Xia Houmin thought for a long time and gritted his teeth and said: "Seventy, no more. This is already 30% of the annual enrollment quota of the Naval Academy." Although all the places in the Naval Academy are controlled by the Xiahou family, it is difficult to give up such a quota.
The extra quota still gives him a headache.
Fang Xiaoyu nodded: "Okay, it's a deal. As long as the marshal allows me to recruit sailors from various counties in the East China Sea, I will build a fleet that can compete with the Japanese navy within ten years." Although it took a long time, Xiahou Min knew very well.
The navy cannot be established overnight. He is very pleased that Fang Xiaoyu has such a promise. With Fang Xiaoyu's support, he can concentrate on dealing with the threat from the south of the Saar Empire, not to mention that he also needs to purchase some armored ships.
After coming out of Xiahoumin's place, Fang Xiaoyu was worried. The thing he was most worried about had happened. The Saer Empire had already arrived at the door of the Lanfang Empire with its powerful armored ships. What was even more frightening was that they had fostered a local force. Although the Japanese Empire had
The people are sparse, and they have only started to reform for more than ten years. However, their determination to devote all their efforts to building a navy is just like Japan on earth when it just started the Meiji Restoration, and its wolfish ambitions are obvious.
Once the Japanese navy becomes stronger, the first victims will be either the northern subcontinent or the coastal counties of the empire, and Xiaoyu cannot afford to lose in either direction. Fang Xiaoyu can't help but secretly hate it. Originally, he wanted to concentrate on developing the economy, and then use his own economy as a
We support solving the threat of the Cossack Empire on land first, but now all plans are about to be disrupted.
Fang Xiaoyu secretly calculated that he didn't have much working capital now. Even if he misappropriated the money to expand the army, he only had more than 10 million to use, but he still had to leave money for the army to replace equipment. In this way, he would only have eight yuan at most.
million.
In the past, eight million would have been a lot for him, but now that his business is bigger and there are more places to spend money, this mere eight million is really nothing. "Oh, I'm short of money.
." Fang Xiaoyu sighed. If he shouted such a sentence on the streets of the capital, he would definitely be beaten. He is now a rich man famous throughout the empire.
Just when Fang Xiaoyu was thinking about how to save money to build ships, he had unknowingly walked into the shipyard in Luhai County. Xu Shouchang came towards him and said hello: "Master, why are you here?" Fang Xiaoyu replied.
After coming to his senses, he saw Xu Shouchang in front of him and said with a smile: "Brother Shouchang, how are you doing recently?"
Xu Shouchang said: "It's not good at all. All we have built in the past few months are merchant ships, which is so boring." Fang Xiaoyu said with a smile: "I will find a deal for you right now." Xu Shouchang's eyes lit up: "What? Want it?
Are you building a warship?" Fang Xiaoyu said: "Yes, it's a big deal this time. How many slipways do you have available here?"
Xu Shouchang said: "Only four of the eight 20,000-ton slipways that have just been expanded according to your instructions are in use, but they will be vacated in another month." Fang Xiaoyu nodded and said: "It is enough. Let's build three first.
An ironclad ship." Fang Xiaoyu took out the drawing he showed to Xia Houmin. Xu Shouchang said: "Come to my office and take a look."
Arriving at Xu Shouchang's office, Fang Xiaoyu spread out the drawings on the drawing table. Xu Shouchang got closer to the drawings and looked at them carefully. "It's amazing, with a displacement of 8,000 tons and a main gun with a caliber of 305 mm."
Xu Shouchang exclaimed when he saw it: "Such a complicated watertight compartment, two hundred millimeters of armor? This is really amazing. But there are some problems here." Xu Shouchang pointed to the coal bunker and said: "It is popular in the Western Continent to build coal bunkers on two sides.
On the other hand, you think this can weaken the power of the warhead penetrating the hull and add additional protection. Why do you put the coal bunker near the bottom of the ship?"
Fang Xiaoyu is aware of this problem, and it is also a misunderstanding in the early construction of ironclad ships. Fang Xiaoyu explained: "In fact, the coal bunker cannot weaken the power of the warhead at all. When the coal bunker is used for a long time, a large amount of coal powder will be deposited, and these coal powder will be more likely to cause an explosion.
, but it will increase the explosive power of the warhead. It is better to use coal instead of ballast, which can also save some space."
Xu Shouchang nodded and secretly sighed that the young master was so proficient in designing warships. He pointed to the power system and said: "According to the twelve boilers and four steam engines written on it, it is impossible to achieve the required fifteen knots speed." Fang Xiaoyu said: "
I will give you the size and shape first, and you can just build the ship. Leave the boiler and steam engine to me. I will ship them to you after a while, but you must keep it confidential and not reveal the technology of the power system.
, I will ask Zhao Quan to send someone to assist you."
Xu Shouchang asked in surprise: "Is it a new power system?" Fang Xiaoyu nodded: "A very good power system is the latest technological achievement in our hands and must not be leaked."
"Yes, Master." Xu Shouchang was very excited after hearing Fang Xiaoyu's words. As a ship designer, the happiest thing is to see better equipment that can be used to build stronger warships. Fang Xiaoyu had no reservations this time and put the little
After taking out the latest results of wind research, he decided to install fire tube boilers and single expansion engines on the navy's ironclad ships.
Fang Xiaoyu suddenly felt worried and said: "But the 305mm main gun is not easy to deal with." Xu Shouchang said with a strange smile: "I recently recruited a few classmates from the year who majored in ship-based weapons.
I built a laboratory for them. It is not difficult to use a 305mm artillery. We have sufficient technical reserves."
Fang Xiaoyu said excitedly: "Such an important laboratory should be placed on your own territory. Let them go to Tongshan County in two days." Xu Shouchang also felt that what Fang Xiaoyu said was reasonable, not to mention that research on naval guns does not have to be carried out in
After studying at the beach, he nodded in agreement.
Fang Xiaoyu said again: "These three ships are built for the navy, how many of us are going to build too." Xu Shouchang said: "Should we also build this kind of ironclad ship?" Fang Xiaoyu shook his head and said: "What if we build large ironclad ships like the navy?
It will make Xia Houmin feel threatened, which is not a good thing. We need to build a smaller one, one with less than 3,000 tons."
Xu Shouchang glanced at Fang Xiaoyu and said, "Master, you won't finish the boat drawing again, will you?" Fang Xiaoyu felt that if he took out the design drawings directly every time, it would stifle Xu Shouchang's creative ability, which would make him dependent.
After hearing Xu Shouchang's words, Fang Xiaoyu's childlike innocence grew: "Why don't we design a drawing separately and see whoever has the best design can use it." Xu Shouchang also had a desire to win and said, "Okay, let's do it like this. Still.
Please tell me the design requirements, Master."
Fang Xiaoyu thought for a while and said: "The displacement should not exceed 3,000 tons, the main gun caliber should be 203 millimeters, the speed should not be less than 16 knots, and the range should be increased as much as possible." As he said this, Fang Xiaoyu combined the fire tube boiler and the single expansion steam engine.
The performance indicators were all written down and handed to Xu Shouchang. Xu Shouchang said in a daze: "The indicators are so high? If the power system is as good as the young master said, you can really give it a try." Fang Xiaoyu said with a smile: "Of course there is no problem, you just need to design it carefully.
That’s it, let’s compare the two tomorrow.”
The next morning, Fang Xiaoyu, who was sleeping soundly, was pulled up by Xu Shouchang. Fang Xiaoyu rubbed his eyes and said, "Old Xu, why are you here so early?" Xu Shouchang said, "I'm here to compete with you."
, where are your drawings?" Fang Xiaoyu tried his best to open his eyes and looked at Xu Shouchang and said: "Eh? What happened to you yesterday, Old Xu? Why do you have dark circles under your eyes?"
Xu Shouchang said with a look of disapproval: "It's not because of you that I didn't sleep all night. I finished the drawings with great difficulty. I came to you as soon as I finished the drawings. Where are your drawings?" Fang Xiaoyu pointed with a smile.
His head said: "It's in my head, I can take it out anytime I want."
Xu Shouchang said angrily: "You are not kidding me, are you?" Fang Xiaoyu said: "Absolutely not, I only need a while to complete it." After saying that, Fang Xiaoyu got dressed and followed Xu Shouchang to the design room.
Fang Xiaoyu picked up the pen and looked at Xu Shouchang and smiled. Then the pen quickly started drawing on the paper. It only took half an hour for Fang Xiaoyu to complete the drawing. It was the first time for him to see Fang Xiaoyu's drawings.
Xu Shouchang's eyes were straightened.
Fang Xiaoyu put down his pen and said to Xu Shouchang: "Take a look, what do you think of my work?" Xu Shouchang said in surprise: "Did you just draw this? Why have you even written the test data? This is impossible." Fang Xiaoyu laughed.
Said: "This is a plan in mind." In fact, Fang Xiaoyu once again shamelessly plagiarized a work on Earth. The warship he drew was the drawing of the 'perfect cruiser' proposed by Rendall, which can be said to be the best cruiser at the end of the 19th century.