The three-thousand-ton battleship, the flagship of the royal fleet, Zhang Qiang, the ship of the emperor of the Chinese Empire, in addition to having so much firepower on the upper deck, also has a lookout gunner on the upper command cabin, the gunner has a total of five people, divided into two groups on duty, here is as high as six meters from the deck, with a wide field of vision, with a heavy mortar developed by the Chinese Empire, 120 mm caliber, compared with the old guns that have been eliminated and used to use British pound guns, this mortar can fire more ammunition, Among them were incendiary bombs that burned enemy wooden ships, armor-piercing shells that smashed the decks of enemy ships with heavy weight, and improved flowering shells.

This type of battleship was already similar to the cruisers of the 188s, with small mortars in boxes hanging from empty spaces on the fore and aft decks, a firing corridor on a platform half a meter below the railing, a six-pounder gun emplacement, and an 80-mm gun with a short barrel that could rotate 360 degrees between the two chimneys.

The firepower of the battleship takes into account the long-range suppression firepower of ten miles, as well as the medium-range engagement firepower and the short-range decisive firepower, the turret is used to take into account the three ranges, the old guns installed are used to fight the enemy in the era of colonial sail warships at a distance of 800 to 600 meters below the short range, and the artillery between the mortar and the chimney is used to fight the enemy at a distance of 100 to 400 meters or even 600 meters, and the fire of the six-pounder gun and flintlock gun is used to fight the enemy in hand-to-hand combat to prevent the enemy from boarding the ship.

The other thirty-six new warships are as luxurious and huge as ever, and compared to the official warships of the naval fleet, they are also slightly inferior in speed and firepower, and their flexibility cannot be compared, but what is the royal fleet for?

The Royal Fleet is a matter of face, not the main fighting force, which was originally established as the main combat force, and after being almost damaged and repaired, it continues to serve as the main battleship of the Royal Fleet until the new warships replace them.

The battleship went to sea at a speed of six knots and eight knots faster than the cruising speed, then circled the Bohai Sea, fired a few shots, practiced a bit, and then returned home and returned to the fleet station, after which Zhang Qiang took five Royal Fleet warships to cruise the First Fleet's East China Sea Fleet station and overseas fleet patrol routes.

Generally speaking, the sea has been very prosperous, although the Chinese Empire did not conduct effective or relatively frequent trade with other countries or forces, but the original China and Japan, the current Chinese Empire's Penglai Prefecture, the Ryukyu Island State, and now the Chinese Empire's Penglai Prefecture is a Zhizhou territory, which is equivalent to a prefecture-level city in a province in later generations, as well as Baodao Prefecture, or Baodao Governorate, and Luzon Island, it should be said that Manila, Borneo Prefecture and other places are combined with Luzon, Luzon Governorate, Indonesia, Indonesian Viceroyalty, Malacca, The Viceroyalty of Malacca, Australia, the Viceroyalty of Australia, the four countries of Southeast Asia, the four surrounding areas of the eastern part of the current Chinese Empire, are collectively known as the Viceroyalty of Southeast Asia, but later because Annam was incorporated into the core area and became a state capital in the core area of the Chinese Empire, so the Viceroyalty of Southeast Asia is now Laos, Burma, and Siam.

In the future, it may be necessary to add the area of the Naga Mountains to this Viceroyalty, because where it is still unstable, still at war, or under military jurisdiction, it belongs to the former fringe area, the border war area, plus where there is no trade in goods that can be sold, and the population is not much, even if it is immigration, it is only a few million, and millions are scattered in that area and the mountainous areas, dense forests, and alpine regions developed on both sides, and the area is also very vast, and it is almost impossible to see anything, such a situation, If you want to say that you can come up with any economic and trade things, it is simply a joke, and you can only say that where it may be occupied by the Han people in the future, and because the Han people are consolidated, they will become part of the Chinese Empire in the future.

But the Chinese Empire has never thought about where to get any income, it is estimated that it will be subsidized, Zhang Qiang hopes that there will be no losers or seemingly dedicated to the country in the future, in fact, he is the traitorous ministers of the previous dynasties, the old masters, all day long with the mouth of those virgins who forget the war will be dangerous, forget the war will die The Holy Mother, just don't cede that piece to the Western forces or India, even if it is bitter for a hundred years, a thousand years, as long as it still belongs to China, Zhang Qiang will be at ease.

Although the trade between these regions and the core area seems to be the trade between the Chinese Empire and itself, it also promotes commercial exchanges, and the land and resources are said at this time, it is a very correct and positive slogan, in fact, through the mutual commercial exchanges between these internal states, coupled with Zhang Qiang's pointing, the Chinese Empire really lacks nothing and is self-sufficient.

In this way, in the past 30 years, the number of merchant ships at sea has actually reached 10,000, and the royal fleet is accompanied by the First Fleet, and those merchant ships are also in a team, and you can also see sporadic ones of different sizes and models, wood, iron sheets, iron bones and wooden frames, steam engines, sails, Every half hour, merchant ships passing by the fleet, hoisting flags, honking their horns, and greeting each other.

This shows how prosperous the trade between the Chinese Empire's own state capitals and satrapy districts was.

With the passage of time, the commercial profits of the Chinese Empire are getting higher and higher, and the taxes on commercial trade are getting higher and higher, although last year a lot of tax revenue was used for the waterway dredging project, the expansion and renovation of the steam locomotive railway, but this year's tax revenue can already make up for the huge gap in the previous twenty years of annual major projects, major battles, and the march into Siberia and Central Asia, and the war expenditure in the Western Regions.

This year is not over, the fiscal revenue has reached 200 billion Chinese yuan, plus foreign commercial trade, such as commercial trade with Sweden, Turkey, Persia, Russia, the Qing Empire, military equipment trade, and help Russia build a railway line, help Turkey build a railway line, etc. The Chinese Empire still has a surplus of tens of billions of yuan, which can be used for scientific research and development and military expenses.

As a result of the abolition of the armed forces and the reduction of officials, there was a lot of military spending left, and the abolition of officials reduced the administrative expenses of the central and local states and the governorates, and saved 10 billion Chinese dollars, which could be invested in the construction and research and development of waterways and telegraph lines.

Now the telegraph system has been developed several times, and has solved the defects and problems of too much signal noise, too much interference, short transmission distance, and the need to connect many external repeaters for lifting and restoring signals.

However, this technology has not yet been applied to ships, and to be applied on warships, wireless telegraphy must be developed, which is not something that Zhang Qiang can do.

(End of chapter)