Chapter 2526
Although Tao Hongfang and others were cautious, because they rarely left Sanya and lacked social experience, they did not realize that their words and deeds had attracted the attention of Zhoushan officials. However, they themselves were not hostile to Zhoushan or Shi Diwen, and they were only staying in Dinghai Port for a short time, so they didn't have much defensiveness.
They originally planned to spend the night in Dinghaigang, and then set off for Hangzhou the next day after casually wandering around. They never expected to chat with Peter for a long time at the Dutch Merchant Inn. Even just taking a quick look at the business district of Dinghai Port took far longer than expected.
After lunch, they took a carriage and walked around the business district. Seeing that it was getting late, they returned to the military base in the west. The official ship had already completed supplies, and after Tao Hongfang and his party boarded the ship, they immediately unmoored and raised the sails.
Just as the ship sailed out of the port, it saw an armed fleet of the Haihan Army coming from the Luotoumen Waterway to the west. As for the flagship in the fleet, its hull is obviously much larger than the several majesty-class warships docked at the military port.
"Is this the 'Glory-class' battleship?" Ha Jianyi's eyes were shining, he lay on the side of the ship, staring at the warship approaching on the sea in the distance and murmured to himself.
Upon hearing this, several other people immediately rushed to the side of the ship to watch. Upon seeing this, Tao Hongfang's follower Apeng immediately ran back to the cabin to get the binoculars and handed them to the owner.
With the continuous development of Haihan shipbuilding technology and industrial level, the Navy has gradually upgraded warships of all levels that have been in use for more than ten years since 1640.
The upgrade of ships is divided into two modes. One is to upgrade weapons, sail ropes, power and other equipment on the basis of old ships in relatively good condition, and they can continue to serve with some repairs; the other is to comprehensively update the R&D and construction. warship models to gradually replace the old warships in service.
After being refurbished, the replaced equipment and old ships can be resold to other small countries in need in East Asia, thus saving the navy some upgrade costs.
In line with the principles of gradual progress and saving military expenditures, the naval ship upgrade project did not take a big step to directly replace the wooden sail warships with steam ironclads. Instead, it launched subsequent models such as A, B, C, and D on the basis of the original ship classification. And made more subdivisions of its combat functions in the fleet.
In the 1930s, the Haihan Ordnance Industry Department developed the Warrior-class warship using steam propulsion and external iron armor, which provided technical verification for the construction of new warships. However, the cost of the Warrior-class battleship was very high, and the manufacturing technology of the steam power system was not fully mature at that time, and it had extremely high technical requirements for use and maintenance. After considering the pros and cons, the Executive Committee still felt that the cost was too high, and ultimately did not rush to let the Warrior Class battleships are finalized and mass-produced.
Therefore, after this kind of advanced warship was developed, for a long period of time, only one prototype ship, the "Black Shark", was in service in the military. Although the Black Shark later participated in many actual combat operations and achieved good results, the Executive Committee still did not want to invest huge sums of money to mass-produce this new warship with excellent combat performance but high cost. After all, the three levels of exploration, exploration and majesty warships installed by the navy during this period were basically enough to defeat opponents large and small in East Asia. There is really no objective need for rapid upgrades.
However, the opinions of the Executive Committee do not represent the military. As long as the corresponding technology is available, the military will definitely be eager to build a Star Destroyer as soon as possible. In particular, some senior generals who are obsessed with upgrading naval equipment certainly hope to see rapid iterative upgrades of warships in their lifetimes, and Shi Diwen is one of them. Therefore, as early as more than ten years ago, Shi Diwen filed an application report with the Ministry of National Defense, requesting that the construction technology of Warrior-class warships be transferred to Zhoushan Shipyard, and that the East China Sea Theater be allowed to organize the construction of this new warship on its own. Of course, the relevant construction and subsequent maintenance costs will also be borne by the East China Sea Theater.
Of course, the Ministry of National Defense, which has a tight budget, is eager for someone to take the initiative to solve the problem of research and development and construction costs of new warships, so it handed over the Warrior-class construction project to Shi Diwen and allowed the Zhoushan Shipyard under his rule to build this new warship on its own. .
For Sanya, even if the Zhoushan authorities master the construction technology of this advanced warship, it will not pose a security threat, because the steam power system and breech-mounted rifled naval guns used on the ship still rely on supplies from Sanya. This means that Zhoushan cannot build as many Warrior-class battleships as it wants.
But Shi Diwen has a longer-term vision. He hopes that by building Warrior-class battleships, he will cultivate naval elites for the East China Sea Fleet who can control steam ironclads in the future. At the same time, he will also accumulate relevant engineering experience for Zhoushan Shipyard and become independent in the future. Develop more advanced warships.
Of course, not everyone has the conditions to realize such a plan. The high construction and use costs are enough to dissuade most generals with ideas. Only Shi Diwen took control of this rich geomantic land in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. A considerable part of the cross-border trade in Northeast Asia, so he has enough financial resources to support him to realize such a wish.
After Shi Diwen got this project, he spent a lot of money. Just three years later, the East China Sea Fleet installed four Warrior-class warships, becoming the most powerful presence among Haihan's overseas fleets in one fell swoop.
But this is only a phased goal set by Shi Diwen. After all, the Warrior class is a product developed by the ordnance industry department in Sanya, and he hopes that the next generation of Haihan's main battleship can be born in his own hands. It's a pity that Tom Wang, who was the best at sailing in the North American gang, has already left for North America. Otherwise, they could have joined forces to develop new ships in Zhoushan.
Another objective condition that limits the development of new ships by Zhoushan Shipyard is the steam power system on the ship. The existing equipment can only support Majesty-class battleships. If the tonnage of the battleships continues to increase, the power system will become overwhelmed. The new battleship designed by Shi Diwen is of course larger than the Majestic class, and it is impossible to reverse the process and return to the era of pure sail power, so we can only wait patiently for the advancement of industrial technology to create a better steam engine.
After entering the 1950s, Haihan finally made a breakthrough in the manufacturing technology of marine steam engines. The "Wuzhishan Type C" steam engine with greater power and more stable operation was successfully put into production, and Shi Diwen was the investor in the development of this new steam engine. One of the people. He immediately placed an order for two units to the factory in Sanya to build a new warship that had been waiting on the drawing board for two or three years. This was the "Glory-class" warship that was secretly approved.
(End of chapter)