"It's not big, is it?"

Li Chao looked bare-chested and bare-chested, dressed in a short beat, like a sailor on a ship. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

"You are a dignified prince of the country, a general of the town army from the second rank. Take a few boats to Goguryeo to cool, if there is no accident, it will be fine. But in case there is any accident, then you, the general of the town army, will be planted in Liaodong, but you won't have a chance to save it. ”

Taking a few boats out to sea to impress the coast of Goguryeo sounds quite refreshing. But the risk is also big, after all, across the sea so far, so many people ran to the territory of Goguryeo, and if they encountered any accidents, there was no one to save their lives. If you really want Lao Cheng to plant Goguryeo, this thing will be a big deal.

One of the eight nobles of the dignified and chaste, besides, Lao Cheng has such a good relationship with the Li family, Li Chao calls him uncle, his daughter-in-law Cui is still the aunt of Li Chao's wife.

"You don't have to worry about that, my old Cheng Rong horse has been half a life, the enemy camp can enter and exit seven times, go to Goguryeo to rob it, what else can they do with me. Going to Goguryeo is the same as visiting a green building, that is, going to cool two. Have you ever seen someone go to the Qinglou and plant yourself inside? ”

Li Chao nodded, "Yes, if you are too cool, you will have a stroke immediately." ”

"Get out!" Lao Cheng scolded with a smile.

"I'm just a jobless casual now, I'm idle, and I'm getting moldy when I stay here. Don't worry, I won't mess around when I go to Liaodong, just go shopping on the beach. Don't worry, I've never seen any winds and waves. ”

Li Chao was helpless.

It seems that this period of time in Dengzhou really held Lao Cheng back.

"Well, the weather has been good recently, and there is no wind and waves on the sea, so why don't I go shopping with you."

"Yes, I'll just go, you better stay. I'm not afraid if I encounter some hard stubble in Liaodong, but you can't, if you lose a hair there, I can't afford to pay for it. ”

Li Chaobai glanced at him, "If you want to go, you can go, if you don't want to pull it down, I'll go by myself." ”

Originally, Li Chao was reluctant to take risks, but after Cheng Yanjin said a few words, he really planned to go shopping. It's a test of the ship, a check of the route, etc., of course, when you get there, you will also have a landing or something.

It depends.

Normally, nothing will happen. After all, their sea ships are so advanced and well equipped.

"Well, we can disguise ourselves as merchant ships and stealthily rob them in the name of trade. How is it? ”

Lao Cheng touched his chin.

There is light in the eye.

"This idea is very insidious, but I like it, let's say, when will I go?"

"Just for a few days!" Li Chao was also excited in his heart, in fact, he was also an adventurous person in his bones.

"Wen Yuan, I still have something to tell you, I plan to call my family and send him to study at your Dengzhou Academy."

Cheng Chucun, Cheng Chuli, the second and third of the Cheng family. The two concubines are a little younger than Chu Mo, but they are both sixteen or seventeen-year-old teenagers.

Lao Cheng's ex-wife gave birth to two sons-in-law for him, and the remarried Cui family gave birth to him again, and the family was also prosperous.

The boss has been following Li Chao for a few years, and with Li Chao's relationship and the Cheng family's family background, as well as his own ability, he has earned himself a real marquis title and a fief of a hundred miles, but Lao Cheng is not worried about the future of this son.

The second brother was pulled by the emperor to be his son-in-law early, and he will not worry about eating and drinking in the future.

Although the third child is still young, the old lady is a member of the Qinghe Cui family, and she has the reputation of the Cheng Cui family, so she definitely doesn't have to worry.

Daughter, Lao Cheng is not worried.

He is just more worried about the three concubines in the family, Cheng Biting Jin's three concubines, and there is a concubine in the inch, and there is a chivalrous in the office. The three concubines, the mother's identity is relatively humble, and there is no mother's power.

Lao Cheng wanted to buy them a knight, but they were not qualified. This time in Dengzhou, Lao Cheng saw the prospect of sailing, and wanted to let the two big concubines come here to learn navigation, and the Cheng family's business could be taken care of in the future. Sister-in-law, naturally, is concentrating on officialdom.

"The imperial court is preparing to build a water master school, Uncle Cheng, you can directly arrange for the two of them to go in." Li Chaodao.

"I'm not interested in the Sailor Academy." Cheng Biting Jin shook his head.

The Sailor School is run by the imperial court, and it is prepared for sailors, which is considered professional training. The recruited students are actually equivalent to the people of the water division, and if they go to study, they are even the soldiers of the water division.

Although Cheng Yanjin is optimistic about sea trade, he looks down on the sailor. I think that to fight, you have to be a foot rider on land, even if it is a musketeer of the Divine Machine Army, it is better than the sailor.

If he wants to arrange for his sons to enter the military world, he will send them directly to the martial arts hall.

"It's not that I look down on the sailors, it's that they even built the boats by you, and even the instructors of the sailors are still the crews of our South China Sea trading fleet, and they know how to sail. Follow the crooked monk, where can you recite any good scriptures. If you want to learn sailing, you have to go to the navigation academy in Dengzhou, whether it is to learn shipbuilding or navigation, you still have to go there. ”

Li Chao smiled, what he said was right.

The merchant fleet of the South China Sea trade was the most experienced in seafaring in this era. The crew members in the fleet were originally bearded customers, and their old crew members who had been maritime merchants for generations, coupled with the new seagoing ships and new maritime inventions provided by Li Chao later, made this maritime fleet even more remarkable.

"It's okay to go to the academy everywhere, but it's hard to run to the sea."

"It's okay, they don't carry the fetus well, the fetus is in the belly of the concubine, and when they are born, they can't brighten them everywhere. and does not have a powerful uncle's family, if he refuses to endure some hardships and learn some real skills, how can he have a foothold in the future. It is also appropriate to endure hardships, and if you suffer a little when you are young, you will have a good life in the future. ”

picked a good day, Li Chao and Cheng Yanjin, two lawless guys, quietly left Dengzhou Port.

There are not many boats, ten boats in total.

All are three-masted galleons with a displacement of about five hundred tons. In this era, sea ships carrying 100 people were already considered large ships, but those ships were only equivalent to small ships, with a displacement of about 200 tons.

In fact, as a merchant ship, the Gasai sailing ship is not very suitable, because it is designed for speed and is more inclined to combat. However, Li Chao chose this ship at the beginning, and he went to the armed merchant ship at the beginning.

In the Age of Discovery, sailing ships with a displacement of less than 500 tons were called small sailing ships. But in this era, five hundred tons, is already a big ship.

Lee Kee Shipyard uses this unit as the size of the ship.

One ingredient is one foot cube. A ship with a displacement of 500 tons is equivalent to about 800 materials.

Ten 800-material ships, this is a fleet composed of Li Chao, Cheng Yanjin and Cui Zhenglu. Cui Zheng and Lu are all Li Chao's in-laws, and the ones who came to lead the team were Li Chao's brother-in-law and brother-in-law, and he couldn't refuse.

Five families, two boats for one family.

Although there are few ships, there are many people. Each ship carried more than a hundred people, adding up to a full fifteen hundred people. Even excluding the men who drove the ships, in fact the fleet was carrying a full 1,200 armed sailors.

Standing on the deck, Lao Cheng was very satisfied with the boat. The only thing he was dissatisfied with was the quantity, according to his words, he was the general of the town army, Lu Guogong, and he actually only had two boats.

I guess I need to have a hundred and eighty boats.

"100,000 pieces, you can have as many as you want, but you just have to queue up."

Li Chao couldn't wait to sell more boats out.

Cheng Yanjin despises Li Chao very much, and he is also a partner in the shipyard, although there are more than a hundred such partners. But as a partner, you naturally know the costs and profits of shipbuilding.

The cost of such a boat is less than 50,000 yuan, and Li Chao sells it for 100,000 yuan. In fact, now if you want to buy a boat, you have to queue up, or you have to add money in advance, and if you want to get it immediately, you actually have to get 120,000 yuan.

"We're going to have to build some more factories." Cheng Yanjin lamented the huge profits of the shipyard on the one hand, and was dissatisfied with the shipyard's output being too low. In fact, it is still in materials that restricts the output of shipyards.

Li Kee Shipyard implements standardized parts production, and the shipyards in Dengzhou and several other ports are actually assembly plants.

A three-masted building of 800 materials can actually be assembled in just ten days.

Therefore, what really limits the production capacity is the production of various components, keels, masts, decks, sails, anchors, etc. Under this production model, the production capacity and efficiency have been greatly improved, but now there are too many people buying ships, which still leads to too much busyness and insufficient supply of materials.

"It's still not enough manpower. Those parts factories are short of people. Li Chao was helpless.

It is true that the assembly of ships is fast, but the processing of those raw materials into semi-finished products takes a lot of time. For example, timber, from harvesting to processing, can be counted in years. After all, timber has to be harvested, transported, and dried, and cables and sails have to be harvested and reprocessed for hemp production.

The shipyard is not short of funds, but what is lacking is people, and no matter how much capital there is, there is no one, and it is useless to build more new factories.

If the accessories are sufficient, the assembly is actually very simple, and a shipyard can load a large ship of 800 materials in ten days. Lee Kee now has two assembly yards, and new shipyards are being built in the other four major ports at the same time.

After the completion of the new factory, Li Ji had six assembly shipyards by then, and at that time, 18 large ships could be assembled in a month. And that's just when the shipyard used to have only one assembly line, and now the shipyard is expanding, one shipyard can build several ships at the same time, and after the expansion is completed, even one shipyard can assemble ten ships at the same time.

A shipyard can build 30 ships a month, which is equivalent to one boat a day. Six shipyards can produce six large ships in one day. It's quite scary to run this capacity at full capacity.

"Damn, let's go out this time, we must catch some more people to return to work." Lao Cheng hated the way.

"Hurry up and load, load it early, set sail early."

Ten ships, under the banner of trade, will leave the port with a full load of merchant cargo.

The bottom of the cabin is filled with porcelain from Jingdezhen and rock sugar and frosting sugar transported from Lingnan, which are heavier and used as ballast. Then there are light but valuable things on top, silk, tea, books, etc.

These are all Datang specialties, not available in other places, and each of them can be sold at a high price.

Cheng Yanjin looked at the crew members helping to load the goods, and smacked his mouth, "We really don't have anyone else?" ”

Li Chao looked at those crew members, and he was also helpless.

Li Cheng, Cui Zhenglu, and the five families cobbled together 1,500 people, and in addition to the necessary manpower to open the ship, there were 1,200 armed sailors. It's just that these sailors really don't take it very well.

A small number of men, and the rest are almost all teenagers.

"Let's go down, it's hard to find people now." Li Chao sighed.