After learning that the USS Washington had hit a mine and sank, the Southern Union Navy was in a wail, and since then it has completely lost the courage and strength to challenge the Northern Navy, and can only passively defend the last bit of coastline.

And the Northern Navy was naturally ecstatic, although it was not the Washington that sank in a dignified manner, but the Washington was sunk anyway, and this was a great joy for the Northern Navy.

You must know that in the past few months, the Washington has put a lot of pressure on the Northern Navy, even more so than the British Navy was put on the British Navy by the Bismarck in World War II.

Because the Bismarck is certainly powerful, but the British Navy has warships that can compete with it, and there are quite a few.

But what about the Washington, its speed, firepower and protection, can be said to be invincible in North America, and only the main ironclad ships of Britain, France and China can surpass it in comprehensive performance.

Otherwise, the Americans would not have gathered a number of warships, trying to rely on quantity to make up for the lack of quality to encircle and suppress the Washington, and more importantly, eight battleships surrounded and suppressed the Washington, and they sank one ironclad ship, two wooden ships on the spot, and two other battleships were seriously injured, and the remaining three ships were also wounded, although they sank a wooden battleship of the Confederate Navy and severely damaged another wooden battleship, which also smashed the superstructure of the Washington. But in the end, it didn't do much damage to the Washington.

If the Washington is allowed to return to port, it will be able to recover in less than half a month, and it will be able to fight again after replenishing the sailors.

Now that Washington has sunk with a mine, the Northern Navy is greatly relieved, and if the Washington continues to wander like this, although a single warship alone cannot restore the overall disadvantage of the Southern Union. But it will also cause great trouble for the United States of the North.

From the acceptance and commissioning of the USS Washington by the US Confederate Navy in September last year to its sinking today, the entire process was only a short period of more than eight months, and six of them were on the way home from hiding, and the time to actually return to the United States to fight the war was only a short period of more than two months.

However, his short career did not affect the legend of the USS Washington!

There is no doubt that the USS Washington sank the most enemy ships in the American Civil War. One of the most famous battleships!

Some information about the USS Washington also quickly spread around the world, and the most direct impact was that for the first time, countries around the world faced up to the shipbuilding capabilities of the Chinese Empire.

Although the shipbuilding circles and naval figures of Britain, France, and other countries generally believe that the ironclad ships of the Chinese Empire are average in performance and too small in tonnage, and they cannot be compared with those ironclad ships of six or seven thousand tons or even nearly 10,000 tons at every turn in Britain and France, they also have to admit that the ironclad ships manufactured by the Chinese Empire have caught up with the trend of the world.

What is lacking is a large-tonnage ironclad!

At the same time, they also raised the threat of the Ironclad ships currently owned by the Imperial Navy and are being built in the future!

The British Navy was the quickest to respond. Although there is no war with the Chinese Empire at present, no one knows when the war will start these years, so it is most important to be prepared, and the British Navy sent two ironclad ships to the Indian fleet to strengthen the Indian fleet.

The British Navy has always been a sharp knife hanging over the head of the Imperial Navy, and every move of the British Royal Navy will cause a great reaction from the Imperial Navy.

It's not. When the diplomatic department first learned that Britain had sent two ironclads to the Indian Ocean, the Imperial Navy could not wait to place an order for two new ironclads.

Since last year. The Imperial Navy began to build the 4,000-ton Yandi-class ironclad ship, and its first and second ships had started construction in the second half of 1863 and February 1864, and its first ship was built by the Shanghai Shipyard, and the Shaohao, which was named the second ship, was built at the Qingdao Naval Shipyard.

This time, the Navy's order for two ironclad ships, although stimulated by the British and advanced by a few months, can still be regarded as the Navy's planned development plan for this year. According to the Navy's planned development plan, a larger-tonnage ocean-going capital ship was to be ordered and construction began in 1864, and a smaller tonnage ironclad ship would also be purchased.

After all, with the development of the Imperial Navy, the tonnage of capital ships is also increasing, from more than 1,000 tons to more than 2,000 tons. The two Yandi-class ships under construction have reached 4,000 tons, and the tonnage of the capital ships under construction this year will be larger, and it is basically foreseeable that the tonnage of the capital ships will be larger every year in the future, but it is impossible for the navy to have a fleet full of large-tonnage capital ships.

A mature navy, in addition to the capital ships used in decisive battles, must also have a variety of other auxiliary ships, such as cruisers, offshore river warships, and even transport ships.

Therefore, the two ironclad ships ordered in 1864 were not of the same type, but one large and the other small.

It is worth noting that the design of the ship is not a continuation and improvement of the original Yandi class, but a new design from scratch, with the intention of further optimizing the ship and adding a steam engine with higher horsepower to achieve higher speed.

The unnamed battleship, which is scheduled to be codenamed the 'Eight Year Armor', is actually a test ship, which will further test Linde Maschinen's new steam engine system, as well as pure steam power, enclosed turrets, and other new technologies that are still being studied.

Moreover, the construction period given by the Navy is also very long, it is scheduled to start construction in 1864, and if it goes well, it will be launched into service around 1868, and if it doesn't go well, it is estimated that it will be after 1870.

The reason why the construction time is long is because many new technologies are not mature, and even are still under development, such as a new generation of steam engines, you must know that the design speed of the eight-year armor ship is required to reach 14 knots, and this battleship has no sails, and it is necessary to rely on pure steam power to reach 14 knots, which is not low, and the tonnage of this battleship has also reached 5,000 tons, and the test of hull design is also higher.

Furthermore. With the expansion of the hull, the navy demanded that the battleship be equipped with at least 250 mm caliber main guns, instead of the previous 150 mm guns.

Otherwise, it would be a big ship carrying a toothpick cannon, and it would make no sense at all.

Therefore, the ship is a test ship, and the construction period is expected to be very long, and ordinary shipyards are naturally unwilling to occupy their own docks for so long. At present, the Qingdao Naval Shipyard is already building two 10,000-ton docks, and it is expected that its first 10,000-ton dock will be put into use in August, and with this large dock, it will be able to undertake the construction of these large-tonnage warships of more than 5,000 tons.

Once this experimental warship is successful, then the follow-up navy will immediately launch the plan of a 10,000-ton giant ship, and then build a 10,000-ton giant ship that is comparable to the naval powers of Britain and France.

However, the construction of this kind of experimental ship is very long, and the navy cannot wait like this forever, so it will continue to order smaller tonnage. Technologically mature ironclads.

This is the follow-up model of the Pangu-class ironclad ship, since the Pangu-class ironclad ship was put into service, the Imperial Navy is very satisfied with this kind of warship with moderate tonnage, but the performance is quite good in all aspects, and the construction period of the ironclad ship with a tonnage of only more than 2,000 tons is relatively short, two years is basically enough, and the cost is also cheap, as long as about 130,000 pounds can be taken.

Therefore, the naval side is based on the Pangu class. The design was partially optimized, and the tonnage did not change much. As long as some details have been changed, in order to control the cost, the original artillery and steam engines are still used, so although there are some internal changes, the appearance and basic performance have not changed much, so the navy is simply classified as the Pangu class, called the third ship of the Pangu class.

However, there are still differences between this No. 3 ship and the previous two.

Before those 10,000-ton giant ships entered service. The main force of the Imperial Navy will still be these warships of more than 2,000 tons or 4,000 tons.

At least in the sixties, the main force of the Imperial Navy will still be these ironclad ships of more than 2,000 tons to 4,000 tons.

However, the construction of large-tonnage offshore ironclad ships has stopped, and since the Imperial Navy built two Female Snail-class offshore ironclad ships, it has not had much interest in this kind of 'battery battleship' that has no speed and no range.

Instead, he began to design some small-tonnage ironclad ships for coastal and inland river operations. In this year's plan. A small ironclad ship with a tonnage of about 300 tons will be designed and built to be used as a new generation of inland river and offshore gunboats for the Navy.

After all, it is now 1864, and many small wooden gunboats built during the fifties, such as the Xingwu-class gunboats, have been unable to meet the needs of the navy, and the service intensity of these ships in the early years is generally very large, and the early Chinese shipbuilding capacity is honestly not good, and the ships manufactured did not see any disadvantages earlier, but the aging of the hull was very serious, and there was even a Xingwu-class gunboat in service in 1854 encountered wind and waves during the voyage, And then it turned out to be a matter of the rupture and sinking of the hull directly.

The navy has decided to retire all the remaining dozen or so Xingwu-class gunboats before 1870, and build a new generation of small gunboats to replace them, and with the development of the times, after entering the seventies, the two subsequent wooden gunboats of the Xingwu-class will not be able to meet the needs of the navy, and will be retired one after another.

When these wooden gunboats are decommissioned, the gunboats in the navy will be composed of all ironclad ships.

And it is not only the Xingwu-class gunboats that have begun to be decommissioned, but also several early wooden warships in the navy.

For example, the two warships converted from foreign merchant ships purchased in the early years were already converted into armed transport ships a few years ago, but now due to the aging of the hulls, they are no longer even qualified to act as armed transport ships, and the navy has decided to retire these two converted merchant ships this year.

The condition of the remaining four wooden gunboats with larger tonnage is also not very good, the annual maintenance cost is relatively high, and they are still steam paddle ships, so they are also ready to be converted into auxiliary ships such as transport ships one after another, and they will be decommissioned one after another in a few years.

After all, the ships of the steam paddle wheel are already at the technical level of the thirties and forties, and they are already obsolete goods in various countries, and even if they are preserved, they have become auxiliary ships, etc., or they simply upgrade their technology, convert the paddle wheel into a dark wheel, and at the same time install a steam engine with greater power.

However, the problem arises again, it is now the era of ironclad ships, and even the gunboat empire is already ready to build and adopt ironclad ships, and the conversion value of this wooden battleship is actually quite limited.

If these wooden battleships were all thousands of tons of big guys, then the navy would still be tempted, but these large tonnage wooden gunboats owned by the Imperial Navy are all small guys of four hundred tons and five hundred tons.

If the technology is upgraded and refitted, the price is really not worth it, so the navy has not carried out technical upgrading and transformation of them at all, and is ready to change them to armed transport ships and use them as auxiliary ships, and after a few years, when the number of auxiliary ships in the navy increases, they will be directly decommissioned.

Although the empire's military expenditure is a lot, most of it is taken away by the army, and the navy only takes a small head, and this part of the funds has to continue to invest in the construction of new warships, expand ports and other infrastructure, and maintain the size of the fleet, which is very tight.

Therefore, some things that obviously have no conversion value should be discarded, and the few funds of the Navy will be wasted.

On the other hand, the multi-ton and thousand-ton wooden dark wheel cruisers, their value is greater, and it is impossible to retire them now, so they will serve until the seventies, and even in order to ensure the size of the fleet, it is estimated that they will serve in the second-tier fleet until the eighties.

As for their modifications, that is, after 1870, it is too early to say.

At present, the warships that the Navy has eliminated and refitted are mainly early warships, especially those built before the establishment of the Empire, and these warships built under backward and immature technology are actually of considerable value. (To be continued.) )