African Nationhood

The south bank of Mapu Port (today’s Maputo Port in Mozambique) is decorated quite festively.
Since this place has been turned into a military port by the military department, there will be no relevant personnel present here.

When Shi Jintang arrived here, he found that only some employees of Nanhua Shipyard participated in today's event.

Xue Youfu was wearing a white navy uniform. The cap badge and collar badge were both gold symbols representing general officers. There were two gold stars on the shoulder straps.

The people in Nanhua who can confer general titles are those on the National Defense Commission. Except for the commanders of front-line military services who can be rated as lieutenant generals, the others are all major generals.

As for the two Boer officers, De Wet and Delray, they were only rated brigadier general.

As for the high-ranking officers at the school level, there are very few, and most of them are majors and lieutenant colonels.

After all, there is no war going on right now. If you rate an officer too high, you won't be able to improve it in the future.

According to Chairman Shi's design, first-line lieutenant generals will basically not be promoted to generals while they are in office. They will only be promoted unless they retire.

The first person from Nanhua Junior High School to become a general was the veteran Tian Liang. He is 64 years old and is no longer suitable to hold high-level military positions.

Chairman Shi has also talked with him and will arrange a ceremony for him to be promoted to general next year and then retire.

Tian Liang was also satisfied. He was originally a foreign coolie. Without Chairman Shi's support, he would have ended up miserable in a slum in the United States.

For him to become an honorary general of a country, this is no longer an achievement that can be achieved by the manifestation of ancestors, but an open-minded blessing of God.

After retiring and enjoying his old age at home, the outside world can also understand that what Chairman Shi wants is "peace between king and minister."

……

Xue Youfu led a group of naval generals to Chairman Shi and saluted together.
Chairman Shi waved his hand, "No courtesy. Commander Xue, take me to see your new baby."

"Chairman, please follow me."

Xue Youfu led the way, and Shi Jintang followed behind. They walked towards the port, and their eyes were filled with brand-new warships.

"According to your request, our shipbuilding capabilities are not strong enough. There is no need to follow the trend of dreadnoughts, but we can build a battle-class cruiser. Therefore, we jointly designed a battle-class cruiser with the Warship Design Institute.

At present, only one prototype ship has been built, which is the one you see: 'Pingshan'.

This battleship-class cruiser has a displacement of 12460 tons and is our first domestic cruiser with a displacement of more than 135.8 tons. Its waterline is 137.1 meters long, the total length is 21.4 meters, the maximum width is 8.6 meters, and the draft is meters.

装备了10门305毫米45倍口径主炮，12门150毫米40倍口径炮，10门88毫米30倍口径速射炮，另外装备了6具460毫米鱼雷发射管；主机系统的最大输出功率为16500马力，最大航速26节。

The thickest part of the battle cruiser's main armor belt is 229 mm, and the turret frontal armor is 305 mm. "

The battleship in front of me is all white, and the waterline armor belt is very thick. At the same time, a layer of 50 mm thick dome armor is laid near the waterline.

The base of the dome extends below the waterline, and the top is several feet above the water.

Hearing these complicated numbers, Shi Jintang felt a little dizzy, but he still asked the key question, "Which country are these naval guns imported from?"

"Britain, for now, the naval guns provided by the British are more suitable. After all, most of our warship construction technologies are imported from the UK.

However, when we built this battle cruiser, we followed your suggestions and chose electric welding technology as much as possible.

Reducing the number of rivets reduced the weight of the battleship a lot. "

Nanhua studied electric welding technology earlier due to the emergence of Chairman Shi. Now Nanhua's welders have become proficient in inert gas shielded welding technology.

These new technologies provide cleaner, more efficient welds and greatly reduce impurities and inclusions in welds. In addition, rivets tend to lose their toughness at low temperatures and will break directly upon slight impact.

This is also the reason why the Titanic quickly disintegrated when it hit an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean. Electric welding technology does not have this drawback.

Hearing this, Shi Jintang nodded.

"The speed of this battle cruiser is okay, but I heard that 30-knot high-speed cruisers have appeared now. Your Navy Department still has a long way to go."

Xue Youfu nodded, "Well, we have been paying attention to this aspect.

We are currently studying a power solution that combines steam engines and diesel engines to jointly drive warships. "

Hearing Xue Youfu's research and development plan, Shi Jintang didn't agree with it. He remembered that the Germans seemed to have tried this power solution after World War I. The cruisers they produced at that time were not very successful in terms of speed.

However, he could not directly conclude that this plan was not good. He could only consider it and said: "Your idea is very good, but it must be fully demonstrated before deciding whether to build a physical ship.

After all, the cost of trial and error is high, and our country is not yet wealthy. "

Xue Youfu thought that you, the big boss, were too stingy, but he still nodded in agreement and said, "Okay, Chairman, we will be cautious."

Shi Jintang nodded, and then added: "You can do some in-depth research on the topic of 'gas engine as ship power'.

After all, the vibration of the diesel engine is too severe, and the greater the power, the greater the vibration, and the stability of the warship is required to be relatively high when the warship launches artillery shells. "

Xue Youfu nodded, "Okay, Chairman, we will conduct in-depth research according to your instructions."

After watching the battle patrol, Xue Youfu took Shi Jintang to see the catamaran rescue ship "Siming Town", which specializes in rescuing submarines.

“这种救援船是满载排水量3100吨，最大长度96米、宽度18.57米，干舷8.40米、吃水最大3.65米；
An empty seawater area about 68.0 meters long and 8.5 meters wide is formed between the two hulls;
Two latest 400-horsepower six-cylinder diesel engines are installed, with a ship speed of 10.0 knots and a cruising range of approximately 6400 kilometers;

The maximum lifting capacity is 1000 tons, which can handle all types of submarine rescues so far. It is equipped with two anchors at the bow and stern. "

The South China Navy developed submarine manufacturing, but the submarine manufacturing technology was not mature enough.

The crew's lack of experience in operating submarines has led to low safety of submarines and frequent safety accidents. The Navy Department has had many accidents involving submarine crashes and fatalities.

According to statistics, since the Navy Department began building submarines and conducting experimental navigation, a total of 348 naval officers and soldiers have died in submarine accidents.

In order to rescue submarines and naval officers and soldiers in crisis, or to salvage sunken submarines to facilitate repairs and investigate the causes of accidents, or to provide technical and logistical support to submarines far away from land, etc.

The South China Navy Department urgently needs special support ships that can not only emergency upgrade or salvage submarines, but also have the ability to repair submarines, refuel submarines and other logistical supplies, and replace submarine personnel.

So the South China Navy developed this new type of rescue ship based on the German rescue ships.

Shi Jintang still recognized this kind of functional ship, "Well, you still need to strengthen research on this aspect to minimize the sacrifice of our naval officers."

Xue Youfu also looked sad at this moment. These naval soldiers did not die on the battlefield, but died in peacetime. This is a shame for the technical department.

"Chairman, you are right. We will strengthen control in the R&D department to reduce the occurrence of such accidents."

Next, Xue Youfu led Chairman Shi to inspect the naval force's five- to six-thousand-ton cruisers, one-thousand-ton destroyers, and some offshore torpedo boats.

After a morning review, Shi Jintang discovered that the Nanhua Navy has now developed into a regional naval force with three fleets, 88 warships, and a total tonnage of 18 tons. (End of chapter)