The development and production of large-caliber long-barreled naval guns have always plagued the Daheng Navy.

And this became even more noticeable after the secret entry into service of the Navy's conjunctive rangefinders.

Because with the secret service of the combined rangefinder, the navy predicts that the combat distance will rise from more than 1,000 meters to about 5,000 meters, and with the increase of the combat distance, higher requirements are put forward for the range and power of naval guns.

This is also the reason why the Navy insisted on equipping the Yonglin-class battleships with 300-millimeter and 30-caliber naval guns, and for this reason did not hesitate to change the design and extend the construction period, so that the two Yonglin-class battleships that were originally planned to be able to be put into service at the beginning of this year have not been put into service until now.

This is because the 300-mm 30-caliber naval gun has not been successfully mass-produced!

Although this naval gun has been successfully developed and produced before, the materials and processing technology are not very mature, coupled with the lack of performance of processing equipment, although it can barely be processed and produced, but the quality of the gun barrel produced makes the navy very headache.

Although the 300 mm and 30 times the caliber of the naval gun was produced, its performance did not meet the design standards, which meant that it could only be used with a reduced charge, otherwise the barrel could not withstand it.

Even so, the life of its body tube is very low, only one hundred and fifty rounds of body tube life, which makes the navy very painful.

However, even so, since the beginning of the year, the Navy has placed orders for a number of 300 mm and 30 times the caliber of gun barrels, after all, poor performance is better than nothing.

Moreover, the hull of the Yonglin-class battleship has long been built, and even the turret itself is almost built, just waiting for the barrel to be in place.

Therefore, the navy is counting on purchasing some poor quality guns to be used first, and at the same time waiting for qualified barrels, and then replacing them when the poor quality barrels reach the end of their service life.

After all, the scheduled service time of the Yonglin-class battleship has been postponed for a year, which has already affected the strategic planning of the navy, and it cannot be delayed any longer.

Now the machinery plant of the Jingzhou Machinery Company has been successfully completed, and it is expected that it will not be long before it will be put into operation, which has reassured the navy a lot.

Even in anticipation, the follow-up will be equipped with naval guns with larger calibers and longer barrels.

On the navy's side, there is still research and development work on 300 mm 35 times, 40 times the body barrel, and even 350 mm caliber 35 times the barrel.

These large-caliber naval guns are produced by the large-scale advanced equipment of the factories under the Jingzhou Machinery Company, and the current Nanzhou Machinery Bureau and the artillery factories of the Jingzhou Machinery Bureau do not have this ability.

Although the mechanical equipment used in the artillery factories under the above two machine bureaus is already the top equipment in Daheng's self-made equipment, there is still a huge gap between the performance and the first-class industrial equipment of the powerful country.

This is especially true for large machines and precision machining equipment.

Otherwise, the Daheng Empire would not have spent a huge amount of money to import top industrial equipment, and even specially transferred all kinds of technical personnel and industrial departments to integrate and establish Jingzhou Machinery Company.

Jingzhou Machinery Co., Ltd. is mainly composed of machinery factories and Jingzhou Machinery Factories under the Jingzhou Machinery Bureau, and at the same time has a large number of technical personnel from the Machinery Factory of Nanzhou Machinery Bureau, large machinery factories and Zishengzhou No. 1 Machinery Factory, with more than 100 senior technical personnel and thousands of middle and low-level technical personnel.

The production of naval guns by this company is actually just one of their businesses, in fact, their main role is to produce all kinds of machinery and equipment.

In particular, there is a shortage of various industrial machinery and equipment, precision machining equipment and forging of super-large steel parts in the Daheng Empire.

Their importance to the Daheng Empire was far more than the production of barrels for large-caliber naval guns, but also to provide various equipment for the industrial manufacturing sector.

To put it simply, it is to use these imported top industrial equipment to produce all kinds of domestic industrial equipment by itself, which belongs to the core factory of industrial machine tools!

Otherwise, Lin Ziran would not have come over to inspect.

During the inspection, Lin Ziran not only listened to the construction process of their factory, but also focused on listening to some of the industrial equipment products they were going to produce once they were put into production.

These spare parts are stupid and coarse at first glance, and there is no difficulty, but without these thousands of tons of hydraulic presses, don't expect to be produced.

The larger the industrial equipment, the more difficult it is to process!

Then Lin Ziran came to the supporting Jingzhou Precision Machinery Factory, if the Jingzhou large machinery factory that I saw before specializes in all kinds of stupid and coarse products, then this precision factory is playing with small and fine things.

They mainly develop and produce all kinds of precision equipment!

For example, the steam engine, cylinders and other core components have very high requirements for machining accuracy, which also requires high-precision processing equipment, but the accuracy of Daheng's domestic processing equipment has not been good, and a large number of imported high-precision equipment is needed for a long time.

If the precision machinery factory of Jingzhou Machinery Company can provide machinery and equipment with higher processing accuracy, it will bring a significant improvement to the entire machining industry of Daheng Empire, and will be able to save a lot of valuable foreign exchange.

At the end of the inspection, Lin Ziran once again delivered a short speech to many officials and technicians present, hoping that the industrial sector can give full play to the spirit of hard work, develop and produce more advanced industrial equipment for Daheng, and enhance Daheng's industrial manufacturing capacity, so as to achieve scientific and technological rejuvenation of the country, industrial power, and lay the foundation for the 'comprehensive economic development plan'.

After completing a day's inspection, not long after Lin Ziran returned to the Mirror Palace, the navy came to the door.

The Navy invited Lin Ziran to attend the commissioning ceremony of the Chongke armored cruiser, and at the same time, it also applied for shipbuilding funds to start building a follow-up ship to the Yonglin-class battleship.

Originally, the construction of the No. 3 and No. 4 ships of the continuous improvement of the Yonglin-class battleships should have started last year, but because the development and production of the 300-millimeter and 30-caliber naval guns did not go smoothly before, even the construction of the first two Yonglin-class battleships was delayed again and again, so the No. 3 ship plan and the No. 4 ship plan were directly canceled, and the improved version of the Yonglin-class battleship was designed instead.

At the same time, the Daheng Empire's progress in the 250 mm and 30 times the naval guns was relatively fast, and it was already in the third year of Qiansheng, that is, in September last year, when it was officially finalized and assigned to the Chongke-class armored cruisers.

Therefore, in the past two years, the capital ship construction of the Daheng Empire was mainly based on armored cruisers, which started construction in the second year of Qiansheng, two in the third year of Qiansheng, and another in the first half of this year, all of which are the continuous improvement models of Chongke-class armored cruisers, with slight differences in details, but the main design has not changed much, they are all standard displacement of 8,500 tons, and mature wrought iron hardwood armor is still used in protection, and the main gun is equipped with a total of four 250 mm 30 times caliber guns with front and rear twin turrets, and the speed is 17 knots.

The first ship, the Chongke, has completed outfitting and is undergoing final sea trials, and if nothing else, it will officially enter active service in the Navy next month.

However, after the problem of producing 300-millimeter and 30-caliber naval guns was completely resolved, the navy naturally wanted to keep up with the construction plan of the improved battleships of the Yonglin class battleships in a timely manner.

And the Navy wants to build a new generation of battleships as soon as possible, and at the same time wants to increase the number of constructions, from two to four.

to counter the new generation of King-class battleships of the Krull Kingdom and their potentially unknown advanced battleships.

In the first half of this year, the Navy of the Krull Kingdom has announced in a high-profile manner that they have built and commissioned a series of new warships, and their performance has comprehensively surpassed all the warships of other countries in service and under construction in the world.

What they announced in a high-profile manner were the King-class battleships, all equipped with 300 mm and 30 times the caliber naval guns, new armor-piercing shells, steel-faced iron armor, and new technology steam engines, and even allowed to receive foreign orders to build new warships for other countries using the above-mentioned naval guns, armor, and steam engine technology.

Supported by its strong national strength, the Krull Kingdom has already completely established the advantages of the era of steel giants in the new era through a series of major actions in the first few years of the era of rear-loading naval guns.

In the early years, they kept it a secret, although there were rumors about it in various countries, but they didn't know the specific situation, and when the Krull Kingdom announced it itself, the navies of all countries were dumbfounded.

Everyone knew that the Krull Kingdom had a new type of warship, but they didn't expect that they would build so many in one go, and the battleships were so advanced.

The Navy of the Kingdom of Krull announced that six ships had been commissioned.

And what worries the navies of all countries, especially the Daheng Navy, is even more worried!

The Navy of the Krull Kingdom will inevitably have a follow-up ship plan for the King-class battleship!

Although the Krull Kingdom has not been made public, judging from their hidden performance, it is estimated that the follow-up ships have been launched into service.

This made many countries stupid, when they were still tossing more than 200 mm caliber naval guns, or 300 mm and 25 times the caliber naval guns, the Krull Kingdom was already launching a large number of advanced warships equipped with 300 mm and 30 times caliber naval guns, and it was very likely that there were already a new generation of battleships in service.

What does this mean?

This means falling behind across the board!

Because even in the face of the open King-class battleships of the Krull Kingdom Navy, all the warships in service in other countries, even under construction, and even on the drawings, cannot be opposed!

Not to mention the new generation of battleships that are kept secret in the face of the Krull Kingdom.

According to the existing clues, the Daheng Navy speculated that the Navy of the Krull Kingdom was very likely to be a new generation of capital ships that were launched and put into service with 350 mm caliber naval guns and other new technologies, with more powerful firepower, better protection, and faster speed.

This made the navy of the Great Heng Empire extremely worried!