Chapter 152 Departure

——Compared with the noisy wharf in the distance, the Hawaiian shipyard area is quiet. After completing the task of repairing the warships for the fleet, the shipyard has never accepted any orders, and even the task of building torpedo boats like dumplings some time ago has been suspended, so at this moment, most of the workers have taken advantage of the opening of the navy. I took my children and family to visit the long-awaited battleship.

The four huge docks adjacent to each other are empty. Since the first test ship was launched and the warship has been repaired, every shipper is waiting for a new shipbuilding task, but at this time, the above ordered to stop all work and immediately start large-scale maintenance of all equipment.

While everyone was surprised, they also vaguely realized that after this unusual sudden large-scale shutdown, I'm afraid it's going to be a big plan! Otherwise, large-scale maintenance of machinery will not be ordered.

Today, everything finally has an answer. Located in the steel plate cutting factory area behind the dock, the fiery red steel plate slipped down the assembly line. After a few loud noises, the first steel plate was finally cut.

Looking at the steel plate, the design team led by McKinson's eyes were red and excited. Tang Xiao's body was hot, and Chen Ping and Long Guozhang, who arrived later, were even more excited to shout twice.

I don't know who took the lead. Master Li and the members of Honolulu around him also applauded one after another, and even the two newcomers, Fang Boqian and Yan Fu, clapped their hands.

Everyone present knows that with this steel plate, the two-year Jinghai Plan was officially launched. Ten days later, the first four Jinghai-class light cruisers will lay keel at the Hawaii shipyard at the same time.

"This is an adventure and a bold attempt! Failure, we will lose two years! Success, we lead the whole shipbuilding industry!"

McKinson's words sounded in everyone's ears. He was right. It was indeed a crazy adventure plan! This is a completely helpless initiative, a bold reform of design and construction at the same time.

Yes, build while designing! Whether it is the shipbuilding boss of Britain at this time, the United States, which likes innovation, or France, which is born to love innovation, has never done so!

This is also helpless. Although the experimental ship completed the first stage of the test, half a year of torture experience brought back a large amount of data. At the same time, it also made the warship look as if it had been swayed.

McKinson is a genius, and his team is busy all night, but in fact, except for a few engineers who are not valued in Europe and the United States, most of them have no experience in building 10,000-ton warships. Even if they plan to start for three months, even if the experimental ship has been launched for half a year, they I still can't complete all the data collection and design!

I can't help it. Time is too tight. The design team led by McKinson has only completed the preliminary plan. As for the interior and details, there is still no clue. In the end, they have to report to Li Mo and adopt this adventure plan with gambling surnames.

What they didn't expect was that when the plan was reported, Master Li was completely crazier than them. He not only made a new construction plan, but also created a new construction model, that is, it was built in stages and assembled, instead of the current popular way, a warship completely relying on a dock. Pieces of steel plates are rived together little by little.

In addition to the reinforced keel, the warship is divided into nearly ten segments. Each segment can be built in the factory area and then transported to the dock for assembly. In fact, it is not the first time it has been used in Hawaii. This method has been used to build submarines, but four 10,000-ton warships are taken. If you come to the experiment, it can be said to be a crazy move!

According to the calculation results of McKinson's design team and Li Dashao, after laying the keel, the design team will complete the overall design of the Jinghai class, and in the middle of the construction, the whole ship will be finally finalized. If there is a little error, it means that the whole warship has to be dismantled and re-established. Build.

What's more, the design team still does not know the size and weight of the triple artillery after the final finalization! I don't know the length and volume of the new torpedo! Even Master Li's most confident steam turbine is currently repaired and modified. There is no data at all. Everything can only be done on the paper at present. In case the artillery is overweight, or the steam turbine does not meet the requirements, or the length of the reserved torpedo tank is not enough, etc., it will be a disaster!

Compared with money, the loss of time will be more deadly, which means that the Jinghai level will not be completely in the future war! So when the plan was put forward, everyone shivered.

Especially the naval supervision team led by Fang Boqian, they must find every possible loophole through strict inspection and calculation, which is a huge challenge for the former North Ocean Pipe Belt who has just joined Hawaii.

In the face of pressure, Fang Boqian seemed to break out the second spring. He almost ate and lived in the factory. With his team, he stared wide and carefully checked every material, every steel plate, and every rivet.

Now the first steel plate has been cut, and everything is ready. Everyone is uneasy. Only Master Li smiles and doesn't seem to be nervous at all, because only he knows that he will "create" a new shipbuilding method--

The experimental ship named Honolulu galloped through the sea. Next to it were the Qixing Star and Sirius, which accompanied the training to Ryukyu, as well as the four destroyer formations they led. Compared with the huge battleships, the Honolulu looks light and fast. The speed of 22 knots is enough to make It got rid of all the partners behind it.

Li Mo chose to take the Honolulu to Nanyang, not because he liked the ship, but because it was the fastest warship under his command at present. There was no way. Because he had to preside over the ceremony of laying the keel, it had been delayed too much time, and it happened that the Honolulu was about to start the second phase of testing, so he pouted and sat on this nondescript monster that cost hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The oil boiler is more efficient than coal combustion. In less than a few minutes, the huge battleship formation was left behind, and there was no large amount of black smoke before when sailing, and the whole warship was much cleaner.

Standing on the deck, the corners of Master Li's mouth were crooked. This is not only because the cruiser under his feet has a little modernized layout for the first time, but also because of some good news from Zhao Long from Ryukyu.

According to his news, the former Naha area, which was renamed Bahai City, is driven by a huge amount of funds. There are no longer any signs of depression left after my evacuation. During this period, hundreds or even thousands of people can set foot on this new land every day. Those houses and land after my departure have become Free resettlement site.

For any island, an excellent deep-water wharf is the cornerstone of rapid economic development. Bahai City originally has a good deep-water port. After the efforts of tens of thousands of workers and Honolulu engineers during this period, the scale is comparable to Pearl Harbor.

The huge Honolulu Second Shipyard, that is, the Ryukyu Shipyard, has robbed all the shipbuilding equipment of Japan. In addition to the equipment purchased later, it has begun to take shape. The supporting factories are also accelerating the construction. A factory building has sprified one after another, and the workers are also stepping up training in various places!

The most important thing is that the full set of Italian naval gun production lines purchased through Chile have all arrived. In order to speed up, the Italians, who were stimulated by huge orders, even directly dismantled their naval gun factories and shell production lines and shipped them to Ryukyu. Although the mechanical equipment is not the latest, the construction The speed is very fast, and now it has begun to install and debug under the guidance of Italian engineers.

Around the naval gun factory, a new military logistics base has emerged. When the construction is completed, the pressure on Honolulu will be greatly reduced, and it will also facilitate the Pacific Army's operations in the Far East.

Just thinking of the price paid for this, the corners of Master Li's mouth twitched like epilepsy.

Dive it!

8 inches, 10 inches, 11 inches and 12 inches of four calibers, both firepower and rate of fire, are not as good as British naval guns of the same caliber, dare to shout out the sky-high price of millions of pounds! And it is also required to order at least eight double 305mm guns before they are willing to transfer them all! Grandma, the eight double 305mm guns alone will cost hundreds of thousands of yuan! With the technology transfer fee, the young master can directly build two battleships!!

I can't help it. Who just got 30 million! Moreover, I am at most a half-hearted military fan, and I didn't bring a Baidu girl and a learning machine when I crossed the border. Even if Honolulu now has a technology team of no less than 1,000 people, and there are leaders such as Tesla and the Curie couple, there are still some things that can't be promoted! In particular, the military industry, which is strictly managed by various countries, is subject to people everywhere.

"One day, all the principal and interest will be taken back!" Master Li swore and vented to Du Dazhuang, "Go, let's speed up."

Du Dazhuang's face is dark. Just now, you ordered full speed. Now the light wind is blowing on the deck. It is specified that it has been running at full load. How can you speed up?

Master Li also has a black face. In the face of such a turtle-like speed of travel, he is really annoyed. He mutters the names of Adel and Xie Yutai over and over again. One is the chief designer of the aircraft laboratory and the other is the chief designer of the airship laboratory. Can't you worry about the young master?

I don't know when the young master can travel by plane!

In Master Li's muttering, the formation quickly arrived at the waters of the Ogasawara Islands. After the Honolulu immediately launched a series of flags to the two battleships behind it, it drew a huge arc on the sea and left the formation and continued to sail south alone--

Manchester.

In the slightly dim office, with a wisp of flames suddenly lit up, the smoke curled up in the room, and the unique fragrance of tobacco spread.

John Fisher frowned with a cigar in his hand. Looking at the report he had just arrived, his doubts became heavier. The sudden big explosion a month ago made him suspect that a competitor deliberately destroyed the Huang family's navy, but the report in front of him made him doubt his point of view.

Ten days, ten explosions, in addition to the first few key military targets, there are mostly residential houses and warehouses, and even two completely worthless department stores, which are completely out of line with the military. Is it true that, as mentioned in the investigation report, are just some to deliberately destroy criminals?

If that's the case, then the target chosen by these criminals is too accurate! Unexpectedly, the two most important laboratories were destroyed, especially Parsons' factory. You know, it doesn't belong to the military at all, but a very promising new power laboratory!

"Bul people?"

Fisher glanced at the names repeatedly mentioned in the report, and his eyebrows became deeper. Although there has always been friction between the Boers and the British, and there are signs of war, do they really have the ability to cross thousands of miles and carry out paramilitary operations?

Can the bodies and German-made ordnance left prove that the Germans support the Boers?

Fisher's eyes rested on a paragraph in the report. This is an ordinary female worker who escaped from the boiler factory. According to her original words, those people's English is very lame, and they have an obvious Dutch accent. The weapons in their hands are all German pistols. One of them also mentioned Bull several times. Unfortunately They were stopped by others and didn't continue to talk.

Can this prove that it is a black hand under the Boers?

At the end of the report, the police mentioned that they had encountered two white men, exchanged fire, and killed one of them. According to the identity at the time of entry, the dead man was indeed a descendant of the Boers, but this made Fisher feel even more strange. If he really hated Britain, why did those Boers Running thousands of miles away to create a bombing, don't they know that doing so can only make Britain more angry?

Fisher gently closed as many as dozens of pages of the report. The seemingly detailed report actually seemed to be guiding the people who saw the report to associate it with the Boers. It was only because there was no real evidence that many parts were vague.

When Fisher took a cigarette and was about to put the cigar on the next to him, the door was knocked open.

"General, Mr. Minister asked you to rush to the Admiralty for a meeting immediately!"

"Oh? What happened?" Fisher grabbed his coat quickly and asked.

"I heard that the Prime Minister has asked the parliament to pass a bill of troop increase in the parliamentary hearing just now. According to the bill, China will send 30,000 troops to Bur, so the minister asked all naval leaders to open or discuss the plan to escort the army to land!"

"The war is about to start!"

Fisher's heart thumped. Does the Prime Minister of the Liberal Party really want to go to war? Doesn't he know that the Conservative Party is preparing to impeach him and re-election at this moment?

Or is this just his political means to divert domestic attention?

(to be continued)