At the beginning of 1643, the port of Vostochny was in the middle of summer. On the banks of the beautiful Big Fish River, long wooden benches fixed to the ground are placed at intervals. The wooden chairs are surrounded by fruit trees, many of which were planted by their own hands more than a decade ago, and now bear fruit, just like the country that was created by the people who traveled through it.

In the Dayuhe Naval Shipyard, Liu Weimin, the newly appointed chairman of the executive committee, sat on a bench and looked at the quietly flowing Dayuhe River, and was speechless for a long time. Sitting with him is Xiao Bailang, who has stepped down as a member of the transportation commission, and now he has officially assumed the position of director of the Dayuhe Naval Shipyard, and at the same time he is also the chairman of the National River Widening and Dredging Committee, which looks extremely strange.

Liu Weimin was born as a teacher in middle school, and since the day he crossed, he has served as one of the original members of the seven-member committee, but later, due to personality and other reasons, he gradually faded out of the political front of the East Bank and became the chairman of the People's Congress. At the end of last year, when the term of office of the old government came to an end, most of the people were scheduled to step down from their current positions as members of the Central Executive Committee, and a new round of political reshuffle, at least on the surface, began in the political arena of the East Coast Republic, which had been stable for many years.

In desperation, Liu Weimin, who didn't want to wade into this muddy water, was pushed to the throne of the chairman of the executive committee. Liu Weimin, who knew that his foundation was insufficient, suddenly had a big head, and he had not slept even a good day since he took office, and the first major thing he faced was about how to transport immigrants from the East.

First of all, it has to be said that this is a big deal. A very complex and extremely important event. It tests the production, transportation, and armament capabilities of the East Coast Republic of China. and the overall planning, coordination and organizational capacity of the new Government. The members of the ambitious new government have put forward the slogan of "big shipbuilding". And it has already begun to be put into practice. Liu Weimin basically agrees with this point. With the gradual opening up of the Far East, there will definitely be more and more immigrants gathered in Heishui Port and even the two strongholds of Jinshan Port and Gushan Port in Australia in the future. Then, it became inevitable to start building new ships immediately.

So, after finally finishing the batch of things that have accumulated at hand. Early this morning (15 February), Liu Weimin took a horse-drawn carriage to the Dayuhe Naval Shipyard outside the southern city of Dongfang Port to inspect the construction progress of several ships in the shipyard. In addition to the fifth ship "Grouper," the Navy's "Falkland"-class frigate gunboat ordered by the Navy in the slipway, two other 650-ton flute-type transport ships were the focus of the investigation. Lao Liu looked very carefully, climbed up and down, no, only inspected for more than two hours, this old arm and old leg is a little unbearable, and needs to sit down and rest.

Speaking of the fact that the East Coasters have now equipped as many as eleven flute-type transport ships, we have to mention its many advantages. For example, the use of materials is low, and the cargo efficiency of the same tonnage is high. The ultimate advantage, of course, is that it requires very few sailors – only 18-20 sailors are needed to operate such a 650-ton medium-sized boat. You must know that what people on the east coast lack now is sailors. Whether it is an ocean-going transport ship, a small river steamer, or the two major fleets of the Navy, a large number of sailors are needed to fill their countless vacant jobs. So, since there is such a low-cost, large-volume, and only a very small number of sailors (10 East Coast sailors + 10 Malay slave sailors) can operate, although its speed is a little slower, but it is definitely the first choice of the East Coast people at this time.

Of course, the people of the East Coast did not give up on the development and production of large-tonnage clippers. Due to the imminent immigration action and the fact that there was no time to develop ships of larger tonnage, the two shipyards simply took the drawings of the multi-functional expedition ship "Fubo" of the modern special shipyard, and after a little revision, they designed the first large-scale flying shear sailing ship with practical use value in the shipbuilding history of the East Coast Republic of China - the "Scud" class three-masted sailing ship with a full load displacement of 1,200 tons. The design of the sailboat is similar to that of previous expedition ships, as it has a fixed course and is easy to wind and current, so the foremast and midmast are crosssailed, and the backmast is a schooner. In order to reduce the number of sailors needed, a small steam engine was installed on board to assist in sailing.

"The seven ships on the slipways of the two shipyards will not be delivered until the end of April, so the construction of the Scud-class big shear carriers is estimated to be delayed until early May." Xiao Bailang lit a pipe for Liu Weimin, and then lit one for himself, saying while smoking.

"The supply of timber in the new Huaxia area is quite sufficient, which is the biggest problem that has helped us solve it. After all, these shipyards are state-owned enterprises, and we only need to pay the workers, and we don't need to pay any other big costs. Fortunately, otherwise, the government would not have had the financial resources to build so many ships in one go. Liu Weimin said with emotion, "With the ship, then everything is easy to say." ”

"After the ships transporting migrants departed from Gushan Port, most of the sea area they traveled through was low-latitude waters, and the sea conditions were relatively stable, but the weather was relatively hot. In such an environment, food and drinking water are highly susceptible to spoilage, and can also cause large-scale infectious diseases, so it is best to put the clippers in this section of the sea to minimize the sailing time due to their high speed. By the way, the Ministry of Communications developed a derivative model on the basis of the 'Scud' class large clipper a while ago. This variant was designed with immigrants in mind, so the internal structure of the ship is different from that of a traditional cargo ship or warship. Its interior space is relatively large, but it is divided into independent small rooms, each small room can accommodate 3-4 people, which translates to 500-600 people per ship. In addition, several ventilation fans driven by steam engines are installed throughout the interior cabin space to facilitate the removal of dirty air from the cabin and replace it with fresh air. In addition, there are small desalination plants on board, which burn coal, to ensure that drinking water can continue for some time in the event of a problem. Xiao Bailang said.

He is currently the director of the Dayuhe Naval Shipyard, so he is more aware of these situations. Considering the general poor health of the immigrants from the Ming Kingdom, it was necessary to develop a special immigration ship to ensure the survival rate of these frail Ming immigrants at sea as much as possible. However, the construction of such a vessel is also extremely expensive. And because of the numerous independent compartments, the purpose of such a ship is still very limited, and it can even be said that it can only be used to transport troops or migrants, so this further increases the cost of building this ship.

High costs, lengthy man-hours, and a narrow range of uses make the Scud-Armor type a luxury item. For this reason, after the start of the construction plan for the big clippers in early May, the Ministry of Communications even planned to build only two to test the water, while the rest were all "Scud" basic types (i.e., cargo ships).

"That's it for now. I don't know how far Mo Ming can do there, and whether he can collect enough people. Liu Weimin said with some concern, and then said with a smile: "Even if you can't open the situation for a while, with those few big ships, self-protection is not a problem." Moreover, they set up their base in such extremely remote and bitter cold places as Sakhalin Island and Rishiri Island, which are really difficult for ordinary people to find for a while, and the fishery resources there are extremely rich, and if there are enough fishing boats and sailors, then the food problem is not insurmountable. Let's think about our own problems first, don't when someone catches us, but there are not enough ships to transport it, then it will be our dereliction of duty. So, how are the transport vessels arranged for the other segments? How much is needed in total? ”

"From the mainland to Hezhongbao, Hezhongbao to Xinhuabao, Xinhuabao to Gushan Port, these three sections are responsible for the local Ministry of Transportation, relying on the existing cargo ships to and from various places to pull people, but the number of ships may not be enough, and the cycle of transporting people will most likely be very long. As for the two sections from Heishui Port to Jinshan Port and Jinshan Port to Gushan Port, the Blackwater Pioneer Team is in charge. It is Mo Ming's business to arrange the specific arrangement, but I estimate that they do not have enough ships, so they still have to continue to build new ships at the Hyundai Factory. The 62.8-horsepower steam engine of the second engine factory has also been put into practical use, so it can be used on a faster and more efficient sailing ship, the only thing to worry about is whether the ship will be able to use up the materials at that time. At present, the big fish river plant and the Zhenhai plant have occupied a large number of ship material resources, and a large number of 72-ton inland river small steamers will be built soon, coupled with the Luomei line railway double-track project that has started construction, this timber resources are very tight, I don't know what the limit capacity of the new Huaxia wood processing plant is, I am afraid they have to expand production. Xiao Bailang reminded.

"Then let them expand their production." After listening to it for a long time, Liu Weimin finally came to say, "The population over there is quite a lot now, and there are always two or three thousand free people." Doubling the capacity of the existing wood processing plant is now expected to be less stressful for them. However, this ship is there, and the training of sailors, steam engine repairmen, ship repairers and other supporting technical personnel must also keep up, and you can only let people wait for the ship, not let the ship wait for people, this is the principle! In addition, the production capacity of anchor chain factories, canvas factories, rope making workshops, coop making workshops, coking plants (marine tar) and other units that support shipyards should also keep up. Haven't there been a lot of immigrants lately, don't let them be idle, and go to work in the factory! (To be continued......)