After seeing off the 1,000-strong colonial team, the President and the General Counselor went to the naval home port of Long Beach non-stop to participate in the next event -- the induction ceremony of the two Liberty Wind class frigates of the Datang Navy. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

The design of the Liberty Wind class frigate was actually carried out by the Navy in 1774, and in 1775 the Ministry of Defense officially made a decision to conduct trial production, and it was originally expected that the two warships would be able to be launched into service in 1776, but because it was the first trial production of the battleship, instead of being modified on the ready-made hull like the previous Qi Jiguang class and Yangwei class, it encountered a lot of trouble. Either there were some mistakes in the hull counterweight, or the development of a 130mm turret for the Free Wind class jammed during firing, in short, there were many problems, and the construction period was delayed twice.

However, fortunately, the design and engineering personnel put in 12 points of energy, and the whole project was wasted and the Ministry of Defense made a relatively large investment in the tilt, and finally the two warships were accepted by the Navy in January 1777 and were ready to officially join the Navy.

Although the displacement is only more than 1,800 tons, and the maximum gun caliber is only 130 mm, there is no doubt that such a frigate is absolutely unbeatable in the plane, without any opponents.

"The speed has been increased to 18 knots, and it can easily throw off any enemy or catch up with any enemy at sea, and its firepower has also surpassed the Qi Jiguang-class frigate by a lot, and even the firepower of the entire ship after the 130mm naval gun is launched in rapid fire. Capable of competing with such cruisers as the Yangwei class. We have alloy armor on such ships. The thickness also reached 450 mm. But even a direct bombardment by the British large-caliber naval guns will never break through our armor. Of course, we simply do not give any enemy a chance to hit us at a range of hundreds of meters, and we are able to fight from a distance of 2,000 yards with strict guarantees. Navy Commander Deng Xiyi briefed Zhao Daling on the situation.

The British at this time did not have many amazing 68-pounder guns. Moreover, this kind of cannon has a short barrel and a firing range of one kilometer, which is just a nodding head, and it cannot threaten the combat ships of the Datang Navy at all. The Datang military industrial enterprise almost desperately built a 130mm naval rapid-fire artillery with a range of 14 kilometers, and the original design rate of fire was five rounds per minute, and the actual test can reach 6 rounds. And taking into account such things as the artillery manufacturing process, the level of shell design. The power of the Datang naval artillery was even stronger than the 68-pounder guns of the British army.

Deng Xiyi's originally cold face was now filled with a smug smile, and he continued: "We have invested a lot of money in the first two ships, and the cost is relatively high, but we have already figured out the technology, and in the next production, we can control the cost of each ship is only one-third of the first ship, and the more we produce, the more we save costs." It is estimated that the cost of the next three and fourth ships will only be 1.2 million Tang Yuan, if the free wind class is built to 10. Then the cost can be reduced to 1 million per ship. ”

Zhao Daling sighed: "What are you talking about, what do you mean by only 1.2 million Tang Yuan, now the British build a flagship-level first-class battleship, the cost is about 100,000 pounds, and if you build a frigate, it will be 1670,000 pounds, and the tonnage is more than half of the first-class battleship." ”

Deng Xiyi also knew that the president was joking with him, and said: "Building an armored frigate for 1670,000 pounds is naturally different from getting a wooden ship for 100,000 pounds." Relatively speaking, the cost of free wind is also low, and it can perform most tasks, such as coastal defense, fleet escort, and offensive warfare. ”

Bai Nan knew a little bit of the inside story, and he smiled: "It's really relatively low, the navy has already started to design larger warships after the Liberty Wind class has verified the technology of many ironclad ships." This time it was an armored cruiser, with a tonnage of about 5,000 tons, and its name was Pinghai-class, and its speed was at the same level as the free wind, about 18 knots, but the firepower had to be raised to the level of 203mm heavy guns. ”

Zhao Daling shook his head and said: "Old Deng, you have been in peace for a year or two, and you want to engage in your naval armament ******, good guy 203 heavy artillery, this is directly the level of a heavy cruiser, and how many national coins are you going to swallow." ”

Deng Xiyi said: "To be precise, the Pinghai-class cruiser, we are going to engage in a knapsack turret, with a layout of two in the front and two in the back, with a total of four 203 mm naval guns, and we are also preparing 12 76 mm guns and four 57 mm guns for the secondary guns, well, plus 324 mm torpedo tubes." Because the design is not yet complete, I can't give you an exact cost, but the top three free winds on the top of one should not be able to run. ”

Zhao Daling was speechless and said, "That means the cost of nearly four million Tang Yuan, right?" ”

Deng Xiyi avoided the important and light: "Four million Tang Yuan, it is also worth the money, and we will not build more such flagship-level warships, just have three or four." ”

Zhao Daling sighed, not knowing whether he was really angry or fake, he said: "There are so many people in the navy, although the manpower has been expanding, but it will take time to become a qualified sailor." You still want to build ten Free Wind, as well as a total of eight ships in the Yangwei-class and Qi Jiguang-class before, and here are four new large cruisers, if you want to play with such a fleet scale, manpower is not enough. ”

Deng Xiyi said frankly: "It's not that I'm bent on expanding the navy, but in fact we have to, president." Before, we had a piece of home in Jiazhou, and there was no threat to the left and right, and there was less navy. But now, we have a route to the Kingdom of Hawaii that needs to be maintained, and you know that British and Spanish expedition ships are running around in the Pacific. Soon we will also have the Cuckoo program, and in the Far East we will have at least one fleet that can be mobilized at any time. This is not counting the possible naval needs of the Borneo Overseas Territory, and if the Dutch clash with the Borneo Overseas Territory, we will inevitably need to send a fleet to help in the war. On the east coast of North America, we occupy three states, and we have to build naval bases in the Bahamas and Florida, which requires a complete fleet, and it needs to be relatively strong, because here the danger is greatest, and the fleets of the British, Spaniards, and French are all in the Atlantic, and we must have a navy to protect our interests. ”

Navy Commander Deng Xiyi's remarks can be said to be a whip into the inside, and each one of them has hit the nail on the head, in fact, due to Datang's attacks everywhere, the interests have already crossed the Americas, Asia, the Pacific and the Atlantic, and a stronger navy is bound to be needed. (To be continued.) )