Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 277: Inspecting the Shipyard, Ironclad Warships! [Subscription Request]

in the afternoon.

Liu Kuan, accompanied by some personnel from the Machinery Manufacturing Bureau and the Locomotive Manufacturing Bureau, came to the Baochuan Factory outside the capital to learn about the development of the ship.

Since its establishment, the Locomotive Manufacturing Bureau, in addition to further researching various plans to improve trains, has had another major task of developing steamships together with the Baochuan Factory.

The Machinery Manufacturing Bureau also plays a supporting role in this project.

The development and production of steamships is a systematic task and is not easy. For the Ming Dynasty, which had a very poor industrial foundation, this task was even more difficult.

In addition, Liu Kuan knew that paddle steamers had major flaws, so he asked the Baochuan Factory to focus on propellers from the beginning, which increased the difficulty of developing the ship.

In addition, Liu Kuan provided very little specific reference material in this regard, so the Baochuan Factory and the Locomotive Manufacturing Bureau jointly developed for more than three years before achieving some results.

The Baochuan Factory is located in a river bay in the northwest suburbs of the capital. Although it is newly built, it is now very large.

It covers an area of ​​tens of thousands of acres, and the emperor's personal troops are stationed around it. It is listed as a military area and no outsiders are allowed to approach.

The shipyard is currently divided into two parts. The majority of the area is dedicated to the production of large-scale sailing ships—the smallest of which is the 3,000-ton one. A smaller area is used for the development of steamships.

After Liu Kuan arrived, he first inspected the manufacturing area of ​​sailing ships under the guidance of officials from the Baochuan Factory.

"Please look, Mr. Liu, this is the Ningbo sailing warship that our Captain Bao is currently building."

Chen Youcai, director of the Baochuan Factory, pointed to a huge sailing warship that was almost completed in the dock and introduced it with a beaming face.

"This warship has 5,800 tons, three decks, and can carry 48 powerful cannons and over a thousand sailors!"

Although Liu Kuan had seen giant steel ships in later generations, when he stood under the sailing warship built by the Ming Dynasty, he could not help but admire the wisdom and ability of the ancients.

In particular, the sailing warship in front of him is a good combination of the advantages of Chinese hard-sail ships and Western galleons and soft sails, and it looks uniquely "beautiful".

The tall hull and the dark gun ports on the deck give people a sense of security.

After taking a look, Liu Kuan asked, "How long does it take for the Treasure Shipyard to build a warship of this size, which weighs over 5,000 tons?"

Although the factory director Chen Youcai is only an eighth-rank official, he is very confident when talking about professional knowledge.

He said, "If you include the time it takes to prepare the wood and other raw materials, it will take a long time. Building a ship like this will take at least two to three years."

"But if all the raw materials are ready, considering only the construction time itself, our Baochuan Shipyard can build one in half a year."

"However, the imperial court currently values ​​craftsmen, vigorously promotes skilled artisans, and generously rewards those who invent new technologies. I believe that the time it takes to build a large ocean vessel like this can certainly be shortened."

"Also, this Ningbo is the first large ocean-going vessel of over 5,000 tons developed by our Treasure Shipyard. If the court is interested in building more and provides sufficient funds and grain, we can build at least three at the same time!"

Liu Kuan nodded after hearing this, thinking that this speed was pretty good.

Speaking of which, when Liu Kuan wanted to further increase the speed of shipbuilding in the Ming Dynasty, he proposed the smoke drying method according to what he had read in some novels before traveling through time, hoping to shorten the drying time of wood.

The result was almost a joke.

At that time, Su Quan was still a doctor in the Department of Science and Technology. After listening to his idea, he smiled and told him that the flue gas drying method had already existed and had almost reached its peak under the existing hardware conditions.

However, due to its various insurmountable shortcomings, it still cannot replace the conventional shade-drying method, so it can only be used as an auxiliary means of drying wood. Liu Kuan blushed at the time, and he would be more cautious when he thought about guiding Ming Dynasty technology in the future. He had to first understand the actual situation and know the actual level of technology in this area of ​​Ming Dynasty before considering whether to provide guidance and how to provide guidance.

As for other wood drying methods used in later generations, such as high-frequency, microwave drying, vacuum drying, and solar drying, they were simply not something that the Ming Dynasty could do at that time, so Liu Kuan simply did not mention them.

This is why it still takes one or two years, or even two or three years, to prepare the main timber for shipbuilding in the Ming Dynasty today.

Fortunately, Zhu Yuanzhang was a very courageous and capable leader.

As early as the 14th year of the Hongwu reign, after learning that the Ming Dynasty must develop its navy, it ordered large-scale logging in Guizhou, Sichuan and other places to prepare timber for shipbuilding.

Later, Nahachu was defeated and Ming army garrisons were set up all the way to Nurgan (the mouth of the Heilongjiang River). One of the main tasks of each garrison was to cut down large timber for shipbuilding, thus providing the Ming Dynasty with another major source of timber.

Therefore, since two years ago, the timber for Ming Dynasty shipbuilding has not been so scarce...

After inspecting the construction area of ​​sailing warships, Liu Kuan came to the development area of ​​steamships.

This area is mainly under the responsibility of Ma Mengyang from the Locomotive Manufacturing Bureau.

"Please look, Dean Liu, in addition to developing steamships, we are also responsible for developing ironclad ships. The ironclad ship under construction in front of you is our latest achievement."

Liu Kuan looked in the direction Ma Mengyang pointed, and saw a warship whose hull below the deck was almost entirely covered with steel plates. Except for being a little smaller, it looked very similar to the Western ironclad ships of later generations.

Ma Mengyang said, "Although this ironclad ship only has a little over 3,000 materials, its exterior is covered with steel plates, and its keel is also reinforced with steel."

"Although it can only carry twenty-four powerful cannons, it is not afraid of collisions or bombardments. It can be said that in the world today, apart from our own Ming warships, no other country's warships can threaten it!"

Liu Kuan was also excited when he saw the metallic luster of the unpainted ironclad warship.

I thought: If things continue to develop like this, the Ming Dynasty will not be far from building a real ironclad warship.

By then, perhaps Western countries will also feel the "surprise" of having their borders opened by giant ships and cannons.

Afterwards, Liu Kuan personally boarded the 3,000-ton ironclad ship to take a look around before going to inspect the ship.

When he arrived at the place, Liu Kuan saw another ironclad ship stationed on the dock. It seemed that this ironclad ship was larger than the previous one, probably weighing nearly four thousand tons.

However, when Liu Kuan turned around, he found that neither Chen Youcai nor Ma Mengyang were as excited as before.

Liu Kuan was not surprised.

Because the two of them had mentioned in their previous report to him that although the steam ironclad ship was built, it was not very practical.

Liu Kuan came here today to understand firsthand how impractical this steamship, which took the Baochuan Factory two or three years to build, is.

"Ma Mengyang, tell me about the situation of this steamship." Seeing that the two of them were silent for a while, Liu Kuan simply called out their names.

After all, Ma Mengyang is half his student.

　Second update.

　　Good night~
　　Sorry, I'm not feeling well today, so this chapter is only 2,000 words long.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)