Deng Xiyi's naval construction plan is actually not a secret within the decision-making committee. Pen ~ fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info this admiral who always likes to have a cold face, always seems to have a step ahead of his thinking. While the entire colony was worried about housing and food, he had already begun to think about the sea.

In total, there were more than seven hundred ships in the three fleets, of different sizes and eras. The Los Angeles colony is located on the coast and could face threats from the sea at any time, so Deng Xiyi believes that building an elite naval fleet will help protect the colony's development.

In Deng Xiyi's office, Bai Nan and Liu Tian were there, listening to Colonel Deng talk about his thoughts.

"Among all our ships, the strongest combat effectiveness is none other than the Qilianshan and Prince Sultan, but we can't get oil supply for these two modern ships for the time being, and the maintenance and replenishment of weapons in the future are problems, which can be regarded as a hole card, but it cannot be regarded as our lasting combat power. The people of the Republic of China basically brought small and medium-sized cargo ships and passenger ships, steam-powered, and the margin for converting them into warships is very small, and the shape is not uniform, which will bring a lot of trouble to logistics. Therefore, the treasure ship in the Western team is our best choice. First of all, these treasure ships have sails, which can still provide additional power to the ship and increase seaworthiness even after being modified to power. Secondly, it is not very difficult to modify these second-hand sailing ships, even if the shell is wrapped in iron for defensive strengthening, it is not particularly difficult. We can also pull those guns on the ship to form enough naval firepower, which is enough to deal with the Western powers of this era. ”

Bai Nan proposed again: "But the shape of Zheng He's treasure ships is also different, there are several standards for warships alone, as well as grain ships, horse ships, boats, etc., which ships are we going to modify as warships?" ”

Deng Xiyi said: "The ships of Zheng He's fleet can almost be said to be the ultimate in the history of sail warships, although in terms of navigation technology, they are not as good as Westerners, and the ship type is not particularly suitable for oceans, nor does it provide faster full-sail outfits, but the tonnage is beyond the reach of Westerners." I couldn't have imagined that the people of the Ming Dynasty could build wooden ships with a displacement of more than 10,000 tons. Even the warships in Zheng He's fleet, with a length of eighteen zhang, have a displacement of more than 4,000 tons, and if they are modified and add steam power and pig iron armor, the displacement will be more than 5,000 tons, which is already unimaginable in this era. ”

Liu Tian also said: "I remember that the British are most proud of the Victory sail battleship, with a displacement of 3,500 tons. ”

Deng Xiyi nodded and said, "That's right, even the fifth-rank warship in Zheng He's fleet is bigger than the Victory. ”

Bai Nan first felt a sense of pride in his heart, Zheng He's treasure ship manufacturing technology, did not pass down, after Zhu Di's death, his son Zhu Gaochi ascended the throne, and the activities in the West were considered to be extravagant, flashy, and finally stopped. Such an event, which was more like a national prestige campaign, ended with China missing the best opportunity to enter the maritime age. Bai Nan has said more than once that if the fleet led by Zheng He had come to Southeast Asia, established colonies, and opened trade with the world, perhaps all the history of China in the future would have been rewritten.

"It's just that I have some doubts, we have all seen these ships of Zheng He's fleet, although they already have some characteristics such as pointed bottoms that are suitable for ocean navigation, but in essence, the ocean-going performance of these ships is still not comparable with the Western galleons of this era, although we can add steam power to them, but the poor ship type will still limit their maneuver and speed, and the length and width ratio of the treasure ship is more than two points, which seriously limits the play of speed." Bai Nan asked.

Deng Xiyi nodded: "I have also considered this, fortunately, some of our colonies are from the Republic of China Fujian shipbuilding talents, and there are also some shipwrights on the side of the Ming Dynasty who were originally making treasure ships, so I plan to concentrate our shipbuilding strength to disassemble and rebuild these Ming Dynasty sailing ships." Of course, for the time being, we can only use what is already available. There are no problems with the activities of these ships in our coastal waters. ”

Immediately, Deng Xiyi took out some drawings from his bag and said, "Let's see, these are the sketches that the Industrial Bureau rushed out overnight, and they are the templates for the warships after the rebuilding with sailboats I said." One is about 2,700 tons of frigates, tentatively named Qi Jiguang-class, they will be derived from the smaller tonnage sailing ships in Zheng He's fleet, we will use steam power, but not pig iron armor, this kind of ship will mainly perform the task of coastal defense, as well as escort for merchant ships, replacing the sail warships that we have to use now. Another is the reconstruction of warships, they will be rebuilt into armored cruisers with a displacement of 6,000 tons, tentatively named Yangwei class, which will also be a more important capital ship in our navy in the future, we will use keel splicing means, the keel of one warship and half of the keel of another ship are put together, so that the length of the ship will be about 90 meters, the width of the ship will be about 15 meters, and the large aspect ratio will also gain speed advantage. Finally, we are going to transform the treasure ship, the first-class ship in Zheng He's fleet, as the core capital ship of the navy, that is, the armored battleship, tentatively named Yongle class. The design displacement is 10,000 tons, that is, with the current displacement of more than 10,000 tons of treasure ships, we actually have to cut it. With a length of about 108 meters and a width of 18 meters, we will use a variety of means to enhance the hull structure and make it suitable for relatively high-intensity naval battles. ”

Liu Tian looked at Deng Xiyi and said: "Captain, you are really hard enough, our colony has not settled down yet, you began to plan to build a fleet in the second half of the nineteenth century in the eighteenth century, can we use it?" ”

Deng Xiyi said flatly: "Let's wait and see, although we only have 130,000 people in this place now, but soon, the profit-seeking psychology of human nature, as well as our superiority in mastering resources and technology, will make us start to grab new interests all over the world, we will make goods, market them all over the world, we will seek more people, and we may even go to seize more land, all of which require a strong navy." ”

Liu Tian still couldn't believe it, "Are these really possible?" ”

Bai Nan didn't speak, he knew that Deng Xiyi's foresight was very forward-looking, and now the people in the colony were still confused, and they just wanted to survive in peace on this land. But when life is stable, it is inevitable that some people will want to get more, some people want to make achievements, some people want to be rich, and some people may want the social form to be closer to the era in which they lived, which requires more resources and manpower, and expansion is inevitable.

Deng Xiyi continued: "I have roughly calculated, in the future, we will build 4 Yongle-class battleships, 16 Yangwei-class cruisers, and 34 Qi Jiguang-class frigates. The rest of the ships will be converted into merchant ships, mainly using the horse ships, grain ships and boats in Zheng He's fleet, which will be transformed but will not be dismantled and remade, because the amount of work will be too large. ”

Bai Nan was also shocked when he heard this number, he said: "Captain, not to mention how much work is required to rebuild the entire Zheng He fleet, just equipping dozens of warships with weapons is also a problem, you know that we have only received more than 100 Japanese and American guns from the national army, and the army still needs to use some of them, and I am afraid there will not be many left for the navy." ”

Deng Xiyi said disapprovingly: "Xiaobai, we must look at the problem from the perspective of development, our technology and equipment are uniquely advantaged, and soon we will put into operation a steel plant, followed by a machinery factory and a military factory, and it should not be a problem to manufacture artillery." Even if we can't make a World War II-level cannon, it shouldn't be too difficult to make a simple rifled gun, and we don't need how sophisticated and reliable these guns are, as long as they are more powerful than the smoothbore guns of Europeans in this era. ”

Bai Nan thought about it, it was also a time-consuming project to transform so many warships, and during this time, it is estimated that the military factories in the colony will indeed be able to produce artillery.

Then, he asked, "Then what about the ships on the side of the Republic of China?" ”

Deng Xiyi said: "The ships on the side of the Republic of China are more complicated. Many of these vessels are owned, and the owners are on board, accounting for about 20 percent. Although we will requisition their ships for the time being, eventually these ships will have to be returned to them. It's okay if they're happy to run the ship, and it doesn't matter if they sell it. We can't deal with that. For those unowned ships, we will conduct a selection. If the conditions are better and the tonnage is relatively large, we will stay as merchant ships, passenger ships, and so on. Those relatively dilapidated small steamers, the kind of one or two hundred tons, do not have much value in existence, except for some set aside for inland shipping, we are still ready to dismantle. We will also get some materials from these dismantled ships, including important steam engines, to equip our sailing warships, after all, we can't build our own steam engines now. ”

The vast majority of the fleets of the Republic of China are small steamships of several hundred tons to two or three thousand tons, and there is really no need to keep them all. It is not cost-effective to mothball for later use, after all, ships are depreciated, and maintenance is also a problem. So it's really better to tear them down. Of course, there are also several large foreign-made ships in the fleet of the Republic of China, including six ships of more than 10,000 tons, and more than a dozen ships of more than 5,000 tons. These will be the main ships of shipping in the colony for a period of time.

Of course, the Changmao ship, which is more than 100,000 tons, is the most powerful ship in the colony, but in the absence of oil, no one dares to easily start this big guy.