Since March, a large amount of timber has been shipped to the shipyard in Dengzhou, and too much timber is needed to build warships, which need to be transported to the shipyard in advance, and this timber must be properly kept.

To manufacture warships and patrol ships, the best wood is teak, teak is mainly produced in the south, teak is hard, rot-resistant, able to resist termite erosion, the first choice for the manufacture of warships, in addition to teak, followed by natural growth of cedar, and then is oak.

The wood of this era is sufficient, as for modern warships, it is impossible to build them at this time, there is no such skill, and there is no steel, so do not have such illusions.

The shipyard is a real money-swallowing machine.

The construction of a shipyard does not consume a lot, but the consumption of building a warship is huge, and even Su Tiancheng feels struggling.

In April, the shipyard began to build warships and patrol ships, no one thought that the director of the shipyard was the Dutchman David, even David himself did not expect that he would become the head of the Daming shipyard, after the appointment was decided, David was excited for a few days and did not sleep well, of course, the pressure is also very great, the key is the lack of shipbuilding technical talents, the drawings are there, but some still need to be improved, the mechanics do not need to worry about it, more than that, David is very satisfied with this, I felt that Su Tiancheng was indeed far-sighted, but because of the Ming court's neglect of the sailors, the technicians who made the warships slowly began to wither, and now, basically no one can be found.

When David took office, Su Tiancheng talked to him, and when he learned of Su Tiancheng's request, David was a little dazed, and he was straightforward by nature and asked, as long as Su Tiancheng gave himself enough core technical personnel. Guaranteeing the treatment of these technical personnel, he can build the sharpest warships and patrol ships, but it is a pity that Su Tiancheng told him that there are only these drawings, and these drawings are obtained with great effort, as for the technical personnel. Now that David is in office, that's David's business.

David was a little moved, saying that he could recruit talents, and his hometown of the Netherlands had talents in this area, but the key was how to implement the treatment, Su Tiancheng said very happily, everything is up to David to decide, but within the scope of the principle, it can't be too outrageous. David, who has been in Daming for a long time, understands what Su Tiancheng meant, and Su Tiancheng is asking himself to be fully responsible for the affairs of the shipyard.

After taking office, David immediately found William, who was the head of the artillery base, and there were many top shipbuilding technicians in Portugal, and after the two discussed, they decided to send people back to the Netherlands and Portugal to secretly recruit those top technicians. Including shipbuilding and artillery development.

Three months later, the first batch of technicians arrived in Dengzhou.

The arrival of these people. It is tantamount to sending charcoal in the snow, David, who has a headache for talents, is immediately full of confidence.

Because of the lack of talent, the progress of shipbuilding is slow, and this thing is impossible to experiment, unlike the development of artillery. A giant warship or a patrol ship costs a lot of money, taking a warship as an example, according to Su Tiancheng's requirements, the length of the warship is more than 30 meters. The width is more than ten meters, the waterline is more than twenty-seven meters, the displacement is more than four hundred and fifty tons, the draft is generally about four meters, not counting the artillery above, just the hull, the cost is close to 20,000 taels of silver, plus many artillery, the cost of the warship is close to 50,000 taels of silver, such a huge cost, it is impossible to experiment, it must be a success.

However, such a warship can be regarded as a giant on the sea, no matter what fleet or warship, when you see such a warship, you can only turn around and flee or surrender.

But the biggest problem with such a warship is the problem of driving, which is impossible to drive by manpower.

In order to drive the problem, David meditated and lost a lot of hair.

The arrival of the technician made David active.

The first batch of technicians who arrived at the shipyard had more than 200 people, among these people, there were the top shipbuilding technicians of the contemporary era, but these people were also stunned after seeing the drawings of the warships and patrol ships, they couldn't imagine that the Ming Dynasty was so domineering, and the warships manufactured were beyond their previous imagination.

The conditions of the shipyard are very good, the situation in Dengzhou, needless to say, these technicians came to the shipyard for only a few days, and decided to take root here, after David reported to Sun Chuanting, Sun Chuanting immediately arranged to find an opportunity to bring these people's families to Dengzhou, which made David very grateful.

When Su Tiancheng went to the shipyard to inspect, nearly 300 technicians were overcoming the last problem, the problem of driving, they had already come up with a plan, using gears to drive, gears must be made of fine iron, driving the operation of the entire warship, and the effectiveness of gear drive is hundreds of times stronger than manpower, only a few people are needed to control the problem of gear drive.

After Su Tiancheng arrived at the shipyard, he did not alarm many technicians, but only found David.

When David learned that Su Tiancheng had come to the shipyard, he ran over with gloves on, his face flushed.

"My lord, the problem of the drive of the warship and the patrol ship is solved, solved, Ha Lu Ha ......"

David was a little complacent, and he didn't pay attention to his own image.

"Very good, David, I have a question now, within this year, can we build thirty warships, thirty patrol ships, and another thirty merchant ships, and next year the total number of warships will reach two hundred, patrol ships will reach one hundred, and merchant ships will reach one hundred, as for the rest of the auxiliary types of warships and patrol ships, they have not yet been counted."

David looked down and thought for more than a minute.

"There is no problem, my lord, the subordinate must complete the task, but the subordinate also has requirements, the raw materials must be complete, not in arrears, and they need to be prepared in advance."

"There is no problem with this, what materials are needed, you make a list, General Sun will implement it, if you can't implement it in place, the responsibility is not yours, but the raw materials are implemented, you can't complete the task, the responsibility is on you."

"My lord, the lower official understands."

Su Tiancheng is not familiar with the skills of shipbuilding, and he doesn't want to learn it, so it is impossible for him to put his energy in this area, but the logistics aspect is a problem he must ask.

"David, more than two hundred technicians, are you settled now?"

"After everything is settled, they are very satisfied, they do things during the day and find time to learn Chinese at night."

"Very good, if there is anything you are not satisfied with, just bring it up."

David blushed a little, thinking about what to say.

"Just say what comes to mind."

"My lord, it's just a matter of finding a wife, it's a little troublesome, they can't get used to our outfits."

Su Tiancheng was stunned for a moment, and then Ha Lu Ha Da Lu smiled.

After these technicians came to Dengzhou, the family did not follow, of course, there are some problems, Dengzhou and a lot of green buildings, the girls inside are good-looking, in the eyes of these foreigners, it is a stunning beauty, some technicians, thinking of finding a wife here, anyway, the Ming Dynasty is allowed to have several wives, but their appearance, so that the girls of the Ming Dynasty are a little uncomfortable, coupled with the problem of language barriers, there is no power.

These technicians study Chinese every night and make up for their Chinese knowledge, but in fact, the important reason is that they want to be able to find women in Dengzhou.

After laughing, Su Tiancheng spoke.

"David, I can't control this problem, you can pass on your experience to your compatriots, and it will solve the problem, I heard that you have three wives."

David scratched his scalp embarrassedly, remembering that he was still wearing gloves.

"My lord, the subordinates understand, I'll teach them about this matter."

Sun Chuanting has been accompanying Su Tiancheng, and after David left, Su Tiancheng looked at Sun Chuanting and spoke seriously.

"Lord Sun, some of the problems you mentioned are the problems of living habits, these Dutch, Portuguese, and Si Spaniards are from overseas, and they have their own living habits, everyone needs to accommodate each other, don't force them to change their living habits, we need them to build the sharpest warships, patrol ships, and the best merchant ships, and the rest of the things are all small things, you don't need to mind too much, some things, you can directly tell David, overseas people, are generally straightforward, Your responsibilities are, first, to train a good sailor, and to train a strong sailor within the year, and second, to ensure that all the materials needed for shipbuilding, no matter how much silver is spent, must be satisfied. ”

"My lord, I understand the habit, the lower officials are about to report to the adults, Liu Wenxiu, Ai Nengqi and Li Dingguo, after coming to the water division, their performance is very good, the training is very hard, and they stand out among ordinary sergeants."

"Well, if their performance is good, they can be considered for promotion, step by step, their tactical literacy is good, but you have to remember that you must polish their hearts, those loose breaths in the middle of the rogue team must be completely polished, and they must absolutely implement the military regulations of the Jiangning battalion."

"Xia Guan understands, he will definitely do it."

"How's Wu Sangui's situation?"

"It's still the same, when he came to Dengzhou, Wu Sangui was silent, and now it's still like this, there is not much change, and the lower officials have also talked to him, but it doesn't have much effect."

"Oh, then keep him drying."

Su Tiancheng knew that Wu Sangui had always remembered his army and was reluctant to the border army of Shanhaiguan, but it was a pity that Wu Sangui could not return to Liaodong, Liaodong was about to undergo great changes, in this case, Wu Sangui would be even more impossible to go back, if you want Wu Sangui to change, it is not possible to see if there is such an opportunity in the future. (To be continued......)