Zhang Bin's perception of naval warfare is actually just like what Yu Dayou said at the beginning, fighting at sea is nothing more than fighting small ships with big ships, attacking the outnumbered with the crowd, and fighting small guns with big guns.

His strategy was to find a way to create a local advantage, to make his ships more than others, to make his artillery more than others, and finally to defeat the enemy with outnumbered people.

As for what kind of warships are needed for naval battles, he really doesn't know very well, he doesn't understand why there were so many types of warships in the Daming Navy Division before.

Now listening to Yu Chenglong say this, this wheel boat seems to really need to be improved, each raid is used with wheels, arson is also used with wheels, and the wheel is used for the board, and even if the enemy has an arson ship in the future, the only way to block the arson ship is to rely on the wheel, so many functions are integrated, and it is still the original simple structure, which is indeed very inappropriate.

Moreover, in every major battle, the sailors and soldiers on the wheels are indeed the most casualties, and if they can find a way to reduce casualties, they naturally have to think of a way.

Thinking of this, he nodded directly and said, "Well, the wheel does need to be improved, how do you think it can be improved?" ”

What Yu Chenglong wants to do is an ironclad battleship, of course, his so-called ironclad battleship is just to drape the battleship with a few iron plates, just like the armor worn by the generals, not like later generations, the entire hull is iron.

This idea was actually inspired by the Zhenyuan cruiser and the Weiyuan battleship, because the Zhenyuan cruiser and the Weiyuan battleship were equipped with iron plates above the oars, and they would basically not be injured by shells below the waterline, so the probability of these two types of battleships being sunk was very low, and after at least several major battles, the Zhenyuan cruiser and the Weiyuan battleship had no record of being sunk.

At this time, the shells did not have any explosive effect, and the penetration performance was also very poor, basically by smashing, if a few iron plates could be draped on the outside of the hull, then the sailors on the wheels would be much safer, as long as they hid behind the iron plates, even if the ship was sunk, people would be fine.

He raised his hand and gestured: "The subordinates want to add a few iron plates to the outside of the cabin of the wheel boat, and then install a 500-pound Franc cannon, so that when the local shells fly over, the soldiers can completely hide behind the iron plate to save their lives, and the general warships and the side of the battleship can not withstand the bombardment of the 500-pound Franc cannon, and the officers and men on the ship can use the Franc cannon to blast the enemy ship near the waterline, as long as there are a few more holes near the waterline, the enemy ship will definitely sink." ”

This idea is good, the problem is that the load capacity of the wheel is limited, a few iron plates, not to mention more than a thousand catties, plus a 500 catties of Franc cannon, the weight is almost 2,000 catties, the load capacity of the wheel itself is seven or eight thousand catties, a set of small boilers plus supporting water and coal has thousands of catties, plus two thousand catties and still open?

Zhang Bin couldn't help but wonder: "The iron plate and the Franc cannon are at least more than 2,000 catties, so with one plus, can the wheels still move?" ”

Yu Chenglong explained: "If the wheel boat is used as a battleship, it doesn't need to carry so many people, with three boat operators and a team of twelve soldiers, a total of only fifteen people, more than 20 people less than the original, one person is more than 100 catties, more than 20 people are more than 2,000 catties, and the two hatchbacks have no impact on the speed of the wheels." ”

When Zhang Bin heard this, he couldn't help but ignore the weight of the people, for giant ships such as the Zhenyuan cruiser and the Weiyuan battleship, there is naturally not much difference between more than 20 people and less than 20 people, but for the wheels that can only carry more than 30 people, it is obvious that there are more than 20 people less, and more than 20 people plus equipment is more than 3,000 catties.

He couldn't help nodding approvingly: "Well, very good, let's make a batch of light battleships on the basis of wheels, and the name will be light ironclad battleships!" ”

After that, he immediately asked people to take pen, ink, paper, and inkstones, drew the base of the wheel, and then added hull components to it according to the opinions of Yu Chenglong and others.

As he painted, his face suddenly showed a strange look, how could this thing look more and more like a speedboat in later generations.

According to Yu Chenglong's meaning, the iron plate actually doesn't need too much, just add two iron plates in the front, use a wooden frame to prop it up into an eaves shape, add a gun door in the middle, stretch out the artillery, and then speed up the big iron plate at the top of the cabin, because the shells are basically from the front and above, and it doesn't make much sense to add it elsewhere, it is better to thicken the iron plate in front and above.

In his sense, the structure in front of it was similar to that of a speedboat, except with an extra gun hole.

Zhang Bin on a whim, directly pulled out a piece of white paper, drew a later life closest to this appearance of the speedboat shape out, everyone saw this, all amazed, although this thing is a bit strange, it looks so comfortable, finally, the outside shape is set to look like this, but the back and on the top of the cabin added a circle of wooden guardrails, so that if someone wants to go up to put a rocket or throw a thunderbolt or something will not fall, and at the same time can also slightly block the shell, so that the destructive power of the shell is lower.

The structure of the outside is settled, and then the inside, because there is no need to carry so many people, the inside of the cabin seems to be much more empty, everyone summed up, simply divided the cabin into two, the front is the combat area of the soldiers, the back is the boiler room and the area for controlling the ship, the middle is separated by a walkway, and wooden doors are installed on both sides of the walkway, directly making the entire cabin into a closed space.

As for the structure of the combat area of the soldiers in front, according to Zhang Bin's meaning, a large table is directly fixed in the middle, and a bench is fixed on each side, and twelve people sit on both sides It is also quite loose, and under the table are all kinds of wooden cabinets, which can be placed oil tanks, thunderstorms, rockets, ammunition, etc., in short, all the things to be used in the battle can be placed in it.

Everyone discussed passionately for nearly an hour, and the overall structure of a light ironclad ship with a strong modern style was decided, of course, no one else knew what a modern style was, only Zhang Bin knew it in his heart.

The next step is the trial production sample, which is not difficult to make, because the most troublesome base does not need to be done at all, just drive a ready-made wheel to come over and disassemble the things on it.

The above things are not very troublesome, the boiler or something can be used directly ready-made, as long as the steam pipeline is changed slightly, the bracket of the entire cabin, including the tables and chairs inside and various cabinets are wooden, recruit a few carpenters to come over, and it will be done in a few days.

The only thing that is a little troublesome is the layer of iron armor on the surface, there is no ready-made iron plate or steel plate to sell at this time, if you want to hang Zeng iron armor outside, the iron plate has to be processed by yourself!

If you want to be strong, it is natural that the forged iron plate is the strongest, but there is no forging equipment at this time, if you go to forging by hand, three iron plates with a few square meters can knock out human blood, and an iron plate, two blacksmiths may not be able to knock it out for a few days.

According to Wang Zheng's meaning, it is better to cast, because this kind of light ironclad ship is not to make one or two, but to make hundreds, and if you knock it piece by piece, I am afraid that all the blacksmiths in the shipyard will be organized, and it will not be possible to knock out so many iron plates in a few years.

Casting is much simpler, as long as the wooden mold is opened, and then a shape is made with fine sand, and then the molten iron is poured up, pour a piece, pour a piece, at least hundreds of pieces can be cast a day, and the iron plate of hundreds of light ironclad ships is a matter of half a month.

Zhang Bin originally wanted to design a batch of forging equipment and even machine tools for rolling iron plates, specifically to produce iron plates, but when he thought of the current technical level, he gave up.

Forging equipment must have at least dozens of tons of pressure, there is no air pump and no oil pump at this time, the pressure can only be generated by the weight of the machine itself, dozens of tons of things, you don't have to think about it at this time, even if you make it, you can't lift it, and you can forge a fart.

As for the plate rolling machine, it is a bit possible to make it, but the large rollers used to roll iron plates weigh at least a few tons, and this kind of large-scale equipment will not be able to be made for a while and a half.

In the end, he had no choice but to choose casting.

This casting has a benefit, that is, a good shape, you can have any shape you want, as long as you make the wooden mold, the cast iron plate is that shape, what streamlined, conical, spindle-shaped, oval, as long as you think about it, you can cast it.

However, there is a key problem, the cast iron plate is too brittle, a cannonball smashed up, although it can't be smashed, but the iron plate will definitely crack, and after a few shots in a row, the iron plate will be broken into several pieces.

This problem is indeed a headache, Zhang Bin specially organized several tests, whether it is an inch, two inches or three inches thick iron plate, a shot down, absolutely cracked, unless it is half a foot thick, but, in that case, an iron plate will weigh thousands of pounds, and the wheels will not be able to bear it at all!

In the end, Sun Yuanhua came up with a way, that is, to imitate the structure of the fish scale armor, make the iron plate into a palm-sized piece, and put a thick wooden board underneath, that is, nail countless small iron plates with circular surfaces to the thick wooden plates, so that a cannonball can smash a small iron plate at most, as long as it is not smashed on a small iron plate several times in a row, it will be fine, and these small iron plates are also very easy to replace, a piece is only a few pounds in weight, and a person can easily replace it with a hammer.

After the sample was made, Zhang Bin directly carried out a crazy test, that is, he directly used the Weiyuan battleship to bombard!

At noon on this day, thousands of miles away, the sea outside Xizigang Bay in Kaohsiung City was sparkling, looking intoxicating, a light ironclad warship and an ordinary wheel boat sailed out of Xizigang Bay side by side, parked on the sea about ten miles away from Xizigang Bay, the bow of the ship was facing the north estuary of Xizigang Bay.

Immediately afterwards, a few people ran out of the light battleship and jumped directly on the wheel ship next to it, and then the wheel boat sailed back, leaving the light battleship alone on the sea.

After a while, a Zhenyuan cruiser and several Weiyuan battleships sailed out of Xizigang Bay, Zhang Bin stood on the deck at the top of the cabin of the Zhenyuan cruiser, looking at the light ironclad ship in the distance with a telescope, originally this light ironclad was designed according to the appearance of a speedboat, but after the ironclad outside was replaced with a small square like a tile, it looked a little weird, this is not like a speedboat, but like a steel monster, at least from the front.

This kind of structure is actually quite good, Zhang Bin even thought that after the success of this test, this kind of iron armor will also be added to the key parts of the Zhenyuan cruiser and the Weiyuan battleship, so that the Zhenyuan cruiser and the Weiyuan battleship will also become monster-level existences that cannot be sunk!

He watched carefully for a while, and then ordered, "Let's start." ”

When Yu Chenglong heard this, he raised his hand directly, and the flag-bearer on the lookout not far behind them immediately raised the flag, and a Weiyuan battleship immediately crossed out and slowly sailed towards the light ironclad ship not far away.

Soon, the Weiyuan battleship came to a position about five miles in front of the light ironclad ship, when the bow of the Weiyuan battleship suddenly turned, drawing a beautiful arc, followed by a huge cannon roar.

"Boom, boom, boom", more than 50 shells went directly to the cover of the light ironclad ship not far away, and countless columns of rushing water suddenly splashed around the light ironclad ship.

Zhang Bin used his telescope to nervously gaze at the light ironclad ship looming in the middle of the water column, and soon, the water column scattered, and the light ironclad ship was already floating on the sea, as if it had not been hit by a cannonball at all!

He knew that the light ironclad must have been shot, and there was more than one shot, fifty shells covered it, and at least five of them would be smashed on the light ironclad!

However, due to the distance, the palm-sized iron armor looked blurry, and he couldn't tell whether the iron armor was damaged or not.

He thought about it, simply summoned a wheel boat, and then quickly climbed down the suspension ladder and went straight to the light ironclad ship not far ahead.

Soon, he rode to the side of the light ironclad ship, and the results of the test were clearly presented in front of his eyes.

The light ironclad ship was indeed shot, a total of six shells, and the arc in the middle of the ironclad where the six shots were smashed and dented, not surprisingly, all six pieces of ironclad were cracked, but, fortunately, none of the six pieces of ironclad were broken out of the thick planks below, and in the same position, another shot should not be smashed through.

However, he found that these six places seem to be not only concave in the iron armor, but also a little concave in the whole, what is going on?

He let the wheel boat lean up, directly next to the light ironclad, and then flew up, jumped directly onto the light ironclad, and then walked into the cabin to see, he immediately understood, it turned out that the planks below were still not thick enough, and the planks nailed with arm-thick wooden squares were all broken!

This problem is nothing, the weight of the wooden square is completely negligible for the entire battleship, after he went back, he directly asked people to pull back the sample of the light ironclad ship, and directly replaced the material of the thick plank under the ironclad with a thigh-thick wooden square.

Early the next morning, he couldn't wait to start the test again, this time after a salvo of the Weiyuan battleship, only a few pieces of iron armor were smashed on the surface, and there were no other problems, that is, the test was successful!

This small improvement, for the Daming Naval Division, is no less than the invention of the steamship, because naval warfare is to find a way to sink the opponent's battleship, but, after the approval of iron armor, it takes at least five times more shells to sink the battleship of the Great Ming Naval Division, and you have to be lucky, if there are no more than two shells hitting the same place, it is useless!

This kind of good thing naturally has to be fully applied, Zhang Bin directly ordered that the Kaohsiung Artillery Foundry frantically produce this kind of small iron armor, and he wanted to put all the key parts of the Zhenyuan cruiser and the Weiyuan battleship with this kind of iron armor!

At the same time, he also ordered the Kaohsiung Shipyard to make every effort to produce this kind of light ironclad ship, and with the current scale of the Kaohsiung Shipyard, it can build at least 200 such light ironclad ships a year.

In the end, he also made adjustments to the planning of the naval division, and the initial goal was to replenish 50 Zhenyuan cruisers, 100 Weiyuan battleships and 200 light ironclad battleships to form a super fleet of 40,000 people, and then double the size of the battleships, expand the naval division to the scale of 80,000 people, and form two such fleets with super combat effectiveness!