Chapter 104 Comparison between China and the West

If the goal can be achieved by just shouting slogans, then the Cross-Travel Group, which has a large amount of rhetorical resources, should have dominated the world long ago. Whether it is manpower or coal, it is not something that can be obtained by slamming the table and throwing the bench.

Now everyone knows that there is an opportunity to take advantage of Annan's domestic situation, and there is no way to take advantage of it immediately.

"Where are the ships? We only have a few moving ships, are we going to send them all out to transport coal?" Ning Qi poured cold water on the emotional Tao Donglai: "From Hongji Port to Sanya, even if it is a straight line distance on the sea

There are also more than two hundred nautical miles. If it is the Fuchuan Guangzhou Ship we captured, the fastest one-way voyage will be four to five days. Counting the time for loading and unloading cargo on both ends, it will be very smooth if it can make a round trip in about half a month.

The displacement of the two ships is less than 100 tons. Even if they are all sent out, how much coal can be loaded? If we only need to load dozens of tons of coal every half a month, will the cost of all our efforts be too high?

"

"How is the shipbuilding project of the Ministry of Shipping going now?" Tao Donglai, who had calmed down again, asked Yan Chujie. Currently, the closest relationship with the Ministry of Shipping is the Military and Police Department. In fact, the sailing sailors trained by the Ministry of Shipping

, most of them are under the name of the Military and Police Department, and the functions of the Maritime Transport Department itself are also assigned to the command of the Military and Police Department during wartime. This means that for a long period of time in the future, there will be no relationship between the Maritime Transport Department and the Navy.

The boundaries between them will not be very clear. The sailing ships of the Maritime Department that are usually used for cargo or patrol tasks may be transformed into troop carriers or even gunboats in wartime.

"It went smoothly. I went to the shipyard the day before yesterday to see it. The ship being built now is basically an enlarged replica of the captured Haicang ship. The designed displacement is two hundred tons. The keel has been paved.

Enough ship materials have been prepared, and Yue Zhiyun said that if human resources can be fully guaranteed, the ship will definitely be launched before the end of the year." Seeing that everyone was silent, Yan Chujie could only continue: "I know you all think this is the case.

The shipbuilding speed is too slow, but the problem is that we only have about a dozen professional shipwrights now, and the largest ship they have ever built only had 400 materials and a displacement of more than 200 tons. I also want a few thousand tons.

Artillery battleship, but the scale of the current shipyard is simply impossible to achieve, and it is even impossible to start building two ships at the same time."

"A two-hundred-ton ship, can the cannons we have built now be put on board?" Tao Donglai keenly grasped the information in Yan Chujie's words.

"There is no problem getting on the ship, and the gun mounts have been made. However, the cannons can only be placed on the deck, and the number cannot be too many, otherwise it will affect the operation of the sails and make the ship's stability worse. Maritime transportation

The Ministry's opinion is four to six, and the specific number will not be determined until it is launched and tested. If it is a larger-caliber artillery, this number will have to be lowered." Yan Chujie said with some regret.

Having a navy composed of gunboats has been the long-standing expectation of the Military and Police Department. Although after several months of hard work, the problem of putting cannons on board was finally overcome, the embellishment of just a few small-caliber artillery obviously cannot make Yan Chujie

This giant ship and artillery person is satisfied. Even so, it will still have to wait several months before it can be realized. No wonder Yan Chujie feels regretful.

"Can't we build several decks to place artillery like a Western-style sailboat?" Ning Qi suddenly regretted this question. Didn't this question directly show that he was novice in this area?

Sure enough, Yan Chujie immediately cast a look of disdain: "Ning Qi, you don't know this. The structure of Chinese sailboats is very different from Western sailboats. There is no way to install a full gun deck."

The hull shape of Chinese-style sailing ships is very different from that of Western-style sailing ships. For example, the hull shape of a Fuchuan ship is wider at the bottom and the hull section is very similar to the V-shaped ship shape of modern ships. It becomes wider towards the top deck, so the artillery is generally directly

It is arranged on the top deck. Since there are watertight cabins one after another in the lower part of the hull, and the area is originally small, it is impossible to arrange more artillery. The main warship Daqingtou when Zheng Chenggong conquered Taiwan was about ten feet long.

, with a width of more than two feet and a draft of eight feet, such a Dafu ship is only equipped with two large-caliber artillery at the bow and stern. The largest three-masted gunboat he used was twenty feet long and equipped with Hongyi cannons.

Eight gates, and forty gates of Qianjin Folangji. This kind of firepower is still unable to compare with Western warships. The only way to suppress the opponent is in terms of the number of warships.

Western-style sailboats do not have watertight cabin designs, and their anti-sinking performance is far inferior to Chinese-style sailboats. The solution for Western designers is to use a large number of ribs and thicken the hull, thus making the entire hull more durable.

Strong. The hull of a Western-style sailboat is U-shaped in cross-section, and is larger at the bottom and smaller at the top. The spacious gun deck at the bottom is used to arrange the artillery with the heaviest gun body and the largest caliber. The weight and caliber of the artillery are gradually reduced layer by layer, so that the hull

The center of gravity can also be stabilized, and the narrow top deck can also reduce the contact area when the two ships get close to each other for hand-to-hand combat. This hull structure also determines that the weight and number of guns that a Western-style sailing ship can carry are much greater than that of a Chinese-style sailing ship.

In terms of the maritime armed forces of this period, the combat effectiveness of Western-style sailing ships was indeed much greater than that of Chinese-style sailing ships. But in terms of design concepts alone, Chinese-style sailing ships were far ahead of this era. Modern warships hundreds of years later,

In the end, the hull design of a Chinese sailing ship was adopted, relying on watertight cabin technology to increase sinking resistance, and the arrangement of artillery was also similar to that of the Chinese sailing ship of this era, with only a small number of large-caliber artillery placed on the deck as the main firepower. While the Western

From the perspective of the evolution history of battleships, the sailing battleship is more like a funny design that went the wrong way. It is a pity that the ingenuity of the Chinese was ultimately limited by the level of shipbuilding and gun building at the time. Otherwise, the comparison of maritime power between the East and the West

It may not be that disparity.

Of course, the time-travelling people who come to this era with Zenith Star technology will definitely change the course of history. Advanced shipbuilding concepts and weapons manufacturing technology will definitely greatly enhance the combat effectiveness of Chinese sailing ships, but this change will still take a long time.

Time will slowly come to fruition. At least for now, the people across time can only hope that shipyards can build their own armed merchant ships as soon as possible. As for building warships, that is not something that can be achieved now.

After listening to Yan Chujie's introduction, Ning Qi said angrily: "So we will still have to avoid white-skinned sail warships at sea for a long time in the future? If we don't build steam ironclads, won't we be able to defeat them at sea?

them?"

"That's not necessarily true." Yan Chujie shook his head and said, "Western-style sailing ships do have natural advantages in design in this era, but the disadvantages are also obvious..."

Western-style sailboats require a large amount of high-quality wood as ribs, which directly results in the cost of Western-style sailboats of the same tonnage being much higher than that of Chinese-style sailboats. The soft sails used in Western-style sailboats require higher masts and more

There are many sailors, which invisibly increases the cost of using sailing ships. The most terrible thing is that the power that Western powers can invest in the Far East is very limited, and the firepower advantage of Western-style sailing ships is not enough to make up for their numerical disadvantages.

Especially when facing East Asian opponents who are good at jumping gangs on water, the disadvantage caused by the gap in the number of ships and sailors will become even more prominent.

"Wait a minute!" Ning Qi interrupted Yan Chujie's introduction and said, "The ship-based artillery of this era can shoot hundreds of meters, so why are they helpless in the face of a gang?"

"It's true that it can hit hundreds of meters, but it doesn't mean that it can hit hundreds of meters accurately. Ship-based artillery in this era does not have any sighting and fire control systems. It all depends on the gunner's intuition and

Experience." Yan Chujie explained patiently: "Besides, two fists are hard to beat with four hands. We are really surrounded by hundreds of ships. Even if we have cannons, how many ships can we sink? This is not a Michael Bay movie. What can we hit?

Everything explodes directly, and often even if it hits, it just smashes a hole in the hull of the ship. It is not that easy to sink a ship, and most of it depends on luck."

Maritime battles in this era are indeed as Yan Chujie said. The power of solid bullets fired from artillery is difficult to completely sink a large warship. Most maritime battles are still like the scenes in "Pirates of the Caribbean". The ships of both sides get close to each other.

They used artillery to blast each other, sending planks and blood flying everywhere. It looked very lively, but in the end, they still had to rely on gang fighting to solve their opponents.

Although the British Navy relied on artillery combat to defeat the Spanish Armada in the Great Battle of Spain in 1588, which began to change the ownership of maritime hegemony, the inefficient combat method of gang-hopping still continued at sea.

For quite a long time, until the Battle of Trafalgar in the early 19th century, when the British Navy led by Admiral Nelson defeated the French Navy under Marshal Napoleon, boarding warfare still played an important role in this great battle.

"No matter how powerful they are, it can't be compared to the word 'more'. The Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and British who have come to East Asia now, how big can their fleets be? They also suffered a loss on the coast of the Ming Dynasty. Moreover,

We have so much advanced technology on hand, it is only a matter of time before we can build warships with more efficient combat performance." Yan Chujie is full of confidence in his own technological reserves and is not too worried about the fleets of Western powers. Of course, he can be so confident.

Another reason is that Sanya is not located on the current main trade routes in Southeast Asia. It is almost impossible to encounter merchant ships or warships from the West. Naturally, there is no possibility of any maritime conflicts.
Chapter completed!