At the Zhanjiang Military Port Wharf, Su Zhen, director of the Naval Equipment Department, watched the fleet go away with a reluctant face, and Chen Qing, the director of the Zhanjiang Shipyard next to him, patted him on the shoulder, a little proud and a little embarrassed. The pride is because two of the four battleships were built in the Zhanjiang Shipyard, and the 30,000-ton battleship, which is also the first time in the shipyard, can be built smoothly, which shows that the shipyard's technology accumulation and worker level have reached a considerable level. embarrassed, of course, because of deceiving Su Zhen.

Su Zhen turned his head violently and grabbed Chen Qing's collar: "You deceived me so badly, you have to compensate me!" ”

"Minister Su, I'm sorry for you, but the construction of those four battleships is absolutely secret, and I really can't say it! But Minister Su, think about it, since we can produce four battleships for Germany, we can also build more advanced warships for our own navy. It's not that it won't be made, the time has not yet come, Minister Su is waiting with peace of mind. ”

Letting go of Chen Qing does not mean forgiving him, it is four super battleships, eight fifteen-inch main guns, if all of them join the Chinese Navy, it will make the number of Wuyue ships of the Chinese Navy ahead of the British. Now, I can only temporarily go to a Chinese name, and after crossing the ocean and arriving in Germany, I will become the capital ship of the German Navy!

The four battleships, which were named the G-class battleships at the time of construction, sailed out of the slipway without going through sea trials, and went directly to the port of Hamburg, Germany, where they underwent a series of performance tests on the way, identified problems and then refitted them in German shipyards. After the battleship came out, it was naturally made public and renamed the "Challenge-class" battleship, and the four were "Challenge", "Valian", "Dawn", and "Great War". (It's about to be transferred to Germany, so take the name as you like)

After announcing the launch of the four Challenge-class battleships and the escort/visit mission, a large number of reporters flocked to the port of Guangzhou, the departure point of the escort fleet, and tried every means to get close to the four battleships in an attempt to get the clearest picture possible. Under the tight lockdown, reporters and spies can only take pictures from more than 1,000 meters away. However, these vague pictures are enough to illustrate the fact that technical experts from various countries can speculate on the performance data of the battleship based on the shape of the battleship, the size of the main guns, etc.

The result of speculation was very disappointing, and the Huaguo shipbuilding industry once again proved its strength after the Wuyue-class battleships, starting construction of four 30,000-ton battleships at a time, and even the British had to grit their teeth. After raising the assessment of Huaguo's industrial strength again. The intelligence community passed the speculative performance data to the military, which in turn forwarded it to the shipyard to ask if it could build a battleship of the same level or better than the Challenge-class battleship.

If a small screw is not qualified, the battleship will not be produced, not to mention the power system, armor, and main guns required by similar warships need to be overcome by technical experts.

The British, who had wanted to make some trouble for the convoy, received a diplomatic note from China a week before the fleet departed, saying that if Britain and France provided the convoy with supply ports along the way, China would double the amount of arms it sold to the two countries.

Britain and France coveted those excellent weapons. For example, the condition put forward by the British was that China would provide Britain with aircraft engine technology, tank engine technology, Wuyue-class battleship engines and main gun technology, while the French proposed to obtain complete tank manufacturing technology and army 155 mm howitzer manufacturing technology. The French had a poisonous vision, and their conditions were in line with their strategic needs.

Once this core technology is handed over, Britain, France, the United States and other countries can rely on their strong industrial base and strong manufacturing capacity. Burst out more weapons than the Chinese army is equipped with. If Hua Guo is also climbing the science and technology tree step by step, then it is absolutely impossible for Lu Liang to hand it over. However, everything is not absolute, Lu Liang has more advanced and overwhelming new equipment in his hands, and he can only start to change the equipment of the army when several major industrial bases in the north are built.

Huaguo's reply that he agreed to sell is surprising, but a look at Huaguo's conditions is relieved. Liang Dunyan, a Chinese diplomat who negotiated with Britain on behalf of China, proposed that Britain withdraw from Iraq in the northern part of the Persian Gulf, and that China take over its sphere of influence. The British, of course, will not agree. Iraq's strategic location is important, and it has a bearing on the global layout of the British, India's security, blocking the southward expansion of the Russians, and even the struggle for the Balkan Peninsula.

Iraq was still nominally part of the Ottoman Empire at this time. However, the Ottomans, who had long been reduced to a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country, had no way to cut off the land of Britain and France in the Middle East, and most of the southern regions of the Arabian Peninsula became protectorates or suzerains of Britain and France, which is why the Ottoman Empire was inclined to the allies, and he wanted to regain the Balkans, Egypt, the Arabian Peninsula and other lands that originally belonged to him.

The ambition and strength of the Ottoman Empire were inversely proportional, and the British and Chinese divided the pie outside the Ottoman Empire. After the British sternly refused to cede southern Iraq, negotiations between the two countries were suspended, and the next day Liang Dunyan proposed to sell the Emirate of Kuwait on the west coast of the Persian Gulf to China and compensate the northern part of Burma.

The British were outraged by Burma, whose ambitions to covet India were clearly revealed, and the Burmese War of Independence was finally suppressed, and the Free Army of Burma was struggling to survive in northern Burma. Now that China wants to make a fuss in Burma again, does Britain think that Britain does not know about the previous support for the Free Army of Burma?

"Either take Kuwait, or your convoy won't want to pass through the Suez Canal, and don't get supplies from any port along the way!" British Foreign Secretary Strong decided to take a gamble, but he was very nervous, because the British wanted to get those technologies more than the Chinese escorts and visits.

Fortunately, Hua finally relented, and the troublesome Chinese diplomat, Liang Dunyan, agreed to sign the Kuwaiti transfer agreement after consulting China. From April 1, 1907, the Emirate of Kuwait became a protectorate of China, and the 1899 Croatian-British Agreement was abolished.

On March 28, 1907, Chinese diplomats arrived in Kuwait and, after some transactions, signed the "Kehua Agreement" with the Emir of Kuwait, Mubarak bin Sabah. In the agreement, China recognized Kuwait as an independent country in its internal affairs, did not interfere in its internal affairs, protected it from external aggression for a period of time, and provided it with financial assistance. The Emir of Kuwait has pledged not to lease or transfer any part of the State to any State or subject other than the State of China, and not to allow any representative of a foreign State to be stationed in his State without the consent of the State.

A month later, China and Ottoman Turkey signed the Gulf Agreement, which stipulated that Kuwait was within the sovereignty of the Ottoman government, but that the government would not interfere in its affairs in any way and would not send troops there, and the Ottoman Empire recognized Kuwait as an independent state under the protection of China. The price that China paid for this was the armament and parts of an armored regiment plus fifty fighters.

The Americans, whose desire for expansion is now only a small colony of Cuba, and the Philippines in the Far East has been sold to China because of the scorches between the consortium and the government. Now look at the fact that China first obtained the islands of the Germans in the Pacific Ocean, then the Philippines, and now extends its tentacles to the Middle East.

Before the value of these areas is realized, it is indeed a barren land, and only Lu Liang and the genetic people know how important those places are. After acquiring German colonies in the Pacific, the Chinese army began to build military fortifications on Saipan (the United States sold the Northern Mariana Islands to Germany after the Spanish-American War), Panururu, New Guinea and other places. Perhaps when the Air Force develops to a certain extent, the Americans will discover the importance of these islands.

The same is true for Kuwait, where the success of similar leakage makes Lu Liang feel very good. For the Chinese army, the army needs massive oil resources to promote, and there are already signs of oil shortages, the number of submarine mining vehicles is limited, and the amount of submarine oil extracted is not enough for a company at the Huizhou Petrochemical Plant to consume. In addition, oil fields in the north, such as Northeast China and Shandong, are also being exploited, and it is estimated that the oil fields in the north can only meet two-thirds of the rapidly growing needs of the national economy and the military. Therefore, the strategic petroleum reserve has been established, and a large amount of oil is imported from the United States every year, and in order to prevent the supply of American oil from being cut off in wartime, new sources of oil must be opened.

Kuwait was the best choice, and since the signing of the agreement, China has been organizing a huge number of mining convoys and construction machinery, which will arrive in Kuwait with the convoy on five transport ships, along with some administrative personnel and an infantry regiment.

The convoy consisted of four Challenge-class battleships, five cruisers, and seven destroyers, and the fleet was painted white before departure, and was called the "Great White Fleet". The deterrent power of this fleet is no less than that of the expeditionary fleet of the anti-China alliance at the beginning, although it is small in number, but it is full of combat effectiveness. If China had not issued a notice to other countries in advance, it is estimated that it would have aroused hostility among all countries.

Nevertheless, after the convoy sailed into the South China Sea, ships from Britain and France appeared nearby, and some British and French cruisers followed closely to the left and right, acting as a peripheral defense, and many technicians on board observed these four battleships nearby. (To be continued.) )