Before the advent of sectional shipbuilding technology, the process of building ships was actually almost the same, all in accordance with the order from bottom to top, first laying the keel, then building the bottom section and watertight compartment, and then installing the boiler and steam engine, as well as the underwater part of the hull, this is due to the large volume of the boiler and steam engine, which is generally installed in place with the construction of the hull, of course, if you want to replace the boiler or steam engine in the future, it is also very troublesome, and it is necessary to cut a part of the hull, so the general ship is not when it is absolutely necessary, it will not replace the boiler or steam engine, even if it is replaced, it will only be replaced once。

After completing the underwater part of the hull, and then completing the surface hull part, and laying various pipelines, you can properly complete a deck building, and reserve the bullet supply channel of the main gun, you can go into the water and then outfit, until it is fully completed.

The keel steel, the bottom jointed steel plates, the boiler and the steam engine used in the construction of the two warships arrived in Qingdao with the German engineers, and during this time, they were already transported to the shipyard's warehouse, so the keel laying work began immediately after the groundbreaking ceremony.

However, at this stage, there are not many people, because the keel installation is mainly based on lifting equipment, manpower only plays an auxiliary role, after all, a keel is a few tons, more than ten tons, not manpower can be carried, just after the keel is placed, make subtle adjustments and fix the keel position, do not make the keel move, and connect the horizontal and longitudinal keel, so in addition to the German engineering personnel, Qingdao Shipyard is involved in the first selection of 84 key training workers. In fact, there are many such people, and the Chinese workers can only participate in the construction in batches, while the other group of people is observing from the side.

However, after the construction began, the German engineers were surprised by the lifting equipment provided by the East China government, and the slipway was not equipped with a gantry crane, but the traverser had a large number of construction machinery and equipment, and for the construction of these two warships, four wheeled cranes, two heavy forklifts, and four light forklift equipment were specially pulled out. Among them, there are 2 cranes that can lift 60 tons of heavy loads, heavy forklifts that can transport 10 tons of heavy loads, and some small equipment, such as jacks, steam gongs, electric drills, etc., and are also equipped with two generators.

The German engineers are the first time to see these construction equipment, but only after using it, these equipment is indeed too convenient, with a crane to lift the keel, not only fast, flexible hoisting, the position is also very accurate, and the forklift in the field to transport materials and equipment is also convenient and fast, not to mention some small equipment, such as jacks can not only effortlessly lift a keel, but also play a great role in keel positioning.

The positioning of the keel needs to be very accurate, and the hoisting can only ensure that the approximate position is good, but there will be an error of more than ten centimeters, which is still the crane that is used, if it is the equipment of this era, the error will reach 3, 40 cm, and then it is necessary to rely on manpower to accurately position the keel. Sometimes to move a keel, it takes more than an hour to concentrate the strength of dozens of people, but with a jack it is very easy, only two people can operate and it can be completed in a few minutes.

The use of the steam pneumatic bell is on the rivet, the steel connection of this era is mainly riveting, the principle is to use the rivet itself deformation or interference to connect the metal components, so the outer surface of the ship in this era is a horizontal and vertical rivet head. However, the installation of rivets can only be carried out by manpower, which is time-consuming and laborious, sometimes a rivet needs to be hammered for more than half an hour to be fully installed in place, but it can be done effortlessly in a few seconds with a steam gong. Not to mention the function of an electric drill, drilling holes in steel is like playing.

Of course, there are not many of these small pieces of furniture provided by the East China government, only 2 or 3 pieces of each, after all, although there are some of these furniture, they are also consumables, and there are few bad ones, so it is necessary to save a little use. More than half of the riveting and drilling still require the technology of this era, but in this way, the progress of the project has been greatly accelerated, and the time for laying the keel has been significantly earlier than the expected construction schedule by nearly 4%.

These engineering equipment and furniture also amazed Hans, and it seems that there are a lot of good things for this group of overseas Chinese. In the past, the Germans had some sense of superiority in developed countries, but after seeing these engineering equipment and furniture, they unconsciously respected the traversers in their attitude. Because the equipment and furniture are matched with the engineering ability, the overseas Chinese were able to design excellent ship types, and there are these powerful engineering equipment and furniture, which shows that before the destruction of their country, it was indeed a society with highly developed science and technology.

In the process of construction, the German engineers did not hide it, but tried their best to teach the Chinese workers how to position, rivet, drill holes in the steel, and so on. On the one hand, they were shocked by the advanced equipment and equipment of the traversers, and the technical level of the overseas Chinese was by no means below that of Germany, so what else was there to blame; on the other hand, the East China government was indeed very superior in its hospitality conditions, even if they were ordinary German workers, they were as good as VIPs, and they were well eaten, drunk, and entertained, so the Hans had to come up with something genuine.

Chinese workers also know that this is a rare opportunity to learn a craft, in this era of China, want to learn a craft is indeed not an easy thing, not to mention the first to be at least three days of apprenticeship, no one of the wages or anything, but the work is dirty and tired to do, that is like in the factory, the wages are high, not to mention, but also have the opportunity to learn the skills of foreign artificial ironclad ships, although they also know that even if they learn this skill, it is impossible to build an ironclad ship by the strength of one person, but everyone understands the truth that art is not pressing, so naturally they also learn very seriously。 Moreover, after the end of each day, the factory will organize workers to summarize and analyze, encourage workers to communicate with each other to improve, and also pull out an accessory for workers to practice.

Thanks to the advanced furniture provided by the Traverser, the construction of the first stage of the keel laying and the bottom seal of the ship No. 1 was brought forward by almost a third, which also surprised Wesley and other German engineers. However, as the construction of the underwater part of the hull and the installation of boilers and steam engines became much more complicated, the role of the advanced furniture of the traverser will be greatly reduced, and the weakness of the insufficient technical level of the Chinese workers will gradually be exposed, so the construction progress will gradually return to normal levels.

However, at this time, the No. 2 ship can also be built, and the traverser also requested the German side to not use other furniture in the construction of the No. 2 ship, except for cranes and forklifts, all the furniture of this era, and hope to let as many Chinese workers as possible, and the construction progress of the No. 1 ship can be slowed down appropriately.

After consulting with other German engineers, Wesley also answered the Chinese side's suggestion, after all, the first phase of the construction of the No. 1 ship has accumulated a lot of time, even if it is more complicated in the later stage, but the tools of the traverser can still play a certain role, so even if it slows down a little, it will not affect the total construction period, and Wesley can also understand the mood of the traverser, hoping to use the construction of these two warships to train workers.

So Wesley immediately adjusted the construction plan, divided the German engineering personnel into two parts, and transferred half of them to the construction of the No. 2 ship, while all the Chinese workers involved in the construction of the No. 1 ship were transferred to the No. 2 ship, and at the same time, Qingdao Shipyard arranged 200 workers to participate in the second phase of the work.

The groundbreaking ceremony of the No. 2 ship was, of course, much simpler, with none of the leaders, and the Admiralty only sent two fleet commanders to attend. However, it also symbolizes that the construction of Qingdao's two warships is on the right track.

However, the construction of the warship was proceeding smoothly, but the work of the Admiralty was increasing, and when the construction of the No. 2 ship began, in the Navy's Qingdao base, a model built according to the 1:1 model of this type of warship had been completed.

This model, of course, was not used to test the performance of the ship's hull, but for the training of soldiers, so the main body was made of cement, concrete, and a small amount of wood, such as the artillery weapons on board. But both the exterior structure and the interior compartments are exactly the same as those of a warship under construction. Using this horizontal shape for training allows soldiers to familiarize themselves with the internal structure of the warship, as well as certain operating procedures. After the warship is completed, the time for soldiers to travel with the new ship can be reduced.

According to the contract, the East China Government can send a ship-receiving group of no less than 300 people to Germany in January next year to participate in the sea trials and acceptance of the new warship, and to drive the warship back to Qingdao.

The number of people in each warship is between 500-600 people, of course, it doesn't take so many people to receive the ship, but a ship also needs at least about 200 people, and two ships need 400 people, and they will depart from Qingdao in December, but now it is difficult to get together these 400 people, and seeing that the time from departure is not even three months, before departure, at least one month of model training is needed, so now the Minister of the Navy Shang Jinfeng is also anxious.

In fact, the navy has been recruiting and expanding, after all, the fleet size of the People's Army Navy is not small, with a total of 2 battleships, 2 large armored cruisers, 4 large ironclad ships, 2 old armored cruisers, 5 protective cruisers, shallow water gunboats, * There are 10 destroyers, a total of 25 combat ships, and a total number of about 6,000 soldiers on board, not counting the transport auxiliary ships, both in number and tonnage, far more than the original Beiyang Fleet. But until now, the number of soldiers on the ship has never been full.

It turned out that the army had always had some opinions about the navy, believing that the navy had robbed more than 80 percent of the recruits who could read and write, resulting in a low quality of army soldiers. In fact, the navy also has suffering, because the navy is not like the army, although it is more difficult to teach an illiterate person to shoot a gun and make tactical movements, but if you have a little more patience and spend more time, you can train it, and an illiterate person who gets on a warship is basically a waste, and it is impossible to teach it at all.