Fox of France

The Freetrade's first day in the Port of London didn't exactly open up to the British. This is also natural, because when the ship arrives in London, there is always something busy. And something did happen. For example, a chaplain of the French navy who left the warship and went ashore met a reporter, and then the reporter asked: "Pastor, what do you think of those French street girls on the streets of London?" ?”

"What? There are French street girls in London?" The priest was taken aback.

Then that afternoon, a certain evening newspaper published the following news: "As soon as the chaplain of the French Navy came ashore, he hurriedly asked if there were any street girls in London."

Of course, no one cares what the tabloids say. Besides, it’s a good thing for the chaplain to find a street girl, support her and save her soul. It’s not a big deal.

Although the "Free Trade" was not officially open for people to visit that day, if you get close to see it, as long as you don't board the ship, no one will care. Therefore, some people gathered around to observe the boat.

In this way, a question about the "Free Trade" was solved at once, that is, why the Free Trade had such outstanding defensive power. Although the steel plate of the "Free Trade" was painted with a dark brown paint, which made it look similar to the wooden ship's plank from a distance, but at such a close distance, it is so close that you can almost touch it with your hands. In terms of distance, it is still easy to see the difference between those external steel plates and ship plates.

"It turns out that the iron plate is really plugged in." An agent of the Sixth Investigation Section looked at the "Free Trade" that was close at hand and couldn't help but sigh. In order to understand the secrets of the ship's defense, the Sixth Investigation Section has sacrificed several colleagues. Now that they sacrificed their lives to get the secret, it is now placed in front of them, and they can get it without paying any price. This is really... It really makes people doubt life.

"Considering the French's advantages in steelmaking, these are probably steel plates, right?" An officer of the British Navy was also watching the "Free Trade" while thinking.

Of course, there was only so much the British could learn on the first day. On the second day, the first group of guests boarded the deck of the "Free Trade", almost all of them were officers of the British Navy, including officers in command positions and many technical officers.

Generally speaking, these officers are still very, very disciplined. Basically, without the permission of the master, they will not stretch out their white-gloved hands and fumble around on the French warship. . Although some British newspapers later appeared in some British newspapers, such as "reaching out and touching a hand of dust on the cannon", used to belittle the French and encourage themselves, but to be honest, the British Indeed, he did not reach out indiscriminately.

But when it comes to asking questions, the British are not polite, they ask all kinds of questions, anyway, they don't suffer any disadvantages. To their surprise, the French who accompanied them answered most of the questions.

"Captain Zola, I noticed that there are external armor plates hanging on the 'Free Trade'. I would like to ask, are these armor plates steel or wrought iron?" asked a British officer with the rank of major on his shoulders. road.

"It's steel." Captain Zola replied.

"Then can I ask about its thickness, and how do you ensure that they will not have serious corrosion problems when they are sailing?" The British major then asked.

"I can tell you the thickness of the steel plate is about 20 mm. As for the anti-rust problem, this is a technical secret of the 'Lorraine Steel Company'. We don't know. If you want to know these things, you can go to them To understanding."

Then, under the leadership of the French, they walked into the gun bay of the "Free Trade".

"Gentlemen, this is the gun bay of the 'Free Trade'. Our ship is a steam-powered warship. Therefore, compared with ordinary warships, we have two more power cabins and coal bunkers, which take up a lot of space. This makes our gun bay relatively small, because the number of cannons that can be equipped is relatively much smaller.” Captain Adrian, the gunner in charge of the introduction, explained, “But this is not a problem, because we are equipped with The most advanced and powerful breech-loading rifled steel guns in the world, which makes our firepower actually stronger than that of ordinary warships of the same tonnage."

"Captain, you just introduced that you are using breech-loading guns?" Another technical officer of the British Navy asked quickly.

"Yes, it is a breech-loading gun, which makes the rate of fire of our cannon several times higher than that of ordinary muzzle-loading guns." Captain Adrian replied.

"So, can I have a closer look at this cannon?" the technical officer asked again.

"It's absolutely fine. We French have nothing to keep secret from our friends. Even if you are interested, you can simulate the firing process yourself under the guidance of Captain Adrian." Captain Zola said in that tone As sincere as France and England are really friends.

Naturally, the British would not let go of such an opportunity, so several British officers hurriedly asked, "How to simulate?"

"I need ten people to form a temporary artillery group." Captain Adrian said, "Then I will guide you through the entire operation."

The British got together and discussed for a while, and ten people were recommended.

"Captain, we are all your subordinates now. You can give us orders." A British lieutenant colonel said to Captain Adrian.

The artillery group in front of him is definitely the highest-ranking artillery group that Adrian has ever seen, and there is not a single officer below the school level in the entire artillery group. Adrian felt that after returning this time, he had new material to brag about.

Adrian called these "cannon crew members" over, took them to the side of the cannon, and briefly explained to them the structure of the cannon and the way it was loaded. He found that these guys' comprehension ability is quite good, they can understand it almost immediately, which is better than those boys under him.

But when it came to the actual operation, Adrian immediately decided to take back his previous ideas, because there was one thing that these British officers were far from the boys under him, and that was muscle strength and coordination of movements. The British officers who temporarily acted as gunners for him were technical officers, and they knew all about artillery and were connoisseurs. But they are experts in the study of cannons, not in the operation of cannons, so the breech-loading guns that should fire faster are actually slower than the front-loading guns under their operation.

But everyone has a good idea of ​​the reasons for this result. The British military officers present also came to a conclusion in their hearts: it may be a bit more to say that it can be accelerated by four or five times, but it is really possible to speed up by three or four times.

When these "gun crew members" finally loaded the training ammunition into the shells, closed the gun bolts, completed the simulated firing, and then returned to the queue of visitors, a colonel whispered to a "gunner" " Asked: "Have you seen the structure of the breech gun clearly?"

"I see clearly that the structure is not too complicated, but the process may be difficult and the cost will be much higher." The "gunner" replied, "But considering that one cannon can be used as three cannons , I think it’s still worth it.”

"Considering the space saved, even if it can only be used as 1.5 guns, and the price will be three or four times more expensive, it is worth it." Another "gunner" also interjected.

Of course, the reason why the British think that the rate of fire has been increased by four or five times is bragging, and the reason is also very simple-the training ammunition used by the French is divided. But in fact, these guns can use fixed ammunition that loads faster.

After visiting the cannon, the French took them to the bottom layer of the warship, which was actually already below the waterline. Here is another thing worth showing off to the British-the steel keel of the "Free Trade".

The British who came to visit are all experts. When they saw the steel keel, they immediately came to a conclusion: "As long as the French can produce enough steel, it is really easy to explode the fleet. Because the most critical The material limits have been pushed."

This is also the last visit project for these British people. Another British officer asked if they could have a look at the steam engine, but this request was immediately rejected by Captain Zola: "No, there are many secrets in the steam engine."

"Didn't it mean that we are friends, shouldn't there be secrets between friends?" an Englishman joked.

"Ah, that's true in theory." Captain Zola replied, "If there are only things from the navy, that's fine, but there are also commercial secrets of our private enterprises. For them, apart from customers, , everyone else is likely to be a future competitor. So..."

So the Englishman shrugged his shoulders, and it was over. In fact, the British have seen enough things today, much more than they expected.

"The French are actually not that good. The key is that there is a lot of steel." After getting off the ship, a British technical officer couldn't help saying, "Really, how much steel is used in this ship? They are completely Don’t treat steel as steel, it’s wrought iron, it’s too extravagant to use like this!”

"Which one of you understands their anti-rust technology for steel?" someone asked.

"It seems to be painted?"

"The armor plates on the outside probably are, because those armor plates are obviously removable. But what about her keel? Can it be rust-resistant just by painting?"

"We need to step up research on this."