If it weren't for the significance of the Luo Hai, Lin Ziran would not have inspected the navy for the second time in just half a month and personally attended the commissioning ceremony of the ship.

The ship represents a new naval strategic system, and even if these are not considered, it is much stronger than the old warships before it in terms of performance.

In terms of protection, although it is not a comprehensive waterline armor belt, it is also a bow-shaped dome armor, and the outer layer relies on the coal bunker to further strengthen the protection, this protection design is proposed by Lin Ziran himself, and the navy found that the effect is amazing when it is tested, and it is very suitable for some small and medium-tonnage warships.

In terms of power, it is the most advanced steam unit in Nanhai Prefecture, which can run up to 16.5 knots, which is faster than many contemporary warships.

The only flaw in the whole battleship seems to be that the number of large-caliber naval guns is relatively small.

However, other traditional old battleships have fewer large-caliber naval guns!

For example, at the beginning of the design of the Pingbo, the ship was expected to be equipped with front-loading rifled guns, and the caliber of the main gun was only ready to be installed with 170 mm, of course, the number of attached guns would be very large.

After the design was changed halfway, the Pingbo was limited by the original hull design, so it was also difficult for the ship to be equipped with a large number of large-caliber naval guns, and the 200-millimeter caliber main gun was only equipped with three.

This is a big guy of more than 6,000 tons, only one more than the 2,500-ton Luohai.

The main naval guns on the Pingbo were actually 150 mm naval guns, and there were 16 guns densely packed up and down the ship, especially in the side gun gallery.

Although it is said that after the ship solved many technical problems and was officially put into service a few months ago, it has demonstrated relatively strong combat effectiveness, its strong armor has brought it a strong defensive capability, and the high-horsepower steam unit has brought surging power, making the maximum speed reach as much as 15 knots.

The rear-loading rifled guns installed in its column are also very powerful.

However, this is still not Lin Ziran, nor is it a new generation of warships that the admirals of the Daheng Unification Army want to see!

For this reason, when he had just conquered Luohai City, controlled Luohai Shipyard, and took over the Nanhai State Fleet, Lin Ziran had already proposed some design indicators for the new warship to the Navy's ordnance department, and received the unanimous support of the admirals!

For example, install larger caliber guns and use huge gun caliber to destroy enemy warships that are now becoming more and more protected.

After installing large-caliber guns at the same time, then there will be a decrease in the number of shipborne guns, so in order to ensure firepower, the guns need to have a larger firing angle, so it is very necessary to rotate the gun mount.

At the same time, simplifying the sail to avoid blocking the range of the gun has also become a necessary choice.

Last but not least, with the great improvement in the accuracy of rear-loading rifled guns, the effective firing range of the rear-loading rifled guns on the army's side has gone to 10 kilometers.

But on the Navy's side, the Pingbo has been in service for a few months, and it has been more than a year since other warships were equipped with some rear-loading line guns, but after such a long period of training, in the simulated actual combat exercises, the effective firing distance of movement and movement still cannot exceed 1,500 meters, and even at a distance of 1,500 meters, even if it is aimed and fired by a highly skilled gunner, the hit rate is miserable, and even one percent cannot be reached.

As for the gunners with ordinary skills, it is only infinitely close to zero in terms of hit rate.

It is not until the distance of about a kilometer that the hit rate is more impressive.

However, with a range of only one thousand meters, it is easy to be close to enemy ships in naval battles.

Once the two sides get close, people will come forward and hit you directly in the face, even with a dense smoothbore cannon can beat the Pingbo into slag.

Therefore, in order to really give full play to the power of the breech-loading rifled gun, it is necessary to increase the effective range in actual combat.

There are too many unstable factors for the ship guns to fire on the sea surface, because the ships are moving with each other, even the sea water is also moving, and the ships will swing up and down, left and right, which greatly limits the stability of the ship guns when firing, especially when they want to carry out long-distance shelling, it is difficult to measure the distance of the target, and if they do not know the accurate distance, it is difficult to accurately aim and shoot.

With manpower alone, even an experienced and skilled gunner would not be able to achieve much of a hit rate at long distances in such a situation.

So what to do?

Since it is no longer possible to rely solely on manpower, then use the assistance of machinery and equipment!

The first thing that needs to be solved urgently is the problem of combat ranging!

Don't care about the rest, at least you need to quickly and accurately test the distance between the enemy ship and your own ship when the battle is due.

To this end, the Navy has improved and introduced the existing main nautical instrument, the sextant.

If you pass the sextant, you can actually simply calculate the distance and other data, and enter the guide naval guns to carry out shelling, although the operation is more complicated with the use of the sextant, and the calculation process is slow, which is suspected of delaying the battle discipline.

But this is already the best solution that the Daheng Unification Army and Navy can come up with.

As for the other methods, they are still in the laboratory, and the hell knows when they will be able to work them out!

In the past, the Daheng Unification Army and Navy used a sextant to measure the range and calibrate the shooting elements.

On the Luohai, it is equipped with an improved sextant that is specially used to measure various design elements, and a command mast is also specially designed.

The successful completion and commissioning of the Luohai is the initial formation of a new strategic system representing the Daheng Unification Army and Navy.

In addition to the Luohai, there are two cruisers of the same class under intense construction, and it is expected that the second will be commissioned in three months, and the third will be commissioned in five months.

At the same time, the Daheng Unification Army Navy has prepared to start construction of a capital armored ship based on the design and construction experience of the Luohai, and the tonnage is directly 8,000 tons.

Don't think that this tonnage is very large, worry that Nanhai Prefecture can't build it, Luohai Shipyard, that has the ability to build 10,000-ton warships, just delivered a 10,000-ton ironclad ship to the Orr Kingdom Navy at the beginning of this year, and the Orr Kingdom Navy directly named it after the country name, called the Orr Kingdom.

Although this ironclad ship is still Luohai Shipyard, it is also the first 10,000-ton ironclad ship built in the entire Daheng, and the overall performance indicators cannot keep up with the first-class level.

But regardless of the hull design, protection, and power, it belongs to the top level of contemporary second-rate.

This level is basically the highest level that the Orr Kingdom can procure, and it is enough for them, after all, it is a 10,000-ton ironclad ship, and it is very scary to pull it out.

In particular, the ship has also been reequipped with a large number of rear-loading guns, and it has a great advantage in firepower.