In today's era, warship operations mainly depend on two points, one is the number of cannons, and the other is the sophistication of the cannons.
In order to pursue the number of cannons, most previous warships were made of multi-layer plywood, with each layer filled with cannons. However, this had a fatal weakness, that is, the range in which the cannons could be aimed was very limited.
The advanced nature of the American "Warrior" lies in the fact that its artillery can rotate and aim 360 degrees.
Another big problem is that current artillery has a low rate of fire and poor accuracy. Large-caliber artillery even requires at least 10 minutes of reloading time.
Therefore, the key to strengthening the strength of warships lies in improving cannons.
Almost all cannons used around the world are front-loading cannons. The reason why they are called front-loading cannons is that the shells are added from the front barrel. This kind of cannon has many shortcomings. First, it has a short range, and second, it takes a long time to fill. .
The cannons on the "Warrior" are all front-loaded cannons, so the distance of 3,000 meters is considered incredible.
However, breech-loading cannons are not a new thing. They existed in the Ming Dynasty. Due to the poor sealing of the breech, they were very weak and even easily misfired and injured the artillery. Therefore, they were overtaken by front-loading cannons.
Time goes back to Blue Star on December 1, 1863, when the Pacific Fleet had just been destroyed. Ding Ruchang carried the rudder of the "Guangzhou" and floated to Qinghai Port, and was later sent to the hospital for treatment.
The plan to upgrade warships has also become China's most important task at the moment.
However, now that China has the ability to refine high-quality steel, the problem of breech sealing of breech-loading guns can be solved, and all China's artillery can undergo a major upgrade.
Fortunately, although Shi Dakai didn't learn much about warships in the military academy, his knowledge of guns and ammunition was among the best.
Blue Star On December 30, 1863, Shi Dakai secretly convened a meeting with the heads of major arsenals to discuss, telling them how to manufacture breech-loading guns, and began secret full-scale production to replace the current field guns.
"Mr. President, the hidden dangers of breech-loading cannons are too great. Not only are they easy to explode, but they are also too weak. Therefore, no country in the world continues to use breech-loading cannons."
An expert spoke under pressure, thinking to himself, this is another layman leader who gives random orders.
"The reason why breech-loading cannons cannot be built is because the steel used in the past was not good enough..."
Before Shi Da finished speaking, the upright expert continued to refute.
"No matter how good the steel is, it cannot be completely sealed. If the sealing is not good, the artillery shells will misfire. Not only are they weak, they can also kill the artillery at any time."
"That's the secret here."
Shi Dakai took out a wedge-shaped piece of steel that was refined.
"I figured it out!"
The expert sighed after seeing the metal block.
I didn't expect that the answer to the question that had been bothering me was so simple. I couldn't help but admire Shi Dakai.
In fact, this wedge-shaped piece of metal can be regarded as a door. After the cannonball is filled, the metal is embedded and blocks the breech. Once the breech is blocked, the power and gun loading speed will naturally increase.
Using current steel-making technology, this can be easily produced. This is the same principle as the Krupp made a few years later.
This simple technological breakthrough means that many giant cannons can be cast in the future.
This improved breech-loading gun was named the Chinese Field Gun.
The parameters of the Chinese field artillery are as follows:
It has a caliber of 200 mm, a barrel length of 6 meters, a weight of 22 tons, an elevation angle of up to 30 degrees, an effective range of more than 5,000 meters, and can fire 2-3 shells per minute.
The birth of Chinese field artillery made artillery all over the world look backward.
Blue Star In March 1864, after the railway line was opened, the production of warships had to be accelerated.
In order to speed up production, the production adopts the method of separation of naval guns.
It can be simply understood as producing a Chinese field gun that can rotate 360 degrees while producing an iron-clad warship, and then fixing the Chinese field gun on the iron-clad ship.
Blue Star In April 1864, Shi Dakai summoned all generals to discuss how to rebuild the Pacific Fleet.
The range and power of the Chinese field artillery can crush the cannons of the "Warrior" and "Glory".
In this case, China can quickly build small and fast warships, equip them with Chinese field artillery, and run away after firing, leaving foreign naval fleets helpless.
Just like Dunkleosteus, although it is huge and has explosive attack power and can eat a shark in one bite, it moves slowly and eventually loses to small sharks and other fish, leading to extinction.
Blue Star In May 1864, the small ironclad ship began mass production and was named the Chinese frigate.
The parameters of the Chinese frigate are as follows:
It is 50 meters long, 10 meters wide, has a draft of 4 meters, a displacement of only 600 tons, a speed of 25 knots, and is equipped with 3 Chinese field guns.
Blue Star In October 1864, the first batch of 30 Chinese frigates was officially launched for mission.
Blue Star At 7 o'clock in the morning on November 20, 1864, there was heavy fog in the Yellow Sea. 30 small-tonnage Gallic armored ships were gliding leisurely, as if they had forgotten the territorial waters of China here.
Suddenly, the Gallic lookout soldiers discovered 10 small Chinese ironclads appearing in the heavy fog 5,000 yards away.
"Attention all, 10 small ironclads are seen 5,000 yards away."
The commander of the Gallic fleet was a little arrogant and ordered an attack.
"Such a small fleet might just be a merchant ship. It doesn't matter. Just move forward at full speed and give him a few cannons and that's it."
As soon as he finished speaking, he was slapped in the face.
The war cannon on the Chinese frigate slowly rose, and a shell broke through the sky, drawing a beautiful arc, and then slammed into the Gallic fleet.
boom! boom! boom!
10 ships fired 25 guns in one minute.
The Gallic commander was completely confused. He had never seen such fierce firepower and such a long range.
The Chinese fleet originally wanted to fight guerrilla warfare, but it ended up being a war of annihilation.
In less than 20 minutes, all 30 Gallic warships sank.
A Gallic soldier was holding the broken driftwood of the battleship. He was so shocked that he picked up the cross pendant around his neck and said: "God, save me!"
Suddenly, 10 Chinese ironclads disappeared into the heavy fog. This was because the Chinese army was going back to have breakfast.
The soldiers of Gaul still couldn't believe that there was such a cannon in the world.
After this time, a ghost story spread: There are some ghost warships in the Yellow Sea. They sink ships every day, but they are afraid of crosses.
For a time, sailors and navies from all over the West were buying crosses, causing the price of crosses to rise.
