The ruthless emperor in the late Ming Dynasty forced Chongzhen to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 308 Standardized Modularization
"Steward Wang, how long will it take for these two ships to be fully completed and undergo sea trials?"

Zhu Ciwang looked at the general outline of the huge ship in front of him and asked.

Because only after these two ships have been launched into the sea and tested, can they be mass-built on a large scale. Although the shipyard has built a smaller one for testing, no one is sure whether there will be problems after the hull is enlarged, so It is too risky to rush to mass build without first building one to test the waters.

After all, this era is no better than the previous life, and many data can be analyzed and calculated in advance. At the beginning, he also agreed to build a model ship first.

It's just that I can't wait to see this giant ship now, not to mention that the Ming Navy really needs these two big ships now.

"Returning to Your Majesty, at most two ships will be launched in one month, and the required cannons have already been casted, so if all goes well, the batch construction can start in two months, and the required wood has already been prepared. .”

The steward quickly replied, obviously understanding what Zhu Cihong meant.

"Well, once the test is correct, we will immediately build it with all our strength. First, we will build [-] ships each. Is it possible to complete the construction and launch before the end of this year?"

Zhu Cihong nodded, then waved his hand.

When the stewards heard that they were going to build a hundred ships at one go, they were all shocked by His Majesty's courage, and at the same time excited.

In the end, the steward of the shipyard pondered for a moment before replying: "Your Majesty, if we try our best to complete the work, it should be completed, but the construction schedule of other ships may be affected."

"It doesn't matter. In the future, the main energy of the shipyard will still be to build warships for the navy, followed by those merchant ships of the sea merchants. If there is spare capacity, it is not impossible to pick up some small boats for inland water transport."

Zhu Cihong nodded, and then said.

Over the past few years, Longjiang Shipyard, in addition to building some small and medium-sized ships for the Nanjing Navy, has also received a large number of orders from merchants, with drafts ranging from tens to hundreds of tans. Just make it.

And because the shipyard has formed a scale, not only the price is cheap, but the cycle is fast, which has led to an endless stream of orders from Jiangnan merchants. Almost all of the hundreds of large and small ships currently under construction are built for merchants.

As for the warships of the Nanjing Navy, since the two giants were produced, they have stopped building other warships.

"What kind of ship is this? It looks quite big, why does it look so weird?"

Zhu Cihong walked along the shore for a while, then looked at the large ships under construction on some of the slipways, and asked in surprise.

Because these ships are bigger than other ships, at least ten feet in length, three to four feet in width, several stories high, flat and wide bottom, not like ships at all, but like a boat House floating on the sea.

"Return to Your Majesty, these are the flower boats ordered by Mrs. Chen." The steward replied cautiously.

"So that's the case, I said why it looks a little weird."

Zhu Cihong was stunned and didn't say anything.

In fact, he didn't know that the biggest customer of Longjiang Shipyard was Chen Yuanyuan. In the past three years, he had ordered more than 300 flower boats.

Although the materials used for these flower boats do not need to be too particular, but due to the luxurious decoration, the price of each boat ranges from 5000 to [-] taels, which almost feeds most of the craftsmen in the Longjiang Shipyard.

It can be said that Fengyue Division has now become the largest service industry in Ming Dynasty, directly supporting and indirectly supporting more than one million people, and the economic effect produced, although not as good as the silk industry, is also the first in the south of the Yangtze River, and even in the entire Ming Dynasty. Two pillar industries.

Although the brothel industry in Ming Dynasty was also prosperous in the past, most of the money was earned by nobles and powerful people, and these people would bury them underground after making money, and the economic effect produced was not great.

But now after Chen Yuanyuan's integration, the wages and income of the prostitutes, maids, old bustards, and security guards in the brothel have doubled, and the money earned by Fengyue Division has also been used by Chen Yuanyuan to continuously expand and create more flowers. The economic effect produced by the ship is far from what it was before.

After spending only three days at the Longjiang shipyard, Zhu Cihong crossed the river and headed to Yanshan County in Yangzhou Prefecture to inspect the salt industry.

He didn't know much about shipbuilding, so he didn't interfere too much. He just talked about standardization and instilled the concept of modular production in those in charge, so that they could unify the craftsman's ruler, and he could try modular production first.

That is to first decompose the entire ship into countless spare parts, process them in the workshop, and then assemble them on the slipway, so that both the speed and cost of shipbuilding will be greatly reduced and saved.

Moreover, it is also possible to selectively use materials according to the position of the hull, use good materials for key parts, and use ordinary wood for the superstructure, which can greatly reduce the cost.

For this reason, Zhu Cilang also explained the principle of the pulley and the gantry crane to the stewards in detail, and asked them to try to figure it out, so as to facilitate the hoisting of larger spare parts in the future.

In fact, with the current technology of Ming Dynasty and the craftsmanship of carpenters, it is completely possible to realize modular construction. After all, the mortise and tenon technology itself requires splicing. When some carpenters build tables, chairs and benches, they use modular construction. stitching.

It's just that compared to the whole ship, there are too many accessories and too complicated, and it is impossible for those carpenters who can't read a single word to complete it.

Because a ship, no matter how it is disassembled, there must be tens of thousands of large and small wooden parts. How to splice, the order of the front and back, and the size of each wooden part can only be obtained through rigorous calculations.

Therefore, Zhu Cilang decided that after the end of the imperial examination, a group of candidates who are good at arithmetic will be recruited to the shipyard to be responsible for professional work such as decomposition calculation and even design of new ship models.

Only in this way can the shipbuilding industry be developed more scientifically. Otherwise, those carpenters who don't know a single word and those who only know how to manage people can only rely on experience to build ships forever.

In the future, the shipyard will be divided into three parts. Those researchers who are good at arithmetic will be responsible for the design, finalization and disassembly of ships.

After they have determined the size of each part of each ship type, those carpenters will build it according to the size and shape of the parts, and then assemble them according to the steps.

Stewards are only responsible for logistical tasks, such as the daily life of craftsmen, the purchase of wood and other materials, and so on.

The three parties perform their own duties and cooperate with each other, which will definitely greatly improve the efficiency and development vitality of the shipyard.

The advantage of this is that you can usually build more wooden parts and store them up. Once you need them, you can quickly assemble a boat within ten days and a half, and launch it into the water within a month.

It can even be done in the future. Although each ship model is different, many accessories can be designed to be the same, so that it can be used universally.

Of course, if you want to do this, you have to test the level of those scientific researchers, but Zhu Cihong believes that as long as you are good at mathematics and can calm down, it is only a matter of time before you want to do this.

(End of this chapter)