23 miles along the coast!

This is the Qingjiang Cao Shipyard, as the only government-run Cao Shipyard in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, its factory area stretches along the canal, with a total length of 23 miles.

After Emperor Yongle moved his capital to Beijing, with the separation of the political center and the economic center, the country's demand for grain increased. At that time, the transportation of grain was carried out by the "branch transportation method", and the grain collected by Jiangnan needed to be sent to Changying Cang through the canal first, and then transferred north by the Cao army.

Due to the need to transport millions of stone grain to Beijing and other places every year, the construction of cao ships became a major military plan of the Ming Dynasty. In the seventh year of Yongle, when Pingjiang Bo Chen Xuan was in charge of Cao, he built the shipbuilding workshop of the Caojun guards along the canal between Shanyang and Qinghe, "so that the official flags of each guard station live in rows and take it as a place for shipbuilding." It is located at the confluence of the Grand Canal and the Huaishui, the Yangtze River in the south, and the sea in the east, which is "the key to the Jianghuai River and the throat of the Caoqu", which is very important to the national food security of the Ming Dynasty, so the shipyard site has a higher level of strategic considerations, and the distance of timber procurement has become a secondary factor. Over time, although Qingjiang Cao Shipyard consists of Jingwei, Weihe, Zhongdu, Zhili four large factories, a total of 80 branches, but the largest number of Qingjiang Cao Shipyard, not to mention, is the 23 miles along the factory, it is enough to prove its scale.

Even Zhu Mingzhong, who was accustomed to seeing the world and large factories in later generations, was also surprised by the huge shipyard in front of him.

"Below three generations, the capital of the state is no greater than the Cao Yun, and the Cao Yun is no greater than the boat!"

Standing on the boat, looking at the shipyard that stretched for dozens of miles along the coast, Dai Cang's sigh attracted Zhu Mingzhong's approval.

It is precisely because Cao Yun is the economic lifeline of the country, and Cao Ship is an important tool for transporting Cao grain, so all dynasties have attached great importance to the repair and maintenance of Cao Ship, and this large-scale Qingjiang Cao Shipyard is a clear proof. There are thousands of sheds in the factory area dozens of miles along the coast, and those sheds are full of mountains of wood. Dozens of ships that have been suspended can also be seen between the factories.

"After a few years, I will not return to Beijing in the next few years, and there is no possibility of recovery from this Cao Yun, even if it is the transfer of military rations and materials, it is now that the Cao boat can be used, but how can thousands of boatmen in Qingjiang be without work all day long? If this is the case, how will the shipwrights and their families, as well as the tens of thousands of people in the vicinity of the shipyard, feed themselves? ”

Dai Cang said as he cautiously observed the expression of the envoy.

"On that day, I saw that I used a water machine to drill and sharpen the pipe, so the lower officials thought that instead of abandoning this shipyard, it would be better to set up water hammers and water machines here, so that we could make weapons and guns for our loyal army, and second, we could also make these thousands of shipwrights have work to do, so that they would not starve to death......

Listening to Dai Cang's suggestion, Zhu Mingzhong did not object, but he just looked at the shipyard with interest, although he knew that the scale of the Qinghe shipyard was very large, but he never thought it would be so big, and more importantly, among the material factories and sheds along the coast, the mountains of wood are the necessary raw materials for shipbuilding, as early as Jiangyin, he had thought about shipbuilding, but in the end, because there was not enough wood, or there was no suitable for shipbuilding, after several years or even more than ten years of air-dried wood, And making shipbuilding is just an idea, but now, the wood on this shore has solved this problem.

"Jia Mei, have you ever built a sea ship here? Is it a vessel? ”

Inland river ships are important, but sea ships are even more important, especially for Zhu Mingzhong, who is bent on expanding foreign trade to solve the military problem and expanding Taiwan to solve his worries, the first thing that comes to mind is naturally sea vessels.

"Back to the scriptures, the foreign boats were originally built in the Weihe Shipyard, but later they were changed to Qingjiang, although Qingjiang can not build 2,000 sea-going ships, but can build thousand-of-a-kind seagoing ships......"

How big is a ship?

In the past, Zhu Mingzhong did not know, but through the understanding of Zheng Chenggong's fleet, he also had a certain understanding of the size and tonnage of thousands of sea ships, whose tonnage was about 500 tons, which was also the main tonnage of trading merchant ships of various countries in the Age of Discovery. Just as the British now prefer to use small galleons of 300 to 500 tons, the Spaniards use some 1,200-ton behemoths in their fleets to transport treasure. The sea ship of about 500 tons is suitable for the maritime trade of this era, which is not big or small, and it is also extremely flexible to use.

"Thousands of seagoing ships can directly enter the sea through the Yellow River, through the strategy, if it is when the water rises, thousands of five hundred seagoing ships can also enter the sea from this, but because thousands of five hundred seagoing ships need to choose the time of abundant water when entering the Yellow River, so, this Qingjiang shipyard mostly makes thousands of materials to cover the foreign ship......"

Because Dai Cang, who had already set his sights on this large shipyard and wanted to turn it into a factory with continuous water wheels, he had naturally collected information about the shipyard in many ways, and he knew it very well, but he thought that what he said was exactly what Zhu Mingzhong was interested in.

"1,500 ...... of seagoing vessels"

Staring at the shipyard that stretched for dozens of miles, Zhu Mingzhong thought for a moment before saying.

"The arsenal doesn't have to be built here, of course, it can also be co-organized, this shipyard can't be used for other purposes, the shipyard's business is shipbuilding, since there are thousands of shipbuilders here, we must make proper use of it, build ships here!"

"Shipbuilding? Omitted? Why Shipbuilding? Now the boat is enough for us. ”

In Dai Cang's view, shipbuilding is a waste now, after all, there are thousands of ships that have been captured alone, so why do you need to build new ships.

In the face of Dai Cang's puzzlement, Zhu Mingzhong just smiled slightly, most people in this era do not understand, because they do not know the importance of maritime trade, do not know that maritime trade can bring huge wealth, of course, they do not know, mastering the sea, can make Chinese civilization have room for maneuver.

After all, until now, the 100,000 army led by Dasu, as well as Shunzhi, who became a monk in Nanyuan a few years later, is training his "Eight Banners Elite" and even recruited hundreds of thousands of new green battalion soldiers, how can he not consider the back road in the face of the pressure of these hundreds of thousands of enemy troops.

"Cao boat, not a war ship!"

Zhu Mingzhong did not directly explain his thoughts, some ideas can be thought and done, but he can't tell others, if he tells others that the purpose of building sea ships is to find a way out, then it is very likely to lead to discouragement of the army. The best reason is war.

"The board of the ship is thin and cannot be loaded with guns, how can such a ship be of great use? What we need is a warship! A real warship! ”

When thinking about the warship, Zhu Mingzhong's mind first thought of the cruisers and battleships equipped with dozens of guns and hundreds of guns in the era of sails.

But...... It's just the sea!

When leaving Nanjing, Zhu Mingzhong had witnessed the slow pace of the sea ships that had to rely on manpower to tow them, and even when Zheng Chenggong attacked Nanjing, the most fundamental reason was that the sea ships were not suitable for the navigation of the Yangtze River, not only because their pointed bottom was easy to run aground, but more importantly, because the Yangtze River, especially the section from Zhenjiang to Nanjing, had to use manpower to pull the water flow.

Sea boats are not suitable for inland waterways!

This means that maritime hegemons such as sail cruisers and battleships are simply unlikely to play their role in inland rivers such as the Yangtze or Yellow River.

Warship, what kind of warship is suitable for inland waters?

In the absence of a navy for the Qing army, the development of a fleet at sea was undoubtedly a waste of financial and material resources, and what was needed now was warships capable of crisscrossing inland rivers.

What kind of warship is better suited for inland waterways?

"You mean to build a centipede ship?"

Dai Cang naturally thought of the centipede boats that the navy had exchanged for Hongyi cannons from Zheng Jun, and now those centipede ships have been equipped with Franc cannons on both sides, and there are rows of oars on both sides of the ship, which look like centipedes. This kind of ship is naturally more suitable for acting as a warship than a cao ship.

"Centipede ship!"

Dai Cang's reminder reminded Zhu Mingzhong of those ships, compared with ordinary sea ships, the multi-oared centipede boat is undoubtedly more suitable for inland waterways, but its firepower is too weak. Although those centipede ships have been equipped with Franc machines according to his vision, there is still a certain gap between them and the warships in Zhu Mingzhong's mind.

"After a while, the centipede boat is a pointed bottom, the inland river water is shallow and there are many beaches in the river, if the centipede boat is not imitated from the flat bottom of the boat, the flat-bottomed centipede boat is built to adapt to the ...... of the inland river."

Dai Cang's suggestion made Zhu Mingzhong shake his head and say.

"Although the centipede ship is far better than the Cao boat, it is far from the warship in Zhu's heart, not to mention that its board is only two feet, but those few Franc machines are unbearable, at most, it is to bully the Cao boat, and when it really fights, it is not used at all,"

While shaking his head, Zhu Mingzhong said some of his thoughts on the warship.

"What should a real warship look like? Well, first of all, it should be equipped with 8-12 Hongyi cannons of more than 8 catties, so that not only can easily destroy the enemy ship, but also can directly bombard the city on the riverbank, blast open its walls, and assist the infantry to attack the city, in addition, in the time of water battle, in addition to the gunner, other sailors can also stand on the deck, and use the turtledove gun and other large guns to kill the enemy sailor crew, and the big gun can penetrate the thin plate of the boat, in addition, its speed should be fast, to ......"

Suddenly, Zhu Mingzhong's words suddenly stopped, and another ship type appeared in his mind, a ship type that was almost eliminated, perhaps...... It can meet the needs of inland water warfare. But who knows that kind of warship? At this time, the appearance of a foreigner appeared in front of me.

"Jia Mei, that, when will Shi Si arrive?"