Chapter 755 Fighting the swollen-faced navy (seeking a monthly ticket)
The navy's desire for warships with larger tonnage is the same as the army's desire for large-caliber siege guns and the expansion of more main forces. It has never stopped.
At the beginning of the year, the Navy submitted a plan to build second-class and even battleships to Li Xuan. At that time, Li Xuan did not veto it, but maintained a supportive attitude, saying that as long as the Navy could squeeze out enough funds within the Navy and provide supporting technologies,
If the requirements can be met, the Navy can go ahead and build the large-tonnage warships they need.
To put it bluntly, there is only so much money, you can do whatever you like, I don’t care, but don’t expect to get more military spending.
The reason why the Navy specifically asked Li Xuan for instructions was actually to get support from special shipbuilding funds, but Li Xuan indirectly refused. As a result, the cash-strapped Navy had to make careful calculations.
Large-tonnage warships must be built, but how to build them and what kind of warships to build must be carefully discussed. After all, money must be spent wisely.
So in this way, after deliberation, the Navy took the initiative to kill the second-class cruiser plan. The first-class cruiser plan was directly rejected before it was proposed.
Instead, the plan was transferred directly to the third-class battleship.
Because according to the plan, the second-class cruiser has a tonnage of more than 800 tons, and the tonnage of the first-class cruiser is also thousands of tons. This tonnage is actually similar to that of a third-class battleship.
But the firepower and even deterrence of cruisers are definitely not as good as third-class battleships!
The positioning of cruisers is high speed and long endurance, but the positioning of battleships is simpler, that is, firepower!
Therefore, after detailed discussions within the Navy, it was almost decided to abandon the construction of second-class cruisers and first-class cruisers, and use the limited funds directly to build third-class cruisers.
But this has brought about another problem. The newly designed third-class battleship has a standard displacement of 1,200 tons, and this tonnage has far exceeded the current shipbuilding level of the Tang Dynasty.
At present, Datang has the highest level of shipbuilding, even the Guangzhou Shipyard, but they can only build hulls of less than 800 tons. As for the 1,000-ton dock of the Guangzhou Shipyard, it is just over 1,000 tons, and it still cannot build such a ship.
The level of a third-rate battleship.
Otherwise, they would not have approached Dingsheng Shipyard, because although this shipyard was just established and only has a 500-ton shipyard, their construction plan is very
It is huge, with two 1,500-ton shipyards under construction, one 3,000-ton shipyard, and even a 5,000-ton shipyard under planning.
The 1,500-ton shipyard under construction can just be used to build a 1,200-ton third-class battleship!
But the problem arises again. Although Dingsheng Shipyard has huge ambitions and the dock under construction is large enough, it is still unknown whether it can build such a large ship, so the Navy needs to confirm in advance.
The middle-aged man was the general manager of Dingsheng Shipyard. Naturally, he knew the situation of his own shipyard best. When he heard that the Navy said whether it could undertake the construction, he thought for a moment and then said: "Currently, we are passing through multiple
Channels can be used to tap advanced shipbuilding talents, especially European shipbuilding talents. At the same time, we can also get technical support from the Royal Institute of Technology. I dare not say now, but in one year, we should be able to build a thousand-ton warship!"
"However, we can only be responsible for the specific construction. At the same time, we cannot ensure the quality. Maybe there will be some problems during the construction process. After all, your navy is too pressed for time. We do not have enough time to complete some process verifications. Originally,
We plan to build a few thousand-ton ocean-going merchant ships for the royal family’s ocean-going trading houses, and then get involved in the field of thousand-ton warships!”
The quality of warships is definitely very important. It is completely different from the standards of ordinary civilian ships, and it may require the use of a large number of new processes. And before these new processes have been verified by a large number of actual tests, Dingsheng Shipyard will not dare to guarantee it.
problem appear!
But Bao Yifen said: "Don't worry, as long as you can construct according to the design drawings, you can also boldly adopt some new techniques. After all, this ship is also experimental in nature. If any problems arise, our navy will definitely not
It’s embarrassing for you!”
The middle-aged man from Dingsheng Shipyard said: "In this case, our shipyard can try to take over, but the matter is too involved and it is no longer something I can decide alone. I need to report it to the Royal Industrial Department, and may even report it to His Majesty in the end.
There, whether to undertake the construction in the end depends on the above!"
The risks involved are really too great. If something goes wrong, big problems will occur. If there are just problems during the construction process, forget it. I am afraid that after the construction is completed, the workmanship will not be up to standard and a big accident will occur. If the Navy spends
The battleships built at a high price have not yet been used on the battlefield, but they sank just out of the sea. I am afraid that a large number of people will step down because of this.
Although he is only a professional manager employed by the Royal Family Industry Department, since he has become an employee of the Royal Family Industry, he cannot but consider the political risks involved.
The current navy talks nicely and doesn't hold people accountable, but if a problem really arises, I'm afraid Bao Yifen himself won't be able to handle it!
The cost of building a battleship alone may reach hundreds of thousands of taels of silver. If something goes wrong with this amount of money, enough people will be confiscated and exterminated.
And this matter quickly reached Li Xuan. After reading it, Li Xuan was a little hesitant for a while. This time, the navy took a big step.
A battleship of 1,200 tons, how dare they think of it!
And knowing that Li Xuan originally asked Dingsheng Shipyard to build a large-tonnage dock in advance, it was not prepared for pure sail battleships, but for future steam engine battleships, or even iron steam engine battleships, and this future, in
In his imagination, it would be more than ten years later, or even after the Tang Dynasty unified China.
Now, it's too early!
However, since the navy is willing to take this risk, and Li Xuan does not have to spend extra money, he has no good reason to stop them. After all, the navy always needs to develop, and some frigates and cruisers alone cannot support it.
From the Tang Navy!
Although he was not prepared to stop him, he could not just watch hundreds of thousands of taels of silver go down the drain, so he gave instructions to be cautious. He would rather wait a year and a half to make all the preparations in advance, and wait until
Once the technology is ready, there is no need to build too much.
After all, the dock has not been built yet, and various technical preparations have not been completed. It is too early to approve the plan now.
Moreover, building a battleship is not just about having a hull, you also need cannons!
The current Tang Dynasty cannot even mass-produce a fourteen-pound naval gun, let alone the main naval gun on a battleship, which is a forty-eight-pound cannon, a twenty-four-pound cannon, no cannon, just a hull.
It's not a battleship.
After receiving Li Xuan's instructions to cautiously delay construction, the Navy was not disappointed. As long as His Majesty did not object, what they had to do now was to make technical preparations in advance.
As a result, the Navy quickly issued a tender to the major arsenals of the Ministry of Industry, requiring them to provide 48-pound and 24-pound cannons within three years. It also stated that the initial demand will not be too much.
It's okay to make it by hand. Don't be so insistent on mass production. Solve the problem of availability first, and then go to your so-called industrial mass production!
And even if you mass-produce it, our navy doesn’t have so much money to purchase and equip battleships!
The Ministry of Industry's insistence on industrial mass production is actually very dissatisfying to the Navy!
If you don’t have the technical ability, just make it by hand. If it’s more expensive, it’s more expensive. Our navy doesn’t care, so why insist on mass production? And if you produce so much, who are you going to sell it to? Our navy doesn’t want so many.
!
But the Navy doesn’t know that they can avoid the standardization, industrialization, and hand-made manufacturing issues that the Ministry of Industry is pursuing!
For example, muskets, all types of main artillery currently in production, and even battleships are all built to unified standards!
But then again, the current technical level is not enough, especially when the processing level is limited. In fact, many things, especially precision parts, still have to be built by craftsmen, and machines cannot be mass-produced at all.
.
After hearing the complaints from the Navy, and Li Xuan also said a few words, asking the people from the Ministry of Industry to stop being stubborn, the people from the Ministry of Industry reluctantly gave up the industrial mass production of large-caliber ships.
The plan for the cannon is to hand-build a few 18-pound cannons first, and then one or two 24-pound cannons.
Anyway, the navy has expressed its willingness to take advantage of it. It doesn't matter to them that it takes a long time and the output is low. If you say that the artillery produced in this way is ridiculously expensive, the navy says that there is no problem.
Damn it, I even build frigates that cost tens of thousands of taels of silver one by one, so why are you afraid that you will cost so much a few hundred taels of hand-made large-caliber naval guns?
Well, this is actually the Navy being forced to make a fool of themselves!
This cannon costs several hundred taels of silver, but a ship can easily have dozens of cannons, which add up to tens of thousands of taels of silver, and warships are not two in one.
The extra costs are actually very huge, and the Navy is very heartbroken about this.
But again, it’s better to be expensive than nothing!
The navy had a lot of troubles, various shipbuilding and development plans, and the results could not be seen in a day or two. Li Xuan was too lazy to pay more attention. During this time, he crawled all over the floor with Princess Wei'er to play.