The navy is notoriously expensive, and the replacement of warships in the past twenty or thirty years is too fast, and many times the battleships are still on the slipway, which is already outdated, which leads to the fact that the life of the warships in these years is actually very short.

In later generations, a warship can serve for more than ten or twenty years, and it will not lag too far behind, and it can still act as the main force.

But not in this era, this is not to say that the quality of the current warships is poor, and they will be dilapidated and unusable after a few years of service, but the technology is developing too fast, and the time period for a battleship to act as a capital ship is only about three to five years, and after more than five years, it will basically become second-rate.

The most obvious example of this is the British's Warrior, which has been in service for five or six years and has already undergone large-scale mid-term improvements.

This can be seen from the thickness of the armor of the battleship, around 1860, the armor thickness of the main ironclad ship was only 4.5 inches, but after 1870, the first-class ironclad ship did not have a twelve-inch thick wrought iron armor belt, and they were embarrassed to say that you were a new ship.

If we follow the historical development, in a few years, it will be steel-faced armor, and then hardened armor (Harvey armor, Krupp armor).

From wooden armor to wooden armor outside wrought iron, to teak wrought iron hybrid armor, steel-faced armor, hardened armor, just the armor has changed so much.

And then there are other technological advances, naval guns from front-loading rifled guns, to rear-loading rifled guns, and then medium-caliber rapid-fire guns, and the barrels of large-caliber main guns are getting longer and longer, the caliber is getting larger and larger, and the performance is becoming more and more advanced.

There is also gunpowder, ranging from traditional black powder to maroon gunpowder to picric acid and TN'T.

The power plant changed from the early horizontal reciprocating type, to the high and low reciprocating type, and then to the three-expansion type. The steam turbine behind it was a technology that was only used on a large scale after the twentieth century, so let's not talk about it now.

The boiler has also changed from a fire-tube boiler to a water-tube boiler, and even if it is a fire-tube boiler, the water boiled in it has changed from seawater to pure water.

Too many technological breakthroughs occurred in the mid-to-late nineteenth century.

The rapid development of technology has directly led to the obsolescence of warships of the navies of various countries. When it was on the slipway, it was already outdated, and after three or five years of official service, it was basically killed by those new warships, and had to take a back seat or carry out major upgrades and modifications.

In such an era when the speed of warship replacement is so fast, it also means that the cost of using warships is very high, like maintaining a large-scale fleet, and it is necessary to ensure that the capital ships in the fleet are the latest warships, which is not an ordinary financial pressure.

These situations are clear not only to Lin Zhe, but also to the top admirals of the Navy. They are little brothers compared to the Road Bureau, and the military expenses that the army can get are incomparable to the navy.

How to maintain a fleet that has always been as large and advanced as possible under limited funds is what many admirals think about day and night.

This consideration is directly reflected in the design of the new warships of the Imperial Navy.

For example, in actual combat, the limitations of offshore ironclad ships are very large, and they are not a good choice to participate in the decisive battle of the fleet.

But the Imperial Navy sank after the Battle of the Snail. But he still chose to start the construction of an offshore ironclad ship again, which was for the Emperor. Moreover, this Emperor still continues some typical characteristics of the female snail-class ironclad, such as thick armor and relatively powerful firepower, but the speed and seaworthiness are not to mention.

The Diyu offshore ironclad ship, with a standard displacement of 2,500 tons, is comparable to the Pangu-class ironclad ship, but its length-to-width ratio is very low. At just over five o'clock, the stubby hull made it possible to lay a thick belt of armor, which was six to ten inches thick, and the front section of the turret was twelve inches, second only to the Chiyou class ironclad ships of the first class. And even superior to the armored cruisers that the Imperial Navy was planning to build.

In terms of firepower, it has four twin-twin 250-millimeter naval guns, and it is equipped with four 250-millimeter naval guns at a tonnage of 2,500 tons.

The thick armor and powerful firepower brought about the outrageously low speed of the Emperor, the design speed was only eight knots, the amount of coal carried was not much, and the endurance was only a pitiful thousand nautical miles, and it was basically impossible to come back if it ran far.

At the same time, due to the limited tonnage, it was equipped with a large thickness of armor and naval guns, which caused the center of gravity of the ship to be too high, and in order to lower the center of gravity, it had to adopt a low freeboard.

When the waves are strong, the sea water will easily swell up, and in the event of a storm, it is estimated that it will sink while running.

The low freeboard design is a common practice of the navies of various countries after 1866, and the British, French and Imperial navies, the newly designed main ironclad ships or offshore ironclad ships are all low freeboard, and the Chiyou class first-class ironclad ships are typical of them.

The navies of various countries are not unaware of the risks of low freeboard, but in the face of thicker and thicker armor, in order to smash these turtle shells, the main guns of the capital ships of various countries are directly running nine inches and ten inches, and they all like to be equipped with multiple main guns, so such heavy artillery will inevitably cause the center of gravity to be unstable.

It can be said that the low freeboard design is a common choice made by the navies of various countries after weighing the pros and cons, and it is better to have poor seaworthiness than to let the enemy sink it.

Due to limited funds, the Imperial Navy chose to continue to build offshore ironclad ships to strengthen its strategic defense capability.

At the same time, the emergence of armored cruisers, of course, has a strategic choice, but it is also due to the lack of funding for the Navy.

An armored cruiser is cheaper than an ironclad of the first rank anyway, and the protection and firepower of this armored cruiser can also be directly on the battle line to participate in the decisive battle of the fleet, and at the same time, the armored cruiser can go out to the ocean to hunt the enemy's transport fleet.

In this way, the same warship can perform more than two strategic missions, not only has greater flexibility in tactical choice, but also has a considerable cost performance in its use.

The continued large-scale construction of the Zhenguang-class and subsequent offshore gunboats is also a manifestation of the lack of military spending of the Imperial Haiju.

After all, if the Imperial Navy had sufficient funds, there would still be these cheap goods, and it would be enough to build dozens of cruisers or two or three thousand tons of ironclad ships, so why not let a small offshore gunboat like the Zhenguang class serve as a daily patrol mission.

The current strategy of the Imperial Navy is complex and complicated, but it is simple to say. That is to build and maintain a fleet of about six first-class ironclads, and then to build and maintain about the same number of second-class ironclads \ first-class cruisers, and the above-mentioned main fleet of first-class ironclads and second-class ironclads \ first-class cruisers is the backbone of the Imperial Navy, to deter potential enemies, and if necessary, to fight a decisive battle with the enemy fleet!

On this premise. Other warships can be saved, and they tend to use some warships that are cheaper to use, because other warships, including those protected cruisers or unprotected cruisers, offshore gunboats, etc., are used more frequently, so this life cycle cost is a very important consideration.

At the same time, there are many requirements for the number of second-class warships, so the cost needs to be kept low, mass production as much as possible, and the use of mature technology.

The last few months of 1867. Lin Zhe has devoted a considerable part of his time to the development of the navy, although he will not personally intervene in the development of the navy, but he has always paid attention to the development of the navy to ensure that the development of the navy will not deviate too much.

In January 1868, the navy finally ended the various debates about the second-class ironclad ship that lasted for more than a year, and finally determined the design plan, that is, the first-class cruiser scheme of Hu Licai.

In fact, the reason why the Navy decided in January was the controversy between the second-class ironclad ship and the first-class cruiser, and made the final selection. This is because the No. 4 dock, the main factory of the Shanghai Shipyard, has been expanded.

Although there were many shipyards in the empire, there were not many slipways that could build large-tonnage ships. At present, there are only 12 slipways that can be built with more than 5,000 tons, and only 3 slipways with 10,000 tons.

In order to solve the problem of insufficient large-tonnage slipways, the navy actively encourages major shipbuilders to expand their infrastructure, and even gives certain subsidies, and now the new 20,000-ton dock of Guangzhou Shipbuilding and the second 15,000-ton dock of the Baoshan Branch of Shanghai Shipyard are being built.

Shipyards are also expanding some of the existing large slipways to accommodate larger tonnage vessels. For example, the original two 5,000-ton docks of the Shanghai Shipyard have been of this class one after another, and in 1866, in order to undertake the construction of the Houyi second-class ironclad ship, the No. 3 dock of the factory was expanded, but the expansion scale was not large.

It was only last year that the No. 4 dock at the Shanghai shipyard was vacated. Instead of continuing to build new ships, it has invested funds to upgrade, and it is expected to expand the original design of 5,000 tons to 8,000 tons, and if it were not for some hardware restrictions, it is estimated that it can be directly expanded to 10,000 tons.

After half a year of upgrading construction, the dock has been officially completed and can be rebuilt for warships.

The navy has been waiting for this slipway for a long time, and after this slipway is available, it is naturally impossible for the navy to argue endlessly, and soon Lin Dabiao, the chief of the navy who does not understand warships, personally decided to build an armored cruiser first, and gave it the official classification of a first-class cruiser.

The cruiser of the first class, named Chang'e, had a design displacement of 7,500 tons, six 250 mm guns and a number of secondary guns, a steam engine with an output of 6,200 horsepower, a maximum speed of 16 knots, a cruising range of 3,000 nautical miles, armor thickness ranging from 4.5 inches to 8 inches, and a reinforced 12-inch armor belt on the front of the conning tower and turret.

The battleship is expected to be officially laid in March 1868, and the entire construction period is similar to that of a first-class ironclad ship, and it is estimated that it will take almost three years to complete the hull construction and then launch, and it will take almost a year to outfit and sea trials, and it is estimated that it will take about four years to enter the navy service.

That is to say, under normal circumstances, Chang'e would not enter naval service until 1872, and the intended combat target of the ship was actually not the warships of various countries in the sixties, but the warships of various countries that would be commissioned seventy years later.

After receiving the order contract for Chang'e, the Shanghai shipyard quickly started the preliminary work and began to dispatch technicians and workers to station.

After Song Chaojiang came out of the headquarters building of the Shanghai shipyard, his spirit was a little dazed, and now he can't believe that he has been appointed by the headquarters as the project director of the navy's new warship.

Song Chaojiang's mood is quite excited now, who can be comparable to him, a young man who is only less than thirty years old, can defeat several other senior candidates, and select the general manager of the project of the new warship!

Song Chaojiang was also one of the students who stayed in the camp in his early years, but he did not learn to build ships, but mechanics, and after returning to China, he entered the Shanghai shipyard by chance, but what he did was not technical work, but engineering management.

He started step by step, and gradually climbed up in the past two years, and has been responsible for the project management of many ships, and before taking over as the project general manager of the new warship, he was the deputy project manager of the Baoshan branch.

The person in charge is the specific construction of the first-class ironclad ship Fengbo!

Song Chaojiang didn't know that the reason why he was selected by the Shanghai Shipyard headquarters as the general manager of the project of the new warship was because there were really no good candidates on the headquarters side.

Although the other candidates have relatively deep qualifications and age, their abilities are really worrying, and it is okay to let them be responsible for the construction of ordinary merchant ships or small and medium-sized warships, but let them be in charge of the project of a new capital ship like Chang'e, and several persons in charge of the Shanghai shipyard are still a little uneasy.

Although Song Chaojiang is younger and less qualified, he is a person who has studied and has a good understanding of modern engineering management, otherwise he would not have been promoted to the deputy manager of the Fengbo project in just a few years.

As for not understanding the design of the battleship, it doesn't matter, the naval officers of the Ministry of Shipbuilding are naturally worried about the design of the battleship, and the shipyard only needs to build according to the drawings, and it is not the design ability that tests the shipyard, but the construction ability.

Therefore, the requirement for the general manager of the project is that you can not understand shipbuilding, but the project management ability must be passed, and the technicians and workers must be organized to carry out the construction and build it in the shortest possible time.

If the construction is overdue, it will not be so easy for the navy to settle at that time.

Overdue construction will cause costs to rise, and when the time comes, either the shipyard will lose money or the navy will have to pay more money, and at that time, it will not be a good thing for the shipyard management.

Shanghai Shipyard is a royal enterprise, and those executives are directly under the jurisdiction of the Royal Asset Management Office, and if this is not done well, they will be directly ousted.

Song Chaojiang got into the carriage with excitement, and when the horses moved forward and pulled the two-wheeled carriage forward, he still did not calm down. (To be continued.) )