As soon as they arrived at the gate of Jiangnan Shipyard, Xu Shou, Hua Yufang and others were already waiting there.

Knowing that Li Weiguo, the king of Wu, came to inspect, the entire Jiangnan shipyard became even busier, this is the best time to invite merit and reward the great performance, and no one wants to miss it.

Li Weiguo said in front of everyone: "The development of Jiangnan Shipyard is gratifying, this king is very pleased in his eyes, you have worked hard!" ”

Xu Shou, Hua Yufang and others hurriedly said that they were not hard, but they were very happy to be praised in their hearts.

Li Weiguo came here to see with his own eyes the latest achievements of the Jiangnan Shipyard in the past five years, and the scene when the first shallow water battery ironclad ship was launched is still vivid in his mind, representing China's most advanced shipbuilding strength, whether it can keep up with the international trend, and whether it can defend the country's sea power all depends on this.

"The ministers will arrange the itinerary, and they will definitely give the prince a satisfactory answer!"

Xu Shou and Hua Yufang learned of Li Weiguo's intention to make this trip and hurriedly made arrangements.

Soon, Li Weiguo, surrounded by everyone, entered the Jiangnan Shipyard.

At this time, the Jiangnan shipyard is very different from the shipyards of later generations, most of the shipyards of later generations adopt the assembly and combination mode for sectional construction when shipbuilding, and a ship, whether it is a military ship or a civilian ship, most of the various parts and components required are not produced by the shipyard itself, but from the factories in various parts of the country to undertake manufacturing, and the functions of the shipyard are equivalent to an assembly workshop in most cases.

However, Jiangnan Shipyard is different, all shipbuilding parts are produced and manufactured in Jiangnan Shipyard, and even Jiangnan Shipyard has its own steelmaking furnace, and the finished steel transported from Jiangwan Industrial Zone Iron and Steel Plant sometimes has to be reheated twice to smelt special steel that meets the needs of Jiangnan Shipyard before it can be used.

In this way, although the entire Jiangnan Shipyard is only a shipyard, because there are hundreds of factory workshops, it produces various equipment parts. In fact, it is already a large-scale comprehensive industrial park.

The shipbuilding industry represents the overall industrial level of a country, and in the following centuries, the strength of shipbuilding capacity can directly prove the strength of a country's industry.

Li Weiguo is the most powerful vassal king, so he represents the country, and the strength of the Jiangnan shipyard represents the strength of Li Weiguo.

Today's Jiangnan Shipyard has undergone three large-scale expansions, and the number of docks has increased to 28, all of which are open-air, because there are no aircraft and satellite reconnaissance in this era, so there is no need to worry about leaking secrets from the sky.

The expansion of the dock was planned according to the tonnage of the Jiangnan Shipyard. The dockyards of the previous phase of the project were basically less than 5,000 tons, because the tonnage of the first shallow water battery ironclad built by Erickson was no more than 4,000 tons.

After that, under the auspices of Erikson, after four years, Jiangnan Shipyard successively started to build eight shallow-water battery ironclad ships, with an average of two launched per year, and the tonnage also went from less than 4,000 tons of the first ship to the 5,000-ton No. 2 and No. 3 ships, the 6,000-ton No. 4 ship, and the 7,000-ton No. 5 and No. 6 ships. and ships No. 7 and No. 8 of the nine-thousand-ton class under construction.

The 4,000-ton No. 1 ship was equipped with a turret, twin 305 mm caliber 15 times diameter breech-loading rifled guns, 200 mm armor protection, and a speed of only 8 knots.

By the time of the 5,000-ton ships No. 2 and No. 3. A turret was added, and the gun was still a twin 305 mm caliber 15 times diameter breech-loading rifled gun, and the armor was unchanged, still 200 mm. However, the steam engine has made significant progress, and under Li Weiguo's "divine prompt", Xu Shou and Hua Yufang successfully developed a single-expansion reciprocating large steam engine. It was more than twice as powerful as the high-pressure single-stream steam engine used by the European and American powers, allowing the speed of ships 2 and 3 to be increased to 12 knots.

However, at that time, the single-expansion reciprocating steam engine had just been successfully developed, the boiler was huge, and the vertical installation method was adopted, resulting in most of the tonnage of the No. 2 and No. 3 ships occupied by the steam engine room, although two twin 305 guns were installed, but still used an ammunition depot, although the firepower was twice as strong as the No. 1 ship, the sustainable combat time was also doubled.

In order to solve this problem, Xu Shou, Hua Yufang, Erickson and others worked hard for more than a year to improve the boiler system, from vertical to horizontal, and redesigned the hull structure to fully combine the two, make reasonable use of every inch of space, and save tonnage.

As a result, the construction of the 6,000-ton No. 4 ship began, and Xu Shou, Hua Yufang, and Erickson supervised the construction of the battleship, while constantly improving the design according to the actual situation, and finally the No. 4 ship was reduced to an experimental product, and only one was built, but a large number of valuable experimental data were obtained from it, which provided decisive support for the No. 5 and No. 6 ships that were later built.

If the No. 4 ship is a transitional experiment, then the No. 5 and No. 6 ships are a relatively successful work.

Building a 7,000-ton ironclad warship is not an easy task, and it requires new structural mechanics and the world's most advanced shipbuilding technology.

Fortunately, there are predecessors who planted trees and later people enjoy the shade, Britain and France in 1860 had this ability, Li Weiguo sent a large number of students to Europe and the United States to study in that year have already learned, one after another returned to China, a considerable part of them from the shipbuilding industry advanced Britain and France, and brought back advanced structural mechanics knowledge and shipbuilding technology, quickly filled the gap in Jiangnan Shipyard in this regard, it can be said that it is timely rain.

The 7,000-ton No. 5 and No. 6 ships were still designed as shallow water heavy gunboats, and with the No. 4 ship as a test victim, the No. 5 and No. 6 ships directly learned from the successful design experience, and the construction went exceptionally smoothly.

The displacement of the No. 5 and No. 6 ships is 7120 tons and 7300 tons, respectively, and this error control has been done very well in the era when there is no numerical control.

Except for some differences in tonnage, the maximum speed of the No. 5 ship is 13.2 knots, and the maximum speed of the No. 6 ship is 13.8 knots, the difference is not obvious, and other things such as the main gun and armor protection are the same.

Due to the increased tonnage, more guns can be installed. The No. 5 and No. 6 ships are respectively equipped with three twin-mounted latest Type 64 main guns, the caliber is still 305 mm, the diameter has been increased to 20 times compared with the previous Type 59, and the latest smokeless gunpowder is used, with an effective range of up to 6 kilometers and a maximum range of 12 kilometers.

The ammunition depot has also been optimized so that it is no longer shared with one ammunition depot. This led to an ammunition depot installed under each main gun for a reserve of 305 mm large-caliber shells.

The thickness of the armor remained unchanged, as the 200 mm armor was enough to withstand the bombardment of the 110-pounder gun of the British battleship Warrior, the strongest in the world, at a distance of 1,000 meters, so no modifications were made for cost and cost performance.

Because of the tense situation, Li Weiguo could not wait for the subsequent development and mass production of the No. 7 and No. 8 ships, so he issued an order the year before last, ordering the Jiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai, the Hangzhou Bay Shipyard in Zhejiang, the Mawei Shipyard in Fujian, and the Huangpu Shipyard in Guangdong to start construction of 7,000-ton shallow water heavy artillery ironclad ships at the same time. It's all the figure of this kind of battleship.

Because it is a priority construction, workers work overtime, so after two years of intense construction, eight ironclad ships of this type have been launched, four of which have been put into service in the East China Sea Fleet, two are in sea trials, and the other two have just completed sea trials and are being renovated and ready for formal service.

If you also count the No. 5 and No. 6 ships. In the next three months, the East China Sea Fleet will have 10 7,000-ton shallow-water heavy artillery ironclad ships, which is even the most powerful British navy among the current world naval powers. At this moment, there are only 20 ironclad ships of more than 7,000 tons, and France, including the Glory, only has only four ironclad ships, and other European and American countries only have one or two ironclad ships. And none of the tonnage exceeded 5,000 tons.

It can be said that if the tonnage of a single-wheeled ironclad ship, Li Weiguo's East China Sea Fleet is already the second in the world at the moment. But the problem is that Li Weiguo's naval policy is still coastal defense, so although he will soon have ten ironclad ships, they are all coastal defense and cannot conduct deep-sea and ocean-going operations.

According to Li Weiguo's naval policy, from 1861 to the end of 1865, the first five-year plan for the development of the navy, that is, the first five-year plan for the navy, at that time the East China Sea Fleet will have the ability to defend the coastal seas, and can engage the British navy in the coastal waters, and maintain a certain superiority to maintain the country's sea power.

At present, this plan has basically been realized, the only thing lacking is a war with the British Navy, and only by winning the British Navy can the first phase of the plan be considered a complete success.

After Li Weiguo's inspection, he was very satisfied with Xu Shou, Hua Yufang and others to complete the first phase of the naval expansion plan, although Li Weiguo paid a huge price for this, up to 25 million yuan of huge investment, several times the investment and shipbuilding cost of the British, in exchange for 10 7000-ton ironclad ships is worth it, because this investment won time for Li Weiguo, the East China Sea Fleet has these ten ironclad ships, and it has the ability to fight with the British Navy in the coastal waters.

What Li Weiguo lacks at this time is time, so he doesn't care no matter how much it costs.

Of course, there is no lack of Xu Shou, Hua Yufang and other people's credit, they have saved money as much as possible, in addition to the construction of the first ironclad ship when there is no experience in the cost of seriously exceeding the budget, the other ships have experience in the construction of a lot of cost savings, otherwise 25 million yuan is simply not enough, after all, the navy is a huge money-burning machine, no country can afford to play.

Li Weiguo's first task was to see these 7,000-ton ironclad ships, and when he saw that the mission objectives were successfully completed, Li Weiguo was relieved, and only then did he have the mood to watch the other achievements of the Jiangnan Shipyard.

The 7,000-ton ironclad ship is the main warship of the East China Sea Fleet, but it is still a coastal defensive type, and according to Li Weiguo's 100-year plan for naval development, the five-year period from 1866 to 1870 will be the next five-year plan for the expansion of the navy.

At that time, Li Weiguo's navy will shift from a coastal defensive fleet to an integrated offensive and defensive fleet in the coastal waters, and its strategic goal will also change from ensuring that a strong enemy at sea is defeated in the coastal waters to defending against the enemy outside the country. It is not only necessary to block the British navy from attacking Chinese mainland from the sea, but also to ensure sea supremacy in China's surrounding waters, expel British naval forces from China's surrounding waters, and completely control the sea supremacy in the North Sea, Bohai Sea, Yellow Sea, East China Sea and South China Sea.

According to Li Weiguo's naval development plan, Xu Shou, Hua Yufang, Erickson, and others began to design and develop far-sea warships.

Here are the 9,000-ton ironclad ships, No. 7 and No. 8, which are being built in the dockyard.

These two ironclad ships are no longer limited to the near sea, so the draft, freeboard height, and superstructure need to be overhauled, but the basic design scheme is not too much, and it is only necessary to increase the freeboard height and rearrange the superstructure and artillery scheme on the basis of the previous 7000-ton shallow water heavy gunboat.

Therefore, Xu Shou, Hua Yufang and others dared to boldly go directly to the 9,000-ton ironclad ship project, and this boldness was not blind, after all, a large number of international students who came back from Europe and the United States, including Wei Han, a genius student who was only 16 years old, supported this project.

For Wei Han, the historical boss, Li Weiguo still knows some, is the last years of the Qing Dynasty top shipbuilding designer, in history he only studied in the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau for a few years, he can serve as the supervisor of the Shipbuilding Bureau, and presided over the construction of almost all the domestic warships in modern history, among which the design concept of some warships has reached the world's advanced level, if it were not for the incompetence of the Manchu Qing government, deducting the navy's shipbuilding funds, I am afraid Wei Han can achieve higher achievements.

Now Wei Han is even more powerful, at the age of six because he was a prodigy and was selected by Rong Hong, sent to study in the United Kingdom, after ten years of hard work, Wei Han graduated from the Royal Naval Shipbuilding College in South Kensington with the first place this spring (Royal School of Naval Architecture), he has been paying attention to the shipbuilding news of Jiangnan Shipyard during his school years, and exchanged letters with Xu Shou, Hua Yufang and others, exchanging views, as soon as he graduated he immediately rushed back to Jiangnan Shipyard, He joined the 9,000-ton new ironclad ship building plan and provided a lot of valuable advice, many of which coincided with Li Weiguo's ideas, so they were quickly adopted by Xu Shou, Hua Yufang and others.

In the dock, Li Weiguo, accompanied by Xu Shou and Hua Yufang, went to the construction site of the No. 7 ship, and saw Wei Han directing the workers to lay the keel from a distance.

Li Weiguo specially ordered everyone not to disturb him, and while watching him direct the workers to do things, he listened to Xu Shou, Hua Yufang and others explain the relevant details of the No. 7 ship.

The No. 7 ship has a design displacement of 9,300 tons, and plans to install two twin 305-mm main guns, one in front and one in the back, with the bridge and chimney in the middle, and a total of 20 125-mm secondary guns and 20 75-mm secondary guns are symmetrically installed on the left and right.

This is the design proposed by Wei Han, but at the beginning of Li Weiguo's jump, he didn't want the dreadnought to come out prematurely, because the industrial capacity of the British and French powers is very strong, and the premature appearance of the dreadnought can only allow Britain and France to pick up cheap, for Li Weiguo, with the current industrial capacity, at most relying on the advantage of crazy for a few years, in a few years Britain and France and other countries with strong industrial strength to build dreadnoughts frantically, then the decisive will be Li Weiguo's disaster.

Therefore, Li Weiguo cut many of Wei Han's design concepts, but in order not to discourage Wei Han's enthusiasm, Li Weiguo finally adopted a compromise approach, the No. 7 and No. 8 ships can only be used as test ships, and all relevant technical information is kept secret by the S-class, and must not be obtained by the British and French powers.

As for when Li Weiguo will be able to build this type of ironclad ship with all his might, it will depend on China's industrial strength in the future, but Li Weiguo believes that it will not be too long. (To be continued.) )