Emperor Renzong of the Great Song Dynasty

At this time, it was the middle and late September, and it was late autumn, and the vegetation in Bianliang City was withered.

Qingbei University was built on the bank of Bianliang City and lived next to the water.The green and yellow fallen leaves outside the city drifted along the Bian River and piled up next to Xia Yuqi's pier in a whirl.

At this time, the wharf was in full swing. After Jiang Ping got the approval from Yan Shu to build a shipyard here, he recruited workers non-stop, built factories, ordered raw materials from various places, and started shipbuilding.

The goal given by the emperor is to build fifty steamships before the spring of next year, fifty!If you don't work overtime and don't stop construction for a moment, how can you catch up with this job before the spring of next year!

Looking from a distance, Zhao Yiyi saw giant logs several feet long being pushed into the factory building by the river. Some planers processed the logs into straight and clean keel prototypes, dried them, and painted them with waterproof and waterproof coating. The bored tung oil can be regarded as the raw material for a big ship that can really be launched.

When the emperor came to Qingbei University in person, he naturally had to be received.Jiang Ping stood by the side bitterly, rubbing his hands and said: "Guys, look, this part has been done. Before next year, I will definitely be able to make a job."

Zhao Yiyi glanced at the blackness and blood in his eyes, and said in his heart, I know you are in trouble, and I am too!

He never relents when he squeezes his subordinates, because he is not a superior who throws his hands away like a shopkeeper, and pushes all the work to his subordinates to do, and he enjoys what he gets.

Jiang Ping worked overtime to run errands for him, and he had to work harder.

Therefore, Zhao Yiyi patted Jiang Ping on the shoulder: "Boss Jiang has worked hard, this factory is good."

He asked again, "Where did these logs come from?"

Jiang Pingdao: "It's the wood from the Shu land."

To build a giant ship, you need to use a dense giant wood as the keel, otherwise you cannot make a ship.

These giant trees can only exist in the vast forest for thousands of years.

The hinterland of the Central Plains also had such a lush jungle, but from the pre-Qin period to the present, thousands of years of dynasties changed, the construction of palaces, and shipbuilding have almost cut down the giant trees in the Central Plains.It is even more difficult to find such a giant tree that can be built in the Central Plains.

Now if you want to find the giant wood for building the palace and the big ship, you can only find it by walking in the direction of Shu.

The development history of Shu is much shorter than that of the Central Plains, and the degree of deforestation is lower.In the forests of Shu, it is still possible to find such giant trees more than ten feet high.

Moreover, the land of Shu is in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. After the giant trees are felled, they can be sent directly downstream along the river, and transportation is also very convenient.

but……

Zhao Yiyi thought to himself that logging from Shu all these years was basically just fishing.

It takes ten years to grow trees and a hundred years to grow people, not to mention that what they want now is a tree with a height of more than ten feet and a hard texture.

It would take thousands of years for such a tree to grow.

The forests on the Sichuan side will be cut down soon if there is no accident. If you want to find giant trees again, you must go to the Greater and Lesser Xing'an Mountains in the northeast—now that place is still under the control of the Liao people, and it will not be called Song Guo went in to cut wood.Or look for it overseas in Southeast Asia.

Neither of these two methods is a permanent solution.

No matter where the trees are, there will be a day when they will be cut down.

In the final analysis, we still need to build ships with steel, build houses with reinforced concrete, and completely eradicate our dependence on trees.

Zhao Yiyi said: "These trees are quite expensive, right?"

Jiang Ping nodded: "It's not cheap. Now the giant trees in Shu County are not easy to find. Unlike before, they are all around the forest. If you want to find such a big tree now, you have to go deep into the forest to find it. If you find it, Cut it down and then transport it out. It takes a lot of labor to carry out the process one by one. After the wood is transported out, it needs to be dried and cannot be used immediately. The officials are in a hurry, so I took some from the shipyard in Quanzhou to dry them. Good wood, although there are some human feelings in it, the price has not come down much after all.”

Zhao Yiyi glanced at him.

Isn't Quanzhou the base camp of the pirates? The shipyard is almost the private property of the big pirates.The so-called human feelings are in it, and I'm afraid it has something to do with the former pirate leader Yun Niang.

If there is no such relationship, let alone relying on Jiang Ping as a merchant, even if he is brought out as the emperor, I am afraid that he will not be able to buy other people's timber.

Zhao Yiyi said: "How many ships can you build with the wood you have now?"

Jiang Ping smiled bitterly: "Officials, it's not that I don't care, it's really..."

Zhao Yiyi smiled and waved his hands: "I don't mean to blame you. You just tell me the truth, the wood in your hand can make the keel of several ships?"

Jiang Pingdao: "Twelve ships."

Zhao Yiyi rubbed his fingers.

Twelve ships, his plan is to build fifty ships before the spring of next year...

He said: "Okay, it's almost enough. You can build these twelve ships first."

As for the remaining 38 ships - simply don't use wood as the keel.

Jiang Pingxi said: "Thank you, the official family."

Recently, he was so worried about the keel that his hair turned gray.

The emperor was in a hurry, and fifty ships were overturned for the new year.But the wood can't be cut down to make keels, it needs to be dried for a period of time.This drying is far away.

He had no choice but to send someone to Quanzhou to find Yunniang, and begged his grandpa to sue his grandma. He spent all his life's favor, and Quanzhou could only give him a share of twelve ships.

After all, building sailing giant ships is what pirates eat.

People rely on this to support their families, and being able to even out your twelve keels is already a great favor.

Jiang Ping was thinking about apologizing with death if he couldn't pay the job, but he didn't expect that there is no unparalleled road.

Zhao Yiyi said: "Let's go, let's find Senior Xia."

The pier was occupied by Jiang Ping to open a factory, so Xia Yuqi hid in his small yard and dug a water hole for experiments.

When Zhao Yiyi and Jiang Ping entered his yard, Xia Yuqi was concentrating on placing a cement ball in a copper basin floating on the surface of the pool.

Zhao Yiyi looked at the pool built in the courtyard.

Liu En told him that Xia Yuqi dug a hole in the yard, and he thought it was an ordinary mud hole filled with water, and if it was too strong, he could put some tung oil on it, or lay some bricks on it.

Unexpectedly, Xia Yuqi was quite professional. He used cement to wipe the pool wall to a perfect fit, and asked someone to keep the water surface clean all the time, so the water in this pool was extremely clear.

Zhao Yiyi watched the cement ball roll in the copper basin and floated on the water surface with the copper basin. It almost sank to the bottom several times, but finally it floated steadily on the water surface.

"Senior Xia, what are you doing?"

he asked with a smile.

Seeing the emperor coming, Xia Yuqi raised his head and said, "Go back to the official's house, it's done!"

Zhao Yiyi said: "What happened?"

Xia Yuqi said: "I thought of a way to make a ship made of steel float on the water!"

"A ship made of steel?"

Jiang Ping was surprised: "Can steel actually build ships?"

If steel could also build ships, there would be no need for giant logs as keels.

Although it seems that wood is much cheaper than steel, giant wood that really meets the requirements of being a keel is hard to come by, and the price is naturally extremely expensive.

But steel, unlike wood, can be shaped.

A pile of wood chips of equal volume cannot be pieced together to form a wooden boat, but steel can.

If it is really possible to use steel instead of wood, then there is no need for him to look around for keels.

Xia Yuqi nodded: "Yes. And steel can make bigger ships. You see."

He took out a blueprint from his pocket and laid it flat by the pool.Both Zhao Yiyi and Jiang Ping went up to watch.

What I saw on the drawings was a giant three-story ship without sails, only a long and thin chimney in the middle of the deck.

Jiang Ping suddenly said: "Old man, what is the captain of this ship?"

Xia Yuqi smiled and said: "One hundred feet."

Jiang Ping blurted out: "Impossible!"

One hundred feet!

Today's largest ships do not exceed twenty feet!

If it exceeds twenty feet, where can I find such a long keel...

Jiang Ping slapped his head.

Confused is not it!

This is a ship made of steel, so there is no need to find some keel!

Xia Yuqi said: "Not only is it bigger, but it can also carry more cargo. At the same time, its speed is twice as fast as that of the current boat that is running all over the place."

At this time, even Zhao Yiyi was a little surprised: "Can it be twice as fast as it?"

He was already very satisfied with the speed of that steamship - after all, it was the first generation steamship, and it was not easy to achieve this level.

Didn't expect Xia Yuqi to build a boat twice as fast as it?

He looked at Xia Yuqi with a "really picked up a big treasure" look.

To get such a national treasure-level talent, his father's grave was not in vain stolen!

Xia Yuqi said: "It's nothing unusual. The reason why the boat couldn't run faster before was because it was a wooden boat after all, and it couldn't carry bigger and heavier boilers."

He made a gesture: "The boiler is in the center of the ship. The wood is too brittle, and if something too heavy is placed in the center, it will—click."

Zhao Yiyi said: "So the steam boiler you put on that ship is a simpler version?"

Xia Yuqi nodded and said: "Yes. That boiler is too small and not strong enough to run faster. If the ship is made of steel, it can withstand stronger forces. The boiler is bigger and can run faster."

Zhao Yiyi pondered: "Boss Jiang, look, if you want to build this kind of boat..."

He wanted to say, can you make it?After thinking about it again, he gained some confidence in his staff, so he asked, "How long will it take you to build such a ship?"

Jiang Ping twitched the corner of his mouth, thinking that your old man really doesn't leave room for others to breathe.How long will it take to build a large ship of hundreds of feet?

He has never built such a behemoth before, how does he know when it will be finished?

Zhao Yiyi said: "How many ships can be built before the spring of next year?"

Jiang Pingdao: "I have never done such a job. I don't know how long it will take to build it. I can only do my best. However, to build such a boat, I need iron."

He added: "The more the better the iron."