Chapter 125 King Dun takes office as an envoy (11)

Accompanied by Shen Baozhen, Ding Richang and others, the three Shimei, Shenghaizhou, and Xixiang many Japanese representatives were able to board the ship, climb the stairs, walk through the passage, and first enter the command room on the ship.

Dashanyan and others carefully observed that the area here is about 100 square meters, and near the bow, they are all thick glass portholes with a very broad field of view. Looking up, the three gun seats on the front deck, the nine-mén 175mm caliber main gun pointed to the sky. They knew that this was the largest caliber of all naval forces in the world. A few months ago, a shell was fired here, which sank the French second-class gunboat Renault Castle.

Behind the porthole, there is the operation command mechanism of the ironclad ship, with a huge wheel rudder with a diameter of more than one meter, various marking boards, and wartime command systems, all in this cabin. At the tail of the command room, there are four spaces covered by screens fixed to the ground of the cabin. What is inside and what is playing, but I don’t know.

The total number of Chinese and Japanese personnel was more than 60 people gathered in the command room, but there was no sense of crowding. Katsukaizhou and Saigo Koudao whispered a few times, and the two nodded frequently, "Prince, how many iron-clad ships do you have in your country?"

"There are six ships in total, and they were favored by the emperor and were named after the name of the name "Fu". I guess it was because of its effect of shaking the sea and the world?"

"Yes. With such an iron-clad ship, it is not a problem to come to your country's navy."

Shen Baozhen smiled when he heard this, "What is this?" He said, "My Emperor of Qing has issued an order to order a newer iron armored ship from Britain, Germany and France, named it Shanzi Class. It will only be called a tremor in the universe when it is completed."

"Oh? What is the difference between this mountain character level and the current far-season character level?"

"There are too many differences." Shen Baozhen nodded proudly, but did not talk deeply about this topic, but instead said, "Prince, can you signal to drive the ship?"

"Yeah, get the boat off"

"Your Excellency Prince, can you allow me to wait until the engine room to see?"

"I'm afraid this is not very appropriate?" When the ironclad ship first arrived in China, Yi Qiong, as the Navy Minister, had personally visited the engine room to see it. In addition to its huge size, the steam engines, other generators, water purifiers and other equipment were too loud and it was not only that it was not heard from each other, not to mention that there was also the flying coal dust, which made people feel unbearable.

Therefore, since that time, he has never been willing to leave the cabin in person. Even in the 19th year of Xianfeng, the emperor visited the seaside in the east and wanted to visit the cabin, but he still advised Yi Chi to stop it. This time he came to Japan. According to the regulations, as the most noble person in China, he wanted to follow him if he wanted to visit the various places on the ship.

Mitsumi Sanjo thought about it and guessed the reason why he was worried, "Then, you might as well let Katsuhiko and others go down to visit, and I will accompany you in the command room?"

"That's fine." Yi Qiong went with the flow and nodded to Shen Baozhen, "Danchu, then you will work on my behalf."

"Yes." Shen Baozhen agreed, waved his hand to signal Sheng Haizhou and others to move forward, and followed him.

Sheng Haizhou and others walked down from the command room. The more they walked, the more they felt that the Dingyuan ship was really a huge monster that they knew. Dashanyan secretly calculated that the stairs had fallen by no less than 150 levels. This did not include the distance between the corridors on each floor of the ship. But even so, they could only hear the increasingly loud roar in their ears, and they did not see the location of the engine compartment.

"Jun Shen, how many layers are divided into this ironclad ship? Can you tell me?"

"There are nine floors in total. The bottom floor is the bottom cabin, which is the coal storage cabin, the engine cabin, the common cabin, the combat military cabin, the kitchen cabin, the passage cabin, the sanitary cabin, the rest cabin and the command cabin." Shen Baozhen pointed to the cabin where several people were landing, and said, "What we are now in is the passage cabin."

The Japanese and his group were also naval warfare specialists. They knew at first glance that the so-called channel hiding refers to a special cabin prepared for combat, which directly leads to the fore deck. Except for connecting it to the artillery and artillery for special combat equipment storage such as ammunition machines, there are no idle facilities. Naturally, there is a channel connected to the combat cabin below. Another very prominent feature here is that the armor is extremely thick - in order to prevent enemy artillery fire.

Walking down, you can hear a huge roar and the strong smell of coal dust through the common cabin, and the temperature is getting hotter and hotter. Holding the handrails on both sides, going down to the bottom of the cabin, the lights above your head extend to the distance, allowing you to see the scenery in the cabin: two composite horizontal steam engines that Sheng Haizhou and others imagined were making a deafening noise. The cranks were banging and banging back and forth, because they had just started the ship, they were far from reaching the maximum speed.

Most of the sailors in the engine room were half naked. Against the backdrop of the light, there were still a few people who were completely naked. The oily and light on their bodies showed a full and healthy luster.

Shen Baozhen stood on the iron ladder and made a gesture to Sheng Haizhou. He was asking him if he still needed to go to the bottom to see? The latter quickly shook his head, pointed his fingers above, and took one step ahead and climbed upwards.

Up to the third floor, the noise gradually faded away. Sheng Haizhou and Shen Baozhen looked at each other and smiled bitterly, "Until now, I still can't hear anything in my ears."

"As it is, so my emperor has already issued an edict that the sailors in the engine room will receive the highest monthly salary on the entire ship." Shen Baozhen stared at the Japanese and focused on it, "I want to hide it from you, I am a few more than me, the Navy Minister."

"This is the first time I heard of it."

"Not only that, the emperor also has the order that all the engine compartments belong to have a holiday of no less than six months a year - this is also the only one on the ship." He said with a smile, "However, even if the salary is rich and the annual turnover is only half the time for ordinary people, none of the sailors in the engine compartments are not deaf."

"In this way, your emperor, your country, actually recruits turbine sailors with heavy treasuries?"

"It's almost the same."

Dashanyan listened to their conversation without falling a word from behind. Seeing that the passage cabin was coming again, he suddenly stepped forward a few steps, "Mr. Shen, can I wait for the deck to take a look?"

"sure."

Walking out of the passage on the fifth floor, pushing open the half-open cabin, and the eyes were bright, and everyone came to the ship deck where the front main gun that he had just seen in the command room. Yi Qi and Sanjo Shimi had already come out of the cabin in advance, stood in the wind, and were walking out of the cabin with their heads down. Seeing everyone, they smiled, "Mr. Minister, I don't even know a lot of things. Just right, a specialist is here, Lao Shen? Please explain to your minister."

Shen Baozhen could not fully understand the armed forces on the ship, so he followed the trend and pointed, "Deng Shichang, come and introduce you to the minister."

Deng Shichang squeezed out of the crowd, stood at the entrance of the gun cabin, took the sextant from the gunner's hand, and explained it to him.

Sheng Haizhou, Dashanyan and others did not put them on them. They turned their heads and spoke directly to the Qing army sailor who stood straight, "How many shells can such a front main gun be fired in every minute?"

"Send shè every two minutes."

“Where is the journey?”

“It can reach a distance of up to 12,000 meters.”

"Then..." Sheng Haizhou thought for a while, turned around and pointed to the speed cannon on the left side of the ship's side, "Where is such a cannon?"

The sailor glanced at it, shook his head and said, "I'm sorry. This is not what I know, you can ask the full-time gunner."

Sheng Haizhou secretly praised in his heart. The general trend can be seen from the small details. The Chinese Navy's sailors' division of labor is clear and they do not regard ignorance as knowledge. This serious attitude is very comparable to the Japanese Navy.

After asking a few questions, he turned around and walked towards the bow, stood at the bow of the ship and looked down. The bow of the ship was like a giant axe and split the sea surface, splashing cheerful lànghuā, which showed that the ship was quite fast, "Mr. Ding, what is the speed of the ship now?"

“Around the fifteenth quarter.”

"Can you allow the naval sailor to give a shot?"

"Yes." Ding Richang nodded immediately, "But, Minister, please go to the command room first? The danger here is too great."

"It's okay, please allow me and my students to stand on the deck and watch the whole process of sending shè in person."

Ding Richang knew that what he said was standing on the deck was only within the gun position, and he would never stand under the gun mouth. If that were the case, even if Katsuhashi and others were seeking death, they would not force themselves, and led Yi Qiong and Mitsumi and others into the cabin. Katsuhashi, Saigo Congdao, and Oyama Iwa, and others were willing to miss such a good opportunity. Bizhei could not accommodate these people in the gun position, so he had to stand outside and watch the gunners work flexibly and skillfully.

The bullet lifter installed the shells and cannons, pressed the electric button, ignited the bottom fire, the cannon roared, and the cannons were out of the chamber. A few seconds later, a ball of water was blown up on the distant sea. Sheng Haizhou and others politely applauded, "Very good, thank you for your work."

After feeling the power of the Yuan-class iron-clad ship, Dingyuan began to return to the voyage. When he arrived on the shore, he sent Yi Qiong and others back to Guanyi to rest. Sanjo Shimi returned to Tokyo immediately. He wanted to report to His Majesty the Emperor the power of the Qing navy that he had seen in Kobe this time.

In his inspection report, which was jointly submitted by Shenghaizhou and Xixiang Congdao, it was written as follows: "If we start a war with the Qing Dynasty now, we have no possibility of victory. As long as the "Dingyuan" ship can send all the standing fleets to the bottom of the sea. Your Majesty, warships, we want warships. We are a sea country surrounded by sea. Wei is the Weihai. Having warships that can confront "Dingyuan" is our most important thing."
Chapter completed!