In the summer of 1900, the situation in northern China reached a deadlock.
Yuan Shikai, who had close relations with New Germany, stayed in the north of Texas and stood still. Ronglu's Gan army supported by the British was defeated by Huang Xing's revolutionary army and had to retreat to Shijiazhuang. Then due to the British pressure on Japan, Huang Xing
Having been unable to obtain sufficient artillery firepower, the ammunition supply was also in short supply, and the Shenji troops on both sides suffered considerable battle losses. The revolutionary army could only confront the Qing army under the walls of Shijiazhuang City, unable to launch a large-scale offensive.
The British also put pressure on the Qing court to prevent Cixi from bowing to Yuan Shikai, so the situation hung there.
This reflects the pattern of international politics to a certain extent: in 1900, the whole world was in a strange kind of peace. War was just around the corner, but everyone chose to stay put.
But this situation is destined not to last long. Because Tsarist Russia fought one more Crimean War, domestic conflicts are serious, and it urgently needs a war to divert the attention of the people, and at the same time occupy new territories to obtain resources to alleviate the growing domestic acrimony.
The contradiction. Japan has basically completed its capitalistization and needs colonies to provide markets and raw materials. It is still too difficult for Japan to counterattack Europe and the United States with its products, so it can only focus on its neighbors who are weaker than itself.
It is impossible for a mere Shandong to satisfy Japan's desires.
Lin Youde believed that it was only a matter of time before Tsarist Russia and Japan directly sent troops to invade: Tsarist Russia had sent more troops to Lushun as early as the beginning of the year, and the Japanese branch of Lin Kee's intelligence agency also sent back news that Japan's local divisions were actively preparing for war.
But these are not the main issues that Lin Youde is worried about at this moment.
**
At this time, the shackles of industrial capacity became Lin Youde's biggest worry. Ever since he occupied Helang Yabo, he had deliberately developed heavy industry. However, in more than three years, he spent countless silver dollars to buy machine tools from all over the world.
, hiring engineers, and absorbing existing talents in the country, and now it barely has the ability to produce its own artillery.
Therefore, after becoming the Minister of the Navy, Lin Youde hurriedly brought the personnel of the Fuzhou Shipping Bureau to Helangyabo to protect the first generation of shipbuilding experts independently trained in modern China. In the last time and space, after the bankruptcy of the Sino-Japanese War Westernization Movement
, Fuzhou Shipping Bureau's funding is decreasing day by day, and the technical personnel it has finally trained are losing a lot, which makes people sad.
Originally, Lin Youde also had the idea of Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, but unlike the Fuzhou Shipping Bureau, which focused on shipbuilding, Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau was still the most important military factory in modern China, so the Governor of Liangjiang tightly held it in his hands and refused to let Lin Youde, the Minister of the Navy,
, even Lin Youde’s request to deploy shipbuilding-related technical personnel was refused.
In 1900, the largest industrial creation produced by Lin Kee was a 2,000-ton iron-wood hybrid steam-powered ship. The imitation American artillery was much less accurate than the original due to workmanship problems.
It is precisely because of this unlucky industrial capability that the new weapon ideas jointly brought by Victoria and Sophie were basically shot down by Lin Youde's butler Du Qifeng: they could not be manufactured within 5 years.
As for the electric general wind armor, a group of people put it together and found that if the cost cannot be greatly reduced with technological power while ensuring performance, then it will not make much difference whether this thing is electric or uses traditional force-guiding power. And the general will
The high cost of the wind armor is mainly used for the external guided armor and the guided cannon using traditional power. Simply changing the action mechanism to electric will not effectively reduce the cost of the wind armor.
After much discussion, everyone agreed that the basic idea of the new weapon is to bypass the generals and wind armor troops with insufficient mobility and the rare Shenji troops on the vast battlefield, crush the opponent's conventional combat power, and break the opponent's logistics.
Let the enemy lose control of one thing and lose the other. Therefore, the new weapon must have sufficient maneuverability and at the same time have the offensive and defensive capabilities to crush conventional combat power. When these two requirements are combined, Lin Youde can't help but think of the king of land warfare in the last time and space...
After thousands of years of development, China's mechanism technology has been able to produce cheap guided cores for use by wooden cows and flowing horses. These cores have insufficient energy and cannot even drive guided cannons, but the power output by several cores in parallel is as follows
Sophie said it could drive a 200-horsepower electric motor. Lin Youde calculated that the Bobcat tank in "World of Tanks" only had 140 horsepower, and the later No. 3 only had more than 200 horsepower. He could build a small sports car with the two hundred horsepower to crush it.
The infantry is pretty good.
But Du Qifeng's subsequent series of speeches shattered Lin Youde's dream of overwhelming the enemy with a sea of small sports cars.
Rotating Turret: Cannot be built.
Suspension system: Can't make it.
Miniaturized artillery: Still can’t be built.
Think about it, by the time of the First World War more than ten years later, Britain, the most powerful country in the world, could only build something like Big Willy. Lin Ji, who had just started the industrialization process less than three years ago, was required to have the same or even surpass
The capabilities of the British Empire are really unscientific.
Among the new weapon concepts, the only one that Du Qifeng thought could be built quickly was the underwater warrior wind, because it did not have a complicated mechanical structure and was positioned as a "general wind armor", which could use force-guiding technology and alchemy to make up for the deficiencies in craftsmanship.
——Of course, Lin Ji cannot build torpedoes, which are considered high-tech nowadays, so he can only buy them.
As for sonar, the last space-time sonar was invented around 1906, which means that the technical conditions required for the invention of sonar were already mature at this time, and it was just a matter of time before Lin Youde took the lead. Of course, it is fully functional.
Lin Ji couldn't build the sonar at this time, so he had to give the design to the Americans and ask Great America to help.
After the decision was made, Lin Youde named the project "Project 001" with a stroke of his pen, gave people money and a venue, and the matter was settled.
A few days later, the design drawing of this new weapon was delivered to Lin Youde's desk. When Lin Youde saw the shape of this product, he was so happy that he directly approved the name "War Crab". After the design drawing was approved, the prototype was quickly developed
It was built. Lin Ji's system is different from the industrial system of other countries. Although its production capacity is limited, it is highly concentrated. Once you decide to build something, it can be built very quickly - provided that this thing is at Lin Ji's level.
It really can be made.
In early August 1900, the Zhan Crab prototype went on sea trials, and then sank to the bottom with the operator. The power core of the Wind Armor had a strange feature, and it could not be started without an operator, so the dangerous sea trials could only be carried out.
volunteer.
After picking it up and inspecting it, it was found that the cause of the accident was that the outer shell craftsmanship was not up to par, there was a problem with the strength of the riveting and the fit between the seams, and water leaked when it was dived a little deeper. This incident further reminded Lin Youde of how important craftsmanship is.
, and how unreliable is the plot in a large number of third-rate time travel novels where various advanced weapons are created out of the blue.
There are only two options in front of Lin Youde. One is to significantly increase the cost of the war crab and risk the leakage of the design by ordering shells produced according to General Wind Armor standards from foreign power-guiding factories and alchemy laboratories. The other is to
Improve the process yourself, and adhere to the compromise line of combining the current force-guiding technology with conventional technology.
Lin Youde thought about it for a few days and decided to stick to the existing route. Process improvement was necessary anyway, so it was better to use this project to operate his own technicians and production lines. Introducing foreign ready-made advanced technology will have quick results, but when
It also means that you can always be someone else's little brother, because the process of exploring and innovating technology by yourself is a process of technology accumulation. In this process, you may not get any visible benefits, but you will be tired of it many years later.
But looking back, you will find that the difference between having and not having this accumulation is so huge.
There is a pair of contrasting examples in the last time and space: the rabbit and the chicken. The chicken developed rapidly after the war. Around 1990, it completely crushed the rabbit, and the fleet became the second strongest in the world. However, the technology of the chicken is basically foreign technology.
As a domestically produced product, it has never independently developed any key national defense technology like it did when it developed the "powerful Nine Trisonic Acid Thunder"...
Rabbits, on the contrary, were disliked by the whole world for most of the time after the founding of the People's Republic of China. Except for the honeymoon period with the plush bear and the bald eagle, they tried every means to collect some technology. Later, they took advantage of the plush bear's death to dig out the plush bear who was about to starve to death.
Scientists develop almost all key technologies by themselves, or try to copy them by themselves.
Then the difference comes.
Rabbit has been using it for so many years, and finally came up with a fighter jet worth watching like the Stick. Seeing that the Bald Eagle's F35 magic skill was about to be completed, Foot Pot Chicken waved his hand and touched the sweat on his forehead. Unexpectedly,
Rabbit's Ribbon Princess has gone gray. On the contrary, Tiaobaji himself has not even thought about it. Let alone independently develop a fourth-generation air superiority fighter, Tiaobaji can't even get an F2...
This is the difference between having technology accumulation and not having technology accumulation.
Therefore, if you invest in technology development, as long as you don't kill yourself like a furry bear, you won't lose money no matter what.
Anyway, Lin Youde has time and can explore slowly.
But reality is always full of surprises.
A few days after the prototype accident investigation report came out, Sophie rushed into Lin Youde's study and took a picture of a design drawing on Lin Youde's desk. According to the little girl, it was called a "molecular bonding machine" and the working principle was to use
The magnetic field constrains the electron beam to impact the contact surface of the component, which increases the energy of the surface molecules and intensifies the molecular motion. When the electron beam is removed, the intertwined molecular energy levels collapse sharply, ultimately achieving "bonding" at the molecular level.
When the little girl explained the principle, Lin Youde was stunned for a moment, and then he felt for no reason that the statement that "American black technology is the legacy of Tesla" that was widely circulated in time and space might not be an exaggeration.
Originally, Lin Youde thought about getting into electric welding after he adopted the little girl, but later he discovered that electric welding is actually a production process that is the result of the integration of multiple disciplines. Just a welding core and the protective gas used for welding are not what it is now.
Lin Ji can handle it.
In the last time and space, in the 1930s, Japan's electric welding technology failed to pass the test. The newly built ships using electric welding technology were blown by a typhoon and caused the "Fourth Fleet Incident" that shocked the Japanese government and the public. The heavy losses caused the Japanese built after that
Warships have returned to riveting. The electric welding technology of the United States only gradually matured after the 1930s. Many Sherman tanks produced in the middle and late stages of World War II used welded turrets and bodies.
It's a good thing now that we don't need welding anymore, and we can directly enter the field of technology that has not been involved in the previous time and space. Of course, this is due to alchemy and force-guiding technology. Without this extraordinary technology, it would be impossible to complete this at the current level.
A kind of molecular bonding machine - technological innovations are all step-by-step. This kind of technology, which Lin Youde has never seen before when he returned to the 21st century, must at least have the technological level of the 21st century. Alchemy and force-guiding technology, for
The conditions were created for the birth of this molecular bonding machine.
But there is no doubt that Sophie Tesla's wisdom was the most important factor in the birth of this machine.
So Lin Youde decisively designated this bonding machine as "super secret" and asked Sophie to change the design and disguise the components as parts of other things as much as possible - such as wind armor, ordering them all over the world.
"Why?" Sophie looked at Lin Youde in disbelief, "This thing does not have a force-guiding component. It just requires alchemy to remove the resistance of key parts. The rest is a powerful power supply."
…
Lin Youde found that he still underestimated his daughter's abilities.
Lin Ji gathered all the alchemists and finally completed the first "Zhurong" before Lin Youde's wedding in October 1900. The machine body, named after the ancient god of fire, was a cylinder 17 meters long and 4.6 meters in diameter.
, fixed on a pedestal composed of a large number of heat dissipation equipment, and equipped with a mechanical welding component frame. The frame adopts the design of a direct disciple of the Mohist family, which allows the components placed on the shelf to rotate 360 degrees...
Obviously this thing can't weld some relatively large objects, such as the turrets of large warships, but Lin Youde is still very satisfied when he sees the finished product. This is already an unparalleled huge progress. As long as the materials and technology can keep up, Lin Youde can do a lot of things.
All are ready to play.
Zhu Rong was installed in the black technology research area designated by Lin Youde near Shensuan. It was powered by a newly completed thermal power generation unit. Lin Youde planned to install Zhu Rong's follow-up models in the same area and provide power for each Vulcan.
Equipped with a generator set. This planned factory area is named "Pangu", which means "the creator god of the new world".
Soon, Western reporters noticed that Helangyabo had such a high-secret area surrounded by technical experimental troops in black military uniforms, and the names "Pangu" and "Zhurong" also spread to some "very high-security areas".
"Ear of a well-connected reporter. So at various social occasions in Helang Yabo, Lin Youde's fiancée Josephine was regarded as a breakthrough by the reporters, and they chased and intercepted her, which made this famous family who was used to seeing all kinds of big scenes...
The eldest lady also complained endlessly.
"Just tell them that this is a factory that uses the 'new riveting technology'," Josephine once told Lin Youde, "They can't guess the principle of that thing anyway."
"If we announce it like this, they will inquire more vigorously." Lin Youde looked helpless. The Americans had been asking him a lot these days to inquire about Pangu's inside story, and they also exerted some semi-official pressure. He was also a little tired of coping.
Fortunately, Westerners in this era are still relatively arrogant. They can't imagine what other trump cards Lin Youde can come up with after Tesla's cannon and divine calculation. So after the first few weeks, the discussion in this regard gradually subsided.
Public opinion began to pay attention to the marriage between Lin Youde and Josephine.
At this moment, Zhan Crab No. 2 was quietly dragged out of Pangu's factory.
The sea trial of the No. 2 unit was quite successful. Based on the data collected during the sea trial, Victoria made major improvements to the shell design of the Battle Crab. Then Lin Ji’s factory worked for four all-nighters to complete the No. 3 unit of the Battle Crab.
.
The speed of the No. 3 machine in the water reached an astonishing 60 knots, which is three times the fastest torpedo currently. So some people suggested not to buy torpedoes, but to just carry a magnetically adsorbed timed explosive bag on the back of the battle crab.
During the battle, sneak into the bottom of the enemy ship, attach the explosive package to the bottom of the enemy ship, and then leave.
However, Lin Youde rejected this suggestion because it was too much like a suicide attack. He insisted on letting Zhan Crab launch torpedoes to attack enemy ships from a relatively safe distance.
But the problem is that the torpedoes these days are extremely unreliable, their speed is slow, their trajectory is obviously unclear, their hit rate is also a problem, and their range is still short. Therefore, successful lightning strike cases are quite rare these days, which is the case of the Japanese Navy in Sino-Japanese War
It was used more successfully in the Russo-Japanese War.
Therefore, it is not difficult to understand why Tiaobaji paid special attention to torpedo warfare in World War II.
Just when Lin Youde was worried about what weapons to carry with the Zhan Crab, the two genius girls he took in once again showed their worth. Sophie completed the small motor and electric steering gear for the torpedo, and Victoria completed the torpedo.
Gyroscope, and then successfully completed the related design of compressed air cooling launch.
What is more embarrassing is that after Victoria thoroughly understood Lin Ji's overall industrial capabilities, she believed that this new torpedo could only be produced using Zhurong, which made Lin Youde think "because there is no other knife, I have to use a bull's knife to kill chickens."
"a feeling of.
Two days before Lin Youde's wedding, a new torpedo was successfully tested at the naval range off Subic Bay.
If it weren't for the fact that all of this stuff had to be produced using Zhurong and the output was extremely low, Lin Youde would have really wanted the relocated Fuzhou Shipping Bureau to build a dozen torpedo cruisers.
On October 20, 1900, just the day before the war situation in the north, which was completely mired in quagmire, changed drastically, Lin Youde and Josephine got married.