Valley Emperor

The steam fleet that the Portuguese saw was the test fleet of the Datang Imperial Navy, which was conducting an ocean-going trial mission. They set off from Hong Kong, passed through the Dayuan Strait, and stopped at Dayuan Island before heading towards Shanghai. sail.

According to the original plan, they will continue to sail north after resupplying and simple renovations at the Wusong Port Naval Base, and only return south after arriving at Busan Port all the way.

This time the test voyage has not caused much trouble so far, at most the occasional failure of the steam engine, but this is unavoidable. The steam engines loaded on these test ships are the first batch of steam units that were trial-produced. , the early products will naturally have problems of one kind or another, plus they are on a long-distance ocean voyage this time.

Although they were all in the coastal waters of the Empire, they were not renovated in the middle of the journey. In the entire navigation plan, they would only simply carry out two renovations at the Wusong Port Naval Base.

After all, this voyage test was originally designed to test the stability of the steam turbine during long-distance voyages and complex sea conditions.

Although there were a lot of steam engine failures on the road, there were many engineers in the fleet, and it was barely possible to carry out simple maintenance while sailing. At the same time, many problems were recorded and used in the follow-up steam engine research and development, production. improvement in.

After the Portuguese watched the fleet blowing black smoke all the way, and then went straight to the Wusong Port Naval Base, many people were amazed and panicked.

In recent years, the Portuguese in the South China Sea and the Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean have always faced great pressure from the Tang Empire, but if the Portuguese can withstand the previous pressure, then this steam After the ship was born, how could they resist?

Even an ordinary sailor can instantly imagine an extremely terrifying scene in his mind after seeing such a ship that can sail without relying on sails.

That is, the opponent can ignore the wind direction, and then seize the T prefix at will, and attack the enemy's bow with a large number of broadside artillery!

As a result, traditional sailing warships will be completely behind in almost an instant.

Not to mention, the Tang Empire Navy originally had a big killer, that is howitzer shells!

The lethality of this kind of howitzer on wooden warships is extremely great. A shell goes down and explodes directly on the ship, causing casualties, broken masts, and burned sails. Even this explosion will cause huge damage to the hull itself. damage.

In the past, although the Portuguese felt that the grenade of the Datang Navy was already difficult to deal with, it was not impossible. Due to the problem of shelling accuracy, even if the Datang Navy used grenades, they had to get close. Only at a distance of about 300 meters can a large hit rate be obtained, and at this distance, the solid bullets, grape bullets, chain bullets and other bullets fired by the smoothbore gun are actually not weak.

Therefore, grenades have a great effect on naval warfare in this era, but they have not yet reached the point of being one-sided.

However, today's steam warships have gotten rid of the dependence on the wind direction, which will play a greater role than simple grenades.

Could it be that the kingdom is really unable to maintain its interests in the Southeast Asia region, and is finally forced to withdraw from this sea area?

A possibility began to emerge in the hearts of many Portuguese people, that is, once the two sides went to war, the steam warships of the Datang Empire could easily use steam engines and grenades to slaughter their own sailing warships. Under such circumstances, how could the Portuguese keep Malacca and safeguard their interests in the Southeast Asian region?

Pessimism instantly shrouded the hearts of many Portuguese.

As for building a steam engine themselves, or buying a steam engine, they didn't think about it at all, because they knew it was impossible.

Buying steam engines, don’t count on this kind of thing. The Datang Empire has always strictly controlled all kinds of machinery and equipment, especially steam engines. Exports are strictly prohibited, and they will not be shipped to overseas territories and colonies. go.

On the Banten side, they had long wanted to get some mechanical equipment for the port to improve the efficiency of the port, but the imperial officials directly rejected this kind of application from the Banten area.

And pure exports, let alone steam engines, don't even count on a single screw.

As for making it yourself, it's more difficult than buying it!

Because of the purchase, although the Datang Empire officially prohibited the export of steam engines and these things, it did not mean that there were no purchase channels. After all, there was still a group of smugglers in this world.

Some guys who are desperate for money dare to secretly transport these machinery and equipment out, and then make huge profits.

Although the Datang Empire is very strict in cracking down on smuggling, it is still impossible to completely block such a long border and coastline, which will always allow some smugglers to find loopholes.

In recent years, the Portuguese have secretly purchased several sets of steam engines from the Tang Empire through smuggling for production.

They have also tried to prevent these steam engines. After all, the principle of steam engines is actually very simple, but they know the principle and have real objects on hand, but it is impossible to imitate them.

Because of the production of this thing, the requirements for mechanical equipment are too high, and the requirements for raw materials are too high.

Even if the Portuguese use skilled craftsmen to build the parts one by one by hand and then assemble them, it is actually impossible to run stably.

Why?

No material!

Many parts in the steam engine are not ordinary pig iron or wrought iron at all, but steel, more precisely alloy steel, and the requirements for machining accuracy are very high.

In fact, it is not only a steam engine, but many of the mechanical equipment used by the Datang Empire, in fact, many key components are made of special materials.

The shape can be prevented, but the material they can do nothing.

This is also the reason why the Datang Empire has been industrialized for so many years, but the technology leakage is basically equal to zero.

To put it bluntly, the Datang Empire is not afraid of those aborigines copying!

Without a large and mature industrial system, it is almost impossible to imitate the various industrial products of the Tang Dynasty, let alone the most top-level industrial products such as steam engines.

What the Portuguese think, the empire will naturally not think about it. The imperial government still implements many plans according to its own pace, and the naval steam fleet trial is still going on.

And several major private shipping companies have also started steaming. Except for the two major shipping companies, Yangtze River Shipping Company and Feng's Aerospace Company, other shipping companies have also begun to enter the steamship field more or less.

Twenty years after entering Xuanping in the summer, several major inland rivers and busy coastal waters in Datang can see steam ships. At the same time, there are also many civilian steam ships. After seeing the Navy completely abandon Ming Dynasty. After the round, it also began to follow up, planning to build a civil steam engine propelled by a propeller.

Especially in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, which is the busiest shipping area, that is, the Yangtze River Basin, which has always been a key competition area for several major domestic shipping companies, and sometimes even lose money in order to maintain the reputation of the company.

When major shipping companies come up with good ships, they are basically put into operation on the route from Jinling City to Shanghai for the first time.

This is the case with the first domestic steamship Ladies, and the first commercial use of the Yuanfang. However, these two pioneering steamships have now gradually relegated to the second line and are just conducting normal business. operating.

Now, the ones that are making a big splash on the Yangtze River route are the Crescent Palace series passenger ships of the Yangtze River Shipping Company and its competitor, the Future Series Burning of the Feng Shipping Company.

Since the two companies put the ship into commercial operation in the spring of the 19th year of Xuanping, in order to compete for the throne of the first domestic shipping company, in order to build their own corporate brand, these two companies can be said to have broken in the field of ships. head.

In addition, several first-generation test ships in front of the Lady and Yuanfang were quickly refitted or built many other steam ships. The most eye-catching one should be the Yangtze River Shipping Company, which was put into operation this spring. Crescent Palace series passenger ship.

The Crescent Palace of the Yangtze River Shipping Company is the follow-up passenger ship of their company's last passenger flagship, the Moon Palace. It is also the first real large passenger ship built by them, and is ready to be used as the flagship of the new generation.

Needless to say, this kind of passenger ship is luxuriously decorated. This is the biggest selling point of the high-end shipping of the Yangtze River Shipping Company. In addition, they also use sails and power, and use paddle wheels for propulsion.

Although the power of the steam unit on the Crescent Palace is not large, it has achieved the characteristics of low vibration and low noise to meet the needs of high-end passenger transportation.

Two of the new moon palace series of passenger ships have already been officially put into operation, and they will carry out the route from Guangzhou to Jinling as before!

Its displacement of nearly 1,000 tons, the sailing speed that is only higher than that of a sailboat, and the luxurious decoration~www.wuxiaspot.com~ smooth ride comfort, make the Crescent Palace series passenger ships continue to be sought after by the powerful, many people even In order to take this kind of passenger ship, I made a special trip.

And Feng Shipping Company is not far behind, but their main market is not high-end passenger transport, but mid-to-high-end commercial passenger transport. On the premise of maintaining a certain degree of comfort, the maximum speed is required!

For this reason, their Qianchen ship, which has a displacement of only more than 600 tons, adopts the scheme of two parallel steam engines, so that it has a full 400 horsepower, plus the sail power, which is enough to let the Qiancheng ship ride the wind and waves. , to and from Shanghai, Guangzhou and Jinling at a very fast speed, its excellent speed, once launched, is deeply loved by business people who travel between the above three places.

It can be said that by this time, Changjiang Shipping Company and Feng Shipping Company have already conducted differentiated competition in the field of passenger ships. One focuses on luxury and comfort, and pays attention to the enjoyment of the road, while the other pursues the ultimate speed. , and strive to deliver passengers to their destination in the shortest possible time.

And this kind of differentiated competition has truly allowed Feng Shipping Company to gain a foothold in the field of long-distance passenger transportation for the first time!

Remember Aishang for 1 second: .. m.