In the next two days, Yang Zhen led Zhang Chen, Fang Guangchen and others to stay temporarily in Jinzhou City.

After the general development direction for the future was decided, the main tasks before Yang Zhen, in addition to preparing the army for war, were to recruit people to colonize the country and build warships.

Among them, the matter of recruiting people to settle land for cultivation, although it is very important, cannot be rushed.

After all, it is not the time for spring to bloom. On the contrary, it is the lean season, which has attracted a large number of refugees. The limited food stocks of Jinhai Town cannot afford it.

We can only wait until the end of March, or even in April, for the land to completely thaw and the vegetation to sprout before we can recruit a large number of people to reclaim the wasteland.

Therefore, while staying in Jinzhou City, Yang Zhen first personally went to the Nanguanling Mountains not far to the south of Jinzhou City to check the arrangement of Liu Wanzhong's troops in the fifth camp.

After that, accompanied by Xiangping Bo Shen Zhixiang, Yuan Jin and others, he made a special trip to the Longwangmiao Shipyard not far to the northwest outside Jinzhou City to decide on some equally important matters.

The Jinzhou Shipyard, or the Jinzhou Bay Ship, which he had repeatedly heard from others, was located on the coast of Longwang Temple, not far northwest of Jinzhou City.

Shen Zhixiang originally built this shipyard when he was the successor of the Qing Dynasty. Whenever he visited the shipyard, he would stay in the nearby Dragon King Temple.

The Dragon King Temple is located on a mountain ridge near the coast of Jinzhou Bay. Below the mountain ridge is a flat, open, dustpan-shaped bay.

To the north of the bay, there are mountains and islands, many rocks, and the sea conditions are complex and dangerous. But to the south of the bay, there is the Beida River, which flows westward from the north of Jinzhou City to the sea.

To the south of the hilltop where the Dragon King Temple is located and to the north of the mouth of the Beida River where it flows into the sea, is exactly where the main factory area chosen by Shen Zhixiang for the Jinzhou Bay Longwang Temple Shipyard is located.

It was only when Yang Zhen came here in person that he truly realized that Xiangping Bo Shen Zhixiang really had two ideas about starting a factory and building ships.

Longwangmiao Shipyard built a line of as many as 100 boat pits within a few miles near the north bank of the Beidahe estuary, where the terrain is higher than the south bank, so that hundreds of wooden boats can be built at the same time.

The ship pit not far from the shore is the shipyard. They are all so-called dry docks. They are all dug and built on a relatively high soil slope on the north bank of the Beida River.

The boat pits, big or small, are all rectangular, with stone paving on three sides. The side facing the river bank is piled with compacted earth and rocks, which is the door for ships to enter and exit the boat pit.

The Beida River is not a big river, but the terrain at its mouth is flat. Whenever the tide in Jinzhou Bay reaches high tide, the sea water pours in, and the river level rises several feet, making it extremely wide for a while.

At this time, the ships that need to be repaired in Jinzhou Bay can ride the high tide to go ashore along the river mouth and sail into the ship pit where the cofferdam has been dug in advance.

When the tide recedes, the cofferdam is re-blocked and it becomes a place for ship repairs.

For newly repaired or newly built ships in the Longwangmiao Shipyard shipyard, cofferdams can be dug in advance, and when the water rises and the ship pit on the shore is flooded, they can take advantage of the situation and enter the sea westward.

At noon on February 10th, accompanied by Shen Zhixiang, Yuan Jin and others, Yang Zhen came to a boat pit while listening to their introduction.

Seeing a group of boatmen in the dry boat pit, busy around a semi-finished ship, Yang Zhen stopped, looked at it, and then asked Shen Zhixiang and others:

"What size is this ship? In other words, according to the shipyard or our navy, is this ship made of 100 materials or 200 materials?"

Hundreds of years later, when looking at ancient documents, wherever the navy was mentioned, the size of the ship was often measured by the number of materials, such as one hundred material ships, two hundred material ships, four hundred material ships, and so on to two thousand.

Material ship.

Regarding this material, Yang Zhen has never been able to figure out what it means.

And it's not just Yang Zhen who can't figure it out. In fact, few people have figured out how much a material is, or what this "material" for measuring the size of a ship actually refers to in hundreds of years.

Some people say that this "material" refers to the weight. One material is equal to one stone, and one stone is one hundred and twenty kilograms. Therefore, one material is one hundred and twenty kilograms.

Some people say that this "material" refers to volume or capacity, and one material is equal to the volume of one stone.

Others say that this "material" refers to the wood used in shipbuilding, that is, a piece of wood that is one foot square and seven feet long is one material.

A 200-material ship refers to a ship built with 200 square meters of wood, one foot long and seven feet long.

A 400-material ship refers to a ship built with 400 pieces of wood.

Regarding this, Yang Zhen has always had doubts in his mind. None of these statements can eliminate the doubts in Yang Zhen's mind.

Today, since he arrived at the shipyard and among the people who knew more about shipbuilding in this era, Yang Zhen suddenly thought of this question and wanted to ask it.

"Haha, are the Governor testing me?"

Faced with Yang Zhen's sudden and simple question, Shen Zhixiang, who had been following Yang Zhen to introduce him to the shipyard, smiled and asked Yang Zhen in return.

However, Shen Zhixiang did not wait for Yang Zhen to speak again, but pointed directly at the semi-finished ship in the ship pit and said: "This ship is six feet and two feet long from bow to stern. It is four and a half feet deep from the deck to the bilge. It is exactly a ship."

A serious, commonly used warship with 200 ingredients!"

"Two hundred ingredients?"

"Exactly."

"How do you know?"

"How do you know?"

The first "how to know" was when Yang Zhen asked Shen Zhixiang again after listening to Shen Zhixiang's statement.

The second question "How to know" was a question Shen Zhixiang asked himself after listening to Yang Zhen's questioning when he and Yuan Jin and others looked at each other in confusion.

"Commander, Lord Shen just said that the longest length from end to end is six feet and two feet, and the maximum depth from top to bottom is four and a half feet. This is the size of a 200-material warship!"

Yuan Jin saw that Yang Zhen had a confused face, and Shen Zhixiang was also confused by Yang Zhen's question, as if he didn't know what Yang Zhen was asking, so he quickly explained to Yang Zhen with a smile.

"Then, Lao Yuan, you mean that the length of the bow and stern of the ship, multiplied by the height of the top and bottom, or the depth of the cabin, is the material of the ship?"

After repeated discussions between Shen Zhixiang and Yuan Jin, Yang Zhen finally had a flash of inspiration in his head and realized the basis for this ship to be a 200-material warship.

It turns out that this quantity of materials is neither the weight nor the volume, nor is it the amount of wood consumed in building the ship, but the area of ​​the longitudinal section of the ship.

To be more precise, it is the area of ​​the longitudinal section of the hull from bow to stern.

Therefore, what is commonly referred to as one material actually refers to one square foot.

In this case, a so-called warship with two hundred materials actually refers to a warship with a longitudinal cross-sectional area of ​​two hundred square feet.

"Well, that's okay. Anyway, a warship made of 200 materials is of this size. A warship of 400 materials is eight feet six feet long from end to end, and five feet two inches deep from top to bottom. According to the governor's calculation, it is indeed

in this way."

After hearing what Yang Zhen said, Yuan Jin was a little confused at first.

Although he has been in the Navy for many years and cannot be said to be unfamiliar with warships, he is not a shipbuilder after all. He cannot tell the specific origin of the two hundred materials and four hundred materials. He only knows that a two hundred materials ship and a four hundred materials ship are different.

It's just the size.

However, after listening to Yang Zhen's words, he thought about it carefully in his mind and found that Yang Zhen's statement was generally correct, so he said it immediately.

"Yes, it is indeed the case. The governor's algorithm is quite novel. It's just that shipbuilding has its own construction methods since ancient times. How to build a two-hundred-material ship or a four-hundred-material ship? How long should it be, how wide should it be, and how high and deep should it be?

, there has been a precedent for a long time. We just followed the precedent."

After hearing the conversation between Yuan Jin and Yang Zhen, Shen Zhixiang finally understood what the question Yang Zhen was asking was, and based on his own understanding, he explained it to Yang Zhen.

It's just that after Yang Zhen figured out how much the first material was, he was no longer interested in what Shen Zhixiang said.

At that moment, he nodded to Shen Zhixiang and stopped talking. Instead, he walked up to the stone edge of the ship pit and took steps to measure the length of this so-called 200-material warship.

The boatmen in the boat pit were building watertight compartments in the cabin. Suddenly, they saw Yang Zhen walking up to the edge of the boat pit. He knelt down on the ground for a while.

Although they didn't know who the man in front of them was, when they saw Shen Zhixiang, Yuan Jin and the bosses in the shipyard following him around, nodding and bowing with respect, they naturally knew that this man was a big shot.

"You all get up, nothing will happen to you, just keep working!"

Facing the boatmen who were kneeling in the huge ship pit, Yang Zhen ordered them to continue building the ship, while he went back and forth until he finally figured out the length of the ship.

According to the calculations of later generations, this 200-material warship was only a little over 20 meters long from beginning to end.

So, how big can the 400-material warship that Yang Zhen has high hopes be?

In fact, it is not very big: the longest is less than thirty meters, the widest is less than six meters, and the maximum depth is only two meters.

After Yang Zhen figured this out, he felt very disappointed with the warships of this era.

However, disappointment is a disappointment, and what to do next is still what to do.

In the construction of wooden sailboats in this era, although the construction method of Fuchuan has lagged behind the West, at least it was still in a leading position in the Ming Dynasty.

This is true regardless of north or south, manufacturing methods, materials used, working hours, etc.

Erecting the keel, matching the ribs, nailing the side plates, tenoning the compartments, then making the rudder, plugging the seams, repairing the plaster, painting, and finally erecting the mast, laying the deck, setting up the sight bucket, and hanging the sail. Every process is extremely complicated.

And it's time consuming.

A warship made of 200 materials, even if all the tools and raw materials are available, will take 20 to 30 craftsmen hundreds of days to complete.

As for a warship with 400 materials, it requires even longer craftsmen and time.
Chapter completed!