Xiao Zishan and Fang Fei discussed it and concluded that it was already late November and there were still many things to be done after the fleet returned, including the "plan review and correction" that Mr. Wen repeatedly advocated day and night. The whole process would at least be completed.
It will take half a month. Infrastructure materials and necessary arms must be transported to the 852 base in Hong Kong to ensure that the Hong Kong detachment can withstand any enemy counterattack locally.
Based on this calculation, Xiao Zishan thought it would be better to postpone the annual meeting to the end of December - to celebrate it with the Gregorian New Year of 1631.
"You know, we have been experiencing trade corruption for more than half a year, and many materials are out of stock. It is just a good month to calm down and make supplies abundant, so that it can be convenient to hold the annual meeting."
So the annual meeting was finally decided to be held around December 26. According to the observations of the Gaoshanling Meteorological Observatory for almost three years, the lowest temperature in winter in this time and space is around 9 to 10 degrees Celsius, which usually occurs in mid-January and December.
The average temperature in the second half of the year is still 17 or 18 degrees, and sometimes the temperature is around 21 degrees. It’s just right for an open-air party at the beach.
Within the Executive Committee, at this time, intense discussions were being held on the results of the Pearl River Operation, follow-up issues and strategic planning for next year. Liu Xiang's disappearance from the Pearl River Estuary surprised the Executive Committee - they did not expect this confrontation with Zheng Zhilong.
In the end, the big boss would simply abandon his traditional territory and avoid the war. The executive committee was very worried about this, fearing that Liu Xiang would choose the opportunity to launch a large-scale counterattack against the Hong Kong base. The Hong Kong base is still in its infancy stage.
However, both the squadron and the garrison are weak in strength. They are in urgent need of large-scale reinforcement.
The reinforcements shipped from Lingao not only include artillery, soldiers and building materials, but also require a large number of skilled construction workers to carry out infrastructure construction for the opening of Hong Kong next year. Wharfs, trestles, warehouses, shops. Skade is working on the executive committee every day
At the conference working meeting, we tried our best to obtain materials and deadweight tons shipped to Hong Kong - except for some materials that can be purchased nearby from Guangdong, most of the materials needed by Hong Kong still need to be shipped from Lingao by ship.
The more than 700-kilometer navigation route from Lingao to Hong Kong has put the establishment of a large-scale fleet and convoy system on the agenda. The purely private shipping companies such as Gaoguang Shipping that were used in the past can no longer play a protective role.
——Liu Xiang and Zheng Zhilong may launch indiscriminate attacks on all ships on this route at any time.
On Hainan Island, with the exception of Qiongshan, the northern counties have fallen into the hands of Australia and Song Dynasty one after another. However, the large number of personnel and the circulation of materials required for political power construction in each county require a large amount of maritime transport capacity. And Sanya
The demand for materials and manpower for development is still endless, which makes the shipping capacity of ships tight. In addition to the interruption of foreign trade in the few months of counter-encirclement and suppression, the shipping capacity of ships was ample. After the Chengmai victory, the entire maritime
The demand for transportation capacity was so strong that in October, the allocation of deadweight tons for offshore transportation, which had previously been unrestricted, was placed under the overall management of the Planning Institute.
The tight transportation capacity means that it has become increasingly difficult to rely on the small and medium-sized ships of the original navy for cargo transportation. Too frequent voyages to the sea have worsened the working condition of the ships and sailors, and the average damage situation has begun to increase.
Expanding the fleet has become a consensus of the Executive Committee. However, throughout 1630, due to the war and the development of Sanya, the Finance Director's investment in infrastructure, army, navy, and armament facilities accounted for more than half of the annual budget. And directly
The spending on shipbuilding is almost zero. Lingao's shipping industry is almost entirely supported by the repair and transformation of old ships. Although in terms of scale, Lingao's fleet is also quite impressive, and the twins in the old sailing ships
There are 126 ships of the mast/hundred-ton class or above, and 92 single-masted ships of 30 to 70 tons.
These ships are all under the management and control of the Navy. Some of the ships have been modified and used as fishing boats. Some of them have been equipped with various artillery and typewriters to become professional combat spy boats. Others have been equipped with a small number of artillery and are specially used for various maritime chores.
, including transportation, patrol and fishing. The naming is also very simple, just use the registration port + purpose + number. Names such as: "Linte", "Linyu", "Linyun".
21 ships with a deadweight tonnage of 200 to 500 tons - large sailing ships like the "Qionghai Coal" were given independent ship names - are intensively used as special transport ships, especially grain ships heading to Vietnam and ships heading to Vietnam.
The material transport ships in Sanya and Hong Kong are all borne by these "large ships". These ships are also lightly armed and have room for expansion of armament, and can be put into battle when necessary.
In addition to these ships controlled by the navy, on the Guangzhou-Leizhou-Lingao route, there used to be ships from two shipping companies, Gaoguang Shipping Company and Haian Shipping Company. These ships were controlled by the Ministry of Colonization and Trade and were respectively operated by Guangzhou.
Station and Leizhou Station are managed. Gaoguang Shipping Company has 12 three-masted Dafu ships, which are named after "Guang + Tiangan" and "Gao + Earthly Branches". These ships operate mixed passenger and cargo services between Guangzhou and Lingao
The regular route was very prosperous before the second anti-encirclement and suppression campaign. Before the second anti-encirclement and suppression campaign, some of the ships fled to Lingao, and some were seized and confiscated by the government. The business has not been restored yet.
As for the ships of Hai'an Shipping Company, they are all small-tonnage coastal salt ships. They were originally mainly used to transport Leizhou sugar to Guangzhou and other places for sale. In addition to transporting sugar, they also usually transport Leizhou's coal, wood and agricultural products to Linzhou.
Advanced short-distance maritime transport.
Although most ships are managed and used by the Navy, the distribution of deadweight tons in transportation is actually controlled by the Planning Institute. The Transportation Office of the Planning Institute has special stowage charts and tables that record various cargoes accurately to the hour.
logistics situation.
After the Navy carried out the Battle of the Pearl River Estuary, a large number of ships were transferred to serve as warships and transport ships, making the entire Lingao shipping capacity increasingly scarce. The stationing of two squadrons of spy boat captains in Hong Kong further reduced the already overwhelmed naval fleet capacity.
Their Xunwhale self-propelled deck barge has an amazing transport capacity, but the ship can operate in coastal areas with good sea conditions, and its power system is a diesel engine, which has consumed a lot of money after carrying out several Sanya transportation missions.
Diesel. As the only modern ship capable of transporting oversized, overweight, and overlong cargo, the Planning Institute really cannot make up its mind to continue letting it perform regular freight tasks.
This severe situation caused the initiative of emergency shipbuilding to be raised again at the working meeting of the Executive Committee. Shipbuilding must not only meet the needs of transportation, but also be used to expand the navy's combat ships. Chen Haiyang made it clear at the meeting
Pointing out that the existing armed spy ships are too small in terms of tonnage, which limits the number and caliber of installed artillery. Especially the 24-pound carronade guns installed on some spy boats, Chen Haiyang believes that such small, short-range artillery is of little significance.
.
"The effective range of the 24-pound carronade is only 100 to 200 meters. If you encounter a Western warship, you will suffer a loss in range. If you encounter a fleet of big pirates like Liu Xiang, if a single artillery fire cannot destroy the enemy ship, it will immediately
After completing the reloading, they will be submerged in the boarding battle." Chen Haiyang mentioned that in the Humen and Guangdong inland river battles, the special agent boat squadron equipped with carronade guns was used in order to avoid being attacked by the Ming army's Hongyi cannon at close range during the battle.
damage, having to wait many times for the cannon squadron to damage the enemy with fire from a distance before joining the battle.
"The Caron gun squadron only showed its destructive advantage in the Battle of Lantau Island when it dealt with a small group of pirates with very weak firepower and no advantage in numbers. In the long run, the Caron gun squadron can only serve as a patrol
Or used for escort."
In addition, most of the spy boats in the spy boat squadron are of small tonnage, making it difficult to carry out sustained operations - some of the boats are of poor construction quality, and none of these boats have copper cladding on the bottom of the boat. The adhesion of shipworms and marine organisms has become worse.
It is so serious that Chen Haiyang estimates that about one-third of the ships must undergo immediate maintenance.
"If we continue to use spy ships for heavy transportation and escort missions, we will soon face the embarrassing situation of more than half of the ships being maintained in the first half of 1631." Chen Haiyang warned, "Shipbuilding, especially construction, can last for a long time.
The use of large-tonnage ships is imminent!"
"Our current situation in which transport ships and warships are not separated is inappropriate. On the surface, it looks like comprehensive utilization, but in fact, whether it is the modification of the ships or the distribution, it is completely different." Ming Qiu, the Chief of Naval Command, spoke.
The only ones that the Australian and Song Navy were truly transformed or built according to warships were the two two-masted gunboats Zhenhai and Fubo and the iron-ribbed wooden-hulled triangular patrol boat. However, their tonnage did not exceed 200 tons, and they were extremely small ships.
The Naval Command concluded in the war game exercise in the picture that if the four 8154 cruisers are not dispatched, the Australian and Song Navy can only maintain its absolute advantage in small-scale battles. Once they encounter Liu Xiang or Zheng Zhilong, they can be used at any time.
With a large maritime force of hundreds of ships, it would be difficult for the navy to ensure its chances of victory.
The Navy hopes to obtain several large battleships with large tonnage, sail or steam power. Their armament, speed and endurance must be at least as high as the cruise ships of the early 19th century.
Finally, the Navy made a request: at least start the construction of two thousand-ton three-masted sailing cruising ships with additional appropriations in fiscal year 1630, and start construction of another 6 to 10 500-ton armed auxiliary ships in fiscal year 1631.
"Obviously, this is a bit hasty." Ma Qianxu waited for Chen Haiyang to finish his speech before saying slowly, "Large battleships are of course very useful. However, even if we don't talk about whether our technical capabilities and material reserves are enough to build such a 19th century level
A cruise ship, the construction period of this thousand-ton ship will be at least one year, right?" He said and looked back at Zhan Wuya.
"If the materials and manpower of a three-hundred-ton wooden ship are sufficient, the assault construction will take about six months." Zhan Wuya said, "But now that we can build iron-ribbed ships, the construction period can be further shortened to three to four months.
Bar."
"Obviously, what we need to build now is not such a large ship - because we are a ship that can be put into use in a short time, such as within two or three months." Ma Qianzhu said, "Because the existing naval ships can be put into use within half a year.
All will face problems of overhaul and maintenance, and the construction of ships that will not be put into use until a year later will only create a gap in naval power."
This was a clear-cut objection to the shipbuilding plan proposed by the navy. There was a moment of silence in the executive committee meeting room. Chen Haiyang wanted to refute, but what Ma Qianzhu said was reasonable and well-founded, and was confirmed by the industrial department.
Wu De said: "It is too late to build large warships. I think we should fundamentally solve the problem of transportation capacity first."
Fundamentally speaking, the navy has too many tasks and is overloaded with transportation tasks, leaving insufficient time for ships to perform maintenance. Wu De suggested that a batch of special-purpose transport ships should be built to replace the spy boats currently in use, so that they can
Can be freed from heavy transportation tasks.
"I don't understand shipbuilding, but we can refer to the American concept of building free ships and standardize the design and build a batch of armed transport ships. At this stage, in order to build quickly, the tonnage of the ships is limited to 300 to 500 tons, and they use sail power.
." Wu De elaborated on his idea, "Of course, it can leave room for modification for the installation of steam engines in the future."
"If you want to install a steam engine, you can first install a smaller one. A 50-horsepower one is enough." Wen Desi interjected, "As an auxiliary power for sail manipulation. Having a steam engine power to assist sail manipulation will greatly reduce the number of sailors facing the enemy."
It has excellent sailing ability and can save a lot of manpower.”
Zhan Wuya said: "If it uses an iron-ribbed wooden shell structure, it can be completed in about four months."
Ma Qianzhu said: "It's still a bit slow. It would be best to put it into use within two or three months."
"My other proposal is to build a barge," Wu De said.
Wu De said that he conducted a survey on the transportation situation and found that a large part of the transportation capacity is occupied by coastal transportation, including short-distance bulk transportation such as transporting salt from Majiao to Bopu. Although the formation system is adopted, in fact,
Each ship sails independently using sails.
Wu De proposed to use the technically mature steamboats as tugboats and quickly build a group of unpowered barges to take on coastal transportation tasks.
"An all-steel barge can transport more than a thousand tons." Wu De said, "We don't have so much steel, so we build barges with iron frames and wooden hulls, without even using a deck. The transport capacity of each barge is about 200 tons.
A formation of 10 barges.”
"In this case, the steam boat cannot be towed." Wen Desi said.
"Then build a steam engine tugboat!" Wu De said, "We can now make our own 500-horsepower steam engine. It should not be a problem to build or modify several tugboats for offshore use."
Everyone thinks this plan is feasible. Building a 500-horsepower steam engine is already a relatively skilled job for the mechanical department. As for the tugboat itself, if the sea conditions are not high, it is not difficult to build a small tugboat, and the construction period only takes one month.
about there.
As for the issue of expanding combat power raised by the Navy, Wen Desi suggested that the stranded Project 854 can be relaunched. This large ship, which was originally intended to be the empire's first ironclad ship, was completed before it was forced to be dismantled due to excessive steel consumption.
The laying of the keel and the installation of the ribs were completed. Since then, Project 854 has been admired on the slipway of the shipyard just like the skeleton of a prehistoric dinosaur.
To be honest, even with the keel and ribs, the momentum of this ship has shocked countless indigenous people. They can't figure out how these huge iron bones are made, nor can they imagine that they can be assembled and combined by manpower.
The discontinuation of the 854 had a lot to do with the insufficient use of steel materials. More importantly, there were very few qualified riveters at that time. Zhou Billy had a few apprentices, and he could barely make boilers. He needed to do it on a large scale.
Riveting ship hulls is almost impossible both in terms of process difficulty and the amount of labor required.
Although Wen Desi was deeply concerned about the cancellation of Project 854, after all, shipbuilding did not rely solely on drawings. The technical level and processing ability of workers were also important, so he had to acquiesce to this reality.
Now Zhou Bili's disciples have accumulated considerable experience after large-scale manufacturing of the Mohist series of boilers known as "bomb boilers" - although they still dare not use them to rivet such a huge ship hull, they have used it in some hull parts.
It is already quite confident with marine boilers.
Wen Desi proposed a new 854 modification plan based on the technical level of the workers.
The so-called 854 modification plan is based on utilizing the completed parts of the 854 project. The ship type and structure have not changed, but the construction process is technically simplified, and the original all-iron hull ship is changed to an iron-frame wooden hull ship. The wooden hull ship is under maintenance
It is easier to build than an iron-hulled ship. There is no need to rely on the unreliable riveting process of indigenous workers in construction. The demand for steel has also been greatly reduced.
The official model name of the 854 modification is the 1630-class iron-ribbed wooden hull flying shear steam-assisted sail cruiser. The design specifications are: displacement 1160 tons, length 70 meters, width 9.9 meters, draft 6.25 meters. Install a 200 horsepower steam engine.
It has a speed of eight knots (using steam power), sixteen knots (sail power), and a crew of 109 people. It has a full rigged layout. The steam engine not only provides sailing power, but also provides power to operate the sails, which greatly saves sailors' time.
quantity.
This kind of ship is based on the steam-sail hybrid cruiser of the 1860s. A battleship of this tonnage was classified as a third-class cruiser in the U.S. Navy at that time. As a raiding ship, it was widely used in the American Civil War.
My footprints are all over the world's oceans. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendation at ***(***.***).***, your support is my biggest motivation