Anti-Japanese War, weapons designer at Fengtian Arsenal

Li Qinwu soon arrived at the shipyard on the seashore, where there were two docks.

One is a 50-meter-long oven built according to Li Zhenghe's requirements. Only the foundation of this large oven has been dug now, and other equipment and walls have not been built yet. It will take at least two months to complete it.

The other is a completed dock, which is rather simple. It is just a long pit dug in the ground with some scaffolding cranes and other facilities set up on the ground on both sides of the pit.

This was the facility they built to facilitate the supply of the destroyer Kikuzuki, which they captured during the January 28th War of Resistance.

At this time, the destroyer Xianxing was lying in the dock. She had previously fought against the Japanese Tao-class destroyer, and many holes were punched in her armor, and several watertight compartments were leaking.

Li Zhenghe presided over the repair of the Vanguard. All the armor plates were removed, and he planned to upgrade them all to ceramic steel, and also upgrade the armament.

What Li Qinwu saw was the Pioneer with all its armor removed, exposing its internal structure. The bridge, artillery and other things had all disappeared. A large number of people were working on it, various tools were flying, and surveying, demolition and welding were completed in an instant amidst flames.

Li Qinwu found Li Zhenghe who was surveying ships.

"How do you plan to modify this ship?"

Li Zhenghe put down his work and organized his words.

"First of all, the islands were completely redone. The Japanese's illegal island construction was too ugly and not good for bulletproofing.

I plan to make the shape of the island smoother, increase the thickness of the armor, make it side armor, and increase the chance of bouncing off small shells.

To increase the air defense capability, the number of Type 85 anti-aircraft machine guns increased to 10, and for this purpose the two 120mm front guns had to be removed to make room.

Li Qinwu asked in confusion: "Remove the two guns? Wouldn't that reduce the anti-ship firepower?"

Li Zhenghe explained: "The era of aircraft carriers is coming soon. Traditional ships can only take the path of strengthening air defense and functionalization. Naval gun duels will not be the mainstream in the Pacific battlefield. It is better to remove two guns and use the freed space for two Type 85 twin anti-aircraft machine guns.

In addition, although we removed two guns, the firepower has not been reduced much."

Li Qinwu: "Oh? There is an operation? Please give details."

Li Zhenghe went to pull Li Zhi and Li Hui over.

"Let them tell you that they are working on something quite new."

Li Qinwu looked at Li Zhi and Li Hui, and they started talking one by one. After listening for a while, Li Qinwu understood that they were working on an automatic loader.

Wasn’t the 120mm gun on the previous destroyer simply welded to the deck? Its turret wasn’t even fully enclosed, with its butt exposed. In short, the combination of ship and gun was very rough.

Then Li Zhi and Li Hui's modification plan was to hollow out the deck where the artillery was originally installed, build a rotatable turret, and then install an automatic loader on the two lower floors, with a structure similar to that of a revolver.

With this thing, the artillery's firing rate can reach about 25 rounds per minute, while the manual loading rate is only a pitiful 10 rounds per minute.

When engaging in passionate artillery fire with the enemy, the manual rate of fire may be further reduced due to personnel tension, operational errors, attrition, turbulent waves and other reasons, so the automatic loading system wins.

To do this, he had to open up the space on the lower two floors of the destroyer to accommodate the huge automatic loading system and personnel operation room.

Li Zhi and Li Hui were talking excitedly about the mechanical team's victory over the manual team, but what Li Qinwu was thinking about was the 240mm twin-gun loading system they had developed before.

My goodness, the automatic loading system of one gun malfunctioned, and the steel rings of the bases of two guns were broken. With this level of reliability, if the modified Pioneer were to face the Japanese destroyer of the same level and the intense firing began, and both guns malfunctioned, wouldn't it be a lamb to be slaughtered?

"I said……"

Li Qinwu carefully considered his choice of words, fearing that it would undermine the confidence of the two scientific researchers.

"Isn't this a big step? Can the servo motor we built drive the gun mount? Don't let the base steel ring be shattered again. And your revolver's cylinder-type ammunition feeding system looks complicated. Can the processing accuracy meet the standards?"

When the two men saw that Li Qinwu was questioning them, they quickly promised not to ruin the project.

Li Zhi said: "Boss, you have to trust us! The 120mm gun has little recoil and will not break the base steel ring like the 240mm gun. Moreover, the system we made with tungsten alloy has no problem with strength!"

Li Hui said: "We asked Zero to make the precision parts, so there is no problem with reliability. And even if there is a problem, this battleship runs fast, so we can run away!"

What both of them said was that they hoped to implement this system.

Li Qinwu took into consideration that even if the Pioneer carried out a mission alone in the future, it would probably be hunting merchant ships, and it would be impossible for it to carry out a ship-to-ship artillery battle alone. In addition, he was aware that he did not want to command smart people, so he did not say much.

Li Zhi and Li Hui left happily. They felt a sense of accomplishment for being able to get their automatic loading system on board.

Next, Li Qinwu and Li Zhenghe boarded the Great Wall. The Great Wall was now in a dilapidated state, especially under the bow Juhua Wen Yao, where the big hole caused by the bomber's onboard attack had not yet been repaired.

Li Qinwu asked: "Why haven't you repaired the warship yet? Haven't you made a plan yet?"

Li Zhenghe spread his hands helplessly.

"Our admiral disagrees with the reconstruction plan. What I mean is that the bow of the ship was blown crooked, so we might as well dismantle it completely and burn a new one with ceramic steel.

But Li Ruinian meant that he didn’t want to demolish Juhua Wenyao, because then Changcheng sauce wouldn’t be Changcheng sauce anymore~"

Li Qinwu shuddered. Li Zhenghe's words were full of sarcasm. It was obvious that he was very resentful about not being able to start building battleships.

In fact, they not only disagreed on construction, but also on upgrading and renovation.

What Li Zhenghe meant was to demolish the island on the Great Wall, which looked like an illegal building, and upgrade it to an island similar to the Pioneer. This would make the ship look better, while at the same time expanding the space inside the island and increasing defense capabilities.

In addition, the air defense has been upgraded. Although the battleship was bombed by aerial bombs before, many machine gunners on the deck were killed.

He wanted to make a turret-type ship, with the machine gunner protected inside by armor, so that even if hit by enemy naval guns, the machine gunner would have a chance to survive.

However, to do this, holes must be drilled in the deck and the lower space must be occupied to install the motor unit. The anti-aircraft machine gun must rotate quickly, and manual rotation of the turret is very slow, so the only option is to install the motor unit, and then wire and power it inside the battleship.

Li Ruinian is a conservative. He means that it is enough to fix the broken parts of the warship and not to do unnecessary things. One reason is that these upgrades have not been verified. What if there is a malfunction on the battlefield?

Another question is, after the overhaul, isn't it just giving the ship a facelift? The admiral will definitely not agree to that!