The Navy has long implemented a steam-steel battleship plan, and has implemented three phases of shipbuilding plans, but they are all limited to the category of capital ships, while auxiliary ships have always been stagnant, and a large number of wooden ships are still used.
Sail battleship.
The main reason is that in the early years, the cost of steam steel battleships was relatively high, the price of coal was also high, the maintenance technology was not mature enough, and the maintenance costs were also high.
This also results in the construction cost and use cost of steam steel battleships being higher than wooden sail battleships of the same tonnage.
Therefore, although the main battleships have been replaced a long time ago, the auxiliary battleships have remained unchanged.
However, this situation has gradually changed in the past two years. The most direct reason is that as domestic steel production becomes higher and higher, the price of steel for shipbuilding is also gradually declining. At the same time, as the technology of shipboard steam engines matures,
, the cost has also been greatly reduced. In the early years, a ship-based steam engine with only five or six hundred horsepower cost tens of thousands.
Nowadays, it can be done for a few thousand yuan at most, and the performance is even better.
This means that, unless you have to pursue the latest technology, otherwise, the price of steel-structured steam engine-powered ships built with mature technology that appeared in earlier years has dropped significantly.
While the cost of construction is falling, coal prices are also gradually falling, and navigation costs are further declining. At the same time, the Navy has accumulated enough experience in the use and maintenance of steam steel warships, which makes maintenance more convenient and cost-effective.
The reduction in construction and use costs gives the Navy the possibility of comprehensive replacement.
But again, the scale of the Tang Dynasty Navy is too large. Even if large-scale replacement has begun in the past two years, don't expect it to be completed within a few years.
The Navy is not in a hurry and plans to take its time.
What made them anxious was the capital ship, or to be more precise, the 10,000-ton giant ship.
The navy now urgently needs a warship that can truly shock the entire empire and make a splash.
The Navy is doing this, and the Army is not to be outdone. They are also actively promoting armed trains and moving large-caliber artillery onto the trains. At the same time, they are also considering equipping more medium-caliber breech-loading rifled guns.
It's just that this plan is impossible to realize in a short time.
Breech-loaded rifled guns are still in the research and development stage. Just because there are a few prototype guns does not mean that they can be put into actual combat. If they are used in a hurry, things like the Hebei will happen. By then, we don’t know how many people will be unlucky.
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But the Army quickly found its own big toy!
what is it then?
Steam chariot!
This is not a later-generation tank project. At the beginning of the project, the Army planned to get armed trains off the rails and run directly on the ground.
Li Xuan soon learned of the Army's plan.
After looking at the Army's plan, he was speechless.
This group of army generals were less reliable than him. He had had the idea of a steam tank in the early years, but his rationality told him that this thing could not be built, so he just thought about it and did not actually build a steam tank.
But these army generals were actually preparing to pull out an armed train several hundred meters long and weighing several hundred tons and pull it down to fight on the plains.
It feels so nonsense!
However, it is not good to attack those in the Army too much, so after Li Xuan thought about it, he just pointed out to the Army that they should not build these armed trains that are hundreds of tons or even thousands of tons in size. Instead, be realistic and build one.
A smaller steam chariot or something.
When Li Xuan gave such instructions, he actually didn't expect to be able to build a real steam tank. Even if it was built, this thing would not have much practical value.
He just didn't want to dampen the Army's enthusiasm too much, but it also had something to do with his selfishness.
If you can really build a steam tank, even if it has little practical value, it would be fun to show it off and satisfy your own bad taste.
The Holy Emperor has said this, so the people on the Army side are naturally omniscient. They will not build armed trains with hundreds of tons or thousands of tons. They are going to build a small steam chariot first.
Whether it can be successful or not is a matter for the future. Anyway, the relevant research and development has already begun.
The army and navy had been messing around in the past few months. Li Xuan let it go at first, but later in order to prevent them from going too far, he still cracked it a little bit.
Just have some fun, don't go overboard.
The Holy Emperor personally struck a blow, and the navy and army stopped the tit-for-tat confrontation that had lasted for several months, but it only stopped on the surface. Secretly, the intrigues were still there, and the army's new generation of armed trains and steam chariot plans that had begun were still continuing.
As for the Navy, the Guangdong-class battleships continue to be built, and the new generation of 10,000-ton giant ships continue to undergo technical demonstrations and are expected to officially start construction next spring.
However, the Navy is still playing for fun, but it is still relatively sober, so in addition to the plans for these two warships, the Navy actually has another shipbuilding plan.
This plan is the navy's real shipbuilding plan, and it is also a plan that Li Xuan approved and supported.
This shipbuilding plan is not just one type of warship, but four types of warships!
These four warships have different sizes and functions, but they are part of the parallel shipbuilding plan. They are all prepared to be built in large quantities and serve as the main warships of the navy in the next ten years.
The first one to bear the brunt is the battleship plan, but this capital ship is not a giant ship like the Guangdong-class battleship or the 10,000-ton giant ship. It is actually the successor of the current Shanxi-class battleship.
The tonnage is not large, the estimated displacement is only 4,000 tons!
The hull is also relatively conservative, and the power system and other subsystems adopt mature solutions in order to control costs so that they can be built in large quantities and put into service. The Navy plans to build ten or eight ships in one go, and the existing ones are already in service and under construction.
Together, the nine Shanxi-class battleships formed the empire's main battleship fleet.
The ship's artillery is also preparing to use a new front-loading rifled gun. It is not the old front-loading smoothbore gun, nor is it still under development. It is expected that the Guangdong-class battleship will be equipped with a breech-loaded rifled gun. In order to ensure combat effectiveness and rapid construction,
At the same time, in order to control costs, the Navy made comprehensive choices and finally chose the front-loading rifled gun that has been successfully developed.
It is also planned to gradually change the front-loading smoothbore cannons on the Shanxi-class battleships to front-loading rifled cannons.
Even the steam engines are still mature steam engines, so the speed is not too fast. In order to control the cost of use, sail steam engines are still used together.
The purchase price of the new type of battleship is expected to be around 800,000 yuan. The first ship is named Guangxi. Construction is expected to start at the Qingdao Naval Shipyard in September, and then several other large domestic shipyards will also start building this class of ships.
The Navy's first batch of orders is for four ships, and the second batch will be for five ships. The orders for these nine ships have already been confirmed.
As for why more are not built, it is naturally because they will need to be upgraded in a few years!
After these nine Guangxi-class battleships are built and put into service, the empire's battleship fleet will have eighteen new battleships.
As for why we only talk about eighteen ships without counting the Jiangnan-class battleships and the previous sailing battleships, that is because as the Navy began to promote giant ships of 10,000 tons, the Jiangnan-class battleships of more than 1,500 tons and older ones
The wooden battleship cannot really be called a battleship.
When the Navy was reorganized this year, the above-mentioned ships were already included in the cruiser sequence.
Among the four types of battleships in the new shipbuilding plan, in addition to the Guangxi-class battleships, there is also a capital ship, which is the Changan-class cruiser, an improved version of the Hangzhou-class cruiser.
This ship basically continues the design of the Hangzhou-class cruiser, with a standard displacement of two thousand tons, but it is also equipped with a front-mounted rifled gun. In other aspects, there are not many changes, and even the cost is not much higher than that of the Hangzhou-class cruiser, because several years have passed.
Later, many technologies became more mature, and the cost also came down accordingly. The preliminary estimate is that the cost of a single ship is only 450,000, which is very cheap.
The Tang Dynasty Navy plans to build dozens of this Chang'an class cruiser and possible subsequent minor improvements, because compared to the huge and expensive battleships, these cruisers are actually the main ships of the Datang Navy.
Whether it is controlling various sea areas or conducting naval battles, the Tang Dynasty Navy has always used cruisers and frigates most often not battleships.
Because the number of battleships is relatively small, in many sea areas, the Tang Navy does not have battleships and can only use cruisers as capital ships.
The third warship is a frigate. It is also an upgraded version of the previous cheap 1,000-ton frigate. In order to control costs, the tonnage is still controlled at just over 1,000 tons. It is also equipped with a front-mounted rifled gun. In other aspects, it can basically save money.
Just save money, everything is to reduce costs, because this kind of frigate also needs to be purchased on a large scale, and the purchase amount can be dozens of ships.
In addition to the above three types of ocean-going warships, the fourth type of warship in the Tang Navy's shipbuilding plan is an offshore warship. Its main task is to carry out coastal patrols, guard ports, and estuaries. When necessary, it can enter rivers and lakes.
Combat.
Therefore, the draft is relatively shallow and the tonnage is not large, but the firepower is not weak.
At the same time, because the quantity of equipment is expected to be very large, costs are also strictly controlled. Many of the technologies used are not the latest technology, but seem to be backward technologies. The only new technology is the front-loading rifled gun.
The four warships mentioned above all have several similar characteristics. One is that they still use sails, and they are all warships that use sails and steam engines. The other is to strictly control costs and use mature and cheap technical solutions as much as possible, especially the price.
Expensive steam engine units would rather have slower speeds, but also use mature and cheap old steam engines to reduce costs. One is to be fully equipped with front-mounted rifled guns to improve hit accuracy and thereby extend the effective range of naval guns.
One is to build a large amount of equipment.
The four warships with the above characteristics are the core shipbuilding plan of the Tang Navy in the following years.
Those 10,000-ton giant ships look mighty and intimidating, but their high cost and immature technology are destined to make them nothing more than toys in a short period of time, and it is impossible to build and equip them in large quantities.
Li Xuan knew this, and so did the top brass of the Navy.
So they were fighting against the Army, but they still did what they should do, otherwise Li Xuan would have withdrawn them all.