Lu Xiangsheng was busy suppressing the thieves and saving King Zheng in Huaiqing Mansion, and Zhang Bin was not idle, after the matter of the silver ticket was dealt with, he began to reorganize the water division.

With the launch of the latest batch of warships, the number of Zhenyuan cruisers in his hands has reached 30, and the number of Weiyuan battleships has reached a terrifying 70, and the number of warships has exceeded 100.

At the same time, Wang Zheng and Sun Yuanhua also sent news that there was not much copper on the Kaohsiung Foundry, and the Weiyuan battleship could not be equipped with a few ships, so should the shipbuilding plan be continued in the second half of the year?

The sailor is the foundation of his life, nothing is more important than this, he received the news, immediately put down everything in his hand, and took Yu Chenglong and other sailor generals to Kaohsiung to discuss the next step of the warship manufacturing plan, or the development plan of the sailor.

The number of sailors under his command has always been about 60,000, and there has been no attrition, nor has there been recruitment, mainly because the sailors need certain ship management skills and naval combat skills, which are not easy to cultivate, and it is also because the warships and warships under his command are being updated and have not yet reached the scale of equipping 60,000 people, so he is not in a hurry to expand the sailors.

He originally thought that he would wait for the battleship to equip the existing naval division, and then expand the scale of the naval division, while producing battleships, while training recruits, so that as soon as the battleship is built, the recruited recruits will immediately form combat effectiveness, which is a prudent development plan, but he didn't expect that there will be enough copper at this time, and the battleship will be on the verge of production, what should I do?

In the large conference room of the Kaohsiung Shipyard, Zhang Bin sat in the main seat, on the left was a group of sailor generals headed by Yu Chenglong, and on the right was a group of equipment manufacturing managers headed by Wang Zheng.

Zhang Bin spoke first: "According to Chang Gung's estimate, if the blister copper stored in the foundry is used to cast artillery, it can equip up to five Weiyuan battleships, that is to say, even if we produce more battleships, there will be no artillery, and it will only be an empty shell, what should we do next, do you have any suggestions?" ”

This is a big problem, everyone dare not express their opinions casually, after Zhang Bin introduced it, everyone present frowned and pondered.

After a while, Zheng Zhihu saw that everyone didn't speak, and finally couldn't help but propose: "My lord, didn't we capture more than 20 Dutch super battleships, that thing is extremely slow without wind speed, and the Dutch artillery is also quite troublesome to load ammunition, it is not suitable for naval warfare at all, why don't we dismantle all the guns on it, recast it, and make a new Franc cannon, so that the guns of the twenty Weiyuan battleships in the back will not be there?" ”

The next plan is still ten Zhenyuan cruisers and twenty Weiyuan battleships, Zheng Zhihu's method seems to solve the problem, but in fact, Zhang Bin shook his head and said: "This is just an emergency method, what should I do after I finish this batch?" The blister copper in Daming has been almost collected by us, that is to say, it is very difficult to buy blister copper in the future, we have to make long-term plans, not just look at the present. Besides, although the Dutch artillery reloading ammunition is a little more troublesome, the range is quite good, and it is still very good to use it as a shore defense gun, so we don't need to melt and reforge it. ”

When Zheng Zhihu saw that his suggestion was rejected, he immediately straightened his waist and sat there solemnly, silent, as if it was not him who had just raised his opinion.

At this time, Zheng Zhibao next to him couldn't help but propose: "My lord, why don't we find a copper mine to dig by ourselves, in a place as big as Fujian and Guangdong, there will always be copper mines, let's directly send Tunwei to dig it, so that everything will be solved?" Anyway, they don't have anything to do, and they are idle when they are idle. ”

When Zhang Bin heard this, he couldn't help but be dumbfounded, if he could dig him, he wouldn't have sent someone to dig it earlier, would he still convene everyone to discuss.

He shook his head and said directly to Song Yingxing: "Chang Geng, you can explain, you are more familiar with this than me." ”

Song Yingxing hurriedly gave up his hand and was modest, and then explained: "General Zheng, Fujian and Guangdong naturally have copper mines, but gold, silver, copper, iron and other mines are all government-run, if you want to mine, you must pay more than fifty percent of the income to the imperial court as a tax, and the copper content of the copper ore in the Ming Dynasty is very low, more than 100 catties of ore can only be smelted more than 10 catties of blister copper, if you count the cost of utensils, lead stone, charcoal, labor and food, mining is actually a loss-making business, how much you dig will lose as much as you lose!" ”

This means very clearly, it is not that there is no copper mine, but that the mining of copper ore not only has to pay a very heavy tax, but also has to buy various production and refining materials, but also has to pay labor costs, and also has to bear the cost of food for the miners.

In fact, the Wanli Dynasty was not like this before, at the beginning, the mining tax rate of gold, silver, copper and iron ore was not so high, it was only fifteen taxes one, less than one percent, and the ore content at that time was okay, contracting government mines, organizing people to mine was still profitable.

However, the tax slowly increased, and it had risen to almost two percent in the Jiajing Dynasty, and the profits were already very meager at that time, so many miners began to find another way, like the world-famous Qi Jiajun, there were many miners in Yiwu, who would rather choose to fight and work hard, rather than mine, which shows that the income of the mine is small.

In order to collect money, Shenzong sent mine tax supervisors to various places to collect and collect taxes, the tax rate of gold, silver, copper and iron ore mining continued to rise, and the government-run mines began to close down one after another, and no one was willing to contract the mining business of the government-run mines.

Like the more famous is the 28th year of Wanli, the largest government-run mining and metallurgy, Zunhua Iron Works went bankrupt, the Ming Dynasty from the beginning of the pig iron output is more than twice the total of other countries in the world, jumped to the bottom of the cliff, even the operation can not continue!

Even, those coal mines forced by the eunuchs and mine supervisors were on the verge of bankruptcy and closure, such as the 31st year of Wanli, the coal miners and coal porters of the Mentougou Coal Mine in the capital flocked to the capital, and there was a big riot, and the eunuchs and mine supervisors forced the common people everywhere to rebel, of course, there are more than that, there are many, many more.

In short, in the Wanli Dynasty, most of the Ming government-run mines were on the verge of bankruptcy, and in the Tianqi Dynasty, the father-in-law of Wei covered the sky with one hand, and the eunuchs acted as mine supervisors and taxes made the accumulation of wealth more unscrupulous, and riots continued in various places, and the government-run mines actually existed in name only.

That is to say, after the Apocalypse Dynasty, there is actually no one mining in the Ming official mines, gold, silver, copper and iron and even coal mines are actually private Haoqiang organizing people to secretly mine, which can not meet the needs of the growing economic development at all, so there will be a large amount of silver from Dongying, Europe, and even the Americas into the Ming Dynasty.

The same is true for copper mines, now it is not that there is no place to mine, but that they will lose money when they are mined, of course, there is still a little profit from private copper mining, but the copper mines that are easy to find are basically found, with the detection technology at this time, there is no rich ore at all, and there is no place to dig if you want to dig privately!

This problem is quite embarrassing, and Zhang Bin can't solve it, unless Chongzhen speaks, reduces most taxes, and encourages mining, otherwise, the output of blister copper will not be raised at all.

Chongzhen is short of money at this time, how can he agree to tax reductions and exemptions, so digging copper mines by himself will not solve the problem, but will cause greater losses.

Zheng Zhibao's suggestion was also rejected, and he also straightened his waist and sat there solemnly, no longer making a sound, as if it was not him who had just raised his opinion.

These two brothers are really a pair of living treasures, and when they put forward their opinions, they were like two stunned people, and if their opinions were rejected at all, they immediately pretended that this opinion was not what I mentioned, which was extremely funny.

Zhang Bin shook his head and smiled bitterly: "Okay, you don't have to think about mining copper ore by yourself, do you have any suggestions?" ”

At this time, Yu Chenglong proposed again: "My lord, since there is a shortage of copper, why don't we cast iron cannons, blister copper is hard to find, but pig iron is not so hard to find, if you turn to cast iron cannons, the pig iron needed to produce dozens of Weiyuan battleships a year should still be able to buy." ”

Daming's iron ore reserves are much richer than copper ore, and the problem is that this iron cannon can't be processed.

Zhang Bin still shook his head and said: "The iron cannon is not cast, mainly because the processing is too difficult, we can't find a tool that can easily cut steel, the machine tool can't process iron products at all, and the structure of the new Franc cannon is more precise, if you don't use the machine tool to process, you can't do it at all!" ”

When Yu Chenglong heard this, he nodded awkwardly and stopped talking.

Wang Zheng saw that the scene was cold again, and finally mustered up the courage and said: "My lord, in fact, blister copper is not unbought, but it is more troublesome, it is rumored that Spain's colonies in the Americas are rich in copper ore, and Spain has also used Dongying and Dongfan as a springboard to transfer some blister copper to Manila for sale, but at this time Dongying refused to trade with Spain, and Dongfan was recovered by us again, so they have no place to supply halfway, and this matter of transferring copper ore has stopped." If we can negotiate with Spain and let them transfer a large amount of blister copper from the Americas and sell it to us on the condition of opening some of the ports in the east, the problem of blister copper scarcity will be solved. ”

When Zhang Bin heard this, his eyes lit up, yes, South America is famous for its rich copper mines, and more than sixty percent of the copper mines in later generations are produced in South America, and at this time, Spain's colony is the South American one.

He even forgot about this, but fortunately, Wang Zheng and Sun Yuanhua were proficient in foreign languages, and they had more exchanges with foreigners, otherwise, he would have really ignored this.

As for whether Spain will agree, he is not worried about this at all, the current Nanyang is the world of the Ming Dynasty, if they dare to disagree, they will directly beat Manila to him, let them get out, and see if they agree.

If it doesn't work anymore, directly organize a fleet to rush to South America and rob them!

Spain is no longer good at this time, and it is not difficult to go to their colony to grab some copper mines, but it is more time-consuming.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but nod his head in approval: "This method is very good, I will go to Manila in a few days and negotiate with them, I believe they will agree." ”

This is said to be extremely domineering, everyone heard this, all rejoiced, the problem of blister copper seems to have been solved, but, Wang Zheng then frowned and said: "My lord, this far water can't solve the near fire, it is rumored that the Americas are thousands of miles away from our Daming, even if they agree to sell blister copper to us, it will take a long time, at the speed of their sailboats, send the news to the past, and then transport blister copper, it will take at least a year, during this time, what are we doing, continue to produce Weiyuan battleships, and wait for blister copper to be bought before equipment?" ”

This is indeed a problem, to wait for Spain to transport blister copper, a year is a small time, this blister copper comes, it will not become a cannon by itself, and it has to be cast and processed, so that it will take almost a year, is it just to make some empty shells in these two years, waiting?

This will definitely not work, the strength of their side is stagnant, the strength of the Netherlands has been growing by leaps and bounds, if they are ruthless and organize a large-scale offensive in the past two years, it is not dangerous, not only the South China Sea may not be able to hold it, but the east and southeast coasts may not be able to hold it!

If all the Zhenyuan cruisers are manufactured, the number of artillery is enough, because five Weiyuan battleships are more than 500 guns, and a Zhenyuan cruiser only has a few guns, and it is not a problem to use these copper to produce artillery and equip dozens of Zhenyuan cruisers, but the Zhenyuan cruiser is mainly used to transport foot soldiers, and the combat effectiveness is not very good, is it meaningful to build so much?

Yu Chenglong saw that he looked entangled, and cautiously proposed: "My lord, why don't we use the wheel boat as a blueprint to make a batch of light warships." A fleet, if it is all gunboats like the battleship Weiyuan, or all giant ships like the cruiser Zhenyuan, is actually not very strong in combat. Because the giant ship could not defend against small arsonist ships, and the maneuverability of the giant ships was also very poor, when fighting, if it was not supplemented by small warships, it was actually difficult to exert its due power, like the previous Dutch attack on Dongfan is an obvious example, even if we do not have gunboats, they have to lie down if they are surrounded by arsonist ships. ”

Zhang Bin asked a little puzzled: "Don't we have more than 300 wheels?" No matter how much you make, no one will open it! ”

In his plan, in the future, the naval division will indeed focus on the Zhenyuan cruiser and the Weiyuan battleship, he is going to build 100 Zhenyuan cruisers, and he is going to build 200 Weiyuan battleships.

As for the wheels, he thinks that more than 300 ships are enough, because he does not have so many sailors and soldiers to control more warships and warships, a Zhenyuan cruiser needs 50 people to control, 100 ships is 5,000 people, a Weiyuan battleship with sailors and gunners needs to be equipped with more than 300 people, 200 ships is more than 60,000 people, just these 300 battleships, now all the sailors and soldiers to control it is still a little insufficient, more than 300 wheels have to recruit new people to control it.

Yu Chenglong explained: "The wheel boat is not a special warship, not even a warship, it is purely fast and flexible, and it is also cannon fodder when it is put into naval warfare." In every big battle, the soldiers on the wheels are the most lossy, and the subordinates feel that if they can improve on the basis of the wheels and make small warships specially for the sailors and soldiers, this can not only enhance the combat effectiveness of the sailors, but also reduce the casualties of the soldiers, my lord, do you think it is necessary? ”

Just kidding, of course it is necessary, the sailors are noble, it is not easy to cultivate, and it is naturally best to reduce casualties.