In the blink of an eye, the New Year is approaching, and the second heavy snow is coming, sprinkled on the land of Liaodong.

However, the county is bucking the trend, approaching the end of the year, becoming more and more lively, and the people on the street are braving the snowflakes to buy New Year's goods.

This autumn got a bumper harvest, the price of grain and the county guaranteed purchase, so every household got some surplus money, close to the end of the year, the people who have suffered for many years have completely let go, have money to spend, for the wife and children to pull out new clothes, buy some New Year's goods to store, now do not have to drink thin all day long, two meals a day, occasionally can eat meat and seafood, Xiaori is very prosperous.

Since the sea trade has been run by the city, the goods in the market have increased, and countless kinds of local specialties that have never been seen have appeared on the stage in the city, if it is not for the size of the county is too small, it is very doubtful that it is not to the capital of Luoyang.

Zhuang Shaoyou stayed in the county government all day long, and occasionally went out to inspect the second factory and the first hospital to guide and guide the work, but the science and technology institute only went once and never dared to go again.

Zhuang Shaoyou can only endure it, there is no way, this is the chief scientist in hand, he can't afford to offend, sacrifice a little hue, as long as the substance does not happen!

The shipyard is another lively, the whole shipyard is under the command of the ink to carry out various matters in an orderly manner, now the four docks are complete, the manpower is also sufficient, the four docks at the same time to build four ships, two three-masted merchant ships, two four-masted warships, busy and happy, Zhuang Shaoyou is also very happy to see, rich is good! Whatever you want, you can build anything!

The forging factory of Motie is also busy in the dark, hundreds of prisoners captured from Goguryeo last time, some of them were sent to the Great Black Mountain as miners, and the other part was in the factory to strike iron, these are all free labor, as long as they take care of the food, and under the special care of Zhuang Shaoyou, treat the prisoners well, their food standards are the same as ordinary workers, three meals a day, two dry and one thin, add meat or seafood in the afternoon, and eat better than when they were soldiers, so they work hard, and no one makes trouble.

The forge is busier than the shipyard, because a large part of the weapons assembled on the warships are produced here, and the newly expanded army also has to receive weapons and equipment from here, fortunately, Gongsun Du sent 3,000 sets of cavalry equipment last time, otherwise this small forge is too busy to produce it!

Zhuang Shaoyou finished reading the work everywhere, and then stayed at the county office, occasionally going to see Momei and Gongsun Linglong, the two little girls, I was greedy for a while, but I still endured it, she was a good girl, she saved herself last time, but she even gave up her face, she was very moved in her heart, and made up her mind that she would not use the overlord to deal with women in the future.

Zhuang Shaoyou's move to capture the old indulgence has won a lot of children's favor, especially Gongsun Linglong, the last incident stimulated her a lot, there was Mo Mei on the side, which made her very pressure, so she also worked very hard, and Mo Mei rushed to take care of Zhuang Shaoyou, cooking porridge, embroidering flowers, and making clothes, Zhuang Shaoyou was very happy, and finally reined in his heart itched again.

The county has spent a big year in a scene of singing, laughing and dancing, the county organized a troupe to sing in the county for seven days, the fifteenth day of the new year, and also engaged in a much larger lantern festival than last year, Zhuang Shaoyou took his children to see the lantern festival, the evaluation was much higher than last year, last year was miserable, at least this year can be seen, I believe that next year will be better!

In the blink of an eye, the first month passed, and in February, the cold of winter has weakened a lot.

On the second day of the second month of February, the dragon raised its head.

Ink brings good news, the first four-masted warship is on trial today!

Zhuang Shaoyou immediately put down the book of heaven in his hand, called Momei and Gongsun Linglong, and felt the shipyard excitedly.

There are already many people waiting here, Moshi brought most of the main members of the Mo family to the scene, Guo Yuan, Hua Xin, Sun Qian and other officials also came, and even General Tai Shici, who didn't listen to what was going on outside the window and only trained the soldiers, came.

Zhuang Shaoyou said hello to everyone, stopped talking nonsense, and boarded the ship! The crowd also followed suit.

The big ship slowly sailed out of the dock, and entered the water with a bang, splashing countless waves, and everyone was thrilled to hear it.

Ink also stood on the bow of the ship with two panda eyes and Zhuang Shaoyou in high spirits, and introduced the various indicators of the ship to Zhuang Shaoyou:

"General, the ship was redesigned according to your suggestion, so the launching time was extended by a month. The length of the boat is ten zhang five feet, the width is five zhang five feet, the height is three zhang feet, the draft is one zhang under normal conditions, the general river has been difficult to enter, only the big rivers like Liaoshui and the Yellow River can enter, and the general river like the Shahe River, only the wide place of the downstream river can be passed.

Now the center of gravity of this ship has dropped a lot, and as long as it is not a typhoon at sea, it is not a big problem!

There are five sails hanging from the four masts, and four sets of jibs are hung between the masts and the side chords, and the speed against the wind is half as high!

Because this is a warship, there are still manpower oars at the bottom of the cabin, and if the battle is needed, manpower can be used to force acceleration, and Moqiao's science and technology institute has also made every effort to improve the manpower oars

While the bilge oars of the original three-masted warships required thirty men to operate, the current four-masted galleons still require only thirty men to increase the speed of the ship by half.

You can travel 450 miles a day with a good wind and water, and 200 miles a day when sailing against the wind, and you can temporarily increase your speed by more than half by using a human oar.

The foredeck of the warship is equipped with twelve crossbows with beds, with a range of 100 paces; The aft deck is equipped with eight small catapults with a range of 500 paces;

In addition, the ship will be equipped with 100 individual crossbowmen, each of whom will be equipped with a two-shot crossbow machine, and the range will also be 250 steps!

Fourteen repeating crossbows are equipped on both sides of the ship; The overall combat capability has been increased by almost two times compared to the three-masted warship!

After all, the original two warships were converted into ordinary ships, and this one is a special warship designed!

The cargo space is 500 square meters, and if it is a merchant ship, it can be at least doubled; The original three-masted warship had a cargo hold space of 300 square meters, and the cargo hold space of a three-masted merchant ship was 100 square meters.

The standard crew of the whole ship is 300 people! There were 100 crossbow operators, 18 deck combatants, and the remaining 12 were ship operators. ”

The ink was spitting and flying, and Zhuang Shaoyou was thrilled when he heard it!

There's a new ship, and it's a big ship that can go out to the open sea!

This is not only an improvement in the strength of the navy, but also a new route to the south of the Yangtze River.

Zhuang Shaoyou looked forward to it for a moment and asked, "How long is the construction period of this ship?" How much does it cost? ”

Ink thought for a moment: "General, because this is the first ship, the construction period is much longer, it took three and a half months, and there is another ship in the other dock that has been built for most of it, and it is expected that it will be able to sea trials in another half a month!"

As for building new ships, if you build a warship, it will be much faster, and it will be completed in two months! If you want to build a four-masted merchant ship, it will be slower, and it will take three months for the first one to be built, and it will take two months to complete one after that.

Another problem is that the length of the four-masted galleon has increased by five zhang, and the trees used as keels are difficult to find in the river, and the giant trees on the Great Black Mountain are very limited, so they can't support the construction of a few ships at all, and I hope the general will make plans early! ”

Zhuang Shaoyou frowned slightly: "You don't have to worry about the timber matter first, as long as it supports this period of time, I will send someone to Changbai Mountain to find the big tree."

The most important thing at the moment is the speed of shipbuilding, if I send you more manpower and increase investment, the shipyard will work around the clock to build four-masted warships, how many can be built before the beginning of April? ”

Ink had an embarrassed expression, and his heart lasted for a long time: "General, if this is the case, you can only build two new ships, because it is already February, and there are still two months left, the first dock can be built immediately, and a warship can be built, and the second one is too late anyway, but after half a month, the second dock can go all out to build the second ship, and another one can be built within a month and a half, plus this one, there will be a total of four four-masted warships!" ”

Zhuang Shaoyou was slightly disappointed, but soon made a decision: "Pass the order, all the docks will go all out to build warships, and those two three-masted warships will let them train the navy with all their might, and recruit another 1,000 sailors!" In April, we will have a battle with Goguryeo, and then it will all depend on the navy! ”

At present, the county has two three-masted warships and seven three-masted merchant ships, and the three-masted dock has directly stopped work since the trial voyage of the two merchant ships in November last year, and all the skilled shipwrights have been mobilized to the new dock to build four-masted warships.

Guo Yuan on the side was a little worried when he heard it: "General, all the strong men in the county have been recruited as soldiers, and the rest are also in shipyards and forging factories, and there are not enough manpower during spring ploughing!" ”

Zhuang Shaoyou shook his head helplessly and said: "Mr. Guo, I can't help it, the shipyard and the training of the navy must be fully guaranteed, and they don't participate in spring ploughing!" In addition, send a boat to Qingzhou to bring people here! Try to pull the strong ding back! In the spring ploughing in March, I will let all the soldiers except the water army help you! ”

When Guo Yuan heard that Zhuang Shaoyou still adopted Hua Xin's suggestion, he was shocked when he only pulled Zhuang Ding: "General, this matter must not be!" If you abandon those old and weak women and children, it will make the generals and the people lose their hearts! ”

"Alright, Mr. Guo! A strong man can protect one old and one young on board! But the woman who could do the farming could also come on board alone, and that was my biggest concession! We are just getting started, and it is impossible to drag more people to death for those illusory benevolence! I only know now that protecting the lives and property of more than 10,000 people here is the greatest benevolence! ”

Hua Xin on the side smiled: "The general understands righteousness!" Subordinates admire! That's right, if the general doesn't help, those strong men will starve to death! We first saved those strong men in order to better save those women and children! ”

Mo Mei frowned when he heard this, but he couldn't interject if it wasn't enough, but Mo Shi spoke first: "Later, I will go to Da Heishan to take out all the grain stored by the Mo family, there is about 30,000 coarse grains!" ”

Zhou Tian next to him also immediately came out to say: "My subordinates are also willing to donate 20,000 yuan of food to save their families!" ”

Zhuang Shaoyou's eyes were a little moist, and he was silent for a long time, and said: "Mr. Guo, these 50,000 hu rice are harvested with autumn grain that can support tens of thousands of refugees!" Send all seven merchant ships out to pick them up! ”

Guo Yuan stepped forward and bowed to everyone: "Thank you for your great help, I thank you on behalf of the people who were rescued!" ”

"Zhou Tian and Wu Liang listen to orders! The two of you take this ship to the sea to explore a new trade route to Jiangnan, ink, you send someone to give full support, and set off in three days! Whatever the outcome, be sure to return by April! ”

"Subordinates obey!"