Before the sky dawned, the port of Dengzhou had already begun a busy day, with endless streams of sea ships coming and going, and countless people gathered in the port, businessmen who were expected to check the goods, coolies carrying large bags, and newsboys who were drilling around in the crowd to sell newspapers.

On this busy and chaotic port, there was a sudden roar, followed by a long roar of 'woo~', and a train spitting black smoke quickly came from the direction of Dengzhou City. Now the train is no longer the test car that Li Su sat in at the beginning, but the train after several improvements, not only the speed is much faster, but also the horsepower is several times larger, and there are more than a dozen small carriages behind it, which can seat hundreds of people at a time.

In addition, it is worth mentioning that the current train is no longer free, and those who want to take it must spend money to buy tickets, and the price is not expensive. It is precisely because of the low price that there are many people who take the train, and even some outsiders come to Dengzhou, the first thing is to take this train, because the train has spread to all parts of the Tang Dynasty with the merchants, and many people are admired, making the train on the wharf almost become a scene in Dengzhou.

After crossing the port, it is the main city of Dengzhou and several surrounding acropolis, in recent years, the population of Dengzhou has grown too fast, the land in the main city is simply not enough, and it is not easy for the city to expand due to the restrictions of the city wall, so it is not easy for the city to expand, so it has built a few acropolis, but because the commercial nature of Dengzhou is relatively strong, so several David cities are full of merchants, and soon became the most prosperous commercial area in Dengzhou.

In the northeast of Dengzhou, there is an acropolis near the sea, which is called the ship city, and almost all the famous shipyards in Dengzhou are built here. In addition, there is the headquarters of the shipbuilding association, which is jointly established by the shipbuilding industry, and the ship design school, which is inseparable from the shipbuilding association; Li Su's newly established Navigation College and so on. It's all located in this ship city.

The shipyard was originally the location of the Dengzhou government-run shipyard, and later Wei Heizi established the Ship Design Institute. It was also built here, and the current ship city has slowly developed on the basis of these three. At present, most of the people living in the city are craftsmen from some shipyards, and there are also many merchants who come from other places to purchase ships, and it is very lively to come and go every day.

In the center of the shiptown, there is a large building complex, which is divided into two parts, the front part is the headquarters of the ship association, and the latter part is the ship design college established by Wei Heizi. However, whether it is the dean of the academy or the president of the association, all of them are now served by Wei Heizi, so the two institutions are divided into front and back offices, which is also convenient for Wei Heizi.

On the way from the ship association in front to the design college in the back, a sturdy middle-aged man with dark skin was walking back quickly, while a person was closely following behind him, and he said while chasing back: "President Wei, think about it again, as long as there are many maritime merchants in Zhancheng. As long as you agree that we will build a large ship of more than 100 tons there, we are willing to pay double the royalty! ”

"Brother Lin, you will die of this heart, Your Highness has an order. As long as it is about the technology of new ships, it must not be leaked! Wei Heizi said without looking back. But when he said this, he seemed to think of something. The hurried footsteps also stopped, but the person behind him was not careful. Hit Wei Heizi's back all of a sudden.

"President Wei, what are you?" The people in the back were shocked. He didn't expect Wei Heizi to stop suddenly.

And Wei Heizi turned his head to look at the person behind him at this time, and said with some seriousness: "Brother Lin, you have a relationship, and my brother doesn't want you to lose too much, so I will advise you again today, hurry up and sell the shipyard in Zhancheng, and don't expect to build a big ship, otherwise it may bring unexpected disasters to your Lin family!" ”

Hearing Wei Heizi's solemn advice, the businessman surnamed Lin was also stunned, speaking of which his family has been shipbuilding for generations, with the prosperity of maritime trade now, his family's industry is also expanding rapidly, not only in the Tang Dynasty opened a lot of shipyards, even some small coastal countries outside the country have also set up some shipyards, but by the internal restrictions of the ship association, it is not allowed to build more than 100 tons of large ships abroad. This is undoubtedly a huge loss for the Lin family, so he came here and wanted to beg Wei Heizi to let him be accommodating, but unfortunately the other party didn't agree at all, and finally advised himself to say this, which made him a little confused.

"President Wei, can you make it clearer?" The businessman surnamed Lin asked again.

However, Wei Heizi obviously didn't want to explain, after all, this matter was too confidential, and there were not many people who knew about it, even he only knew a rough idea, so naturally he couldn't say it to the outsider in front of him, so he hugged his fists and said: "Brother Lin, I can only say this, believe it or not, it depends on yourself, there are still some urgent matters in the design institute that I need to deal with, farewell!" ”

After Wei Heizi finished speaking, he turned around and left, leaving only the businessman surnamed Lin standing there alone, frowning and thinking about the deep meaning of Wei Heizi's words.

As soon as Wei Heizi entered the Ship Design Institute, a young man of more than 20 years of age immediately came up to report: "Dean, you can count it, the Battle of Tsushima has ended, although we have won, but His Highness is very dissatisfied, and even sent a handwritten letter, asking us to correct the shortcomings exposed by the warships in this battle as soon as possible." ”

"Is there anyone from General Lu's side, and the data on the damage to the warship should have been sent, right?" Wei Heizi's face sank when he heard the news, and he thought that he was afraid of something, he had received the news of the Battle of Tsushima before, and the warships used by Lu Qing and them were all designed by them, although Lu Qing and they won this battle with fewer victories, but they also lost more than thirty warships, accounting for a quarter of the entire fleet, and this result obviously did not meet his requirements for His Royal Highness the King of Qi.

"Dean, rest assured, the people and data have arrived, and I studied it with a few masters just now, and found that most of the damaged warships were destroyed by fire, and almost none were really sunk by the other party!" The young man replied very quickly. This young man's name is Gao Yue, one of the first students of the design school, and because of his excellent grades, he was promoted to Wei Heizi's assistant, learning from Wei Heizi while working.

Hearing Gao Yue's words, Wei Heizi's brows also furrowed, the warship is made of wood, so he is naturally most afraid of fire, although there are some fire prevention measures on the ship, but with the news he got, Lu Qing and they are facing 50,000 Japanese people, more than 1,000 warships, so many ships launch rockets together, even if the fire is extinguished in time, I am afraid that some warships will inevitably be burned.

At this time, Gao Yue continued: "Dean, in addition, the person sent by General Lu also provided a piece of news, that is, at the time of the battle, most of the destroyed warships started to catch fire from the sails, and then burned the cables and pressed them on the ship, which in turn ignited the wood on the ship, which burned the ship as well. ”

"I see!" Wei Heizi nodded after hearing this. Today's warships are all the type of ships of the Fu ship, and they are all traditional hard sails, and this kind of hard sails are generally made of plant leaves, which are very flammable, although there are countermeasures for the sails on fire, but if there are too many rockets shot, they can't be saved at all, and in the end they can only watch the sails become big torches.

The two of them talked while walking, and soon arrived at a hall of the design institute, the hall was very simple, surrounded by huge wooden shelves, on which there were a lot of ship models, and in the middle of the hall, there was a huge round table, there were a lot of documents on the table, and there were several young shipbuilders around who were looking at these documents seriously, and in addition to these people, there was also a person who looked like a general standing next to him, and it seemed that Lu Qing should have sent him.

As soon as Wei Heizi came in, everyone in the hall stopped what they were doing and saluted him. But Wei Heizi didn't care about these etiquette, grabbed the table and read the culture sent by Lu Qing, and then asked the general some questions, and finally stroked the short beard under his chin and muttered.

At this moment, a white-haired master said: "Dean, although our losses in this naval battle are a little bigger, but being able to win more with less is enough to prove that the warship we designed is very good, as for the ships that were burned, but there is no way, after all, the hard sails are made of leaves, which are inherently very flammable, but as long as they are not surrounded by the enemy like in this naval battle, even if the sails are on fire, they can be extinguished in time, so in general, it is still good, but His Highness still asks us to improve, Isn't this too demanding for us? ”

As soon as the old craftsman finished speaking, many masters in the hall nodded again and again, after all, the flammability of sails was a big problem, and the reason why the previous building ships used oars was that they were worried that the sails would be attacked by others, so the previous warships generally did not have sails.

However, Wei Heizi was a little unimpressed when he heard it, and looked at the people in the hall lightly: "The sail is indeed a big shortcoming, but what is our ship design college for?" Isn't it just to solve the problems encountered by various ships in their applications? So don't say that again. ”

Hearing Wei Heizi's words, the old craftsman immediately retreated in shame, and the others also knew what they were doing wrong, and began to bow their heads and ponder a solution to the flammability of the sails. It's just that this problem is obviously very tricky, everyone thought about it for a long time, but they couldn't come up with any good solution, after all, the sail is so huge, and it hangs on a high place, it is naturally the enemy's first target, and as long as this thing is ignited, it is likely to ignite other things on the ship, becoming the culprit of burning the entire ship.

And just when everyone, including Wei Heizi, felt a little helpless, suddenly Gao Yue, who had not spoken beside him, spoke: "Dean, I did think of a solution, but I don't know if it has an effect?" (To be continued.) )