Two hours later, Feng Yunshan summoned Zuo Zongtang, deputy chief of the General Staff, Zhou Shengfu, director of the Logistics Division of the General Staff, Zeng Yuheng, deputy director of the Ministry of Public Works, and Xu Xiangguang, the current vice minister of medical and education who had originally established the shipyard, to the Changzhou Shipyard on Cheung Chau Island, accompanied by Wang Minyun. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

At the dock, Hua Yufang and some workers of the shipyard, as well as the soldiers of the beleaguering army who acted as guards, all came out to greet them.

Feng Yunshan saw that there were still a few foreigners, accompanied by Hua Yufang, who should be the foreigner technicians recruited by Hua Yufang.

"Ruoting, you have made a great contribution this time! This king has to say something! In this way, the Whampoa Military Academy is also on the right track anyway, so you can concentrate on this shipyard and become the first director of the Cheung Chau Shipyard! I hope that this king is not wrong, and you can lead your brothers to build a bigger and better warship that belongs to our holy kingdom! As soon as Feng Yunshan saw Hua Yufang, he strode forward, held Hua Yufang's hand, and praised him.

Hua Fang was stunned, and as soon as the Holy King came, he was rewarded like this, and hurriedly knelt down and said: "Holy King, Lu Fang doesn't dare to take on this great responsibility!" ”

Feng Yunshan hurriedly helped Hua Yufang up gently, and said with a smile: "Ruoting, this era is already the age of the ocean. Whoever occupies the seas is the power of the world. Which Western powers do you look at, which one is not a large number of warships and a huge fleet? Therefore, the king has always wanted to have a fleet like those foreigners. And this, first of all, is to have your own warship, your own shipyard! This king hopes that you can stand up and take up this burden, for the sake of the Holy Country, and also for the sake of our Han family. ”

Seeing the sincerity of what the Holy King said, Hua Fang couldn't refuse, so she had to nod: "In this case, Yu Fang will do everything he can to build a good warship for the Holy King!" ”

"That's right! Go, take this king to see the warships you have built! Feng Yunshan took the lead in going to the shipyard's new ship launching river.

Turning through a forest, the view is bright.

As soon as Feng Yunshan looked up, he saw a group of warships parked on the river, and the middle two were extremely huge and very conspicuous.

These two are the frigates and fast sailboats mentioned by Hua Yufang!

"Holy King, the one on the left is the fast sailing ship. Under the guidance of five foreign technicians, Yu Fang used both a sailboat and a steam engine as the power source. Look, Holy King, here you can see the oars outside, which can be driven by a steam engine to spin rapidly, stirring the river and moving the boat forward very quickly, so we call it a steamer in private. The hull of the ship is constructed in a scissor style to ensure that the speed can reach the fastest level, reaching 12 knots per hour. It's just that the ship type is still smaller, and it can be made bigger, but it is not very strong, so Yu Fang still decided to have such a large displacement, with a full load displacement of more than 800 tons. ”

"The other one on the right is a frigate as foreigners call it. There was no steam engine power, and it was built as a dhow with a full load displacement of five hundred tons. Both warships have two-tier gun decks, and the gun doors have been reserved for installation when the guns of the Shengguo Krupp Steel Company on the Shaozhou side arrive. Hua explained the performance parameters of the two warships.

"Oh! How big was the ordered artillery? Is it Mr. Krupp who is in direct contact? What did he say? Feng Yunshan asked a series of questions. Recently, with Cheng Lingnan and Su Sanniang, I haven't asked about the artillery production of Shengguo Krupp Iron and Steel Company for a while.

"Shengwang, Yu Fang is the deputy general manager of Shengguo Krupp Iron and Steel Company, Li Jianwei. He recommended that we use the most powerful naval guns they have produced, four of which have already been produced. One is a 64-pound mounted breech smoothbore gun, the second is an 8-inch and 6-inch Krupp breech-loading rifled gun, and several other calibers are being produced. And the third type is an 8-inch caliber mortar. The last one, which is the most strange, is called Congreve rocket artillery, which says that there is no need to reserve a special gun compartment and can be fired anywhere. However, Brother Li said that their Krupp Steel Company only copied a batch according to the drawings of foreigners, and it was not very perfect. ”

"What!? Congreve rockets? Feng Yunshan exclaimed. As a lover of modern history, he had heard of this famous murder weapon, but he didn't think of making this for a while, but he didn't expect that this Krupp, he let him specialize in the development of weapons in the Krupp company, and he really gave himself an unexpected surprise!

After the last mention of his own point, not only was the rear-loading rifled artillery that should have been mass-applied a few years later manufactured, but even the Congreve rocket, which he did not expect, was also manufactured, although it was not perfect enough, but with his own, what are you worried about? Sometimes, this so-called advanced technology is actually just an idea, and you only need to give him a direction and a little mention to solve it.

"Brother Li also said that in the future, the Krupp company will mainly produce Krupp breech-loading rifled guns with the caliber of the gun as the standard, and the rest of the receded breech smoothbore guns with the weight of the gun as the standard will be produced only by order, and even slowly not remanufactured." Speaking of artillery, Hua Yufang's face was full of excitement, it seems that this kid is not paying much attention to the cannon of Krupp Steel Company.

"Well, that's good! However, Ruoting, when you choose artillery, you don't have to choose the one that is good, but you have to choose the most suitable one. Feng Yunshan pointed out, this kind of thing that seemed to be nonsense in the philosophical circles of later generations seemed so reasonable at this time: "For example, this frigate, its main function is to protect the main warship or port battery, so it chooses a retractable breech smoothbore gun or mortar gun with a fast and close rate of fire; And this fast sailing ship, which is equivalent to a cruiser in the mouth of a foreigner, can choose a Krupp breech-loading rifled gun, or a breech-loading smoothbore gun. Only that Congreve rocket is an all-purpose weapon, and any warship can use it. ”

"In addition, Ruoting, when you produce such frigates and cruisers, it is better to install some facilities on board to prevent enemy ships from 'pole mines'." Feng Yunshan nodded, "Overall, it's very good!" This king is very satisfied! ”

Originally, the Changzhou Shipyard had been built for almost a year, but it had only been able to repair warships, at most barely build some red single warships, but that was something that a few shipwrights in a small workshop could do. Feng Yunshan also thought that it would be possible to truly build warships only when Wu Ruxiao and the others returned from the United States and hired a large number of shipbuilding technicians and machines from there.

Unexpectedly, Hua Yufang had no experience and actually created such two warships, which was already an unexpected surprise. However, Feng Yunshan knew that it was also because of the help of several foreign technicians, and the fact that many warships had been captured by the naval division of the captured army, that the Changzhou Shipyard was able to manufacture warships so smoothly and successfully launch them.

However, the Congreve rocket just now reminded Feng Yunshan, and he remembered two other sharp weapons in modern naval warfare: mines and torpedoes!

Mines, like gunpowder, were first invented in China. But unfortunately, in modern applications, it is foreigners who have an absolute advantage. During the anti-Japanese period of the Ming Dynasty, there was an "underwater dragon king cannon" with incense as a timing fuse, which later developed into a contact line drifting thunder, but it ended here. The Manchus had hardly any development of mines.

Most widely used, in the already Crimean War and a few years later in the American Civil War.

Mines are a very practical defensive weapon in Feng Yunshan's view. Mines are low-cost, easy to lay, and destructive, and sometimes a large mine can blow up a large warship. It has good concealment, but it can't move, so it's a passive defensive weapon.

In this respect, then the torpedo is an improved version of the mine, that is, the mine that attacks actively.

In modern naval warfare in later generations, torpedoes have been recognized as the main weapon of ships second only to artillery, with good concealment, high hit rate and great destruction, and high cost performance.

Therefore, Feng Yunshan secretly decided that after returning home, he would let the First Arsenal and the Shengguo Krupp Iron and Steel Company, two arsenals of the Holy Kingdom, develop mines and torpedoes together, and both of them would be developed.

Then, accompanied by Hua Yufang, Feng Yunshan looked at the unfinished cruiser, a fifth-class Western warship with a displacement of about 1,000 tons.

"Holy King, this cruiser, we are going to also have a conventional clipper structure, without a steam engine, and a pure sailboat. However, in terms of artillery, it is planned to use all 6-inch and 8-inch Krupp rear-loading rifled guns produced by the Holy Krupp company. Specifically designed as a base warship. Hua Yufang pointed to the reserved gun bay.

Feng Yunshan nodded. Now there are no warships in the Holy Country, and it is already a behemoth to have this warship with a displacement of 1,000 tons.

However, Feng Yunshan knew that this was insignificant for those Western warships. As soon as the Crimean War ended, the British Combined Fleet would surely wage war against China, as it had historically been. Therefore, Feng Yunshan felt that even if it was this kind of warship, it should not only be built, but also seize the time to build more.

Thinking of this, Feng Yunshan said solemnly: "Ruoting, we must hurry up and build more warships of this kind." This king feels that in the near future, there will be a big war, and we must prepare in advance to defend the holy kingdom! ”

Hua Yufang hurriedly agreed.