Volume 1: The Battleship Yitian Changes into the Sino-Japanese War of 1894 Chapter 84: Another Mixed-Blood Version
When Briand came back, he found that his beloved daughter was having a great conversation with the Minister of the Beiyang Shipbuilding Bureau, and they seemed inseparable.
"In my opinion, China should vigorously develop submarines to deal with Japan." After Sun Gang's "brainwashing", the blonde beauty's mind quickly jumped to the aspect of what to use to deal with battleships. "The French Navy has built an electric submarine called 'Gustave Zied'. It is made of bronze and can launch torpedoes underwater. It is no problem to deal with battleships." (The "Gustave Zied" "sank" the British battleship "Marchanta" in the 1898 World Naval Exercise. Sun Gang doubted whether the blonde beauty in front of him could predict the future.)
" Lord Sun, don't listen to her." Brian said with a smile. His daughter looked at him angrily, but after thinking for a while, she decided to translate for him.
"Many of Lini's ideas actually coincide with mine," Sun Gang said, and Lini readily translated them for him this time. Sun Gang had not yet told him that the Qing Dynasty had successfully carried out underwater offensive operations.
Sun Gang asked Brian to sit down and showed him the drawings he had drawn. Brian looked at him in surprise, "Sir Sun, can you tell me how you got these data?"
"There are people in our country who are good at reasoning." Sun Gang replied shamelessly: "Through the appearance of these warships, we can infer their general data. Some places may not be accurate enough, but a detailed calculation will be enough." He used the same lies that he had used to deceive the old fox, and he used them here to "fool" the French experts.
But the "expert" really believed this. Briand looked through all the drawings carefully with an extremely "shocked" mood, and nodded, "I know what Lord Sun thinks." He turned around and took his drawings to show Sun Gang, "This is my design based on the actual situation your country may encounter and the ship type of the Monarch. Please take a look, Lord Sun."
Sun Gang carefully looked at the drawings drawn by Briand and nodded secretly.
The battleship designed by Briand for China can almost be said to be a hybrid version of the "Monarch" class battleship and the French "Charlemagne" class battleship ("Dingyuan" and "Zhenyuan" are hybrid versions of the British "Inflexible" class and the German "Saxony" class battleships. It seems that Chinese battleships have a hybrid "tradition."). The hull is slightly thinner than the "Monarch", with twin exposed turrets , and four secondary guns on each side of the hull, instead of the five guns originally designed for the "Monarch". The chimneys have been changed from the original parallel type to a longitudinal distribution along the central axis. The lines of the entire hull are smooth and graceful, and it looks without any sense of stagnation.
"The whole hull adopts a high freeboard design. The main gun can use our country's 32 cm 42-caliber Ghana gun, and the secondary gun is a 15.2 cm rapid-fire gun." Brian introduced to Sun Gang: "This is just a sketch. According to my design, her standard displacement is about 13,000 tons. The exposed turret and the reduction of the secondary guns on both sides are to save space and weight, to increase her speed and protection, and to increase the coal bunker to improve her endurance. According to my research, your country's navy failed in the Yellow Sea Battle because the battleship was too slow to take effective action to curb the enemy's attack. For a battleship, her power is mainly reflected in the heavy guns. The 15.2 cm rapid-fire gun is only useful at a relatively close distance. The power of the 15.2 cm gun is extremely limited for battleships with better protection performance. So I think it should be enough to have four guns on each side. I hope she can reach a speed of nearly 20 knots, so that she will be more proactive on the battlefield."
It seems that the "new school" idea of speed supremacy is also deeply rooted in the mind of this master. After listening to Lini's translation, Sun Gang nodded continuously. "A speed of up to 20 knots is simply a sprint for a battleship." Sun Gang said.
"If Lord Sun agrees, I will finalize the ship type," Briand said, "and discuss it carefully with other people."
"I agree." Sun Gang said. He could tell from the picture that the master did not completely follow the route of the "Monarch" class, but added a lot of French designs. For example, the turret adopted a shield protection style, the four secondary guns on both sides were distributed in parallel in four ear platforms to increase the firing range, and there were torpedo tubes at the bow and stern and on both sides, which can be found on the "Kaiyuan" ship, which was also designed and manufactured in France. However, compared with the "Kaiyuan" and the low-freeboard "Dingyuan" and "Zhenyuan" built in Germany, the performance of the new ship designed by the master is undoubtedly much higher, and the firepower is more powerful. The 320mm main gun, hehe, plus the newly developed armor-piercing explosive shells, if the Japanese want to use the "Fuji" and "Yashima" to stab, then they can have a good time.
"My colleagues and I will go all out to perfect her, and our Chinese counterparts can also study with us." Briand said: "I hope she can become a milestone in my design career. If possible, I even hope that our navy will be equipped with this type of warship."
Sun Gang was also very satisfied. Moreover, the appearance of this new warship was very different from that of the "Monarch". Although the design concept was exactly the same, because it had the "bloodline" of "Charlemagne", at least the British would not say that the Chinese had plagiarized their patent when they saw it.
He doesn't : "Charlemagne" will not be "born" until October this year. In terms of qualifications, China's "Long Yang" class should be the "predecessor" of "Emperor".
As the "Long Yang" class was basically finalized, Sun Gang brought together Chinese ship designers and technicians recruited from the United States with the French to work together to improve some details of the "Long Yang" class. An American technician pointed out that there was an ammunition passage between the bow and stern gun mounts, which could become a channel for the spread of fire and explosion once hit by artillery fire. The centerline watertight bulkhead added to the engine room to accommodate this passage could easily cause a large lateral tilt if it was damaged underwater. The Chinese technicians proposed an alternative design for the split-aisle improvement plan, which surprised Briand.
China's ship designers are also growing up little by little through continuous learning!
On this day, the Beiyang Fleet returned from a patrol in the Sea of Japan. Sun Gang asked Lin Taizeng what had happened. Lin Taizeng was also confused. This "spur of the moment" order from the Zongli Yamen made the naval officers and soldiers very puzzled. Although they were very proud of their trip to Japan and the Japanese did not even dare to fart, everyone was still worried that something had happened in the court again.
Sun Gang asked the Beiyang Military Intelligence Office's "Beijing Office" to intensify its efforts to inquire about the news, and learned that this was actually an imperial decree from Emperor Guangxu! As for why, it is unclear.
Sun Gang had no idea that this action of the Beiyang Navy was actually related to his beloved wife!
That afternoon, after finally finishing his work, Sun Gang and his beloved wife were taking a walk near the base. Zhan Shuxiao and Su Xin were leading their troops in special combat training in the distance. In order to get himself a special force, Sun Gang merged Zhan Shuxiao's guard team and Su Xin's underwater special attack team to form a small-scale elite force. In order not to arouse the suspicion of the court, he named this force the "Beiyang Special Attack Team", with Zhan Shuxiao and Su Xin as the leader and deputy leader, and an army captain McKensen, an officer invited from Germany, as an instructor to provide them with targeted special training.
He is now somewhat unsure about the direction in which the national situation will develop in the future.
He does not have the ability to control the Beiyang Navy and Army now. Perhaps, this small force that is only responsible to him will protect him and his family and friends from harm?
What happened later proved that his worries were not unfounded.
"I heard that the model of the new 10,000-ton giant ship has been decided?" Ma Yue asked.
"Yes, the displacement is set to be around 13,000 tons, the main weapons are two twin 320mm main guns, eight 152mm secondary guns, and the maximum speed is required to be close to 20 knots." Sun Gang replied: "It should be no problem to deal with the two Japanese guys who have not yet grown up."
"I like boats now too." Ma Yue tilted her head and said, "Do you know what I bought with all that gold? It's a Japanese boat. It should arrive today."
"Japanese ships? Are they cheap?" Sun Gang asked curiously.
"They have to ask for a low price." Ma Yue smiled and said, "We are going to have a yacht. I am so happy."
As the two people were talking, a man ran over from a distance.
"Your Excellency, Madam, the Americans have brought their ship here," the man reported.
"Haha! My yacht! Let's go and take a look!" Ma Yue took his hand and ran forward.
When they arrived at the dock, many officers and soldiers had gathered there, pointing at a large ship and talking among themselves. When they saw the couple, they all looked at them with admiration and automatically made way for them.
Sun Gang's eyes fell on a large ship anchored there. He froze there for a moment, feeling as if all the blood in his body was filling his eyeballs!
He was stunned and speechless for a long time before he came to his senses. He pointed at the boat and asked Ma Yue stutteringly: "This... is the yacht you mentioned?"
