Although it has been open for more than ten years, the development of Shanghai has always been strictly dependent on entrepot trade, before Lin Zhe founded the trade zone and vigorously supported industrial development, although there were a few factories opened by Chinese and foreigners in Shanghai county and concessions, but they were all very small in scale, which can only be said to be handicraft workshops, not factories at all.

This situation also exists in the shipbuilding industry, although there are many shipyards in Shanghai and the surrounding areas, but they are very backward in terms of technical capabilities, and can only build some small-tonnage wooden-hulled sailing ships.

After the opening of the trade zone, thanks to the independent administrative power of the trade zone and Lin Zhe's strong support for industry and commerce, many foreign and Chinese businessmen have opened factories in the trade zone, including a shipyard, which is called Hongkou Shipyard in Chinese.

However, the original owner of the factory, an American businessman, had to sell the shipyard, which was still under construction, to pay off its debts due to the bankruptcy of the shipyard due to the collapse of funds during the construction of the factory.

When Lin Zhe learned about it last year, he immediately gave Pan Lixuan instructions to let Lin's firm raise funds to acquire the factory.

Since Lin Zhe took charge of Shanghai last year, he has been preparing for the Navy Battalion, which shows that his intention to form a navy is very strong, and if he wants to form a navy, there will be warships.

It is not a matter that battleships have always been purchased from outside, not to mention that it is difficult to buy them, and it is often impossible to buy good goods.

When the Qing court tried to form a navy for the first time in history, it was cheated at least one million taels of silver, and in the end Mao didn't get it, which was the Aspen fleet incident.

Now that Britain and France are preparing to start a war with the Qing court, even if Lin Zhe has a good relationship with foreigners, at most he can only buy weapons such as guns and cannons, and as for those huge professional warships, they will not be so easy to sell to you.

If you just want to buy a sailboat, or a steam paddle ship merchant ship, and then convert it as a warship, the problem is not big, but the key is that these merchant ships are converted into future warships at most armed merchant ships, whether it is cost-effective or combat effectiveness, there is a huge gap between professional warships.

To develop the navy from scratch, although it is necessary to purchase advanced foreign warships to solve the problem of whether there is a problem, it is also necessary to develop the shipbuilding industry on its own.

It must be purchased and manufactured. Walk on both legs at the same time!

That's why Lin Zhe asked Lin's firm to raise funds to buy the shipyard.

However, it is a modern shipyard with a lot of equipment, and although it is small in scale and has not yet been built, the purchase amount is more than tens of thousands of taels.

What's more important is that if it is to be completely completed, it will have to invest at least 20,000 taels of silver in the future, which will add up to at least 50,000 taels or more.

Although the Lin firm is among the many Chinese businessmen in the business area, its strength can be regarded as the middle and upper reaches. But in fact, due to the large-scale investment in the machine qì silk reeling factory, and was forced to invest in the Linde Machinery Factory according to Lin Zhe's instructions, it has caused the capital chain of Lin's firm to be extremely tight.

After reluctantly finding two Chinese businessmen with good relations to raise 20,000 taels to acquire the Hongkou Shipyard, the follow-up funds for the continuation of the construction could not be scraped up.

At this time, Lin Zhe had to find Yu Shengjun, the big financier, for the Lin firm!

Speaking of who is the real big money owner in the business district. There is no doubt that it must be Yu Shengjun!

Although Yu Shengjun is an army, it has thousands of acres of land in the trade zone, and the value of these lands is almost immeasurable, and at the same time, Yu Shengjun can also get more than 100,000 taels of military expenses from the Jianghai Customs and the Yamen of the trade zone every month, and the funds in his hands can be said to be very sufficient.

In order to support the Linde Machinery Factory, Yu Shengjun smashed down 100,000 taels of silver, and this time after Lin Zhe spoke, Yu Shengjun once again used the purchase advance to give financial support to Hongkou Shipyard.

When Yu Shengjun's Ordnance Bureau gave 30,000 taels of silver to the so-called 'advance payment for building ships', Hongkou Shipyard was able to continue to purchase a large amount of shipbuilding equipment and continue to build the shipyard. It was completed at the end of 1854.

After the completion of the shipyard, the Hongkou Shipyard was officially renamed the 'Shanghai Shipyard' by Lin Zhe, and began to accept repairs and build all kinds of ships, thanks to the use of advanced on-board equipment, not only to build sail warships, but also to build steam ships.

After it was put into operation, the plant has successively built three paddle steamers of less than 300 tons.

And at the beginning of 1855, the 400-ton sail battleship Zhenshao of the Yushengjun Navy Battalion was modified with steam power, and the Zhenshao was equipped with steam power to be driven by paddle wheels.

Of course, the steam engine used in the shipyard is not domestic. It was a steam engine purchased from a foreigner, and although the Linde Machinery Factory in the trade zone had claimed to have entered the ranks of repairing steam engines to manufacturing steam engines, in fact they had not even been able to build a prototype now, if they had to wait for a domestic steam engine to build a ship. It is estimated that the Year of the Monkey has gone.

Since the Shanghai shipyard had accepted an advance payment of up to 30,000 taels of silver for the construction of the ship, it was naturally not enough to help Yu Shengjun's sailor battalion renovate a steamship.

The battalion of sailors also offered them an order for a steamship battleship.

"The one we see now is the Zhenhu of our sailor battalion, which is under construction, with an estimated combat displacement of 500 tons, a wooden shell structure, and a sail-steam hybrid!" Lin Dabiao accompanied Lin Zhe and pointed to the construction on the dock. Unfinished Ship Paths:

"Due to the use of 160 horsepower steam, it is expected to reach a speed of more than eight knots when the sail is powered by a pure engine!"

"We expect to install four 32-pounder cannons and one 68-pounder short-barreled howitzer on the ship!"

Hearing this, Lin Zhe said: "Can you fit so many cannons? Won't sailing be top-heavy when the time comes? ”

Hearing Lin Zhe say this suddenly, Lin Dabiao was also stunned, to be honest, he really didn't expect Lin Zhe to say this, in his influence, Lin Zhe shouldn't know much about naval warships and the like, not to mention asking questions about the center of gravity.

He immediately said: "Although limited by the small tonnage, the problem of poor seaworthiness will be caused by the difficulty of loading four 32-pound cannons, but our sailor battalion has also carefully considered that our sailor battalion mainly operates on the Yangtze River and the coast, and will not sail far seas in a short period of time. ”

Lin Zhe also nodded after hearing this: "Well, it's a good thing to know the trade-offs, we started late, our family is thin, don't think about everything, my requirements for the sailor camp are not high." But it is very clear that in the future, it will have the ability to defend against enemy sailors in the Yangtze River and the surrounding coastal areas! ”

Immediately, the group approached again, and several persons in charge of the Shanghai shipyard also specially took Lin Zhe and others to watch the steam engine that was about to be placed in the hull.

It looks shabby. But the steam engine with a hideous smell of steel all over his body, Lin Zhe looked around several times, and at this time everyone thought that Lin Zhe was shocked, but no one knew that Lin Zhe was muttering in his heart while watching.

"Just this thing, Linde Machinery Factory tried to make it several times but it didn't succeed. It seems that the stewards and managers of the family business house are too lazy, and they have to find an opportunity to beat them, otherwise they will have to build a steam engine in the year of the monkey! ”

In addition to seeing this steam engine, Lin Zhe also looked at several other ships in the Shanghai Shipyard by the way, one of which was under construction, and was even larger than the warships ordered by the sailor battalion, and it was said that it could reach more than 800 tons when fully loaded.

You also have a small steamer that has been built, the tonnage is not large, only more than 80 tons, this is an anti-smuggling ship ordered by the Jianghai Patrol Police Department. This kind of ship is actually a replica of an anti-smuggling ship ordered by the Jianghai Guard Police Department from foreigners last year.

Instead of using traditional sails, it is pure steam power, and it does not use paddle wheel drive, but adopts the most advanced dark wheel drive of our time, which has plenty of power and reminds that it is more slender, so it can easily run up to twelve knots.

After the Jianghai Patrol Department bought the ship, it felt that it was easy to use, so it asked the Shanghai shipyard if it could be copied, and the shipbuilding engineer in the shipyard specially hired from the British looked around and said that as long as you give money, you will be guaranteed to build the same or even better.

In these years, shipbuilding did not exist in the huge technological gap that would have been in place for decades. If it is a pure sail wooden boat, it does not need any advanced technology, at most it is a high labor cost of the craftsman who is not skilled and directed.

In the case of a steam-wood-hulled ship, the hull is simple. The technical difficulties are mainly in the steam engine, at least at present, there is no manufacturer in China that can produce the steam engine.

And the key is that this steam engine is not the shipyard's business, they are only responsible for building the shell and being responsible for assembly, and the steam engine is directly imported and purchased.

"This kind of ship is good, and the price is not high, and our sailor battalion is already negotiating with the shipyard. Let's see if we can let them carry out retrofitting of the artillery, and if we can, our naval battalion will also purchase a few. ”

"I think it's okay, for a long time in the future, the operations of your sailor battalion will be in inland rivers, and it is difficult for large ships with many streams in the south of the Yangtze River to penetrate into them, but this kind of small boat is good!" Lin Zhe continued:

"Last year, our army continued to fight along the shores of Taihu Lake, and the large warships of the Navy Division Battalion could not be sent, but only some old-style small boats could be sent, which was not allowed in the subsequent battles that might break out.

Because Yu Shengjun is scheduled to break out for a long time in the future, the areas where war is scheduled to break out are still in northern Zhejiang and southern Jiangsu, and although these two places have dense water networks, in fact, except for the Yangtze River, it is difficult for other places to navigate those large ships of several hundred tons or even thousands of tons, and some small boats between tens and hundreds of tons are the ships that are most suitable for the operations of these small rivers.

After Lin Zhe visited the shipyard, the sailor camp reached an order agreement with the Shanghai shipyard, proposing to purchase five 80-ton pure steam dark steamers.

Because the Navy Battalion was in a hurry, the Shanghai Shipyard directly converted a ship that had been given to the Jianghai Patrol and handed it over to the Navy Battalion, and the Navy Battalion purchased a 12-pounder cannon from the Linde Machinery Factory and installed it and named it Xingwu.

Since there are as many as five ships of the same class, this class of ships is also called the Xingwu-class gunboat.

The refit and sea trials of the Xingwu progressed quite quickly, and it was officially commissioned in June 1855, and two months later, the second ship, Xingchun, was also commissioned, and the subsequent three ships were also delivered and commissioned in the second half of 1855.

With the commissioning of the Xingwu-class inland river gunboats, the Yusheng Army Naval Division Battalion got rid of the embarrassment of having several warships of several hundreds of tons in the past, but could not go to the Taihu Lake basin to fight.

These five gunboats have just been commissioned, and they have been sent to serve in the Taihu Lake basin to control the water safety of Huzhou and Suzhou.

Just when Lin Zhe was immersed in the expansion of the army training and the reorganization and development of the trade zone throughout 1855, the shape of the country continued to change, and Zeng Guofan, who had high hopes from the government and the opposition, was defeated by Shi Dakai in early 1855, and hated Jiujiang all the way to retreat, and soon after, the Taiping army conquered Wuchang again.

So far, the results of the Hunan army's campaign for more than a year have been lost, and Zeng Guofan had to retreat to Hunan with the remnants of the defeated army to lick his wounds and reorganize the army in order to fight again.

Immediately afterwards, Shi Dakai led the army from Hubei to Jiangxi, and fought successively, and it didn't take long for most of Jiangxi to fall under the control of the Taiping Army.

At this time, Lin Zhe's old opponent, Lin Chengting, who was wounded by Yu Shengjun in Guangde, survived, rebuilt his headquarters in southern Anhui and cooperated with Qin Rigang's eastward return to sweep the only remaining stronghold of the Qing army in southern Anhui, and then completely controlled the southern Anhui region.

Lin Chengting, who finally recovered his strength, did not go south to northern Zhejiang to find trouble with Lin Zhe this time, but instead led the army east to rescue Tianjing.

In March 1856, Lin Chengting led his newly formed army of 20,000 to win more with less, and it only took three days to defeat the Jiangnan camp of the Qing army outside Tianjing City!

When he learned that Lin Chengting had destroyed the Jiangnan camp that Xiang Rong had painstakingly built for three years in only three days, Lin Zhe didn't know what to say.

In addition to this, there is another news reported by the spies that has attracted Lin Zhe's attention even more, that is, Lin Chengting's 20,000 new troops are not only weapons, but also very similar to Yu Shengjun's tactics, and even the style of the military uniform is the same as Yu Shengjun's military uniform, the only difference is that Yu Shengjun's military uniform is dark blue, and theirs is blue-gray, but the specific style is definitely the same, and even the epaulettes on the shoulders are the same.

Looking at these, Lin Zhe couldn't help but feel depressed, this is plagiarism, **naked plagiarism! (To be continued.) )

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