Yuzhou Island, as the largest island in Jiangbei, this island is only a few miles away from the mainland, has always been the most important port of the Zhongyi Navy, although Keelung in Taiwan has better port conditions, but it cannot change the reality that Yuzhou Island is the foundation of the navy.

The reason why Yuzhou Island is the most important base of the Navy is not only because of its well-equipped docks, but also because it has a large shipyard and thousands of craftsmen, and of course, a smelter and a cannon foundry. The oak wood brought from North Korea is dried in a drying workshop, and the high-quality low-phosphorus and low-sulfur iron ore is smelted here and then cast into artillery.

It is precisely because of the complete infrastructure that Yuzhou Island has become more and more important in the navy, and even, together with the naval yamen, has been moved to Yuzhou, and in the military affairs yamen in Qinghe, only a "naval department" sign and a dozen liaison officers are retained.

But that's why it couldn't be simpler to dare to delegate power like this - the navy can never be separated from the mainland. Once it is separated from the mainland, it will become a rootless weed.

"Does Your Excellency the Admiral know how many oak trees are needed to build a Victory? I can tell you that it takes 2,500 high-quality oak trees, which is equivalent to 60 acres of 100-year-old oak forest, which is more than 360 acres of woodland, and I can tell you clearly! ”

Shi Si, who was dressed in a navy uniform, looked at the person sitting in front of him, and said in a tone that was almost roaring.

"Now, we don't have even an acre of oak forest, the oak trees we need for shipbuilding, some of the smaller timbers come from Henan, Shandong and other places, and the large-size timber comes entirely from North Korea, which is unimaginable in any country,"

As the most important shipbuilding engineer in the navy, Shi Si has designed and supervised a large number of warships in the past two years, and with the drawings of the "Victory" and "Constitution" obtained from Zhu Mingzhong, his mastery of shipbuilding technology far exceeds that of his European counterparts at this time, and even in the construction of the "Victory" - Zhu Mingzhong did not even change his name, the most prestigious sail warship in later generations, Shi Si even found that there were certain flaws in the design of the "Victory", and the warship was out of proportion- Too wide, too high, too small bottom compensation volume.

Now he has handed over the matter of supervising the construction of the "Victory" to his students - the Qinghe Academy has opened a shipping department, and the shipping department is not located in the Qinghe Academy, but on Yuzhou Island, and the naval school on the other side of the island is regarded as the "two naval schools", because the main body of the "Victory" has been completed, so Shi Si will re-invest in the design of the new first-class warship, of course, based on the "Victory" to improve the design, and the final product surpasses the "Victory" in tonnage and firepower.

And that's why he came into conflict with him, his request for the construction of a new ship of the first rank, was rejected, and the reason for the rejection was very simple - there was no wood.

"What is the situation of foreigners, this admiral does not know, but, this is the situation of my Daming, no way, let alone shipbuilding, even the emperor Lao Tzu built a palace without big wood, we can now have North Korean wood to use, it is already good, and in the future, the new forest farm is opened, no need for you to say, I will agree with you to build a new first-class ship, but now, the fourth-class cruiser is the mainstream of the navy's future construction, as for the first-class ship, the second-class ship, the third-class ship, there is no way, with the same amount of wood, I can build four cruisers, Their firepower is definitely more than that of a first-class ship, not to mention ......"

Looking directly at Shi Si, his tone was extremely unhappy, he was indeed very unhappy, not only because the fleet was now taken away by Wang Anmin, but more importantly, as a naval admiral, in many cases, he was an ornament, and he could not meddle in the affairs of the fleet at all-fleet, there was a fleet admiral in charge, and as for the operation, the government office directly interrogated, so that he, the admiral of the navy, became an ornament, that is, he still had the right to speak on shipbuilding and other issues. Now that Shi Si is confronting him like this, how can he be happy?

However, the reason why he refused was not because of Shi Si's rudeness, but because it was not necessary at all.

"Besides, you know, now that we have built the Victory and its sister ship, the Triumph, which far surpasses the British Sea King in terms of firepower and tonnage, and they are the most powerful warships in the world, don't you say? In the next decade or so, Europe will not be able to build warships to compete with it. And the tonnage of firepower of our cruisers is also very strong, and now, it is too much waste to build a new type of first class ship! ”

As the admiral of the navy, he did not let his personal feelings influence his decision, perhaps Shi Si's confrontation made him extremely dissatisfied, but as the admiral of the navy, he still knew very well that a warship more powerful than the "Victory class" was not what the navy needed, because once the "Victory class" was put into service, there would be no opponent in the whole world, and in this case, it would undoubtedly be a bit of a waste to build a new type of first-class warship.

In contrast, those fourth-class ships with fast speed and strong firepower are what the navy needs, after all, the navy needs to be met first in terms of quantity.

"Now, what the Navy needs is a sufficient number of fourth-tier ships! I don't think you have any objection to this, after all, now, we need warships in many places! ”

The Admiral's refusal made Shi Si stunned, and he even looked at it with some puzzlement, and then said.

"We need more warships, but we also need bigger and stronger warships, only in this way can we threaten the navies of European countries, and only then can they agree that Nanyang belongs to the sphere of influence of the Ming Dynasty, Your Excellency, the wrestling at sea is realistic, as long as our warships are bigger than theirs, they will choose to retreat instead of fighting!"

Because he often went in and out of the Economic and Strategic Envoy's Office, Shi Si naturally knew that the difference between that Economic and Strategic Envoy and other Chinese officials was that although he was not born by the sea, he knew the sea better, and even knew the sea far better than Zheng Chenggong.

Shi Si, who used to be in the Zheng Jiajun, knew very well that perhaps Zheng Chenggong had gained a huge fortune through maritime trade, but it was limited to this, and only stopped at trade, unlike the Jing Zhi Envoy, who also saw a more far-reaching future while dabbling in maritime trade, according to Thomas and others, the Jing Cheng was a "Chinese with a Western vision" in this regard. It is for this reason that they all asserted that when the Manchus were expelled from China, they would certainly show their power to the Spaniards, Dutch, and other Europeans in the South Seas, and even clash with them because of the colonies.

In this case, Shi Si's consideration is naturally to win the war at the lowest cost, and winning without a fight is the best choice, and if you want to win without a fight, you must have the power to make the enemy fear, and a powerful first-class ship is the best choice.

"A large number of people can also achieve this purpose."

The Admiral's answer made Shi Si's brows furrow, and he immediately retorted.

"If it is a large number of first-class warships, it is easier for the enemy country to collapse for it, and even lose the courage to fight!"

In the face of such differences, as a naval admiral, he took a deep breath and finally sighed.

"Well, like you said, there are a lot of first-class ships, it is indeed possible to intimidate people, but ......"

His eyes looked directly at Shi Si and said in an extremely helpless tone.

"You also know that now, we simply don't have enough timber to build ships, even the two "Victory class" have consumed a lot of wood, which even affects the expansion of the navy, which is undoubtedly not in line with the needs of the development of the navy, if you can get enough wood, I have no objection, and even I will personally apply to the envoy to build a new first-class ship, but where does the wood for shipbuilding come from? ”

Where does the timber for shipbuilding come from?

This rhetorical question made Shi Si's mind sink, and he didn't know that the current shortage of shipbuilding materials made it difficult for Yuzhou Shipyard to fully exert its strength. It is obviously impossible to build a warship from ordinary wood, the durability of other woods is too poor. However, timber from North Korea is limited by various factors such as transportation capacity and harvesting volume.

"It's almost an unsolvable problem!"

Although he didn't want to admit it, Shi Si still said in a helpless tone.

"Due to long-term deforestation, the forest area in Chinese mainland has been greatly reduced, and the amount of wood used for shipbuilding can be said to be quite tight, and the number of oak trees suitable for shipbuilding is not much, if we want to change this reality, I am afraid we need to consider large-scale planting and establish a special forest farm for the navy!"

Navy Dedicated Forest Farm!

Shi Si's eyes lit up when he made this suggestion, and he immediately thought of the mountains in the southwestern part of Jiangbei.

"Your Excellency, when I went to Suzhou last year, I noticed that although there are forests on many mountains there, most of them are miscellaneous trees, and the trees are not very old, if we can plant a large number of oak trees on those mountains, then in a few decades or a hundred years, those trees will be the best materials for shipbuilding, and we will no longer need to worry about the problem of shipbuilding wood......

When Shi Si made this suggestion, he just smiled at him, as if he was looking at some kind of joke, planting trees?

"Planting trees?"

He looked at Shi Si with a smile and asked rhetorically.

"How many years does it take? Decades? A hundred years? When the time comes? By then, we'll all be in a pile of dust! What do you want to do so far? ”

"Your Excellency, if we don't start preparing all this now, then, in the future, in a hundred years, such problems will only get worse, and when the time comes, your successors will face the same problems, and they will be troubled by the same problems, shouldn't we help them solve this problem?"

Just as Shi Si's words fell, there was a faint sound of cannons outside the window, and anyone could hear the sound of the cannon, it was a salute.

A warship with a long voyage has entered the port......

Some of them were distracted by this thought, but they didn't have the slightest interest in Shi Si's suggestion.