In 1865, in the fourth year of Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty, the Jiangnan Machinery Manufacturing Bureau, with the goal of "making utensils", was established in Shanghai Hongkou Yuanmei Merchant Qiji Iron Factory. Its equipment is mainly composed of three parts: first, the machine purchased by Rong Hong, the faction of Zeng Guofan, the second is the equipment of the Qiji Iron Works purchased by Li Hongzhang and Ding Yuechang in Shanghai for 40,000 taels of silver, and the third is the equipment of the Suzhou and Shanghai Ocean Artillery Bureaus.

Because the rent in Hongkou is relatively expensive, and the factory mainly produces arms and ammunition, there is a certain danger to the surname, which is opposed by foreigners living nearby. Two years later, the manufacturing bureau officially moved to Gaochang Temple. However, in a short period of 10 or 20 years, its scale has become extraordinary, with a total of more than 3,000 employees, more than 2,000 houses, and 16 branch factories -- a machine bureau, a carpentry factory, a steamship factory, a boiler factory, a gun factory, a gun factory, a gun factory, a shell factory, a steel factory, a wrought iron factory, a chestnut medicine factory, a copper lead factory, a smokeless medicine factory, a cast copper and iron factory, and two black medicine factories.

Judging from the setting, this is not only the most well-equipped and large-scale military factory of the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, but also has indeed become the "machine factory" conceived by Rong Hong -- the vast majority of workshops can not only serve military production, but also manufacture civilian machinery and equipment needed for agricultural and industrial development. It was from the concession where Hongkou was located to the south of Huajie and the west bank of the Pujiang River where the old city was located, that this "bureau", which was later known as "China's first factory", was able to continue to expand and prosper and become the largest military industrial enterprise in the Qing Dynasty.

The manufacturing bureau mainly produces guns and ammunition, supplemented by the repair of ships, and has a translation hall, a Cantonese dialect hall and a craft school to translate Western books and train technicians. Therefore, the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau at that time was far from being a simple ordnance institute or a government-run enterprise in terms of setting, positioning and influence, but a large-scale national capital enterprise integrating military industry, scientific research and personnel training.

More than ten years later, the Chinese exclaimed in the "North China Jiebao": "More than ten years ago, the Chinese bought the machines of the Qichang Iron Works and transported the machines of the iron factory to the Gaochang Temple to build the core of an arsenal. At that time, I really did not expect that under the cultivation of the successive governors of Liangjiang, it would develop into such a huge machine manufacturing bureau as it is today. ”

After the death of Zeng Guofan in 1872, Li Hongzhang took charge of the manufacturing bureau. Because he advocated that "shipbuilding is better than buying ships", in the 12 years from 1873 to 1885, the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau only built a total of 4 ships. Later, during the death of Li Hongzhang in 1901, the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau completely ceased shipbuilding business. Due to the impact of the defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War and the management problems of the government-run enterprises, the entire manufacturing bureau was in a state of depression, business was sluggish, and the dockyard was also in a semi-deserted state.

Two months ago, after the recovery of Shanghai, the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau was divided from the dock, and the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau was renamed the "Jiangnan Navy Gun Factory", and the shipyard was also named "Navy Jiangnan Shipyard", which was subordinate to the Navy.

At night, the dock of the Navy Jiangnan Shipyard is still brightly lit, the roar of toms and toms in the dock is constantly transmitted, the dock is paved with keels and ship ribs, hundreds of workers are busy all night, the red steel rivets are taken out of the oven, with the impact of the pneumatic rivet gun, accompanied by the riveting of the rivet gun, flashing sparks pop out, for the Jiangnan Shipyard, this may be the most "huge" order ever, and two thousand-ton ocean-going destroyers are built at the same time, And this kind of large ocean-going destroyer is not available in the navies of various countries.

Under the light of the hundred-watt bulb, Shi Tiange, who was wearing a navy uniform, stared at the keel and ribs laid in the dock, although the construction had been started for a month, as long as he thought of these two unprecedented "ocean-going destroyers", he could not help but be a little excited. So much so that they even forgot about the ruling and naval ministers who visited the shipyard on the Hairong ship, and they came to the shipyard to inspect the shipyard temporarily after attending the opening ceremony of the naval officer school.

"Look to the future, look to the ocean!"

In the past, the Qing navy had never had a long-term plan, but this time, the long-term plan came from the ruling axe, and the ruling axe's request was only ten words, and out of this requirement, the need to fight in the Pacific Ocean in the future made the navy put forward different requirements for warships than in the past. In order to support the fleet operation, an ocean-going destroyer with a large tonnage and a good Naba surname is needed.

The reason for the proposal to build ocean-going destroyers is, on the one hand, of course, the future needs of the fleet, but on the other hand, it is limited by the underdeveloped shipbuilding industry, which needs to gradually master the shipbuilding technology, and the current ruling axe does not have sufficient funds for the construction of warships in the Navy. In this case, the thousand-ton ocean-going destroyer was chosen by the ruling axe because of its relative cheapness.

Because China's shipbuilding industry is not yet developed, the destroyers designed and built before are all less than 1,000 tons, even if it is the peak work of the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau, under the guidance of French technicians, the two destroyers "Jianwei" and "Jian'an" built with French parts, although the tonnage reaches 850 tons, but the speed is only 23 knots, and at this time, the speed of the new destroyers of various countries is generally more than 30 knots.

At this time, even the destroyers of the British Royal Navy, the most powerful in the world, did not have a standard displacement of more than 1,000 tons, and although Steiger studied under the best ship designers in England, it was simply impossible to rely on the Navy's reading power to design and build. However, Steuger's own strong learning and imitation skills played a role, and he chose to borrow from the Flying Eagle-class destroyer, and then introduced the design of the light cruiser, and finally designed this thousand-ton ocean-going destroyer.

Finally, after the shipyard manager coughed lightly, Shi Tiange remembered the "guest" beside him, and hurriedly introduced the unprecedented ocean-going destroyer he designed.

“…… In order to achieve better high-speed surname, the length to width ratio of the hull has been increased to 11.5:1, and due to the bow ship type, the bow freeboard is higher, so the wave resistance is better, and it can meet the requirements of fighting in the vast waters of the Pacific Ocean.

In terms of armament and equipment, the front main guns were transferred from above the bridge to the forward deck of the bridge, which reduced the impact on the bridge when firing. Moreover, after this arrangement, the bridge can also be designed to be taller, so that the bridge personnel have a better vision and facilitate command operations. ”

When he introduced the destroyer to the ruling and Ye Zugui, Shi Tiange remembered that a month ago, when the model of the destroyer was placed on the table of the Admiralty, many of the naval officials present were shocked by the size of the destroyer's bridge.

Thinking that Shi Tiange, who was not without pride, cleared his throat and turned his gaze to the ruling power, to be precise, he was introducing this kind of destroyer to the ruling party, after all, he had explained to Ye Zugui several times before and after in the Admiralty.

"If there is anything else he has other characteristics besides large tonnage and suitability for the ocean, it is her power system, because the increase in displacement requires a larger output engine to propulsion, and the coal-fired boilers and reciprocating steam engines installed on the old destroyers are no longer suitable for the needs. Because the same mass of heavy oil has a higher calorific value than coal, the practice of replacing coal with heavy oil has appeared in the navies of various countries at that time, which can increase the output power of the same boiler in use, and at the same time use the steam turbine that has not yet been adopted by various countries, but the power is much greater than that of the reciprocating steam engine, and the steam turbine is provided by the British Parsons company. And here we have made an epoch-making innovation in its gearing! ”

As he spoke, Shi Tiange stretched out his hand to touch his beard, but he pounced again. Only then did he remember that he had shaved off his beard.

"Since the application of the steam engine to warships, the steam power plant for ships has initially been directly driven, that is, the output shaft direct propeller of the steam engine and the steam turbine. However, direct transmission has a big disadvantage, that is, the speed of the main engine cannot be well matched with the propeller, and the problem of cavitation is generated. The advent of the steam turbine exacerbated the development of the above contradictions, because the steam turbine had to use high speeds to achieve the same efficiency as the steam engine, which undoubtedly further exacerbated the problem of cavitation, so far I ......"

Shi Tiange deliberately accentuated the last word, perhaps having spent so much time in England that he was no longer accustomed to Chinese humility.

In order to improve this shortcoming, the reduction gear device was developed to solve this contradiction. I call the steam turbine a gear steam turbine, which is driven by a gear reducer instead of a direct drive by the axle! ”

In his triumph, Shi Tiange forgot that his reduction gears were inspired by the planetary gearing system of Mustang Motors.

"Does Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau now have the ability to manufacture high-speed, heavy-duty, high-precision gear reducers?"

Listening to Shi Tiange's words, Chen Moran asked rhetorically, last month the Admiralty had submitted a report, requesting the allocation of special funds to introduce steam turbine technology patents, without a trace of hesitation to approve it, after all, power has always been the heart of the ship, later generations of China's power equipment is completely behind the world, in the manufacture of the gear transmission system of the Mustang car, have encountered technical problems, and finally rely on imported gears, and now the introduction of gear technology has been solved, the high-speed, heavy-duty, high-precision gear reducer used on the warship, Can Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau solve it?

"This ......"

"The consul, the gear reducer parts currently needed, we have entrusted the British and German manufacturers to produce on our behalf, and the shipyard is currently preparing to submit a report to the Admiralty to allocate funds to add new equipment to produce gear reducers!"

The person who followed Shi Tiange was obviously more suitable to deal with this kind of thing than him, and while giving a few words of explanation, he also fought for funds along the way.

"Tonghou, you look back like a report, report to the ruling axe, this money can't be saved! No matter how tight the funds of the ruling axe are, I will also think of squeezing out a sum of money! ”

When Chen Moran agreed, he did not forget to express the difficulty of ruling the axe. For him, everything around him is a tool, and it is the same to talk to Zhang Jing about tolerating heresy, asking Zha Zhiqing to form an investigation bureau, and talking about the founding of the country with Sun Yat-sen, even when he says this to Ye Zugui now.

"It is not possible to buy warships alone, when we are repairing Haitian, Ma'anshan cannot provide marine armor steel at all, but now we can make armor steel, although the quality may be worse than that of Europe and the United States, but we can always catch up, our history owes too much, like this warship, we design the best warship, but the backwardness of industrial technology restricts us, it is not good to buy warships, and it is not possible to build a big navy by buying engines and components."

"The boilers and steam turbines on these two destroyers were bought from the British, and when we bought them, we bought them back together with the patented technology, and if the production machines didn't work, we bought new ones, and when we built cruisers and battleships in the future, we could replace imports with domestic ones, and this money was worth spending, and when we fought in the future, if we couldn't buy them, or if we weren't in a hurry, we would regret it!"

"The words of the ruling are very true!"

During the First Sino-Japanese War, the defeat in the Battle of the Yellow Sea was mainly due to the backwardness of the ships and artillery, and China's industrial base was weak at that time, and the materials and processes had not yet reached a high level, so that the shells made were not of the right size, and the surface of the shells had holes and mouths, and there were also fuses and fires, and there were also those who could not lead the shells, and the shells they bought could not be transported back to China at the first time, and they could not be made by themselves, and they could not always solve the root cause.

For a whole day, Ye Zugui has been thinking about what happened to him and Sa Zhenbing after they went to Nanjing from Shanghai last month, and the ruling axe attaches far more importance to the navy than he imagined, in addition to building a training fleet to reserve talents for the navy, the ruling even plans to build and purchase light armored cruisers and heavy armored cruisers in the next five years, and build 3 teams of heavy armored cruisers and 3 teams of light armored cruisers, as vehicles for cruising the world and training sailors.

And the ultimate goal of all this is to provide personnel and technical support for the expansion of the navy in five years, in addition, the ruling axe did not give the navy a detailed naval expansion plan, and as the minister of the navy, Ye Zugui also knew that he did not want to talk about the naval expansion plan this year, but the ruling axe has formulated a five-year shipbuilding industry plan, and the destroyers of the Jiangnan shipyard are part of this industrial plan.

"All the Navy needs to do is to make a corresponding expansion plan according to the shipbuilding industry development plan!"

The crux of the problem is still people, and when the two battleships return home, only two battleships will need 1,600 officers and men, and the navy will be almost empty. It still depends on the training fleet to train it little by little!

"Tonghou!"

Chen Moran turned his head to look at Ye Zugui.

"Factories, technology, warships, I will give these to the navy, but the navy ...... Can you give me a satisfactory answer? ”

This rhetorical question made Ye Zugui's whole person fall silent.

Chen Moran smiled silently.

"Don't rush to answer me now, you know, what it means to write this answer sheet, and now ......"

Turning his gaze to the warship in the dock, Chen Moran continued:

"All we have to do is get ready for the exam!"

After leaving the Jiangnan Shipyard in Gaochang Temple, Chen Moran did not go to the dock with Ye Zugui and his party, but drove directly to Dongxu University in Pudong, where the university was still a busy construction site, and the main building of the university was still under construction.

"At the end of the summer vacation, 2,100 students will enter the university!"

Thinking that a month later, this university is no longer like now, just a construction site, but a serious university Chen Moran couldn't help but feel a little proud in his heart, this university will be the first institution of higher learning in "New China", although it is the eastern order, but a science and engineering university based on science and engineering, Biyong University under construction in Nanjing, is more inclined to law, economics, and humanities, as for Nanjing University of Science and Technology, it focuses on elite teaching, and even in the next few years, Nanjing University of Science and Technology will not open enrollment, According to the plan, it will be the highest university of Chinese University of Science and Technology, and Dongxu is the real place for Chinese science and engineering professionals.

Although it was summer vacation, walking on the university campus, with the help of the street lamp, Chen Moran could still see those students who could not return to their hometowns because their families were in other provinces, most of them were there holding textbooks to practice English or Germany, the same as the naval academy, and Dongxu University also practiced English or German education.

This kind of foreign language education is more of a kind of helplessness, except for the professors of Chinese studies, almost all the professional professors in the school are hired from the United Kingdom, the United States, and Germany, and there are no qualified professors or qualified professional translators in China, which makes Dongxu University not even have enough talents to translate professional textbooks.

Naturally, in Dongxu University, students take English or German professional textbooks to class, British or German professors and lecturers teach in English or German in the classroom, since the establishment of Dongxu University, students studying preparatory departments are more learning foreign languages, in order to only understand during class, in order to create a language environment, students on campus, spontaneously decide not to speak Chinese on campus.

"Hey...... The country ......"

Thinking about the journey of creating a modern China, Chen Moran shook his head helplessly and sighed softly, a country not only cannot provide qualified professors for universities, but also cannot even provide enough primary and secondary school teachers. Can you really give a satisfactory answer in the next few decades?

Chen Moran, who was a little bitter in his heart, continued to walk forward, and there was a sound of German conversation in the woods, and looking along the light, he could clearly see several students discussing something in German with a foreign teacher under the light, and several of them were even looking through the professional language translation manual when they were talking.

When he got closer, Chen Moran's eyes suddenly widened, because he saw an acquaintance, to be precise, a foreigner who was very familiar to everyone in later generations, and now he was very young, but he could vaguely see that familiar face and hairstyle.

He...... How could he be in the Eastern Order? Is it just a look?

Just as he was shocked, someone happened to pass by, and Chen Moran hurriedly grabbed the person passing by.

"Classmate, do you know who that person is?"

And when the student who was pulled by Chen Moran just opened his mouth to remind the other party to speak in English, the student's eyes also widened, it was the ruling power! But Chen Moran's eyes were still staring at the person who was communicating with the students, and he ...... Could it be a professor at Toxu University?

(To be continued)