The second update was put on the shelves

European bandits have been roaming the oceans for centuries, and they are naturally adventurous, navigating the storms in search of riches. I don't know how many sailors and crews were buried in the magnificent Age of Discovery, and ships full of cargo sank in the sea, paving a mature route. From the small sailing ships of the ******, to the treasure ships and three-masted galleons of Portugal and Spain, and then to the sail battleships and ironclad warships of today, step by step and solid footprints, such accumulation is by no means comparable to that of mainland countries.

Even if there are mature ocean routes, and there is the knowledge of marine monsoons, ocean currents, and weather brought by later generations, but the sea is changeable, and Lu Liang has no confidence in his heart, after all, what he has is only a navy that has been established for a few years, and in the face of those ocean hegemons, it is still unknown how much role his accumulation in the past few years can play.

Therefore, now we can only desperately repair every gap for the navy, and the upcoming battle is not facing those maritime hegemons, but Japan, a country that has been reformed for less than a few decades. If the navy could not win against Japan, Lü Liang would lose all confidence in his future.

Therefore, the war cannot be lost, every step is the key for Lu Liang, and he does not have such a strong family foundation to squander. Now he spends most of his time in the shipyard, watching warships and transport ships take shape, which makes his restless heart much more stable.

Huizhou Shipyard, Zhanjiang Shipyard, Guangzhou Shipyard, Shantou Shipyard, and Beihai Shipyard are all relatively mature shipbuilding enterprises. After three years of development, these shipyards have accumulated rich experience in shipbuilding, and Huizhou Shipyard and Zhanjiang Shipyard are both enterprises capable of manufacturing 10,000-ton sea vessels. These factories pay special attention to the cultivation of talents, and qualified shipbuilders are the most obvious shortcomings, and they are also the nodes that shipbuilders have made every effort to solve in recent years.

Providing experience to shipyards. It is a transport ship based on self-strengthening wheels. By March 1904, the shipping company had 220 ships in its possession of the ships at the current rate of production, as well as the need for transportation after gaining control of the Yangtze River. By the end of 1904, the shipping company would have more than four hundred sea vessels, which would become the most important transport force, undertaking the task of transporting troops and supplies.

Of great importance, there was also the construction of warships, which, with the exception of battleships, were built by shipyards, according to plan, until January 1905. The navy will have two battleships, six cruisers, thirty destroyers, and thirty submarines to form the main fleet for operations against Japan.

The first battleship of the Wuyue class, the Taishan, has been launched and sea trials have begun. The first of the Gogaku-class battleships took two years and one month, starting in March 1902 and not being completed and launched in April 1904. The Tarzan was built entirely from a steel base because the existing shipyards simply simply did not have the capacity to build such a supership with a full load displacement of 50,000 tons, and because such a supership would require a huge amount of resources. Coupled with the fact that there are other very heavy tasks in the steel base, it has taken so long to build the Tarzan.

But the moment Lu Liang saw the Taishan launch. I feel that all my efforts are worth it, this is a battleship, a super battleship that is decades ahead of its time. At the beginning, Lu Hai suggested that the first-class battleship could use a battleship of about 20,000 tons, and there was no need to directly board this kind of super battleship, and Lu Liang also thought about it for a long time.

But in the end. Lu Liang still decided to produce this kind of super battleship, even if the construction time is very long, even if the resources are very large. This is because the battleship was more than just a weapon in this era. It is also a strategic force, a deterrent force comparable to nuclear weapons in later generations, and the best platform to demonstrate national strength. With such a battleship, all the great powers will have to give up their coveting of China in a short period of time and treat this country as equals, and the impact it can have is really difficult to predict.

After building this kind of warship, it is still a question whether the navy can master the Taishan and fight skillfully, and the navy has also prepared for this warship for a long time and has carried out crazy training. For various reasons, this battleship cannot be made public, and the role of inspiring the people will be placed on the second Gotsu-class battleship, the Huashan.

The construction of the second Huashan of the Wuyue class began after the launch of the Taishan, and the increased investment in the navy allowed the steel base to devote more strength to the Huashan, but it was not expected until September 1905 that the Huashan could be launched, and the opportunity to participate in the war would be missed. The shortened construction time means that two-thirds of the steel base's production capacity is used on this battleship, and the output of mechanical products for other factories will be reduced. This also shows that Lü Liang's dependence on the steel base is reduced, and in the future, when the shipyard can produce battleships, the steel base will become a resource supply base.

The Taishan ship is 250 meters long, 36 meters wide, with a standard displacement of 41,000 tons and a full load displacement of 50,000 tons, using Wagner high-pressure heavy oil boilers, steam turbines, three-axle and three-car propeller propulsion, the maximum speed has reached 30.8 knots, theoretically the maximum range can reach 9280 nautical miles when traveling at a speed of 16 knots, the crew is 2,100 people, four twin 380 mm main guns, six twin 150 mm secondary guns, the main gun mount armor has reached 340 mm, and the total weight of the armor is 17,450 tons. It can be said that the weight of the armor alone will completely destroy most of the current warships. The use of advanced armor materials of the Taishan, it is difficult to be penetrated by the current battleships, coupled with advanced charges and large-caliber artillery, the Taishan is an invincible existence above the sea, as long as the navy can give full play to the best performance of the Taishan, this alone can completely defeat the Japanese Navy.

Of course, naval warfare, like other wars, cannot be won by advanced weapons, there are too many factors that affect naval warfare, and examples of defeating the strong with the weak abound, and the Taishan is not without the possibility of capsizing in the gutter.

It is wishful thinking to defeat a fleet with a single battleship, and even the Tarzan does not dare to single out a fleet in the case of a single battleship. A single torpedo can inflict heavy damage on a battleship, so around the Tarzan, the navy has also built a powerful fleet with cruisers, destroyers, minesweepers, supply ships, etc., which will be built in the shipyard.

The Army was dissatisfied with the naval fleet, which had spent most of its resources, and there was another unit that was concerned about the matter, and that was the submarine force, which also belonged to the Navy. When there was a shortage of surface warships, the submarine force, as the main combat force, together with the shore fortifications, maintained the fragile coastal defense, and formed the main naval combat force. But when the Tarzan was launched, the submarine force felt an unprecedented threat, after all, submarines are not the force that fights for sea power, but the power that destroys sea power. In the battle plan, submarines are mainly used as a blockade force and will not participate in frontal combat.

The comprehensive national strength of a country embodied in war, from small guns and ammunition to the main guns of warships, requires the participation of the entire national strength in its construction. Not only weapons and equipment, but also a huge amount of other resources in wartime, food, medicine, clothing, kettles, etc., require the participation of the entire industrial force.

Factories are needed to produce these products, and transportation is required to transport these products to the front, and not all factories are located in coastal and riverside areas. The resources needed to produce the products in the factory need to be transported from all over the place, and the products need to be transported to the front line. And the best land transport force is the railway.

Centered in Wuhan, Guangzhou, and Shanghai, larger-scale railway construction became the mainstream of infrastructure construction between 1904 and 1905, and each kilometer of railway line extension meant a point of national strength. Due to the shortage of steel production, only three railways were under construction during this period, including the Yunnan-Guangdong Railway from Kunming to Guangzhou, the Guiyang-Guangzhou Railway from Guiyang, and the Shanghai-Guangdong Railway from Guangzhou to Shanghai. According to the plan, when the steel mills in various places are put into operation and the steel production capacity is increased, more railways will be built, especially to connect Sichuan with the outside world by rail.

The year 1904 was destined to be a year of great construction, and the construction centered on war preparations obviously led to the economic development of the newly recovered areas, especially the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, where economic conditions were relatively good, and Wuhan, Changsha, Nanchang, Nanjing, Shanghai, and Hangzhou became new economic centers. Zhejiang Province, where the private economy is the most active, has even reached two-thirds of Guangdong's total economic output. With a large population, relatively abundant resources, and a vast territory, a powerful force has erupted under the leadership of the Zhenguo Party. It turns out that this nation is no worse than any other, and when it comes out of the darkness of feudalism, the desire of the people to pursue a better life makes the country incomparably stronger. (To be continued.) )