Since he was here to celebrate his grandmother's 50th anniversary on the throne, Jochen did not undertake any diplomatic duties, so he spent the next few days at his leisure and free referencing. So Jochen paid a polite visit at the invitation of his relatives. Then take some time to visit Pound Street to soak up the atmosphere of Britain's most famous luxury street, Pound Street has been London's fashion shopping mall since the 18th century. In just one short street, there are dozens of the world's top fashion and jewelry brand stores. Jochen came to England with his parents when he was a child, so he couldn't move freely, so he naturally came to this famous shopping street in London to see for a long time. Then go to Buckingham Palace every afternoon to have afternoon tea with my grandmother.

Early in the morning on 26 June, Jochen took a train to Portsmouth, where he changed to a transport boat to board the heavy cruiser Irene, which was anchored at Spithead Bay, south of Cape Gilkirk, the southernmost point outside Portsmouth Harbour. Spithead Bay is less affected by the weather and is calm for most of the year, making it a suitable anchorage. Therefore, it is also the traditional location of the British parade for hundreds of years.

When he was still far from the anchorage, Jochen, who was standing on the transport boat, saw that the inshore anchorage, which was 14 miles long and 4 miles wide, was already full of warships, and the scene was spectacular. It was the first time in a previous life or in this life that Jochen had seen so many warships anchored together. And it is different from the various parades seen in the pictures or videos of Jochen in the past, whether it is the majesty and majesty of the battleships during the First World War, the huge and majestic shores of the aircraft carriers during the Second World War, or the concise, smooth, elegant and noble missile era after the war. The fleet in front of you was filled with a strange feeling. These shapes are not beautiful, they do not look towering, nor are they simple and graceful ships, and some even retain sails of warships, but they give people a strange beauty of the combination of steam and steel, the coexistence of advanced and backward, a sense of the times of the industrial revolution is coming, and it is very steampunk.

Most of the ships in the anchorage are British warships, and some are warships sent to Britain by various countries to participate in the parade, and all warships are stationed according to their type and nationality.

In just a few moments, Jochen recognized several famous historical ships, such as the famous first-class ironclad ship Indomitable, which was one of the reference objects of the Dingzhen Second Ship; and the Royal Navy's largest battleship at this time, the Steadfast, which was launched in 1876 and still has sails; And there is also the Mersey protective cruiser that has just been commissioned this year, this British Royal Navy's latest protective cruiser is a very successful design, with a displacement of 4050 tons, an atmospheric speed of 18 knots, 2 203 mm main guns, 10 152 mm secondary guns, although it is slightly inferior in firepower and protection compared with the latest German cutting-edge protective cruiser Erin who came to participate in the parade, but its low price of 210,000 pounds is really a model of good quality and low price. How can Irene, who cost nearly £400,000, be embarrassed (Note 1). And this type of cruiser is the prototype of the Orlando class, the main armored cruiser of the British Royal Navy in the future, which can be described as a classic.

The Irene, anchored in an array of large foreign warships, and the second ship of the French Navy's Lacalisania-class armored cruiser, the Victory (Note 2), was moored behind the starboard side of the French Navy.

Jochen, who boarded the Erin from the gangway, was greeted by the entire crew. After a brief review and greeting, Jochen boarded the bridge of the Irene, and Tirpitz followed, and the two walked to the flybridge on either side of the bridge and chatted casually.

"Alfred, you won't be on the ship all the time, will you?" Jochen asked.

"I spent two days in Portsmouth Harbour to coordinate the parade, and I stopped by a few friends I had met when I was stationed here." Tirpitz replied, and then asked, "I wonder if Your Highness's itinerary in London has been going well these days?" ”

"My grandmother is in good health, and my aunts and uncles are all in good shape, and they are mainly visiting during this time. It's rare to take some time to go to Pound Street, but I didn't have a chance before. Jochen laughed.

"Did Your Highness buy something?" Tirpitz asked with a smile when he saw that Jochen was very casual.

"No, haha, because when I went, I found that I didn't have one that I could use."

"Your Highness is really frugal."

"I'm not frugal, I just spend money with a plan."

After chatting casually about their daily lives, the two turned the conversation to the huge fleet in front of them.

"The French actually sent the Lagassanian class over, and they were right behind us, did the British do this on purpose?" Jochen said with a smile.

"Haha, that's true, her sister ship Triumph was heavily damaged by the Dingyuan in the Far East, and it took a long time to return to France for repairs. Now seeing our ships lined up ahead of them, the expression on the faces of the French must be wonderful. Tirpitz laughed when he heard Jochen tease the Frenchman.

"Bring a telescope, I really want to see it."

"Hahahaha, Your Highness, you are really humorous."

"I'm serious, hahahaha." The two laughed.

After laughing for a while, Tirpitz continued: "Your Highness, as you originally said, there are indeed submarines who have come to participate in this parade. How do you know? ”

"Really? I'm just talking nonsense, which country? Where is it? Jochen began to play dumb.

"Ottoman Turkey, sent a steam-powered submarine. Because it's a small ship, it's far away from us," Tirpitz replied.

"Ottoman? Oh, I've heard of a successful operation in business by a beam-jumping clown. Nordenfeld-1 steam submarine. Jochen was dismissive.

"Oh? Could you please elaborate on it? "Tirpitz came to be interested.

"The trade representative of Sweden's Nordenfeld company is a Russian named Bashir Zakharov. This man is an ambitious and manipulative opportunist. In 1885, the Nordenfeld-1 was first marketed to Greece, and then the Greeks were used to scare the Ottomans, and the Ottomans also bought 2 ships, and then the Ottomans were used to scare the Russians, and the Black Sea Fleet also bought 2 ships. And I also heard that last year the Kingdom of Italy held a shooting competition in La Spezia, and Mr. Hiram Stevens Maxim's design and Nordenfeld machine gun competed on the same stage, and as a result, Lakharov knew that his product was not as good as Mr. Maxim's, so he bribed the favored ministers of King Emmanuel of Italy, so that His Majesty the King could spend his mind on visiting the night view of La Spezia, and the royal family only came to the official competition. As a result, Mr. Maxim's design went unnoticed. Of course, the German intelligence officers would not have received such detailed information, but Jochen knew all about the hard work of the early days of the Maxim machine gun in his previous life. And just this year, the Maxim machine gun had to suffer the loss of this despicable villain in the Austro-Hungarian automatic weapons tender.

"It's really an opportunist with no bottom line. In this way, presumably the performance of this steam-powered submarine must not be very good, if the performance is really excellent, then there is no need to use such a small means. Tirpitz hesitated.

"Performance is not the point, Alfred, regardless of performance, the appearance of submarines on the parade of the British Royal Navy is itself a symbolic meaning, representing a new type of ship that can be grandly on this stage, and the previous submarines, although the French have been researching, but no one really cares about them. Now is an opportunity. Even if the performance of such a submarine is worse, it is a signal. Jochen certainly wouldn't tell Tirpitz that when the Turks were trying to fire a torpedo from the Nordenfeld-1 submarine, first the stern sank, then the hull lost its balance, and finally failed. But it was an opportunity for the German Navy to start ramping up its submarine research. Jochen continued: "And there are many problems with the use of steam power in submarines, and the water ingress of the chimney alone is a big problem, and I think it is more reliable for submarines to use internal combustion engines as power." ”

"Mr. Gottlieb Durham invented the gasoline engine in 1883. Indeed, it is more suitable for small ships such as submarines than steam power. Your Highness is really amazingly sensitive to technology. Tirpitz sighed.

"I'm just interested in mechanics. And Mr. Daleham's design wasn't the ideal fit for me. Gasoline is volatile, and the safety factor is too low in a confined space like a submarine. My ideal fuel is diesel, diesel is viscous and not volatile, it is difficult to ignite at room temperature and pressure, and the safety factor is better than gasoline. However, the characteristics of diesel do not lend themselves to a direct application of Mr. Daimler's design. When the time comes, it is necessary to study how to make diesel fuel burn in the internal combustion engine. Jochen went on to say, and thought to himself: 'It seems that I am going to find Rudolf Christian Karl Diesel, and I remember that he had already set up his own business in 1885 to study engines, and that I could have helped him out.'

Soon, the parade officially began, and the two stopped talking and entered the bridge. The spectacular formation is breathtaking, and the Erin's new strength and the well-trained German sailors are a good indication of what the German Navy is looking like now. Although the German Navy has been surpassed by the Tsarist Russian Navy and fallen to the fourth place in the world, due to Jochen's tossing in recent years, it has finally not continued to fall. This time, the Irene showed the technical level of the German Navy, and it was also a sense of saving zài. At the same time, some countries that came to participate in the parade had their own thoughts and mixed tastes.

Note 1: To be honest, the cost of Mersey is only 210,000 pounds, no matter how you think about it, it is difficult to accept, and the cost of two single ships of the Zhiyuan class is 220,000 pounds.

Note 2: There is very little information about the 1887 parade, so it is not clear which ship the French Navy sent to the author, but the Victory has been using Cherbourg as its home port since 1886, close to Portsmouth, so it was arranged here that she was ridiculed by the Germans.