After the opening of the military academy, Li Zhi felt that the results were very good. In particular, the teaching of naval tactics benefited the officers a lot. It can be said that it was an emergency recharge before the decisive battle with Zheng Zhilong.
The distance between combat ships at sea is very large. Sometimes the battleship is more than ten miles away from the flagship, and the semaphore on the flagship cannot be seen at all. Under such circumstances, how to fight often depends on the personal command ability of the captains.
Li Zhi's navy had only been established for a few years and had never fought any major battles. The captains had no idea how to set up formations, how to use firepower, how to make detours and how to break through. Even the captain of the navy, Lu Hu, only commanded by feeling.
, not knowing the experiences and lessons of previous generations.
However, the Spanish and Portuguese instructors are familiar with various naval battles in the past ten years. Although there has been no large-scale naval battle like a decisive battle in these ten years, there have been constant naval frictions between European countries. Especially the Dutch, who are at their peak, have continued to fight against each other.
Attack and plunder other countries' merchant ships and warships at sea.
The intelligence of these naval battles is valuable experience and lessons. The navies of various European countries have vigorously collected and organized officers to study. Therefore, several foreign instructors have a very good understanding of the naval battles of this era. Whether it is how English pirates in the Caribbean plundered French merchant ships, or
How the Dutch warships at the Cape of Good Hope challenged the Spanish galenic fleet were well known to these officers.
Why do the English always have the upper hand, and why do the Portuguese like to use breech-loading cannons? If you don't listen to the instructors' explanations, it will be difficult to figure it out on your own.
The navy officers, especially the dozens of captains who were promoted by Li Zhi, were very fascinated. After class, they often asked a few foreign instructors to ask questions.
Li Zhi felt that these foreign instructors were an encyclopedia of European war history, and they were worth every penny. The war in Europe had already entered the era of hot weapons. Although the equipment was not as good as Li Zhi's troops, they were still effective against Li Zhi's troops.
It was very inspiring for officers to command operations. Li Zhi paid bonuses to the instructors, and sometimes communicated with these instructors to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of skirmishing tactics and line tactics, and the key to gaining the initiative on the T-shaped front.
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However, the tactics Li Zhi knew often surpassed those in the West for several generations at this time, and often made several officers stunned as soon as he said it.
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On March 28, the 16th year of Chongzhen, all ten of Li Zhi's ironclad ships were built and anchored at Dagu Port.
Because they were made by different shipbuilders in Tianjin, Shandong and Nanzhili, the craftsmanship of each shipbuilding site is somewhat different, and the appearance of these ten ironclads is different. The eight ironclads built in Tianjin and Shandong are all pointed.
, while the two ships built by Nanzhili shipbuilders have flat heads and higher poops.
Of course, this difference does not affect the use. The ten ships are all twelve feet long and two feet one foot wide. Each ship is equipped with thirty-two eighteen-pound guns, which is a famous ship in this era of wooden sailing ships.
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Li Zhi made an estimate and thought that the full-load displacement of these iron-clad ships was about 500 tons. In fact, after the ten iron-clad ships were loaded with iron armor and cannons, hundreds of sailors, fresh water, and supplies, they were basically fully loaded.
.These ironclad ships can only be used as pure battleships and cannot be used as merchant ships even in peacetime.
The hulls of the ten ships were all covered with one-inch-thick iron plates. The iron plates were almost brand new at this time, and the outside was painted with gray tree paint according to Li Zhi's request. They looked like 19th-century battleships.
The ironclad ship is equipped with two large steam engines, which can reach a speed of nine knots at full power, which is faster than the sailing warships of this era and even faster than a sailing ship when the wind is downwind.
The appearance of such strange warships in the late Ming Dynasty certainly aroused great interest among the people. Every day, the Dagu Port pier is crowded with people. Everyone comes to see the densely packed cannons on the armored ships and to see that the armored ships can enter without rowing.
Hong Kong. Fortunately, Li Zhi insisted on practicing firing guns ten miles offshore, otherwise there would have been even more people watching the fun.
Ironclad ships have a rust-proof problem. The iron plates will rust if they are exposed to water for a long time. To completely solve this problem, Li Zhi may need to conduct several years of research. A complete solution is unrealistic, but Li Zhi has a way to alleviate this problem:
The first thing Li Zhi did was to paint a layer of tree paint on the iron armor. China is the origin of tree paint, and Li Zhi could buy this cheap product in large quantities in Tianjin. In fact, tree paint has considerable anti-rust ability and should be applied once every six months.
Although it cannot completely eliminate the rust of iron armor, it can also greatly slow down the speed of rust.
Li Zhi also used zinc rods to slow down the rust of the iron armor. Li Zhi fixed a large number of zinc rods on the lower edge of the armor, so that zinc, iron and seawater constitute a primary battery. Since zinc is more active than iron, it is lost first as the negative electrode of the power supply.
The electrons are corroded. The continuous corrosion of zinc protects the iron. This is the cathodic protection method of sacrificial anode.
Until modern times, many ships still use zinc rods to protect their steel hulls.
Craftsmen in the Ming Dynasty had produced a large amount of metallic zinc, which is recorded in "Tiangong Kaiwu": Craftsmen put zinc oxide ore and coal powder into specific reaction tanks to form gaseous zinc at high temperatures. Zinc vapor passes through the condensation nest.
The ventilation holes rise to the condensation area, cool and condense into liquid zinc, which drips into the groove of the condensation pit. After cooling, people break the reaction tank and take out the zinc block. Then the craftsmen will put it on the stove for purification.
The purity of the zinc block can reach 99%.
Tianjin is a gathering place for merchants. Li Zhi and the merchants ordered and easily bought a large number of zinc rods. The armored ship had no armor below the waterline, so Li Zhi only needed to wrap a row of zinc rods on the armor near the waterline. The cost
This is acceptable.
Of course, these two methods can only alleviate the corrosion of iron armor. Li Zhi saw the paper data in later generations and knew that the average annual corrosion rate of steel in seawater is about one millimeter. With the help of Li Zhi's various methods, the corrosion
The speed can be significantly reduced, perhaps as little as half a millimeter.
After the corrosion rate is reduced, the armor corrosion of the ironclad ship will not be a big problem, because Li Zhi's ironclad ship itself does not need perfect anti-corrosion means. When choosing wood for the five thousand material ship built by Li Zhi, he paid attention to practicality and did not use perfect wood.
Wood and ships actually only have a lifespan of seven or eight years. After anti-corrosion treatment, 33 mm thick iron armor corrodes half a millimeter or less every year, which is not a big problem. The rust can be removed during half-year maintenance.
Can.
In the 19th century, the French were worried about the lack of anti-rust paint, and even wrapped the iron shell of the ironclad ship with wood and then covered it with copper. That was because their ship wanted to last for decades. If they used a ship like Li Zhi,
If you can tolerate the annual wear and tear for seven or eight years, you don't need to use such complicated solutions.
In February, Zheng Zhilong sent another letter.
Zheng Zhilong did not take Li Zhi seriously, with only a few dozen ships. The wording in the letter was even more explicit, asking Li Zhi to give him 80% of the land rental income in Hsinchu. What the Zheng family could repay was the caravan they gave Li Zhi in the East China Sea.
