Chapter 104 Comparison between China and the West
If the goal could be achieved by just shouting slogans, then the Cross-Travel Group, which has a large amount of rhetorical resources, would have dominated the world long ago. Whether it is manpower or coal, it is not something that can be obtained by slamming the table and throwing the bench. Even if everyone now knows that there is an opportunity to take advantage of Annan's domestic situation, there is no way to reach out immediately.
"Where are the ships? We only have a few moving ships, are we going to send them all to transport coal?" Ning Qi poured cold water on the emotional Tao Donglai: "From Hongji Port to Sanya, even if it is a straight line distance on the sea It is also more than two hundred nautical miles. If it is the Fuchuan Guangzhou ship we captured, the fastest one-way voyage will be four to five days. Counting the time for loading and unloading cargo on both ends, it will be very smooth if it can make a round trip in about half a month. The displacement of the two ships is less than 100 tons. How much coal can be loaded even if they are all sent out? If we can only load dozens of tons of coal every half a month, will the cost of all this effort be too high? ”
"How is the shipbuilding project of the Ministry of Shipping going now?" Tao Donglai, who had calmed down again, asked Yan Chujie. Currently, the one most closely related to the Ministry of Shipping is the Military and Police Department. In fact, more than half of the sailing sailors trained by the Ministry of Shipping are under the name of the Military and Police Department, and the functions of the Ministry of Shipping itself are also assigned to the Military and Police Department during wartime. Command this one. This means that for a long period of time in the future, the boundary between the Ministry of Shipping and the Navy will not be very clear. The sailing ships of the Ministry of Shipping that are usually used for cargo or patrol tasks may be transformed into troop carriers or even gunboats in wartime. .
"It went smoothly. I went to the shipyard the day before yesterday to see it. The ship being built now is basically an enlarged replica of the captured Haicang ship. The designed displacement is two hundred tons. The keel has been paved. Enough ship materials have been prepared. Yue Zhiyun said that if human resources can be fully guaranteed, the ship will definitely be launched before the end of the year." Seeing that everyone was silent, Yan Chujie could only continue: "I know you all think this. The shipbuilding speed is too slow, but the problem is that we only have a dozen or so professional shipbuilders now, and the largest ship they have ever built only had 400 materials and a displacement of more than 200 tons. I also want one with a few thousand tons. Artillery battleship, but the current scale of the shipyard is simply impossible to achieve, and it is not even possible to start building two ships at the same time.”
"A two-hundred-ton ship, can the cannons we have built now be put on board?" Tao Donglai keenly grasped the information in Yan Chujie's words.
"There is no problem getting on the ship, and the gun mounts have been made. However, the artillery can only be placed on the deck, and the number cannot be too many, otherwise it will affect the operation of the sails and make the ship's stability worse. Maritime transportation The Ministry's opinion is four to six, and the specific number will have to be determined after testing. If it is a larger-caliber artillery, this number will have to be lowered," Yan Chujie said with some regret.
Having a navy composed of gunboats has been the long-standing expectation of the Military and Police Department. Although after several months of hard work, the problem of putting cannons on board was finally overcome, the embellishment of just a few small-caliber artillery obviously cannot make Yan Chujie The big-ship cannonist was satisfied. Even so, it will take several months before it can be realized. No wonder Yan Chujie feels regretful.
"Can't we build several decks to place artillery like a Western-style sailboat?" Ning Qi suddenly regretted this question. Didn't this question directly show that he was novice in this area?
Sure enough, Yan Chujie immediately cast a look of disdain: "Ning Qi, you don't know this. The structure of Chinese sailboats is very different from Western sailboats. There is no way to set up a full gun deck."
The hull shape of Chinese sailing ships is very different from that of Western sailing ships. For example, the hull shape of a Fuzhou ship is wider at the bottom and the hull cross section is very similar to the V-shaped ship shape of modern ships. It becomes wider towards the top deck, so the artillery is generally directly Arranged on the top deck. Since the lower part of the hull is equipped with watertight cabins one after another, and the area is originally small, it is impossible to arrange more artillery. Zheng Chenggong's main warship when he conquered Taiwan, the Daqingtou, was about ten feet long, more than two feet wide, and had a draft of eight feet. Such a Dafu ship was only equipped with two large-caliber cannons at the bow and stern. The largest three-masted gunboat he used was twenty feet long, equipped with eight Hongyi cannons and forty Qianjin Folang machines. This kind of firepower was still not comparable to Western warships. It could only be judged from the number of warships. Go up and suppress your opponent.
Western-style sailboats do not have watertight cabin designs, and their anti-sinking performance is far inferior to Chinese-style sailboats. The solution for Western designers is to use a large number of ribs and thicken the hull, thus making the entire hull more durable. Sturdy. The hull section of a Western-style sailing ship is U-shaped, and is larger at the bottom and smaller at the top. The spacious gun deck at the bottom is used to arrange the artillery with the heaviest gun body and the largest caliber. The weight and caliber of the artillery are gradually reduced layer by layer, so that the center of gravity of the hull is It can also be stabilized, and the narrow top deck can also reduce the contact area when two ships get close to each other for hand-to-hand combat. This kind of hull structure also determines that the weight and number of artillery that Western-style sailing ships can carry are much greater than that of Chinese-style sailing ships.
In terms of the maritime armed forces of this period, the combat effectiveness of Western-style sailing ships was indeed much greater than that of Chinese-style sailing ships. But in terms of design concept alone, Chinese sailboats are far ahead of this era. Hundreds of years later, modern warships finally adopted the hull design of Chinese sailing ships, relying on watertight cabin technology to increase sinking resistance, and the arrangement of artillery was similar to that of Chinese sailing ships of this era, with only a few large guns placed on the deck. caliber artillery as the main firepower. From the perspective of the evolution history of battleships, Western sailing battleships are more like a funny design that went the wrong way. It is a pity that the ingenuity of the Chinese was ultimately limited by the level of shipbuilding and artillery building at that time, otherwise the contrast in maritime power between the East and the West might not have been so disparate.
Of course, the time-travelling people who come to this era with Zenith Star technology will definitely change the course of history. Advanced shipbuilding concepts and weapon manufacturing technology will definitely greatly enhance the combat effectiveness of Chinese sailing ships, but this change will still take a long time. Time will slowly come true. At least for now, people across time can only hope that the shipyard can build their own armed merchant ships as soon as possible. As for building warships, that is not something that can be achieved now. After listening to Yan Chujie's introduction, Ning Qi said angrily: "So we will still have to avoid white-skinned sail warships at sea for a long time in the future? If we don't build steam ironclads, won't we be able to defeat them at sea? They?”
"That's not necessarily true." Yan Chujie shook his head and said: "Western-style sailboats do have natural advantages in design in this era, but the disadvantages are also obvious..."
Western-style sailboats require a large amount of high-quality wood as ribs, which directly results in the cost of building a Western-style sailboat of the same tonnage being much higher than that of a Chinese-style sailboat. The soft sails used in Western-style sailboats require higher masts and more sailors, which invisibly increases the cost of using the sailboat. The most terrible thing is that the power that Western powers can invest in the Far East is very limited, and the superiority in firepower of Western-style sailing ships is not enough to make up for their numerical disadvantages, especially when facing East Asian opponents who are good at water jumping gang combat, because ships and The disadvantage caused by the gap in the number of sailors will become even more prominent.
"Wait!" Ning Qi interrupted Yan Chujie's introduction: "The ship-based artillery of this era can shoot a few hundred meters, so how can it be helpless in the face of a gang?"
"It's true that it can hit hundreds of meters, but it doesn't mean that it can hit hundreds of meters with accuracy. Shipborne artillery in this era does not have any sighting and fire control systems. It all depends on the gunner's intuition and Experience." Yan Chujie explained patiently: "Besides, it's hard to beat four hands with one fist. If you are really surrounded by hundreds of ships, how many ships can you sink even if you have cannons? This is not a Michael Bay movie. What can you hit? Everything explodes directly. In many cases, even if it hits, it just smashes a hole in the hull. It is not that easy to sink a ship, and more of it depends on luck."
Maritime battles in this era are indeed as Yan Chujie said. The power of solid bullets fired from artillery is difficult to completely sink a large warship. Most maritime battles are still like the scenes in "Pirates of the Caribbean". The ships of both sides get close and then retreat. They used artillery to blast each other, causing the ship planks and blood to fly everywhere. It looked very lively, but in the end, they still had to rely on gang fighting to solve their opponents.
Although the British Navy relied on artillery combat to defeat the Spanish Armada in the Great Battle of Spain in 1588, which began to change the ownership of maritime hegemony, the inefficient combat method of gang-hopping still continued at sea. For quite a long time, until the Battle of Trafalgar in the early 19th century, when the British Navy led by Admiral Nelson defeated the French Navy under Marshal Napoleon, boarding warfare still played an important role in this great battle.
"No matter how powerful they are, it can't be compared to the word 'more'. Now the Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and British who have come to East Asia, how big can their fleets be? They also suffered a loss on the coast of the Ming Dynasty. And We have so much advanced technology on hand, it is only a matter of time before we can build warships with more efficient combat performance." Yan Chujie is full of confidence in his own technological reserves and is not too worried about the fleets of Western powers. Of course, there is another reason why he can be so confident, and that is that Sanya is not located on the current main trade routes in Southeast Asia. It is almost impossible to encounter merchant ships or warships from the West, and naturally there is no talk of what will happen. There was a conflict at sea.
(End of chapter)