On the slipway of the shipyard on the seashore, more than a dozen ships of a few feet long were lined up, several of them had been nailed to the planks, even the masts had begun to be installed, and a few of the ribs were exposed, and the ribs of the ships were so tightly connected that there was hardly the slightest gap.

The half-foot-thick rib is the foundation of the ship's durability, and when the hull is nailed with a thickness of several inches, the craftsmen will first twist the drill with the hand of the wood, drill finger-thick nail holes in the hull plank and rib, and then nail into the nail, which is to avoid excessive squeezing of the nail on the board or rib, resulting in cracks near the nail hole.

It was the first time Zhu Mingzhong had witnessed 17th-century shipbuilding, and it was a far cry from what he had imagined, with even the pointed six or seven-foot-long iron nails dipped in oil in barrels before they were driven into holes drilled into the ship's planks. More precisely, these nails are soaked in oil.

"Why do these nails need to be soaked in oil?"

Zhu Mingzhong turned his head and asked Shi Si, he has been supervising the construction of warships on Yuzhou Island, and at this time, naturally only he can explain this doubt.

"In fact, these oils are pine tar, and in addition to the iron nails to be soaked in oil during shipbuilding, the inside of this borehole also needs to be oiled......"

Shi Si pointed to the child laborers who were smearing the holes with black pine tar to the side.

"With pine tar as protection, even if the nails are rusted, it will not affect the hull and ribs, and the pine tar will also protect the nails, which has been used in this way since the time of the Vikings, and of course wood tar was used to fill the gaps between the planks......"

Shi Si's explanation made Zhu Mingzhong walk to the side of the boat and take a serious look at the iron nails that had been nailed, and there was a layer of black and pasty asphalt-like wood tar on the surface and around the nails as protection. There is a vague impression that there will be serious corrosion between the wood and the raw iron.

"If it is not protected, then in the place where the nails are connected, the corrosion will start to spread by those nails, of course, the process is slow, after a few years, ten years, under the erosion of seawater, the nails will rust in the ship's plank, and finally the ship's board will rot from the position of the nail hole."

Finally, Shi Si shrugged his shoulders helplessly, and then said.

"Of course, it is also possible to drive the nails directly into the iron without any protection, but in that case, the life of the ship will definitely be affected."

The devil is in the details!

Looking at the child laborers who smeared wood tar into the drill holes like brushes resembling a gun, Zhu Mingzhong thought to himself that perhaps this was the reason why Chinese ships and European ships went in two completely different directions, and European naval architects continued to improve the performance of their ships through these inconspicuous details.

"These ships, it seems, are a little longer than sloops, and they are the brigs you were talking about?"

Looking at an unfinished ship with two masts not far away, Zhu Mingzhong asked rhetorically, the main force of the Loyal Army's navy is not the three cruisers, but as many as 20 sloops equipped with 12 or 14 7-pound guns, that is, the so-called "Slupp ship", which is designed for speed and agility from bow to stern, and its hull length is generally about 20 meters, usually only one mast, with one or two sails and a large diagonal truss mainsail hanging on it. From a distance, it looks like the dorsal fin of a shark as it swims on the surface. Whether crosswind or downwind, this type of boat can achieve a huge sail area to propel the hull forward. Its signature long bow mast is like a sharp sword straight ahead, and the large bow mast sail on it provides excellent steering and headwind performance.

Of course, the reason why it was chosen as the main force of the fleet, in addition to its excellent performance, more importantly, it was easy to build, and in both Qinghe Shipyard and Yuzhou Shipyard, as many as 36 sloops were built at the same time in just one winter.

But although it looks small, its firepower can still be described as strong in the seas of East Asia, unless there are 12 or 14 7-pound guns, and there are ten small Franc machines above its gunwale. It is equivalent to a "giant" equipped with "24" cannons, of course, it is not "giant" at all, but in terms of firepower, it is enough to cross the sea.

"The number of guns on the sloop is too small, and the guns are too light, if you use a brig, you can increase to 16 9-pound guns, I personally think that the future naval fleet should try to unify the artillery and avoid the use of guns under 9 pounds, like the Francophone cannon can also be removed."

Unifying the caliber of the navy's artillery, although this suggestion seems simple, still made Zhu Mingzhong deeply agree, but his suggestion was immediately refuted.

"After a while, this matter must not be, according to the drills of the navy, if we don't have a small franc machine on our ship, we can't stop the enemy's arson boat, and as we all know, Shi Lang and other Qing Shui sailors are best at arson boats!"

Wang Anmin, who was the commander of the rear army of the navy, did not sit idle in the past winter, but used small boats to play the role of arson ships many times, which were common combat ships in naval battles before the 18th century. Before the 18th century, the firepower of battleships was not enough to sink large enemy ships, and fleet commanders needed auxiliary weapons powerful enough to destroy enemy ships and naval guns to achieve success. This weapon is the arsonboat. An arsonist ship is a self-destructing weapon that is fought by spontaneously igniting in the vicinity of an enemy ship, thereby setting it on fire. Once successful, it can quickly burn a huge battleship, which can be called a man-operated torpedo in ancient naval warfare.

"After a while, although the range of this Franc machine is short, it cannot penetrate the thick plate, but a mother gun of the Franc machine is often equipped with ten sub-guns, and there are only sons in these guns and grapes, after each gun is shot, it can be quickly replaced, the rate of fire is far from being comparable to the Hongyi cannon, and it is fixed on the gunwale, just like a large bird gun is easy to aim, according to past tests, it is used to attack arson ships or when the enemy tries to take the gunwale, this sub-mother gun is the most suitable! There is no reason to abolish it! ”

Wang Anmin, who was afraid that Jingluo agreed with Shi Si's "bad idea", then added.

"Furthermore, the reason why this dhow has great firepower is precisely because of the ten or so guns on this ship, if there is no help from the sons and mothers, how can its firepower be compared to the bird ship? After all, half of the bird ship is also a child-mother gun! ”

"Admiral, if you find it useful, then keep it, in short, it is artillery that determines the victory or defeat of the sea, and as for arson ships and broadside battles, they will soon be eliminated, after all, the power of artillery is constantly increasing!"

Regarding Shi Si's point of view, Zhu Mingzhong nodded approvingly, and then pointed to the warships in the distance, which were generally much larger than these small boats, and said with emotion.

"By the time our third-class ships enter service, the mode of naval warfare will be turned upside down!"

The third-class ship, long before coming to Yuzhou, Zhu Mingzhong had already formulated the classification of future naval warships with reference to the classification standards of sail warships in later generations. The so-called third-class ship refers to a ship with more than 70 guns and less than 80 guns. With its formidable firepower, arson ships and broadside battles will be a thing of the past.

In fact, as early as 1588, in the Anglo-Spanish naval battle, the broadside battle has been eliminated, Francis Drake abandoned the traditional "broadside battle" in the naval battle, and creatively used the "column tactics" to defeat the invincible armada of Spain, the maritime hegemon at that time, in Drake's words: "The affairs of the sea should be solved by the ship, and it has nothing to do with the infantry." ”

It is precisely because he understands this that he will order the shipyard to build this kind of large warship, after all, when building the cruiser, the shipyard has accumulated enough experience, this third class ship can be regarded as a reduced version of the "Victory", of course, compared to the collection of hundreds of years of experience in the British shipbuilding industry in one Victory is very large, but it is an attempt after all. Because such a large warship has never been built, there is no requirement for its construction speed at all, but the shipyard is required to be as good as possible. In the future, it can be used as the main ship of the Navy.

"Jinglu, the form of naval warfare has changed since the Anglo-Western naval battle!"

Thomas, an Englishman, was the former captain of the "Vostok" who brought modern seafaring techniques and tactics to the Loyal Army, and is now an instructor at the Liandao Naval Academy, where he is also a military adviser to the fleet.

"In the Anglo-Spanish naval battle in 1588, most of the English warships were light and light fast sailing ships, except for sailors, without any infantry, this kind of ship was flexible and light, easier to turn and break through, it was in order to give full play to this advantage, General Drake decisively abandoned the backward way of "broadside warfare", and used Drake to invent the "column tactics" in the battle, so that the ships were arranged head to tail, and the guns on the side of the ship were constantly bombarded with enemy ships, which was a revolution in the history of naval warfare. From then on, artillery replaced infantry as the protagonist of naval warfare, and the fate of the Spanish fleet was predestined before the war began. And now ......"

Pointing to the small sloops on the harbor mooring, these small warships with only more than 100 sailors are the main force of the Loyal Army, which are twenty-two small warships with only 12-14 guns, they may be small in size, but compared with the fast sailing ships in the US-West naval war, these small guys with a displacement of no more than 200 tons are undoubtedly more flexible, faster, and more suitable for this tactic.

"We are like the fleet of the English Navy back then, perhaps we do not have a numerical superiority, so the only thing we can rely on is to seek a tactical breakthrough and win future naval battles by being ahead of the enemy's tactics! Defeat your enemies! Omitted! ”

Then, his words changed again.

"Of course, we have to solve the problem of quantity first, which means that we have to solve the problem of wood!"