The people asked for two coins of silver to buy cotton cloth, but the shopkeeper couldn't persuade them, so they had to double the silver. A few businessmen watching the excitement on the side could only sigh, the people's hearts are like this!

With the start of the production line, Shandong's cotton cloth has begun to be shipped out in a steady stream, and the distribution is planned.

The purchase price of cotton is high and low, and the price of cotton cloth is high and low, and cotton cloth is naturally trafficked to those first-tier cities with high prices.

The cotton cloth produced in the Shahe area, every time it is transported to other places, it will be snapped up by the people, the quality is not only good, the price is also very favorable, it is really good and cheap.

……

When Zhao Yan came to Longkou Port, Longkou Port was no longer the depressed it used to be, and the shipyards on the side were building ships in an intense and orderly manner.

There are also four big ships parked in the port, which are the lucky ships that Zhao Quan bought from Fujian last year and the beginning of spring, and Zhao Yan made an observation inside and out on the lucky boats.

In the end, it was concluded that the displacement of these four ships should be about 800 tons, and the cargo load should be more than 300 tons. Such a displacement was not the top ship of its time.

Westerners have generally been able to build sailing ships with a displacement of more than 1,000 tons, and the shipwrights of the Ming Dynasty can naturally build them, but they are not as frequent as Westerners, so that the tonnage of their sailing ships continues to rise. Later, it was also common for Westerners to sail with a displacement of five or six thousand tons earlier.

Generally speaking, the larger the ship, the more cargo it can carry. Because every 2 times the size of the ship requires 1.5 times the power to propel it, people have always built the ship bigger and bigger to continuously increase the space for carrying goods.

The hull of the Fuchuan is different from that of Western ships, which imitates fish, while the Chinese hull imitates birds, which has proven to be more scientific, which is why the size of Chinese sailboats makes Zhao Yan feel familiar.

If you want to get involved in the maritime trade, you must first have a ship, then you must have navigation technology, nautical charts and other things, and most importantly, you must be armed at sea.

Now that there are boats, navigation technology is mainly navigation technology, and the use of compasses and sextants can reach the world's most advanced level.

Not to mention the nautical chart, Zhao Yan can copy a rough map of the world with his eyes closed.

The most important thing is the armed forces at sea, if there is no armed protection, it is estimated that they will be intercepted by Zheng Zhilong and the Dutch halfway without going to sea a few times.

It is necessary to remodel these four Fu boats, which have a deep draft, large loading, stable driving, and are not afraid of storms, but the speed is also slow.

It can also be used as a warship, but it can only be used to protect merchant ships. Unless you break the opponent's sails, you can't catch up with the enemy.

Therefore, there are also some special requirements for armed transformation.

Artillery, for example, requires a longer range. Because the speed of the ship is relatively slow, if you encounter a fast enemy ship, the opponent's artillery will have a longer range, so you won't be able to fly a kite!

Zhao Yan summoned Jiang Gongming, who was in charge of the artillery laboratory, to discuss with him the loading of the guns on the four lucky ships. Jiang Gongming can be said to be one of the literati with the highest diploma under Zhao Yan.

He, like Liu Heng, is also a lifter. However, Jiang Gongming was more obsessed with the study of firearms and machinery, and had a long exchange with a missionary from the West, who was introduced by a Shandong businessman last year.

When Jiang Gongming first entered the artillery laboratory, he was just an ordinary technician, and at first he felt very angry, which was an insult to him.

However, it was later discovered that although he was a man of great importance and had a high level of research in firearms and machinery, he could not interfere in the study of artillery in the artillery laboratory.

Because the craftsmen of the artillery laboratory have their own set of procedures and new systems, their job is to constantly build cannons, record the data of various types of cannons, and then select the most practical data from them.

Jiang Gongming was shocked by the artillery technology in the artillery laboratory, who originally thought that the technology he had come into contact with the missionaries was enough to deal with the artillery factory in a small place like Shandong, but what he didn't expect was that the artillery technology here was much higher than that of the Xiyi people.

After a period of humble study, Jiang Gongming was able to adapt to the various systems and new technical concepts used in the artillery laboratory, and soon developed his knowledge of firearms, and was recently promoted to the chief expert of the artillery laboratory.

Jiang Gongming, who had had a period of in-depth exchanges with Western missionaries and was familiar with Western ships, said after listening to Zhao Yan's thoughts: "My lord, the artillery of the Xiyi people has no rifling, and it is very poor in terms of accuracy and range, and it is generally difficult to hit enemy ships from a distance of four hundred meters. Therefore, there is absolutely no need to worry about the range of our naval guns, and the accuracy of our guns alone cannot be compared with the Xiyi people. ”

"But the heavy artillery on the bottom layer can penetrate their hull at a distance of 1,000 meters, and the artillery on the upper level is gradually decreasing." Zhao Yan said that naval warfare is different from land warfare.

The maximum range of field artillery on land plus grenades can exert great lethality, but naval artillery needs to penetrate the opponent's hull first, so the maximum range is meaningless.

Zhao Yan and Jiang Gongming discussed for nearly a day before the armed system on the entire hull was determined.

A ship is expected to be able to carry sixty-eight guns, thirty-three on each side, and one more at the end of the war. The heavy guns on one side were loaded with twenty guns, which were divided into the ground floor and the second floor. The third layer was armed with thirteen 75-mm cannons.

Heavy artillery is just a very general name, mainly because the artillery laboratory has not yet determined the heavy artillery system used by the navy.

In addition to artillery, rockets are naturally an indispensable weapon for naval warfare. The main function of rockets is to set fire to enemy ships, which is a very common weapon in naval warfare in this era.

The truth was within the range of the cannon, and Zhao Yan immediately urged Jiang Gongming to develop the ideal heavy artillery as quickly as possible, and at the same time he began to build a navy.

There was no shortage of manpower, and the firm hired nearly 1,000 sailors from Fujian, only three taels of silver a month, so they let them come to Shandong from Fujian to work.

Fujian can be described as a rich place, but it is also a poor place. The rich are rich in farming and opening workshops, and the poor are poor. It is a state where the rich get rich and the poor can't even eat. Of course, there are also many yeoman farmers, as well as the middle class.

These hired sailors were undoubtedly from the poor class, and there were many people like this in Fujian and Guangdong, so they did not get any good treatment.

For example, when you are a pirate, the pirates of Westerners need to be very demanding, the spoils must be divided equally, the captain can only take 2 times, the gang jumper also takes 2 times, and the gunner and helmsman take 1.5 times.

Because Westerners are stricter in the hunt for pirates, they have to take huge risks when they become pirates, and if they want to attract people to join, they must be treated fairly.

This is not the case in the East, the little minions are only one or two taels of silver a month, if you don't do it, some people do it, there are people everywhere, there is no shortage of you, and there is a lot of less of you.

There are so many poor people in the coastal areas of Fujian and Guangdong, and some of them come out to be sailors.

Therefore, the remuneration of these sailors has not been high, and after the merchant house offered a monthly salary of three taels of silver, it immediately recruited more than 1,000 sailors.

Zhao Yan arranged them on an average of four Fu boats, and their main task was to drive the Fu boats. These sailors were very familiar with the Fukufu, and soon sailed through the harbor with the Fuku.

Zhao Yan stood on the Fu boat, feeling that the process of the Fu boat was indeed very stable, not bumpy at all, no wonder people use the Fu boat to transport porcelain and other fragile items.

The Fubune is a double-tail rudder design, and although it is slow, it can advance and retreat freely in naval battles, and exert a stronger adaptability.

These sailors were solved, and there was still a shortage of combatants, especially artillerymen.

Is it possible to transfer all the artillery of the artillery battalion to the Navy? Zhao Yan couldn't help but veto it immediately when he thought of this, the artillery battalion had to be used to cooperate with the infantry.

However, it should be no problem to transfer half of the staff.

————————

I'm in much better shape today, but I still can't concentrate, and I often want to smoke.

But I think I'll be able to quit this time! I threw away the cigarette the day before yesterday, and if I go to buy it, I'm a **.

;