"What? Said Ben is developing submarines? ”

In the imperial study, when the Chinese Emperor Wang Chenhao received the military intelligence reports from Defense Minister Wang Shizhen and CIA Director Li Guodong, he was taken aback.

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Li Guodong repeated: "The minister has repeatedly verified that the General Staff Headquarters of the Navy Department has obtained relevant submarine information from the United States and Britain, and this year's budget for the Navy is 282 million yuan, or 54 million yuan in imperial dragon dollars. The Navy Ministry plans to build six submarine fleets with a total of 120 submarines. ”

Wang Shizhen added: "After the Navy builds two Hanoi-class battleships, it plans to build four Kongo-class battleships, preparing to build a Shenbow-type 66 fleet. However, Britain was eager to build ships for its own country and restore the strength of the British navy, so all export-oriented warships were delayed. Moreover, prices in Britain skyrocketed after the war, and the plan was cancelled due to price considerations. However, the navy was more self-aware, and they knew that the chances of winning a war with the Imperial Navy were very small, so the funds used for the construction of battleships should be used for the construction of submarines. ”

Wang Chenhao thought to himself that this was not good, because he originally wanted to stimulate the Japanese Navy to develop large surface ships, and then use the naval arms race to drag down the Japanese economy, and was dragged into the water by the United States, so that the United States would lose all its investment in the capital, and then hit the United States. However, now that the Navy's abandonment of building Kongo-class battleships is tantamount to avoiding the world's naval arms race, Wang Chenhao's strategic purpose for Kouben will be in vain. What is even more dangerous is that the submarine is a tactical weapon that is economical and practical, and once the submarine wolf pack tactics are developed, it will not be good news for the Imperial Chinese Navy. With the arrogant attitude of the Imperial Chinese Navy, it is easy to suffer. Wang Chenhao thought that in the future, once he started a war with Yue Ben, a small submarine of the other party would be exchanged for a huge super god bow battleship of the Chinese Empire, and that kind of situation would never be tolerated.

Thinking of this, Wang Chenhao asked: "Do we know about the submarine plan of Yuben?" ”

Li Guodong replied: "Your Majesty, the six submarine fleets of the Ministry of the Navy, which are planned to be developed and built by the four major shipyards of the city, namely the Yokosuka Naval Yard, the Kawasaki Heavy Industries Kobe Shipyard, the Nagasaki Mitsubishi Shipyard, and the Kure Naval Arsenal. According to our intelligence officers, the submarine fleet plans of Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Mitsubishi Shipyard have been detected by us. Kawasaki Heavy Industries obtained the design drawings of the A-class, B-class and C-class submarines from the United Kingdom, although it has not yet been found out which type of submarine they use, but it is certain that the C-type submarine is the most advanced, and Kawasaki Heavy Industries will definitely copy or upgrade this type of submarine. In addition, Mitsubishi Shipyard introduced American Seal-class submarines, and the submarines they developed and produced should be based on the Seal-class submarines. As for the Yokosuka Naval Shipyard and the Kure Naval Shipyard, they are the official shipyards of the Honmoto Navy, and we do not know the situation at this time. ”

Where did Wang Chenhao know what the British ABC and the American Horn Whale Submarine were, so he looked at Wang Shizhen.

Wang Shizhen hurriedly explained: "The British ABC class III submarines are copied from the Imperial Navy's Xia-class, Shang-class and Zhou-class submarines, and the American One-Horn Whale class submarines are also copied from the Empire's Western Han-class submarines. ”

Wang Shizhen said this, Wang Chenhao understood, so he said: "The empire's Western Han-class submarines have been tested in war, so this navy has at least the technical drawings of the Western Han-class submarines, and with their relationship with the United States, the threat of these submarines to the imperial navy is huge." ”

Wang Shizhen replied: "Your Majesty doesn't need to worry, the Imperial Navy submarine project has completed various tests to upgrade the submarine, and the surname can be better than the Eastern Han class, and it is far beyond the Western Han class." ”

The development of the submarine lasted three years, making it the longest-running first-class submarine of the Imperial Chinese Navy's submarine program. The main reason is that the Eastern Han Dynasty-class submarines in service in the Imperial Navy are fully capable of territorial coastal defense and ocean-going operations, and the appearance of the Shenbow-type battleships and the super-Shengong-type battleships has made most officials in the Admiralty believe in the Giant Ship Cannon Doctrine, so the batch construction project of the submarine has been shelved. In order to make the officials of the Admiralty pay attention to submarines, the Imperial Submarine Research Institute had to spend a lot of thought and energy to develop more powerful submarines.

It was in this context that the promoted attack submarine appeared. Holland and Lake of the Submarine Research Institute vowed to make the Admiralty pay attention to them, so the comprehensive combat surname of the promoted submarine developed by the two of them was a qualitative level higher than the previous Eastern Han-class submarines, and entered the second-generation submarine standard.

The standard of the second generation of submarines is equipped with radio and primary sonar devices as the main watershed, and its safe diving depth reaches more than 120 meters, torpedo speed reaches more than 40 knots, effective attack range reaches more than 600, underwater speed reaches more than 15 knots, and the diving time reaches more than 24 hours. Submarines that meet these technical specifications are called second-generation submarines.

The promotion submarine undoubtedly stepped into the ranks of the second generation of submarines. First of all, the surface displacement of the promoted submarine exceeded a thousand tons for the first time, and the underwater displacement reached 1487 tons. When Holland and Lake developed the Qin-class submarine, they adopted a great leap forward attitude and built a thousand-ton sick seedling submarine, and then after a long period of experience, after experiencing the technical accumulation of the Western Han class and the Eastern Han class submarine, they finally overcame the technical difficulties of the 1,000-ton submarine and raised the tonnage of the upgraded submarine to the 1,000-ton level.

The main dimensions of the promoted submarine are: 81.9m× 6.9m× 4.3m, the construction materials are all high-strength, pressure-resistant and corrosion-resistant nickel-cadmium-silicon special steel, black outfitting on the waterline, red outfitting under the waterline, and the hull is huge, like a whale. Therefore, the first boat of this class was named the Steller Whale [CN-SS-109].

In order to meet the standards of the second-generation submarine, the main engine of the Steller Whale adopts 4 Diesel 07 6-cylinder 4-stroke diesel engines (for surface navigation) and 2 Tesla C-type high-power motors (for underwater navigation).

In this way, the submarine uses a twin propulsion shaft with a power of up to 4000 hp on the surface and 2200 hp under water; The surface speed of the driving submarine is 20.23 knots, and the underwater speed breaks through the second-generation technology mark, reaching 15.12 knots.

Since the Imperial Navy needed a submarine that could follow the fleet to fight, Holland and Lake specially transformed it into a fleet submarine, with a fuel loading capacity of 89t ~ 91t of diesel, a cruising range of 3,000 nautical miles at a speed of 14 knots on the surface, and a range of 3,000 nautical miles. At a speed of 5 knots underwater, the endurance time is 24.5 hours, breaking through the technical barrier of the second generation submarine.

Because the officials of the Imperial Admiralty looked down on submarines, they still considered them immoral despite their brilliant achievements.

Therefore, in order to change the contempt of the Admiralty officials for submarines, Lake greatly improved the armament of the upgraded submarines, 8 450mm torpedo tubes (including 4 in the bow and 4 in the superstructure), 12 torpedoes, the original 88mm rapid-fire gun was changed to 1 102mm deck gun, and a 12.7mm heavy machine gun for personnel. The armament has been greatly improved, and the number of submariners has increased to 54.

Among them, the torpedo engine has been greatly improved, using a piston engine, and the gasoline fuel loaded with alcohol burner (methanol, ethanol, etc.) and new oxidizer (hydrogen peroxide and nitric acid, etc.) has been added, so that the speed of the torpedo has reached 40 knots, and the effective attack distance has been increased to 630 meters, which makes submarine operations safer.

In view of the fact that the Eastern Han Dynasty-class submarines of the Chinese Empire paid a great price in the sneak attack on Singapore Bay, Holan designed the submarine to upgrade the safe diving depth at the beginning, so that it could dive to 125 meters, which could avoid the impact of surface naval guns, and help the submarine quickly leave the battlefield after completing the operation and avoid being sunk.

In terms of avionics system, the first identification of the second-generation submarine is the advanced radio system and sonar detection system.

The radio system has been realized as early as the Western Han class submarine, and the communication distance of the Eastern Han class submarine has been further expanded after the upgrade, and the submarine has been promoted to a huge submarine volume enough to arrange high-power radio equipment, and the slender hull shell is arranged with four antennas, so that the submarine's communication distance is more than 8000 kilometers, and it can get in touch with any naval unit of the empire and report emergencies at any time.

The sonar system is the latest development, thanks to Tesla and Wang Chenhao's Jiaolong submarine. Since Tesla was allowed to enter the Jiaolong, he has been in a state of obsession with various advanced equipment on the Jiaolong, among which sonar is the simplest device, which was quickly developed by Tesla.

Sonar is an electronic device that uses underwater sound waves to detect, locate and communicate with underwater targets, and is the most widely used and important device in hydroacoustics.

In March 1904, Tesla successfully developed the world's first sonar device. This is better than the British Navy Lewis in 1906? Nickerson invented sonar more than two years earlier. Lewis's first sonar was a passive listening device used to detect icebergs. The sonar invented by Tesla includes active and passive, which can not only detect underwater things close to submarines, but also actively detect moving targets and fixed targets in the water, and judge the target distance and speed according to the echo time.

Because of the sonar system, there is an additional protrusion under the submarine that has been promoted, which is the place where the sonar is installed. It can detect the underwater situation, but the disadvantage is that it cannot detect targets above the vertical of the submarine.

It has been a year and a half since the launch of the Killer Whale, the first submarine of the submarine, and after a long sea trial, it not only traveled from south to north in the coastal waters of the Chinese Empire, but also went to the Atlantic Ocean and returned after replenishment at the Bermuda naval base.

"Your Majesty!" Wang Shizhen said: "After a comprehensive evaluation of the Killer Whale, its combat capability is already very strong. Holland and Lake had asked the Admiralty to send warships to the test against the Orca, and during the exercise, the Orca sank a battleship, three cruisers, and two hunting ships on its own. The Admiralty had to retract its undervalued attitude towards submarines, but for the sake of secrecy, the Admiralty did not build submarines on a large scale. ”

Wang Chenhao nodded, it is still gratifying to be promoted to a submarine, but this cannot offset the threat of the submarine group of the Navy, after all, in the vast sea, the chance of submarines and submarines encountering is still too small.

So Wang Chenhao asked: "Has the Admiralty come up with an anti-submarine strategy?" ”

"This—" Wang Shizhen shook his head.

Wang Chenhao suddenly said unhappily: "What does the Admiralty do for food?" Do you think that only our submarine is the most powerful in the world? And if one day our enemy's submarines reach the combat effectiveness of the promoted submarines, and the Navy is waiting to be beaten? Outrageous! ”

Wang Shizhen hurriedly said: "Your Majesty's lesson is that it is the ministers and inspectors who are unfavorable and do not see the seriousness of the problem in time. ”

Wang Chenhao said: "From now on, the navy will immediately launch an antisubmarine training exercise. Cultivate the anti-submarine consciousness of the officers and men of the Navy, and order the Admiralty to immediately start the development of anti-submarine equipment, and in the next exercise, I must see them sink the Orca, or they will all go home and pick up their children. ”

Wang Shizhen realized the emperor's anger, and hurriedly said: "Your Majesty is angry, Weichen will be strictly supervised when he goes back, and effective anti-submarine measures will be taken in the next exercise!" ”

Wang Chenhao nodded and said, "With more than ten years of brilliant achievements, the navy is now immersed in arrogance and arrogance from top to bottom, and this wind must not be promoted." ”

"Your Majesty is taught!" Wang Shizhen hurriedly replied: "If you don't open the roof for three days, the minister will definitely convey His Majesty's instructions truthfully and sound the alarm bell for the navy." ”

Wang Chenhao dissipated his anger, and then asked Li Guodong, "Closely monitor the movements of the navy, and you can't take it lightly. ”

"Yes!" Li Guodong nodded.

Wang Chenhao suddenly said again: "The army is too!" A big victory all the time can definitely help to increase the arrogant mentality, and it is necessary to properly extinguish their prestige! ”

"Yes! Weichen just rectifies the three armies together! Wang Shizhen said.

Wang Chenhao nodded, and suddenly asked, "How is the progress of the chariot that I asked the War Department to study last time?" ”

The chariot in Wang Chenhao's mouth is the tank. As the king of land warfare, in Wang Chenhao's era, tanks can be said to be the most powerful equipment in the army. But in this era, tanks have not yet appeared, and Wang Chenhao will not let the West take the lead in this regard, so he took the lead in proposing the concept of combat vehicles to replace tanks, just like the Shenbow ship replaced the star status of the dreadnought, and the combat vehicles of the Chinese Empire also replaced the tank to become the world star.

In fact, the term chariot appeared as early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period in ancient China. At that time, in addition to infantry fighting, the army's combat methods were already used for assault vehicles. At that time, the chariot was pulled by war horses, and the wheels stretched out more than 2 meters long hob, once rushed into the enemy formation, the hob would be everywhere it went, and the scene of blood flowing.

In modern times, the advent of muskets has widened the distance between infantry and freed up hand-to-hand combat, and the ancient horse-drawn chariots have been unable to adapt to modern warfare.

However, with the outbreak of many modern wars, the armies of both sides relied on strong fortifications to fight, and the infantry charged in the face of heavy machine-gun fire, resulting in heavy casualties. In order to break through the defensive positions composed of trenches, barbed wire, and machine-gun fire points and break the deadlock in positional warfare, the warring sides urgently need to develop a new type of weapon that organically combines firepower, mobility, and protection.

In these years of warfare, the Chinese Imperial Army also suffered from the use of infantry to attack heavy machine gun positions.

After the end of the Sino-Russian War, when Wang Chenhao inspected the wounded who had retired from the battlefield, he looked at the soldiers who were missing arms and legs, and Wang Chenhao felt a bad feeling in his heart. When a disabled veteran accepted the Warrior Medal awarded by Wang Chenhao himself, he said to Wang Chenhao: "Your Majesty, in front of the enemy's heavy machine guns, the soldiers died too miserably. If we can wear armor all over our bodies, we will not be afraid of enemy bullets and shells! ”

After listening to the words of this disabled veteran, Wang Chenhao was deeply moved, and immediately remembered the tank, isn't that a modern combat vehicle?

After returning to the palace, Wang Chenhao immediately summoned the officials of the War Department and proposed the concept of an armored combat vehicle. Army officials naturally understand the great role of armored combat vehicles, but they have never heard of the tracked armored vehicles mentioned by Wang Chenhao.

At that time, there was no such thing as a track, although Wang Chenhao drew a lot of structural drawings of the chariot, the engineers of the War Department drew the gourd in the same way, and pieced together a series of four dissimilarities, which were too far from the chariot in Wang Chenhao's mind.

In 1906, the tractor manufacturing company founded by the American Holt produced the world's first tracked tractor powered by a gasoline internal combustion engine, which began mass production the following year and was the most successful tractor at that time.

Soon, tractors were introduced to the Chinese Empire, and because a large number of peasants turned into workers, the farmland urgently needed to be mechanized to make up for the shortage of manpower.

Previously, there were many tractor companies in the Chinese Empire, but the production was wheeled tractors, and since then the introduction of crawler tractor technology has played a huge role in the cultivation of low-lying farmland in the south.

With the introduction of tracked tractors, soon an equipment designer named Lai Yun from the Beiyang Ordnance Heavy Industry of the Chinese Empire wrote to the War Department: "If you put artillery or machine guns on the tractor, won't it be invincible?" ”

Only then did the officials of the War Department finally realize the true meaning of the armored fighting vehicle described by the emperor back then. They immediately started the research work on the tractor, and designed and manufactured it in accordance with the concept of the armored combat vehicle proposed by Wang Chenhao that year, and finally made a breakthrough.

On June 4, 1907, a new era of revolution in the history of the world's army arrived, and the Beiyang Ordnance Heavy Industry of the Chinese Empire finally completed the world's first armored fighting vehicle, which was finalized as the M07 infantry armored fighting vehicle, which opened up the era of mechanization of the army.

(To be continued)