The sun never sets in the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 474 Training Serving Officers
Half a year has passed since the bloody battle in Liaodong, and the battleships and cruisers that should be launched in the spring have already been delivered to the navy, and the production plan for this year has doubled.

This is all due to the capture of the slave lair, and the possession of most of the wealth of the entire Houjin Kingdom. The final statistics are as high as nearly 2000 million taels of silver, and the net profit is as much as 500 million taels after throwing away the cost of sending troops.

With a lot of money and tens of thousands of manpower, of course, these must be converted into combat power. Therefore, the budget planned to be invested in the navy this year is 10 million taels of silver. Zhao Shimin's team is now building warships of various specifications.

Cannons, gunpowder, all-steel armor, flintlock rifles, stainless steel pulley crossbows, pulley bows, flying thunderbolts, and all kinds of shells are being produced at full capacity, because the fierce battle at the end of last year basically wiped out the ammunition family. Gather strength again, and there will be a big war in winter.

In order to adapt to the mountain warfare, the four-pound field gun also came into being. This kind of artillery is exactly the same as the established six-pound, twelve-pound, etc. artillery. It is also a front-mounted steel gun with a barrel hoop. Fires solid, burst and shot rounds.

The biggest advantage is that the weight is only half of that of the six-pound field gun. The heaviest gun body is only [-] kg, and the total weight is less than [-] kg. It can be disassembled and assembled flexibly, which enhances the mobility of the artillery.

The craftsmanship of the Huang family's steel mold casting cannon has been improved a lot, and the quality has been raised to another level.This is when Huang Sheng discovered that the steel mold casting technology of the arsenal was becoming more and more mature, so he gave a golden finger to the master gun casting master to study a kind of hollow casting technology that he roughly knew.

The wisdom of the working people is infinite. These experienced masters got new ideas, tried regardless of the cost, and finally fully mastered this revolutionary method invented by Major Thomas Dean Rodman of the US Army during the American Civil War in 1860. craft.

The specific method is to cast the gun around the core, and the inside of the core is cooled by running water. This is a method to harden the inside of the gun bore first.

When the outer metal is cooled, it shrinks inward, and continues to pressurize the hardened inner layer. The steel gun body obtained in this way has the highest internal density. The advantage is that the explosive force of the propellant will be suppressed by the entire thick metal layer around the barrel. Absorb instead of expanding outward in layers.

The greatest significance of the new casting method is to greatly reduce the scrap rate of the barrel during casting, greatly increase the yield, and reduce the casting cost of the artillery.

This process greatly increases the barrel life of the artillery and reduces the cost of use, especially when casting heavy artillery.

Because the Huang family encourages technological innovation and provides no upper limit for financial support, skilled craftsmen are all imagining and putting their ideas into practice. Too many products have been updated and the base of the artillery has been continuously improved.

A large number of qualified springs are used to buffer the recoil. The artillery of the Huang family will no longer be like the artillery of this era. When firing a shot, you need to reset and re-aiming the artillery that jumped out of shape on the spot. The gap between re-firing has been shortened by more than 1 minute.

All the artillery on the new warships are equipped with buffer springs, the hit rate and re-firing speed of the shelling are doubled, the damage to the hull is sharply reduced, and the service life of the warship is increased.In the future, when encountering Xiyi's fleet and their ship-to-ship comparison, there is no doubt that they will win.

Of course, Huang Sheng, the steam engine, which could bring about the industrial revolution, could not let it go. The scientific research team of the school and the big craftsmen of the steel factory and military factory formed a joint research team to study and test several sketches drawn by the master.

Huang Sheng knew the working principle of the steam engine and the function of the boiler, but he couldn't remember the drawings of the early steam engine and boiler. He just wrote down the working principle and drew the general appearance and working process of the equipment to be manufactured.

Huang Sheng's sketch was of the "Lancashire Boiler", a horizontal atmospheric steam boiler.The advantage is that it has a large capacity and can burn coal, firewood, straw and other fuels, and can provide a stable steam flow. It is an atmospheric boiler, and unless it is operated brutally, the probability of explosion accidents caused by normal use is very low.

However, it cannot provide high-pressure steam, so its evaporation power is relatively weak, and its use is relatively limited.However, its technology is simple, and it is a mature technology that has been demonstrated by later generations and has been used until modern times, so it should not be too difficult to manufacture.

The key to the "Lancashire Boiler" is that it does not have high requirements on the material. Ordinary low-carbon steel plates are sufficient. The Huang family is no longer an obstacle to the improvement of steel quality. After several attempts to improve, there should be no problem with the possibility of becoming a product.

To solve the problem of boilers, manufacturing steam engines is equivalent to half of the completion. The key component of steam engines is the cylinder. Master Huang has produced hundreds of artillery pieces of different calibers to equip warships and the army.

The technology of using large-scale hydraulic boring machines, milling machine smooth barrels, and milling and rifling lines should be unique in the world. With these mature technologies and equipment, manufacturing cylinders should be more effective with less effort.

It's a pity that Huang Sheng can only roughly understand the principle. He clearly understands and has personally seen the manufacture of heating boilers in later generations. Considering that no seamless steel pipes have been produced yet, let alone products like boiler tubes in later generations.

Therefore, first start research that is in line with the current reality. After these technologies are mature, the gold hands will point out ideas for master craftsmen to upgrade boilers and steam engines.

Although Huang Sheng has a little understanding of the data and the ratio of sizes, this is enough. With the wisdom of the great craftsman of the Han people, he has obtained an accurate research direction, and with the support of labor, materials and funds regardless of cost, the research project has been completed. The results are just around the corner.

Nowadays, the quality of Huang’s steel products tends to be stable, and the conditions for manufacturing boilers and steam engines in the traditional way of riveting are mature. Considering practicality and safety, the first-generation boilers are not suitable for high pressure, and normal pressure is enough, even if the thermal efficiency is not high. It doesn't matter either.

Zhao Shimin's research-oriented all-steel warship is about to be completed. The ship is very small, maybe fifty or sixty tons, and the ship's plates are riveted with 120-[-]mm tinned steel plates. If it is successfully launched, it will pass the sea trial. , The shipbuilding team will gradually increase, and the next step is to build a [-]-ton ironclad ship.

Zhao Shimin's step-by-step and down-to-earth attitude towards scientific research won Huang Sheng's great appreciation. The navy is the number one element in world hegemony, and Huang Sheng has always spared no effort to support it at all costs.

"Huaxia Island" has specially opened a military academy. At present, there are more than 1000 students studying, not only ignorant teenagers, but also many officers of all levels who come to gild. With the development of the times, regular training for serving officers will become a common practice. Sharpening knives and chopping firewood work.

More than half of the naval cadets in the military academy are as many as 800, and there are also [-] army cadets. Most of the teachers here are excellent teachers selected from Huangjiawan Island School. Many of them have actual combat experience. Most of them are retired from the navy or army officers and soldiers.

There are also dozens of Xiyi who are the most eye-catching, and they have to serve the school well whether they are willing or not.

Their rich sailing experience belongs to the level of old pirates, and their actual combat experience is even more unambiguous, even richer than that of Teacher Huang's family, because they have an experience that Teacher Huang's family can't match, and they may not experience it in this life.

This experience can train people the most: they were all defeated by the Huang family's navy and became captives obediently. They lost their freedom and sold their labor for rations and fresh water to survive.

(End of this chapter)