Chapter Twenty-Five Fresh Big Yellow Croaker
In the autumn, Taiwan's northern port of Keelung, after having just experienced a major typhoon, was like an old house washed with clear water, with a hint of coolness in its dull blue color. The dock was filled with tension, as new soldiers had surrounded the entire harbor, each holding real guns and bullets, while several "Seagull"-class speedboats patrolled back and forth outside the harbor, not allowing any ships to enter.
In a closed dock of the shipyard, a large group of water patrol officers wearing white short-sleeved shirts and more than ten researchers from the institute stood on the dock in the dock, looking at a black giant in front of them and discussing in a low voice.
This black giant looks like a huge torpedo lying on its side, dozens of meters long, with half of it floating above the water and most of it submerged. In the middle front section of the torpedo, there is a small gun turret protruding out, about several meters high, and on top of the turret, there are several people moving in and out.
With a low rumble, the submarine slowly left the dock, guided by people on the gun tower, and slowly exited the shipyard's entrance. From the waterway connected to the harbor, it sailed towards the harbor, sinking slowly as it went. The few people on the gun tower also quickly disappeared into the tower.
On the surface of the sea 20 nautical miles away from Keelung Port, two several-thousand-ton cement ships were being towed by tugboats at a slow pace. Suddenly, one of the cement ships on the inside shook violently, and a large white splash burst forth from the middle of the ship, causing it to jump up before crashing back into the water and breaking in half. It quickly sank beneath the surface. Several hundred meters outside the whirlpool created by the sinking ship, the seawater suddenly churned up, and a black periscope burst out of the surface. Once its body had stabilized, several people emerged from the conning tower and hull, cheering and jumping towards a speedboat not far away.
This is a submarine exercise, after years of research and development and countless experiments, the Keelung Institute and Shipyard finally built the first qualified diesel-electric hybrid power submarine. This submarine uses high-strength, high-toughness, and high-yield ship steel plates made by Keelung Heavy Industries as the pressure hull, with a double-hulled body, a circular torpedo-shaped head, an elliptical cross-section, and two balance wings on either side of the bow. The overall length of the submarine is 45/36 meters, the width is 5/4 meters, the draft is 4 meters, and the displacement is 489/570 tons. On the surface, it uses two 6-cylinder diesel engines to provide power, with a maximum speed of 15 knots and a range of 5000 nautical miles. Underwater, it uses two electric motors and battery packs to provide power, with a maximum speed of 16 knots and a range of 230 nautical miles. The armament includes four forward and one aft 450mm torpedo tubes, with five spare torpedoes; two AK1-1D single-barrel 12mm heavy machine guns on the conning tower; in addition to the periscope, it is also equipped with a snorkel and a long-wave radio station.
This class of submarines, named "Hai Lung" (Sea Dragon), will serve as the primary weapon for Taiwan's maritime defense, along with torpedo boats and sea mines, to guard Taiwan's long coastline.
"It's not enough, we need to speed up the construction." Liu Yi looked at the production plan book in his hand and said to the American manager who was managing the shipyard. It was still more than two years before the 1895 Japanese occupation of Taiwan mentioned in the tourist manual. According to the output of the Keelung Shipyard's five slipways, a maximum of five completed ships and five semi-finished ships could be built each year. Moreover, they also had to build "Sea Swallow"-class torpedo boats. This output would definitely not meet the needs of war at that time. If they failed due to a lack of submarines, Liu Yi himself felt wronged.
"But we don't have that many secret docks, and building on civilian docks doesn't meet your secrecy requirements." The American engineer helped to interpret. They were also in a dilemma, with enough workers and technical personnel, but not that many docks.
"Take over the civilian shipbuilding dock, and expand the shipyard further while producing at the same time. Don't worry about confidentiality for civilian use, you can divide the submarine into several parts to build, except for the radio room, power equipment, air ducts, and final assembly which require confidentiality, everything else can be built on a civilian shipbuilding dock, after completion, pull it back together for final assembly, this way should speed up production quite a bit, but I don't just want speed, I also want quality, not one bit of quality can be reduced. If you complete this task, by the end of the year, you will receive a big reward, enough to buy a small estate in America." Liu Yi brought out the segmented shipbuilding method and the golden stick that would be understood by later generations, whether it succeeds or not, this time is it, if there's money but not spent on the blade, it will be regretted later.
Several manager engineers, sweating profusely, took Liu Ye's suggestions back to re-statistic and design a new production process. Liu Ye rushed to the mechanical factory and steel mill without stopping, to coordinate the production of various matching parts and steel materials. From now on, it is the sprint stage. Having been busy for several years, if the final shot goes wrong, it would be too unjust.
From the end of 1892, all dirt roads, highways and railways near Keelung Port were taken over by new army soldiers. Anyone without a pass issued by the new army command would be refused entry and exit. Slight disobedience would result in capture and strict interrogation. If the situation was not clarified, they would basically disappear.
This is the martial law order issued by Liu Yufen, from the date of issuance, all employees and foreign technical personnel are not allowed to leave the port area without approval. Those with special needs must be specially approved by the new military command. Except for the ships of the water patrol team and the "Helen" shipping company from the United States, no other ships are allowed to enter the military port. All materials will be unloaded at Danshui Port and then transported into Keelung via highway.
The water patrol team was increased to 1,000 people and renamed the Keelung Water Squadron. It was originally intended to be called the Taiwan Water Squadron, but the original squadron still existed, which could cause confusion. It is expected to reach a scale of 3,000 people within two years, divided among the four military ports in Taiwan. Almost every day, ships from the Keelung Water Squadron were fully loaded with cargo and shuttled back and forth between the four military ports in Taiwan, with fully armed new troops and various vehicles pouring into the newly built bases one after another.
Taiwan's coastal waters, every day there are Keelung naval ships, under the guise of training, probing various hydrological data, and recording it, periodically transmitting it back to the Keelung Naval Headquarters.
Due to the new army and navy being too young, there was no suitable candidate for the main leadership position. Liu could only put together some outstanding young officers and recruited German retired instructors into a command system, commonly known as the General Staff Headquarters. It was divided into two teams: the Navy and the Army, with himself as the Chief of the General Staff, responsible for overseeing the entire situation. However, in order to keep a low profile, the new army publicly referred to Liu Mingzhuan as the number one person. His father had no complaints about playing the role of a shield in front, and accepted it calmly, even praising Liu for becoming more mature, showing the heart of parents all over the world.
Liu Mingchuan was busy on this side, and Liu Yongfu didn't idle around either. Several times, he dragged his half-paralyzed body, accompanied by Liu Yongfu, to watch the live-fire exercises of the new army and navy. Seeing that the new army's combat methods were completely different from those of the Huai Army, and their weapons were significantly more advanced, especially after watching the coordinated operations of torpedo boats and submarines, he gained great confidence, and trusted Liu Yongfu even more. He gradually incorporated the Huai Army troops under General Wan Guoben, Governor of Taiwan, into the new army in batches, retaining those who were suitable and dismissing those who were not, with Liu Yongfu providing them with generous severance pay to settle down in Taiwan or return to their hometowns in Anhui.
Wan Guo Ben was a fellow provincial from Anhui with Liu Mingchuan, and had been following Liu's "Ming" army since the Taiping Rebellion. After coming to Taiwan, they worked together to drive out the French, and Wan subsequently took up the post of Provincial Commander-in-Chief. Although he wasn't too pleased about Liu's self-aggrandizing ways, under Liu's persuasion, he still cooperated fairly well. As a fellow provincial and superior officer, it was hard not to cooperate; moreover, Liu's new army was clearly more powerful than Wan's own Huai Army, so helping out with some surface work wasn't too humiliating.
