The Tang Dynasty newspaper also reported that in addition to the Jiangnan, the Datang Navy has preliminarily completed the steam improvement work, and more than half of the capital ships have been successively modified with steam engines.

The current Datang Navy is fully capable of forming a huge steam fleet for expeditions, and at the same time, this huge fleet is not affected by monsoons, wind directions, etc., and can move freely in any sea area and at any time in the world!

Such a large fleet of steam is enough to crush any enemy sea force that dares to resist!

In fact, this time the Datang Navy is also a little boastful in public opinion propaganda!

On the one hand, the number of ships in the Datang Navy is too large, and the output of high-power military ship-based steam engines is limited, and the output is only so small in a year, and it is impossible to complete the modification in just two or three years.

Even if we take 10,000 steps back, there is no problem with the production capacity of carrier-based steam engines, and the navy does not have to worry about tasks such as combat readiness duty, nor does it need to consider the number of slipways, but the navy will not have so much money for a while!

How can I change it if I don't have money?

The shipborne high-power steam engine in this year, that's very expensive, okay!

The power system equipped on the Jiangnan uses four coal-fired boilers, two three-bar steam engines, and twin propeller propulsion, with a total output of 700 horsepower, which is 100 horsepower greater than the original design target of 600 horsepower.

However, although the total power was large, the navy was still very dissatisfied, because their initial design scheme was to use multiple coal-fired boilers, a single steam engine, and a single propeller propulsion scheme, and the output power should reach 600 horses.

It is a pity that so far, although the Royal Institute of Technology has completed the research and development of the four-cylinder steam engine, and the technology of the three-cylinder steam engine is very mature, the success of the research and development does not mean that it can be produced, and the number of three-cylinder engines that can be produced is also a problem.

At present, among the four major steam engine manufacturers in China, only the Navy Steam Engine Factory can mass-produce high-power three-cylinder steam units, which have the largest volume and weight, and are also the largest products in single engine strategy, which is 350 horsepower per machine.

As for the other three major manufacturers, their three-cylinder steam engines are not very neat, and the power of a single engine is not even 300 horsepower.

However, the Navy Steam Engine Factory also invested heavily in the design and construction of large-tonnage production equipment for them, which were used to produce all kinds of huge parts and components.

After these production equipment of the navy steam engine is developed, it is estimated that it will be able to produce a larger three-cylinder steam engine, and it is conservatively estimated that the power of a single engine can soar from more than 300 horses to more than 1,000 horses.

Now restricting the development of the Datang ship-borne steam engine, it is not the theoretical technology of the steam engine, these theoretical technologies have long been played by the Royal Institute of Technology, and now the development of the ship-borne steam engine is mainly restricted by the production equipment.

The production equipment is not good, and the steam engine produced is not large enough, so the power is naturally not there.

After all, if you want to increase the power of the steam engine, the easiest way to eliminate violence is to increase the steam pressure or volume.

Increasing the vapor pressure is harder, and simply increasing the volume is much easier.

The Jiangnan uses the latest shipborne steam unit of the Navy Steam Engine Factory, with a total output of 700 horsepower, which is enough for the Jiangnan to sail without relying on sails.

In turn, you can gain a huge tactical advantage when fighting.

But when outsiders don't know, the coal consumption of the Jiangnan is also huge, and because of the large size of the steam unit on board, and the hull is made of a large amount of steel, and the sail system and naval guns must be retained, which makes the tonnage that the Jiangnan can carry coal-fired is not much.

The coal it carries is at most more than 1,000 kilometers to keep the Jiangnan sailing.

More than 1,000 kilometers is a very low value for the capital ship conducting ocean-going operations, which means that if the sails are purely used, in fact, the Jiangnan will not be able to maintain a long continuous combat time.

Of course, the steam ships of the Tang Empire today, except for a very few ships, are powered by pure steam engines, and most of the other steam ships retain sails.

In daily sailing, in fact, sails are still the mainstay, and steam power is only used to assist navigation, mainly when entering and leaving the port.

Only when the battle breaks out, the steam engine will be the main power, allowing the battleship to gain higher speed, regardless of the direction of the wind!

The poor endurance of pure steam power is the problem of Datang's steam warships.

In addition, most of the steam warships that have been refitted by the Datang Navy are actually only equipped with two-cylinder steam engines, and the power of a single engine generally does not exceed 200 horses.

Only a very small number of them are equipped with three-cylinder steam engines, and there are only about a dozen ships including the Jiangnan.

This is because in recent years, the four major steam engine manufacturers of the empire have been able to mass-produce only two-cylinder steam engines, and the mass production of three-cylinder steam engines was only completed by the Navy Steam Engine Factory last year, while other manufacturers do not have this ability for the time being.

Those early steam engines had less power, poor endurance, and many faults and various faults.

It is enough to use it as an auxiliary power in wartime, but if you want to use it as a primary power, you should not count on it.

However, the navy will naturally not say many technical details publicly, so that the people are worried, and if they say something good, people are willing to listen to it, and some technical details will be known within the navy, and there is no need to announce them to the public.

So what people see is that the Datang Navy has a huge steam fleet, and it can fight for the empire at any time!

At the same time, the army is not to be outdone, and also said that the army will serve His Majesty at any time with a million troops, and the army will send a division at will, and it will be able to take it down in three or five days, the first day of preparation, the second day of fire testing, the third day of general attack, the fourth day of finishing, and the fifth day of ending all battles, this is the Malacca battle plan that the army has publicized to the outside world!

Well, the army is also bragging, if a random division is sent and it will be able to take Malacca in five days, it will be too underestimate the Portuguese.

If the army sent a main infantry division over, it was naturally possible to take Malacca, but it would take more than five days, and it was estimated that the time for setting up artillery positions and preparing materials alone would be more than five days.

You know, the Portuguese are not stupid, they have long known the danger of Malacca, and in the past ten years, in order to prevent the Tang Empire from attacking Malacca, they have also spent a lot of effort on the defense of Malacca.

They built Malacca into a huge fortress by forcibly recruiting local natives for many years, building cities and forts in Malacca, and especially learning the fortress defense system of the Tang Empire.

If more than a decade ago Malacca was just an ordinary colonial port, now, Malacca is a typical military fortress!

The Portuguese stationed more than 3,000 native troops in Malacca all year round, in addition to more than 5,000 native troops.

It is worth noting that most of these indigenous troops came from various Portuguese colonies such as India or North Africa, and were recruited and trained by the Portuguese, and then equipped with guns and other weapons, and their combat effectiveness cannot be judged by ordinary indigenous armies.

In addition to the 8,000 ground troops, the Portuguese also stationed a large fleet in Malacca, with many battleships of more than 1,000 tons, and even more warships of smaller tonnage.

In a real fight, although it is said that in the face of the almost overwhelming military superiority of the Tang Empire, it is unlikely that the Portuguese will be able to hold Malacca, but no matter how it is, it will not be impossible to hold it for five days.

However, by belittling the enemy and elevating oneself, it is beneficial for the people to build confidence in the military.

When people thought that the Portuguese were nothing more than scum in military power, vulnerable to the Imperial army, they would have no worries.

When the final public opinion propaganda was underway, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the empire also completed the task entrusted to them by the Son of Heaven!

When the Malacca shelling incident first broke out, they immediately submitted a protest to the Portuguese, and demanded that the Portuguese hand over the murderers who provoked the incident to be dealt with by the Tang Empire, and at the same time, in order to prevent this kind of thing from happening again in the future, they asked the Portuguese to withdraw all military forces in Malacca, destroy the forts, and tear down the fortress walls!

At the same time, the Portuguese were required to compensate for the losses of the empire in the Malacca shelling incident, the specific amount was 10 million yuan, of which part was to compensate for the cost of ships and goods, part of the military expenses incurred by the Tang Navy for rescue activities, part of the cost of personnel pensions, and the indirect costs incurred by the Tang Empire due to this incident.

In short, with various names, the compensation amount of 10 million yuan was enough!

Finally, the King of Spain was asked to apologize to the Tang Empire in the form of a formal diplomatic document, and sent the crown prince of Spain to Jinling City with a letter of apology in person, and sent a letter of apology to the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty after bowing to him.

In order to prevent the recurrence of similar incidents, the crown prince of Spain will be held hostage in Jinling City until the death of the current king of Spain, and return to China to inherit the throne, and the crown prince will be sent to the Tang Empire as a hostage.

To put it simply, there are four articles, indemnity, withdrawal of troops from Malacca, apology from the king of Spain, and the crown prince of Spain to Jinling as a hostage.