Prime Minister Bismarck liked the young Chinese ambassador to Germany, and it was effortless to talk to the Chinese ambassador, which was the prime minister's greatest feeling. This may be because China is at the eastern end of the world island and does not have any strategic conflict with Germany. European countries are trying to use all kinds of diplomatic rhetoric to talk to their prime ministers about issues, while the Chinese ambassador to Germany is straightforward to use strategic judgment to talk to the prime minister about reality.

France declared war on China on November 11, and on November 12, the prime minister met with the Chinese ambassador to Germany. After listening to Bismarck's inquiry about China's future attitude, the Chinese ambassador replied with a smile in the language that had been organized long ago: "If Your Excellency the Prime Minister is worried about the alliance between Britain and France, and will turn against Germany, I personally think that this possibility is very small." ”

If you are an ordinary diplomat, when you encounter this kind of problem, the biggest feeling may be that it is difficult to pick up the problem, so you can only ask the Chinese ambassador to explain the reason, and then perfunctory. Suppressing France was the core strategy of Germany, and any possibility of France gaining allies would be a major pressure on Germany.

The prime minister is a true diplomat, having served as ambassador in several countries, and the situation in front of him simply cannot stump him. Bismarck calmly asked, "What will China do next?" ”

The Chinese ambassador said calmly: "We have already marched into Burma, and we expect to have a war with Britain next year not far from India." Britain could not have given up India, and our country had no intention of annexing India. However, we must let Britain know that we are capable of doing so. ”

The prime minister straightened his mind, and after a while he said, "But this will only bring France back to Europe." ”

The ambassador smiled and said: "My country thinks so, that it would be good for Germany that France's pursuit of colonies would make England wary of France." However, even if France lost French Indochina, it could not stop France from pursuing colonies. In other words, it was precisely because the French lost Indochina that they intensified their actions in other colonies. The British might have allowed French expansion in Indochina, but would Britain fully approve of French expansion in Africa? ”

Prime Minister Bismarck nodded slightly, and this judgment is also reasonable.

The Chinese ambassador struck while the iron was hot: "When Britain spends a considerable part of its energy on fighting against China, and the European countries see that Britain is not fighting effectively, some of them will inevitably take some actions that make Britain very dissatisfied." At this time, Britain can only pull its forces back to Europe and try to stabilize the situation in Europe again. At this time, who will Britain choose as his temporary partner? I don't think it's going to be France at all. Because the British knew very well what kind of price the French would offer. ”

This has already been said too bluntly, which is tantamount to telling the prime minister with confidence. The British can't afford to be beaten by China, and when the disgraced Europe continues to balance the European situation, the British will choose an ally. France has no play, Russia has no play, Austria-Hungary has no play, and the only partner that Britain can find is probably Germany. Once it had become a British partner for a certain period of time, Germany could take advantage of the opportunity to stabilize the situation and make the French even more desperate.

Of course, if we want to achieve such a situation, the premise is that China can indeed hold out until that time. Britain's strength lies in its navy, and in a war with China in Burma, the British Army may not really be able to take advantage.

The Prime Minister asked the Chinese ambassador, "Do you want Germany to send a message to Britain?" ”

"If you are willing to help, we would appreciate it." The Chinese ambassador said seriously. It is also a good thing to have a microphone, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has made it clear to the ambassadors in Europe that they want to tell the European countries that China does want to dominate the Western Pacific, but China is only satisfied with dominating the Western Pacific. If Britain is willing to sign a peace agreement with China now, China will happily restore peace with Britain. Although the scale of the war was not large, the actual losses of the warring sides were not large. As long as the Dutch East Indies were taken again, China would have got everything it wanted.

At this point, Britain could now end the war with China, and China could even consider sparing the Dutch East Indies for the time being.

In fact, the Chinese ambassador to Britain has also made China's proposal to Britain, but the British side has strongly rejected China's request. That being the case, China can only push for peace by continuing the war.

At this time, China's Third Five-Year Plan was being held, the first five-year plan was successfully completed, and the second five-year plan officially began. In such a busy work, Wei Ze still took the time to meet with the members of the North Sea Fleet who had returned to Nanjing. Ding Ruchang and others asked to see how the armor that had made great contributions in the naval battle was made, but the navy could only push this request to Wei Ze because it was involved in secrecy issues. Weeser thought about it for a while, and finally allowed a few core officers of the fleet to visit the armor factory with Weeser.

A steel plate that has been derusted and polished to a texture is placed under the mold, and the mold begins to preheat the steel plate. After reaching a certain temperature, the caster controls the ladle to pour the cast iron molten iron onto the steel plate inside the mold. Another steel plate that has been preheated is then buckled to the molten iron. After the mold is closed, it is sent to the bottom of a large hydraulic press for pressing.

After the pressing is finished, the steel armor is heat treated, and after layers of processes, the grinding is completed, and a composite steel armor is completed. Samples of the resulting composite armor will be taken to the test site for live-fire testing to determine the quality of this batch of steel armor.

The outer layer of hard steel armor can prevent the piercing of armor-piercing shells, and the inner layer of soft cast iron can absorb the impact of solid shells. The strength of the composite steel armor manufactured by the sandwich mode is more than 25% higher than that of the homogeneous cast iron armor of the same thickness. The 300 mm key defense belt can play a role in the protection of 375 mm cast iron armor in Europe. It has a very good defensive effect against enemy armor-piercing or solid bullets.

"How? Do you have faith now? Wei Ze smiled and asked his beloved general Ding Ruchang.

Ding Ruchang, who joined the Liberation Army as early as 1853, couldn't help but nod his head again and again, "Governor, please rest assured, if such a warship can be sunk, I will sink it with the warship." Nothing will be said to let the British get the secrets of our warships from my mouth! ”

Wei Ze knew that Ding Ruchang's speech was the result of the Navy's emphasis on secrecy before the visit. This kind of thing will not work if it is not emphasized, and China is far from opening up the technological gap between it and the world's industrial powers. China's advanced ideas are just a few ideas, and when foreign countries learn about them, they can easily catch up.

Deng Shichang's performance as an artillery commander was very good, and at the post-war summary meeting, Deng Shichang had a good summary of the artillery battle in the Battle of the Tsugaru Strait. He is younger than Ding Ruchang, so he is concerned about other issues, "Governor, no wonder the military academy has repeatedly said that the navy is the embodiment of the country's heavy industry capacity, and the navy is a force piled up of gold." Before I saw it with my own eyes, I couldn't imagine that a piece of steel armor had so many processing processes, so many processes, so many equipment, and a piece of steel armor was really as valuable as gold of the same weight. ”

These words touched Weeser's itch, and he laughed: "On the whole, the industrial countries are piled up by a lot of investment. Of course, the industrial states have the ability to complete these studies and develop these products. If it was an agricultural country like the Manchu Qing Dynasty, it would not be able to make a piece of such steel armor if it took out ten times as much gold. ”

Ding Ruchang didn't really feel anything about this topic, but Deng Shichang nodded again and again. Deng Shichang was born in 1849 into a family of tea merchants in Guangdong, and when he began attending primary school in Foshan at the age of seven, he was exposed to the things of the industrial era. His father was a businessman who knew how to follow the times, and when the Liberation Army recaptured Guangzhou, he let his son go to a primary school in Guangzhou to continue his education. With the rapid industrialization of Guangzhou, Deng Shichang can be regarded as a generation that grew up with China's industrialization. When it comes to industry, young people have their own perceptions.

After visiting the armored production plant, a group of naval soldiers who had more confidence in the People's Navy attended the seminar. Everyone knows that the founder of the navy is Wei Ze, not only to pay money and people to build the navy, including equipment and tactical concepts, Wei Ze has always led the direction of the people's navy.

Ding Ruchang joined the Liberation Army at the age of 17 and has been following Wei Ze for 21 years now. In order to get rid of hunger and pain, Deng Shichang joined Wei Ze's troops. I followed the troops step by step, saw China, saw my hometown and my relatives, and lived a good life that I had never heard of before. Following Wei Ze and obeying Wei Ze's orders is something that goes deep into Ding Ruchang's soul. Deng Shichang is not the same for these young people, struggling to survive is the feeling of the older generation, and for young people, it is the most valuable thing to be recognized by Governor Wei Zedu in this era of drastic changes.

Ding Ruchang habitually listened to Wei Ze's orders, while Deng Shichang, a young soldier, turned the experience he had accumulated in the war into the cornerstone of their more effective warfare, and worked hard to put forward their own new ideas.

"Governor, if you can make the muzzle elevation angle higher, the landing point of the cannonball will be better. However, this requires that the artillery hold its breath more effectively than it is now, and the shell and rifling bite better......" Deng Shichang put forward their views on behalf of the artillery.

After listening to the expectations of the artillerymen and some suggestions, Wei Ze smiled and asked the secretary to hand over a few documents to the soldiers attending the meeting. Ding Ruchang was silent after reading it, this is the latest artillery solution come up with by the Ordnance Research Institute, which just solves the problem that Deng Shichang just raised.

Looking at Deng Shichang and the others' happy appearances, Ding Ruchang just sighed in his heart. That's why he doesn't like these young people, they have too many ideas, they are too unstable. Since following Wei Ze, Ding Ruchang's experience is that Wei Ze will always be ahead of everyone. When everyone hadn't figured out what difficulties they had encountered, and they didn't even know that they were in trouble, Wei Ze had already come up with a solution to the problem.

Although Deng Shichang and these young people are driven, their performance in training and on the battlefield is excellent. Ding Ruchang still couldn't help but say in his heart, "It's too light!" ”

After talking about the shelling, the question of the formation of the naval battle was followed. The soldiers all felt that the current way of fighting was not able to fully exploit the power of the new cruiser. This model can minimize the possibility of sinking one's own warship, but it also loses the opportunity to sink British warships more effectively.

Ding Ruchang couldn't listen anymore, this group of bastard boys actually dared to accuse Wei Ze of his instructions. Now the Chinese Navy has only a few warships that can be put on the table, and it is good to sink the enemy, but if the warships are really sunk in large numbers by adopting aggressive tactics, what can be used to continue the battle with the British.

It's just that Wei Ze listened to the young soldiers with a smile, and Ding Ruchang was embarrassed to stand up in front of Wei Ze and scold the young soldiers. If Ding Ruchang does this, who is he playing prestige in front of?

After hearing this, Weeser told the young soldier that the Naval Academy would soon hold a refresher course for this to discuss this issue. Ding Ruchang watched almost helplessly as this group of young men with strong blood walked behind Wei Ze again, and he felt that it was necessary to rectify the discipline of these bastards.

After talking about the organization of the campaign, Weeser raised a question of strategy.

"China and Britain want to continue the war, and the first step for Britain is to withdraw the Grand Fleet from Japan to Singapore, and I don't want to stop the British from doing so, and we don't have enough strength to stop it. Britain is a very rational country, and Britain is also a very face-saving country. Therefore, in a few months, the North Sea Fleet will have to fight jointly with the South China Sea Fleet. A real war with the British in the South China Sea. When the time comes, everyone must fight bravely and beat down the arrogance of the British! Knock the British back to the negotiating table! ”

"Governor, isn't this a return of the tiger to the mountain?" Deng Shichang couldn't help but ask. The other young soldiers couldn't help but nod their heads again and again, the British Grand Fleet does have strong combat effectiveness, and everyone is looking forward to being able to deal a heavy blow to the British Grand Fleet as much as possible, at least to make the British unarmored ships suffer heavy losses, and it is enough to be silent for seventy or eighty lines.

Wei Ze smiled: "I don't think what you said is right, compared to the British fleet, we are tigers." What we need to do now is to sharpen our claws and teeth and defeat the British fleet in the Great Battle of the South China Sea in the near future. Let me ask you a question, do you think the British would dare to send unarmored ships and those modified thin-skinned ironclads to fight us? ”

The young soldiers shook their heads, and everyone still agreed with the IQ of the British Navy.

"These warships will not be sent to fight us, but they will be sent to suppress the weaker ones. So what do you think those weaker countries will think when they are suppressed by Britain and see that we can defeat the British ironclads? Weeser raised strategic questions.