Munitions Empire

Chapter 361 357 new technology stack

Retaliation was certainly immediate, but it took time for operatives to travel to the targeted area, so nothing could be rushed; patience was the only option.

Tang Mo was patient, so in the following days, he focused his primary attention on the development of aircraft and the manufacturing of the Jade City-class battleships.

Setting aircraft aside for a moment, the Jade City-class battleship was the first of its kind in this era, symbolizing the very concept of a battleship, and indeed, an invincible leviathan.

A near-perfect copy of the Dreadnought battleship, the Jade City-class battleship boasted a colossal displacement of nearly 17,000 tons.

It was bigger than a paddle steamer, and during its construction, it struck awe and fear into the hearts of the workers—its thickest steel plates on the hull measured over 270 millimeters!

It's no exaggeration to say that it was a true steel fortress at sea, and in its presence, any warship was nothing more than a toy.

The hull, already taking shape, amazed every worker with its dense network of watertight compartments, coupled with a propulsion system the likes of which they'd never seen before, highlighting this warship's extraordinary nature.

Since the Great Tang Group had yet to possess torpedoes as weapons, such systems were removed from the Dreadnought; instead, it boasted only artillery for offense.

This simplified the design and allowed the warship to carry extra fresh water, somewhat improving support capacity.

The Dreadnought was considered a groundbreaking creation because it boldly incorporated a number of advanced technologies.

Firstly, it had a rational design for armor protection and enhanced its armor across the board to fortify its defense, surpassing all previous designs.

As a decisive weapon, its armor thickness exceeded that of all previous warships, enhancing its survivability.

Secondly, in terms of core propulsion, the steam turbine's performance improvements gave it a significant edge over the old steam engines. Although the Dreadnought had a displacement of over 17,000 tons, it still achieved a terrifying speed that outpaced armored warships.

This allowed the Dreadnought to emerge as the fastest on the seas instantly upon its debut, securing absolute dominance in evasion and pursuit through its speed.

Then, in terms of firepower, the Dreadnought did away with secondary armament and courageously standardized the caliber of its cannons; moreover, using the latest technology, it stacked an unprecedented array of 305-millimeter cannons onto the warship!

This caliber could easily crush an opponent, effortlessly penetrating enemy armor. The immense damage wrought by these large shells made attacking all the easier.

A total of 10 guns meant that at least 6 could be focused in any given direction, maximizing the projection of its own firepower.

These cannons were fed by internal autoloaders, increasing their rate of fire and even enhancing the density of the firepower.

What was scarier was the unified caliber allowed for consistent ballistic performance, making the Dreadnought's fire control system more precise and easier to command than other warships.

Uniform ballistics brought welcome advantages; requiring only two sets of gun aiming control equipment as backups for each other, every main cannon on the warship could hit its target, which was previously unimaginable.

The Tang Group had already experimented with this design on the Wolf-class cruisers, where all the cannons were of 150-millimeter caliber. The effectiveness of the unified caliber was quite pronounced.

Thus, on the Jade City-class battleship, the Great Tang Group saw no reason to abandon such an excellent design; as a result, the design was not only adopted for the Jade City but also further glorified.

Because the warship had sufficient tonnage, the designers from the Tang Group outfitted it with an even more advanced and larger optical aiming system.

This system, utilizing the principle of light reflection, increased the baseline length for aiming, thereby enhancing long-range accuracy of the cannons.

In test ranges, relying on this aiming equipment, the 305-millimeter cannons could easily hit targets 10 kilometers away and might even strike fixed targets beyond 15 kilometers.

Keep in mind, during this era, cannons capable of firing 15 kilometers had never even appeared, let alone hitting targets at such a distance.

Although firing at moving warships on the undulating sea was far more challenging, everyone believed that even with some allowance for error, this fire control system would enable the 305-millimeter main guns to hit enemy vessels around 7 to 8 kilometers away without much problem.

But still, there was that worrying issue—the cost of 305-millimeter cannon shells was almost more expensive than a sailboat; using such cannons to bombard enemy vessels seemed like a losing proposition...

Within the dock where the Jade City-class battleship was being built, a worker gazed at a deck that had already been laid out and swallowed hard.

This warship was downright magical, so much so that it gave him an almost surreal feeling—standing at the bow of this ship, one could not even see its stern!

Before him were mountain-like machinery and equipment, those still-secret steam turbines and boilers.

The chimneys that were to be connected up top with these steam turbines and boilers had already been delivered, towering several stories high beside the hull of the ship, equally enormous.

Owing to the adoption of a novel assembly method, the construction speed of this ship had also been greatly increased.

He swore that he had never seen such a gigantic ship in his life; he did not even know what exactly it was intended for.

Even just using its sharp prow to ram, this warship could cleave any and all types of sailing ships currently traversing the seas directly in half. Even unarmed, this great vessel was already the mightiest warship in the world!

However, as a worker on this ship, he knew it was armed. To ensure the warship's safety, the ammunition room was placed below the waterline, in the very section of the hull he had just finished!

There lay the chambers, protected by armor and filled with rows of ammunition shelves. He had seen them with his own eyes, exactly five of them.

The first three ammunition chambers were arranged in a '?' shape around the command tower—one at the bow and one on each side of the command tower.

Between the latter two ammunition chambers located aft, there was a boiler room, with thick steel partitions separating and protecting each one individually.

From today's perspective, such a design with ammunition rooms flanking a boiler room, though it enhanced firepower, had a somewhat negative impact on defense.

This layout became gradually obsolete; a more optimized arrangement for battleships should include two turrets at both the fore and aft, or two forward and one aft.

Either configuration would save on the length needed for armor protection, allowing more concentrated and thicker armor to ensure the safety of the ammunition stores and the boiler propulsion areas.

However, given the era when the Dreadnought was born, there seemed to be no enemy ships capable of contesting it at sea, so these minor defensive details were overlooked in favor of installing an additional turret.

The Jade City's mainmast towered over 30 meters high, with a look-out tower on top. Due to the design, the look-out close to the chimney probably wouldn't enjoy a pleasant smell during operations.

There was no getting around that; to improve air quality for those inside, the mast had already been raised by at least five meters.

Counting the flagpole above the look-out tower, this massive mast stood over 35 meters tall, a true testament to standing tall and seeing far.

The reason for such a tall flagpole was because this warship, since the very moment of its construction, was destined to serve as the flagship of the fleet.

Here, Tang Mo's Dragon Banner would be raised, proclaiming to the entire fleet that the master of the Great Tang Group was aboard, while it also served to intimidate the enemy.

Another mast stood amidships, between the two rear turrets, fitted with an auxiliary look-out tower, as well as telephone and other equipment.

The entire warship crew totaled close to 800 people, almost the size of an augmented battalion combat unit of the Great Tang Group.

Operating such a warship was not an easy task, as it had no fewer than 18 boilers and four steam turbine assemblies powering four thick shafts, which in turn rapidly spun the massive propellers under water, providing the thrust needed to propel the ship forwards and backwards.

With one refueling, it could travel over 10,000 kilometers at economic cruising speed, setting sail from the Great Tang Group's ports spread across the Endless Sea, with an operational radius covering the entirety of the Endless Sea.

If accompanied by a supply ship, it could continue to operate at sea for an extended period—the warship was equipped with numerous cranes, both folding and fixed, allowing it to simply conduct replenishment operations at sea.

Since the Great Tang Group had no torpedoes and the enemy was unlikely to possess such weapons, the Jade City had removed the conspicuous anti-torpedo net booms on the sides of the Dreadnought, giving the Jade City a cleaner and much more streamlined appearance.

Regrettably, the workers could not yet see the entire warship; they could only observe it changing day by day, becoming more complex by the day.

Layer upon layer of decks were stacked up, with complex wiring and ventilation systems being installed in their designated spots.

This warship was a masterpiece of new technology, incorporating a plethora of advanced technologies including telephones.

It was also equipped with bona fide radio sets capable of immediate voice communication over short to medium distances—a completely new technology not used on the Brunas-class ironclad warships.

Do not underestimate these technologies; had it not been for the development of new air conditioning systems, the large vents of the Brunas-class ironclads would have had to be retained on the Jade City-class battleships.

Now, the new ventilation system gave the Jade City-class a far neater look, and enhanced its protective capabilities.

All of this was well known to the workers who built it. Had it not been for technological advancements, this warship would be unfeasible for use; indeed, it wouldn't have been possible to construct at all.