In November, with the arrival of the British upper echelons in North America, the navy on the west coast of the North Atlantic began to become active. Although Gotham City, one of the best ports in North America, had become an enclave of the Min dynasty, there were still large ports in New England that could serve as the base for the British Grand Fleet.
Although the British Dreadnaught-class battleship was launched a month later than the German battleship, the British worked hard on the follow-up construction. Whether it was tonnage or cannons, the British battleship was much larger than the German.
At this time, there was no concept of an economic zone of two hundred nautical miles, and the great powers had huge differences on the division of territorial waters. The extreme powers even thought that a territorial sea of three nautical miles was enough. With heavy ships and giant cannons, the territorial waters of other countries were naturally as close to the shore as possible. It was not until the rise of the Min dynasty navy that the European powers began to think that a larger territorial sea was better.
The fleet led by the British battleship sailed on the sea, and the behemoth did not get too close to the Min dynasty coast. When it was not necessary, it was meaningless to get too close. Just on the way south, the British Navy? The lookouts saw a fleet. Without looking at the flag, just by looking at the vague outline of the warship, the British Fleet could roughly determine that it was the Min dynasty navy. More than 100 kilometers away from the Min dynasty coast, probably only the Min dynasty navy and the British navy appeared. If other countries did not have nothing better to do, they would not come here.
Soon,? The lookouts determined that there were four new Min dynasty destroyers in the Min dynasty fleet. The British Fleet also saw the destroyers up close, and their impression was, "What a strange ship." There were two twin cannons on the front deck, and the rest of the ship was not fully utilized by the British. The style of the Min dynasty warships was known for its efficiency and cleanliness, and the British could not understand it.
As for the cannons, the British had never seen such two slender tubes. The British really did not dare to have any illusions about what kind of power this thing could exert in battle.
? The lookouts' eyesight was very good, and after a few glances,? The lookout shouted into the tube, "Found a medium-sized warship … I have never seen this type of ship before!"
When the command tower heard the news, the captain immediately shouted, "? The lookout observed carefully, and immediately organized people to observe and take pictures. My fleet is approaching China's fleet. "
Even when they encountered the British Fleet by chance, the Chinese warships were not shy at all. The two sides crisscrossed in the navy formation, and the British took a lot of photos. The next day, the photos were developed. The British Navy held a meeting.
It was a ten-thousand-ton warship with a single funnel and a slender hull. Compared to those inexplicable and super inefficient destroyers, this warship was densely packed with weapons. There were two triple turrets at the front and back. If one looked closely, they were 150 mm cannons with super-thin barrels. On both sides of the hull, there were two slender 125mm cannons equipped on destroyers.
Britain and the Min dynasty had fought many naval battles. They could be sure that from 1875 to the present, this latest warship was the one with the most guns in the Min dynasty. The muzzles of the cannons were like hedgehogs, which was not the style of the Min dynasty warships. The British Royal Navy was in a heated discussion. There were two warships that completely deviated from the tradition of the Min dynasty. What was the Min dynasty Navy doing?
If the British could see the warship Vézé boarded in Shanghai at this time, they would probably think that the Min dynasty Navy had changed its style. This was a 20,000-ton heavy cruiser with three triple turrets arranged in two at the front and one at the back. There were six 125 mm cannons, one at the bow and one at the stern, and two on each side of the central part of the hull.
The core engineers of the shipyard were surprised when they first got the basic design drawings. After the Navy invited them to see the latest aircraft, these people understood the prediction that the enemy of warships in twenty years would be aircraft, and they also understood the idea of adding future air defense to the warship design.
What Vézé cared about the most was not these warships. He was destined to not see the era of aircraft carriers on the battlefield. Vézé's important trip to Shanghai was to inspect the Baoshan Steel Group. The iron ore used by the Baoshan Steel Group came from Australia. The Min dynasty and the British government signed a 200-year agreement. The exploration rights and preemptive rights in Western Australia would not end until around 2190.
Building a railway from the port to the mine required real money. In addition, the cost was mainly maintenance. The top iron ore in the uninhabited area of Western Australia was loose ore powder. The import cost of the Min dynasty was a little more expensive than free. As long as the British in charge of the colony were fed, they could dig as much as they could.
As far as Vézé knew, the British in charge did not feel that the British had suffered any financial loss. In the location of Western Australia, the only buyer of the mine was the Min dynasty. In this case, the manager only cared about how much he could get. What's more, as a British, the manager of the colony was very clear about the morality of the British. In the remote Western Australia, killing people was as silent as killing ants.
"Your Majesty, the quality of the iron ore is so high, and the composition is so stable. We have already begun to design a furnace ten times larger than the current one. Some people say that the price of transporting iron ore from overseas is high. In terms of cost, the life of the furnace is saved, coke, electricity, and other things are saved, especially the degree of controllability of the quality of the steel. All of these are calculated, using iron ore from overseas will greatly reduce the cost. " The person in charge of the Baoshan Steel Group spoke with great enthusiasm. It could be seen that these words came from the bottom of his heart, and it was also something that made him very proud.
"Cooperate well with the local steel enterprises in Shanghai, and improve your steel processing capacity." Vézé said as usual.
"We understand!" The person in charge of the Baoshan Steel Group nodded repeatedly. No matter how low the cost was, if the steel could not be sold, it would lose money. As the industrial center of the Min dynasty, Shanghai needed a large amount of steel every day.
"You have already come out from under the dual-track system and have already experienced the taste of capital operation. As far as I know, the international steel price has plummeted in recent years. This is a crisis, and it looks terrible. But it also means that more places can afford steel. Only thinking about profits by monopolizing the market will cause great harm in the long run. "Vézé couldn't help but exhort a few words.
The person in charge of the Baoshan Steel Group straightened his back and said loudly, "Your Majesty, please rest assured. The cost of ordinary steel is getting lower and lower, and we will make small profits but quick sales. As for monopolizing, we rely on the technology to monopolize special steel, and we can definitely make a lot of money. Your Majesty, the Baoshan Steel Group is an enterprising enterprise, and we will not rest on our laurels. There are many enterprises in the country that compete with us! "
Coming out of the Baoshan Steel Group and walking along the heat conduction pipe, they soon arrived at a fortress-like enterprise. The steel plant was a place that produced a large amount of waste heat, which was fully utilized to provide water and gas plants. Because of the risk of explosion, the construction of the water and gas plants naturally had many safety facilities.
Water and gas was an endothermic reaction. The burning coal was filled with water vapor to produce carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen. After many treatments, it was a method of producing hydrogen on a large scale. Hydrogen was a raw material for the production of ammonia. For an industrialized city like Shanghai, there was also a huge demand for carbon dioxide. Millions of people only drank a glass of carbonated soda every day, which was enough for many enterprises to work around the clock.
Wei Zhen was one of the six children of Vézé who had been doing technical work. He greeted his father Vézé at the construction site of the Shanghai Fertilizer Plant. The new large-scale ammonia production line was under construction. The barrel processing technology such as self-tightening was not only used in the military industry, but also in the civil industry with high temperature and high pressure. If the 380-caliber cannon barrel could be processed, then the larger diameter synthetic reactor could be processed. The huge reactor capacity and thicker high-pressure pipelines determined the output of large-scale ammonia plants. Like most industrial products, the larger the production line, the lower the unit cost of ammonia.
Vézé shook hands with hundreds of fellow workers on the construction site. He thought it would be easy. After the end, he felt sore in his arms, which made Vézé realize that he was really old.
Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Zhenjiang, Nanjing, Wuhu, Anqing, Wuhan, and Changsha. These important cities along the Yangtze River basin were developing quite well. The south bank of the Yangtze River easily carried a large amount of sediment into Poyang Lake and Dongting Lake were blocked, which helped Dongting not disappear. On the north bank of the Yangtze River, the original nine acupoints and thirteen acupoints of Jingjiang River in the Han River Plain had recovered a lot. Now it was still impossible to restore the 300,000 square kilometers of Yunmeng Swamp, but it was no longer useless for the flood discharge in the middle and upper reaches.
The water conservancy personnel in charge of the Yangtze River basin happily introduced, "Before the Taiping Rebellion, China was in a state of complete population saturation. There were people in the deep mountains and forests to cultivate for survival. With the development of the Min dynasty, there were only forest protection units left in the deep mountains and forests. The population was gathering in the plains and cities. Most of the sediment carried by the Yangtze River was washed in by other destroyed rivers. We are solving the problem fundamentally. In a few decades, the situation of Yunmeng Swamp will probably be better … "
Vézé was willing to believe this possibility. After returning the mountainous region to nature, nature very easily restored the beautiful scenery of the mountainous region, with verdant hills and clear waters. Water and dredgers slowly but continuously deepened the Huaihe River. Several newly dug artificial rivers in Shouzhou effectively connected the Huaihe River and the Yangtze River. With the enthusiasm of the people of Anhui, Anhui also became the largest raw silk producing area in the Min dynasty.
After inspecting the south, Vézé went to Burma Province. After the inspection in Burma in February 1908, Vézé hesitated between completely annexing Burma or giving up the populous Burma Plain. In March 1908, Vézé inspected the new battleships "Bangkok" and "Chiang Mai" in the Dalian Shipyard. According to the order regulations of the Min dynasty navy, battleships were named after the provincial capitals of the provinces of the Min dynasty. Siam was not the territory of the Min dynasty, so it had no chance to be selected.
In theory, Vézé was the emperor respected by all the countries in the western Pacific. A few years ago, the king of Siam presented a golden Buddha statue and gold bricks to Vézé on his birthday. At the same time, he requested the Chinese Navy to have warships named after Siamese cities to show Siam's loyalty to the emperor of the Min dynasty. The rice trade of Siam was very important to the Min dynasty, so the Min dynasty finally agreed to this request.
The single-layer 380 cannon was not developed successfully, and the relevant technical departments were still working hard. The latest 380 cannon had a layer of steel wire wrapped between two self-tightening barrels. This kind of three-layer barrel was much thinner and lighter than the four-layer barrel that was mainstream in various countries. The weight saved from the turret was used on the armor. The horizontal movement speed did not increase much, but the vertical movement speed was obviously increased.
"Commander-in-chief, if there is a breakthrough in the processing technology of the barrel, we can install a three-layer cannon. With the current equipment progress, we can enter the Mediterranean Sea and take over Crete in 1909. "Deputy Commander of the Navy Deng Shichang introduced the latest development.
In the face of the seemingly unaggressive statement, Vézé was not angry. He smiled and said, "It's okay. The Paris Olympics are in 1908, so we don't need to start a military conflict this year. Crete has been sold to us. No matter how unhappy Britain, France, Italy, and Russia are, they can't drag this island away from the Mediterranean Sea. "
Deng Shichang was amused by Vézé's words. "Haha, don't say that they can drag Crete away. These countries can maintain a large number of troops in Crete for four years in a row. We received intelligence that Britain has withdrawn its troops, and now Russia and France have also withdrawn their troops from the island. The army has consumed a lot of resources outside. "
Vézé shook his head slightly. "The Tsar's gray livestock is famous. Don't look at the Russian Navy from the perspective of our Liberation Army. Take the navy for example. From the intelligence we have on the British ships, the British did not use heating and cooling equipment. The Germans, on the other hand, used similar technology. But the British Navy has hot cocoa to ward off the cold, and the German Navy does not have such high treatment. "
Because of Vézé's calm expression, Deng Shichang did not dare to laugh. The treatment of the Min dynasty navy was not necessarily high, but everyone had always regarded soldiers as human beings. In addition to heating and cooling air conditioners on the latest battleships, there were also cabinets for personal use and a weekly laundry. Unlike the European navy, the Min dynasty navy was integrated with the officers and soldiers, and there was no such thing as a canteen for officers. Despite this difference, the Min dynasty warships' cabin arrangement was very different, and the efficiency of utilization was much higher. Coupled with the cheap canteen, life on the warships was quite good.
Just as Deng Shichang was thinking about what to say, Vézé quietly ended the inspection. The construction of the warships was carried out according to plan, and the slowest battleship could be completed in 1915. Whether a war would break out in this time and space, and in what form it would break out, Vézé could not be sure. He was 75 years old this year, and even if it was not inconvenient for him to move around, Vézé's fitness activities had changed from spear fighting to Tai Chi swordsmanship, Tai Chi, and calligraphy. After this round of inspection, Vézé planned to use his energy in a limited number of areas. Even if the navy was important, Vézé would not intervene or even pay attention to it again.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
