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Wednesday, January 3, 1635, the last day of the New Year's Day in the Gregorian calendar.

After a heavy snowfall, a large army training camp resumed operations in the southern interior of the industrial area of the islands outside Manchester (Staten Island). Hundreds of Defence Army recruits, with an average age of less than 20, who volunteered last autumn and are still undergoing intense winter training during the holiday season.

Like other recruits of the year, Ren Xingzhong was also fully armed, dressed in a winter military uniform, wearing a helmet, carrying a backpack, carrying a Type 30A rifle, and walking in the queue to the rhythm of military music drums under the indifferent gaze of the instructor.

Although it has been almost three months since the queue drill for new recruits to enlist in the army was counted from the first day after the National Day holiday, the phalanx of hundreds of people still did not seem professional enough. In the U.S. Army, which emphasizes that military appearance is honor and morale, military discipline and platoon training usually lasts for two months. At least half of these recruits are a new generation of young people who have grown up in the country after more than 10 years of "pampered life", and they are also the generation of recruits with "the least satisfactory" training results per unit of time.

According to the rules, family members are not allowed to visit soldiers for at least three months after they join the army. But at one end of the boot camp today, there was a civilian carriage parked. On the door of the carriage is a family crest that everyone in Manchester City recognises, which is the earliest family sign of the Manchester City family.

Since Yang Wenwen's garment company under the Living Art Group has contracted the manufacturing contract for the army's latest generation of military bags, Yang Wenwen came to the boot camp in the outer islands to watch the training of her eldest son today on the grounds of observing the application of the product.

Because his wife Liu Lanxi and Yang Wenwen have a very good personal relationship, Defense Minister Zheng Quan also knows a little about Yang Wenwen's past. Yang Wenwen was raised by someone at the beginning, which made Zheng Quan and his family understand Yang Wenwen's special complex. No matter how much sneering outsiders disagreed, at least Zheng Quan still acquiesced to Yang Wenwen's request.

Rumors about Yang Wenwen's "calf protection" have spread among the traversers. Not only has orphans adopted the most, but also attaches so much importance to a son who is not her own, Yang Wenwen's image has "risen" a lot over the years. It also slightly diluted some people's negative comments about the Ren family's life style that was too high-profile.

"Annie, you can't see my brother."

Ren Xingai, who accompanied his mother to visit his eldest brother during the big vacation, swept his eyes over and over again over the phalanx of hundreds of people, and finally retreated from the car window in disappointment. Anne, who was sitting next to her, pinched her skirt nervously, and stared at the infantry queue as they turned in place with an expression of unstoppability.

Yang Wenwen didn't come to the window, just sat in the seat, blankly looking at the two flower girls opposite whispering.

“…… Halt! Take a break, stand upright! Align with the right! With a cold face, Sergeant Maddie walked slowly past the recruits who had completed the queue and were forming their formations. The whip in his hand snapped.

"To put it bluntly, you are the worst soldiers in this army since its establishment! Of course, I say this and it may affect some people. Even if you all come to this place voluntarily, if you don't take your mind out of your pretentious family life, I will give you a punishment that you can't imagine! ”

Maddie seemed to have particularly sharp eyes, and walked through several lines of queues to a recruit, and pointed the whip at the collar of the military uniform where the other party had loosened a button: "Private." Who allowed you to unbutton your collar?! ”

Covering a set of thick military coats, fully armed and stiff, walking for almost an hour, Ren Xingzhong was sweating profusely at this time. Although it is a cold winter, I can't control the heat and dryness of my body. So Ren Xingzhong secretly unbuttoned his collar halfway to release his anger, but he didn't know that he was caught by Sergeant Maddie at once.

Ren Xingzhong hurriedly let go of the rifle, and then quickly buttoned the collar in front of the eyes of the surroundings, and finally raised his sleeve to wipe the sweat on his forehead.

"Who allowed you to wipe your sweat?!" The whip in Maddie's hand struck Ren Xingzhong's steel helmet. The fierce gaze grew stronger.

Ren Xingzhong finally shuddered, and Sergeant Major Maddie at this time seemed to coincide with the appearance of the Fanyi pirate he saw when he was a child, which was extremely terrifying.

"Out of the queue. Gear up and run 30 laps around the playground! Sergeant Major Maddie saw the horror in the young soldier's eyes, and finally smiled, "As for the others, stand still and watch this idiot carefully." Whoever doesn't feel well, go for 30 laps! As a collective, as long as one person can't do it, no one is allowed to disband! ”

"Yes, sir!" Ren Xingzhong straightened his chest, picked up his rifle and ran out of the queue, and began to run around the field in front of all the recruits.

"Ah, I see!" At this time, on the carriage, Anne, who saw this qiē, suddenly shouted.

"It's big brother! Mom, it's big brother! Ren Xingai also screamed, grabbed Yang Wenwen's hand, who was still distracted, and pointed out the car window.

One, two, three...... 10 laps, 11 laps...... The weight of the whole suit was close to 30 kilograms, so that Ren Xingzhong already felt that his legs were as difficult to move as if they were filled with lead, but he was still grinding forward on the runway with an instinct. In the dazzling and painful vision washed by sweat, the outline of the carriage that had been quietly parked at the end of the school field became more and more blurred.

He had already seen his family crest, and could even imagine someone sitting in the carriage, but at this time, apart from a strong sense of shame, he could no longer raise the slightest confidence.

"God, it shouldn't be like this......"

Ren Xingzhong in his eyes had already fallen into the snow on the runway, and there were at least ten laps left at this time, but a recruit instructor walked over and stabbed the fallen recruit in the back with a whip, still cursing in his mouth. Anne covered her mouth, and two lines of tears quietly flowed.

"Go back, kids, and I'm going to take you back to school in the afternoon...... Don't worry about him, he's doing what he's supposed to do. Yang Wenwen just glanced at it, then turned her head and whispered to the driver outside the car.

On the school runway, Ren Xingzhong had been picked up by the recruit instructor, and continued to sway forward from side to side as if he had lost his soul, but he was muttering something that others couldn't understand. The hundreds of recruits who watched from the sidelines were all so frightened that their bodies straightened, for fear that because they were in a trance, they would be caught up by Sergeant Major Maddie.

……

The snow has only stopped for a day, and the Beiyang Shipbuilding Group shipyard in the western district of Long Island has resumed its intense work. In the harbor, two navy warships, black on top and red on the bottom, are slowly rowing into the waterway. Splashes a lot of water.

The shipbuilding boom that began in 1628 saw at least 10,000 tons of ships built every year, and the launch of a new ship was no longer an exciting event. In addition to the core workhorse, even the Navy Command may not hold any grand launching ceremony for each newly built warship.

Perhaps because of the freezing weather, the construction of the two Alfalfa-class light cruisers, which had only started in July 1634 and had a full load displacement of 1,450 tons, experienced an empty, lonely and cold launching ceremony, and the highest officer present was only Rear Admiral Zhang Chunrui, chief of the general staff of the Navy. And next, it is an outfitting project that lasts for more than half a year. It was hoped that it would be put into sea trials at the end of July 1635.

After the Alfalfa class eliminated the sail mast that affected the overall structure, not only the layout of the internal space of the hull was more reasonable, but the deck superstructure with two masts and a chimney was also completely in the style of modern warships. In terms of armament, three compact, double-mounted second-generation Westworth 90 mm naval guns with covered top semi-protective turrets are used, which are arranged in the front, middle and rear parts of the central axis of the battleship, which can exert all firepower at the same time for targets on any side, and the firepower configuration is more reasonable than that of the gem class, with a staff of 110 officers.

The Alfalfa class with a certain experimental nature was selected for the power plant of two sets of 1100 horsepower triple expansion steam units that were well shown on the princess-class large light cruisers, and the Schultz-Croft type thin water tube boiler was also used for the first time. Compared with the Yarrow water-tube boiler that has been used for many years, although the structure is much more complex, the coal-fired efficiency is further improved.

The Sativa class is designed for a maximum speed of 17 knots, due to the special emphasis on self-sustaining at sea. The Sativa grade has a coal load of 290 tons, consumes 11 tons of coal per day when cruising at 10 knots, and has a range of up to 6,000 nautical miles. Therefore, theoretically, the alfalfa grade can also start from the overseas territory of Yueshan Island and arrive at the overseas territory of Pearl Island at one time.

Before the practical application of marine steam turbines and single-stage gear reducers, the efficiency of marine reciprocating steam units used on a large scale today had not yet reached the level of less than 1 kilogram of coal per horsepower hour. Therefore, it is still difficult to comprehensively improve the endurance of all-steam-powered ships. In addition, the construction of logistics support for ocean-going naval bases cannot be completed in one step, and the Alfalfa class, which is currently being used as an all-steam warship and emphasizing low cost, is initially planned to be deployed only in the Atlantic Ocean and is responsible for the escort of routes and combat readiness patrols of various overseas territories.

Although the launching process is very "sad and cold", the Alfalfa class is currently a warship with many new concepts in the Chinese and US Navy, and has a variety of "first" titles: the first type of all-steam-powered iron-boned wooden warship, the first steam-driven turret with a tower shaft structure, the first second-generation Westworth naval gun with all-metal-hulled shells, the first Schultz-Croft-type fine-tube boiler, and the first fully enclosed bridge design.

All kinds of firsts add up, it is destined that the alfalfa class is only a transitional test model, and even because of the constraints of military spending, in order to simplify the production process and control the cost as much as possible, the alfalfa class has also adopted many civilian ship construction standards.

A total of two Alfalfa-class light cruisers were built, and both were started and launched at the same time, but their prices were slightly different from the originally planned "all-steam-powered low-cost ships". The displacement is roughly the same as that of the Jewel class of the sail hybrid, and the complicated sail mast has been eliminated, but the cost of the Alfalfa class is still $320,000 per ship, and Congress has questioned it at one point.

However, the explanation of the contractor Beiyang Shipbuilding Group is also in place: the construction technology, design structure, power pack, and naval guns used now are all stronger than the original "slamming the door to the extreme" configuration of the gem class, and the order quantity of the same type of ship is only two, and the normal construction period is more harshly controlled in 12 months, so how to calculate this price is already quite "friendly".

The launching ceremony of the two Alfalfa-class light cruisers was completed, a group of shipyard workers boarded the battleship one after another and began outfitting work, and on the other two slipways on the shipyard land, two wide-bodied, flat-bottomed, shallow-water metal barges also entered the final stage of construction, applying anti-corrosion paint for the ship.

After three months, a total of 100 tons of timber and 500 tons of steel plates were riveted. Because the barge structure is super simple, once the barge is launched, it is completed, and there is no longer much outfitting work required.

The economic development of northern Songzhou has entered the fast lane, and the transportation volume of commodities and raw materials has increased sharply, which has once again put forward high requirements for the transportation of the Song River. Using the previous inland river steam cargo ships to bear, not to mention the low transportation efficiency, but also occupy more manpower. Since 1630, a large number of wooden barges have been used for inland waterway transportation, which have low construction costs and large carrying capacity, and can form multiple towing tandem lineups at one time, which has played an important role in inland waterway transportation in various places.

Although wooden barges are inexpensive, the corrosion of wood in freshwater is much higher than that of seagoing ships in saltwater, and it is also more likely to cause greater damage in inland waterway accidents. In a "traffic accident" last year, the barge fleet of the Manchester City Inland River Transport Company was crushed and collided, and two thin non-motorized wooden-hulled barges broke on the spot, and as many as 1,000 tons of high-quality anthracite coal and other goods from the north sank to the bottom of the river, making Monty, the general manager of the Manchester City Inland River Transport Company, pay tens of thousands of dollars in compensation for this.

The current motor barge, numbered 1001, is the first metal barge with a small steam propulsion unit in Huamei, which was designed and built by the Manchester Inland Waterway Transport Company.

With an empty displacement of only about 600 tons, the No. 1001 river barge has a sturdy structure and can carry up to 1,500 tons of cargo, making it the largest capacity barge on the Song River, but the cost is only more than 30,000 US dollars. In normal operation, it can be towed directly by a steam river boat, and in case of emergency, it can also use the small 60 hp steam unit to sail autonomously at a speed of 3 knots.

No matter how "advanced" you say, after all, it is only a civilian barge with a super simple structure, but the Beiyang Shipbuilding Group has invested no less energy in this regard than a naval warship. Because this is the first large-scale application of metal hull riveting technology by Beiyang Shipbuilding Group. In the next few years, the construction of metal barges of various specifications will become a training project for shipyard workers, training qualified riveters for the construction of ocean-going iron-hulled ships. (To be continued)