Chapter 755: The fleet is gradually formed

Chapter 755: The fleet is gradually formed

As early as 551 AD, when Hou Jing's rebellious army failed to attack Jiangling and fled, Li Tai took advantage of the situation and took over Xiakou and other Jiangbei Jindu, and exchanged grain and supplies for many prisoners of war from Jiangling generals.

Afterwards, Li Tai ordered Li Quji and others to select some prisoners of war as craftsmen and go to Danjiangkou to dig land to build a lake and build a dock. Two full years have passed, and the Danjiangkou shipyard has been built on a large scale.

Danjiangkou is the port formed by Danshui flowing into Hanshui. It is located in the upper reaches of Hanshui. To the north is the remnant of the Daheng Mountains in the Qinling Mountains, and to the south is the Wudang Mountain, which belongs to the eastern remnants of the Daba Mountains. There is a valley and hilly area between these two mountain systems, forming a quite extensive wetland and lake, in which the Danjiangkou Shipyard is located.

As early as when Li Tai was still serving as the governor of Jingzhou, he arranged for Linghu Yanbao to build ships in Xingzhou. However, due to the lack of accumulation of technology and craftsmen at that time, he could only complete the construction and repair of some inland river cargo ships. As for warships, Then there are some limitations.

Now Li Quji serves as the Sima of Xingzhou and is also in charge of the management of the Danjiangkou Dockyard. As for the specific production management of the dock, Zhou Shaoyuan, the water cao of the general manager's office, is responsible for joining the army.

Zhou Shaoyuan is in his forties, a short and fat middle-aged man. He is also from Nanliang. He once served as Taizhou Cheng and other positions in Nanliang. Later, he was forced to become a thief by Hou Jing's rebel army and was captured by Jiangling. After the army defeated and captured him, he moved to the Jingzhou Governor's Mansion.

The Taizhou Department of Nanliang was the Capital Water Department of the Northern Dynasties, and its chief officer was called Taizhou Qing, who was the capital envoy that Li Tai served as the Taizhou government a few years ago. He was in charge of shipping, shipping, embankment repairs and other matters. Taizhou Cheng was an official subordinate to Taizhou Qing and was also the technical official in charge of boat construction in Nanliang.

In addition to Zhou Shaoyuan, who once served as Taizhou Cheng of Nanliang, many other professional talents were selected from the prisoners. They no longer shouldered heavy physical labor, but were responsible for technical guidance and production management.

Building ships, especially ships that can be used in water battles, is not just as simple as cutting wood and releasing it. It is a highly comprehensive and professional production category.

Although Li Quji was the chief officer of the dock, he actually had no experience in shipbuilding. The dock was built from scratch and produced various ships. Officials from Nanliang such as Zhou Shaoyuan were the main ones. person in charge.

Therefore, when leading Li Tai to visit the dock, Li Quji also took Zhou Shaoyuan and others with him in case of questions. For example, regarding the use of manpower and material resources and the overall management of various troubles, he, as the chief officer, can answer the Master Lang's questions, but when it comes to some more professional questions, Zhou Shaoyuan and others need to come forward to answer them.

Zhou Shaoyuan and others followed behind, looking up at General Li's demeanor with his peripheral vision from time to time, but did not dare to look at him with his eyes. Not only because of the disparity in status between them, but also because of General Li's great reputation in Nanliang.

Although they, Hou Jing's rebellious army, did not go to war with the Jingzhou Army of the Western Wei Dynasty, out of fear of Hou Jing and his men, they also respected General Li more and more. After all, Murong Shaozong, who once chased Hou Jing and fled like a bereaved dog, was defeated by General Li and drowned to death.

Therefore, in the hearts of these rebel prisoners, General Li was a being that was two levels higher than Hou Jing, the devil in the world. He was so wise and powerful that he could penetrate people's hearts. For this reason, after these prisoners learned that they were under the jurisdiction of General Li, they did not dare to cause trouble secretly and were very calm and obedient.

When Li Tai asked about the ship building process and construction period, Zhou Shaoyuan was called forward to answer the question. He quickly stepped forward respectfully, bowed his head and replied seriously: "For the information, General, the shipyard is currently manufacturing large-scale ships." For a ship, starting from preparing materials, it will take ten months..."

"so long?"

After hearing this, Li Tai frowned and said that he did not expect these big ships to be able to produce and enter the water as frequently as dumplings. However, it took nearly a year to build one, which was really inefficient. At this rate, when will he have an invincible fleet that can roam the rivers?

"No, hurry up, of course you can hurry up. What the official said is, but it includes...general, please forgive me..."

When Zhou Shaoyuan heard General Li's displeasure, he suddenly became more nervous and worried, and his tone became trembling. He wiped the sweat from his forehead while trying to explain clearly. However, the more nervous he felt, the more incoherent he became.

Li Tai saw that he was so nervous, so he raised his hand and patted his shoulder and said with a smile: "You don't need to be so nervous when joining the army, just talk carefully. Although I am not here to observe, I can also report from Li Sima It is known from the documents in the mansion that Zhou Canjun, you and others are dedicated and diligent in their work.

Officials in the government have always had clear distinctions between punishment and reward, and there will be no discrimination based on life experience or past experiences. You and other people are following the chaos against their will. You no longer believed it in the past. Now that you have dedicated your talents to me, I will definitely protect the talents and treat them well! "

As he spoke, he no longer just stared at Zhou Shaoyuan, but also looked around at the southern officials present, smiling and comforting them.

"The general actually knows his servant's name..."

Although Zhou Shaoyuan and others were appointed as subordinate officials of the General Manager's Mansion, they were directly activated during the construction of the dock. They had not yet gone to the General Manager's Mansion to meet General Li. When they heard Li Tai's words, they couldn't help but be excited and thanked him repeatedly. .

After their emotions calmed down a bit, Zhou Shaoyuan and others introduced the process of building a boat to Li Tai in detail.

The most time-consuming part of the ship construction process is the material preparation stage. Although there are abundant timber materials in the mountains near the Qinling Mountains, which can be obtained locally, these timbers cannot be cut and used immediately. After the timber is cut down, various processes must be carried out, and some need to be sun-dried. , some need to be smoked and dried, and some need to be steamed and other treatments after the moisture is released.

In short, the more materials are used in key locations on the ship, the more processes are required to process them. Important parts such as the keel and rudder of the ship are even more meticulous and complicated. After all, a slight mistake could ruin a huge ship and its entire fleet of sergeants, and could even affect the outcome of a war!

After the materials are properly processed, the assembly and polishing process of various parts of the ship itself is also very technically demanding, but as long as there are a sufficient number of skilled craftsmen, the construction period can be shortened appropriately. Various processes such as gluing, riveting, painting, oil immersion, etc. also have their own technical standards.

If the various processes of material preparation are deducted, then even a large-scale building ship can only take more than half a year at most. As for other ships with smaller specifications, the time is shorter.

"Nowadays, what is being built in the shipyard is mainly divided into large-scale ships, Mengchong fighting ships, and dinghy boats. Six large-scale ships have been built. When the water is abundant in the spring of next year, they can enter the water for trial sea trials, and then they can Loading charging angles, iron curtains, shooting poles and other items..."

After hearing Li Quji introduce the achievements made in the dock, and adding Zhou Shaoyuan and others' supplements on the side, Li Tai was quite satisfied with this.

Although this business has been in operation for more than two years, one year was spent on renovating the terrain to facilitate the construction of the shipyard and preparing materials at the same time. It is not bad to have such a finished product, and it finally lives up to the massive amount of work done in the past two years. Invest.

The large ship is the well-deserved king in water battles, and a large number of water battle tactics are based on this for deployment and dispatch. Therefore, large ships also represent the strength of a naval force.

Mengchong battleships are the main ships in water battles. They usually carry between a hundred and ten people. Of course, there are some special circumstances. Basically, one such warship carries a relatively complete combat unit. Moreover, the ship itself is also an offensive weapon. It can launch impacts, ramming, etc. on the water. It is a highly mobile water warfare force, more similar to the cavalry in land combat.

The light boat is mainly used for reconnaissance, harassment, message delivery, troop transport, etc. Its combat effectiveness in actual battles is relatively limited, mainly because of its lightness and high speed, which play an auxiliary role in battle. In order to make the boat more agile, it can also be made of lightweight materials such as bamboo. Of course, the defensive performance is also very weak. After a water battle, the attrition rate is very high.

In today's dock, the six large-scale warships can be directly delivered for use after undergoing final trial repairs and the installation of offensive and defensive equipment.

Each large ship can also be allocated five to ten Mengchong battleships, as well as a larger number of sailboats. When they are all launched and armed next year, a naval force with considerable combat effectiveness will soon be formed.

Li Tai inspected here and took a serious water warfare tactics course. He felt that he had benefited a lot and no longer knew anything about water warfare as before.

With this naval force, even if they cannot immediately win the battle with the Jiangling Navy on the Jianghan Waterway, their confidence in the defense of Xiakou and other ports will be greatly increased.

In a happy mood, Li Tai also rewarded the officials who had been busy for a long time, and received a wave of thanks and praise.