Lord of Ming Dynasty

The coking and steelmaking plants of the Huaxia Empire are all over the important coal-producing states of the empire. The Huaxia Empire has officially entered the age of steam. The fire materials of the empire have also changed from ordinary firewood to coal. The fuel of the Chinese Empire has become more prosperous, but the price paid is that black smoke is billowing everywhere, and the sky and the earth are discolored.

This is the price of development and cannot be avoided.

Four fleets, plus the Royal Fleet, plus two overseas fleets, the Australian Fleet and the Malacca Fleet, a total of seven fleets, the first-level villager-class warships, each fleet is equipped with 36 ships, which is 256 warships It will take five years to manufacture these battleships alone. With the Royal Fleet being the first to equip, the First Fleet will first equip five experimental warships, and two prototype warships built in the early stage. The remaining warships are still being built one after another. The equipment will also have to be obtained next year.

The fleet of the Huaxia Empire is still dominated by ironclad ships and sail warships. The coast guard in the offshore area is equipped with offshore Minglun steam warships, but they are all small warships of hundreds of tons. They are all experimental, but only a hundred ships.

This makes the road have the appearance of cement and the hardness of stones. Although it is not very beautiful, it is stable and firm when walking on a cart. The key is to accelerate the speed of pedestrians running on the road, which is far faster than Dirt roads are much faster and much cleaner than dirt roads, because Daming does not have cars that weigh dozens of tons like later generations. Even if there are carriages for transportation, they will definitely not exceed a few tons in weight. As far as the road is concerned, it is more than enough. This is the change that Zhang Qiang brought to this era.

It can't be said how advanced or advanced it is, but it is absolutely convenient.

And with the increase of R&D personnel, it is mainly because the Huaxia Army has added other industry exams on the basis of the imperial examinations, 360 lines, and there are exams for all walks of life. Low-level personnel can get a government-certified industry qualification certificate. With these certificates, you can engage in research in related industries, and sell the research results to the government, and the government pays a certain amount of money to buy the research results.

This is the qualification certificate for all people in the industry. It is an honor to have this certificate, just like a scholar who has been admitted to Tongsheng. In the village, you can also get the reception of the village head, the head of the security, or the head of the township, and let everyone look at you highly. In these low-level administrative positions, you can also get a good income and a basic monthly salary.

People in the village read a letter, recognize a character, or build something, find an authority to authenticate it, and they will come to you, or the price of what you come up with is higher than the price of other people who have not been authenticated. I have to find you when dealing with the government.

Zhang Huangyan walked all the way, passing through the countryside, and learned about these things through the mouth of the young guide who led the way.

Low-level certification does not require you to be literate or have read books, as long as you can get something in the industry and get government approval.

And can get the qualification to go to adult night school for free. If you graduate from the night school, that is to say, you know ten Arabic numerals and more than one hundred characters, you can take the qualification certification level two examination.

These exams are all focused on industry leaders. If you can speak clearly about farm work and record it with the help of others, and if you can understand it yourself, you will be able to obtain a second-level qualification certification.

These people were all requisitioned by the government to help solve problems such as going to the countryside to count the amount of farmland, how much it produces, how much iron can be smelted, how much iron can be hammered in a day, whether some things made by carpenters meet the standards set by the government, and help the government solve the problems of contact with people in these industries. Task.

Of course, these people do not need to receive wages. They will be paid when they are requisitioned.Promote Jin Lin to lead the 11th Field Brigade, Ma Sanli to lead the 12th Field Brigade, Du Ge to lead the 6rd Field Brigade, He Jin to lead the 13th Field Brigade, and the remaining Field Brigade No. 13 Field Brigade to be transferred to the southwest of Guangzhou. Ma Han took over the No.[-] field brigade, and then transferred Feng Wuyu's second field brigade to the southwest defense line, and Feng Wuyu followed to the southwest defense line to take charge of the work there.

Xuanyuan Longfei was transferred to Wuchang Mansion, and the Fifth Field Brigade still followed.

Ruan Jin took over Ma Weixing's [-]th Field Brigade and was stationed in Anqing Prefecture. The generals were changed, but the soldiers of the [-]th Field Brigade did not move, and the station did not move.

The Ninth Field Brigade did not move, and the commander was replaced by Bagyalu. The Third Cavalry Brigade was transferred to the central Jinhua Mansion, and Wei Wuji personally took charge of it.

Ma Weiren, the commander of the Ninth Field Brigade, went to take over the No.18 Field Brigade and stationed in Hanyang Prefecture.

The No.20 Sixth Field Brigade was transferred from the Hubei battlefield to defend the Southern Ming Army in Shaoguan, Guangdong.

When you want to go one step further, the government has launched a three-level qualification certification. These people must be able to speak well and be able to count and write. These people are generally veterans or businessmen's buddies, old officials in the government, or have been famous for a long time Some of them are directly recruited by the government and given to a clerk. These clerks spend more than half of their time working in the government, and they are called the low-level clerks of the government.

They have no possibility of being promoted to government servants, but they can assist the government in doing things, even put forward some good suggestions, and develop good things. The government will sell their suggestions and research and development at a high price. This is the government's achievements. The civil servants above have to rely on them if they want to be promoted to higher-level section officials.

The fourth level is usually those who have read books and have profound attainments in the industry. They also have the heart of being an official. Members can be promoted to official positions, and can be promoted to positions such as clerks, document offices, book books, etc., which are equivalent to the assistants of township heads and town heads.

You Haibo’s Department of Officials, Zhang Huangyan’s Department of Household Affairs, Li Guangdi’s Department of Education and Administration, Xiao Dazhuang’s Department of Punishment, Qian Bingdeng’s Ministry of Rites, Zhang Mingzhen’s Ministry of Agriculture, Zhu Panpan’s Ministry of Industry and Commerce, Li Guo’s Ministry of War, Wan Siyuan’s Ministry of Industry, Zhang Liang’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of People’s Affairs Huang Tao, Wei Wuji of the Ministry of National Defense, Du Ge of the Supervision Department, and Milin of the Military Intelligence Department, all the departments are fully equipped.

Another: Director of Recruit Training, Tian Xian, Vice Minister of Military Intelligence Tian Bin

We can’t always let Sebastian and Francois do research, they need helpers, and it’s too slow to rely on them to train some apprentices, which is not good for the technological development of the Huaxia Army, so Zhang Qiang has to find those folk talents from Huaxia Come out and send them to their research institute, let them learn while helping and inspiring the two of them, so as to speed up their development.

The new carriage was made under the inspiration of Zhang Qiang and with the help of old carpenters and blacksmiths.

At the same time, under the advice and promotion of a businessman or a treasurer-born researcher, he quickly entered the army and civilians of the Huaxia Army, and gained commercial and national interests.

Let the society promote its own development. Zhang Qiang is only a bystander and a guide. Otherwise, with his knowledge structure, insight, and historical knowledge, he will not be able to reach the level of other traversers in 100 years. years of development.

The first thousand and ninety-two chapters promote the development of warships in the West

As the relationship between the Chinese Empire and the West thawed, the British returned to the East, and they had to return, because there was still an India to worry about. India’s materials, resources, and commodities were what they needed, and neither Africa nor the Americas could Like India, it supplies Britain with huge raw materials, and at the same time sells British goods to India, earning a lot of profits and taking away a lot of gold and silver treasures.

Since the Spaniards withdrew from the Far East and Asia more than 20 years ago, their merchant ships have never appeared on this side of the Strait of Malacca. They have been exploring in Africa and the Americas, and even concentrate on gold and silver in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. With France, Britain, and the Netherlands in the Caribbean The sea fought for the colonial islands, several countries fought relentlessly for 20 years, but in the end the Dutch withdrew, the British got some, the Spaniards won and occupied the Caribbean Sea, most of the Gulf of Mexico was occupied by the British, the Dutch just took To some small islands in the corner.

The French and the British acquired some islands in Bermuda and other places where the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico meet. Several parties are still fighting in the Caribbean Sea, but they are all exhausted.

So several parties chose a truce at the same time, and turned their attention to the east where the war had ceased. The war in the east has been away from them for 20 years, and the recent battle with Russia was only a small-scale battle in Central Asia. The Qing Dynasty, not the Huaxia Empire, the Huaxia Empire only supported manpower and material resources, guns, weapons, artillery, etc. behind the scenes.

The Huaxia Empire, which is devoted to development, is a market they want to enter when they are three feet old. Although they can no longer colonize, the huge market of the Huaxia Empire is something that any Western country wants to enter. The distance made it impossible for them to deliver messages and communicate with the Chinese Empire effectively and in a timely manner.

Their side is already in the age of sails, the era of sail battleships with iron skins, iron frames and wooden hulls, and the battleships are getting bigger and bigger, and the artillery power is getting more and more powerful. The shelling at a distance of 800 meters to 1000 meters, although most of the solid bullet wars, but there are also some flowering bullets. The development of flowering bullets has made their wars more bloody and fierce.

Moreover, the cost of ships has risen every time. The original ordinary warships weighed 180 tons, and sail warships cost only [-] to [-] pounds a piece. Simple ones can be built for even [-] pounds. The warships equipped with such a small amount of money in Yuanhai are not enough.

The tonnage of warships ranged from 180 tons to 30 tons and 180 tons when they fought against the Chinese Empire [-] years ago. After the battle was defeated and they were withdrawn to the West, the tonnage of warships in the West increased rapidly, and [-] tons and [-] tons became common warship tonnages. , [-] tons are only used by pirates or some other folk expedition ships.

A thousand-ton battleship, a two-thousand-ton battleship is a luxury configuration, and it cannot be used in battles at ordinary times. What level of warship will be dispatched when two countries are at war, and there are not many in each country, three or four, seven or eight ships , more than ten ships, the largest is the United Kingdom, more than 30 ships.

The cost of one ship is 60 million pounds, and 400 tons is between [-] million and [-] million pounds. This is a waste. Therefore, if it is not to highlight the status and strength of a maritime kingdom, many countries will not build such a large one. , a battleship with a hundred guns.

Thousand-ton warships with a cost of between 40 and 100 tons are everyone’s favorite. They are specially used for fighting and chasing the enemy. Ten years later, after they were defeated in the South China Sea of ​​the Chinese Empire again, and after the British obtained the iron-clad sailing warships of the Chinese Empire, they all suddenly fell behind.

At that time, the Huaxia Empire had already begun to transform sail warships into iron warships. There were only more than 100 remodeled iron warships. Later, the second expedition with the Western Allied Forces to suppress Zheng Zhi and his forces ended. In one fell swoop, the Dutch, the British, and the Spaniards were driven out of the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the Strait of Malacca.

Completely dominate the Asian seas.

After returning, the Huaxia Empire continued to study and transform the iron-clad warships and battleships transformed from flying clippers in line with this east wind, and formed mainly iron-skinned and iron-skinned sailing warships, and even most of them used iron-skinned sailing warships. The firepower also changed from mixed to Solid projectiles and poor unstable bloomers were transformed into cylindrical copper-iron alloy projectiles of the shell texture.

The barrel of the artillery has also changed from the original barrel of the smoothbore gun with a large belly to the straight barrel of the rifled gun, and it has been lengthened, and various bronze and steel guns have been manufactured scientifically and rationally.

These artillery participated in the battle with the Qing Dynasty, and have been exported to the Qing Dynasty since then, supporting the Russian explorers and horse bandits in Siberia, the battle of the expeditionary force, and completed the first battle of the Qing Dynasty to occupy Siberia.

Although there were many improvements in the next 20 years, the improvements were not significant. The hull of the battleship still had a lot of wood, and the sails were still the main character. The speed from [-] knots to [-] knots has been increased to [-] knots in cruising, the combat speed has been increased from [-] knots to [-] knots, and the fastest speed has been increased from [-] knots to [-] knots.

It was not until the last ten years that a major improvement was achieved. The steam engine was on board, and the fastest speed was increased to more than [-] knots to [-] knots. It was not very stable, but it was still better than the original turning and sailing purely by sails, relying mainly on nature, and transformed into You can rely on your own will to sail in the open sea, and at the worst, you can drift with the wind for a while, and then turn on the steam engine when there is no wind, burn charcoal or firewood to escape or chase the enemy, or return to the port.

At this time, Western warships are still changing to the characteristic hulls of clipper ships, and they are still considering how to match the design to achieve the maximum speed, but they have also received a lot of improvements. Their sailing warships are faster, eighty-nine The fighting speed is faster, and the ratio of artillery is more reasonable, which reduces the number of artillery and the weight of the hull, but increases the power of the artillery.

All of this is based on learning from the clipper warship that the Huaxia Empire was captured by them.

Britain is at the forefront.

The Netherlands knew the power of clipper ships, and vigorously developed clipper ships. For a time, clipper ships were everywhere from the Caribbean Sea to the coast of Africa. Although they were not strong against wind and waves, they could still sail far. I quickly enter and leave, and attack the enemy. The speed of [-] knots to the fastest [-] or [-] knots has accelerated the speed of news transmission in the West, the speed of population transportation, and the speed of population flow. Western social development.

Although the Spaniards were slow to get the news, after all, they also participated in the battle with the Chinese Empire, and they also knew the characteristics of the Chinese Empire's warships, the changes of the British and the Dutch, and soon they got the technology and targeted development. A new battleship of his own.

Chapter 93 The Gap between Eastern and Western Warships

The new warships are not as good as the British, but relatively speaking, the Spanish warships are still very interesting. They are more solid, durable, and large in size, with stronger sails and towering masts. Compared with British technological breakthroughs in terms of artillery, they are also At the beginning, it was dominated by flowering ammunition, and the Spanish artillery was a bit hard to let go. Most of them were still solid ammunition artillery, and still adhered to the original layout. There were more artillery pieces and they were relatively large, which inevitably affected the speed and combat effectiveness.

Compared with the excellence of the British, the Spaniards are very happy and do not learn the lesson of being defeated by the British. Large battleships with little ability are built again and again, even if they are in debt, they have to be built, which makes the surrounding Western countries look hot. laugh at.

Spanish battleships still follow the rules of first-class battleships and second-class battleships in the age of sails. Although they have absorbed the benefits of the transformation of the clipper ships of the Chinese Empire, their speed and combat effectiveness have improved a lot. The speed of 30 knots is no longer a problem when sailing fast, 1 knots, or even [-] knots. Compared with the speed of Spanish warships [-] years ago, the speed has increased by [-] to [-] knots. Compared with the British The average speed increase from three knots to five knots is much smaller.

Of course, their speed on the clipper ship is not slow, the speed of [-] knots, the speed of ordinary ocean crossing can also reach the speed of [-] knots, which greatly improves the speed of an era, but their clipper ship It is not as fast as the flying shear ships of the British and Dutch and has much combat power. It is mainly for message transmission and the tonnage is relatively small. A replica of the clipper frigate of the Chinese Empire.

It is much stronger and more durable than the British iron and wood keel hull.

The British have a stubborn side and always think that steel is no better than hard-to-find marine keels or ribs, so they still have scruples about the use of steel. Compared with Spain's friendship with the Chinese Empire at that time, or Spain at that time The British are much more arrogant, so they have not acquired much technology in the steel industry of the Chinese Empire, which is one of the reasons why the British did not use steel keels and ribs.