Looking at the giant battleship being built on the slipway, Li Weiguo felt a lot of emotion in his heart.

Once upon a time, the century-long absence of coastal defense along the coast of modern China was now coming to an end in the hands of Li Weiguo.

In addition to the ten shallow-water heavy turret ironclads that will serve as the main warships of the East China Sea Fleet, there are also no less auxiliary ships.

Jiangnan Shipyard, Hangzhou Bay Shipyard, Mawei Shipyard, and Huangpu Shipyard, the four major shipyards have nearly 100 docks, and the slipways are all covered with warships.

It's just that the tonnage of these warships is not large, no more than 3,000 tons, mainly cruisers and frigates, and the hull structure is not a shallow turret type, but a traditional waist gun type.

These warships are easy to build, because the technology is the use of European mature ship-building technology, but the traditional wooden structure is changed to an iron structure, in the power system, the use of sail and steam engine hybrid, as a whole with the European mainstream iron-hulled steam sail hybrid warships are basically the same, because the domestic modern shipbuilding industry has just started, copycat Western products is a process that must be taken.

Of course, some places are not simply copycat West, such as the ship power system, three years ago it was mainly imported from Europe large steam engine device, and now there is a more technologically advanced reciprocating steam engine power system, which is far more advanced than the most advanced high-pressure steam engine power system in European countries, but the steam engine is installed in the hull, and there is no difference outside, only when the ships of the same tonnage on both sides sail together, It will be found that ships with reciprocating steam engine systems can sail much faster.

This technology is still in a state of high secrecy, because the honeymoon period between Li Weiguo and Britain and France has passed, the relationship is becoming more and more tense, and war will break out at any time.

Putting aside the surface ships, Li Weiguo came to Jiangnan Shipyard with another goal. That is, the inspection of the submarine factory.

Submarines, as the name suggests. In later generations, it was a very popular broad-spectrum term, but in the mid-60s of the 19th century, submarine was still a new word, because it was not well known to the general public.

The traditional consciousness of the people is still in the yearning for surface ships, and the cannon of giant ships has always been the mainstream of naval development and has been valued by the navies of various countries.

But this does not mean that all designers are fond of the Giant Ship Cannon Doctrine, and that a small group of people are interested in other maritime weapons, such as submarines.

In fact, the design of submarines has long been on the bench of the great powers of various countries. Ever since the Confederate Navy of the United States of America successfully sank the frigate USS Henry with the submarine USS Hanley during the American Civil War, the British and French powers and even the European powers have all noticed the submarine as a new weapon of naval warfare and have actively begun to study it.

In 1864, the European and American Western world was a year of submarine pandemic, and in this year, the American Southern Army, which defeated the Northern Army, continued to develop submarine weapons, and David Bush built the Nautilus submarine. It adopts artificial power with a speed of 4 knots, dives 6 meters, and has a diving time of one hour, and the weapon carried is water radium imported from the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau.

this year. France also built the submarine "Diver", which was powered by a 60 hp compressed air engine, the world's first underwater jet power plant, which was very slow at only 2.4 knots. However, it achieved the world record of being able to dive underwater for 3 hours, and its depth reached 12 meters. It's just that jet engines rely too much on compressed air tanks, which is costly. In addition to the local tyrants who can afford to use it, the French navy is fearful, so it has become a chicken rib.

In this year, Britain also followed in the footsteps and built the steam-powered submarine Maas, which reached a speed of 8 knots at one point, but stopped in less than ten minutes because the steam engine consumed too much air.

This year, European and American submarine designers quickly discovered an insurmountable problem, that is, whether it is driven by a steam engine or a compressor, or a human power, once the submarine is submerged, it will run out of air, and it will soon be forced to surface, which becomes very chicken in naval warfare, similar to the situation of Hanley sinking Henry, in fact, it is a sneak attack in the port, if it is changed on the high seas, it is impossible to succeed, because Hanley will be found and sunk without waiting for Hanley to get close to Henry.

In 1864, the submarine boom was temporary, but then it was also negative, because the submarine designers could not find a solution, so the term submarine was quickly forgotten.

However, Li Weiguo, who was far away in Shanghai, did not forget it, on the contrary, he was very interested, and he sent invitations to submarine designers from all over the world, hired them to come to Shanghai for development with high salaries, and provided scientific research sponsorship funds of up to 3 million yuan.

As a result, many submarine designers who were forced by life came to Shanghai with their families and began to work hard for Li Weiguo.

Among them was a young man named John Holland, whose father was an employee of the British Coast Guard. His father's profession made Horan curious about the sea and warships from an early age. Before graduating from high school, his father died of illness, and the young Holland was forced to end his studies and work as a science teacher at a school to take on the burden of family life. During this time, Horan worked while designing ships. In 1864, when the submarine was in crisis, Holland also began to design submarines and proposed the design concept of using electric motors to drive submarines, but unfortunately at that time, European electric motors had just begun to develop, and the motor power was far from being able to drive submarines for a long time.

Subsequently, Holland sent his design drawings to the Qing Empire's legation in London, which was not actually under the management of the Qing Empire, but was only a foreign teacher's office in London by Li Weiguo. However, the officials of the office knew that Li Weiguo was eager to seek talents, and as early as 1860, he put forward the great idea that the coastal defense weapons of a weak country were water radium and submarines, so the staff did not doubt the future development of submarines, and in line with the principle that Han Xin ordered more troops, the better, gave Huo Lan a sum of money for the passage and sent his family to Shanghai.

In this way, Holland did not go to the United States as he did in history, but went to China with his submarine design drawings, just in time for Li Weiguo to set up a submarine scientific research working group, and Holland joined.

Li Weiguo was quite happy when he learned that Huo Lan had been abducted to Shanghai. Immediately summoned Holland and looked at his blueprints.

The submarine designed by Holland is the prototype of modern submarines from the first one, and the reason why it was not manufactured until the late 80s in history is mainly because the large storage batteries in Europe and the United States have developed slowly and cannot provide strong electrical energy to the motors of Holland's submarines.

But all this is not a problem in front of Li Weiguo, because he is not short of money. can give Huo Lan a large amount of research and development funds, and secondly, the battery will be made even by primary school students in later generations, and Li Weiguo is not a problem, and the large battery pack is not a problem for him.

Therefore, Li Weiguo found Barnett and other chemical experts, explained the principle of lead-acid batteries to them, and asked them to start developing large lead-acid battery packs for submarines.

For chemical experts like Barnett, many things are made with a single inspiration, and large lead-acid battery packs are not a problem. For them, it was difficult to know at first, but once Li Weiguo reminded and explained, it instantly became a pediatric problem, so Holan's large lead-acid battery pack for submarines was quickly developed.

And Holland was able to fulfill his ambitions. He personally presided over the construction of the Holland 1 submarine that he personally designed.

After three months, when Li Weiguo visited the submarine factory again, an 80-ton small submarine had been completed, and Huo Lan was organizing people to conduct diving experiments on it.

Huo Lan ran to Li Weiguo in a hurry. He said respectfully: "My esteemed king, you have come at the right time, please take a look at the submarine I designed." She's already capable of fighting! ”

When Li Weiguo heard this, he suddenly became excited, and asked, "Really?" Can this little submarine of yours blow up and sink the battleships of the British? ”

Huo Lan cried and laughed a little, you must know that he is also British, and he is a little uncomfortable with Li Weiguo's question.

But Holland doesn't care about this, he is a scientist, stateless and borderless, the war has nothing to do with him, he only cares about his scientific research results, whoever helps him in this regard, he will work for whom, and he never cares about other things.

"It is so, my esteemed king." Holland sorted out his thoughts for a moment and continued: "This submarine can carry two water radiums, and if the water radium is laid on the channel through which the enemy ship passes, the enemy ship can be sunk. If you were to use this submarine to participate in a naval battle, I am afraid it would turn into a suicide attack. ”

Suicide attacks? You're still is!

Li Weiguo asked, "Why a suicide attack?" ”

Holland said: "I tested the power of water radium, and at present, the hull of the submarine will be directly blown up at a distance of five meters, and if the submarine is used to attack the enemy ship, it will be equivalent to the same death, because the submarine has no time to retreat to a safe place." ”

Li Weiguo instantly understood that water radium was not fish radium, and it needed to rely on manpower to control the collision of the battleship, which was obviously the result of the same death.

"It's simple, just change water radium to fish radium!"

"Fish radium? What's that? ”

"You don't even know about fish radium?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Li Weiguo regretted it, because he found that all the scientific researchers around him, including Shen Baozhen and others who accompanied him, were confused and obviously didn't know.

Didn't the fish radium thing be invented? I have never seen a fish radium launcher on a British and French warship, and I am afraid that it has not been invented.

Li Weiguo really doesn't know much about this fish radium, after all, he will not deal with fish and radium every day in the future, and it is forgivable if he doesn't know.

In fact, the fish radium has not really been developed, but the ancestors of the fish and radium have already been developed, and only last year.

In 1864, Captain Rudor of the Austro-Hungarian Navy mounted the engine on the pole mine, used the compressed air in the high-pressure vessel to push the engine piston to work, and drove the propeller to make the mine body sail in the water to attack the enemy ship. However, due to the low speed, short range, and poor control, Rudo's invention was not adopted by the Austro-Hungarian Navy and was not put into use.

In 1866, the Englishman White, after borrowing from Lu Duo's invention, used a compressed air engine to drive a single propeller to propulsion, and controlled the sailing depth of the fish radium through a hydraulic valve to control the horizontal rudder plate at the tail of the fish ray. At that time, the speed of the fish and radium was only 10 kilometers per hour, and the range was less than one kilometer, and there was no device to control the direction of the fish and radium boat. Because of its fish-like appearance, it was called "Fish Radium", and was named "Fish Radium" after White's name (which translates to "white").

Now that the real fish radium has not yet appeared, Li Weiguo is happy, because he can be a great pioneer of invention again.

"Ahem!"

Li Weiguo coughed lightly twice, and quickly said: "This fish radium is a new type of sea attack weapon invented and developed by this king, similar to water radium, which is specially used to deal with enemy warships. ”

He paused and continued, "Actually, his principle is very simple! ”

Speaking of this, Shen Baozhen suddenly understood, and hurriedly ordered someone to bring a pen and paper, carefully recording every word that Li Weiguo said.

"Holland, you should know that the French invented the air compressor and used the air compressor to propel the submarine."

Huo Lan nodded, and Li Weiguo continued: "Actually, the principle of fish radium is similar to this, since the air compressor can propel the submarine, then reduce your submarine by a hundred times, become like a long swordfish, use the air compressor to push it, and install a high-explosive slag like water radium on the fish head, so that it will automatically hit the enemy ship, so that your submarine will not have to die with the enemy." ”

Everyone suddenly realized and nodded in praise.

Huo Lan is also a smart person, he can understand it at one point, and immediately understood the meaning of the fish radium in Li Weiguo's mouth, and immediately said: "What you mean is to install the water radium on the air compressor to make it have navigation power and directly hit the enemy ship, right?" ”

Li Weiguo nodded and said with a smile: "You are right to understand it this way!" However, water radium is round, full of hedgehogs, and the resistance in the water is quite large, so it is better to change to the long streamlined shape of the fish, and the speed in the water is faster. ”

"Yes, my king, you are so clever!" Huo Lan couldn't help but admire the young man in front of him, at the same age, he was already a king, and he was not weaker than him as a professional in terms of knowledge, which was enviable, and he couldn't do it without admiration.

Shen Baozhen has already been recorded, Li Weiguo took it and looked at it, nodded, and drew the shape of the fish radium, the warhead, the air compressor power department, the tail balance rudder, etc., although it was only a simple outline, but the discerning person will soon understand the meaning.

Li Weiguo immediately emphasized: "This Fish and Radium weapon should be developed as the first priority, and it is best to equip it with warships and submarines within three months. ”

Shen Baozhen immediately understood the importance of this fish radium, and immediately said: "Don't worry, the prince will personally supervise the creation of this fish radium and make every effort to deal with this fish radium (to be continued.) )