White seagulls flew in the sky. Ships came and went from the port. Small fish were easily brought to the surface by the currents stirred up by the propellers for the seagulls to hunt.
In the scaffolded Tianjin Port, several warships were anchored in their berths. These warships had lowered their anchors and retracted their sails. They only had tall masts and dense rigging. They didn't have the grandeur of a full sail. Vézé didn't visit those ships. Under the guidance of the naval officers, Vézé and the officers went straight to a warship painted in light gray.
Among the warships, this ship was particularly inconspicuous. There was no railing as tall as a city wall, and there were no enclosed gun ports on both sides of the ship. After the sails were completely removed, the deck seemed empty. The huge central building of an ironclad warship was also quite slender. The enclosed gun turrets on the deck were much shorter than the tall gun turrets of an ironclad warship. In terms of appearance and size, it was far less than a 500-ton battleship. Even a 36-ton warship was larger, more majestic, and more complicated than the Qingdao.
However, Vézé would never think of the Qingdao like that. It had a displacement of 40,000 tons and was powered by pure steam. Other warships with such a tonnage would have at least 60 cannons. The Qingdao, which had a centerline layout, had five twin gun turrets arranged from head to toe. The 150-caliber cannons were slimmer than the 250-caliber and 350-caliber cannons of this era. If there was a one-on-one battle, the warship could only use 10 cannons to deal with the cannons of the enemy, which were three times the number of cannons.
After boarding the warship, Vézé looked at every position on the warship without saying a word. In a sense, this warship was ridiculous. When one didn't have a certain level of accumulation and had to complete a task without any experience, the result was bound to be ridiculous. The parts that were imitated but beyond one's ability could be seen everywhere.
The design of a warship was a very systematic project. Every cabin and every passageway had to be able to bear the load, and at the same time, the other structures had to be protected when the warship was attacked. Those excellent design bureaus were able to unify these two seemingly diametrically opposed goals. The Design Bureau, which lacked experience, would undoubtedly focus on a certain function. It would take a lot of time to achieve a balance in the overall design. A hundred-year navy did not refer to the lifespan of a certain warship or all the warships of a certain fleet that could last for a hundred years, but referred to the height that could be reached after a hundred years of continuous accumulation and tempering. There was no doubt that the new China navy did not have such a legacy.
But from another perspective, this warship was very respectable. Just like in the early days, cellular phones were replaced by digital signal phones, digital signal phones were replaced by smartphones, and keypad phones were replaced by touchscreen phones. Every breakthrough not only destroyed those big companies that were once all-powerful, but it also allowed more new companies to show their talents.
Tsingtao was undoubtedly an epoch-making product. The initial design of this warship had been completed seven years ago. The first warship had discovered a ridiculous problem during its trials. Every time a cannon was fired, the entire warship would resonate. Even the pots and pans in the kitchen would jump cheerfully with the sound of the cannon, making all sorts of noises. In the end, this warship had to be turned into an "experimental body" after the trials. Various parts of the hull were dismantled and added in order to solve the resonance problem.
At this time, less than a quarter of the second warship had been built. Based on the experience of the first warship, the second warship had been redesigned. Before the second warship was built, the first warship had been sent to the shipyard for disassembly. After the second warship was pulled out of the sea trials, the resonance problem was solved, but the riveting problem was completely exposed. The hull was completely made of steel, which was different from the wooden ship. The wood of the wooden ship was dry. Even when it was launched, there were still gaps, and some water seeped through. After the wood absorbed water, it would expand, and these gaps would automatically be blocked. There was no such possibility for a warship made of steel. As the iron plate was corroded by the seawater, these gaps would only become bigger and bigger. The wooden ship could also be filled with wood chips mixed with gum and other adhesives. The hull made of steel could only be replaced with new steel after the unqualified steel plate was removed.
To solve these problems, the second warship went in and out of the dock and the sea. After many breakthroughs in the riveting technology, the ship was almost rebuilt. Of course, this didn't mean that the first warship didn't have this problem. It was just that the problem of water leakage was not the main problem of the first warship.
These two experimental warships only had one experimental number. After the second warship was upgraded, it was finally upgraded from an "experimental body" to an experimental warship. It wasn't until the third warship that it had its own ship number O99 and the name "Qingdao." In a sense, Qingdao was also an experimental warship. The ten cannons all used the "repulsion/recovery system." In other words, these ten cannons were all repulsion cannons.
The repulsion system was composed of a repulsion tube, a piston, and a liquid. The repulsion tube was connected to the arm at the back of the cannon. When the cannon fired, the body of the cannon drove the repulsion tube to retreat. The liquid at one end of the piston was pressured and flowed from the leak to the other end. At this time, the liquid produced a kind of resistance to prevent the cannon from recoiling.
The recovery mechanism used gas to absorb a part of the recoil. When the recoil was over, the compressed gas would stretch and push the recoil back to its original position. In this way, through the repulsion and recovery mechanism, the barrel and the mount of the cannon realized an elastic connection. This not only helped reduce the weight of the cannon, but also created conditions for increasing the firing rate.
Traditional cannons used a gun track. After firing, the cannon would retreat along the gun track and use the force of the spring and hook to offset the recoil of the cannon, allowing the cannon to stop at the end of the gun track. Then, using manpower and mechanical force, the cannon would be pushed back to the firing position and continue firing. Apart from the Qingdao, the other naval cannons of the Liberation Army basically used this principle.
Although the principle of the "repulsion/recovery system" wasn't complicated, and Vézé could even provide some blueprints, it was very complicated to process. To create a gas-liquid seal, there couldn't be any leakage of gas or liquid. This required very precise processing. Precise processing required good tools and lathes, which could only be done after the Second Industrial Revolution.
Vézé had created the Second Industrial Revolution in China, but China hadn't even completed the First Industrial Revolution. They could only rely on the direction that Vézé said without any foundation. After more than ten years of accumulation, there was finally a breakthrough. The new machine tools were finally able to produce products that were up to standard. The Sixth Army's 75 Field Cannons were better, but the Navy could at most make a big, black, and thick 150 Cannon mount. The technicians also clearly told Vézé that they could only guarantee that the "repulsion/recovery system" of the 150 Cannon could operate continuously for 590 hours based on the experimental results. In other words, after a naval battle, the cannons of the warships had to be immediately maintained or even repaired. If the battle continued, the reliability would be up to fate.
"Commander-in-chief, is it too little to send only three warships to Japan?" Ruan Xihao waited for Vézé to finish inspecting the ships before asking.
"If possible, I still hope that only Qingdao will enter the battle," Vézé replied.
Two fists can't fight against four hands, and a good man can't fight against so many people. A soldier with a rear-loading rifle can't fight against ten enemies with a preloaded rifle. From the perspective of the Sixth Army, this was an absolute law. Ruan Xihao said in surprise, "Commander-in-chief, this isn't very appropriate."
"That's the Navy's problem. The Sixth Army will take care of it for now. If it turns out to be inappropriate, the Navy will make adjustments, "Vézé suggested.
Ruan Xihao was the commander of the Sixth Army. Although the Northern Command had a certain amount of authority over the North Sea Fleet, it was a cross-service cooperation. The North Sea Fleet's direct superior was the Navy Commander, not the commander of the Sixth Army. After listening to Vézé's answer, Ruan Xihao decided not to raise any more questions about this issue for the time being.
The officers and soldiers on Qingdao were very touched that the Military Governor Vaize had come to inspect the warship for three consecutive days. All the officers and soldiers who were serving on this warship knew the significance of Qingdao. This was the true "first warship" of the new Chinese Navy. The warship looked simple, but it used advanced technology that had already been tested on other warships. Vézé could find ten thousand faults with this warship, but the personnel that the Navy had sent to this warship were basically treated as "teaching troops." An ordinary gunner could be the artillery commander of another warship, and the soldiers in charge of each position were basically captains of other warships. As more and more warships were built based on the design of Qingdao in the future, these people would become the backbone of other warships. The Navy's Training Department had long emphasized that the Military Governor Vaize had come to inspect the warship personally, which made everyone believe in this statement.
After the inspection on the third day, Vézé gave a public speech to all the members of the North Sea Fleet. "Comrades, the country now has a difficult mission for you, and that is to fight overseas. This mission seemed to have nothing to do with China, but from a long-term perspective, it is closely related to China. I hope that everyone can show the spirit of the Chinese people fighting for the country and complete this mission seriously. When everyone returns in victory, I will celebrate for everyone! "
To Vézé, this was just a very simple speech. This military operation was not a decisive battle with the British Royal Fleet. The scale of this military operation could at most be called a military operation on the scale of a campaign. Since reality could not make Vézé's blood boil, he could only give a simple and objective order.
However, the soldiers who heard Wei Ze's words didn't think so. Just the fact that they could personally receive a direct order from the grand marshal of the three armies, Viceroy Wei Ze, was enough to make their blood boil. After listening to Vézé's speech with excitement, the soldiers first responded according to what the troops had already discussed and shouted, "Resolutely obey the order! Serve the motherland! "
After shouting that, everyone felt that the emotions in their hearts had not been vented. Standing in front of them was the founder and founder of the Liberation Army. He was also the leader of naval equipment. Everyone knew that most of the naval warships, including the Qingdao, were the original design ideas provided by the Military Governor Vaize. When the soldiers boarded those warships, in a sense, their lives were in the hands of Vézé.
At that moment, someone among the soldiers suddenly shouted, "Long live the Commander-in-Chief! Long live China! "
That sentence completely echoed everyone's mood at that moment. The next moment, the soldiers shouted at the same time, "Long live the Commander-in-Chief! Long live China! Long live the Commander-in-Chief! Long live China! "
Looking at the excited comrades below the stage, Vézé smiled and waved in cooperation. That action made the atmosphere in the venue even more intense. However, Vézé felt a sense of disgust toward himself at that moment. Being in a high position at that moment, Vézé could no longer experience the feeling of wholeheartedly immersing himself in something. It was the feeling of being truly alive. Survival, death, honor, and war. The unknowns and associations brought about by all of that could excite the young people. However, Vézé could no longer be moved by those things, nor could he be crazy about them.
The young man in front of him represented a kind of power, a power that could destroy the old world and create a new era. Vézé was well aware of that, and he even knew how to mobilize that power. However, that was all Vézé knew. He only knew how to mobilize that power. That was all.
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