My Pen Pal Zhu Yuanzhang

Chapter 334 Dingyuan-class Ironclad Battleship
New ships and guns?

Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes suddenly lit up. Old Li, you really have sent me good stuff this time!

He quickly put the letter aside and started looking for the information impatiently.

This pile of information includes an introduction to the warship, design drawings, detailed construction procedures, and even specialized artillery firing and construction procedures.

This is much more detailed than the other shooting drawings that Lao Li sent before. It seems that Lao Li is also very concerned about the construction of the Ming Dynasty navy!

"Dingyuan-class ironclad battleship? What a good name! Dingyuan, Dingyuan, to stabilize the distant place. Isn't the navy supposed to sail to the distance? Using the navy to stabilize the distant place, this name has a good meaning.

Old Li is a nice guy. He specially asked for good luck for us.

And the name of the Ironclad Battleship sounds mighty and majestic, as if it were a great general wearing armor and invincible, with the courage of a single man standing against ten thousand men!"

Zhu Yuanzhang muttered to himself, and then looked at the introduction of the warship on the drawing.

The displacement is 7335 tons, which is almost the same as the largest steamship that Ming Dynasty can build at present, so it will not be a problem for Ming Dynasty to build it.

Then, when he saw the drawings and detailed parameters of the ship, he couldn't help but gasp.

After such a long period of being influenced by Li Han, he gradually learned how to read these design drawings that originally looked like incomprehensible books.

As an emperor who wanted to lead the Ming Dynasty to achieve the industrial revolution, how could he not understand industrial design drawings?

The ship is 94.5 meters long, 18 meters wide, and has a speed of 14.5 knots. Since the three-level education system was popularized in the Ming Dynasty, mathematics has been included in the education system as a basic and compulsory subject. Naturally, it is no problem for Zhu to understand Arabic numerals.

However, in the Ming Dynasty, this was not called Arabic numerals, but was named the New Ming Numbers by Zhu Yuanzhang.

He could imagine the captain and the width of the ship, but he could not imagine what the cruising speed of 14.5 knots meant. He understood what 14.5 meant, but what was "knot"?
Obviously, the word "jie" does not mean festival or solar term.

Fortunately, Lao Li was thoughtful enough to note that the Dingyuan-class ship had a speed of 107 miles per hour.

Wait a minute! Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but widen his eyes, looking at the numbers on the drawing in disbelief. Can he run 107 miles per hour?
This speed is faster than a train!

Moreover, the warships sail on the sea non-stop for twelve hours a day, which means that they can travel more than a thousand miles in a day.

And this is just the cruising speed. If you run at full throttle, the speed will only be faster.

Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but get excited when he heard this. He quickly took out the nautical chart that Li Han had given him before and found Srivijaya in Java.

He couldn't help but think that the distance from Yingtian Prefecture to Srivijaya was about 8,100 miles.

A fleet equipped with Dingyuan warships could set out from Yingtianfu early in the morning and reach Srivijaya in Java in just a few days, and then catch Chen Zuyi off guard. After returning to respond to Tianfu, it would probably take less than a month.

Speed ​​is of the essence in war. This is the real speed of the essence in war! Similarly, if we need to send troops to Japan, Annan, Siam, or even farther away, there is no need to travel through mountains and rivers. We only need to send a fleet to go there. In Lao Li's words, this is called strategic deterrence!
However, since the Dingyuan-class ship has such a high speed, its steam engine must have been further improved.

Zhu Yuanzhang continued to read the pages and found that the steam engine used two horizontal three-cylinder reciprocating steam engines and eight circular coal-fired boilers.

If a new type of steam engine can be manufactured, it can be used not only to build ships, but also to build trains. Various factories will also need steam engines. I am afraid that by then the overall industrial level of the Ming Dynasty will reach a new level.

It seems that Li Min will be busy again. Thinking of this, Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but sigh a little. Li Min was always busy. He was almost sixty years old and couldn't go home every day. It was really hard for him.

It's not that he, Zhu, can only use Li Min. All the assistant ministers, deputy ministers, and directors under Li Min are extremely busy. The researchers at the Institute of Industry are busy in the laboratory day and night.

However, this also highlights the current development dilemma of the Ming Dynasty, which is the serious shortage of talents, especially industrial talents!
However, in a few years, when the new students graduate from school, the current talent shortage situation will be improved.

Hey, Li Min has been acting mysterious recently, and I don’t know what he’s talking about. He even rarely goes back to the Ministry of Industry and stays at the Polytechnic University.

You've been missing for a few days now. Although as the president of the first university in Ming Dynasty, it's normal for you to stay in school, but don't forget that your main job is the Minister of Works!

"The main guns of this Dingyuan-class battleship are 9.15-inch twin-mounted turrets, a total of four guns, and 4.5 4-inch secondary guns. Isn't this number of guns a bit too little?"

Zhu Yuanzhang muttered that his own artillery battalion was equipped with hundreds of artillery pieces, but such a large warship only had eight guns. This amount of firepower was indeed not enough.

However, according to Lao Li, naval guns are completely different from the artillery he understands today. It is a brand new type of artillery, and it is unknown how powerful this type of artillery is.

As he continued to look down, he became more and more frightened. These cannons, like the needle-guns, were breech-loaded. This way, their rate of fire could be greatly increased!
Today's cannons are the same as the muskets of the past, with gunpowder and projectiles loaded at the front, and then the fuse is ignited to fire the projectiles.

Not to mention the power and range, the shooting speed is really frustrating.

After Lao Li sent the needle-fired gun, the people in the Industry Department had thought about changing the artillery to a breech-loading gun, but they had never found a suitable design. Now, with the ready-made drawings of the new artillery, it should be able to be manufactured soon.

Moreover, it seems that this new artillery not only has a greatly improved rate of fire, but its range is even more amazing, reaching a terrifying 7800 meters!
What does 7800 meters mean? It’s a full fifteen miles away!
Compared with the artillery of the current artillery battalion, the range has been increased by fifteen times, or more!

And judging from the drawings, the new artillery uses a new stabilization device and aiming method, which can greatly improve the accuracy of shooting.

In other words, artillery can be fired in the same way as semi-automatic rifles?

This is a huge progress!
Not only that, this new type of artillery fires shrapnel shells, which means that after the artillery hits the ground, it can continue to explode, killing enemies in groups through the power of the explosion and fragments!
If this thing can really be built, I'm afraid one battleship will be able to replace a current artillery battalion, and its striking power will far exceed that of an artillery battalion.

If Zhu Yuanzhang had an idea, this thing could not only be installed on ships, but could also be used on land. What if all the iron cannons in the artillery battalion were replaced with new cannons?

Think about the scene of thousands of cannons firing at the same time, I'm afraid it's really like killing gods if you meet one, and killing Buddhas if they stand in your way!

(End of this chapter)