247 Navy (1/2)
After he left the magistrate office, he went straight to the Beihai Port under the guidance of Pei Donglai.
Beihai Port was a mixed port located at the southeast corner of Beihai City. Half of it belonged to the civilian fishing port, and the other was the military navy port. It was also the station point of Beihai Navy fleet. The previously shifted advanced shipyard was relocated to Beihai Port.
As he walked into the navy port, he asked Pei Donglai to invite the shipyard advisor Elder Sun and manager Zhou Dahai over to discuss matters regarding the expansion of Beihai Navy fleet.
Naval Port, Council Chamber.
Ouyang Shuo sat on the floor, and he looked around before he said anything, “Long ago, I had decided to expand the scale of the navy fleet, a strategy aimed to dominate over the ocean. During these periods of time, the territory had built an advanced shipyard and the Beihai Port, established a fleet of navy sailors, crafted our primary warships—Meng Chong warships, everything was seemingly fine. But what was happening? We couldn’t even take down a small island, couldn’t exterminate a small group of pirates, why is that so?”
His question was so sharp that it stagnated the atmosphere.
“General Pei, you are the navy commander, so tell us your opinion.” Ouyang Shuo started naming people.
Pei Donglai knew he needed to give something with actual content. He rose, first bowed and greeted Ouyang Shuo, then he said, “Reporting to the marquis, if we were to point out excuses, I could name quite a few of them. For example, the lack in troops, the lack of combat experience and the unfamiliarity of the surrounding waters. But these were not the main causes. The navy fleet can overcome these obstacles if we desire it. The crux of the problem lies within the lack of variety of warships. There is only a single kind of warship in the territory. We couldn’t organize a large-scale naval battle.”
Pei Donglai’s points brightened Ouyang Shuo’s eyes, “Continue.”
As a former navy general of the imperial court, Pei Donglai was very experienced in naval battles. He had a clearer idea than anyone else on the problems that lay within the Beihai Navy fleet.
Pei Donglai tidied up his thoughts in his mind, as the thoughts were sorted out, he continued, “To form a complete organizational structured navy fleet, we need at least 3 varieties of warships. The first will be the command ships—Tower warships, they’re the primary warships, and they also carry the logistical support of the naval fleet. Only then comes the second kind, the attack warships—Meng Chong warship, their defense capabilities are weaker than the tower warships. The weak point is that they can’t individually engage in a naval battle far away from the home-base as they can only carry a limited amount of logistical resources. Lastly, the third kind will be the scout warships—Cima boats. They are small, light, fast, and easy to hide.”
“Only with reasonable coordination between the 3 variety of warships can we exploit our full potential in a naval battle. The organization structure of the navy fleet shall not be the replica of the ground forces. Instead, the navy fleet will be grouped into units of fleets. In a unit of fleet consists of not only soldiers but must also be separately equipped with sailors. Beihai navy fleet is now only equipped with Meng Chong warships. Therefore, we will be facing great risk if we were to sail across the sea and attack Moon Island.”
Ouyang Shuo nodded as he understood the crux of the problem, he was taking it too lightly before.
Among the 3 warships, the small scout warships were not much of a concern. The main issue would be the large command warships—Tower warships.
To build the tower warships, they had to face two obstacles. The first was to acquire the <tower warship=”” manufacturing=”” manual=””> and the second was to build a premium shipyard. The advanced shipyard he had now could only manufacture mid-sized warships.
The biggest obstacle to upgrading the shipyard into the premium level was cleared off as Zheng Dahai was already a master shipbuilder. The only thing Ouyang Shuo needed to do was to spend 5000 gold on the premium shipyard building blueprint.
The main key was still the <tower warship=”” manufacturing=”” manual=””>. It belonged to the special class, and one could only pray one could lay hands on such a rare item. Ouyang Shuo could hope that it would appear in the next system auction. However, the distant waters could not quench his present thirst. The aid would be coming in too slow to be of any help.
Ouyang Shuo turned and looked at Zheng Dahai. “Is there anything to report about the shipyard?”
Zheng Dahai rose, bowed, and said, “Reporting to the marquis, the shipyard has stopped manufacturing Meng Chong warships and is now only producing fishing boats.”
“Why is that so?”
“It was because the demand for Meng Chong warships had been fulfilled. Other than those that were delivered to the Beihai Navy fleet and the Xila lake navy unit, there are still 20 extra Meng Chong warships docked in the port. We barely fit them in.”
Ouyang Shuo was stunned since when did the shipyard had such a high efficiency? They mustn’t be underestimated. Ouyang Shuo asked, “What are the levels of the shipbuilders in the shipyard?”
A proud look came onto his face as Zheng Dahai answered Ouyang Shuo’s question with a bright smile. “Reporting to the marquis, after half a year of cultivation, the shipyard now has a total of 870 shipbuilders. Among them is 1 master, 12 advanced, 54 intermediate, 228 basic, and 575 apprentice-level shipbuilders.” To nurture such a big team truly wasn’t easy.
“Not bad.” Ouyang Shuo nodded with approval.
At last, Ouyang Shuo turned to Elder Sun and asked, “Elder Sun, how’s the transformation of the warships going on?”
Other than his usual research job in Research Institute No.7, Elder Sun had spent most of his time in the shipyard. Sun Xiaoyue had grumbled to Ouyang Shuo over this matter, saying that Ouyang Shuo was oppressing and exploiting the last residual value out of her grandfather.
Ouyang Shuo could only answer her with a wry smile.
In truth, ever since they had entered the game, the restraints of the real world no longer restricted the elders. Each and every one of them was filled with spirit and endless energy. Ouyang Shuo couldn’t even slow them down.
Elder Sun, with his face filled with enthusiasm and his voice loud and clear, shook his head and said, “Just as General Pei had described, the types of warships are too few. There were a lot of technology transformations that couldn’t be used. Specifically, on Meng Chong warship, we had equipped it with a compass, upgraded the sails. At the same time, I have plans to enhance the ship’s structure with inner metal plates, fitting them with naval rams to increase the impact damage capability of the Meng Chong warships.”
He continued. “The most important research of all is the watertight bulkhead technology. With this technology we can increase the drafting of water. Otherwise, it will be useless to install the metal plates if the water draft can’t follow up.”
Ouyang Shuo was overjoyed. He didn’t expect Elder Sun to implement so many upgrades in such a short period.
“Elder Sun is too humble, such transformations are worth more than tens of thousands of gold.” Ouyang Shuo said as he smiled.