On the eastern outskirts of Patong City, on the west side of East Lake, in the shipyard of the Water Military Camp, three huge rectangular pools have dried up, and three large ships with pointed bottoms are now quietly parked on the wooden frames at the bottom of the pools, and many craftsmen are inspecting the hull and bottom of the boats. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

This kind of pool is called the dock, the working platform for the construction and repair of ships, which originally appeared in the Song Dynasty, and has been a common building in the Huangzhou Navy Shipyard, thanks to the appearance of the dock, the speed of building and repairing ships has been much faster.

The docks here are all dug into the ground for the pool, and some of the docks also set up movable roofs, which are not afraid of wind and rain, whether it is windy or rainy, they can build ships in them, and after the hull is built, the roof will be removed, and the mast can be erected.

If the situation is urgent, you can also light torches at night to rush to work, of course, you should be careful at this time, so as not to burn the company camp by taking water.

Huangzhou Governor, Xiyang Wang Yuwenwen, standing on the edge of a dock, carefully looking at a big ship in the dock, this is the finished product made by the craftsmen racking their brains, condensing the efforts of many people, and now returning from the voyage, there is a sense of vicissitudes.

From time to time, there was a clanging sound, and some boatmen with chisels and hammers were hammering on the sides and bottom of the hull to remove barnacles and mussels that were attached to the hull and bottom of the boat.

As ships sail at sea, they are attached to creatures such as barnacles and mussels, which make their home on the outside of the hull and thrive on the outside, which over time can roughen the smooth hull and cause a noticeable drop in speed.

Not to mention wooden ships, even the steel hulls of later generations cannot escape the doom of being parasitized, so one of the most important maintenance items of the ship when returning from sea is to eradicate barnacles and mussels attached to the hull.

Although it has only been more than a month to enter the sea, the waterline of these three ships has been visible subtle protrusions, and if they cannot be removed in time, they will become more and more numerous and rough over time, until the whole ship has a "beard".

Yu Wenwen watched for a while, walked up to the deck of the ship and entered the cabin to continue the visit, although he came up to see the ship when it was built, but at this time he had a different feeling when he looked at it, after all, it was these ships that brought back gold, silver and sulfur for him.

Shipbuilding technologies such as watertight compartments, tenon joints (laminated) nails, and perforated rudder plates, which were only mature in the Tang Dynasty, have already taken shape in this era, and are now all used on these three ships, and then promoted to naval warships.

Of course, he himself does not know the actual shipbuilding technology, and shipbuilding relies on "foreign aid".

Huangzhou is located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and the shipwrights basically have no experience in building sea ships, so Yuwen Wen used various means to bring back several skilled shipbuilders from Chen Guo as technical guidance for the construction of new ships.

The bow and tail are wide and the two ends are warped, the tail seal structure is horseshoe-shaped, the two sides are arched outward, there is a wide and flat deck, there are continuous hatches, and the side is reinforced with a thick board of split logs, which is very strong.

The bow compartment is a living water tank, also called an anti-sway cabin, with the rise or fall of the bow, the water in the live water tank can flow in or out, reducing the rocking of the ship, and the rudder plate of the stern balance rudder has rows of diamond-shaped holes, so it is very labor-saving to operate.

The whole hull is made of tenon and iron nails and joints, the two sides and the ship compartment are nailed in rows with iron nails, the iron nails are divided into two rows, and the upper and lower cross nails are nailed, and this overlapping nailing method is called herringbone seam.

There is also innovation in twist seam technology, the twist material that fills the gap is mixed with lime and tung oil, and then the hemp silk is mixed in it after repeated hammer pounding, so that the filling and water insulation effect of the twisted material is very good.

The most important technology adopted by the new ship is the watertight compartment, which is actually a ship structure, which is a major innovation in the shipbuilding technology of the Central Plains, which is to divide the cabin with a bulkhead plate and turn it into a compartment area that is not connected with each other.

In the event of damage to the hull causing one of the compartments to flood, the other compartments remain intact, ensuring the buoyancy of the vessel and increasing its resistance to sinking, while the bulkhead itself also acts as a structural strength and makes the hull stronger.

The first person to adopt watertight compartments on ships is said to be Lu Xun, the leader of the rebel army in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and the "eight-groove boat" built by him should be a ship with eight watertight compartments.

After hundreds of years of development, watertight bulkhead technology has gradually become popular in the shipbuilding industry, and thanks to the application of tenon and tenon nailing technology, the structural strength of the three new large ships is not small.

The watertight bulkhead of each ship consists of the bottom and two side ribs, as well as an underdeck beam ring, with the bulkhead before the middle part of the ship installed before the ribs, and the bulkhead after the middle after the ribs.

This installation prevents the bulkhead from moving, so that the ship's side is closely integrated with the bulkhead, firmly supporting the two sides, and strengthening the lateral strength of the hull.

At Yu Wenwen's strong request, he also added a keel for the ship, which was made of a whole piece of dried wood, like a human backbone, and strengthened the longitudinal strength of the ship.

Because the longitudinal and transverse strength of the hull has been strengthened, coupled with the stiff sails with loose rods and stiff ribs, and the pointed bottom, it is very suitable for ocean sailing.

While the boatmen were inspecting the ship inside and out, the crossbow on board was unloaded, and its performance had been significantly reduced due to the erosion of sea vapor.

This is the ship's self-defense weapon, so it must not be sloppy, and the newly installed self-defense weapon is the latest new equipment developed by the Yuwen Wenhei Workshop: the Qianxing first-year shipboard anti-board spray cannon into the sea.

In fact, it is a quicklime spraying device, which can spray a large amount of quicklime powder in an instant, and is specially used to deal with the pirates who are preparing to board the ship. The reason why the name uses "cannon" instead of "cannon" is because this thing is not gunpowder as the launch power.

Coupled with the "powerful (expensive) hand throwing flame bomb", if the Haikou dares to take the side, it is to find death, Yuwenwen decided to strengthen the armament of his fleet, so that those thieves will not return.

Not only that, but it is also necessary to increase the number of bows and arrows carried, preferring to carry less cargo for this purpose, but also to ensure the self-defense ability of the ship.

He has only a few boats, and there are not many crew members available, and it will be a big deal if something happens, so even if he makes less money, he has to give priority to ensuring safety.

In the cabin, Zhang Yu was holding the drawings and discussing with the craftsmen that they would add cabins to the ship so that they could accommodate more people, who would be armed sailors, ready to fight the pirates on deck.

The land merchants were escorted by dart masters, and the sea voyage could only rely on the armament of the ship itself to defend itself, Zhang Yu thought about it, and still felt that increasing the number of sailors on each ship and strengthening the armament of the ship was the best choice to deal with the pirates.

Increasing the number of sailors also requires the corresponding water, food and other supplies, which will also take up space in the hold, but this is the price that must be paid, Zhang Yu wants to make those with bad intentions realize that his fleet is not a fat sheep to be slaughtered.

The plan has been decided, Zhang Yu was about to report the specific situation to Lang Master Yu Wenwen, when he saw him looking at the dock on the side, he couldn't help but look in the direction as well.

There was a new, freshly built ship, also built with novel shipbuilding techniques, but with a slightly narrow hull, a knife-like bow, and ramming horns.

The size of the Xiyang King's sea trade fleet will change from three to four, and the new ships that will be extra are not merchant ships, but warships that can chase prey at sea.

Fishing boats and merchant ships on the sea may turn into pirates at any time and attack passing ships, making it impossible to guard against them, so the fleet of the King of Xiyang must also have the corresponding ability.

All the unidentified ships that are following the fleet, since they are coming, don't go!