The boom in the shipbuilding industry in recent years has not only been seen by the Li family, but many people have seen it, and many have joined it.
Shipyards have appeared in many places along the coast and rivers of the Great Chu Empire!
Among them, the biggest move was naturally made by the Ministry of Industry of the Great Chu Empire. In order to improve its shipbuilding capabilities, the Ministry of Industry provided more and better warships to the navy, and also to provide more and better transport ships of various types to the shipping industry. In recent years, However, a lot of money was invested in the shipbuilding industry in 2016.
Among them, it invested heavily in two major shipyards, Songjiang Naval Shipyard and Guangzhou Shipyard. In addition, it also invested heavily in the construction of Qingdao Shipyard.
According to the positioning of the Ministry of Industry, these three major shipyards are required to undertake the construction of large battleships, especially battleships exceeding one thousand tons, as well as the construction of large armed merchant ships.
Therefore, these three shipyards have a large investment scale and are looking for talents from all over the country and even from all over Southeast Asia.
The investment of CICC from the Ministry of Industry has also achieved quite good results. The Qingdao Shipyard is still under construction, and the equipment, large shipyards and personnel are not yet ready. Therefore, at present, we can only build some small-scale ships with a scale of several hundred tons first. Practice your skills on warships and merchant ships.
However, Songjiang Naval Shipyard and Guangzhou Shipyard have improved their construction capabilities of large battleships. Songjiang Naval Shipyard has built four Jinling-class third-class battleships for the navy.
Coupled with the two Jinling-class third-class battleships built by the Guangzhou Shipyard, these six battleships have become the absolute main battleships of the Dachu Empire Navy.
Six 1,500-ton third-class battleships are nothing in European waters, but in the Western Pacific waters, they are definitely at the hegemonic level.
Otherwise, why could the navy of the Dachu Empire be able to control the coastal and eastern waters, and at the same time control a certain degree of sea control in the Nanyang waters to protect its own merchant ships and navigate various ports in Nanyang.
Without a powerful navy, it would be impossible for the Dutch or Portuguese to tolerate the merchant ships of the Chu Empire wandering around to steal business from them!
However, as the strength of the Chu Empire's navy strengthened, the Dutch and Portuguese also successively dispatched a number of battleships from India and even Europe to the South China Sea in order to prepare for it, in order to form a new strategic balance.
How should I put it? If the strength of these two countries in the Nanyang and Indian Ocean waters is too poor, it will be impossible to conduct so-called equal trade with the Chu Empire...
If the Chu Empire could swallow up the entire Southeast Asian and even Indian markets, why should it share a piece of the pie with the Dutch and Portuguese?
As for the profits from European trade... please remember that it is the European market that demands Chinese silk, porcelain and other goods. Only China has always been out of stock due to the Chinese sea ban, and no European merchants have taken the initiative to cut off trade routes.
This supply and demand relationship must be kept in mind!
Furthermore, without the Dutch and Portuguese, as well as the English and Spanish, they were trying their best to get involved in the trade with the Chu Empire.
Spain did not hesitate to launch a global shipping route, and the British did not hesitate to risk being attacked by 'pirates' and invaded the Southeast Asia!
Therefore, today's maritime trade in Southeast Asia and India...European countries can actually replace each other, but the Chu Empire cannot be replaced.
Without the participation of the Dachu Empire, the maritime trade in this area would lose its greatest value.
The Chu Empire had the absolute initiative in this series of maritime trade. If their maritime strength completely overwhelmed the Dutch and Portuguese, they would still be playing tricks.
This is why the Dutch and Portuguese mobilized warships to reinforce India and Southeast Asia, just to prevent themselves from being kicked aside by the Chu Empire.
The six Jinling-class third-class battleships have already had such an impact on the waters of Southeast Asia, not to mention that Songjiang Naval Shipyard and Guangzhou Shipyard continue to build battleships for the navy.
And there are more warships under construction...
Currently, a total of twelve battleships are being built in these two shipyards, ten of which are improved models of the Jinling-class third-class battleships. The Dachu Empire Navy is very satisfied with the Jinling-class battleships and is ready to build more of these outstanding battleships. Battleship, of course, the necessary improvements are also required.
The tonnage of the improved Jinling-class battleship has increased to 1,700 tons. The increased tonnage is mainly used to increase material reserves to enhance ocean navigation capabilities.
It is also used to replace newer main naval guns.
Although the main naval gun still has the same caliber, its barrel is longer, its performance is better, and its weight is correspondingly heavier.
There are also two new-generation first-class battleships, the Guangzhou-class battleship, which is larger than the Jinling-class battleship. The standard displacement of this artillery reaches 2,600 tons, and it can carry a total of 102 long-barrel ships of different sizes. gun.
The firepower, tonnage, and typical three-layer artillery deck all make this battleship a veritable first-class battleship, and its combat effectiveness is one level stronger than the Jinling-class battleship.
If this thing were placed in Europe, it would be a first-class battleship.
However, although this thing is good, it is very expensive, and the requirements for shipbuilding capabilities are not low. At least, the dry dock must be that big...
Of course, the most important thing is that the tonnage is larger and requires higher shipbuilding technology, so there are only two orders in the first batch.
These two Guangzhou-class first-class battleships are, to put it bluntly, the products of experiments. The Navy is also a little worried about making mistakes, so it will build two ships first and take a look. If the effect is good and the technology is passed, then large-scale construction will be started.
As for now and even for many years to come, the main battleships of the Dachu Empire Navy will still be the Jinling-class battleships equipped with seventy-four cannons and their improved versions.
Since this warship was put into service, the Dachu Imperial Navy has been very satisfied. It believes that this warship has achieved a very good balance in performance and cost, and has obtained more powerful combat effectiveness at the lowest possible price.
In June of the 10th year of Chengshun, a squadron of the Da Chu Empire Navy and the Spanish Global Treasure Ship Fleet conducted a friendly exercise in the waters of Manila.
Among the battleships dispatched by the Spanish Navy, there was one second-class battleship with eighty-four guns, an estimated displacement of two thousand tons, and three decks.
However, in live-fire exercises, its ability to damage target ships was not as good as the 74-gun Jinling-class battleship of the Dachu Empire Navy.
This means that the actual combat capability of the Jinling-class battleship is no less than that of a second-class battleship with 84 guns.
As for those inferior third-class battleships with more than 60 cannons, they are no match for the 74-gun battleships.
This balance is actually the reason why the Da Chu Empire Navy directly gave up the construction of a second-class battleship of about two thousand tons and equipped with eighty or ninety guns. This second-class battleship cannot be used directly as the core of the fleet. It is better to use it directly as the core of the fleet. A first-class battleship, if used daily, is not as good as a 74-gun battleship.
Therefore, the Dachu Empire Navy simply canceled the construction plan of second-class battleships and directly adopted a high-low combination of first-class battleships and third-class battleships.
This is why the Dachu Imperial Navy continues to build Jinling-class improved models on a large scale. If nothing unexpected happens, the number of battleships of this class may reach dozens in a short period of time.
In addition to battleships, the Chu Empire also built a large number of cruisers and frigates over several years, of which the number of cruisers has reached more than twenty.
There are more frigates of only three to four hundred tons, more than sixty.
The cruisers among them are all pretty good. The tonnage of these things is actually not small. The small ones are seven to eight hundred tons, and the new large cruisers are already over a thousand tons.
Therefore, the construction of large cruisers can only be carried out in the two major shipyards, and other shipyards are still lagging behind.
But the frigate is different. The tonnage of this thing is not large, and its position is offshore patrol. It does various odd jobs in the fleet.
The combat effectiveness is average, but the advantage is that it is cheap!
The most important thing is that this kind of frigate can be built in many shipyards, even several inland shipyards affiliated with the Ministry of Industry, such as Jiujiang Shipyard, Hantian Shipyard, and Jinling Shipyard can build such small boats.
At the same time, the ship is small and the construction period is fast. The time required from the start of construction to the launch of the ship is very short. If it is rushed, it will take more than a year.
Therefore, in recent years, the Da Chu Empire Navy has built more than 60 ships at one time, and more than ten ships are put into service every year.
A large number of frigates, coupled with more than twenty cruisers and six battleships, have completely completed the upgrade of the Da Chu Empire Navy.
Now in the Da Chu Empire Navy, all the old-style warships such as Fu Chuan and Bird Boat that were taken over from Zheng Zhilong's command have all withdrawn from the front-line combat units.
Because these ships are all traditional warships with hard sails, and the navy's main warships at all levels, except for river ships, all have soft sails, so these traditional ships are not even easy to use as training ships...
Of course, these ships will not be scrapped and dismantled directly. They are basically decommissioned and sold to the three major trading companies and various private trading companies.
After all, it is a battleship, so it is not very good at fighting, but it is still barely capable of being used as an armed merchant ship.
However, these trading companies are short of ships and cannot order new ships in time, so they also want old ships.
Whether they are sold to the three major trading companies or to ordinary trading companies, in fact, these decommissioned warships used as armed merchant ships still belong to the naval reserve to a certain extent.
As long as the navy has needs, it can recruit them anytime and anywhere, or even with ships and people.
Many trading companies in the Great Chu Empire are also part of the maritime armed forces of the Great Chu Empire, just like the East India Companies of various countries will become the armies of various countries when necessary.
Today's Great Chu Empire Navy has a completely new look, but the Great Chu Empire Navy has not stopped its pace of development!
The Da Chu Empire has such a long maritime territory, and it also has maritime interests in the East and South Ocean that need to be protected. Well, as the goods of the Da Chu Empire enter the Indian Peninsula, the interests in this area also need to be protected by the navy.
In the South China Sea and the Indian Sea, the strength of various countries is not weak.
According to the navy's estimates, in order to ensure the overseas interests of the Chu Empire, at least one hundred battleships, plus an equal number of cruisers, and at least three hundred frigates are needed!
It's still far from that.
Therefore, the two major shipyards and the Qingdao Shipyard under construction have a long way to go.
If these three major shipyards all serve the navy, then a large number of other shipyards invested by the Ministry of Industry serve purely for shipping.
Of course, some shipyards will also build warships, but they will only build small-tonnage frigates, and more of them will mainly build inland river and offshore ships and ocean-going merchant ships.
The economic development of the Dachu Empire requires a large number of ships!
Especially the Pearl River, Yangtze River, canals and various domestic coastal routes require tens of thousands of ships!
For example, during the late Qing Dynasty, Shanghai alone had at least 3,000 sand ships, and there were at least tens of thousands of sand ships nationwide!
This is only talking about sand ships, and does not include other ship types.
The industrial and commercial development and foreign trade of the Chu Empire were far more open and larger than those in the late Qing Dynasty.
The number of ships required will also be greater!
The sand ship is the center of construction.
Sand boats, despite their humble reputation, are very suitable for sailing on inland rivers, lakes, and offshore seas. They have shallow drafts, Chinese-style hard sails, and high utilization rates of wind power, and they also require a low number of personnel.
Moreover, the technology is mature and the cost is low, so it can be constructed on a large scale.
This thing can be done by any private shipyard. It's just a matter of size.
But as a vessel for inland and offshore navigation, this thing doesn’t need to be too big.
Today, in the Yangtze River Basin, the number of sand ships coming and going is increasing day by day. When the weather is good and business is busy, sailing can be continued along the Yangtze River.
One ship after another passed between them, and most of these ships were sand ships!
A large number of small and medium-sized shipyards invested by the Ministry of Industry initially focused on building sand ships. Only some coastal shipyards with relatively large investment scale will think about building some new large-scale ships, but their technical capabilities are temporarily limited. not so good.
The Ministry of Industry invested heavily in the shipbuilding industry in order to provide transportation tools for the imperial economy, which was developing day and night. In the process, the Ministry of Industry also encouraged private capital to enter shipyards to build ships, especially after the Ministry of Industry was split and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce became independent. More encouraged.
It was against this background that the Li family invested heavily in the shipbuilding industry. In addition to the Li family, there were also a large number of other gentry and businessmen who entered the shipbuilding industry.
In addition to the gentry and merchants who voted, there was also a group of shipbuilding craftsmen who had nothing to do with the gentry and merchants. They were not willing to just take a dead salary and wanted to start their own business.
They are the founding team of Luohua Shipyard, part of the backbone of the former Songjiang Naval Shipyard.
They understand shipbuilding, but they are blind as to how to run a shipyard!
