Regarding the design of the "gunboat", Guan Zhuofan's requirements are as follows: displacement of no more than 300 tons, full protection, heavy firepower, as for speed, maneuverability, endurance of the horse, well, forget it, do not make any requirements.

"Full protection" means that in addition to the gunwal - below the deck must be protected, and above the deck must also be protected, the most important of which is, of course, the gun emplacement.

That is, to wrap a boat, from head to toe, with iron armor and iron plates, so that only the ...... is exposed Muzzle.

A ship of less than 300 tons, with such armor, naturally does not have any "speed, maneuverability, endurance" at all.

Regarding "heavy firepower", Guan Zhuofan made a supplementary explanation: One gun is enough, but the caliber cannot be less than nine inches.

Nine inches?!

The British opened their mouths: "On the dome cruisers" and "armored cruisers", there are no such large-caliber guns! Nine inches? Put it on the ironclad ship, it is also the material for the main gun!

The British finally understood: where is this "gunboat"? This is a mobile battery on the water!

You really have ...... Creative.

As for the design of this "all-armor gunboat", Kwan Zhuofan specially designated that a man named George Brown. The young designer of Rendall is in charge.

That's kind of weird!

Previously, when designing the "Dome Cruiser" and the "Armored Cruiser", His Royal Highness the Prince was "only making requests, not interfering in specific design matters, and not appointing designers, what happened this time?"

What's more, this George. Rendall is young and unknown, so why did His Royal Highness take a fancy to him?

Of course. Anyway. We must respect the opinions of our customers. Maybe. People have communicated in private, and even, the design idea of the "all-armor gunboat", there is George. Rendal's contribution may not be clear.

The Admiralty guessed half right: privately, the Chinese did not have a relationship with George. Rendall communicates guò, however, Guan Zhuofan's design idea of "all-armor gunboat" does "have George. Rendall's contribution". Hey.

George. Rendale never dreamed that the Chinese thousands of miles away would know that he was such a nameless little designer, and he never imagined that the Chinese would actually take a fancy to himself! What's going on? I...... But I've never had any dealings with China!

However, he knew that this was a godsend for his reputation! It's not uncommon to catch it, and it's not uncommon to take one step to the sky!

Hearing the specific requirements of the Chinese, Rendall also opened his mouth - not because he and the bureaucrats at the Admiralty did not know enough to think that this request was too strange. It's -- God, that's what I think. It's almost identical!

How could it be so coincidental?!

His Royal Highness the Prince of China, who is thousands of miles away, is truly my first ...... throughout the ages Bosom friend!

George. Rendall plunged headlong into the shipyard and devoted himself to the development of the "all-armor gunboat", and he did not return home, nor did he want his girlfriend.

With the support of sufficient funds and manpower, the "all-armor gunboat" was soon launched.

The test boat has a displacement of only 200 tons, a length of 23 meters, a width of 8 meters, a draft of 2 meters, no mast and no sails, pure steam power, two horizontal twin-cylinder steam engines, two round boilers, the main engine power is 134 horsepower, and the speed is seven and a half knots.

Later, when the shape was finalized, the displacement was increased to two hundred and fifty tons - for two reasons: first, the increase in heavy armor; The second is to adjust and lower the center of gravity to strengthen stability. The speed was reduced to six knots - this is just the normal speed of a pure sailboat. In fact, if the wind is favorable, the maximum speed of a sailboat can exceed ten knots, that is, the speed of the "pure steam-powered" "all-armor gunboat" cannot even be compared with that of a pure sailboat.

It doesn't matter, anyway, the customer doesn't have any requirements for "speed, maneuverability, endurance".

The "all-armored gunboat" completely abandoned the traditional method of lining up the guns next to the ship, and placed a nine-inch front-loading rifled gun in the bow of the ship -- the whole boat was just such a gun, and it could only be arranged in this way.

In the end, the "all-armored gunboat" in front of Guan Zhuofan looked like this:

Along the edge of the ship's side, a wrought iron fence more than a man high was erected, and the most critical part was almost a foot thick, exceeding the thickness of the armor of all ironclad ships in the world at present - including the "Champion". The deck of the gunboat was completely enclosed by this fence, and there was almost no room for a cone on the side of the ship.

Only a triangular deck at the bow of the ship is set aside, which is called the "anchor deck", on which are set with anchor rods. Inside the gunboat, there was no extra space to set up the anchor cabin, and the anchor lifting and anchoring were all operated on this small "anchor deck".

The "anchor deck" is also an iron plate, with a slight convex middle, shaped like a turtle's back. The special design of the anchor deck can achieve a better wave-breaking effect, so that the seawater rushing to the deck can quickly flow back to the sea, so that it will not stay on the deck and pour into the gun hold. In addition, this design can increase the speed of the boat a little.

The front wall has a cannon door in the middle, and only the muzzle of the cannon is allowed to protrude. Above the gun emplacement, a layer of wrought iron plates was flattened, as if on the frontal wall, towards the stern, a pergola was erected, and the entire gun emplacement was under the shade of this pergola. It was almost the equivalent of packing the cannon into an iron box - only the back was open.

However, because the gun door was too narrow, the muzzle of the gun could hardly rotate left and right, and if the angle of lateral firing was to be adjusted, it was necessary to adopt the method of "aiming at the whole ship" -- turning the warship itself to achieve the lateral rotation of the gun.

At this crucial point, Rendall showed an amazing talent for design: he designed the gunboat's operating system to be extremely flexible, and the rudder speed was much higher than that of ordinary warships, and the whole ship could rotate in one circle in just two minutes and forty-five seconds!

This speed of rotation even exceeds that of many heavy shore defense guns.

In the center of the main deck, a tall chimney is erected.

This is the only part of the ship that cannot be adequately protected. However, the damage to the chimney and the fact that the gunboat could not sail normally did not affect the firing of the cannons - at that time, the gunboats were already in place, and whether they could sail normally was not very important.

Didn't you say it before? This "all-armor gunboat" is essentially a water battery, which has a strong impact on "speed, maneuverability, and endurance". "No requirements".

And also. This "all-armor gunboat". Except for a small "captain's quarter", there was no space for the crew to live - to live on the ship, you had to lay bunks on the deck.

Also, since there is no mast, there is no way to hang the HNA signal flag.

Uh, how can such a boat ...... Going to sea to fight?

Who said that my "all-armor gunboat" should "go to sea to fight"?

Again: this is a "water, artillery, and platform"!

As with the "standard cruiser", the name "all-armor gunboat". It's Guan Zhuofan's own fabrication. In the original time and space, this kind of gunboat designed by Rendall is called "mosquito gunboat" in Chinese translation - look, the name of this turtle is far higher than the "all-armored gunboat" of our Xuanjun Wang, right?

In later generations, the "mosquito cannon boat" is a very controversial weapon, and supporters believe that it is a small profit and a big profit, and it is a "sharp weapon to keep its mouth"; Opponents argue that it is not an egg. Not three, not four, nondescript. There has never been a decent appearance in a war, and it is simply a strange flower in the history of naval development in the mid-to-late nineteenth century.

Guan Zhuofan believes that the fundamental reason for the unsatisfactory "mosquito cannon boat" is not in itself, but people's wishful thinking, so that its subsequent development completely deviates from the original design intention of Rendale.

The original intention of the design of the "mosquito cannon boat" is a pure defensive weapon, and its main role is to "match the height and low" with the coastal defense battery in the port defense operation to form a more reasonable and three-dimensional firepower network.

The advantages of the "mosquito cannon boat" are two: first, it can move freely and can be deployed in any water position in any port, whether it is a seaport or a river port; Second, the cost is far lower than that of the coastal defense battery, and the production cycle is also short, which is not as good as the coastal defense battery, and it is not effective to operate for several years. In a word, the cost is low and can be deployed in large quantities.

China's special situation has made the "mosquito cannon boat" more useful.

A long time ago, Guan Zhuofan was thinking about a question: If China and France go to war, where is my biggest weakness?

It is not the Yunnan-Guizhou border, not the Fuzhou Mawei, not the Taiwan-Peng, Jinma, or the Dagukou of Tianjin.

It's Shanghai, it's the Gaochang Temple in Shanghai.

The "Industrial Park" of Gaochang and the "Free Trade Zone" of Gaochang are the essence of China and the foundation of China's rejuvenation and take-off.

However, because of the special situation, in the face of threats from the sea, Shanghai is the weakest place for China's self-defense.

The Chinese army could not build forts on a large scale on the coast of Shanghai and the banks of the Huangpu River, and fortified the coastal defenses, so if the French actually went up the river and shelled the Gaochang Temple, what should I do?

Although, the probability of such a situation is not too high - the French are also worried about the big fight in Shanghai. However, you can't leave anything to chance, don't be afraid of 10,000, just in case!

It is impossible for Guan Zhuofan to deploy the entire fleet to Shanghai, but what if only a batch of "all-armor gunboats" is deployed?

It can be done.

For the French, attacking Shanghai was originally the next resort for the French to risk the world's disapproval and the gains and losses were difficult to determine. In the face of the ferocious firepower of the "all-armor gunboats", the French could not help but think that after the first war, the cost would be greatly increased, and the business in hand, if they were not careful, they would lose money.

As a result, the idea of taking risks is not easy to come about.

This is the correct "way to open" the "mosquito cannon boat".

However, in the original time and space, because of the solid armor and sharp firepower of the "mosquito cannon boat", people gave the "mosquito cannon boat" too high expectations, and always wanted to use it to fight the big one -- to fight the ironclad ship with the mosquito cannon ship. So, on the deck of the mosquito gunboat, a mast was erected, and the speed became faster, and the tonnage became larger - from 200 tons all the way to 500 tons.

Finally, the mosquito cannon ships can go out to sea to fight.

At this time, the "mosquito cannon ship" was actually a "miniature ironclad ship".

But how can 500 tons be compared to 5,000 tons? How can there be such a good thing in the world? No matter how fast the mosquito cannon ship is, compared with the real ironclad ship, it is still a big difference, in the vast sea, in the middle of a group of thousands of tons of big guys, a small man of five hundred tons, from beginning to end, is a life that has been hanged.

In fact, in the original time and space, the only decent record of the "mosquito gunboat" of the Beiyang Naval Division was when it happened to restore its true colors as a "sharp weapon for keeping its mouth".

In the First Sino-Japanese War, on August 9, 1894, 30 Japanese ships attacked Arthur Military Port, and three "mosquito gunboats" and the ramming cruiser "Chaoyong" together with the shore defense guns returned fierce fire, and the Japanese fleet did not retreat.

This time the battle did not last long, and the Japanese army did not attack on a large scale, but it can be seen that if it is done, the power of the mosquito cannon ship must not be underestimated.

It's a pity.

In this plane, let me set things right.

Finally, take a look at the nine-inch cannon on the "all-armor gunboat".

The installation and operation of this giant cannon is extremely distinctive: the barrel is mounted on a set of underground shaft gun carriages with four pillars, and the whole system is extremely complex. In peacetime, the base of the cannon was hidden inside the hull to prevent the center of gravity from being too high and affecting the stability of the gunboat. In wartime, the guò hydraulic system was used to lift the cannon to the deck in its entirety. After each shot, the base of the cannon slowly descended to the deck again to reload for the next shot, driven by its own huge recoil.

However, because the recoil of the cannon is too great, before firing, the gunboat must be anchored, otherwise, it is difficult to maintain the stability of the gunboat, and the waves are a little bigger, and it is not uncommon for the whole ship to shake over.

Guan Zhuofan wanted to see the whole process of cannon firing on the gunboat, but Ding Ruchang politely refused.

Of course, it's okay for the prince to want to see the cannon, but he can't get on the boat.

The "all-armor gunboat" is no better than the "Champion", the space on the ship is too small, and when one cannon goes out, the whole gunboat is filled with cannon flames, and there are too many hidden dangers.

Guan Zhuofan still wanted to insist, but Qiao Bailun on the side said sternly: "Your Royal Highness, you should set an example in abiding by the rules and regulations. ”

Guan Zhuofan had no choice but to give up this idea abruptly.

Yes, I am no longer the Qipinzhi County who was armed with knives and guns and fought face-to-face with long hair.

The opportunity to meet the enemy in person, in this life, will probably never be again.

Okay, then I'll work hard for China in a new position and in a new capacity.

*

(The lion wishes all book friends a happy Dragon Boat Festival!) ）

*(To be continued......) R1292