A few days later

Emperor Richard summoned the Admiralty and his entourage to the Qinzheng Palace, and the admirals headed by the Admiral Duke Pan Hengchen reported to His Majesty the current situation of the development of the Royal Navy, the construction of 37 naval bases stationed overseas, and the future development plan of the Royal Navy.

After more than 20 years of development

The Royal Navy has become a regional maritime power with 63 ironclad steam ships of various types, cruising the entire Americas and the Western Pacific region, and is a strong regional maritime force with a high sense of military pride, rich experience in naval warfare, and strong strength.

The Royal Navy has an all-steam ironclad team of the world's most advanced level, with a total of 41 main warships, and the remaining are some military auxiliary ships and high-speed coal carriers, a total of 22 ships, providing expeditionary combat support.

The Royal Navy is dominated by 4,980-ton "Tornado"-class armored heavy cruisers, with a total of 11 ships of this class and subsequent modifications in service, 3 of which are still under construction, and are expected to be completed and put into service by the end of next year at the latest.

The other type of steam ironclad main battleship is the 1,500-ton "Han" ironclad frigate that began in 1848, and has built a total of 26 ships in five batches so far, making it the most equipped ship in the Royal Navy.

The "Han" ironclad frigate belongs to the ranks of light cruisers, and it is also a type of ironclad ship with the longest development history.

During the more than 20 years of service, it has experienced a series of high-intensity naval battles, such as the North American War, the bombardment of Edo's foreign intervention war, and the blockade of Brazil in the South American War.

Five batches of ironclad ships have been built, and based on the feedback from the Royal Navy officers and men in use, the deficiencies exposed in the design of the warships will have different degrees of technical improvement in each batch, which is no longer the same.

Due to the inherent shortcomings of small and medium-sized warships, such as poor seaworthiness and seakeeping, the living environment of the ships is cramped and cramped, the firepower allocation of the side auxiliary guns is insufficient, the range is short, the distribution of boiler rooms and engine rooms is not scientific, the view of the combat command tower is not good, and the lack of advanced devices such as light signals has been improved one by one in the subsequent improvements.

From the initial batch of 1,500-ton "Han" ironclad ships to the fifth batch of 2,230-ton "Hanling" and "Hanyu" newly completed and put into service, the technical level has jumped significantly, the caliber of the ship's main gun has been increased, the secondary gun setting has been enhanced, and the ability to project firepower per unit time has been doubled compared with the earlier models.

Thanks to the rapid progress of steam engine technology, the seaworthiness of the ship has been greatly improved, the range has increased by 30%, and all technical indicators are among the advanced light ironclad ships in the world today.

Next

The Royal Navy plans to develop a new type of "Wei" 2,500-ton steam ironclad ship to replace the old "Han" ship, realize the rotation of the Royal Navy's light steam armored ships with new and old ones, and continue to maintain the world's top technical level of the light armored steam fleet.

According to the construction plan declared by the Royal Navy, the first batch of "Wei" ships will be built six ships, which will be built successively from the end of 1869, and it is planned to be handed over to the Royal Navy by the end of 1872 to strengthen the strength of the coastal fleet.

The follow-up ship construction plan will be included in the second batch of construction plans after further improvement according to the feedback of the Royal Navy in actual use, called the "Wei" type 2 reform, and the same 6 ships will be built, which will be delivered at the end of 1875.

Light steam ironclads are characterized by low construction costs, wide range of applications, coastal patrols, anti-piracy and low-intensity warfare, and the Royal Navy needs to be equipped with a certain scale to achieve absolute control over the Empire's waters.

So, in the next 15~20 years

The Royal Navy has a great demand for 2,500-ton "Guard" steam ironclad ships, at least between 36~40 ships, which are the capital ship models that are generally equipped with overseas bases.

In addition to the above two types of capital ships, the Royal Navy is also equipped with a test ship "Shennong" with a displacement of 8,100 tons, which is a special technical performance verification ship.

The "Shennong" test ship is the meaning of Shennong's taste of a hundred herbs, and its main function is to test the power combination of the latest vertical steam engine and the new high-pressure oil-fired boiler.

This is by the California Steam Power Laboratory on the basis of summarizing the experience of predecessors, the design and improvement of the latest three-expansion vertical steam engine and with the new high-pressure oil-fired boiler, a steam engine power combination can output 6400 horsepower, thermal efficiency of 17%, compared with the previous steam engine increased by 40%, is a major scientific and technological innovation project.

The two latest three-expansion vertical steam engines are equipped with the power combination of 12 new high-pressure oil-fired boilers, with a total output of 12,800 horsepower, which can propel the 8,100-ton "Shennong" experimental ship to soar on the sea surface at a maximum speed of 21.5 knots, and can maintain such a maximum high speed for about four hours.

After nearly two years of navigation tests, the reliability and maintainability of the new power plant have been proven, and it has the conditions for mass equipment of the Royal Navy.

The only obstacle is; Advanced technology means high equipment costs.

Compared with the speed of the main ironclad ships of the navy in the present era in 15 or 6 knots, the astonishing high speed of the "Shennong" is based on the high cost, and the two sets of vertical steam power equipment alone are worth one million Tang yuan, about 200,000 pounds.

Such a high price is a power configuration that the Royal Navy cannot afford.

After repeated negotiations with Chang'an Heavy Industry, the Royal Navy finally determined the power configuration of two simple vertical steam engines and 10 new high-pressure oil-fired boilers, reducing the total output power from 12,800 to 9,600 horses, and the purchase price was also reduced to 780,000 Tang Yuan.

If it can be determined to purchase 4 sets of power units at one time, this price can be reduced to 730,000 Tang Yuan, and if it can be purchased 8 sets of power units at one time, this price can be reduced to 668,000 Tang Yuan, or about 134,000 pounds.

The larger the yield, the lower the cost that can be balanced.

The corresponding reduced version of the power, calculated with 9,600 horsepower, the 8,100-ton "Shennong" limit speed will be reduced to 18.5 knots, which can be maintained for about 5 hours, while the ship's maximum speed is about 17 knots, and the cruising speed is about 11~12 knots.

This level of technology is still among the best in the world, and the Royal Navy is more receptive to this option from the perspective of acquisition costs to maintenance costs.

Besides

The "Shennong" test ship is also equipped with a 305 mm double main ship gun developed by the Colt Arms Company, a 280 mm double ship gun with an extended barrel and a normal version, a 210 mm double naval gun, and two 180 mm and 150 mm twin naval guns.

With the increasing maturity of the power plant, the technical performance of the main ship gun has gradually improved after years of verification, and it has the conditions for large-scale equipment.

Looking back on it now

The Royal Navy's plan for 7,800-ton Zhenwei-class ironclad ships in 1857 seemed to be a bit of a rush for quick success.

12 years ago

Whether it is the power facilities of the ship, or the performance of the main gun, the construction level of the steam ironclad ship is not mature, and the consequence of rushing to launch is to pay a heavy price for technical verification, just like the Royal Navy of the British Empire, which spent tens of millions of pounds to build a large number of technical verification ships, and the results turned out to be paying tuition.

Today, in the harbor of Portsmouth, England, there are more than 10 ironclad ships of more than 10,000 tons moored all year round, which looks special and spectacular.

Some are sails, side wheels and propellers three-power combination ships, some are suspension propeller power plus sail ship types, some are sails and side wheel power, all kinds of strange shapes, all of which have proved to be unworkable, wasting the huge naval budget of the British Royal Navy.

Today

The British Royal Navy has clearly abandoned the broadside paddlewheel design in the design of the ship, but it is still reluctant to continue to use the sail power for hundreds of years, so the biggest feature of the British Royal Ironclad Fleet is the coexistence of sails and steam engine power, and the displacement of the steam ironclad capital ships participating in the decisive battle of the ocean is between 7000 ~ 12000 tons, with a total of 9 models.

There are three models of new ironclad battleships that are currently being developed.

The most representative British battleship Minotaur class "Akincourt", with a displacement of 10,812 tons, is mainly armed with 4 9-inch 229mm rifled front-loading guns and 24 7-inch 178mm rifled front-loading guns.

The ship was launched in 1862, the size is 124 meters long, 18.2 meters wide, 8.5 meters deep, using sail power and steam power coexist, and is currently being dismantled in the British Royal Navy shipyard Armstrong breech gun, replaced with the British imitation Colt 280 mm double-door breech main ship gun, has reached the world's top level of firepower output.

Less than seven years after the launch of a 10,000-ton main ironclad ship, it had to return to the shipyard to carry out major renovations, wasting a huge amount of naval budget, not to mention the huge amount of naval budget, reflecting many problems in naval construction.

At the insistence of Emperor Richard of the Tang Empire, the impulse of the imperial navy for urgent development was well suppressed, and after 12 years of time precipitation and technological development, it finally ushered in the era of large-scale equipment of advanced steam ironclad ships.

After argumentation

The Imperial Council approved the Royal Admiralty's "Zhenyang Armament Plan", which will allocate funds in the 1870 naval budget to build an 8,600-ton "Zhenyang" steam ironclad battleship, and the first batch of ships is a total of three, namely "Zhenyang", "Zhenhai", and "Zhenjiang", which will take three years and be completed and put into service at the end of 1872.

The 8,600-ton "Zhenyang" steam ironclad battleship has abundant firepower, and is planned to be equipped with two 305-mm twin main ship guns, one bow and one stern, and the broadside can exert all the firepower of the 305-mm main gun.

The class is armed with four twin 180 mm secondary guns, for a total of eight guns. Two on the port side, in the form of a semi-enclosed armored turret, which can provide ample broadside firepower.

At the same time, the ship is also equipped with 12 40 mm fast guns, which have a devastating ability to kill small and medium-sized ships and cargo ships.

The 8,600-ton "Zhenyang" steam ironclad battleship adopts two sets of reduced vertical steam turbines and 10 new high-pressure oil-fired boilers, which can output a total of 9,600 horsepower, pushing the ship to achieve a cruising speed of 10~11 knots and a maximum speed of 16 knots.

In the case of extreme power squeezing, it can maintain a maximum high speed of 17.5 knots for up to 5 hours, and the power output level is among the best in the world.

The equipment cost of such an advanced ironclad steam battleship amounted to 2.3 million Tang Yuan, or about 460,000 pounds, and if more than 8 ships were purchased on a large scale, the equipment cost would be reduced to less than 400,000 pounds.

It can be seen from this

The Royal Navy of the Tang Empire still adopted a steady advance strategy in equipping the main steam ironclad ships for the decisive battle in the ocean, and was not dazzled by the idea of quick success, and asked to equip 4, 6 or even more ships at a time.

Large steam ironclad ships are a war monster that brings together advanced science and technology in the world today, from the selection of ship types, technical routes to specific fields, such as engine power, artillery units, command and control, observation and sighting, and communications, etc., are in the frontier exploration period.

It's a huge challenge to bring together so many advanced steam revolution technologies in one place.

Even with the accumulation of more than 20 years of the Royal Navy, it is not enough to cope with the endless technical problems, and it is necessary to achieve maximum efficiency with the limited budget allocated by the Royal Navy in line with the development strategy of "taking small steps, constantly improving, constantly improving, and steadily enhancing the overall combat capability".

For the maturity shown by the Royal Navy, Emperor Richard did not hesitate to praise it, saying;

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, and Zhu Aiqing can learn lessons and experience from the tortuous development of the British Royal Navy, which is a mature approach.

Lian was very gratified and hoped that Zhu Aiqing would not forget his original intention and sum up a feasible path for the development of the Imperial Navy.

The Royal Navy is a huge spender that we envy but don't encourage learning.

They have their long seafaring history and successful experience, and we have our unique development path and philosophy of building the Royal Navy, which we can learn from, not copy.

The development of the "Zhenyang" class steam ironclad battleship means that the Royal Navy of the Tang Empire has taken the first step in the direction of the ocean-going navy, which is of great significance.

It is hoped that Zhu Aiqing will not be satisfied with the existing achievements, but will work together to strive for greater glory in the colonization of the ocean, and spread the prestige of the country beyond thousands of miles of foreign lands. ”

"The ministers have been ordered to be deeply gracious to the emperor, shoulder the heavy responsibility of the development of the Royal Navy, and have not slackened for a moment, and are willing to work together for the prestige of the country, and never give up!" Marshal Pan Hengchen and the other admirals had excited red lights on their faces, and replied with sonorous fists.

The steam-ironclad battleships that fought across the ocean were the supreme goal of the Royal Navy's admirals, and the thought of harnessing such a mighty war beast to conquer an enemy thousands of miles away made them feel overwhelmed.

It won't take long

The Royal Navy of the Empire will develop into an ocean-going navy like Britain and France, crisscrossing the seven seas, spreading the power of the country thousands of miles away, what an exciting scene it will be!