At the northernmost end of Songjiang Port, it is also the junction with Zhenhaiwei. The rolling Yangtze River water is divided into two by Chongming Island and merged into the sea. As the junction between the Yangtze River and the sea, it is naturally rich in aquatic products and was the best fishing place in the past.

However, in addition to fishing boats, the most common here are merchant ships. All ships entering and leaving the Yangtze River have to pass here. However, the drip of sea boats is too deep, so they generally cannot penetrate deep into the Yangtze River, so many times they have to change ships from here. So Songjiang Port came into being and became the most popular port at the mouth of the Yangtze River.

In addition, if the ships travel on the sea for a long time, the bottom of the ship will be covered with attachments. In addition, when the ship encounters a failure at sea, it will only repair it if it can be used. It will only be overhauled when it reaches the port. Therefore, there are workshops for various repair ships near the port, and Songjiang Port is no exception.

Moreover, as the estuary of the Yangtze River, Danshui at Songjiang Port is also extremely important for sea boats. Even if you do nothing, you only need to dock for a few days. Danshui can kill the attachments at the bottom of the ship, so that the ship can be put into battle lightly.

It is precisely for this reason that almost all shipbuilding workshops in Songjiang are distributed along the northernmost river. Among these numerous shipbuilding workshops, a newly established workshop is not very eye-catching, but compared with other workshops, there are many customers coming in and out of here.

Li Jie and Zhu Di came to this steamboat workshop with Wang Fu. Although this workshop is not very conspicuous compared to other shipbuilding workshops around, they will find that the entire workshop covers a large area, and new ships are under intense construction in the five docks. It seems that the style is the steamboat Zhu Di rode on before.

"Please look at the prince consort. This is the steam A ship we have already set up. Now all the steam ships on the sea are running on this type. Compared with the original steam ships, this type A ship has stable performance and reasonable structure, and is fully qualified to sail on the coast of the Ming Dynasty. You were riding this type of ship before..."

Wang Fu pointed to several steamships under construction and introduced the performance and characteristics of these steamships to Li Jie and Zhu Di while walking. After many improvements, the performance of the steamship finally stabilized, so it became the A-type ship in front of him, and it was also the first steamship to be put into mass production.

"It turns out it is called a ship A." Before Li Jie could speak, Zhu Di next to him nodded thoughtfully, and then asked Wang Fu, "This ship A is indeed good in performance, but its range is a bit too short. Can you find a way to make it run a longer range after filling it with coal and water at one time?"

What Zhu Di was thinking about was to drive the steamship to the Americas. Of course, he hoped that the farther the boat would run, the better. It would be better that he could run from the Ming Dynasty to the Americas by adding fuel and water. Of course, this was obviously impossible, so Zhu Di could only hope to make the steamship's range as far as possible.

Wang Fu is an expert in steamships. After hearing Zhu Di's request, he replied after a little thought: "It is certainly possible to get the steamship to run farther, and there is more than one method. For example, the easiest way is to increase the size of the ship so that it can hold more fuel and fresh water. However, the efficiency of the steam engine is limited. If the hull is enlarged, you may need to add several more steamships. In this way, more fuel and fresh water will be consumed. Therefore, although this method is effective, it has certain limits."

Speaking of this, Wang Fu paused for a moment and then said: "Of course, in addition to this method, you can also add supply points along the way so that the ship can replenish supplies in time. As long as the supply is sufficient, there will be no problem with the ship itself. Even if it runs around the world, it will be fine."

"If you sail from the Ming Dynasty to the Americas, how many supply points do you think you should add to the middle of the journey?" Zhu Di simply asked directly after making the words clear.

"This..." Wang Fu frowned when he heard this. Because this question was not easy to answer, he finally said helplessly, "I can't give an answer to this for the time being, because we need to improve the steamship first to maximize its range, and then calculate the distance of the supply point."

"Uncle Fourth, Wang Fu's words are correct. And even if you calculate the distance of the supply point, you must also use the actual situation to calculate the actual situation. After all, there is no need to have a supply point on the sea just by wanting it." Li Jie also spoke in agreement at this time.

Zhu Di also knew that he was too anxious, so he nodded at this time and said nothing. Next, Wang Fu took them to continue to participate in the entire shipbuilding workshop. Zhu Di also listened very seriously. After all, steamboats were too important to him.

It was Li Jie's first time here. In fact, the entire shipbuilding workshop had just been built. Before, it was built and built ships, and only a total of less than ten steamships were produced. Now, five docks have been built, and the speed of shipbuilding has increased greatly with full firepower.

It is worth mentioning that the order for steamships has been scheduled for two years. Because the performance of steamships is seen by many people, people with some vision know that this kind of ship has great potential, so many people even if they borrow money, they must invest in this ship in advance, otherwise they will definitely be left behind by others in the future.

"Now the dock has been built and the craftsmen have gradually cultivated it. The only thing that restricts our shipbuilding speed is the core steam engine problem. The steam engine produced in Nanjing is not good, so the steam engines we use need to be transported from Beijing, but the steam engines in Beijing also need steam engines, so the output is limited, which also leads to us being able to wait in line."

Wang Fu finally complained to Li Jie that he could not solve this problem, but he knew that Li Jie would definitely have a way to solve it, so he took this opportunity to complain to him.

Li Jie smiled helplessly and said, "There is nothing you can do about this. You should have heard of the train. Now the steam engine is given priority to the train. In addition, textile machines, water pumps, etc. are under development. They also need steam engines to drive them, so now steam engines are needed everywhere. Your orders here are also given priority to Beijing, only after the train."

When Wang Fu heard Li Jie mention the train, his eyes lit up and immediately asked curiously: "I heard that the train from Beijing to Taijin has started operation. When will the train be built to our side?"
Chapter completed!