I want to be emperor

Chapter 504 74-gun battleship
Some said that at least one must be able to withstand the bombardment of an 200-pound cannon within 200 meters, and some said that it was enough to withstand the 200-pound cannon within 24 meters, and some believed that it must be able to withstand the bombardment of a [-]-pound cannon within [-] meters. bombardment.

And each has its own reasons...

Among them, the person in charge of light protection said that building a thicker deck is not worth the loss, the cost and tonnage will rise rapidly, and the mobility will decline rapidly...

Finally, these days are sailing warships, people can't penetrate your deck, can't kill your mast, can't burn your sails?
When the mast is broken and the sails are burned, no matter how strong the battleship is, it can only become a dead fish floating on the sea... The next step is not to sink, but there is a high probability that it will be captured by the enemy!

Therefore, the protection performance is almost enough to block a fourteen-pound cannon artillery, and the others are unnecessary...

All kinds of debates continued for a long time. The navy held many high-level meetings in succession, and asked Luo Zhixue many times for instructions. Finally, the design indicators of the battleship were finalized. With these design indicators, it was finally finalized. The detailed design of the Jinling-class battleship and construction work started.

——

Today, in the large dry dock next to the cruiser Songjiang, many craftsmen are building a warship, the battleship Jinling.

Although the Jinling battleship has only completed about 30.00% of the hull, it can still be seen that this is a huge battleship.

Rear Admiral Sun Zhengyong, the director of the Department of Fleet Administration of the Ministry of the Navy and also the designer of the battleship Jinling, introduced the battleship Jinling after introducing the cruiser Songjiang to a group of people.

"For the design of the Jinling battleship, we referred to many foreign Galen armed merchant ships, as well as the experience of the previous Matsue-class cruiser, and finally finalized the technical parameters based on our actual needs and technical capabilities."

"The planned standard combat displacement of the entire warship reaches 58 tons, and the length reaches [-] meters. It adopts a soft sail design with three masts and a bowsprit, and adopts a double full-pass artillery deck."

"In order to ensure the needs of ocean-going operations, we have designed relatively large living supplies and ammunition storage space, and at the same time optimized the ability to resist wind and waves. This is why the tonnage of this warship is relatively large when it is equipped with 74 artillery pieces. for the sake of

"In order to be able to carry so many heavy artillery and a large number of ammunition supplies, we did not use the rib design in the foreign Galen ship, but designed an oval ship rib with a stronger carrying capacity."

"After our calculations and tests, the elliptical ship ribs we designed can effectively increase the carrying capacity of warships to obtain greater tonnage and carry more heavy artillery."

"At the same time, we are also striving for perfection in the selection of wood. We use the top shipbuilding wood, and some of the load-bearing parts used on the ship are also made of fine steel to further enhance the structural strength. "

"After adopting the new oval ship ribs, the standard displacement of this warship can reach 74 tons, and it can carry 26 naval guns, of which the lower deck is planned to carry 24 six-year-style [-]-pound naval guns, Daye The Heavy Artillery Factory has successfully trial-produced a prototype of this type of naval gun and is currently testing it."

"The upper deck is planned to carry a fourteen-pound cannon."

"At the bow and stern of the ship, we will also carry a small number of nine-pound cannons."

"With such a huge tonnage, this firepower is already at the top level in the world, enough to be compared with the first-class battleships in Europe."

Listening to Sun Zhengyong's words, Admiral Lu Xingye on the side looked at the battleship Jinling, which still had only completed the bottom building of the ship, then looked down at the sketch of the design of Jinling, and finally said: "This kind of battleship is ours. The main battleship that the Navy needs!"

"According to the information we got from those barbarians, their main battleships are generally equipped with more than [-] artillery pieces, and there are many battleships with [-] artillery pieces!"

"It is a first-class battleship with more than 90 or even hundreds of artillery pieces!"

"Although we haven't seen these warships in the South China Sea yet, as the future maritime conflicts intensify, these barbarians are likely to transfer these main warships from their hometowns. At that time, we must have capable Battleships to rival their first-class battleships!"

"The Jinling battleship is very good, with sufficient firepower and excellent ocean-going capabilities. This is exactly the battleship we need!"

"Compared to the first-class battleship, this second-class battleship is more important!"

Admiral Lu Xingye, as a navy, naturally has a very clear mind. The navy of the Great Chu Empire needs not only warships with excellent performance, but also more such warships.

Therefore, although the navy has plans to build larger first-class battleships, considering the cost-effectiveness issue, the number of first-class battleships will definitely not be too many. At most, they will exist as the flagship of the squadron, and the real main force of the battle I'm afraid we still have to rely on this second-class battleship with 74 guns.

The Great Chu Empire Navy has a plan for the construction of a first-class battleship, which is currently in the design stage. At the same time, the shipyard also needs to carry out technical preparations such as dock expansion.

The proposed first-class battleship will be a big guy with a tonnage of more than [-] tons.

This kind of big guy knows with his toes, the price is definitely not cheap, and due to the relatively large tonnage, and the performance of protection and firepower, it is estimated that the speed and flexibility are also inferior.

This first-class battleship is the same as its design purpose. It can only play a role in fleet decisive battles, and it is too troublesome to use in normal times.

Because of the cost-effectiveness factor, the future main battleship of the Great Chu Empire Navy will be a second-class battleship with 74 guns like the Jinling-class battleship.

This is also reflected in the allocation and use of the navy's funds.

After Admiral Lu Xingye finished his inspection of Wusong Port, the first thing he did when he returned to Jinling City was to report to Luo Zhixue the relevant matters of the trip, and asked for a batch of additional shipbuilding funds for adding more Jinling-class ships. Orders for battleships.

Luo Zhixue didn't approve the navy's funding application right away. This is a funding of 250 million taels, how could he approve it casually.

According to the shipbuilding cost given by the Navy, the Navy intends to order ten more battleships. The construction cost of a Jinling City battleship has reached 25 taels of silver, which does not include the various technical research expenses paid by the Navy in the early stage.

The reason why it is so expensive is because the wood used for warships is top-quality wood... The Great Chu Empire spent a lot of money to search for wood everywhere in order to build ships.

Timber costs account for a large part of the cost of construction.

In addition, there is the cost of naval guns. The Jinling City battleship has 74 artillery pieces, 26 of which are huge 24-jin cannons.

And sailing isn't cheap either.

In the end, adding up, 25 taels of silver was already the result of careful calculation.

But don't think that if you take out 25 taels of silver, you will be able to get a Jinling-class battleship and go to the battlefield in a few years.

This is just the cost of a battleship!

If you want this warship to have combat effectiveness, you have to equip it with a large amount of supplies and ammunition. Just one trip to sea requires more than ten tons of gunpowder...

Then the personnel expenditure is also very high. Merchant sailors these days are high-tech jobs with high salaries. Even sailors in the navy have high salaries, and a battleship requires hundreds of people.

With all of these, do you think it will be all right?
No, you have to maintain this ship frequently. This kind of wooden ship needs to be carefully maintained. Otherwise, a warship costing more than 20 taels of silver will be moldy and rotten for you to see in a few years... and maintenance requires a lot of money A naval base or shipyard, especially a dry dock for maintenance of ships below the waterline, is indispensable.

At the same time, in order to maintain the mooring and combat of warships, you need enough naval bases. These naval bases need to be equipped with maintenance docks, ammunition storage, food that can be stored for a long time, such as bacon, various canned food, and other barracks buildings. Needless to say.

By the way, in order to protect the base and the ships parked in the base from being attacked by the enemy, you have to set up a coastal defense battery to guard the house...

In the end, after the whole set, the money is not as simple as 25 taels of silver.

The cost of shipbuilding is actually only a part of all the expenditures of the navy.

To expand the fleet and increase the cost of the battleships, in the end, it may have to be doubled after 25 taels of silver.

The Navy said at once that it would add ten more ships to the original two shipbuilding plan, saying that it would make up twelve ships and build three squadrons.

In this way, rotation can be implemented in the future to ensure that there are more than eight battleships performing tasks all year round while ensuring normal maintenance.

Naturally, Luo Zhixue would not agree easily.

Although the Great Chu Empire now has a lot of financial revenue, it also has a lot of places to spend money. The Northeast Campaign is being prepared, which is at least tens of millions of taels of military expenditure...

And the restoration of people's livelihood internally is also a very expensive matter. Nowadays, many places in China, especially many provinces north of the Yangtze River, including Shaanxi, Henan, Shandong, Hebei, Shanxi and other places, are suffering from the scourge of war. The local said It's easy for the people to live in poverty... When the Great Chu Empire first went north, the northern provinces were starved for thousands of miles, and ten rooms were empty.

The Great Chu Empire carried out a simple population statistics in the first half of the year. Although the statistics were very incomplete, and the statistics of Yunnan and Guizhou were not included at that time, and the population of some remote places was not included, but the final statistics were only 7000. The population of the northern provinces has dropped to a shocking level.

The Great Chu Empire wants to restore people's livelihood, build infrastructure, especially water conservancy facilities, and squeeze out money to support industrial development, basic education, etc... there are many places to spend money.

At this time, the navy needs at least 250 million taels of additional funds, which is not just given, Luo Zhixue must carefully consider it.

It’s easy, but it’s rejected even without thinking about it. It is impossible for the Great Chu Empire to invest such a huge amount of money in the navy for the time being while the captivity is still alive.

(End of this chapter)