It has been almost a month since Liu Ximing returned to Sichuan, and during this time, Liu Ximing can be said to be busy.

Not only is he busy coaxing Xie Chunxi, but he also has to deal with the daily affairs of the family, and he must continue to pay attention to the activities of the Datong Society in Shunqing Mansion.

After a group study tour to Shaanxi, the main members of the Datong Society have established a close friendship with each other.

Especially in Guanzhong, although Liu Ximing got the official document of the governor of Sun Chuanting, Su Jin, Dou Yuquan and others were also responsible for disposing of it.

But in the specific Tuntian matters, it is naturally not enough to rely on them alone, so Dou Yuquan mobilized Lei Hong, Ren Yuanjia and others to come over to help.

After many optimizations, the concept of Cosmos has a strong appeal, especially after observing the tragic situation in Guanzhong up close, the sense of responsibility of these members has been further stimulated.

So after returning to Sichuan, as soon as I learned that Liu Ximing had returned to Sichuan, dozens of core backbones all gathered to hear Liu Ximing's next arrangement.

Seeing that the township exam was about to take place, Liu Ximing naturally focused on this, and in view of the average family background of many members, he simply summoned all these people to Liujia Village to prepare for the exam.

As soon as this move was publicized, it immediately aroused a wave of praise in Shunqing Shilin.

Now when everyone talks about the Liu family, it is not only powerful and deep-rooted, but also has a good reputation among Shilin who are anxious.

That is, this month's work, the shipyard of Liujiacun has been basically formed, Liujia cement bricks and steel bars are not lacking, plus sufficient manpower, a tall factory built of red bricks stands majestically next to the wharf of Liujiacun.

On the morning of 28 June, before the sun was radiating heat, nearly 100 people were already crowded on the wharf in Liujia Village.

Liu Ximing, Yu Yongkai and other officers of the Longxiang Brigade were all present, and even Chen Yiding and others also came to watch the excitement.

In front of Liu Ximing's eyes, Yi Xin and the others' achievements this month floated on the water.

Four model ships that were imitated or modified according to the Dutch third-class battleships, and four model ships that were smaller in size and more slender in size according to Liu Ximing's requirements.

Although Liu Ximing is not a BB party, his understanding of naval warfare is at least stronger than that of the Long Xiang Brigade.

If the Liu family wants to develop maritime power, it is natural that they will directly learn from the success of later generations, so he directly chooses to imitate Western-style warships.

It's just that battleships alone are not enough, and there must be quite a lot of cooperative ships to cooperate with each other.

Although the battleship had fierce firepower and a large number of personnel, it also had shortcomings such as inflexible steering and slow speed, and it was easy to be beaten by forces like Zheng Zhilong when fighting in China's coastal waters.

Therefore, it is necessary to equip a part of the ships with small firepower, but fast speed, to protect their own battleships, and at the same time assume tactical roles such as interspersing and cutting.

Now the model imitated by Yi Xin and others is the result of his idea, and the battleship imitated the Dutch third-class battleship according to the ratio of 1:1.2, 1:1.1, 1:1 and 1:0.9, and at the same time made appropriate improvements, and the total tonnage was controlled between 1800 tons and 1350 tons.

The cruisers continued to shrink on the basis of the battleships, controlling the tonnage between 1,000 and 600 tons.

Of course, the actual size of all the model ships has been reduced again, and the largest battleship model in front of me is less than ten meters long, but it should be enough for testing.

A clock that had been given to Liu Ximing by the Italian missionary Lyric was moved out to be responsible for timekeeping, and markers were also set up on the Jialing River from upstream to downstream.

Liu Xi's order was given, and the sailors of the Longxiang Brigade who were in charge of the test rushed to untie the rope and set sail.

"Hurry, hurry, haha, I said, ship 7 must be faster."

"Fart, this is just the beginning, let me see, boat 8 is faster."

A group of onlookers began to discuss it loudly, and everyone regarded it as a surprise.

The joy on the shore could not affect the personnel of the eight test ships, and under the impetus of the river breeze, the eight battleships went down the river according to their own inherent rhythm.

"It's miserable, it's miserable, why did the No. 6 ship start to deviate from its center of gravity."

There was an exclamation from behind him, and Liu Ximing hurriedly turned his attention to the No. 6 cruiser.

In the telescope, the ship did begin to tilt to port side, and seemed to have a tendency to get worse over time.

The group of people led by the shipwright Yuan Nan blushed, and the No. 6 boat was their masterpiece.

Liu Ximing comforted everyone while watching the competition on the river: "Don't worry, this time is to test the best boat, mistakes are inevitable, as long as everyone pays attention to the quality in the future." ”

The test was not long, only about five kilometers, but the results were somewhat unexpected.

The No. 3 and No. 6 boats ran more than half of the car and overturned directly, and the No. 6 boat finally sank directly in the Jialing River.

Wu Minhai, who was in charge of observing the report, panted and reported to Malaysia, "Report, the results of the navigation test are as follows: No. 1 ship, ...... time"

For several days, Liu Jiacun had been testing the performance of these models, and finally Liu Ximing finalized a specific plan.

The battleship was first copied according to the original proportions of the Dutch's third-class battleship, but the cargo hold was partially reduced, with a displacement of 20,000 stone (1,500 tons), a length of 22 zhang (73.2 meters), and a width of 3.2 zhang (10.6 meters).

The cruiser chose the No. 7 model, with a displacement of 10,000 stone (750 tons), a length of 15.3 zhang (51 m), and a width of 2.7 zhang (9 m).

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Liu Ximing further unified the standards of weights and measures at home to avoid the situation of different standards for all walks of life under the current Ming Dynasty.

In the future, the weights and measures used in Liujia Village will be 1 zhang = 10 feet = 100 inches = 1000 inches, and the weight will be 1 stone = 100 catties = 1000 taels.

Liujiacun added a shipbuilding bureau under the workshop, with Yi Xin as the assistant and Yuan Nan as the deputy assistant, and the workshop sent other management personnel to assist.

What Liu Ximing meant was that the shipbuilding bureau would first concentrate all its efforts to imitate a third-class battleship, and then assign the trained personnel to six slipways to divide the labor and build it.

In the early stage, 7 3rd class battleships of 20,000 stone were built, and in the later stage, the No. 1 ship model was selected to build a battleship with a displacement of 24,000 stone, that is, 1,800 tons.

As for cruisers, they were built only after the shipbuilding process was mature.

At present, all kinds of materials in Liujia Village have been prepared, plus the original lathes and hydro-powered lathes developed by the workshop, Yi Xin directly made a package ticket after understanding the situation clearly:

The first test ship was built in two months, and the ships that followed were basically able to guarantee a construction period of four months.

Hearing the news, Liu Ximing couldn't help but feel ecstatic in his heart, but he thought about it carefully but felt that it was normal.

The normal construction cycle of a sail battleship is generally one to one and a half years, and the longer one is three to six years.

However, if it is manufactured urgently, it can be controlled within 6 months.

The main reason for this is that the sail warships are all made of wood, and it is necessary to ensure that the wood is dry and in place during the construction process, otherwise the service life of the ship will be greatly reduced.

However, there is no such problem in Liujia Village, and the wood of the Liu family is all old wood purchased from the Qinling Mountains, which has long been completely dried in the shade and can be used directly.

On the third day of July, Liu Ximing officially convened a meeting of the management of the whole village, announcing the appointment of Yi Xin and others in person, which also marked the beginning of the shipbuilding plan of Liujia Village.

Liu Ximing announced indifferently: "In order to meet the work of the shipyard, the entire shipyard will recruit 2,000 young people who are young and have studied in the Liujiacun School for more than one year. ”

"Wow"

This news caused many management to be in an uproar, young people, and they still have to read, so what about other factories.

Liu Ximing also has a headache, and Liujiacun is now in a state of scarcity of manpower again.

At present, in Sichuan, the Liu family has a total of about 120,000 people, and if you don't count the teenagers under the age of 16, there are about 42,000 male middle-aged laborers who can be used.

After deducting the 10,000 people in the Longxiang Brigade, 3,000 managers and policemen in each room, in fact, there is not much left, and now another 2,000 people will be given to the shipyard, and the directors of each house are a little worried about how to complete the work under their hands.

You must know that last year, the Liu family issued a year-end bonus according to the benefits of each workshop.

The most, such as the Weapons Bureau, received three taels of silver per capita, which can make everyone envious enough.

"Everyone is quiet", Liu Ximing waved his hand to listen to himself.