Chapter 18: The Ironclad Giant

In November 1891, the capital of the Qing Dynasty, the residence of the governor of Zhili

At about 9 o'clock in the morning, the Western table clock in the restaurant was walking on tap, and the sunlight shone into the hall through the paper doors and windows, which looked soft and full of vitality.

On the Persian carpet beneath the dining table lay a large cat, restless by the faint sounds of several crisp and melodious bird calls faintly coming from the courtyard. If it was usual, the cat might have already gone out to play with the birds, but at this time, it seemed that he was more interested in the sweet Songkou fresh sea bass on the table that could be faintly smelled by himself, and waited patiently while wagging his tail......

At the dining table, an elderly man in his sixties is sitting on a rosewood chair in the dining room. Silver knives, forks, and small tools for removing fish are neatly placed on white napkins, and several delicious dishes are placed in the exquisite porcelain tableware from Jingdezhen.

But the old man seemed to be as interested in the fresh perch on the table as if he were the big cat, and he was alone with slow but interesting conversation, moving his knife and fork slowly, and the sound of chewing in his mouth more and more challenged the patience of the sitting cat, and meowed.

The old man who dined was none other than Li Hongzhang, the governor of the Qing Dynasty and the minister of trade in Beiyang, who was a powerful minister in the whole of East Asia.

Li Hongzhang was sitting in the dining room while eating, while listening to Wu Rulun, a staff member next to him, and reporting the news from all parts of the telegraph room in the palace.

"Zhongtang, Ding Ruchang has sent a letter to urge the silver again. It is said that our Beiyang Naval Division, Dingyuan, and Zhenyuan The original gun emplacements of the two capital ships are all old. After going far, the tail cannon is still needed to come far. Weiyuan must replace the new Krupp breech gun made in Germany-"

Hearing this, the old man's hand that was moving his knife and fork paused slightly, "Oh~"

It seems to be a promise, and it is like a sigh.

"My lord, I heard it a few days ago... The news that Ben had formulated the policy of confronting the Qing Dynasty had been confirmed by the spies in Edo, and "the staff then reported it," and said that the specific steps of the company... The first step was to capture Korea as a springboard for attacking the Qing mainland. ”

"The second step is to occupy Taiwan and control Southeast Asia. Then ......"

Li Hongzhang was picking up the towel placed on the table and wiping his mouth, and when he heard this, he frowned and said, "Got it." ”

Wu Rulun paused and continued, "Yu Zhongtang, the governor of Huguang, and Zhang Zhidong, the minister of Nanyang, have made a fold. The Hanyang Iron Works, built by the Frenchman Shi Puyi, has been produced..."

Li Hongzhang asked a little in the tea room, "Oh? ”

“．．． A total of 2.8 million taels of official silver was spent," Wu Rulun glanced at the old man, "The excerpt on Zhang Zhidong said, after that, I will produce military production in the Qing Dynasty and lay railways... Even our newly built China Merchants Steamship in Beiyang can supply pig iron by his Hanyang Iron Works. Guaranteed supply for decades... ＂

"It is reported that the government and the opposition are in an uproar. It is said that Zhang Xiangshuai's move overpowered my Beiyang ......"

Hearing this, Li Hongzhang was drinking the head of the clear soup, and couldn't help but put down the soup spoon in his hand, and turned to look at the staff beside him,

"But really, didn't you say that Han Yeping's ore was not enough, and the steel made could not be supplied to the Jinling Machinery Bureau? ――――”

"It's strange to say, Zhang Xianggong from Hanyang said that he went to see it in person with Lord Shen from Jinling," Wu Rulun rolled up his sleeves and said, "The steel produced in Hanyang now does meet the requirements of Mr. Thomson, the deputy general manager of Jinling Machinery and Shanghai Manufacturing Bureau, and the price is cheaper than the steel imported from France......"

"That's weird," Li Hongzhang frowned, "Didn't Shen Baozhen talk about the machines purchased by Zhang Zhidong at the beginning, and there were many errors in the location of the steel mill?" Why is it really out of iron now? Zhang Zhidong has capable people under him~"

"This~" Wu Rulun, "My subordinates have heard Lord Shen mention that Zhang Zhidong's current iron factory is a cooperation with a U.S. Xuben (superben transliteration) mineral company from Pittsburgh, and originally imported some coal from the Kaiping coal mine in eastern Liaodong, and now I don't know how the iron coal used in the iron factory is provided by this American businessman..."

"Oh?" Li Hongzhang nodded, "That's right, he Zhang Xiangtao picked up a bargain~"

"But the United States is far away on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, and according to common sense, even if the cost of transporting coal and iron is not more expensive than that of France, it should not be cheaper," Li Hongzhang shook the silver-white spoon, "How can the pig iron produced by the Hanyang Iron Works in Zhangzhidong be so cheap?" ”

"It doesn't matter so much for the time being, it's a good thing that Beiyang can have more iron use" After muttering to himself, Li Hongzhang immediately asked, "By the way, where is Yuan Shikai running now?" Why did he disappear just after returning from North Korea? ”

"Uh... Yuan Gongbao" Wu Rulun thought for a while, "I haven't heard much about him recently."

"My lord, the British are calling-" At this moment, Li Hongzhang's copywriter Ling Huan pushed the door in from the outside, "The ironclad ship customized by my Beiyang Navy Division is almost completed, but the payment is ...... The British side said that if it delayed any longer, it would sell the ships to a third country in accordance with the agreement."

"Huh? ~" Li Hongzhang raised his head slightly, "Alas! ~" Then he waved his hand again, "I will talk about it when I enter the palace and see the Queen Mother of the West~"

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At the same time, in Luzon.

Sizhe, Avalanche Shipyard

Chen Zeyu, dressed in civilian clothes, accompanied by Wu Zhongxian, the chief designer of the shipyard, went to the No. 3 dock area of the shipyard, where it could already be seen on the upper floor of the dock that a hideous steel giant ship was in a tense loading and perching stage.

After months of departing from the eastern part of the Americas, these floating docks finally arrived at the planned shipyard in Sizhejiang at the beginning of last year, and now they have become the foundation of the newly expanded Avalanche shipyard.

Around the dock, Blackwater security personnel with real guns and ammunition were patrolling back and forth with weapons in hand.

Boarding the scaffolding of the dock, Chen Zeyu looked at the steel giant ship in front of him that would soon enter service, and he was quite excited.

This steel battleship, which cost about 1.15 million taels of silver (self-made price), was named a "Taiwan-class" armored cruiser by Chen Zeyu. Although limited by the space constraints of Dock 3 itself, the standard displacement of this class of armored cruisers is only 5030 tons, and the full load displacement is only 5970 tons. However, thanks to the newly developed ship steel of the Avalanche Special Steel Research Institute, its 12-inch armor efficiency will never be lower than the 18-inch defense of an ironclad ship in the traditional sense.

A total of seven "Taiwan-class" armored cruisers will be built in the program, except for the first "Taipei" with an experimental surname, which will soon be launched into service. The remaining six warships, including the second batch of "Pontianak", "Anping", "Taipei", "Kunming", "Fuzhou" and "Ningbo", have already been built in other docks, and are expected to be launched before April 1893.

The "Taiwan-class" armored cruiser after entering service has a standard displacement of 5030 tons and a full load displacement of 5970 tons; Hull size 90 in total length. 5 meters, about 17.4 meters wide, 5.2 meters deep draft, equipped with two latest high-horsepower reciprocating steam engines, the maximum output of the boiler is 16,000 horsepower, the maximum coal load of the cargo compartment is 900 tons, the maximum estimated speed propelled by the twin propellers will reach 23.5 knots, and the speed can reach an astonishing 25 knots under strong ventilation.

In this era, the "Taiwan-class" armored cruiser became the world's fastest surface warship at that time.

The warship has a cruising endurance of 5,700 nautical miles at an average speed of 15 knots, a self-sustaining power at sea for about 20 days, and a freshwater generator capable of producing 300 tons on the hull. Taiwan-class armament is equipped with a pair of twin 255mm/24 times caliber main guns (2*1=2), which are located in the bow hydrostatic power turret; two pairs of twin 150mm/20 times caliber secondary guns (2*2=4 guns); twelve 37mm rotary tube guns; five torpedo tubes; The most important thing and different from this era is that the ship is equipped with epoch-making electronic equipment: a shipboard radio and a sonar; Plus ranging and sighting instruments that are different from this era. With these equipment, the Taiwan-class can undoubtedly crush the warships of the same class of the same era.

In terms of armor, the shipyard made its own T3 surface-hardened armor based on the historical Krupp armor, with about 14 inches of armor between the turret and the turret, 12 inches on the side, 8 inches on the bridge, and 3 inches on the deck; The total weight of the armor reached a staggering 1,000 tons, and a single Taiwan-class armored cruiser is expected to have a crew of 260 people.

Subsequently, Chen Zeyu, accompanied by Wu Zhongxian, inspected slipways No. 4 to No. 9, which were also Taiwan-class armored cruisers under construction.