Qin Kai is well versed in the nature of the arms race, for the territory of South America has always been sabre-rattling, it is obviously impossible for him to take it all and sell two, this news is obviously not just spread to Bauer, as early as two hours ago, the German Minister Schleier also got the news, however, today's German industry is busy with the rise of the German Imperial Navy, which can be described as powerless for the overseas arms competition.

On the contrary, the British Empire, although it is now also working hard to suppress the maritime competition from the European coastline, but its strong heavy industry capacity can still export products to South America! In the face of a win-win situation, although Bauer was quite stressed by a series of requirements for Qin Kai's tariffs, he gained some important bargaining chips......

At the very least, it gave him the opportunity to convince the bureaucrats at home to support his diplomatic efforts, and of course, he knew far more about the changes in the Far East than the people in London, and in just a decade of his diplomatic career, the Far Eastern power had changed dramatically......

When I first arrived, those Chinese with dull eyes and dry braids had quickly disappeared from the mainstream of society, and more importantly, a large number of Chinese elites of this era emerged from all levels, especially the large number of young Chinese officials who came out of the new army in the south, giving the country a vitality and momentum that it had never had before.

After a whole day of repeated deliberations, Bauer was finally convinced that he had won a huge national interest of at least 500,000 pounds for the British Empire, which was of great political significance for promoting the sustained and steady growth of the domestic economy today. Because. The political influence of the British Empire in South America. It will also be further deepened with arms sales.

On January 11, 1897, after being confirmed, London was also very pleasantly surprised to express its willingness to participate in the arms sales of the South American Navy, and Gladstone, who was greatly satisfied with the fruitful diplomatic results achieved by Bauer, sent a telegram to congratulate him, and at the same time, the minister also expressed his concern about a strong China and asked Powell to confirm China's diplomatic position as soon as possible. Especially the position when it comes to the competition of European powers!

At this time, Qin Kai was no longer in Beijing City, after a full two days of sea voyage, the strongman who mastered the Far East arrived at the Lushun Military Port, which had been renovated in the past few years, in the deep winter snow, the military port was in full swing, the high gantry crane and the port conveyor, were working non-stop.

This is now the anchorage point of the Northern Fleet, and it is precisely for the secret storage of this fleet that the entire Lushun area has become a first-class military forbidden area. Moreover, through national legislation. All transport trade in the Northeast is handled only by the Chinese fleet, and in fact, directly by Mawei Shipping.

Soon, Qin Kai met a large number of young soldiers of the Northern Fleet at the level of Tang Qingshan at the fleet headquarters, among them, only a few generals were old men from the Nanyang Naval Division, and more young officers were from domestic colleges and military academies, and nearly 4 percent of the officers were technical representatives from military factories, which was also the biggest feature of the Northern Fleet that was different from the other three major fleets.

Qin Kai was very enthusiastic to send the Lantern Festival snacks brought from Tianjin to the officers present one by one, and at the same time, the hot tea and cigarettes from the military were also immediately put on the table, and Tang Qingshan was very proud to receive an additional reward - a cigarette from Premier Qin...... However, this cigarette is obviously not that easy to smoke!

"Qingshan, are there any difficulties in the actual combat exercise of artillery?" It was still the time of the Chinese New Year, although Premier Qin was in charge, and the atmosphere in the room was very harmonious, but Qin Kai obviously did not come to the Northern Fleet for the Spring Festival.

Tang Qingshan just spit out a smoke ring, and immediately held his right hand holding a cigarette and gave a military salute, "Prime Minister, the Han-class battleship has completed 5 sea trials and 15 maritime artillery ballistic shooting tests before, in addition, the ballistic test of the 6-base artillery has been successful, with a 13.5-inch caliber, 42 times diameter main gun, and an effective firing range of 15ooo meters, which basically meets the needs of the navy!" ”

Nanyang Heavy Industry large-caliber artillery on the battle has lasted for several years, the purpose is to provide the future sea giant ship with a real sense of fierce firepower, the entire Chinese fleet, the largest caliber is currently equipped with the Mawei Artillery Factory for the Dayu production of 3o5mm, 4o times the diameter of the heavy gun, a single gun weight of 5o tons.

Although Qin Kai took the lead in introducing sleeve processing technology and British fastening technology for the Mawei Artillery Factory, however, in this kind of technology that spans engineering, materials science, and heavy chemical industries, what is lacking in this era is the index measurement technology.

The larger the caliber of the main gun, the greater the tonnage of shells that can be projected at the enemy in the shortest time, which has obviously been instilled in every Chinese naval commander by Qin Kai...... However, every inch of the increase in the caliber of the gun chamber means that the amount of projectile increases geometrically, and the requirements for the steel of the gun barrel are even more amazing.

That is, two years ago, with the completion of the 25oo ton hydraulic press of Nanyang Heavy Industry up to 3o meters, this giant machine with a maximum construction of 3o tons finally brought the opportunity to cross the bottleneck for the artillery industry, and the 13.5-inch giant cannon was finally born, and after two full years of continuous testing, the real mass production of naval naval guns finally moved to the weapon platform of the Northern Fleet.

Of course, the 13.5-inch main gun equipped with the Han-class battleship is not without regrets, due to the flaws in the quality of the steel, the original production of a 45 times the diameter of the sample gun, after 5o times of test firing, the main gun is the most mature double-layer sleeve technology, at the same time, the key parts of the gun chamber have been precisely tightened with wire, but although this treatment strengthens the radial strength, but the longitudinal strength of the gun chamber, but failed to meet expectations!

In the end, the Mawei Artillery Factory cautiously determined the Type 97 naval gun within the range of 13.5 inches and 42 times the diameter...... Even so, the weight of the single seat of the 97 naval gun has reached an astonishing 7o tons, and what is even more amazing is that the weight of the shell has been directly increased from 35o kg of the 3o5mm main gun to 13.5 inches per 63o kg, and the discharge has also reached 8oo m/s at the beginning of the satisfactory beginning.

Qin Kai came to the Northern Fleet this time to observe the results of his creation of the Northern Fleet, and what this fleet hidden in the hinterland of the North controls is the future of China's maritime power!

He has no intention of intervening in the surging arms race in Europe, but it does not mean that the Chinese Navy will stagnate, and he has never thought of giving any country or opportunity on the other side of the Pacific Ocean or even at the end of the Atlantic, as he is well aware of the importance of sea power to national interests!

Qin Kai is obviously very satisfied with such excellent heavy industry achievements, although he can copy the technical parameters of later generations, and even the reinforcement technology of artillery, but relying on the technical details of his own copying, it is obvious that he can not really improve the strength of China's heavy industry, and it is from this door full of industrial beauty of the naval gun, he saw the rise of national strength.

"Aoyama, tomorrow's live-fire exercises and sea trials, I hope to be able to see the true strength of the Northern Fleet!" Qin Kai patted Tang Qingshan's shoulder with satisfaction and motioned for him to sit down.

When it came to business, Tang Qingshan's interest was even higher, he picked up the teacup in front of him and poured a sip of tea, and immediately got up and unfolded a picture of the sea behind him, "Prime Minister, tomorrow's sea trial, 2 Han-class battleships and 2 Qin-class battlecruisers will be launched one by one and formation confrontation, the target ships are towed by their own, and the commanders of the two fleets are Lin Wu and Rear Admiral Sun Ping respectively!" ”

This is naturally what Qin Kai is most interested in, the Northern Fleet was ordered to conduct secret tests and research, obviously not a certain type of warship, or a certain type of artillery, but the overall platform of naval firepower, for this reason, the Northern Fleet was formed from the initial two practice ships, and soon equipped with Han-class battleships and Qin-class battlecruisers that were not equipped with the Pacific Fleet.

Of course, the Han-class battleship is not advanced in a special sense, and the overall construction is just a slightly enlarged summer battleship, with a displacement of 18ooo tons, which is 1ooo tons larger than the Xia-class battleship, and this is mainly because the main gun was upgraded from the 3o5mm of the Xia-class battleship to a huge caliber of 13.5 inches, and the overall weight of the twin turrets, bomb lifters, and gun mounts increased by more than 200 tons at once!

Moreover, the Han-class battleship is a new type of firepower platform, and the Beihai Shipyard has installed the fourth large-caliber naval gun on the same battleship for the first time, which is the only heavy battleship equipped with 8 main guns in this era!

This time, it is the Qin-class battlecruiser that the navy's young Zhuang faction favorites the most, with a displacement of 15ooo tons, but it has an efficient steam turbine that can output 45ooo horsepower, which can easily push the battleship up to 26 knots, which can be said to be the fastest big battle ship running at sea in this era, there is no one.

What's even more amazing is that the Mawei Shipyard, which also used as an armament platform to build the Qin-class battle cruiser, also equipped this battleship with an unprecedented 343mm 6 main guns, which made it the most striking platform in the battle cruiser of this era.

Qin Kai nodded, Tang Qingshan must have put a lot of effort into the test of the new warship of the Navy, he listened carefully to the planning of the naval exercise, and his attention was quickly attracted by the words of the three young technical officers who Tang Qingshan pulled up from the seat. (To be continued......)

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