Qin Zheng thought for a while before he said: "Prince Heinrich of Germany will visit Qingdao at the end of this month to further discuss cooperation with us. In addition, during this period, the naval command must also make preparations, and after submitting the shipbuilding plan to the Senate, it will definitely conduct on-site inquiries, which will also be related to whether the shipbuilding plan can be approved. ”

After a pause, Qin Zheng said: "By the way, there is a small question that I didn't ask just now, that is, what other military technology can we exchange with Germany, and we can lower the price in the transaction, or sell this technology to Germany to make up the deficit a little, of course, the premise is that Germany cannot form a qualitative leap in military technology." ”

Huang Zhedao: "We have considered this, there are two main technologies that can be used to exchange with Germany, or in the navy, one is the integrated fire control platform of warships, the other is dreadnought technology, although these two technologies are breakthrough technologies, but it will not take long for the world to be popularized, the dreadnought was officially put into service in 1907 in the old time and space, and the integrated fire control platform began to mature in 1911, to put it bluntly, it is not possible to maintain the advantage of Germany for a few years." However, we believe that with the conservative character of the Germans, and we just instilled the concept of the second stage of the main gun in the Germans last year, it is probably difficult for the Germans to accept the concept of the dreadnought's all-heavy guns at once, and relatively speaking, it should be easier to accept the integrated fire control platform. ”

The integrated fire control platform of this era is actually a mechanical computer used to calculate the distance, bearing, speed, duration, advance amount, ballistics and other related data of warships in naval battles, so as to improve the accuracy of artillery firing of warships.

With the development of artillery technology, the firing range is getting farther and farther, the combat distance of warships is also expanding, and the warships in combat are moving, so the traditional crosshair is paved with optical equipment aiming method, so that it can not adapt to the sea combat of this era. If the combat distance of the two sides is more than 10 kilometers, it takes about 15-20 seconds for the shell to fly this distance, while the speed of the general battleship is about 18 knots, and it can move a distance of 150-200 meters during this time, while the cruiser is faster, so when firing, it is necessary to consider a certain delay or advance factor.

In addition, the movement of the warship is not a straight line at an average speed, but almost irregular movement, and the enemy ship is moving, the ship is also moving, so to predict the delay or advance is a rather complex calculation, which is simply not completed by manpower, and the calculation of these data of the integrated fire control platform was also born, in this era, there are two main kinds of this integrated fire control platform, one is the Dreyer integrated fire control platform designed by Captain Leidell of the British Navy in 1911, which was widely used by the British Navy; 。 Of course, other countries such as Germany and France also have their own integrated fire control platforms, but they are not as famous as these two.

Of course, in the era of mechanical computers, the accuracy of all fire control platforms is actually not high, but some is better than nothing, so in the First World War, the navies of various countries have widely used integrated fire control platforms on warships. And this technology is sure to arouse the interest of Germany.

At this time, Xia Bohai said: "Although I also think that Germany is a good partner for us to complete the shipbuilding plan, but we can't bet all the treasure on Germany, we should still go through the process of fair bidding, first, it is conducive to us to try our best to keep the price down; Thirdly, we can strengthen cooperation with Germany, but we cannot only cooperate with Germany, let alone establish a similar alliance with Germany. ”

Qin Zheng also nodded and said, "This is completely deserved, I agree." ”

On the surface, it was the last batch of machinery and equipment to be escorted to the agreement between the East China government and Germany, and the last time the traverser transferred mortar technology to Germany, the two sides agreed to produce samples in the Qingdao Arsenal, and now 16 prototypes of three calibers have been produced.

Of course, after the transfer and installation of this batch of machinery and equipment, the last cooperation agreement between Germany and the Traverser will come to an end. Although Germany lost Qingdao, the only colony in the Far East, and also lost a Far Eastern Fleet, but the early cooperation, Germany still felt very satisfied, after all, the two sides reached a framework agreement on economic cooperation, Germany at least has not completely lost the Chinese market, and Germany has also obtained a large number of advanced military technology from the traverser, which is the technology of the navy, so that the Admiralty unanimously believes that these technologies can greatly shorten the gap between Germany and Britain in naval technology.

At present, there is a basic consensus in Germany on the views of the traversers, that is, the country established by this group of overseas Chinese is indeed a modern and developed civilized society. Although the surviving more than 6,000 overseas Chinese have inherited most of the science and technology, it is difficult for them to regain their previous civilization in a short period of time, and this is also a good opportunity for Germany to get as many advanced military technologies as possible from overseas Chinese through technical cooperation between the two sides.

In addition to these factors, Germany also hopes to strengthen its influence in the Far East by cooperating with the Travelers.

With the rise of Japan, the contradiction between Russia and Japan in the Far East is deepening day by day, and the Far East has become the world's largest barrel, and Russia has formed an alliance with France, Japan is getting closer and closer to Britain, and the United States also has its own calculations, plus the Qing court and Korea are also involved, so the current Far East has become the arena of the world's major powers and the table of international players.

Among the world powers, only Germany originally did not have much influence in the Far East, and after the loss of Qingdao, there was no foothold in the Far East, and most of the players involved in it had no interest in cooperating with Germany. This is also a rather embarrassing event for Germany, which is now the world's first industrial and economic second.

However, the sudden appearance and strong rise of overseas Chinese has added a weighty player to the Far East's game, which not only makes the already complicated situation in the Far East more complicated, but also gives Germany a glimmer of hope to participate in this game. After all, Germany has cooperated with overseas Chinese, and the cooperation is quite satisfactory. If we further strengthen cooperation with overseas Chinese, with the help of overseas Chinese, let Germany's influence enter the Far East again, and also play on the table in this game.

Kaiser Wilhelm II, who had always been fond of whimsy, even had a big brain, and even came up with a plan, that is, to establish a relationship with overseas Chinese similar to the Franco-Russian alliance, and use overseas Chinese as German agents in the Far East. Although this plan was blocked by Prime Minister Bilo, after all, the overseas Chinese are not yet a formal country, and it is still a little too early to talk about the alliance, and it is necessary to test the attitude of the overseas Chinese first, so this time Prince Heinrich's visit to Qingdao is also burdened with quite a large and numerous tasks.

Prince Heinrich departed from the German port of Cologne in early November 1901 and arrived at the port of Qingdao on January 20, 1902, and was of course warmly greeted by officials of the East China government headed by Qin Zheng. Although it should be the business of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to welcome Prince Heinrich, and Qin Zheng's position should no longer be in charge of diplomatic affairs, but when Prince Heinrich visited Qingdao last time, he was received by Qin Zheng and established a relatively good personal relationship, and the division of labor of the East China government is not so detailed, so this time Qin Zheng is still asked to come forward to receive Prince Heinrich, after all, he has to discuss the affairs of building ships with Prince Heinrich.

This time, Prince Heinrich arrived in Qingdao with six cargo ships, three of which exceeded 10,000 tons, carrying the last batch of machinery and equipment from shipyards, arsenals, Sifang locomotive factories, power plants, and steel plants.

At this time, the shipyard, the arsenal, and the Sifang locomotive factory have all begun partial production, and after the last batch of machinery and equipment is in place, the initial design production capacity will be fully reached, and the shipyard can build ships of more than 10,000 tons at least in terms of hardware; the arsenal can manufacture 155 mm caliber guns, and in the army, 155 mm caliber guns can be regarded as heavy artillery, and in the navy, they are secondary guns for battleships and armored cruisers; in addition to building railways, the Sifang locomotive factory can finally build locomotives on its own. After the installation and commissioning of the last batch of machinery and equipment, the power plant and steel plant can officially start production, which means that the industrialization process of the East China government has finally taken a solid and steady first step.

After officially receiving the last batch of machinery and equipment, Qin Zheng first took Prince Heinrich to visit the Qingdao administrative area that had been built, and Prince Heinrich was very surprised by the engineering and construction ability of the traverser, because when he left Qingdao, this area was still in a panic, and the traverser had just started construction, and now it is less than a year, and more than a dozen high-rise buildings have been built, such a speed, even in Europe, is rare. Building capacity is often the embodiment of a country's scientific and technological and industrial capabilities, and it can be seen that overseas Chinese do have scientific and technological capabilities that are no less than those of Europe.