Wang Zheng was really shocked by the number of ships Taichang said.

This is really a matter of not creating, and once you create it, you will create it crazy!

This shipyard will build hundreds of large fishing boats and four or five hundred armed merchant ships a year, which is more than the number of shipbuildings in the two shipyards in Wubei City.

You should know that these large fishing boats and armed merchant ships are both giant ships of 2,000 materials. Although it is not very difficult to build, the manpower is not ordinary.

Where did he mobilize so many skilled craftsmen in this moment?

You know, the craftsmen in various parts of the Ming Dynasty have been almost recruited. It can be said that most craftsmen have already done their jobs.

After all, the Ming Dynasty did not just build ships, and all kinds of things needed to be built by craftsmen.

There are already more than twenty super factories in Wubei City, and almost all the craftsmen in the Ming Dynasty have been mobilized!

Wang Zheng frowned and pondered for a while, then said helplessly: "Master, this shipyard is big enough, but it is probably difficult to build hundreds of large fishing boats and four or five hundred armed merchant ships a year, because we can't transfer so many craftsmen at all!"

Taichang never thought about this question.

This shipbuilding requires craftsmen. What should we do if there are not enough craftsmen?

He couldn't help but frown and ponder.

Originally, he thought that there were more than one or two million skilled technical workers in the Ming Dynasty, but now he thought about it, but it was far from enough.

To put it bluntly, there are only more than 200,000 large factories with tens of thousands of people in Wubei City.

This kind of big factory sounds a bit scary in this era, but it is nothing in later generations.

Can the things produced by more than 200,000 large factories meet the needs of the entire Ming Dynasty and even the entire world?

This is obviously impossible.

In other words, with the continuous expansion of the Ming Dynasty and the continuous development of the business of Atlantic merchants in the Ming Dynasty, the craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty could no longer meet the production needs and had to gather ordinary young men to work.

Thinking of this, Taichang said decisively: "Let's do this, we will recruit more ordinary young and strong people. Whether it is a military household or a farmer, as long as the young and strong are smarter, they can recruit them to work. Let them do the simplest physical work first and let the craftsmen take them to do it. Isn't it a problem?"

Of course there is no problem with doing physical work.

After all, shipbuilding is not all technical work, and there are many physical work, such as carrying wood, transporting materials, carrying steam engines, boilers, water wheels, armor, etc., which are basically physical work, as long as you have the strength and brain, it's fine.

The question is, don’t steam engines, ships, and machine tools all need to be kept confidential?

Can it be kept secret by recruiting people like this?

Wang Zheng thought about it and then said carefully: "Your Majesty, if you don't care about recruiting people randomly, many things may not be kept secret. After all, it only takes a few words to think of or make some things. No one can guarantee that these people will not talk nonsense outside!"

Taechang is thinking about this issue these days.

There is no need to be too deliberate about confidentiality. The most important thing is to always maintain a leading edge.

He nodded slightly and said, "Well, it is indeed possible to leak something out if you do this.

Don't be too deliberate about this. If you can keep it confidential, try to keep it as confidential as possible. However, we cannot be restricted to keep it confidential. We still have to do what we should do.

For example, shipbuilding.

Are our shipbuilding skills poor?

Of course not.

Now our shipbuilding technology is much better than that of European countries.

Why can the Dutch build five or six hundred ocean-going ships a year, but we can't?

This is because we have paid too much attention to confidentiality.

Actually, it's not necessary.

The most important thing is to maintain the leading advantage in the number of warships and the performance of warships.

It would be a bit ridiculous if the technology is better than others but the production is not as good as others."

Well, the emperor's idea has changed.

This doesn't require too deliberate confidentiality to handle it, so naturally the person can attract as much as he wants.

Question, what is the advantage of maintaining the performance of the warship?

Wang Zheng really didn't understand this.

He thought for a while and then asked, "Your Majesty, I am stupid. What do you mean by keeping the performance of the warship ahead?"

Taichang has also considered this issue.

He introduced in detail: "To put it bluntly, our warships are always better than others.

For example, the ASUS. It seems that the European countries have not yet built iron-armored warships, but this does not mean that they cannot build them.

When I was conquering Japan, I saw that the Japanese people actually built iron-armored warships, but they were not as big as ours.

This is the leading advantage in combat ship performance.

The iron-armored warships will be built sooner or later in the European countries. So, how can we maintain the leading position in performance of this warship?

We can maintain a lot of leads.

For example, building a ship into a large area, or speeding up the ship, or increasing the armor thickness, or increasing the number of artillery, etc.

The iron-armored warships built by the Japanese were not as big as ours, and now the European countries can generally build large ships of 2,000 materials. Therefore, if we want to maintain this big advantage, we have to build the ships larger.

There seem to be many types of Zheng He’s treasure ships, there should be more than two thousand materials, right?”

So that's what it means.

Upon hearing this, Wang Zheng nodded slowly and said, "There are indeed many types of Zheng He's treasure ships, and there are also more than two thousand materials.

Among them, there is a kind of 5,000-material one. This giant ship is about twenty-two meters long, about five meters wide and about two meters deep.

However, it seems that only one such giant ship is built, which is the flagship of Zheng He's fleet.

There is another type of ship that is tens of thousands of materials. This giant ship is about 44 meters long, about 18 meters wide, and about 3 meters deep.

Originally, this kind of giant ship was wanted to be built as a car for Chengzu, but it seemed that it was not built.

Because many officials of the Ministry of Works found that there were too many problems with this kind of ship, such as the ship was too big, no matter how big the sail was, the ship was too heavy, the keel was not strong enough, etc.

So, this giant ship stopped as it was built."

These are not problems now, just have a larger Zheng He treasure ship for reference.

Taichang nodded slightly and said, "Well, you can try to make five thousand materials first. Since this has been made and Zheng He has also sat down to go to the West, it proves that there is no problem.

As for tens of thousands of materials, you can think about it.

It is no longer a problem to be able to carry sails, and the steam engine can definitely carry them.

Also, the keel is not strong enough, you can consider using the newly-exported steel with the best toughness as the keel.

There is no hurry to build this. We can build a 5,000-material iron-armored warship first.

For tens of thousands of materials, you can think about it and recreate it."

Upon hearing this, Wang Zheng couldn't help but bow with interest: "I understand."

Taichang then said solemnly: "The other most important thing is the ship speed. You can consider it and line up the bottom layer of the five thousand-stock warship with steam and water wheels to see how fast it can drive.

At this moment, the sea area that the Ming Dynasty has entered is getting wider and wider, and the speed of this ship is too important.

If the boat speed can be twice as fast, it will only take more than ten days for us to travel to and from Nanyang.

Think about it, how much time can be saved in the middle."

Upon hearing this, Wang Zheng bowed without hesitation and said, "I understand."

Taichang then estimated: "As for the thickness of armor and the number of artillery, a warship of five thousand materials is definitely more than twice as important than a warship of two thousand materials, and its appearance is not much larger. We can completely double the armor.

If the number of artillery is not necessary to deliberately double it. It is better to install as many artillery as the cabin doors as you can open.

Anyway, this kind of iron-armored warship with 5,000 materials is already terrifying enough for the current continental countries. We just need to maintain our lead. "

Upon hearing this, Wang Zheng bowed impatiently and said, "I understand."

In this situation, he was probably thinking about developing a 5,000-material iron-armored warship.

Seeing this, Taichang couldn't help but shake his head and smiled bitterly: "Liangfu, don't rush to build a 5,000-material iron-armored warship. Let's build this shipyard first. After all, the lead in quantity is also a great advantage. Now our ocean-going ships are not as large as the Dutch, so we must make up for this shortcoming."

OK, then build a shipyard first and catch up with the shipbuilding speed.

This is actually not difficult, as long as there are enough personnel.
Chapter completed!