The first batch of talent training is almost, Zhu Cijiong can finally consider the problem of shipbuilding, speaking of this shipbuilding, his first thought is Zheng He went to the West, more than 200 years ago, Ming Chengzu Yongle Emperor Zhu Di in order to promote the prestige of the Ming Dynasty, forced the Western countries to pay tribute, sent the three treasure eunuch Zheng He to lead a huge fleet to the Western Ocean seven times, then the Ming Dynasty was so strong, what a majesty.

It is rumored that the largest treasure ship in Zheng He's fleet is 44 zhang 4 feet long and 18 zhang wide, which is converted into the current length of 151 meters long and 61 meters wide. Take modern ships as a comparison, the largest Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is 333 meters long and 77 meters wide, that is to say, the length of Zheng He's treasure ship is half of the current largest aircraft carrier, and the width is only about ten meters.

Of course, Zhu Cijiong didn't need to consider the unrealistic problem of Zheng He's treasure ship, because he didn't need to build this kind of super giant ship with a displacement of tens of thousands of tons, and the battleships given by the system were not so huge, and the largest first-class sail battleship was only 70 meters long and 20 meters wide, with a displacement of only about 3,000 tons.

In the early days of the Ming Dynasty, it was indeed the most advanced in the world in terms of shipbuilding technology, but Zhu Cijiong did not know whether the shipbuilding technology of the Ming Dynasty had degraded after more than two hundred years, and the problem of building warships had to be clarified, so he summoned Xu Guangqi, who was the most senior, and Bi Maokang, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, to the imperial study to understand the situation first.

These two people are his cronies among his cronies, so naturally there is no need to beat around the bush when talking to them, Zhu Cijiong asked directly: "Teacher, I want to build a batch of warships with a length of 21 zhang and a width of 6 zhang, I don't know if I can build it now?" ”

When Xu Guangqi heard this, he first glanced at Bi Maokang, and saw that he was calm and abnormal, and he didn't have any embarrassed look, so he replied: "Your Majesty, according to my current shipbuilding capacity in the Ming Dynasty, such a large warship can be built, but the investment is quite large, and it takes a long time, I don't know why the emperor suddenly thought of building a warship?" ”

Zhu Cijiong was naturally very happy when he heard that there was no problem with shipbuilding, but as for the problem of large consumption, when the time comes, with the Invincible Armada, are you afraid that you won't be able to get it back! Naturally, there was no need to hide his ambitions in front of his most trusted cronies, and he patiently explained: "Teacher, you are familiar with Western countries, you should know the Netherlands, now they have thousands of warships and 10,000 merchant ships, and they are one of the best maritime powers!" You say that if I don't hurry up and build a warship, how will I make the four Yi surrender at that time, and how will I restore the glory of my kingdom tomorrow? ”

When Xu Guangqi heard this, he was shocked: "Ah, there are so many, it seems that they have been established for less than 50 years, and in just over 40 years, they have been able to build so many warships and so many merchant ships!" ”

Zhu Cijiong sighed: "Yes, in just over forty years, they have developed to such a strong level, if my Ming Dynasty does not catch up, the whole world will be divided by them, and the Ming Dynasty is likely to become their target, you must know that the Netherlands has already occupied our treasure island, if it weren't for the construction of slaves, I would have wanted to clean them up a long time ago." ”

Xu Guangqi nodded solemnly, and asked, "I don't know how many warships the emperor wants to build at one time?" ”

Zhu Cijiong looked at Bi Maokang and hoped: "Naturally, the more the better, I don't know how many such warships I can build in a year?" ”

When Bi Maokang heard this, he hurriedly said: "If you want to build such a large warship, you must rebuild the dock, I have not built such a large warship for a long time, and the docks of Nanzhili Bao Shipyard have been abandoned, I don't know how many large docks can be used." ”

Zhu Cijiong immediately shook his head and said: "It can't be built in Nanzhili, the new warship must be equipped with a lot of artillery, and it is very inconvenient to build guns here and there, so let's build a shipyard directly in Tianjin Weixin City, just build it on the largest scale, how many warships can be built in a year?" ”

Bi Maokang replied embarrassedly: "Well, this is not a matter of the size of the shipyard, the shipbuilders registered in the Ministry of Industry and the Department of Water Cleaning are now less than 20,000 households, even if they are all gathered, at most ten large docks can be allowed to start shipbuilding at the same time, and the dock waterway is generally about one mile, which can only accommodate five such large ships at the same time, and ten docks are fifty." ”

Zhu Cijiong said without hesitation: "Then fifty ships, I will draw the sketch to you in the next two days, and immediately gather people to start construction as soon as possible." ”

When Bi Maokang heard this, he said with some embarrassment: "Your Majesty, this shipbuilding costs a lot, and it costs at least 300,000 taels to build a dock, and if 20,000 shipbuilders are recruited to work, the monthly food and salary will be nearly 100,000 taels, and there are various materials and transportation losses, and it will cost at least 200,000 taels in January, and the Ministry of Industry can't bear it." ”

How could it be possible to let the Ministry of Industry pay for it, Zhu Cijiong said directly: "You don't have to worry about the problem of silver, go back and write a note, I will allocate three million taels to you first, and then talk about it if it is not enough." ”

Bi Maokang was finally relieved, the problem of money was solved, then there would be no problem, so he thanked Xu Guangqi and retired.

After the two left, Zhu Cijiong immediately began to draw a drawing, to say that a seventy-meter-long battleship is all disassembled and drawn into parts drawing, then it is estimated that it will not be able to draw it for a year or two, fortunately, Daming's shipbuilding technology is already very developed, he only needs to draw a rough appearance, how many sheets are used and how to connect, it is estimated that those shipbuilding craftsmen are more familiar than him, and he does not need to draw it at all.

Although he only needs to draw a simple sketch, there are many parts of a battleship, and he can't just draw a shell, there are some things in it that still have to be drawn. Zhu Cijiong drew one after another, it was called a ghost painting talisman, and while he was drawing, he suddenly thought of a question and fainted, this naval gun has not been arranged for someone to do it!

A first-class sail battleship can have one hundred and two naval guns, and fifty ships are five thousand and one thousand naval guns, which is the current production capacity of Wang Gongchang, and it is impossible to make so many naval guns in a year, not to mention that these naval guns are still breech-loading type, and they are also equipped with flint engines, which are not the same as field guns at all, and they have to be redeveloped, Zhu Cijiong hurriedly asked Cao Huachun to summon Sun Yuanhua and Song Yingxing to come and discuss.

Soon, Sun Yuanhua and Song Yingxing came together, the two of them changed their hurried appearance in the past, and looked quite leisurely, Zhu Cijiong couldn't help but ask curiously: "Hey, haven't you always been very busy, why are you so relaxed today?" ”

Sun Yuanhua immediately bowed his hand and said: "The emperor is wise, let the students of the Firearms Academy go to study on the spot, they are worthy of being scholars, they learn quickly, and now they are more familiar with the principles and manufacturing of muskets and artillery, just leave anything to them, so Weichen is finally a little more leisurely." ”

When Zhu Cijiong heard this, he said with relief: "Well, yes, it seems that they are all more talented in Western learning, but the development of firearms cannot be classified into one category, you should teach them according to their respective strengths, for example, some people have a lot of experience in production and manufacturing, so you train them to manage craftsmen; Some people are very enthusiastic about the principles of muskets and artillery, so you train them to develop new types of firearms; Some people have a rigorous attitude and work seriously, so you train him to be responsible for acceptance. You can't expect all these students to become all-rounders, and a little bit of detail is conducive to their development, and you should pay more attention to this in the future. ”

When the two heard this, they experienced it a little, and couldn't help but glance at each other with admiration, and praised in unison: "The emperor is wise." ”

Zhu Cijiong waved his hand and said with a smile: "These are all small things, you will slowly understand it when you teach it, I asked you to come this time to discuss the issue of naval artillery production with you." ”

Sun Yuanhua couldn't help but ask curiously: "Dare to ask the emperor, what kind of cannon is the naval artillery?" ”

Zhu Cijiong patiently explained: "Naval guns are the guns equipped on warships, and now there are many warships equipped with dozens or even hundreds of guns in the West, they call them battleships, and I am also ready to produce this kind of battleships. ”

Song Sun Yuanhua was shocked when he heard this: "A warship costs one hundred and two cannons, and fifty ships cost more than five thousand cannons!" ”

Zhu Cijiong nodded, then took out a blank piece of paper, drew a sketch, pointed to the drawing and introduced to them: "This naval gun is not the same as the field gun used by the infantry, in order to facilitate loading, it must be made into a breech load, just like this, it is a bit similar to the Franc machine gun, but this sub-gun barrel is stuffed in from the back, and the front main gun barrel is directly cast into a small front and a large through pipe in the back. Also, the ship is constantly moving at sea, so you can't use the arquebus to ignite the fire, otherwise the enemy ship will not be in its original position after the arquebus is burned, so the hit rate is too low, and it must be made into a flintlock type, just like a new flintlock pistol. ”

The two looked at the sketch and nodded frequently, this sub-tube breech loading and flintlock machine are nothing, the Franc cannon is with a sub-tube, they are all familiar with it, as for the flintlock pistol, they are more familiar, this flintlock machine is just to make it bigger, basically there is no difficulty.

Zhu Cijiong saw that they didn't have any doubts, so he took out the map of Tianjin Weixincheng, pointed to a small square in the middle, and said: "The new artillery factory is going to be built here, mainly manufacturing the mother tube, sub-tube and shells of naval guns, as for the flintlock machine, there are too many machine tools needed, so it will be done in the Wang Gong factory, what do you think?" ”

The two looked at each other in embarrassment, and finally Song Yingxing spoke: "Your Majesty, it's not difficult to make naval artillery, the key is that there is no one, I'm leaving, what should Wang Gongchang do here?" ”

Zhu Cijiong thought about it for a while, then stared at Sun Yuanhua and said: "Chuyang, I can only let you work hard, bring three hundred students and one thousand skilled craftsmen over, and recruit another 10,000 craftsmen. ”

The personnel were all settled, and the two had no problems, so they both retired and went back to prepare personnel and machine tools.

Everything was arranged, Zhu Cijiong sighed, sat down and continued to draw sketches of battleships, as sketches were born under his pen, he seemed to see the first batch of sail battleships of the Ming Dynasty jump out of the paper, the more towards the sea, sail into the distance.

In the era of maritime hegemony, Daming has finally caught up!