Of course, Li Hui knew that Britain had not yet fully mastered the technology of picric acid explosives, but if they had enough sense of crisis, they should buy some from France as Japan did, or buy patents directly from it, and with the current relationship between Britain and France and the current international situation, there should be no difficulty in this.

But Britain didn't do that, what does that mean? It shows that the British government is completely unprepared for a war in the true sense of the word

Of course, after the British learned that the Chinese army had captured Hong Kong, they would certainly take various emergency measures, including purchasing a large amount of picric acid explosives from France, but not to mention whether France could meet such a large demand for explosives in an urgent situation, it would take some time for the officers and men of the British Navy to adapt to the new shells, and in particular, picric acid explosives still had great safety risks.

Therefore, even if the British government can obtain enough picric acid explosives from France, it will have to wait an additional few months, which is absolutely fatal for Britain, which has already lost the opportunity to fall into total passivity.

As for the silver explosives, even if they are produced by the system, they can only be stored for more than half a year, and if they are replaced with sodium chlorate of general industrial purity, I am afraid that they will not even be able to hold out for two or three months, and if the British Navy uses this, I am afraid that the shells will already be scrapped before their large fleet comes all the way to the Far East

And if sodium chlorate with the purity of laboratory reagents is used, the cost is too high, even if the British Empire is rich in the world, it will not dare to be such a loser. The only viable option for the British is to use KCLO3 instead of sodium chlorate, but even if the cost is higher, the power will be weakened, and there is no advantage over the picric acid that can be bought from France for money.

To put it bluntly, the reason why silver explosives can shine is largely due to the existence of the system, on the one hand, the system products are of higher quality, which makes up for the defect that the shelf life is not long enough, and on the other hand, the system can be supplied directly when needed, saving a lot of processes and saving a lot of time, which is even more critical.

And if it is based on the production and supply model in reality, the silver explosive is quite chicken, at least it is not more competitive than the perfect picric acid explosive, and it cannot be compared with TNT, otherwise why did Li Hui sell the formula so generously in the first place?

For example, the armor-piercing shells used by the British Navy are actually solid bullets that Li Hui managed to eliminate the Beiyang Naval Division before the First Sino-Japanese War.

What surprised Li Hui even more was that the British did not do this to save money, they really didn't have a better armor-piercing bullet

It turns out that although the fuse at the bottom of the bomb has been invented long before the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, its principle is a very simple inertial trigger, unable to adjust the delay by itself, and it will detonate in the blink of an eye after hitting the target, so it cannot hit a large penetration depth at all, although there is a so-called derivative bomb "armor-piercing grenade", but strictly speaking, it is only "a blasting bomb with a certain armor-piercing ability (not strong)".

Even if Li Hui is a hardcore military history enthusiast, it is unlikely that he knows exactly what year the first practical time-delay fuze was invented, and the pipe bands of the Beiyang Navy Division just haven't heard of it, but it's not certain that the West doesn't have it. Li Hui has always been a cautious and cautious person who does not take risks, and in the face of this situation, he must have expected the enemy to be lenient, when the Western powers already have this key technology to deduce. As a result, it really overestimates the strength of the opponent now.

It was undoubtedly a very funny thing that the Beiyang Naval Division was using the world's most advanced ammunition without knowing it, and after Li Hui reassessed the strength of the great powers, especially the navy, he finally made up his mind to make a major change to his original plan.

The situation facing China now is somewhat similar to that in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, in that it was in ruins at home and waiting to be rebuilt, but the external environment was extremely harsh, and only by finding a weighty opponent to fight and prove its strength could it deter the great powers that had ill intentions toward China and win precious time for peaceful development.

Originally, Li Hui was ready to take the United States, because there is a conflict over the Alaskan gold mine, and in the future, due to geopolitical reasons, there will be irreconcilable contradictions between the two countries, so it is better to take advantage of the opportunity when there is still an advantage in technology to weaken the United States as much as possible and reduce the pressure in the future. Moreover, at present, the United States is still very isolated, and there are no hardcore allies in the world, so there is no need to worry about fighting one and pulling out a large gang.

The other imaginary enemy is Maozi, due to the problem of losing land in the north, sooner or later there will be a war, but the eastern front is still easy to do, once a full-scale war starts, Xinjiang will not be able to reach it for the time being, I am afraid that it will be lost for a period of time, and it is easy to fight a bad war that will last for a long time, this is what Li Hui does not want to see, although the war between China and the United States may also take a long time, but after all, the naval war is the mainstay, and the country can still ensure stability and will not delay construction, and there is an essential difference between the two.

Therefore, although Li Hui was ready to go to war with Maozi, as long as the latter did not blatantly send troops to invade China, he would endure it for a while.

Knowing that the benefits of retaking Hong Kong by force far outweigh the benefits of Alaska's gold mines (since the system's greatest role is to lay the groundwork quickly, the earlier it gets, the more valuable it is to be able to get started immediately than the ones that need to be developed slowly). After that, Li Hui temporarily changed his mind and decided to fight Britain first, but at that time he was still very jealous of the strength of the world hegemon, so he always wanted to control the scale of the war, so as not to end up in a protracted war. But now that he understands the current situation of Britain's foreign power, Li Hui wants to fight more with Britain.

There is no better target for the purpose of Liwei than a country that everyone thinks is strong, but in fact it is not difficult to deal with, the latter point means that victory is easier, and the former point greatly magnifies the deterrent effect of victory.

Think about it, China has even defeated the British Empire, the world hegemon, and what other country that does not open its eyes dares to take the initiative to provoke China? This is the same as the shock generated by the victory of the United States to resist US aggression and aid Korea, and if China now defeats the British army by its own strength, or on the sea where the British are alone in seeking defeat, the deterrent effect it can produce will inevitably be stronger. (To be continued.) )