The "Free Trade" did not open exactly like the British on the first day of entering London Harbor. This was natural, because when the ship arrived in London, there was always something busy. And something happened. For example, a French naval priest who left the warship and came ashore, he met a reporter as soon as he got ashore. Then, the reporter asked: "Pastor, what do you think of the French street girl on the streets of London ********** There is a French street girl in the town?" The priest was surprised.

Then in the afternoon of the same day, a news article was published in a evening newspaper: "As soon as the French naval priest got ashore, he rushed to ask if there were any street girls standing in London."

Of course, no one cares about anything about this kind of tabloid. Besides, Pastor Shunjun finds a street girl to support her and save her soul, which is also a good thing, and it is no big deal.

Although the "Free Trade" was not officially opened for people to visit that day, when they approached, no one would care if they didn't board the ship. So some people gathered around and observed the ship.

In this way, a question about the "Free Trade" was solved suddenly, that is, why the Free Trade has such outstanding defense. Although the external steel plate of the "Free Trade" was painted with black-brown paint, making it look very similar to the wooden ship board from a distance, but at such a close distance that is so close that you can touch it almost with your hand, you can easily see the difference between the external steel plate and the ship board.

"It turns out that it's really a plug-in." An agent from the Sixth Investigation Section looked at the "Free Trade" close at hand and couldn't help but sigh. In order to understand the defense secrets of this ship, the Sixth Investigation Section has sacrificed several colleagues. The secrets that they have not even been able to get even after sacrificing their lives are now placed in front of them, and they can get them without paying any price. This is really...it makes people doubt life.

"Considering the French's advantages in steelmaking, these are probably steel plates, right?" A British navy officer also looked at the "Free Trade" while thinking.

Of course, on the first day, the British had only so many secrets. On the second day, the first batch of guests boarded the deck of the "Free Trade". This group of people was almost all the officers of the British Navy, including officers in command positions and many technical officers.

In general, these officers were very, very obedient. Basically, without the permission of their masters, they did not stretch out their hands with white gloves and touched the French warships everywhere. Although later, there were nonsense words such as "they stretched out their hands and touched the dust on the cannon" in some British newspapers to belittle the French and encourage themselves, to be honest, the British did not stretch out their hands randomly.

But when it comes to asking questions, the British are just unruly. They ask all questions, and they don’t suffer any loss anyway. What surprised them was that the French who accompanied them answered most of the questions.

"Captain Zola, I noticed that there were external armor plates hanging outside the 'Free Trade'. I would like to ask, are these armor plates made of iron or steel plates?" asked a British officer with the rank of major on his shoulder.

"It's a steel plate." Captain Zola replied.

"So I can ask about its thickness and how do you ensure that they will not experience serious rust problems during navigation?" The British major asked again.

"I can tell you the thickness of the steel plate, which is about 20 mm. As for the problem of rust prevention, this technical secret belongs to the "Lorraine Steel Company". We don't know. If you want to know these things, you can learn from them."

Then, under the leadership of the French, they entered the artillery cabin of the "Free Trade".

"Sir, this is the gun cabin of the Free Trade. Our ship is a steam-powered warship. Therefore, compared with ordinary warships, we have more power cabins and coal cabins, which occupy a lot of space, which makes our gun cabin relatively small, because the number of cannons can be equipped is relatively small." Captain Adrian, the chief gunman in charge of the introduction, explained, "But this is not a problem, because we are equipped with the most advanced and most powerful rear-mounted rifled steel cannons in the world, which makes our firepower actually stronger than ordinary warships with the same tonnage."

"Captain, you just introduced that you are using breech guns?" another British Navy technical officer asked quickly.

"Yes, it's a breech gun, which makes our cannon fire several times higher than the average front-load gun." Captain Adrian replied.

"So, can I see this kind of cannon close up?" the technical officer asked again.

"It's absolutely OK. We French have no need to keep confidential about our friends. Even if you are interested, you can simulate the process of firing yourself under the guidance of Captain Adrian." Captain Zola said, his tone as sincere as France and Britain are really friends.

Naturally, the British would not miss such an opportunity, so several British officers asked quickly: "How to simulate it?"

"I need ten people to form a temporary gun troop," said Captain Adrian. "Then I will guide you through the whole move."

The British gathered together for a while and then recommended ten people.

"Captain, now we are all your subordinates. You can give us orders." A British lieutenant colonel said to Captain Adrian.

The gun group in front of him is definitely the highest-ranking gun group Adrian has ever seen. There is no officer below the school level in the entire gun group. Adrian feels that after he goes back this time, he has new materials to brag about.

Adrian called these "cannon crew members" over, took them to the cannon, and briefly told them about the structure and loading methods of the cannon. He found that these guys had a very good understanding ability and almost understood at first glance that they were much better than the young men under him.

However, when the actual operation was done, Adrian immediately decided to take back his previous thoughts, because there was one thing that was too far from the young men under his command, that was the coordination of muscle strength and movements. The British officers who gave him temporary gunners were all technical officials, and they all knew the cannons very well and were all experts. But they were experts in studying cannons, not experts in operating cannons, so they were obviously breech guns with faster fire rates, but under their operation, they were even slower than breech guns.

However, everyone is very clear about the reasons for this result. The British officers present also concluded in their hearts that it may be a little longer to say that it can speed up by four or five times, but it is still possible to speed up by three or four times.

When these "aircraft team members" finally loaded the training ammunition into the shells, closed the bolts, completed the simulated launch, and then returned to the visitor's queue, a colonel asked a "aircraft gunner" in a low voice: "Have you seen the structure of the rear-load gun clearly?"

"I see clearly that the structure is not too complicated, but the process may be difficult and the cost will be much higher." The "gunner" replied, "But considering that one gun can be used as three guns, I think it is still worth it."

"Considering the space saved, even if it can only be used as a 1.5 gun, the price will be three or four times more expensive, which is worth it." Another "gunner" also interrupted.

Of course, the reason why the British believed that the rate of fire increased by four or five times was a brag was very simple - the training bullets given to them were packaged. But in fact, these guns could use fixed-loading bullets that were loaded faster.

After visiting the cannons, the French took them to the bottom floor of the warship, which was actually below the waterline. There is something worth showing off to the British here-the steel keel of the "Free Trade".

The British who came to visit were all experts. When they saw the steel keel, they immediately came to a conclusion: "It was too easy for the French to explode the fleet as long as the steel output was enough. Because the limitations of the most critical materials have been broken."

This was also the last visit for these British people. There was also a British officer asking whether they could see the steam engine, but Captain Zola immediately rejected this request: "No, there are many secrets in the steam engine."

"Didn't we say we are friends, there shouldn't be secrets between friends?" a British man quipped.

"Ah, it's true in theory." Captain Zola replied, "If there is only naval things in it, it's OK, but there are also business secrets of our private enterprises. For them, everyone except customers may be future competitors. So..."

So the British shrugged and the matter passed. In fact, the British have seen enough things today, so many that they have exceeded their expectations.

"The French are actually not very powerful. The key is that there is too much steel." After getting off the ship, a British technical official couldn't help but say, "Really, how much steel does this boat use? They don't treat steel as steel at all, they just use it in a cooked iron. It's too luxurious to use it like this!"

"Who do you understand their steel anti-rust technology?" someone asked.

"It seems to be just applying paint?"

"The armor plates outside may be because those armor plates can be obviously disassembled and replaced. But what about her keel? Can paint alone prevent rust?"
Chapter completed!