Wang Xinyu left Annan and returned to Qiongzhou.

Zheng Yun and Liu Er have moved to the new Admiral's Mansion in Haikou New Town. The bottom of the new Admiral's Mansion is raised with rammed earth, located at the highest point in the city, and the three floors of the palace have a view of the sea and the dock, and the upper floor is Wang Xinyu's room.

"How? Comfortable, right? The level of the concubine is okay, right? Zheng Yun asked softly.

"Hmph, yes, Madame's level has improved again, and my Madame is the best."

At this time, Wang Xinyu was sitting comfortably in the chair, enjoying his wife gently rubbing his shoulders.

Zheng Yun turned his face blank: "Since you said that I am the best, then take me to your Singapore, I want to see what kind of flying clipper clipper is newly built in your shipyard!" ”

"Madam, we don't have a fast boat yet, and it's a long way to Singapore, at least more than ten to twenty days at sea, and my husband is worried that you won't be able to stand it. Anyway, it doesn't matter, this fast ship is built, and if it wants to cross the Pacific Ocean, it will pass through our Qiongzhou, and then it will go across the Pacific Ocean. Wait until the Clipper is built, come here, and you'll see it. You're going to Singapore, and with the clipper we can get to Singapore in seven days. Wouldn't it be nice to take you there then? Wang Xinyu said.

The speed of the clipper boat from Singapore to Hainan Island in seven days is not fast, this kind of ship can cross the Atlantic Ocean in 13 days, and it will take only a month to cross the Pacific Ocean at most, which has reached the speed of the later steamer.

"Humph!" Zheng Yun snorted, "I won't do it!" I'm not waiting here! I'm going to see the clipper finished. Tell me for yourself, we've been married for more than a year, and you've been by my side for a few days? ”

"Where's Liu'er?" Wang Xinyu diverted the topic.

"She's not going to meet her little lover yet! Hum! Don't digress! Hurry up and answer my question! ”

Wang Xinyu couldn't help his wife, so he had to agree: "Okay, my good wife, my good wife, I'll take you there." ”

"That's right!" Zheng Yun smiled as brightly as a spring breeze.

At Qiongzhou Wharf, Wang Xinyu stood on the wharf.

"All in line!" Liu Qi held the roster in his hand.

More than 500 young adults stood in five squares. These young and middle-aged people came out of Guangxi not long ago and came to Qiongzhou through Annan with their families. Because the Qing court had tighter control over the coastline, it was difficult for Wang Xinyu to bring people back from the seaside, so he had to find another way. This time, the Heaven and Earth Society brought back more than 6,000 people from Guangxi and other places by detouring through Annam. Excluding women, children and the elderly, there are only about 1,000 young adults. Wang Xinyu selected 500 people from 1,000 people to serve as soldiers, and the remaining 500 people were ready to be sent to Singapore for development and construction.

Liu Qi looked around, opened his voice and said, "Welcome to join our Nanyang company!" You are in the Qing court, and you can't even eat enough. Many people have never even seen what silver looks like, and have only used copper plates. But when you come to us, we will not only provide you with food and clothing, but we will also give you a salary of one or two halves of silver every month! But since you have joined our company, although you are not soldiers, you must also abide by the company's discipline! There are fixed hours of work every day, and the work to be done must be done well, and if you fail to do so, you will be deducted from your salary. even expelled from the company and sent the whole family back to the Qing court! ”

Then, Liu Qi announced that he would go to Singapore to work, working ten hours a day. That is, five hours, holidays and holidays, no late arrivals every morning and other rules and regulations. The current salary is temporary, if done well. There will be a salary increase in the future.

There was a lot of talk in the ranks, and these people who had dreams of making a fortune did not know what fate awaited them. They were worried that they would be fired from the company and that their families would be sent back.

After Liu Qi finished speaking. looked at Wang Xinyu.

Wang Xinyu nodded, turned to these workers and said, "Your family stays in Qiongzhou, there is land for them to plant, you don't have to worry about them." You are workers, and I will pay you a month's wages in advance. ”

Several soldiers handed out to the workers with trays of silver that had been divided.

After everyone came here, they first ate a full meal for a few days, took a bath, cut off their braids, shaved their heads, and then changed into brand new Hanfu, which looked more energetic than those who wore horse coats and had money rat tails. Later, when their hair grows longer, they will also be given headscarves and net scarves, which will really restore the Han people's clothing and hairstyle.

However, the climate in Nanyang is hot, and whether you want to keep long hair or cut short hair in the future is voluntary, as long as you don't keep the money rat tail and don't wear Manchu clothes.

"Board the ship!" Liu Qi roared.

The workers lined up in a neat line and happily boarded the ship.

Zheng Yun and Liu Er, who had changed into men's clothes, came to the dock with more than 100 female soldiers who also changed into men's clothes.

The fleet departed from Qiongzhou and drifted on the sea for 18 days before arriving in Singapore.

After arriving in Singapore, Zheng Yun couldn't wait to see the shipyard and the clipper.

The shipyard has been completed, and on the dock by the sea, a flying clipper with a completed hull lies quietly on the dock. The slender hull looks like a beautiful girl. It's a pity that the masts and sails on the ship have not yet been built, and she looks like a little girl who has not yet developed, looking too young and not plump at all.

The wood used for the shipbuilding was brought from the Indochina Peninsula north of Singapore, and the oak used for this ship was dried by the Portuguese for three years in advance, and Wang Xinyu bought it before he could build a ship.

Only by buying ready-made timber can you build a ship directly.

Dozens of workers are pulling pulleys, lifting heavy iron plates, placing them on the bow of the ship, and then using nails to push the iron plates into the wooden planks at the bow of the ship, so that the bow is covered with a layer of iron plates.

"Why do you have to put an iron plate on the bow of this ship?" Zheng Yun asked.

Wang Xinyu explained: "The speed of this kind of ship is too fast, if there is no iron plate in the bow, when sailing at sea, the impact of the water on the wood is too great, which will cause damage to the bow." ”

"It's going to damage the wooden bow, how fast is this ship?" Zheng Yun's eyes widened in shock.

Wang Xinyu estimated it and replied: "I estimate that the speed of this ship should be able to reach seventeen knots, or even twenty knots, which is faster than the American man-made flying shear clipper!" ”

"Section? What do you mean? And what Americans are you talking about? Where is this country? Zheng Yun was stunned.

Wang Xinyu only remembered at this time that there is no United States at all. So Wang Xinyu replied: "The section is the speed unit of the Taixi people, and a section is the road that sails more than three miles in half an hour. The speed of seventeen knots, that is, one hour can travel one hundred and twenty miles. ”

"One hundred and twenty miles in one hour? You can sail more than a thousand miles in that day! That's faster than all Maxima! Zheng Yun was even more shocked that her eyes were about to fall. Suddenly, I remembered that Wang Xinyu hadn't answered what the United States was, so I asked again, "What about the United States?" ”

"The United States is a continent across the Pacific Ocean, and it's full of indigenous people."

"Can the natives build such a boat? Who are you fooling! Zheng Yun pursed her mouth.

"Although they are indigenous, there are quite a few Tessians over there. But it doesn't matter, we will pass in the future, and the country of the United States will be our Ming! ”

"That's pretty much it!"

Many of the ship's parts are iron, and the keel and ribs are reinforced with iron rods, and some of the supporting pillars in the ship are also covered with iron sheets, and some beams are also covered with iron sheets. Because the boat is fast. The requirements for strength are relatively high. The ship had five masts, five schooners, and the more crosswinds there were, the faster the ship's speed.

This clipper is a combination of Chinese and Western styles, with the compartment structure of a Chinese ship, the bow and type of a Western ship, and even the sails are a combination of Chinese and Western styles.

It is really the flying clipper boat invented by the Americans later in history, using a completely Western-style soft sail, although the sail area can be increased as much as possible, but the soft sail has a disadvantage. The sails are chunky, with a relatively large gap in the middle, and there will be wind leaking through. The principle of the shear-cut clipper is to use aerodynamics, in fact, the same principle as the airplane lifts off. The wind blows across the surface of the sail, creating a pressure difference between the front and back, creating a forward thrust.

Pure Western style soft sails with a lot of wind leaking between the sails and the sails. If the pressure difference generated is insufficient, the forward thrust will not be sufficient to reach the highest speed.

And this kind of sail designed by Wang Xinyu. It is sewn together piece by piece of Western-style white canvas to form a relatively complete whole, with iron wire and iron sheet wooden poles to support the sail surface, this kind of sail does not look completely Western-style soft sail, nor Chinese-style hard sail, and the same monolithic structure as the hard sail, and has the softness of a soft sail.

Although the total area of the sail is not as large as the soft sail of the American clipper clipper, because of the good airtightness, it is not easy to leak wind, which makes this kind of ship have a higher speed.

It is also because of the relatively small area of the individual sails that the five-mast structure was adopted instead of the three-mast structure. It is precisely because Wang Xinyu's method is better than the Americans', and the aspect ratio is larger, which can accommodate more mast sails, so the speed of the Americans' clippers is fourteen knots, and the fastest can only be seventeen knots, and Wang Xinyu is sure that the cruising speed of the ship can reach seventeen knots, and the maximum speed can even reach an astonishing speed of twenty knots!

Of course, Wang Xinyu only knew how to propose a plan for manufacturing sails, and the specific sail design was still something that boatmen did. The hull was also jointly researched and designed by Chinese shipbuilders and Western shipbuilders.

The ship had a low hull, a pointed bottom, and a low center of gravity, which allowed the ship to raise higher sails.

Before building this ship, craftsmen and designers first built a flying clipper experimental ship with a scale of only more than ten tons, and after experimenting and being completely reliable, they were then scaled up according to the scale to design this ship.

The length-to-width ratio of this ship is different from that of the ships of this era, except for the centipede clipper, oars rowing and other clippers, the general sailing ship has a length-to-width ratio of between three and four, that is to say, a thirty-meter-long ship is ten meters wide. And the aspect ratio of this clipper is similar to that of the centipede clipper, with a length-to-width ratio of seven.

The ship was fifty meters long, seven meters wide, and had a tonnage of four hundred and ninety tons.

In the workshop next to the dock, workers are pulling saws to process planks and logs; In the workshop where the sails are sewn on the side, a large group of workers are sewing sails with a sewing machine designed by Wang Xinyu.

With the sewing machine, not only the efficiency of the sewing sail worker is improved, but also the stitched sail is more firm, so that the soft sail can be sewn together like a hard sail to form a solid whole, and the sewing part will not suddenly crack when the boat is on the way to sail because of the wind force that it bears.

This simple sewing machine is actually not very complicated, because it does not need to be as delicate as those sewing machines that make clothes, anyway, it is sewing hemp rope, which is very rough, using a thick pedal, driving the pulley, and then driving the eccentric wheel, and moving a thick needle up and down to complete the task of sewing the sail.

Three days later, it was the date of the ship's launch, and Wang Xinyu took Zheng Yun to the shipyard again.

"It's about to get high tide, get ready to get in the water!" A craftsman shouted.

The dock was built on the seashore, and when the tide rose, the craftsmen opened the sluice gates and put the seawater into the dock. Soon the ship floated. Then a group of workers pulled the boat to the edge of the dock of the shipyard and tied it with a cable.

After that, it is time to lift the mast, install the sails, and arrange the decoration of the ship. Once everything is done, the ship will be able to start sea trials, but it will take about a month before sea trials can begin.

Wang Xinyu looked at the ship that was about to be completed, and said with a smile: "When our ship is completed and the sea trials are completed, I will send a person to sail across the Pacific Ocean to the other side to bring the seeds of the rubber tree and bring back a batch of rubber." With rubber, we can build faster carriages, and we can sell them for more money. ”

It takes at least five years for rubber trees to grow, and at present, Wang Xinyu plans to plant rubber trees by himself, and at the same time, let people go back and forth to the Americas to cut natural rubber for use.

Anyway, with a large number of clippers, it was no longer a problem to cross the ocean between the Americas and Asia, and it would soon be possible to transport rubber back from the Americas.

And with the flying clipper, Wang Xinyu can transport the goods to Europe faster. This kind of ship is extremely fast, even if it encounters pirates, it can get rid of pirates at once, without worrying about being caught up by pirates, so that it is safer to transport goods.

In addition to preparing to build a batch of flying clippers for sea freight, Wang Xinyu will also build a batch of inland river flying clippers, which can be used to transport goods in Myanmar, so that the goods can be delivered to Li Dingguo's side faster. In addition, it is necessary to build some warships on the Yangtze River, with which they can easily enter the Yangtze River for navigation.

Next, Wang Xinyu plans to produce matches.

Safety matches are a good thing, not only for quick ignition, but also for making a fire-pulling device, really making a weapon like a grenade.

"My lord, King Jin asked you to go to Yawa City immediately!" Just when Wang Xinyu was about to try to make matches, someone came to report. (To be continued.) )