There is a reason why Li Xuan did not suppress this vindictive behavior between the army and navy.
On the one hand, the army and navy have not affected their respective strategic missions because of the vindictiveness. The navy can still control the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and it also has the strength to enter the Atlantic. If it has not done so now, it is not impossible.
, but are limited by many objective factors.
As for the army, in addition to suppressing the mainland, it also has enough strength to guard many overseas territories and gain strategic advantages there. Now it is fighting relatively smoothly in the Western Regions, and it can be considered a successful completion of the strategic mission assigned by Li Xuan.
After completing their essential work, if they want to grab the limelight within the established framework, Li Xuan will naturally not suppress them.
Sometimes they even tacitly agree or even secretly push for it.
Of course, another premise is that the current aggressive behavior of the army and navy is still on the right track. For example, the battleships built by the navy, Li Xuan, as a later generation, knows that the idea of such battleships is right.
The reason why Li Xuan did not make great efforts to support development now, but let the navy do it on its own, was not that this thing was not good, but that there was simply no strategic need, so his original intention was to wait for seven or eight years or even ten years.
After the technology becomes more mature and the cost comes down, we can then build something like a 10,000-ton battleship.
Although the Army is developing an armed train equipped with 300 mm, which may seem a bit exaggerated, from another perspective, this is the Army trying to equip a breech-loaded rifled gun, and this kind of armed train equipped with a huge gun is actually called a train.
Cannons are still useful for attacking enemy fortresses.
Although it doesn't seem to be used now, it's not a bad thing to develop a test first.
The most important thing is that neither the army nor the navy received additional military spending from Li Xuan. They saved money from other aspects to develop research and development and new equipment. This behavior still needs support.
Li Xuan ignored the quarrel between the navy and the army, and the navy and army also let go.
The fight is in the newspapers every day!
Of course, in this kind of war, it is impossible to directly scold the opponent. At most, when the navy brags about its warships, it occasionally pulls out the army's artillery for comparison to show how awesome the navy's new warships are.
The Army was similar. They soon started cooperation with the Tianjin Gun Factory, a subsidiary of the Northern Arms Company, to develop some super-large-caliber siege heavy artillery.
In short, when you brag about yourself, you conveniently belittle the other person.
As for doing anything too outrageous, they still didn't dare to do it. After all, they were all part of the military power of the Tang Dynasty, and the internal fighting was so obvious that it made the people feel embarrassed.
In August of the 29th year of Xuanping, a group of naval generals gathered together at the naval headquarters in Jinling City. However, the wall in front of them that originally had a huge nautical chart was replaced by a huge chart.
Battleship design drawings.
Vice Admiral Nie Daqian, director of the Shipbuilding Department of the Ministry of Ship Administration, pointed at the design drawings behind him with the baton in his hand and kept explaining: "The standard displacement of the new warship will reach 10,000 tons!"
"The hull will use a large amount of newly developed new steel materials, especially the steel used in the main load-bearing structure, which will all use new steel materials developed by Jiangnan Iron and Steel Company, and the hull structure will be stronger."
"The armored belt of the ship will be much larger than that of the Guangdong-class battleship, covering 80% of the waterline area. It will use wrought iron oak composite armor. In addition to the main armored belt, the turret and bridge positions will also be covered with armor, and other secondary armor will be covered.
The important parts are covered with ordinary steel plates, and the protective performance will be at least 30% higher than that of the Guangdong-class battleship!"
"In terms of power, the ship's steam unit is expected to use a new steam engine affiliated to Tianjin Machinery Company, using two horizontal reciprocating steam engines, ten coal-fired boilers, and dual-shaft propulsion. The maximum power will reach 7,000 horsepower, and the maximum speed is expected to be
Reaching fourteen knots.”
"In terms of naval guns, it is expected to use two twin-mounted main turrets, a total of four 300mm breech-mounted rifled guns, and more than forty secondary guns of various calibers!"
Listening to the introduction, several naval generals nearby also whispered among themselves, and then someone said: "The design of the new warship seems to be not much different from the Guangdong class!"
Hearing this, Vice Admiral Nie Daqian of the Shipbuilding Department kept his expression unchanged and nodded directly: "Yes, the basic design is a continuation of the design of the Guangdong battleship!"
"This is our new 10,000-ton giant ship in the future. The whole country is paying attention. If there is nothing new, even if it is unjustifiable!" Someone else frowned and said: "If this spreads out, the Army will not say that we are new.
Old wine in a bottle!"
Nie Daqian still said calmly: "This is already the best warship that can be built under the current technical conditions!"
"If there are bigger and better naval guns, more powerful steam engines, and better armor, our shipbuilding company can improve the design at any time!"
When Nie Daqian said these words, he remained indifferent to the large group of navy bosses in front of him.
Although he holds the title of Director of the Naval Shipbuilding Department and the rank of Vice Admiral, these two are actually just honorary titles, which were forcibly given to him by the Navy.
Strictly speaking, he is not from the Navy. He is a full professor in the Department of Navigation at the Royal Institute of Technology. His main research direction is ship design, and he was forced by the Navy to design warships for them.
The battleship Guangdong is his design work.
After dealing with the navy, he discovered that the people in the navy were a little abnormal. They were blindly pursuing bigger warships and more powerful naval guns, and they also required warships to look tall and majestic.
But basically no consideration is given to technology and cost.
A few months ago, he had actually designed a medium-tonnage warship for the navy. It was not big, only about three thousand tons, but it took into account the cost of building the ship, the existing technical conditions, and the combat performance.
, allowing the navy to spend the least amount of money to get the highest combat effectiveness.
But the Navy didn't say anything after seeing it, but continued to ask him to design a new warship, a little bigger, a little bigger...
To put it bluntly, the Navy does not actually want a warship with comprehensive performance and the highest cost in all aspects. What they want is the largest warship!
In desperation, he could only bite the bullet and build such a 10,000-ton giant ship.
In order to meet the requirements of the Navy, he first limited the tonnage to more than 10,000 tons in the early stage of the design, and then carried out various designs within this framework, and finally messed around. In fact, he enlarged the Guangdong-class battleship.
That's all.
Everything else is basically unchanged.
It’s not that I don’t want to change, but the Guangdong-class battleship is already an advanced battleship. Whether it is the hull construction or the technology used in each subsystem, many are still laboratory products, and some have not even completed research and development.
I don’t know how long it will take to finally build the battleship Guangdong.
Now the keel of the battleship Guangdong has just been laid, and because of a spat with the army, the Navy wants to build a 10,000-ton giant ship to show off. However, the keel of the battleship Guangdong has just been laid, and it is preparing to build a 10,000-ton giant ship.
To be honest, Nie Daqian didn't even know what gave the people in the navy the courage.
Aren't they afraid of messing up?
The naval admiral wanted to commit suicide, but Nie Daqian would not accompany him, so he took out the design of the Guangdong and enlarged it for comparison.
If you ask him to design a larger and more advanced warship, he can actually do it, but the design and construction are of no use. If those naval generals really lose their minds and insist on building them, they will be discovered by the time they are built.
If they can't continue to build it, Nie Daqian will have to accompany them to suffer the same misfortune.
Nie Daqian came up with a conservative design, which dissatisfied many naval generals.
A similar battleship already exists, the Guangdong. Although the keel has just been laid, what the navy wants is a more advanced and more attractive new battleship. Otherwise, how can it be used to show off and how can it show the navy's awesomeness in front of the army?
ah.
However, the technicians said it was not feasible, and they had nothing to do!
Conservative design is conservative design. After all, it is a 10,000-ton giant ship.
After some discussion, these naval generals decided to build it sooner rather than later. Now they are starting to make final preparations, striving to start construction next spring to usher in the era of 10,000-ton giant ships.
As for how the funds came from, it was naturally a matter of piecing it together.
The navy's annual military expenditures are actually quite large. After all, it has to maintain maritime security in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and at the same time deter the Atlantic Ocean. The navy is very large, and its annual expenditures are naturally not that small.
Although building a giant ship of 10,000 tons can easily cost two to three million, if the navy is really determined, it can still squeeze out the money.
For example, in the past two years, the Navy has carried out comprehensive steam-steelization, which has cost much more than building one or two 10,000-ton battleships.
The size of the Tang Dynasty's navy was very large. In addition to the superficial ocean-going warships, there were actually more offshore and inland river warships. The number was quite large. And these ships were basically wooden sailing ships from the early years, many of which were even equipped with steam engines.
None of them are installed.
These old wooden sail battleships have weak combat power, but they have a large number of temporary personnel. The maintenance cost of wooden sail battleships is not cheap, even higher than that of steel steam battleships.
The Navy has long wanted to completely eliminate these traditional wooden sail warships, but the Navy is really huge. At the same time, the early steam engine steel warship technology is still a new technology, and the costs in all aspects are relatively high. Therefore, the Navy's early
The steam steel plan is actually mainly aimed at the ocean fleet, or to be more precise, the capital ship.
As for other secondary warships, offshore, inland river, and auxiliary warships, there are actually not many changes.
It is only in the past two years that the Navy has planned to invest heavily in large-scale upgrades of a large number of auxiliary warships. Such a large-scale upgrade requires much more funds than building one or two 10,000-ton giant ships.