Just when the representative of the Jiangnan Mining Company temporarily acted as a diplomat and then lobbied the top level in Chile, the representative of the Pacific Trading Company also directly approached the Chilean delegation in the United Kingdom, and as soon as he opened his mouth, we could build the most powerful warships in the world, and we could also build the best warships for Chile.

The representatives of the Pacific Trading Company praised the shipbuilding industry of the empire to the sky, and the Chiyou-class battleships were even more praised by them in the sky and on the earth, and they did not forget to bring out the naval battle at the mouth of the Pearl River many years ago: We sank the large ironclad ship of more than 6,000 tons of the British with a little guy of more than 1,000 tons.

Although the boasting component is very serious, it is also a fact that the empire can build 10,000-ton ironclad ships, and the Chileans also know that two days ago the Argentines bought four ironclad ships from China, and two of them are still more than 1,800 tons of big guys.

The expansion of the Argentine side's naval strength was also the main factor in the Chilean Navy's decision on the two ironclad ships.

In 1871, after Argentina returned home with two ironclad ships purchased from the Empire, it caused a great reaction from South American countries, and Chile soon passed a resolution to purchase two ironclad ships, and to purchase ironclad ships that were larger and more powerful than Argentine ironclad ships.

Argentina is also Chile's main rival, and since Argentina, the enemy, has purchased warships from China, it is naturally impossible for them to ignore the imperial warships and shop around.

The Chilean side also agreed, and after the delegation was in the UK, it would go to China for inspection.

As soon as the news was confirmed, the Pacific Trading Company sent a notice to the relevant shipyards in the country, asking them to prepare for the inspection.

Two orders for ocean-going ironclads of more than 3,000 tons. This order is enough for domestic shipyards to put their best efforts into competing for orders.

Foreign trade orders for ordnance make money, and foreign trade orders for battleships are even more profitable.

An ironclad ship of more than 3,000 tons. Its profits can definitely make people's mouths water.

Soon, several shipyards in the country, which they thought were sufficient, began to tailor designs for the Chilean Navy.

In July, a Chilean naval delegation arrived in Shanghai. In order to cooperate with domestic defense enterprises, the Imperial Navy did not put on the appearance of being an uncle, but cooperated with domestic defense enterprises very happily, and even held a small-scale maritime exercise for the Chilean Navy inspection team.

Among them, the strongest warship of the Imperial Navy, the Chiyou-class battleship that embodies the strength of the Imperial shipbuilding industry, plays the role of a signboard.

The Chileans looked at the Chiyou-class battleships, and naturally sighed differently, of course, it was impossible to scare them, and they had also seen 10,000-ton ironclad ships in the UK. And the British have more 10,000-ton ironclad ships.

After they sighed, they were most concerned about what kind of design plan the empire would come up with.

Chile has previously informed the Chinese side of some of their requirements for warships.

They required that the battleship must be equipped with more than six large-caliber guns, have no less than eight inches of armor, have a speed of no less than 12 knots, and have a cruising range of more than 1,500 nautical miles under pure steam power.

Of course, these data requirements are minimal, and in fact, in order to get an order from Chile, the performance requirements must exceed these minimum requirements, and the cost must not be lower than that of the British.

In order to compete for orders from Chile. Several large shipyards in China are also showing their own powers, and the main shipyards participating in the bidding are Shanghai Shipyard, Qingdao Naval Shipyard, Guangzhou Shipyard, Tianjin Shipyard, and Songhu Shipyard, all of which are shipyards with experience in manufacturing warships of more than 3,000 tons.

The first to propose the design plan was the private Songhu Shipyard, whose strength is relatively weak among the domestic shipyards. So I hope to strike as soon as possible and win the goodwill of the Chileans.

The design they proposed was based on the Guilin-class dome cruiser in China, and the tonnage was expanded to 3,200 tons. The armor thickness and firepower were appropriately strengthened, for example, the original Guilin-class dome cruiser only had a 200 mm main gun. But they were strengthened to two 200-mm guns.

But when this design was sent to the Chileans, they saw that there were only two 200-millimeter guns. Immediately it was vetoed.

In this bidding, several domestic shipyards have obviously fallen into a certain misunderstanding, first of all, they use their previous experience to design warships, in the past experience, the tonnage of 3,000 tons is the tonnage of cruisers, and the cruisers of the empire have always been not strong in firepower, focusing on speed and endurance, and seaworthiness. Protection and firepower are just passable.

This is not to say that this kind of cruiser is bad, in fact, the cruisers of Britain, France and other powerful countries are basically like this, why?

Because for the naval powers, cruisers of two or three thousand tons are used to escort ships and show force, and they have never been expected to be able to participate in decisive battles on the battle line.

Therefore, the focus is not on protection performance and firepower, but on speed, endurance, and seaworthiness.

Although the empire does not have many overseas colonies and no shipping routes to protect, the cruisers of the imperial navy are still similar to those of other naval powers.

It is no longer the most desirable thing for the Imperial Navy to build a capital ship of two or three thousand tons on the spot, make it into an ironclad ship like the early Pangu-class or Yandi-class, and then send it to the battle line to participate in the decisive battle.

But the navies of other countries, they are not like this.

For Argentina, Chile, and Brazil, which have no industrial base and whose national strength hovers behind the third rate, warships of two or three thousand tons are already their main ships.

The 1,800-ton offshore ironclad ship purchased by Argentina last time is undoubtedly the capital ship.

This time, the warships that the Chileans wanted to procure also belonged to the category of capital ships for them.

Therefore, protection performance and firepower are the two priorities, and other speed, endurance and seaworthiness are secondary.

They want capital ships that can participate in decisive battles and threaten the enemy's large ships, not cruisers that can run thousands of nautical miles!

So in this context. The Shanghai shipyard's tailor-made design for the Chileans has won the favor of the Chileans.

The design of the Shanghai shipyard was not very new, and it was even different from the style of warships that the Imperial Navy had always pursued.

The main difference is: The layout of the naval guns they adopted was a staggered layout on the left and right sides, that is, the same layout as the later Dingyuan-class ironclad ships. This kind of naval gun layout has already appeared on the British side, and that is the Indomitable with the Big Top Top.

And the layout of this naval gun has a very obvious characteristic of the times, that is, this naval gun layout is based on the naval tactical thinking of facing the enemy at the bow of the ship.

This gun layout has two turrets that can concentrate all fire forward or backward at the same time.

However, it also has obvious drawbacks, that is, the flank fire is relatively weak, and in most cases only one turret can be used against the enemy.

But the Imperial Navy rarely used this layout of naval guns, why?

Because the Imperial Navy did not pursue the idea of bowing to the enemy, although it also developed the bow to the enemy in the early years, and even installed an angle of attack on some warships. However, in recent years, the empire has been very hesitant to choose whether to choose a column or a horizontal formation, which can be seen from the diamond-shaped turret layout of the main battleship of the imperial navy.

This is a turret layout that takes into account the V-shaped tactic, column and horizontal formation, and can concentrate the fire of at least three turrets when facing the enemy in the bow, and the same can be concentrated in the fire of three turrets if it is facing the enemy on the flank.

That is, the layout of such a diamond-shaped turret is very balanced!

However, not every country hesitated between the two and then chose a compromise in the same way that the Imperial Navy did with its navy.

The Chilean Navy recognized the tactics of the bow against the enemy. When they were in England, the most satisfying design was the design of the central gun house, and the specific gun layout was very interesting, with six guns deployed in the central gun house. However, the gun chamber is not round or square, but has an angled tilt.

The gun room near the bow of the ship was relatively small in width and larger in the rear. Therefore, when the bow of the ship is on the ground, it is possible to exert the fire power of four guns.

And when facing the enemy on the flank. It is possible to play three guns, as for the rear fire. There were only two guns.

Now the Shanghai shipyard proposed an alternate layout of left and right, in the case of four main guns, it is possible to concentrate the fire of four main guns in the bow or stern direction.

And more importantly, these four guns turned out to be 250 mm rear-loading guns, and these four main guns immediately caught the eyes of the Chileans, and then they could not be moved.

This is a ten-inch naval gun, and it is also the most advanced steel breech-loading rifled gun, coupled with the unique closed turret design of the Chinese Empire, its combat effectiveness is very strong in this era.

Of course, the price of this kind of artillery and turret is also bargaining, but it still can't stop the Chilean people's expectations.

At the beginning, the design scheme of the Shanghai shipyard was evolved from the early second-class ironclad Kuafu, and the design tonnage reached 4,600 tons.

But the price of a warship is basically proportional to the displacement, and the Chileans cannot afford to buy a warship of such a large tonnage, which is already seriously beyond their budget.

Immediately, it means whether this tonnage can be reduced and whether the price can be reduced again.

Then they also said very directly, the speed, endurance or something is passable, as long as the four main guns are on top, the main protection capacity is not reduced, then please reduce the cost as much as possible.

The buyers of the battleship are all uncles, even if it is a strange request shipyard here will agree, cut a knife in speed, another cut in endurance, and by the way, the armor is also reduced, at the beginning the design is a steel-faced iron armor belt, which is too expensive for the Chileans, so they changed back to wrought iron, and by the way, they cut the thickness.

Then, at the request of the Chileans, the sails were fitted to enhance the endurance.

After such a toss, the battleship designers of the empire were heartbroken, and they tossed a good work like this.

But after such a toss, the effect is also very obvious.

Compared with the original design, the tonnage and cost are greatly reduced, but the four main guns on the top have not changed.

In the end, the ironclad was designed to weigh 4,200 tons, with a sloping turret layout and two twin 250 mm guns, a number of 150 mm and 80 mm secondary guns, and a number of Gatling guns.

The armor was of wrought iron and varied in thickness from one hundred and ten millimeters to two hundred and twenty millimeters.

The power system adopts an inverted cylinder steam engine with a power of 3,300 horsepower, a maximum speed of 11.5 knots and a cruising range of 1,000 nautical miles. However, there is also a sail system, and if you use a sail, the cruising range will be greatly increased.

In addition, although the ship has full speed and short cruising range under steam power, it is a typical ocean-going vessel, and the side of the ship is not the low freeboard common for modern capital ships, but the ordinary freeboard.

After the Chileans got this design, they couldn't help but get entangled, they were very satisfied with this ship, it was very in line with their strategic requirements, but even if the tonnage was reduced and the cost was reduced, the price was still expensive, much more expensive than the more than 3,600-ton central artillery room battleship sold by the British. (To be continued.) )