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Chapter 19 Seeing the ship in water and thinking about technology

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    The sea water slowly flows along the more than two hundred water injection holes on both sides of the 400-meter-long stone dock. As the sea water pours in, the oil-impregnated oak wood and other oil-impregnated wood that hold up the hull begin to flow along.  When the water surface rises and floats, the hull needs to be supported by wood. This is to prevent the hull from colliding with the dock when launching.  //www.//

    Situations such as hull collisions often occur when ships are launched. Hull outfitting is the most important part of ship construction, and launching accidents are the most chaotic and accident-prone part. Therefore, the German responsible for the repair of this battleship  Marine engineer Feng Ekman nervously inspected every link, and after the seawater injection reached the calibrated level, he directed the workers to slowly open the steel dock door of the mechanical structure.

    When the dock door opened, there were no ripples on the parallel water. In the dock, the officers and soldiers of the Army and Marine Corps who received the ship had already begun to board the ship from both sides. Under the attention of everyone, Li Zicheng slowly walked towards the high platform set up in front of the dock.  The high platform is aimed right at the bow of the ship.

    Standing on the stage, looking at the "Atlantic Bow" that was transformed into the "Atlantic Ship" during the restoration, Li Zicheng had a hint of pride on his face. It can be said that from the "Hanoi" and "Settsu" two ships  After the battleship was captured by its own troops, the shame of the Chinese Navy during the Sino-Japanese War was somewhat alleviated. Since the world entered the ironclad era, up to now, it seems that only the capital ships of two countries have been captured during the war. One is the Qing Dynasty.  The "Zhenyuan" of the Beiyang Navy is also a warship of the Russian Imperial Navy that was captured by Japan in the Tsushima Strait ten years ago. Now, China has also captured two main warships, although they were salvaged and floating.

    Looking at the extremely obvious "Atlantic bow", Li Zicheng knew that he had gone through a lot of careful consideration when choosing this extremely special "ship bow". Atlantic bow is the name of Germany, and its form originated from the earliest  On the scissor bow of a "clipping sailing ship".  The clipper sailboat is a high-speed sailboat designed by the Americans in the 19th century. Because of its excellent sailing performance, various countries have imitated it.

    For a long period of time during World War II, German naval ships usually had to operate for a long time in the Atlantic Ocean with rough sea conditions and frequent storms to break engagements. Therefore, they were very fond of this kind of bow and named it "Atlantic Bow".  "It means it is very suitable for sailing in the storms and huge waves of the Atlantic Ocean.

    It is precisely because he learned about this past event from the documentary that Li Zicheng chose this "Atlantic bow" that is suitable for the ocean and can adapt to harsh sea conditions. He also took out the warship data from the technical information center and translated some of the data on the ship's bow manufacturing.  , they were handed over to the shipyard, which was responsible for modifying the two ships.

    However, when the shipyard was setting up the transformation plan, it turned out that the construction of the "Atlantic Bow" was far more difficult than they imagined. Compared with the vertical bow and the inclined bow, the "Atlantic Bow" not only had a larger bow volume but also had  Large buoyancy reserve, and because the angle of the ship's bow outwards continues to increase with the rise of the stem chord, when the ship's bow is submerged in the water, the buoyancy increases in a geometric progression, which can avoid the ship ""  to improve the ship's anti-sinking performance and longitudinal pitching stability under high sea conditions.

    In addition to this advantage, the Onishi bow also brings another advantage, that is, the high-speed characteristics of the "Atlantic bow" are better reflected in its alias "clipper bow".  The bow of a flying scissor ship will narrow the waterline of the bow to an almost blade shape to achieve the so-called "long and sharp curved scissor-shaped bow post", which is a posture suitable for racing.  The performance of small wave resistance, so called "flying shear", combined with the floating bow and freeboard, prevents the ship from serious waves when sailing at high speed, ensuring that the ship's powerful power can be converted into maximum  High speed.

    Although the "Atlantic Bow" has many advantages, the most fatal shortcoming of the "Atlantic Bow" is that its manufacturing process is more complicated than other bows. It requires large equipment such as a 10,000-ton hydraulic press to cold forge the bow pillar, which is not suitable for large quantities.  Not to mention production, and the cost is high.  In addition, the bow of the Atlantic ship has lengthened the deck length and increased the trunk side area. In the battleship's artillery battle, this means that the probability of being hit by the enemy increases. The most obvious one can be used against the "Hanoi class" before the transformation and  Using the new bow "Dinghai", the hull is significantly longer.

    Although there are some shortcomings, the reason why Li Zicheng chose this kind of bow at that time was very simple. First, the Chinese Navy has limited warships. Even if it sends warships into the Pacific or other oceans during war, it will have to bear the burden of a long time.  , or even months-long engagements, so the seaworthiness of the ship must be very good, and due to the characteristics of engagements, Chinese warships do not need to face Japanese warships with powerful firepower. Therefore, the consideration of damage caused by bombing is  Put in a secondary position.

    Although the "Atlantic Bow" meets the current needs of the Chinese navy, compared with Germany, China does not boast of being first-class in metallurgical industry and heavy industry. Although it has the technical resources of Germany during World War II, ChinaBased on the data and development data, it is not difficult to understand the choice of the Atlantic bow. However, choosing the "Atlantic bow" is still a huge challenge for the metallurgical industry and heavy industry of Lianyungang.

    The final result is that when building the new bow part, it is even more time-consuming than the anti-torpedo belt on the side. But on the other hand, Li Zicheng has never doubted the effect of "large projects to promote industrial technology improvement"  However, just as when the two ships were being repaired, someone proposed that armor steel and gun blanks could be purchased from the United States, and Bethlehem Steel was also willing to provide armor steel and gun blanks to Yingyoumen Shipyard, but in the end this proposal was rejected by Li Zicheng  , the reason is simple - it is better to build than to buy.

    The Chinese people have always had a problem. They will never study anything they can buy. They will only study carefully what they cannot buy. This contrast is extremely obvious in the industrialization roads of China and Japan, two East Asian countries. Opium  After the war, the Manchu Qing Dynasty's Westernization Movement went through a long and slow process of recognizing and understanding Western science and technology.  In the half-century of two vague understandings of rejecting Western civilization and worshiping foreigners, the ignorant Manchu Qing Dynasty finally lost to the small country of Japan, which was on the same starting line.

    Since the mid-19th century, the Qing Dynasty has seen the gap between Eastern and Western war cultures from its failure in fighting foreign aggression.  The Westernization faction headed by Li Hongzhang realized that the widespread application of steam power and gunpowder in the military field was driving changes in the methods of modern warfare.  War has transformed from a face-to-face combat with cold weapons to a long-distance confrontation with hot weapons.  The Qing people's enthusiasm for foreign guns, foreign cannons, and foreign ships increased sharply, and the state invested a large amount of silver to purchase advanced weapons and equipment.  While importing weapons, the government also built weapons manufacturing plants in various places, planning to enhance the combat effectiveness of the Qing army by comprehensively imitating foreign guns and weapons.  Before the outbreak of the Qing-Japanese War, the Qing Dynasty already owned Jiangnan Machinery Manufacturing Bureau, Tianjin Machinery Manufacturing Bureau, Jinling Machinery Manufacturing Bureau, Hubei Gun Factory, Sichuan Machinery Bureau, Shandong Machinery Bureau, Jilin Machinery Bureau, Guangdong Gun and Bullet Manufacturing Factory, and Fuzhou Shipping Bureau.  Huangpu Shipyard, Dagu Shipyard, Lushun Shipyard and other military industrial enterprises.

    During the Westernization Movement, the Qing government introduced blindly without coordination and plan, wasting a lot of resources.  The armies under the jurisdiction of various governors purchased Western-style weapons from European and American countries through various channels. Due to the lack of rules and regulations, the guns purchased were of various countries, types, and specifications, and the old and new were mixed. As a result, there were many types of guns in the Qing army.  Different types of ammunition and complex operations bring great difficulties to combat operations, ammunition supply, and firearms maintenance.  The counterfeit firearms and equipment produced by various arsenals are even more diverse and the workmanship is not up to standard. Many guns cannot be fired safely. Even though homemade projectiles can be fired, they lack accuracy.  Factory production efficiency is low and progress is slow. Counterfeit firearms have not yet been finalized and put into use. New firearms with better performance and affordable prices have emerged internationally.  The situation with imitation of steamships is generally similar. Several self-made ships are costly, slow and consume too much fuel.

    The Manchu Qing Dynasty and Japan adopted different stances and attitudes on accepting Western military technology.

    The Manchu Qing Dynasty had strong financial resources but ignorant ideas. In the eyes of the court officials, as long as they had the same military equipment as those in the West, they would naturally have a powerful country.  For this reason, the Manchu Qing Dynasty insisted on buying and imitating, and there were no independent innovative technological achievements for decades.  Japan's national financial resources are weak, and the Meiji Restoration army aims to completely get rid of outdated military concepts and take the innovative path of absorbing and digesting modern military technologies from European and American countries.  At the end of the 19th century, Japan had become a rising star on par with Western powers in many fields of science and technology.  The different attitudes of the Qing and Japanese countries on this issue produced different results in the war. The Manchu and Qing officials paid a heavy price for their stubborn and pedantic ideas.

    The Manchu Qing dynasty's simple imitation and plagiarism did not achieve the expected results. The military refused to purchase low-quality and expensive domestic weapons, resulting in a large backlog of guns and ammunition manufactured by various military-industrial enterprises that were unsaleable.  The disappointed government and military began to turn to the other extreme, adopting a strategy of following the new trend of international weapons development and purchasing the latest foreign weapons in real time. As a result, the Manchu Qing Dynasty became a large buyer in the international arms market at that time.

    Europe in the 19th century was the most prosperous arms market in the world at that time. Near the purchasing groups of Manchu officials with long braids, there were many Asian faces with the same skin color mixed in.  Wearing Western clothes and Western-style hats, they are quite gentlemanly. They are Japanese scholars with strong professional knowledge in weapons engineering and full interest in the latest weapons technology.  The former seems to have plenty of money and the courage to buy back all the new weapons in Europe; the latter seems humble and studious, trying to bring European technology back to his country.  In terms of their attitude towards the acquisition of modern military science and technology, the Japanese adopted completely different considerations from the Manchus.  After completing the transformation of the military structure, the Meiji government continued to make great efforts to study hard in the field of new generation warfare technology and develop its own weapons industry in an attempt toCreate a modern army supported by advanced technology.

    The final result is that the Manchu Qing Dynasty¡¯s strategic thinking on the development of military science and technology lacked the concepts of digestion, absorption, and innovation. They only wanted to increase their country¡¯s military power in one fell swoop through the shortcut of purchase and imitation.  As a result, the Manchus never really mastered European gun technology, and their country's basic science and technology industry also distanced itself from Japan.  The gap in military science and technology between the Qing Dynasty and Japan was not only reflected in the field of guns and weapons, but also in areas closely related to war such as logistical support, health care, food supply, and material delivery. The gap was also increasing day by day.  When Japan's Meiji Restoration was in line with Western technology and the country had thousands of kilometers of modernized railways, the Manchu Qing Dynasty, which relied on its arrogance, was running its original "railroad carriage" on the railway tracks.

    This short-sighted mentality, even a hundred years later, is still a flaw in China's introduction of technology. After the Second World War, the industries of China and Japan started almost at the same time. Compared with Japan's foresight in introducing technology, and the industrialization  The Provincial Federation of Industry and Economics stipulates that "the steel and chemical industries can only approve one equipment introduction investment decision per year, and it must be approved by the Prime Minister" and the "introduction of machine No. 1, localization of machine No. 2, and domestic production of machine No. 3".  The path of "attracting and improving" started from the Meiji Restoration. When it comes to introducing technology, Japan pays more attention to the introduction of technology rather than the direct import of hardware equipment.

    In addition to the systematic and scientific introduction of Soviet technology in the early days, in the 1980s, the introduction of foreign technology became a one-stop-shop approach, with various regions competing to purchase foreign equipment, completely ignoring the technology absorption of imported equipment. From the early days of reform and opening up,  Suit production lines were introduced in droves. Later, the market became saturated and clothing factories closed down. Then provinces introduced home appliance production lines. Later, steel production lines, automobile production lines, city modeling projects, etc. were all in the rough style of the "Great Leap Forward"  mode of economic development.  Their characteristics are similar: they use the hard-earned money of the people of the country to invest. If they succeed, it will be their "political achievement" for promotion; if they fail, they are not responsible for themselves.  The final result is visible to all and speaks for itself.

    For example, steel companies, since the late 1980s, have all taken pride in introducing old steel plants from European countries at "low prices" due to high personnel and raw material costs, loss of competitiveness, and market saturation.  It is claimed to "save foreign exchange for the country" and "save funds for enterprises", but does not consider the country's overall hardware technology absorption, and even causes the situation where similar equipment researched by the Metallurgical Research Institute cannot be sold. The final result is extremely obvious. China may be  It is the world's largest steel producer, but most of its equipment or equipment cores are imported.

    Later, the so-called localization was still the well-known "localization shell". Perhaps it was because of understanding the truth about China's so-called "world's largest steel power" and the introduction of technology that Li Zicheng stubbornly pursued it.  "Localization" has even reached the point of no matter the cost or price.

    However, it was precisely this kind of stubbornness that led Lianyun Iron and Steel Company to produce ST52 shipbuilding steel after producing ST42 shipbuilding steel in the second year of the Republic of China. During the repair process of the "Hanoi-class" battleship, it was achieved/
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