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"Knock, knock......"

In the roar of the steam hammer, the fiery iron ingots were constantly forged, and the short and thick iron ingots weighing hundreds of kilograms became more slender during the hammer forging process, and nearby, there were dozens of iron ingots that had been processed. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

This steam hammer is a 15-ton steam hammer in the forging workshop of the Hanyang Arsenal, and it is also its largest tonnage steam hammer, the original purpose of this steam hammer is to forge iron plates and other large forgings for machine tools and other equipment, and now it is forged with a forged barrel, a steam hammer, hundreds of kilograms of burned red iron ingots like dough, are forged into the shape of its design.

“…… Now the Han cannon has a significant difference from the early shape, its multi-layer iron sleeve, its barrel is composed of an inner tube and a cannon hoop bound in the field, and its inner tube is made of high-quality wrought iron, which is repeatedly hammered and forged by an atmospheric hammer. After hammering, the tube is basically formed, and the barrel can be drilled out on the polished surface, because when the gun is fired, a large chamber pressure will be generated, in order to ensure the strength of the artillery barrel, it is not said that a layer of wrought iron pipe hoop is placed outside the inner tube to increase the strength of the gun body. The inner diameter of this kind of hoop will be slightly smaller than the outer diameter of the inner tube when manufactured, and it will be enlarged with high temperature heating and then sleeved on the inner tube when installed, and it will naturally be firmly bound after cooling. ”

The development of Han-style artillery has opened a door that has never been opened to Xu Shushan to a certain extent, he has mastered the most advanced artillery manufacturing technology and concept in this era, just like this layer sleeve process that enhances the strength of the artillery barrel, the larger the caliber of the artillery, the larger the amount of propellant used, and the thicker and thicker the outer gun hoop, he has now organized personnel to start calculations, in order to formulate the corresponding calculation formula, so as to determine the thickness and number of layers of various caliber artillery jackets.

The roar of the steam hammer, the hammer as the iron ingot was forged, and the sound of the hammer kept coming into my ears, staring at the barrel blanks of the cannon barrel. Zhu Yifeng's brows were tightly locked, and he was a little depressed, and he didn't even want to listen to Xu Shushan's "invitation".

For him, now he is concerned about only one thing - whether he can organize the production of artillery with a larger caliber now!

"Sincerely, now we don't just need field artillery for the army. Of course, I know that a 105-millimeter shell weighs 28 pounds and has a range far greater than any kind of front-loading gun used by any navy in the countries. But our batteries and fleets need more powerful naval guns, such as long-range heavy guns of 150 to 155 mm and 30-35 times the diameter of the barrel. ”

Although he knew that he was asking for something too ambitious, he added.

"Of course, it doesn't seem realistic to develop it in the short term, I also have an idea, that is, can we make a 105 mm gun used in fortresses and warships, his body tube can be longer, for example, it can be 30 times, its shells can be between 14 kg and 15 kg, as for the weight, it can be a little heavier, it is used on fortresses and warships."

Listening to Han Du's request and in connection with the recent major events in Wuchang, Xu Shushan asked tentatively.

"Han Du, is it that the negotiations with the British are not going well."

"Hmm!"

With a dull hum, Zhu Yifeng's brows furrowed even tighter, not to mention that it was not going well, there was no progress at all, they completely refused to have a dialogue on the opium issue, and they tried to delay the opium matter through this cold treatment.

"Han Du, are we going to prepare for a battle with the British?"

When Xu Shushan's voice was astringent, he was fighting with Britain! It seems that no country in the world has tried to challenge Britain since Napoleon, and now Britain's power has not been weakened but stronger than it was in the Napoleonic era.

"It was a forced choice! But ......"

Staring at the unfinished cannon blank on the ground, Zhu Yifeng sneered.

"If we really fight, we really don't need to be afraid of him, now the whole world is a wooden-hulled ship! If we fight, we will be able to eliminate their fleet in Britain! ”

The reason for such self-confidence comes from the confidence in grenades, and the confidence in grenades does not come from the fleet's shelling of Chongming Island, but because last year's Sinop naval battle was like this, there has never been such a hearty slaughter in the previous sail naval battle, the Turkish fleet was smashed to slag and easily sent to the bottom of the sea, the Russians do not say how advanced the technology is, but courage, the use of such extremely dangerous shells on the main warships of the navies of various countries is not recognized by the captains: although the blasting shell is powerful, But after all, a battleship of this class is expensive, and the traditional all-gun deck is uncovered, and if it is penetrated by a solid shell fired by the enemy, it would be a disaster to detonate the shell. In this battle, the power of the blasting bomb was brought into full play.

Compared with the backward fuses of the blasting shells used by the Russians in the Sinop Naval Battle and the Chongming Naval Battle, the shells of the Han-style cannon used impact fuzes similar to the principle of later fuzes, not only with a new type of fuze, but also filled with picric acid high explosives.

"That's for sure, according to our experiments, even an 88-millimeter howitzer can easily blow up a meter-thick oak target. In addition to the fact that our new grenade can cause greater wounds to enemy warships, the high-temperature gas and debris and shock waves formed by strong explosions are simply a nightmare for warships! And our new explosives will burn, and the warships attacked by it will turn into hell! ”

The pattern of war at sea has changed!

Xu Shushan, a self-proclaimed artillery engineer, knows what the emergence of Han-style artillery has changed, and it has fundamentally changed the pattern of naval warfare.

"After the Battle of Sinop, naval warfare had changed, and ships were forced to move towards armor to withstand the bombardment of blasting shells. Just like our "Chuwang", only ironclad ships can withstand the bombardment of blasting shells! So we will develop new armor-piercing shells in the future to attack their ironclad ships. ”

This is a precautionary measure, and it is also the advantage of the traverser. Everything had to be prepared in advance, but there was nothing wrong with not having armor-piercing shells, as high-explosive shells filled with picric acid were enough to destroy any kind of early ironclad ship.

"Han Du, are we really going to fight them?"

Faced with Xu Shushan's question, Zhu Yifeng didn't answer, he just looked at the roaring steam hammer and let the noise invade his ears, and said for a while.

"I am ready to transfer the two ironclad ships "Chuwang" and "Xiangyang" to the mouth of the Yangtze River! Fleet...... The main force of the fleet was transferred to Guangdong, and the "Hanfeng" was also transferred over! ”

"Hanfeng"!

In the fleet, the "Hanfeng" is a special existence, which is different from the "Chuwang" and "Xiangyang", which require only a few hundred tons of small inland river gunboats, and at most shallow-water coastal gunboats.

With a tonnage of more than 2,300 tons, the Hanfeng is an iron-ribbed wood-hulled ship purchased by East Asia Ocean Company in Singapore late last year. For the past seven months, it has been undergoing renovations at the shipyard in Wuchang. It was not complicated to modify, just install a layer of armor on the waterline, the side armor of wrought iron is a maximum thickness of 3 inches, and its armor belt extends 1.2 meters below the waterline, but the armor below the waterline is only 1 inch thick.

However, because the weight of the large steam engine increased dramatically due to the addition of armor, even though the "Hanfeng" was a cargo ship, in order to reduce the weight, the mast was still removed, and it could only be propelled by steam, and it could only carry less than 100 tons of coal, which could only meet the needs of 8 days of sailing, so it became an "ocean-going warship" that could not carry out "ocean-going voyages".

Undoubtedly, all this meant that the transformation of the "Hanfeng" had failed -- as the main ship of the navy, it could not sail to the sea, and could only sail in the coastal waters that were only far from the port like the "Chuwang," but as an offshore ship, its draft was relatively deep, which made it easy to run aground on the coastal sandbar.

Compared to the high cost of 100,000 silver, this is simply a big and useless waste. It is for this reason that although it has now been renovated, it is still on the river - there is no use for it. To a large extent, this also means the failure of the linear thinking of Zhu Yifeng, the initiator of this matter.

After all, in another time and space, during the Civil War, the United States once transformed wooden-hulled warships into ironclad ships, but it didn't seem to be very successful. But it was not as unsuccessful as the "Hanfeng".

But now, Zhu Yifeng can't care so much, no matter what, he must strengthen the strength of the navy in Guangdong, as for the Chongming area, on the contrary, he is not too worried -- there are two ironclad ships with 105 mm and 88 mm shore guns on the battery, which is enough to destroy any invading enemy. On the contrary, Guangdong's coastal defenses are too fragile, and there is a greater need for a fleet there.

Although Han Du did not answer directly, the transfer of the fleet and the not very successful "Hanfeng" to Guangdong made Xu Shushan's heart "chuckle", and a sense of foreboding immediately swelled.

"Han Du, if there is really going to be a war, the minister hopes to wait for the next batch of machines and iron materials ordered from Britain to arrive, after all, ......"

Looking at the roaring steam hammer, Xu Shushan said helplessly.

"We not only need British machines, but also British iron, at least until the ironworks are put into production, we can't do without British iron, whether it is to make rifles and artillery, we can't do without British iron!"

"Damn it!"

When the river ship sailed to the middle of the Yangtze River, looking at a British merchant ship in the distance, Zhu Yifeng's eyes stared at the huge "rice flag" at the stern, and scolded hatefully, although his heart was full of all kinds of dissatisfaction with Britain, but now he can't leave Britain at all, to be precise, the intention of industrialization is inseparable from British engineers, machines, and even the manufacture of weapons, which need British steel!

Despite this, his eyes blinked slightly, and finally said to himself in a resolute tone.

"Dignity has always been beaten!!" (To be continued.) )