More than ten days later, after careful selection by Zhang Baigui, director of the Military Department's Armament Department, and Yang Liben, director of the R&D Division, the two finally selected more than 20 military armament styles from the quasi-sample drawings issued by the Military Department.

Most of these selected military equipment styles are already equipped by various departments of the Tiance Army, but the styles in the quasi-sample drawings are better than those equipped by the Tiance Army, so the military department is ready to improve them in the same way.

Some of the remaining armaments are the armaments that the Tiance Army has not equipped, and these armaments are not offensive weapons without exception, but logistics and protection equipment, although they cannot improve the combat power of the soldiers of the Tiance Army, but they can allow the soldiers to fight with peace of mind and protect the rear to the greatest extent.

After Liu Juntao received the military equipment improvement plan jointly submitted by the Military Preparedness Department and the R&D Department of the Ministry of War, he immediately confirmed his agreement and asked the Ministry of Military Affairs to implement it as soon as possible.

Zhang Baigui and Yang Liben have also mobilized some manpower in advance, and after the Ministry of Commerce allocates money and food, they can immediately let the various military bureaus under the Military Garrison Department start to build in the same way.

According to the plan given by the military department, Liu Juntao estimated that after four months, the officers and men of all departments of the Tiance Army would be able to equip these improved military equipment one after another.

A few days later, Liu Zi'an, the Minister of Intelligence, also hurried to the General Military Mansion and reported to Liu Juntao: "The General Town, the Ministry of Commerce has acquired eight sea ships, and after the modification of the Military Department, all of them have been handed over to Feng Xiang on Dongping Island, along with ten artillery pieces, five gunners, and two hundred shells!" ”

Hearing this, Liu Juntao asked, "What are the styles of those eight sea ships?" What about the size? ”

For the shipbuilding industry of the Ming Dynasty, Liu Juntao is also deeply understood, and he was very interested in it before the crossing, so he dabbled in a lot of historical materials, after all, in Chinese history, the Ming Dynasty had an unprecedented event: Zheng He went to the West!

Liu Juntao even believes that the Ming Dynasty was the pinnacle of ancient China's shipbuilding industry, and even in the world at that time, it was second to none!

Even now, the Western Ocean has been stopped by the imperial court, and the shipbuilding workshops of the Ming Dynasty are all over the country's coastal areas, especially in Jiangsu, Fujian, Huguang, Zhejiang and other places.

In addition to the private ones, these shipyards are also government-run, and they are larger and more technologically advanced.

Liu Juntao remembered that in the twenty-sixth year of Hongwu, the imperial court once stipulated that "if a new sea-going ship is built, it must be measured to produce timber and water, and the local government should send people to build it." ”

According to this principle, a large number of government-run shipyards appeared in various parts of the Ming Dynasty, the largest of which were Longjiang Shipyard in Nanjing, Qingmian Shipyard in northern Jiangsu, Qinghe Shipyard in Shandong, Tainan Shipyard in Fujian, and Jilin Shipyard in Northeast China.

The eight seagoing ships raised by the Ministry of Commerce this time were ordered from the Qinghe Shipyard in Shandong, of course, the Ministry of Commerce came forward and ordered by a few ordinary businessmen.

These government-run shipyards are large-scale, well-organized, and have a complete range of jobs. For example, Longjiang Shipyard is subordinate to the Ministry of Industry and Water Division, covering an area of 8,100 acres. The factory has a department of engineering, which is in charge of the inspector and the lifting department, which is responsible for the shipbuilding industry, the command hall, and the command of production. The production organization of the factory imitates the workshop organization of the city residents, and is divided into four compartments according to the professional nature: the first compartment makes wooden shuttles, the second compartment manufactures ship wood, iron parts and cables, the third compartment repairs old ships, and the fourth compartment manufactures brown canopies. The rational organization of production and the strict division of labor have greatly promoted the improvement of efficiency.

In this way, the shipbuilding capacity in the early and middle Ming Dynasty is very amazing, Liu Juntao remembers the incomplete statistics in the "Chengzu Record", during the 12 years of the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, 2,735 sea ships were built in various parts of the Ming Dynasty, which is very amazing!

In addition to the large number of shipbuilding in the Ming Dynasty, there are two significant characteristics: First, the increase in the hull is the variety of ship types. The largest ship in the Ming Dynasty was Zheng He's large-scale treasure ship in the Western Ocean. According to the Hu bucket weighing system stipulated by the Ming Dynasty, one foot at that time was equivalent to 31 centimeters in later generations, and according to this conversion, the length and width of the Dabao ship were about 138 meters and 56 meters, the carrying capacity was about 2,500 tons, and the displacement was 3,100 tons.

Gong Zhen, who went to the West with Zheng He, said in his book "Western Fanguo Zhi" that the treasure ship "is majestic, unrivaled, with sails and anchor rudders, and it is impossible for two or three hundred people to move." Such a huge ship was not only "unprecedented" in Gaigu, but also reached the peak of the world's wooden sailing ships before the nineteenth century.

Liu Juntao is also very yearning for the Daming treasure ship, and even once wanted to build a large fleet based on the treasure ship in the fleet that Shandong Town is preparing to build in the future.

If a giant ship like the treasure ship is fully equipped with artillery, the firepower will be very terrifying, and it can definitely dominate the ocean!

Of course, the eight sea ships ordered by the Ministry of Commerce this time must not have such treasure ships, one is that the financial resources of the Ministry of Commerce are temporarily insufficient, and the other is that the treasure ships are too eye-catching to be explained to the outside world.

Moreover, Liu Juntao also knew that according to the classification of the later "Ming Historical Officials Volunteer Department", the ships of the Ming Dynasty were divided into three categories: river and sea transshipment boats, miscellaneous ships for river transportation, and river and sea warships for coastal defense.

Specific to the sea ships of the Ming Dynasty, they are basically divided into three types, namely the wide ship type, the Fu ship type and the sand ship type.

All sea vessels, whether civilian or warship, belong to these three types of ships.

Among them, the Guangzhou ship was named after the one built in Guangdong.

The apex is long and has a deep draft. The beam arch is small, the arc of the nail ridge is not high, and it has good seakeeping. Structurally, the transverse structure is composed of close-distance ribs and bulkheads, and the longitudinal strength depends on the keel and large maintenance. The shipbuilding materials are sturdy and durable, but the source of materials is difficult and the cost is high, which hinders its development.

The front side of the ship is equipped with a falling board that can be lifted vertically and protrude under the bottom of the ship, which plays the role of reducing roll and stabilizing the course. There are rows of cocoon-shaped holes on the rudder board, which saves effort and does not affect the rudder effect.

The mid-mast and foremast of the large Canton ship are tilted forward, and the cloth stiff sails are hung on them, and the canopy is sparsely arranged in a thicker way. Boats and oars are available on small and medium-sized boats. The Guangzhou ship has good wave-breaking ability, which is conducive to deep-water navigation.

The Fu boat was named after the Fujian ship.

The ship has four floors, the lower deck is filled with ballast stones, the third floor is for fresh water tanks, and the second floor is inhabited. The bottom culet is wide at the top, the head tip and tail are wide at both ends, the tail seal structure is horseshoe-shaped, the two sides are arched outward, there is a wide and flat deck, and the side is reinforced with a thick board of split logs.

The main materials used for shipbuilding are pine, cedar, camphor and nanmu from Fujian. Some ships have live water tanks at the bow or stern with holes near the waterline when they are fully loaded. When the head or tail descends in the waves, the water flows into the living water tank, and when it rises, the water flows out slowly, so that the ascent speed of the ship is reduced, so as to achieve the purpose of reducing pitch.

The ship has good wave-breaking performance and is suitable for deep water navigation at sea. Fuchuan also derives some ship types, such as sentinel ship (grass skimming boat), winter ship (sea cangship), bird boat (wave boat) and so on.

The sand boat is a kind of flat-bottomed sea boat that originated in Zhengming, Shanghai. The characteristics of the sand boat are: the bottom square head square bow, conducive to the sand, less resting without hindrance, shallow draft, less affected by the tide, large width and stability, there are water boards, hard water wood and other anti-shake equipment, more masts and more sails, good speed. Because the bottom of the sand boat is flat and cannot break the waves, the main navigation area is the northern sea.

According to Liu Juntao's estimate, most of the eight seagoing ships ordered by the Ministry of Commerce this time are in the style of lucky ships, after all, the high price of Guangzhou ships and sand ships are not conducive to far-sea operations.

Really!

Liu Zi'an said: "Zongzhen, these eight sea ships are all in the style of lucky ships, although there are eight of them, but they are not too big, about 400 materials. ”

Liu Juntao also converted it in his heart, and one material in the Ming Dynasty was roughly equivalent to one stone, about 100 catties.

These 400 materials are 400 stones, and the displacement is about 40 tons, plus the sails, equipment, ropes, etc. on the ship, it is estimated that there is a displacement of 50 to 60 tons.

"It's also equivalent to a patrol boat in later generations!"

Liu Juntao said secretly: "I don't believe it, eight patrol boats equipped with artillery and bird guns can't do just a few pirates!" ”

So, Liu Juntao said to Liu Zi'an: "In this way, early tomorrow morning, let's go to Dongping Island again, and this town wants to see Feng Xiang's true ability!" ”

Early the next morning, Liu Juntao took Liu Zi'an and led two hundred heavily armored iron horsemen to set off towards Andongwei, the Qingzhou Mansion.

After eleven days of galloping, Liu Juntao and his entourage rushed to Anton Wei, and the group did not rest in the acropolis, so they went to sea by boat directly under the general arrangement of the garrison, and arrived at Dongping Island on the same day.