Chapter 178: The Ship's Defects

"Your Highness, you don't want to think about it, the place in Vladivostok is full of ice and snow, where will the paulownia trees be produced?" Seeing Li Zhen asking, Wang Dewei asked rhetorically: "Besides, tung oil is also a strategic material, and its own output is very scarce, and it is very difficult for the people to get it." My subordinates had asked the fleet that had sent us supplies several times, and each time they had shipped them to us, but each time the quantity was very small, and at most a dozen barrels were delivered, and it was not enough to embalm the inside of a sailboat, let alone the exterior had to be smeared several times. So don't look at our ships one by one more powerful, but in fact, there has not been a large-scale sealing treatment, if it is really soaked in water, within ten years, there will definitely be problems. ”

"Uh...... It was my mistake. "Tung oil is indeed a good thing, but the production of tung oil in ancient times was not high, and it was also classified as military materials, and the production of the civilian sector was extremely low. This is also the reason why his caravan did not find Li Zhen for help, because even if Li Zhen came forward, it would be very troublesome to get tung oil.

Of course, that was before, and now with the reform of Datang's military technology, especially in the past two years, artillery technology has become better and better, and the role of tung oil in the military field has become smaller and smaller.

Because the way of warfare has changed, whether it is to attack or defend the city, you have to use rolling wood and stones, gold juice and oil, ladders to rush the car, etc., but now with thermal weapons, whether it is to attack or defend the city, as long as you take an artillery piece and bombard it with a round of shelling, no matter how strong the city wall is, as long as it is not made of reinforced concrete, it will also bombard you to the sky.

However, despite this, it is not very easy to get tung oil in large quantities, because although the role in the military field is reduced, but in the industrial field, the role of tung oil is increasing, in the absence of special preservatives, tung oil is the preferred preservative for many machinery.

But it's okay.

After all, Li Zhen runs a shipyard, but there are a lot of other tung oil and lacquer, and he has searched several shipyards, and there is still a little bit in each army, and then buy some on the market, and he should be able to get enough tung oil and lacquer to protect these more than 1,000 ships.

"I'll leave this matter to this palace, but you have so many ships, and it will take a lot of time to brush all of them with tung oil." Li Zhen said.

The application of tung oil is not a simple matter, because tung oil needs to be dried in the shade, and the time required for shade drying itself is slow, and the time required for tung oil is even slower, it takes 7~10 days to dry once, and such a procedure takes three to five times, which takes thirty or forty days. Then, after the tung oil is brushed, it is necessary to paint the lacquer, which takes a long time.

What's more, the size of the ships is not enough to undertake the sealing work of 1,000 large ships at a time, so some of the ships must also be transported to the Quanzhou shipyard and other small and medium-sized shipyards, which also takes time.

So don't look at Wang Dewei who brought back so many ships this time, but if you want to completely deal with all these thousand ships before going to sea, it will be at least two months later.

"That's His Highness's problem, and his subordinates can't take care of it." Wang Dewei said with a smile: "After all these ships are handed over, the subordinates will have to go back to Vladivostok, there are still many things over there, at least in the dock, there are still more than ten ships that have not come down." ”

"But Your Highness, my subordinates heard that you have sold all the fleets, and now our ships need to be protected, and Tianzhu is about to go to war again, so you can't do it without a ship."

"This is my mistake, I just thought that you could send more than a thousand ships, but I didn't expect that they haven't been sealed yet, but the war is urgent, if it really can't work, it can only be done temporarily." Li Zhen sighed and said, it is not that the merchant ship cannot go to sea without sealing treatment, the problem is that this will greatly reduce the service life of the ship, if there is no way, Li Zhen will not make such a decision.

Fortunately, there are not many ships needed for the Tianzhu war, and only a dozen or twenty ships are needed to run a few round-trips.

What's more, when these ships come back, they can be overhauled, and then sealed and protected, and it will not affect much of their service life.

"The ship has been handed over to His Highness, and His Highness can do whatever he wants." Wang Dewei said a little sullenly, obviously very uncomfortable with Li Zhen's 'practice' of his works, but he also understood Li Zhen's distress and knew that this was the best way.

"Then thank you, Uncle Wang, for your understanding." Li Zhen said apologetically: "When you go back this time, bring more people, I will hand over the left and right prison gates under my command to you to bring back, and from now on, they will be rotated every six months to ensure the safety of the shipyard." ”

"Even if His Highness doesn't say it, his subordinates will ask for it." Wang Dewei said: "This time the actions of the subordinates are too big, and they have passed through the waters of Silla and other countries, they must have discovered our existence, and the sea shipyard can no longer hide, since it can't be hidden, in the face of future enemies, it can only strengthen the defense." ”

"That's good, the left and right prison gates are my pro-army, and according to the fullest number, the number of people is 10,000, which should be enough for your defense." As the most powerful prince in the past, Li Zhen's side is naturally the best or even over-specified, and the ten rates of the East Palace around him are naturally full, and each rate is full of five mansions, with a thousand people in each mansion, a total of 50,000 people.

However, among these 50,000 people, 30,000 people (that is, the six rates) are also under Li Zhen's command, but they are not Li Zhen's personal soldiers, they are more responsible for being in charge of the soldiers and honor guards, and do not directly accept Li Zhen's command, and basically do not participate in the battle. The only thing that can really make him like an arm is the four marshal mansions of the prince's left and right prison gate and the prince's left and right inner mansions, this is his personal soldier, he can use it as he wants, he can use it as he wants, even if he goes directly to the battlefield, as long as he doesn't attack privately, no one can say anything.

"Enough is enough, thank you, Your Highness." Wang Dewei said again and again, he knew that although he was not as elite as the youth army, it was also adapted from the pro-army led by Li Zhen when he was the king of Yue before, and he was also the army that followed Li Zhen on the battlefield back then, and it can be regarded as elite.

"Uncle Wang, you're too polite." Li Zhen didn't care, although he lost 10,000 guards, he didn't feel that his safety was threatened, these 50,000 people were enough to fight a battle, so many people protected their own safety, which in itself was a great waste of human resources.

What's more, even if you subtract 10,000 people, there are still 40,000 around you, plus those secret guards, you don't have to worry about your own safety at all - Li Zhen really doesn't believe that there will be someone in this world who can kill through the encirclement of 40,000 people and come to him.

(End of chapter)