Nanrui, Nanchen two ships comprehensive refit obviously does not have the conditions, and theoretically, the old ship transformation process is more cumbersome than the new construction, 4 round fire tube boilers to be comprehensively improved, obviously the amount of engineering is too large, and in fact, the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau of the boiler, compared with the German boiler 10 years ago, the improvement is also limited, now Europe has been widely used water tube boiler, the country has not been introduced at all, the current situation, perhaps, change the inferior coal and boiler internal sintering situation is a better choice.

However, the process of recruiting his own 10 engineers and 15 apprentices gave him another important source of information...... The accumulation of the manufacturing bureau in the past 30 years is indeed a huge wealth, and Cheng Daqi and Liu Yiding have recommended to him a list of more than 30 engineers, in fact, this list is also the engineers in the Torpedo Bureau and the adjacent Jiangnan Shipyard, wrought iron factory, and carpentry bureau.

The number of engineers in the gun bureau with relatively high salaries in the entire Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau is far greater than this, however, this so-called relatively high is also a lot lower than the newly established machine factory, Cheng Daqi told Lu Hong very confidently that as long as the machine factory needs it, it is definitely not a big problem to recruit people in the bureau.

For digging Li Hongzhang's corner, Lu Hong is currently inconvenient to dig a lot, after all, the scale of his machine factory is very limited, there are more people, it may not be a good thing, however, this is very important news, at least in the short term, he was originally worried about the lack of industrial talents, which is obviously a problem that is easy to solve.

According to Lu Hong's requirements, Cheng Daqi quickly invited more than a dozen engineers from shipyards, steel mills and other bureaus, and after Lu Hong summoned them, he threw out two questions, one is how to transform the power plan of the two ships of Nanrui and Nanchen? Second, how to quickly replace the armor of a battleship?

For the second question, Lu Hong naturally wanted to understand the technology accumulation of the Manufacturing Bureau in this era, but he regretted that he asked these engineers, even Cheng Daqi did not have a better plan for this, although the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau has wrought iron mills and steel mills, but it is really not possible to talk about production capacity for every 3 tons of steel...... What's more, the quality of this self-produced steel is quite inferior to that of imported steel.

However, in the era of riveting armor and armor, the common way to replace armor on ships is to cut off the original rivets and replace them with a re-drilled iron deck...... For small-scale repairs, there are also temporary repair methods such as drilling holes in old armor through drilling machines and riveting them with rivets, but these methods obviously cannot satisfy Lu Hong.

It wasn't until a technician in the Powder Bureau mentioned the production of smokeless that he thought of something important, but it would obviously take a lot of experimentation to determine if it was feasible...... This idea allowed the gunpowder engineer named Sun Cairen to get a new job, and in the face of the temptation of a monthly salary of 15 taels, this guy only thought about it for two seconds and immediately agreed.

As for the discussion of battleship power, many engineers had some ideas, but obviously none of them got Lu Hong's approval, and he also noticed that the youngest engineer sitting among the engineers seemed to be very interested in this issue, and after hearing the other people's proposals, they all had a very concerned expression.

And a little later, this young man named Zheng Xuanhong also spoke, "My lord, if the upgrade of this boiler is limited, if it is replaced with a three-expansion steam engine produced by the Manufacturing Bureau, the speed of the ship may be greatly improved, but the three-expansion steam engine of the Jiangnan Bureau is too large, and I am afraid it will not be easy to install...... However, if the transmission group of the three-expansion steam engine is used on an old battleship, this can also be improved! ”

This suggestion is obviously different from others, and Lu Hong is also very interested, "Gongshi Zheng, are you sure it can have an effect?" ”

"My lord, the double-expansion steam engine still uses the old-fashioned single-tube engine, I participated in the imitation of the multi-type three-expansion steam engine in the manufacturing bureau, and Tessie has already used a multi-crankshaft to promote, I think that the efficiency is improved by more than one percent!" When talking about this steam engine, Zheng Xuanhong obviously showed an old age that was different from his age, which made Lu Hong a little more satisfied.

Zheng Xuanhong put forward his point of view very confidently, Nanrui and Nanchen ships still use double-cylinder double-expansion steam engines, and today's Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau has a perfect three-expansion steam engine production process, and the use of new technology is obviously a good plan for the transformation of the engine.

After all, it is obviously a big project to replace the entire steam engine, of course, such an effect is certainly the best, but it is a big project, obviously it cannot be implemented at present, however, he proposed that even if the steam engine is not replaced, and the transmission is improved, it can also achieve a lot of results, and it is expected to be able to obtain a speed increase of about one section.

This kind of improvement plan, obviously Lu Hong has not thought of it, and this is obviously the kind of improvement that can quickly achieve the effect, and it is not a good choice under the current circumstances, this is the battleship transformation, he can be described as a multi-pronged approach, anyway, most of the materials here are from the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, and there is Ruisheng on top, so he doesn't have to worry too much, and through a series of projects, he should be able to get a group of available talents.

And this Zheng Xuanhong is obviously a talent worth using, Lu Hong quickly finalized, he generously provided Zheng Xuanhong with 300 taels of silver research and development funds, which surprised the other engineers...... I've never heard of a proposal for improvement, and you can get a sum of money to conduct experiments!

In fact, this is exactly what Lu Hong needs, and he is spending a small amount of money to gradually establish a positive image of himself in this group of craftsmen...... Any progress in armament technology is of great value to the Chinese Navy today.

After a small half a day of consultation, in this small machine factory, Cheng Daqi, Sun Cairen, Zheng Xuanhong led by the three technical research teams were established, this is Lu Hong's own personal layout of the first step of industrial expansion, he is naturally cautious one by one, now he is not only asking for success, but also to rapid success!

And a little later, Qin Tianmin sent a telegram in a hurry, which was sent by Wang Renkan, the minister of the Qin Mission, from Lushun, the words on it were unknown, but it only revealed one meaning, asking Lu Hong to end the matter in Shanghai as soon as possible and rush to Lushun! This surprised Lu Hong.

Wang Renkan rushed to Tianjin, apparently trying to negotiate with Li Hongzhang about the earlier verbal agreement, and at the same time, trying to make Lao Li more cautious on the Korean issue, but now he has gone to Lushun, which is obviously quite worth playing!

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