The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 851 Worship the Multi-Turret Cult!
Lushan, Prime Minister's Office meeting room.

The bamboo filament electric lamp illuminated the brass battleship model with a golden glow, as if it were some rare treasure. French shipbuilding expert Yige gently stroked the slender hull of the "Flying Eagle" with his fingers.

"Your Highness, please look at the layout of these five turrets." When the Frenchman mentioned the "five turrets", his eyes lit up. "It's really brilliant!"

"Haha!" Luo Yaoguo laughed, "The more turrets there are, the stronger the firepower!"

It was he who proposed the "five-turret" layout!
"Your Highness is right!" Yan Fu introduced, "Each twin-mounted 150mm rapid-fire gun uses the latest wedge-type breechblock, and can fire six rounds per minute! Five guns firing at the same time means ten shells are fired at the enemy ship at the same time!"

This firepower is just right!

Luo Yaoguo suddenly leaned forward, his nose almost touching the model of the midship turret: "Why is this turret open? Won't this affect the protection?"

"This is done to reduce weight. We have no choice," Riyige said with a wry smile. "The rotating mechanism of the fully enclosed turret alone weighs a hundred tons. After changing to a semi-open turret, the weight saved can carry an additional 200 tons of coal! It can increase the range by a lot!"

Yan Fu added: "Your Majesty, your speed requirement for the Flying Eagle is too high. A 24-ton ship requires knots. It is really difficult to achieve this with a triple expansion steam engine, so we have to calculate every pound of weight carefully!"

The speed of 24 knots was of course used to fool the British to continue to follow the path of "thin skin and big filling". Luo Yaoguo nodded slightly: "In addition to reducing protection, what other advanced technologies did you use for the Flying Eagle?"

Yan Fu unfolded a huge line drawing of the ship, and the tip of his carbon pen pointed precisely at the V-shaped stern. "The propeller-back-rudder layout combined with the four-blade propeller increases propulsion efficiency by 15 percent."

"Even better is the U-shaped ship at the front and V-shaped ship at the rear!" His voice trembled slightly with excitement. "The U-shaped front body gathers displacement to suppress wave making, while the V-shaped rear body diverts the wake. This is the result of hundreds of tests and verifications conducted by the Jiangnan Shipyard's research institute in the ship model pool! Two hundred data points are recorded for each test. Fortunately, Shanghai Naval University has sent thousands of graduates to our Shipbuilding Research Institute in recent years, otherwise we would not be able to keep up."

Yan Fu continued, "Through experiments, we have also found that expanding the bulbous bow by 40 percent can generate secondary waves at a speed of 20 knots." He spoke in a torrent of words that were difficult for normal people to understand, "This can just offset the main ship's waves!"

Luo Yaoguo then asked: "Can the speed really exceed 24 knots?"

He estimated that the British would catch up to twenty knots this time. However, once their shipyard's slipway was filled with twenty-knot 10,000-ton ships, the "Flying Eagle" should be able to launch a race!
And facing the 24-knot Flying Eagle, those 20-knot ships would be wasted! And those 80-odd cargo ships with more than 10 knots would have to be thrown away!

"It's very difficult to reach 24 knots stably, but we can increase the speed temporarily through fuel injection!" Riyige took out a dazzling blueprint from his briefcase: "This is the latest fuel injection device designed by Schneider. The thermal efficiency of traditional coal-fired boilers is only 8%, but after the heavy oil is atomized and sprayed into the furnace, the steam temperature can jump to 250 degrees! The output of four triple expansion machines can reach 120% of the nominal power!"

The conference room fell into a brief silence, with only the sound of surprised gasps from the crowd. Yan Fuhui continued, "When forced ventilation is used, the exhaust fans are fully turned on, and the coal consumption of the eight boilers is comparable to that of a fire dragon! There is no problem with the ship speed temporarily exceeding 24 knots, but of course there is a risk." He pointed to the copper pipes densely packed in the boiler room on the drawing, "Superheated steam may melt through the pipe wall, so we designed a dual-path redundant system. In addition, the cost of this whole system is..."

Luo Yaoguo interrupted with a wave of his hand: "Build it! It must be built! If I build one, the British will have to build ten! Pudong Shipyard will start construction today! Block the lower part of the hull for me, and let people see the upper part!"

After Yige and Yan Fu introduced the "Sea Eagle" that day, Xu Shou's son, Xu Jianyin, the director of the Department of Shipbuilding of Taiping University and the director of the Ship Research Institute, brought a model of the "Sea Dragon". This five-turret ship was shorter and thicker than the "Flying Eagle", and its armor belt was as thick as a city wall. There were also five turrets installed on the hull, two at the front and back, and one in the middle, all of which were twin-linked.

"Although the 200mm recoil gun has a slower firing rate, its armor-piercing capability far exceeds that of the 150mm rapid-fire gun." Xu Jianyin said excitedly, "Each shell weighs 150 kilograms. The power of a salvo of five guns is enough to collapse a granite fortress!"

Luo Yaoguo asked: "How thick is the uniform iron armor that can be penetrated?"

Xu Jianyin said: "It can penetrate 300mm armor from 1,500 meters away!"

As he spoke, he suddenly removed a section of the ship's bottom, revealing the sophisticated internal structure. The V-shaped bow actually contained a wooden frame: "The semi-submersible bulbous bow uses South Sea ironwood as the core, and is covered with 5mm mild steel." His fingers slid along the keel, "It can automatically lift the bow by two degrees at high speed, reducing resistance by 5%." His fingertips slid towards the flat-bottomed stern, "Although the diameter of the four-bladed propeller is 0.5 meters smaller than that of the Flying Eagle, its propulsion efficiency is 7% higher in the flat-bottomed flow field. This is the result of hundreds of repeated experiments in the model pool by the Ship Research Institute of Taiping University!"

Luo Yaoguo can only give a general direction. If it is to be implemented, it will take repeated experiments. Fortunately, Taiping University, Shanghai Naval Academy, Xuzhou Metallurgical Academy, Zhejiang Qiushi Academy, Xuzhou Chemical Institute, Shanghai Naval Academy, and Tianjing Army Academy have been in operation for more than ten years, and have expanded their enrollment several times. Generations have cultivated at least 70,000 to 80,000 science and engineering talents!
I can’t say that the quality is definitely higher than that of science and engineering students in the UK, France, Germany and the US, but the number is definitely large enough.

Xu Jianyin finally said proudly: "The Ship Research Institute estimates that the Hailong can rely on 1.2 horsepower to push the speed to a maximum of 16 knots!" "16 knots." Luo Yaoguo nodded with satisfaction, "It's enough as a verification ship!"

现在16节，将来三胀蒸汽机的动力还能增加，单台1.5万都有可能！3台三胀机就是4.5万.让3万吨的大船跑到20节以上也有可能！
As a battleship, this power configuration is sufficient.

“What is the level of protection?”

"Reporting to King Wu, the Hailong adopts the design of the core armored fortress!" Xu Jianyin removed the midship armor module with a quick and neat movement. The cross section shows an exquisite three-layer structure: the outer layer is 1.2 mm wrought iron, the middle layer is mm teak, and the inner layer is mm carburized steel. "A total of mm equivalent protection!" He raised his voice a few degrees, "After all, the armor weight reduced in the non-core area is only a -ton ironclad ship."

"Not bad!" Luo Yaoguo smiled with satisfaction, "It's great that a 1.2-ton verification ship can achieve this level. However, the large-caliber barrel recoil technology, the self-tightening gun barrel of more than 200 mm, and the automated ammunition supply system must be developed in a timely manner. In addition, the Hailong has started construction at the Jiangnan Shipyard branch on Changxing Island and is placed in a 2-ton dock. The surrounding area is tightly covered. Don't let outsiders see it!"

The "Hailong" is certainly not the main force in the future, but the 1.5-ton, 2-ton, 2.5-ton, and even 3-ton battleships developed on the basis of the Hailong are the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's trump cards in its fight for supremacy at sea.

Therefore, the technology of "Hailong" is "too advanced to be displayed"!
Late autumn of 1871, on the banks of the Huangpu River.

Behind the English-style window frame of the top floor suite of the Ritz Hotel, two gray cloth gowns solidified into blurry shadows. The wool scarf tightly wrapped around Saigo Tsugumichi's Adam's apple, and Togo Heihachiro's round-framed glasses were covered with white mist. The two looked like foreign students who came to Shanghai to study.

"Three hundred feet!" Togo adjusted the focus of the Zeiss telescope. In the telescope, the steel behemoth on the Pudong dock opposite had gradually taken shape, and the five gun mount base rings were looming in the morning mist. However, Saigo's lens was always fixed on the gantry crane on the dock - the gantry crane lifted a huge curved steel plate, and the riveters hung on the steel cables and hammered, and every crisp sound was accompanied by scarlet sparks.

"The fifth gun is located behind the midship chimney." Saigo's Japanese was lower than Jiang Feng's. "The normal design always places the chimney in the midship position, but they actually let the turret occupy the smoke exhaust space!"

Suddenly, a long whistle sounded from the river. A cargo ship flying the Union Jack slowly passed in front of the dock. On the deck, several foreigners were busy setting up the theodolite. Dongxiang's telescope turned rapidly: "The British spies are measuring the length of the ship!"

Saigo Tsunemichi put down the telescope and muttered, "I know that white-haired guy. He's the chief engineer of the Sasebo Shipyard. I saw him in Nagasaki last year." He sneered, "It seems that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom deliberately exposed itself."

"The British have been fooled." Togo Heihachiro looked at the British, "They will definitely follow suit and build this thin-hulled five-turret ship."

"So what kind of ship should we build?" Saigo Tsungmichi said, "Commander-in-Chief Zheng and Army Commander Yamamoto are worrying about this. The Warrior ship technology that the British promised to export to our country is outdated, and even if it is built, it will not be of much use. And our national strength is limited, there is really no room for error!"

Dongxiang pondered and said: "Since the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom deliberately displayed their high-speed armored ships, then the ones they hid must be slow ships with strong protection and large-caliber artillery!"

"Like the devastating level?" asked Saigo Tsongmichi.

Togo Heihachiro nodded: "That should be it. We should find a way to buy the Devastation, and then develop a 2-ton giant ship based on the Devastation!"

"The British are willing to sell?"

Dongxiang smiled and said, "We were reluctant at first, but after the Flying Fish appeared, the Destroyer, which has a speed of only 14 knots, is no longer attractive. We, Japan, can take action!"

"Japan?" Saigo asked, "Shouldn't it be the Kingdom of the Morning Sun?"

"No, it's Japan!"

(End of this chapter)