Just when Emperor Zhu Da was looking forward to the arrival of next year, when the northern hemisphere entered autumn, the "Nanhua" finally sailed into St. Petersburg. The arrival of this foreign warship immediately caused an unprecedented sensation in St. Petersburg.
After all, this is the first time since the Crimean War that an advanced foreign warship has entered the port.
As the commander of the navy, Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich, the fourth prince of the Tsar, personally boarded the battleship after a simple welcoming ceremony.
In addition to the naval generals who accompanied Alexei on the ship, there was also Lieutenant General Popov, who was the designer of the ironclad "Peter the Great". The warship is currently being built at the Kalerny Island Factory.
A 10,000-ton ocean-going battleship.
"Its fleet was built with steel armor? No wood was used?"
As Russia's top shipbuilding engineer, Popov asked this question as soon as he opened his mouth. In this era, it was a very common design to insert wood into the iron armor. The iron hull waterline armor of the "Peter the Great" was 559 mm thick.
Made of wood, wrapped with 178 mm thick armor plates on both sides.
British warships were also built this way.
"Yes, Your Excellency General, our warship is made entirely of steel plates. It is definitely the best warship in the world. It has 305 mm thick waterline armor and a central armored fortress-style design, making it an incredible ship.
The sunken maritime fort and two twin 305mm naval guns can launch shells weighing 350 kilograms 13 kilometers away..."
Even though he is not an army officer, as a businessman Buffett is extremely knowledgeable about commodity indices.
"But sir, according to tests in the British Sea, steel armor is relatively brittle and can easily break if hit by a cannonball, so using steel armor is not a good choice!"
Alexei asked the question he was most concerned about. The reason why he cared about this issue was because...he was really excited when facing this battleship!
"Your Highness, that is British armor, not Ming Dynasty armor. We have very special metallurgical technology. Through adjustments during smelting, we can ensure that it has sufficient toughness."
As a businessman, Buffett immediately started boasting. He even showed off Ming's unique metallurgical technology.
In fact, there is something special there!
The armor steel of the "Nanhua" is just ordinary carbon steel. The British Navy conducted tests on steel plates and concluded that the steel plates were brittle because the phosphorus content of their steel plates exceeded the standard, which caused serious cold and brittleness of the steel plates.
But Nanhua's steel plate... does have its unique technology. Under the guidance of Emperor Zhu Da, high-quality carbon steel can be obtained through quenching and tempering during the steelmaking process. Although it is not as good as alloy steel, it is certainly better than the ones used in various countries.
Wrought iron is better.
"If Your Highness has time, after the tour, we can go to the ship to watch a movie. We also conducted targeted tests on the steel armor, and the test process was all captured on film."
"What is a movie?"
Alexei asked curiously.
"It is a moving photo. Your Highness, this is also a new invention of the Ming Dynasty. In fact, it has been put into use a few years ago, but it has not been popularized yet. This time I came to your country, your Majesty specially asked me to bring it
I bought a movie machine and projector as a gift to His Majesty the Tsar!"
It’s not surprising that many people give gifts, and when you do business on your doorstep, you must give some gifts. In fact, gifts are just a stepping stone. In the international arms trade, there are often kickbacks, especially in countries like Russia. According to the tradition of previous dealings between the two parties
, the rebates are all about 5%.
An hour later, in the war room that was temporarily filled with movie screening rooms, Russian Navy Commander Grand Duke Alexei and a group of naval officers were all stunned at the pictures on the screen and the moving pictures.
"He, he can actually move!"
When Alexey stood up excitedly, his shadow blocked the screen. Looking at the shadow on the curtain, he turned to Buffett and said.
"Give me a set of this movie machine!"
Is this a bribe received in person? Of course not, this is just a normal interaction.
"as you wish!"
Buffett laughed.
"Everyone, although the movie only has pictures and no sound, we still demonstrated the test process through text. What you see now is our M1872 305mm cannon, which can be used on both warships and forts...
"
After a brief explanation, Buffett stopped talking because everyone's attention was on the movie. The picture on the curtain showed the gunners stuffing a heavy shell into the barrel, then charging the powder bag and firing tube.
Closing the gun bolt is very familiar to these soldiers.
The only thing that made them curious was what kind of machine recorded the movements of these people? And the tape could be projected on a white cloth. They looked at the projector from time to time, trying to figure out the principle, and the cannon suddenly erupted.
While a large cloud of smoke rose from the muzzle, the roaring shells flew into the distance.
The camera switched to the other side. In the open wilderness, a steel plate stood. It seemed that a black spot hit the steel plate. In a cloud of smoke, people were surprised to see that the steel plate seemed to be intact.
"Your Highness, you see, this is the 305mm armor after being hit by the 305mm cannon, which is the armor belt used by the "Nanhua". Except for leaving a crater about 120mm deep, not only did the back not have any breaks, but also
There is no collapse even around it, from which we can draw the conclusion that with the current military technology, no warship in the world can sink the "Nanhua-class battleship," Your Highness."
When the lights came on, Buffett saw the surprised expressions on everyone's faces. He just smiled proudly. At this moment, these Russians were conquered.
They were conquered by advanced weapons they had never seen before! In other words, they were conquered by the intuitive display of the power of the weapons.
Noting that the Russians still didn't seem to have seen enough movies, Buffett ordered.
"Let's show another movie, let's show the "Battleship Nanhua"!"
That movie was a news documentary film shot during the construction of the "Nanhua". Now it is just time for them to see how this battleship was built!
Since we want to show Ming Dynasty’s technology in front of these Russians, let’s give them a full range of experience.
Just as Buffett expected, when these naval officers and technicians saw this documentary, they all looked attentive.
Looking at them who had been conquered, Buffett couldn't help but sigh.
