Valley Emperor

As an important ship type in the second round of shipbuilding plans after the Navy entered the steam age.

The Hangzhou-class cruiser was originally designed to match the Hebei-class battleship.

The tonnage exceeds that of the Jiangnan-class battleship, and the standard displacement of 1,600 tons is naturally no problem to match with the 3,800-ton Hebei-class battleship.

But after the Hebei-class battleship proved to be a complete failure, the Shanxi-class battleship with only 2,800 tons took over the Hebei-class battleship! This also led to the embarrassment of the positioning of the Hangzhou-class cruiser!

The power of the Hangzhou-class cruisers is still powered by sails, and the power of the attached steam units is almost the same as that of the Shanxi-class battleships. As for the power of the Jiangnan-class battleships, the power of the Jiangnan-class battleships is far from being comparable. The Hangzhou-class cruisers use pure steam power, and the speed can be Up to fifteen.

The firepower is still a front-mounted smoothbore gun with a shipboard layout, but the caliber is larger and the power is greater.

The hull design is basically the same as that of the Jiangnan class. The main supporting structure of the hull is made of steel. The ordinary hull is still made of wood, and the external armor of the hull is made of wrought iron composite armor.

Of course, as a cruiser, in order to maintain speed, the hull is more slender and the armor belt is relatively small.

Such cruisers are basically capable of hoisting other warships except the Shanxi-class battleships, including the Jiangnan-class battleships.

However, it is also officially because the Jiangnan-class battleship can be hoisted, and the cost is also rising. The cost of a single ship has reached nearly 400,000, while the Shanxi-class battleship is only 600,000!

If it weren't for the high cost, it would not have built six ships, but sixty ships!

The cost of cutting-edge cruisers is too high. In order to maintain the scale of the fleet, the Navy has to continue to develop frigates. Of course, it is not the original small-tonnage wooden frigates, but new frigates.

This frigate is actually a cheap miniature version of the cruiser. It has weaker power, weaker protection, and weaker firepower. Anyway, it has shrunk in various ways, but even if it is shrunk, it has a displacement of about 800 to 1,000 tons.

The cost of this cheap version of the frigate has finally dropped to the point where the Navy can accept it. The Navy ordered more than 20 new frigates for more than 100,000 ships.

At the beginning, the navy made great fanfare to engage in battleships, then turned to engage in cruisers, and finally installed frigates on a large scale, which is also a helpless choice.

This is inevitable when the battleships of the Datang Empire gradually become larger, resulting in higher and higher technical difficulties and higher costs.

Today, an advanced Shanxi-class battleship is newly built. The three major systems of hull, power and armament add up to a total cost of more than 600,000!

The navy can't build a few ships even if the trousers are tightened up and down!

In order to maintain the size of the fleet and combat effectiveness, the Navy chose to expand the cruiser to solve the problem

However, when the new cruiser, the Hangzhou-class cruiser, cost more than 450,000 yuan, the navy still couldn't handle it.

Finally they set their sights on the frigate.

The initial cost of the cheap version of the thousand-ton frigate finally produced was only 180,000, which was more in line with the price in their hearts.

Therefore, large-scale construction and service began. However, it is worth noting that the initial cost of 180,000 yuan is not reliable. The prices of hulls, weapons and power systems given by shipyards and weapons companies are getting higher and higher. Today The purchase price of the new frigate has exceeded 180,000 and reached 200,000.

A frigate of 200,000 is actually not a cheap frigate!

Although the Datang Navy's road to developing cutting-edge steam-steel warships in recent years is extremely tortuous, because the cost issue is tossing and turning, it has to be admitted that today's Datang Navy has built a pure steam-steel warship navy. !

Since the nineteenth year of Xuanping, the ship-based steam engine has been used!

Today, in just eight years, the Datang Navy has successively served eight cutting-edge battleships, twelve cutting-edge cruisers, and fourteen cutting-edge frigates, a total of 34 ships.

Even the smallest frigates mentioned above have a tonnage of more than 1,000 tons, and they are all powered by sails, with steel as the main structure, wooden hulls, and wrought iron on the outside. Traditional thousand-ton sail wooden battleship.

The navy has undergone large-scale upgrades, and many old-fashioned wooden sailing warships have naturally gradually retired from active service.

Especially the original wooden sail frigates of 400 to 500 tons, these small tonnage frigates, because the tonnage is too small and the combat power is weak, the navy did not even bother to refit the steam engine, and thought about using a few years to pass the transition period and then retire it. , and then changed it to a civilian ship for sale to recover funds.

Now it is gradually decommissioned, but the expected sale of civilian ships is not feasible!

Because the hulls of these frigates are the hulls of warships, they were not designed to transport goods at the beginning, and they would not be able to carry much cargo if they were converted into civilian ships. Ordinary merchants would not want merchant ships converted from such warships at all!

Merchant ships of trading companies have an important feature, that is, they can carry a large amount of cargo, and other speed and firepower are secondary.

The Navy's warships, even if they are just four or five hundred tons of early frigates, are very warships, and they can't be loaded at all.

Therefore, the road of refitting and selling will not work. As for selling it directly as a warship, there must be a seller, but it cannot be sold casually.

After all, these wooden sail battleships, the Datang Navy does not look down on them, but that is only the Datang Navy. If it is placed in other countries, any country, it is a proper capital ship.

In addition to a few thousand-ton battleships, the main battleships of the Spanish and Portuguese navies are actually more than a few hundred tons of battleships.

Sell ​​these capital ships to indigenous countries around the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean? Like Ottoman? Safi Dynasty, isn't the Tang Navy looking for trouble for itself? Have you ever seen future naval powers sell their retired main battleships, such as aircraft carriers and cruisers, to other countries?

Therefore, all the indigenous countries in the Pacific Rim and the Indian Ocean should not expect to obtain retired warships from the Datang Navy, even if they are just sailing wooden warships.

Not to mention Spain and Portugal. As for other countries in Europe, Datang did not have much contact with them before. Strictly speaking, England was the first European country to have formal official diplomatic contact with Datang after Spain and Portugal.

Even the official representative of England is just a pirate and slave chief!

Sell ​​the decommissioned sailing wooden warships to the English, and let the English contain the Spanish and Portuguese at sea.

After messing up the situation in Europe, Datang stepped into Europe again.

This business has been done!

Although Xu Zhenchuan already had this idea in his heart, he would not agree directly. He had to consider it in detail and comprehensively consider the opinions of the army and navy.

Then he had to go to Europe to see the situation in Europe in person, and then send someone to England to investigate before making the final decision.

Of course, in order to express the friendship between Tang and Ying, Xu Zhenchuan also said to Hawkins that steam battleships should not be counted on, but ordinary wooden battleships with sails can still be used.

Hawkins was disappointed when he learned that Datang did not allow the sale of steam battleships, but only wooden sail battleships.

However, he soon figured out that although England had sails and wooden warships, they were limited by the domestic shipbuilding technology. The quantity was small, and the quality could not be on a par with the warships of the Tang Dynasty.

More importantly, their English enemies were not Tang, but Spain and Portugal.

It would be best if there were steam-engine battleships, but if there were no steam-engine battleships, only the sails and wooden battleships of the Tang Dynasty could be used, at least much better than the English battleships themselves.

But he not only needs those frigates of several hundred tons, he also hopes to get those battleships of more than one thousand tons!

In this regard, the navy group came to the door and told Xu Zhenchuan that this thousand-ton battleship was not impossible. The navy had more than 20 early wooden battleships powered by sails. Such early wooden battleships, even if After the refit of the steam engine, its combat effectiveness is not as good as the latest cheap frigates!

If there is a chance, the navy does not mind disposing of it, in exchange for funds to purchase new ships.

Therefore, this battleship can also be sold, as long as the steam engine is removed, it can be sold directly to the English.

Of course, this price is definitely not cheap.

The price of thousand-ton battleships these days is not cheap. Although this thing is useless in Datang, but in Europe, these thousand-ton battleships are the absolute main force, and the cost is expensive.

Datang sells old wooden sail thousand-ton battleships, and the price is definitely not cheap.

At this time, Xu Zhenchuan was still a little worried~www.wuxiaspot.com~ If there are too many sales, will the large number of Datang wooden sailing warships in the European waters affect the interests of the empire?

Compared with the navy, there is a fart influence. For those old wooden sailing warships, dozens or hundreds of ships add up, and the navy said that there is no pressure at all.

The cutting-edge steam-steel warships, their combat power and even their fighting methods, are not comparable to traditional wooden sailing warships.

The biggest enemy of the Datang Navy has never been the navy of any European country, but distance and supplies!

This was the case in the Indian Ocean campaign that year, and the same will be true for the Atlantic Ocean in the future!

So on this sail wooden warship, as long as they dare to buy it, the navy will dare to sell it!

Not only the hull, but even the naval guns!

Well, howitzer shells are not sold, only solid shells are sold wholesale.

Howitzer shells and even the big killers of the empire's land and sea armies, like steam engines, are big killers that are prohibited from exporting!

When Hawkins learned that England could buy thousand-ton sail battleships from the Tang Dynasty, he was stunned.

Thousand-ton ships are actually not uncommon. Many merchant ships, especially the carat ships, Galen ships and other types of ships, are actually more than a thousand tons!

But these days, professional warships and armed merchant ships are two concepts!

Professional battleship is a concept that only appeared in the last ten years, and it was also passed down from Datang. What is a professional battleship?

That is, every ton of weight is used for maritime operations, and the main means of killing is naval guns!

Equipped with dozens of large-caliber long-barreled naval guns, thousand-ton battleships born purely for decisive battles at sea, there are not many Spain and Portugal today.

As for England, they don't have one!

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