"Your Highness will be greeted.

"Your Highness, the big news has fallen."

Zhu Linmiao was directing the craftsmen to install the gantry crane winch, and saw Pang Zhu trotting over, but he remembered that there was no need to kneel in the shipyard, and said hurriedly: "Anping Chengji Shipyard has more than 30 large materials of all kinds and more than 4,000 small materials, all of which have been dried in the shade. The lower officials sent people to pretend to build a private ship to contact the shipyard, and the owner of Cheng Ji also boasted, "If necessary, 20 large pieces of material can be brought in within ten days." ’”

The "big material" he refers to is the wood that can be used to make the keel and girder of the ship, which is usually five to ten zhang long, and even more than fifteen zhang long. The small material is the wood such as shipbuilding ribs and ship boards, although the size of the wood is not required, but the amount of use is very large.

Zhu Linmiao was overjoyed, the shipyard upgrade work would soon be completed, and she was waiting for the timber to be put on the slipway.

He was about to order all these ship materials to be bought, but he heard Pang Zhu answer: "It's just that the Cheng family heard that they wanted to buy ship materials, but the lion opened his mouth, and the asking price was more than twice as usual......

Zhu Linmiao frowned, and explained that there were really many profiteers in the end, and asked Pang Zhu again: "How many silver taels do you need to buy these wood?" ”

"Cheng's offer is based on beech wood. It is three zhang long, within five feet of circumference, and ten taels per zhang. It is three to ten zhang long, twelve taels per zhang. If the circumference is more than five feet, the price of each additional foot will be increased by two points.

"Thirty sticks of material are calculated, and a total of seven thousand three hundred taels are needed. The price of beech wood is less than half of the big material, and the price of fir material is less than 40%, and all the 4,000 small materials are plated, totaling 160,000 taels. ”

Zhu Linmiao's brows furrowed even deeper when she heard this. 4,000 small materials and 30 large materials can probably build four 500-ton Galen ships, and this wood will cost 170,000 taels. Coupled with the cost of labor, sails, ropes, etc., a boat cannot get off the slipway without 50,000 taels.

This is only the cost of the ship itself, although the cannons on the ship can be built by the Ordnance Bureau, but the Galen ship carries a large number of guns, and it is estimated that each ship will have to invest tens of thousands of taels of cast cannons.

A total of 500 tons of warship will cost more than 60,000 taels. The navy is really not for the poor.

He sighed and instructed Pang Zhu, "Try to make a deal with him, and if it really doesn't work, buy it first." ”

A few days ago, the Ministry of Industry has sent people to the mountains to cut wood, but it will take time for the wood to dry. And Daming urgently needs a strong sailor, and he really can't delay it any longer, so he has to buy this batch of wood first.

"Lower official, obey."

Pang Zhu didn't walk far before two people dressed as craftsmen followed closely. Zhu Linmiao knew that it was the Jinyi guard sent by Zheng Guangying to the shipyard to secretly supervise whether officials were corrupt in such large transactions.

It's not that he doesn't trust Pang Zhu, it's that the officials in the late Ming Dynasty were corrupt and had to be guarded against.

The timber was available, and Zhu Linmiao immediately gathered more than a dozen leading craftsmen and began to arrange specific shipbuilding matters.

When the sky was getting dark, in the drawing room of the shipyard, Zhu Linmiao took the minutes of the meeting from the scribe and read them again, and concluded: "Then it is decided."

"Two slipways made two Galen warships of 4,000 stone at the same time. The slipway built a 7,600-stone ship. ”

Since the craftsmen were still very unaccustomed to the unit of "ton", he could only use "stone" to express the displacement, the former was 260 tons, and the latter had more than 500 tons.

This big ship is actually a kind of improved fortune ship dedicated to naval warfare, which was the first invention of Zheng Zhilong and belonged to the main battleship of the Daming Naval Division. The word "熕" in its name comes from the heavy cannon on which the bow of the ship rests.

To be honest, Zhu Linmiao actually didn't really want to benefit the ship for naval warfare.

Due to the limitations of the congenital structure, the combat effectiveness of the Ming Fu ship is much lower than that of the European Galen ship of the same size.

First of all, the cross-section of the hull of the Fukun is "V" shaped, which can effectively reduce the resistance of seawater and is beneficial to the wind and waves, but the lateral stability is insufficient. If the cannon on the deck fires at the side of the ship, it can cause the hull to shake at least or capsize the hull at worst.

And the Galen ship was improved from the very beginning for naval battles with a large number of artillery, the hull section was "U" shaped, the bottom was wide, the longitudinal stability was good, and it could withstand lateral fire from large-caliber guns.

It is customary to install large-caliber guns only in the bow and stern, and only fire at the front and rear. Only small-caliber guns can be placed on the deck, usually with the less powerful Franc cannons.

The Galen ship, on the other hand, could have a large number of heavy guns placed side by side on the deck, and when engaged, it was already on the side of the enemy, and a dozen or even dozens of cannons fired a salvo, and the fire density was several orders of magnitude higher than that of the Fu ship.

In addition to the shape of the ship, the internal structure of the hull also has the shortcomings of the Fukubune as a warship.

The interior of the ship is a watertight cabin structure, with a large number of partitions to divide the hull into more than ten sections, and any one section of the water leakage will not affect the other sections. It is a blessing ship with excellent sinking resistance, and it will not sink if it touches a reef that is not very large.

However, the watertight cabin structure caused problems, such as causing the center of gravity of the whole ship to move upward, which, combined with the "V" shaped hull, was not conducive to the stability of the fire on the deck.

In addition, the bulkheads occupy the space in the ship, making it impossible to lay a multi-level through deck inside the hull.

The craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty called the Galen ship a plywood ship, because the Galen used a rib structure, gave up the sinking resistance, and only used the ribs fixed on the keel to support the hull, and the internal space of the hull was extremely large. Therefore, it is possible to lay an additional deck or even two in the hull for the placement of artillery.

In Western pirate movies, it is common to see many "windows" open on the side of the sailing ship, and then countless cannons poke their heads out of the windows and shoot at the enemy ships on the side of the ship. This is the cannon arranged on the second deck inside the Galen ship.

The low position of the second deck results in a low center of gravity, and the guns placed on it have less impact on the stability of the hull when firing, so it is possible to use heavier guns than the main deck.

Combined with these factors, in terms of the number of heavy guns alone, Galen can be nearly ten times higher than Fuchuan!

As for the larger Galen ship, it can even be divided into three decks, and the gun load is even more amazing.

For example, the British "Sea Monarch", which has been in service for nine years, is of this design, and the whole ship is equipped with hundreds of cannons, of which there are about 30 32-pounder guns and 30 24-pounder guns.

The cannon of one ship is enough to equip 100,000 troops, and the firepower is terrifying!

In addition to the difference in the number of cannons carried, the abandonment of the watertight compartment of the Galen ship led to a decrease in the total weight of its hull, so that the hull was made very thick.

Just like a 500-ton lucky ship, the hull usually uses ten-centimeter-thick planks, while Galen is often more than twenty centimeters, and heavy warships even have a half-meter-thick hull!