1825 My New Daming

Dajin Kingdom, Bagua City, Wuji Palace.

Fat Daoguang was in his upper study at this time, holding a photo of a little girl, looking at it carefully, and commenting on it: "The little girl is quite cute, she is round and jade-like, and she looks a little bit right. , what is her birth date?"

“回皇上，她是西历1819年5月24日早上4时15分生人，属小兔子。”

The one who answered Emperor Daoguang's question was Qi Shan, Daikin's ambassador to the UK who returned to China to report on his duties. Look, this ambassador's job is so good that he even inquired about the birth date of the future Queen of England.Also know that Victoria is a rabbit!

Daoguang squinted his eyes, pinched his fingers to count, and frowned while counting: "The little girl has quite a lot of children and grandchildren, but... a bit of a kfu, whoever wants to marry her may not live long. This matter has to be discussed with Nicholas. Tell me, he has two sons now, and the youngest son, Konstantin, is still young, only a little over one year old."

"Your majesty," He Shen asked beside him, "Then can she be with you?"

Fat Daoguang nodded, "The little Zhuge is right, she and I are a little bit against each other. This Victoria is really good at it!"

Having said that, Fat Daoguang frowned greatly. This little girl seems to be a bit restrained. Be careful!

Thinking of this, Fat Daoguang didn't continue to entangle this matter, but changed the subject and asked Wu Chuan: "What did King Nicholas I of Pingxi say? How much can we help him?"

"Returning to the emperor," Wu Zhen said, "Nicholas I promised to give us 500 million rubles, and another 500 million after the matter is completed."

Fat Daoguang twirled his beard and said, "1000 million rubles is a lot, but can you accept this job? It won't be a mess, right?"

"Your Majesty," Wu Zhenzhen said with a smile, "it can't be smashed. The Rakshasa army is the world's number one, and the strength of the Black Sea Fleet should not be underestimated. The Turks are no match at all."

Fat Daoguang asked again: "Then can I ask for more?"

Wu Zhenzhen shook his head and said: "Your Majesty, now is not the time to increase the price. If the Turks resist tenaciously and the Rakshasa army progresses slowly, it will not be too late for us to increase the price."

Daoguang nodded, "That's right, now is indeed not the time to increase the price."

He said leisurely: "If Constantinople changes hands, the flames of war in Europe may rise. At that time, I will personally propose a large army to enter India and meet with Victoria for a while to see who can conquer whom." !"

Upon hearing this, Qi Shan, the ambassador to the UK, reminded with a smile: "Your Majesty, Princess Victoria is currently living in Kensington Palace in London, not in India."

Daoguang smiled: "It's better not here!" He then glanced at Wu Zhenzhen, "Go tell Nicholas, and say that I agree!"

"The slave leads the order!"

Shanghai, Jiangnan Heavy Industry, Changxing Shipyard.

In the corner of a huge shipyard.In the four 1.5-ton dry docks that are connected together, four small [-]-ton battleships are lying quietly in the dock.Suddenly, the turbid Yangtze River rushed into the dock along the half-opened pair of gates, and the water line continued to rise along the bottom of the battleship.

These four battleships still chose a very eye-catching white painting on the sea. After all, it is not wartime yet, so there is no need to consider the issue of camouflage. The most important thing is to show the world the mighty might of the Ming Navy battleships.

It was night now, and under the illumination of the searchlights, these four warships were like four metal monsters about to go to the ocean, reflecting dazzling light.In particular, the six brand-new square box-like turrets with sharp edges and corners give people an extremely powerful sense of coldness and majesty.

Zhuge Weidao, who had just returned to Ming Dynasty, was now sent to Shanghai to supervise the launching of these four battleships as a member of the Naval Armament Committee.

He is now standing on the bridge of one of the battleships, looking at the three turrets below - one is at the bow, and the other two are located on the sides of the ship near the bow.The same three turrets were also installed on the stern and the side decks near the stern.

Each turret is equipped with a double-mounted 240mm 45-caliber Taiping Seven Years-style naval gun-you can tell from the model of this artillery that it is a fairly new artillery.But in this era, metallurgy, cannon casting, sight sighting and other technologies are advancing by leaps and bounds. Two years away, there may be two generations of artillery.

And this 240mm gun is almost seven or eight years newer than the 305mm gun equipped before the Hongwu Emperor class!It can be said that it has been greatly improved in all aspects, the only disadvantage is that the caliber is 65mm smaller.

However, when cap-piercing bullets have not yet appeared, and various high-quality armor steels are emerging in an endless stream, it becomes very difficult to penetrate the battleship armor belt with shells, and it is impossible to wash the deck.

So these 12 240mm guns are much stronger than the original 4 305mm guns.

The corner of Zhuge Weidao's mouth twitched slightly when he thought of the "cheap and high-quality" modified version of Hongwu Emperor.

Although the Ming Navy is now developing better 2-ton battlecruisers and 3-ton battleships.

In addition, there is also a hero class derived from the Hongwu Emperor class.

But this does not mean that the Hongwu Emperor-class battleship that has been built or is under construction can be discarded. After all, the hull of the Hongwu Emperor-class is not small, and the standard displacement exceeds 1.5 tons.

Of course, there is a lot of room for improvement on such a big ship.

Moreover, in the Ming Navy, there are as many as ten Hongwu Emperors in active service, and they are all new ships with a short service life.Of course, it is impossible to throw it away and make a new one... that would be too rich!
In addition, in the docks of the major shipyards, there are six Hongwu Emperor class ships under construction!

This Hongwu Emperor class is a real dumpling ship!

Therefore, while designing the hero class, a plan to upgrade the existing and under-construction Hongwu Emperor class is underway.

Moreover, looking at the more advanced Hero class, it is actually a foreign trade ship. The cheap and high-quality Hongwu Emperor class improved type II (also known as the Han Hongwu Emperor class) is the self-use model of the Ming Navy.

If the rebuilding and construction of the eighteen Hongwu Emperor-class ships are all completed, then the strength of the Ming Navy will be greatly improved again!

Of course, the current international situation is already a little tense.Moreover, at the same time, not only the Hongwu Great Emperor class owned by Ming Dynasty, but also all the Great Emperor class owned by the Raksha Kingdom... They may soon be at war with the fleet of the British Empire, so they must hide their strength.

Therefore, the second version of Hongwu Emperor is still a top-secret project.

As a top-secret project, they can only be hidden in the dry dock to complete the entire construction.Including outfitting, it must be completed in the dock, and even launching must be carried out at night!
And after launching, these four battleships will be towed to Jiaozhou Bay, the home port of the Ming Dynasty Fleet, where they will complete the final months of testing.

After the four battleships leave the Changxing Shipyard, one of the four 3-ton dry docks originally used to accommodate them will usher in a new top-secret project.

The 2-ton battlecruiser, which has been in preparation for a long time, will start construction here.

And it will only take two years at the fastest, and Ming's first fully oil-powered battlecruiser using steam turbines will be able to start testing.

If this type of battlecruiser can pass all tests.Then, the design of the first aircraft carrier of the Ming Empire can almost begin!

When Zhuge Weidao thought of the aircraft carrier, the water filling of the dock had been completed.

The four battleships all floated on the water, and with the help of the tugboat, they began to drive towards the river bit by bit...

At the same time, Nicholas I was standing on a high place by the distant Riga Bay, looking at the Catherine the Great, the Peter the Great (Hongwu class, unreconstructed), Admiral Orlov The huge formation composed of the USS , Alexander I and other ships slowly left the port and finally disappeared into the vast sea.