Chapter 653 Preparation

Nowadays, the most influential people in the Principality of Wessen are scholars, engineers, and technicians, while businessmen should be a little behind.

If a person has a doctorate, a senior engineer title, or an orange technician certificate, his honor in society is no less than that of a baron.

Now that Grand Duke Wessen has gone crazy, this group of people has gone crazy too.

The large conference room of the Wessen Zhou government was packed with people, and the banner on the wall read "Cornflower-class general-purpose ship design finalization conference and construction mobilization conference and shipbuilding committee establishment conference".

On the rostrum, the top leaders of the Cornflower-class shipbuilding committee are extremely high-quality. Psyche is the chairman, and among the vice chairmen, Captain Lilu represents the user, Governor of Wessen Omet is responsible for coordinating internal industrial affairs of Wessen, Vice President of Wessenburg University Manuel is responsible for coordinating various research institutions, Executive Minister Frick is responsible for coordinating relevant departments and logistics support of the principality, and Director of Springfield Arsenal Bruce is responsible for coordinating weapons matters.

Today, Psyche wore a dark blue blacksmith's uniform and said loudly on the podium: "Our goal is to build two Cornflower-class armed merchant ships at the same time within six months."

"In the next work, we must reverse the construction schedule by nodes, advance the construction in a list, carefully and accurately promote the pace of construction, and go all out to win the '180-day battle'!"

No one present could see that in order to optimize the existing immature design, she worked sleeplessly for six consecutive days and nights in the design room of the shipyard, and worked in the production department for three days and three nights.

She didn't talk nonsense anymore, and asked people to distribute the plans of various factories and departments, discuss on the spot, raise questions on the spot, and solve problems on the spot.

The name of the Cornflower-class general-purpose ship comes from the vote of the shipyard. The ship has a displacement of 600 tons, is 60 meters long, is equipped with four 150-horsepower low-speed steam engines, has a steel keel and a wooden hull, and can be converted into passenger ships, cargo ships, warships and armed merchant ships. The designed speed is between 16 and 22 kilometers per hour.

Because of the long-distance unsupplied voyage, the number of engines was increased to reduce the chance of simultaneous damage, and the volume of the supply warehouse was increased to carry more supplies, so that the tonnage increased from the original 500 tons to 600 tons, and the engine horsepower was increased.

Psyche personally calculated and designed the overall structure in the shortest time, and then decomposed the construction process and arranged the construction period. The parts that still lacked technology were arranged for relevant departments to study and formulate alternative plans.

The plan was six months, but after deducting one month of sea trials, the actual construction time was only five months.

If there was a year, many problems would not exist. Now that we have to rush, the question of how to increase the work speed has arisen.

The director of the shipyard, Bokner, first put forward the request: "We need to add at least 20 welding technicians to weld the keel in shifts. If there are 30 to 40 people, the time can be shortened by 20%."

Manuel immediately said: "I will recruit qualified young people in school. If the shipyard can agree to give priority to those with good performance, I estimate that I can recruit more."

Welding technicians are all fire magicians. Excellent technicians are paid well, and they are the backbones that factories cannot let go. It is best to recruit them in school.

If you can work in a shipyard with high income, there will definitely be many people applying.

Bokner said: "In the future, this type of ship will be mass-produced. We need a lot of welders. There is no problem with this."

"The second problem is the wood for the ship. Because of the impact of the Northern War, the number of merchant ships from the dark land has decreased, and the supply of wood is a bit tight."

Ordinary ships can use ordinary wooden boards, but this is the ship that Frederick is going to take. No one dares to carry it. If you want to use it, use the best.

It was Lilu who solved this problem: "Please give me the list, and I will arrange for the Dawn Chamber of Commerce to purchase it urgently."

Bockner immediately took out the list from his briefcase and asked the staff to hand it over, and said: "The number of high-power riveting machines for fixing ship plates is insufficient, and a batch of short-range walkie-talkies are needed to coordinate the riveting work."

Omet replied: "I will arrange for the factory to work overtime."

These are the problems that the shipyard urgently needs to solve, and any problems encountered in the future will be followed up.

The second is the transportation problem between several factories. Large parts such as keels, steam engines, and shafts need to be transported by train. Will the Ministry of Railways arrange special trains, etc.?

Especially for smelters and forging plants, the metal ingots produced must be transported to the forging plant to be forged into keels and other parts. The two places are not far apart and are connected by railways, but they do not have their own trains. In the past, they had to temporarily find the railway department for transportation.

Frick said: "I will coordinate with the Ministry of Railways to have several freight trains specifically used for this battle. The pass level is the highest level. Each factory must also formulate a transportation plan to improve efficiency."

The representative of the Ministry of Railways who attended the meeting said that a special committee would be established to connect with each factory.

One problem after another was raised and solved.

This conference did not arrange media interviews, nor did it actively mention it to the media.

But many people found that the relevant factories suddenly became busy, including shipyards, smelters, forging plants, heavy machinery plants, glass plants, screw plants, hemp rope plants, etc. The atmosphere in these factories became extremely tense. Many people kept talking about how many days were left, and even ate a lot of food, and then went to the workshop after eating.

The shipyard built a model of the same size with wooden frames and canvas. Lilu led the sailors to simulate daily work and situations encountered at sea, and adjusted the positions of cabins and some commonly used equipment without changing the main structure.

No mistakes, just go to the 6-9 book forum!

The situation of this trip was somewhat special. In addition to the sailors, they also needed to bring the army, doctors, priests, cargo, weapons and ammunition, and a large amount of food, so the cabin was relatively compact.

Because there were many non-sailors traveling, in order to relieve the fatigue of long-term sea voyages, an entertainment room was also arranged on the ship, with a ping-pong table, an iron chess board and magnet chess pieces.

In the end, the ship temporarily changed some designs and hit the mast additionally, so that it could sail when necessary.

Frederick had to move with the ship. If all eight steam engines of the two ships broke down, it would be the end. No one dared to bet that this would not happen. The staff of the headquarters even made a plan to walk back, and sails became necessary.

Because of this, the spies of various countries who smelled the smell thought that the shipyard was going to build traditional sailing ships and did not care.

Some people judged that many factories in the Duchy of Wessen suddenly worked overtime to produce military equipment for military expansion.

A feather pen military strategist even wrote an article in the newspaper, saying that the current Wessen army is insufficient in number and difficult to deal with various threats, so it is likely to establish a Bohemian division in the form of foreign legions and mercenaries.

More spies rushed to the city of Boheim to find out why Grand Duke Wessen invested so much in the Bohemian region.

Someone found out that Grand Duke Wessen often frowned recently.