Chapter 869 Take a long-term view, a thousand warships are not a dream

（0869）

[Today's second update is delivered! ] 】

The first batch of timber that was laid down, after their inspection, was definitely a joy for the shipyard. Because, this means that the only bottleneck restricting the production of large warships has also been solved.

Originally, the biggest problem restricting the development of the Huben Navy was the keel issue of large warships. Because of Shandong, there are very few big trees that are more than 100 years old, and ordinary trees will definitely not work if they want to be used to make keels. The best trees in Shandong can only be used to make the keel of the sword tooth ship, and if you want to use it to make the dragon god ship, it will not meet the requirements.

It is the keel that determines the final mass of a battleship. For this reason, Xue Zhidie's choice of keel wood is very strict, and he would rather lack it than overuse it. There was no way, Zhang Zhun had to look around, looking for suitable trees everywhere. As a result, the few logs found were only a drop in the bucket, and they could not meet the needs at all.

Now it's different. Now, in front of him, there are a large number of ancient trees that require two or even three people to hug. Some exaggerated trees actually require four or five people to hug them. These ancient trees, not to mention the keels used to make dragon god ships, are used to make larger warships, they are completely sufficient. Looking at the big trees that kept drifting down on the Yalu River, Zhang Zhun seemed to see a dense array of warships, which were coming out of the shipyard in a steady stream.

As long as there are enough warships, what are you afraid of Zheng Zhilong? What are the Dutch afraid of? You Zheng Zhilong have a thousand warships, I'll get you 10,000! If you Dutch have 10,000 ships, I'll get you 100,000!" I don't believe it, the wood of Changbai Mountain and Daxing'an Mountains has been cut down, and it can't press you down, which is one of the largest forest areas in the world!

"This is to the First Shipyard!"

"This is to the Second Shipyard!"

By Zhang Zhun's side, there were still people who kept giving instructions.

At the mouth of the Yalu River, these accepted timbers were transferred to large merchant ships one by one by huge pulley groups, and then hurriedly pulled to the shipyard to prepare for the construction of large warships. Almost every merchant ship that departed had a very low draft, which shows the amount of timber on board.

Seriously, these big guys, after fully soaking in water, are indeed too heavy. If you don't have such a huge pulley set, it would be very difficult to move them up and down by hand. 、

Because it is the wood to make the keel, it must be preserved as well as possible and cannot be truncated, so the general wood, without dozens of people, cannot be lifted at all. Some timber even has hundreds of people to carry it together, which shows the weight of wood.

In fact, even if there is a pulley, when transferring some super large wood, the creaking sound of the pulley block makes the hearts of the people around him hang in their throats, for fear that the rope will suddenly break, or the pulley bracket will crack.

With the sudden increase in the strength of the enemy at sea, the pressure on the Tiger Ben Navy continues to increase, and the control of Sado Island, there is about to arrive with a steady stream of gold and silver, Zhang Zhun launched the second round of crazy shipbuilding plans. He was determined that in the next five years, he would accumulate enough warships to have the ability to confront the Dutch head-on after defeating Zheng Zhilong.

To do this, of course, is not easy. In a confrontation at sea, the first thing to do is to have enough warships. Zhang Zhun roughly estimated that to counter the Dutch power in the Far East, the number of warships in the Tiger Ben Navy would at least double every year. If you count the losses in the battle, this number will continue to increase.

Specifically, there must be at least about 300 warships of the class of the Sword Tooth Ship. Battleships of this class, when fighting in coastal waters, can be regarded as the main warship. On the sea surface of Northeast Asia, it can be regarded as a good force, and it is completely okay to bully *** and North Korea. Against Zheng Zhilong, it's not a big problem.

However, when it arrived in the South Seas, the saber ships could only be used as auxiliary warships, and they could not participate in the main battle at all. In the South Seas, the smallest warships of the Western powers all had a displacement of more than 500 tons. Relatively speaking, the saber ship is indeed small.

At least a hundred or so warships of this level are needed. Battleships of this class will be the main force against Zheng Zhilong's pirate military group. Its main opponent was the most powerful three-masted gunboat in the Zheng fleet. Theoretically speaking, the dragon god ship and the three-masted gunboat can be completely tied. However, once it encounters the warships of the Western powers, it will be at a disadvantage again.

The main warships of the Western powers in the South China Sea have a displacement of more than 1,000 tons. In particular, the fleet of the Dutch, with a displacement of more than 1,000 tons, numbered as many as twenty or thirty ships, and there was a tendency to continue to increase. These big guys, with the ability of the Dragon God Ship, are afraid that it will not be easy to gnaw down, and the firepower and protection performance are too far apart.

If you want to really gain a foothold in the South Seas, occupy a place, and play the prestige of the Tiger Ben Navy, you must have a large number of King Kong ships. If there are about a dozen King Kong ships with a displacement of 1,200 tons, they should be able to show their faces in the South Seas. If there are twenty or thirty ships, they should be able to speak. If there are about fifty ships, they can become the hegemon in the South Seas.

As for the larger Celestial King Ships, Emperor Ships, etc., how many quantities are needed depends on the specific situation. In general, their symbolism is greater than their actual meaning. The cost of such a super-large warship is too high, and the technical difficulty is also great, so it is difficult to mass produce. The main forces of the battle at sea should still be the Dragon God Ship and the King Kong Ship.

In the next five years, it is absolutely impossible to build so many large warships, relying on the Partridge Bay Shipyard, and more and larger shipyards must be built. After careful consideration, Zhang Zhun chose a site near Dengzhou Mansion to build a second large shipyard.

In order to vaguely express his ambitions, Brigadier Zhang named the new shipyard "Tiger Benjun Second Shipyard", and the original Partridge Bay Shipyard was renamed "Tiger Benjun No. 1 Shipyard". "If you are a sharp-minded person, you should find that since there is a first and a second, then at some point, there will be a third shipyard. This is exactly what Zhang Zhun wants. As long as the financial, material and human resources allow, he will immediately go to the Third Shipyard.

According to Zhang Zhun's plan, there will be 50 super-large docks in the first phase of the second shipyard, and 50 large ships can be built at the same time. Dengzhou Shipyard is designed to be able to build large ships of more than 3,000 tons, and has done enough preliminary work for the construction of larger warships in the future. Such a one-step design, of course, costs a lot of silver. Fortunately, Zhang Zhun is not short of silver at present.

It still takes a lot of time to build such a large shipyard, and there are many conditions to prepare. Basically, before Zheng Chenggong's counterattack arrived, it was impossible for the second shipyard to be put into operation. Its main function should be to focus on the future.

In order to supervise the construction progress of the second shipyard, Zhang Zhun came to Dengzhou from Jinzhouwei. Xue Zhidie wanted to preside over the daily affairs of the Partridge Bay Shipyard, and the person sent to the Dengzhou Shipyard was a middle-aged man named Chen Liang. Chen Liang turned out to be one of the five old foremen, and Xue Zhidie transferred him here, apparently to hand over the second shipyard to him to manage.

"Lord Governor!"

Finding that Zhang Zhun was coming, Chen Liang hurriedly came up to greet him.

"How's it going?"

Zhang Zhun asked with concern.

"It is estimated that it can be completed two months ahead of schedule."

Chen Liang replied cautiously.

According to Chen Liang's description, the Dengzhou Shipyard will be put into use in March next year, and it will go all out to start building the Dragon God Ship. Under the condition that all conditions are fully met, the construction period of the Dragon God Ship is about nine months. In other words, at the end of next year, at the beginning of the year after that, the first batch of Dragon God ships will be launched.

If everything is not unexpected, the second shipyard can build 200 dragon god ships every three years, and after five years, the number of dragon god ships in the Tiger Ben Navy can increase to more than 300. Of course, this is the most ideal situation.

If there is an accident, such as insufficient raw materials, not enough workers, insufficient financial resources, etc., it will affect the production of the Dragon God Ship. If the battle losses of the Huben Navy itself are relatively large, and the Dragon God Ship produced is not enough to make up for the battle losses, then Zhang Zhun's plan will also not be realized. Of course, this is less likely.

The biggest possibility is still the problem of financial resources. The launching price of the Dragon God Ship is about 20,000 taels of silver. The more than 300 Dragon God Ships are more than 6 million taels of silver, which is still a heavy number even if it is spread over a period of five years. If you add other warships, Zhang Zhun basically spends millions of taels of silver on the construction of warships every year.

Chen Liang really couldn't understand where Zhang Zhun got so much money. Fortunately, this is not something Chen Liang needs to care about, otherwise, he would have been crushed by this number a long time ago. Millions of taels of silver, he didn't even dare to think about it. This number is indeed too large.

In fact, Zhang Zhun spent more than that. In addition to building a large number of warships of its own, the Huben Navy also ordered a full 200 Cangshan ships from various civilian shipyards in Wulong Bay to strengthen its naval combat forces in the coastal waters.

Although the Cangshan ship cannot sail far, it seems that it can no longer keep up with the needs of the development of the times. However, in offshore operations, the combat capability of the Cangshan ship is still very strong. In particular, the construction of the Cangshan ship has low technical difficulty and low cost, and it can explode in a short time. You can think about it, more than 200 Cangshan ships, rushing up, even if it is a three-masted gunboat, will have a headache.

"My lord, Zhang Shenyan is here."

When he was talking to Chen Liang, Liu Mang came to report.

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