As early as 551 A.D., when Hou Jing's rebellious army attacked Jiangling and fled, Li Tai took advantage of the situation to take over Xiakou and other Jiangbei Jindu, and exchanged food and materials for many prisoners of war in the hands of Jiangling generals.

After that, Li Tai ordered Li Quji and others to select some prisoners of war as craftsmen and go to the Danjiang Estuary to dig land to build lakes and build docks. Two full years have passed since then, and the dockyard at the mouth of the Danjiang River has been built on a very large scale.

Danjiang Estuary is the port formed by the injection of Danshui into the Han River, located in the upper reaches of the Han River, the north is the remnant vein of Daheng Mountain in the Qinling Mountains, and to the south is the Wudang Mountain that belongs to the remnant vein of Daba Mountain. Between these two mountain systems, there is a valley and hilly area, forming a fairly large area of wetlands and lakes, and the Danjiangkou Dock is located in the middle.

As early as when Li Tai was still serving as the assassin of Jingzhou, he had arranged for Linghu Yanbao to build ships in Xingzhou, but at that time, due to the lack of technology and the accumulation of craftsmen, he could only complete the construction and maintenance of some inland river cargo ships, and the warships were somewhat weak.

Now Li Quji serves as the Sima of Xingzhou and leads the management of the Danjiangkou dock, and the specific production management of the dock is in charge of Zhou Shaoyuan, who is in charge of the governor's office.

Zhou Shaoyuan is in his forties, is a short and fat middle-aged man, himself is also a person from Southern Liang, once held the position of Taizhou Cheng in Southern Liang, and later was forced to be a thief by Hou Jing's chaotic army, and was defeated and captured by the Jiangling army and then came to the Jingzhou Governor's Mansion.

The Southern Liang Taizhou Administration is the capital water department of the Northern Dynasty, and its chief official is called Taizhouqing, that is, Li Tai served as the capital water envoy in Taiwan a few years ago, in charge of ship shipping, river embankment repair and other matters. Tai Zhoucheng is a subordinate official of Tai Zhouqing, and he is also a technical official in charge of the construction of boats in Nanliang.

In addition to Zhou Shaoyuan, who once served as the Taizhou Cheng of the Southern Liang, there were also a large number of other professionals who were selected from the captives, and no longer took on heavy manual labor, but were responsible for technical guidance and production management.

Building boats, especially ships that can be used for water warfare, is not just a matter of cutting wood and releasing water, but is a highly comprehensive and professional production category.

Although Li Quji was the chief officer of the dockyard, he actually had no experience in shipbuilding, and the dock was built from scratch and produced various ships, and Zhou Shaoyuan and other officials from Nanliang were the main ones in charge.

Therefore, when leading Li Tai to visit the dock, Li Quji also took Zhou Shaoyuan and others with him for questioning. For example, the use of manpower and material resources and the overall management of various troubles, he, the chief officer, can answer Lord Lang's questions, but when it comes to some more professional questions, Zhou Shaoyuan and others need to come forward to answer.

Zhou Shaoyuan and others followed behind, looking up at General Li's demeanor from time to time with the rest of their vision, but they didn't dare to look at it with their eyes. It is not only because of the disparity in their status, but also because of General Li's prestige in Southern Liang.

Although these Hou Jing rebel troops did not start a war with the Jingzhou army of the Western Wei Dynasty, out of fear of Hou Jing and his subordinates, they even admired General Li more and more. After all, Murong Shaozong, who once chased and beat Hou Jing like a lost dog and fled in embarrassment, was defeated by General Li and threw himself into the water and died.

Therefore, in the hearts of these prisoners of the chaotic army, General Li is an existence that is two ranks higher than Hou Jing, the demon king of the mixed world, and he is wise and martial enough to penetrate people's hearts. It is precisely because of this that after these captives learned that they were under the jurisdiction of General Li, they did not dare to make trouble in secret, and they were very obedient.

When Li Tai asked about the construction process and construction period of the ship, Zhou Shaoyuan was named to answer the question, so he hurriedly walked forward respectfully, bowed his head and replied seriously: "General Qiqi, the shipyard is now manufacturing a large ship, starting from the preparation of materials, it will take ten months to take ...... before and after."

"So long?"

Li Tai frowned when he heard this, he didn't expect these big ships to be able to produce dumplings at the same frequency as entering the water, but it took nearly a year to build one, which was really a bit inefficient. At this rate, when will he have an invincible armada that can run through the rivers?

"No, fast, of course it can be fast, what the lower official said, yes, it contains...... Please forgive the general......"

That week, Shaoyuan heard General Li's displeasure, and suddenly became more and more nervous and worried, his tone became trembling, and he wanted to express it clearly while wiping the fine sweat on his forehead, but the more nervous he was, the more incoherent he became.

Li Tai saw that he was so nervous, so he raised his hand and patted him on the shoulder and said with a smile: "Zhou doesn't have to be so nervous to join the army, just talk carefully." Although I have not been here for a long time, I also know from the books and texts in Li Sima Zuo's newspaper that Zhou joined the army, as well as you and other people are sincere and diligent.

The servants in the house have always had clear punishments and rewards, and they will not discriminate and be biased because of their life experience and experience. You and the masses go against their will, and they don't believe in the past, but now that they will dedicate their talents to me, I will definitely protect and treat the talents well! ”

As he spoke, his eyes were no longer just staring at Zhou Shaoyuan, but also at the southerners who were present, soothing with a smile.

"The general knows the name of the servant......"

Although Zhou Shaoyuan and others were appointed as subordinate officials of the Governor's Mansion, they were all directly activated during the construction of the dock, and they had not yet gone to the Governor's Mansion to meet General Li.

After the mood calmed down a little, Zhou Shaoyuan and others introduced the process of building the boat to Li Tai in detail.

The most time-consuming part of the construction process of a ship is the stage of material preparation. Although there are abundant timber materials between the mountains of the Qinling Mountains on the left, which can be taken locally, these timbers can not be used immediately, and various processes are processed after the timber is cut, some need to be dried and air-dried, some need to be smoked and dried, and some need to be steamed and other treatments after the precipitation of water.

In short, the more materials are used in the critical positions of the ship, the more processes are required to be processed. For example, the keel and rudder of the ship are more tireless and complicated. After all, the slightest mistake can bury a huge ship and a full ship of sergeants, and it may even affect the outcome of a war!

After the materials have been properly processed, the assembly and grinding process of each part of the ship itself is also technically demanding, but as long as there are a sufficient number of skilled craftsmen, the construction period can be appropriately shortened. Gluing, riveting, painting, oil immersion and other processes also have their own technical standards.

If the various processes of material preparation are deducted, then even if it is the largest building ship, the employment is only more than half a year at most. As for other ships with smaller specifications, the time is even shorter.

"Now the dock is built, mainly divided into the building ship, the Mengchong fighting ship, the main boat, the building ship has caused six, to be in the spring flood of the next year, you can enter the water for sea trials, and then you can load the angle of attack, the iron curtain, the slap rod and other things......"

Hearing Li Quji's introduction to the achievements made in the dockyard, coupled with the additions of Zhou Shaoyuan and others on the side, Li Tai was quite satisfied with this.

Although it has been in business for more than two years, it has been a year of repairing the terrain to facilitate the construction of the dockyard and preparing materials.

In the water war, the building ship is a well-deserved king, and a large number of water battle tactics are based on this for layout and scheduling. Therefore, the building ship also represents the strength of a boat division and naval army.

The Mengchong fighting ship is the main ship in the water battle, and the crew is usually between 100 people, of course, there will be some special circumstances, basically a such warship is a relatively complete combat unit. Moreover, this ship itself is also an offensive weapon, which can launch impacts, attacks, etc. on the water, and is a highly mobile water combat force, which is more similar to the cavalry of land operations.

The light boat is mainly used for reconnaissance, raiding, transmitting information and transporting troops, etc., and its combat effectiveness in actual combat is relatively limited, mainly because of its light and high speed and plays an auxiliary role in battle. In order to make the light boat more light, it can also be made of light materials such as bamboo, of course, the defensive performance is also very weak, and the attrition rate is very high after a water battle.

In today's dockyard, the six large ships can be directly delivered after the final sea trial repair and the installation of offensive and defensive equipment.

Each large ship can also be equipped with five to 10 Mengchong fighting ships, as well as a larger number of light boats, and by next year all of them will be launched and armed into the army, and they will soon be able to form a relatively considerable naval force.

Li Tai inspected here and took a serious course in water warfare tactics, and felt that he had benefited a lot, and he no longer knew anything about water warfare as before.

With this boat division, even if it could not immediately win the war with the Jiangling Naval Division on the Jianghan waterway, it was also a great confidence in the defense of Xiakou and other ports.

In a happy mood, Li Tai also rewarded the officials who had been busy for a long time, and received a wave of gratitude and praise.

(End of chapter)