Wild North America 1846

A few days later

Emperor Li Cha summoned a party from the Ministry of the Navy at the Hall of Qinzheng. The admirals headed by Admiral Pan Hengchen reported to His Majesty the current development of the Royal Navy, the construction of 37 naval bases stationed overseas, and the future development plan of the Royal Navy. , had a long secret talk.

After more than 20 years of development

The Royal Navy has become a strong regional sea force with 63 iron-clad steamships of various types, and its cruising range covers the entire Americas and the Western Pacific region.

The Royal Navy has an all-steam armored team of the world's advanced level, with a total of 41 main warships, and the rest are some military auxiliary ships and high-speed coal carriers, a total of 22 ships, providing expeditionary combat support.

The main force of the Royal Navy is the Tornado-class armored heavy cruiser with a displacement of 4980 tons. A total of 11 ships of this class and subsequent improvements have been completed and served, and 3 ships are still under construction. It is expected that they will all be completed and served by the end of next year at the latest.

Another type of steam iron-clad battleship is the 1848-ton "Han" iron-clad frigate that began in 1500. So far, a total of 5 ships have been built in five batches. It is the ship with the largest number of equipment in the Royal Navy.

The "Han" iron-clad frigate belongs to the ranks of light cruisers and is also a type of iron-clad ship with the longest development history.

During the service period of more than 20 years, he has experienced a series of high-intensity naval battles such as the North American War, the bombardment of Edo for foreign intervention wars, and the blockade of the Brazilian naval battle in the South American War. He has proved his value with his excellent record.

Five batches of the "Han" ironclad ship have been built. Based on the feedback from the Royal Navy officers and men in use, the deficiencies exposed in the design of the warship, each batch will have different degrees of technical improvement, and it has long been different. And language.

Due to the inherent shortcomings of small and medium-sized warships, such as poor seaworthiness and seakeeping, the ship's living environment is cramped and small, the firepower configuration of the sideboard auxiliary guns is insufficient, the voyage is short, the boiler room and engine room are not scientifically distributed, the combat command tower has poor vision, and lacks Problems with advanced devices such as light signals have been improved one by one in the subsequent improved models.

From the initial batch of 1500-ton "Han" ironclad ships to the fifth batch of 5-ton "Hanling" and "Hanyu" that were newly completed and put into service, the technical level has greatly improved, and the caliber of the main guns of the ships has increased. The secondary gun setting has been enhanced, and the ability to project firepower per unit time is doubled compared to the early models.

Thanks to the rapid development of steam engine technology, the seaworthiness of the ship has been greatly improved, the voyage has increased by [-]%, and various technical indicators are among the advanced ranks of light ironclad ships in the world today.

Next Step

The Royal Navy plans to develop a new type of "Wei" 2500-ton steam iron-clad ship to replace the old "Han" ship, to realize the replacement of the Royal Navy's light steam armored ships, and to continue to maintain the world's top-level light armored steam fleet.

According to the construction plan declared by the Royal Navy, the first batch of "Wei" ships will build 1 ships, starting from the end of 6, and it is planned to be delivered to the Royal Navy at the end of 1869 to strengthen the strength of the coastal fleet.

The follow-up ship construction plan will be further improved according to the feedback from the Royal Navy in actual use, and will be included in the second batch of construction plans, called the "Wei" type II reform. 2 ships will also be built, and they are planned to be delivered in succession at the end of 6. .

The light steam ironclad ship has the characteristics of low construction cost, wide application range, coastal patrol, anti-piracy and low-intensity combat. The Royal Navy needs to be equipped with a certain scale in order to achieve absolute control over the empire's waters.

So, in the next 15-20 years
The Royal Navy has a great demand for 2500-ton "Guardian" steam ironclad ships, at least between 36 and 40 ships. It is a type of capital ship that is generally assigned to various overseas bases.

In addition to the above two types of main ships, the Royal Navy is also equipped with an 8100-ton "Shen Nong" test ship, which is a special technical performance verification ship.

The "Shen Nong" test ship is taken from the meaning of Shen Nong tasting all kinds of herbs. Its main function is to test the power combination of the latest vertical steam engine and new high-pressure oil-fired boiler.
This is the latest three-expansion vertical steam engine designed and improved by the California Steam Power Research Laboratory on the basis of summarizing previous experience. With the new high-pressure oil-fired boiler, a steam engine power combination can output 6400 horsepower, and the thermal efficiency can reach 17%. The previous steam engine has been improved by [-]%, which is a major technological innovation project.

Two latest three-expansion vertical steam engines are equipped with a power combination of 12 new high-pressure oil-fired boilers, with a total output of 12800 astonishing horsepower, which can propel the 8100-ton "Shen Nong" experimental ship to soar on the sea at an extreme high speed of 21.5 knots, and It can maintain such extreme high speed for about 4 hours.

After nearly two years of sailing tests, it has been proved that the reliability and maintainability of the new power plant has met the conditions for batch equipment of the Royal Navy.

The only obstacle is; advanced technology means high equipment costs.

Compared with the common speed of 20 or [-] knots of the navy's main ironclad ships in today's era, the astonishingly high speed of the "Shen Nong" is based on the high cost. Only two sets of vertical steam power equipment are worth millions of Tang yuan. About £[-].

Such a high price is a power configuration that the Royal Navy cannot afford.

After repeated negotiations with Changan Heavy Industry, the final power configuration of the Royal Navy is a power scheme of two simplified vertical steam engines and 10 new high-pressure oil-fired boilers. The total output power is reduced from 12800 horsepower to 9600 horsepower, and the purchase price is also reduced. To 78 Tang yuan.

If it is confirmed to purchase 4 sets of power units at one time, the price can be reduced to 73 Tang yuan, and if 8 sets of power units can be purchased at one time, the price can be reduced to 66.8 Tang yuan, or about 13.4 pounds.

The greater the output, the lower the cost that can be balanced.

The corresponding reduced power version, based on 9600 horsepower, will reduce the limit speed of the 8100-ton "Shen Nong" to 18.5 knots, which can last for about 5 hours, while the ship's maximum speed is around 17 knots, and its cruise speed is about Verses 11~12.

This level of technology is still among the top in the world. From the perspective of purchase cost and maintenance cost, the Royal Navy is more acceptable to this plan.

Besides
The "Shen Nong" test ship is also equipped with a 305mm double-door main naval gun developed by Colt Weapons, a 280mm double-door main naval gun with an extended version and a normal version, and a 210mm double-door main naval gun. One, two 180mm and two 150mm double-door naval guns. These new naval guns are all breech-loaded and equipped with rifling, representing the top achievements of the Datang Empire in the field of weapons industry.

With the maturity of the power plant, the technical performance of the main naval gun has gradually improved after years of verification, and it has the conditions for large-scale equipment.

now think of it
The 1857-ton "Zhenwei" class ironclad ship plan proposed by the Royal Navy in 7800 seemed a bit eager for quick success.

12 years ago
Whether it is the ship's power facilities or the performance of the main gun, the construction level of the steam ironclad ship is not mature, and the consequence of hasty launching is to pay a heavy price for technical verification. The technology verification ship turned out to have paid the tuition fee.

Today, in the port of Portsmouth, England, there are more than 10 thousand-ton iron-clad ships moored all year round, which look unique and spectacular.

Some are sails, side wheels plus propeller three-power combination ships, some are suspended propeller power plus sail ships, and some are sails plus side wheel power. Huge naval budget.

Today
The British Royal Navy has clearly abandoned the side paddle wheel design in ship design, but it is still reluctant to use the sail power that has been used for hundreds of years. Therefore, the biggest feature of the British Royal Armored Fleet is the coexistence of sails and steam engine power. The steam armor that participated in the decisive battle of the ocean The displacement of capital ships is between 7000 and 12000 tons, and there are as many as 9 models.

There are three types of new iron-clad battleships currently under development.

最具代表性的英国战列舰米诺陶级“阿金考特”号，排水量10812吨，主要武备是4门9英寸229mm线膛前装炮和24门7英寸178mm线膛前装炮。

Launched in 1862, the ship is 124 meters long, 18.2 meters wide, and has a draft of 8.5 meters. It uses sail power and steam power to coexist. It is currently dismantling the Armstrong muzzle gun at the Royal Navy Dockyard and replacing it with a British imitation Colt 280. The main naval gun with two millimeter breech-loading doors has reached the world's top level in firepower output.

A 7-ton main ironclad ship has been in service for less than [-] years, and it has to return to the shipyard to disembowel and carry out major changes. Aside from wasting a huge amount of naval budget, it reflects many problems in naval construction.

Under the insistence of Emperor Li Cha of the Tang Dynasty, the imperial navy's urgent development impulse was well suppressed. After 12 years of time precipitation and technological development, it finally ushered in the era of large-scale equipment of advanced steam ironclad ships.

Proven
The imperial meeting approved the "Zhenyang Armament Plan" drafted by the Royal Navy Department. In 1870, the navy budget allocated funds to build the 8600-ton "Zhenyang" steam iron-clad battleship. The first batch of ships consisted of three ships, namely " "Zhenyang", "Zhenhai" and "Zhenjiang" took three years to plan and were all completed and put into service at the end of 1872.

The 8600-ton "Zhenyang" steam ironclad battleship has plenty of firepower. It is planned to be equipped with two 305mm double-door main naval guns, one on the bow and one on the stern. The full firepower of the 305mm main gun can be exerted on the side. capital ship.

This class of ships is equipped with four double 4mm secondary guns, a total of eight.There are two on the left and right sides, in the form of semi-closed armored turrets, which can provide sufficient side firepower.

The ship is also equipped with 12 40mm fast guns, which are capable of devastating damage to small and medium-sized ships and freighters.

The 8600-ton "Zhenyang" steam ironclad battleship uses two sets of reduced-profile vertical steam turbines and a power combination of 10 new high-pressure oil-fired boilers, which can output a total of 9600 horsepower and push the ship to achieve cruising at 10-11 knots Speed, the top speed of 16 knots.

In the case of extreme power squeeze, it can maintain the extreme high speed of 17.5 knots for 5 hours, and the power output level ranks among the top in the world.

Such an advanced iron-clad steam battleship costs 230 million Tang yuan for equipment, which is about 46 pounds. If more than 8 ships are purchased on a large scale, the equipment cost will be reduced to less than 40 pounds.

It can be seen from this

The Royal Navy of the Tang Empire still adopted a steady advance strategy in equipping the main steam ironclad warships for the decisive battle in the ocean, instead of being dazzled by the idea of ​​quick success and instant benefit, it required to equip 4 ships, 6 ships or even more at a time.

Large steam ironclad warships are war behemoths that integrate advanced technology in today's world. From ship type selection, technical routes to specific areas, such as turbine power, artillery units, command and control, observation and aiming, and communications, they are all in the forefront. Frontier exploration period.

Bringing together so much advanced steam revolution technology in one is a huge challenge.

Even if the Royal Navy has accumulated more than 20 years, it is still not enough to deal with the endless technical problems. It is necessary to follow the development strategy requirements of "small steps, continuous improvement, continuous improvement, and steady improvement of overall combat power". With the limited Royal Navy Appropriate budgets for maximum effectiveness.

Regarding the maturity shown by the Royal Navy, Emperor Richard did not hesitate to praise him, saying;

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. It is a mature practice for Zhu Aiqing to learn lessons and experience from the tortuous development of the Royal Navy.

Lian is very pleased, and hopes that Zhu Aiqing will not forget the original intention and conclude a feasible way for the development of the imperial navy.

We envy but do not encourage learning from the British Royal Navy's style of spending billions of dollars.

They have their long nautical history and successful experience, and we have our unique development path and concept of building the Royal Navy, which can be used for reference, not copied.

The development of the "Zhenyang" class steam ironclad battleship means that the Royal Navy of the Tang Empire has taken the first step in the direction of the ocean-going navy, which is of great significance.

I hope that all Aiqings will not be satisfied with the current achievements, but will work together to strive for greater glory in the colonial ocean, and spread the country's prestige thousands of miles away. "

"The ministers are entrusted with the deep grace of the emperor. They shoulder the important task of the development of the Royal Navy. They never slack off for a moment. They are willing to work together for Bu Guowei thousands of miles away, and they will die!" Guang, clasped his fists forcefully and replied.

The steam ironclad battleship that is decisively fought in the ocean is the supreme goal of the Royal Navy generals. Whenever they think of controlling such a powerful war beast to conquer the enemy thousands of miles away, these generals feel overwhelmed.

it won't take long

The Royal Navy of the Empire will develop into an ocean-going navy like Britain, France and other countries. It will cross the seven seas and spread the country's prestige thousands of miles away. What an exciting scene it will be!