Outside the sea of Mengzhou Mansion, a dock on the coastline, the dock is a giant ship that has never been seen before, the reason why this ship attracts everyone's attention is because this ship has never used a single wood from top to bottom from the inside to the outside, this is a real steel warship, the whole body is steel, shining with a long gold and iron color under the sun.

And in addition to this, what makes this ship different is its power - the huge chimneys that clearly stand above the hull and the two rows of huge paddle wheels behind the hull.

This is a new project that will be completed immediately after a year and a half under the personal guidance of Li Zhe - the first real steam ironclad ship in this time and space, which was originally scheduled to be launched in three months, but now because of Li Zhe's order, it was completed and launched three months ahead of schedule.

The military situation is urgent, and Li Zhe not only wants this new warship named Jieyu to be launched ahead of schedule, but also wants it to complete the sea trials in half a month to catch up with the war against Ning Wangfan.

The ship was eighty-four meters long and twenty-two meters wide, with a displacement of two thousand five hundred tons. The ships of this time were far less narrow and long than the ships of later generations, because of the design, craftsmanship and safety problems of the times, the length and width ratio of the ships of this era were always relatively low, and they looked more like cute ducks.

THE SHIP'S FIREPOWER WAS A SEMI-ENCLOSED TURRET OF TWO 105MM CALIBER THOR III NAVAL GUNS ARRANGED IN A STEPPED PATTERN ON THE FOREDECK, AND THE SAME TURRET ON THE AFT DECK AS THE MAIN GUN. The diameter of the cannon is twenty times, that is to say, the barrel of this cannon is more than two meters long, and based on the current casting process of Tianzhu artillery, this artillery can be said to have achieved the extreme.

The range of the gun reached 2 to 4 kilometers, and before the appearance of a real breech gun, there was no new type of gunpowder to replace black powder, and the range and power of this gun had also reached the peak of the times. In the face of this artillery, no capital ship of our time can withstand its shells.

At the same time, taking into account the fact that a longer range is not at all necessary until the advent of a better fire control system. After all, being able to hit theoretically is completely different from actually hitting it.

In fact, even if it was equipped with better artillery, the combat distance of the Tianzhu Naval Division would only be within 500 to 1,000 meters.

At this distance, the Thor III naval guns did not even need to be equipped with armor-piercing shells, but only needed to use the armor-piercing incendiary bombs specially made for them to sink any warship of this era.

The princess didn't know much about the navy and didn't know the power of the steam ironclad, but even so, she was still shocked when she saw this giant ship shining with a metallic sheen in front of her eyes.

"This, is this what you're going to surprise me?"

"Yes, that's good!"

Li Zhe looked at the princess fondly,

"Its name is Jieyu, and it will become the pride of my Tianzhu Navy, in front of her, there is no unsinkable battleship, and at the same time, on the sea surface of this era, no artillery on a battleship can sink it."

Indeed, Jieyu has achieved the ultimate in both armor and firepower of ships in this era, except for the speed is still relatively anxious, only the fastest eight knots, and the cruising speed is six knots, and other aspects are far ahead.

Moreover, although the absolute speed of Jieyu is not high, it is rare that her cruising speed is very high and is not limited by the wind direction, so on the whole, its speed is actually extremely terrifying.

The princess looked timidly at the tall, hideous battleship,

"It's, is it really all made of steel?"

"Yes, I promise! All built of steel. IT'S ARMOR UP TO 20MM THICK, SO, YOU KNOW, REALLY NO ONE CAN BEAT IT. ”

Li Zhe replied.

The princess was horrified, and she knew what it meant.

A warship of several thousand tons, built entirely of steel, if not all of it, is unimaginable in this era.

If it weren't for Li Zhe leading the Academy to improve the steel smelting process this year, this would have been absolutely impossible.

Even if the entire Tianzhu iron and steel industry began to upgrade with all its might under the strong promotion of the imperial court, until now, within one year, only 30 percent of the upgrading has been completed, and the pig iron output of the entire steel industry has tripled to 600,000 tons, while the output of steel is only 80,000 tons.

50,000 tons of steel must meet the needs of all aspects, people's livelihood, construction, and armament...... Demand is in short supply on all fronts, and the more booming the economy, the greater the demand for steel, which is simply not enough to meet demand.

And now Li Zhe has opened up a new demand here that is almost suffocating - ironclad ships made of pure steel, and one such ironclad ship is thousands or even tens of thousands of tons!

What does the princess use to satisfy Li Zhe's needs?

Everyone can see that the Jieyu in front of him is obviously just a test ship, once this ironclad ship is successfully tested in the war and achieves actual combat results, then the Tianzhu Navy Division will inevitably build it on a larger scale in the future.

What did Tianzhu use to build so many ironclad ships?

The princess secretly complained in her heart.

But if she wants to deny the future of the ironclad, she can't do it, this ironclad is placed here, it is so powerful, just looking like even if it is full of oppression, even if she doesn't know much about naval warfare, she can imagine the terrifying combat power of such a steel giant ship on the sea.

Steel is undoubtedly much stronger than wood, and the defense of a battleship made entirely of steel must be amazing, and the actual combat power and durability of such a warship are much higher than that of a wooden battleship. Imagine the feeling that at sea, the enemy's artillery can't penetrate your own iron armor, while your own artillery can sink the enemy ship, and imagine the despair that the enemy will face. I knew that this steam ironclad ship was imperative.

Not to mention that if you take a more long-term view, considering that steel warships have more advantages than wooden warships, such as faster speed, more load, larger internal space, etc., there is no doubt that not only military, but even civilian steel shipbuilding also has unparalleled advantages over wooden ships.

Steel ships are the future.

Li Zhe and their ability to create such a sea monster is undoubtedly another far-reaching innovation of Tianzhu.

In this era, it is obvious that whoever owns the sea will own the future.

Tianzhu's series of technologies for building steel warships will inevitably become another key advantage for Tianzhu to stay ahead of the times in today's competitive world.

Once this first-mover advantage spreads to the level of the whole country, the resulting change will be enormous.

Zhao Jieyu saw it very clearly.

The only headache is that the navy now uses steel to build ships, and the army also uses steel to manufacture muskets and artillery ammunition, not to mention that a large amount of steel is used in all aspects of domestic industrial construction.