Ming politicians

Since March, a large amount of timber has been shipped to the shipyard in Dengzhou. Too much timber is needed to manufacture warships. These timbers need to be transported to the shipyard in advance, and these timbers must be kept properly.

To manufacture warships and patrol boats, the best wood is teak. Teak is mainly produced in the south. Teak is hard, rot-resistant, and resistant to termites. It is the preferred wood for manufacturing warships. Apart from teak, the second is natural growth. It has become fir, and it is oak again.

There is enough wood in this era. As for modern warships, it is impossible to build them at this time. There is no such technology and no steel, so don't have such illusions.

The shipyard is a veritable money-sucking machine.

The cost of building a shipyard is not a lot, but the cost of building a warship is huge, and even Su Tiancheng feels that it is hard.

In April, the shipyard began to build warships and patrol boats. No one thought that the director of the shipyard was David, a Dutchman. Even David himself did not expect that he would become the person in charge of the Daming Shipyard. After the decision was made, David was so excited that he didn't sleep well for a few days. Of course, he was under a lot of pressure. The key was the lack of shipbuilding technicians. The blueprints were available, but some still needed to be improved. The technicians didn't need to worry about it. More than that, David is very satisfied with this aspect, and feels that Su Tiancheng is indeed farsighted, but because the Ming court ignored the navy, the technicians who made warships slowly began to wither, and now, basically No one can be found.

When David took office, Su Tiancheng talked with him, and when he learned of Su Tiancheng's request, David was a little dazed, and he was straightforward in his request, as long as Su Tiancheng gave him enough core technical personnel.Guarantee the treatment of these technicians, and he can build the sharpest warships and patrol boats. Unfortunately, Su Tiancheng told him that there are only these blueprints, and these blueprints have been obtained with great effort. As for the technicians.Now that David is in office, it is David's business.

David was a little moved, saying that he could recruit talents. There are talents in this field in his hometown, the Netherlands, but the key is how to implement the remuneration. Su Tiancheng readily said that everything is up to David to decide, but it must be within the scope of principles. Inside, it can't be too outrageous.David, who had been in Daming for a long time, understood what Su Tiancheng meant. Su Tiancheng asked himself to be fully responsible for the shipyard.

After taking office, David immediately found William. William is the person in charge of the artillery base. Portugal also has many top shipbuilding technicians. After the two discussed, they decided to send people back to the Netherlands and Portugal to secretly recruit those top technicians.Including shipbuilding and artillery development.

Three months later, the first batch of technicians arrived in Dengzhou.

The arrival of these people.David, who has a headache for talents, is like sending charcoal in the snow, and he is full of confidence immediately.

Due to the lack of talents, the progress of shipbuilding is slow. It is impossible to experiment with this thing, which is different from the development of artillery.A huge warship or patrol boat costs a lot of money. Taking a warship as an example, according to Su Tiancheng's requirements, the length of the warship should be more than 30 meters.The width is more than ten meters, the waterline is more than 27 meters, the displacement is more than 450 tons, and the draft is generally about four meters. Not counting the artillery above, it is just the hull. The cost is close to 2 taels of silver, plus many artillery, The cost of the warship is close to 5 taels of silver. With such a huge cost, it is impossible to experiment, and it must be successful once.

However, such a warship can be regarded as a giant at sea. No matter what kind of fleet or team it is, if you encounter such a warship, you can only turn your head and flee or surrender.

But the biggest problem with such a warship is the driving problem, it is impossible to drive it by manpower.

For the driving problem, David thought hard, and his hair fell out a lot.

The arrival of the technician made David become active.

The first group of technicians who arrived at the shipyard was more than [-] people. Among these people, there were top contemporary shipbuilders. However, after seeing the blueprints of warships and patrol boats, these people were also dumbfounded. Such a domineering, manufactured warship is beyond their previous imagination.

The condition of the shipyard is very good, not to mention the situation in Dengzhou Prefecture. These technicians came to the shipyard for only a few days and decided to take root here. After David reported to Sun Chuanting, Sun Chuanting immediately arranged to find David is very grateful for the opportunity to bring the families of these people to Dengzhou.

When Su Tiancheng went to inspect the shipyard, nearly 300 technicians were working on the last difficult problem, the driving problem. They had already come up with a plan, using gears for driving. The gears must be made of refined iron to drive the operation of the entire warship. , and the effectiveness of the gear drive is hundreds of times stronger than that of manpower, only a few people are needed to control the problem of the gear drive.

After Su Tiancheng arrived at the shipyard, he did not disturb many technicians, but only found David.

When David learned that Su Tiancheng had come to the shipyard, he ran over with gloves on, his face flushed.

"My lord, the driving problem of the warship and patrol boat has been solved, solved, haha..."

David was a little complacent, and he didn't pay attention to his own image anymore.

"Very well, David, I have a question now, within this year, can we build [-] warships, [-] patrol boats, and another [-] merchant ships, and the total number of warships will reach [-] next year. There are [-] patrol ships and [-] merchant ships, and the other types of auxiliary warships and patrol ships have not been counted.”

David bowed his head and thought for more than a minute.

"No problem, my lord, I will definitely complete the task, but I also have requirements. The raw materials must be complete, and the arrears cannot be defaulted, and they need to be prepared in advance."

"There is no problem. What materials are needed? You make a list and General Sun implements them. If you can't implement them, the responsibility is not yours. But if the raw materials are implemented, you cannot complete the task. The responsibility lies on you."

"My lord, I understand."

Su Tiancheng is not familiar with shipbuilding technology, and he doesn't want to learn it. It is impossible for him to focus on this aspect, but the logistics aspect is a question he must take care of.

"David, more than 200 technicians, are they settled now?"

"Everything has been settled, and they are very satisfied. They do things during the day and take time out to learn Chinese at night."

"Very well, if you have any dissatisfaction, just bring it up."

David blushed a little, thinking about what to say.

"Just say what comes to mind."

"My lord, it's just about finding a wife. It's a little troublesome. They don't like our attire."

Su Tiancheng was taken aback for a moment, and then burst out laughing.

After these technicians came to Dengzhou, their family members did not come with them. Of course, there were some problems. There are many brothels in Dengzhou, and the girls in them are good-looking. In the eyes of these foreigners, they are stunning beauties. Some technicians, thinking Find a wife here. Anyway, the Ming Dynasty allowed several wives, but their looks made the girls of the Ming Dynasty uncomfortable, and the language barrier made them feel powerless.

These technicians study Chinese every night to catch up on Chinese knowledge. In fact, the important reason is that they can find women in Dengzhou.

After laughing, Su Tiancheng spoke.

"David, I can't control this issue. You can pass on your experience to your compatriots, and the problem will be solved. I heard that you have three wives."

David scratched his scalp in embarrassment, remembering that he was still wearing gloves.

"My lord, the subordinates understand. I will teach them about this matter."

Sun Chuanting stayed with Su Tiancheng all the time. After David left, Su Tiancheng looked at Sun Chuanting and spoke earnestly.

"Master Sun, some of the problems you mentioned are about living habits and habits. These Dutch, Portuguese, and Spanish people are from overseas and have their own living habits. Everyone needs to accommodate each other, don't force them, don't force them They change their living habits. We need them to build the sharpest warships, patrol boats, and the best merchant ships. The rest of the things are small things, so don’t worry too much about them. You can talk to David directly about some things. , Overseas people are generally straightforward. Master Bi has experience in this area. You can ask Master Bi to see how to deal with the problem. Your responsibility is to train the sailors well. You must train them to be strong within the year. The second is to ensure that all the materials needed for shipbuilding, no matter how much money it costs, must be satisfied."

"My lord, I got used to it. The officer is about to report to your lord. Liu Wenxiu, Ai Nengqi, and Li Dingguo have performed very well since they came to the navy. They trained very hard. They stand out among ordinary sergeants."

"Well, if they perform well, they can be considered for promotion. Step by step, their tactical literacy is good, but you have to remember that you must polish their hearts, and the loose atmosphere among the rogue team must be completely polished. , They must absolutely implement the military regulations of the Jiangning Camp."

"Understood, I will definitely do it."

"How is Wu Sangui's situation?"

"It's still the same. When he came to Dengzhou, Wu Sangui was taciturn. It's still the same now. There hasn't been much change. The lower officials have also talked to him, but it didn't have much effect."

"Oh, then let him hang out."

Su Tiancheng knew that Wu Sangui had always cared about his own army and was reluctant to part with the frontier troops in Shanhaiguan. Unfortunately, it was impossible for Wu Sangui to return to Liaodong. Liaodong was about to undergo great changes. Under such circumstances, it was even more impossible for Wu Sangui to go back. It is unlikely that Wu Sangui will change in the short term. Let's see if there is such an opportunity in the future. (To be continued..)