Chapter 869: The eyes must be long-term, thousands of warships are not dreams

(0869)

【Today's second update is delivered!】

After their inspection, most of the first batch of laid-down wood can be used as keels for large warships. This is definitely a happy event for shipyards. Because, this means that the only bottleneck restricting the production of large warships has also been solved.

Originally, the biggest problem restricting the development of the Hu Ben Army Navy was the issue of keel bones of large warships. Because there are very few big trees in Shandong that are more than a hundred years old. If you want to use them as keel bones, it will definitely not work. The best trees in Shandong can only be used as keel bones for sword-tooth ships. If you want to use them as dragon god ships, it will not meet the requirements.

The final quality of a warship is the keel. For this reason, Xue Zhidie is very strict in choosing keel wood, rather than having nothing to do. There is no way, so Zhang Zhun had to arrange everything and look for suitable trees everywhere. As a result, the few timbers found were just dropping a drop in the bucket and could not meet the needs at all.

Now it’s different. Now, in front of him, there are a large number of ancient trees that require two or even three to embrace. Some exaggerated trees actually require four or five people to embrace. These ancient trees, not to mention the keel bones used to make the Dragon God Ship, or to make larger warships, are completely enough. Looking at the big trees that are constantly drifting down on the Yalu River, Zhang Zhun seemed to see dense warships coming out of the shipyard continuously.

As long as there are enough warships, why are you afraid of Zheng Zhilong? What are you afraid of Dutch people? If you Zheng Zhilong has 1,000 warships, I will get you 10,000 warships! If you have 1,000 warships, I will get you 10,000 warships! I don’t believe it. The wood in Changbai Mountain and Daxinganling has been cut down and you can’t be suppressed. It is one of the largest forest areas in the world!

"This is going to the First Shipyard!"

"This is going to the second shipyard!"

There were still people around Zhang Zhun who kept giving instructions.

These qualified woods were transferred to large merchant ships one by one by one at the mouth of the Yalu River by huge pulleys, and then hurriedly pulled to the shipyard to prepare for construction of large warships. Almost every merchant ship leaving had a very low draft, which shows the weight of the wood on the ship.

To be honest, these big guys are really too heavy after they have soaked in water. If they don’t have such a huge pulley set and rely on manual labor, it would be extremely difficult to move them up and down.

Because the wood for keels must be kept as well as possible and cannot be cut off, ordinary wood cannot be lifted without dozens of people. Some wood can even be carried together for hundreds of people, which shows the weight of the wood.

In fact, even if there is a pulley set, the squeaking sound of the pulley set when transferring some super large wood makes the people around them hang their hearts in their throats, for fear that the rope will break suddenly or the pulley set bracket will crack.

With the sudden increase in the power of the enemy at sea, the pressure of the Hu Ben Navy continues to increase, and the control of Sado Island is about to arrive, and Zhang Zhun launched the second round of crazy shipbuilding plan. He was determined to accumulate enough warships in the next five years, and after defeating Zheng Zhilong, he still had the ability to confront the Dutch head-on.

Of course it is not easy to do this. The first thing to do at sea is to have enough warships. Zhang Zhun roughly estimates that in order to fight against the Dutch power in the Far East, the number of warships of the Tiger Army Navy will at least double every year. If the losses in the battle are included, this number will continue to be increased.

Specifically, there must be at least about 300 warships of the Sword Tooth. This level of warships can be regarded as the main warships when fighting in the near-shore areas. They are also a good force on the seas in Northeast Asia. It is completely possible to bully *** and North Korea. There is no big problem in fighting against Zheng Zhilong.

However, when we arrived in Nanyang, the sword-tooth ship could only be used as auxiliary warships and could not participate in the main combat at all. In Nanyang, the smallest warships of the Western powers all had a displacement of more than 500 tons. Relatively speaking, the sword-tooth ship was indeed small.

The warship of the Dragon God Ship requires at least one hundred. This level of warship will be the main force against the Zheng Zhilong Pirate Military Group. Its main opponent is the most powerful three-masted gunship of the Zheng family fleet. Theoretically, the Dragon God Ship and the three-masted gunship can be tied. However, once it encounters the warships of the Western powers, it will be at a disadvantage again.

The main warships of the Western powers in the South China Sea all have a displacement of more than 1,000 tons. Especially the Dutch fleet, there are as many as 20 or 30 warships with a displacement of more than 1,000 tons, and there is a tendency to continue to increase. With the ability of the Dragon God Ship, it is probably not easy to get rid of these big guys, and the firepower and protective performance are too different.

If you want to truly gain a foothold in Nanyang, occupy a place, and exert the majesty of the Tiger Army Navy, you must have a large number of King Kong ships. If there are more than ten King Kong ships with a displacement of 1,200 tons, you should be able to show your face in Nanyang. If there are twenty or thirty, you should be able to speak. If there are about fifty, you can become the overlord in Nanyang.

As for larger king ships, imperial ships, etc., the number of them needs depends on the specific situation. Generally speaking, their symbolic significance is greater than their practical significance. Such super-large warships are too costly and technically difficult to mass-produce. The main force of maritime warfare should be the Dragon God Ship and the King Kong Ship.

In the next five years, it is absolutely impossible to build so many large warships and rely on the Quail Bay Shipyard. More and larger shipyards must be built. After careful consideration, Zhang Zhun selected a site near Dengzhou Prefecture and built a second large shipyard.

In order to vaguely express his ambition, Zhang named the new shipyard "The Second Shipyard of the Hu Ben Army", and the original Queqiao Bay Shipyard was renamed "The First Shipyard of the Hu Ben Army." If a person with a sharp mind, he would find that since there is the first and second, then a third shipyard may appear at any time. This is exactly what Zhang Zhun hopes. As long as financial, material and manpower allow him, he will immediately start the third shipyard.

According to Zhang Zhun's plan, the first phase of the Second Shipyard has fifty super-large docks, and fifty large ships can be started at the same time. The design of Dengzhou Shipyard can build large ships of more than 3,000 tons, and it has done enough early efforts to build larger warships in the future. Such a step-by-step design will of course cost a lot of money. Fortunately, Zhang Zhun is not short of money at present.

It takes a lot of time to build such a large shipyard and there are many conditions to prepare. Basically, before Zheng Chenggong's counterattack came, it was impossible for the second shipyard to be put into use. Its main function should be to focus on the future.

In order to supervise the construction progress of the second shipyard, Zhang Zhun came to Dengzhou from Jinzhouwei. Xue Zhidie was going to take charge of daily affairs at the Queqiao Bay Shipyard. The person who sent him to Dengzhou Shipyard was a middle-aged man named Chen Liang. Chen Liang was originally one of the five old foremans. Xue Zhidie sent him here, obviously to hand over the second shipyard to him for management.

"Governor!"

When Chen Liang found that Zhang Zhun had arrived, he hurriedly came up to greet him.

“How is the progress?”

Zhang Zhun asked with concern.

"It is estimated that the construction can be completed two months ahead of schedule."

Chen Liang answered cautiously.

According to Chen Liang's description, Dengzhou Shipyard can be put into use in March next year and will do its best to start construction of the Dragon God Ship. With all the conditions in place, the construction cycle of the Dragon God Ship is about nine months. In other words, at the end of next year and the beginning of the year after next, the first batch of Dragon God Ship can be launched.

If everything is not unexpected, the Second Shipyard can build 200 Dragon God Ships every three years. Five years later, the number of Dragon God Ships in the Tiger Army Navy can increase to more than 300. Of course, this is the most ideal situation.

If an accident occurs, such as insufficient raw materials, insufficient workers, insufficient financial resources, etc., it will affect the production of the Dragon God Ship. If the Hu Ben Navy's own combat losses are relatively large and the Dragon God Ship produced is not enough to make up for the damage to the war, the accurate plan will also not be realized. Of course, this possibility is relatively small.

The biggest possibility is the financial problem. The launch price of the Dragon God Ship is about 20,000 taels of silver. The more than 300 Dragon God Ship is more than 6 million taels of silver. Although it is divided into five years, it is still a heavy number. If other warships are added, Zhang Zhun basically spends millions of taels of silver on the construction of warships every year.

Chen Liang really couldn't figure out where Zhang Zhun got so much money. Fortunately, this was not something Chen Liang needed to care about, otherwise he would have been crushed by this number. Millions of taels of silver were even dared not even think about it. This number was indeed too big.

In fact, Zhang Zhun spent more than that. In addition to building a large number of warships himself, the Hu Ben Navy also ordered a total of 200 Cangshan ships from various civil shipyards in Wulong Bay to strengthen the offshore naval combat power.

Although the Cangshan ship cannot sail far, it seems that it can no longer keep up with the needs of the development of the times. However, in offshore combat, the Cangshan ship has a strong combat capability. In particular, the Cangshan ship has low construction technology and low cost, and can explode in a short period of time. You can think about it, even a three-masted gunship rushes forward, it will cause a headache.

"Sir, Zhang Shenyan is here."

While talking to Chen Liang, Liu Mang came to report.
Chapter completed!