Back to Ming Dynasty with Industrial Revolution System

Chapter 1796 Heading to the Imperial Shipyard

The exercise on Liugong Island came to an end the next day, and 24 steamships returned to the port to berth. There was still black smoke from charcoal on Liugong Island.

Although tens of thousands of silver taels were estimated to be burned in yesterday's exercise, Chu Yun still felt that it was worth the money. When there was no war, the steam fleet still had to maintain its combat effectiveness at all times.

The ambassadors of various countries were in mixed moods. They were deeply shocked by yesterday's exercise, and some of them could hardly sleep.

Chu Yun returned to Weihaiwei Naval Base again and met with a group of officers from the Admiralty.

"Your performance is very good. I think our Admiralty will build more steamships in the next period of time. The test ship of the second-generation main ironclad ship has almost been developed."

"The second-generation main ironclad ship? Dahan class?"

"Yes, the first-generation main ironclad ship is the Daqin class. For the sake of cost performance, we only built two ironclad ships, Huo Qubing and Weiqing. However, the research and development and design costs of the Daqin class ironclad ship were not wasted, because the Daqin class provided the Dahan class with Experience. After you have rested, go to the Imperial Shipyard with me to visit the test ship of the second-generation main ironclad ship."

Chu Yun announced a news to these subordinates. Some people may not know the development progress of the second-generation main ironclad ship, especially the Fourth Fleet stationed in England, and they know little about local affairs.

Sun Xu, the commander of the Fourth Fleet, was somewhat surprised when he heard that the test ship of the second-generation main ironclad ship had been partially developed: "Will the second-generation ironclad ship be mass-produced?"

Chu Yun shook his head: "Western European countries are too weak, and may not need to mass-produce the second-generation ironclad ships. There is another important reason. Now is the period of the fastest progress of steamships. It is very likely that the steamships we are developing now The most advanced steamships will be outdated after ten years. Can you imagine? For the Imperial Shipyard, the two steam ironclad ships Huo Qubing and Weiqing are already outdated."

"The progress of the steamship is so fast, it is amazing." Everyone was quite emotional.

After entering the process of industrialization, the speed of technological progress is not as slow as before, but is changing with each passing day.

In fact, even without a system, it took less than 20000 years to go from the first steam ironclad ship, the French Glory, to the first 50-ton dreadnought built by the English.

During this period, ironclad ships were constantly updated and iterated, and often an ironclad ship faced the point of being eliminated within 10 or 20 years of its manufacture.

This is quite unimaginable, because the sailing battleship has not changed much in 200 years.

This is the huge gap between the industrial and agricultural eras, and the speed of technological progress is completely different.

After the exercise was over, the steamer Dongfang returned to Tianjin Wei with the diplomatic corps of various countries.

"Where's Mr. Chu? I still want to talk to him about something."

"We in the Netherlands may need this kind of steam ironclad ship. I wonder if there is a way to buy it? We can negotiate the price."

When the princes and nobles from other countries wanted to find Chu Yun on the steamer Dongfang, they found that he was no longer on the steamer.

An official sent by the Ministry of Rites to receive them said: "My lord has something to do, and I will arrange for you to go to the capital. In the next period of time, you can count the goods you ordered at the World Expo, and then prepare to return to your respective kingdoms."

Everyone wondered for a while, Chu Yun must be going to some secret place.

But they had no right to know where Chu Yun had gone, and they never expected that Chu Yun would go to the Imperial Shipyard.

The steamship fleets they saw in Weihaiwei and Liugong Island were just put into practice, and the Imperial Shipyard still had newer technologies that were not reflected in the old steamships, but only in the secret dock of the shipyard.

They also couldn't imagine that the steam ironclad ship that amazed them during the exercise was not the latest technology for the Imperial Shipyard.

The Imperial Shipyard is located in Dalian Bay. When Chu Yun arrived, it was still a small fishing village. Now it has become a city with a well-developed shipyard.

The Imperial Shipyard is a joint shipyard formed by the former No. [-] Shipyard by merging several other shipyards in Dalian Bay.

In order to build a large number of steamships, there are hundreds of large and small factories in Dalian Bay, forming a complete industrial chain, and a large amount of steel can be obtained from Anshan.

The steam cruiser "Yun" carried Chu Yun and the officers of the Admiralty to the Imperial Shipyard in Dalian Bay.

Residents of Dalian Bay are not surprised by the arrival of steam cruisers. They do not know how many steam ironclad ships have entered and exited Dalian Bay in the past ten years.

The Imperial Shipyard not only produces and manufactures steamships, but is also responsible for the maintenance of steamships, so a large number of steamships are active in Dalian Bay.

Seeing Chu Yun's arrival, the director of the Imperial Shipyard and other engineers rushed to greet him.

Their biggest order came from the Admiralty. The 24 steam ironclad ships ordered by the Admiralty from the Imperial Shipyard gave tens of thousands of workers jobs, and the Admiralty was fed from top to bottom.

"According to your report, the test ship of the second-generation steam ironclad ship, the main ironclad ship of the Dahan class, has been built?" Chu Yun asked directly.

"Yes, we had the idea of ​​providing armor protection for the artillery on the deck of the armored ship a long time ago. Although our iron-clad ships suffered few casualties in front of Western wooden ships, for the sake of future considerations, we still have to keep the iron-clad ships as much as possible. The protection is done well. The corresponding design concept is the turret.”

"Because the caliber and weight of the artillery are becoming more and more alarming, it is impossible to install a large number of artillery on the left and right sides as in the era of sailing warships. There is not enough space in the ship, and the firing angle of the artillery installed on both sides of the ship is very limited. Now we The principle of the design of the steam ironclad ship is to reduce the number of artillery, and only use a few rotatable and powerful main guns and a few secondary guns with a faster rate of fire, and the efficiency will be higher.”

The director of the Imperial Shipyard took Chu Yun and his party to the secret dock where the test ship of the main iron-clad ship of the Han class was located, and introduced the second-generation main steam iron-clad ship to Chu Yun and the others.

Before the application of each generation of capital ship technology, a "test ship" will be built first. The "General Fubo" ironclad ship is the test ship of the two sister ships "Huo Qubing" and "Wei Qing".

Similarly, before the official ship construction of the second-generation Dahan-class steam ironclad ship, a test ship is generally built as an experiment.

If there is any serious problem with the test ship, the loss will not be huge.

The experimental ship does not have to be as huge as the official capital ship, but uses the technology of the new ship.

(End of this chapter)