On the warm kang, the three of them were eating hot pot and drinking wine while discussing the shipbuilding plan in a very lively manner.

Zhang Sanben is a big sea merchant and is very interested in building sea ships, especially this new and unique three-masted sea ship that looks tall and high. Cheng Qian has always had a unique yearning for the sea. Now he is interested in everything that is tied to the sea and the ship.

As for Li Chao, he doesn't want to care about the affairs in the court now, and he is a little tired and tired. He just wants to stay in Wudang Mountain for a longer time. Anyway, if you have time, then build a ship.

"But it is not that easy to build a ship. If we recruit craftsmen here to build a ship, we still lack wood."

The wood for shipbuilding requires some special trees, and different parts of the ship require different woods. The most important part of the entire ship, the keel, has extremely high requirements for wood. Even if you can use keel splicing technology, the wood required for keels must be large trees, and there are also exclusive extremely strong and corrosion-resistant oak and teak.

Other decks, masts and other wood are also very particular.

There is no shortage of wood in Shannan. When you look in the mountains, you can always find the right one, even the big trees you need for keel bones. But if you find the wood, you have to cut down and transport it back. This is the simplest thing.

What is more troublesome is that when the trees are transported back, they cannot be built directly, and they have to dry the shade. A big tree, especially a big tree like a keel, may take many years of drying the shade.

"In fact, it won't take that long to dry the vagina, we can speed up."

Zhang San grabbed a piece of duck blood and put it in his mouth. After hearing Li Chao's words, he quickly shook his head.

"Boats have the highest requirements for wood, especially sea boats. If the wood does not dry in the shade, the ship will be built. Then the ship will deform. That is not possible, and it must dry in the shade."

Li Chao smiled. Of course he knew this common sense, but wood drying is not the only way to dry it. In the era of navigation, in order to speed up shipbuilding, there were special timber factories, who were responsible for logging and processing. Processing not only cut down the trees and saw them into various plates, but also included drying.

The wood factory will build a special drying cellar, and directly saw the cut trees into various sizes according to the needs of use, and then pile the wood of the same humidity and the same size in the drying cellar to dry.

In this way, the drying speed is greatly accelerated.

The principle of drying wood in a dry cellar is actually very simple, which is to speed up the desorption process of wood through water vapor in a dry cellar.

There are two types of water in wood, one is the absorbed water in the cell wall, and the other is natural water. Drying mainly aims to remove absorbed water. This process is called desorption, and the influence of free water is not great.

When drying in the cellar, it is important to stack wood. The cross sections of both ends of the wood should be coated with wax to seal them to prevent cracking.

Zhang San was amazed at the hearing.

Unexpectedly, there is such a way to speed up the drying of wood. Ordinary shipyards are the easiest ways to buy wood every year. Then, first saw the tree open, saw it into a board as required, then seal the cross section with wax or paint, and then put it in the shed to dry naturally. Some are even simpler. Choose trees in the mountains and do not cut them down, but peel the skin at the bottom and let the tree die naturally.

After the tree is dry, cut down and transport it back.

The simpler the method, the easier the trees are to crack.

Therefore, wet trees are usually cut down, and then transported back to see them open, and then stored in the shade. This is because the more complete the trees are, the easier it is to crack.

But those methods are undoubtedly far inferior to Li Chao's use of cellars to dry, saving time quickly.

"I didn't expect that even Dry, Li Xiang had such an advanced method."

"Building a drying cellar is not easy, and it is very complicated to operate. Different wood drying methods are different, and even different wood specifications are different when drying. In addition, summer and winter are also different. This requires rich experience to grasp it well."

Li Chao said with a smile, "To build a ship, it seems that we have to build a logging yard and a wood processing plant first. The logging plant is specifically responsible for finding all kinds of qualified timbers needed for shipbuilding, and then cutting them back to the processing plant. The processing plant then saw the trees into various boards according to the shipbuilding needs, and then dry them."

Shipbuilding is a very systematic project that involves all aspects. For example, when processed wood is about to be built, some wood even has to be steamed, then shaped and made into arcs.

Keels and masts generally have to be spliced. Splicing involves very high technology and cannot be simply spliced.

In the era of great navigation, the shipbuilding industry was extremely developed and had a complete industrial chain. Those who specialize in logging and processing ship materials, some specialize in sails, some specialize in anchors, some specialize in cables, and even ship nails have special workshops.

In addition, artillery, etc. are basically outsourcing.

The shipyard is only responsible for design and construction, and it is more like a large assembly factory.

But now, if you want to build a boat, you have to do it from beginning to end. The shipyard has to do it yourself and everything is included. This model is the same as many workshops.

The disadvantage is that it takes a long time.

Like traditional craftsmen, they have a few apprentices who work slowly from beginning to end.

Li Chao has always liked industrialization. Just like his industry, he introduced assembly line operations everywhere, and each product production was divided into many processes early. The masters only did the most difficult ones, and tried to use apprentices or even ordinary workers to do the others.

This will greatly increase the speed and reduce the demand for skilled workers.

Now that shipbuilding is going to be built, Li Chao also plans to do this, break down shipbuilding into many projects and build factories separately. Now, it can be smaller at the beginning, but the shelves have to be upright.

In this way, when a ship is built, it can quickly expand its scale and replicate and produce in large quantities.

"Wood processing plants can also introduce hydraulic sawing machines, which can save more effort using hydraulic sawings."

"We can also build hydraulic forging plants, so using hydraulic power to forge anchors will save more effort."

Zhang Shan could only nod his head constantly as he heard Li Chao’s thoughts.

What are logging yards, sawing yards, anchor factories, ship nail factories, sail factories, cable factories, docks, etc., and how to build ships, they actually have to divide so many factories.

But it sounds really amazing.

"After the establishment of the South China Sea Commercial Bank, I hope that in ten years, our South China Sea ships will have at least 300 to 500 three-masted ships, and even more than 50 four- and five-masted sailboats!"

When Zhang Sanyi heard Li Chao's grand goal, he couldn't help but feel awe. Thinking about the appearance of four or five hundred ships anchored in the harbor, it was so exciting!
Chapter completed!