At this moment, neither Lin Yizhe nor Shen Baozhen expected that it was this opium tax that would bring an unexpected storm. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

Although the shipmaster is facing a huge financial crisis because of Zuo Zongtang's deliberate suppression, the shipmaster still maintains a high speed of development, and various projects are carried out in an orderly manner without interference.

The construction of the warship "Wannianqing" has gone through a whole year, and when the scale of the ship's hull is beginning to take shape, the shipyard area, with the arrival of machines purchased from overseas, the sawing workshop, the clock and watch workshop (for the production of navigation, steam engine instruments, equipment) and so on have also been built, and the beautiful European-style factory has become a local scene. Just when everyone was busy with the construction of the "Wannian Qing Dynasty" and the affairs of the shipyard, on February 8, 1869, the Minister of Shipping, Shen Baozhen, together with the foreigners and officials, held a ceremony to worship Mazu, and put a keel on the No. 2 slipway of the shipmaster next to the No. 1 slipway, indicating that another new ship had started.

The steamship that was built on this day belonged to the 80-horsepower warship formulated in the five-year plan of the Fujian Shipbuilding Administration, and according to the original idea, the 80-horsepower warship belonged to the small by-product built by "idle workers in the shipyard". When the timber purchased by the Harbour Master from Siam and other places arrived, and the hull of the No. 1 steamship "Wannian Qing" was about to be completed, the construction of the 80-horsepower warship was naturally put on the agenda, and the Minister of Shipping, Shen Baozhen, decided to take advantage of the abundant reserves of ship timber and start construction at the same time without waiting for the completion of the No. 1 steamship to improve shipbuilding efficiency.

Like the "Wannianqing", this class of 80-horsepower warship also belongs to the all-wooden steam-powered gunship, the design drawings come from France, the mother type is the same as the "Wannianqing", the ship materials and machinery are basically imported, and the chief engineer of the shipyard is the Frenchman Dasbo. With a displacement of 515 tons, a hull length of 51.8 meters, a width of 7.48 meters, a cabin depth of 4.57 meters, and a draft of 3.39 meters, this 80-horsepower warship numbered as the "No. 2 Steamship" of the Shipmaster is much smaller than the No. 1 steamship in terms of displacement and external dimensions. It is precisely because of this that unlike the practice of 150-horsepower large steamers such as the "Wannianqing" that focus on arranging cargo holds, the 80-horsepower steamers are smaller in size and have little potential for transformation and loading, so they appear to be more specific in design, focusing on the functions of gunboats and reconnaissance ships, and are fortunate to become first-class specialized gunboats. In order to strengthen the function of the reconnaissance ship, under the suggestion of Lin Yizhe, the steam engine selected for the No. 2 steamship is a newly developed horizontal 150-horsepower small composite steam engine developed by France (the French are not at ease with this new technology, so let the Chinese try it first), and the use of a horizontal engine is convenient to control the installation position of the steam engine below the waterline, which is conducive to wartime safety. Single-shaft single-propeller propulsion, design speed 12 knots.

The bow line of the No. 2 steamship is not significantly different from that of the "Wannian Qing", and it still carries a beautiful flying scissor bow. The second steamer was equipped with two mainmasts, located in front of and behind the chimney, the foremast with a transom girder, which could hang a square sail, and the rear mast only had a diagonal boom with a sylvestitin, and when sailing with sail power, the stooger could be turned to adjust the course of the warship. In addition, the second steamer had a forward mast in the bow, but the inclination was small and the length was short.

The armament of the second steamship consisted of a powerful 120 mm French breech gun (made in 1868) and four 75 mm Prussian breech guns (sampans), considering the full use of the firepower of the 120 mm gun as the main gun, this gun was installed on the open deck in front of the flybridge, and there were many tracks in different directions under the gun mount, and the guns could be pushed along the track to the port side of the warship as needed to strengthen the firepower of a certain side, this practice is called the mast type. The remaining four 75-mm secondary guns were mounted on the open deck sides behind the chimney.

The flybridge is located in the middle of the warship, across the high bulwarks at both ends, with a wooden wheelhouse at the bottom of the flybridge, and seafaring equipment such as compasses installed on the flybridge deck, and the spare steering wheel of the second steamer is presumably located on the aft deck.

Due to the small size of the ship and the fact that the ship's workers and technicians had gained a lot of experience through the construction of the "Wannian Qing", the construction speed of the No. 2 steamship appeared to be very fast. On June 21, 1869, when the Minister of Shipping, Shen Baozhen, reported on the launching of the "Wannian Qing" on June 10, the skeleton of the No. 2 steamship had been erected, and the hull plate had been sealed by one-third, and it was only four months before the start of the ship's construction. At the same time, Shen Baozhen had already named the No. 2 steamer "Meiyun" and appointed the guerrilla Wu Shizhong to take charge of the pilot.

When Wu Dating led the "Wannian Qing" north to Tianjin to be inspected by the imperial court, the hull construction of the "Meiyun" had been completed by two-thirds, and the boiler and engine were already in place. On December 6, the shipmaster held a ceremony to pay tribute to Mazu, the god of the river, and the god of earth, and the same method of launching the "Wannian Qing" as in the beginning, and the "Meiyun" ship successfully launched at noon on the same day. On the same day, a groundbreaking ceremony was held for the new ship next to the No. 2 slipway that was built by the ship to Taiwan, and the newly built warship was the No. 3 steamship of the same class as the "Mae Yun."

The day after it was launched, the "Mae Yun" was fired and tested on the shore of the Shipyard River, and the results were satisfactory. Wu Shizhong immediately began to select officers and men, stationed on the ship for training, and supervised the production of flags and uniforms. Like the "Wannian Qing," most of the officers and men of the "Meiyun" also came from Ningbo, Zhejiang, and the total number of officers and men on the ship was 67.

Not long after the launch of the "Mae Yun" ship, when the shipmaster was busy with the new ship, a storm was quietly brewing.

Hangzhou, Yuanbao Hutong, Hu Xueyan private.

Seeing that it was already three poles old, Hu Xueyan stretched his waist and yawned, and the two beautiful concubines beside him were awakened by him, and immediately turned around, supported him, and beat him gently.

"Master, are you going to get up?" A beautiful concubine asked with a smile.

"Hmm." Hu Xueyan closed his eyes, nodded, and lay there at the mercy of the two of them.

"The master is going to get up." A beautiful concubine shouted, and the maids outside the bedroom immediately began to get busy.

The two beautiful concubines dressed Hu Xueyan, helped him sit up, and rubbed his waist and beat his back, and several maids walked in, washed his face and hands, and wiped him with a towel.

After all this was done, the maids who were waiting to freshen up withdrew, one maid brought a tea tray and served a bowl of fragrant tea, Hu Xueyan took a sip of fragrant tea and rinsed his mouth, and the other maid walked forward quickly with a delicate and gorgeous porcelain basin and connected it to Hu Xueyan's mouth, Hu Xueyan closed his eyes and spit it out. The two rings withdrew, and a servant took a fine rosewood plate, which contained precious stones of various colors and all kinds of jade, as well as other jewels of various colors.

Hu Xueyan opened his eyes at this time, took out a huge and shiny gem and a piece of beautiful jade, and watched and played with it carefully.

This is Hu Xueyan's own morning rule, called "eye care".

After this toss, Hu Xueyan came to the main hall, and after breakfast, he was about to go out to Fukang Qianzhuang, when the housekeeper hurriedly ran over with his clothes and handed over a letter to Hu Xueyan.

Hu Xueyan looked at the envelope, and the letter was sent urgently by the Fuzhou branch of Fukang Qianzhuang. Hu Xueyan nodded, the housekeeper said goodbye and withdrew, Hu Xueyan opened the envelope, took out the letter paper and looked at it.

"Hehe, they have a lot of methods! As soon as they cut off their financial route, they figured out another one, and this idea actually hit this opium, which is really clever and tight! After reading the letter, Hu Xueyan sneered, held the letter tightly in his hand, and paced back and forth in the hall.

"The little vertical surnamed Lin treated me like this back then, you Shen Baozhen didn't say anything about it, he took me away with all his heart, hum, come and don't be rude, this time, you fell into my hands, I want you to taste the same taste!" Hu Xueyan recalled the embarrassing scene when he was expelled from Fuzhou, and a poisonous plan suddenly took shape in his heart.

"Opium, hum, is it so good for you to use this opium tax?" Hu Xueyan stopped, and the plan in his heart had been decided.

"Someone! Pen and ink waiting! ”

※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※

Fuzhou, Harbour Administration.

In the Harbour Superintendent's Office, Lin Yizhe was discussing the details of the transformation of the "Wannian Qing" with Dashbo.

"Dear Lin, I calculated it again, and I think there are still some inappropriate places in the scheme of placing four heavy guns on the middle line." Dashbo pointed to the huge blue line map on the desktop and said to Lin Yizhe.

"Please. Mr. Dash Bo. Lin Yizhe looked at the line chart and said.

"You see, according to our original renovation plan, these four heavy guns are installed in these four separate locations." Dashbo pointed to the top view of the "Wannian Qing" with a pencil and said, "These four guns are arranged in the center line position in a changing mast style, according to your assumption, the two guns at the head and tail can fire at a 180-degree angle, and when a one-side salvo is fired, the four guns will be turned to one side at the same time to fire." However, if a salvo is fired in this way, a new problem arises, that is, the center of gravity of the ship will be shifted, which will cause the ship to roll over at a high speed in battle. ”

"You're absolutely right." Lin Yizhe listened to Dashibo's words, and couldn't help nodding again and again, and at the same time secretly screamed "ashamed" in his heart.

Although he has historical knowledge that people of this era do not have, and can grasp the general trend and direction, he is not a professional ship designer after all, and some details are far inferior to professionals in this era.

――――Dividing Line――――

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