Three days later, a strange ship finally arrived at the dock of Jiuyuan City. This ship is different from any other ship in the Ming Dynasty.
Because it is a short, fat and strange ship with a shallow draft. In order to increase the surface area and expand buoyancy, its width is particularly large, and its length is almost 2.5:1.
Yang Fan's idea originated from the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China. On the Chuanjiang River in Sichuan, there were many specially designed shallow-water heavy gunboats of the great powers.
Because of its shallow draft, it is possible to go up the Shuojiang River during the dry season and reach the upper reaches of Chongqing. There are relatively few weapons on the ship, mainly one or two heavy cannons, and the rest are some machine guns.
Heavy artillery dealt with the fortress, and machine guns dealt with the infantry and cavalry. Because the boat is small, it can be turned around in the inland river. If you can't turn around, just reverse the car and go back.
Although the speed is not fast, there is still no problem in going upstream. To reduce the hull size, small steam engines burning kerosene were used.
At a countercurrent speed of 7 knots, the range can reach 2,800 kilometers. The ship's steam engine was placed at the stern.
In order to counterweight, a circular open-air open turret was designed on the bow of the ship, and a 36-pound naval cast steel long gun was installed.
Use manpower to shake the gear set and rotate the direction and pitch angle of the gun mount. This heavy gun was specially developed for use on ships.
It will be used to replace all naval guns of various calibers currently equipped by the Navy. From now on, all Yang Fan's ships will be unified with this kind of naval gun.
There is no point in having many artillery pieces with inconsistent calibers except increasing the burden of maintenance. Artillery battles in this era were meaningless if they could not penetrate enemy ships.
Yang Fan did not intend to take the Western sailing battleship's path of winning by relying on numbers. Just use large caliber, pointed cylindrical warheads.
Better for armor penetration. The diameter of 203 mm can also be filled with explosives. The caliber ratio of this gun reached an astonishing 32 times the caliber.
It weighs five tons. The maximum range is 2500 meters and the effective range is 1500 meters. This naval gun was the last muzzle-loading smoothbore gun.
The next wave of equipment will be breech-loading rifled guns. At present, all-metal warheads, cartridges, primers, and fuses have all passed the test.
Rifling machines have also been put into production. It is a replica of a nineteenth-century American rifling machine. The breech-loading gun no longer poses many technical problems.
If anything, it can only use black powder as propellant, and the range is relatively short. Later, when the collodion film matures, it can be replaced with smokeless gunpowder.
The front part is open-air and can rotate, and the rear part is an open turret with a semicircular steel mantlet.
At the stern is the power cabin. The bridge is placed in the middle. There is a Gatling machine gun installed on the platforms on both sides of the upper part of the bridge.
This time it was Huang Hao who brought the boat. He has handed over his errands and completed the counter-insurgency work. Xinghe Tuanlian also returned to his station.
The emperor rewarded him for his merits, and Huang Hao got a general. However, people in Yang Fan's system were not very fond of court officials.
What they care about is the military rank given by their master. Because these military ranks represent different levels of treatment. Apart from having nice names, the generals in the imperial court really don't have many benefits.
Military pay has been delayed for a year. Huang Hao, Director of Transportation, was promoted to the rank of Army Aviation Major General. This is a new unit.
It belongs to the Army and is titled Army Inland Navigation Fleet. Mainly fought on inland rivers. Huang Hao handed over the transportation director and became the commander-in-chief of the newly established Army Aviation Command.
"You kid, you usually do transportation and logistics quietly. I really made a mistake. I didn't expect that you are also good at fighting." Yang Fan patted his shoulder and said.
Huang Hao was a little ashamed, but in fact he was much better than him in terms of fighting. It was really the officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty who were so bad that they showed him up.
No, he has re-enlisted.
"Sir, after all, I also graduated from the crash course at the Wushu Hall. Although I have been working in transportation, I have not left behind my professionalism."
"Okay, I'll leave Lu Aviation to you from now on. Go back and prepare, we will take action tonight." Yang Fan said.
"Here!" Huang Hao stood at attention and saluted Yang Fan in a standard military posture. Yang Fan gave him a military salute in return.
This boy, this shows that he has always been a soldier and has never forgotten his identity. That night, after dark, the dock was brightly lit with an ugly steamer.
The fire is being raised, hot water is heated, and the steam pressure is increased. Yang Fan took Zhang Wudian and others onto the bridge bridge of the ship.
Zhang Wudian was originally a scholar of the second rank and was a pure scholar. Although I have been leading troops for half my life.
But after all, he is over seventy, and his physical strength is not as good as that of young people, and he cannot wield a sword or a gun in battle. So when I came out this time, I brought my daughter-in-law and granddaughter with the highest martial arts value in the family.
As soon as they got on the boat, Zhang Fengyi was immediately disappointed. It was completely different from the spacious space, luxurious decoration, and neat appearance of the clipper ships she had seen before.
This boat is designed to be very cramped. The stairs are steep and narrow and the interior space is very tight. The ceiling is also low and there are steel pipes everywhere.
If you don't pay attention, you will hit your head. Hammocks are used as sleeping areas and have to be put away in the morning. There is no restaurant like that on a sea-going ship, so you probably have to take turns eating and squat on the deck to eat.
It's okay if it doesn't rain, but if it snows and rains, there will be no way to eat. The only room that's reasonably spacious is the bridge's pilothouse.
There are more than ten square meters here. The location is high and the view is good. Zhang Wudi didn't dislike it at all. He went to the engine room with great interest, then to the turret, and then to the cab to look at the steering wheel.
"There has been great progress. The steam engines are getting smaller and smaller. I don't know what the power is like." Zhang Wudian sighed.
"Mr. Zhang, the power has been doubled. Now each unit has 800 horsepower. This ship has two steam engines. Once one breaks down, the other can continue to drive back and go back for repairs. But the cost is not cheap. Because Afraid of corrosion, the performance of our engine oil and lubricating oil is not very good, and a large number of copper components are used, which increases the cost. The same problem also exists on seagoing ships." Zhang Wudi asked: "Burning fuel oil is more expensive than burning coal, right?" Huang Hao said : "Yes, it is a lot more expensive. But the combustion value of oil is high. It carries both coal and oil, and the fuel life is twice as long as coal. We sometimes burn coal with fuel." Although fuel oil and asphalt are the current technologies It is the final product after crude oil cracking, but the price is still higher than coal.
Because there is no shortage of coal in Mongolia and Shanxi. A lot of coal is in open-pit mines, which is easy to mine and very cheap.
The cabin was very dirty, and Zhang Wudian was also covered in oil. Zhang Fengyi's face is all black and white.
I don’t know where she touched her hand and accidentally got it on her face.
"Brother Yang, this ship is too small. The driver's cab and the gun position in front are relatively spacious." Zhang Fengyi has never seen such a narrow environment.
Yang Fan said with a smile: "I have no choice but to design it as narrow as possible. Because this is a ship for fighting in inland rivers. It is too big to turn around in a narrow river." At this time, Zhang Fengyi discovered that there were four more ships behind it. The barge was towed by this steam battleship.
It was covered with bundles of things wrapped in cotton cloth and carrying a bamboo pole. Brother Yang is doing something like this. What are you doing with the straw things in the candied haws? Are you going to the straw boat to borrow arrows tonight?
"Brother Yang, what are those and what are they used for?"
"Those are the first batch of Kangolev rockets sent. They are used by us to set fire to Linhe City tonight."
