Chapter 905: Aircraft Carrier of the Ming Dynasty (First update, please subscribe)
The recovery of Montevideo did not cause any waves in the Ming Dynasty.
Even the newspapers did not issue special editions, and there were no victory parades, because everyone knew that the fall of the city was only a matter of time.
"The Imperial Army suffered 1,049 casualties and 4,172 wounded. The enemy's garrison suffered more than 29,000 casualties, 7,820 wounded, 11,238 captured, and 7,651 missing..."
On the way to the shipyard by car, Liu Kunpeng looked at the numbers in the newspaper and couldn't help but exclaim in admiration.
"The fighting power of the Imperial Army has reached a new level! The casualties ratio is nearly thirty times, which shows how brave the Imperial Army is!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the secretary sitting in the co-pilot seat spoke.
"Director, it all comes down to artillery. One of my classmates is on the front line. They said that the military has been surrounding the enemy without attacking for the past few days, and has fired at least 300,000 artillery shells. This is probably why there are so many missing Brazilians. They were blown to ashes even if they were bombed directly..."
"Oh, this is how the imperial army fights. From a cost perspective, artillery shells are always cheaper than people. Chengzhe, how much does it cost for our Immigration Department to transport each immigrant? 7.32 yuan to 7.81 yuan. Even if we don't count the training expenses and pension expenses for the casualties, the cost of transporting them from Huaxia to Linhai is enough to buy five or six artillery shells. If we add the training costs, the cost of one soldier is at least more than 20 yuan, which is nearly 20 artillery shells. If we add the pension, each soldier who died in battle would cost at least 500 to 600 yuan, which is hundreds of artillery shells. War is actually like business. You always have to calculate the cost. Compared to weapons and ammunition, people... are actually the most expensive cost!"
The reason why Liu Kunpeng holds such a view is that Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang has instilled this view in them over the years. The reason why he emphasizes the supremacy of human resources is because the Ming Dynasty lacks people!
For the Ming Dynasty, which lacked human resources, artillery shells could be manufactured at any time, but people could not.
"Besides, in terms of time, it takes at least four months for us to recruit someone from China, transport him here, and complete recruit training before he can go to the front line. In four months, if he is born, it will take eighteen years for him to grow from an infant to an adult. But how long does it take for our factory to make a shell?"
The answer was obvious. The director's words made Sun Chengzhe think for a moment. Then he remembered that as early as when he was in Nanhua, His Majesty had always emphasized that "the lives of Nanhua people are more valuable than artillery shells" and "it is better to use a hundred artillery shells to exchange for a life."
"I am grateful for your advice."
As the secretary nodded in agreement, Liu Kunpeng leaned back in his chair, half-closed his eyes, and muttered to himself.
"In fact, in the final analysis, it is still the Ming Dynasty that has developed industry and commerce. If it were other countries, they would have to have hundreds of thousands of artillery shells even if they wanted to!"
Yes, in the past decade, Ming Dynasty's industrial output has ranked third in the world. Although its iron output is only 2 million tons, which is only 10% of the world's output, its steel output has exceeded 4 million tons, accounting for 70% of the world's output.
The only weakness is coal, but there are only 28 million tons, and 80% of it comes from the North Sea Governor's District. In addition, 7 million tons of coal need to be imported from the Cape Colony every year. Therefore, in the Ming Dynasty, the most sought-after merchant ships are always mining ships. Of course, there are also immigration ships.
The former is under the control of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, while the latter is under the control of his Immigration Department.
The reason why it was so popular was that the Ming Dynasty needed to ship back tens of millions of tons of coal from overseas every year, and at the same time it needed to introduce a large number of immigrants from China.
Today, Liu Kunpeng went to the shipyard to attend the launching ceremony of a new immigrant ship - the launching ceremony of the 17,000-ton "Henan" immigrant ship.
The "Henan" was the second-generation large immigration ship of the Ming Dynasty, with a tonnage of 17,032 tons, a length of 227 meters and a width of 22.3 meters. It was the largest ship in the world except for the "Great Eastern". It was equipped with two triple-expansion reciprocating steam engines, which were the largest of their kind at the time, capable of generating 15,000 horsepower, twin-screw propulsion, a designed speed of 18 knots and a maximum speed of 19 knots.
"With 18,500 beds and 16 immigration ships of the same level, we can transport nearly two million immigrants to Ming Dynasty every year..."
He threw the "Victory Wine" in his hand and hit the left string of the "Henan". The gate of the dry dock opened, and the large immigrant ship floated steadily amid scattered cheers. The shrill sound of the ship's whistle sounded, reminding the onlookers that he was about to go to the sea and sail to the country.
Of course, he also needs to carry out outfitting - install immigration cabins. Those immigration cabins are similar to containers. Even the "Henan" is a bit like a container ship. 1,200 immigration cabins can be installed in the spacious cabin. Each immigration cabin can accommodate 20 people. If it weren't for the need to arrange a restaurant (study room) on each floor, more people could be transported.
But even so, it was already the limit. Every time an immigrant ship left China with a full load of immigrants, he, the director of the Immigration Department, was the most worried. He was afraid! He was afraid of a shipwreck! If something happened, it would be the biggest shipwreck in history!
Fortunately, this route is all deep sea, so there is no need to worry about dangers such as reefs.
"Director Liu, the Henan-class ships from the three major shipyards will be delivered in June next year. With them, the number of immigrants can increase by at least two million per year!"
Will Lee was the most famous ship engineer in the Ming Dynasty. He was a naturalized Irishman. When he was still called Will Routh, he participated in the construction of the "Great Eastern". The first batch of 10,000-ton ships of Nanhua were designed and built by him.
Of course, his fame does not lie in the fact that he presided over the construction of the first batch of 10,000-ton ships in the Ming Dynasty. The most fundamental reason is that one-third of the ship engineers in the Ming Dynasty were his disciples. He can be called the "ancestor" of the Ming Dynasty's shipbuilding engineers.
"Mr. Li, two million is a lot... but it's still not enough!"
Liu Kunpeng said with a smile.
"There are tens of millions of our compatriots in China waiting for us to bring them back!"
What does China have the most?
Of course it’s people.
The population of China is the capital of Ming Dynasty's hegemony over the world. This is well known, but this capital must be transported to Ming Dynasty to become the capital of Ming Dynasty, otherwise it will be nothing.
"Well……"
Looking at Liu Kunpeng in surprise, Li Weier said.
"Director Liu, you can't possibly expect to transport them all here in one year!"
Li Wei certainly knew that China had a large population, but it was impossible to transport tens of millions of immigrants a year, right?
"The more immigrants we can transport, the better..."
Staring at the immigration ship on the sea, Liu Kunpeng said in a rather sighing tone.
Just as Your Majesty said, China’s disaster is a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity for the Ming Dynasty!
"This ship looks quite unique!"
Indeed, its appearance should be considered strange in everyone's eyes: the forecastle and chimney are located in the middle of the merchant ship, but are concentrated on the right side, occupying only a quarter of the width of the deck. The wooden beam-type deck is more than 200 meters long from beginning to end. Such a spacious upper deck can be used as a playground for immigrants, as well as an open-air classroom. In short, it is very useful.
This was also the original goal of its design - it was the idea of Emperor Zhu.
This is the Ming Dynasty’s “Fast Immigration Ship”, a groundbreaking immigration ship. If you take its photo to another world, someone will definitely be surprised... This is clearly an aircraft carrier!
Yes, to some extent, it does look like an "aircraft carrier". Even Emperor Zhu's original conception was inspired by an aircraft carrier. After all, it has a spacious cabin and a large deck, and can accommodate many containers... In future wars, if the technology is mature, they will naturally be the first batch of aircraft carriers of the Ming Navy. They only need simple improvements to be used as aircraft carriers. Their performance will definitely not be much worse than that of the escort aircraft carriers in World War II. In fact, the world's first aircraft carrier was also improved from a civilian ship.
And now, they are the immigration ships of the Ming Dynasty!
(End of this chapter)
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