Zhu Jingyuan is quite concerned about the channel repair project of Shiyou Lake.
The impact of this project team on the local environment is secondary. The dredging project of the oil lake channel is not a particularly important project in Xintianfu, at least it is not comparable to the Yinzhou Canal.
But Zhu Jingyuan had new ideas about this oil lake.
Zhu Jingyuan plans to build a naval museum in the future to store retired and retained naval vessels and equipment.
Oil Lake is one of the prime candidate locations for this museum.
The biggest advantage of the oil lake is that it can be directly connected to the sea. In theory, it can be regarded as a water lake.
The salt content of the oil lake water is not high to begin with and will continue to drop after the channel repairs are completed.
Salt water corrosion is one of the important factors affecting the life of warships. The life of Danshui inland river ships is usually longer than that of sea-going ships.
The warships preserved by Zhu Jingyuan from various countries in his previous life were usually stored in inland rivers.
Warships placed in coastal cities will have shorter maintenance cycles and higher costs than warships parked in inland rivers.
The oil lake channel will be dredged to a water depth of 16 meters in the future, which is enough for warships of more than 100,000 tons to sail directly in.
At the same time, compared with normal inland rivers, the area inside the oil lake can be said to be very vast.
It is more than 180 kilometers long from north to south and 110 kilometers wide from east to west.
What's more, the depth of the lake exceeds twenty meters in most areas.
The Ming Dynasty's main fleet can conduct actual combat exercises in the lake.
If a naval museum is built here, retired warships will have the opportunity to run boats in the lake.
There will be no increase in maintenance costs due to seawater erosion, nor will it significantly affect the storage time.
This allows warships in need to maintain approximate service status for a longer period of time.
It can be pulled out directly to serve again when necessary.
The other two candidate locations are Nantong or Suzhou within the Yangtze River estuary, and the other is the Great Lakes of Beiyinzhou.
The advantages of being within the Yangtze River Estuary are obvious. It is located in the most prosperous area of Ming Dynasty, and the passenger flow is relatively easy to ensure.
However, the waterway at the Yangtze River Estuary is very busy. At the same time, the Yangtze River Estuary is just a river after all. Those warships that have been turned into museums cannot just run around here. They have to soak in salt water when they go to sea.
The advantages of the five great lakes in Beiyinzhou are also obvious. They are all pure Danshui lakes, and their internal areas are much wider.
The total water area is 245,000 square kilometers, which is equivalent to two administrative envoys in the eastern part of the Ming Dynasty, and is more than ten times the area of the Petroleum Lake.
However, the Great Lakes are relatively far away from the outer sea. The gap between the outermost Lake Ontario and the four inner lakes is more than 100 meters, which requires the construction of additional special canals and locks to pass through.
To allow warships of tens of thousands or even 100,000 tons to enter the Great Lakes, the cost of dredging channels and building canals will be very high.
While this level of channel repair would be great for development around the Great Lakes, inland shipping does not require this level of channel improvement.
Oil lakes are a compromise option, with construction and maintenance costs relatively controllable.
The length of the oil lake's sea channel that needs to be dredged is about 100 kilometers.
The key point is that there is a need to transport oil on a large scale, and channel dredging is a must.
In the future, the tonnage growth of oil tankers will exceed that of warships. Sending warships into oil lakes is a complete free ride.
Therefore, Zhu Jingyuan has basically delineated the oil lake. If nothing unexpected happens, planning and construction will gradually begin in the next few years.
As for the reports of Zhu Zhujin and Wang Jinpeng, Zhu Jingyuan directly approved them after reading them.
Zhu Jingyuan's original plan was to pay a small amount of wages and have Xintianfu supply food.
Now the entire canal project has reached a state of self-sufficiency.
Zhu Jingyuan also understands that this state cannot be maintained for a long time, and it is a natural choice to gradually pay wages in the future.
However, Zhu Jingyuan gave a suggestion: instead of paying wages on a monthly basis, pay them annually or even wait until the workers leave.
Time passed, and in October of the fourth year of Ankang, Zhu Jingyuan received two more important messages.
The construction of an experimental two-ton electroslag remelting furnace was completed, and attempts to use electroslag remelted steel to manufacture small and medium-caliber artillery began.
Another month later, the first batch of experimental cannons that used electroslag remelted steel, hydraulic single body tube self-tightening technology, and bore chrome plating technology were built by Xintianfu's arsenal.
Of course, it is only a laboratory cannon and can only be used for research and verification.
A two-ton electroslag steel ingot can basically produce most artillery between 80 and 120 millimeters.
This covers a very wide range of weights and calibers.
From the secondary guns and anti-aircraft guns of battleships, aircraft carriers, and cruisers to the high-level dual-purpose guns of destroyers and frigates.
From tank guns and anti-tank guns, to self-propelled artillery and anti-aircraft guns.
The weight is basically between one ton and two tons.
The upgrade of artillery technology is the most obvious and intuitive improvement in combat capabilities.
Electronic computers and atomic weapons are things of the distant future.
Even a turbojet engine takes a long time to research and implement.
But the improvement of artillery performance is very simple and crude.
The performance of the artillery is directly affected by the quality of the barrel steel.
Electroslag remelting of gun steel has immediate effects on increasing the power of the artillery and reducing its weight.
The two technologies of electroslag remelting and self-tightening of barrels are currently the most important technologies.
Zhu Jingyuan joined his grandfather Zhu Zhongliang and went to the shooting range to watch the artillery test.
Zhu Zhongliang sat in the middle of the viewing platform, looking through the predictions provided by the craftsmen, and his eyes quickly widened:
“The weight of the 120mm artillery is directly reduced to the level of the original 100mm artillery.
“The muzzle velocity soared from seven to eight hundred meters per second to over one thousand meters per second.
“The most incredible thing is that while the weight is reduced and the power is increased, the barrel life is doubled.
"If this forecast data is not nonsense, how can it be true?"
Zhu Jingyuan smiled and nodded and said:
"If our theory is not wrong, the actual situation is what you see, grandpa.
“And this result is the benefit of basic technology upgrades, which can make existing equipment achieve leap-forward improvements.
"For the three artillery guns that will be tested today, if the muzzle velocity is reduced to the original seven or eight hundred, the theoretical life of the gun barrels under the same standard may exceed five thousand rounds."
Zhu Zhongliang couldn't help but sigh instinctively:
"This technology is really too powerful. Light tanks can be equipped with 80mm guns, and medium tanks can be equipped with 100mm guns. Compared with before, they have been directly improved by a whole stage..."
Zhu Jingyuan and Zhu Zhongliang were chatting on the management desk, and the next test was finally ready.
After Zhu Jingyuan issued the order to start the test, the artillery that had been prepared immediately began loading and test firing.
The final results were not significantly different from the reports submitted by the craftsmen.
Electroslag remelting, self-tightening of the barrel, and chromium plating of the bore, these three technologies have directly raised the performance of the Ming Dynasty's artillery to a higher level.
But what Zhu Jingyuan is thinking about now is when these gang cards will be produced and when they can be used on battleships.
How can the tonnage of electroslag furnaces be increased rapidly, and when can the 420mm naval guns of battleships be completed?
