After returning to Uruguay, Li Guang arranged nearly 70 people to live and train on a desert island, and only brought the beautiful Yuan Ran back to the shipyard. Li Guang secretly snickered, brother, I am also a big boss with a female secretary now.

For the time being, Li Guang had no intention of improving the quality of the torpedoes, and urgently arranged orders for the Chinese Navy and the Spanish Navy.

At this moment, Li Guang, after thinking about it for a long time, decided to build a cargo ship, or a quasi-destroyer. Destroyers are very high-tech, but cargo ships are extremely low-tech. Li Guang's idea was actually to build a quasi-destroyer that could outpace a freighter.

It is said to be a quasi-destroyer, the reason is that this ship has the function of a destroyer, but the surname can be too far behind, and it is estimated that it can reach the level of World War I. And this ship took into account the torpedo trade and was able to transport some valuable supplies to the ocean.

Captain Alfred's dry bulk carrier was the lowest cost of the steamship at $80,000. But there was a reason for this low price, the first hull had no armor at all, except for the hull, and the second engine was only a three-cylinder reciprocating steam engine, and the power was only 1,250 horsepower. The fourth speed is only ten to eleven knots. Fifth, there were no electronic devices at all, just a low-power radio station of a few tens of dollars. Sixth, if the freighter had not carried cargo and had not been fueled with crude oil, its weight would have been only 700 tons.

Although the ship that Li Guang wants to build is not armored, the thickness of the ship's steel plate is 0.75 inches, that is, 19 mm. The power directly used the 2,500 horsepower diesel engine purchased from Germany, not only to set up a high-power radio station, but also to install sonar and listening devices purchased from Germany on the ship, and the armament was to use four 88mm anti-aircraft guns. For these four main guns, Li Guang adopted a very backward duplex design. To put it bluntly, it is two separate guns, placed on a rotating platform, and they are not twin naval guns in the real sense at all.

And the displacement is less than 2,000 tons. Originally, the displacement could have been smaller, but Li Guang also had to use this ship to take care of transportation, so the displacement of the design was slightly larger.

And before the ship was designed, it was named a pickup truck by Li Guang. This is very similar to the pickup trucks of later generations, which can pull people and a little bit of goods.

Since before the Ariane's trip to China, Director Arthur had already recruited ship designers and shipbuilders according to Li Guang's requirements, so everything went smoothly. In accordance with Li Guang's request, the ship's designers recruited from the United States began to design the ship overnight.

In just two days, the designers came up with the drawings. And this drawing, Li Guang and the designer signed a confidentiality agreement. Because in addition to some data requirements, Li Guang provided the shape design of the destroyer. To put it bluntly, Li Guang painted the appearance of the most advanced destroyer that he had seen in later generations to the two designers. The novelty of the ship is nothing, and the most bizarre thing is that the interior is very similar to that of a submarine, with a central control room below deck and a periscope.

When the preliminary drawings of the destroyer Pickup were released, the basic parameters of the ship were set. The length of the ship is seventy-eight meters, the width is ten meters, the draft is three meters, and the maximum speed is twenty-three knots.

In fact, apart from the engine and some ancillary facilities, this kind of ship is actually not as technical as Captain Alfred's freighter. Even so, the cost was more than $400,000, of which the cannon accounted for $200,000, the sonar accounted for $15,000, and the diesel engine accounted for $110,000. In fact, Li Guang did not have a lot of money to spend, less than 80,000 US dollars.

The day after the drawings came out, work began in the dry dock of the shipyard. Among them, more than a dozen professional students brought by Li Guang from China also joined the work.

Due to the catch-up speed, the ship's main shaft and propellers, as well as the reducer, were taken to buy ready-made products. As a result, the ship was built very quickly, in fact it took only a month for the steel to be welded and piled up, and in just one month, the ship was painted and launched.

At this time, Li Guang had already spent all the money on hand. Li Guang had to go to sea with a torpedo. This pickup destroyer was already a luxury enough for several wounded soldiers in the army, such as Su Qing, but when they learned that a 2,000-ton destroyer cost more than five million US dollars, they were so shocked that they couldn't close their mouths.

Li Guang's ability to build warships at a low price is not because Li Guang has a high level, but because the technical content is completely different. The ratio of power and displacement of the more advanced destroyers in the military even reached 25 horsepower per ton, and the speed was as high as 35 knots. And Li Guang, a cruiser, can only achieve a ratio of more than one point to one, a difference of dozens of times. If the destroyer Pickup encounters the destroyer of the Japanese army, the artillery fire will naturally be much inferior, and there will not even be a chance to escape. Combat effectiveness is not at all at the same level.

But now Li Guang was on the verge of bankruptcy, so he had to take the torpedo contract with Spain as collateral, and then borrow $100,000 from the bank again. Li Guang already had to gamble at this time, and at this time, he had just figured out the overseas trade routes of Yuben.

On this voyage, Li Guang brought not only 533mm torpedoes, but also 455mm and 327mm torpedoes. Among them, 50 533mm torpedoes were brought to Rameau, and 100 455mm and 327mm torpedoes were brought to the Chinese Navy.

And Li Guang naturally did not forget to install a six-door torpedo launcher on the destroyer Pickup.

There were a total of 60 people on the ship this time, which can be regarded as the elite of Li Guang's team. Only two beauties and a couple of youths who were physically unfit for a long voyage were left in Uruguay.

The captain of the ship is concurrently served by Li Guang,

Zheng Xuechang served as the operational staff officer, and Ren Tianyang served as the first mate (Mawei Hai Colonel)

The gun commander was Su Qing. Jeon Yong-hae served as the deputy gun chief (Colonel Maweihai)

The boatswain was held by Huang Zhonghua.

The communication group is headed by Ji Keliang.

Xue Deyang served as the chief engineer. (Mawei Maritime School)

It seems that they are professional, and even strong, but in fact, these people have not been able to drive even one steamer. In addition to being familiar with the heavy machine guns and rifles that they had just gotten their hands on, except for Su Qing, the others had never touched the cannon at all, let alone the 88mm anti-aircraft gun. As for the torpedoes, these people had not even seen them before. And the biggest hidden danger of this trip is that the pickup number has not even undergone the most basic sea trials.

Since the diesel engine was still in the run-in stage, the pickup truck sailed at a speed of less than ten knots in the first few days of going to sea.

And after the pickup sailed into the open sea, the ship's training began.

Zheng Xuechang was responsible for the training of the ship's route and combat formation, while Su Qing was responsible for the training of guns and torpedoes.

When the pickup truck sailed into the Pacific Ocean, Su Qing began live-fire training.

Everything is very fast. If you know Li Guang's plan, you know the danger of this trip.

There are generally two routes from the United States to the overseas trade routes. One is a direct merchant shipping route from the West Coast to the mainland, while the other is from the East Coast of the United States and then goes south around the Panama Canal and then sails to the Honhon.

This time, Li Guang's goal was to rob the freighter that had entered the Pacific Ocean from the Panama Canal. It then tows the freighter across the Pacific Ocean, into the South China Sea, to deliver torpedoes and looted cargo to China, and then continues eastward, detouring through Spain and then crossing the Atlantic back to Uruguay.

It's a round-the-world trip, a round-the-world robbery. The size of this gain will determine Li Guang's next development, and Li Guang is extremely concerned about this, and the battle plan has started since the day the keel was laid on the pickup.

In the early days of China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the United States played a very disgraceful role. The United States not only continued to connive at the aggression and expansion of the United States and provided arms and equipment to the company, but also invested heavily in the munitions industry and helped the company build a modern military industry, the Ford Company of the United States provided the company with modern metallurgical technology, the Rockefeller consortium helped the company build a new electrical industry, and the Mellon consortium helped the aircraft industry to further modernize.

And now, when China's war of resistance against Japanese aggression was at its most intense, Yuben was still buying a large amount of crude oil, machinery and scrap steel from the United States. It can be said that while the United States has made a windfall, it has also occupied the blood of the Chinese.

And Li Guang's trip was to attack Yuben's steel trading fleet. Since the steel center of the United States is Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the northeast of the United States, the Panama Canal route is the only way to import scrap steel.

Before going to sea this time, Li Guang had many discussions with Zheng Xuechang and Su Qing, and the two did not object to the attack on the sea trade freighter. From the perspective of the navy, Zheng Xuechang's unrestricted submarine warfare in World War I is very worth learning. And Su Qing, who had just picked up a surname, was supportive of any means that could hit Yuben.

The only disagreement between the two was what to do with the crew. In the end, Li Guang made the decision, caught Yue himself, and exiled all of them to a desert island. It not only satisfied Zheng Xuechang's kindness, but also satisfied Su Qing's desire for revenge.

Li Guang was both apprehensive and excited about this round-the-world robbery, worried that all the new ships and newcomers were not professional, and he didn't know what would happen to the cargo ship that was said to be in the world.

You must know that freighters in this era generally have self-defense weapons, such as Captain Alfred's Ariane, which has a 37mm deck gun and several Maxim heavy machine guns.

Although Li Guang's ship had four antiaircraft guns and four heavy machine guns and a large number of light weapons, after all, they were all novices, and although there were several army soldiers, after all, there was a big difference between sea operations and land operations. I don't know how it will perform in the real fight, after all, Li Guang's goal is not to sink the freighter but to capture it alive, which undoubtedly increases a lot of difficulty.

Excitingly, the effect of this kind of combat is undoubtedly an excellent surname-to-price ratio. The support for China's anti-Japanese war is undoubtedly huge, and it is said that one less ton of steel is one less war potential.

Of course, what is more expected is that if a 10,000-ton giant ship can be captured, Li Guang's current economic dilemma can be solved immediately after it is sold for money.

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