Among the many design schemes of the Shipbuilding Department of the Navy's Ship Administration Department, although there are many science fiction works that are too advanced such as 10,000-ton steel steam warships, most of the design schemes are still relatively reliable.

In particular, the design of the Jiangnan has been recognized by many admirals and the Son of Heaven, and now it has started construction, and according to the design of the Jiangnan, after making certain changes, it has also completed the design of a thousand-ton cruiser and a 500-ton frigate.

In order to increase the speed, the hull is generally slender, the hull shell is laid with wrought iron armor, and the double-deck or single-deck artillery is arranged, equipped with traditional front-loading smoothbore guns, and howitzers are the main ammunition types.

The above three types of steam warships will be the main warships of the Datang Navy in the coming years, and will assume the heavy responsibility of the capital ships of the Datang Navy.

Among them, the Jiangnan-class battleship, the lead ship, Jiangnan, is expected to begin laying keels for construction in March.

After more than a year, it is estimated that the Jiangnan will be completed and launched, and other cruisers and frigates will also start construction one after another, and will be completed and launched next year.

When the navy built a newly designed steam warship with a combined sail, wooden hull, and wrought iron armor wrapped in the shell, the navy also began to modify the existing capital ships, especially those cruisers and battleships.

On the one hand, it is a traditional sail warship, its hull potential is limited, it is difficult to lay armor and other modifications, and the cost is extremely high.

In addition to technical and cost considerations, it is also to complete the modification in the shortest possible time, after all, it is impossible for the Datang Navy to put many capital ships on the slipway, and then it took ten or eight years to complete the modification of all warships.

Therefore, for the modification of existing sail warships, the most basic modification is the mainstay, and the installation of a steam engine is done.

If nothing else, starting this fall, we will be able to put together a main fleet of modified sail-steam hybrids.

When the navy was carrying out large-scale construction, it also began to conduct ocean-going navigation tests and even actual combat tests on the aircraft and sail warships that had completed the refit.

Guangdong Hong Kong Naval Base, a somewhat special fleet was formed, the number of this fleet is not much, there are only eight warships in total, but the style of six of the warships is a little strange, these warships have a huge chimney in the middle of the mast, at this time is emitting a faint white smoke.

The other four are still ordinary sail ships, and the interesting thing is that the size of the two sail ships is actually larger than the six steam warships.

The six steam warships, the largest of which was the frigate Jinzhou, had a standard displacement of 480 tons before the conversion of the steam engine, but after the modification of the steam engine, the displacement increased to 550 tons, and when fully loaded with coal and other war materials, the full load displacement could reach more than 600 tons.

There are also three 400-ton frigates, and the last two are 550-ton transports.

These six steam warships are also the four warships with the largest tonnage in the Datang Navy at present, as for the larger cruisers and battleships, they have not been modified for the time being, and the small-tonnage patrol ships are not suitable for ocean voyages, so they are not arranged.

However, there were two unconverted sail ships, one of which was an 800-ton cruiser, and the remaining one was a sail transport that appeared to be more than 900 tons.

This eccentric fleet will carry out an experimental ocean-going experiment to test the practical use of steam units in the face of complex sea conditions when sailing on the ocean.

To do so, they would set sail from Hong Kong, then head north through the Daeyuan Strait, then arrive at the naval base that the empire has established in recent years in the northern part of Daewondo, then continue north to Wusong Naval Base, and then sail north again, enter the East China Sea and then divert to Busan, and then return to Busan.

Because there are no small-tonnage patrol ships or other ships in the test fleet, this time the navigation test will not choose to sail in the sea area close to the coastline, but to sail into the depths of the sea.

Six steam engines were used for experiments, and two sail warships were naturally escorted for them, one cruiser was used as a bodyguard, and a large-tonnage transport ship was loaded with coal and other supplies to act as a supply ship for the fleet.

Although it is said that this voyage will be carried out in the coastal waters of the empire, because it will not sail close to the coastline, but will go deep into the sea, and many ports along the way actually have no coal to replenish, and even if there is, there is no high-quality anthracite.

As a precaution, the navy still prepared two sail warships to accompany it, and the steam fleet also had two steam transport ships.

When the test fleet officially set sail, as soon as it left Hong Kong, it sailed directly north.

But from the very beginning of the voyage, the six steam warships and the two sail warships behind were distanced in speed.

Because at the beginning of the voyage, the fleet began to sail at full speed, and at this time, the steam battleship used both sails, in addition to sails, also used steam engines, and the speed soon soared to more than twelve knots!

At this speed, the two sail battleships behind me were dumbfounded, although one of the sail battleships is a cruiser, and the other transport ship is also a fast transport ship specially prepared for the main fleet of the navy, its hull itself is relatively slender, with many sails and fast speed, otherwise the navy would not have specially sent these two sail battleships to accompany them.

But I still didn't expect that when the speed of these two sailing ships was still seven or eight knots, the speed of the six steam ships had collectively soared to more than twelve knots.

But it's not a battle or anything, it's more about conducting various nautical tests, so although the speed of the two sides is a little out of touch, the commander still didn't order a speed reduction, but continued to keep the fleet sailing at full speed.

As a result, the distance between the two sides became longer and farther, until in the evening, a relatively large storm blew on the sea area where they sailed, and taking advantage of the storm, the two sail warships behind began to soar.

The speed of the sail battleship can also be very fast in the wind, especially in the windy weather, so the speed of this sail quickly soared to more than fourteen knots.

On the contrary, on the side of the steam warship, in order to test the performance of the steam engine in the stormy weather, the commander directly ordered to lower most of the sails, and then mainly relied on pure steam power to advance, and the speed of the ship did not increase but decreased, from the first twelve knots, thirteen knots, to about eight knots.

I have to say that the steam engine technology of the Tang Empire still has great limitations, and in the first year, it was still impossible to achieve a single steam engine with too much power, and among the six steam ships refitted, the most powerful Jinzhou, its horsepower was only two hundred horses.

Relying solely on the power of the steam engine is not enough at all.

Fortunately, the Royal Institute of Technology has already given a relevant plan, and now they have solved the technical problems of the three-cylinder steam engine, and at the same time, they have also given the continuous improvement of the follow-up steam engine in theory, and there is no problem in designing thousands or even thousands of horsepower shipborne steam engines, the problem is still in the three major steam engine manufacturers, the processing equipment is not up to standard, and this giant steam engine cannot be built at all.

Today, among the three major steam manufacturers, in fact, their task is very heavy, they have to make steam engines for trains, but also to produce industrial steam engines in large quantities, and then they also have to produce shipboard steam engines.

The difficulty of the shipboard steam engine is the biggest one, because the navy's warships are so large, the power requirements for the steam engine are very high, and the previous 100 horses are not enough at all, and the navy still dislikes the 200 horsepower steam engines that are improved later.

You must know that the design plan of the Jiangnan requires a minimum of 600 horsepower, and the navy also requires a combination of a single steam engine and multiple coal-fired boilers to be directly used, and the parallel scheme of two steam engine units proposed by the steam engine manufacturer is not very recognized.

This means that the power of a single steam engine will reach 600 horses, which is a great challenge for steam engine builders, at least the existing equipment can not process such a large steam engine, and it is very good that they can build 300 horses of steam engine in the existing production equipment in a year.

If you want a steam engine with higher power, you must upgrade the production line, and you must have all kinds of production equipment for large and even giant ships.

Therefore, even the hull of the Jiangnan has begun to start, but in fact, the choice of steam engine is still inconclusive, and the three major steam engine manufacturers are racing against time to upgrade their machinery and equipment, improve the production process, and increase the power of a single engine as much as possible, in order to win a large number of steam engine orders for the main ships of the Navy.

However, it is uncertain whether it can be taken out within a year, so although the navy does not agree with it, in fact, in the end, the plan to install two steam engines is very possible.

Although the power of the steam engine installed in the current test fleet is not large, there is no problem in its use, and it can still allow the navy to accumulate a lot of experience.

Therefore, even if the experimental fleet was a little nervous about sailing all the way north, it still gritted its teeth and continued to sail north, if nothing else, just to accumulate experience and train professionals!