Chapter 1008 Lichun

"Unfortunately, no finished products have been delivered yet, so we can only leave it empty for now," Zhou Ke said with regret.

"Well, warships in the past managed to fight without such equipment—Nelson didn't have a fire control director either." Lin Shenhe knew this was merely some enthusiasts' peculiar hobby erupting. Given their current industrial capability and the caliber of their potential enemies' warships and cannons, naval combat firing range would reach at most two thousand meters. Ballistic computers were wholly unnecessary; equipping gunners with telescopes, artillery firing tables, and slide rules already constituted cutting-edge technology.

Technology beyond cutting-edge obviously wasn't so easily attained—this empty fire control director tower stood as proof.

But this wasn't his concern. He handled cannons and shells. What aiming equipment the cannons used fell to the Precision Instruments Department to consider.

As the tour neared its end, Lin Shenhe suddenly thought of something: "Has this ship been named?"

"Not yet. The Navy says they'll hold the naming ceremony after sea trials."

"Did they mention what they're planning to call it?"

"Reportedly someone proposed Yukikaze or Shigure..."

"Damn, too creepy." Lin Shenhe got goosebumps all over. There really were quite a few IJN enthusiasts in the Navy. Since Yukikaze and Shigure had been nominated, Nowaki would probably follow.

"I think we could use mountain and river names," Zhou Ke suggested, gesturing expansively. "Like Taihang, Taishan, Kunlun—impressive!"

Lin Shenhe shook his head. "A ship this small probably can't carry such names." He actually preferred names like "Fearless," "Indomitable," "Furious," "Enterprise"—but the 1630-class equally couldn't live up to such grandeur. Though building ten-thousand-ton battleships in this dimension seemed excessive, at least warships over four or five thousand tons were needed to convey true majesty. By comparison, names like Shigure were more appropriately scaled.

Installing cannons on the 1630-class lead ship consumed three days, during which nearly half the Senators from the Mechanical Department were mobilized to solve problems—especially all Senators with fitter certificates. Constantly adjusting and fitting parts became the main theme of installation work. Several mobile equipment units were specially transported to the dockside assembly site to improve efficiency. The cannon carriages, rails, and even mounting bolts all brought Zhou Ke endless trouble. Standardized production had been promoted for over two years, yet actual implementation still revealed many problems—workers weren't performing well, and materials were even worse.

Zhou Ke maintained his composure—overseeing the shipbuilding outfitting plan had accustomed him to an endless stream of problems. In his words: when installing equipment, he never expected success on the first try.

Through collective effort, all cannons were finally installed and operating normally. Though fire control equipment never produced a ballistic computer, at least before formal sea trials they managed to fit some simple devices like artillery slide rules and observation mirrors.

The artillery observation mirror was Lin Hanlong's work—primarily used as a reticle. Structurally a Keplerian telescope, it presented no great manufacturing difficulty. But achieving a relatively large field of view and light throughput required a relatively large aperture. For Lin Hanlong, this was challenging but not insurmountable.

Most difficult was lens tube sealing. Lacking cold fir optical cement or rubber gaskets, they had to employ complex copper gaskets, vulcanized cowhide gaskets, and finally seal with eucommia rubber. Though the proposal to widely plant eucommia as a rubber substitute had been rejected, eucommia rubber still found use in small areas where performance requirements weren't strict. Fortunately, eucommia had always been cultivated in China, making raw material collection convenient.

The lens tube's installation buffer structure used vulcanized cowhide. Though operational performance wasn't ideal, it proved barely usable. Lenses were originally planned using lead glass or naturally smelted quartz crystal—Hainan itself boasted rich natural quartz crystal deposits. But Lin Hanlong's experimental smelting attempts never produced suitable products, forcing him to settle for existing materials.

The rangefinder was originally the Optical Workshop's breakthrough project, but Lin Hanlong discovered many currently insurmountable problems during experiments—especially the lack of quality optical glass and processing methods. Even if manufactured at this stage, quality couldn't be guaranteed.

The Planning Bureau's warehouse held one-meter rangefinders for 37mm cannons and half-meter rangefinders for mortars, bought in bulk from military surplus stores on Taobao in the old dimension—ranging four to five kilometers with precision sufficient for ship cannons, nearly a hundred units. But the Navy ultimately decided against using this "precision equipment."

"For military equipment, as long as it's usable, we must base it on domestic production," Naval People's Commissar Ming Qiu stated at the 854 Modification technical meeting.

Finally, artillery rangefinders were simplified to a basic bearing plate system. Specifically, angle plates with sights were installed at bow and stern. By using sights to aim at targets, then calculating distance from the difference in displayed angles between bow and stern—this technology had appeared in the nineteenth century, quite fitting the Senate Navy's current technical level.

Wind vanes and anemometers were also installed among the fire control equipment to measure crosswinds and headwinds. Wind direction and speed served as important reference data when calculating firing solutions.

The final piece of equipment was a quadrant, made of tin-bronze, used to measure cannon inclination angles in the vertical plane within the 0-1500 mil (0°-90°) range, check cannon sighting devices and cannon angles, and set cannons to required firing positions. Combined with ranging and plotting, it could determine enemy ship speed. More importantly, the command platform could use limit stops on the quadrant to determine ship cannon safe arcs, preventing friendly fire on one's own vessel during intense combat.

After all fire control equipment was installed, the ship finally received its long-delayed name: Lichun. Whether this meant twenty-four 1630-class ships would be built sparked considerable Senate discussion. Naval personnel cheered joyfully; the Army worried. The Planning Bureau spokesperson's answer to the Senate was: "Currently there's no plan to begin building a second batch of 1630-class ships." However, he acknowledged that preliminary preparations for laying the second 1630-class's keel had begun, pending only Senate approval of the "Second Naval Vessel Outfitting Program" budget.

From this naming, however, it seemed clear that the Navy Ship Administration Bureau harbored internal plans for larger warships. The Navy denied this; Naval People's Commissar Chen Haiyang stated there were currently no plans to build new warship types.

August 10: Two hundred crew members along with shipyard technical personnel and workers boarded the warship. Under Outfitting Committee Chief Li Di's command, they set out for the first trial voyage. August 11: The ship conducted scheduled 360-degree turns both port and starboard and speed change trials in the Qiongzhou Strait. That evening it anchored at Hongpai Harbor on the Manzao Peninsula. August 12: Lichun conducted full-speed official trials in the same waters under escort of two 8154 cruisers, including sailing with steam engines and sails under various sea conditions.

August 22: Former Haitian Captain Lieutenant Commander Li Ziping was appointed as Lichun's first captain. A series of sea trials followed. August 29: 130mm main gun firing tests and ballistic tests were conducted in waters near Hongpai Island. The fore and aft main guns fired salvos toward Hongpai Island four kilometers away; the distant rumbling could be heard even inside Manzao Fort.

September 1: Having completed firing tests, Lichun returned to Bopu. Eight days later, Lichun officially completed, entered service, was handed over to the Navy, and raised the naval ensign. Its ship registry port was the Navy's Kaohsiung Harbor.

At this point, Kaohsiung naturally didn't exist at all—but this didn't prevent it from being one of the main bases in the Senate Navy system.

All sea trials proceeded smoothly. Though several malfunctions occurred during navigation tests—especially the steam engines and boilers occasionally developing small problems—none were serious. With slight repairs and adjustments, testing continued.

After a month of intensive testing, Lichun's complete specifications were:

Light displacement: 1,091 tons. Standard displacement: 1,160 tons. Normal displacement: 1,359 tons. Full load displacement: 1,519 tons. Actual power output: 489 horsepower. Maximum speed under standard sea conditions at full power: 12.5 knots. Maximum sail speed: 15 knots. Coal carried at maximum displacement: 359 tons. Maximum powered range: 5 knots/5,000 nautical miles.

Ship personnel, excluding marines: 149 persons. Additionally capable of carrying one marine platoon with all weapons and equipment for extended periods. For short voyages, could accommodate one company with attached light artillery and gun crews.

Li Ziping's overall assessment of Lichun: Excellent machinery, storage, and cabin space; sufficient accommodation and work space; the ship's slow, steady rolling made it a good firing platform. An excellent seagoing vessel—comfortable, capable of firing in the worst weather.

Overall, Li Ziping was quite satisfied with this ship—far superior to the transmigrators' first self-built warship, Haitian. In sailing performance alone, Lichun proved much more stable. Large-caliber cannon firing effects were also satisfactory. Whether using armor-piercing or explosive shells, target destruction far exceeded their psychological expectations.

As for living conditions—the hard indicator Senators cared most about—improvements were dramatic. In Senator officer cabin arrangements especially, Lichun was much more spacious than the Zhenhai class. Not only could the captain traditionally enjoy a private cabin, but Senator officers also had double rooms. The ship's galley had also been upgraded.

"Give me three months and I'll have this ship at full combat capability," he told Chen Haiyang confidently.

"You don't have three months—only thirty days to familiarize with equipment and train your crew," Chen Haiyang replied. "Once Mid-Autumn Festival passes, Operation Engine commences in full."

(End of Chapter)