The Dengzhou shipyard is heavily guarded.

The wall had already been repaired on land, and the guards of the Dengzhou garrison were sent to guard it in turn, and it was forbidden for the foreign countries to probe the specific situation in the shipyard.

And at sea, the Dengzhou guards sent warships to patrol at twelve o'clock.

The materials for the daily life of the employees in the shipyard will also be sent in through layers of inspections, and like the original Donggong Military Research Institute, it will gradually form a large-scale town.

Now the Donggong Military Research Institute is outside the city of Beijing, basically forming a town.

It is similar to the structure of the huge state-owned enterprises of later generations.

It is composed of a working area and a living area, and even in the living area, in order to meet the daily entertainment of employees, chess and card rooms, theaters, etc., are all arranged.

Zhu Jianji took his ministers straight to the dock.

Seeing the rows of docks from afar, Zhu Jianji couldn't cry or laugh.

It's time to take a step!

At the beginning, Li Shunda was given an order to expand ten docks on the original basis, so that he could produce ten steel warships at one time.

I'm a little too ambitious.

There weren't as many skilled workers, and there wasn't as much steel to support them.

Li Shunda also explained on the side: "Your Majesty, it is wasted, the current manpower of the Dengzhou Shipyard has been allocated by the Ministry of Industry for steel use, which is only enough for two docks to start construction at the same time, and the remaining eight docks are basically idle."

Zhu Jianji nodded, "It doesn't have much impact."

He added: "In this way, when the war on the Indochina Peninsula ends next year and the pressure on the treasury is not so great, we will allocate funds to the shipyard, leaving four docks in the shipyard, and the remaining six docks will all be converted into port berths, so that the South China Sea Fleet can come back for maintenance in the future, and even the East China Sea Fleet in the future can also use Dengzhou as a base."

Anyway, to enter the Age of Discovery, one fleet is definitely not enough.

Li Shunda smiled and said, "Your Majesty Shengming."

As he spoke, he had already approached the dock, but in fact, far away, he had already seen two behemoths standing on the shore of the two docks, which should be the main body of the steam warship.

When the main body is completed and the steam engine is installed, it will be launched.

There are still many places that need to be processed.

Zhu Jianji coughed, "Over there in the chemical group, after the successful development of the use process of rubber, we are currently making every effort to develop a new type of material, which mainly acts on the splicing between steel, which I call welding, but the research and development of solder has only been carried out for a long time, so even the steam tank also uses rivets and uses the tenon principle to splic, but the steel battleship is larger, although the wooden battleship of the same volume can also be spliced with the tenon principle, but if the steel battleship uses the tenon, I don't think it is safe."

The tonnage is not of an order of magnitude at all.

Even Zheng He's treasure ships in the West did not have the draught of the steel warships being produced at the moment.

Li Shunda said: "It is indeed a problem, so in order to ensure the overall solidity of the battleship, the technical workers of the shipyard have complicated the structure of the splicing after many discussions and experiments, and used a lot of more steel to barely meet the performance requirements, but because the battleship must be equipped with artillery, and the recoil of my current artillery is too large, so the shipyard is still actively researching, and intends to equip each gun on the battleship with a device that can weaken the impact of recoil on the battleship as a whole."

Zhu Jianji was greatly pleased.

As long as the shipyard has such talents, then the supply of funds and materials will be guaranteed, and it is not good that they will develop more types of warships on their own in the future.

Li Shunda added: "In order to meet the integrity of the battleship, after all, the complexity of the splicing structure increases the weight of the battleship, so after several discussions within the shipyard, it is finally decided that the number of guns needs to be reduced."

The original plan was to have 24 guns on each side of the battleship, which is also the structure of the traditional battleship, with more guns on both sides, and the more guns, the stronger the battleship's combat power.

Now, because of the weight problem, it has been cut in half.

There are 12 doors on each side, for a total of 24 doors.

Zhu Jianji asked, and knew that there were still twenty-four doors,

I think it's feasible, after all, this thing is not a battleship, and to be honest, the Ming Dynasty doesn't need a battleship now.

Against the Gentile Naval Division, they still rely on the coverage of dense artillery to achieve damage.

And it's made of steel.

Artillery that can be dealt with without fear.

However, there is a disadvantage in the placement of artillery on both sides of the battleship, that is, when fighting with foreign naval divisions, the warships of both sides must be horizontal, and the distance cannot be narrowed, and when one side is defeated and the other side is pursuing, it is also affected by the position of the artillery, and the purpose of killing and injuring the enemy cannot be achieved in the pursuit process.

So......

It was necessary to place a battleship with two or three firepower guns in the bow of the battleship.

In this case......

When the time comes, ordinary battleships will form fire suppression, and battleships can drive straight in, approaching while shelling, and even directly ram into it.

Lao Tzu steel battleship, afraid of your wooden battleship?

Now in the world, only Daming is building steel battleships, and only Daming has this national strength!

Accompanied by Li Shunda, walking into the main body of the steel battleship, Zhu Jianji looked at the complex structure of splicing everywhere, and secretly had a headache, and the level of craftsmanship was still too low.

The main reason is that the steelmaking process is not enough, and the welding technology has not been invented.

The deck of the battleship is made of high-strength steel, and because of the shape, the need for hoist technology, but unfortunately the current steel mill has not reached this level, so the steel used for the deck and the main body is actually only the steel used by Daming Guangfa.

Don't be afraid of flowering bombs.

But the solid bullet has a lot of threat to it, because with the current quality of steel, if it is smashed by the solid bullet, it is likely to be a big hole, but the power of the flowering bullet is not enough to cause much damage to it.

The embarrassing thing is that now only the Ming Dynasty is gradually popularizing flowering shells in the world, and the artillery of the rest of the countries is still backward solid shells, although the lethality is small, but the threat to warships is great.

The good news is that because of the full development of the gunpowder process, benefiting from the improvement of the level of gunpowder technology, the current Ming artillery range far surpasses that of other states.

When the time comes, the naval battle can be fought with this range difference.

Zhu Jianji said: "According to the demand data of your shipyard, the Steam Research and Development Institute of the Academy of Engineering of the Ministry of Industry has produced two high-power steam engines that are enough to meet the needs of warships, and when I set off from Gyeonggi, I was ready to ship them.

Li Shunda thought for a while, "The main body is basically about to be completed, and when the steam engine is transported over and installed, it will be filled in with other structures, such as ammunition rooms, lifting devices, and artillery installations.

Zhu Jianji counted the time, "Good!"

OK.

Build two ships in two years, with the current industrial level of the Ming Dynasty, this speed is really not slow, and the current progress of Baozong in Japan is not fast, to unify Japan, it will take several years.

After inspecting the two unfinished warships, Zhu Jianji took Li Shunda to Li Shunda's office.

Now there's the question of the battleship!

The battleship only needs to be equipped with about three firepower guns in the bow, and there is no need for radar, defensive mines, and torpedoes, but some heavy machine guns should be arranged on both sides to ensure that there is still fire output in close combat, so the structure can be simple.

[In view of the general environment,

By the end of the fourth year of Guang'an, we will strive to install the South China Sea Fleet together with these two warships.