Dong Shuheng likes to do things in such a fiery manner.
Lushun Bay is not far from Luanzhou.
Dong Shuheng and his entourage only took half a day to arrive by speedboat.
Lushun has a very long history. The famous Duli Town in Liaodong during the Sui and Tang Dynasties refers to this place.
Later, it has been an important port for the Liaodong Peninsula's maritime connections with the outside world.
In the fourth year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang sent two generals, Ma Yun and Ye Wang, to lead an army from Penglai, Shandong, across the sea and land here to regain Liaodong. Because the sea journey was smooth sailing, Shizikou was renamed Lushunkou, which is still used today.
After Dong Shuheng regained this place, he built it into a military port and a naval shipbuilding base.
Now the entire Lushun port area is basically closed, and ordinary people and merchant ships are not allowed to enter.
Far away from the port, you can see a sign saying "Keep Out of Military Restricted Areas". There are several checkpoints to pass when entering the port area.
A massive fortress was built on the hill behind the port.
The 350mm coastal defense gun on the fortress is the largest coastal defense gun currently built by the Renaissance Army.
It can penetrate almost all warships in the world today.
Even the armor of the newly built British HMS Warrior could not withstand the bombardment of this giant coastal defense gun.
Not only that, many infantry bunkers were also built at the foot of the fortress.
In wartime, only a small amount of infantry is needed to hold on here to block a large number of enemy infantry.
Later, Tsarist Russia used the fortress on this mountain to consume tens of thousands of Japanese troops.
Every time Dong Shuheng came to Lushun, he would stop and look at this port city for a long time.
A Lushunkou is half of modern history. Friends who pay attention to modern history will naturally see the name of this city often.
But the irony is that the protagonists who appear here are not Chinese most of the time.
But at this time, Lushunkou was completely off-limits to foreigners.
The port city here is mainly populated by the families of local shipyard workers.
There were not many residents living here originally. During the Manchu and Qing Dynasties, the area was not developed.
All the local residents were absorbed by the factories that moved in.
In addition to a large shipyard here, there are also many factories supporting the shipyard.
Dong Shuheng just passed by a wood factory. Huge logs hauled from the sea were processed here into various materials needed on ships.
Even building ironclads requires a lot of wood.
It is impossible to use steel entirely inside a warship.
Wood is needed in many places.
In addition, the shipyard cannot only manufacture armored ships, but also some wooden ships.
At this time, Lushun's location advantage became apparent. It was not only close to the production area of steel, but also close to the production area of lumber.
Thanks to the Qing Dynasty's blockade policy outside the customs, the areas outside the customs are now sparsely populated, densely wooded, and rich in timber resources. Giant trees that are hundreds of years old can be found everywhere.
Now the cost of timber is also very low. Because a large number of immigrants have entered the customs to live outside the customs, the labor cost of local logging farms has been reduced a lot.
Before their land is cleared, many new immigrants will first go to lumber camps or mines to earn some money to support their families.
Although the government will distribute some food to the immigrants, it is only enough to make ends meet.
The people of China are all hard-working, especially the people today.
As long as you feel that you still have some strength, you won't be idle at home.
Spring has already arrived, but the weather in the Lushunkou area is still very cold.
However, the shipyard's slipway was still bustling with activity.
The construction work of warships is going on intensively all the time, and there are busy workers everywhere.
"Huh? Hello, Old Liu." Dong Shuheng met Lewis, the shipyard director who had been transferred here from Gaoyou, at the gate of the shipyard.
Lewis is also a technical geek, and Dong Shuheng knows that he will not take the initiative to flatter him.
"President, you must have something good going on when you come to our shipyard. So I came to the door to wait for the good news." Lewis said straightforwardly.
"Then you may have waited wrongly, Old Liu. I don't have any good news for you. I have a difficult problem for you this time." Dong Shuheng shook his head and said with a smile.
"No, no, no, President, your problem is a challenge for us. As an engineer, you must be able to deal with various challenges, so that the work will be more interesting." Lewis became interested.
He really wanted to know what the problem Dong Shuheng was referring to. He knew that Dong Shuheng always had some novel ideas.
"I have to say, Lao Liu, your idea is very good. I think every boss hopes that his engineers will have such an idea."
"Let's go to the shipyard together to see how our big babies are being built."
"Okay, President, you can already see their slim figures this time." Lewis also joked.
Dong Shuheng followed Lewis into the shipyard, and faced eight huge dry docks, which can build giant ships of less than 10,000 tons.
The current use to build a destroyer of more than 3,000 tons seems to be overkill.
There is still a lot of extra space in the dock. However, it also allows Dong Shuheng to clearly see the appearance of these destroyers.
As Lewis said, the destroyer's hull was essentially finished before.
With the previous Jianghe-class frigate as a foundation, the construction of the Zhenhai-class destroyer went much faster.
Why eight? Dong Shuheng now generally builds eight warships of each level.
It's not that we can't build more, but because eight ships can already form combat effectiveness.
In the next few decades, warship innovation will be very rapid, and many warships will already be outdated on the slipway.
Therefore, not many warships of each level will be built, because the Renaissance Army Navy is still in the construction stage.
When the number of battleships increases later, only one or two of each level may be built.
Dong Shuheng did not adopt the British classification of battleships. Instead, he used the classification of later generations.
Ships of less than 1,000 tons are called boats. Types of boats also include inland river gunboats, offshore patrol boats, torpedo boats, minelayers, minesweepers, etc.
Ships of more than 1,000 tons and less than 3,000 tons are called frigates. They are mainly engaged in coastal patrol, combat and ocean escort missions.
Because of its small tonnage, it is not suitable for independent navigation missions in the open sea.
Warships of more than 3,000 tons are called destroyers.
The destroyer currently built by the Renaissance Army is only about 3,500 tons, which is considered a smaller destroyer.
The next level of warship to be built by the Renaissance Army is a large destroyer close to 10,000 tons. This can be regarded as a battleship in the UK.
The so-called destroyer is to drive the enemy beyond the sea. It can be formed into a formation to conduct ocean operations.
"Old Liu, your progress is quite fast. In this cold weather, it is not easy for the workers to work on the ship, so don't treat everyone badly," Dong Shuheng said.
Everyone in the Fuxing Army knew that Dong Shuheng was very kind to the workers. The common view nowadays is that workers just work, and it is normal to be miserable and tired.
At this time, there was no such thing as treating workers well in factories. Capitalists exploited workers in every possible way.
Even in the UK, the most industrially developed country, the working and living conditions of workers are still very poor.
Workers have no protection for their rights and interests.
Only in the Fuxing Army, Dong Shuheng demanded that the factory provide workers with work-related injury insurance and overtime wages.
Of course, overtime here does not refer to eight hours. No factory currently has an eight-hour work system. Workers work a base of ten hours.
No worker would make such a request. Many factories would beat and scold workers, and even deduct wages and fire them at every turn.
However, under the rule of the Fuxing Army, especially in state-owned enterprises, workers' protection is very good, and factories have institutions dedicated to protecting workers' rights.
Dong Shuheng has been emphasizing since the Huaihai Company days that the factory is the second home for workers, and family culture should be promoted in the factory.
Workers should treat the factory as their own home, and do things in the factory as if they were their own home.
In the same way, factories should also care for their workers as if they were family members.
He hopes to create a family culture in the factory. It is not the kind of naked interest relationship, nor the kind of rigid big pot rice.
Rather, it is a corporate culture with healthy internal competition.
"President, don't worry. These workers are our treasures. We have put a lot of effort into cultivating each one of them. I can't bear to treat them badly. Besides, it costs you money to treat the workers well, and it costs you money to treat them well."
It’s not my Lewis’s,” Lewis said.
"Old Liu, you have calculated it clearly! Let's go on board the ship and have a look." Dong Shuheng said.
Now that the hull structure is about to be completed, Dong Shuheng is ready to board the ship to see the condition of the warship.
Dong Shuheng followed Lewis to the deck of a warship that was actually being built.
Most of the workers knew Dong Shuheng, after all, they already had photos of him.
Workers can usually see Dong Shuheng's photo on the wall of the factory canteen.
To be honest, it doesn’t feel good to have this kind of enlarged photo hung on the wall by someone else.
At least Dong Shuheng thinks this is a bit awkward, but people nowadays just like this.
Everyone saw Dong Shuheng and said hello and continued working.
This is not the first time Dong Shuheng has come to the shipyard. Everyone knows that this president does not like red tape.
Now, it is not like the time when the Manchus and Qing Dynasties saw the emperor, and high officials had to kneel down.
Our president will be happy as long as you do the job well. Moreover, Dong Shuheng is very kind to the workers and often greets them with greetings.
Sometimes I would chat with them about craftsmanship, and even try it myself.
However, Dong Shuheng could only use his words, but if he really tried to get started, he would be blind, and he would not even be able to install a rivet.
Returning to the shipyard's office building, Dong Shuheng finally revealed the reason for his visit today.
"President, you said you want to build a catamaran? This is indeed difficult in the era of wooden warships." Lewis said. This involves some characteristics of the catamaran.
The catamaran has good stability. Its hull is divided into left and right parts. When rolling, the restoring moment is several times that of a monohull ship with the same displacement.
Secondly, the deck of a catamaran is open and easy to arrange. The deck area is much larger than that of a monohull of the same displacement, making it much easier to arrange the equipment on board.
Finally, after using the diesel engine, the catamaran has better concealment. Its main engine smoke exhaust port can be placed under the connecting bridge and blocked by the hulls on both sides.
Of course, catamarans also have their disadvantages:
First of all, the hull has a high weight and a bottleneck in displacement. There is no wind and three-foot waves on the sea. The buoyancy of the left and right sides of a monohull will be different. The buoyancy of the left and right hulls of a catamaran will definitely not be the same, which will cause stress at the connecting bridge.
and torque.
Moment = force x distance. Catamarans are much wider than monohulls, so the stress moment is naturally much greater than monohulls.
In order to ensure that the hull will not twist, deform or disintegrate under the same sea conditions, the catamaran must design a stronger structure, occupying more weight of the hull at the expense of load capacity.
But this is not a problem for the torpedo boats to be built. Dong Shuheng did not plan to build such a large torpedo boat in the first place.
As long as its concealment is good and its speed is fast enough, it will be fine. It is positioned as an offshore defense ship.
Of course, another disadvantage of catamarans is that they are extremely expensive to build. Due to the high structural strength requirements and better material specifications than ordinary warships, the cost of catamarans is higher.
Lewis has been building boats all his life, so he naturally has a certain understanding of this kind of boat.
But now, except for some indigenous people or fishermen who make their boats into catamaran structures, no country has yet made catamaran warships.
Because wooden warships have to reach a certain tonnage, they simply cannot bear the twin-hull structure.
"However, the warships we now build with steel structures can be made into catamarans. I estimate that the current steel should be able to make catamarans under one thousand tons. But there is another problem, that is, the cabins in the catamarans are too large.
"Small, how to install a steam engine?" Lewis asked his own question.
Today's steam power consists of boilers and steam engines, which require a large area on the ship.
As for the catamaran, the cabin is divided into two parts, and its tonnage is not large. In this way, how to install the steam power device?
"There is no need for a steam engine. We are going to use a diesel engine to drive this kind of ship." As he said this, Dong Shuheng took out a photo of a diesel engine. This is a large diesel engine made by the first factory.
Although it is a large diesel engine, its size is much smaller than that of a steam engine.
Dong Shuheng reported the parameters of this diesel engine to Lewis.
Lewis's jaw dropped in shock.
"President, I feel that this kind of diesel engine may replace steam engines as the power source of ships in the future." Lewis had a certain understanding of the power of ships.
He knew very well that the power output efficiency of the steam engine was about to reach its bottleneck.
However, this kind of internal combustion engine still has a lot of room for development, and the thermal energy conversion efficiency of this kind of internal combustion engine is much higher than that of a steam engine.
If this internal combustion engine could be made larger, it might be able to drive those large engines. Lewis thought.
The steam engine has been around for hundreds of years since its emergence. Hasn't it also undergone major changes?
The output efficiency of current steam engines is unknown how many times that of the original steam engines.
The current internal combustion engine has already surpassed the steam engine just after it came out. If it continues to improve in the future, there will definitely be huge room for improvement.
Dong Shuheng's words seemed to provide Lewis with a new idea for ship design.
When warships became steam-powered, the sails were removed and replaced with large chimneys. In the future, if they are powered by internal combustion engines, can the large chimneys be removed?
Lewis just made some associations with this internal combustion engine.
In fact, Dong Shuheng knew that steam power could continue to develop after the emergence of steam turbines.
It's just that the boiler was switched from burning coal to oil.
The advantage of fuel is that it burns more fully, reduces smoke and dust, and the chimney does not need to be built as tall, and fuel is more efficient and easier to ship and carry.
Nowadays, the chimneys on warships are similar to the big chimneys in factories. They stand tall and greatly affect the appearance of the warship.
It is also easily attacked and becomes a relatively weak spot on the warship.
Lewis called in designers from the shipyard, and together they discussed the design of a catamaran torpedo boat that had just been named the Sea Wolf class.
After speaking his mind, Dong Shuheng basically completed his task.
The rest is left to the engineers and workers of the shipyard.
ps: Coded in the middle of the night and sent out in advance today. Please vote!