In the Yangtze River Shipyard 10 miles west of Ma'anshan Iron and Steel Plant, this shipyard is the largest shipyard along the river, planning 8 docks and 12 slipways, even before the first dock was completed, the rammed slipway began to build ships, and the construction is not a common wooden or iron hull ship, but from Huainan through the Huai River, the Grand Canal to Ma'anshan coal transport, coke cement ship.

The cement that is woven into a mesh shape with steel wire, and then poured with cement, whether it is anti-corrosion or durable, is worried about steel-hulled ships, while flat-bottomed cement ships are more costly, faster to build, and have the lowest technical requirements for workers, only construction workers are needed, and at the same time, the requirements for docks and slipways are reduced to the bottom, and even shipbuilding equipment is not needed, only mixers and steel wires can be mass-produced.

It is precisely because of its fast construction speed that in just a few months, the shipyard has built hundreds of cement ships with a load of tens to hundreds of tons, which meets the fuel needs of Ma'anshan Iron and Steel Plant.

When walking towards the No. 1 dock, looking at the slipway, the workers who were working overtime to build the cement ship, Shi Tiange frowned slightly, in his opinion, the eggshell-like cement ship was just a sideshow, but this impact-resistant cement ship was as good as an eggshell, but it was now the main product of the Yangtze River Shipyard, which could build more than 30 ships a month.

"It's better to have a ship or a steel-hulled ship!"

With a sigh, Shi Tiange walked into the No. 1 dock, which is different from the popular stone docks in various countries, the No. 1 to No. 3 docks of the Yangtze River Shipyard are all made of reinforced concrete slipways made of Portland cement that are not afraid of seawater erosion, and only the No. 4 to No. 8 slipways are the cost of bottoming, and they are changed to stone docks based on granite in Jiuhua Mountain.

The eight docks were designed by Chinese designers hired by the company. Like the No. 1 dock in front of you, which is more than 160 meters long and more than 20 meters wide. There are two dock doors, divided into two areas inside and outside, can be used at the same time or separately, the difference with the general dock is that the designer designed the dock with a slight curvature, not a straight dock wall, so that you can make full use of the force point of the slope, convenient for ships to enter and exit the dock and build conveniently, can build two 5000 tonnage ships at the same time.

When the pneumatic rivet gun inside the ship hits the red-hot steel rivet, red sparks fly everywhere, and the air is filled with the sound of metal thumping that is characteristic of the factory. The hull fitter is riveting the steel plate seams together and aligning the joints to the riveted joints. Workers in hard hats transport steel plates cut and rolled into various shapes to each assembly area by a block crane, and inside the hull of the ship, electricians are straightening kilometers of wires like countless strands of black yarn.

In this rectangular cement dock, the workers perform their duties under the command of the supervisor, and continue to work, if it is at night, any people on the ships passing by the Yangtze River can see the brightly lit shipyard, this Russian-agreed steel hull cargo ship with a load of 6,800 tons is the first real sea ship built by the Shangjiang shipyard, in the past few months, although more than a dozen steel hull ships have been built, but most of them are passenger and cargo ships on the Yangtze River.

"60% complete, expected to be completed in 85 days......"

Entering the slipway, Shi Tiange directly unfolded a supervision schedule, this fully covered deck, steam-type cargo ship was an order received by the shipyard from a Russian shipbuilder in Vladivostok by "four months in advance", the cost per ton was 501.32 yuan, and the delivery was one-third earlier than the shipyards of other countries, but the price per ton was as much as 20 yuan less than that of other countries.

But even so, the Alexei shipping company that bought the ship still took the risk, and all the equipment such as the hull, boiler, smoke box, machine, wheel axle, etc., were manufactured by the Yangtze River Shipyard, and the steel materials used were all provided by the Ma'anshan Steel Mill.

The reason why the shipyard agreed to deliver the ship at a low price and high speed is to open up the shipyard's popularity, after all, this is the first time China has exported a large cargo ship, not to mention the capital preservation, even if it is a loss, the shipyard is not hesitating.

"It is necessary to speed up the progress further, and if you are late for one day, you will be fined 300 yuan per day, and after 30 days of late payment, the fine will increase to 500 yuan. On the contrary, if you pay one day early, you can get a bonus of 300 yuan! Oscillation, your responsibility is great! ”

After adding a few strokes to the construction schedule, Shi Tiange turned his head to look at Li Jinyang and said seriously, this 6,800-ton "giant ship" is the first ship he designed and supervised after he was hired by the Yangtze River Shipyard.

"With the current schedule, it will be no problem to finish 25 days ahead of schedule!"

Li Jinyang's answer made Shi Tiange not very satisfied, but instead clenched his fist with his left hand, and nervously pounded the palm of his right hand again and again, until the hammer turned red, and then stared at the 60% completed freighter in the dockyard with a blank look.

"No, at least 35 days in advance!"

Then he lit the cigarette with a slightly trembling hand. A wisp of smoke blew along with the wind on the river, calming Shi Tiange a little.

"And to ensure quality and quantity, this is our first ship, not only to be delivered in advance, but also to show our engineering level, only in this way, the future can attract other businessmen to the shipyard to order merchant ships, the Qing court is not like other countries, other countries shipbuilding, buy ships have subsidies, but the Qing court has no subsidies, to open the market thanks to the hull engineering is solid, well-configured, only in this way to attract ships to build, repair ships!"

Shi Tiange crushed the cigarette he had smoked two or three times with the leather shoe under his feet, and then gently rubbed his temples with his fingertips.

"Oscillation, you are the on-site supervisor, you are in charge of this ship, and I have some other things over there!"

Li Jinyang just smiled, but didn't say anything from Jiangnan Shipyard to this Yangtze River Shipyard, if there is any difference between this place and Jiangnan, it is that he doesn't need to worry about the fingers of laymen, here he found the job he yearns for, purely technical.

After leaving the dockyard, Shi Tiange walked directly to the office building a few hundred meters away, his studio was on the second floor of the two-story building, a reading office, and it was in that office that he personally drew the "Subert? Paul.

"Hey!"

However, as soon as the front foot entered the office, Shi Tiange let out a sigh, especially after looking at the half-drawn drawing on the drawing board, he frowned.

He could have designed a 15,000-ton battleship rather than a few hundred tons of gadgets, and in the last few months, while looking through the dozen tons of library materials he had brought back from England, he had been experimenting with the limited materials to perfect its design.

Submarines, for the whole world this is a new thing, even Britain only three years ago from the United States to buy back 5 Holland-type submarines, and then began to study submarines, in the United Kingdom, he had studied the Holland submarine with his teacher because of curiosity, and it was that contact with the Holland submarine that made him realize that the submarine that can sail and attack underwater is almost a nightmare for the traditional navy.

With the help of periscopes, submarines can quietly approach large warships such as battleships and cruisers from under the water, and then launch a fatal blow with a torpedo, as John ? The starting point of Holland's development of submarines is to use this underwater weapon to attack the Royal Navy, which has absolute superiority.

After being hired by the Yangtze River Shipyard, Shi Tiange of course knew that in such a private shipyard, it was not realistic to build large warships, there was no buyer, and the Qing political axe would rather be purchased than self-made, but in his heart he was not willing to give up his dream of coastal defense easily, and it was precisely because of this that he would complete the "Subert? After the design of the "Paul" and the early oversight, he began to build this underwater weapon.

“…… The Horan submarine's conning tower is low and can only be used in port when the weather is calm! Otherwise, the conning tower will open and it will be easy to sink into the water......"

Looking at the Royal Navy's research report on the Holland submarine in his hand, Shi Tiange once again revised the design of the submarine, and like the last time, the submarine was once again enlarged.

This submarine stuck on the drawings, from the original two torpedo tubes, increased to four, from the original one 150-horsepower gasoline engine, to two 150-horsepower diesel engines, the price of each modification, but his tonnage is constantly enlarged, from the initial dozens of tons, straight to nearly 300 tons.

"You must have the ability to sail in the ocean and replenish torpedoes!"

In the design of this submarine, Shi Tiange's basic design was completely based on the Royal Navy's various deficiencies in the submarine, and there were improvements aimed at the surname, adding torpedo tubes, increasing torpedo compartments, increasing horsepower, raising the conning tower, increasing batteries, and fuel tanks, so as to build an ocean-going submarine with a good surname and can patrol and attack on the sea.

"Still too small......"

Looking at the slowly forming conceptual graphics, in the end, Shi Tiange shook his head and ripped the drawings off the board, according to the submarine specifications on the drawings, it was far from reaching the kind of large, ocean-going, overseas and efficient ocean-going submarine he longed for, at least this kind of two- or three-hundred-ton submarine was far from meeting these conditions.

"It should be bigger!"

"Teacher!"

Niu Degang, who walked into the office, brought coffee and fruit, and put them on his desk.

"Teacher, do you have any other instructions?"

"Nope!"

Shi Tiange replied, and at the same time whispered a few words of thanks.

"How's your schoolwork?"

"Schoolwork is done, I'm going to the dockyard in the afternoon!"

Niu Degang said respectfully, he was one of the several students led by Mr. Shi.

Nodding, Shi Tiange pointed to the information on the submarine he had brought back from England on the table.

"There's some information here, you can take it and take a look."

After taking the English material from the teacher's desk, Niu Degang casually flipped through a few pages, in addition to the handwritten text, there were some simple drawings that were probably drawn by the teacher.

"Submarine!"

While thinking about it, Niu Degang seemed to understand what the teacher had been busy with recently, and occasionally when he came in, he could see that the teacher seemed to be drawing similar patterns, but now it seems that the teacher's research is not ideal.

"Teacher, you've been working on submarines?"

"Hmmm! If you are interested, you can also work in this direction. ”

As he spoke, Shi Tiange had already leaned down in front of the drawing table and began to redraw the basic pattern.

The teacher's actions made Niu Degang understand that it was time for him to leave, so he turned around and left the room, and when he left the room, he looked at the information in his hand while walking, after the initial English information, there were more than a dozen pages to read the special book, which seemed to be the teacher's recent summary of some information or technical requirements.

"Do you think it's possible to build such a submarine in the factory?"

Niu Degang thinks it's unrealistic, he learned shipbuilding in the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, since the first afternoon, this Chinese shipyard has not built many warships, don't build it, even if it is built, no one necessarily wants it!

Thinking about the company's recent buzz to sponsor students and employees to study in the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom, Niu Degang couldn't help but have some expectations for the information at hand, the students are selected from the three schools of industrial school, steel school and engineering school, and in addition to the students, a group of technical personnel will be selected from the company to study abroad.

"800 people stay in the ocean, if you can design a submarine, maybe you can pass the study abroad audit!"

The moment the door opened, Chen Moran stood up with a smile and greeted him, while stretching out his right hand.

"Mr. Cai, Mr. Jiang, Mr. Wu, we finally met!"

Cai Yuanpei, Jiang Guanyun, and Wu Jingheng widened their eyes, looking at this person who appeared in the guest room in surprise, he was the crutch!

"It's you!" "Boss Chen! "Chen Cripple! ”

The three of them had three different titles, and the surprise of the three of them was only Chen Moran's laughter.

"Three gentlemen, please take a seat, today is something that you have been silently longing for for a long time!"

As he spoke, Chen Moran walked leisurely to the sofa, while Cai Yuanpei, Jiang Guanyun, and Wu Jingheng still looked at Chen Moran in surprise when they sat down, until they finally understood why Niu Yongjian called him "Mr. Crutches", and he was still on crutches when he talked about the river boat last year.

also understands why they have been keeping his identity strictly secret, if they don't keep it secret, the industry is such a big business, it will not be an enemy.

"If I'm not mistaken, this should be the third time we have met Mr. Chen!"

Cai Yuanpei spoke first and said that when he established the China Education Association with Jiang Guanyun and others at the beginning of the year, he had a relationship with Chen Moran. And Chen Moran's shot was extremely generous, 50,000 yuan! Even the funds needed for the printing of the "Revolutionary Army" were transferred from him.

"It's just that I don't know that Boss Chen, the famous industry in Shanghai, is the crutch Mr. who is famous in the Far East, and we are really disrespectful!"

Wu Jingheng hugged his fists and said with a smile, this Chen Moran really deserves his name, but silence has become a big thing.

"On the ship back to China, Yuan Pei also wanted to visit Mr. Chen after visiting Mr. Crutches, and Mr. Chen volunteered to help thousands of students study in the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany, which is really unprecedented!"

"The three gentlemen still don't boast about Mo Ran, compared to the talent of the three gentlemen, Mo Ran is just a little clever!"

Facing the compliment, Chen Moran hurriedly waved his hand, this meeting was requested by the three of them, and it was also needed over time, the Restoration Society not only needed those young people, but also needed big people like the three of them.

"Writing something under a pseudonym, but it is just a vent of the anger in my heart, sending students abroad, one is to solve the embarrassment of the company's talents, and the other is the need for the future development of the country, and to accumulate talents after the recovery of the nation in the future.

Chen Moran's attitude is extremely sincere, and what he says is from the bottom of his heart, and attaching importance to education is just an empty talk after a hundred years.

"Ten years of trees, a hundred years of people, the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs, and the shaving order of shaving the head of the people in Yifu cut off the backbone of my compatriots, for the selfishness of a surname and a family, so as to curb the creativity and imagination of a country and a nation, soften the bones of a nation, and enslave the psychology of a nation. We have been enslaving and educating our compatriots for 259 years, and it is easy to recover, but how difficult it is to be enslaved for 260 years! What is the work of a generation! ”

Looking directly at the three people in front of him, Chen Moran couldn't help but sigh a little, thinking about it, many people sighed at the so-called "political achievements", the so-called "prosperous times", and the so-called "Emperor of the Ages" of these masters, and when they chattered and showed off, they always felt disgusted when they were young, especially when they saw the prevalence of Qing court dramas.

Listening to Chen Moran's words, the three of them glanced at each other, their eyes were full of appreciation, and just a few words gave birth to a feeling that they were not in vain, this feeling was by no means something they could experience when they were going to Yokohama to meet with another person.

“…… It's still the same tree, and when I look back, it's the same tree it was two hundred and fifty-nine years ago. That tree should be a wake-up call, a thought-provoking tree, and an inspiring tree. Thinking of that tree again, I felt a kind of fear: the political indolence, cruelty, selfishness, and decay of the barbarian alien race, coupled with the indifference, isolation, arrogance, and numbness of the hearts of the masses brought about by the enslavement education, completely buried a nation that had been at the forefront of the world for a long time. ”

Wu Jingheng quoted the end of "Tree" written by Chen Moran in the magazine "Qizhi", which was the tree that Chongzhen hanged when he was martyred, and how could it not be a tree that hanged the Han nation.

"The three gentlemen all know, I never talk about revolution, only about liberation, some people call me a pseudo-revolutionary, this is really wronged me, I have never been a revolutionary, I am just a member of the national restoration of the righteous people, in the silent view, instead of talking about the revolution there, talk about how to fill up, it is better to sit down, let's talk about how to make this enslaved nation after hundreds of years, the bones harden, the hearts of the people warm! This is also the reason why I am meeting three gentlemen today, who are revolutionaries in the eyes of the outside world, but in the eyes of Yu Moran, they are national educators! ”

When Chen Moran set the tone for this conversation, Cai Yuanpei, Jiang Guanyun, and Wu Jingheng looked at Chen Moran in surprise, and they finally understood what the real difference was between him and that person.

"This is also a silent desire for the three!"

(To be continued)