On the afternoon of the third day of the negotiations, the United States of America offered to adjourn the meeting and proposed that the next round of negotiations be held in Washington. In the absence of results, all countries agreed to the proposal. At that time, the United States of America was the least at odds with other countries, so it was the best choice to choose Washington as the venue for the next round of negotiations.

Early the next morning, Tan Renhao followed Nie Renfeng to visit Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries naval artillery factory in Chiba, west of Tokyo. This was not the largest artillery factory in the Japanese Navy, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' main industry at that time was not in this area. The Japanese side arranged for negotiators from various countries to visit the factory in order to avoid reality.

Tan Renhao also saw a heavy industry factory in Japan at this time. If the handicraft workshops in downtown Tokyo made Tan Renhao feel very backward, then this factory of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries made Tan Renhao feel a little frightened. Japan's industry is not completely backward, at least in terms of important military industries, Japan is not much worse than other powers. The factory covers an area of more than thirty acres and mainly produces naval guns with a caliber of less than 200 mm. In addition, the plant has a branch plant that produces mines for the Japanese Navy (in Japan, torpedoes are also called mines). There are a large number of modern machinery in the factory, and Tan Renhao doesn't know much about industrial things, so he didn't see the name after watching it for a long time.

"Don't underestimate this factory, I heard that they are now working on a huge cannon with a caliber of 460 mm." Nie Renfeng's voice was very low, "However, with Japan's industrial strength, they can't make good cannon steel at all, so they can only increase the caliber to increase the range and power of the artillery." Don't look at this number scary, in fact, the effect is not very good, and if it really starts, it may not be easy to use. ”

Tan Renhao laughed, Japan's industry started much later than other powers. In the war with the Tang Empire, which lasted for hundreds of years, Japan suffered extremely heavy losses. At the time of the first global war, Japan was the target of the Tang Empire's key attack. During the period from Japan's surrender to the end of the war, the Tang Empire's occupation forces destroyed a large number of Japanese factories and captured many Japanese scientific and technological personnel, or secretly executed them. After the war, Japan spent a long time stockpiling talent, and now it is just beginning to take shape, and it still has a long way to go before it can catch up with other powers in important technological aspects.

The next day, the group rushed to Nagoya. There is a tank factory here, which mainly produces armored fighting vehicles for the Japanese Army. Tan Renhao: They just looked around here like a flower, and then they headed for Osaka. The Treaty of Songjiang did not restrict the development of the army by the powers, but the armistice treaty between the Tang Empire and Japan contained clauses restricting the Japanese army, including that the Japanese army could not be equipped with more than five tons of combat vehicles, and the total size of the combat vehicles should not exceed 1,000 vehicles. Tan Renhao, a layman in the army, also saw that at that time, all the vehicles made in Japan were light combat vehicles. In fact, even if there were no relevant treaty restrictions, with Japan's ability to produce steel, after building a large number of warships, Japan would not have much high-quality steel to make heavy tanks.

The activities in Osaka and Kobe made Tan Renhao very rewarding. At that time, Osaka and Kobe were Japan's main shipbuilding bases. In Kobe, in particular, three of the five docks that Japan had at that time capable of building 50,000 tons were in Kobe. In addition, there are several large steel plants near Kobe, two of which specialize in providing armor steel plates for the navy. At that time, the two "Soryu"-class aircraft carriers under construction in Japan, as well as several "Kongo"-class battleships that were being renovated, were all here. This gave Tan Renhao a very intuitive understanding of the development of the Japanese Navy.

The Soryu-class aircraft carrier was the first truly large fleet aircraft carrier built in Japan. Capable of carrying 84 combat aircraft with a displacement of more than 20,000 tons. Japan built this class of aircraft carriers for the three "Emperor" class aircraft carriers of the Tang Empire. Whether it is displacement, captain, speed, number of aircraft, or some specific designs on the battleship, it is very close to the "Emperor" class aircraft carrier. Tan Renhao even wondered if the Japanese technicians had stolen the Empire's aircraft carrier design drawings and then used them to build the aircraft carrier themselves with a slight modification.

The "Kongo" class battleship was a battle cruiser when it was built, and it was a powerful capital ship ordered by Japan from the British Empire before World War I. At that time, Fisher, the Minister of the British Navy, advocated the development of such fast and powerful battleships, and threw up a wave of battle cruiser construction. It was at that time that Japan placed an order with the British Empire and purchased four battle cruisers in one go, which served as the main force of its "88th Fleet". In the First World War, four "King Kong" class ships were heavily damaged, and actual combat showed that such weakly armored battleships could not be the main force in the fierce battle like battleships. After the war, I am afraid that except for the British Empire, other countries abandoned the battle cruiser and focused on building new warships such as fast battleships and heavy cruisers. According to the situation, Japan also sent four "Kongo"-class battle cruisers to the dock one after another to undergo large-scale renovation. Including changing the main engine, strengthening the armor, replacing it with a more powerful main gun, and so on. As a result, these four battleships were transformed into battleships, and their displacement increased by thousands of tons. Because the powertrain has been strengthened a lot, the speed has not slowed down, but has increased a lot.

When I left Kobe, my activities in Japan ended. Tan Renhao had a completely new understanding of the ambitions of the Japanese Navy. Japan must be expanding its armaments, otherwise why would it build so many new warships and transform those old warships? To Tan Renhao's slight regret, he did not see the battleship "Yamato" under construction. The Imperial Intelligence System had received information that Japan was building one of the largest battleships in the world, but Tan Renhao had not seen any sign of this ship in Kobe or Osaka.

When he boarded the plane back to the empire, Tan Renhao breathed a sigh of relief. If before he had doubted that war would break out, now he was absolutely sure that the next war would start soon, and most likely in the East!

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