The people asked two cents of silver to buy cotton cloth, but the shopkeeper couldn't help but collect the money twice. The few businessmen watching the fun could only sigh that the people's hearts are so!

With the start of the production line, Shandong's cotton cloth has begun to be shipped out continuously and is being distributed in a planned manner.

Cotton purchase prices are high and low, and cotton areas are high and low, so cotton is naturally trafficked to first-tier cities with high prices.

Whenever the cotton cloth produced in Shahe area is transported to other places, it will be rushed to buy by the people. The quality is not only good, but also very good at prices, which is really good and cheap.

...

When Zhao Yan came to Longkou Port, Longkou Port was no longer as depressed as before, and the shipyard next to him was building ships in a tense and orderly manner.

Four large ships were also parked at the port. This was the lucky ship that Zhao Quan bought from Fujian last year and in the beginning of spring. Zhao Yan observed it inside and out on the lucky ship.

Finally, it was concluded that the displacement of these four lucky ships should be about 800 tons and the cargo loading capacity was more than 300 tons. Such displacement was not the top ship in this era.

Westerners were generally able to build sailboats with a displacement of more than 1,000 tons, and shipmakers of the Ming Dynasty could naturally build them, but they did not have as frequent naval battles as Westerners, and their sailboat tonnage continued to rise. Later, Westerners had sailboats with a displacement of more than 5,000 tons earlier.

Generally speaking, the larger the ship is, the more cargo it can be loaded. Because every 2 times the ship is enlarged, only 1.5 times the power can be driven, so people always make the ships bigger and bigger to continuously increase the space for loading cargo.

The hull of a lucky ship is different from the Western ships. The hull of Westerners imitates fish, and the hull of China imitates birds. Facts prove that birds are more scientific, which is why the size of Chinese sailboats makes Zhao Yan feel very familiar.

If you want to intervene in maritime trade, you must first have ships, then nautical technology, nautical charts and other objects, and the most important thing is maritime arming.

Now that the ship has it, the main aspect of navigation technology is navigation technology. Using a compass and sextant can reach the world's most advanced level.

Not to mention the chart, Zhao Yan could copy the world map with his eyes closed.

The most important thing is the maritime armed forces. If there is no armed protection, I guess I will be intercepted by Zheng Zhilong and the Dutch halfway through the way without going out to sea.

It is very necessary to transform these four lucky ships. The lucky ship has a deep draft, a large load, a stable driving force, and is not afraid of storms, but its speed is slow.

It can be used as a warship, but it can only be used to protect merchant ships. Unless the opponent's sails are broken, you will not be able to catch up with the enemy.

Therefore, there are also some special requirements for armed transformation.

For example, artillery requires a longer range. Because the lucky ship is slower, if it encounters a fast enemy ship and the opponent's artillery has a longer range, it will be flying a kite!

Zhao Yan summoned Jiang Gongming, who was in charge of the artillery laboratory, and discussed with him the issue of artillery loading on these four lucky ships. Jiang Gongming was one of the most famous literati under Zhao Yan.

He was like Liu Heng, and he was also a juren. However, Jiang Gongming was even more addicted to firearms and mechanical research, and had long-term exchanges with a missionary from the West. Last year, he was introduced by a Shandong businessman.

When Jiang Gongming first entered the artillery laboratory, he was just an ordinary technician. At first, he felt very angry, which was an insult to him.

But later I found that although he was a juren and had high research on firearms and machinery, he was unable to intervene in artillery research in artillery laboratories.

Because craftsmen in artillery laboratories have their own set of procedures and new systems, their job is to continuously build cannons, record the data of various types of cannons, and then select the most practical cannons from them.

The artillery technology of the artillery laboratory shocked Jiang Gongming even more. He originally thought that the technology he had contacted with missionaries was enough to deal with artillery factories in small places like Shandong, but unexpectedly, the artillery technology here was much higher than that of the Westerners.

After a period of humble learning, Jiang Gongming adapted to the various systems and new technical concepts used in the artillery laboratory, and quickly developed his knowledge of firearms. Not long ago, he was promoted to the chief expert of the artillery laboratory.

Jiang Gongming had a period of deep communication with Western missionaries and had a relatively good understanding of Western ships. After hearing Zhao Yan's idea, he said: "Sir, the Westerners' artillery has no rifle, and they are very poor in terms of accuracy and range. It is generally difficult to hit enemy ships four hundred meters away. Therefore, our naval guns have absolutely no need to worry about range. Just talking about our accuracy, the Westerners cannot compare."

"However, the heavy artillery on the bottom layer must be able to penetrate their hull 1,000 meters away, and the artillery on the upper layer gradually decreases." Zhao Yan said, naval warfare is different from land warfare.

The maximum range of field guns on land and grenades can exert huge lethality, but the naval guns need to penetrate the opponent's hull first, so the maximum range is meaningless.

Zhao Yan and Jiang Gongming and others discussed for nearly a day before they determined the armed system on the entire hull.

A lucky ship is expected to be equipped with sixty-eight cannons, each with thirty-three cannons on both sides, and one cannon on the front and tail. The heavy cannons on one side are equipped with twenty cannons, which are divided into the bottom and the second floor. The third floor is equipped with thirteen 75mm cannons.

Heavy artillery is just a very general term, mainly because the artillery laboratory has not yet determined the heavy artillery system used by the navy.

In addition to artillery, rockets are naturally an indispensable naval combat weapon. The main function of rockets is to set fire to enemy ships, which is a very common weapon in mid-sea warfare in this era.

Truth was within the range of cannons, and Zhao Yan immediately urged Jiang Gongming to develop the ideal heavy artillery as fast as possible, and at the same time he began to form a navy.

There is no shortage of manpower. The business has hired nearly 1,000 sailors from Fujian, and only three taels of silver per month, so they have come from Fujian to work in Shandong.

Fujian can be said to be a rich place, but it is also a poor place. The rich are very rich in farming and opening workshops, while the poor are very poor. They are just a state where the rich get rich, and the poor are not even full of food. Of course, there are also many self-cultivated farmers and the middle class.

These sailors hired are undoubtedly from the poor. There are many people like this in Fujian and Guangdong, so they cannot get any good treatment.

For example, when it comes to pirates, Western pirates have very high requirements, and the spoils must be divided equally. The captain can only get 2 times, and the jumper can also get 2 times, and the gunner and the helmsman can get 1.5 times.

Because Westerners are strict with arresting pirates, pirates have to take huge risks. If they want to attract people to join, they must give fair treatment.

This is not the case in the East. The minions only cost one or two taels of silver a month. If you don’t do it, there are people everywhere. There are people who lack one, and there are not one lacking one, and there are not many.

There are so many poor people on the coast of Fujian and Guangdong, and some of them come out to be sailors.

Therefore, the treatment of these sailors has always been low. After the business bank offered a monthly salary of three taels of silver, it immediately recruited more than a thousand sailors.

Zhao Yan arranged them on average on four lucky ships, and their main task was to drive the lucky ship. These sailors were very familiar with the lucky ship and soon drove the lucky ship to sail in the port.

Zhao Yan stood on the Fu Ship and felt that the Fu Ship was indeed very stable and not bumpy at all. No wonder people used Fu Ship to transport fragile products such as porcelain.

The lucky ship is designed with a two-stern rudder. Although it is slow, it can move forward and retreat freely in naval battles and exert stronger adaptability.

These ship-drivers have solved the problem, but there are still a lack of combatants, especially artillery.

Could it be that all the artillery soldiers from the artillery battalion were transferred to the navy? Zhao Yan couldn't help but veto him immediately when he thought of this. The artillery battalion must be used to cooperate with the infantry.

But it should be fine to transfer half of the manpower.

———————

I am in much better shape today, but I still can’t concentrate and I often want to get distracted.

But I should be able to quit this time! I threw away the cigarette the day before yesterday. If I still went to buy it, I would be **.

;
Chapter completed!