Chapter 378 That Dawn

From the hot Hawaii to the cool Liaodong all of a sudden, it really made Li Mo a little uncomfortable. If he hadn't stopped exercising over the years, I'm afraid it would be really difficult to adapt to such a big climate contrast.

On a trip around the world, it took half a year from departure to home. This was the last time to reduce the itinerary of some countries. Otherwise, I don't know when I will come back, which also made him experience what it feels like a different world.

Although Li Mo did not shock many people when he came back, when the huge body of the Oriental Princess slowly leaned on the dock, many people were still relieved after learning the news. At this time, they suddenly found that the young man gave up the centralization and chose to make a constitution to free himself from the national government. The emperor still became the backbone of everyone with his ubiquitous influence.

Until now, many people understand that the royal family is not a simple symbol. He not only represents the image of the country, but also deserves to be the leader of leading the nation on the road of rejuvenation.

It's just that many people are surprised that the first stop after Li Mo's return is not Yanjing, which is already full of wind and rain, nor the Lushun naval headquarters that has just experienced a big war, but the new Huludao shipbuilding base deep into Bohai Bay.

Only Chen Ping and a few people guessed why Li Mo used this place as the first stop to return to China, because Britain had also let go, and the temporary transfer of four Junquan-class battleships to India did not continue to march to Malacca, which was equivalent to acquiesce to the method of resolving disputes through negotiations.

It can be acquiesced by default. Master Li himself has said that what he got from the negotiation table is far less reliable. The hatred between Britain and Xinhua has been buried. Even if the castrated Chinese-class battleship technology is sold to them, it is impossible to really be resolved.

Even if the negotiation is successful, it can only strive for a buffer period of at least two to three years for Xinhua. Once it passes the buffer period, it still depends on its strength. Therefore, two battleships being built in Huludao Shipyard and four heavy patrols being built in Dalian and Ryukyu respectively, as well as special funding has just been obtained. The design department is connecting The last two battleships discussing the plan at night have become the key to increasing their strength!

Looking at it, the huge Huludao shipbuilding base has finally made Li Mo find the shadow of the glorious era of later generations of industry. The continuous factories and docks make the rise of Xinhua more and more solid.

Li Mo's interest in the shipbuilding industry is extremely high, which can be seen from his choice of Northern Heavy Industries, which owns the two major shipbuilding bases in Dalian and Huludao. You should know that these two shipbuilding bases are designed according to the annual construction of 200,000 tons. Although only half of them are now completed, they are already in the best in the world. The shipbuilding base.

From Honolulu to Ryukyu, to Dalian and Huludao, Li Mo spent nearly ten years in a big circle in the sea, absorbing overseas Chinese and training a large number of skilled workers. Now they are coming back one after another under their own leadership, so that Northern Heavy Industries finally ushered in urgently needed skilled workers, more than 15,000 from Tan Xiangshan, the experienced technicians returning from Ryukyu have become the core force of Northern Heavy Industries. Coupled with the interns who are receiving training here, it has become the largest industrial group in Xinhua.

Hawaiian shipyard has dismantled most of it, and only two docks and one small dock have been retained. Due to problems such as transportation and cost, it no longer undertakes the main shipbuilding tasks. However, due to the importance of strategic location, it still retains the shipbuilding capacity and specially opened Start to strengthen the maintenance and support capabilities, and truly build it into the best naval base in the Pacific Ocean.

The reason why Li Mo did not return to Yanjing but came to Huludao is very simple. With the German sacrifice of the big treasure, the Chinese warship era finally began. He changed the fork in history. The original fearlessness became China. The tragic British Empire was still blocked in front of the technical threshold, and as Germany got the technology and drawings. After that, Tierpitz and William II could not stand the restlessness in their hearts, especially when Xinhua, based on warships, rose in the Far East and once again showed the importance of sea power to the world, which invisibly accelerated this change.

If the Chinese ship only caused panic in Europe, then after changing its name to Rhine, his four brothers started at full speed again, which really means that all the former Chinese-class battleships in the world are outdated!

This is undoubtedly a great earthquake for Britain, which has the world's largest group of former Chinese-class battleships. Just like the airship soaring over Germany for the first time, the British did not forget to look up at the sky before going out.

When the news came out that in addition to the eight Edward VII class that had already started construction, Britain decisively announced to stop the construction of several-class battleships and began to organize forces to overcome technical difficulties, but technology is very strange. Maybe you will find that it is actually very simple after you break through the past, but the breakthrough has passed. Sometimes it takes a few seconds, sometimes even decades.

Even a naval innovator like Fisher doesn't know how long it will take to complete it, and Germany has obviously covered this technology. Tirpitz doesn't know whether Limer will sell the technology to Britain, but at least he must ensure that he will not leak it. Although France has appeared hazy, he wants to pretend It will take at least a year to experiment and improve the large-caliber naval gun, so they are not in a hurry. They are still dedicated to the Dandong class and submarines, and even set up several large docks to build submarines, which is a posture of not to catch up with Master Li.

The idea of the United States is simple. There is not much threat around, and it is not very urgent, so I don't have the skills to be afraid, because I am not short of money, so before the three Maine-class ships were launched, I immediately launched five Virginia-class ships. The unique first-class main gun and second-class main gun share a turret, which is really too American. It's spirit.

Originally, Britain was not short of money, but the cost of the Boolean War was about to drive the British political axe crazy. If it hadn't been for the continuous release of maritime threats by Limer and Germany, the Prime Minister of Salisbury would have even had the idea of cutting off the naval budget.

Maybe Britain can exchange some benefits from the Ottoman Empire for technology, but the problem is that the new battleships ordered by Osman will be delivered in two years. At that time, even if Britain gets the technology, the four Snap-class ships have been launched. With the Rhine, Britain will be five more behind Germany!

Five ships!

This is not something that can be fought by building ten more Edward VII-class, not to mention that Edward VII-class is not cheap. Who is willing to build ten costly scrap irons?

Although Li Mo embarrassed the British Empire in the Far East and could even be described as a slap in the face, in fact, in recent years, with Li Mo's control of the north of the Yangtze River and the gradual awakening of economic infiltration and the consciousness of the people in the south, a large number of British minerals and factories in China have After being acquired or even merged, the interests have long been much worse than before. What's more, Britain's core interests are similar to the safety of colonies such as India, South Africa and Egypt.

If the Mediterranean Fleet is dispatched, Britain is confident to win the battle, but at present, Britain has invested 100 million pounds in Boer's military expenditure, and it doesn't know how much more to continue to win. Even if the navy wins, it will be lost from the performance of the Xinhua Navy mentioned in the Filletman Telegraph. It's not small, and at present, Britain has also invested enough troops to overthrow Xinhua's political axe. The final result is to spend hundreds of millions of pounds to fight a war that could not completely strangle Xinhua and eventually take a large part of its interests by France, Germany, Russia and other countries.

The saddest thing is that once the navy consumes too much, it will be even more unable to meet Germany's challenges. Even if it breaks through technical barriers, it will not be able to build more new battleships.

The current situation is that Li Mo slapped Britain in the face and kidnapped the British Far East Fleet and tens of thousands of soldiers as hostages. It is said that although the empire had the intention to rescue them with the most powerful force, there was a cold short blade behind it, and outside the picture, a large group of British hunters were still surrounded by beasts. I can't get out.

Even if this bitter fruit is difficult to swallow, the British political axe must first consider saving the Far East Fleet and tens of thousands of soldiers, not to mention that Li Mo also threw new battleship technology as bait.

So after receiving the information released by Xinhua, the Prime Minister of Salisbury immediately began to contact Dou Maile, the authorized ambassador to Xinhua, and at the same time sent Sir Sa Daoyi, the former ambassador to France, as a special envoy to the Far East.

The news from Britain has relieved the Prime Minister's Office, but this does not mean that there will be peace of mind. Even if an agreement is reached, there are many things to go back on the word. Therefore, on the one hand, Chen Ping strictly ordered the troops to accelerate the military operations in the south, and on the other hand, he mobilized heavy troops to strengthen the encirclement of Shanghai and Hong Kong.

For these, Li Mo handed over the full power of this negotiation and military operation to Li Enfu and Chen Ping, and he came to the Huludao Shipbuilding Base. The rivet sound in Europe is about to usher in another **. As the "founding country" of the Chinese ship, it is naturally not weaker than others.

The appearance of the Chinese ship indicates that the navy has entered a new era of all-heavy artillery, and the construction of the class means that the curtain of the fiery era has begun. A huge naval equipment competition has finally appeared several years in advance. It is difficult for future generations to really understand why this kind of spectacular scene of burning money appears, but back After this era, Li Mo became more clear that the fierce competition of sea power has led to the increasing requirements of countries for battleships. As the only weapon with strategic deterrence in the world today, no one can replace the status of battleships for the time being!

In fact, many people around them are very dissatisfied with the exchange of new battleship technology. Since the hatred has been buried, it is impossible to resolve it, especially the arrogant British, so I am very puzzled by the idea of increasing the strength of the other party.

However, Li Mo has his own ideas. The Chinese ship he took out is actually only a castrated version, and Germany has begun to take the class. I don't know how long it will take for Britain to break through the technology. In case they haven't come out for two or three years, I'm afraid that Germany really wants to be a dominant family, which doesn't match. Consume the principles of Europe.

The most important thing is that when the whole world is building such battleships crazily, they do not realize how big the impact of the power problem will be. Everyone has oil boiler technology, and Xinhua is only slightly ahead, but the breakthrough of steam turbines is not so simple.

The previous action of nearly destroying the technology has made almost all the experts in the world who study steam turbines in Xinhua. What's more, this is Master Li's powerful golden finger. Although the intelligence says that Britain has also begun to resume research, historically, Britain has been fully useful from installing destroyers to equipping battleships. After seven years, the ability to equip destroyers has not been reached, let alone equip battleships!

Britain will take at least five years, and Xinhua five years later...

Looking at the two battleships with the initial outline of the hull, Li Mo touched his chin and considered whether he could drive the 30,000-ton-class battleship to break through the critical point of 26 knots in five years.

The two latest battleships, and the two subsequent orders that have just received special grants, make McKinson even happier than the navy, because his biggest dream is to build the most powerful battleship in the world, and now under Li Mo's call, this dream is being realized little by little.

Although the two battleships on Huludao appeared an outline, Li Mo was still very happy after reading the design sketch. It can be said that the two battleships were almost completely bystanders from planning, to design, to experiment and final construction, and all the work was done by the design department himself.

This time, McKinson completely abandoned conservatism. In addition, it was for his own use. Without the problem of deliberately misleading the Chinese ship, he could completely integrate all the new technologies currently owned by Xinhua into the design.

For the first time, the outer floating Atlantic bow has reached 15 degrees, and the tower-shaped high bridge similar to the Jinghai class is the most obvious change. The small watertight compartment, the ammunition compartment, the power layout of the four-axis double rudder and four paddles, the large inclination four-leaf propeller, and the enlarged keel are the results of the ship experiment and design center in these years. The second-generation optical rangefinder of the optical laboratory, the new fire control calculation system of the equipment department, the high-power generators and electric motors of the electrical laboratory, and the new gun seat bearings of the Mechanical Research Institute are all integrated into the two battleships.

If there is any regret, it is that the gun steel technology has just been obtained, the new naval gun is accelerating the experiment, and the five-leaf propeller proposed by Li Mo, and the rocking fin reduction technology that can be collected and released have to give up because they have not made a breakthrough.

However, this is the most perfect battleship at present. To Li Mo's delight, the design department has obviously gone through experiments and research for a long time, which is very targeted at surnames. Although the triple installation technology is not used, on the basis of the installation of four double guns in the front and rear hemispheres, it is abrupt from the standard of 21,000 tons. Between the two chimneys of the displacement hull, the installation position of the fifth double gun was found.

In the face of praise, McKinson still shyly attributed the reduction of the boiler and power volume, otherwise he would not be able to squeeze out of space to install the fifth turret.

What surprised Li Mo most was that McKinson also used aluminum alloy as a material for the first time, replacing the wood material originally used inside the ship.

Don't think this is a small change. In fact, it is a life-and-death experience in naval battles. The reason is that the navy found that some hits in the battle were actually not fatal, but the damage was serious because the explosion caused a fire of internal flammable materials. So after learning this, McKinson immediately thought It comes to the newly developed aluminum alloys, and they are used to replace the seemingly inconspicuous wood products in the original ship, such as tables, chairs, beds and cabinets.

This is an improvement based on life-and-death experience. European countries have to continue to use wood to decorate the interior due to the lack of lightweight metal materials similar to aluminum alloys

This change made Li Mo highly appreciate it, because it means that the design department finally has its own ideas and style, and begins to really shake off the crutch and become a group of people who can be comparable to any country's ship designer.

The two battleships and a Liaodong-class heavy patrol built by Huludao Shipyard have just emerged, so there is nothing to see. However, when Li Mo finally came to the side of the shipyard, which occupies a huge area and is equipped ship experiment and design center, and under the mysterious leadership of McKinson and Tang Xiaoshen, he drilled in. When it belonged to the center and was used to build a closed small dock for all kinds of small experimental ships, the electric flowers bloomed in the hands of the workers with masks, which made his eyes suddenly lit up!

At that moment, Li Mo finally saw the super fearless dawn! ......

(to be continued)