Once the responsibilities of the craftsmen were determined, the shipyard placed the keel under Charles's direction. The keel of the pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info was placed on the keel pier of the dock, and the bow and stern pillars were inlaid at both ends of the keel, which was a very heavy work, and the men, women and children who moved from the village of Diaolou were all in battle. Fortunately, they are often exposed to these tasks, and they can also serve as temporary laborers.

The next step was to place the bottom ribs transversely on the keel, and the inner keel to the bottom ribs along the keel, which were straight except for the ends. The wood at both ends begins to bend, that is, to lift upwards. The compound ribs are tightly attached to the bottom ribs. These are curved or curved ribs that make up the curved edges of a sailboat.

All the ribs are mounted very compactly and are double-layered in the middle of the boat and near the mast - where there is a huge strain to it. Heavy thick pressure plates are arranged horizontally on the inside of the ribs, supporting the ends of the deck beams. The mast holes have reinforcement plates, made of sturdy sandalwood, interspersed vertically between the deck beams to support the mast, while the base of the mast is erected above the inner keel. This frame is further clamped with the vertical ribs behind the girder beams, the piercing ribs and the horizontal ribs behind the beams.

During the construction process, scaffolding was erected around the hull to facilitate the construction of the boatsmen, the plates of the outer shell were fixed to the ribs of the ship, and in order to prevent water leakage, a large amount of kapok was used as a filler - this natural fibre barely entered the water, was very buoyant, and was found everywhere on the island, and was inexhaustible.

All the seams were sealed in the Chinese way of twisting, with a mixture of tung oil, hemp silk and oyster shell ash - these Chinese shipbuilding techniques were naturally the work of Lin Yishan and others.

Xia Nan asked when the battleship could be built as soon as possible, and Charles told him that the construction of a battleship is divided into two stages, first the wood should be dried, and the moisture should be reduced to less than 20%, and it may take several years to dry naturally, of course, now because of the ready-made wood, this step is temporarily omitted, but after the wood is used up, the shipbuilding must let the wood dry naturally in the future.

In the second stage, the time of shipbuilding is not fast, because the ship type is a curve, and this curve cannot grow out of wood, so when building a ship, the wood needs to be bent in various ways, and the wood itself corresponds to this bend has a rebound. This stress needs to be counteracted by time, which is known as natural aging. The warships built by the Royal Navy generally take 3-5 years from the preparation of timber to the completion and launching, and the ships built in this way will serve for half a century as long as they are regularly put into dry dock for maintenance.

Three or five years? In summer, the south face is green. At this rate, without waiting for himself to form a fleet, the Ming Dynasty was changed by the Later Jin Dynasty.

Lin Yishan saw the owner's thoughts and suggested: "Actually, it doesn't have to be that long. When the wood dries slowly, you can build a drying room and dry it with hot air, which can be used in ten days and half a month; As for the problem of wood bending when shipbuilding, it can be strengthened with iron nails and forcibly bent, which can speed up the progress, slow in a year, and fast in half a year. As long as it is regularly and carefully maintained, although the life span cannot reach fifty or sixty years, ten or eight years is still no problem. ”

Charles was not impressed by this kind of practice of sacrificing service life to speed up the progress, and couldn't help but retort: "I can't agree with your approach, which will greatly reduce the service life of the ship." A battleship worth tens of thousands of pounds will be scrapped in ten years at most, my God, what a terrible act! ”

Xia Nan weighed it, although Lin Yishan's method was a little wasteful, but the most important thing for him at the moment was not to save money, but to grab time. This waste can be offset by the huge revenues generated by building fleets and merchant ships for maritime trade as quickly as possible. So the clapper was made according to Lin Yishan's method. Although Charles had objections, the boss had spoken, so he could only accept it.

After returning to Hujiazhuang from the shipyard, Xia Nan called Liu Quan.

"Inform the county government of the news of our war in Chengmai and Chop Foot Mountain, remember to reveal the fact that the Chengmai county order has snatched the credit, and find a way to convince them that we are ready to build a ship and go to sea, and we will only bury our heads in making money, and have no idea of rebellion."

Liu Quan agreed: "My subordinates will do their best." ”

In the Lingao County Ya, Master Qian was worriedly reporting the news to the Wu County Order. As far as he knew, Xia Nan led the "Xiangyong" to attack the besieging Chengmai County, and returned with a great victory.

"Is this news true? Could it be that Nan deliberately spread the news and boasted about it that summer? The news from the Chengmai County Ya was that Lin Sanfeng led the county inspection and the township to fight out of the city to defeat the rebellious people, and I heard that the prefect would not only not hold him responsible, but would praise him. ”

Master Qian calmly analyzed: "Owner, if it is really as Lin Sanfeng said, then why was he besieged for half a month? Why did he go out of the city to fight and defeat the rebellious people when he arrived in the south in the summer? There are only one or two hundred people who can be gathered in Chengmai County, and the rest are all folk villagers, and it is okay to defend the city, and it is ridiculous to say that they can go out of the city to fight in the field. Even if there are not 2,000 people, there are always 800 thousand, and they are all veterans of the perennial war, how can a few hundred villagers be able to repel them? ”

Wu Mingjin was terrified: "So......" He already had the answer in his heart, but when the words came to his mouth, he didn't dare to say it.

"It must be Chengmai County, in order to exonerate the guilt, Zhang Guan and Li Dai take the credit as their own report to the city. And Xia Nan does have this strength, easily defeating Chopping Foot! Master Qian said it for him, and he didn't know that his speculation was infinitely close to the truth.

Both of them know that there is a bit of bad things in the officialdom, and this kind of thing is common in the Ming officialdom, and according to Lin Sanfeng's historical reputation, this possibility is quite large. Then the problem is, there is a team with extremely strong combat power under his rule, although it is called "Xiangyong", but you know it with your ass that this team will not listen to the command of the county government.

Master Qian continued to expose the information, further testing Wu Mingjin's fragile nerves, "According to the students' inquiries, they are also equipped with bird guns, which are more sophisticated and sharper than the officers and soldiers, but I am afraid that the officers and soldiers may not be able to fight ......."

Wu Mingjin covered his left chest and leaned back on the chair, "How can this be good, such a character, such a combat power, if there is a bad heart, with more than a dozen officials of the county government, how to resist?" At that time, not only will the county be difficult to protect, but I am afraid that my life will also be worried! ”

"This summer, Nan's subordinates are very brave, but when it comes to rebellion and misdeeds, it may not be, and the proprietor doesn't have to worry too much." Master Qian is not so pessimistic, "If you have this thought, he has three hundred elites under him, and he will casually coerce some ignorant fools and foolish women, unless he sends troops from Liangguang to encircle and suppress, otherwise the entire Qiongzhou Mansion is afraid that he will be allowed to run rampant, and the officers and soldiers will not be able to resist, so why bother to nest in the small land of Lingao." ”

"At present, the main thing to do is to brake quietly, observe its words and deeds, and then make plans." Master Qian finally summed up a solution that is not a solution.