Chapter 150: A Thousand Great Ships

"What did this palace lie to you? What do you have to deceive in this palace? That's just the way it is. Li Zhen smiled: "You can rest assured, the palace has already sent an order, it is estimated that in another half a month, our ship should be able to arrive, and then you will only think that your own manpower is not enough, not that the number of ships is not enough." So you'd better recruit more people during this time, otherwise it would be a shame if you didn't have enough people to drive the ship when the ship came. ”

"How is this possible?" Liu Renliang said confidently: "There are not many others in Lingnan now, but there will definitely be no shortage of qualified crews, what we have is that if we really convene, our subordinates can gather enough people in three days, there is no doubt about this." ”

Naturally, there was a reason for his self-confidence, because with his return from Luzon, the navigation industry flourished, and there were countless ships coming and going every day, and all kinds of people who knew how to navigate became sweets, and some coastal fishermen were reluctant to go out to sea to fish again, but came to Yuezhou to make a living. This is much safer than going out to sea to fish, and it is more secure to make money.

And the car is recruited by the government this time, although the government has all kinds of bad, but there is one thing that others can't compare, that is, it never delays or deducts wages, and even does a good job, there may be rewards (of course, this is only relative to the environment of Yuezhou, and other places may not be so good), so as long as the government recruits people, the people are generally gathered in the scenery and competed.

But for Liu Renliang's self-confidence, Li Zhen is opposed: "That's not necessarily, if you don't believe it, go out and recruit people to see if you can find enough crew?" Do you really think that those merchants are vegetarians? ”

Liu Renliang's guess is indeed very reasonable, as long as the government recruits people, it can indeed recruit a large number of sailors, but that was before. After all, he has not done field investigations, and of course he doesn't know the current situation - in Yuezhou, there are indeed many fishermen who beg for a living on the docks, and they are all born sailors, which Liu Renliang is not wrong about.

But Liu Renliang ignored another thing, that is, who attracted these fishermen?

It is the businessmen whose eyes are red and stimulated by the Luzon income.

Because of the development of shipping, more and more businessmen have paid attention to shipping - not necessarily to go to sea, but to transport the specialties of the South Seas to Chang'an, you can also make a lot of money.

That's why more sailors are needed.

As a result, fishermen gave up fishing and came to Yuezhou to make a living.

In other words, the prerequisite for fishermen to come to Viet Chau is that there are more and more merchants in Viet Chau.

But on the other hand, there are more merchants, and the number of sailors they need is even more terrifying.

Lingnan is deserted, and now it has not yet developed, and the population is still sparse, except for those who have not changed careers and are still fishing at sea, how many fishermen can live on the wharf of Yuezhou now?

Even if you count more, it's only tens of thousands.

And how many big businessmen are eyeing the way to make money as a way to make money?

There are certainly thousands of people.

On average, a merchant hired twenty sailors, which was enough to raid the entire port of Viet Chau.

What's more, there are many big businessmen and chambers of commerce here, all of whom go to the sea, and the sailors recruited are in hundreds or even thousands.

No matter how many fishermen there are on the docks, how can there be enough for those merchants to hire?

So don't look at the merchant ships coming and going in Yuezhou Port now, and there are many coolies like ants, and it is a prosperous and lively scene.

But if you want to find a qualified sailor from it, it will be very difficult.

"Your Highness, can you tell your subordinates how many ships we have?" Liu Renliang was obviously aware of this, and began to ask Li Zhen for the specific number of cargo ships.

"I don't know the exact number, but there are definitely thousands, and they are all large ships of more than 1,000 tons." Li Zhen thought about it and said, the sea shipyard has been in operation since the fifth year of Zhenguan, and now it is the seventeenth year of Zhenguan, and it has been twelve years, and the number may not go up at the beginning, but the number in the later period is definitely enough, and there is definitely no problem in building almost a hundred ships a year on average.

"Poof~"

Liu Renliang sprayed: "This ...... So much? How can there be so many? Where did so many ships come from? ”

Don't blame Liu Renliang for his gaffe, it's really too much, you must know that the last time Liu Renliang went to sea to look for Luzon, although he also brought hundreds of ships, but what kind of ships were those hundreds of ships?

Most of them are hundred-ton ships, which can only be said to be barely able to sail far, and they must keep up with the large fleet, otherwise a wave will come down, and basically the whole ship will be gone.

Most of the remaining ships are of the 300 tons, 500 tons, and 800 tons, and there are not many ships of more than 1,000 tons.

Now Li Zhen told him that there would be thousands of ships of more than 1,000 tons that he needed to take over......

Liu Renliang was a little incredulous and a little weak-hearted.

He Liu Renliang can eat a few taels of food by himself, he knows very well, if he wants to let him lead a fleet to fight, he has no problem asking himself,

If he was given a fleet to explore the unknown, he could do the same.

But now it's a thousand ships.

And it's all big ships.

You must know that in a fleet, it is necessary to coordinate large and small ships.

Usually in a fleet of two hundred ships, only a few dozen ships are needed for the vertical and horizontal class.

And Liu Renliang is also very aware of his own limits - or the limits of navigation.

Three hundred cargo ships is already the limit of navigation in this era, and these three hundred must be calculated according to the combination of large and small ships.

Because 300 ships are spread out on the sea, it is a large area, and in the era of wireless communication, it is very troublesome to command.

If this number is increased, or if all the 300 ships are replaced by large ships, the distance will be even farther away, the transmission of information will be more difficult, and it will be basically impossible to achieve direct control by the captain.

But what did Liu Renliang hear now?

A thousand?

It's all big ships.

Are you kidding?

If it is completely rolled out, it will cover the sky and the sun, and it will be mighty.

With so many boats, even if he chopped Liu Renliang into eight parts, he wouldn't be able to do it.

"Is it a lot? Actually, it shouldn't be too much. Li Zhen wondered, the Netherlands, which was known as the coachman of the sea in later generations, at the peak of the 15th ~ 16th century, had 15,000 large merchant ships, and at least 2,000 cargo ships were often moored in the port of Amsterdam.

And there are only a thousand on his side, which is not even a fraction of the Dutch.

(End of chapter)