The Ming Dynasty has just been exiled and the Luzon system has awakened.

The upgrade of the royal palace, the upgrade of the blacksmith shop, the upgrade of the barracks, and the construction of the new machinery factory and shipyard have once again brought Zhu Heyu's treasury surplus to a dangerous level.

The first three are okay and the cost is affordable, but the cost of the next two new buildings is a bit too much.

The machinery factory cost 20 taels of silver, and the shipyard construction cost reached 30 taels of silver.

This operation consumed nearly 70 taels of silver!

The newly built machinery factory was placed directly in the original cement factory by Zhu Heyi.

After switching to the hydraulic rolling and grinding method, in order to reduce the manpower and material resources spent on transportation, the entire cement plant has now been moved to the Pasig River. The vacant factory building just serves as the carrier of the machinery factory.

The shipyard is different from previous buildings. It is so big!So much so that there is no building that can be used as its carrier. Fortunately, the shipyard is classified as a special building and can be placed directly without a carrier. At the same time, the shipyard has its own workers, which also prevents Zhu Heyi from finding it. Trouble with skilled workers.

In order to cause unnecessary trouble, the shipyard was not located in the Manila port, but in Cavite, about 20 kilometers south of Manila. It happened to be a bay surrounded by sea on three sides, so it was perfect as a military port. .

"Wei Chen, the warship general, and the general, Zhang Hongfang, pay homage to His Majesty." In the Cavite Shipyard, a middle-aged man in a blue official uniform bowed to Zhu Heyi and said in greeting.

"Zhang Qing, no courtesy." Zhu Heyi looked at Zhang Hongfang with a smile.

However, the Warship Lifting Division?

Having already discussed the official system with Wang Chen, he did not remember that there was such a department in the Ming Dynasty, but the blue official uniform of Bailu Buzi could tell that he was a fifth-rank official, and he should be the same as the salt class official and the Shibo official. The same promotion process starts from the fifth rank.

"Qing Zhang, please introduce this shipyard to me."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"Our shipyard covers an area of ​​1500 acres and is divided into a warship area and a merchant ship area. We currently have 4000 skilled shipbuilders. If we can ensure sufficient materials, we can start building up to five first-class battleships and five third-class battleships at the same time. "Zhang Hongfang pointed at the long shipyard in the distance and introduced with pride.

Covering an area of ​​1500 acres, it can start construction on 10 battleships at the same time!This scale is not small even in later generations, and in this era, this is definitely the largest shipyard in Asia!

Not only did he buy a shipyard of this scale with 30 taels of silver, he also brought 4000 skilled workers with it. This business was a profitable one!

If the shipyard was sold to the British or the Dutch now, let alone 30 taels of silver, it would be 30 pounds. Zhu Heyi estimated that they would not blink an eye.

"Zhang Tiju, can the shipyard start construction immediately?" Zhu Heyi asked a key question.

"This... Your Majesty, currently we have a slipway, equipment, and workers, but we have no materials!" Zhang Hongfang said helplessly.

Material again!

Zhu Heyi can now see that when building a new building, he only needs to spend money, but the materials required for its output need to be figured out by himself.

But the problem is that the materials required for shipbuilding are not that easy to solve. It can even be said that the wood required for shipbuilding is much more difficult to obtain than the metal materials needed for guns and cannons!

As a naval officer, although he didn't know much about these early battleships, he still knew something about them.

At present, if we want to start shipbuilding immediately, we must solve the problem of ship materials. The most critical one is the keel. Even if the other parts of the hull are a little worse, at most, the protection ability is a little worse. If there is a problem with the keel, it will fall apart directly.

At present, the most suitable woods for warship keels are oak and teak.

The origin of oak is far away in the Americas. Just skip it. The land under the feet of teak is available, but it does not mean that it can be used immediately.

Not to mention that the warship keel has requirements for the age and diameter of the wood. The fact that the wood only needs to be dried in the shade for four to five years before it can be used will completely block this road.

Boil!

It takes several years to build a battleship. Am I building an aircraft carrier?

Others went back to ancient times to build guns, cannons, and aircraft carriers, and built whatever they wanted.When it comes to him, it becomes that the materials are not up to standard, the technology is not up to standard, and nothing can be built!

This is forcing him to cheat!

"Zhang Tiju, if steel is used as the keel rib instead of wood, can you try to build such a warship?" Zhu Heyi asked.

This question immediately stopped Zhang Hongfang. He thought for a moment before answering:

"Your Majesty, there is no precedent for replacing wood with steel. I dare not make any hasty conclusions, but if Your Majesty can provide qualified steel, we may be able to give it a try."

Compared with the current wooden-ribbed and wooden-hulled warships, the iron-ribbed wooden hull or steel-ribbed wooden hull warship has the advantages of high strength, light hull and short construction period. (Iron ribs are lighter than wooden ribs)

But it is not easy to build this kind of ship, which was supposed to appear more than 100 years later.

First of all, if the strength of the keel steel is to be qualified, the steel must be repeatedly forged with a heavy-duty forging press. The currently more feasible method for heavy-duty forging presses is to use steam as power. Although steam engines already exist, the work efficiency is still high. Not enough, which caused a sealing problem. At this time, he had to get the rubber out again.

Fortunately, these problems can at least be solved, which is much better than waiting for several years for some wood!

Zhu Heyi nodded and said: "Before the steel with qualified strength is ready, you continue to use wood to build warships. It happened that when we captured Manila, we seized a batch of wood from the Spanish. You will use it first, but this batch of wood Don’t build battleships, use them all to build fourth- and fifth-level cruisers.”

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Small and medium-sized cruisers are easy to build and fast to build, which is very suitable for the Ming Dynasty Royal Navy, which currently has few ships.

Moreover, it also has an absolute advantage in artillery. While the navies of various countries are still playing with solid ammunition, the Ming Navy has already started playing with explosive ammunition.

You must know that a cruiser that can fire explosive bombs may not have lower combat power than a battleship that can fire solid bombs!

……

When we returned to Manila from the shipyard, the sky was getting dark.

As soon as he returned to the office, the old eunuch Wang Chen hurried in.

"Your Majesty! The power is on! There is news from the hydropower station that the power is on! The unit can be tested tonight!" Wang Chen said with a look of surprise.

"Has it been built so quickly?"

Zhu Heyi looked surprised. This was probably too fast.

……