The propeller structure is not complicated. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 infoFor Li Zhi, who has produced a large number of dragon tail cars, forging a barely usable propeller is not a difficult problem. Although modern propellers are very complex, they cannot be produced by the technology of the Ming Dynasty. But you must know that Li Zhi's ship is a ship of several hundred tons, and the requirements for propellers of such a ship are completely different from the requirements of 1,000-ton and 10,000-ton giant ships in later generations, and Li Zhiyong's materials and technology are competent.

The difficulty lies in the efficiency of the propeller: the overall size of the propeller, the angle of rotation of the propeller, and the distance between the propellers all affect the overall efficiency of the propeller.

Although Li Zhi is an industrial designer, he does not have in-depth research on propellers. All he knew was that "a good propeller is more efficient than a paddle wheel." As for the detailed parameters, Li Zhi didn't know anything.

All Li Zhi could do was to keep forging propellers with different parameters, and then load them onto ships for testing.

The paddle wheel on the ship was changed to a propeller, and the structure of the whole ship was changed accordingly. First of all, in order to accommodate the position of the propellers, the steam engine was moved to the bilge, and only two huge chimneys were exposed on the first deck. The steam engine was arranged behind the bilge, closer to the ship's coal storage area, saving the workload of transporting coal. After the steam engine was installed in the base compartment, the center of gravity of the ship was also shifted downward, and the ship became more stable.

In addition, because the paddle wheel was unloaded, the gun emplacements on the ship were greatly increased. The 4,000-material ship, which could only hold 20 guns, could be equipped with 28 guns after being converted into a propeller ship. Several newly built ships of 5,000 materials had more gun emplacements, from twenty-four gun emplacements to thirty-two gun emplacements. If all of Li Zhi's 43 ships were converted to propellers, Li Zhi's fleet would suddenly add more than 300 artillery positions.

Fortunately, Li Zhi cast a large number of artillery pieces in the past two years, all of which were stored in warehouses. After the shutdown of the four shipbuilding sites in Shandong, the number of artillery guns produced by the artillery workshops far exceeded the number needed to launch new ships, which was able to meet the demand for artillery for the new gun positions.

Li Zhi chose a newly launched 5,000-material ship "Dingxin" as a test ship, and led carpenters to rebuild the propellers. Although the ship does not have iron armor, it can simulate an ironclad ship with some iron ingots in the bilge as ballast.

When the propeller is on board, it is connected to the steam engine by a steel rod. The propeller shaft is fitted with bearings to reduce friction and transmit power to the propeller outside the stern.

Li Zhi organized the forging workers to start forging the propellers. The work was purely experimental, and Li Zhi had the blacksmiths build all kinds of propellers, three-bladed and four-bladed. The last one was installed on the Dingxin number for trial.

Next to the Dingxin, there is also a large ship of 5,000 materials using paddle wheels. Every time a new propeller is replaced, the Dingxin races against the big paddle ships. The 30 or so propellers produced in front of him had a very bad effect, and Li Zhi pondered for a long time, greatly increasing the size of the propeller surface, and the efficiency was greatly improved.

The scene of the propeller boat and the paddle wheel boat race is something that the people on the beach in Tianjin have never seen. It's already unbelievable that a boat without sails can be driven, but after all, that kind of boat still has a wheel to row the water, and the people can understand that it is the machine that drives the rowing wheel to push the big boat. But the propeller boat simply didn't even have a paddling wheel, but it still magically drove at high speed on the sea. The people of Tianjin seem to have seen the gods and things, and a large number of people crowd to the Dagu wharf every day to watch the excitement.

Even a well-informed person like Gao Ligong was stunned by this new-style propulsion facility. The propeller trial production has been carried out for half a month, and the propeller boat has not yet defeated the paddle steamer in the competition, but in the eyes of Gao Ligong, this is already an epoch-making innovation.

"Grandpa Guo, this ironclad ship uses a propeller, so it can wrap the whole body with iron armor, it really doesn't leak!"

"Look at the extra eight heavy cannons, it's really mighty! This big ship has 32 cannons, and one ship can go to Japan to bomb land batteries and plunder coastal towns. ”

"Grandpa Guo, although this propeller boat can't outrun the paddle steamer, it is already faster than a sailboat. I think we will win this battle with Zheng Zhilong. ”

Li Zhi smiled and asked, "The six shipbuilding points have all started to produce new ironclad ships in full force?" ”

Gao Ligong said loudly: "Uncle, don't worry, all the work has started, I let the shipbuilders hire the most people to start work at full speed!" The two shipbuilding sites that have been continuing to build ships have been fattened by us over the years, and we have more manpower and can build two ships at the same time. So there are now eight ironclad ships under construction at the six shipbuilding sites. In addition, I also contacted two large shipbuilding sites in the north of Nanzhili, and two large ships were also built at these two points. ”

"The ship built by Minami Naoli looks a little different from our big pointed boat, but it can also sail far. As long as we send a few veterans to guide them, plus the drawings you made, Uncle, these craftsmen will be able to create the right ironclad shell for our use. ”

"In just five months, all ten ironclad ships will be built."

"After these ships were built in other places, they were towed to Tianjin by steamers, and we installed propellers and steam engines in the port of Dagu. In this way, shipwrights from other places only know about our hulls and ironclad structures, and will not spy on our steam engines and propeller technology. ”

Li Zhi nodded and said, "Very good, Gao Ligong, you have done a good job in the past few years." When the ten ironclad ships are ready, I will ask you for the official body of a guard commander. ”

"Okay!"

Now Li Zhi's brother-in-law Cui Changwu is already a Wei commander and envoy. Gao Ligong and Cui Changwu joined Li Zhi's camp at the same time, and they are still the commanders of Wei, a little worse than Cui Changwu. Gao Ligong thinks that Zhang Luo has made achievements before and after, and his contributions are greater than Cui Changwu's, and he is very greedy for Cui Changwu's official rank.

When he heard Li Zhi's words at this time, his eyes lit up and he was very happy. He laughed for a while, then knelt on one knee on the ground and said, "Gao Ligong is willing to follow Grandpa Guo, and he will not hesitate to break his bones." ”

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On 27 November, Li Zhi stood on the stern of the Dingxin and watched the soldiers of the Tiger Division practicing target shooting on the fishing boat.

Zheng Zhilong has tens of thousands of pirates under his command, and the war with Zheng Zhilong is bound to be a big war. Such a battle is obviously not solved by firing artillery from a distance. There is a high probability that the war will turn into a close-range ship-grabbing battle. Li Zhi was reluctant to let the soldiers engage in hand-to-hand combat with Zheng Zhilong's pirates, and on the rocking ship, the hand-to-hand combat ability of the Tiger Ben Division's soldiers was obviously inferior to that of the pirates who had been walking the sea for a long time. Lee Sik had to win the battle at a distance of more than ten meters.

Therefore, shooting on a bumpy boat has become the next daily training for the veterans of the Tiger Division.

Li Xing raised his gun and fired a shot at the seagull at the stern of the boat, but he missed, and put down his rifle stupidly. He put his rifle on the ground and asked Li Zhi, "Big brother, I heard that Zheng Zhilong is rich and invincible. If we enter Zheng Zhilong's house in Quanzhou, how many million taels of silver do we have to carry? ”