I just got to school, so I'll upload another chapter.

A steam locomotive galloping like a steel horse, spitting thick black smoke, runs through the busy countryside. Since the advent of the train, China, which was already running rapidly, seems to have increased its speed again, and the distance that used to be more than ten ri, can now be reached in a few ri, even if there is no river to transport large quantities of goods, this long dragon of steel machines, can also carry goods on land. As a result, the train has a nickname among the people - the black dragon car, which can spit black smoke and resemble a long dragon.

It's just that the train running now is not as stupid and thick as the civilian and commercial trains. This train, which is full of silver-white sè metallic texture, streamlined body, and has a very modern aesthetic characteristics, is a royal special train, the royal one.

On the Royal No. 1, Lin Hong was drinking tea boringly, flipping through a book of notes and novels from the Ming Dynasty to pass the time. He was accompanied by important members of the Cabinet, such as Minister of Transport Zhang Si and Minister of Commerce Liu Jinwen. In addition, there is a company of the Royal Janissaries responsible for security.

The Royal Praetorian Guard of this company was smashed out by Lin Hongsheng with money, and it is an all-A-level super force. You must know that the ordinary system troops under him, known as first-class divisions, are only C-level troops, and they are only D-level after some battle-tested upgrades. The only B-class troop is his royal mentor, who hides in his arms like a treasure and never shows it. However, Lin Hong is no longer what it used to be, and he threw a huge amount of money to create a 1,000-strong Royal Praetorian Guard as his direct security guard. Lin Hong has been patrolling his own land for several years, obtaining first-hand information about the local area, so that the system can formulate new and appropriate norms or legal regulations.

This time, Lin Hong traveled to participate in the launching ceremony of two new naval ships. The Chinese Royal Navy's new ironclad ship Shanghai, because of the technology of ironclad ships, Lin Hong asked the General Staff Headquarters to place an order from the Naval Equipment Department to the Mawei Shipyard in mid-1833, and after research and development, the Mawei Dockyard finally completed these two new ironclad ships in March 1834.

Shanghai-class steam ironclad ship, displacement of 3,072 tons, length of 77 meters, round boiler to provide steam power, 4,000 horsepower, maximum speed of 13 knots, 4,500 km/7 knots endurance, single-deck 150mm caliber cannons, 10 forward-mounted smoothbore 68-pounder guns, 16 32-pounder guns.

The Shanghai class was designed to gradually replace the 74-gun and 80-gun tier 3 battleships in the fleet as the capital ships, with higher speed and flexible cāo control capabilities, as well as more accurate and powerful guns, and did not reduce the number of gun emplacements and deck layers as a factor affecting its combat effectiveness.

Compared with the joy of the appearance of the new ship type, Lin Hong was obviously more pleased with the Mawei Shipyard, which undertook the construction of the ship, which was composed of ordinary shipwrights and system engineers. If Lin Hong's direct purchase is fast, it is not conducive to the development of the country's shipbuilding industry, and it will also cause the abnormal development of the navy. So Lin Hong insisted on building it himself. The successful launch of the Shanghai class is a testament to the improvement of China's local shipbuilding design capabilities. The Shanghai-class is not the type of ship given by the system, and Lin Hong has already mastered the technology such as iron-clad technology and propeller technology, so Lin Hong decided to hand it over to the local shipyard for construction.

The ironclad ship of the system, to put it bluntly, is a sail battleship converted from an ironclad ship, which still has two or three decks, from the armor layout to the gun emplacement layout, Lin Hong thought that he couldn't keep up with his own ideas, so he didn't buy and build.

The Shanghai-class produced by Mawei Shipyard was assembled and recreated by engineers based on Lin Hong's limited ideas, steam power, armor technology and other existing technologies. Although it did not adopt a rotating turret or a better waist armor layout, this ironclad ship is the most intuitive proof of China's existing industrial level.

When Lin Hong came to the Mawei Shipyard with several cabinet ministers, he was warmly welcomed by the shipyard and the local people. On both sides of the wide and flat road, the jingcha stood in two columns, maintaining the order of the masses, and the whole place was decorated with various flowers of the early chun, and people holding huge slogans and waving small flags surrounded the place.

It's just that as soon as he waved his hand, half of the people on both sides knelt, and some didn't want to kneel, but when they saw others kneeling, they also conformed to the crowd, and what was even more ridiculous was that there were system personnel among them.

Lin Hong laughed and said loudly: "Everyone doesn't need to kneel, it's not a big occasion like a patriarchal sacrifice, and the kneeling ceremony is overdue." ”

Only then did everyone remember that it seemed that the entire dynasty had no rules and regulations, but in fact, as long as people who had entered primary school, they would learn various etiquette systems of the dynasty, similar to the ideological education of Lin Hong's era, but many things were taught with a clear eye, such as the appropriate handshake, when to bow, and the appropriate ceremony.

At this time, the Chinese thinking that they attach more importance to rules than authority immediately prevailed, and many people kowtowed and immediately got up, as if overstepping the system was a more terrible thing.

Ouyang Xiang, commander-in-chief of the navy, and Hu Bohui, minister of national defense and navy, stepped forward to greet Lin Hongshi. Ouyang Xiang is a soldier, so he salutes the military, and although Hu Bohui is the Minister of the Navy, he is not a soldier in service, so he bowed his hands deeply.

After Lin Hong received the salute, he smiled slightly and asked, "How is it, how are the preparations?" ”

Ouyang Xiang replied: "Everything is ready, just wait for Your Majesty Luan." ”

Lin Hong nodded and said, "Then what are you waiting for, let's start it." ”

Everyone came to the dry dock inside the Mawei Shipyard in the middle of the people's welcome, Lin Hong had been here once before, and he still had some memories, so he didn't visit this huge shipyard much.

Entering the huge dock, a deep black sè deep-sea beast revealed its true face. The two behemoths had slender hulls, painted in black sè, and two tall masts, towering over the deck. A huge and ferocious cannon was placed on the side of the ship, and the faint blue light flickered, which made people feel terrified.

Although the 3,000-ton ironclad ship is not the main ship that can really provoke the girder in the navy, but in this era, it is a first-class sea artifact.

Ironclads, as the name suggests, are ships made of wood or mixed materials with thick iron armor wrapped in a thick layer of iron armor to defend against attacks.

Historically, after the middle of the 19th century, with the development of science and technology and the shipbuilding industry, sail battleships gradually gave way to steam warships. In 1849, France built the world's first battleship with a steam engine as an auxiliary power plant, the "Napoleon", which became the pioneer of steam-powered battleships in the Navy. The Crimean War of 1853-1856 established the dominance of steam-armored warships in the modern naval fleet.

At this time, this steel behemoth is a myth to the world's navies.

Looking at this giant ship, Lin Hong couldn't help but feel excited in his heart, and he couldn't help but ask the Minister of the Navy: "How about the production capacity of the Mawei Factory, and how many ships can be started at the same time?" ”

Hu Bohui said with a smile: "Mawei Factory alone can start construction of 8 warships at the same time, but there are still some orders here, because the construction of the Shanghai class has been postponed, and after the completion of this ship, they are bound to make up for the arrears." ”

Ouyang Xiang was still cold, and he immediately said: "The Mawei factory can't be built, so it will be dragged to the Wusong factory, the Guangzhou factory, the Hong Kong factory, the Shantou factory, and the Keelung factory. ”

Hu Bohui smiled and said: "My commander-in-chief, this technology can be shared by our state-owned factories, but the current situation is that most of the financial money has gone into the big hole of economic construction, and our navy is still pressing hundreds of ships, and the fleets of the Beiyang, Nanyang and Pacific Oceans add up to more than 100 ships. ”

Ouyang Xiang frowned and said, "The question of combat effectiveness cannot be measured by quantity. ”

Hu Bohui retorted: "However, we don't have any enemies now, and too much shipbuilding will increase our burden." In fact, the Guangzhou-class wooden-hulled steam engine warship that we have developed and is under construction can fully meet the needs of the navy, and the firepower is close to the fourth-class ship, and the speed is 2 knots faster than the Shanghai-class, but the cost is one-third of the Shanghai-class, and more importantly, the current Shanghai-class is only an experimental product, and the use of the Guangzhou-class is much larger than that of the Shanghai-class. ”

Lin Hong coughed and interrupted them: "Otherwise, the Shanghai level is our latest achievement, and we must continue to build it, but how to build it and how much to build it are all problems." My opinion is that while some of the old warships are being dismantled, about 10 more Shanghai-class warships will be built and allocated to the Beiyang Fleet and the Nanyang Fleet respectively as our main combat strength. Speed up the production of the Guangzhou class to fully replace the third and fourth class ships. In addition, I propose the formation of a maritime service team, which will integrate all the withdrawn fifth-class ships into it and merge them with the escort fleet, which will be mainly responsible for the safety of all kinds of maritime activities in our sea area. The third class ships that have been withdrawn, I mean, after these big guys have converted into merchant ships, they can load a lot of things and sell them to maritime merchants, and they will definitely want them, but remember to dismantle the armament. ”

Ouyang Xiang couldn't help but object: "Your Majesty, you must know that our sea frontier is not completely calm, and the enemy is not completely non-existent, with such a large-scale reduction of the navy, if the British attack us again, we are bound to suffer." ”

Lin Hong smiled and said: "Your consideration is very correct, but the strength we retain is enough for them to eat a pot, besides, our production capacity can definitely support the ability to build dozens of ships in a short period of time, and when the time comes, we will build steam engine ships and more advanced ironclad ships that are more powerful than sail ships." What's more, how can I massively dismantle the Navy without leaving a killer feature? ”

He patted Ouyang Xiang's shoulder and said, "Don't worry! The Shanghai class is just our test sample, no matter the tonnage and firepower can meet the needs of the capital ship, and we will have bigger and stronger warships in the future. ”