Qianlong: Qing Dynasty?What about my Daqing?

Chapter 139 Zhu's richest man, quickly support the imperial court!

In fact.

Of course, it is impossible for Daming's technical ability to produce a real dreadnought ship now.

The dreadnought is the ancestor of the modern battleship.

The classification of the dreadnought comes from the battleship "Dreadnought" (HMS Dreadnought), which the British Navy began building in 1906.It cancels the secondary main guns on previous battleships, and is only equipped with main guns of the same caliber and uniform ratio, as well as a small number of small-caliber secondary guns used to defend light warships. It uses high-power steam turbines as power and adopts unified fire control. way of long-distance combat.

Even if you don't count the (early) dreadnoughts, super dreadnoughts, post-Jylland dreadnoughts, treaty dreadnoughts, and high-speed dreadnoughts that will be developed in the future.

Simply look at the battleship Dreadnought in a narrow sense.

That is not what the current technical conditions can produce.

The battleship Dreadnought is 160 meters long, 25 meters wide, with a standard displacement of 21 tons, a full load displacement of [-] tons, and a speed of [-] knots.

The power system also uses a coal-fired steam boiler with a full power of 2 horsepower.

Such technical indicators are absolutely impossible to achieve in the era of 1792.

In fact.

The ironclad ship under Zhu Daohua's feet may only be able to reach the level of armored ships developed by various countries 50 years later in terms of technical level.

It's just that in the research and development process of the warship, the ship type, the arrangement of the artillery, etc.

The best results are achieved after continuous iterative optimization.

But Zhu Daohua directly imitated some characteristics of the dreadnought.

For example, the central axis main gun layout, rotating turret, streamlined hull, etc.

These characteristics are in line with some of the characteristics of the dreadnought "full heavy artillery battleship".

But in terms of specific technical capabilities.

With the current level of the Ming Dynasty, not to mention dreadnoughts, even large-scale all-steel battleships cannot be manufactured-the power output of the reciprocating steam engine is not enough to propel such a steel behemoth, and the steel output of the Ming Dynasty is not enough to support it. The production and manufacture of such large warships.

therefore.

The warship that Zhu Daohua was standing on was just an "anti-dreadnought ship", absorbing some of the characteristics of the dreadnought ship.

This warship named "General Zhenyuan" is not actually an all-steel ship.

It is a "wood-steel composite ship".

Steel is used for some key load-bearing parts, and the hull is constructed of inner oak and outer steel plates.

This type of ship is named the "Town" class.

The standard displacement is [-] tons, and the full-load displacement is [-] tons.

80 meters long.

16 meters wide.

The 120mm triple-mounted main guns are all newly developed rear-mounted guns. The turrets of the three main guns are arranged on the central axis of the battleship. In addition, three 50mm caliber guns are installed on both sides of the ship. The rapid-fire gun turret, this kind of artillery is also a rear-loading gun, the firing rate will be higher than the main gun, and it is used to defend against some fast light ships.

The test ship reached a speed of 18 knots. .

In terms of speed, it far exceeds the sail battleship. The speed of the sloop fast ship commonly equipped by the Ming army for patrol and reconnaissance can only reach 15 knots, and it still has to be in the case of tailwind.

Although it is far from the real dreadnought that was born 100 years later.

But this warship is undoubtedly an epoch-making revolutionary weapon.

Compared with the sailing battleships of the current European countries, there is a completely generational advantage.

However, the shortcomings are also obvious.

That is.
expensive!
Very expensive!
The cost of this experimental ship reached a terrifying 50 Ming Yuan, equivalent to 250 million taels of silver.

And the fiscal revenue of the Guangzhou court of the Ming Dynasty last year was just over 500 million Ming Yuan.

Manufacturing such a battleship cost one-fiftieth of the annual fiscal revenue of the Guangzhou court of the Ming Dynasty.

It can be said that it is a gold swallowing beast piled up with silver.

The navy is indeed the most costly arm.

The cost of such a warship can sustain the cost of several infantry brigades for several years.

Therefore, it is really impossible to manufacture such a warship on a large scale at the current stage.

It is only used as the flagship of the fleet.

In fact, the capital ship that the Ming Navy is replacing now is much more pragmatic than this expensive "anti-dreadnought ship".

The wooden-hulled steel-clad armored ship powered by a steam engine has a standard displacement of only [-] tons.

The artillery also does not have a large main gun, but [-]mm and [-]mm rapid-fire guns arranged on both sides.

It also uses a rotatable three-dimensional structure to arrange the turrets. Even if the bow is forward, most of the artillery can also fire in salvo.

The shells of this artillery are enough to penetrate the board of any sailing battleship, and send the shells into the cabin to explode.

If the opponent only has sailing battleships.

Then it would be the most economical for Daming to use such a relatively cheap warship.

The cost of this kind of warship is only a quarter of that of the "Zhen" class warship, and it only needs about 13 Ming Yuan.

Only a few dozen warships named "Wei" class are needed to guarantee the maritime hegemony in the waters of East Asia and Southeast Asia.

Although it is not unaffordable to build more than a dozen town-level ironclad warships if the Ming Dynasty wants to show its national prestige, but compared to the navies of various countries, warships of this level are indeed somewhat overpowering.

This test ship is more of a technical exploration and reserve made by Daming Royal Shipbuilding Company, a joint venture between King Zhu Ming and a Guangdong businessman, to make some technical reserves for future all-steel armored ships.

And even this ship 'General Zhenyuan'.

It is also unlikely to be dispatched to ocean battles, and more will only be used as Ming Wang's ships along the coast and in the Yangtze River and Pearl River waterways.

So this battleship was purchased by Boss Zhu himself—the cabinet is unlikely to pass the procurement plan for such an expensive but useless warship. To deal with the possible gunboat threat from the Europeans, It is enough to use the prestige level.

The current system of the Ming Dynasty is a clear distinction between public and private.

There is a budget for how much you spend.

Now King Zhu Ming has steel factories, shipyards, and gun factories under his command.

These are all private properties of King Zhu Ming.

It is not the property of the Ming court.

Therefore, if the army and navy of Ming Dynasty want to obtain weapons and equipment, they must purchase them from King Zhu Ming's company.

Zhu Daohua's internal funds are completely separated from the Ming Ministry of Finance.

Zhu Daohua's industry is under the unified management of the Daming Royal Industry Promotion Association he founded.

The current general manager of the Daming Royal Industry Promotion Association is Qian Heng, who was the big treasurer of Daohua Commercial Bank back then.

However, most of the decisions of the Royal Industry Promotion Association were made by Zhu Daohua himself.

The scope of the industry includes Daming Royal Bank, Nanyang Shipping Company, Guangdong Railway Corporation, Daming Royal Gun Manufacturing Corporation, Daming Royal Steel Corporation, Daming Royal Land Development Corporation, Daming Royal Machinery Manufacturing Factory, Daming Royal Pharmaceutical Development Corporation, Daming Royal Mineral Corporation, etc.

The main business scope involved includes mineral development, manufacturing, railway and shipping transportation, pharmaceutical development, arms manufacturing and trade, real estate, etc.

Both are very lucrative industries.

Just Zhu Daohua's own property contributed no less than 300 million Ming Yuan in taxes to the Guangzhou court of the Ming Dynasty.

It is not clear whether Zhu Daohua is the richest man in the world now.

After all, who knows how much gold, silver and jewels are owned by the local tyrant families in India who have robbed the poor of Asan for thousands of years.

But now Zhu Daohua must be the richest man in Ming Dynasty.

But although Zhu Daohua is rich, he also knows it.

As the king of a country, there is not much practical use for holding so much money. The money should still be used as investment in various places in Ming Dynasty.

For example, railways, ports, university education, etc.

Daohua University is still free to enroll, and all education funds come from the Daming Royal Industry Promotion Association.

From Zhu Daohua's point of view, the Ming royal family in the future cannot be raised like pigs. Every royal family will receive the best educational resources, and they can get the best training in various fields.

However, apart from the title and gold according to the regulations, other princes and princes other than the prince will not get any land privileges or tax-free privileges.

Zhu Daohua will build a huge industry that can support the education of future generations. The royal family may not necessarily follow the path of politics. Maybe many royal scientists, lawyers, writers, educators, philosophers, etc. will be born in the future.

This is the real luxuriant foliage, with stars supporting the moon.

Those who are capable will not have a ceiling.

Those who have no ability will not starve to death.

The royal family should be integrated into the society instead of becoming parasites of the society. What's more, in Zhu Daohua's view, he has already given the best educational resources to future generations, and whether he can get out is none of his business.

So the greater significance of the Ming Dynasty Royal Industry Promotion Association lies in.

Under the guidance of Zhu Daohua, this industry promotion association will lead the development of various new industries and new technologies.

Therefore, it is impossible for this industry promotion association to be handed over to the bureaucrats of the cabinet for the time being—otherwise, any bureaucratic organization that wants to have any major innovations is just looking for fish.

Therefore, in the current Ming Dynasty, on the one hand, the Industry Promotion Association attacked from all directions, established education and medical systems, established manufacturing bases and new technology research institutes, and provided sufficient funds for Daohua University.

on the other hand.

The Ming court is now short of money
That's right.

After the Battle of the South.

The finances of the Guangzhou court of the Ming Dynasty have reached the point where Luo Fangbo, the left minister of the Ming Dynasty, is quite anxious.

In fact, according to the views of later generations.

The Ming Dynasty had no fiscal deficit at all.

Finance can be said to be extremely healthy.

But after all, the current Ming Dynasty is different from the modern countries of later generations. It does not have an effective financial means to maintain financial balance.

There was a fiscal deficit, for the Ming cabinet.

It is already a very dangerous signal.

Just when Zhu Daohua inspected the "General Zhenyuan", which was built at a huge cost under Zhu Daohua's "guidance" at the Royal Shipyard, and returned to the Guangzhou Palace, he was killed by his father-in-law, the Zuo Prime Minister of Ming Dynasty Luo Fangbo, and the Minister of Finance Ye Dodge was blocked.

The reason is also very simple.

The Ming court ran out of money.

But King Zhu Ming is rich.

This world is yours.

Do you have some money to support the imperial court?

(End of this chapter)