Two very different results for the same material, in two different environments.

Although it was expected, it was also unexpected.

Fortunately, the experts of the Ministry of Industry finally arrived in Donghai County slowly and leisurely after ten days, and after carefully listening to Wang Li's conclusions about the previous test, they came up with a change plan.

After all, these are people who play lacquer all year round, and there are no less than thirty types of lacquer used in the palace alone, and they are also used in various environments.

Compared to Wang Li, these experts are obviously more experienced.

These experts quickly concocted a new paint, which is actually to add some good sticky gum to it, and at the same time have the function of waterproofing, as well as some other auxiliary materials.

Finally, the new paint was applied to the upper part of the battleship, where the sea water would not soak all the time.

Two months later, the newly concocted lacquer had problems again.

But these so-called problems, the experts of the Ministry of Industry did not have a headache, but just carefully examined it, and then reformulated a batch of new paint, and then replaced it.

The materials are the same as the original, but the proportions are different, and the structure of the upper part is obviously more complicated than the bottom paint.

After tossing back and forth for nearly half a year, the new paint has actually been tested for three months, and the effect is very good so far, and the speed of steel corrosion is also very slow.

However, it went well, and the shipyard has also made breakthroughs in the problem of water seepage of the bottom propeller, but various problems are still emerging.

And these questions are not clear in one or two sentences, Wang Xuance handed over a letter requesting to return to the dynasty to report on his work, this letter was not in accordance with the rules, but in the end Li Yuanji agreed.

"Your Majesty, the minister feels that it is not suitable to put all his energy on the steel battleship now, and the shutdown of the shipyard in the past six months has had a huge impact on the sailor's plan to go to sea, if it is still according to the current plan, I am afraid that the date of going to sea will be far away." When he returned to Chang'an and saw Li Yuanji, the first thing Wang Xuance said was to advise.

Yes, it can be seen as exhortation, and it can also be seen as striving for the best benefit for oneself.

Where are Wang Xuance's interests? Go to sea, go overseas to find land, and then lay down that land, and let the glory of the Tang Dynasty shine on those lands.

However, the sailor who was supposed to go to sea in the second half of last year repeatedly postponed the plan because of the ship's problems, although the purpose was to let the sailor have more powerful equipment, but this result was still not what Wang Xuance wanted.

"The problem of ship paint has basically been solved, the splicing has a corresponding plan, the problem of propeller water is no longer a problem, the rest is only to start construction, this year's conscription, I will give you another 10,000 troops." Li Yuanji thought about it for a while, but still said.

In the past few years, several thousand new recruits of various sizes have been added to Donghai County every year, ranging from 2,000 to 5,000, and in a few years, Li Yuanji has been regarded as a Marine Corps unit, and it has grown to more than 30,000 people.

In the modern context, the expeditionary force of more than 30,000 people, or the Datang Expeditionary Force, is enough to sweep away any force in the world.

Even if you can't, you can lay down a beachhead and hold it firmly, waiting for reinforcements to arrive.

And the real reason why Li Yuanji postponed the plan again and again was not because he felt that the troops were insufficient.

It's the distrust of the existing warships, and for Li Yuanji, who has long been accustomed to the kind of steel giants in later generations, he can't imagine what role these sail warships can play in naval battles?

The wooden structure can take out a ship with just a cannon or a fire on the opposite side, and it is far less resistant to wind and waves than a steel ship.

This is the real reason, Li Yuanji waited, and then waited for the service of the steel giant.

Of course, Li Yuanji did not think of early development, when he set up the shipyard, he had this idea, but there is no technology and no talent, this idea can only be an idea, and it cannot be put into practice at all.

In the past few years, hundreds of warships of various types and thousands of large and small fishing boats have been built in order to accumulate experience for the shipyard.

Now, with experience, Li Yuanji feels that he is still very young, and he doesn't want to send the soldiers to that environment to fight too early.

So he waited and was willing to wait.

"Your Majesty, the problem of the ship's bottom paint is only temporarily solved, although it has been three months, how long can it really resist? There is no answer to this question yet, and it will take a lot of time to test.

In addition, regarding the splicing technology, this difficult technology is indeed solved, and after improvement, it also helps a lot to the structure of the hull, making it more reliable, but the problem is that this method is too time-consuming and labor-intensive.

The shipyard is currently building a steel battleship of the same size as the battleship in service, as of now, it has taken nearly five months, but five months has just completed the splicing of the keel, and the external armor has just been installed less than one-tenth, at this rate, just to install all the external armor, it will take at least half a year, but after the installation of these, it is only just the completion of the construction of an empty shell, for the entire battleship, In fact, this work is only nearly one-fifth of the way through, which means that at the current pace of construction, it will take at least three years for the steel battleship to be launched.

According to the receiving process of the naval warship, it will take four years at the earliest to complete the reception of the first steel battleship, if it is only one, the minister has been in the shipyard for a few years, although he does not dare to say that he is proficient, but he also knows more clearly than the average person about the strength of the battleship and the shipyard, with the current personnel and technical configuration of the shipyard, it is to go all out, and at most it can only build two steel warships of the same specifications at the same time.

And the most troublesome is the last problem, although the problem of propeller water ingress has been solved, but this scheme is actually not satisfactory, because the same size of the warship, when equipped with a steam engine, the power provided is even slightly faster than relying on the wind, and the original load of the battleship has also been compressed a lot. Wang Xuance explained the three questions raised by Li Yuanji one by one, and the ultimate goal was only one, just to tell Li Yuanji that there was a solution, but it was not perfect.

If it is just used as a technical reserve to prepare for the future, Wang Xuance will naturally not say a word, but if he wants to use these technologies in this battle, Wang Xuance dare not imagine this picture, if Li Yuanji has this confidence, Wang Xuance even thinks that he should think about whether he can go to sea with the army in his lifetime?

As for the battleship equipped with a steam engine, why the power output is far lower than imagined, this is also easy to explain.

Because the shipyard has adopted a solution of killing 1,000 enemies and self-inflicting 800, that is, a water tank is set up near the bottom power system, so that the water infiltrated through the propeller can be drained through this tank, using the pressure at the bottom to push them forward, and then make a few openings in the upper part of the hull waterline, with the bottom in and the upper part out.

The problem is solved, but in this way, it is equivalent to the battleship pulling a lot of sea water at any time, and at the same time, because it has been returned to the water, the resistance is relatively large, which also affects the transmission of power, which is the fundamental reason for the decrease in speed, which is much lower than expected.

It is unrealistic for any technology to be improved by leaps and bounds in a short period of time, although various cases from the Academy of Sciences have shown them that it is feasible.

However, after a series of tests in the shipyard, it was found that there was no shortcut to technology, and the only thing that could be done was to continue to test, explore, and improve.

Li Yuanji also fell into deep thought, he was also constantly paying attention to the movements of the shipyard, and he was naturally clear about the progress there.

But what Wang Xuance said, he really didn't know very well.

After all, the mountain is high and the emperor is far away, and there are some things that cannot be clearly conveyed through words.

If it weren't for Wang Xuance coming to this trip, maybe Li Yuanji wouldn't have considered the decision to go to sea now, he was still looking forward to the birth of the steel battleship, and then the Datang Navy directly controlled the steel warship to go directly to the ocean, made meritorious contributions, and planted the Datang battle flag on all the discovered territories.

Perhaps, this matter is too complicated and simple?

This is Li Yuanji's first reflection since becoming emperor.

The past was smooth, the past was simple, so he subconsciously felt that this matter would be very simple, although he knew that there could be no powerful sailors overseas, but he still wanted to provide the best equipment for the soldiers.

The idea is correct, but it is divorced from reality.

"How much do you know about overseas?" Li Yuanji asked seriously, he had already begun to consider agreeing to implement this plan.

Originally, the intelligence was the responsibility of the secret guard, but since Li Yuanji decided to postpone this plan, he withdrew the secret guard, and let Wang Xuance do the intelligence work slowly, and there was no offensive plan in the short term, so Li Yuanji naturally would not care about the progress in this regard, which was the reason why he asked this question.

"The minister conducted different degrees of reconnaissance on Goguryeo, Baekje, Yamato, and the island previously demarcated by His Majesty, especially the island, and found that there were already many people on the island, and the minister had sent three large fishing boats and four warships to form a fleet close to the island, trying to reconnoiter the island's maritime defense, and even made an action to drive away the island fishing boats, but the other party did not have any response, and even the officers and soldiers rarely saw it.

The same is true of Goguryeo and Baekje, Yamato is still in the midst of war, there are many fishing boats, but the official forces are almost negligible, and these so-called official forces have even become sea bandits, constantly looting Goguryeo and Baekje.

The minister made a detailed comparison, and with the current strength of the sailor, that is, only one-fifth of the strength of the navy, he could easily occupy a crushing advantage in the war against the three kingdoms......"