This is China's first generation of heavy factories that have stood on the Huangpu River for more than 45 years, although it was originally only a product of the Westernization movement, although in the first 30 years of development, it was full of various misunderstandings of the Chinese industrial model, but it did cultivate China's first generation of industrial talents, and it was based on the accumulation of technology.

Industrialization, definitely not a design that can be achieved overnight, this, Qin Kai along the way, has a deeper understanding than anyone in this era, starting from the 30 times the diameter of the 254mm main gun, the Mawei Artillery Factory took a full 15 years to increase the caliber by two inches, and it took the next 15 years, which can almost be called the golden age of the new era of prosperous industry, to increase the caliber of the naval gun by 1.5 inches again, even if the artillery double diameter is improved, every time it is improved, it also means the technological progress of the heavy dà.

At the beginning of the year, the battleship that laid the keel of the four major heavy industries also had to fully consider the bottleneck problem of the main gun, and finally abandoned the 15-inch main gun that Mawei Heavy Industry was tackling at the same time, and it was also worried that the new main gun would not be able to pass the acceptance at that time, after all, the hull structure of the battleship, with the level of today's four major heavy industries and the rich domestic industrial worker resources, especially the consistent and efficient decision-making system of the domestic military industry, is estimated to enter the outfitting stage at the beginning of next year at the earliest.

However, in just one or two years, the possibility of hoping to provide a 15-inch main gun is very small, and instead of being forced to choose a smaller main gun at that time, the designers are willing to tap the potential of the existing technology. That's why the 13.5-inch gun, which has been technically mature, was chosen. After all. Even if the caliber is not increased, if the double diameter of the main gun can be broken, the power of the shell will be fully increased.

For the research and development of artillery under China's military industrial system, Qin Kai has already applied a complete set of technologies including sleeves, barrel stress adjustment, and barrel inlay towers to the early construction of Mawei Artillery Factory, and the artillery research and development of Jiangnan Heavy Industry Department was aided by Mawei Heavy Industry after the founding of the People's Republic of China, and naturally inherited a series of artillery technologies from Mawei.

However, science and engineering are two things that are very different, and they are principled things. With the large number of talents trained by the four major heavy industries and major colleges and universities for more than 20 years, it is no problem to understand it thoroughly, but when it comes to engineering products, it is necessary to transform from science to engineering products, but there are too many engineering problems that need to be explored slowly.

Just like the artillery factory of the Jiangnan Heavy Industry Department, in the previous 15 years, the artillery factory of Jiangnan Heavy Industry was mainly responsible for the production of various types of artillery for the army and navy, but the achievements in artillery technology were lacking. However, just when Mawei Heavy Industry and Mawei Shiyàn Room were fully engaged in the technical research of 15-inch large-caliber artillery. Jiangnan Heavy Industry's artillery research institute finally came up with an enhanced version based on 13.5-inch artillery technology, a 48 times diameter 343mm naval gun.

At the same time, based on the new naval gun, Jiangnan Heavy Industry suddenly came up with two types of new artillery shells - a 680-kilogram tungsten steel armor-piercing shell and a 560-kilogram reinforced high-explosive shell, which also made Jiangnan Heavy Industry one of the heavy artillery research and development clubs. The reason why Qin Kai was surprised was that it was not only the technical achievements of Jiangnan Heavy Industry in the double diameter of artillery, but the research of artillery shell technology in cooperation between Jiangnan Heavy Industry and the military.

The standard weight of the Chinese Navy's 343mm naval gun caliber is 554 kg, so the improvement of the enhanced high-explosive bomb provided by Jiangnan Heavy Industry is actually more about the introduction of the cap warhead and steel core to increase the armor-piercing ability of the high-explosive bomb...... However, the 680 kg tungsten steel armor-piercing projectile is already much heavier than the current naval armor-piercing projectile.

The 13.5-inch cap-piercing shell of the Navy in service is developed and produced by the Mawei Artillery Factory, and has the ability to penetrate the horizontal main armor belt of the Guangzhou-class battleship at a distance of 9,000 meters.

However, in the tactical training of the Northern Fleet in the past nearly ten years, the money burned and the broken gun barrels from sea test firing alone are enough to build a small coastal defense fleet.

According to the information fed back by the Northern Fleet, the 13.5-inch, 40-diameter main gun of the Chang'an-class battleship has more accurate long-range strike capabilities than the 12-inch and 45-diameter main guns of the Dreadnought-class battleship...... Moreover, the reason why one of the shells has an alarming weight.

The heavy bombs used on battleships, Qin Kai is naturally no stranger to them, but in fact, Qin Kai did not mention this thing under any circumstances, and the reason is very simple, after all, the heavier the shell, it also means that the same propellant, the slower the ejection speed, of course, there is also a way to increase the ejection speed, that is, to increase the propellant, increase the 4 propellant packs to 5, 6...... But when the time comes, it will be difficult to say whether it will be a cannon or a self-detonation.

But the relative speed may be lower heavy bomb, in fact, far from useless, lower ejection speed, does not mean that the range is reduced, as long as the elevation angle is increased, the same can hit the range of a higher ejection speed flick, and more importantly, the air resistance is proportional to the square of the velocity, the higher the speed, it means that the greater the resistance, but also means the loss of more kinetic energy.

This ultimately decides, in the long-distance fleet battle, the heavy bomb will show a huge advantage over the light bullet, the speed disadvantage, in this case it has become an advantage, after long-distance flight, the kinetic energy lost by the light bullet far exceeds the heavy bomb, and the heavy bomb at a long distance, it has a more stable trajectory, higher precision absolute advantage, I am afraid that the only thing that affects the effectiveness of the heavy bomb is only the structural strength of the projectile body, and the kinetic energy it retains has greater lethality.

The problem is that the premise of this qiē lies in the long distance of the decisive battle of the fleet...... Although the Chang'an-class battleship has been modified with the Tamron II series of integrated fire control, and has also carried out a large number of live-fire drills, and even conducted more than 20,000 meters of salvo training, the actual combat effect is only unsatisfactory.

In order for the Chinese Navy to maintain its superiority, it must continue to strengthen its long-range combat capability, which has long been the consensus of all naval officers, but to put it into practice, it is far from being as simple as imagined, even if the engineering continues to progress, even if the Dragon series of integrated fire control has achieved one result after another, but everyone has a strong sense of crisis -- no progress, it means regression.

The continuous arms race in Europe has given birth to the speed of shipbuilding that surprised Qin Kai, the British Navy, which already has 7 dreadnoughts, has obviously increased the speed of shipbuilding, according to the intelligence department, in the one-sided voice in the UK, the British cabinet has just approved the plan to build 8 dreadnoughts, although it is not possible to find out the design plan of the British for the time being, however, according to the previous sequence of dreadnoughts, it can be deduced one or two.

After all, the U.S. Navy, which has always been only allocated to the Royal Navy to carry shoes, has also entered the era of dreadnoughts, and has adopted a series of technologies on the Delaware class that surprised the British, including the purchase of ranging systems and shooting command systems from Germany, and at the same time, the United States also has the Dreyer mechanical fire control system purchased from the United Kingdom, which makes this emerging maritime power even begin to independently develop new fire control.

After confirming the production capacity of the Jiangnan Artillery Plant, two days later, the Ministry of Military Affairs again issued four improved "Jin" class battleships to the four major heavy industries, and after reducing less than 120 tons of armor, the new 48 times the diameter, 343mm main gun will be fully adopted, but ...... Heavy bombing, however, was not included in the scope of this improvement.

Later, the Jiangnan Heavy Industry Artillery Research Institute obtained a top-secret official document from Beijing, in which Qin Kai listed several heavy bomb designs that had appeared in history, even including the French-made super heavy bomb with a body length of 1.2 meters, and his intentions were completely reflected in the official document...... After all, the development of heavy ammunition is somewhat advanced today, but it is completely necessary to develop a new type of heavy ammunition for the future larger caliber main gun.

And for the heaviest requirements of heavy bomb design, he also once again made clear the necessity of increasing speed, high-speed heavy bomb in today's artillery caliber and technology, obviously unlikely, however, medium-speed heavy bomb, in the case of strong charge, plus a more reasonable projectile body design, it is still possible to achieve, and at a long distance, the strike effect of heavy bomb, is obviously worth looking forward to!

The battleships of the Royal Navy and the Americans, the main armor belt is not more than 12 inches today, and according to the engagement mode of the Chinese Navy, the engagement of the main fleet, under normal circumstances, will inevitably start at a distance of 15,000 meters, which is enough to gain a huge advantage, even if it is a standard armor-piercing projectile, it also has enough armor-piercing power, but in it, Qin Kai is obviously looking forward to a more perfect long-range strike, which will inevitably involve another problem - the research and development of the comprehensive fire control of the Tenglong system. (To be continued......)