The inaugural meeting of the alliance in the spring lasted for more than 20 days before it ended, and when everyone at the meeting, representing their own country, signed their names in the alliance agreement, it seemed that their spirit was different.

Mai Dahai and Mai Dahe hurriedly followed Wen Xiaoqi back to Sun City, the two of them were going to school, and they were also interning on the sea boat, they used to be the most annoying to go to school, but now they are not annoyed, they shouted that they wanted to go, for fear that if they didn't learn like that, they would suffer a loss when they became kings in the future.

Luo Youde took his national map and dragged Joseph to the side to mutter, he is also the messenger of the Sun God Cult, and he also wants to have a ******** system like Hong Tao. I went to Joseph to ask for advice on how to spread the Church in his own country and what steps to take seriously.

Wen Xiaoqi and Qi Zu had the heaviest task, and the navy was the first branch of the army to be established. Now it doesn't matter if the alliance doesn't have an army, but without a navy, once the enemy comes, it will be a big problem, because now all countries are still on paper, and there is not even a village, so what is the resistance?

In addition to the fact that the ship type is completely different from the previous Jiao Shark class and Sea Wolf class, there is also a major difference that the naval guns equipped on it are very different from the previous warships, and this new naval gun is the rear-loading rifled gun that Qi Zu has always been engaged in.

Some time ago, one of them was busy making shotguns and building a new factory, and the other was building a new shallow water gunboat for Hong Tao, so they didn't have much time to study new ships and new guns. Now that the new factories and shallow gunboats have been completed, and they have their own kingdom, the motivation is not ordinary. In the past, they were interested in developing any new technology and equipment, but now these things are closely related to the fate of their own kingdom, and they have to add a necessity to their interests.

It is said that it is a new type of warship, but in fact, it is not so new, its prototype is the kind of iron-fedged wood-hulled ship that Wen Xiaoqi built for Luo Meimei and Hong Salamander, and now it is slightly enlarged, and in order to make the hull more firm, a few more steel ribs have been added, but the shape is still about the same. A long deck, no bow and stern, forward-sloping pointed bow, elongated hull and low freeboard are all features of the new warship. Compared to the Americas, the newer ships have slightly increased freeboard heights to accommodate high sea conditions. Three masts of equal length, fixed by steel cylinders, stand at the bow, middle and stern of the ship, and are of the type of Bukentin sail, with three upward oblique sails.

Its all-steel keel is twenty-four meters long, the hull is twenty-eight meters long, four and a half meters wide, the draft is up to three meters, and the full load displacement is 300 tons. The maximum crosswind speed is 16 knots, and the cruising speed is about 10 knots. It was equipped with six 75mm rifled cannons, two on the port side and one on the port side, and one on the bow and stern. The guns can rotate 270 degrees, and up to four guns can fire at the same time on one side.

This new type of sailing ship, named the Virginia class by Hong Tao, is not very outstanding in terms of statistics, and even very frustrating. In terms of hull thickness, displacement, and number of guns, even the Seawolf class of the Golden River Empire cannot be compared, and it is far from it. In the event of a naval battle between the two ships, the Virginia-class would have to fall apart under a round of shelling from the Seawolf-class, which was on par with the Salmon-class armed cargo ships.

On the surface, the biggest advantages of the Virginia class are labor saving, low cost, fast construction, simple operation, slightly higher speed, flexible steering, low hull and small target. This kind of battleship only needs fifteen skilled sailors to complete all the ship operations, and when fighting, even the officers and carpenters and blacksmiths are counted, and no more than thirty people are needed. It was also relatively easy to build this kind of ship than an all-wooden battleship, because its hull skeleton was all riveted with various types of I-beam, and all parts had a uniform size, and most of them could be replaced.

With manual assembly line production, it only takes less than two months from laying the keel to installing the mast rigging, plus the later rust prevention and painting, and it can be launched in three months. Moreover, there is almost no time difference between building one and building three or five ships at the same time, which means that it takes three months to build one, and it is also three months to start building five ships at the same time. Its construction process has relatively low technical requirements for craftsmen, after all, the most fatal splicing keel and upper rib process have been replaced by blacksmiths with big hammers. Steel is also much more malleable than wood, saving a lot of time in shaping wood

However, the advantages and disadvantages of warships are not only reflected in paper data, but also determine the capabilities of warships to a large extent what kind of combat methods are adopted. The reason why Hong Tao and Wen Xiaoqi wanted to design the new warship very thin and the number of guns was so small was mainly related to the new naval combat mode brought by a new weapon. This weapon is the rear-loading rifled cannon.

With this new type of naval gun, which can fire more than 1,000 meters with relative accuracy, heavier shells, higher muzzle velocity, and stronger penetrating power, there is no need for Virginia-class warships to get close to the enemy at a distance of two or three hundred meters and rely on the rate of fire and firing density to spray each other, and they can completely make up for the lack of artillery with range and accuracy. At this time, the disadvantages of a slender build, flexible steering, and small displacement become advantages, and relying on these advantages, coupled with a sober-minded commander, naval warfare becomes another model. Only you can fight the enemy, and the enemy can't hit you.

Of course, it is not so easy to build such a new type of warship and a new type of naval gun, and there are still many details that need to be solved. Any small problem may make the idea of such a new warship and new naval guns come to naught, or it can be reluctantly built, but when it is actually used, it simply cannot meet the design requirements, and it has become a veritable chicken rib.

For example, the problem of rust protection of steel structures and wooden hulls, the ignition mechanism of the wedge gun bolt, and the fixed rotation of this new naval gun.

There are many components in the seawater that cause corrosion to the steel, and then the corroded steel will cause the wood attached to it to rot as well. If this problem is not solved, then these new warships may have to be returned to Hong Kong for overhaul within two years of being built, or even scrapped directly. Although the cost of this new ship is low and the construction period is short, it is not blown by strong winds, and a batch is built every two years, and the cost is not low, and the construction period may be longer than that of the old warship.

On the Americas, Wen Xiaoqi only used the method of isolation to prevent corrosion, simply put, using asphalt and hemp to block and cover all the parts that come into contact with metal and seawater. But the problem with this method is that asphalt is something that changes its shape with temperature. In the tropics it softens, and at high latitudes it freezes and cracks. After a few round-trips, cracks will appear in the asphalt, and the sea water will not be isolated.

An expedition ship like the Americas is a big toy in itself, and it is not used too often, it can last for two years without breaking, and there is still a chance to repair it after returning to port, and the workload is not very large. But it would be a bit troublesome to build a battleship in this way, because the battleship needs to be adrift at sea all year round, and you can't just come back and repair it. Moreover, there are dozens or even hundreds of warships as soon as they are built, and if the maintenance cycle is too short, then the shipyard will not do other work, and repair ships every day. Therefore, it is necessary to come up with other ways to solve the corrosion problem of seawater and extend the maintenance cycle as much as possible.

In what way? In later generations, there were anti-rust paints for ships, as well as alloy steels with stronger corrosion resistance, and Hong Tao would definitely not be able to get these things, and it would be a sin to even think about it.

Qi Zu said that copper rivets and copper plates can be used to isolate the contact between steel and wood, and copper is much more resistant to corrosion than steel. However, Qi Zu didn't know that his idea would not only fail to prevent corrosion, but would also speed up the corrosion of steel. Because different metals will react with galvanic cells in seawater, if copper and iron are put together and touch seawater, they will embroider faster than steel, and seawater will become an electrolyte.

But Hong Tao did not reject Qi Zu's proposal, he had a way to avoid this galvanic reaction, find some zinc and throw it next to the steel parts, you can cancel out the effect of seawater, this crime is called cathodic corrosion. Since zinc is a metal with higher elemental activity than steel, it will consume all the electrons in the seawater, similar to the magnesium rod in a water heater, consuming itself and protecting other metals nearby, which is great!

Jinheguo's smelting technology has been able to refine zinc in lead-zinc ore for a long time, but the problem is that there is only crude zinc, which cannot be purified. Moreover, zinc is a metal that is not very useful at the moment, and it is only made by piggybacking on high temperatures when smelting lead. As for how to purify the zinc ore, Hong Tao really doesn't know, Qi Zu has been experimenting for many years, at most he will increase the smelting temperature, but what he gets is not relatively pure zinc, and there are many impurities in it.

Now these gray-white metal blocks are finally useful, whether they are pure or not, after all, it is zinc, and the elemental activity is definitely higher than that of iron and copper. And this is not a waste, in order to maintain the stability of the center of gravity, sea ships have to bring ballast, these zinc ingots can also partially replace the ballast.

Just the cathodic anti-corrosion with zinc ingots and the method of insulating seawater with asphalt, Hong Tao felt that he could not reflect his more professional side. I am studying heat treatment, and a very important task in this discipline is rust prevention, and Hong Tao finally dared to pat his chest and say that he is an expert.

His last resort was chemical embalming. As we all know, sulfuric acid is a strong oxidizing agent, and many metals encounter sulfuric acid, and the surface layer will be oxidized instantly, which is commonly said to be bitten out of a layer of rust. This layer of rust is called oxide film, and the dense oxide film will prevent the inside of the steel from continuing to contact water, acid and other substances, which is equivalent to forming an antioxidant protective film on the surface of the steel. The method of pickling certain metals with sulfuric acid to form an oxide film to increase the antioxidant capacity is called metal passivation.

(To be continued.) )