Outside Guangzhou, Li Qingmu, Minister of the Navy and Governor of the South China Sea Fleet, is looking forward to it.
The commander of the South China Sea Fleet, Chief Engineer of the Sail Battleship Liu Guangsheng, is about to arrive in Guangzhou City with a large number of craftsmen and machines for manufacturing battleships.
Li Qingmu has never worked with Liu Guangsheng.
But he has also heard of this rather legendary figure.
Liu Guangsheng was a common branch of the Liu family in Hanzhong. When the King of Qin entered Hanzhong, the Liu family was a typical gentry family.
Most of the men were exiled, and he was exiled to work in the ancestral temple in a small town.
Because his sister was the principal of a local primary school, she got the opportunity to teach in primary school.
Liu Guangsheng learned a lot of knowledge while teaching. He had a deep understanding of mechanics and liked shipbuilding.
Liu Guangsheng visited many old shipwrights in Hanzhong to learn shipbuilding techniques.
He also designed new ships based on his knowledge of mechanics.
Because he spent all his wealth on shipbuilding and failed to build a ship that was recognized by the people, his life became extremely difficult.
Without financial resources to support shipbuilding, we can only build ship models to practice our skills.
The ship model was brought into the Qin Palace by his cousin.
King Su He of Qin was shocked after seeing this and thought he was a genius.
Strongly support Liu Guangsheng’s research on shipbuilding technology.
At the same time, Liu Guangsheng was allowed to enter the military academy to learn naval knowledge.
Liu Guangsheng and many captains of the South China Sea Fleet were classmates in the same class at the military academy.
Li Qingmu went south to form the South China Sea Fleet, and Liu Guangsheng built sail battleships in the Yangtze River and explored the technology of manufacturing warships.
He had just received news that the sailing battleship technology was nearly mature.
Liu Guangsheng took his craftsmen south to take over the Guangzhou Shipyard, specializing in building battleships and other warships.
When Li Qingmu saw Liu Guangsheng and his entourage getting off the bus, he immediately greeted them.
"Master Li Zhu, our South China Sea Fleet is waiting for your arrival."
Liu Guangsheng said with a smile: "Fortunately, I have fulfilled my mission and I have figured out the technology of battleship construction.
Minister Li, I’ve kept you waiting for a long time.”
Li Qingmu immediately replied: "As long as the battleship is designed, I have prepared a banquet for you. Let's go to Dinghe Tower to discuss it in detail."
Liu Guangsheng declined politely: "The navy must be very anxious and hopes to see the battleship as soon as possible.
We are all our own people, no need to be so polite.
I brought these craftsmen and asked them to take over the Guangzhou Shipyard.
I came here this time and brought several new shipbuilding machines. I will install these machines in place as soon as possible.
Let’s find a secluded place, and I’ll talk to you about battleships in detail and determine the scale of construction of various warships.”
Li Qingmu saw that Liu Guangsheng worked neatly and neatly, so he immediately got into work as soon as he arrived in Guangzhou.
He likes such straightforward soldiers.
If it weren't for Liu Guangsheng's special status, he wouldn't hold the reception banquet.
Liu Guangsheng himself is a genius, and Li Qingmu needs a partner for several years to come.
Several sisters in his family married people of extraordinary status.
Li Dazhuang, Commander of the Seventh Army, and Wen Jingming, Minister of Military and Political Affairs.
…………………………
Liu Guangsheng took a sip of tea and took out several battleship models from the box he carried with him.
Among them, the largest battleship model has faint shadows of the classic sailing battleship, the covered wheel battleship.
"Our warships, three-masted, are called battleships. There are two types, first-class battleships and second-class battleships.
Their displacement is generally more than one thousand tons.
Two-mast cruisers are called cruisers, and there are two types, third-class cruisers and fourth-class cruisers.
Their displacement is generally more than 500 tons.
Other small warships with a displacement of less than 500 tons are generally called destroyers, and their size is based on the mission arrangement of the ship and is no longer classified."
Li Qingmu was surprised when he heard this. He understood the word displacement.
He also went to a military academy for further studies, and he understands some basic knowledge.
The weight of water displaced by an object is equal to the weight it can carry.
With a load capacity of one thousand tons, how many artillery pieces and soldiers can be loaded on it? This is a maritime giant.
Liu Guangsheng continued: "The king studied ancient and modern times, and what he learned was quite complicated.
In many cases, my ship design has been guided by the King.
The suggestion that the king made inadvertently can solve the problem that I have been thinking about for a long time.
The warships I designed all have low sides, horizontal sails, and cannons on both sides.
The battleship has three long decks, and the artillery can fire smoothly on the deck.
The bow and stern are relatively narrow in design, with no artillery and equipped with rockets as weapons.
Warships mainly rely on artillery on both sides to fight. When fighting, they must line up in a single column, and each ship must follow closely.
Set up a long snake formation on the sea and destroy the enemy with intensive firepower."
When Liu Guangsheng said this, he dipped his finger in tea and drew two lines directly on the table.
"An army equipped with battleships and mature naval tactics.
They basically formed a long snake formation and used artillery to bombard them.
Whose formation is neatly arranged, the ship can carry more artillery, and the performance of the ship is not affected.
Whose artillery technology is advanced and has a longer range.
Whoever wins the naval battle will control the ocean."
"I am experimenting with ship building in the Yangtze River. The performance of the battleship has been confirmed, but whether it can travel normally at sea still needs to be tested at sea after it is built. If there are any problems, it will be adjusted."
Liu Guangsheng is very humble, which is why he came directly to Guangzhou.
With him as the chief engineer, problems with the warship can be adjusted at any time.
Liu Guangsheng pointed to the first-class battleship and said:
"A first-class battleship, with a displacement of 1,500 tons and a length of 70 meters.
The warships carried artillery, one hundred and twenty in total.
Twenty 150mm naval guns, forty-five 110mm field guns, and fifty-five 75mm infantry guns.
A second-class battleship with a displacement of 1,000 tons and a length of 55 meters.
The battleship carried eighty guns in total.
Fifteen naval guns, twenty-five field guns, and forty infantry guns.
Third-class cruisers and fourth-class cruisers carry seventy and fifty artillery pieces respectively, mainly field guns.
The tonnage is seven hundred tons and five hundred tons."
After Liu Guangsheng finished talking about the situation of the warship, he handed the warship-related information to Li Qingmu for viewing.
The information includes the number of officers and soldiers required for each warship, the estimated time and cost of building the warship, and other details.
Li Qingmu looked at these warships and calculated the navy's wealth.
"Liu Zhushi, a first-class battleship, we built three of them to serve as the flagships of the main fleet and the two squadrons.
Second-class battleships, seventeen were built.
The plan of twenty main battleships remains unchanged.
Cruisers were built on a scale of one to three, with sixty cruisers built, and some destroyers built as needed.
Our South China Sea Fleet can also have more than a hundred warships, becoming the largest force on the sea in Guangdong."
Liu Guangsheng heard about Li Qingmu's huge shipbuilding plan.
He felt very deeply that the Prince of Qin's Palace really had the money to support such a huge shipbuilding plan.
"Minister Li, this plan is a long-term plan. Give me three to five years and I can build all these warships.
Now we have a limited number of craftsmen, and the workers are not skilled in using machines and need to be trained slowly.
My suggestion is to build one first-class battleship, two second-class battleships, and ten cruisers, five of each type.
We also need to verify the battleship to ensure its stable performance.
If I encounter problems, I will modify the design, and when the technology matures, I will slowly manufacture it in large quantities."
When Li Qingmu heard what Liu Guangsheng said, he also felt that his shipbuilding plan was too huge.
This was also forced by the situation. There were a large number of Xiyi and pirate ships active in the waters around Guangdong.
The South China Sea Fleet has no warships and is helpless against these forces.
Li Qingmu agreed with Liu Guangsheng's opinion.
Now the battleship is just designed. Whether it can run on the sea is still unknown.
"Brother Aoki, I succeeded in getting the job done. We will soon be able to obtain a batch of Western warships."
Wei Jingtao, chief of staff of the South China Sea Fleet, had not even walked into the room when his loud voice carried the words into the room.
He walked into the house and saw two people talking inside the house, and was stunned on the spot.
Li Qingmu was afraid that Liu Guangsheng would be embarrassed, so he quickly introduced the two people.
"Welcome, Master Liu Zhu, we thought you wouldn't be able to reach Guangdong this year, so we used a lot of favors to get a group of Western Yi people, I think they are called Putao people.
Prepare for them to build battleships for use by the Westerners.
The South China Sea Fleet is called the South China Sea Fleet only if it has ships. It is impossible to use the small broken ships of the Ming Dynasty Navy."
Wei Jingtao told the matter directly because he was afraid that Liu Guangsheng would misunderstand.
As long as we speak out and eliminate misunderstandings, a lot of things can be avoided.
Liu Guangsheng asked with some confusion: "Chief of Staff Wei, you should be talking about the Portuguese, their shipbuilding technology is indeed very powerful.
I saw it in books handed down from the West.
The Portuguese came from Europe to America, and from America to us.
Ships sailed thousands of miles on the sea, and their small country controlled a large number of colonies overseas.
These Portuguese people should be very arrogant. How could they help us build Western battleships?
This is a secret they keep all over the world and never tell anyone."
Liu Guangsheng was extremely envious of the shipbuilding technology that Portugal had won, and he hoped to use this opportunity to steal some of the technology from him.
Li Qingmu and Wei Jingtao told Liu Guangsheng what happened in Haojing.
The First Army captured a large number of Portuguese, and they singled out a large number of craftsmen.
The Portuguese with families used family coercion, and the Portuguese without families used life threats and promises to build ships and set them free.
Then use harsh methods to punish those who don't cooperate.
All Portuguese craftsmen will cooperate obediently.
When Liu Guangsheng learned the cause and effect, he said with surprise: "This is a great thing.
I am confident that the designed battleship will have better performance than Western battleships.
But it’s good to have confidence, but you also need to be prepared.
Our warships are compared with Western warships. Whichever front is stronger, we will mainly use which warship.
No matter how the Western battleships are? When these Portuguese build battleships, I will also go and watch them.
There are some shipbuilding technologies in the West that are worth learning."
When Li Qingmu heard what Liu Guangsheng said, he was completely relieved.
The Ming Dynasty has banned the sea for hundreds of years, and the treasure ships have long since disappeared into history.
All craftsmen and shipbuilding technologies in China have degraded and have no experience in manufacturing large ships.
Now both hands are prepared, whether it is Liu Guangsheng or the Xiyi people.
Whichever of them builds advanced warships will not affect the use of the South China Sea Fleet.
The more silver coins the navy has, the more trial and error it can make.
…………………………
Guangzhou Shipyard, Liu Guangsheng is exploring the family background of this shipyard.
"Master Liu, all the machines shipped from Sichuan have been installed in place.
We can start work at any time, but there is some shortage of lumber.
There are currently too few oak logs in storage at shipyards."
Liu Guangsheng and others used a variety of woods to conduct experiments.
Taking all aspects into consideration, oak is the best material for warships.
This kind of wood is also commonly used in the construction of warships in the West. It is called oak in the West.
Oak trees are widely distributed in China, and it is very convenient to obtain materials.
This wood is lightweight, strong and durable.
Building a sailing battleship requires felling thousands of trees, and the felled wood cannot be used immediately after processing.
They need to be dried thoroughly over a long period of time, otherwise the new wood has a high moisture content and the resulting boat will corrode and leak within a few years.
It is best to dry in the shade naturally, and the drying process also requires special treatment.
The wood currently used in the Guangzhou shipyard is the wood left over from the Ming Dynasty shipyards in Guangdong.
Guangzhou Shipyard has now begun drying a large amount of oak wood, but it will take three to five years before it can be used.
Liu Guangsheng calculated the quantity of oak wood and found that even five battleships could not be built using only oak wood.
He already had a solution in mind, calling together craftsmen from the shipyard and the chief engineer from Foshan Iron and Steel Plant.
Foshan Iron and Steel Plant is the largest coal-iron complex plant in the southeast region.
Hanzhong Iron and Steel Plant has transferred the most advanced technology to Foshan Iron and Steel Plant.
Regardless of scale but looking at technology, Foshan Iron and Steel Plant is almost the same as Hanzhong Iron and Steel Plant.
Liu Guangsheng made a 70-meter-long keel out of oak wood.
He asked the chief engineer of Foshan Steel Plant: "Can your Foshan Steel Plant use steel with light weight and strong structure?"
Forging a keel with this kind of structure and similar weight."
“If we want to forge an integrated keel that is 70 meters long, our Foshan Iron and Steel Plant’s technology cannot reach it.
Forged in sections and fixed with rivets or bolts, our technology can achieve this.
Using high-strength steel, the strength of steel is very high. To achieve the same strength, the keel does not need to be so thick, and the weight will increase by one-tenth."
After the chief engineer finished speaking, he immediately took out a pen and paper and drew the approximate size of the keel made of steel.
Liu Guangsheng personally went to the Foshan Iron and Steel Plant to check the performance of the steel and make keels of similar size.
"I will redesign the keel, design drawings and technical specifications, and hand them over to Foshan Iron and Steel Plant to manufacture the steel keel.
The keel is riveted, and bolt technology is not yet mature."
"Believe in the technical strength of our Foshan Steel Plant. I'm waiting for your design drawings."
Liu Guangsheng returned to the Guangzhou Shipyard, and he discussed with the craftsmen for many days to redesign the steel keel of the battleship.
Many craftsmen thought Liu Guangsheng was too radical. No one had ever used the steel keel, and it was too risky to go directly to the ship.
Liu Guangsheng also heard that Qin King Su He mentioned that large ships could use steel keels.
There is not enough wood now, so we cannot wait three to five years for the wood to dry in the shade before rebuilding the battleship.
The hull of the battleship was made of oak, and the mast deck was made of other common shipbuilding woods.
The keel uses a steel keel, so that the oak used in shipbuilding is enough.
The battleship steel keel was quickly designed.
The technical experts of Foshan Iron and Steel Plant quickly manufactured the steel keels according to the design drawings.
The keel is transported to the shipyard in sections, and the steel plant sends skilled craftsmen to rivet the keel at the shipyard.
Guangzhou Shipyard officially started building battleships.
Shipyards used steam machinery on a large scale.
Cranes such as steam gantry cranes and various cutting machines make shipbuilding easier.
On the slipway of the shipyard, three battleships are taking shape bit by bit.