The four-nation alliance on the east coast in the north has very strong overseas and diplomatic pressure behind them, so their demand for new battleships is very urgent, and they are very tight on the delivery time of many battleships. For example, the two Princess-class battleships require
It will be completed and delivered within two years. Therefore, of the two warships, one has already started construction this month and the second one will start next month. We strive to complete and launch it next year and deliver it the year after that.
At the same time, the Daheng Empire Navy's own warships and warships for the Orr Kingdom Navy were built, so that the Daheng Empire's shipbuilding industry and related defense industries were still operating at full speed and continued to expand even after the war ended.
In order to meet the construction plan of large-tonnage ships, Luohai Shipyard and Jingzhou Shipyard began large-scale expansion last year, expanding existing shipyards and building new large-scale shipyards. In just one year, they expanded by 15,000
There are two 10,000-ton shipyards, three 10,000-ton shipyards, and six 5,000-ton shipyards. Otherwise, it would be impossible to meet the construction work of so many large-tonnage warships at the same time.
At the same time, the Central Weapon Company has brought the "Quping Naval Repair Plant" that was originally under the jurisdiction of the Navy into its jurisdiction, and invested heavily in upgrading it to Quping Shipyard. The initial plan is to upgrade the existing 10,000-ton shipyard.
It was expanded to a 20,000-ton dock, and one of the 5,000-ton docks was expanded to a 10,000-ton dock.
Once the upgrade and expansion is completed, another large shipyard capable of building 10,000-ton warships will be added to the Daheng Empire.
And formed the layout of three major shipyards: Luohai Shipyard, Jingzhou Shipyard, and Quping Shipyard.
The pressure brought by the huge shipbuilding plan is not limited to the shipyards. After all, they are only terminal assembly plants. Related industries in the mid and upper reaches are also under tremendous pressure.
For example, to expand a shipyard, you have to purchase and upgrade equipment, and these shipbuilding equipment are all large-scale equipment. These require products from various machinery factories in the midstream. In the past, the scale and technical capabilities of these machinery factories were also deficient.
, so they themselves still need to expand and upgrade their technology.
In addition, warships not only need to build a hull, but also need to be equipped with a series of core components. The core steam engine, armor and naval guns are the top priority.
Currently, the empire's two main shipboard steam engine manufacturers, Luohai Steam Engine Factory and Jingzhou Machinery Bureau Steam Engine Factory, are operating at full power and are working overtime to produce new steam engines to supply warships and even civilian merchant ships.
In terms of armor, Luohai Steel Plant, Zishengzhou Steel Plant, and Fengyang Steel Plant can all provide forged iron armor, but the combined production capacity is relatively limited. At the same time, the most important thing is that in order to keep up with the pace of naval powers, the Imperial Navy
There is already a demand for a new type of armor such as steel-faced iron armor.
The new type of armor has higher technical requirements. Even the Luohai Iron and Steel Plant, which currently has the most mature armor technology, still has great difficulties in mass-producing steel-faced armor with qualified quality and superior performance, which requires continued investment in investment.
Equipment upgrades, technology research and development.
Not to mention naval guns. In order to solve the problem of naval guns, the Navy even set up a naval gun research laboratory and mobilized technicians from across the country to focus on research and development of naval gun technology.
Whether it is the 300 mm 30-caliber naval gun under development, the 250 mm 30-caliber naval gun, or the 200 mm 35-caliber naval gun, they are all facing great pressure. These naval guns can
They are all scheduled to be installed on ships, leaving little time for their research and development and organization of production.
In addition, they have to simultaneously pre-research more advanced large-caliber naval guns, such as 300mm 35x naval guns and 250mm 35x naval guns.
At the same time, the naval gun research laboratory also received a research and development task personally assigned by His Majesty the Emperor Lin Ziran, which was to develop a rapid-fire tube annealing gun. Lin Ziran asked the research and development department to concentrate on solving the rapid-fire problem of naval guns as soon as possible.
In Lin Ziran's view, the current rate of fire of naval guns is too slow. Even a medium-caliber naval gun of 150 mm has a very slow rate of fire. It takes one point and five minutes to fire one round.
Large-caliber naval guns are even worse. The firing rate of 200mm and 250mm naval guns is only 2.5 minutes per round, and the 300mm naval gun takes 3.5 minutes per round.
The above is only the theoretical rate of fire. In actual combat, it is affected by various factors such as aiming, and the actual rate of fire is even slower.
For this reason, Lin Ziran asked the naval gun R&D department to develop tube annealing guns in order to increase the rate of fire of naval guns. Even if the rate of fire of large-caliber naval guns cannot be solved in a short period of time, the rate of fire of small and medium-caliber naval guns cannot be solved.
We need to solve it, such as 100 mm or 120 mm caliber naval guns.
The Navy also attaches great importance to improving the rapid fire rate of naval guns. Although these days, large-caliber naval guns can penetrate enemy battleships, but small and medium-caliber naval guns can also effectively threaten enemy ships if they can increase the rate of fire.
It's just that there's no telling when the retractable rapid-fire cannon will be developed.
This thing is no longer something that Lin Ziran came up with and designers can just mess around with. It involves basic materials and processing technology.
For example, to perform pipe retraction, you need to use hydraulic pressure or springs, both of which have very high requirements on basic materials and processing technology. Otherwise, it is impossible to produce a qualified hydraulic retraction device.
The navy's shipbuilding plan has put great pressure on the defense industry, but it has also brought surging momentum. Only with sufficient orders can relevant companies in the defense industry have sufficient revenue and profits.
Develop more advanced technologies, upgrade equipment, and produce better products.
At the same time, it can also drive employment in the defense industry and allow more people to get a stable job.
From last year to now, the number of employees at Luohai Shipyard alone has increased by more than a thousand, and the same is true for several other shipyards.
At the Nanzhou Machinery Bureau, although the war is over and the Army's orders have been significantly reduced, and there is no longer the overtime situation in the past, there are still no layoffs because the Navy continues to order artillery, and there are also a large number of foreign trade naval guns and Army artillery.
Order.
Therefore, the Nanzhou Machinery Bureau is still operating at full power.
As for the more upstream machinery, steel, and mining industries, there has actually been explosive growth.
What is needed to build ships and guns? It requires steel. A large amount of steel. Whether it is armor, hull, equipment, etc., steel is needed, and all of this steel needs to be provided by steel plants.
In addition to the defense industry, there is another major demand for steel, and that is railways!
In fact, the growth of the steel industry driven by railways is even more exaggerated!
Multiple railway lines are under construction at the same time, requiring a huge number of rails and a large number of steam locomotives, all of which require a large amount of steel production capacity.
At the end of the Unification War, initial statistics of pig iron production in the Daheng Empire were only about 800,000 tons, and steel production was only 20,000 tons.
However, in the first year after unification, this year, it is estimated that pig iron production will surge to 1.8 million tons and steel production will be guaranteed to 50,000 tons. This is mainly due to the expansion of Luohai Steel Plant that started last year. The project was successfully put into operation this year. At the same time, Jingzhou Iron and Steel Plant and Chongke Iron and Steel Plant resumed operations and expanded production.
But next year's output will be even larger, because in addition to the above-mentioned three major steel plants that will continue to expand their production capacity, many other steel plants are also expanding their production.
The economic department has very optimistic estimates that in the third year of Qian Sheng, that is, next year, the pig iron production capacity is expected to exceed 3 million tons, and the steel production capacity will exceed 100,000 tons.
And in the next four years and five years of Qiansheng, there will be even greater guarantees!
Because in the "Comprehensive Economic Development Plan", the steel industry is a key development industry, three major steel production bases, including Luohai Steel Production Base, Chongke City Steel Production Base and Jingzhou Steel Production Base, have been identified to fully support the development of Luohai. There are three major steel plants, namely Hainan Iron and Steel Plant, Jingzhou Iron and Steel Plant, and Chongke Iron and Steel Plant, and they support the steel industry of six medium-sized steel plants in other parts of the country.
Through policies and financial support for the above-mentioned steel plants and related industries, we strive to achieve leapfrog development and strive to increase pig iron production to 6 million tons and steel production to 500,000 tons by the fifth year of Qian Sheng.
This is the huge power brought by the big railway plan and the naval development plan!
Of course, this is also closely related to the fact that the Daheng Empire has abundant and easy-to-exploit iron ore and coal resources, as well as good river and railway transportation.
Take Nanhae Prefecture as an example. Luohai County alone has rich iron ore and coal resources that are easy to mine. At the same time, Luoan County slightly to the north also has rich iron ore and coal resources.
The iron ore and coal resources in these two states alone are enough to support the iron ore and coal resources needed for the development of a large country.
Not to mention, although Nanhai Prefecture is rich in iron ore and coal resources in the Daheng Empire, it is not the largest. The most abundant is Pingnan Prefecture, where the iron ore is of higher quality and coal mining is easier.
In addition, Zisheng Prefecture is also a state with major mineral resources. Although the degree of development is not as great as that of Pingnan Prefecture and Nanhai Prefecture, its rich reserves of iron ore and coal resources are no less than those of Nanhai Prefecture.
In other states, there are more or less iron ore and coal resources.
In terms of iron ore and coal resources alone, the Daheng Empire claims to be second in the world, and no other country dares to claim to be first.
Rich reserves, easy to mine, and high-grade iron ore and coal resources not only allowed the Daheng Empire's steel and related industries to develop rapidly, but in fact it was also the reason why Daheng's industry was still able to develop steadily when Daheng fell into civil strife. An important factor, because the resources were so abundant, the feudal towns at that time could build a steel factory with just a few twists and turns...
Steel and coal are the foundation of contemporary industrial development. Only with steel and coal can we develop various industries such as railways, steam, steel ships, and machinery on a large scale. Only in this way can the newly born Lin Dynasty be confident in a short period of time.
To catch up with other great powers within the country and return to the industry of a first-class industrial country as soon as possible.
It's just that, although the output is available, the quality is somewhat unreliable.
Anyway, the railway company has complained more than once that the quality of the rails produced by major steel manufacturers is really poor. It is not even a little bit worse than the same level of foreign products, and the price is not cheap.
In order to obtain rails with qualified quality, railway companies have to strengthen quality inspections and choose reliable manufacturers as much as possible. Otherwise, they will accidentally get a lot of inferior products.
The railway company is like this, and the shipbuilding industry is also complaining a lot!
The quality of wrought iron, steel and other materials used to build ships is not very good, and the materials used to supply warships are just that. Although the performance is slightly worse, the overall quality is still guaranteed, after all, the supervision is very strict.
But the quality of the steel used in auxiliary ships and civilian ships is very worrying.
As for the steel-faced iron-clad composite armor that the Navy has always wanted, whether it is Luohai Steel Plant, Jingzhou Steel Plant or Chongke Steel Plant, they have been unable to produce qualified mass-produced products.
We can only produce some laboratory products.
However, the amount of armor required to build a warship is not certain, it can easily reach thousands of tons. If more warships are built in a year, the demand for steel-faced iron armor will increase by thousands or even tens of thousands of tons.
But it can’t be mass-produced!
The navy is helpless about this, and the steel factory is also helpless!
If they can't mass-produce it, they don't have any good solutions. The technology of this thing is much more difficult than wrought iron armor. It requires extremely high production technology and a variety of more advanced production equipment. At present, Daheng
In the empire, even the machinery factories are unable to provide qualified machinery and equipment, and their steel plants have no choice.
Armor and other products rely on mechanical equipment, and naval guns rely even more on high-precision large-scale equipment. Not to mention basic equipment such as steel furnaces and overhead cranes, but more importantly, forging presses. The production of large-caliber naval guns requires large-scale forging presses.
Yes, one or two hundred tons is the starting requirement. If you want to produce naval guns with a caliber of more than 300 mm, you need a forging press of one or two thousand tons, a large edge crushing machine that can process large-size parts, and a rolling mill.
core equipment.
These large-scale processing equipment, which look silly and bulky, may seem like nothing at first glance, but when you actually use them, you realize that these things are difficult to manufacture.
There are some top-notch equipment in the Daheng Empire, such as several thousand-ton and two-thousand-ton forging presses, 500-mm edge crushing machines, and 350-mm steel rolling mills. They are all the same as those of the previous vassal towns, and they are used for several large arsenals.
It's imported.
The Daheng Empire itself, before and even now, does not have the production capacity for these large-scale equipment.
Even though it has recently started research, Luohai Machinery Factory's self-developed two-thousand-ton hydraulic forging machine is also progressing steadily, but it will take some time before it can be put into practical use.
The lack of these basic equipment is also an important reason for the current difficulties in the Daheng Empire's production of large-caliber naval guns, large-sized steel-faced iron armor, and other large-sized steel products.