My Empire

My Empire Chapter 115

2020-11-03

Chapter 115 115 Reclamation

In the Navy's dock, a worker joked with his colleagues while working: "This side of the Navy The progress is really fast. The sailboats stopped when they said they stopped, and Laurens just came back and went south again. At this time, he took more than 30 sailboats, and he must be able to bring back more rubber."

His colleague was also working hard, replied without raising his head: "Because I saw three whole ships of rubber, the navy is very proud at this time. The tire factory is waiting to use rubber, and many use it. The steel project has to make way for the new naval battleship."

This time the Navy did get the attention of the people above after returning, after all, although there are many alternatives, it is indeed much less troublesome to own natural rubber. Therefore, the enlarged meeting of the Navy was held in full swing.

Interestingly, the commander-in-chief of the Navy did not attend the development meeting of the Navy again, and Laurens took his battleship south again and only rested for a morning on land.

The number of fleets going south at this time is very large: not only 10 sailboats specially made by the navy that can fight and transport things, but also three previous battleships and 20 unarmed sailboats. A pure transport sailboat.

In order to improve the efficiency of a southward trip, Laurens even requisitioned 5 large fishing boats to go south to Dothan to transport rubber together. At this time, even if it is conservatively estimated, he can loot tens of thousands of tons of rubber from the Dothan Empire.

And Dez Gurlo and the others supported the Navy's expansion of its armaments in order to support the Navy's southward strategy of transporting rubber. In their view, as long as the Navy doesn't want oil and too much steel, everything is negotiable.

It is against this background that the Navy approved a crazy shipbuilding plan and decided to launch 20 all-metal multi-purpose battleships in one go, and another 20 fast transport ships. Plus 50 large transport sailboats and 50 low-armed sailboats - a huge fleet focused on transportation and supplemented by naval warfare.

Of course, this is just a grand shipbuilding plan. Whether it can be completed or when it will be completed is still unknown, but it falls on the navy. The purpose battleship, which has been built a month ago.

"Yeah, look over there, the one in the dock! I heard that you can transport 1,000 tons of rubber back in one go. It's made of all metal. It's scary!" The worker pointed his chin away The big guy in the dock said to his colleagues.

The colleague looked in the direction his chin pointed, and saw the giant ship with most of its hull welded, lying quietly in the dock.

A boiler the size of a house has been placed in the hull, and a huge chimney has been made and placed next to the hull. On this huge ship, at least hundreds of workers are busy busy. , each part is precisely installed in its designated position.

The modern steel giant ship is definitely a systematic precision engineering, including the attention to ventilation pipelines, the layout of power lines, the fire extinguishing system, the drainage and self-rescue system - each of which is a collection of countless generations of people. wisdom and exploration.

The good news is that with the help of the Knowledge Magic Ball, the naval designers directly inherited these design experiences, and they designed Alanhill's first all-steel ship to be almost perfect and without blemish.

The brand new battleship, in fact, the tonnage doesn't seem to be large. This battleship has a full-load displacement of 7500 tons and is not a fully armored main cruiser. Knowing that this battleship will be eliminated, the battleship that Chris finally selected is a cheap alternative.

The plan he came up with was the design of an auxiliary cruiser. This battleship could transport personnel and supplies in peacetime, and the cabins were spacious and living conditions were excellent. And this battleship can use coal as fuel, which is very suitable for Alanhill.

This new battleship is equipped with three turrets, 6 latest naval 105mm caliber guns, and 10 30mm caliber dual-purpose guns on the side of the ship.

In this way, this battleship has a good ability to attack the sea and a strong defensive ability to the air. It can be said to be the maritime overlord in the new era - the only depressing thing is that this The main business of this maritime hegemony also includes freight and passenger transport.

The newly designed battleship took less than 6 months to manufacture, after all, this transport ship in the bones is just a freighter. It has neither very heavy armor nor powerful large-caliber artillery, but it is still a formidable maritime overlord.

The only difference from the auxiliary cruiser is that this battleship is equipped with an aiming device, which allows the 6sect master gun to attack distant targets more accurately. Therefore, in a sense, this cruiser is the first battleship that can "accurately attack distant targets".

This battleship has 4 incomparable gigantic chimneys, and it looks like a Titanic cruise ship. .

When fully loaded, it can run a terrifying speed of 35 kilometers per hour—about 19 knots in knots, which is already faster than a serious high-speed sailing battleship. This is under full load. If it is in a combat state, such a speed can be increased to about 38 kilometers.

Compared to the previous sailing battleship, this new auxiliary cruiser can focus 6 105mm guns on either side, and fire more accurately at long range. So in terms of firepower, it is more powerful than a sailing battleship with 10 75 guns on one side of the ship.

If you count the 30mm high-level dual-purpose guns distributed on the sides of the ship, this new battleship battle strength is simply overwhelming.

Compared to the sail battleship, it can run at full speed in any situation without worrying about the wind direction - this is another huge improvement.

The emergence of Alanhill's first-generation steel battleship has a specific era background and mission needs, because the enemy's battle strength is insufficient and the mission is limited, Alanhill's navy is confident in crushing the enemy on the sea .

The weapons and equipment in their hands have been stronger than each other for one or even several times, so they have no pressure from the opponent's navy at all, so they focus on other aspects.

In the vast sea, whether it is the task of purchasing rubber in the south or the task of looting the coastline of the other party, it has a long task time, requires a certain speed and a large endurance.

At the same time, they only need moderate firepower against the slow and unarmored enemy sailing ships in naval battles. These missions would be a waste of resources for Alanhill to build regular cruisers that can cruise at high speeds and have large-caliber guns.

From the point of view of production, if a real battleship is manufactured, it will not only waste precious steel and precious artillery production capacity, but also waste the speed of producing battleship. Under the same production time limit, about a dozen auxiliary cruisers can be built a year, but it is estimated that only one or two regular cruisers can be launched.

The regular battleships that have been painstakingly created, because the number is scarce and cannot control the coastline, and the regular cruisers are not very suitable for Alanhill's southward escort transportation mission, because the regular cruisers have the advantage of speed and firepower. When dealing with sailing enemies, it is completely overflowing and you can't get more benefits.

At the same time, the endurance and loading capacity sacrificed by regular cruisers in order to install heavy armor and large-caliber artillery, as well as the living conditions of sailors, are more important when supporting long-term maritime activities.

To put it bluntly, it is that the enemy is too weak, and it is a complete waste to use a cruiser, and the long route makes the endurance and comfort of regular warships wasted on the armor that is not used. On...

After weighing, Chris found that the high-speed cruise ships and auxiliary cruisers converted from merchant ships, which began to appear in the late nineteenth century, were just right for the needs of missions like Alanhill: such ships were faster, generally 18 -26 knots, the endurance is also very outstanding, and the activity radius is naturally not a problem. More importantly, the space on this type of ship is abundant and comfortable to live. It can load enough supplies while allowing the crew to have enough space for living and activities. In order to maintain sufficient morale during long-term boring cruises.

Best of all, these ships are coal fired! They don't need to waste precious diesel or heavy oil, they only need more coal from Alanhill to sail on the sea, which is very convenient and fast.

More importantly, the auxiliary cruisers modified by such ships can serve shipping when they are eliminated or in peacetime. They can transport a large amount of materials and personnel. After dismantling the weapons, they can be used as cruise ships. It seems very economical and practical.

After all, Alanhill's technology is developing very fast, and eliminating some battleships is absolutely commonplace. This wasteful behavior that consumes steel and is eliminated immediately must be avoided for Alanhill, whose production capacity is still limited.

"When we have more and more battleships, the endless sea will become the ocean of our Alanhill!" The boatman who spoke first hehe said with a smile. He had no reason not to laugh. After all, he was working overtime every day recently, and his salary was enough to support his whole family.

This treatment is much better than his previous treatment, and it also makes him very satisfied: his hard work, in exchange for ample wages and bonuses, is not the happy life he dreamed of in the past Well.

"Yeah, when we have more and more ships and fill up the endless sea, we can go and see what is there on the other side of the sea?" Another boatman smiled and looked towards Going to the distant sea, he opened his mouth and sighed with emotion.

(end of this chapter)