The battleship Dayu has been launched for 8 years, during which it was modernized in 1895, and the original shooting command instrument was upgraded to the Storm II fire control platform, however, for the rapid development of the navy, Xu Shoushan, the commander of the Grand Fleet, naturally knew that the battleship was on the bottleneck in combat power, and the 254mm twin-mounted main gun faced with the new armor era that had entered the surface penetration, even if it had advanced armor-piercing shells, but the strike capability had been greatly limited.

However, the reason why the Storm II fire control platform is displayed for the Germans is naturally from Qin Kai's intentions, after 4 years ago to Germany authorized the opening of the shooting command instrument technology, the Germans fully demonstrated their ability to keep secret, so far the original authorized 88 type shooting command instrument has been improved by a number of models, but has always been regarded as the top secret by the German side, and the combined image rangefinder has obtained a series of German Zeiss optical imaging technology, and then rapidly improved the combat effectiveness of the domestic new generation of fire control platform.

Since the Sino-British Far East naval battle, the British Royal Navy has also felt the threat from naval gunnery, and has fully invested in the research and development of the firing commander, however, because there is no previous experience in this area, only from China to obtain the technology of the vertical rangefinder, and there is no ability to integrate the platform, according to the intelligence department to obtain information, Barr Stroud company in the past few years in the range finder has made great progress, which is obviously thanks to the deep industrial base of the United Kingdom.

Even without the technical authorization of the German Zeiss optics, the British have increased the magnification of the optical ranging component by more than 25 times, and if only the technical indicators of this fire control component are used, it has reached the technology close to that of the Chinese naval rangefinder.

But. Barr? Strauss produces the FAF-I platform above the firing command. But in the last 3 years of the Royal Navy tender. Successive defeats to the HS-2 shooting director produced by Heisenberg Precision Machinery Qì Factory made the British optical equipment company on the verge of bankruptcy. Strauss fire control also never appeared in the Royal Navy sequence of this era.

The HS-2 fire control is derived from the early Mawei shipyard improved Rafale fire control technology, based on the combination of ranging and gust calculation clock, Heisenberg Precision Machinery Co., Ltd. has completed a complex equity control process with a company registered in Switzerland, and all the R&D results have not been directly used in product production, and the Intelligence Division has been controlled by two other precision machine factories to produce products and then resell Hasenberg Precision Machinery to the Royal Navy.

However, news came from the UK. The Admiralty was shocked by the outcome of the naval battle between China and the United States, although the British could not learn about the new technology of fire control in the Chinese Navy, but this did not prevent Fisher from understanding the shortcomings of British warships, and a new round of naval firing command tenders was underway, supposedly custom-made for the new warships of the Devonport Naval Shipyard, and it was clear that Britain was speeding up the catch-up.

This series of changes put the German Navy at a disadvantage in the competition with the Royal Navy again, and whether or not it was ahead of Britain in gunnery would be the key to whether the Germans had the confidence to continue to join the arms race. The arms race at sea is in full swing in Europe, and not only Germany. France, the Russian Empire, Austria-Hungary, Italy were all involved.

When Colonel Seydon put forward the intention of arms cooperation, he immediately received an enthusiastic response from Xu Shoushan, "Colonel Seyden, the peace trip of the Chinese Navy has brought the sincere friendship of Premier Qin of Beijing to His Majesty Wilhelm II, and we hope to conduct full maritime cooperation exercises with your navy, and at the same time, conduct comprehensive exchanges on naval technology!" ”

Colonel Seydon obviously didn't expect that Chinese for this kind of highly classified technical generosity, although his head was a little short-circuited for a while, and the large set of rhetoric he had prepared to persuade Xu Shoushan was obviously unnecessary, which surprised him, and he thought about it for 10 seconds before picking up the topic, "General Xu, on behalf of His Majesty the Emperor and Prime Minister Hornlore, I would like to thank you for your friendship...... We will give you a great reward for this! ”

Requite...... Xu Shoushan is obviously very willing to hear this heart-warming word, the economic strength of the Germans has risen rapidly, almost surpassing the British Empire to become the second largest economy with the United States in this era, and the Great China behind him, although with the rapid development of the domestic economy and infrastructure construction, the economic strength has also been greatly enhanced, but only 10 years of development time, is not enough to challenge the old powers economically.

After listening to the interpreter's detailed explanation of Colonel Seydon's response, he immediately announced the second gift package to the Germans with a smile, "Colonel Seydon, Premier Qin Kai is willing to provide the best feedback for Sino-German friendship, according to our prior consultation, we also brought 50 China's newly developed Scud torpedoes with the ship this time, and can authorize your country to manufacture them!" ”

The real purpose of Colonel Seydon's original trip was this new torpedo that was said to have a range of close to 3,000 meters, although the German imitation of the white-headed torpedo developed its own blackhead series, but the short range of the torpedo beyond the great power, even the super-large 53.3cm diameter black-headed torpedo was only 800 meters at a speed of 30 knots, and only 1,100 meters at 24 knots, and the accuracy was not satisfactory to the navy.

The Scud torpedo that China promised to provide to Germany is in fact a generation of domestic heat-powered torpedoes, which use fuel and air injection to burn to produce ultra-high temperatures close to 1000 degrees, and the thermal engine sold to Germany has reached 140 horsepower, and if a 21-inch super torpedo is used, it can drive the torpedo to travel 3100 meters at a speed of 30 knots.

You know, just three months ago, German Vice Admiral Tirpitz once again took up the post of leading the German Navy, and the ambitious vice admiral once again proposed to Kaiser Wilhelm II the idea of regarding the British Empire as Germany's most dangerous enemy, and as Tirpitz's loyal listeners, Kaiser Wilhelm and Chancellor Hohenlore agreed in principle with the opinion of the head of the naval office.

Vice Admiral Tirpitz also proposed the 1898 Naval Act, and put forward a huge plan for the navy, which will form a North Sea Fleet in the North Sea, which is half the strength of the Russian and French navies, to deal with the maritime threat from Russia and France, and at the same time, according to the Chinese destroyer fleet model components, the auxiliary fleet will plan to build more than 50 new destroyers.

In order to deal with the threat from the most dangerous opponent -- the Royal Navy, Tirpitz even proposed the formation of a main fleet composed of 19 battleships and 8 Siegfried-class shore defense ironclad ships, which was supported by 12 large cruisers, 30 small and medium-sized cruisers, and 12 torpedo boat detachments.

When a destroyer commander of the Chinese fleet introduced the Type 93 heat-motor torpedo to the Germans, it immediately pushed the meeting between the Chinese and German navies to a climax, and after Colonel Seyden exchanged words with several senior officers of the German Navy, he could not hide the excited expression on his face, and the German Navy has already installed destroyers and torpedo boat detachments similar to the Shanghai class of the Chinese Navy, and the possession of new torpedoes will obviously greatly improve the combat effectiveness of the naval auxiliary fleet.

He obviously understood that these technical support would definitely not come purely for friendship, so he immediately took out a formal naval cabinet document and handed it to Xu Shoushan, "General Xu, this is a contract for the sale of heavy machinery that the naval cabinet has been authorized by Kaiser Wilhelm II, according to the agreement between our two countries, the hydraulic presses, large gantry cranes, and tower cranes that your country needs will be delivered within two years!" ”

Speaking of which, Colonel Seydon obviously also realized that the contracts for these heavy industrial equipment and machinery were obviously only about the part of the torpedo technology deal, and the fire control platform deal that was suddenly decided just now obviously understood the value from the perspective of a senior naval officer, and the naval battle between China and the United States just over two months ago clearly demonstrated the advantages of the Chinese Navy, which was exactly what the German Empire urgently needed.

He immediately continued: "In addition, General Xu, regarding the transfer of the naval fire control system, we will continue to discuss the way of trade, and I think His Majesty the Emperor will be very willing to carry out further cooperation with your country!" ”

Xu Shoushan is naturally full of promises to this, looking for an opportunity to raise a little German combat power, beneficial to China, not to mention, the development of the country needs a large number of new machine tools, with the production capacity of several domestic heavy industries, it is far from enough to provide industrial support, in this regard, Qin Kai is more willing to introduce mature products and technologies in this area at a suitable price from overseas, and Germany is obviously a good object, not to mention, Austria-Hungary, which has a close relationship with Germany, has also quickly become an important industrial machine tool import base in the past few years, For more than 100 years, Czechoslovakia has been Europe's most important export region for industrial technology.

Five days later, on August 26, 1898, Vice Admiral Tirpitz, commander of the German Navy, appeared in the port of Hamburg with a huge fleet of 10 German battleships, and on the same day he could not wait to meet Xu Shoushan, who had rested for several days, and Colonel Seydon also attended, the German vice admiral unexpectedly showed his trust in the Chinese, and even expressed his concern for the British Navy without scruples.

He once again expounded his point of view about the most dangerous enemy, which made Xu Shoushan a little surprised, but also overjoyed...... The Germans' inflated desire for sea power was obviously not harmless to China, and Qin Kai hoped that the Pacific Fleet would show its muscles around the world and stabilize the situation in the Far East, and from this point of view, it was obvious that the Germans' military rise in Europe was more needed, and the two sides soon agreed that in order to show Europe the friendship between the two countries, they would immediately hold naval military exercises as planned.

On August 28, the day that the British battleship Prestige heard the news and hurriedly sailed into the port of Hamburg, nearly 50 warships of China and Germany left the port of Hamburg and entered the North Sea. (To be continued......)