Seven Seas Beacon Fire

These two ships, which have not yet been completed and launched, are the next generation of main warships planned by the Ming Dynasty Royal Navy, with a standard displacement of over 4 tons.

These two massive ships, which are now facing difficulties in production, have become a major concern for the veteran admirals. Their mindset in the face of these two main battleships, which are not yet ready for launch, is probably similar to that of the Red Navy admirals who faced the Ulyanovsk nuclear-powered aircraft carrier after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

When Sa Dingming arrived at the shipyard and found Li Che, he saw Li Che having a friendly conversation with the ordinary workers who stayed behind inside the shipyard.

Li Che, who was talking with the ordinary workers, obviously noticed Sa Dingming. This grandson of the emperor was very approachable and took the initiative to step forward to salute and greet Sa Dingming: "General Sa, why did you come to the shipyard in person? Are you here to supervise the construction of the torpedo boats?"

Li Che's question left Sa Dingming speechless. He could only smile awkwardly and ask, "Why did the grandson come straight here instead of asking for a cup of tea at the headquarters after arriving in Songjiang Prefecture?"

"I came here specifically to see how ships are built because I've never seen it before. Today has truly broadened my horizons. I never imagined that our navy could plan and build such powerful capital ships."

Li Che's words were not sarcastic; he was genuinely amazed. These two main battleships, whose construction has essentially stalled, are set to extremely high standards in terms of technical specifications, not only in terms of their large tonnage but, more importantly, in terms of the naval guns they are planned to carry.

The largest caliber gun among the active warships of the Ming Dynasty Royal Navy is the 330mm naval gun, which is also the smallest caliber gun among the super-dreadnoughts of various navies.

However, these two behemoths seem to be planned to be equipped with giant guns with a caliber of up to 420 mm. If they can be built, they will be the largest caliber naval guns currently equipped on battleships in the world.

However, all these past glories were almost buried with the abolition of the Ming Dynasty, which had lasted for nearly 600 years. Therefore, when Sa Dingming saw these two giant beasts, he felt particularly uneasy.

"Grandson..."

“General Sa, you don’t want to see these two capital ships, which are almost halfway through construction, end up being scrapped into a pile of scrap metal, do you?” Li Che interrupted Sa Dingming’s polite words and asked directly, “If you still expect to see these two ships sailing on the sea in the future, then I hope that you will not hide anything from me in our conversation.”

After his initial astonishment, Sa Dingming's face immediately lit up with a look of wild joy.

Sa Dingming certainly hoped to see these two largest and strongest capital ships ever planned by the Ming Dynasty Royal Navy roll off the shipyard and truly enter service as combat warships.

However, he himself was well aware of the immense difficulties involved, as the amount of money required for further investment was astronomical. Therefore, when he met with the Prince of Jin, he did not even mention the two ships.

Unexpectedly, the grandson seemed to have a strong interest in this.

"I will tell the Grandson everything I know without reservation, without holding back any information!" Sa Dingming replied immediately.

"If there is sufficient funding in the future, is it really possible for Jiangnan Shipyard to complete the construction of these two warships without any technical bottlenecks?"

Faced with Li Che's question, Sa Dingming remained silent for a moment before answering truthfully: "Most of the new technologies involved in the construction process have basically been overcome... except for the main gun."

Chapter Nineteen: Only a great nation can accomplish her.

It's all Emperor Yongning's fault!

After Sa Dingming's explanation, this was the first point Li Che came to.

Although this last sunny and cheerful emperor of the Ming Dynasty is now dead, he left behind quite a mess. Not only did he mess up the country's major policies, but this emperor, who liked micromanagement, also caused quite a few other negative impacts.

While it's possible that some might be blaming the former Ming emperor with the idea that "the dead are more useful than the living," as the supreme Son of Heaven, it's not unjust for these blames to be placed on him. With almost unlimited power comes almost unlimited obligations, not to mention that many of the current messes in the navy are indeed caused by his mismanagement, especially the naval guns used on the main warships.

Beginning in the late 20th century, due to the conflicts of interest between the Ming Dynasty and the Victorian Empire and the Kingdom of Gaul in Southeast Asia, the relationship between the Ming Dynasty and Letania, two countries with no conflicting interests, rapidly improved. From industry to resources, the Ming Dynasty and Letania were able to complement each other in many ways.

The Leitanians needed abundant resources and raw materials, and the Ming Dynasty, as the world's largest country by land area (including the Three Xuan and Six Wei), naturally possessed the richness of natural resources to meet their needs. Therefore, the Leitanians imported large quantities of the resources they required from the East.

While the Ming Dynasty's industrial scale was impressive, its processing capabilities were still somewhat rudimentary compared to Letania. Therefore, the Ming Dynasty also introduced many technologies and industrial products from Letania.

In the military field, the two countries have conducted more in-depth exchanges and cooperation. Leaving aside the technical exchanges and cooperation in the army, the cooperation between the two sides in the navy began as early as the 9th century. Initially, the Ming Dynasty imported new 150 mm rapid-fire cannons from Leitania, while Leitania, which was just starting out and did not have much experience in manufacturing large-caliber cannons, introduced large-caliber main guns from the Ming Dynasty.

This cooperation was of great benefit to both countries and quickly expanded to multiple technological fields, including armor steel and boilers. The further deepening of naval technology exchanges between the two countries was largely due to the fact that two emperors from the East and West began to wield power—Emperor Yongning of the Ming Dynasty and William II of Letania.

This is truly a perfect pair, like the Crouching Dragon and the Young Phoenix.

Although these two emperors, from today's perspective, were a pair of incompetent rulers who ruined their empires—one trapped in exile overseas and the other probably waiting to be reincarnated—these two emperors, who were "perfectly matched" in every sense, did play a crucial role in the early development of the navies of both countries.

At that time, with the Ming Dynasty and Leitania passing naval laws one after another, the expansion of the naval fleet was determined in the form of decree. After entering the 20th century, the Ming Dynasty and Leitania even joined forces with the Habsburg Škoda to start developing a new generation of large-caliber naval guns as equipment used by the main ships of the two navies—the new 280 mm naval gun.

At the beginning of this century, this was a very high-performance cannon. In the later period before the Dreadnought era, navies of various countries realized that future capital ships would only need one cannon. There was a consensus on unifying the main gun of future capital ships, but the main difference was whether to unify it to a 12-inch cannon or a 10-inch cannon.

The former refers to the primary main guns of battleships, while the latter refers to the secondary main guns. In fact, initially, the secondary main guns were more popular than the primary main guns, because the main means of output for the last generation of dreadnoughts of various countries was not their main guns, but the more numerous and faster-firing secondary main guns.

John Fisher's initial concept for dreadnoughts was to use 10-inch guns. This was partly due to his experience as commander of the Mediterranean Fleet, where his flagship was a battleship equipped with 10-inch guns, making him more familiar with and fond of this type of artillery. It was also because, before the advent of a unified fire control system, all other things being equal, 10-inch guns with more barrels were indeed more powerful than 12-inch guns with larger calibers.

The 280mm naval gun combines the advantages of both to the greatest extent. While the power of the naval gun is not significantly reduced compared to the 305mm naval gun, the German-style horizontal wedge breechblock provides a faster rate of fire.

The Ming Dynasty's dreadnoughts were all equipped with 280mm guns. However, with the emergence of the British 13.5-inch guns and super-dreadnoughts, even though the Ming army's 280mm guns had been lengthened to 55 times their barrel length (Leyte, equivalent to 52 times the length of the Viking gun), it was clear that the 280mm guns were no longer sufficient.

Thus, the classic 330mm naval gun was developed under the joint research and development of China and Germany. This naval gun was widely equipped on the Ming army's four types of battleships and battlecruisers, namely the Kaiyuan, Dingyuan, Haiqi and Zhiyuan. It was also equipped on the three types of capital ships, namely the Caesar, King and Derfflinger, by the Leitanians.

However, this was also the last time China and Germany jointly developed a project, because the two emperors, who were like the legendary Zhuge Liang and the young Phoenix, had their own different ideas.

First, regarding the Leitanians, Wilhelm II was very fond of the 330mm naval guns. He felt that such guns were sufficient to deal with future wars, so the German Peacocks were not very interested in developing larger caliber guns. He hoped that the navy could find a way to install more 330mm guns on the battleships.

Wilhelm II also interfered with the development of naval equipment simply because he preferred a certain caliber. In another timeline, however, he preferred the 305mm naval gun.

The Leitanian Navy could only develop a 15-inch naval gun under the guise of "improving the 330mm naval gun," just like the Soviet Red Navy in another timeline used the roundabout method of developing aircraft carriers with aircraft-carrying cruisers, to cope with possible future needs.

The Ming Dynasty, on the other hand, took a completely different approach. They had originally planned to develop 380mm naval guns, proceeding gradually. However, Emperor Yongning pointed out that since the Ming Dynasty was invincible, its navy needed an invincible warship. A 380mm caliber simply lacked spirit! He demanded a larger caliber!

The specifications set by the designers and R&D department were changed several times over the next two years, from the initial 400 mm to 420 mm. As a result, the gun, which was originally intended to be the world's largest caliber and most powerful naval gun, was never born.

It would be a miracle if it didn't have a difficult birth. This fickle research and development process is just like the development of the Tejas fighter and Arjun tank by Barat in another timeline. So this naval gun, which the navy had high hopes for, has not yet been installed on ships. After the Battle of the Java Sea, a few prototype guns were manufactured and tested, but Emperor Yongning at that time was like a mobile game player who spent money to draw cards but ended up with nothing. His attitude towards the navy, which he originally loved, changed 180 degrees.

In addition, the subsequent political turmoil made it difficult for the navy to maintain its daily operations, let alone continue testing of the 420mm naval gun.

Therefore, this cannon is still in the stage of not completing the national equipment finalization process, while the unprecedentedly powerful "Longyuan"-class battlecruiser in the plan is still stuck on the shipbuilding slipway.

In fact, it can be seen from the design of many of the main warships currently in service with the navy that the Ming navy prefers the triple-mounted design. It is not impossible that they did not consider replacing the triple-mounted 330mm naval gun with a twin-mounted 420mm naval gun if the 420mm naval gun was successfully developed.

However, even during the Battle of the Java Sea, the Ming Dynasty still had to use its largest 330mm naval guns to fight against the British 15-inch cannons.

"We haven't completed the national standardization process, but at least we've built a prototype gun. In the future, we can continue to complete the national standardization process. Even if the development of the 420mm naval gun fails, we can temporarily equip these two ships with four-barreled 330mm naval guns."

Li Che offered Sa Dingming grand promises without any psychological pressure. He knew that these two ships were the apple of the eye of the naval commander and even the entire navy. He wanted to use these two ships to keep the navy in check, especially to let those old guys know that the current battle situation required torpedo boats to fight, which would not affect the country's continued support for the development of large ocean-going surface ships in the future. The two were not contradictory.

If it weren't for the tight schedule and heavy workload, and the fact that they really needed to rely on these veterans in the navy to coordinate the upcoming operations, Li Che would have liked to carry out a major purge within the navy—you bunch of insects, you think you can get away with it by blaming Emperor Yongning? There are factional conflicts within the navy, and even now, they are deliberately holding the torpedo boats back at this critical juncture for the sake of so-called "long-term development."

These idiots, you might say they're brainless, but they're thinking quite far ahead. They're afraid that once they realize that small torpedo boats can indeed achieve great victories with limited resources, they'll reduce their investment in large naval vessels.

Do you think they have any brains? You're arguing about the green-water navy versus the blue-water navy right now, but why don't you think about what would happen if the country were to be completely defeated? At that point, let alone a green-water navy, you might not even be able to afford a yellow-water navy. You'd be crying your eyes out!

However, Sa Dingming was much simpler than those guys. He was already a little dizzy from the flattery he had presented. Just as Sa Dingming was about to nod in agreement, a somewhat hoarse and unpleasant voice came from behind them.

"What's the point of having these daydreams now? These two ships will never be finished!"

Li Che and Sa Dingming turned around with some surprise. Because the two had asked their entourage to step back and keep a sufficient distance while they were talking, they were the only two people in this area next to the shipyard's dock. For security reasons, the guards responsible for security on the perimeter would not allow anyone to approach this area casually.

But the person walking towards them with a cane was clearly not someone the guards could stop.

"Old Liu, don't say such discouraging things now."

“I’m not saying anything discouraging now, I’m telling the truth. I’ve stopped daydreaming, but you’re different. You’ve probably been in the position of commander-in-chief for too long and have started daydreaming again.”

The man who arrived was Liu Duncheng. He had narrowly escaped death during the self-destruction of his flagship, but he had also lost a leg and an eye forever.

After becoming disabled, Liu Duncheng naturally bid farewell to the front-line fleet of the navy. Li Che never expected to see an "acquaintance" here again.

However, Liu Duncheng now seems to have suffered a setback and become cynical. Through Sa Dingming's introduction, he now understands that Liu Duncheng's current position is the director of the Naval Shipbuilding Bureau. It can be said that the two giant ships behind the two men are the most familiar to Liu Duncheng.

“Naval shipbuilding isn’t like building with blocks. You can’t just put the blocks you need together and you’ll be able to assemble it well.” Liu Duncheng glanced at Li Che, who was already wearing a naval uniform. Although Sa Dingming had once praised Li Che as a “genius” in front of him, Liu Duncheng thought that Sa Dingming was just flattering the Prince of Jin in order to gain his support.

If a kid under 20 years old has been on a ship since he was 14, and knows how to hoist sails, fire, and steer, that would be normal. But to say that he is proficient in many professional naval skills and can come up with a highly feasible combat plan is unrealistic.

Then I can only conclude that you're talking nonsense.

Li Che looked at Liu Duncheng, who was different from the Liu Duncheng he had read about in history books in another time and space, with some curiosity. Liu Duncheng was also looking at his grandson.

“Your Highness, you may think what I just said is alarmist, but sometimes the truth is unpleasant to hear. However, there must be people in this world who don’t speak the truth just because they find it unpleasant.” Liu Duncheng countered, “Does Your Highness know why I said these two ships could not be completed?”

Faced with Liu Duncheng's question, Li Che felt like a student taking an open-book exam: "To complete these two ships, I need the Privy Council of the Ming Empire, the Imperial Ordnance Department, nine different military equipment industrial ministries, more than 600 related specialties, and 4000 supporting manufacturers. In short, a great country is needed to complete these ships, but that great country is no longer here."

Liu Duncheng and Sa Dingming were both taken aback. They hadn't expected Li Che to give the answer so quickly, and they wondered where he had gotten these exact numbers.

Chapter Twenty: M! C! G! A!

These figures were obviously just made up. Not to mention Li Che, even Sa Dingming and Liu Duncheng wouldn't know how many different factories were involved in the industrial chain of building these two main warships without deliberately checking the data.

Although these figures were fabricated, the reason these words were able to spread so widely on the internet in later generations was naturally due to the powerful emotional appeal they contained.

"Does Your Highness also think that the Ming Dynasty is a great country?" Liu Duncheng asked with a tone that was both surprised and scrutinizing.

It's no wonder Liu Duncheng's tone was a bit strange. After all, in the eyes of others, although the Li family did not directly rebel against the Ming Dynasty or commit regicide and usurpation, the Zuo Zhuan (Commentary of Zuo) states in the chapter "Duke Ling of Jin's Unruly Conduct": "If you were the chief minister, you would not cross the border when you fled, and you would not punish the traitor when you returned. If not you, then who is it?"

The reason why your Prince Jin's Mansion did not suffer the same infamy as Zhao Dun in the Spring and Autumn Period is not only because the whole country and the people hoped that someone who "looks more like a ruler" could take charge of the overall situation under the current circumstances, but more importantly, it is probably because the political morality has been declining for more than a thousand years since Sima Yi swore an oath at the Luo River, so the fact that the Prince Jin stood by and watched the Yingtianfu Incident happen in the early days seems somewhat insignificant.

However, your Li family has now become the de facto gravediggers of the Ming Dynasty. Under such circumstances, you, who may be seen by many as the future heir apparent, are able to evaluate the Ming Dynasty in this way.

"That's for sure. Since the Tang Dynasty, the Han people in the North and South have been separated for nearly 500 years. After the Southern Song Dynasty, the Central Plains were completely submerged. If it weren't for the Hongwu Emperor, we would either be scattered like Europe today, or if it weren't for the Longwu Emperor, the Central Plains would probably have fallen into the hands of foreign races. The Ming Dynasty was the most legitimate dynasty to have ever been established. No one can deny or erase this fact. It was a glorious dynasty and a great nation."

Li Che let out a deep breath: "But unfortunately, because the Ming Dynasty was too virtuous, neither the emperor nor the court officials cared much about governing the people. After all, the Ming Dynasty, which was established by expelling the Tartars and restoring China, would not rebel unless the people's lives were truly unbearable. However, the Northern Ming Dynasty was ultimately forced into popular uprisings and died at the hands of bandits, almost causing the Jianzhou to take over the country in the chaos."

Emperor Longwu revitalized the Ming Dynasty, once again expelling the Manchus and elevating the Ming's "virtue" to an unparalleled level. Although Emperor Longwu learned from the experiences of previous dynasties and established the Three Princes' Selection System in an attempt to achieve oversight and checks and balances, since the reign of Emperor Jingyun, the Three Princes' Selection System had become virtually ineffective, ultimately leading to the Nanjing Incident...

However, these flaws are not enough to overshadow the brilliance of the Ming Dynasty. A dynasty that lasted nearly 600 years, the longest-lasting dynasty since the Qin Dynasty, must have done some things right. Such a country is certainly great. General Liu, is there anything wrong with this?

Liu Duncheng was saddened for a moment, then slowly shook his head: "It's nothing. It's just a stray dog ​​witnessing the navy's hard work never being completed, which only adds to the sadness. Please don't take it to heart, Your Highness."

Liu Duncheng's words made Sa Dingming want to shut him up. You're standing in front of the grandson with a "homeless dog" between you. If someone cares and asks you which family you're referring to, how are you going to answer?

Although the new dynasty has not yet appeared, the Ming Dynasty is indeed the previous dynasty. Don't talk about these "untouchable slides" in front of the future grandson of the emperor. Those who know will understand that you are lamenting the navy, but those who don't will think that you are reminiscing about the previous dynasty.

However, Li Che seemed unconcerned about what Liu Duncheng had just said. He simply smiled and asked, "General Liu, I know you are very pessimistic about the current state of the navy, but these two ships can still be completed—as long as we can repel the Allied forces' invasion of our country, as long as the country gets back on track, the Ministry of Military Industry, related professional institutes, and related supporting factories can all be restored one by one. We can rebuild a great nation, and then these two ships will naturally be completed."

"To rebuild a great nation..."

"That's right, we must make China great again!" Li Che recalled in his mind the posture and tone of Trump's speech in another time and space. Although Trump's speaking skills were not very sophisticated, they were still a game-changer compared to the present era. Moreover, Li Che took the initiative to shake Liu Duncheng's hand, which was the essence he learned from Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

The two-pronged approach proved remarkably effective. Liu Duncheng, like an honest man encountering a succubus for the first time, stammered, unsure of what to say. Chinese succubi are like this; while the lower-level succubi of the West only need to flirt with people, Eastern succubi have much more to consider.

"But Your Highness... even if, as you said before, a batch of hastily built torpedo boats could be produced using temporary, rushed methods, the performance and reliability of these torpedo boats would be difficult to guarantee..."

At this moment, Li Che was indeed possessed by the succubus of the Liu family. Or perhaps Liu Duncheng was indeed a proud and arrogant person. Although he had previously appeared to be utterly disappointed with the current situation, once you gave him a glimmer of hope, he has now begun to stand on Li Che's side and consider the battle plan he proposed.

"The specific details require the help of experts like General Liu and General Sa to discuss. However, in my plan, these torpedo boats are to be divided into feint attack groups and assault groups. The feint attack group is to launch torpedoes at or even beyond the maximum range of the torpedoes. These torpedoes are not expected to hit the target, so the accuracy issues caused by the self-launching torpedo method used by these emergency torpedo boats are irrelevant."

Li Che's words made Liu Duncheng nod inwardly. It seemed that the grandson was indeed knowledgeable about technology. At least from the conversation above, it was clear that Li Che was very knowledgeable about the technological development of torpedo boats.

There are several ways to launch torpedoes from torpedo boats. One way is to launch them into the water through a launch tube. This method of launching torpedoes has the highest accuracy. Of course, launching torpedoes in this way requires a special fixed or rotating torpedo launch tube.

Other methods of torpedo deployment, whether directly thrown into the water from the side or slid into the water from the stern via a rail, are more susceptible to the influence of waves or other factors due to the greater interference and lower initial velocity of the torpedo during its entry into the water. As a result, the accuracy of the torpedo strike is quite limited.

Liu Duncheng started his career in the mines division. Although he later transferred to the main battle fleet, he still had a "mines spirit" back then and was more sensitive to the technical details in this area. Li Che's unintentional display of knowledge about the technical details of torpedo boats naturally earned him more favor.

(This is the succubus of the East. Can those worthless bastards of the West do this? Tactical lean back.gif)

After realizing that Liu Duncheng was essentially a "tsundere," Li Che, who had extensive experience with galgames in another timeline, knew exactly how to deal with this type of person. Tsunderes, regardless of gender, are all charmed by being straightforward!

Sa Dingming watched in disbelief as Li Che, in less than 20 minutes, managed to talk Liu Duncheng, who had walked over with a sour face and was leaning on a cane, into shaking hands tightly, as if they had known each other for a long time.

I'm the Navy Commander, what kind of scene haven't I seen? But this scene is something I've never seen before!

"So the key point is not actually what specific offensive tactics we will adopt for the landing zone. Since we are going to concentrate 300 torpedo boats, we are going to use a saturation attack to saturate the enemy's guard and escort fleet around the landing zone. Therefore, the most important thing is our secrecy during the assembly process. In other words, as long as we can concentrate 300 torpedo boats in Vladivostok without the enemy's knowledge, we will have already succeeded more than halfway."

"What Your Highness says is quite true. However, although our country is vast and inland transportation is inherently more covert for the enemy than maritime maneuvers, the scale of this operation is simply too large and the duration too short. It will not be easy to completely deceive the enemy's intelligence agencies. However, Your Highness's suggestion of an offensive commerce disruption could be key to diverting the enemy's naval forces and intelligence agencies' attention. May I ask if Your Highness considered the coordination between the two when you first proposed these two plans?"

"Yes, of course I thought of that," Li Che thought to himself with a touch of pride. However, he knew he was already making a lot of noise, so he could keep a low profile: "I just vaguely felt that there might be some connection between the two, but it wasn't as far-reaching as General Liu's thoughts."

Sa Dingming felt a slight ache in his teeth; the two of them had already started praising each other.

"That means we need to organize the commerce raiding fleet as soon as possible within a month. The first batch should consist of at least two fleets, one going out of the Bashi Channel into the Western Pacific and the other going out of the Miyako Strait into the Western Pacific, advancing in two directions to make it difficult for the Federation to attend to both!"

At this point, Liu Duncheng started counting on his fingers: "Among the large armored cruisers currently in service with the Navy, most of the older models that entered service before 1903 are now in reserve. The ships that are less than 15 years old and relatively new models total two types with six ships. The 'Yongchang' and 'Yongtai' are equipped with three twin-mounted 240mm naval guns, use steam turbines, and have a maximum speed of 25.5 knots. They entered service in the same year as the Britannian Invincible-class and are the last generation of armored cruisers in our army. They are currently docked in Songjiang Port."

“So this is basically a small battlecruiser…” Li Che pondered, rubbing his chin. “Then what about the ship’s armor… well, armor isn’t important. The Federation doesn’t have any battlecruisers right now. Our opponents are at most light cruisers like the Federation’s Omaha. What about its range?”

"Both of these armored cruisers are three-shafted, with a displacement of 15,000 tons. They have ample coal reserves, and the middle shaft is driven by a reciprocating triple-expansion steam engine, giving them considerable range at economical speeds. Their armor is made of 150mm Tangshan steel, with performance equivalent to second-generation Krupp hardened steel, making them absolutely safe against six-inch-class naval guns."

Li Che nodded in satisfaction. In the current situation where the Federation did not have faster battlecruisers, these two armored cruisers were practically natural-born communal destroyers. As remnants of the pre-dreadnought era, although their armor thickness was not high and could not withstand large-caliber capped armor-piercing shells, the comprehensive protection coverage developed from the experience of the deck-washing era was a natural counter to six-inch guns.

"That other type of armored cruiser..."

“The ‘Yongning’ class armored cruisers no longer have steam turbines, so their maximum speed can only reach 23.5 knots.” Sa Dingming continued, “But that was the maximum speed that could be achieved back then. Although I had four Yongning class armored cruisers undergo emergency maintenance a few days ago, I’m afraid ordinary methods cannot restore these armored cruisers to their ideal speed.”

These armored cruisers had previously been under Sa Dingming's command, so he was very clear about their condition. Even if he cleaned the bottom of the ships and carried out emergency maintenance on the boilers and engines within a month, he probably wouldn't be able to restore the ships to their ideal condition when they were first commissioned.

However, Li Che still understood the implication in his words: "Since General Sa said that normal methods won't work, does that mean that unconventional methods might work?"

Sa Dingming nodded: "Yes, the tonnage and hull dimensions of the Yongning-class are actually the same as those of the Yongchang. However, because it was built earlier, it was not equipped with steam turbines and newer boilers. Therefore, despite having a larger engine room, its speed is not as good as the Yongchang. In particular, because the boiler room is too large and takes up too much space, the Yongning-class has 12 180mm naval guns. Apart from two twin-mounted guns located at the bow and stern, the other eight are single-mounted turrets distributed on both sides of the ship. I think that since the main purpose is commerce raiding, a slightly weaker firepower is not a problem..."

"General Sa means to dismantle the cannons?"

Sa Dingming nodded: "The 180mm single-mounted turrets on the sides... can all be removed! Replace them with a few 150mm deck-mounted rapid-fire guns." Sa Dingming waved his hand heavily downwards: "Moreover, compared to these armored cruisers, which are already past their prime, our army's newest first-class light cruisers are, in my opinion, the most suitable for commerce raiding."

Chapter Twenty-One: The King of Light Cruisers

How many heavy cruisers do we have now?