Chapter 1300 Danzhou Government Affairs
"It's a so-called concept product again!" After listening to the officer's explanation, Liu Shang naturally had this opinion in his mind.
Most of the various advanced weapons displayed by Haihan at the military exercise are declared to be "concept products" in the development process and will neither be sold nor installed in the army in the short term. But of course, just listen to these words, don't take them seriously, Liu Shang wouldn't believe them anyway. The Army had already demonstrated many new weapons yesterday, so before the military exercise ends, it would be a very reasonable arrangement for the Navy to also display its own magic weapons.
However, there is still a big difference between this concept product and the new warship imagined by Liu Shang. He originally thought that Haihan would probably go in a larger direction to build the next generation of warships. After all, from the exploration class, the expedition class to the majesty class, the battleships The tonnage is getting larger and larger, and the number of naval guns is increasing. If you want to make the combat effectiveness of warships stronger, it seems that the only way to go is to deploy more naval guns on the ship, and with it comes the requirement for larger hull space.
However, Haihan seemed to have chosen another unexpected development route. Instead of increasing the number of artillery pieces, he carried out a large-scale streamlining, reducing the densely packed side guns to two rotatable turrets, one in front and one in the back. , it seems that the combat effectiveness has not only not improved, but has been greatly reduced. As of now, Liu Shang still can't understand the design intention of this new ship, but he knows that since the Haihan people have allowed this ship to be unveiled on such an occasion, they probably have some particularly powerful abilities.
Among the warships that have appeared so far, the export-oriented Discovery-class warship with the smallest number of side guns has four guns on one side, which is exactly the same as the iron-clad ship named "Warrior". However, compared with this design where the turret can rotate in a plane, the gun positions of old warships are not so flexible. The bases of the gun mounts are fixed on the deck, and the corresponding shooting range is much smaller.
There were many discerning people present, and naturally many people were aware of these differences. How this armored ship would perform in the subsequent target practice became the focus of everyone's attention.
The "Warrior" sailed into the shooting sea area at a speed that was obviously faster than the previous sailboats, and even faster than the "Dignity". This made people worried that if the shooting accuracy of its naval guns was not ideal enough, It is very likely that the first and last turrets will only have one round of firing opportunities in front of each target position, and the error tolerance rate is quite low.
However, it soon proved that the audience was overly worried. The armored ship had just sailed into the shooting sea area, and before it entered the best shooting position for the first target, the cannon on the bow of the ship was fired. This shooting distance is almost twice as far as the firing position of other warships. It undoubtedly places higher requirements on the aiming and shooting accuracy of the artillery. However, this cannonball hit the target painted on the cliff without any deviation, and the explosion caused by the shell hitting the cliff was much louder than before. After the flying rocks were scattered, a clearly visible mark was left on the cliff. crater.
"Awesome..."
Before Liu Shang could finish his sigh, another gun from the bow turret also fired a round, and it also hit the target without any bias!
All the ships observing from the outside were in an uproar. After watching several hours of target practice, the audience had a full understanding of the difficulty of this project. This last armored ship only had four guns. Even if all of them missed the target, it wouldn't be beyond everyone's expectations. But now it hit two shots at a longer shooting distance, which was quite scary.
Liu Shang immediately thought of the new artillery and artillery shells he saw on Xieyang Island yesterday that could easily penetrate an iron target from hundreds of meters away. If it were weapons and equipment like that, it would be reasonable to achieve such results. Something happened? Although shooting on the undulating ship is quite difficult, the shooting distance is several times closer than yesterday, and the target is larger. Overall, it seems easier than yesterday's shooting on land.
But Liu Shang then thought about it again. The ship was not only up and down, but also moving at the same time. It was not the same thing as the army's fixed artillery hitting a fixed target. Which one was difficult or easy? Stumped.
Before Liu Shang could figure out a specific answer, the two cannons from the rear turret of the ship also fired one after another, hitting the target on the cliff. The target that was originally painted with white paint, after four shells were hit in a row, the earth and rocks collapsed one after another, and the original appearance was almost unrecognizable.
When Liu Shang saw this, he vaguely understood the key point of Haihan bringing out this armored ship. The fast speed and the armor were secondary. These accurate and powerful cannons were the most outstanding in its combat performance. place. Other warships need to use concentrated fire to ensure a high hit rate, but the naval guns on this ship can easily do so, and the strike effect is better.
However, with all the naval guns firing at the same target in such a careless manner, at its current speed, would it have time to complete the ammunition reloading before entering the next target shooting area?
As soon as Liu Shang thought of this, he immediately recalled that when the Army showed off the new artillery yesterday, the loading speed was not comparable to that of the muzzleloader guns he knew. He only needed to open the gun bolt behind the barrel and withdraw the brass cartridge case. Loading the next cannonball in, the whole process only takes a few breaths. If this naval gun had a similar structure, then the time to reload the ammunition would be more than enough.
Sure enough, the performance of the armored ship did not disappoint the audience. Before sailing to the next target position, the two cannons on the bow of the ship that had turned at an angle fired again in advance and hit the target flawlessly. There were cheers again on the boat where Liu Shang was, and even Yu Xiaobao, who had always been steady, took the lead in applauding.
Liu Shang can naturally understand why Yu Xiaobao is so excited. If the iron-clad ship's shooting target is replaced by another sailing warship, it will be completely unilaterally bombarding the opponent outside the opponent's range, and this ship is the only one. In terms of the accuracy and destructive power displayed by the cannon, it is almost the same as the power of the coastal defense artillery. This means that Haihan has a true mobile maritime fort. Although the firepower output density of this thing is not high, its power is comparable to that of coastal defense artillery, which is difficult to match for existing armed ships at sea. Big killer - unless you are fast enough to escape from its muzzle, you will have no choice but to wait and die.
The armored ship completed the target shooting mission without any sloppiness. Later, Liu Shang did not even take a closer look to see if all the shells it fired hit the target. Anyway, the final result was that all seven targets were hit, and the time was longer than the "Dignity" that had the best previous results. "The number is shorter." You must know that the "Dignity" has more than twenty artillery pieces on one side of the ship, while the "Warrior" only has four. This kind of bombardment efficiency is powerful enough to make its opponents despair.
In fact, such a scene does not require any further explanation from the accompanying officers. As long as you are not blind, you will already be able to understand the horror of this kind of armored ship after watching it for a day. In front of this armored ship, the ships that had been doing target shooting before, including even the active warships of the Haihan Navy, seemed to have become a joke. "The Haihan people...are really not idle..." Liu Shang couldn't help but think that he had been wondering whether the Haihan people would make some new moves in building warships in the past two years, but he immediately saw their results. Could the Ming Dynasty imitate such a powerful battleship within ten or twenty years? Liu Shang is not optimistic about this possibility. Not to mention the artillery on the ship, the steam engine installed on the ship alone may not be replicable in a short time.
Regarding the specific data of the "Warrior", such as tonnage, size, maximum speed, endurance, staffing, etc., the accompanying officer did not explain in detail. Obviously, except for the name of the ship, all other information is It was kept secret, and Liu Shang could only rely on his two eyes to judge and collect relevant information.
But after completing the target practice, the ship did not join the combined fleet. After circling the sea far away, it went straight south to Hainan Island, with no intention of showing up in front of the guests again. Stay on display. This made all the viewers slightly disappointed. They wanted to be able to take a closer look at the details of the ship at close range, but the Haihan military obviously did not have such arrangements to allow them to do so. Anyway, the appearance and performance of the armored ship has had a sufficient deterrent effect, and the purpose of the military arrangement can be regarded as achieved.
The military will not announce the final results and rankings of today's target shooting training. Only the commanders of the participating units can obtain a copy of the statistics afterwards. Liu Shang was greatly disappointed after hearing the news. He wanted to see how far the final performance of that armored ship was from Haihan's existing warships. However, what he didn't know was that the performance of this armored ship was not included in the final ranking. In other words, the appearance of this ship was purely a show off by the Haihan military and would not be allowed to happen. The outside world is getting more information about the ship's capabilities.
The three-day military exercise has come to an end. The participating troops from various countries will take a short rest on Xieyang Island and Weizhou Island before returning to their respective bases. The guests who participated in the observation will return to Danzhou. In the next two or three days, Among them, they will also participate in the local military equipment exhibition jointly organized by Haihan Military Industry and Haihan Ministry of National Defense.
The inspection team will not participate in this activity. Their main mission in Danzhou is to inspect local government affairs. Observing military exercises is just a temporarily arranged activity. Subsequent arms sales are not directly related to their mission. Yu Xiaobao didn't want to waste too much time on this kind of activity. They had been in Danzhou for several days, and so far they had not started to contact government affairs. Any further delay might affect their subsequent itinerary.
The next day, Mayor Zhang Xin held a special symposium to show the inspection team the local construction results and government management status in recent years. At times like this, Liu Shang is of no use. Although he is responsible for trade promotion, due to his lack of professional knowledge and his status as a temporary worker, he has no access to first-hand information. I can only sit in the back row as a spectator and have a general understanding of the local economic development.
Danzhou used to be one of the important towns on Qiongzhou Island. However, in 1630, when Haihan used force to capture the Qiongbei area, he did not encounter much resistance in Danzhou City. In the name of helping the government quell the rebellion, he directly Enter the city and take over control.
In 1631, local forces opposed to Haihan planned an assassination operation in Danzhou. However, under the layout of the Haihan Security Department, the assassination operation did not succeed. Instead, the security department uprooted the Danzhou area with evil intentions. All the local clan forces were eradicated. Since then, the public security situation in Danzhou has been relatively stable.
Since the local cultural industry in Danzhou has always been relatively developed, Haihan made the cultural industry a key regional industry after taking over the place. Danzhou currently has the largest number of private academies in the Haihan-controlled area. These academies, large and small, do not just teach the Four Books and Five Classics. In fact, there are very few academies that only use poetry and classics as teaching materials. Most of them The academies all focus on vocational training, and even those who study literature have mostly given up on stereotyped writing and switched to the more practical major of official document writing.
According to the data Zhang Xin has, as many as a thousand students graduate from various academies in Danzhou and work in various state-owned institutions in Haihan every year. There are also some people who will be selected by the Haihan Education Department to study at higher-level national institutions because of their excellent qualifications.
While listening, Liu Shang recalled that where he received induction training in Sanya, he also heard from others that there was a higher-level institution near Victory Fort. The lecturers who taught there were all chief ministers. I think it was the Imperial College of Haihan. .
In addition to the education industry, fishery, shipbuilding, agriculture and shipping trade are also major local industries, but they are not as famous as culture and education in comparison. Zhang Xin only mentioned a few words, then turned the topic back to the local representative industry, and specially introduced a man dressed as Mingren present.
Liu Shang was shocked after hearing this person's identity. It turned out that this person was Yan Mingjun, who was transferred from Luoding Prefecture, Guangdong Province to Danzhou Prefecture four years ago. It was said that this person had been killed by Haihan a long time ago. Unexpectedly, he had already been demoted to Haihan and became a local official.
Yan Mingjun actually doesn't have any actual job at the moment, but he likes to write and write, so Zhang Xin asked him to take charge of local cultural and educational undertakings, which happened to suit his liking. Yan Mingjun knew that he could no longer return to the Ming Dynasty to serve as an official, so he accepted it calmly and became a special consultant in Danzhou. Anyway, the salary given by Haihan is not low, and he does not need to bear too many responsibilities. He only needs to supervise the normal and legal operation of the local academy. This job is much easier and more enjoyable than being the governor of the state.
(End of chapter)