On the school grounds, the soldiers erected a forty centimeter-thick hardwood hull in front of an earthen wall. In order to simulate the defensive power of European warships, this hardwood hull was made of Burmese teak, and its hardness was very impressive.
Li Zhi waved his hand, and a twenty-four-pound rifled gun moved out and aimed at the target 700 meters away.
Not only can the rifled cannon use conical shells, but the conical shells also rotate and advance in the air. The trajectory is more stable than the circular smoothbore cannon shells, so the hit accuracy is much higher than that of the smoothbore cannon. For a four-meter long and wide target 700 meters away
, the rifled gun can be aimed without any pressure.
The gunner turned the screw to adjust the muzzle and aimed it at the target. Hearing a loud bang, the cannon jerked back and spit out a huge spark at the muzzle.
A huge cannonball was shot out, piercing the air like lightning, and hit the teak hull in front of the wooden wall with a bang.
This explosive bomb was not equipped with warhead gunpowder, so it did not explode after being pierced into the earth wall.
Everyone rode horses and walked to the target to watch the armor-piercing effect of the artillery shells.
The 40-centimeter teak hull has been completely penetrated, and a one-meter-wide circular hole has been knocked out in the middle. In fact, the penetrating power of this shell is far beyond the level of penetrating the 40-centimeter hull. The shell directly
It plunged into the earth wall behind the hull, and its head sank nearly half a meter into the earth wall, almost penetrating the earth wall.
Everyone was talking around the cannonball and they were very happy.
Obviously, with such a cannon, the armor of European battleships is no longer a problem. Even if it is one or two miles away, Li Zhi's naval cannon can penetrate the 40 centimeter thick hull without any suspense.
You can imagine the scene of a cone-shaped explosive bomb weighing more than 20 kilograms exploding inside the battleship.
Lu Hu looked at the cone-shaped cannonballs on the earth wall, his eyes bright. He looked around the cannonballs, but he was afraid that the cannonballs would be too hot and he did not dare to touch them.
Li Zhi's gloomy mood these days was swept away by this cone-shaped artillery shell. He turned to Cao Yu and asked: "How many of these rifled cannons are currently in stock? How many can be produced per month?"
Cao Yu said: "Returning to the prince, there are currently 110 artillery pieces in stock in the warehouse, and they can all be pulled out for use immediately. If there are not enough, the artillery factory will go all out to produce this kind of rifled cannon, and can produce more than 200 artillery pieces a month."
Rifled cannons are different from smoothbore cannons. Smoothbore cannons only need to be cast in a mold to form, and then boring and other steps are completed. However, rifled cannons also need to rifling. Although Li Zhi's current machine tools are widely driven by steam engines, the efficiency is
Dozens of times that of other forces in this era, but rifling a rifled cannon is a delicate job that is prone to heat, and it still takes several days.
Li Zhi nodded and said: "Three months of full production, and in three months we will have 600 armed and forty armored ships."
Cao Yu sang loudly and agreed.
Lu Hu was stunned and said: "Your Majesty, we only have twelve armored ships."
Li Zhi smiled and said: "We only have twelve armored ships now, but in two months we will have forty armored ships. And our ships are not only armored ships, but also steel armored ships!"
Lu Hu was confused, but he didn't dare to ask any more questions.
Li Zhi did not explain to Lu Hu, but turned around to find the manager of the machine tool factory behind the crowd and assigned a task.
"Our steamships and ironclads are both 500-ton ships. We are going to install twenty-eight unarmored steamships with steel armor. General manager, I ordered the machine tool factory to immediately start collecting the specifications and dimensions of the armored parts of the ironclads.
and drawings. In the past few months, we have been fully engaged in the production of riveted components for ironclad ships and have been operating at full capacity to provide modification services."
After thinking about it, Li Zhi added: "The keel of the steamship was not as strong as the twelve ironclads when it was designed, and its bearing capacity is limited. The steel armor does not need to be one inch thick, just two centimeters thick. Now the quality of our steel
Very good, two centimeters of steel armor and one inch of iron armor have about the same protective effect."
The general manager of the machine tool factory agreed.
In fact, Li Zhi's navy has not developed for many years, and its scale has lagged far behind other industries in Fanjiazhuang. For today's Fanjiazhuang Machine Tool Factory, it is necessary to produce these twenty-eight sets of two sets for "small boats" of 500 tons.
Centimeter thick steel armor is a piece of cake.
The general manager of the machine tool factory thought that this matter would not take more than two months.
Li Zhi turned to look at Gao Ligong, the ambassador of the Overseas Department behind the crowd, and waved him over: "Gao Ligong, you are responsible for contacting shipwrights from various places, mobilizing all the craftsmen that can be mobilized in the six provinces and one town, and moving the machine tool factory to production as quickly as possible.
The components were installed on the steamship to convert the steamship into a steam steel armored ship."
Gao Ligong originally contacted shipyards in various places for Li Zhi and made considerable contributions. However, with the expansion of Li Zhi's career in recent years, he has no particularly outstanding achievements. A few years ago, Li Zhi made him a guard.
Official title, there was no promotion for him.
Gao Ligong was a man who was passionate about fame and fortune. How could he be willing to stay in a defensive position and not move forward? After listening to Li Zhi's words, he secretly thought that now he could use his strengths again. He couldn't help but blush, and he quickly replied excitedly:
"Don't worry, Your Majesty. Your Majesty is very familiar with shipwrights and blacksmiths from all over Shandong and Tianjin. As long as the machine tool factory can produce enough parts, I guarantee that all parts can be loaded on the ship within a month."
Li Zhi nodded and looked east in the direction of Japan.
In the early days of World War II, Japan's navy was superstitious about its ship strength on paper and believed that it could challenge the United States. At that time, the famous Japanese general Yamamoto Isoroku warned Japan that if Japan challenged the United States, it would definitely suffer great consequences.
failed. However, the Japanese military finally felt that it had strong troops and provoked the Japan-US Pacific War.
Japan once relied on a sneak attack strategy and severely damaged the U.S. fleet.
However, after the war began, the terrible industrial system of the United States immediately switched from civilian to military use, producing all kinds of warships like dumplings. From Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 to Japan's surrender in August 1945, in just four years,
The United States produced 147 aircraft carriers of various types alone. In the end, the United States completely defeated Japan without any suspense.
The current battle between the British and Dutch forces and Li Zhi is just like the war between Japan and the United States in later generations. It seems that the British and Dutch combined fleet is stronger than Li Zhi. But what Hongyi and Yingyi don't understand is that Li Zhi is not unable to build a huge
navy, but there is no need to build a huge navy.
After more than ten years of leapfrog development, the industrial foundation of one town and six provinces is beyond the imagination of the Hongyi. The Dutch and the British are not challenging Li Zhi, but are challenging the roaring steam engines, blazing steel-making furnaces and various lathes.
, the complete industrial system composed of boring machines and milling machines is challenging an industrial power that transcends this era.
Osaka City can still hold on for six months, but Li Zhi believes that in only three months, his large machine factory can produce a large navy that far exceeds the enemy's combat power.
