Piao Tianwen    Chapter 385 The Iron-Bounded Super Battleship [Second Update]

[Today's second update, there is a third update tonight, and I will make up for what I owe yesterday. The novel "" netizens called it by hand]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The U.S. Navy also obtained the news that the Chinese Empire built Yuan-class battleships in 1912. The U.S. Navy also required the construction of four South Dakota-class battleships as a confrontation, and also required the carrying of 17-inch main guns. However, at this time, the European war had broken out, and both Britain and Germany gave up the development of 17-inch main guns. Because the war required a master-in-chief system with mature technology that could be mass-produced, the main ships under construction in England and Germany were only 16-inch, and the 17-inch main guns were not developed.

In this way, with the industrial capabilities of the US Navy, without the technical support of British artillery, it is impossible to complete the design and mass production of the 17-inch main gun in a short time.

So the tragic US Navy had to settle for the second best, and approved the construction of 6 South Dakota-class battleships equipped with 406mm main guns, hoping that the six 16-inch main gun warships could withstand the four 17-inch main battleships of the Chinese Empire.

Unexpectedly, the Chinese Empire completed the Yuan-class battleship in 362 days, which made the United States and Japan feel that their naval industrial capabilities are far inferior to those of the Chinese Empire. At the same time, they were also very nervous. They once thought that the Chinese Empire did this to launch a war against the United States and Japan as soon as possible.

Therefore, the United States and Japan have increased their alert level because the Chinese Empire's naval naval is good at sneak attacks. All the naval bases of Japan and the United States in the Pacific have entered a third-level alert state to prevent sudden attacks by the Chinese Empire, and thus they have lost the initiative in the war at the beginning of the war.

The General Staff of the Chinese Empire did not expect this result. The General Staff naturally included a surprise plan in the plan formulated by the General Staff, because the surprise is a very important part of the victory of the war. The Chinese Empire has had many experiences in this army and is very skilled, so it is more confident.

However, the accelerated completion of Yuan-class battleships has caused Japan and the United States to be vigilant, increasing the defense level, and especially strengthening the port defense submarine project, which made it difficult to complete the first phase of the plan formulated by the General Staff.

For this reason, the General Staff of the Chinese Empire had to launch Ming-class battleships under this circumstance and planned to complete the Ming-class battleships in three years in order to confuse Japan and the United States and make them believe that the Chinese Empire would not launch a war against Japan and the United States in a short time.

Sure enough, this strategy was successful. After the United States and Japan held a defense consultation meeting, due to the lack of information about the Chinese Empire's battle against Japan and the United States, both the United States and Japan believed that the Chinese Empire would take action against Japan and the United States after the Ming-class battleship was completed. Since the Ming-class battleship displacement reached 80,000 tons and the main gun rose to 18 inches, the defense ministers of both Japan and the United States believed that the Chinese Empire could not complete it without three years.

In this way, Japan and the United States formulated a war plan for the Chinese Empire to break out three years later. Soon, the naval alert level of Japan and the United States was lowered and returned to its previous state.

The Chinese Empire approved the construction of four Ming-class battleships equipped with 18-inch main guns in March 1913, which immediately put the Japanese and American navies on the brink of madness and collapse. They even failed to start construction of the main ships equipped with 17-inch main guns, not to mention that the Chinese Empire had already started construction of a super battleship carrying 18-inch main guns.

Regardless of whether the Chinese Empire can develop an 18-inch main gun by then, Ming-class battleships have become the number one enemy of Japan and the US Navy. The Japanese and US Navy believe that if the arms race against the Chinese Empire's navy continues, it will sooner or later be dragged down and surpassed. Therefore, the Japanese and American navies cooperate for the first time to skip the 17-inch main gun development and directly jointly develop the 18-inch main gun, which is planned to be completed within the next three years. In this way, construction can be started within the next two years to build a hull that can be equipped with the 18-inch main gun.

However, Japan and the United States would never have thought that the Chinese Empire would not give them time to complete the construction of battleships of this class, because before that, the Chinese Empire would start a war against Japan and the United States.

Although the Ming-class battleship was built as a guise, with the strong support of the imperial emperor and the people of the whole country, the Navy was eventually forced to change it into a real naval battleship construction plan.

Emperor Chen Hao of the Chinese Empire was even more looking forward to Ming-class battleships, calling them a super battleship of the Chinese Empire Navy and a symbol of the power of the Chinese Empire Navy. The emperor personally donated 210 million dragon coins, which made the Navy Department pay more attention to the design and construction of Ming-class battleships.

Ming-class battleships, as the largest first-class super battleship built by the Chinese Empire Navy and even the world navy so far, have broken world records in all indicators and have reached the world's leading level.

The Ming-class battleships were built, named after the four emperors of the Ming Dynasty in China. The first ship, the Emperor Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang, was the number [bb-63], and the other three ships were the Emperor Yongle, Zhu Di, Zhu Di, Zhu Zhanji, Emperor Xuande, and Zhu Youjian, Emperor Chongzhen, and Zhu Youjian, respectively.

The first ship Zhu Yuanzhang started construction at Shanghai Shipbuilding Heavy Industry. The weight of all parts of the ship broke the world record. Among them, the hull accounts for 22,212 tons, the armor is 21,596 tons, the defense plate is 2,629 tons, the weapon system is 14,611 tons, the main equipment is 5,500 tons, the outfit is 1,856 tons, the fixed equipment is 620 tons, the non-fixed equipment is 656 tons, and the torpedo 85 tons (the torpedo launch tube was cancelled during construction), ranging, navigation, optical equipment is 115 tons, the power equipment is 1,308 tons, the carrier-based aircraft is 111 tons, the boiler water is 400 tons, the preparatory edible water is 412 tons, the diesel is 8,210 tons, the lubricating oil is 108 tons, and other miscellaneous tonnage is occupied. The total standard displacement is 73,800 tons (the four ships have different displacements, roughly about 2,000 tons).

In terms of power system, the Ming-class battleship was equipped with four steam turbine units, with a maximum output power of 163,553 axes and a designed speed of 30.4 knots (later, the four ships were tested differently, and the fastest Yongle Emperor test speed reached 31 knots), and a maximum range of 10,200 nautical miles/18 knots. The Ming-class battleship also was equipped with 8 generators, with a total power of 6,800 kilowatts.

In terms of ship type, Ming-class battleships broke through the design concept of Yuan-class battleships in a large scale. In order to provide a relatively stable platform for main gun shooting, the length-to-width ratio of the Ming-class battleship with a displacement of nearly 88,000 tons was designed to be 7:1, and the hull was 280 meters long, becoming the most slender main battleship of the Chinese Empire Navy. In order to obtain a speed of 30 knots, the General Administration of Shipbuilding and Administration proposed more than 40 different ship models after more than ten years of long-term pool tests. In the end, the Imperial Emperor Chenhao finally determined the ship type that matched the Ming-class battleship based on the modern main ship type.

The bow of the Ming-class battleship is a flying-scissor bow, which is formed in one go using a 10,000-ton hydraulic press, creating a world record. The part above the waterline is obviously tilted outward, the front end of the bow is semicircular, and the two sides are greatly extended outward to reduce the waves on the bow. The part below the bow waterline uses a bulbous bow, which is located about 4 meters below the waterline. Compared with the sharp-shaped bow, this new configuration can reduce the wave resistance by 9%, and at the same time reduce the waterline of about 5 meters, thus saving about 50 tons of water displacement.

In addition to reducing underwater resistance, this bulbous bow is mainly used to install underwater listeners and sonar arrays to detect the activities of enemy submarines.

Although the bridge of the Ming-class battleship has been further optimized, it still exceeds the 18th floor of the Yuan-class battleship, reaching 20 floors, like a huge tower. It is equipped with the main gun observation station (built-in 13 navigation azimuth) and a large 18-meter-degree rangefinder, downwards are the air defense command post, the visual line bridge (day battleship bridge), the combat room, the captain's lounge, the Luojing Bridge (night battleship bridge), the second chart room, and the commander's tower. A straight-through elevator is installed inside the bridge.

Ming-class battleships still use single chimneys, and the flues of each boiler are tortuous and connected to the main chimney. The chimneys are also tilted backwards as much as possible to avoid smoke exhaust affecting the bridge work. In order to ensure the safety of the opening of the hull chimney, a honeycomb plate is installed at the opening, which is 400 mm thick and has many small holes with a diameter of 180 mm. In addition, a 150 mm thick protective deck is installed on the inclined part and side of the chimney. In this way, the safety of the chimney is greatly improved. Behind the chimney is the rear bridge, which is a preparatory combat command post. When the artillery fires forward and rear, it plays the role of the stern command post.

The main gun is naturally the biggest selling point of Ming-class battleships. Ming-class battleships have been widely publicized by the Chinese Empire government since the start of construction, and the 18-inch giant cannon was immediately famous.

Emperor Chen Hao of the Chinese Empire hoped that the Ming-class battleships would have a main gun system that was more in line with the Ming Dynasty's identity. So in order to cater to the emperor's preferences, the General Administration of Shipbuilding installed four dual-mounted 45-diameter 460mm (456mm) main gun systems on the Ming-class battleships in one go. Anyway, the Navy did not spend money, and it was all donated by the imperial emperors and citizens. Such a huge cost of the battleship was naturally to give an explanation to the imperial citizens.

The four triple turrets are arranged on the bow and stern, all on the central axis. The front and back are arranged symmetrically according to the island. The total weight of the three artillery in one turret reaches 1,720 tons, plus the turret armor 890 tons) and the weight of the ammunition. The total weight of the cyclone part of a single turret is 2,800 tons, which is equivalent to the displacement of the storm-class battleship destroyer of the Imperial Chinese Navy.

The armor of the turret shield is very thick. The Imperial Navy plans to build Ming-class battleships into non-sinking battleships, so it focuses on strengthening protection. The front of the turret is as high as 650 mm, which can be said that even the 18-inch main gun of the Ming-class battleship cannot be destroyed. The rear of the turret is equipped with a Type 12 15-meter baseline rangefinder, and an electric compass is installed for the first time, so that the Ming-class battleship can remain stable when sailing. Periscope-type scopes are installed on both sides of the turret and on the front of the top.

Because the artillery was too heavy, it could not reach 55 degrees like the Cell-class battleship. It was finally modified to an elevation angle of 45 degrees. The first time the descent angle was increased to 5 degrees. When the artillery was loaded, it was fixed at 3 degrees. It took 3 minutes for the turret to rotate back a week.

The firing speed of the 18-inch guns of Ming-class battleships was lowered compared with the Yuan-class, only 1.5 rounds per minute. Because the shells weighed 1.5 tons, although the automatic mechanical loading method was used, the firing medicine needed to be more, so the speed of completing the firing of the main gun was naturally slow. The base of the shells was reduced, and 100 rounds were reserved for each gun. Previously, the main guns of all warships had a range of 150 to 200 rounds. The main guns were prepared for the first time. The main guns still need to be improved. The pressure of the main gun was too large, and a large amount of rifle would be worn off during firing. Therefore, after about 100 rounds were fired, it would have to be returned to the factory for maintenance and the barrel was replaced.

The Ming-class battleship has powerful firepower. If the 12 18-inch main guns are pointed at one side, their recoil will reach 10,000 tons, and the shock wave will be very strong when fired. For this reason, the designers of the Imperial Ship Administration took great pains to this end. In the end, the Imperial Beiyang Weapon Heavy Industry super cannon designer Rosenberg installed the anti-recoil system technology on the super cannon to the Ming-class battleship, which greatly reduced the recoil force when the main guns of the Ming-class battleship were fired, and only the 4,000 tons of recoil force of the Yuan-class. However, the main gun fire shock wave is still unable to solve it.

Ming-class battleships still use heavy armor-piercing warheads with low initial velocity and high energy storage. The initial muzzle velocity will be 785 meters per second, the maximum range will reach 45 kilometers (45 degrees elevation angle), and the shells will need to fly for 90 seconds. However, the long-range rangefinder failed to obtain a breakthrough, and the effective command distance of the central fire control system is still 25 kilometers. This distance has no change from the effective shooting distance of the Yuan-class battleship.

The Guanghua 13-year 460mm caliber main gun equipped by Ming-class battleship is the most powerful naval gun in the world so far. Compared with the MK7 406mm caliber 45-caliber naval gun equipped by the Colorado-class battleship in the United States, the Guanghua 13-year 460mm naval gun is in an advantageous position in terms of armor-piercing shell weight, muzzle velocity, and range. The shells have stronger armor penetration. Judging from the data alone, the Ming-class battleship is 20,000-3.

The main armor belt of any battleship in the world can be penetrated at a distance of 0,000 meters. On the other hand, whether it is the Colorado-class American, the South Dakota-class battleship under construction, the Japan's 410mm Nagamon-class battleship, or even the 406mm main battleship built by Britain and Germany, their main guns are difficult to achieve this. Unless they fight in close combat at a distance of 3,000 meters, they will not be able to penetrate the armor of the Ming-class battleship at all.

In terms of secondary guns, the secondary guns of Ming-class battleships still use 18 152mm naval guns (6 triple-mounted units). However, in order to increase the shear force of the secondary gun, the double extension is extended to 60 times, becoming the strongest firepower of the 150-level secondary guns of the navy of various countries around the world.

The six secondary gun turrets are all arranged on the second-level deck around the Central Ship Island. Since the Chinese Empire Ship Island is characterized by a regular hexagonal geometric arrangement (the lines conform to the aesthetic design), the six triple secondary guns are divided into six corner arrangements. This configuration can ensure that all three secondary guns of the Ming-class battleship can point to one side at the same time, greatly improving the attack power of the enemy ships at close range.

Starting from the Ming-class battleship, the Empress Dowager of the Chinese Empire also raised concerns about the carrier-based aircraft on the aircraft carrier (the results of multiple exercises). Therefore, the Navy changed the 152mm secondary gun to a high-level dual-purpose rapid-fire gun for the first time, so that the main and secondary guns of the Ming-class battleship can fire at the air. However, these two types of guns are not specially designed anti-aircraft guns after all. Air shooting can generally only interfere with the flight of incoming aircraft. The ship's air defense mission is mainly performed by the 127mm and 25mm caliber anti-aircraft guns it is equipped with.

Ming-class battleships are equipped with Type 12 60-diameter 127mm caliber anti-aircraft guns, 24 (8-seat triple-mounted, all with anti-shield). The pitch angle of the gun is +90 degrees, with a maximum range of 19,000 meters, a maximum firing height of 13,400 meters, a rate of fire 14 rounds/min, and a life of 1500-2500 rounds. The Type 12 60-diameter 25mm caliber anti-aircraft guns are equipped with 48 rounds (16-seat triple-mounted, all with anti-shield), and the pitch angle of the gun is +90 degrees. The initial velocity of the gun is 900 meters/second, a maximum firing range of 6,800 meters, a maximum firing height of 5,000 meters, and a rate of fire 220 rounds/min.

These two types of anti-aircraft guns are considered two very good anti-aircraft guns in the future war of the Chinese Empire. They can block the attacks of enemy aircraft, but their own aircraft cannot be defended.

In terms of protection systems, Ming-class battleships are unsinkable battleships, and the Han nationality is unyielding. The Navy attaches great importance to the protection of Ming-class battleships. According to the design requirements, the ship's armor should be able to withstand the strikes of its 460mm main gun at a distance of 20,000-30,000 meters, and the mid-deck can also resist 600 kilograms of heavy aviation bombs dropped from a height of 3,900 meters (the 500 kilograms of aviation bombs carried by the Cat Demon Ship Battle in 1913 was used as the resistance standard, but it cannot defend against the 1-ton aviation bomb carried by the H1n1 bomber).

To achieve the above requirements, the Ming-class installed more than 20,000 tons of Chinese special steel armor and defense plates, accounting for 30% of the normal displacement of the ship. The ship's ammunition chamber, mainframe, boiler chamber and other key parts are concentrated in the defense zone protected by thick armor belts in the middle of the battleship (from the front end of the front main gun to the rear end of the rear main gun). The side armor of the defense zone extends from the waterline of the battleship to the battleship

At the bottom, the thickness of the main armor belt at the upper waterline is 450 mm, and the thickness of the side plate below the main armor belt is 75-200 mm (decreasing from top to bottom). The armor at the top of the defense zone is laid on the middle deck of the battleship, with a thickness of 200-230 mm (using homogeneous nickel-cadmium alloy steel with molybdenum added). The front and rear ends of the defense zone are protected by 270-350 mm thick armored cross-district walls.

The Chinese special steel during this period was already even better. Therefore, after testing, the early Chinese special steel that originally needed to be installed with 460 mm was now only needed to be installed with 450 mm thick, enough to withstand the major 1.5-ton 18-inch shells fired by Ming-class battleships, while the 19-inch shells from other countries may be able to penetrate them. In this regard, the Chinese Empire's Navy has greatly widened the distance between the navies of European and American powers and is far ahead.

In terms of other electronic communication equipment, except for the equipment already equipped by the CI-class battleships such as radio systems, telephone systems, sonar arrays, optical rangefinders, fire control commanders, and azimuth navigation devices, all have been greatly improved and upgraded, with reduced volume and weight, and increased accuracy and speed.

As a Ming-class battleship, her most outstanding abilities are in addition to her powerful artillery, armor and speed. This class of battleships has installed the first plane radar system developed by Beiyang Technology of the Chinese Empire, becoming the world's first real radar and the earliest radar system equipped by the naval.

In fact, radar has appeared long ago, but humans have not further studied it. After Tesla and others turned on Wang Chenhao's Jiaolong submarine, although they could not develop the radar equipment inside (electronic tube technology is not up to standard), the theory of radar is similar to sonar. With the intelligence of Tesla and others, they quickly found the right direction and started to develop the initial mechanical radar system with the support of large funds of the Chinese Empire.

The earliest proposal of the concept of radar was in 1842. christian andreas doppler took the lead in proposing Doppler radars that utilized the Doppler effect, but they were not valued at that time. Twenty years later, in 1864, Maxwell (james clerk maxwww.jtxsk.comerich hertz) conducted a series of experiments on studying radio waves, and successfully used instruments to generate radio waves in 1888.

In 1897, after JJ Thompson started researching the cathode rays in vacuum tubes, christian Hulsmeyer finally invented the telemobiloscope in 1904, a device that uses radio wave echo detection to prevent collisions of ships at sea. Tesla and others successfully developed the sonar system and developed a vacuum transistor. The world finally had the first active electronic component that can amplify signals.

In 1909, Tesla completed the research on radar theory, and with electromagnetic wave experts Marconi and Franklin, three of them, began to study short-wave signal reflection with Beiyang Technology, and switched to the sky band based on sonar to conduct a series of experiments.

Finally, in February 1912, Tesla and others developed a planar angle radar system, which could prevent ships from colliding on the water surface. After improvement, a huge electromagnetic high-frequency transmitter and receiver device was used to determine the distance and orientation of the target, so military mechanical radar was officially born.

This is five years earlier than Robert Watson-watt's successful design of the thunderstorm positioning device (which announced the birth of radar).

However, the problem is that this kind of radar requires huge antenna devices, high-frequency transmitters and receiver devices, as well as converting signals into accurate mechanical drawings, which require very large systems and precision instruments to assist. Only very huge warships can be installed. Even the islands of Yuan-class battleships are not suitable for installing radar instruments with very large volume and weight. However, this can be solved in the huge tonnage and islands of Ming-class battleships, so the first R1 type ship-based radar was born.

This radar can detect sea targets 40 kilometers away and can provide the general location of enemy ships for the Imperial Chinese Navy.

However, it is a bit regrettable that the central fire control instrument installed by the Chinese Empire on Ming-class battleships cannot be connected to the radar (the system project is too complicated to be installed before the Ming-class battleship is completed). If the central fire control instrument can be connected to the radar system, it will form a sea search fire control command system, which will be a revolutionary change for the navy.

As the most powerful battleship in the Chinese Empire to date, the Ming-class battleship crew members were formed into 20 combat teams, with a total of 3,400 people.

The Ming-class battleship is the ship with the best conditions and the most complete facilities in the Imperial Navy so far. The single canteen is divided into three categories: captain, officer cooking room, non-commissioned officer cooking room, soldier cooking room, etc. The soldier cooking room has 6 huge steamed rice cookers, two 15-kilowatt "universal cookers" (rice cookers), rice washing machines, tableware disinfectors and other equipment. In addition, there are ovens and 1 horsepower ice cream making machines, which can make "cool fruits" (cold drinks) such as tea soup, lemon liquor, ice cream, etc. (cold drinks). Their good dishes are much higher than the food standards of ordinary families in the Imperial China, and they are also second to none in the Imperial China Navy fleet. In addition, there is also a 300 cubic meter freezer on the ship for storing fresh food.

Since the Chinese Empire had air conditioners, from the Yuan-class battleships, large capital ships have been equipped with central air conditioners. The central air conditioner was very power-consuming, but at first Congress expressed objections to the Navy's installation of central air conditioners. But soon some members of parliament went to the main ship to experience it. The larger the main ship, the more the internal air was not smooth, the more sick they would get, especially because of the stuffy heat. The Navy medical ships reported to the members of Congress, believing that after using central air conditioners, soldiers' illness rate generally decreased and they were more mentally fighting. Therefore, the Navy Department forced Congress to agree on the grounds of safeguarding the rights of naval officers and soldiers' lives.

In addition, the Ming-class battleship displacement reaches 88,000 tons, and the huge hull increases the space. One-third of the soldiers can enjoy special sleeper berths. All officers are double-layer sleeper berths (2 or 4 people/room), with an average living area of ​​4 square meters. Because of this, the Chinese Empire's Navy likes to call Ming-class battleships "sea hotels".

In short, the Ming-class battleships of the Imperial Navy of the Chinese Empire, whether it is tonnage, main gun power, armor thickness, communication equipment, reconnaissance equipment, and fire control equipment, surpass the battleships of the same era, and are truly the world's strongest battleships.

*j Novel Knight
Chapter completed!