As the design and manufacturer of the F6F, Li Kongrong had long had the idea of prompting Lagrumman to build the F6F Hellcat fighter in advance, and now the design drawings have been sent - it is still the design of the blacksmith team, and he has no reason to refuse. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 For Grumman, even if there is no sales guarantee, this can provide the US Navy with one more fighter jet, and now the Chinese Navy has made a guarantee to purchase at least 200 aircraft within three years, which is a big business for Grumman.

The contract for commissioned research and development in the name of New China Defense America was soon signed. At the time of signing the contract, Rilloy Grumman saw more detailed design requirements, such as self-sealing fuel tanks, armor protection, flat-head riveting, and so on. In addition, there is a special requirement that the wing load of the fighter should not exceed 180 kilograms, which is equivalent to saying that the F5F should be built as light as possible, but this contradicts the self-sealing mailbox and armor protection; Or increase the wing area, but this is contrary to the requirement of 650 kilometers per hour at an altitude of 4,000 meters. It was a tricky thing to do, and Rilloy Grumman left with a frown.

Grumman was the first company to be caught by Lee Kongrong, and in the next few days, Lee announced that North American Aircraft Company and Bell Aircraft Company were shortlisted. These three are fighter jets, and torpedo dive bombers, Douglas from Los Angeles also received Grumman treatment, Li Kongrong announced on the spot that Douglas was shortlisted, and then Martin was shortlisted, and the last one was Northrop - at this time, John Northrop had just resigned from Douglas, and he was ready to form his own new company, hoping to get orders for torpedo dive bombers from the Chinese Navy.

All six companies, in addition to the additional $50,000 in venture capital to Northrop, received $100,000 in cash and demanded to develop prototypes within a year. Such a quick and intensive sprinkling of money has amazed the US aviation community, and even the deep-pocketed US Navy has to hesitate for more than half a year to approve so many companies to participate in the development of new aircraft. You must know that 100,000 US dollars is not all the investment, these six companies have to invest an average of 100,000 to 150,000 US dollars to come up with a qualified prototype, which is equivalent to saying that the research and development costs alone will cost Chinese 1.2 million to 150 US dollars, which is a lot of money. Real money is the most convincing, and at this time no one doubts the volume of Chinese purchases of the winning aircraft.

Soon, the news that the Chinese were 'big coins' spread throughout the American aviation community, and James Smith MacDonald, the owner of the MacDonald Aircraft Company, which had just opened in St. Louis, also rushed to New York to participate in the bidding. MacDonald's name is extremely familiar to Lee Kongrong, and it was he who developed the first full-fledged Banshee jet carrier-based fighter. Of course, Li Kongrong hoped that he would have a jet carrier, but it was simply unrealistic to develop a jet aircraft now, so MacDonald finally took $100,000 of the investment capital from New York New China Corporation, and New China Defense became a partner of McDonald Aircraft Company.

The bidding for propeller planes ended, and Li Kongrong was not idle on the helicopter side, and Qian Xueyu and others received $250,000 to start a helicopter company, and they will recruit American mechanics in order to build a prototype helicopter within half a year. Qian Xueyu and others, who have mastered tail rotor balance and hinge control technology, are full of confidence, and their requirement for themselves is four months, that is, four months to build the helicopter in Li Kongrong's simple drawings.

The company that designed the aircraft came to an end, and the pilot training draft revised by Chen Wenlin was also approved by Li Kongrong, and the pilot training plan was officially launched.

Chen Jiliang was already on the train to New York, and Li Kongrong could not deny this. During this time, he spent money to Zhou Yingcong and others dumbfounded, they were not too surprised by the amount of money Li Kongrong spended, but surprised by the speed at which he spent money, in just one week, a million dollars went out, and in fact, those design drawings have not been carefully and comprehensively reviewed. Even though Chen Wenlin proposed to let MIT aeronautics students participate in the bid review, this was rejected by Li Kongrong's sentence that "they have no experience".

The question is whether the Admiralty will lead the rebuilding of the Navy or whether Lee Kong-rong alone will lead the rebuilding of the Navy. This problem did not appear when the money was not in place, but now that the money has arrived, the problem is in front of us, in the words of Zhou Yingcong, 'This he. Who the hell should the hell be listened to?! ’

"Shao Sheng has worked hard this time!" After experiencing a warm welcome ceremony, in the evening, Chen Jiliang, who had a little rest, began to have a deep talk with Li Kongrong, Zhou Yingcong and others were not on the side, only Lin Xianxin was on the side.

"Thank you for your concern, I don't have anything, everyone is working hard." Li Kongrong was absent-minded, as soon as he came in, he smelled the opium in the room, obviously, Chen Jiliang had just smoked a tube - he had never dealt with Chen Jiliang, he didn't expect him to smoke this thing. Since the commander of the fleet smokes opium, how many people in the navy smoke opium? The sailors on the deck of the aircraft carrier were all lying down smoking opium, and Li Kongrong's scalp suddenly felt a little numb.

"I've read the plan to rebuild the navy, but the second half of the plan is very brief, and now that part of the money has been settled, Shao Sheng would like to ask you to talk about the specific details." Chen Jiliang didn't notice what Li Kongrong was thinking.

"Report sir, the reason why the plan is brief is because there are many uncertainties, such as the Spanish shipwreck, if you don't find it, then you have to find another way to raise money." Li Kongrong prevaricated that his perception of Chen Jiliang had become very bad because of opium. "What has been done now is that the development of carrier-based aircraft and helicopters has begun, and in two years we will have three aircraft for the Navy. Helicopters, in addition to their own use, can be sold to the American and British armies, and Germany also has a helicopter, but it is not as good as ours. ”

"What can a helicopter do?" Li Kongrong didn't want to talk about the plan, so he pulled out the helicopter, he is more and more optimistic about this project, as long as the performance meets the design requirements, it will definitely be able to sell tens of thousands, which is definitely more profitable than penicillin.

"It can rescue pilots who have fallen into the water, and it can also quickly land on the island, and it can also speed up refueling at sea, this is the initial model, and the helicopter of the subsequent model can carry twelve soldiers, which can be used for vertical landing operations of the Marine Corps, when the enemy is defending on the beachhead, the Marine Corps carried by the helicopter has already landed at the airfield on the island, and do not attack from the beachhead at all."

Li Kongrong said his thoughts on the use of helicopters, and later generations of military circles believed that helicopters were of little use in World War II, especially before the advent of turboshaft engine helicopters, but he found that helicopters would completely change the mode of landing operations, and this discovery made him worry that the Normandy landing, once the Allies used helicopters to land in France, then the European war may not be postponed.

"So you can use it like this?" Chen Jiliang whispered, there has never been a landing combat marine, and it is much more convenient to have a helicopter to land vertically. "It's a pity that the Marine Corps can't be transferred in the country." Speaking of China, Chen Jiliang said with a straight face: "Although Ouyang Ge is dead, the chairman of the committee is still restricting the navy, the air force is unwilling to return the pilots is an example, the military and political department is not very happy with the reconstruction of the navy, the 1st Brigade of the Marine Corps has been controlled by the army, and the 2nd Brigade is better in Fujian, but it cannot be transferred." ”

"Then we'll rebuild one or two Marine Divisions in the United States or in the South Seas or the Philippines." Li Kongrong said. "It's just a lack of officers."

Li Kongrong didn't look at the government at all, and although Chen Jiliang didn't like the government, he was not as thorough as Li Kongrong. He glanced at Lin Xianxin and said, "The government will definitely not agree!" ”

"We don't need the government's consent." If you have money, you will be willful, Li Kongrong is not afraid to tear your face with the government. "What the chairman wants is that we will be loyal to him, and then the navy will be all party-oriented, and we will continue to fight among themselves, so that he will be more at ease. But what kind of war will such a navy fight? The Navy is all about being united in order to fight. ”

"Shao Sheng, you don't like the Kuomintang?" Chen Jiliang smiled and began to wonder about Li Kongrong's political attitude.

"There's nothing to like about the Kuomintang." Li Kongrong replied.

"But we must always have a good relationship with the Kuomintang, otherwise there will be many difficulties in reconstruction." Chen Jiliang said with some concern.

"We don't have anything to ask of the Kuomintang." Li Kongrong didn't care about the attitude of Chang Kaishen, the state government, "It's really not okay, and it's not impossible for the navy to break away from the state government, and we don't need their approval for reconstruction at all." ”

"Shao Sheng ......" Chen Jiliang looked at Li Kongrong in surprise, and he said: "Now it's anti-Japanese!" ”

"It is precisely because we want to resist Japan that we must not be controlled by the government. There is a battlefield inside the continent, and there is another battlefield outside the continent, and the navy is fighting alone on the battlefield outside the continent, and everything has to obey the orders of the national government will not work at all. Li Kongrong argued. If we do not have the determination to break away from the national government, then the navy will certainly not be able to rebuild, and even if it is rebuilt, it will not be able to truly and effectively fight against Japan. If that's the case, then there's not much point in what we're doing now. ”

"But most of the navy personnel are in China!" Chen Jiliang felt that Chen Shaokuan was too weak, but in the face of Li Kongrong, he felt that he was too tough, neither of which was a good thing.

"Can't you just leave a part of it right away and claim that these people have a mission?" Li Kongrong thought of the ongoing peripheral battle in Wuhan, and felt that if Wuhan and Guangzhou were lost, it would be difficult for naval personnel to go abroad when they arrived in Chongqing.

"Where can you go if you leave?" Chen Jiliang said. "There is a war going on right now."

"If you leave, you can go to Hong Kong." Li Kongrong found out that the personnel problem should be arranged as soon as possible, otherwise it would be a trouble for the crew to not be able to go abroad at that time. "Hong Kong has been safe in recent years, and Fujian can too, but it is a little inconvenient for Fujian to come out again."

"The Ministry of Military Affairs will not approve it, this is not dozens of people, this is thousands of people." Chen Jiliang shook his head and denied.

"You don't need the approval of the Ministry of Military Affairs, just take advantage of the chaos to withdraw when Wuhan is lost. If Guangzhou was occupied by the Japanese army, it was possible to go to sea from Guangxi. Li Kongrong insisted. If the Admiralty can't pay for it, we can. ”

"What about the family?" Chen Jiliang's face was displeased, and Lin Xianxi on the side suddenly asked a question.

"All the family members returned to Fujian, and the Japanese army in Fujian had no interest in other places except for the port." Li Kongrong said. "Isn't the Japanese army not occupying Fuzhou now?"

"Thousands of people leaving the country without the approval of the Ministry of Military Affairs is a violation of military law." Chen Jiliang was very serious, but his displeasure restrained a little.

"There's no way around it, people always have to come out, and it's better to come out earlier than later." Li Kongrong didn't care about Chen Jiliang's attitude. "Since the Navy wants to be rebuilt, it must completely abandon the Ministry of Military Affairs."

"Shao Sheng means that he would rather be a deserter than rebuild the navy?" Chen Jiliang asked with a smile instead of anger. "So even if the navy comes out, won't the government put pressure on the U.S. government through diplomatic channels?"

"If all these people become overseas Chinese, how can the government get the U.S. government to put pressure on some overseas Chinese? Besides, there is a way to defuse the pressure through diplomatic means, and the current situation is that the government has a request from the US government, not the US government from the government. Li Kongrong said. There is no determination to be a deserter, so forward-looking, such a person does not want the new navy! ”

"Does Shao Sheng think this is good?" Chen Jiliang began to stop looking at Li Kongrong as a subordinate, he felt that this was a hero.

"For the sake of the rebuilding of the navy, there is no way to do it." "We're going to buy some shipyards in the U.S., and then the Tatsuda Maru will sail out of the Bering Sea and into the dockyard for renovation. Training ships for carrier-based pilots are also being sought, and with eyebrows, the first batch of pilots will be able to train on board in the second half of next year.

The German side will try to get at least one submarine when they go back this time, and with this submarine we will be able to capture other cruise ships, and if there are cruise ships we will have a second, third, and fourth ship...... Aircraft carrier. Now one-third of the problem of funding is solved, and we can't have an aircraft carrier that no one drives because of the problem of the crew. ”

"Brother Shiying, there's no way to send people from within the country?" Lin Xianxin interjected: "Don't our supply ships have one or two hundred crew members? ”

"I can't think of a way for the time being." Chen Jiliang's mind was no longer on the crew at all, and he looked at Li Kongrong for a while before saying, "Shao Sheng, I want to ask you, is the Navy rebuilding led by the Admiralty?" ”

"I also want to know, who in the Admiralty knows how to fight aircraft carriers?" Li Kongrong was-for-tat, he felt that it was better to find out this problem earlier.

"Do you understand?" Chen Jiliang didn't expect Li Kongrong to ask rhetorically. "What if you're wrong?"

"I understand. So far, I haven't missed it. And I discussed many things with Chief Lin, but Chief Lin did not say where there was a problem at the moment. Li Kongrong said.

"But ......" Chen Jiliang glanced at Lin Xianxi, and saw that he was silent, so he had to say bitterly, "You are still young, young people are decisive, but they also have the problem of being reckless." In particular, if the relationship with the government is not properly handled, it will be difficult to complete the reconstruction of the navy, and the navy will also be abolished. ”

"Then let's cut it, we can rebuild the Admiralty." Li Kongrong was fearless, "How much does the navy cost a year now, and I have contracted it here." (To be continued.) )