Hua Er was obviously very interested in Dong Shuheng's plan to make a fortune.
"Wal, you know that I am a general of the Qing Dynasty, and there are some things that are inconvenient for me to do. But you are still an American citizen, so you don't have to worry so much when doing it."
"What are you best at, Hua Er?" Dong Shuheng asked, staring at Hua Er.
Hua Er scratched his beard and said: "Of course it is a war. I have supported myself by working as a mercenary for others all over the world these years."
"Then do you think it's profitable to be a mercenary?" Dong Shuheng asked again.
"Of course you make money, but most of the money goes into the pockets of the bosses, these damn vampires!" Wall said through gritted teeth.
"Oh, Wal, don't be so quick to scold me! I'm going to set up a security company and let you be the leader of this security force."
"What? President, if you didn't tell me earlier, you meant to be the leader of the mercenaries. I have no problem with that. I have experience in this area."
"In this way, Hua Er, you will hand over the work of the Army Academy in the next two days and leave for Shanghai immediately. When you arrive in Shanghai, you go to the Shanghai office of Huaihai Company to find Liu Qingbei. He will support you financially. You first recruit a group of foreigners.
You only need a dozen or so mercenaries to show off. There is no requirement for combat capabilities, as long as they are obedient. I will transfer the subsequent soldiers to you one after another. This team calls itself the "Yangtze River Security Company" to the outside world and is established within the Huaihai Navy System.
It is the 103rd Regiment of the Field Army. Of course, you must keep this strictly confidential."
"After you arrive in Shanghai, you must conceal your identity in the Huaihai Navy. First contact Mr. Senna and ask Liu Qingbei to find a way to send him to Dongtai. I will meet him there. Then go to the American consul and find a way to send him to Dongtai.
The procedures for this mercenary have been completed. Liu Qingbei will prepare the required activity funds for you. If you need to find out information, you can ask Liu Qingbei to contact people in Ji Mingshan to cooperate with you. But I have one request, which is half
Within this month, you must complete the procedures for the security company."
Shanghai is still a relatively sensitive place. If the Huai Navy is stationed there, it is likely to stir up a hornet's nest. Moreover, Dong Shuheng does not want to prematurely expose the strength of the Huai Navy to future enemies such as Britain, France, and the United States.
It was already getting late, so Hua Er naturally had to go back to the military camp to rest. As for his pursuit of his sister, Zhishu Heng neither opposed nor supported it. He had long said that his sister's marriage would be decided by themselves, and no one could
Interference, anyway, he is now the head of the Dong family and he has the final say. But if Huaer wants to marry his sister, he must give up his American citizenship, become a Chinese national, and swear allegiance to the Huaxia nation.
Early the next morning, Dong Shuheng was awakened by the sound of several women talking. The two sisters were going to the factory, and Wei Yuzhen had to go back to the bookstore to work on newspapers. Dong Shuheng had no choice but to get up and have breakfast with them.
After breakfast, he had to go to the shipyard by the lake. He had received a notice from Dong Shuheng before, and all the technical backbone of the shipyard rushed to Gaoyou from Shanghai.
The shipyard by the lake has been completely built. There is a row of dry docks near the lake. They vary in size. The largest can build ships of about three thousand tons. Even larger ships may not be able to pass through the canal waterway. It is not far away.
Not far from the shipyard are factories, including woodworking workshops, casting workshops, and the largest workshop dedicated to manufacturing marine boilers.
Today was the first time he met the technical staff of his shipyard. Director Lewis had a big beard, was a little messy, and looked like a technical geek.
"Hello, Mr. Lewis." Dong Shuheng stretched out his hand to shake hands with Mr. Lewis cordially and said hello.
Dong Shuheng looked behind Lewis. Ye Tao, the representative of Huaihai Company stationed at the shipyard, hurriedly stepped forward and introduced: "This is Master Zhuang Shui Qingzhuang, a master shipbuilder hired by our shipyard from Fujian. Master Zhuang is good at building Chinese sailboats." He pointed again.
A middle-aged man and a young man next to him said: "These two technicians we recruited in Shanghai are Xu Shou and Hua Hengfang. Mr. Xu has extensive knowledge and strong hands-on ability. Every time he encounters a problem, he can solve it."
Easy to solve. Mr. Hua is good at mathematics and drawing. Many of our technical drawings must be verified by his calculations before they can be used." Dong Shuheng looked at these two Chinese scientific pioneers carefully. They have not fully grown up yet, but this
I Dong Shuheng will give them better conditions, and they will definitely go higher.
A group of people entered the conference room. Dong Shuheng came well prepared today. He motioned to Su Ting to bring over the sketch he drew.
The first picture shows a streamlined warship with no sails and two chimneys one behind the other, but it is much larger and more slender than the steamships currently used by the Huai Navy.
All the technical geeks below also stared at this simple diagram with wide eyes. Although it is not professional at all, the appearance of this warship is very beautiful.
"Everyone, I know that all eight inland river gunboats in Shanghai have been completed. First of all, I want to thank everyone for their efforts. The ship I am showing you now is the next one we will build. I call it the 'Jianghe-class' frigate.
, with a displacement of about 1,200 tons, this is a true ironclad ship, completely removing the traces of a sailing ship."
"I don't know much about ship construction. Let me tell you my requirements now. If you have any questions or difficulties, you can ask them. I require that this ship is no longer the previous wooden and iron-hulled ship. The overall structure of such a ship is not strong. This ship
The Jianghe class must use steel keels, side keels, ribs, keels, bilge keels, bow posts and stern posts to ensure its overall solidity. Keels of this length can now be manufactured with the tonnage of the hydraulic press in our foundry. Others
There is no problem with the location. This ship will use full steam power. I want its maximum speed to reach 25 knots and its cruising speed to be around 20 knots. The structure can increase its aspect ratio and adopt a flying shear structure.
Increase the speed, do you have any objections to this part?"
Lewis took the lead and said: "Mr. President, if we do what you said, the weight of the ship will inevitably increase. What I'm worried about is that the steam engine is not powerful enough to reach the speed you mentioned, and the aspect ratio you mentioned is enlarged.
If so, there won’t be many artillery placed on the sides.”
"Let's talk about the power issue first. Most of you sitting here know something about steam engines, and some of them are experts in making steam engines. We all know that the principle of a steam engine is to convert the thermal energy in water vapor into mechanical kinetic energy. We now use
The steam engine is a cylinder. The steam enters the cylinder and then rushes out. However, the steam that rushes out every time still carries a lot of heat. We have to find ways to remove this heat. So isn't this heat wasted? So why?
Why can't a steam engine only have one cylinder?"
Xu Shou sat down and listened intently. He didn't expect that his big boss actually knew about technology. He had been studying steam engines during his time at the shipyard, and even directly participated in the manufacture of one, so he knew the principles of steam engines very well.
I am very impressed that Westerners can invent such a sharp weapon.
But Dong Shuheng's words just now seemed to open a window for him, unlocking a new evolutionary path for steam engines. He couldn't help but interjected: "I'm sorry, President, please allow me to say a few words. What do you mean?
The air outlet of the cylinder continues to connect one cylinder in series, so that the steam that has not released all its energy can continue to drive the next cylinder?"
"Mr. Xu, you are only half right. It is not a cylinder. The specific number of cylinders must be verified through experiments. This is not my job and needs to be verified by everyone who is doing it."
"Also, steam does not necessarily only push the piston to do work. Let's take a look at this picture." As he said that, Dong Shuheng took out another picture.
"Everyone knows that wind can drive the windmill. After the steam comes out of the boiler and is discharged into the air, it rushes forward like a stream of wind. Then we let the steam coming out of the last cylinder pass through such a package.
A duct with a multi-layer fan structure. Through the multi-layer fan structure, the remaining force can be concentrated to one point. Can we also use this part of the force?"
Everyone involved, including Lewis, was so shocked that their jaws dropped.
"Dear President, your idea is really great, you know? If we succeed, then this improvement of the steam engine will be greater than the contribution made by Mr. Watt. I now think about the steam engine we made before
It is simply a waste of coal. I suggest that we start the development of a new steam engine immediately. This idea is yours, you can give it a name." Lewis said excitedly.
"Let's call it a multi-expansion steam engine. The last structure can be called a steam turbine."
"President, please allow me to participate in the development of new steam engines." Xu Shou stood up and asked, already admiring Dong Shuheng unparalleled in his heart.
"No problem, Mr. Xu. In addition, Lewis, I hope that the supporting steam engine can be built and put on the ship before the new ship is built. Both sides will be carried out at the same time, and we will try to complete the construction of the new ship before the end of next year. Let's talk about the artillery now.
Question, for this frigate, I plan to install a breech-loading gun using a rotating turret structure. One twin-mounted 120mm cannon is installed on the front deck, two twin-mounted 120mm cannons are installed on the rear deck, and two twin-mounted 120mm guns are installed in the middle of the two chimneys.
A 70mm rapid-fire cannon will be installed together. In addition, two sets of new weapons will be installed on the sides of both sides. However, before I talk about this weapon, please sign this ten-year confidentiality agreement." Dong Shuheng looked at the shipyards that were working on it.
Technicians with sharp eyes.
Fortunately, everyone signed it without hesitation. The professionalism of people in this era is still unspeakable, even for foreigners like Lewis.
Dong Shuheng hung up a picture again. On this picture was a barracuda-shaped thing, which looked like a weapon.
"Everyone knows about pole mines. These mines need to be carried by small boats to approach enemy ships, but small boats can easily be sunk before they get close to enemy ships. Think about it if we can launch this small boat indefinitely
Small, how about just installing a power unit on the mine?"
"President, I don't even know what to say. You really shouldn't be a general, you should be an inventor. But President, we don't have such a small power device now," Lewis said.
"No, no, no, you can have this." Dong Shuheng said and drew a simple device on the paper.
"Remember the steam turbine I just talked about? We just need to put alcohol and kerosene in a hydraulic tank, put compressed air in another hydraulic tank, start this hydraulic tank, and let the kerosene and alcohol burn in the combustion chamber while spraying
Injecting cooling water creates a large amount of steam. The gases produced by combustion are mixed with water vapor to drive the steam turbine and drive the propeller at the tail. Currently, it is enough for a torpedo to run two thousand meters, so it does not use much fuel.
, it does not need to be large in size, but its speed must be fast. According to my estimation, this kind of engine can drive the torpedo to a speed of 50 knots. According to the weak protection of the current wooden battleships under the waterline, one torpedo can do it
Take away a battleship."
Everyone was shocked again. "Oh, Mr. President, I have to say that your invention is about to usher in a new era of naval warfare. After listening to what you just said, I think we can build it." Lewis said excitedly.
Every invention brought by Dong Shuheng today is contemporary. As a technology geek, each of these inventions makes him intoxicated.