Chapter 600: Nanhua in St. Petersburg (First update, please subscribe)
Just as Emperor Zhu was looking forward to the arrival of the next year, when the northern hemisphere entered autumn, the "Nanhua" finally sailed into St. Petersburg. The arrival of this exotic warship immediately caused an unprecedented sensation in St. Petersburg.
After all, this was the first time that advanced foreign warships had entered the port since the Crimean War.
Grand Duke Alexi Alexandrovich, the fourth prince of the Tsar and commander-in-chief of the navy, personally boarded the battleship after a simple welcoming ceremony.
Accompanying Alexei on board the ship in addition to the naval admirals was Lieutenant General Popov, the designer of the ironclad ship "Peter the Great". The warship was currently being built at the Kalny Island factory and was a 10,000-ton ocean-going battleship.
"Is its fleet built of steel armor? No wood?"
As Russia's top shipbuilding engineer, Popov asked this question right away. In that era, it was a very common design to sandwich wood between iron armor. The waterline armor of the iron hull of "Peter the Great" consisted of 559 mm thick wood, and was wrapped with 178 mm thick armor plates on both sides.
This is how the British built their warships.
"Yes, General. Our warship is made entirely of steel plates. It is absolutely the world's first-class warship. It has 305mm thick waterline armor and a central ironclad fortress design, making it an unsinkable sea turret. The two twin 305mm naval guns can fire shells weighing 350kg up to 13 kilometers away..."
Even though he is not an officer, as a businessman Buffett is extremely familiar with commodity indexes.
"But sir, according to the British Navy's test, steel armor is relatively brittle. If hit by a shell, it will easily shatter. So using steel armor is not a good choice!"
Alexei asked the question that concerned him the most. The reason why he cared about this question was because... he was really excited about this battleship!
"Your Highness, that is British armor, not Ming Dynasty armor. We have very special metallurgical technology. By adjusting it during smelting, we can ensure that it has sufficient toughness."
As a businessman, Buffett immediately started bragging, and he even went out of his way to show off the Ming Dynasty's unique metallurgical technology.
What’s so special about it?
The armor steel of the "Nanhua" was just ordinary carbon steel. The British Navy concluded that the steel plates were brittle when testing them because the phosphorus content in their steel plates exceeded the standard, which led to serious cold brittleness of the steel plates.
But Nanhua's steel plates... do have their own unique technology. Under the guidance of Emperor Zhu, high-quality carbon steel can be obtained through tempering during the steelmaking process. Although it is not as good as alloy steel, it is definitely better than the wrought iron used by various countries.
"If Your Highness has time, we can go to the ship to watch a movie after the tour. We have also conducted targeted tests on the steel armor, and the test process has been filmed."
"What is a movie?"
Alexei asked curiously.
"It's a moving photo, Your Highness. This is also a new invention of the Ming Dynasty. In fact, it has been put into use several years ago, but it has not yet been popularized. This time when I came to your country, His Majesty specifically asked me to bring a movie camera and a projector as a gift to His Majesty the Tsar!"
The more gifts you give, the less blame you will get. Besides, when you do business, you must give some gifts. In fact, gifts are just a stepping stone. In the international arms trade, there are often kickbacks, especially in countries like Russia. According to the tradition of previous dealings between the two sides, the kickback is about 5%.
An hour later, in the operations room that was temporarily filled with a movie projection room, Russian Navy Commander Grand Duke Alexei and a group of naval officers were all staring at the pictures on the screen, at those moving pictures, in amazement.
"He, he can actually move!"
When Alexei stood up excitedly, his shadow blocked the picture. Looking at the shadow on the screen, he turned his head and said to Buffett.
"Give me a set of this movie camera!"
Is this a bribe received in person? Of course not, this is just a normal interaction.
"As you wish!"
Buffett laughed.
"Everyone, although the movie only has pictures but no sound, we still demonstrated the test process through text. What you are seeing now is our M1872 305mm cannon, which can be used on warships and artillery positions..."
After a brief explanation, Buffett stopped talking because everyone's attention was on the movie. In the picture on the screen, the gunners stuffed a heavy shell into the chamber, then loaded the powder bag and the firing tube, and closed the bolt. All of this was very familiar to these soldiers.
The only thing that made them curious was what machine was recording the movements of these people? And the tape could be projected onto a white cloth. They kept looking at the projector, trying to figure out the principle behind it. Suddenly, the cannon erupted. As a large cloud of smoke rose from the muzzle, the cannonball whistled and flew into the distance.
The camera switched to the other side, where a steel plate stood in the empty wilderness. It seemed that a black spot had hit the steel plate. In a cloud of smoke, people were surprised to see that the steel plate seemed to be intact.
"Your Highness, look, this is the 305mm armor after being hit by a 305mm cannon, which is the armor belt used by the Nanhua. Apart from leaving a crater about 120mm deep, not only is there no breakage on the back, but even the surrounding area has not collapsed. From this, we can draw a conclusion that, with current military technology, no warship in the world can sink the Nanhua-class battleship, Your Highness."
When the lights came on, Buffett saw the surprise on everyone's faces, and he just smiled triumphantly. At that moment, these Russians were conquered.
They were conquered by the advanced weapons they had never seen before! Or rather, they were conquered by the intuitive display of the power of the weapons.
Noticing that the Russians still seemed not to have had enough of the movie, Buffett gave the order.
"Let's play another movie, let's play the Battleship Nan Hua!"
That movie was a news documentary shot when the "Nanhua" was being built. Now is a good opportunity for them to see again how this battleship was built!
Since you want to show off Ming Dynasty's technology in front of these Russians, give them a full-scale experience.
Just as Buffett expected, when these naval officers and technicians watched the documentary, they were all rapt.
Looking at them who had been conquered, Buffett couldn't help but sigh.
"Movies are such a great thing!"
(End of this chapter)
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