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In 16o7, the Kingdom of England was founded in Jamestown, the first colony in Virginia in North America, and in the decades that followed, Jamestown was filled with joys and sorrows.

The saddest of all were famine and disease, from which the vast majority of migrants died in the first few years.

The most frightening thing was the haunting attack of the surrounding Indians, and the revenge of the Jamestown colonists against the revenge of the Indians lasted for almost a hundred years.

The most frightening thing is that people who completely crossed the limits of human nature in the years of starvation and unbearable hunger, and these historical records have long been not limited to rumors.

And the most annoying thing is the fire that cannot be prevented.

Captain Smith, Jamestown's earliest leader, witnessed a fire that was born in early 16o8. The fire inadvertently started by the colonists, who had only been settled for less than half a year, burned down most of their dwellings and supplies, leaving very few survivors of that year.

Captain Smith briefly wrote in his diary: "I have come to think that it is safer to live in a desolate Indian ghetto than this stockade. Fools often shoot their guns here, while others often burn down their yards at night. ”

Four years later, Captain Smith's views on American social security are still the same as they are today, and the headlines across the country are still dominated by two elements: guns and fires.

But Captain Smith's spitting was not enough to describe Jamestown's intimate relationship with the fire: the fire of 1612 nearly razed Jamestown to the ground; 1622 during the First Bohattan War. Jamestown was once again ignited by the neurotic militia, and half of the city was charred. A large amount of tobacco waiting for shipment to Europe was burned; In 1676, a man named Bacon in Jamestown rebelled against the Governor of Virginia, and Jamestown was again destroyed by fire and never recovered.

……

Wednesday, January 22, 1642.

The river island where Jamestown is located has become more and more severe due to river erosion in recent years, if it were not for the extensive application of cement building materials and wetland drainage engineering technology from Huamei. I'm afraid many neighborhoods will have to be abandoned. Over the past year, in addition to the Virginia Home Rule Council and some older immigrant families, more people have moved to Hampton Town at the mouth of the James River, and Jamestown has shown signs of decline.

It was already nightfall, and the halls of the Home Rule Council were still lit with candles and crowds, and about forty representatives of wealthy people from various colonial colonies or farm estates in Virginia had gathered. There is a heated debate over the upcoming harvest season of cotton, tobacco and other agricultural products.

"Gentlemen, after the loss of indentured servitude, we should no longer give up our right to set prices for tobacco! We should unite and send representatives to the American Congress in China, and we must negotiate! Or talk to London again. ”

"Mr. Chauvin is absolutely right, otherwise five years later. We will not lose less of our export profits on tobacco than His Majesty (Charles I) took from the king! It's safe to say that the decision we made six years ago was terrible! ”

At the instigation of a short man, more than half of the well-dressed tobacco plantation owners cheered up, as if they had had enough of the embarrassment of dying and dying, and some even regretted their decision to choose local self-government.

"But we can still get much cheaper goods from them than in Europe. In particular, food, weapons, clothing and medicines, and tariff preferences for cotton exports have not been reduced. If they take the concessions on tobacco prices and shift them to the goods we need. Or cancel other export tariff preferences, then we still can't change the final result, but will cause dissatisfaction among the people. ”

A thin, middle-aged man in well-groomed clothes stood up, clearly objecting to the uncontrolled situation in the hall now.

"Mr. Fellner, I have heard that your estate has been converted to cotton, and that the cotton mills in the Hamptons are your property, so you certainly have no need to worry about the lives of the tobacco planters in Jamestown or in the entire Virginia colony. Maybe in a few years, you'll be standing here as a Chinese American and flaunting the choices you've made. ”

Another stocky man sneered, which drew a chorus of condemnation.

"This is in line with the original agreement, we should accept their opinion, end the indentured slave contract, allow more people to enter the factory, and adjust Virginia's economy to the right place."

"You know, to keep harvesting a pound of tobacco would take up far more land than cotton, unless we could buy more fertilizer, but obviously we could grow our own food instead of that. We should not cling to tobacco, otherwise we will have to fight the Baohatan forever because there is not enough land, which is absolutely unrealistic. ”

Fellner pulled out his handkerchief and wiped the sweat from his cheeks, the closed hall making him feel very uncomfortable.

"Mr. Ferner, that is ours, they have cheated us out of a qiē, forced down the price, and made His Majesty the King of London lose trust in us. Moreover, the U.S. Congress in China has refused to allow us to retain full Virginia autonomy after our annexation, and only allows local council elections to be held in accordance with their rules, and they will appoint officials, which is completely unacceptable! I sent someone to London to explain this qiē to His Majesty the King. ”

A sickly old man stood up, his words causing the vast majority of those present to ponder, and it seemed that he had considerable prestige in the Virginia Autonomous Council.

After a few minutes of silence, someone began to nod in agreement, and then more and more hands were raised.

"Mr. Ferner, this is the decision of the majority of the Dominion Parliament, do you want to continue to reserve your opinion?" The stocky man with heavy dark circles looked triumphantly at the few silent men in the corner like a victorious raccoon.

"You don't see the fact that the Hamptons are thriving, and that the shipyards, lumber mills, pulp mills and cotton mills that are being invested in will be getting orders that we never imagined would make up for our loss of tobacco pricing power...... What they need is just an attitude on our part. What is needed is the sincerity of our real integration into that country, and you are only trying to keep the tobacco profits. For their own power, not for the sake of the entire population of Virginia. ”

Fellner stood up, weakly dropped his sweat-wiping handkerchief, turned and walked out of the hall, followed by the few who shared Ferner's opinion.

"Hah, Hampton? It's already occupied by a bunch of Americans, who are using the indebted civilians and indentured slaves to cheat us out of our labor so that we have nothing! They moved away or moved in many inexplicable people at will. However, it prevented the Dutch from importing black slaves to Jamestown. ”

"Unless they cede half of the shares of the Hampton Shipyard and Pulp Mill to us, it doesn't make any sense! But what did they do, they would rather give to the poor devils than sell them all to us! ”

"Get out of here, don't come back!"

"Traitor to Virginia!"

"Long live King Charles!"

Amid vicious invective and ridicule, the doors of the Dominion Assembly closed again, and the indignant members of the Dominion Assembly began to discuss how to re-enter into a series of status agreements with the English royal family.

Fellner stood by the dock with a pale face. Squinting his eyes and looking up at the moon in the sky, a self-deprecating sneer on the corner of his mouth.

"Mr. Fellner, have you booked your ticket?"

At this moment, a young European man suddenly appeared beside Fellner out of nowhere, with a bright smile like a sunny smile on his face.

"Mr. Raymond? What do you ......?" Fellner seemed to have known the young European businessman in front of him for a long time, but was surprised that the other party actually appeared in front of him late at night.

"Looks like you've failed again......" Raymond glanced at a large building deep in town. The smile on his face also became a lot stranger, "You should know that our government cares about Mr. Ferner's position. ”

"Yes, I will be out on time tomorrow, and I hope to talk to Your Excellency the Speaker of the Parliament and Your Excellency the Prime Minister."

Fellner was a staunch advocate of the annexation of Virginia to Huamei. But since a few years ago, he has faced significant resistance in the Virginia Dominion Legislature. The biggest reason. Even those people were the owners of tobacco plantations in Jamestown, and after the tobacco industry and the use of indentured slavery and black slavery were severely suppressed, the dissatisfaction was the heaviest.

Virginia's burgeoning cotton industry was largely in the hands of ordinary freemen or Chinese investors, and the managers hired were even former indentured slaves of the Jamestown plantation. The gorgeous merchant Raymond in front of him is a young indentured slave who escaped from Jamestown to Huamei Gangneung City eight years ago on the sloop of the USS Cornwall.

"No amount of talk you can change the stupid bigotry of some people. They are too attached to their old life to know how to benefit from the new environment, and they are doomed to be eliminated. Raymond pulled out a cigarette and lit it, and what he said left Fellner a little puzzled.

"Oh my God! It's on fire! ”

Suddenly, one of the militiamen on the dock shouted, and Fellner turned his head to look at it, and his face turned pale.

At night, the building of the Dominion of Virginia was on fire. The flaming red flames lit up the surrounding streets, and thick smoke poured out from the cracks in the buildings, and the streets were filled with men, women, and children fleeing from the surrounding houses, many of whom were still tightly wrapped in sheets.

"It's a pity, there was another fire, I don't know how many people will be able to escape...... They probably didn't know that the English Civil War had broken out, and no one could count on London, and no one knew whether it would be the king or who would have the final say in a few years. Raymond looked at the fire in the distance as if he were enjoying the view, the light and shadow of the flames swaying back and forth on his face, "Mr. Fellner, Jamestown is old, and the Virginia Dominion Council needs fresh blood, you should lead everyone to take responsibility." ”

"Has the war broken out......

Fellner seemed to understand something, and slowly turned sideways and walked in the direction of his home, as if the fire had nothing to do with him at all.

An hour later, several dark shadows arrived in a grove on the bank of a river, where Raymond was sitting on a rock looking at the sparkling water, smoking alone.

"Second Lieutenant, the operation was successful. None of them came out. Three agents from the Department of Defense's Military Intelligence gave a military salute to their operational leader, and one of them handed a letter to Raymond.

"Not bad. This is a joint letter from Ferner and several other friendly gentlemen. The entire Virginia Dominion Local Council, now they are left with the right to vote......"

Raymond pocketed the letter and breathed a sigh of relief.

……

The next morning, while the militia in Jamestown were still struggling to clear the rubble after the fire, a special launching ceremony was taking place around a dry dock of the Beiyang Shipbuilding Group in the western part of the distant Huamei Manchester City.

Hundreds of bottles of bright red wine were being poured into the rising water of the dry dock under the excited shouts of a group of shipbuilders. A medium-sized merchant ship with a metallic hull gradually floats. The surface of the hull, from head to stern, is lined with dense rivets, dividing into clearly visible rectangular pieces.

This is the first experimental civil iron-hulled merchant ship in Huamei that took a year to build, and the riveting workers of the Beiyang Shipbuilding Group, who have been trained by building inland iron barges in large quantities through Guò for several years, have put too much effort into this merchant ship named "Conch".

With a full load displacement of 184o tons and a maximum cargo capacity of 8oo tons, the Conch is a general merchant ship in the middle and offshore waters and inland waterways. In order to reduce the cost of construction. Only a mature 12oo horsepower three-rise steam unit is used, with a maximum range of 14 knots and a maximum range of 52oo nautical miles at 1o knots. Although in terms of tonnage, the Conch is only an inconspicuous small thing among the civil ships that have been updated in large numbers of Huamei, but its unique iron hull and experimental nature have made it very expensive to invest in comprehensive research. The final cost reached 4o US dollars, which is fully double the price of the national standard 15oo type with a maximum cargo capacity of 15oo tons.

The hull of the Conch is made of fully wrought iron plate riveted structure, and the average thickness of the hull is only 2o mm, which feels much thinner than the average wooden hull of more than 15o mm for civilian merchant ships. But the actual intensity is not the same. Since the standard parts of wrought iron plates are processed in batches, it is much easier to maintain damage in the future.

The fly in the ointment is. Because the processing cost of wide forged steel plate is really high, at present, it can only be manufactured with small wrought iron plates, and the number of riveting of the guide hull is extremely large, and the overall stability of the structure has yet to be verified for a long time.

The current Conch is only a completed hull, and it will take two months of outfitting work to actually start. It was then towed back to the dry dock to be painted with a ship with more stringent anti-corrosion indicators, and then waited for months of sea trials.

In order to support the research of iron-hulled ships, not only General Industry Group and North Industries Group have invested a lot of technical energy, but even Xinhua Chemical Group has to spend a lot of scientific research funds for the painting of ships with higher anti-corrosion requirements. The most important thing is that only half of these funds are provided by the Congressional Commission of Science and Technology, and the rest are all self-raised by enterprises.

……

Most of the people who attended the launching ceremony of the Conch were engineers or mechanics from the Beiyang Shipbuilding Group, but at the front of the crowd, there were still several men in naval uniforms, one of whom was Sun Yang, the chief of staff of the Navy wearing the rank of rear admiral.

"How? All iron-hulled, if you are tempted, how many ships will the Navy come to play? You Qi held the board under his arm, and smiled and pointed to the Conch that was slowly moving out of the dock, as if he was already thinking about the Navy's eight-year expansion plan.

"It looks like a feeling, but I don't care if I say it, I'll talk to them later. However, you also know that Lao Wang (Wang Tiehammer) and Lao Zhang (Zhang Chunrui) are very taboo to use these guinea pig technology, and the all-iron shell structure should be more mature. I'm not here today because I'm not interested in that. ”

As he spoke, Sun Yang also patted the briefcase in his hand lightly, and only praised the conch in front of him. At present, he is more concerned about when the design work of the "Nuwa-class second-class light cruiser" that the Beiyang Shipbuilding Group will start building for the navy in the spring of 1644.

The Nuwa-class second-class light cruisers, with a standard displacement of 34oo tons and a full load displacement of 425o tons, are the top priority of the Navy's eight-year expansion plan. After fierce debate within the navy, in order to adapt to ocean-going operations, increasing the tonnage and combat effectiveness of individual ships became the winning plan. But in this way, the cost will also rise, and the number of ships built must be greatly reduced, and the original plan of building 24 capital warships in eight years will eventually be simplified to the construction of 1o large light cruisers. The freed up funds can build more logistical auxiliary ships, which is also the decision of the research group led by Zhang Chunrui after careful consideration.

The Nuwa-class second-class light cruisers were planned to be built eight in one go to replace the republic-class and flower-class frigates that had been retired six times after 165o, which was a big deal. The last two remaining ships are a first-class light cruiser with a full load displacement of more than 5ooo tons, which is scheduled to be built in 1647, and the old name of the enterprise-class sail frigate, which has been retired for more than ten years, will be reactivated.

The Nuwa-class will be the first quasi-ironclad ship to adopt the "hull film" process. The hull is divided into two layers: the outermost layer, that is, the surface layer of the hull, is 3o mm wrought iron plate armor; The second layer, consisting of two layers of elm planks with a thickness of 5o mm each, crisscrossed and composed of two layers of hull material firmly combined by a riveting process, with a total thickness of 13o mm.

This kind of hull armor is the most typical composite structure in the early stage of the ironclad ship exhibition, which takes into account the advantages of the strength of wrought iron armor and the toughness of wood, and is essentially a compromise transition means for wood-hulled ships with additional armor. Although the processing hours of the hull are longer due to problems such as the maturity of the riveter, as the processing cost of wrought iron plates gradually decreases and the proficiency of workers increases, the total cost will definitely be lower than the 38o mm thick oak hull of the Princess or Peace-class third-class light cruisers.

In addition, the Nuwa-class second-class light cruiser will also be equipped with steel rifled 15o mm heavy naval guns and 1oo mm guns that are about to be developed by the North Industries Group, becoming the first main warship of the Navy to adopt the new breech-loading rifled naval guns. Since then, the rear-loading Wisworth hexagonal rifle, which has been equipped for more than two decades, will be withdrawn from the Navy for 6 years.

In the face of Sun Yang's euphemistic statement, You Qi, who is nearly 5o years old, seems to have some psychological preparations, and no longer complains in front of the other party like when the Manatee was built, but just chuckles with confidence.

As for the design of the Nuwa-level, You Qi has chosen to take a back seat and only do phased guidance and review work, and most of the specific design work will be handed over to a group of engineers who have worked hard to train the group for more than ten years. In fact, in this regard, the state-owned Qingcheng Shipbuilding Company has long been ahead of the curve, and the current national standard 15oo dry bulk carrier, the initial design stage has a lot of newcomers involved, giving the new generation of space to grow as soon as possible.