Li Zhi wants to build an ironclad ship. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

In its original history, ironclads were active in the second half of the 19th century and were the main warships of the heyday of Western colonizers. Immediately after the appearance of such ships, the way of warfare on the oceans was changed.

The first combat ironclad in the West was used by the French army in the Franco-Russian War of 1855, when the French army put into battle three ironclad ships called "floating batteries" at the entrance to the Dnieper River. The exterior of these ironclad ships was covered with steel plates four centimeters thick, and the Russian artillery could not effectively kill the French warships, and the French won a great victory.

The success of the ironclad was soon followed by the British, who immediately began to build the Warrior-class ironclad, which was completed in 1860. Britain also possessed its own ironclad ships, which effectively deterred France's attempts to challenge British maritime supremacy.

In the following years, the United States, Russia and other Western powers began to build ironclad ships.

The original wooden warships were as fragile as paper in front of the ironclads. Within a few decades of its existence, ironclads completely dominated the seas of that time. It was not until metallurgical technology continued to develop and all-steel warships appeared that ironclad ships gradually faded out of the stage of history.

Of course, the history of ironclads goes back much further. According to records, wooden ships with iron hulls reinforced with iron sheets appeared in Song Dynasty China. The ironclad ships that proved to be in actual combat were the ironclad ships of the great Japanese warlord Oda Nobunaga in the 16th century.

At that time, during the war of unification of Japan, Oda Nobunaga built seven ironclad ships in order to help the fleet prevent fire. Thirty-two meters long, eleven meters wide, and three centimeters thick, these ships were considered steel giants in Japan at the time, and eventually helped Oda Nobunaga defeat a much larger enemy at the Battle of Kizu Kawaguchi.

However, Oda Nobunaga's ironclad ship was not a real ironclad and was soon abandoned. The biggest problem with this type of ironclad ship is that it is bulky and too heavy to sail long distances. Therefore, Oda Nobunaga's ironclad ship disappeared after a battle, and no one knew about it even in the Ming Dynasty.

However, the Ming Dynasty is different from Japan, which has a long tradition of maritime trade and its shipbuilding technology is far superior to that of Japan. The sea ships built by the Ming Dynasty were stronger and lighter, for example, Li Zhi's pointed ships had a cargo capacity of far more than 200 tons. Even if it is loaded with 200 tons of iron armor, it can still sail to the deep sea.

More crucially, Li Zhi had a steam engine. The surging power of the steam engine made the ironclad no longer bulky and able to catch up with wooden ships with sails. With a steam engine, Li Zhi was able to build a real ironclad ship.

Li Zhi nodded at Boss Wang and said, "Boss Wang, what we have to do is an ironclad ship. The wooden hull is not only feasible, but also very practical. This new type of ship is based on your 5,000-gauge ship, with a three-centimetre iron plate wrapped around a wooden hull. ”

Hearing Li Zhi's words, Lu Hu and Gao Ligong's eyes lit up. Although everyone had never heard of an ironclad ship, Li Zhi's men were all smart people, and they could fully imagine what an ironclad ship would look like.

If the large pointed ship of 5,000 materials was covered with a layer of iron armor, it would not be afraid of Zheng Zhilong's fireship at all. With a three-centimeter-thick iron armor, the hook of Zheng Zhilong's boat can't be penetrated, and it can't hook the big boat to burn. Even if those fireships tried to burn the ship next to the ironclad ship in other ways, the ironclad ship was protected by a three-centimeter-thick ironclad ship, and the fireship could not easily burn the hull.

And with the protection of iron armor, the artillery on Zheng Zhilong's big ship could not penetrate the hull. There is no doubt that such an ironclad ship is very powerful.

The eyes of the officials under Li Zhi's command lit up, and they looked at Li Zhi with a little more awe--Jin Guogong really had a lot of ideas in his stomach, and each of them was very practical.

Lu Hu thought for a while and said, "Grandpa Guo, this iron armor is good, it can be made with our technology." How much iron does this ship cost? How much does it cost? ”

Li Zhi calculated and said: "If the bottom of the ship is not covered with steel armor, I'm afraid that a big ship of 5,000 materials will need more than 400,000 catties of steel." According to the iron price of one cent, three cents and one pound in Tianjin, this is more than 5,000 taels of silver. ”

After a pause, Li Zhi said: "Although more than five thousand taels of silver is not a small number. However, it costs us more than 20,000 taels of silver to build a ship, and it is still acceptable to increase the cost of armor by 5,000 taels. ”

In fact, Li Zhi wanted to use steel to make the armor of the ironclad ship. If steel is used, or even high-quality crucible steel produced by Li Zhi to make armor, then Zheng Zhilong's Hongyi cannon may not be able to penetrate Li Zhi's ship armor at all.

But the price of steel in Daming is too high, even if it is made of crucible steel produced by Li Zhi himself, the cost is five cents of silver a catty. If you use crucible steel to arm an ironclad ship, the cost of a ship's armor alone will cost more than 20,000 taels of silver. In other words, the cost of making one ironclad ship out of high-quality crucible steel can almost be used to make two ordinary ironclad ships.

Even if ordinary iron was used as the armor of the ship, Zheng Zhilong's fireship could not burn. In such a situation, the role of two warships is stronger than one, in any case.

If Li Zhi develops cheaper steel in the future, it will not be too late to arm ironclad ships with steel at that time.

When everyone heard Li Zhi's analysis, they were all pondering the actual combat effectiveness of this ironclad ship, and their faces were full of expectations.

Li Zhi said again: "This ironclad ship should strengthen the bow structure of the battleship. We were going to install sharp ramming angles in the bow of the ship. ”

Lu Hu's eyes lit up again, and he hurriedly asked, "Grandpa Guo, why is this?" ”

Li Zhi smiled and said, "When we install two large steam engines on an ironclad ship, we expect to travel much faster than a sail wooden ship." Our ironclad ship is very strong in ironclad and rushes over at high speed, where can the Zheng family's small wooden boat withstand it? ”

When Gao Ligong heard Li Zhi's words, he laughed. He was a heroic man, who had traveled the world since his youth and always liked new things. Hearing that Li Zhi had designed such an exquisite new warship, he felt that his knowledge had increased again, and he was very satisfied.

This is to follow Jin Guogong to do things, which is a promising future.

Lu Hu is a meticulous character, but he thinks about a lot of things, and said in a deep voice: "Grandpa Guo's design is indeed exquisite, but there are two big paddlewheels on both sides of our hull. This paddle wheel is made of wood and can be easily destroyed. If dozens of small fireboats rushed up to burn our paddle wheel, I am afraid it would be difficult not to be burned by them. ”

"As soon as the paddle wheel is burned, our big ship will not be able to move."

"The paddle wheel is really a problem."

Li Zhi nodded and said, "In order to win against Zheng Zhilong, it's time to eliminate the paddlewheel and make a marine propeller." ”