I want to be emperor

Chapter 779 The Adult Version of Playing House

Just when Cheng Tongxing, the secretary of the Jiangnan Shipping Company, came to the Songjiang Naval Shipyard to see the [-]-ton passenger ship Jiangnan they ordered, at the other end of the shipyard, the representative of the Navy, Commodore Ying Yang, also brought a group of naval officers , Wearing a hard hat, he boarded the battleship Yingtian, which was undergoing outfitting.

As a new generation battleship of the Great Chu Empire, the ship has received great attention from the navy. In order to ensure that the ship can be put into active service on time this winter, Ying Yang, the representative of the navy stationed in the factory, is also very concerned, and often goes to the dock for inspections in person. The construction progress is also to check the quality problems in the construction process.

After all, many new designs and new technologies have been applied successively during the construction process of the ship, and new technologies mean risks.

Not to mention, the ship was shut down several times during the construction process to change the design, so that the construction process was more complicated and the quality risk was high.

In the beginning, the ship was actually built as the second ship of the Hantian battleship, but because of the rapid technological breakthroughs in various aspects of the Great Chu Empire in recent years, new things emerged from time to time.

For example, naval guns. At the beginning, the battleship Hantian and the follow-up ship Yingtian were expected to be equipped with large-caliber front-loading smoothbore guns. However, the technology of front-loading rifled guns gradually matured and achieved good results in the Battle of the Indian Peninsula. Test the effect of the application.

After the news came back to China, most of the Hantian battleships that had been built were removed from the front-mounted smoothbore guns, and began to replace the front-mounted rifled guns as the main gun.

During the same period, the top management of the Navy also managed the three major steam engine manufacturers, tossed out the Navy United Steam Engine Factory, and then obtained the combined steam engine that integrated the new technologies of the three major manufacturers. Great performance boost.

In many cases, the design of Yingtian, the second ship of the Hantian class, whose construction progress was not large, was greatly changed to install a combined steam engine power system. At the same time, the deployment method of the naval gun was changed to better exert the firepower of the front-loaded rifled gun. And it is equipped with a more powerful and powerful [-]mm front-loading rifled main gun.

After many design changes, the battleship Yingtian has a full load displacement of more than 300 tons, a steam engine with a maximum horsepower of [-] horsepower, a maximum speed of [-] knots with pure steam engine power, and a battery life of [-] knots and [-] nautical miles with pure steam engine power. .

On the central axis of the main deck, there is a double open-air rotary fort at the front and rear, and four [-]mm front-loading rifled guns are deployed.

A total of sixteen 150mm front-loading rifled guns are deployed on the side, and six 75mm front-loading rifled guns are deployed on the front and rear sides.

Although the sails were retained at the beginning of the design of this class of ships, the design was changed again during the construction process, and the sails were finally cancelled.

The main reason is that the tonnage is too large, and the power of the sail can no longer be moved. In addition, the more important thing is that the sail will affect the firing range of the naval gun.

In the past, when the ship's side artillery was used, the naval guns could only fire from the side to attack the enemy, and the shooting angle was very small, and the complicated sails on the deck naturally did not affect the shooting range.

But today's new warships, including Yingtian-class battleships and Jinzhou-class cruisers, have their main guns deployed on the front and rear central axes, and the guns can be rotated to achieve a wide range of shooting angles.

In this case, sailing has become a burden, so it was eventually canceled on new battleships and large-tonnage cruisers.

In terms of armor protection, the entire ship of this class uses iron hulls. In addition, an armor belt of wrought iron and thickened planks is laid above the waterline. It is the level of a cruiser, but it is still more than enough to block the solid bullets of the front-loading smoothbore guns at medium and long distances.

In addition to armor protection, coal cabins are also deployed on both sides of the ship's side to prevent the enemy's solid shells from penetrating the armor belt and penetrating into the hull to cause damage. A large amount of coal is piled up together, and the protection effect on armor-piercing shells is quite good.

In the anti-sinking design of the hull, in addition to the design of the watertight cabin, steam engine-powered pumps are installed. The power source of these pumps can not only use the power of the main engine, but also use small steam engines deployed independently when the main engine fails. At the same time, a lifeboat sufficient to accommodate the crew is installed.

Numerous new design concepts make the battleship Yingtian fundamentally different from a series of warships of the Great Chu Empire built before. It is hard to say that the combat effectiveness can be improved, but the visual effect is very good.

Commodore Ying Yang, the representative of the navy, couldn't help but jump for joy every time he visited the ship. In his opinion, when the warship was put into service, its powerful maneuverability and firepower made it completely capable of attacking the old warships. Battleships form an overwhelming advantage.

Those battleships of four or five thousand tons in the past were no longer battleships in front of Yingtian, they were at best cruisers with armor belt protection.

In fact, this is indeed the case... When the Great Chu Empire Navy decided to use a large number of front-loading rifled guns and refit the original old battleships, many of them existed as the main force in the past. Started to feel awkward.

Due to the small tonnage and the influence of the sail, it is difficult to install a large number of large-caliber long-tube front-loading rifled guns when the layout of the naval guns is not good. After the modification, the number of equipped naval guns often appears large. A case of declining magnitude.

Although the firepower has actually been greatly improved, the number of artillery pieces is much less. If the combat effectiveness of battleships is still measured by the number of naval guns in the past, then these battleships after refitting are at best only cruiser.

Fortunately, the division of ships in the Great Chu Empire Navy was based on tactical functions, not simply on the basis of tonnage and the number of naval guns.

So even if some modified battleships don't look like battleships anymore, they are still temporarily classified as battleships.

However, when the large tonnage, such as the Yingtian class, and even subsequent battleships are completed and put into service in the future, and the number of large tonnage battleships increases, these old medium tonnage battleships will probably be classified as cruisers in the battle order.

After Commodore Ying Yang and other ships inspected the construction progress of the battleship Yingtian, they went to the second ship of the Yingtian-class battleship next door, the Kunming, to inspect the construction progress.

The hull construction of the battleship Kunming has come to an end. It is expected that the hull construction will be completed this month, and then it will be launched for subsequent outfitting. The overall progress is about three months behind the battleship Yingtian.

The last battleship of the Yingtian class, the third ship of the Yingtian class, the Anqing, was built in the Guangzhou Shipyard, and the construction progress was even slower, and it was expected to be about four months later than the Yingtian.

The three Yingtian-class battleships are a new attempt by the Great Chu Empire Navy in the new era of warships.

Brand new combined steam engine power system.

The brand-new central axis front and rear open-air rotary turret naval gun deployment method.

New, more powerful [-]mm muzzle-loading rifled gun.

During the design stage of the battleship, many special designs were made for the deployment of the front-mounted rifled guns, and the hull design for the deployment of the naval guns.

At the same time, a comprehensive anti-sinking design is applied.

Brand new armor scheme of wrought iron thickened planks.

These things are actually a great challenge to the shipbuilding industry of the Great Chu Empire and its supporting industries.

The successful construction of this class of ships requires not only many technical breakthroughs by the shipyard itself, but also continuous technical breakthroughs by supporting manufacturers.

If the battleship Hantian is just a transitional battleship, then the battleship Yingtian has completed the basic transition, gathering and applying all the new technologies.

As a result, a series of new warship design schemes and supporting subsystem technologies have been created.

The new era of the Great Chu Empire Navy has arrived!

The Naval Administration Department of the Great Chu Empire has designed a brand new battleship based on the design experience of the Yingtian-class battleship.

Compared with the Yingtian-class battleship, the tonnage is larger, the firepower is stronger, the protection is better, the speed is faster, and the seaworthiness is better.

And it is also a battleship powered by pure steam engines without a sail system.

This is the Jinan-class battleship, with a full-load displacement of more than 9000 tons. It is expected to be equipped with four 150mm front-loading rifled guns, but the main gun has a longer diameter, a longer range, and greater power. It is equipped with more [-]mm guns. Front-loaded rifled secondary guns are expected to have a maximum speed of [-] knots with pure steam engine power, and an endurance of [-] knots and [-] nautical miles.

At the same time, it has a more excellent hull anti-sinking design, a more complete watertight cabin protection, and a completely independent steam pump system.

It also has excellent ocean-going trial capabilities, improved roll problems, and has a larger tonnage of coal and fresh water storage space, better crew living space, and more food and fresh water configurations.

To put it bluntly, the tonnage of this thing has increased by more than 3000 tons, but this thing is actually a perfect model of the Yingtian-class battleship... In terms of firepower and protection, the increase is not that big.

The main guns are still four 150mm front-loading rifled guns, and the number of 22mm secondary guns has increased to [-], but that's actually the case.

Switching to the original time and space in the 70s and [-]s, with such a tonnage coupled with such firepower, it would be a big ship resisting trotting... a waste of tonnage.

However, the battleships of the navies of various countries in the original time and space had to face the same powerful iron-clad ships.

As for the Great Chu Empire Navy, their enemies were nothing more than a group of sailing warships and armed merchant ships weighing more than 1000 tons. There were only a handful of first-class sailing battleships in Europe that exceeded [-] tons.

Not to mention the 150mm main gun, even if it is a [-]mm front-loading rifled gun, it will be fired one by one...

Why is the [-]mm rifled main gun installed?
When the navy found that large-caliber rifled main guns fired cylindrical grenades, or semi-armour-piercing projectiles with explosive charges inside, they were very effective against land artillery...

Therefore, the [-]mm front-loading rifled main gun of the Great Chu Empire Navy was never aimed at the enemy's warship, but the enemy's coastal defense fort...

Don't be surprised, this is a conclusion drawn from a practical perspective.

Moreover, if you don't let these 150mm front-loading rifled guns hit the solid coastal defense turrets and bombard the enemy's coastal cities, they have nothing to fight. You can't use 75mm naval guns to go Let's hit those wooden sailing ships with thousands of tons or even hundreds of tons... [-]mm secondary guns are sufficient, and even [-]mm secondary guns can cause fatal damage to these sailing ships.

Even the enemy's sailing warships don't need battleships at all. Naturally, there are a lot of cruisers and frigates to solve them.

Although many designs of the Yingtian-class battleships and the subsequent Jinan-class battleships have taken into account naval warfare and are based on naval warfare, but in some future tactical plans drawn up by the navy, the Yingtian-class battleships have never been used as the main force of naval warfare. tactical plan.

Every time a ship of this class is used, it is used to bombard the enemy's coastal defense forts, or directly bombard the enemy's coastal cities on a large scale.

Although no one admits it, in fact, the battleships in the Chu Empire Navy are thousands of tons or even nearly [-] tons. Their tactical role is to serve as flagships for command, and then bombard the solid forts on the land to carry out large-scale coverage of enemy cities. shelled.

Well, there is another role, to cruise in various domestic ports, and then accept visits from the public, so as to enhance the influence of the navy in the country.

In the past, whenever a new type of warship was put into service in the navy, it would pull out some kind of naval visit day, park in various ports, and let the public visit the warship for free.

This move was called by the army to be punishable!

As a result, the army has followed up with barracks visits, weapons exhibitions and the like, and in recent years has also begun to engage in reenactment performances of battles...

Can you imagine a large number of regular army soldiers, not engaging in drills and training, but wearing old-fashioned military uniforms, or even the costumes of the former Ming and Dongyao people, and then pulling old-style guns, artillery, and even some old armor and swords to simulate and reproduce battle cases, Just to let a large number of people see the victory?

In May of the 29th year of Chengshun, the army mobilized thousands of people to simulate a battle with the Dongren in the training ground at the Wusong military base.

That scene is the cavalry galloping, the guns roaring...

Tens of thousands of people watched it with great enthusiasm, and it was worthwhile.

After Luo Zhixue found out, he didn't even know what to say about the Army—isn't this just an adult version of war games?

But you can call him a joke. The army has seriously given a lot of reasons, saying that this is to build a positive and positive image of the army among the people, and to encourage aspiring young people to join the army and serve the country.

Luo Zhixue clearly knew that this was just a fight for face between the army and the navy, but in the end he didn't care...Anyway, the empire's military power is now seriously surplus to the outside world; internally, there is no threat for the time being, so let's just mess around.

To put it bluntly, it is the same as what the military generals said, this can cultivate the martial arts atmosphere among the people, and the heart of aspiring young people to join the army and serve the country is barely a good thing, right?
However, Luo Zhixue also said that the next time there is a reenactment of a famous battle example, it can be held in the outskirts of Jinling City... I will go and see it too.

Luo Zhixue hasn't seen the adult version of the war play house yet, so it's interesting to think about it.

For this, many generals of the navy scolded the army for being shameless, wasting money, food and military expenses to play games, etc., but as soon as they turned around, they thought about organizing a large-scale ship review.

They want to have one or two hundred warships lined up neatly in Wusong or the big port of Guangzhou, so that Luo Zhixue can inspect them, and at the same time, the people can see a large number of warships at a glance from the shore...

With strong naval prestige!

Isn't it just playing house? The army plays it, but our navy can't play it?
It doesn't make sense!

(End of this chapter)