The three members of the assessment team were locked in a heated argument. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Winkler was questioned by two naval officers - he was a minor bureaucrat in the Admiralty, who had no access to the British Navy's military secrets and no convincing authority. They didn't believe what he revealed, instead believing it to be just the unfounded fiction common in roadside tabloids, the kind that often began with "shock" in headlines – but their reasoning was strongly countered by Winkler.

It's not surprising that, knowing the truth or ignorance, almost no one immediately admits that they are spreading rumors when questioned, and everyone present can tell that Winkler really believes everything he says.

The problem was that he could not provide an accurate source of the information, and could only vaguely state that the people in the ship-building department had been talking about it for weeks.

This made his statement unconvincing: the shipbuilding office was not the intelligence arm of the Navy, and any news that could cause a sensation could be discussed by those there for weeks or more. Fletcher and MacArthur still stuck to their guns. On the other hand, their efforts to persuade Winkler to forget the rumors were equally ineffective, except for one thing: to allow the obstinate petty bureaucrat to turn his anger against the Senate on them.

His emotions began to become agitated, his words became sharper and sharper, and finally evolved into an aggressive and aggressive posture.

Realizing that this pointless argument, in which no one could convince the other, could turn into a fight at any time, Qin Lang finally decided to break the silence that had been maintained since the argument began.

"Gentlemen," he tapped lightly on the table, "please remain calm. ”

At first, there was no reaction from either side, as if his request had not been heard. However, they did hear it, and after a while, before Qin Lang made a second request, the three of them stopped at the same time, but they still maintained the posture of plunging into a new round of arguments at any time.

Obviously, their performance could not satisfy Qin Lang. He shook his head. "We are all civilized people, and we should use civilized methods to solve problems."

"I agree." Fletcher agreed, while continuing to stare at Winkler.

Winkler was getting nervous again—he knew what was going on with the situation. "I'm very sorry, Mr. Qin." He tried to explain, "When I try to convince people but can't, I can't control my emotions. ”

"I understand." Qin Lang said in an empathetic tone, "I have encountered the same problem in the past, more than once, and then I realized that it is an impossible goal to persuade others by just using words, so I changed to a more effective method." ”

He succeeded in arousing everyone's curiosity. "What's the solution?"

Their reaction was a matter of course, and Qin Lang's secret could always arouse people's interest. But all they got was a pretended cryptic answer: "Allow me to keep this a secret for the time being." ”

Qin Lang didn't want to make his method public: at this time, it would definitely cause a series of misunderstandings, and then affect his plans. And there is nothing special about it, in a little earlier times, most American citizens were good at it.

Especially in the west.

It was best to keep it mysterious for the time being, so that his three guests would come up with a series of feats worthy of his legendary fame for themselves, then take them for real, and finally add some new aura to him.

And that's a good thing.

Qin Lang deliberately gave the three guests a moment to imagine, and then said, "Gentlemen, I think your argument is completely off the point. The key is not the veracity of the news or what the British Navy is prepared to do, but what the US Navy is prepared to do, to continue to follow the British, or to be one step ahead and let the British fall behind. ”

He omitted a few key words, but everyone understood what he meant. Winkler was the first to agree, and then habitually condemned the object of his hatred: "We were already ahead, but Congress dragged its feet, again!" ”

"I think ......" Fletcher shook his head—in a way, he agreed with Winkler, though he couldn't admit it openly.

It was dangerous: MacArthur was next to him, and as soon as the topic came to the big man above, he would immediately keep silent; And Qin Lang, his attitude is another question, everyone knows that he has many friends in Washington.

The lieutenant commander did not want to create obstacles to his future.

It's just that he always needs to say something, otherwise Winkler will make more radical remarks until Qin Lang stops him again, but by that time it may have been too late. After a while, Fletcher began to try to explain the Senate's decision: "I don't think Congress is ready to enter into an arms race at sea with Great Britain yet. And our fleet is still defensive, not designed to challenge the hegemony of the Royal Navy......"

He was overly cautious. Qin Lang had already noticed this a few minutes ago, and now he had further confirmed his judgment. But this was not a problem, he did not care about the opinions of the three members of the assessment team, none of them were of practical value, and the person who could decide the US Navy's shipbuilding program was in Washington, and he happened to know one of them who could play a key role.

His Excellency the President of the United States of America will certainly be interested in the plans of the British, and at the same time know what he can do with them, even if only unconfirmed gossip.

Moreover, it is not entirely without evidence to prove the veracity of those messages: the current First Sea Lords of Great Britain are Jack. Baron Fisher - though he has not yet received the title and will have to wait a few more years - even without considering what he "was" to do, he has been advocating the construction of new warships with faster speed and greater firepower for a long time, and it is only a matter of time before it becomes a reality.

The baron himself can serve as evidence.

Sometimes, circumstantial evidence can also do a job, and sometimes, they are more useful than direct evidence.

Qin Lang made a decision that he should make a few phone calls or send a few telegrams to Washington at the right time. After a while, he revisited the idea and modified it a little: he didn't have to do all the work himself, and he should have given some of it to O'Connor.

O'Connor was the best choice if he wanted to send a message to His Excellency the President through personal connections: he fought alongside His Excellency in the San Juan Hills, sharing bullets from the Spanish Army, diseases in Cuba and canned food from expired or spoiled ingredients provided by American food companies, and on that basis they forged a friendship that continues to this day.

At times, Qin Lang felt that O'Connor was smarter than he looked, and that O'Connor had gained a solid, unshakable position in Umbrella and a greater voice at a time when Duncan had marginalized himself in various ways.

And he will rise even higher.

In addition to His Excellency the President, O'Connor had another friend in San Juan Hill, a forty-five-year-old Army captain who had just returned to the United States from the Far East a few days earlier, and was now accompanied by O'Connor to tour the facilities of Area 51 and some of the new weapons being tested.

Qin Lang knew about this, in fact, it was he who personally approved the trip, because if there were no accidents, in another year to two years, this visit would play an immeasurable role.

And O'Connor's position will become more important than it is now.

Qin Lang suddenly began to be jealous of him.

Of course, this joking mood didn't last long—even as his status continued to rise, O'Connor still couldn't surpass Qin Lang and Rachel, and only Duncan should be jealous—Qin Lang examined his plan one last time, and then stopped thinking.

He refocused his attention on the three members of the Panel. The Winkler-Fletcher debate continued, but it had shifted from Senate policy to what kind of battleships the U.S. Navy should build: the lieutenant admiral believed that twelve-inch guns of fifty times caliber were powerful enough to increase the number to twelve, or fifteen, while the petty bureaucrats in the shipbuilding department thought that the navy must develop larger-caliber guns, at least fourteen inches, and of course sixteen inches was better.

Other than that, there is little left of the differences between the two. They unanimously agreed that the new battleship did not need to run too fast, only twenty or twenty-one knots, and should be equipped with heavy armor sufficient to withstand its own firepower, and that the length and width of the battleship should be controlled as much as possible in order to control the displacement.

Qin Lang sighed secretly. Even in this completely new era, officers and ship designers of the US Navy did not abandon their love for the Iron Turtle battleship.

Then he thought of Yi Shui. In a telegram not so long ago, he suddenly showed a strong interest in the new high-speed warship of the kind advocated by Baron Fisher. Qin Lang hoped that this interest of his was only a spur of the moment, because it was obvious that the US Navy would not be interested in battlecruisers for the time being, and when it became interested in such battleships and began to build it, the Senate would put an end to the entire project.

This is "history", but it will happen again.

The world is no longer the same world, and the Senate is still the Senate.

Unless there is another way, Yi Shui will not find traces of battlecruisers in the ship formations of the US Navy.

I hope he can think of a way.

Qin Lang could only wish Yi Shui good luck. He did not intend to exert influence on the officers and ship designers of the US Navy, for no other reason than that he did not like battle cruisers.

However, he also did not like the Americans' iconic Iron Turtle battleship.

Why can't there be a compromise design? Qin Lang thought with regret. If, only if, if the US Navy built a replica of the Elizabeth-class battleship......

Why not?