Nanyang Storm 1864

Chapter 388: The Zhendong Ironclad Ship Launched
Ten days later
September 1th, 2025

In the dock of the Royal Naval Dockyard in Manila Bay, a huge ironclad ship held a grand launching ceremony. King Zheng Guohui of Chu personally broke the champagne bottle, and then the warship sounded a long whistle.

With streamers flying and firecrackers blasting, and the high-spirited band playing in unison, the ironclad ship "Zhendong" with a displacement of 6535 tons slowly entered the bay along the slide. Everyone at the launching ceremony had an excited smile on their face.

In particular, Admiral Huo Haisheng of the Royal Navy was so excited that his face flushed with excitement, and the wrinkles on his face were piled up with laughter. He was happier than holding his grandson.

The successful launching of the "Zhendong" class ironclad ship represents the highest level of current Chu State military shipbuilding, and also represents that the Chu State ironclad ship has reached world-class standards. The significance contained therein is extraordinary.

During the design phase, the "Zhendong" class ironclad ship underwent several changes in its drawings, and its displacement soared from the originally planned 6500 tons to tons, mainly to enhance its endurance to meet the needs of long-distance operations.

The Chu State had many islands and vast sea areas, which required extremely high range for steam ironclad ships, at least 4500 nautical miles to meet basic needs.

It is precisely because of this that the tonnage of the "Zhendong" class ironclad ships has been increasing again and again, but the firepower of the main ship guns has not been significantly enhanced.

The most obvious feature of this type of ship is its strong heavy armor defense and long range, but the firepower of its main guns is average.

“镇东”级铁甲舰与德国筹建中的“萨克森”级铁甲舰技术水平相仿，最高航速14节，配备8门305毫米主炮，8门87毫米副炮和8门37毫米速射炮，这在19世纪70年代算是世界一流水平。

The ship's main guns adopt today's popular gun room design, with one in the front and one in the back.

Each gun room is equipped with four 4mm main guns, all of which have main gun bases with rotating muzzles, ensuring that no matter in the front, rear or side, up to four 305mm main guns can carry out fire strikes.

King Zheng Guohui of Chu, surrounded by his ministers, came to visit the ship.

He patted the black cannon with his hand, appearing to be in a very good mood, and said to the ministers with a smile:
"With this big guy, we can support the Royal Navy. With a strong dog-beating stick, we don't have to be afraid of walking at night anymore."

Everyone understood the King of Chu's implication. Admiral Huo Haisheng, Chief of the General Staff, stated firmly, "Your Majesty, rest assured. The Royal Navy officers and soldiers commanding these powerful ironclad ships will not fear any powerful enemy and will defend the kingdom's maritime borders to the death."

"Very good. We should have this spirit of contempt for the enemy." King Zheng Guohui of Chu said with a warm smile.

The "Zhendong" class ironclad ship is being built simultaneously at the northern and southern shipyards, the Manila Royal Navy Shipyard in the north and the Jinsha Shipyard in the south. It is expected that the "Zhenxi" will be launched at the Jinsha Shipyard in two months.

In the middle and end of next year, the remaining two ships, HMS Zhennan and HMS Zhenbei, will be launched and put into service in the Royal Navy.

This is the Royal Navy's heavyweight main equipment. After a period of use, the various advantages and disadvantages of the ship will be summarized and further upgraded and constructed.

The first ship of the next batch should be the "Zhenhai".

The four meritorious ironclad ships "Zhenhai", "Zhenhu", "Zhenjiang" and "Zhenhe" that are now quietly anchored in Manila Harbor will be retired one after another in the next one or two years.

Its naval designation will be inherited by new ironclad ships, which will continue to roam across the vast oceans of the Chu State and contribute to the defense of the kingdom's territory.

The displacement of each "Zhendong" class ironclad ship launched is different, ranging from more than 6500 tons in the early stage to nearly tons in the later models. It will be gradually improved depending on the usage, and the displacement of the ship will also be slightly increased.

Among the guests present
There were also many envoys from European and American powers who stayed in Manila all year round. When they saw this huge ship being launched, they couldn't help but feel mixed emotions.

It's impossible to hide such a big thing, so I just show it off.

The effect was naturally excellent. The British envoy frowned, his expression more serious than usual. The French envoy was more enthusiastic, constantly praising this type of warship as having reached the level of French ironclad warships.

The expressions of the Russian and Fuso diplomatic envoys were much more ambiguous, especially the Fuso envious envious Yamamoto Yukio, who showed an almost defenseless look of envy.

The Fuso Kingdom also wanted to own such a powerful ironclad ship, but unfortunately its financial resources did not allow it.

It is reported that the cost of building and equipping such a first-class main ironclad ship is about one million silver dollars. This batch of four "Zhen"-class main ironclad ships cost more than 450 million silver dollars, which is an astronomical figure in Fuso.

The State of Chu was able to easily bear the burden because it had rich natural resources, including crude oil, gold, silver, copper, iron, tin and coal mines, and had established a relatively complete steel and heavy industry, ranking fourth in the world.

Its steel production is second only to Britain, Germany and the United States. Britain ranks first with 41.7 tons, Germany ranks second with 31.2 tons, the United States ranks third with 20.9 tons, Chu ranks fourth with 17.6 tons, and France ranks fifth with 15.1 tons.

Due to the current global economic downturn, the steel production of various countries has not been fully utilized, and there is a considerable degree of surplus.

For example, the UK has the capacity to produce 75 tons of steel annually, but its actual output is only 41.7 tons. This is the real reason why the UK urgently needs to eliminate world trade barriers.

In order to protect domestic industry, the United States imposed heavy tariffs ranging from 50% to 85% on British textiles, and even more than 100% on steel products, which made the British hate it.

Comparison
The State of Chu and Britain signed a reciprocal trade tariff agreement, granting each other preferential tariffs on industrial products, which made the British very satisfied.

Large quantities of British cotton and cotton cloth were able to enter the Chu market, and sales continued to rise. This greatly pleased the British Textile Industry Federation, which became the most friendly social group towards Chu.

The ban on the sale of opium made British opium merchants deeply disgusted with the policies of the Chu State. They watched helplessly as they could not make large sums of money. These opium merchants were the social group with the most tough and bad attitude towards the Chu State.

It's all about interests, not feelings.

In the current global economic downturn
By equipping the British with large quantities of ironclad warships, on the one hand, the British Royal Navy replaced the new ships and accelerated the retirement of old sailing warships. On the other hand, it also helped to reduce overcapacity and inventory in steel mills and shipyards, and maintain the overall development of heavy industry.

Only in these few years

Britain and France built hundreds of ironclad ships like mushrooms after a rain, of which Britain accounted for 70%, and most of them were large ocean-going ironclad warships with a displacement of 8,000 to 9,000 tons or even tens of thousands of tons, which was extraordinary.

In 1872, Britain's annual military budget reached hundreds of millions of pounds for the first time, reaching 1 billion pounds, the highest military budget ever seen in history, worth about 02 million silver dollars, or 5 million US dollars, million taels of silver, and million yen.

By the second half of 1872, the overall world economic situation was promising, which would inevitably lead to an explosive growth in steel production among the major powers.

Steel-making powers such as Britain, Germany, the United States, and Chu have an average room for growth of 58.2% to %. For example, Britain's steel production has increased to tons, and Chu's steel production will also increase accordingly.

For the same reason

The State of Chu also invested heavily in the construction of the "Zhen" class, a flagship ironclad warship. This confidence stemmed from the popularity of kerosene in Europe, which brought a huge financial boost to the state. As a resource-rich nation, Chu's annual copper smelting output reached a staggering 7.1 tons, generating a total output value of million silver dollars.

Especially in northern China, the demand for copper was almost endless. The large number of high-quality silver and copper coins produced by the Chu State were widely circulated in the coastal provinces of northern China. One silver dollar was directly exchanged for one or two taels of silver, and the currency value was stable.

The silver dollars produced in the Chu State were exquisitely cast, with a silver content of 89%, a copper content of 10%, and a tin content of 1%. The net weight was 8.9 cents, which was slightly heavier than the historical Yuan Datou silver dollar.

The advantages are that it is easy to identify and convenient to exchange, and the exquisite patterns pressed by machines are difficult to imitate. It is widely welcomed by merchants in the coastal provinces and cities of northern China.

The same is true of copper coins, which are heavy and beautifully minted.

The silver and copper coins of the Chu State were also widely circulated throughout the Nanyang region. Today, their market position is second only to the British pound. They are widely circulated in Nanyang countries and colonies of Britain, France, the Netherlands and other countries. In many regions, they are the main trading currency.

The annual revenue from seigniorage alone was as high as three to four million silver dollars.

The price of exported kerosene dropped slightly in 1872, but the settlement price at the Batangas port still reached 64.5 silver dollars per barrel of kerosene and 12.6 silver dollars per barrel of crude oil.

In the European market

Each barrel of kerosene can still be sold for 108 silver dollars, and each barrel of crude oil can be sold for 17.6 silver dollars. Moreover, as many as possible are sold, there is no such thing as unsold goods.

Europe is short of crude oil resources and can only import large quantities from the United States and Chu. Basically, the European crude oil market is divided into 70% and 30% respectively, with the United States accounting for 70% and Chu accounting for 30%.

But the Chu State was not limited to the European market. The northern continental market that was being developed also had strong demand. This market was monopolized by the Chu State. The average landed price of each barrel of kerosene reached more than 110 silver dollars, making it the most profitable piece of fat meat.

Although the markets in Southeast Asia and Fuso are small, Chu is the only country that exports kerosene, and the profits are also very considerable.

The total annual export value of this item alone reached 1.3 million silver dollars, which brought huge financial resources to the Chu State's finances and the royal family, and the family's financial resources quickly became richer.

The rich resources of Chu made Fusang drool all over the floor, and their eyes were rounder than marbles, but they could do nothing because they couldn't get any of them.

If Britain's industrialization relied on cotton and textiles, then Chu's industrialization relied on crude oil and copper. The steel and shipbuilding industries actually did not make much money.

However, the steel industry is related to the military industry and a series of mechanical processing and manufacturing industries. It is the backbone of the kingdom's prosperity and is also the heavy industry that the Chu State vigorously develops. The pace of development must not stop.

By the end of June 1872
The annual production capacity of Chu's steel industry has reached about 25 tons, and six new steel-making blast furnaces are under construction.

After completion and production, Chu's steel production capacity will exceed 30 tons, reaching 32 tons.

How to consume the huge steel production capacity?

It became the direction that the Chu government needed to focus on, and developing the shipbuilding industry was an effective way. This included continuing to build first-class main ironclad warships, expanding the scale of 10,000-ton transport ships and immigration fleets, and developing coastal and inland shipping industries.

Another effective way is infrastructure. Today, the Chu State has many projects to build buildings, bridges, dams and railways, including some large-scale infrastructure projects.

For example, the newly proposed Kalimantan Circumferential Railway, Tongzhou Circumferential Railway and Metro Manila Railway Network plans are all large-scale infrastructure projects that will consume a lot of steel production capacity.

The new round of infrastructure development has already touched a deeper level.

The Chu State had many islands and abundant water resources, especially Shangri-La Island, which had many large rivers. There were also more than a dozen large inland rivers on Kalimantan Island, with river surfaces often hundreds or even thousands of meters wide.

Building steel frame bridges and railways across these large rivers is extremely costly, but with strong financial support, corresponding large-scale infrastructure projects have been proposed one after another.

This includes the feasibility study for the undersea tunnel project, which has been ongoing for more than three years.

As soon as the corresponding undersea tunnel project was proposed, it attracted the attention of many world-class engineers in Europe. Several big names arrived in Chu to investigate the local geological and hydrological conditions.

Among them was Ferdinand de Lesseps, a famous French engineer who was world-renowned for building the Suez Canal. After traveling to Panama to survey the terrain, he crossed the Pacific Ocean and came to the State of Chu.

The purpose is for the Chu State to initiate an interesting undersea tunnel project.

For every world-class engineer, engineering projects full of crazy imagination are extremely tempting, fascinating and irresistible.

Ferdinand de Lesseps assembled 11 internationally renowned engineers from the four countries to conduct a three-month detailed geographical and hydrological survey of the two straits of Chu.

The final conclusion is: this crazy idea is very feasible, but the difficulty of building an underwater engineering tunnel is also world-class.

At the current stage

There are not yet sufficient technical means to effectively control engineering risks, so it is recommended to wait for a while.

The biggest risks of undersea tunnels are sand seepage, water seepage, and the risk of collapse due to the soft geographical factors of the silt accumulation layer. If any of these risks occur, the entire tunnel will be destroyed.

Using the current shield tunneling method for crossing the Thames, the risks of building a Channel Tunnel would be increased by ten times or even more, and the above-mentioned technical difficulties cannot be effectively solved.

It was precisely because of the experts' conclusion that King Zheng Guohui of Chu had to give up his enthusiasm and wait for a while.

The 19s was the period of the steam industrial revolution, when technology exploded. News of major technological breakthroughs continued to come from Europe, covering light and heavy industries, machinery, chemistry, physics and other fields.

Take the "Zhen"-class ironclad warships that the Chu State is currently building with all its might. They will become obsolete in less than ten years. This is how fast European technology related to ships is developing.

Even so, the money has to be spent and cannot be saved.

Many engineers from Britain, Germany and other countries were hired to build the "Zhen"-class ironclad ships. This provided extensive training for technical workers in the shipyard and also trained young Chinese engineers who had returned from studying abroad.

This process of technological accumulation cannot be skipped in any way.

(End of this chapter)