The navy wants larger tonnage warships, just as the army wants large-caliber siege guns and expands more main forces, and it has never stopped.

At the beginning of the year, the navy submitted a plan to Li Xuan on the construction of second-class and even battleships, but Li Xuan did not veto it at that time, but maintained a supportive attitude, saying that as long as the navy can squeeze out enough funds and the supporting technology can meet the requirements, the navy can let go of the large-tonnage warships they need.

To put it bluntly, there is only so much money, you can do whatever you like, I don't care, but don't expect to get more military spending.

The reason why the navy specifically asked Li Xuan was that he actually wanted to get the support of special shipbuilding funds, but Li Xuan indirectly refused, so that the navy, which was shy in its pocket, had to make careful calculations.

Large-tonnage warships must be built, but how to build them, which kind of warships, must be carefully discussed, after all, you have to spend money on the blade.

Therefore, in this way, after deliberation, the navy took the initiative to shoot the plan of the second-class cruiser, and the plan of the first-class cruiser was directly rejected before it was proposed.

Instead, the plan was transferred directly to the battleships of the third rank.

Because according to the plan, the second-class cruiser will have more than 800 tons, and the tonnage of the first-class cruiser is also thousands of tons, which is actually about the same as the third-class battleship.

But the firepower and even deterrence of the cruiser are definitely inferior to the battleships of the third rank!

The positioning of a cruiser is high speed and long endurance, but the positioning of a battleship is simpler, that is, above firepower!

Therefore, after detailed discussions within the Navy, it was decided to abandon the construction of second-class cruisers and first-class cruisers, and directly use the limited funds for the construction of third-class cruisers.

But this has brought another problem, the newly designed third-class battleship has a standard displacement of 1,200 tons, and this tonnage has far exceeded the current shipbuilding level of the Tang Dynasty.

At present, Datang's shipbuilding level is the highest and even the Guangzhou Shipyard, but they can only undertake the construction of hulls of less than 800 tons, and as for the 1,000-ton dock of the Guangzhou Shipyard, it is just over 1,000 tons, which is still not up to the level of building this third-class battleship.

Otherwise, they would not have found the Dingsheng Shipyard, because although this shipyard has just been established for a short time, and the dock it has is only a 500-ton dock, but their construction plan is very huge, and there are two 1,500-ton docks under construction, one 3,000-ton dock, and even a 5,000-ton dock under planning.

And the 1,500-ton dock under construction can just be used to build a 1,200-ton third-class battleship!

But the problem comes again, although the Dingsheng shipyard has huge ambitions and the dockyard under construction is large enough, it is still unknown whether it can build such a large ship, so the navy needs to confirm it in advance.

The middle-aged man, is the general manager of the Dingsheng shipyard, for the situation of his own shipyard is naturally the most knowledgeable, when he heard the navy say whether it can be built, he pondered for a moment and said: "At present, we are tapping senior shipbuilding talents through multiple channels, especially shipbuilding talents in Europe, and we can also get technical support from the Royal Institute of Technology, now I dare not say, but a year later, we should be able to build a thousand-ton warship!" ”

"However, we can only be responsible for the specific construction, and at the same time we can't ensure the quality, maybe there will be some problems in the construction process, after all, your navy's time is too urgent, we don't have enough time to complete some process verification, originally we planned to build a few thousand-ton ocean-going merchant ships for the royal industry, and then set foot in the field of thousand-ton warships!"

The quality of the warship is certainly quite important, and the standard of ordinary civilian ships is completely different, and it may require the use of a large number of new processes, and these new processes have not been verified by a lot of actual verification, Dingsheng Shipyard is not afraid to pack the ticket will not have problems!

But Bao Yifen said: "Don't worry, as long as you can build according to the design drawings, you can also boldly adopt some new processes, after all, this ship also has the nature of experiments, if there is any problem, our navy will definitely not embarrass you!" ”

The middle-aged man of the Dingsheng Shipyard said: "In this case, our shipyard can try to take over, but this matter is too involved, and it is no longer something I can decide alone, I need to report to the Royal Family Industry Division, and in the end, it may even be reported to His Majesty, whether to build it in the end, it still depends on the meaning of the above!" ”

The risk is too great, if one is not done well, there will be a big problem, if it is only a problem in the construction process, it will be forgotten, I am afraid that after the construction is completed, the process will not be up to the standard and then there will be a big accident, if the navy spent a lot of money to build a battleship has not yet been on the battlefield, just out of the sea and sank, I am afraid that a large number of people will step down for this reason.

Although he was only a professional manager employed by the Imperial Household Property, since he became an employee of the Imperial Estate, he had to consider the political risks involved.

The current Navy is saying a good thing, what is not to be held responsible, but if there is a real problem, I am afraid that this Bao Yifen himself will not be able to hold it!

The cost of a battleship alone may reach hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, and if there is a problem with so much silver, enough people will be exterminated because of this.

And this matter also quickly spread to Li Xuan's side, and after Li Xuan saw it, he was also a little hesitant for a while, this time the navy's steps were a little big.

A battleship of 1,200 tons, they dare to think about it!

And knowing that Li Xuan asked Dingsheng Shipyard to build a large-tonnage dock in advance, it was not for pure sail battleships, but for future steam engine warships, and even iron steam engine warships, and this future, in his imagination, was more than ten years later, even after the Tang Dynasty unified China.

Now, it's too early!

However, since the navy is willing to take this risk, and there is no need for Li Xuan to pay extra money, he has no good reason to stop them, after all, the navy always has to develop, and some frigates and cruisers alone cannot support the Datang Navy!

Although he was not ready to stop it, he couldn't watch hundreds of thousands of taels of silver go down the drain, so he instructed to be cautious, and would rather delay it for a year and a half to make various preparations in advance, and when the technology was ready, it would not be too much to build.

After all, the dockyard has not yet been built, and the technical preparations have not been completed, so it is too early to approve the plan.

Moreover, the construction of a battleship is not just a hull, but also a cannon!

The current Tang Dynasty can't even produce fourteen pounds of naval guns, let alone the main naval guns on battleships, which are forty-eight pounds of cannons and twenty-four pounds of cannons.

After receiving Li Xuan's instructions to cautiously delay the construction, the navy was not disappointed, as long as His Majesty did not object, and what he had to do now was to make technical preparations in advance.

So, the Navy soon tendered the major arsenals of the Ministry of Industry, asking them to provide forty-eight pounds and twenty-four pounds of cannons within three years, and it was also noted that the number of early demand will not be too much, and you can build it by hand, don't always be so persistent that you have to mass production, first solve the problem of whether there is or not, and then toss your so-called industrial mass production!

And even if you are mass-produced, our navy does not have so much money to purchase and equip battleships!

The Ministry of Industry is committed to industrial mass production, but in fact, the Navy is very dissatisfied!

If you don't have that technical ability, you can build it by hand, and if it's a little more expensive, it's a little more expensive, and our navy doesn't say anything, why do you have to insist on mass production, and who are you going to sell it to? We don't want so much in the Navy!

But the Navy didn't know that the standardization, industrialization, and manual manufacturing pursued by the Ministry of Human Resources and Industry were avoided!

For example, muskets, all kinds of main artillery currently in production, and even battleships, they are all built to a unified standard!

But then again, the current level of technology is not enough, especially when the level of processing is limited, in fact, many things, especially precision parts, still have to rely on those craftsmen to create by themselves, and machinery cannot be mass-produced at all.

After hearing the complaints from the navy's side, coupled with Li Xuan's words, let the people of the Ministry of Industry have no more tendons, and the talents of the Ministry of Industry reluctantly put down the plan of industrial mass production of large-caliber naval guns, and planned to build a few eighteen-pound guns by hand first, and then build one or two twenty-four-pound guns by hand.

Anyway, the navy has already expressed its willingness to act as a wronged leader, it takes a long time, and it doesn't matter if the output is low, and you say that the price of the artillery made in this way is ridiculously expensive, and the navy says that there is no problem.

Nima, Lao Tzu even built a dozen frigates worth tens of thousands of taels of silver, and I'm afraid that you will be so expensive for hundreds of taels of silver for hand-built large-caliber naval guns?

Well, this is actually the Navy being forced to slap a swollen face and become fat!

This artillery is expensive for hundreds of taels of silver, but a ship is casually dozens of guns, which adds up to tens of thousands of taels of silver, and the battleship is not one or two, which adds up, in fact, the extra cost is actually very huge, and the navy is also very distressed about this.

But again, it's better to be expensive than nothing!

There are a lot of things in the navy, all kinds of shipbuilding and development plans, and it is the kind that can't see the results in a day or two, Li Xuan is too lazy to pay attention, with this time, it wouldn't be better for him to accompany Princess Wei'er to crawl all over the ground!