Thursday, January 20, 1622, the lunar calendar.

After the heavy snowfall around Christmas last year, the climate of the new year suddenly became strange, and the wind and snow that should have swept at this time seemed to be tired of the entire Songzhou area, and there was no snow or rain for more than 20 consecutive days.

The farms directly belonging to the state-owned Agriculture, Forestry, Fishery and Animal Husbandry Group have been expanded to 5,000 mu, the farmland area of several other Delaware villages in the Long Island area has also been prepared in advance for more than 8,000 mu, and the agricultural areas of several Delaware villages on the west bank of the lower reaches of the "Song River" (Hudson River) have been prepared for 10,000 mu. Now we are waiting for the big work after the beginning of spring, but now it seems that even if there is a winter ploughing operation, spring sowing and future harvest will be greatly affected.

In the absence of the annoying snowy day, most of the people who don't know what is going on are still feeling good, but only the former people from the countryside, represented by the Senator Aunt Hae Huifen, who is familiar with agricultural production, are worried that this year may be a dry year with no snow and little rain.

Each liter of snow water is extremely rich in nitrogen-containing compounds, and the winter snow water not only applies a natural nitrogen fertilizer to the earth for free, but also stores water in the soil layer, and the low temperature of the snow water can freeze the overwintering pests on the surface.

Here, the hope of a good year is dashed, and the precarious situation of 1622 is ruthlessly announced, and the snowless winter will lead to a decline in the quality of the soil in the coming year.

Under the reminder of Aunt Hai Huifen, Premier Qi Jianjun organized a special meeting of the government cabinet. An ultimatum guò an interim government resolution. The Ministry of Agriculture organized and guided the Drava tribe to carry out an advance operation to prepare for the water irrigation infrastructure project in all current farm areas. to prevent a possible drought year.

Considering that there are already more than 2,000 European immigrants who have crossed Zhongjia, the continuous importation of European immigrants is still ongoing, and the large-scale Indian hired labor, plus the share of the Delaware farms, the estimated income from this year's arable land will only ensure food security for about two years, and this is still not taking into account the "likely" arrival of Ming immigrants. If necessary, the government will also send orders to the state-owned import-export groups to import grain from Europe, even though Europe is now in a food shortage situation, but food security is clearly not something that dares to be measured by cost now.

While Senator Hai Huifen was running to various farm areas to supervise the work in the winter, the slipway area of Beiyang Shipping Company in the Long Island New Area of Manchurian City. A group of well-dressed men were pointing at the two huge clippers that were about to be launched.

Since the launch of the fourth enterprise-class light cruiser "Delaware" in early October last year, the frantic naval shipbuilding program has finally been temporarily halted by Congress. The newly established Beiyang Shipping Company finally breathed a sigh of relief, but after only half a month's rest, it immediately received orders from the state-owned import and export company for two flying shear cargo merchant ships.

Beiyang Shipbuilding Company after the privatization of shares. This time, the contract was quickly accepted with a completely different kind of enthusiasm, and the merchant shipbuilding plan that You Qi, the company's chief ship designer, had been preparing for more than two months, finally came in handy.

In fact, the performance parameters of the ship have nothing to do with the historical flying shear merchant ship of the same name, and the short shirt-class flying shear merchant ship can be balanced in many aspects without pursuing military combat indicators.

The standard displacement of 1,000 tons, full load of 1,150 tons of "short shirt" class flying shear merchant ship, using 20 horsepower steam engine auxiliary sail lifting device, three-masted sail and spinnaker layout, length to width ratio control zhì at 6:1, non-downwind speed can also reach more than 5 knots, downwind maximum speed of more than 15 knots, the whole ship only needs less than 20 sailors. The maximum cargo capacity is 400 tons.

In terms of full tonnage, although the cargo ratio is much lower than that of the sail galen, its superior high speed and unit sailor cargo capacity completely overwhelm the sail galen. The average speed of the Azores route is 10 knots, which means that the sailing time that used to take about 20 days will quickly be reduced to less than 8 days! …,

Almost all of the sail galen ships that returned to sea late last year are still undergoing slow repairs, so the construction of two flying shear cargo merchant ships must be completed in time for the resumption of European trade in March this year.

With the Beiyang Shipbuilding Company, which has accumulated rich experience in shipbuilding, the construction progress of the Short Shirt and Hussar, which began construction in mid-to-late October last year, is very satisfactory, and now both ships will be launched today.

Due to the abundant construction time, the technicians worked more meticulously in a relaxed and comfortable manner, and it took three months to complete the main construction work before launching. There was still plenty of time to repair the hapless Galen boats, and even a specially designed 200-ton small clipper ship was being built on the third new slipway.

In the next month, the ship outfitting project will be carried out, and the Beiyang Shipbuilding Company, which has more than 180 middle- and high-level technicians of Chinese or European origin and more than 200 junior and low-level Indian employees, will be carried outfitting. Now it is able to easily cope with thousand-ton sailboats. What is even happier is that the follow-up contracts for the construction of the two flying scissors merchant ships, the "Glutton" and the "Baxia", were also signed today. The slipway that is about to be vacated will be utilized to the fullest.

According to You Qi's words, the construction of the two short shirt-class flying clipping merchant ships is definitely more than one grade higher than that of the Navy's enterprise class, and the abundant time makes the drying process of the shipbuilding timber provided by Huamei Wood Company better, and the sufficient shipbuilding mechanics are more experienced after the construction of the four enterprise-class light cruisers, and the construction quality is naturally very guaranteed. Due to non-military use, the cost of armed equipment is much lower than that of the enterprise level, even if it needs to be overtime in the outfitting stage, the contract cost of each ship is only 120,000 US dollars.

After all four short shirt-class flying clipper merchant ships are completed, it will be the turn of the Navy's enterprise-class enlarged 1,200-ton light cruisers "Republic" and "Exploration" to start construction.

In the absence of longer keel timber, the overall length of the Republic-class light cruiser did not change much, but the width was increased, which slightly improved the yaw performance of the hull, which was helpful for artillery firing, which is also a point of criticism that the Enterprise is currently blindly pursuing high speed and is too lean. However, as a result, the top speed of the Republic-class light cruiser was also slightly reduced by one section.

The enterprise-class light cruiser gave up the high-cost scheme of copper-clad on the bottom shell of the ship, and the construction process of the main body of the ship also tended to be relatively rough, and almost every time it went to sea and returned to the sea, it had to carry out a certain course of maintenance, but the cost of follow-up maintenance was higher. The corrosion of the East River Wharf at the Tamsui River Port is also much faster than that of seawater, so the service life of the ship is theoretically calculated at a frequency of overhaul once a year, and it can last for more than eight years.

According to the plans of the Ministry of Defense and the Navy Command, by 1625, six 1,200-ton Republic-class light cruisers would become the main warships, and the 800-ton enterprise-class light cruisers would be phased out and converted into civilian merchant ships.

Different from You Qi's excited expression at the launching ceremony, at this time, Ren Changle, president of COSCO International Trading Company, was squatting on the edge of the dock not far away, while watching his "Changle" sitting miserably in the dock for repairs, while staring at the two flying shear cargo ships that were about to be launched with envy and hatred, and he couldn't help but grab them immediately.

"Hehe, Mr. Ren, are you greedy?"

I don't know when, Shi Yige, president of Beiyang Shipping Company, actually squatted beside Ren Changle and patted the other party's shoulder with a smug expression.

"Mr. Ren, don't worry, your Changle and Wenwen will definitely be repaired before March! You are also an investor in our company, I will give you a discount on the cost, 15,000 yuan is all inclusive, and I will also give you a free replacement of a batch of sails! Shi Yige smiled and pointed to Ren Changle's coat pocket, "I heard that the last time I came back, your goods were very sought-after, how did you snatch that batch of Indian saltpeter and brass from the mouth of the state-owned import and export company?" ”…,

"Don't mention it, more than half of the profits went into your pocket this time." Not to mention that it's okay, Ren Changle's face is a lot worse, but his eyes are fixed on a small sail shear under construction on slipway No. 3, "Who is the shear sailboat that is still on the slipway, it doesn't seem to have a big tonnage!" How much can I get? ”

"What? Are you planning to order one too? Shi Yige was stunned for a moment, and immediately smiled, "It is an order from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a specially tailored communication and liaison ship, a qiē speed is a priority, there is steam-assisted power to lift the sail, the maximum speed can reach more than 18 knots downwind in theory, and it will be easy to reach the Azores in a week!" But don't count on the cargo capacity, and the cost is not cheap, 35,000 yuan. You can order a short shirt class, I'll give you a discount, 115,000 yuan! When the new slipway is finished, I'll build it for you! ”

Counting on his fingers, judging from the full load of two round-trip voyages to the Azores every quarter, it is estimated that COSCO International Trade Company will need to run a year of European trade to earn it, which makes the blood in Ren Changle's heart cool again.

"Let me breathe a sigh of relief, the central bank's private enterprise support loan plan is about to come out, you can go for a loan! With your mouth, can't you get the money? ”

Shi Yige lowered his voice and revealed an idea to Ren Changle, president of COSCO International Trading Company, who also participated in thousands of shares of Beiyang Shipbuilding Company.

Ren Changle, who seemed to have some idea, quickly stood up, and walked towards the ferry terminal to the west without saying hello, it seemed that he was planning to raise funds everywhere or make up for the idea of the future central bank.

In the distance, two red-clad and green-clad flying scissor merchant ships slowly slid into the waterway amid the sparse cheers...... (To be continued.) If you like this work, you are welcome to (.) to vote for recommendation, monthly pass, your support is my biggest motivation. )