China's hard sail and the West's soft sail, each has its own advantages, the hard sail in the premise of less wind, can obtain greater power, this is the characteristics of the hard sail, even in the 21st century, there are some sailing ships across the ocean, using a certain hard sail, they can be under the limited wind, to obtain greater kinetic energy.

In the environment of science and technology, back to the basics, it is to the most primitive state, but in the primitive state, under the ocean navigation, the soft sail has a huge stress surface, which has become an inevitable choice, and the huge soft sail can be several times more than the hard sail under the premise of the wind as the power of ocean sailing, the soft sail has a natural advantage.

There are many soft sail materials, but in the current Northern Song Dynasty, there is only one soft sail material that can be used, and that is silk.

Perhaps, it is more economical to use linen, but because linen is a low-end product, sometimes, it even looks a little ragged, after a few experiments, unless the weaving process is restarted, the linen cloth is woven more finely with more warp and weft, otherwise, it cannot be used at all.

Linen is destined to be replaced by cotton, plus there are many sub-projects of all kinds, and there is no time to delay, and under such a premise, there is only one option, and that is to use silk.

Silk as a sail, there are many advantages, but the only disadvantage is that it is too expensive, even Zhao Xin, who is rich in the world, can't help but feel a little painful, a complete sail, dozens of meters high, simply using silk, is hundreds.

A piece of silk, very huge, a ship of about 500 materials, how big can the sail be, even if it is all made of silk, there are only a dozen horses, but this silk is only a single layer of one side, silk as a soft sail, very good, but there is a huge disadvantage, it is too thin, under the constant blowing of the wind, too thin things, the strength is not enough, to the right extent, at least a dozen layers, or even dozens of layers.

There are only a dozen horses on one side, but when this is increased to several times, or even dozens of times, that one is bigger, according to the current standard, a sea ship of about 500 materials, the silk used for the sails is as high as 100 horses.

This is only a 500-material ship, and if it is replaced by a Spanish galleon, the sails of a 700-ton Spanish galleon with a towering mast are at least several times more than that of 500 materials.

According to Zhao Xin's calculations, if it is a Spanish galleon, such 4 huge masts, covered with all kinds of sailboats, simple sails, is an astronomical number, 5,000 horses may be just a beginning, 8,000, or even 10,000 horses, are just a beginning.

The price of silk is extremely high, even if it is industrialized, it is not very effective, even in the 21st century, silk is a kind of high-end fabric.

Even if it is industrialized, the price of silk will drop, from the current price of 1 to 500 Wen, or even 300 Wen, the price of this soft sail is also very terrible.

For a Spanish galleon, if 10,000 horses of silk are used, even if it is 300 yuan per horse, the price of the entire sail alone is as high as 3,000 yuan, and according to the current price, it needs 10,000 yuan.

Dingjun now, under the premise of issuing Dinghai coins, the money is just a number, but 10,000 is still too much.

Take the money that Zhao Xin gave to Renzong, 3 million guan was given, 10,000 guan is not a big number, but in fact, the development of the ocean is never a certain ship, it must be a group of ships.

The Spanish Armada, which once dominated the seven seas and had an invincible name, had a thousand warships at its peak, which was still the top warship, and other second-class warships were ten, twenty, or even a hundred times.

A sail needs 5,000 pieces of silk, 1,000 ships, 10,000 ships, or even more, the cost is astronomical, if it is simply a matter of funds, Zhao Xin gritted his teeth and accepted it, even if it is 10,000 ships, as long as the price of silk is reduced to a certain extent, thousands of ships, 10,000 ships are only tens of millions.

Taking out a year's sales in Bianliang is almost able to build a huge fleet, and there is no problem with this money compared to the value generated by sea power.

However, Zhao Xin looks at the long-term view, silk is the material of soft sails, and the price is not the most important issue, the key issue is the quantity.

Why, in the 21st century, silk is also a kind of high-end fabric, on the one hand, because it is difficult to make silk prices, but the quantity is also a problem, and it is a general law that things are scarce and expensive.

The reason why silk is expensive is that the number of silk is scarce, and how much silk can a silkworm produce, it may be a few grams, tens of millions of silkworms, before it is woven into silk to form beautiful clothes, which is enough, thin as silk, cool and light, this is the benefit of silk.

The unique benefits of these silks, but when used on sails, it is not good, the needs of sails, and the needs of clothes, these are fundamentally two concepts.

When the use of soft sails, on the premise of more than 10,000 ships, 50 million horses of silk, or even 100 million horses of silk, this is almost an impossible task to complete, even if it is industrialized and the navy is not possible.

Compared with the cloth commonly used in later generations, silk has many disadvantages, chemical methods, there is no way to synthesize silk fabrics, so silk can only be obtained by silkworm spinning.

One acre of mulberry trees, can feed silkworms is limited, the original mulberry silkworms are balanced, this is a fixed number, even if the potential is dug deeply, the promotion is limited.

Expanding production capacity is a direction, but it takes time, relative to cotton, in years, mulberry trees are in several years, even if they are planted with seedlings, from saplings to usable mulberry trees, it takes at least three to five years, to ensure the yield of mulberry leaves, that is, more than five years.

If silk is really necessary, Zhao Xin, who regards the development of the ocean as the first priority, will spare no effort to invest.

But even if silk has such and such benefits, a price problem is enough to negate everything.

Sails are used items, and since they are used, they will wear out, and the wear rate of silk is too high to be ruthless. The strength of silk alone is small, on the sea, it is easy to break, not every wind is blowing, there are strong winds, and even some typhoons, in this case, even glass, steel can be blown out, not to mention silk, if used for a long time, it will inevitably cause wear.

This degree of wear and tear is also quite large, basically, the sails of the current experimental ships, in the ordinary environment, that is to say, not through the typhoon weather, often sail 3 times, must be replaced by about 20%, so that almost 15 voyages, the range of no more than 1000 kilometers, it needs to be fully replaced.

This is a terrible thing, Zhao Xin made the sea boat, in order to crisscross the seven seas, 1000 kilometers of utilization, this is absolutely impossible to be satisfied, in the future, at the peak of the moment, more than 50,000 ships, under the premise of a huge daily voyage, the replacement of this sail is definitely a big problem, even Zhao Xin does not dare to ignore it.

10,000 ships, this is acceptable, gritting your teeth, but it is tens of millions, or hundreds of millions, but when this becomes a daily consumption, this is a little unacceptable.

Of course, Zhao Xin knew that the solution of this sail was easier and better than the canvas.

The time when canvas appeared was a long time ago, but what really made canvas famous was the sail, which can be seen in the name of the sail.

Canvas, which first appeared in ancient Roman times, is no longer known as how it was made, and it was first seen in the literature that it was in the ancient Roman era, when the ancient Romans first used it to make wrist gloves for falconry. The densely woven canvas also had good waterproof properties and was eventually used in large numbers by the ancient Romans to make marching tents.

Canvas, its basic raw material is cotton, do not choose the finest multi-layer weaving method, but use multiple strands of cotton thread integrated together, a thicker and heavier cloth, with strong performance, waterproof, tough, and wear-resistant, which are the characteristics of canvas.

This is the most suitable material for sails that has passed the test of history in later generations, and has spread to every corner of the world through Spanish and British ships, and it is also known that in the 21st century, with the production of various new materials, various polymer composite materials, as well as metal compound materials, have become the main materials for sails, and they are more tough and lightweight.

In this era, it is a bit far away, even if you rely on the card system, you can be lucky enough to get this material, but there are process problems, recipe problems, and even production and processing problems.

Industrial society is never a lucky person to be able to obtain, just like Africa in the 21st century, some backward countries, in the process of commercialization, they have access to electricity, televisions, and even mobile phones, but in fact, once the outside world does not import these things, they rely on their own strength, they cannot use these things at all, and soon, after these things are broken, the country will be beaten back to its original shape.

Although Zhao Xin really wanted to let the Northern Song Dynasty leapfrog science and technology and enter a higher level, he also knew that the accumulation of various sub-projects was not high, and rashly raising it was tantamount to pulling out the seedlings to help them grow, which was not suitable for development, and it was better to honestly do the simplest thing, that is, to develop canvas.

Even the ancient Romans, one or two thousand years ago, could have done things, of course, there was no problem in the Northern Song Dynasty, and the reason why it did not appear was not technology, but raw materials.

As long as you have cotton, making canvas will not be a problem.

According to historical development, the Song Dynasty period was an important period for the development and progress of cotton, but this Song Dynasty spanned the entire Song Dynasty, including the Southern Song Dynasty and the Northern Song Dynasty.

Now the Northern Song Dynasty has not popularized cotton, cotton has long appeared, but before the end of the Song Dynasty, the whole of China only had grass cotton that could be used as silk wool, and there was no cotton that could be woven into cloth.

In the early and middle Northern Song Dynasty, cotton was mainly grass cotton, which was native to Arabia and Asia Minor.

This can be seen from the evolution of writing, before the Song Dynasty, the cotton character was skeined edge, not wooden, which can be seen.

Straw cotton cannot be used for weaving, and it is certainly not suitable as a basic raw material for canvas.

The cotton that became popular in later generations and was grown in China and made a lot of profits, in fact, was cotton that originated in India.

This kind of cotton, which is naturally very tall, can even grow to a height of 6 meters after breeding, and is taller and more productive cotton, which is naturally suitable for weaving.

At the time of the initial circulation, the main planting area was Guan, Shaanxi, Fujian and Guangzhou.

The reason for this is very simple, Fujian and Guangzhou are coastal provinces, commerce and trade are developed, some maritime merchants can be imported from the sea, as for Guanshan, that is the starting point of the Silk Road in China, it is easier to receive dividends from the Silk Road.

In this era, it may have been very difficult to travel to the Americas, but since the Han and Tang dynasties, the maritime trade routes between China and India have always been extremely prosperous.

As one of the symbols of the industrial age, cotton has always been a product of industrialization, Britain after the Industrial Revolution, looking for a lot of goods, and finally established the status of cotton, cotton cloth also after the industrialization of Britain, for Britain to earn back countless funds, is one of the support of the British Armada.

Even if the navy started heavy industry with steel mills as the main body, the accumulation of this aspect has not been relaxed, and similarly, the search for raw materials has not relaxed at all.

In the previous search, cotton was found in the south of China, in fact, in the past, by those maritime merchants accidentally sent to China, but their role is not weaving, the entire Northern Song Dynasty, the cognition of cotton, is still relatively primary, especially cotton from India.

In a two-pronged approach, while searching for local seeds, a large number of cotton seeds were obtained through India and maritime merchants through India.

Put these together, at the end of last year and early summer, began large-scale planting, the first batch of 150,000 acres of cotton, has been completed planting, even because there is no scientific breeding, even because of the planting skills, planting time above, there is a loss, the yield is not high, an acre of land is only about 110 pounds of seed cotton, but this is enough.

Such a batch of cotton, used for large-scale climbing of the scientific and technological line, opened the entire Dinghai textile industry, this is not good.

According to the seed cotton output of lint cotton, one-third of the comparison, the current cotton is a little worse, 110 catties of seed cotton, at most about 30 catties of velvet, 150,000 acres, a total of 4.5 million catties.

It sounds like a huge number, but for weaving, ordinary cloth, that is, 90,000 horses, has no advantage at all, and when it is made into clothes, it should not exceed three or four hundred thousand, such a number, even the Ding Navy can digest it internally, let alone face the entire Northern Song Dynasty market.