After a year, Yan Xueyi will inspect the shipbuilding industry of the empire again, and in a year's time, the shipbuilding industry of the empire has undergone new changes. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

At this time last year, the Chinese Empire had only three shipyards under construction or expansion: Shencheng Shipyard, Jiangnan Shipyard, and Mawei Shipyard, and this year, the Empire has five fully completed shipyards, and on the basis of the original three shipyards, with the help of the Germans, Dalian Shipyard and Tianjin Shipyard were established.

On 3 March, the Royal No. 1 airship flew Yan Xueyi and Ding Ruchang to Shencheng, while Liu Buyun, commander of the Pacific Fleet, and Zhang Zhidong, commander of the South China Sea Fleet, were also on their way to Shencheng.

Longcheng is more than 800 kilometers away from Shencheng, and it took less than nine hours for the Royal No. 1 to reach its destination, and it was already evening, so everyone would rest for one night and inspect the shipyard tomorrow.

The next day, a Tianshu car carried Yan Xueyi and three high-ranking officials of the Imperial Navy to the Jiangnan Shipyard.

Jiangnan Shipyard is an old shipyard, and after the Jiangnan Shipyard belonged to the Royal Firm, the Royal Firm carried out drastic reforms to the Jiangnan Shipyard, reformed the incompetent, absorbed talents, expanded the shipyard, and added advanced equipment, and now the Jiangnan Shipyard has become a shipyard specializing in the development of the secret weapon of the Imperial Royal Navy - submarines.

Within a year, the Jiangnan Shipyard had built a submarine that could be officially installed in the navy.

Before the gate of the Jiangnan Shipyard, only the shipyard management including director Zhu Qingshan, deputy director Xu Xiake, and other shipyard management welcomed the arrival of Yan Xueyi and others.

"Greetings to Your Majesty!"

"Excuse me! After a year's absence, I have come to Jiangnan Shipyard again, and I hope you can surprise me. Yan Xueyi said with a smile.

"Your Majesty will not make this trip in vain." Xu Xiake, the young deputy director, replied confidently.

Zhu Qingshan, the director of the factory, led the way, and the group walked towards the interior of the shipyard.

The Imperial Chinese Navy now has two fleets, the Pacific Fleet and the South Seas Fleet, but the combined strength of the two fleets is not as strong as the British Navy or the French Navy.

Once Britain and France had the means to deal with the Chinese Empire's airships, war would come again, and Britain and France would send their powerful navies to ruin the coastal areas of the Chinese Empire, and the Chinese Empire would have to stop them.

However, the shipbuilding industry of the Chinese Empire was just emerging, and even with Yan Xueyi behind his back, it would be difficult to build a powerful navy in a short period of time to confront the British Navy and the French Navy.

So Yan Xueyi thought of using a submarine to win by surprise.

A submarine is a ship that is capable of operating underwater.

Submarines have a number of advantages in military strategy:

Privacy: Travel near any coast in the world and remain undetected or restrained.

Safety: pirates and robbers cannot rob underwater ships, and impermanent tides and strong wind and rain cannot affect the sea surface of less than seven meters; Ice and frost could not endanger submarine crews, even in the Arctic and Antarctic seas.

Effectively resist enemy navies, destroy and sink surface ships.

Support the delivery of supplies silently in places surrounded by or near water.

itself as a useful underwater test site.

As early as the seventeenth century, there were manpower submarines in the United States. The first submarine used for military purposes appeared in the Lili War, and a submarine successfully sank an enemy ship appeared in the American Civil War.

In 1863, France built the "Diver" submarine, which is powered by an 80-horsepower compressed air engine, with a speed of 2.4 knots, can dive underwater for 3 hours, and has a depth of 12 meters, and the "Diver" submarine has a displacement of 420 tons, which is the largest submarine built in the world.

In 1886, Britain built the submarine "Nautilus", which used battery-powered propulsion, with a speed of 6 knots and a range of about 80 nautical miles.

Even the Manchu Dynasty built its first submarine in Tianjin in September 1880.

……

On the way to the interior of the shipyard, Xu Xiake adjusted his mood a little and began to tell Yan Xueyi and the four of them about the development of Jiangnan Shipyard in the past year.

"Your Majesty, our Jiangnan Shipyard began to develop the first submarine in April last year, and it took 57 days to build an experimental submarine with a length of 11 meters and a displacement of only 18 tons.

"In fact, the No. 2 submarine is an enlarged version of the No. 1 submarine, we will enlarge the No. 1 submarine fifteen times, and then use it on the No. 1 submarine to make some improvements, and the No. 2 submarine appeared, after half a year, the No. 2 submarine was finally completed before the Chinese New Year this year."

"The second submarine is 37 meters long, 4.3 meters wide and 8.6 meters high, with a surface displacement of 243 tons, an underwater displacement of 328 tons, a depth of up to 30 meters, and on the surface, it is capable of sailing 500 nautical miles at a speed of 10 knots, and under water, it is capable of sailing 50 nautical miles at a speed of 50 knots......"

Xu Xiake kept telling everyone about the achievements of Jiangnan Shipyard this year, Yan Xueyi could still understand what Xu Xiake said, Ding Ruchang, Liu Buyun, and Zhang Zhidong were a little confused, and they didn't even know what a submarine was.

Although the Manchu Dynasty built its first submarine in 1880, Ding Ruchang and the three did not pay attention to this kind of thing, at this time the world's navies still believe in the doctrine of giant ships and cannons, disdainful of submarines that sneak attack under the water, and the submarines built by the Manchu Dynasty are not called "submarines", but "submarines".

However, with Xu Xiake's introduction, the three senior officials of the Imperial Navy could also roughly hear that this was a weapon that attacked from underwater.

Not long after, the group walked to a building in the Jiangnan Shipyard, which looked relatively sturdy, with no doors or windows except for a large gate, and was almost completely closed.

When the door of the factory was opened, everyone walked into the factory, and then the electric lights of the factory were also turned on, and you could see a black steel object with a length of more than ten meters displayed in the middle of the factory.

"Your Majesty, this is Submarine No. 1." Xu Xiake introduced.

Seeing the real thing, Ding Ruchang and the three of them were curious about this submarine, since this is an underwater attack weapon, where is its weapon? The three of them circled around the No. 1 submarine and did not see where the weapons were.

Liu Buyun couldn't help but ask: "Director Xu, where is the weapon of this submarine?" ”

Hearing Liu Buyun's question, Xu Xiake hurriedly replied: "Lord Liu, this small submarine is only an experimental submarine, and it has no weapon system, and there is only a weapon system on the No. 2 submarine." ”

"Oh."

Submarine No. 1 really didn't have anything to look at, and after turning around, everyone walked towards the location of Submarine No. 2.