Ming Ye is fifty-five years old this year, and he is the oldest among the shipwrights in the area of Chengshan Weiwa Fangzhuang.

Sitting in his own small courtyard halfway up the mountain, Ming Ye squinted at the small slipway in the bay at the foot of the mountain while sucking a dry tobacco.

The slipway hadn't been used for a long time - the price of fish had been so cheap that many fishermen had switched to other jobs.

Ming Ye raised his head and thought about it, and muttered, "The last time I built a fishing boat was at the beginning of last year...... Alas! ”

Mingye's surname is Luo, and his real name is Luo Jianming. The three generations of the Luo family are all boatsmiths, and the craftsmanship passed down from the family, like other boatwrights in Wafangzhuang, builds and repairs fishing boats for the villagers in the surrounding towns and eight miles. In Mingye's generation, he became the head of the shipwrights in the neighborhood, firstly, he was old, and secondly, he was a person who had seen the world and learned a lot of shipbuilding skills.

The boatwrights in this area all know that Ming Ye is really condescending to build fishing boats in Wafangzhuang, you know, in the early years, Ming Ye ran outside in order to learn the craft of shipbuilding, and the farthest place was to Macao on the sea of Guangdong.

Just a few years ago, Dengzhou built a water camp, and the Governor's Office of the Five Armies and the Yamen of Denglaibu jointly signed the following to transfer the shipwrights of various guards in Shandong, and Ming Ye ranked first.

Originally, a talent like Ming Ye should have built a warship, what is the matter with nesting in this small tile house?

The shipwrights think so, the big men in Dengzhou don't think so, Ming Ye has been busy for more than a year, and after the boats of the various water camps in Dengzhou are ready, they were sent back to Wafangzhuang, and even the travel expenses are paid out of their own pockets.

It was okay for the master to suffer a little loss in the money, but this trip to Dengzhou made him lose a son.

Thinking about it, Ming Ye choked on the smoke and coughed, stretched out his shriveled black and thin left hand and kept wiping the gray beard on his lips, and the other hand knocked the big copper smoke pot on the ground.

On that trip to Dengzhou, his eldest son Luo Yongping somehow became blinded by lard, and wanted to stay in Dengzhou and join the guerrilla water camp -- this Luo Yongping had learned the shipbuilding craft from him for more than ten years, and he pointed to him to take over the craft.

This completely broke the old man's heart, he gathered a total of two sons and two daughters, the younger son had already been sent to Chengshanwei's fabric shop as an apprentice, not to mention that the girls married far, that is, they were not far away, and there was no reason for them to inherit the family craftsmanship.

In addition, since the beginning of this year, the price of fish has plummeted, and many fishermen have changed careers to become wheat customers, even if they have not changed careers, they rarely go to sea, not to mention building new boats, that is, the old ships have not been repaired much, so that Ming Ye is more and more worried about his craftsmanship abandoned.

Sighing, Ming Ye loaded another pot of cigarettes, got up and went back to the kitchen to light it, and when he came to the courtyard again, his eyes were attracted by a little white sail on the sea.

Bai Fan got closer and closer, and Ming Ye quickly recognized it, it was the ship of the Chu family in Dengzhou, and he came to repair it here at the end of last year - the Chu family is just that, but there is Liu Zhiyang in this fleet, and he has to serve his eldest son, well, why is there only one boat?

Knocking off the smoke in the smoke pot that had long been extinguished, and pinning the dry tobacco pouch to his belt, Ming Ye went down the winding mountain road with his hands behind his back to the slipway, and he was able to meet the 400-material sand boat and dropped the anchor ingot.

"Coming?" Looking at Ge Bi who got off the boat and walked slowly towards him, a smile crossed Ming Ye's dark face full of fine wrinkles.

"Here we are." Ge Bi nodded, reached out and took the cigarette pouch from his waist and handed it to Ming Ye-after many years of dealing with each other, the two had already become inseparable friends.

After loading the tobacco, the two of them began to swallow the clouds and smoke, and it took a long time for Ming Ye to ask in a low voice, "What about Chu Dong's family?" How come there is only one boat left? ”

Ge Bi frowned and said, "It's gone...... Two ships were sunk. ”

"Alas!" Ming Ye sighed, his gaze stopped on the "Dawn", and fell into silence - as an old shipwright, he had seen too many tragic incidents of shipwrecks and deaths.

"Master Ming, we are here this time to add something to the ship," Ge Bi finished smoking a bag of cigarettes, took out a piece of paper from his bosom, and handed it to the old boatwright, "This is a schematic diagram, you can see if it can be done." ”

Ming Ye raised his eyebrows in some surprise - out of professional habits, he had been carefully observing the sand boat, and it could be seen that the sand boat had just been repaired recently, and there was no trace of damage from wind and waves.

He was wondering why Ge Bi had to dock in such good weather and the condition of the ship was good, which did not conform to the rules of running to the sea - it turned out that he had to add something.

Unfolding the big mulberry paper, the old boatman's eyes narrowed again, and he saw that the paper was drawn with charcoal on the stern of a sand boat, and the difference from the ordinary sand boat was that two tall masts were propped up on the sides of the ship, and what surprised him even more was that at the same point, the slightly shorter masts were also drawn towards both sides, and a line was drawn between the mast and the mast, and a word was written in the blank space.

The old shipwright was illiterate, but he vaguely guessed, "This is ...... Two-sided sails? ”

Ge Bi nodded and asked worriedly, "Yes, it's a two-sided sail, do you always think it can be done?" ”

The addition of triangular sails on both sides to the sand boat is like adding a pair of wings to the boat, which looks very beautiful.

Ming Ye looked at the picture, and then turned his head to look at the "Dawn" ten zhang away, his eyes gradually widened, he already understood that Ge Bi was going to add two sails to the side of the ship, so as to use more wind power and speed up the ship.

For a long time, an old shipwright like Ming Ye has learned what the traditional ship type should look like, how long the keel is, and how big the sail is, there are certain rules, and no one has ever thought of adding something to the sand boat or adding something to the lucky boat.

Today, someone suddenly whimsically wants to add a pair of "wings" to the traditional sand boat, which is undoubtedly a great shock to the old boatman!

After pondering for a long time, the old shipwright asked suspiciously, "It's okay to add two sails, but what should I do when the sails are lowered?" ”

Ge Bi quickly explained to him that the lateral mast could be rotated, rotated to the deck when the sail was lowered, and the angle of the sail was controlled by a rope after the sail was raised.

After saying that, he also took out another schematic diagram, which drew two iron sleeves connected at ninety degrees, one on an upright mast and the other on a transverse mast, to facilitate rotation.

The old boatman was struck by the ingenious design, and as Ge Bi described it, he gradually conjured up the whole process of raising and lowering the sails, and the scene of the jib being adapted to the different wind directions by means of ropes tied to the masts.

"Finally, there is another question, this sail monster looks weird, how to arrange the bamboo ribs?" All the other problems were figured out by the old shipwright, and this last one remained.

"This is easy to do, no hard sail but soft sail!" A clear voice sounded behind Ming Ye.

Ming Ye turned his head to look, and saw a handsome boy in brocade looking at him with a smile.