The end of the Ming Dynasty swept the world

Chapter 571 Invincible Warship in Asia
Ding Yi was taken aback after hearing this, but this standard was discussed by everyone at that time.

Even if you want to make an exception, you must find a suitable excuse.

Of course, Ding Yi is the best at finding excuses.

"It's a good thing to study with an open mind, as long as you can read and write." Ding Yi smiled.

"I am literate. I have learned to read since I was a child." Xu Wei said: "As long as I study hard in school, I will definitely be admitted as a craftsman."

"Okay, I'll test you." Ding Yi asked him to make steel to see how fast he can make steel.

Xu Wei was very happy, and quickly found a place to practice for Ding Yi.

He is proficient in refining techniques, and it must have been refined for several years. A piece of seven or eight catties of raw and wrought iron, after two times of tempering by him, will become a lump of steel in less than half an hour.

"This technology is fine, can we make an exception?" Ding Yi asked around.

Everyone applauded and said yes, Xu Wei was excited about this.

With Xu Wei's incident, Ding Yi felt that the school rules needed to be changed. As long as he was willing to learn, no matter his age, he could increase the number of craftsmen and workers faster.

Ding Yi then looked at the common people. The so-called common people are equivalent to our modern workers. What they do in Lushun and Pidao is manual work. Then transport it to the Craftsmanship Bureau, or store it in the warehouse.

Some of these people are family members of workers, some are Liao people who have migrated, and even refugees from various places.

Most of the people who can work here have their families with them. They have no wages in the first year, and they only guarantee that their whole family can survive.

From the second year, Ding Yi provided five buckets of grain per household in addition to food allowances, ensuring that they could save six shi a year. They could sell money or barter.

From the third year onwards, in addition to food allowances, each household will receive five buckets per person per month according to the labor force.

For example, there are two couples with a child in this family. In the second year, they will receive five buckets of food per household. In the third year, both husband and wife can work, and they will receive one stone.

Five years later, Ding Yi no longer provided food, only grain or silver.

In general, as long as they are willing and capable, after living in Lushun for three years, they can save more than a dozen taels of silver per household after a year, as long as they don’t spend money randomly. Money must find a way to earn back.

Bathhouses, restaurants, shopping malls, etc. on Changsheng Island are all necessary. No matter artisans, workers or ordinary people, they will spend money if they have money. In this way, Ding Yi can get back more than half of the money he sent out.

Generally speaking, the artisans here in Lushun have the best conditions, with high incomes and divided land. Basically, they can buy whatever they want to eat and sell whatever they want to wear.

Workers are second, and most of them can be satisfied.

Whether it is a new Liao people or an immigrant, they all want to have workers and craftsmen at home.

Ordinary people can support themselves and their families by working and working, which is much better than before.

In the past, although some people owned fields, if they owed the harvest, plus the payment from above, they often couldn't even support their own family after handing in the payment.

No matter what here, Master Ding can always ensure that they can eat enough, which is probably the only wish of most ordinary people in this era.

After watching ironmaking, Ding Yi also had a better understanding of his production capacity.

Then I looked at the firearms branch of the Longevity Island Gun.

At the moment the flintlock guns are highly classified and are all made in the Isle of Pigs, with a monthly output of [-] bobbins (cavalry and officers) and [-] flintlocks (infantry and navy).

Changsheng Island focuses on the manufacture of Lumi guns and bird guns.

Three thousand Lumi guns and two thousand bird guns are produced here every month.

Bird guns are mainly sold to Japan and North Korea, and bird guns are also produced in Fuzhou, Jinzhou. The combined output of the two places is about [-] pieces.

Li Zhongyi finally said that in another three years, the whole army can replace the flintlock guns, and then gradually phase out the Lumi guns.

However, considering the loss and replacement of flintlock guns, as well as the expansion of Ding Yi's soldiers and horses, it will take about five years, that is, around the 15th year of Chongzhen (1642), before the manufacture of Lumi guns can be completely abandoned.

But Ding Yi also said that if our army expands, there will be more demand for flintlock guns.

Li Zhongyi smiled wryly: "In the next five years, we will have more and more craftsmen, and our output will increase. In short, this time, I promise you, my lord, that after five years, try to give up the Lumi gun."

Ding Yi didn't care about giving up. Anyway, counting the time, Daming will perish in five years. It doesn't matter if you use a Lumi blunderbuss or a flintlock.

At noon, Ding Yi had dinner on Changsheng Island with the guards of Changsheng Island.

After eating, I went to see the shipyard on Changsheng Island.

The Changsheng Island Shipyard started construction in December of the sixth year of Chongzhen (1633) and was completed by the end of the seventh year of Chongzhen (12). It took a full year to build, and then it took another half a year to complete the construction of various supporting factories.

In the past, warships with [-] materials and merchant ships with [-] materials were mainly built.

Lushun's shipyard mainly builds [-]-material warships and [-]-material warships.

In November of the eighth year of Chongzhen, Ding Yi obtained the blueprint of the Dutch third-class sailing battleship. After intensive research by Li Zhi and other major shipbuilders, he started construction on Changsheng Island in January last year. At that time, many supporting factories had not yet been completed, but They had the Tainan ship from the Netherlands that came back to observe them for a month before leaving.

At this time, Changsheng Island specially built a third-class battleship, and Ding Yi named it: "Changsheng-class" warship.

The first ship, Changsheng 1, has been built for more than ten months.

It has been modified and perfected many times in the middle, and it is now nearing completion.

The construction speed was very fast, which stunned the Dutch shipbuilder Kluf who came from the big team.

It takes at least five years for them to build such a ship in the Netherlands, and it will be shortened to two or three years during wartime.

Dongfang Speed ​​completely shocked him.

Of course, Ding Yi is the first ship of Changsheng as a test product, and he doesn't plan to use it for a long time. It is estimated that it will be finished in about two years at most.

The wood chosen is not the best.

When Ding Yi and the generals arrived, Changsheng 1 was loading the final deck.

Everyone stood in the distance, looking at the super gunboat with a huge hull and two decks, each of them was excited.

This can be called one of the strongest battleships of this era.

Coupled with Ding Yi's unique fuze bomb, it is definitely a well-deserved invincible warship in Asia.

Such a huge battleship, even Zheng Zhilong, the overlord of the sea, could not build it.

The biggest boat in Zheng Zhilong's hand is not so big.

And Ding Yi's ship was completely copied and researched according to the drawings of the Royal Netherlands Navy, and it was an evolutionary version after discussions between various craftsmen and navy generals.

The original Dutch battleship has two decks, 59 guns, and all of them are 42-pound and 32-pound cannons, of which 42 are 20-pound guns and 32 are 39-pound guns.

According to Ding Yi's experience in naval battles in the past few years (although he does not have many naval battles), Zheng Zhilong's thousands of ships do not have so many large warships.

In addition, in view of the explosive bombs of the Kua era that he still has, Ding Yi changed the artillery to 48.

Among them, there were 42 18-pounder guns and 32 30-pounder guns.

European battleships of the same level generally have between [-] and [-] artillery pieces.

At this time Li Zhi was also standing beside Ding Yi, and he said proudly: "Master Ding, after our Changsheng No. 1 leaves the port, there will be no warships near Daming that are your opponents."

Ding Yi said with a smile: "The Dutch also said that at the time."

In the end, he was defeated by Zheng Zhilong and Ding Yi successively.

Li Zhi smiled and said: "This is different, our cannons are more powerful."

Ding Yi thought for a while: "How many years can this boat last?"

"About two to three years." Li Zhi said in a deep voice.

"How much silver did it cost?" Ding Yi asked again.

"It's less than 10 taels." Li Zhi said.

There were screams all around.

But the European-class warships of the same level cost twice as much as Ding Yi.

Ding Yi has several advantages here. One is that the labor cost is low, and the other is that the materials are all ready-made, which only cost less than 10 taels.

The cost mentioned by Li Zhi does not include wood, steel and other materials, but only counts labor and food.

Because it is almost ready, it is estimated that it took eleven months to build the ship, mobilizing 160 shipwrights, 4000 workers, and 1 peasants, paying [-] taels of salary and more than [-] taels of food.

"It's really a waste of money." My colleague Chen sometimes grinned, with a heartache on his face.

The key is only two or three years.

"So we must pay back." Ding Yi was thoughtful, this high price was created, and he must be allowed to create value.

Why did Ding Yi's ship take a short time?

It is because all the wood he used was cut down in a short period of time without long-term standardized treatment.

Although Ding Yi had been hoarding wood since his first day in Lushun in the second year of Chongzhen, the wood hoarded in the early years was not suitable for building third-tier battleships.

At the end of the ninth year of Chongzhen, more than eight years have passed, and the earliest treated wood is still useless.

Ding Yi is now building Changsheng 1 for sea trials, looking for weaknesses and shortcomings. If possible, after two years, he will use the wood that has been processed for ten years to build a more perfect Changsheng. In a few years, he can still use it North Korea's Damu, make a better Changsheng.

Ding Yi thought for a while: "At the same time in Europe, there was another type of battleship, called a first-class battleship."

Everyone listened with peace of mind.

"A first-class battleship, the armor is very thick, there are hundreds of artillery pieces, and there are three decks, densely packed with artillery."

Everyone's face changed slightly when they heard this. They didn't expect the gringo to be so good at shipbuilding.

"We have inquired about it in Dayuan, and we are also looking for such a blueprint. The original version is similar to our Changsheng No. [-]."

"The craftsmen of the shipyard, you can study it. If it is transformed into a three-layer deck, the defense will be improved."

After Li Zhi heard this, he said, "With so many cannons and such thick armor, although it can withstand beatings, I'm afraid it can't be used for ocean voyages?"

"That's right, so it is basically impossible for European first-class battleships to come to us."

"We want to build it just to attack the nearby forces, and we don't want to use it on the ocean." Ding Yi said with a smile: "In the future, the ocean will still rely on the Changsheng."

Everyone looked at each other meaningfully. Of course, this kind of battleship was used to fight Japan, North Korea, Zheng Zhilong, and the Ming army. I understand.

But Ding Yi also emphasized that in recent years, the Changsheng is still the main ship, and the first-class battleship can be studied, but it is impossible for Ding Yi to touch it within a few years.

The successful construction of Changsheng Island's first ship, Changsheng, has also accumulated experience for Ding Yi's shipyard.

According to Li Zhi, if there is no problem with the trial voyage, the second Changsheng can be built in about eight months, which can shorten the construction period a bit. Of course, it will definitely not be used.

Ding Yi is not in a hurry, he will build a few ships for use first, and after five or six years, he will have better wood and more exquisite technology, and he will be able to build a real third-tier battleship.

(End of this chapter)