Great Tang Southern Emperor

During the Napoleonic Wars, among the 175 main battleships of the British Navy, there were 117 third-class battleships. In the Battle of Trafalgar, 27 of the 20 British battleships were also of this class: while the Franco-Spanish combined fleet 33 of the 29 battleships in China belonged to this class, which shows how many third-class battleships there were at that time.

If you compare a fleet to an army, then the first-level battleship is the marshal, and the third-level battleship is the general. The marshal only needs to remotely command the battle situation. He led many small soldiers (fourth-level five-level warships).

More importantly, Tier [-] battleships are already capable of oceangoing voyages. In other words, the oceangoing conquest that Li Zhen has been planning in her heart can finally begin completely.

Coincidentally, Liu Rengui over there has also systematically learned the experience of sailing at sea with some veteran crew members and sailors, and now only the actual combat practice is left.And Li Zhen has already found a suitable target. As long as Liu Rengui can find the place he wants to find smoothly, and bring back the treasure there, then he can graduate smoothly, and he will be the commander of the Yuezhou Fleet of the Tang Dynasty. It's his.

"Your Highness, this is our warship." Zheng Yintao, director of Yuezhou Shipyard, felt confident today, because after several months of hard work, Yuezhou finally built the battleship that His Royal Highness needed.

What was displayed in front of Li Zhen was a warship that was not too big but looked full of muscles.Compared with the warship converted from a merchant ship that Li Zhen came back to take (a lot of warships are needed to escort food and grass, but Li Zhen does not allow oversea ships to build warships, oversea ships can only be refitted with merchant ships), although there is no such thing. This battleship is large, but with a compact design, three decks, and nearly a hundred cannons (in fact, there are only more than 80 guns) showing a hideous appearance through the gun windows, none of them prove the strength of this battleship.

If two battleships are put together to bombard each other, there is no doubt that a merchant ship with a bloated structure and more than 20 cannons will not be the opponent of the battleship in front of you at all, and even a third-tier battleship only needs one salvo. Can smash merchant ships out of range.

It's very simple. After all, the structure of merchant ships is not designed for war, and they simply cannot withstand the violent recoil of artillery several times.Therefore, in order to put the artillery on the merchant ship, the power of the artillery has been weakened, and only the reduced artillery can be put on the merchant ship—in any case, the warships in the caravan exist more for intimidation than for killing people... In this way It is more appropriate to say that the warships are armed merchant ships rather than warships.

The range can't keep up, the power is not as good, the protection is even worse, and even the hit rate can't match the third-tier battleship... How can such a battleship compare with a real battleship?I'm afraid that a third-tier battleship is enough to slaughter ten armed merchant ships.

"Not bad." Looking at the battleship painted white as a whole, Li Zhen became more and more satisfied. With a warship of this level, her ocean-going voyage plan can be realized.First the islands of Southeast Asia, then Australia, then South America, and finally North America...

Peppers, corn, potatoes, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, peanuts...

Spicy mapo tofu, fragrant grilled corn, delicious potato beef, sweet and sweet pumpkin pie, sweet sweet potato porridge, crispy and fragrant alcoholic peanuts...

I can't, I can't, the more I think about it, the more I want to drool, I'm their King of Yue, how can I drool in front of so many subordinates?No, no, I have to hold back...but I really can't hold back...

Chapter 558

Chapter 23 Crossbar launch

God knows how desperate Li Zhen was when she learned that there was no pepper in the Tang Dynasty after she came to this era.In his last life, he liked everything spicy, but in this life, he could only use garlic and lilies to make it spicy... so desperate to say.

In a sense, the reason why Li Zhen came to Lingnan to develop the shipbuilding industry and start the age of great voyages was to find America and get peppers one day—don’t think this reason is nonsense, and don’t underestimate the resentment of a foodie.Although it may not be as good as destroying the world when Aunt's cravings occur, but for a delicious meal, conquering the world is really no joke, especially when he has this ability.

"Your Highness? Your Highness?" Zheng Yintao saw that Li Zhen was so intoxicated in fantasy that his saliva was about to flow out. Afraid that Li Zhen would make a fool of himself, he hurriedly woke Li Zhen up: "Your Highness, the time is coming soon, you should preside over Zong Hai The ship's launching ceremony."

Zonghai is the first ship of the "Zonghai-class" three-tier battleship. It has two gun decks, 81 guns, a crew of 720, a standard displacement of 1428 tons, and a full-load displacement of 1562 tons. Break it into two pieces, otherwise even if it is hit at a vital point, the hull will not sink in a short time.The Zonghai class has a reasonable design and superior performance. Even if placed in the British Royal Navy in the 19th century, it is not outdated. It is the most important combat power for Li Zhen to conquer the sea in the future.

According to Li Zhen's plan, there are a total of twelve "Zonghai-class" warships that will start construction on Yuechuan. The first ship is Zonghai. Construction will start gradually within two years, and it should be delivered to the Yuezhou Fleet within three to five years.In addition to the Zonghai-class battleships, Yuezhou Shipyard will also undertake the design work of the first-class battleships, making preparations for the manufacture of first-class battleships in the future.

"Oh yes, it's time to go into the water." Li Zhen came to her senses, touched the corner of her mouth with a guilty conscience, and found that there was no moist feeling, she immediately breathed a sigh of relief, and gave Zheng Yintao a look of approval, if Zheng Yintao hadn't reminded him in time, Li Zhen promised that in a short while at most, his saliva would definitely flow out, and he would make a big fool of himself by then.

As the sacrifices such as five animals and five grains were pushed into the sea, everyone on the shore immediately cheered before the eyes of the sinking people. The ceremony before the battleship entered the sea was officially completed, and the next step was the highlight.

Following Li Zhen's order, the Zonghai was slowly pushed into the sea by the warriors.

"Pfft!"

"Whoa."

"Whoa."

The Zonghai was successfully pushed into the sea, sank and floated quickly in the sea a few times, and then stopped firmly on the sea surface. During this period, the ship did not make any abnormal noise, which shows that the structure of the Zonghai is quite tight and its performance is quite reliable.

After launching into the water, the next step is the sea test. Li Zhen was even more excited when he saw the Zonghai ship going away. The excited Zheng Yintao said, "That's good, that's good. I'll do a great job for you. If we can really conquer the sea in the future , Zheng Yintao, you are the greatest hero, and this king will personally invite father to be a knight for you."

"Thank you Your Highness, I will do my best to fight for Your Highness's great voyage for the rest of my life." Zheng Yintao immediately flattered her - even though Li Zhen didn't like this.

"Okay, that's it, pack up a few copies of the drawings and send them to Dengzhou, Minzhou (that is, Fuzhou, which was called Minzhou at this time, and Fuzhou was only called in the Kaiyuan period) and Quanzhou, and let them also Let's start work." Li Zhen ordered.

"Yes, the orders of the subordinates." Zheng Yintao said a little depressed: "It's just that the three bastards are cheaper."

"Don't complain, I've already promised you a knighthood, those three people don't have this kind of treatment, what else do you have to complain about?" Li Zhen scolded with a smile.

Yue Ship's manufacturing capacity is quite good. It can manufacture twelve warships within three to five years, which is already very fast.But Li Zhen will not be satisfied with only twelve battleships in his fleet. In his plan, the future Datang fleet must have at least one hundred or more third-tier battleships and more than ten first-tier battleships, so many Ships, just one overhaul is definitely not enough, there must be other shipyards to share the responsibility for it.

Li Zhen established many shipyards in Datang, but the most important ones are Dengzhou Shipyard, Minzhou Shipyard, Quanzhou Shipyard and Yuezhou Shipyard.

Originally, Suzhou and Hangzhou were also two major outlets to the sea, and they were also very suitable for building large-scale shipyards, but these two places were the territory of the aristocratic family, and the top and bottom officials were controlled by the aristocratic family.If I really dare to build the shipyard there, I'm afraid it won't take long, and I'm afraid they will be able to infiltrate the shipyard from bottom to top.The shipyard that I have worked so hard to build is nothing more than making wedding dresses for others. I am afraid that they will also use the shipyard to compete with themselves for business - cultivate enemies for themselves. Li Zhen can't do this kind of thing Come on, therefore, Li Zhen can only give up these two places and wait for a chance in the future.

At present, he only has four large shipyards, of which Yue Ship is the largest, with thousands of workers alone, from small boats to large ships, from civilian ships to warships, all have the ability to manufacture independently, and there is also a separate design department , can be said to be the most complete shipyard.

In addition to Yue Ship, Dengzhou Shipyard is the next one, which is Li Zhen's only large shipyard in the north and the first shipyard established by Li Zhen.At the beginning, the main function of Dengzhou Shipyard was to train workers and provide blood transfusion for Yue Ship and other shipyards. Therefore, Dengzhou Shipyard has a very strong ability in training workers, and also has a very strong ship design ability.It's a pity that all the excellent craftsmen were sent by Li Zhen to Yuechuan and other shipyards, and the scale is not as good as Yuechuan, so they can only be ranked under Yuechuan.

As for Fujian Shipyard and Quanship Shipyard, these two shipyards are no less in terms of scale than ship crossing and boarding, but because they only have manufacturing capabilities but no research capabilities, they are at the bottom of the list.

However, because they only focus on manufacturing, the two discuss manufacturing capabilities, and even go beyond boating and boarding.In Li Zhen's plan, in the next five years, Yuechuan will build twelve Zonghai-class ships, boarding ships will build ten ships, and Quanchuan and Fujian ships will build at least fifteen more ships. The accessories produced by those small shipyards that are distributed all over the country...

Five years later, the Datang fleet will have at least sixty or more third-tier battleships and more than two first-tier battleships.

Five years later, the entire sea will be covered by the fleet of Datang. Under the majesty of Datang, other small countries can only hide beside them and tremble.

Chapter 559 Too lazy to think of a title (fifth update, please support)

Chapter 24 Too lazy to think about the title (Fifth update, please support)

"I am very satisfied with the performance of the warships, but the manufacture of merchant ships cannot be stopped." Li Zhen instructed that although warships are important, the manufacture of merchant ships cannot be stopped, otherwise, after five years, I will have enough warships to conquer the world, but It would be really ridiculous if there were not enough merchant ships to transport the captured profits back to Datang.

"Your Highness, don't worry, your subordinates are ready."

Zheng Yintao said with a smile: "Compared with warships, the manufacture of merchant ships is much simpler, and our design department is studying a new type of shipbuilding method. If this new type of manufacturing method can be successfully studied, the speed of shipbuilding will be greatly improved. In addition, even some components with simple structure but long construction period can be distributed to some small shipyards for production, and after completion, they can be shipped to us for final assembly, which will undoubtedly greatly shorten the manufacturing time of ships.”

"Okay, if you can really succeed in researching this technology, I will give you credit again." Li Zhen's eyes lit up, and she was inexplicably shocked. Isn't this just standardized manufacturing?Didn't expect Yuechuan to have already started to get involved in this aspect?

He knows the value of this technology too well. In fact, it is because of standardization that some large machinery companies in later generations can only master the core technology, while the peripheral parts are outsourced to other manufacturers, and finally shipped to the main factory for assembly— —This is the charm of standardization. As long as there is a unified standard, even if it is thousands of miles away, the parts produced by the two factories can be perfectly assembled together.

This is an industrial miracle that can only appear when the industry is extremely developed. If it can be researched, the manufacturing time of the ship will be shortened by at least half.

The problem is that standardization can only appear when the industry reaches its peak. Now it is Datang. In this era when transportation is not developed and personnel circulation is extremely inconvenient, can technical standardization really be realized?Li Zhen expressed doubts.

But no matter what, Li Zhen didn't intend to intervene in this matter. It is a good thing that Yue Chuan can learn to research independently.Regardless of whether this technology is ultimately successful or not, it is a good thing for itself.Of course it would be best if he succeeded, he had obtained a sharp weapon capable of crossing the world, with its existence, his pace of conquering the world would increase again.It's okay to fail, it can be regarded as accumulating experience and providing experience for future standardization, which is also good.

"Thank you, Your Highness."

"By the way, I have one more thing." Li Zhen suddenly remembered his other purpose for coming, took a blueprint from his entourage, handed it to Zheng Yintao and said, "Look at this, can you make it?"

"This is..." Zheng Yintao opened the blueprint in doubt, and after browsing through it, he became even more confused: "Your Highness, the subordinates can understand every part in it, but when it is assembled, why can't the subordinates understand it?" Is it? If my subordinate reads correctly, this should be a boat, right? But the material of this boat...Your Highness, why do you insist on marking it with steel? If iron falls into the water, it will sink to the bottom? Such a boat What's the use of coming?"

"Don't worry about it, I just want to know your answer, whether it can be done or not?"

"It's definitely not a problem to make it, but after making it, I can't guarantee whether it can float or not." Zheng Yintao struggled: "Actually, my subordinates also know that the wooden hull is indeed a little fragile. Afraid of water ghosts, and secondly afraid of fire attacks.

Especially when facing a fire attack, it is even more defenseless. Once it is entangled in flames, no matter how big the ship is, it will quickly become a sea torch.But faced with this situation, I have tried my best to make improvements, such as cladding the steel plate on the bottom of the boat, which has greatly improved the strength of the hull, but just wrapping a layer of thin wood on the hull, so as long as there is a fire, it can be quickly removed The thin wood there, ensuring the safety of the ship’s hull, etc. Our method of detoxifying the subordinates is already perfect, but I didn’t expect that your Highness will be more ruthless here, directly using steel to build the ship... Your Highness, your method is too radical, right?Even if he made steel, it wouldn't be able to float. "

"Why so much nonsense?" Li Zhen said angrily: "Who told you that I built iron boats to prevent fire and water ghosts? This king will ask you a question now, how long will this thing take if you make it?" Can the time be done?"

"This...one month should be enough." Zheng Yintao silently calculated in his heart according to the size marked by Li Zhen, and gave a relatively conservative time limit.

"A month?" Li Zhen nodded: "Okay, I will give you a month to try to make things for me."