Great Tang Southern Emperor

"Today the weather is fine and the scenery is beautiful everywhere. The butterflies are busy, the bees are busy, the birds are busy, and the white clouds are also busy..." The pressure on Li Zhen's heart was relieved, and Li Zhen felt very comfortable along the way, so that Immediately, they hummed the songs of later generations that hadn't been sung for a long time.

"Your Highness, this song is really nice." Wang Dewei accompanied Li Zhen, and after listening to it for a while, he said with a smile: "It's not the same as those babbling lyrics and music nowadays."

"Hehe..." Li Zhen smiled and didn't explain, did he want to say that this song came from later generations?

"By the way, how is the quality of our boat?"

To be honest, Li Zhen has always been in a stocking state for the sea shipyard. Although he will send some supplies to the sea shipyard in a few months, he has never paid much attention to the situation of the sea shipyard. Find out about the shipyard.

Wang Dewei saw that Li Zhen was talking about something serious, and said solemnly: "This subordinate is about to discuss this matter with His Highness."

Li Zhen was startled, and her expression became serious: "What's wrong? There's something wrong with the boat?"

Wang Dewei hurriedly said: "That's not true. Our ships are all made of century-old pine trees near Vladivostok. The processing is also strictly in accordance with the dimensions given by Your Highness. There is no problem in quality. However, if these ships are in their current state If it is used to run, it will last for ten years at most, but if it is painted with tung oil and raw lacquer, it can be used for 100 years."

"Tung oil, of course I know this. Why? Didn't you paint the boat with tung oil?" Tung oil has excellent anti-corrosion properties. Ancient people liked to paint sailboats with tung oil for anti-corrosion, and then painted a layer of paint on the outside. It is both beautiful and practical. Even if the boat is soaked in water for decades, it will not rot.

Chapter 816 Ship's Defect

Chapter 178 The Ship's Defect

"Your Highness, don't even think about it. The place in Vladivostok is full of ice and snow. Where can there be tung trees?" Seeing Li Zhen's question, Wang Dewei asked back: "Besides, tung oil is also a strategic material, and its output is very scarce. It’s not easy. My subordinates have requested several times from the fleet that delivered supplies to us, but each time they delivered them to us, but each time the quantity was very small. At most, they sent more than a dozen barrels. The anti-corrosion inside the sailboat is not enough, not to mention that the exterior has to be painted several times. So don’t look at our ships as being more powerful than the other, but in fact they haven’t done a large area of ​​sealing treatment. If they are really soaked in water, Within ten years, there will definitely be problems."

"Um...it was my mistake." Tung oil is indeed a good thing, but the output of tung oil in ancient times was not high, and it was listed as military supplies, and the output of civilians was extremely low.This is also the reason why his caravan did not find Li Zhen for help, because even if Li Zhen came forward, it would be very troublesome to get tung oil.

Of course, that was in the past. Now, with the reform of Datang's military technology, especially in the past two years, artillery technology has become better and better, and the role of tung oil in the military field has become smaller and smaller.

Because the way of war has changed, in the past whether it was attacking or defending the city, it was necessary to use rolling logs and rocks, gold juice, kerosene, ladders to rush cars, etc., but now there are thermal weapons, whether it is attacking or defending the city , As long as you take a cannon and bombard it one round, no matter how strong your city wall is, as long as it is not made of reinforced concrete, it will bomb you to the sky.

But despite this, it is not easy to get tung oil in large quantities, because although its role in the military field has decreased, its role in the industrial field has become more and more important. In the absence of special preservatives Under the circumstances, tung oil is the preferred preservative for many machines.

But okay.

After all, Li Zhen runs a shipyard, and there are quite a lot of other things here without tung oil and raw lacquer. I searched all the shipyards, and there are still some in each army. If I buy some on the market, I should be able to get enough. These more than 1000 ships were treated with tung oil and raw lacquer for protection.

"Leave this matter to Bengong, but you have so many boats, and if you want to paint all of them with tung oil, it will take a long time." Li Zhen said.

Applying tung oil is not a simple matter, because tung oil needs to be dried in the shade, and the time required for drying in the shade itself is slow, and tung oil is even slower. It takes 7-10 days to dry once, and this procedure needs three to five times. , it will take thirty or forty days.Then after the tung oil is brushed, raw lacquer needs to be applied, which will take a long time.

More importantly, the scale of Yue Ship is not enough to undertake the sealing work of a thousand large ships at one time, so some ships have to be transported to Quanzhou Shipyard and other small and medium shipyards. It also takes time.

So don't look at Wang Dewei bringing back so many ships this time, but if he wants to completely deal with all the thousand ships before going to sea, it will be at least two months later.

"That's His Highness's problem, and the subordinates can't take care of it." Wang Dewei said with a smile: "After all the ships are handed over, the subordinates have to go back to Vladivostok. There are still many things over there, at least in the dock. There are still more than a dozen ships that have not come down yet."

"However, Your Highness, I heard that you have already sold your entire fleet. Now our ships need to be protected, and Tianzhu is about to start a war. You can't do without a ship."

"This was my mistake. I only thought that you could send more than 1000 ships. I didn't expect that none of them had been sealed yet. However, the war is urgent. If it doesn't work, I can only temporarily let it go." Li Zhen sighed, the merchant ship would not be able to go to sea without sealing treatment, the problem is that it would greatly reduce the service life of the ship, if there was no other way, Li Zhen would not have made such a decision.

Fortunately, there are not many ships needed for the battle in Tianzhu, only a dozen or twenty ships are needed to run a few times back and forth.

What's more, after these ships come back, it is completely possible to carry out a major overhaul, and then carry out sealing treatment, which will not affect the service life much.

"The ship has been handed over to His Highness, and His Highness can do whatever he wants." Wang Dewei said sullenly, obviously because he was very uncomfortable with Li Zhen's 'practicing' his own works, but he also understood Li Zhen's difficulties and knew that this was The best way.

"Then thank you, Uncle Wang, for your understanding." Li Zhen said apologetically, "When you go back this time, bring more people with you. One rotation to ensure the safety of the shipyard."

"Even if His Highness doesn't say it, this subordinate will ask for it." Wang Dewei said: "This time, this subordinate's actions are too big, and they have passed through the seas of Silla Wa and other countries. They must have discovered our existence. The sea shipyard can no longer hide, since it can't hide, in the face of future enemies, it can only strengthen the defense."

"That's good. The left and right guards are my pro-army. According to the most fully equipped, the number is 1, which should be enough for your defense." As the most powerful prince in the past and present, Li Zhen's side The ones used are naturally the best or even exceed the specifications. The ten rates of the East Palace around him are naturally full, and each rate is full of five prefectures, with 1000 people in each prefecture, a total of 5 people.

However, among the 5 people, 3 people (that is, the six rates) are also under Li Zhen's command, but they are not Li Zhen's personal soldiers. Under Li Zhen's command, he basically did not participate in the battle.The only ones who can really command him like his arms are the four commander-in-chief mansions of the prince's left and right guards and the prince's left and right inner leaders. These are his personal soldiers. You can go directly to the battlefield, as long as you don't attack privately, no one can say anything.

"Enough is enough, thank you Your Highness." Wang Dewei repeatedly said, he knew that the left and right guards led the mansion, although not as elite as the Youth Army, but it was also adapted from the pro-army led by Li Zhen when he was the King of Yue. It was also an army that followed Li Zhen on the battlefield, so it was considered elite.

"Uncle Wang, you are too polite." Li Zhen didn't care. Although he lost 1 guards, he didn't feel that his safety was threatened. The 5 people were enough to fight a battle. So many people protect their own safety, which in itself is a great waste of human resources.

What's more, even if you subtract 1 people, you still have 4 people by your side, plus those secret guards, you don't have to worry about your own safety at all——Li Zhen really doesn't believe that there will be someone in this world who can kill [-] people Those who chased and intercepted those who came to him.

Chapter 817 Insufficient manpower

Chapter 179 The Problem of Insufficient Manpower

Speechless all the way.

When approaching the Yingbin Building, the largest restaurant in Yuezhou, Li Zhen suddenly said: "Also, the scale of your shipyard needs to be expanded."

Wang Dewei slightly expressed doubts: "It is no problem to expand the scale of the shipyard. There are not many other things in Vladivostok, but there are a lot of old pine trees, and it is really a very good natural deep-water port. Even if the shipyard is expanded ten times , is not a problem, the problem is..."

"I know, manpower, right?"

"Yes, it's manpower." Wang Dewei said: "There is no shortage of anything in the sea shipyard now, the only thing that is lacking is manpower. As long as you can provide enough manpower for your subordinates, your majesty can provide you with a large-scale shipyard. Build it out."

"Manpower is easy to manage. Datang has won such a big victory in Nanyang and Tianzhu. There are plenty of slaves. After a while, I will send you 10 slaves there." Hidden, if that's the case, let him appear in front of the world blatantly, only [-] people, there are not many other things in Nanyang, except slaves.

"Nanyang slaves? What do I want them for?" Wang Dewei looked disgusted when he heard this: "Your Highness, I have heard of Nanyang slaves, they are called lazy. It is said that 2 people were sent to Yingzhou at the beginning of this year , the construction of the road from Yingzhou to Goguryeo Pyongyang, the result almost did not piss off the person in charge of this matter - even if the supervisor beat them with a whip, they worked slowly, and many slaves died, But after half a year, the road from Yingzhou to Pyongyang has not been repaired to a hundred miles...Your Highness, what do I want to do with such a lazy bastard? Not only will it not work, but it may even drag us down Besides, they don’t know anything, and we have to teach them from scratch, it’s going to be very slow..."

Li Zhen sneered: "Don't worry, I will specially select some excellent slaves for you, you can be content with it, as for hardworking and skilled craftsmen, forget it, we still lack such people."

"By the way, Your Highness, didn't you say that Dashi is at war with Sassanid Persia? Shouldn't there be many slaves there?" Wang Dewei suggested: "We can buy from Dashiren. There should be many craftsmen there. Then That's what we need."

"Don't even think about it, it's impossible." Li Zhen directly refused: "First of all, because Datang has bought slaves on a large scale these years, the price of foreign slaves has skyrocketed, especially those with skills, and the price is even higher. Doubling soaring, no matter how rich I am, I don't spend it like this.

Secondly, because Datang has instigated enemy countries to fight against each other these years, some people of insight have already become wary of Datang. If they buy slaves in large quantities again, they will sell them or not. I will definitely take the opportunity to ask for prices.

Finally, even if so many slaves can be bought outside, they can't all be given to you. Didn't you see that Zheng Yintao's eyes are red today?He must also want a batch of artisan slaves. "

Today, it wasn't just Liu Rengui who came with Li Zhen, all the officials in Yuezhou who could find time were here, including Zheng Yintao, the factory director of Yuechuan, and his group of subordinates.

However, after Wang Dewei drove the boat over, Zheng Yintao was deeply shocked when he saw the huge body of the Emperor, which was [-] tons. Before the Emperor stopped, he ran to the Emperor and pulled the design The teacher did not let go of his life and death, asking east and west, wanting to thoroughly investigate the design concept of the Emperor.

Li Zhen didn't know what happened afterwards, but it could be seen from his red eyeballs that he was definitely hit hard—but it's no wonder that since the day when Yue Chuan was established, he has been burdened. With the name of Datang No. [-] Shipyard, the people who got off the boat have always thought so. Even the Dengzhou Shipyard, which was established earlier than them, was not taken seriously by them.

Yuechuan also lived up to its title of being the number one in the world. They can handle everything from design to final shipbuilding, and they are all top-notch in terms of speed and quality.

However, today, an unknown so-called Vladivostok shipyard appeared, and those who crossed the ship were deeply shocked. Whether it was the shock of the thousand large merchant ships or the technical background contained in the Kaiser, they all It's not like they can be compared by crossing a boat.

Zheng Yintao's gaffe may not have been seen by others, but Li Zhen has noticed it, because this is his purpose in itself.

Because after returning to Lingnan this time, Li Zhen discovered that the Yue boat had developed a faint arrogance. Get on and off the boat.

Now it seems that the effect is obviously very good.

"Your Highness, what does this have to do with Zheng Yintao?" Wang Dewei asked back: "In terms of productivity, quality, speed, and design capabilities, our Vladivostok shipyard is the best in the world, and we are the best. Of course, the best shipyard must use The best shipbuilder. Besides, we don’t shit in Vladivostok, and he doesn’t want to go to anyone except slaves. On the contrary, you can use normal craftsmen on the side of the boat.”

"That's right, then let me think about it." Li Zhen nodded approvingly. The reason why Li Zhen bought a large number of foreign slaves was not because the foreign monks could recite scriptures, nor was it because they worshiped foreigners, and it was not because foreign boatmen had better skills. ——Many of those slaves came from inland countries, and they had never even seen a big ship a few times. How could they be better than the craftsmen of Datang.

In fact, in terms of shipbuilders, Datang has the most.