Chapter 229 Tools

In 1865, Yichou, in the fourth year of Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty, the Jiangnan General Administration of Machinery Manufacturing, with the goal of "making tools", was established in the former Meishangqi Iron Factory in Hongkou, Shanghai. Its equipment is mainly composed of three parts: one is the machine purchased by Zeng Guofan from Rong Hong in the United States, the other is the equipment of Qiji Iron Factory purchased by Li Hongzhang in Shanghai with 40,000 taels of silver, and the third is the equipment of Suzhou and the Shanghai Ocean Artillery Bureau.

Because the rent in Hongkou is relatively expensive, and the factory mainly produces arms and ammunition, it has a certain dangerous surname, which is opposed by foreigners living nearby. Two years later, the Manufacturing Bureau officially moved to Gaochang Temple. However, in just over ten or twenty years, its scale has been extraordinary, with more than 3,000 employees, more than 2,000 houses, and 16 branches - machine bureau, wood factory, ship factory, boiler factory, gun factory, gun factory, gun factory, shell factory, steelmaking factory, cooked iron factory, chestnut medicine factory, copper introduction factory, smokeless medicine factory, cast copper Iron mills and two black medicine factories.

From the perspective of setting, this is not only the most complete and largest military factory of Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, but also the "machine mother factory" conceived by Rong Hong - the vast majority of workshops can not only serve military production, but also manufacture civil machinery and equipment needed for agricultural and industrial development. It was from the concession where Hongkou was located to the south of Huajie and the west of the Pujiang River, where the old city was located, that the "bureau" later known as "China's first factory" was able to expand and become the largest military enterprise in Qing Dynasty.

The manufacturing bureau mainly produces guns and bullets, supplemented by shipbuilding ships, and has a translation library, a Cantonese dialect museum and a craft school to translate Western books and train technical personnel. Therefore, in terms of setting, positioning and influence, the Jiangnan Manufacturing Administration at that time was far from a simple ordnance or government-run enterprise, but a large-scale national capital enterprise integrating military industry, scientific research and talent training.

More than ten years later, Chinese and foreigners marveled in the North China News: "More than ten years ago, the Chinese bought the machines of the Qichang Iron Factory and transported the machines of the Iron Factory to Gaochang Temple to build the core of an arsenal. At that time, it was really unexpected that it would develop into a huge machine manufacturing bureau like today under the cultivation of successive governors of Liangjiang.

After Zeng Guofan's death in 1872, Li Hongzhang took over the power of the Manufacturing Bureau. Because he advocated that "shipbuilding is better than buying ships", Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau built only four ships in the 12 years from 1873 to 1885. Later, during the death of Li Hongzhang in 1901, the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau completely stopped its shipbuilding business. Due to the impact of the defeat of the First Sino-Japanese War and the management problems of government-run enterprises, the whole manufacturing bureau was depressed, the business was sluggish, and the dock was also semi-waste.

Two months ago, after the restoration of Shanghai, the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau was divided, and the name of Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau was changed to "Jiangnan Naval Gun Factory", and the shipyard was also read from the manufacturing bureau and named "Navy Jiangnan Shipyard" under the navy. The first time after the division of the bureau was divided, Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau received the first A order from the navy, two thousand-ton ocean-going destroyers.

At night, the dock of the Navy Jiangnan Shipyard was brightly lit. The roar kept coming out of the dock. The dock was covered with keel and ribs. Hundreds of workers were busy at night. The red steel rivets were taken out of the oven. With the impact of the pneumatic rivet gun, accompanied by the rivet gun. Riveting, flashing sparks, for Jiangnan Shipyard, this may be the "largest" order in history, building two thousand-ton-class ocean destroyers at the same time, and this kind of large ocean-going destroyer is not available in the navies of various countries.

In the light of the 100-watt light bulb, Shi Tiange, dressed in a navy uniform, stared at the laying keel and ribs in the dock. Although the construction has been started for a month, it is inevitable to be a little excited when he thinks of these two unprecedented "oceanic destroyers". So much so that they even forgot to take a sailorship to visit the shipyard and the minister of the navy. They came to inspect the shipyard temporarily after attending the opening ceremony of the Naval Academy.

"Eye on the future, look at the ocean!"

In the past, the naval division of the Qing Dynasty had never had a long-term plan, but this time the long-term plan came from the ruling axe. The requirement of the ruling axe was only ten words. Out of this requirement, the need to fight on Taiyang in the future made the navy put forward different requirements for warships than in the past. In order to support the fleet, you need a large tonnage and a good ocean-going destroyer.

The reason why it is proposed to build ocean-going destroyers is, on the one hand, the future needs of the fleet, but on the other hand, it is the limitation of the underdeveloped shipbuilding industry. Shipyards need to gradually master shipbuilding technology, and now the ruling axe does not have enough funds for the navy to build warships. In this case, the thousand-ton-class ocean-going destroyer was selected by the ruling axe because of its relatively cheap price.

Because China's shipbuilding industry is not yet developed, the destroyers designed and built before are less than 1,000 tons. Even if they are the peak of the Fuzhou Shipping Bureau, the two destroyers "Jianwei" and "Jian'an" were built with French parts under the guidance of French technicians. Although the tonnage reached 850 tons, the speed was only There are 23 knots, and at this time, the speed of new destroyers in various countries is generally more than 30 knots.

At this time, even the destroyers of the world's most powerful British Royal Navy did not have a standard drainage of more than 1,000 tons. Although Stinger was the best ship designer in the UK, it was impossible to rely on naval reading design and construction. However, Stinger's own strong learning and imitation skills played a role. After learning from the Flying Eagle-class destroyer, he introduced the design of the light cruiser and finally designed the thousand-ton-class ocean-going destroyer.

Finally, after the shipyard manager coughed, Shi Tiange remembered the "guest" next to him and quickly opened his mouth to introduce the unprecedented ocean destroyer he had designed.

"...In order to obtain better high-speed surname energy, the length-to-width ratio of the hull has been extended to 11.5:1. Due to the adoption of the bow ship type, the trunk of the bow is higher, so the anti-wave surname is better and can meet the requirements of fighting in the vast waters of the Pacific Ocean.

In terms of weaponry and equipment arrangement, the front main gun is transferred from above the bridge to the front deck of the bridge, which reduces the impact on the bridge when shooting. And after this arrangement, the bridge can also be designed to be taller, so that the bridge personnel have a better vision and facilitate the command of operations.

When introducing this type of destroyer to the ruling and Ye Zugui, Shi Tiange still remembers that a month ago, when the model of the destroyer was placed on the desk of the Admiralty, many naval officials present were shocked by the destroyer's high bridge.

Thinking of the proud Shi Tiange clearing his throat, he turned his eyes to the government at the same time. To be precise, he introduced this kind of destroyer to the government. After all, he has explained it to Ye Zugui several times in the navy.

"Governing, if he has any other characteristics besides large tonnage and suitable for the ocean, then it is her power system, because the increase in displacement needs to be driven by engines with greater output power, and the coal-fired boilers and reciprocating steamers installed on the old destroyer have been I can't adapt to the needs. Because heavy oil of equal mass is higher than that of coal, the practice of replacing coal with heavy oil in the navies of various countries at that time can increase the output power of the same boiler in use. At the same time, the steam turbine that has not been adopted by various countries, but the power is much greater than that of the reciprocating steam engine. The steam turbine is made by the British Parsons. Provided by the company. And here we have made an epoch-making innovation in its transmission!"

With that, Shi Tiange stretched out his hand to touch his beard, but it was empty again. Only then did he remember that he had shaved off his beard.

"Since the steam engine is applied to the warship, the steam power device used in the ship is initially directly driven, that is, the output shaft of the steam engine and the steam turbine is a direct propeller. However, the direct transmission has a big disadvantage, that is, the speed of the host cannot be well matched with the propeller, and there is a bubble problem. The emergence of steam turbines has exacerbated the development of the above contradictions, because in order for the steam turbine to achieve the same efficiency as the steam engine, it must adopt high speed, which undoubtedly further aggravates the bubble problem, until I..."

Shi Tiange deliberately aggravated the last word. Maybe he stayed in the UK for so long that he was no longer used to Chinese humility.

"In order to improve this deficiency, a deceleration gear device has been developed to solve this contradiction. I call the matching steam turbine a gear steam turbine, which is driven by a gear reducer, not directly from the axle!"

When he was proud, Stian forgot that his deceleration gear was inspired by it, which was inspired by the planetary gear transmission system of the Mustang.

"Does Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau now have the ability to manufacture high-speed, heavy-duty and high-precision gear reducers?"

Listening to Shi Tiange's words, Chen Moran asked back. Last month, the Ministry of the Navy submitted a report requesting special funds to introduce technical patents for steam turbines. It was approved without any hesitation. After all, power has always been the heart of ships. In later generations, China's power equipment is completely behind the world. In Mustang Automobile When the gear transmission system of the car was manufactured, it encountered technical problems. Finally, it relied on imported gears, and now it has been solved by introducing gear technology. Can Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau solve the high-speed, heavy-duty and high-precision gear reducers used on warships?

"This..."

"In power, we have entrusted British and German manufacturers to produce the gear reducer components we need at present. The shipyard is currently preparing to submit a report to the Admiralty to allocate funds to add new equipment to produce gear reducers!"

The person next to Shi Tiange is obviously more suitable to deal with this kind of thing than him. While explaining a few words, he also strives for funds.

"Tonghou, you look back like a report, report the ruling axe, this money can't be saved! No matter how tight the funds of the ruling axe are, I will try to squeeze out a sum of money!"

When Chen Moran agreed, he did not forget to show the difficulties of the ruling axe. For him, everything around him is a tool. It is the same to talk to Zhang Jing about tolerance of heresy, to let Zha Zhiqing set up an investigation bureau, and to talk about Jianguo with Sun Yat-sen, even when he says this to Ye Zugui now.

"It's not enough to buy warships alone. When we built the sea and sky, Ma'anshan could not provide naval armored steel at all, but now it can make armored steel. Although the quality may be worse than that of Europe and the United States, it can always catch up. Our history owes too much. Like this warship, we set up We have calculated the best warship, but the backwardness of industrial technology has limited us. We can't buy warships. Similarly, we can't build a navy by buying engines and parts.

"The boilers and steam turbines on these two destroyers were bought from the United Kingdom. When we bought them, we bought them together with the patented technology. If the production machine doesn't work, we will buy new machines. When we build cruisers and battleships in the future, we can replace imports with domestic products. This money is worth spending. When we fight in the future, If you can't buy it, or if you are not in a hurry, you will regret it!"

"What the government says is very true!"

Ye Zugui thought it was the key point. During the First Sino-Japanese War, the failure of the Battle of the Yellow Sea was mainly due to the backwardness of ships and cannons. In those years, China's industrial foundation was weak, and the materials and processes had not reached a high level, so that the artillery shells made were not fit in size, and the bullet surface also had holes and mouths, fuses and fire pulling. The introducer, it is impossible to ship the shells back to China as soon as possible. You can't make them by yourself, and you can't solve them at all.

Throughout the day, Ye Zugui has been thinking about what happened to him and Sa Zhenbing after he went to Nanjing from Shanghai last month. The ruling axe attaches more importance to the navy than he imagined. In addition to building a training fleet to reserve talents for the navy, the government even plans to build in the next five years. It mainly buys light armored cruisers and heavy armored cruisers, and builds 3 teams of heavy armored cruiser fleet and 3 teams of light armored cruiser fleet as vehicles to cruise the world and train sailors.

The ultimate purpose of all this is to provide personnel and technical support for the expansion of naval forces in five years. In addition, the ruling axe did not give the navy a detailed naval expansion plan. As the navy minister, Ye Zugui also knew that he would not want to talk about the naval expansion plan this year, but the ruling axe formulated a five-year The shipbuilding industry plan, and the destroyers of Jiangnan Shipyard are part of this industry plan.

"All the navy needs to do is to make a corresponding expansion plan according to the ship industry development plan!"

The key to the problem is still people. After the two battleships return home, only two battleships need 1,600 officers and soldiers. The navy is almost empty, people! It still depends on the training of the fleet!

"Tonghou!"

Chen Moran turned his head and looked at Ye Zugui.

"Factories, technologies, warships, all of which will be given to the navy, but the navy... Can you give me a satisfactory answer at that time?"

This rhetorical question made Ye Zugui's whole person fall into silence.

Chen Moran smiled in his heart.

"Don't be in a hurry to answer me now, you know what it means to write this answer sheet, and now..."

Looking at the warship in the dock, Chen Moran continued:

"All we have to do is prepare for the examination room!"

After leaving the Jiangnan Shipyard in Gaochang Temple, Chen Moran did not go to the dock with Ye Zugui and his party, but drove directly to Dongxu University in Pudong. At this time, the university was still a busy construction site, and the main building of the university was under construction.

"After the summer vacation, 2,100 students will enter the university!"

After thinking about it for a month, this university is no longer just a construction site like now, but a serious university. Chen Moran can't help but be a little proud. This university will be the first institution of higher learning in "New China". Although it is in the east, it is a science and engineering university dominated by science and engineering. Nanjing is booming. Piyong University is more inclined to law, economics and humanities. As for Nanjing University of Technology, it focuses on elite teaching. Even in the next few years, Nanjing University of Technology will not openly enroll students. According to the plan, it will be the highest university of China University of Technology. As for Dongxu, it is the real place for Chinese science and engineering talents. .

Although it is a summer vacation, walking on the university campus and using the street lamp, Chen Moran can still see those students who are unable to return home because they are in other provinces. They are most of them practicing English or Germany with textbooks there. Like the Naval Academy, Dongxu University also implements English or German education.

This kind of foreign language education is more of a kind of helplessness. Except for the professors of Sinology in the school, almost all professional professors in the school have hired from the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany. There are no qualified professors and no qualified professional translators in China, which makes Dongxu University not even have enough talents to translate professional textbooks.

Naturally, in the current Dongxu University, students hold English or German professional textbooks for classes, and British or German professors and lecturers give lectures in English or German in the classroom. Since the establishment of Dongxu University, students studying preparatory courses are more learning foreign languages, just to understand in class, in order to create language. The environment, the students on campus, spontaneously decided to talk on campus without speaking Chinese.

"Oh...this country..."

Thinking of the long way to establish a modern China, Chen Moran shook his head helplessly and sighed that a country not only could not provide qualified professors for universities, but also could not even provide enough primary and secondary school teachers. Can you really give a satisfactory answer in the next few decades?

Chen Moran, with a little bitterness in his heart, continued to walk forward. There was a burst of German conversation in the woods. Looking along the light, you can clearly see several students discussing something in German with a foreign teacher under the light, and several of them even looked through when they were talking. Professional translation manual.

When he was close, Chen Moran's eyes suddenly widened, because he saw an acquaintance, to be precise, a foreigner who was very familiar to later generations. Now he is very young, but he can faintly see the extremely familiar face and hair shape.

He... Why is he in Dongxu? Is it just an appearance?

In addition to the shock, someone happened to pass by, and Chen Moran quickly grabbed the person passing by.

"Classmate, do you know who that person is?"

And this will be pulled by Chen Moran. As soon as the student opened his mouth to remind the other party to speak in English, the student's eyes were also widened, and it was the rule! But Chen Moran's eyes are still staring at the person who is communicating with the students. Is he... a professor at Dongxu University?

(to be continued)