Slaying the Qing: My Taiping Heavenly Kingdom

Every world-class power must possess a powerful navy.

If one is merely confined to land, there is no way one will have the opportunity to dominate the world.

The British Empire was just a small country with a small population.

The current British Empire, with its entire population on its mainland, has only a little over 28 million people.

The Gallo-Baltic Empire also had a total population of only 36 million.

But these two countries are the most powerful colonial empires in the world today. They control the most colonies in the world.

The overseas expansion of the British Empire and the Gallic Empire demonstrates that a powerful navy is essential.

Without a powerful navy, it would be impossible to expand outwards.

Even though the world has already been largely divided up by other powerful nations.

However, some Western colonial countries have already declined.

If the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had seized the opportunity to overthrow the Manchu rule and then rapidly begin its outward expansion, it might have been able to catch the last train of external expansion.

This meant that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had to build a powerful navy.

Especially when facing threats from the British Empire and the Gallo-British Empire, without a strong navy, they could only rely on the army and remain in a defensive position.

Passive defense is naturally not as good as proactive offense.

If possible, Hong Tian naturally hoped that the entire country and nation could follow the path of external expansion and plunder, just like the Western powers.

In this dog-eat-dog world and era, if you can't be a colonizer, then you can only be a colonized.

Even if the colonizers were forced into it, cruel, and ruthless, being a colonizer was still far better than being a miserable colonized.

Moreover, this is clearly evident from later generations.

Those colonizers who acted as robbers were all wealthy, developed countries. The colonized countries, on the other hand, were poor and backward nations.

Therefore, Hong Tian had already made up his mind. In this timeline, he was determined to make the entire nation a colonizer, rather than merely a colonized being condemned by their colonizers with blood and tears!

At that time, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's naval strength was practically zero.

Compared to the British Empire, which was the dominant maritime power, the difference was enormous.

However, this era was at a critical juncture in the navy's transition from the age of sail to the age of steam.

The vast number of sailing battleships built at great expense by the British Empire and other top naval powers are about to become obsolete.

At that time, all countries will have to scrap these sailing warships and replace them with steam warships.

This was undoubtedly an excellent opportunity for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

If the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom could seize this opportunity, it would undoubtedly be able to shorten the gap between itself and the world's top naval powers as much as possible, and even find a way to overtake them.

Outside Tianjing City, a shipyard.

Hong Tiantong, together with General Lai Hanying, the Minister of the Navy of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, attended the groundbreaking ceremony held at the shipyard for the first warship.

Ding Richang, the general manager of the shipyard, was in charge of presiding over the ceremony.

Ding Richang originally served as an instructor in Qiongzhou.

In Hong Tian's view, this was simply a waste of talent.

In another time and space, Ding Richang also played a very important role in the development of the Qing Dynasty's navy.

Therefore, Hong Tian sent someone to contact Ding Richang, and finally persuaded Ding Richang to join the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and serve as the general manager of the shipyard.

Hong Tian delivered a speech at the groundbreaking ceremony.

Although the Heavenly Kingdom Navy has only just begun to be established and everything is still very rudimentary, Hong Tian is full of expectations for its future, hoping that the navy will become one of the most important branches of the Heavenly Kingdom's military.

The warship under construction at the shipyard is an unprotected cruiser designed under the supervision of Hong Tian. The hull is made of wood, but the keel is made of iron.

Furthermore, it is planned that after completion, the deck and the outer shell above the waterline will be covered with a layer of sheet metal.

Although the thin sheet metal doesn't offer much protection compared to thick armor, it still provides a certain level of protection.

This unprotected cruiser was named the "Class A" unprotected cruiser by Hong Tian. In appearance, it resembled the "Guangjia" unprotected cruiser from more than twenty years later.

However, in Hong Tian's design, the sails and masts of this era were completely eliminated, and replaced with steam engine chimneys and so on.

Furthermore, warships also eliminated the rams that were common in this era.

The Class A unprotected cruiser had a standard displacement of 1,300 tons, a length of 67.66 meters, a beam of 10.27 meters, and a draft of 4.23 meters.

After eliminating the sail design, the entire ship was powered entirely by steam engines.

The maximum speed is 12 knots.

In terms of firepower, a twin-mounted 120mm naval gun was mounted at both the bow and stern. In addition, three 75mm secondary guns, four 47mm rapid-fire guns, two 37mm rapid-fire guns, and two heavy machine guns were deployed on each side.

This number of cannons is naturally much smaller compared to the dozens or even hundreds of cannons on sailing battleships.

However, the unprotected cruisers of the "Class A" were equipped with new breech-loading guns. Their power and range were unmatched by the muzzle-loading guns used by other navies.

Combined with conical shells and other similar features, it could obviously play a greater role in artillery battles.

This is actually completely different from the warship design and naval warfare tactics of this era.

As a time traveler, Hong Tian naturally had to choose the most advantageous development path.

The first batch of six unprotected Class A cruisers planned for construction by the Heavenly Kingdom Navy.

These warships were all named using the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches.

The lead ship was named "Jiazi", and the second to sixth ships were named "Jiachou", "Jiayin", "Jiamao", "Jiachen" and "Jiasi" respectively.

If the performance of these six warships satisfies the Heavenly Kingdom Navy, another six will be built.

However, given the current construction capabilities of the Heavenly Kingdom Shipyard, it will take at least a year for these six "Class A" unprotected cruisers to be completed and commissioned.

At that time, the Heavenly Kingdom's navy can first use these warships to defeat the Xiang Army's navy on the Yangtze River. Then, it can enter the ocean and compete with other naval powers.

Unlike the army, the navy cannot be deployed to the battlefield after only a few months of training.

Even greenhorns can quickly grow up after being tempered by the blood and fire of the battlefield.

Because the battlefield is extremely brutal.

Soldiers who fail to become familiar with the battlefield and grow on it often lose their lives on the battlefield.

Therefore, the battlefield can help the army grow rapidly.

But the navy is different; building a powerful navy often takes a very long time.

Especially during the Age of Sail, there was a saying that the navy lasted for a century.

It would take hundreds of years to build a powerful navy.

This statement is not an exaggeration.

Because in the age of sail, there were many things to master just in terms of operating warships.

This is also why, after the British Royal Navy became the dominant force at sea, it was difficult for other navies to challenge it.

However, with the advent of the steam age, everything will be much easier.

Furthermore, further technological advancements will greatly reduce the difficulty of naval development.

For example, the emergence of advanced rangefinders and sighting systems will further improve the hit rate of naval guns.

This will also quickly close the gap with powerful navies.

The sailors of the British Royal Navy, after long periods of training, possessed extremely high levels of gunnery skills. However, their adversaries were able to rapidly improve the accuracy of their naval guns through advanced rangefinders and observation systems.

This is also why, in another timeline, the Germanic Empire's navy was able to challenge the British Royal Navy.

In this timeline, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom could have taken advantage of the steam age to quickly close the gap with the Royal Navy of the British Empire, and even achieve a true leapfrog development.

"General Lai, Chief Administrator Ding, I entrust the navy to you. I hope that you will be able to build a powerful navy for the Heavenly Kingdom in the next few years!" Hong Tian said solemnly.

"Your Majesty, please rest assured, we will definitely build a powerful navy!" Lai Hanying assured him.

Ding Richang nodded heavily.