, which was also built with novel shipbuilding technology, but its hull was slightly narrow and long, and the ship was like a sharp knife and had a horn.

The size of Xiyang King's sea trade fleet will be from three to four, and the additional new ships are not merchant ships, but warships that can chase prey on the sea.

Fishing boats and merchant ships on the sea may turn into pirates at any time, and attacking passing ships is hard to defend against. Therefore, the fleet of Xiyang King must also have corresponding capabilities.
Chapter completed!