Great Tang Southern Emperor

"How is this possible?" Liu Rengui said to himself: "There are not many other things in Lingnan today, but there are absolutely no shortage of qualified crew members. We have plenty of people. If we really call them, the subordinates can call up enough people in three days. That's it. no doubt."

His self-confidence naturally has his reasons, because with his return from Luzon, the navigation industry has flourished, and there are countless ships passing by every day. The fishermen were unwilling to go fishing again, but came to Yuezhou to seek a living.This is much safer than going out to sea to fish, and it is more secure to make money.

And this time Che is recruited by the government. Although the government has all kinds of bad things, there is one thing that others can't compare to, that is, it will never delay or deduct wages, and even if it is done well, there may be rewards ( Of course, this is only relative to the environment of Yuezhou, and other places may not be so good), so as long as the government recruits people, the common people generally gather and compete.

However, Li Zhen objected to Liu Rengui's self-confidence: "That's not necessarily the case. If you don't believe me, go out and recruit people to see if you can find enough crew members? Do you really think those merchants are vegetarians? "

Liu Rengui's guess is indeed very reasonable. As long as the government recruits people, it is true that a large number of sailors can be recruited, but that was in the past.After all, he has never done a field trip, and of course he doesn't know the current situation—in Yuezhou, there are indeed many fishermen who live on the wharf, and they are all born sailors. Liu Rengui is right about this.

But Liu Rengui ignored another thing, that is, who attracted these fishermen?

It was businessmen with red eyes stimulated by Luzon's profits.

Because of the development of shipping, more and more businessmen are paying attention to shipping—not necessarily going to the distant seas, but transporting Nanyang specialties to Chang'an can also make a lot of money.

Hence the need for more sailors.

That's why fishermen gave up fishing and came to Yuezhou to ask for a living.

In other words, the prerequisite for fishermen to come to Yuezhou is that there are more and more businessmen in Yuezhou.

But on the other hand, there are more merchants, and the number of sailors they need is a terrifying number.

The south of the Five Ridges is remote, it hasn't developed yet, and the population is still sparsely populated. Excluding those who haven't changed their careers and are still fishing at sea, how many fishermen are there to make a living on the Yuezhou Wharf?

Even if it is counted more, it is only tens of thousands.

And how many big businessmen are eyeing the money-making way of sailing?

There must be thousands of people.

On average, a businessman employs twenty sailors, which is enough to plunder the sailors in the entire Yuezhou port.

What's more, there are many big businessmen and chambers of commerce here. They are all out to sea, and the sailors they recruit are often in units of hundreds or even thousands.

No matter how many fishermen there are on the pier, how can they be enough for those merchants to hire?

So don't look at the bustling and bustling appearance of the Yuezhou port where merchant ships come and go, and coolies are as numerous as ants.

But if you want to find qualified sailors from it, it is extremely difficult.

"Your Highness, can you tell your subordinates how many ships we have?" Liu Rengui obviously realized this, and began to ask Li Zhen the specific number of ships.

"I don't know the exact number, but there must be thousands of ships, and they are all large ships of more than 17 tons." Li Zhen thought for a while and said, Hai Shipyard has been in operation since the fifth year of Zhenguan, and now it is the 12th year of Zhenguan. It has been [-] years, and the number may not increase at the beginning, but the number in the later period is definitely enough. On average, it is definitely no problem to build about [-] ships a year.

"Pfft~"

Liu Rengui sprayed: "There... so many? How come there are so many? Where did so many ships come from?"

It's no wonder that Liu Rengui lost his composure, it's really too many. You must know that the last time Liu Rengui went to sea to search for Luzon, although he brought hundreds of ships with him, what kind of ships were those hundreds of ships?

Most of them are [-]-ton ships, which can only be said to be barely able to sail long distances, and they must keep up with the large fleet, otherwise the entire ship will basically disappear when a wave comes down.

Most of the remaining ships are of the class of [-] tons, [-] tons, and [-] tons. There are not many ships with a real weight of more than [-] tons.

But now Li Zhen told him that there will be thousands of ships with over [-] tons that he needs to take over...

Liu Rengui was a little unbelievable, but also a little guilty.

He, Liu Rengui, knows how much food he can eat by himself. If he is asked to lead a fleet to fight, he has no problem asking himself.

If you give him a fleet of ships to explore the unknown, he can do the same.

But now it is a thousand ships.

And they are big ships.

You must know that in a fleet, large and small ships need to coordinate together.

Usually in a fleet of [-] ships, only a few dozen ships of the vertical and horizontal class are enough.

And Liu Rengui is also very aware of his own limit - or the limit of sailing.

Three hundred cargo ships are already the limit of navigation in this era, and these three hundred ships must be calculated according to the mix of large and small ships.

Because three hundred ships are spread out on the sea, that is a huge area. In the era without wireless communication, it is very troublesome to command.

If this number continues to increase, or if all [-] ships are replaced with large ships, the distance will be even greater and the transmission of information will be more difficult. It is basically impossible to achieve direct control by the captain. If the transmission continues, the ghost knows what order the other party will receive in the end.

But what did Liu Rengui hear now?

A thousand ships?

Still big ships.

Are you kidding me?

If it is completely spread out, it will block out the sky and block out the sun, and it will be mighty.

With so many boats, even if Liu Rengui was chopped up and divided into eight parts, he couldn't do it.

"A lot? In fact, it shouldn't be too much." Li Zhen wondered. The Netherlands, known as the sea coachman in later generations, had a total of 15 large merchant ships at the peak of the 16th and [-]th centuries. The port of Amsterdam At least [-] cargo ships are always berthed.

But there are only a thousand ships on my side, not even a fraction of the Netherlands.

Chapter 789 What I Said Is True

Chapter 151 What I Say Is True

However, Li Zhen forgot that the reason why the Netherlands has so many merchant ships is the result of their development for nearly 100 years.

And it was already the 15th century at that time, the New World had been discovered, and maritime trade was developed, which was at the peak of commercial development. The Netherlands was the new maritime overlord, known as the sea coachman, so it had such a foundation.

What time is now?

This is the seventh century.

Let alone the New World, if it weren't for Li Zhen, Datang would not even have discovered Lu Song, let alone the Age of Discovery.

How could there be so many ships going to sea?

And how strong is the Dutch shipbuilding industry?

From the 15th to the 16th century, the Dutch shipbuilding industry ranked first in the world. There were hundreds of shipyards in the capital Amsterdam alone, and hundreds of ships could be built at the same time across the country.The shipbuilding technology of the Netherlands is the most advanced in the world, and the cost of the ship is 1/3 to 1/2 lower than that of the UK. Many European countries have ordered ships from the Netherlands...

It can be seen that the Dutch shipbuilding industry is booming.

But what's going on in Datang now?