Chapter 178 The beginning of submarine engineering

After this decision-making meeting, Hu Chuyuan has made up his mind to take advantage of the situation. On the one hand, he alienated the stability of the three-nation alliance between France and Russia, and tried his best to expand the contradictions between Russia. On the other hand, he wanted to take advantage of this situation to let the British, German and the United States give more assistance to China and squeeze the French-Russian alliance internationally. Space.

At the same time, he should also make comprehensive investment in China, complete the laying of the domestic main railway as soon as possible, persuade the Manchu regime to be ready to move the capital, and then give greater support to the navy.

That night, he left Lan Jianshu alone to have a deeper discussion with Lan Jianshu about the domestic naval strength and other issues.

From 1887, because the three major navies controlled Hanchen, the Manchus began to suppress naval construction, using the internationally popular theory of the useless of large ships to suppress naval out-purchases, and only allowed the purchase of small and medium-sized warships in Fuzhou Ship Administration and Jiangnan Manufacturing General Administration.

This has given Fuzhou Ship Administration and Jiangnan Shipbuilding Factory unprecedented attention and development. In the past two years alone, Fuzhou Ship Administration's Mawei No. 1 Factory, Luoyuanwan No. 2 Factory, Jiangnan Shipbuilding Factory Shanghai No. 1 Factory, Ma'anshan No. 2 Factory, and four naval shipyards have built a total of 57 ships, with a total drainage tonnage of 47,400. Tons, 7 cruisers, 10 defense ships, 13 gunboats, 12 patrol boats and 15 torpedo boats.

In terms of level, the level of these ships is very good, especially the newly produced Jiangwei-class defense ships have been fully converted to nickel steel last year, which is not only supplied domestically, but also sold to the Americas and Nanyang markets.

But if you really want to go to war with the Japanese navy, it is almost the same as the ships that can be taken out to fight on the sea.

In addition to the three major sailors, there are also six new-scale local sailors in China, including the Yangtze River, Shandong, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Guangxi and North Vietnam, all of which are four or five gunboats, two or three patrol boats, one or two torpedo boats, plus one or two steel armored defense ships and one or two cruisers.

Because the Yangtze River sailors have to patrol the Yangtze River and defend Shanghai, their strength is the strongest among the six small divisions.

Hu Chuyuan and Lan Jianshu silently analyzed these. If Japan unites all naval forces to attack Beiyang alone, Beiyang will definitely lose. If the three fleets of Beiyang, Donghai and Nanyang are united, their surnames may not be big.

The top priority is to speed up the development of the East China Sea Division. All newly purchased warships remain in the East China Sea, Beiyang and Nanyang to fight turtle tactics, try their best to contain Russia, France and other countries, so that the East China Sea Division and I can fight for victory in the Yellow Sea first.

After finalizing this idea, it was very late at night, and Hu Chuyuan asked Lan Jianshu to go back first.

He couldn't sleep by himself.

The night in Luoyuan Bay is cool and lively. Two docks are working overtime. The sky is shining with stars, and the cold wind is blowing from the seaside, waiting for the faint smell of the sea, moistening people's cheeks.

Hu Chuyuan walked silently in the courtyard, looking at the sky quietly.

At this moment, he was a little annoyed.

He has been trying to strengthen military construction and contribute over the years, but now that he thinks about it, he still feels careless and has not noticed the great changes in the whole world situation.

He thought about it and tried his best to find a few tricks that could defeat the enemy.

Machine guns, gas torpedoes, steam turbines, grenades, he is already working hard.

After the American engineer Heimsen Stevens Maxim invented the Maxim water-cooled machine gun, Hu Chuyuan immediately invited him to be the main designer of the machine gun through the Auckland Military Factory, and invested in the development of a new supplementary surname, changing the canvas chain into a metal chain, using smokeless gunpowder, and setting on the caliber of the machine gun. There are 7.62 and 11 mm.

Because it has not been sold to the outside world, Hu Chuyuan paid one million US dollars to Maxim alone and completely bought out all the patents of the gun to make up for his patent production losses.

On the other hand, John Browning and another American firearms designer, Fox Edno, are designing two kinds of rifles. The former presides over the design of a new rifle, which requires a capacity of ten rounds, which is faster and more stable. The latter only designs a new rifle with a capacity of five rounds on the basis of the Mauser rifle.

The latter is a kind of filing of the former. In order to prevent the design and manufacture of both firearms from being successfully completed, Hu Chuyuan's requirements for the latter are relatively rough and can adapt to a wide range of processing and production. Of course, the shooting accuracy can also be partially declined. The operation should also be simpler, suitable for reserve soldiers and militia training troops. Use.

As expected in advance, the former has not been completed, while the latter was basically finalized in 1887 and 2,000 were produced on a small scale. The secret use of experimental surnames in the Borneo Autonomous State and the Philippine Reading Army, but there were also many problems.

Hu Chuyuan bought a new patent for the 1888 committee rifle, hoping to have a certain inspiration for Browning and others, and combine them with reference.

In fact, people are full of fun.

Inadvertently, he walked to the coast and sat on the beach. After a while, he wrang on the beach again, racking his brains in his head, thinking about what special weapons could appear in the future, which could also be born in this era.

There is no doubt about the submarine.

He seemed to think of it all of a sudden, and then felt so stupid that he didn't remember it until now.

But he was still quite happy. It seemed that he had found a way to defeat the enemy. He hurriedly dusted the wet mud and sand on his clothes and walked back quickly.

Back to the yamen, I felt that the night was dark and everyone had rested.

Hu Chuyuan found a pencil and an eraser in his study and drew a submarine design with a ruler and compass.

He suddenly found that he was still quite talented as a scientist. In order to solve the problem of breathing and ventilation, he was "amazingly original" the breathing tube, and in order to maintain the shape of the cigar-type streamlined dripping, he adopted a double-layer shell design.

Unfortunately, he is a real technician after all. It's fun, whether it can be useful or not, and whether it can be made is unknown.

It's already three or four o'clock in the morning. I guess everyone has slept for at least a while, and he will ask someone to find Wei Han.

After looking around, I didn't find Wei Han, but I found Chen Zhao'ao, who was responsible for torpedo and ship-borne artillery machinery. Chen Zhao's life was pulled up, so he could only run to Hu Chuyuan to work.

Seeing Chen Zhaoao, Hu Chuyuan was quite excited. He immediately showed him his design drawings and asked, "What do you think?"

Chen Zhao looked at it carefully and couldn't speak for a moment.

After a while, he remembered something leisurely and said, "In the old years, someone in the Tianjin Manufacturing Bureau had made a submarine to arrange mines, but later it was gone. When I went to Tianjin to help them rectify the mechanical equipment, I accidentally saw that thing. Your design is good. Adding a pipe can be ventilated. If you use a fuel engine with less horsepower, you can basically use it. In the early years, Americans and French people did similar things. They just used batteries with low horsepower and no big use. Maybe we can play a big role. My lord, you have an idea. This two-layer shell may also be quite interesting. Why don't I lay the foundation for your sketch and redesign it?

Hu Chuyuan said happily and seemed to be in a very good mood. He said, "Calling you here is to design. By the way, think about it, who is good at doing this in the United States? Let's come here and set up a separate factory in Luoyuan Bay to specialize in this submarine.

Chen Zhao's thoughts for a moment and finally said, "Your Excellency, I forgot, but the information and newspapers are all with me. I'll go back and look through them."

Hu Chuyuan said "All right" and asked him to find the information. He finally had something on his mind and fell asleep at ease.

The next day, as soon as he woke up, Chen Zhaoqi was waiting outside.

Hu Chuyuan combed up a little. While eating morning tea, he asked Chen Zhaoao, "What, have you found the information?"

Chen Zhaoxiao smiled and said, "Yes, John Holland, an American engineer, is a master here. We can invite him over. Even if we can't come, we can explore it ourselves. But after all, he has ready-made experience and has built two ships. Many problems should be similar. He can help us take fewer detours."

Hu Chuyuan said, "Os, let you invite him. By the way, you can visit his submarine. If possible, let's buy it back. The secret of this matter.

Chen Zhaoao understood that Hu Chuyuan was expected to use it in the naval battle against Russia. He estimated that it would be too late, but he did not dare to say it clearly, so he nodded and went out to deal with this matter.

It is one thing to ask Americans for help. We also need to build a special technical team and a special workshop. It is estimated that the total tonnage will not exceed 300 tons. We will temporarily choose a small dock workshop to produce gunboats to prepare, and then build a new professional dock in Luoyuan Bay alone in the future.

In the past few years, Fuzhou Shipping Administration has been very fast in the accumulation of technical personnel. There are three chief engineers, Wei Han, Zheng Qinglian and Chen Zhaoao. In boiler, transmission, steel plate, architecture, machinery, steam engine, steam turbine and other technical majors, as well as Lin Yiyou, Li Shoutian, Yang Lianchen, Liang Bingnian and a large number of specialized Industry personnel.

Zhong Juncheng, Shi Jinyong, Lu Xigui and others who returned from their studies in the United States have gradually grown up and become a group of new backbones.

In terms of foreign technical consultants, they are mainly Americans, but the general consultants are the most experienced in overall design.

Chen Zhaoao soon set up a team for himself, transferred Li Shoutian and Yang Lianchen, and seconded Liang Puzhao, an expert in wheel power from Zheng Qinglian. This person was also transferred back from the Oakland military factory in the United States last year, with solid technical skills.

Considering the mechanical structure and material problems, Chen Zhaoao also pulled out Lu Xigui again. He had Shang Fang's sword. Wei Han and Zheng Qingli had no choice. Looking at him pulling the best people over, he could only stare. Fortunately, Fuzhou Ship Administration is not short of technical engineering now. Teacher's.

Not to mention that there is no shortage of shipping administration in Fuzhou, there is no shortage of Jiangnan Manufacturing Administration.

Luo Zhenlu's level is a little worse than that of the three major workers of the ship administration, but the Jiangnan General Administration of Manufacturing mainly directly introduces ready-made design and equipment for production, which is more than enough in terms of personnel reserve.

Because it is difficult to borrow people from Fuzhou, they supplemented young people from Gezhi College and Jiangnan West School in the early days. Later, with the support of Hu Chuyuan, they established Jiangning Ship Administration School and Shanghai Mechanical School, and also directly recruited better science and engineering students from foreign students.

In addition to the four major military shipyards, Mawei, Luoyuanwan, Shanghai and Ma'anshan, Hu Chuyuan also invested in Fuzhou Shipyard and Haiphong Shipyard. There is an Oakland Shipyard in the United States, and last year, it merged the New Jersey Shipyard and the San Diego Shipyard.

From steel to shipbuilding, he has a complete set of technology, which is constantly transferred. If there are any small improvements and improvements in a shipyard, other factories can quickly get it. In the process of mutual promotion and communication, the level of shipbuilding in China and the United States is steadily improving.

Hu Chuyuan originally intended to let Chen Zhaoao go to the United States to personally invite John Holland to participate in the submarine development of the East China Sea Division, and take a look at the original facilities and other people's finished products, but Chen Zhaoao is really busy here.

He sent a telegram to Fister Delano and asked Fister Delano to hire John Holland. The salary was good, but he had to sign a confidentiality agreement. The contract period should not be less than ten years. When he returned to the United States, he could only work in three shipyards owned by the rich countries in North America.

In Fuzhou, he personally grasped the preparation of submarine research and production, which should not only be kept confidential, but also accelerated. Wei Han and Zheng Qinglan had to participate in the basic design research together.

(to be continued)