Zhang Cheng spent a fortune that would be staggering even in the face of an economic crisis to pocket the Jiangnan Shipyard, of course, not for the sake of good looks.

The shipyard's reputation as the world's number one is not unfounded. Two of the provincial capital-class battleships that have been in service for a few years were built at the Jiangnan shipyard. The Jiangnan Shipyard, which has three 50,000-ton docks, has no problem building new battleships designed by Zhang Cheng.

The data on this new battleship was so good that before it was possible to get a detailed picture of the actual performance of the Japanese decisive battleship, the top of the Navy decided to adopt the new battleship design provided by Zhang Cheng after discussion.

The data performance of the new battleship, which was designated by the Navy as the new provincial capital class, is very powerful. Daming's scientific and technological and economic strength is very advanced, and both the army and navy in the army attach importance to artillery all year round, so Daming's artillery technology can be called the world's top level.

The 400 mm 52 caliber main gun was enough to penetrate more than 360 mm of armor at a distance of 12 nautical miles when using the new tungsten carbide core armor-piercing projectile. If this distance is pulled to 8 nautical miles, then the armor-piercing thickness will reach a staggering 420 mm. Basically, there are no warships that can resist this formidable power. This kind of shooting test is generally tested on the armor of the battleship itself, and the Ming Dynasty's metallurgical technology is already at the world's top level.

The Ming Navy has installed 400 mm guns on the provincial capital class battleships that served a few years ago, and now the main guns of the new provincial capital class have only increased the multiple diameter from 50 times to 52 times, but the power of the guns has been greatly improved.

Because the displacement is large enough, the armor steel produced by the special steel plant attached to the Jiangnan Shipyard can be thickened as much as possible to provide sufficient defense force for the warship. The armor thickness of the turret frontal and conning tower in the scheme exceeded 450 mm.

The standard displacement of the new battleship reached 43000 tons, and the full load displacement was close to 55000 tons! The huge hull provided a good firing platform for the main guns. The ship is 258 meters long, 35.6 meters wide and has a draft of 9.8 meters. Eight heavy oil boilers and four steam turbines powered the battleship with more than 200,000 horsepower. Designed for a maximum speed of more than 31 knots. The endurance at 16 knots reaches an astonishing 15,000 nautical miles.

The battleship was armed with three triple 400 mm guns. 16 twin 155 mm guns, 12 twin 88 mm anti-aircraft guns, 24 twin 40 mm anti-aircraft guns and 24 quadruple 20 mm machine guns.

This is an incomparably formidable battleship. But Zhang Cheng didn't care very much. Because he knew that no matter how powerful a battleship was, it would only end up with hatred under the air raids of hordes. Zhang Cheng's offer for this new battleship is 450 million silver dollars per ship! There are no wholesale offers.

Such a terrible price did not deter the Navy, and after serious review and debate, the Navy finally gave an order to start construction of 4 new provincial capital class battleships and 2 new Lake class aircraft carriers. The total price of this order is more than 2 billion silver dollars!

Naturally, it is impossible for such a huge fat to be eaten by Zhang Cheng alone. Business alliances struggling in the midst of the economic depression have come up with their own means to get a piece of the pie. Even if Zhang Cheng is a designer. Jiangnan Shipyard is the world's No. 1 shipyard, and it cannot resist the prying eyes of the Saga consortium. After countless behind-the-scenes encounters, compromises, trades. Zhang Cheng's Jiangnan shipyard won the order for an aircraft carrier and two battleships. The remaining orders were taken over by several other large shipyards. Of course, the high patent fee must be paid to Zhang Cheng.

This is the main reason why Zhang Cheng must take a large shipyard at any cost. Without a large shipyard and good equipment workers, there is not even a chance to participate in this game of huge money.

The Navy also has a number of orders for auxiliary ships, and these small orders are taken away by those shipyards that do not have large docks. Only battleships and aircraft carriers will not work, they must be equipped with sufficient coordination forces.

This huge amount of money is not something that the Navy said would take out immediately. It is impossible for the deep-pocketed navy to come up with such an astronomical sum of money in the middle of the year, and they use the method of installment payment. The construction period of large warships is long, and installments of several years can effectively relieve the huge financial pressure on the Navy.

When the project indicators are formalized. The Navy's supervision teams were stationed in various shipyards, and a large number of marines also drove into the shipyards to strictly control them. The fastest new aircraft carrier had already laid its first keel in a 30,000-ton dock at the Jiangnan shipyard at the end of August.

Unlike the consortia that rushed to save other industries when they got a down payment, and the construction of battleships did not begin until October, they were reprimanded by the Navy. Zhang Cheng invested all the profits earned from the new warships in the shipyard.

Zhang's plan is to expand the original three 50,000-ton and three 30,000-ton docks to four, and increase the degree of electrification. Adopt a shift system to accelerate the construction of new warships. Zhang Cheng is no longer making money, and increasing the strength of Daming before the outbreak of war as much as possible is what he wants to do most.

The war with the Boers was so significant that the vast majority of people at the time did not really understand the enormous benefits behind the war. If they had known at the time, the war would not have ended so easily.

After the frenzied, reckless use of human lives and machinery to dig shallow gold mines. In 1933, the Ming Dynasty received nearly 1,500 tons of gold!

What is the concept of this wealth? In the history of modern time and space, it has cost 3% of Japan's GDP. The entire cost of the famous battleship Yamato is 280 million yen after inflation.

On the gold standard, one Chinese dollar was exchanged for two yen, and an ounce of gold was about 140 Chinese yuan. In other words, the cost of the Yamato was close to thirty tons of gold. And Daming digs for gold in South Africa, and he can dig up enough funds to build fifty Yamato ships in a year!

Of course, the economy cannot be counted in this way, because gold itself has no practical significance, and its specific value can only be demonstrated through the cooperation of finance and the real economy. After all, in the era of the gold standard, gold was only a voucher for exchange. Without the support of the real economy, it doesn't really work.

The sophisticated Shousuke used this gold as a bargaining chip through financial means and economic leverage, and successfully turned Songjiang Province into the world's gold center. With strong gold reserves. Lord Shoufu can easily play with world finance and squeeze the wealth of various countries through financial means to transfuse blood for the Ming Dynasty. Of course, this can save the economy of the Ming Dynasty, but this kind of robbery of Chiguoguo has pushed the countries of the world step by step to the opposite side of the Ming Dynasty. It won't be long. The countries that have been constantly sucked by the Ming Dynasty through the gold policy will use the ultimate means to end all this. When conflicts of interest cannot be reconciled, violence becomes a last resort.

Of course, as shallow and easy gold is mined. Gold that needs to be mined deep underground will significantly reduce Daming's gold production in South Africa. In the absence of leather. With the advent of new mining equipment, South Africa's gold production will continue to decline. But that's enough for the Ming to recover from the recession.

After owning a large amount of gold, the major family consortia bowed their heads. Shousuke-sama immediately launched his own new economic policy. The core of this series of economic policies is three points: relief, rehabilitation, and reform. This economic policy was known in the newspapers as Zhang Yue's New Deal.

The New Deal was a powerful emergency bill against a chaotic financial world, a depressed real economy, a sharply declining agriculture population, and a large number of unemployed.

Before Zhang Yue's implementation of the NEP, the stock market in Songjiang Province had fallen to less than one-tenth of its peak, and hundreds of billions of dollars of wealth had been wiped out. Countless corporate banks have failed. The number of unemployed people has skyrocketed tenfold. The level of the economy has dropped sharply, and the value of agricultural products has fallen to its lowest point because no one buys them. It is not uncommon to pour milk and burn grain and cotton.

While most of the world's countries were forced by the economic depression to embark on extreme militarism, the Ming Dynasty could not do so. Because the Ming Dynasty is a rich country, it is a capital country ruled by the family consortium. It is impossible for them to put state power in the hands of the military. Ordinary citizens who live well-to-do lives are also reluctant to embark on such a path.

Da Ming will not accept the law. Fascism and (star)ism. The only way to save the economy is to vigorously intensify state intervention in social and economic life and to change the relations of production in society as a whole.

In fact, the greatest usefulness of this new deal was that Zhang Yue finally seized the opportunity to strengthen the power in his hands when the family consortium was tormented by the economic depression to the point of declining strength, and confirmed the ruling power of the imperial chief assistant in the Ming Dynasty. Force! State rights. The unification of forces laid a good foundation for the future state of war.

The New Deal was first and foremost about reforming the chaotic financial world. Lack of credit. The money of depositors who are closed down at will is not open and transparent. The vices of financial institutions, such as false transactions, have all been reorganized.

Politics. The government has vigorously strengthened the supervision of the financial industry. Politics. The government's nominal investment has invested in a number of large banks, and has injected large amounts of liquidity into the banks with South African gold as collateral. Simultaneous politics. The government's stake has also boosted the bank's credibility and regained the trust of depositors. Conversely, small banks that lack credibility are gradually losing their viability. According to statistics, at least more than 20,000 banks have disappeared completely. The chaotic financial industry has been re-established.

A number of laws targeting the financial sector have caused great pain to the Maison consortium, but they have no power to fight back. I want to fight against Lord Shousuke, who holds the gold of South Africa. Unless it's all together. But most of them have been bought off at the moment.

Many people suggested abandoning the already crumbling gold standard, but Shousuke-sama resolutely refused. In response to the outflow and speculation of gold, Shousuke began to pour gold into the market on a large scale, and announced the production and reserves of gold in the south in newspapers and radio stations, which soon stabilized the financial markets.

After stabilizing finance. Next up is the real economy. (To be continued......)

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