Wisps of pale blue smoke drifted away, enveloping the entire house in a choking atmosphere.

Stalin kept taking a deep breath of the pipe in his mouth, trying to calm himself down through the nicotine stimulation, and after a while, he muttered again: "Union shipyards? Comrade Andrey, how much do you know about this plant? ”

Seeing that Stalin's anger subsided, Andrei breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, and somehow he had a feeling of fear for the rest of his life. In the face of the leader's inquiry, Andrei nodded and said: "This shipyard was established in early 1923 and is one of the key German-funded projects introduced under the leadership of Comrade Bukharin, Secretary of the Leningrad Region; For reasons related to the navy, I have visited this shipyard several times and have a good understanding of the situation there. After several years of construction, it has now become a medium-sized enterprise with 6 slipways and more than 1,400 employees; One of the slipways is 240 meters long, which is enough to meet the needs of the construction and maintenance of any large warship. At present, the Navy's three October Revolution (Gangut)-class battleships are maintained and repaired in this slipway on a rotational basis. ”

Speaking of this, Andre showed a look of shame and bitterness on his face, and said: "Although our two national shipyards also have slipways that are enough to accommodate them, due to the lack of personnel and related precision equipment, it is simply impossible to keep these battleships in a good state ready for battle at any time. Therefore, since the previous year, the Navy has entrusted the German shipyard with the maintenance of our most powerful warships, which has allowed the three battleships to return to the shallow sea beyond the Kronstadt base. Their skilled workers and engineering designers are not comparable to those inexperienced young people in our shipyards, and their comprehensive technical strength is at least three or four grades higher than ours. However, this is also a matter of no choice, the Union shipyard is a branch of the Brom-Foss shipyard in Hamburg, Germany, and all its core personnel come from the headquarters in Hamburg, which is one of the top shipbuilders in the imperialist countries. We Soviets still have a long way to go. ”

"If we place an order with this alliance shipyard, there will be no mistakes in production and schedule. They have both slipways and enough technical strength to be replenished by their headquarters in Hamburg, Germany, even if they lack something. And in terms of price, placing an order with the Germans will not be a noticeable increase than building it ourselves. Because of the power system, large bearings, fire control equipment and many other cutting-edge equipment of the battleship, we are now unable to produce it ourselves; Since these subsystems have to be purchased from abroad, the same is true of buying them from the Germans. Andrei briefly explained the situation to Stalin, then paused, and said slowly, "Perhaps the only concern is that our warships will not have the slightest secret in front of the Germans, and once there is a crack in Soviet-German relations in the future, the Red Navy will be in an extremely disadvantageous position in terms of strategic deterrence and tactical confrontation." ”

Stalin exhaled a puff of smoke and said slowly: "In order to counter the Japanese threat in the Far East, the Tsarist Russian government also ordered a capital ship from France and the United States to absorb the advanced technology; Although the war ended in Russia's defeat, Tsarist Russia also got its wish and achieved a rapid increase in shipbuilding strength. Today, the Soviets are more deficient in shipbuilding than they were back then, and we need a teacher to guide us on this path. Moreover, if we continue to delay and do not build a strong line of defense at sea in time, the Soviets may at any time face the danger of being invaded by the imperialist powers. Since the Germans had a shipyard in Leningrad, we should rely on their strength. ”

Andrei's heart was once again filled with excitement and joy, and he did not hesitate to praise the bearded man in front of him; As the chief political commissar of the navy, he is undoubtedly the direct beneficiary of the reconstruction of the fleet, and there will be an essential difference in terms of power, status, and filial piety of his subordinates compared to the current situation where he can only live a hard life with this poor family. Stalin turned his gaze back to him and said: "Comrade Andrei, I would like to ask you to work hard these days to draw up a rough plan for the future reconstruction of the Navy." In five days' time, there will be a meeting of the central delegates in Moscow, and you will propose to the delegates how many warships you want to build and how much budget you will need to spend. If all goes well, 1927 will be the beginning of the reconstruction of the Soviet Navy. ”

"Yes, Comrade Stalin!" Andrei responded to Stalin's request in a loud voice. After shaking hands, Andrei walked out of the office house excitedly, eager to sketch out a spectacular blueprint for his fleet in order to recreate the heyday of the Imperial Russian period. Stalin, who saw Andrei leave, could not calm down for a long time, and the naval dream that he had stored in his heart for many years has finally taken the first step towards the realization of the end with the recovery of national strength and the assistance of foreign technology.

The winter wind was howling, the frost and snow were flying, and on January 16, 1927, the meeting of deputies of the Central Committee of the Soviets was held in the Kremlin as scheduled. At the meeting, Andrei, on behalf of the Navy, submitted to the Politburo of the Central Committee headed by Stalin a plan for the reconstruction of the fleet: in the next three years, the Soviets will build 1 battleship, 4 cruisers, 10 destroyers, 8 submarines, and a number of offshore patrol ships, and it is estimated that the entire expansion will cost 600 million rubles. After the completion of the expansion plan, the Red Navy will regain overwhelming superiority over neighboring countries in the Baltic and Black Seas; Even in the face of the invasion of Western powers, it can play the role of an "existential fleet" with the strength in its hands.

Although Stalin was already the general secretary of the Central Committee, he was still far from being able to dominate everything in the party; Bukharin, Kalinin, Rykov and other old Bolsheviks, who had also followed Lenin for many years, were not at all afraid of his authority as leaders. These people, together with a group of members of the Central Committee who were close to them, had an in-depth discussion of this plan for the reconstruction of the navy, and their spittle was about to fly in front of Stalin's eyes. In the face of this almost chaotic venue where "a hundred schools of thought contended", Stalin was as calm as usual, but in the depths of his eyes, there was a deeply buried fierceness and tyranny flickering. One day, he wants to make this venue a place where all horses will be, and he will be the only focus of attention like the scorching sun in the sky!

Fortunately for Stalin, the majority of the committee members had no opinion on the general direction of rebuilding the navy, but there were some differences in the specific implementation. After two days of arguing, Andrei's plan for the expansion of the Navy was finally finalized: in addition to the fact that the shares of 2 cruisers and 4 destroyers were cut, Andrei's requests were met at the meeting.

As the only enterprise in Soviet Russia that is capable of building ships of the cruiser class or above, the Union Shipyard immediately received an official letter from the Admiralty of Soviet Russia. The request for a design for reference was telegraphed to the shipyard headquarters in Hamburg; And Fang Yan, who was in the Milwick School, also learned about this big news on the Eastern Front that surprised him through regular correspondence with his family. Fang Yan didn't expect that his proposal to let cheap daddy Rudolph open a branch in Soviet Russia would have such a good effect. The Russians, who have recovered their strength, are eager to refurbish their tattered toys, and this is an excellent boost to both the current family business and the future strategy!

"Do not use new designs on the battleships of the Russians, as well as the advanced power that was received from Italy!" Fang Yan wrote in his reply to Rudolph. The armor box structure of the inward-tilted main armor belt, the multi-layer underwater anti-torpedo system of the empty tank-liquid tank-empty tank, the integration of the hull structure into the armor, and the reverse protrusion formed by reducing the width of the ship on the water are all the housekeeping skills proposed by Fang Yan to improve the combat power of German warships. Italy, the future ally, was to be put to use, and Soviet Russia, a potential enemy, would never be allowed to touch it in the slightest. In the letter, Fang Yan made it clear to Rudolph that the warships he designed for the Russians must adopt the traditional double-deck dome layout, and the most core technology cannot be used; Only in this way can the warships that meet the corresponding performance be built large enough, and their own ships can be reaped as much shipbuilding benefits as possible from the Russians.

In addition to the consideration of money, Fang Yan also wanted to make these Soviet and Russian warships sink in a dozen or so in future wars. The direct and blatant thinning of the armor was difficult for the Russians to accept, so Fang Yan chose the breakthrough point at horizontal protection, which greatly weakened the bomb resistance of these ships. With the same total thickness, the performance of two decks in the face of aerial bombs is much inferior to that of a single large-thickness deck; In the future, bombers with delayed fuse bombs will be mounted on such Russian warships, and it will become very likely that they will be hit by one shot!

As for whether the Soviet and Russian navies would abandon the alliance shipyard and choose another collaborator, Fang Yan did not have the slightest worry at all. Because now there is no other country in the West that has an equal relationship with Soviet Russia, let alone a friendly relationship like Germany. No matter from which point of view, at present Britain, France, Italy, the United States, and Japan are absolutely impossible to build battleships for Soviet Russia, and Moscow can only seek Berlin's help in rebuilding its navy. And in the current Germany, Brom-Foss, which controls and annexes a large number of peers, is already a well-deserved No. 1 shipbuilding giant, and the Soviet and Russian Navy has no other choice at all!