The Navy's armor steel and even hull steel business were previously controlled by Jiangnan Steel Company. It can be seen that today's Navy is also dissatisfied with Jiangnan Steel Company's lack of progress.
If this continues, the name of one of the major domestic steel companies will have to change sooner or later.
After visiting Xuzhou Iron and Steel Company, Li Xuan came to Nanyang Rubber Company. Compared with the previous two companies, Li Xuan actually paid more attention to this rubber company, which was wholly owned by the Royal Assets Division and had little reputation in the outside world.
Nanyang Rubber Company is an enterprise mainly engaged in rubber planting and processing. Their company has rubber plantations in Luzon and Banten provinces in Nanyang and Qiongzhou Prefecture in Guangdong. Although the total output is still not much, its natural
The annual output of rubber accounts for more than 70% of the empire's total annual rubber output.
The company's rubber currently mainly uses rubber to produce rainproof cloth, and there are also some fragmentary products, such as hoses, rubber boots, pots, etc. However, limited by the current technological level, they can only use early solvents
The performance of softened processed rubber and rubber products is actually quite limited, and there is also the problem of raw rubber becoming sticky and brittle, making it impossible to talk about large-scale industrial applications.
But even so, Li Xuan still attached great importance to it because he knew very well the huge role of rubber in the industrial era.
The Royal Institute of Technology had already instructed the Royal Institute of Technology to conduct research on the industrial application of rubber. Now the Royal Institute of Technology has used vulcanization to obtain rubber with better performance, which has initially solved the problem of rubber becoming sticky and brittle.
However, this kind of rubber product still only exists in the laboratory, and the production cost is very high, making it impossible to achieve large-scale industrial production.
But Li Xuan knew that this was just a matter of time. Sooner or later, in a few years, the problem of industrial mass production of rubber vulcanization would be solved, allowing rubber to truly enter widespread industrial production.
And by that time, as the largest and dominant Nanyang Rubber Company in the country, its strategic tasks will be very heavy.
Some people know why Li Xuan attaches great importance to rubber, but some people don't.
But this is not important. What is important is that now they know that Li Xuan attaches great importance to rubber. Many people are already thinking about whether it is time to increase investment in the rubber industry.
Build a rubber processing factory, or go directly to Nanyang to open a rubber plantation.
However, this is also the effect that Li Xuan hopes to see. Through his own attention, others will also pay attention to it, thereby driving the development of an industry. This is also the main purpose of Li Xuan's special visit to Nanyang Rubber Company today.
After all, Nanyang Rubber Company alone cannot support the entire rubber industry. Once rubber vulcanization can be industrialized, the demand for rubber throughout the empire will be huge.
After inspecting these three companies, Li Xuan did not go back immediately. Instead, he strolled slowly along Yanjiang Road in the North Bank Development Zone, watching the ships coming and going on the Huangpu River, and looking at the busy greenery on one side of Yanjiang Road.
The dock, these made Li Xuan quite gratified.
The next day, Li Xuan and his party took a navy warship to the Wusong Port Naval Base and briefly reviewed the naval fleet.
During this review of the navy, the navy mobilized all the battleships that could be mobilized, and listed a huge fleet at the mouth of the Yangtze River for Li Xuan to inspect.
Although these battleships are still a bit small in Li Xuan's eyes, they still make him feel relaxed and happy!
Especially the Hebei-class battleship No. 2 Henan battleship, which has the largest tonnage and is called a failure by the Navy. Although it is said that there are defects of one kind or another, and there are no rotating breech and breech-loading guns, but the light
Just the huge hull of 4,000 tons and the fact that it was an all-steel ship still made him nod frequently when he looked at it.
At that time, Li Xuan told a group of senior navy generals: "Although the Hebei battleship failed, failure is the mother of success. If you continue to work hard, you will always succeed. You cannot give up on the future because of a temporary setback."
"Steel hulls, pure steam-powered propulsion, rotating turrets, and rear-mounted artillery are still important development directions for warships in the new era. The Navy will continue to work hard in this regard and strive to build warships of the new era as soon as possible!"
Li Xuan was afraid that after they were deceived by the Hebei, they would not want to build any more steel battleships, but would focus on building half-baked battleships like the Jiangnan class.
So although the Hebei ship failed, Li Xuan did not get angry, but continued to encourage them.
Never give up on the future just because of a temporary failure.
Fortunately, the top brass of the Navy will not give up easily. When reviewing the naval fleet, the top brass of the Navy said that they have already begun to design a second-generation, brand-new warship.
After hearing the news, Li Xuan said to let them take it easy. Li Xuan didn't want them to give up, but he didn't want to let them reach the sky in one step. The Hebei-class battleship built in the past few years was obviously intended to reach the sky in one step, and then was
This is ridiculous, not only causing the Navy direct and indirect losses of millions of military expenditures, but also delaying the development of the Navy.
Now, Li Xuan hopes that they will continue research and development, but they also need to be cautious and don't be too radical. If the technology is not mature, don't force it.
However, this time the navy was more optimistic than Li Xuan.
Admiral Bao Yifen, who had already retired from the frontline leadership, came with him and told Li Xuan the navy's plan this time.
Bao Yifen had already retired from his position as the former Minister of Naval Command and the former Minister on duty in the Royal Study Room several years ago. However, he is still young after all, and is only in his fifties this year. He cannot retire from active service directly, so
Like several other admirals, he holds the title of Deputy Advocate of the Naval Command, but this title, like the title of Deputy Privy Councilor of the Army, is only an honorary title and does not have any real power in itself.
Therefore, although Bao Yifen has not retired from active service, it is actually no different from retiring from active service.
Even though he is retired, this person is a veteran of the navy after all. This time the holy driver is traveling, as one of the admirals of the land and sea, he is naturally one of the accompanying personnel. Well, he is the kind of person who can't come even if he doesn't come.
Li Xuan brought a total of more than twenty active generals from the navy and army, as well as about thirty retired generals, with him on the patrol, and none of them were left behind.
Bao Yifen told Li Xuan that for this new warship design, they had fully considered the industrial level of the empire before finalizing the design plan, and the technical indicators would not be too radical.
But when Li Xuan heard their specific technical parameters, he felt that the Navy was trying to bullshit again.
Just a second ago, I said that I fully considered the industrial level of the empire and that I would be conservative, but these technical parameters are not conservative at all.
Listen, this standard displacement is 7,000 tons, which is more than 2,000 tons larger than the failed Hebei-class battleship. Is this conservative?
And they continued to prepare for the use of rotating turrets and breech-loading rifled guns.
As for the hull and power, let alone that. With the current technological level of the Tang Empire, there is no way to build such a huge warship purely out of wood, nor is it possible to use pure sails to propel such a huge warship to a considerable speed.
Therefore, this new ship will still be made of all steel, and in terms of power, the Navy will continue to cancel the sails and prepare to equip it with a super-high-horsepower steam engine.
In Li Xuan's opinion, this kind of battleship is completely an enlarged version of the Hebei-class battleship.
However, after listening carefully to the navy's explanation, Li Xuan did not object, because the navy said that the Hebei battleship was designed in the 22nd year of Xuanping.
The technical level at that time was not up to par, but that does not mean that it is still up to par five years later.
What's more, the construction of the ship is not started now, but is planned for next year. At the same time, the Navy plans to adopt a method of continuous research and development while building, and the entire construction process may last about three years.
In this way, there will be enough time for each research and development institution to develop advanced and qualified equipment.
Li Xuan said so, and the most important thing is that they did not require any special construction funds for this brand-new warship, but planned to use the naval military expenditures for shipbuilding, so Li Xuan didn't care much about it.
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But he is still a little curious, who does the navy plan to attack with such a large-tonnage battleship?
This is a behemoth of 7,000 tons. That wooden warship with sails of about 1,000 tons that the Navy is planning to use to attack Europe?
It feels like overkill!
Not to mention the behemoths of 7,000 tons, even the current Jiangnan-class battleships of more than 1,000 tons can defeat a lot of European sailing wooden warships!
Even to the extreme, without using cutting-edge steel battleships such as the Jiangnan class, the large number of sail-powered wooden battleships widely equipped by the navy today can defeat a large number of European battleships without even recognizing them.
Alas, there is no way, who made the development of the Tang Dynasty's navy surpass those of the so-called maritime powers in Europe for several generations!
However, just when Li Xuan looked down on these European countries, in the suburbs of London, England, two British people carefully started a seemingly simple steam engine. Several people next to them looked at them nervously. However,
When the steam engine started running successfully, these British people hugged each other excitedly!
"John, we succeeded, we really succeeded!" An old man in gorgeous clothes said happily to a young man next to him.
John also showed a shy smile and said: "Yes!"
"Okay, the steam engine I spent a lot of money to get from the Portuguese was not in vain, and there are so many books!" The old man in gorgeous clothes raised his cane and pointed to another steam engine and the many books on the bookshelf next to it.
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There is also an engraved inscription on this steam engine: Zhaoqing Machinery Company Xuanping Fifteenth Year.
The many books on the bookshelf nearby are all Chinese books, and the title of the top one is "Intermediate Physics".