Chapter 1532 Strategic Adjustment

"Ahem!"

As his thoughts raced, Zhou Xu let out two heavy dry coughs.

"I think this flintlock rifle is ready for mass production. You don't need to dwell on this minor issue. You can slowly shift your research and development focus to the design of the M1891."

"While we are working on improving and upgrading existing firearms, we are also studying the design drawings of the M1891."

When the design drawings were first given to them, they were developing the matchlock gun. Judging from the existing technical capabilities and manufacturing experience of the Great Zhou at that time, it was unrealistic to directly manufacture the M1891 right away. It was like thinking about running before learning to walk.

And now, their Great Zhou's industrial development is expected to complete a comprehensive upgrade in the next few years, so the design drawings of M1891 can finally come in handy.

After arranging this matter, Zhou Xu, who returned to the palace, was not idle either.

After all, a comprehensive upgrade often means the establishment of various project teams. While affecting the financial funds of their Great Zhou, it also causes a surge in the workload of Zhou Xu and his team.

Under this premise, as a master of power and also an avid fan of steam engines, Qin Fen has been very busy since his return.

Currently, Qin Fen holds the position of "project consultant" in nearly half of the project teams within Da Zhou.

There is no way. In the steam age, a large number of their currently ongoing R&D and upgrading projects are all related to steam power.

For example, expanding steam power to major industrial production plants within their Great Zhou for use in the chemical industry and steel smelting.

It is entirely conceivable that once the application is successful, the operating efficiency of these production plants will be greatly improved! At the same time, some processing and manufacturing capabilities will also be increased accordingly! And Qin Fen is an expert in this field, who else can we turn to? Regarding this workload issue, Qin Fen has complained to Zhou Xu a lot in the past month.

In this situation, Zhou Xu could only do his best to comfort her. There was definitely nothing else he could do for the time being.

But from a long-term perspective, Zhou Xu found two apprentices for Qin Fen. These two apprentices grew up within their Great Zhou over the years. Their intellectual potential has reached three stars and they are worth training.

Needless to say, Zhou Xu's idea was that he hoped Qin Fen would train them to become professionals in steam power, and when they grew up, they could help him share the pressure.

In fact, Zhou Xu had this idea a long time ago, but he had never found the right talent.

At that time, the existing talents had already been divided up among the major departments, resulting in Zhou Xu having to wait for a new batch of talents to grow up.

At first, Qin Fen thought this proposal was not bad.

After all, in the current situation, if he doesn't take an apprentice, then there will be no one to help him share the work pressure.

As a result, less than half a month after taking these two apprentices over, Qin Fen felt like he was going crazy.

"Damn it, I have to work and train apprentices at the same time? Is this a life for a human being? Just kill me!!"

It was a new day. Zhou Xu happened to pass by and planned to inspect the factory. Before he got close, he heard Qin Fen's roar coming from inside, and Zhou Xu stopped immediately.

"Well, I suddenly remembered that I have something else to do, so I'll go back to the palace."

“…”

Adjusting his route, Zhou Xu quickly escaped. He couldn't let Qin Fen catch him at this time.

"Your Majesty, the funding application from the South China Sea Shipbuilding Factory has been submitted."

After receiving the application report, Zhou Xu took a look at it and approved it directly.

The staff at the South China Sea Shipbuilding Factory basically had no time to rest. After the first ship was built, they immediately started working on the second one.

Unlike steam locomotives, the manufacture of steam locomotives requires corresponding rails, which greatly increases the cost and slows down the manufacturing process. This is mainly because laying rails is a huge project, but steam ships do not have this requirement.

Relatively speaking, the financial pressure can be smaller.

Under this premise, with the discovery of various resources on the tropical island, the importance of this island in Zhou Xu's eyes is also growing.

This also made Zhou Xu more eager to build more steam ironclad ships to improve his control over the sea! While the Great Zhou was preparing to complete the all-round evolution around steam power, on the tropical island, after the No. 001 ironclad ship successfully arrived at the front line, Bai Tu hurriedly added it to the daily tactical exercises.

During this process, the four large Patton warships and three Patton clippers that Bai Tu had left on the volcanic island for repairs have now completed their repairs and successfully arrived at the tropical island, bringing them a new batch of artillery equipment.

As a result, the size of the Great Zhou fleet located on the tropical island has completely grown to a steam ironclad ship, six large warships, plus twenty-five speedboats!

Among them, excluding the ironclad ship No. 001, the number of Da Zhou fast ships equipped with artillery weapons suddenly increased to eleven.

This will undoubtedly be a huge boost to the overall strength of the Great Zhou fleet.

This also made Bai Tu, who had been calm, become restless again.

Plans are never static and need to be constantly adjusted based on actual conditions.

The latest novel is published first on Liu9shuba!

After seeing the performance of the ironclad ship No. 001 and its artillery weapons, he felt that he was capable of fighting more aggressively.

Thinking of this, Bai Tu directly changed his original plan and prepared to take the initiative to attack again!

"Lieutenant, as before, I will leave you six large warships. You will be responsible for staying in the rear and ensuring the safety of the island. When necessary, you will carry out the rescue mission."

Bai Tu actually thought about whether he should leave some Clippers for Lin Youshu, so as to enrich the other party's response methods when encountering emergencies.

But in the end I gave up the idea.

Lin Youshu’s main responsibility is defense, and it is enough for him to be able to defend the island.

Large warships can easily slow down the pace during an attack due to their slow speed, but when defending at home, they are like stable mobile turrets.

With six large warships, they can withstand twelve or thirteen ordinary speedboats as long as the enemy dares to attack them.

Not to mention the replaced three-bow crossbows, which are now deployed in coastal areas and used as home defense equipment.

At that time, the coast will also be able to cooperate in opening fire to enhance defensive firepower.

Enemy fleets with less than 20 warships will have no chance of landing successfully.

In this case, the six large warships and the coastal defense facilities operated in unison.

If we add a few clippers on this basis, there won't be any major problems if they are used well. But if they are not used well, they can easily bring themselves down, which will increase the risk.

By the way, he also reduced the strength of his own offensive group, but Bai Tu felt that this was unnecessary.

This is not the first time that Lin Youshu has been in charge of the rear. With experience, he is much more at ease than before.

After simply arranging things properly, with the No. 001 ironclad ship as the core, the front-line fleet locked onto the position of the North Sea of ​​the Patton Empire and set out on the expedition with great vigor and enthusiasm! (End of this chapter)