"Our request will make the War Department uncomfortable for a long time. Pen ~ Fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info"

"That's right. But who cares? Qin Lang shrugged. He was not concerned with a government department that was worried on a daily basis about congressional cuts and mutiny, which from the beginning of the Revolutionary War to the end of the nineteenth century, the soldiers of the Union Army often mutinied because of insufficient pay.

The War Department is the weakest of the various departments under the federal government, and is even weaker than the Admiralty. After all, now that the United States has decided to expand overseas, members of Congress, who see the military as the number one enemy of the country, cannot but also pay attention to the development of maritime armed forces.

However, when discussing the Navy's military spending for each fiscal year and the Navy's shipbuilding plans, the lawmakers were as stingy as ever.

Therefore, Qin Lang could hardly determine the purpose of the two gentlemen from the Admiralty's shipbuilding department visiting him in San Diego. If it was because of the "dreadnought" battleships, they came too early. Even if Mr. Winkler's proposal were to be approved immediately, it would not have been possible for him to receive sufficient funds to carry out research on the various subsystems, let alone produce any valuable results......

Moreover, his proposal could never be approved immediately.

Evan Winkler was not Fisher's father, and his proposal did not carry much weight, and the Admiralty officials and the designers of the Shipbuilding Division would routinely waste months or even years arguing before the development of the Dreadnought began to begin gradually...... This is always the way government agencies work, regardless of the country, regardless of the era.

But since it is possible that those in Washington are still arguing fiercely, what is the purpose of the two gentlemen waiting in the reception room? Qin Lang guessed. Could it be that Winkler could not explain in detail the design ideas and related details of the "Dreadnought" battleship...... Or was the explanation not perfect, so the shipbuilding department wanted him to go to Washington in person to explain his idea?

Not...... The likelihood of this happening doesn't seem to be very high......

Qin Lang allowed himself to return from the spiritual world to the real world. "Rachel," he asked her one last time before pushing the door open, "aren't you going to meet Mr. Shipbuilder?" ”

"No," she replied, "I have no interest in visitors who have nothing to do with business, nor in the Navy. ”

"I can see it." He nodded, then pushed the door open and walked into the reception room.

In the reception room were Claude, Evan Winkler, and a strange man that Qin Lang felt a little familiar. Seeing him push the door in, they immediately stood up and bowed to him - but Qin Lang still noticed that the politeness of the strange man was full of coldness and arrogance, and he didn't look like a government official working in the Admiralty.

Considering who the strangers were, he returned the salute and said with a smile: "I'm very sorry, Mr. Winkler, I just spoke with some gentlemen from the War Department. He looked at the strange man, "And who is this gentleman?" ”

"This is ......," Winkler was about to introduce him, when the stranger spoke: "I am Benjamin Ryan Dillman." ”

Qin Lang knew who he was.

Benjamin Ryan Dillman, most Chinese have certainly never heard of this senator from South Carolina who is famous in American history, but Qin Lang has heard of it. While chairing the Senate Committee on Naval Affairs, Mr. Dillman devised an extraordinarily exaggerated plan: to develop and build the First Class Maximum-Battleship.

This super battleship contains a variety of interesting designs. As far as Qin Lang knew, one of the designs with a standard displacement of 80,000 tons used five triple eighteen-inch gun turrets, while the other design only used a sixteen-inch main gun, but its turret was an unprecedented six-pack ......

For the many military enthusiasts who love super battleships, Mr. Dierman definitely qualifies as a great leader on a spiritual level; Battleship lovers will definitely adore him.

But now, Qin Lang didn't want to worship Benjamin Ryan Dierman, and he didn't even want to see him at all. Because, first of all, Mr. Dierman is a senator from the Democratic Party; Second, he was a white supremacist who had used violence to resist racial equality and threatened blacks who were in elections - even though his racist activities were primarily aimed at blacks, who knows what he would think of a Chinese?

A Chinese who supports the Republican Party is right in front of him, hey, God knows what he might say in a moment......

Even so, Qin Lang still bowed deeply to Dierman again, and said with a smile: "Mr. Senator, this is really an unexpected surprise. All I told me was that there were two gentlemen from the Navy's shipbuilding department. ”

"Mr. Qin, not everyone is like you, just by hearing my name, you immediately know who I am." Dillman's voice buzzed as if it were coming from the bottom of a well, "I care a lot about the new type of battleship you are proposing to build. I'm here to get more detailed information. ”

When he knew who he was, Qin Lang already knew what his purpose was. He continued to laugh: "Of course, I will be happy to elaborate everything about the new warship for you. However, has the Senate given the Navy the go-ahead for the construction of such warships? ”

"If you provide me with sufficient information, I will do my best to persuade the Naval Affairs Committee to approve the study of this new warship." Dierman said expressionlessly. Of course, this is all he can do to convince him. Qin Lang knew that he was still a newcomer who had just entered the Senate, not the chairman of the Naval Affairs Committee, and his speech was not so convincing.

Moreover, he was more worried that Dierman would scare the gentlemen of the Senate.

But no matter what, it was always good to have a senator who supported the "Dreadnought" battleship plan, so Qin Lang immediately began to explain all the details of the new battleship to Dirkman. Most of this was explained by him to Evan Winkler, and Dillman had heard Winkler explain it. However, there are others that he deliberately found to supplement.

After all, Dierman and Winkler are two kinds of people - Winkler is a ship designer, so Qin Lang must consider the rationality when explaining the design ideas of warships to him, and he wants Winkler to believe that the existing technical conditions can build such a warship; Dillman, on the other hand, is a politician and super-battleship enthusiast who seeks the ultimate weapon of "the fastest", "highest", and "strongest...... For him, rationality is only a secondary issue.

When it comes to tempting someone to do something, doing what they like is a very effective trick. In order to satisfy Mr. Senator's hobby, Qin Lang even brought up the super dreadnought battleship, and also took the trouble to talk about many issues unrelated to the design idea of the "dreadnought" battleship, such as its advantages in the face of old battleships.

And Qin Lang exaggerated this advantage. "In front of a new battleship with eight to twelve twelve-inch or even larger caliber guns, any old battleship will be destroyed in a matter of minutes." He declared.

"I think you're overly optimistic, Mr. Qin." Dielman replied, "Twelve-inch guns are still too powerful, and to destroy the enemy's old battleships in a matter of minutes, the main guns of the new battleships should be at least fifteen inches or more." And in your design, the speed of the new warship is too slow, and we need a warship with a speed of more than twenty-five knots. ”

This was something that Qin Lang did not expect; He never imagined that Dielman would have the same hobby as Fisher. He thought about it, "To increase speed, you have to reduce the thickness of the armor—"

Dierman interrupted him. "Cutting the thickness of the armor is equally unacceptable."

"Then increase the amount of water discharged." This was the German way of thinking, and the main waterline armor of the German "battle cruisers"[note 2] was at least three inches thicker than the battle cruisers of the Royal Navy, so the displacement was several thousand tons larger for the same speed and firepower configuration. And it doesn't come without a price. "This will lead to a significant increase in the cost of building ships," Qin Lang warned, "and it is unlikely that the Senate will approve the construction plan for warships." ”

Of course, the Navy actually has a way of getting around the Senate by proposing a plan to build a 20,000-ton battleship and then turning it into a 26,000-ton ...... But he remembered that Dielman had always disliked the little tricks of the navy.

His view on the issue was that if the Navy needed more and larger battleships, it should say so......

Could it be that Mr. Dierman is ready to do everything in his power to convince his colleagues in the Senate?

"I'll do my best to convince the Senate," he said, apparently knowing how much trouble it would be, but Dierman's attitude remained adamant, "for the foreseeable future...... For at least twenty years, the Federal Navy will not be able to outnumber the British Royal Navy in numbers, so it will have to achieve an overwhelming qualitative superiority. ”

This is true. The number of battleships of the US Navy did not catch up with the British Royal Navy until the end of World War I, but the quality ...... According to Qin Lang's understanding, the battleships built by the Americans before the "Washington Treaty" were all turtle warships with extremely thick armor and a speed of only about 21 knots......

"Mr. Dillman, with all due respect, you may be disappointed." He said.

"This is my business, Mr. Qin, and it has nothing to do with you." Dihlman stood up and declared the conversation over, "Although you are a yellow ...... Chinese, but I still appreciate your contribution to the development of the US Navy. ”

For a white supremacist, that's a rare statement.

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Note: Benjamin R Tillman, it seems more likely to be translated as Tillman

Note 2: The German battlecruisers should be regarded more as fast battleships, rather than British battlecruisers developed from armored cruisers (to be continued, if you want to know what happened next, please land on the WWW.CMFU.COM, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!) (To be continued.) )