Whether a battleship or even any piece of weapons and equipment is good or not is a relative concept.
Performance is important, but cost-effectiveness is also very important...but the most important thing is to meet your own strategic and tactical needs.
Weapons and equipment that suit your needs are the best equipment!
If the Great Chu Empire faces competition from one or more powerful industrial countries at the same time and faces certain threats to its national defense, and the other party is not inferior to the Great Chu Empire in terms of military strength and technical capabilities, then the Great Chu Empire's warships or artillery, rifles and other technologies Equipment, you will definitely pursue performance in order to gain advantages in equipment performance.
This situation was very obvious in the competition between the navies of various countries in the late 19th century and the early 20th century in the original time and space. The navies of various countries spared no effort to pursue warships with better performance.
A more advanced main gun with a larger caliber.
faster speed.
Better battleship protection.
From this, the three golden standards of modern warship design emerged: maneuverability, firepower, and protection.
But it is a pity that the Chu Empire does not have such enemies...not even potential enemies, so the navy of the Chu Empire actually does not face any threats...let alone major threats, there are no ordinary threats.
For the Chu Empire Navy, although their main task is still to fight for sea control, guard the long coastline, and protect the waterways... but in fact it does not require the Chu Empire Navy to invest much energy... Again, if Just to complete the above tasks, the Da Chu Empire Navy actually does not need any professional warships. It is enough to just pull out a few armed transport ships equipped with self-defense naval guns.
The transport ships in the Da Chu Empire Navy are all equipped with self-defense firepower. Old transport ships are generally equipped with single-barreled 75mm front-loading rifled guns and 55mm front-loading rifled guns.
Among the newly built transport ships launched in the past two years, the super-large tonnage transport ships will be equipped with a 75mm single-barreled breech-loading rifled gun and a 35mm single-barreled rapid-fire gun, while the smaller ones will be equipped with a 55mm single-barreled rear-mounted gun. Equipped with a rifled gun and a 35mm single-barreled rapid-fire gun.
The artillery installed on the above three types of transport ships is actually the secondary gun in the main ocean-going battleship or the main gun in the offshore and inland river gunboats.
Therefore, the transport ships in the Da Chu Empire Navy are actually quite fierce in firepower.
Coupled with iron-ribbed wooden hulls and even new steel hulls, there is also steam engine power.
All these gave the transport ships in the Da Chu Empire Navy the ability to fully attack the indigenous sailing wooden warships of various countries.
So... to simply deal with the maritime power of indigenous countries, you don't need any professional warships.
Of course, that's what it is said, but the Navy cannot really just build a bunch of transport ships, whether it is for reasons such as competing for funds, maintaining staff, competing for domestic voice, etc., or for preventing problems before they occur, combat effectiveness, etc. Consider that the navy still needs professional warships.
It's just that the professional warships needed by the Chu Empire Navy are different from the navies of other modern countries in the original time and space.
Maritime operations are only part of the mission. The warships in the Da Chu Empire Navy also have a more important mission in the contemporary era, which is to bombard enemy ports, provide land artillery fire support, and cover the landing of ground troops. At the same time, it goes deep into the inland rivers of overseas indigenous areas to perform tasks such as deterrence, attack, and support for the army.
This means that the warships of the Da Chu Empire Navy need to have sufficient land strike capabilities.
Considering that enemies on the shore will have shore defense firepower, and shore defenses are generally relatively thick.
At the same time, when bombarding land, it needs to serve as heavy support firepower to clear important enemy targets.
This also resulted in the warships of the Da Chu Empire Navy needing a certain degree of firepower...Small artillery such as 75mm and 55mm are very useful against sail warships, but they are used to perform land bombardment missions...this The caliber is not enough.
Therefore, the warships deployed overseas by the Da Chu Empire Navy need naval guns with a caliber of more than 100 mm, preferably about 150 mm.
Especially the rifled naval gun with a caliber of 150 mm. The Da Chu Empire Navy has a very favorable impression of this caliber of naval gun.
The caliber is large enough, and the shells fired are very lethal, and can effectively destroy enemy artillery shells and other stubborn fortifications.
At the same time, artillery shells of this caliber are not too heavy, and soldiers can load them manually... instead of being like those 200 mm caliber naval guns, the shells are too heavy to be loaded manually, so mechanical loading is required.
In fact, a 170 mm caliber naval gun can also be loaded manually, but the physical requirements for soldiers are too high. At the same time, the production cost and subsequent use cost of a larger caliber naval gun are relatively high, and a ship of this caliber If the artillery is used to attack indigenous targets on shore, to be honest, there is a bit of excess firepower...
This is why the Da Chu Empire Navy, after using a 170mm front-mounted rifled gun, felt that this thing was too low in cost performance and not suitable for use... and the caliber was too small to be used on battleships, and the caliber was too small to be used on cruisers. Too big.
In the end, in the development and equipment of a new generation of breech-loaded rifled guns, the Da Chu Empire Navy did not continue to use 170 mm naval guns. Instead, it used 150 mm naval guns on cruisers and main guns on battleships. The above is concentrated on the 200 mm caliber and the 250 mm caliber.
As for why battleships use 200 mm caliber instead of the larger 300 mm caliber... of course it is still because of the price issue... It is not actually possible to build a breech-mounted rifled gun with a larger caliber, and it can be done reluctantly.
However, with the current technology, it is still relatively expensive to build such a 300 mm caliber artillery. The Navy is reluctant to part with it for a while. It plans to wait for the technology to improve in a few years and the R&D and production costs have been reduced before equipping it with a larger one. caliber battleship main gun.
As for now, the new Jinling-class battleship can just use a 250mm main gun. The navy is still too expensive for this, so it plans to build a second-class ocean-going battleship of 7,000 to 8,000 tons with a 200mm caliber. The main gun will do.
Anyway, it's just a coastal defense fortification of the indigenous people, and the 200mm rifled gun is already over-performing.
And even if there is a larger-caliber main gun, there is a high probability that it will not be equipped on the ocean-going battleships first, but will be equipped on the offshore battleships in the Second Fleet... The offshore battleships in the Da Chu Empire Navy can actually represent The top industrial strength of the Dachu Empire...
If offshore battleships are not powerful, how can they fight against the Guards fleet and the several riverside forts controlled by the Guards and the Army? How to fight all the way to Jinling City to escort him?
The most typical one is the new-generation offshore battleship Ryukyu developed for the Second Fleet.
The Ryukyu offshore battleship, which is still under construction, has a displacement of about 6,500 tons. Although its tonnage is not as good as those ocean-going battleships... the reason why it is built is smaller is purely because the Navy wants this offshore battleship to be used even in During the dry season, you can also sail up the river all the way to Jinling City.
The full load displacement of 6,500 tons is already quite a lot... For this reason, a shallow draft design must be adopted. Because the draft is relatively shallow, in order to avoid an excessively high center of gravity, a low freeboard design is adopted.
In order to counteract the riverside forts and other river defense firepower controlled by potential rebels, the ship adopts the highest standard of wrought iron armor. It is also the only fully armored battleship in the Da Chu Empire Navy.
Although the so-called top battleship Jinling class also uses high-standard wrought iron armor, the coverage area of the armor belt is very small. There is only a very narrow armor belt near the waterline.
However, the main armor belt of the offshore battleship Ryukyu adopts a full armor belt design, and the armor coverage area is very large.
At the same time, thickly armored breast wall-type enclosures were added to the front and rear central axis rotating turrets, and a so-called turret with thick steel plates was built in the middle and front of the naval gun.
At first glance, it seems to have the feel of a later turret... But this is not a turret, just a semi-open-air rotating turret with parapet armor and naval gun baffles.
However, for contemporary times, this is the limit of protection that the Dachu Empire Navy can achieve. Its protective capabilities are undoubtedly the top among the hundreds of warships in the Dachu Empire Navy.
In terms of firepower, it uses a 250mm breech-loaded rifled gun, with two turrets at the front and rear each carrying two guns, for a total of four main guns... The firepower configuration of this main gun is actually the same as that of the tens of thousands of tons of Jinling-class battleships. of.
In terms of power, the latest model of the top-notch combined steam engine is used...the new steam engine that the new Huaiqing-class cruiser finally gave up because it was too expensive.
Sufficient power can allow this offshore battleship to run at a maximum speed of fourteen knots... This speed is very sufficient for an offshore battleship whose scheduled combat area is in the Yangtze River... because it is only an offshore battleship, not Ocean navigation issues need to be considered, not to mention endurance issues, so this class of battleships has no sails, not even spare masts and sails, making the superstructure even simpler.
Because there is too much emphasis on protection, the firepower is not weak, and the power is not bad... In addition, it needs to adapt to the needs of inland warfare, and the draft is very shallow. In order to avoid an excessively high center of gravity, a low freeboard design is adopted.
Then, in order to be flexible and maneuverable in the inland river, it is easy to turn, and it is also to strengthen the protection, so the aspect ratio is very low. The entire battleship looks very thick and fat, not at all as slender as the Jinling-class battleship, and it looks very beautiful.
In the end, the Ryukyu offshore battleship seemed top-heavy and ugly...
Offshore battleships or shallow water heavy gunships are basically like this.
However, despite the fact that this thing looks ugly at first glance, it is actually the crystallization of the top industrial technology of the Great Chu Empire and was also made with great effort by the warship designers of the Naval Military and Political Department of the Great Chu Empire.
Just such a 6,500-ton Ryukyu offshore battleship, if placed in offshore waters, to be honest, it can beat the crap out of tens of thousands of tons of Jinling-class battleships...
The firepower and maneuverability of the two are equivalent, but the protection of the offshore battleship Ryukyu completely exceeds that of the Jinling-class battleship.
Of course, if it is dragged to the ocean for a naval battle, the Jinling-class battleship does not need to open fire. The Ryukyu itself will capsize directly if it encounters slightly larger waves...
Not only is this new type of Ryukyu offshore battleship, the current main force of the Second Fleet's equipment, that is, the previous generation of offshore battleships is also powerful in combat effectiveness. It is similar to the design of a shallow water heavy gunship, which also has low freeboard, front and rear central axis turret design, and is fully loaded. It's only four thousand tons, but it packs four 250mm front-loading rifled guns...
This ship is also the only warship in the Dachu Empire Navy equipped with a 250mm front-mounted rifled gun... There is no warship equipped with a 250mm front-mounted rifled gun among the ocean-going battleships.
The Second Fleet's combat effectiveness in offshore areas is no worse than that of the First Fleet, an elite ocean fleet, and is even stronger to some extent.
Therefore, in the Da Chu Empire Navy, whether it is the first fleet or the second fleet in the local fleet, they are all elite units, the core fleet in the navy.
Even the Da Chu Empire Navy has gradually formed a tradition. If you want to be promoted to an admiral as a commanding general in the Da Chu Empire Navy, you must have served as the first fleet commander or second fleet commander at the level of lieutenant general. The qualifications of a fleet commander...otherwise you won't be promoted at all.
Or to be more precise, in the past twenty years, almost all the Navy's command admirals were promoted while serving as commanders of these two fleets!
Of course, this does not mean that all vice admirals who have served as commanders of these two fleets will eventually be promoted... In fact, many who can and fail to be promoted due to various reasons. Ignoring those generals who made mistakes and were unlucky, I just say If they serve normally, some will retire directly after their term ends, while a few will be transferred to other lieutenant general-level positions and take a back seat to their retirement.
But in the past twenty years, all admirals in the command line have been in these two positions...without exception!
Therefore, the biggest dream of the commanding generals in the Dachu Empire Navy after being promoted to lieutenant general is to compete for the positions of these two core fleet commanders, thereby opening up further possibilities.
This tradition can be traced back to the Beiyang Fleet (First Fleet) and Yangtze River Fleet (Second Fleet) before the naval reform.
Of course, this is not actually a unique situation for generals in the navy's internal command system. In fact, generals in other lines have similar situations.
For example, if a naval general who takes the military and political path wants to be promoted from lieutenant general to admiral, he also needs to have served as a military and political officer in the First Fleet or the Second Fleet.
By the way, the military and political officers in the Dachu Empire were very special. They were established during the Unification War. From the beginning, Luo Zhixue became a military and political officer. The purpose was very simple, purely to supervise the army.
It just set quite standardized restrictions for this kind of supervisory army, and at the same time gave them great power.
There were military and political officers in the Chu Empire, including the army, navy, guards, and armed tax police.
The greatest authority of a military and political officer is to temporarily revoke the commander's command authority and arrest him under four major circumstances: surrendering to the enemy, disobeying orders, rebelling, or becoming disabled... But so far, few military and political officers will use this authority. Because once this authority is used, there is a high probability that either he will die or you will die...literally.
Except for extremely special cases of disability,
Once a commander surrenders to the enemy, disobeys orders, or rebels, and you revoke his command authority, then the other party must die... Surrendering to the enemy, disobeying orders, and rebelling, no matter which one of them, is a serious crime of confiscating the family and exterminating the clan.
On the contrary, if the other party does not have these conditions, you directly revoke their command authority... Even if the other party directly loses the battle and directly annihilates millions of troops, it is within their command authority. You, a military and political officer, revoked their command authority. , just trying to get involved in military power!
Officers... are a very sensitive issue in any dynasty. Why do you, a military and political officer who doesn't even know how to command combat, try to get involved in military power?
Want to rebel?
Therefore, you must die!
Because the removal of a commander is very serious, even if the commander is seriously injured and disabled and unable to continue commanding the troops, the military and political officers will not use the maximum authority to remove the command under normal circumstances...
In fact, there is no need to use this authority. Each military service has its own procedures for extending command authority according to military rank and position when the commander is seriously injured and disabled. There is no need for military and political officials to do anything extra.
Even if sometimes you really need to go through the process of revoking command authority, you can choose to report it directly and let your superiors handle it. The superiors will handle it justly and without any problems.
When a military and political officer seizes the command of a front-line commander and arrests him on the spot, it means that the situation has reached the most extreme level... In this extreme situation, the final outcome is nothing more than two: either he dies, or you die!
Finally, it must be mentioned that military and political officers do not and cannot take over military command under any circumstances.
Supervising the army means supervising the army... Supervision is the main task. As for fighting, that is a matter for the officers in the command system, not the military and political officers.
Later, the main daily work of military and political officers became to deal with various ordinary military and political affairs. Later, with further development, most of the administrative affairs in the army were taken care of by military and political institutions, and a special military and political department was also established. This organization is responsible for coordinating the military and political affairs of the entire army.
This was also an important step taken by the Chu Empire to separate military administration and military orders.
It has evolved to this day. The Military and Political Department of the Chu Empire is mainly responsible for personnel management, military law, horse administration, administrative affairs, mobilization, recruitment, local military and civilian affairs, etc. Among them, the most important authority is personnel management!
Although according to imperial tradition, the promotion, appointment and dismissal of senior generals or important positions are usually the responsibility of His Majesty himself, the promotion, appointment and dismissal of major generals and brigadier generals are basically the responsibility of the Ministry of Military Affairs!
Even if you are promoted to lieutenant general, His Majesty is nominally responsible for it... But if you have to select someone from so many generals to be promoted to lieutenant general, how can His Majesty have so much time to inspect and select each one, so most of the time it is actually the Ministry of Military and Political Affairs A number of suitable candidates are selected, and the Navy or Army Secretarial Section of the Hanlin Academy collects the candidates' information.
Luo Zhixue, the emperor, was selected from a group of candidates based on the materials submitted by the Ministry of Military Affairs and the Military Secretarial Section of the Imperial Academy and the Survey and Statistics Section of the Imperial Academy.
Otherwise, Luo Zhixue would not even be able to recognize all the major generals in his family, let alone their resumes, their specific abilities, and how to choose them.
Not to mention major generals... The Chu Empire has developed to this day, and even many so-called senior generals at the lieutenant general level are not very familiar to Luo Zhixue. Basically, the military generals Luo Zhixue pays attention to are generally active generals, and a few key positions are key lieutenant general.
Active-duty generals are either commanders of group armies deployed abroad, commanders of regional administrative fleets, or ministers of various military ministries serving in Gyeonggi Province...and there are actually dozens of these people...if they hadn't been emperors for many years, all of them would have been He was directly promoted and you couldn’t even recognize him for a while.
If it were a new emperor who came to power, it would be very difficult just to get to know the generals under his command... There are dozens of active generals, and it would probably take a long time just to read the summary of survey data on them by the Statistics Section of the Hanlin Academy. A long time.
This is still summary information. If it is detailed information, you cannot read it... because according to the tradition of the Survey and Statistics Department of the Hanlin Academy, every active general has an exclusive information room, which is filled with all kinds of messy information about this general. material.
One person per room of information is not an exaggeration.
This army is large in size and has many generals... Under such circumstances, Luo Zhixue, as the emperor, actually does not have much time and energy to pay attention to the lower-level lieutenant generals... There are only a few lieutenant generals with titles. Luo Zhixue paid attention to, such as the Commander of the First Fleet and the Commander of the Second Fleet... The main reason is that these two fleets are not only the main fleet, but also both in the mainland. When Luo Zhixue went to the Navy to inspect, he basically looked at these two fleets. .
After going back and forth, you will naturally become familiar with it.
Then there is the Chief of Operations of the Army Staff Department. This position was specially created by Luo Zhixue to coordinate the combat command work of the entire army. Naturally, Luo Zhixue pays more attention to such a key general...
This position is also the best channel for Army Lieutenant General to be promoted to General!
In addition to these key positions, Luo Zhixue paid less attention to other things... It's not that he is lazy or doesn't care about military affairs, but he is really too busy... He is not just a commander-in-chief, he is the emperor of the Chu Empire , military affairs are only part of his many tasks.
There are many other internal affairs tasks, each of which is equally important.
So much work needs to be handled by Luo Zhixue, even with the help of the huge secretarial agency of the Hanlin Academy. There are so many agencies, so many senior generals and officials at the same time, but in the end they are all put into his hands and need to be handled by him personally. Still a lot.
In this case, if you don't want to live and die, decentralization of power is actually very necessary.
This is also the reason why Luo Zhixue established the Senate and Military Affairs Council systems, and also established the Hanlin Academy secretary system... As the emperor of a highly centralized feudal empire, he had all the power in theory and even in reality.
If he doesn't delegate power, he will be too busy...
There are advantages and disadvantages to decentralizing power. The advantage is that you don’t have to be exhausted, and you have more time to plan and deal with things at the strategic level, instead of focusing all your energy on specific government affairs.
But there are also disadvantages...that is, the power of the various ministers under the Senate system and the core institution of the Hanlin Academy is increasing year by year.
There is a hidden danger that it will not be lost and even the imperial power will fall away.
