After the Navy has finalized the construction plan for a new generation of armored cruisers, it will naturally not forget about the construction of other ship types.
The composition of the navy does not mean that it only needs battleships and second-class battleships, armored cruisers. In fact, these battleships exist more as a strategic deterrent. A large-tonnage battleship will burn hundreds of coals once it sails to sea.
Thousands of tons, the navigation cost is very high.
Even though the Tang Dynasty Navy has fully entered the steam era, in fact, most of the ships that perform tasks in the sea, especially cruisers and frigates that have been patrolling the sea for a long time, are still powered by sails.
Sail is still used mainly, and the steam engine only operates at low power. Only when there is no wind or when there is a need to rush, the steam engine will be increased, and the steam engine power will be used to move forward quickly.
Therefore, when the Tang Dynasty Navy performed patrols, escorts and other tasks overseas and even on the domestic coast, it mainly used cruisers and frigates, especially frigates of the thousand-ton class.
This kind of cheap ship can do almost everything in the Tang Navy, including patrolling, escorting, gunboat diplomacy, fighting with the indigenous navy, etc.
This shows the importance of small-tonnage frigates and cruisers in the Tang Navy.
To put it bluntly, the global sea power of the Tang Navy was actually supported by a large number of frigates and cruisers.
For this reason, as the breech-loaded rifled guns come into service and all aspects of technology gradually mature, the Tang Navy will naturally not abandon the construction of cruisers and frigates.
According to the tactical positioning of various ship types in the Tang Navy, cruisers are used to serve as the main warships of overseas squadrons, leading frigates to perform various tasks. They require relatively high speeds, superior seaworthiness, and relatively excellent long-lasting combat capabilities.
.
Relatively speaking, the protection and firepower can be weaker.
For this reason, the performance data of the West India-class cruiser determined by the Navy last year also reflects the Navy's tactical needs.
The tonnage of the West India-class cruiser is 2,500 tons.
If the tonnage is too high, the cost will rise too much and it will be impossible to maintain a certain quantity. If the tonnage is too small, the seaworthiness and other performances will be inferior, so the Navy settled on 2,500 tons.
The firepower is not too powerful, equipped with six 150mm 35x naval guns, and several 75mm secondary guns.
In terms of power, the triple-expansion steam unit used is enough to provide the West India-class cruiser with a maximum speed of 18 knots. It is difficult to say whether such a high speed can be used.
In addition, the sail is still retained, but this sail is only used to save coal and is used for daily navigation, but is of little use during combat. After all, the European natives and even the Tatars also have explosive ammunition.
And the explosive bomb is the killer of the sail!
It is worth mentioning that their armor did not use composite armor such as steel-faced iron armor because these composite armors were too expensive. They did not even use waterline armor belts, but instead used dome armor plus coal bunkers.
As a cruiser, the tonnage is limited, and laying the armored belt is too heavy, which will inevitably increase the weight. If it is done in this way, it will become the Australia-class armored cruiser of the Datang Navy.
Therefore, the cruisers of the Tang Dynasty actually never had the so-called waterline armor belt. They only relied on the pure steel hull to withstand the indigenous smoothbore artillery grenade attacks. As for the solid bullets, sorry, they basically can’t withstand it, but even if they are attacked by
It's not very dangerous if hit by a solid bullet. It's just a small hole. What a big deal.
The new generation of Xiyin-class cruisers is different. The battleship designers considered that the shells fired by the indigenous large-caliber smoothbore cannons can penetrate a thin layer of steel plates and then destroy the steam engines, ammunition depots and other internal compartments inside the cabin.
Therefore, they laid a not too thick layer of dome armor on the inside of the hull, and then the coal bunkers on both sides served as a supplement to defend against indigenous cannonballs.
At the same time, some armor was laid on key parts such as the bridge.
It's just that the thickness of the armor is very thin.
According to the classification defined by the Tang Navy, it is a dome-type protected cruiser, which is different from the Shanxi-class and Guangxi-class armor-belt protected cruisers.
Although they are both cruisers and even protected cruisers, there are still huge differences.
The protective capabilities of the West India-class dome-armored cruisers are naturally vulnerable to the Imperial Navy's naval guns. The Empire's 150mm naval guns can easily penetrate the dome armor belt on the West India-class cruisers.
But the smoothbore cannon used to defend the Europeans was more than enough.
It is said that although the Europeans and Tatars do not have any rifled artillery nowadays, they do not lack smoothbore artillery, and with the rise of the Tang Dynasty, they have a lot of smoothbore artillery.
They are not stupid either. In fact, since the war between the Tang Dynasty and the Portuguese, Portugal's disastrous defeat has caused shock in all countries, and then various countries have successively discovered the secret of the Tang howitzer: the wooden fuse!
Then the direct plagiarism started. Since more than ten years ago, various teams in Europe have actually begun to use wooden fuses.
After all, this thing does not have any technical difficulties and does not require any industrial foundation. As long as you get a sample of Datang's howitzer, you can copy it just by looking at it.
The large-caliber grenades from the European warships are also very lethal when fired at them.
Therefore, the Tang Navy continued to strengthen its protection, mainly protecting against grenades. Even cruisers deployed dome armor or a thin layer of waterline armor belt.
As for the Tang warships that European countries and the Tatars come into contact with on a daily basis, they are actually these cruisers and frigates. The cruisers of the Tang Dynasty are armored.
This once again stimulated the navies of various European countries and even the Tatars to develop in a stupid and crude direction in naval guns and coastal defense artillery.
Various large-caliber smoothbore cannons ranging from thirty-two to sixty-four pounds are not uncommon, and these large-caliber smoothbore cannons are quite powerful when fired at close range.
Therefore, the current Xiyin-class cruisers are equipped with steel-faced armor with higher protective efficiency!
As for relying on the advantage of the range of naval guns to defeat the enemy, even if it includes forward-loaded rifled guns, that has only happened in the past three or four years. You must know that three or four years ago, the Tang Navy actually occupied the leading position in mobility and protection.
advantage, but there is actually no absolute advantage in terms of firepower.
After all, at that time, everyone had smoothbore cannons with similar calibers. If you could hit me, I could hit you.
Before and even now, the Tang Navy still paid more attention to its protective capabilities.
Of course, all this changed with the advent of rifled guns being widely used in the Tang Navy.
For example, many of the European fleets under the Seventh Fleet of the Datang Navy were equipped with front-loading rifled cannons. The Europeans had a lot of exchanges with the Tang Dynasty. After discovering the front-loading rifled cannon, it is said that those in Europe
Countries around the world are also trying to imitate front-loading rifled guns.
If large-scale industrial production is not possible, then handmade workshops will be developed slowly. Whether it is completed or not is not mentioned for now, but Europeans and Tatars have actually been following the footsteps of the Tang Dynasty.
England has even built a steam engine. Although their steam engines can only be used to lift water in mining areas for the time being, this has to be a good start.
Although there are many things in the Tang Dynasty that they cannot learn, some designs that do not require high industrial foundations and are purely inspired cannot stop Europeans and Tatars from plagiarizing them.
For example, bayonets!
In the past, Europeans were not equipped with bayonets when playing matchlocks, but after seeing the Tang Dynasty using bayonets, they also got bayonets first. As for the Tatars, they copied all the Tang Dynasty muskets, including the muskets of the Tang Dynasty.
With a bayonet.
The same is true for flintlock muskets. They didn't have any flintlock muskets in the past, but later when they saw the Tang Dynasty using them, they also tried to imitate them, but the spring stuck in them for many years.
But in the end they succeeded, and after one of them succeeded, it soon spread throughout Europe and even the Tatars. The flintlock guns they made became a mess, forcing Datang to carry out military technological innovations, develop rifled rifles and
equipment.
Europeans and Tatars are always learning from the Tang Dynasty.
Although it is impossible for them to imitate front-loading rifled cannons on a large scale, it is not a big problem to recruit craftsmen with excellent skills to hand-build a few. Even if the performance is poor, it is still more threatening than smoothbore cannons.
As a precaution, the Xiyin-class cruisers are equipped with armor, but the thickness is limited, and it only protects key parts such as the engine room and bridge.
The final Xiyin-class dome-armored cruiser has a displacement of 2,500 tons, is equipped with six 150mm 35x breech-mounted rifled guns and some 75mm secondary guns, and has a maximum speed of 18
knots, the cruising capacity is considerable, and it can reach a cruising distance of 7,000 kilometers under pure steam power.
The cost of building this Xiyin-class cruiser is not high, only about 400,000.
The number of orders ordered by the Navy is not too large. The first batch of orders is only eight ships, because the Navy is still relatively cautious about cruisers, and they do not intend to develop just this kind of cruiser. They plan to build several different cruisers, as many as possible.
to meet different combat needs.
However, the number of frigates is relatively large. The new frigate Xinnan class frigate was also finalized last year. It has inherited the fine tradition of Datang frigates as always: cheap!
The displacement is actually about the same as that of the previous older generation frigates. Even though it has increased slightly, it is still only 1,200 tons. Its main guns are five 120mm 35x breech-mounted guns. Compared to the tonnage, its firepower is
It is relatively weak, but there is nothing you can do about it. Naval guns are very expensive. The more equipment you have, the more expensive the guns will be.
Moreover, the rate of fire of breech-loaded guns has been greatly improved compared to front-loaded guns. Although there are only five 120mm main guns, the firepower is still stronger than that of previous frigates and even cruisers equipped with front-loaded guns.
Its steam unit is a cheap version of the steam engine jointly purchased from many domestic manufacturers. The maximum power is only about 900 horses. This can only run at a speed of about 12 knots. However, if a sail is added, it can reach a speed of about 12 knots when sailing downwind.
About sixteen knots. Although the power is small and the speed is slow, the price is cheap!
Of course, there is no armor. It relies entirely on the steel hull and the coal bunkers on both sides to resist. There is no other way, in order to control costs!
Not to mention these main performance data, even the construction process of the hull has lowered the standard.
All the above is to control costs!
The latest generation of low-cost frigates of the Datang Navy was finally built. It has a tonnage of 1,200 tons, is equipped with five 120mm main guns, has a maximum steam speed of 12 knots, and a tailwind speed of 16 knots. It has no protection.
.
Also due to the drop in steel prices, the final total cost was quite gratifying!
The average cost of each ship in the first batch of orders was only a mere 160,000 yuan!
This price is basically the same as the previous cheap version of the frigate.