Although he secretly felt funny in his heart, Li Hui knew that although Ding Ruchang was Li Hongzhang's cronies, Lao Li still attached more importance to Liu Buchan's views on technical issues, so if his proposal was to be passed, Liu Buyun had to be convinced.

It's just a few good words by the way, Li Hui is not so pretentious, I saw him answer with an unchanged face, "These are very professional questions, you have to find an expert to understand!" ”

When Liu Buyun heard this, his face immediately turned red, and he discussed the solution with Li Hui with a smile, but flattery is good flattery, and he will not back down half a step on the issue of principle, "Dongyang, why do you want to demolish the front fort?" ”

"The front battery of Dingzhen was too far forward, blocking the angle of the main guns on both sides firing directly ahead. The ammunition depot under it is not in the ironclad fort, and the protection is very weak, once it is hit by enemy shells, there is a great possibility of causing a martyrdom, and the consequences are unimaginable. Besides, the front battery is only equipped with a fifteen-life and fifteen-life cannon, and the firepower is pitifully weak, and because (the position of the front battery is too far forward) the bow of the ship is very easy to go up the waves, and the sea conditions are slightly worse and the cannon cannot be fired, so even if it is dismantled, the loss is very limited, at least it is not comparable to the benefits that can be obtained from this", Li Hui naturally knew that experts like Liu Buyun were not easy to fool, so he spoke very carefully, "If the money is enough, on the one hand, we can add armor to the bow and stern to enhance protection, On the other hand, a new forward battery can be built at a later position, where the width of the ship is sufficient, and the twin 150mm guns are fully settled, so that the main guns on both sides can attack one target at the same time, and the firepower of the front battery will not decrease."

However, Liu Buyun quickly questioned, "But the deck has been sealed when the German man-made ship was built!" It's not that it can't be disassembled, but the cost is too great, and if you really have so much silver, you might as well use it to buy a new warship! ”

"I can't imagine that Liu Junmen will also make the mistake of thinking in a fixed mind, when Dingzhen was built, you could only choose the open fort that had to be opened in the deck, because there was no better turret design at that time, but now it is different!" , Li Hui smiled when he heard this, "For example, the kind of rear open turret used on the Zhiyuan class is very good!" First of all, it can better protect the gunner, although the rear is a defensive hole, but as long as it is not flanked by the enemy from both sides of the side chord, there is not much problem, and the comprehensive protection capability is better than the old-fashioned open battery. Although this type of turret can generally only be loaded by manpower, it cannot be used for large-caliber naval guns, but it is not a problem for the front turret in Dingzhen, which is limited in size. What's more, this design does not require a supporting facility below the deck like the open turret, so it can be installed directly without removing the deck, at most the sailors need to spend more physical effort to carry the ammunition, but in general it is still flawed. ”

"That's right, and this turret that is completely arranged outside the main structure of the warship does not destroy the integrity of the hull structure, so the negative impact on the strength of the structure is much smaller than that of the open battery. By the way, according to this line of thinking, the problem that the second ship can't be installed with the main gun can be solved, I'm so stupid, why didn't I think of it earlier? Thinking of this, Liu Buyun couldn't help but be excited and annoyed, although he said, "It's not too late to make amends." But now we are in a period when the household department is strictly controlling the navy's expenses, and I am afraid that relying on basic funds alone will not be enough, and it would be nice if we could think of it earlier

"Yes, but it depends on whether the silver is enough, I am now listing all the items that can be improved, and then screening out some of them according to the importance and how much it costs to solve them, if you want to get them all, it is impossible", Li Hui said this, he couldn't help but smile bitterly and raised his head and sighed, "It is very beneficial to install an open turret at the rear, but its priority is lower than the addition of armor in a given bow and stern, but the latter is not a small expense, if the silver is still not enough, then you can only change the layout of the two ships, The General's Hospital was moved to the Ironclad Fort"

"But such a large space under the foredeck can't be wasted, the ammunition depot can't be used, how about changing it to a coal bunker?" , Liu Buyun asked.

When Li Hui heard this, he immediately shouted urgently, "The coal bunker is definitely not good, and the threat after the fire is greater than that of the military hospital!" ”

"Coal is not so easy to catch fire, not to mention just the explosion of a cannonball, even if it is scorching, it will not be ignited in a short time." , Liu Buyun laughed and said, after so many days, it was the first time that he found that Li Hui also did not know, which made him regain the sense of superiority of senior naval officers in front of laymen.

But Li Hui told him with a serious face, "Of course I know that coal is not easy to ignite, but the Japanese have successfully developed a new type of picric acid explosive, which is not only extremely powerful, but also can produce a high temperature of more than 3,000 degrees Celsius when burned, not to mention coal, even if it is a wooden deck that has been wet in advance, it is still a little bit!" ”

Fortunately, Li Hui originally planned to do an experiment to let the generals of the Beiyang Naval Division know the threat of picric acid explosives in advance, so he had already bought ten kilograms of picric acid and brought it to the Weihaiwei Naval Base

The cannonball filled with picric acid showed amazing explosive power in the test, which aroused the strong interest of many generals, and everyone wanted to use this high explosive, but after hearing the market price of picric acid from Li Hui's mouth, they all immediately stopped thinking about it, this Nima is too expensive, and what is the explosive in the shell, it is clearly silver!

The explosion experiment only made everyone feel regretful, and the following picric acid combustion experiment made everyone realize the huge crisis, the blazing flame easily melted the steel, and ignited the large pieces of low-quality coal that were specially selected (to make it more difficult) and the teak planks that had been wet as much as possible and placed flat on the ground to avoid air contact on both sides.

In particular, the pipe belts of the protective cruisers and unprotected cruisers were greatly stimulated, and even Deng Shichang, a brave general, turned a little pale for a while

The reason why Deng Shichang was scared like this was because in order to enhance the defense as much as possible, the protective cruiser set up the coal bunker outside the dome armor as an additional layer of protection, but now seeing the picric acid is simply a perverse arson ability, everyone's hearts suddenly brightened, "For the picric acid shell, this is like a fuelwood poured with oil, just a little bit!" ”