Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau has a long history, the heritage is still very profound, for China to train the first batch of a total of 143 shipbuilding technicians, of which 32 people studied in France, until the fall of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, a total of 78 warships and warships were built, the main technical engineering personnel and business leaders of the Far East Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, as well as the teachers of the Northeast Shipbuilding College and the two branches are generally from the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau and its subordinate Fuzhou Shipbuilding School.

It's just that for China's future shipbuilding industry, such a foundation is far from enough, and it can't support China's aircraft carrier dream, and China's shipbuilding industry will still have to look at the development of the shipbuilding industry in Northeast China in the next ten or even twenty years.

After receiving Sa Zhenbing, Wei Han and others at the new Longmen Port in Jinzhou, Song Biao continued to inspect the Far East Shipbuilding Industry Corporation in the northeast, and brought Cheng Biguang, Sa Zhenbing, Wei Han, and Chen Zhaoao with him.

After six years of preparation and development, the Jinzhou Shipyard of the Far East Shipbuilding Industry Corporation in the north of Dalian Bay already had eight docks, and the two main dry docks had a 6,000-ton shipbuilding base, and jointly produced 5,000-ton merchant ships by employing a large number of American technicians and operating in a joint venture with the San Francisco Shipyard.

The reason why the hope of China's shipbuilding industry depends on the northeast is precisely because the northeast at this time already has the strength to produce marine steel, boilers and small and medium-sized shipborne guns, and in the two military thousand-ton docks, the Jinzhou Shipyard is already trying to produce patrol ships with a displacement of 600 tons suitable for the Yangtze River route and the coastal route.

Interestingly, Hu Weiqiao, the chief director of Far East Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, also graduated from the second manufacturing class of Mawei Shipbuilding School, and Zheng Qinglian, chief engineer, Wang Qiaonian, and Yang Lianchen, deputy chief engineers, are graduates of the first manufacturing class, all of whom have studied in France for many years.

Private enterprises and state-owned shipyards are obviously different, from management to salaries are different, coupled with the strong support of the Far East consortium and the joint venture cooperation of the San Francisco shipyard in the United States, the Golden State Shipyard started from the earliest dock maintenance business, so far only six years, now has been able to build 6,000 tons of merchant ships, ship steel, boilers are all self-made, quite envied by Wei Han and others, he and Zheng Qinglian are old friends for many years, have worked together to build a number of warships, this meeting is a sigh of emotion.

When it comes to the foundation of the port and shipbuilding industry, the conditions of the Jinzhou Shipyard in the deep-sea area of the northern part of Dalian Bay are much better than those of the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau and Huludao Port, and the conditions here are enough to build 300,000-ton giant ships.

As the largest foreign trade port in Northeast China, the local ship business is numerous, the profits are abundant, the Jinzhou Shipyard invests a lot of capital every year for infrastructure construction and equipment introduction, and still does not lose money, coupled with the support of the consortium, the new dock under construction at this time is 10,000 tons, and the maximum displacement of 13,000 tons of merchant ships and warships can be built.

Therefore, it is more efficient to spend money in private companies.

Accompanied by Hu Weiqiao, the company's chief director, and Zheng Qinglian, the chief engineer, Song Biao visited all kinds of new equipment and production workshops in the factory with great interest, as well as several new docks with the most superior conditions.

In fact, there is an interesting thing here, that is, after Hu Weiqiao served as the factory director, he not only invited Zheng Qinglian, but also invited Wei Han, Chen Zhaoao and others, probably because they were reluctant to give up the official title of the Qing Dynasty and the courtesy of the imperial court, or they really only wanted to build warships, or they had other fat water in the Harbour Administration Bureau, etc., Wei Chen and others refused, except for Zheng Qinglian, who had the most famous reputation and the highest level, so that the consortium did not hesitate to hire them at a great cost, most of the other technicians from the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau were only second-rate level.

Time has passed, Wei Han looked at the deputy chief engineer Wang Qiaonian, Yang Lianchen and others, and felt a little uncomfortable, if he agreed to accept the high-salary salary of the consortium, where would there be any matter of these people.

Isn't he clear about the level of these people?

Although Hu Weiqiao deliberately avoided those foreign experts and technicians hired from outside when introducing the situation, and only visited the shipyard, Wei Han and Chen Zhaoao knew that the Golden State Shipyard mainly relied on American and French engineers.

The internal bulletin board in the shipyard is both Chinese and English, which is enough to show how many engineers and technicians there are in the United States, and Wei Han has seen as many as fifty or sixty people along the way.

In front of the emperor, Wei Han didn't want to expose Hu Weiqiao's tricks, anyway, he was able to hire so many foreign technicians.

After Song Biao visited several of the latest shipyards and marine boiler production workshops, his heart was filled with a real hope, so it is still the efficiency of private enterprises, it has only been six years, and the speed of development has been so fast.

After all, it was his own factory, and he inevitably asked Wei Han with some pride: "Director Wei, what do you think of the current level and conditions of Jinzhou Shipyard?" ”

Wei Han couldn't figure out the emperor's intentions for a while, so he could only reply cautiously: "Back to the emperor, the machinery and equipment of the Jinzhou General Factory are indeed really good, all of them are new equipment introduced in the last few years, and the latest fitter beds introduced by our Shipyard Bureau were purchased in batches ten years ago, and they really can't be compared, and the gap is very big." ”

Song Biao snorted, and asked Cheng Biguang again, "What do you think?" ”

Cheng Biguang exclaimed: "I always thought that the shipbuilding capacity of the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau was the best in China, but I never thought that the conditions and capabilities of the Far East Shipyard were higher, and the cruiser might be able to be built in the past two years. ”

Song Biao was in a happy mood.

Because of his limited energy, he had almost no time to seriously ask about the domestic shipbuilding industry in the past few years, but he had only explained to Rong Xingqiao, Hu Weiqiao and others that he would do everything to do it on a real scale.

He and Rong Xingqiao made the point that the long-term development of China's economy will be determined by the development of the shipbuilding industry and the strength of the navy in the coming decades, and the same is true for the Far Eastern consortium.

At this moment and here, in front of the newly constructed 10,000-ton dock, Song Biao looked at the surrounding supporting inclined slipway, semi-dock slipway, keel pier and the dock roof that is about to be completed, as well as various equipment purchased from Germany and the United States, the special large rivet pile driver can drive 50 mm long steel rivets into the ship's steel and seal and press them on both sides, which is a special equipment completely used in the manufacture of warships.

The plant has been electrified on a large scale, and the 3,500-ton crane purchased from the United States is driven by electric motors, and even the carbon arc welding machine and thermite welding machine that have only begun to be used in the shipbuilding industry in Britain, Russia and Germany in recent years have also appeared in the shipyard.

Song Biao is satisfied in his heart, but he still needs a higher and more ambitious scale and vision.

Everyone gathered around him, looking up at the spacious roof above, looking at the fact that it was too advanced for everyone to wonder if it was in China's new dockyard, and everyone at this moment was full of hope for China's future as Song Biao.

It was not until this moment that Song Biao slowly said to Cheng Biguang, Sa Zhenbing, Wei Han, and Chen Zhaoao beside him: "The reason why I brought you here is to come here to have a look, because this is the hope for the future of the Chinese Navy and shipbuilding industry." Yes, our Chinese navy is still very small and down, and almost all the military ports have been forced to cede to foreign countries, so that they can gain a foothold in our military ports and laugh at us The Chinese nation is a weak and humble nation, laugh at the incompetence of this empire, laugh at us for being corrupt [***], laugh at our ignorance, laugh at us for not being able to build even a cruiser, but all this does not matter, because we can definitely become the most powerful naval power in the world. I believe that I will live a long life, and even if your generation is buried in the dust, only I can remember you, and your heirs will continue to work hard to fulfill our dreams before I am buried in the dust. Even if I leave this empire, my heir will continue to work hard to make the empire more prosperous and brilliant, and make the empire's navy and land army more powerful, this is our dream of recovery, the dream of recovering this nation, and restoring the strength of our Chinese nation in the Tang and Song dynasties and the majesty that led the world, this is our Chinese dream. ”

Listening to such words, everyone around Song Biao felt infinitely excited, and the galloping blood was surging fiercely in his body, as if there were countless enthusiasm and energy to erupt.

Song Biao raised his eyes and calmly glanced at everyone present, and continued: "I invited you here precisely to say such things to you, and I also hope that you can work hard with me for this and encourage you for this. ”

After his words, everyone couldn't wait to applaud warmly and excitedly.

It was at this moment that Cheng Biguang became more aware of how fortunate it was to announce his participation in the Liberation Revolution and serve the new empire and the new emperor, and even Sa Zhenbing, who was still infinitely doubtful about the Manchu Dynasty in his heart, felt ashamed, as well as true longing and hope.

Cheng Biguang immediately led everyone to bow to Emperor Song, and replied with a trembling and loud voice: "Please rest assured that the emperor will throw his head for the great recovery of the Chinese nation, spill his blood, bow to the best, and die for himself, and we will also repay the emperor with death, do our duty for the emperor, and die without regrets." ”

Song Biao nodded slightly, he was very happy that Cheng Biguang could say this.

He didn't want to say such things in order to recruit Cheng Biguang and Sa Zhenbing as henchmen of the imperial party, this is his inner words, but in this semi-feudal empire, which is actually still centralized, only these real important ministers swear allegiance to him, and he can lead these people and China to the great road of national recovery.

As an emperor born in a military force, and such an outstanding military commander, Vice Admiral Cheng Biguang, the former Qing Dynasty naval commander Sa Zhenbing and the Song Emperor still have a lot of common language, and it can even be said that the Song Emperor is the idol of all the [***] people, representing the most powerful image of the [***] people.

Speaking of China's dream of becoming a naval power, Sa Zhenbing couldn't wait to buy battleships, and immediately suggested to Song Biao: "Emperor, if China's navy wants to rise, it should first purchase first-class dreadnought battleships with foreign countries as the main force, and then organize various factories to build cruisers in its own country, and combine external procurement and domestic manufacturing, and within ten years, it will definitely be ranked among the world's naval powers, and the navy will not dare to despise our navy at that time." ”

Song Biao and Cheng Biguang both looked at each other and smiled, and did not rush to explain to Sa Zhenbing, after all, there was a lot of information and decisions that Sa Zhenbing did not know at all at this time.

The conditions of the Jinzhou Shipyard are much better than those on Huludao.

Jinzhou used to be a Zhili Prefecture, but now it is a Zhili County, which is equivalent to a "provincial county" in terms of administrative level, and the level is not high, but it is one of the economic leaders of the three eastern provinces.

This is mainly because Dalian is not within the jurisdiction and control of the three eastern provinces, for tax considerations, the scale of investment and construction of the three eastern provinces to Jinzhou has been very high, so that Jinzhou has replaced Dalian Port in a short period of time and has become an important seaport for the import and export of materials in the three eastern provinces.

Compared with Dalian Port, Jinzhou has more ports, and the conditions are better, whether it is Dayao Bay, Xiaoyao Bay, Dalian Bay North Bay and Middle Bay, and Jinzhou Bay are very good ports, especially Dayao Bay and Dalian Bay North Bay, the two ports are separated from each other in the north and south of the Dongshan Peninsula, and the wharves built along both sides are more than several times that of Dalian, and the annual throughput is also more than Dalian.

Because of this incident, Russia and the three eastern provinces have made many representations.

After the dinner, Song Biao and his entourage continued to gather Cheng Biguang, Sa Zhenbing, Song Wenhui, Wei Han, and others in the conference room of the hotel to discuss the purchase plan of the new naval ship.

After repeated deliberations during this period of time, Song Biao already had a more comprehensive plan for this matter, which meant to bundle 175 industrial plans with the purchase of new ships, and introduce light armored cruisers with broadside armor from abroad, and did not care about the battle cruisers that are currently popular and are considered to change the direction of the development of the world's navies, because the Chinese Navy has no such capital and significance to train battlecruisers.

The introduction of light armored cruisers should have a displacement of 3000 tons and 7500 two classes, the former must purchase design drawings and manufacturing drawings, and require the selling country to send consultants to China to guide production, starting from the construction of 3000 tons of displacement light armored cruisers, and gradually develop to the upper level.

In addition to the purchase of lightly armored cruisers, it was also required to continue the purchase of destroyers with a displacement of 400 tons and 1,000 tons, as well as to continue to produce and improve them locally.

In the design of lightly armored cruisers and destroyers, it is required to have good speed and seaworthiness, it is required to focus on speed and protection, as well as good comprehensive purposes such as submarine reconnaissance, mine-laying, and demining, and it is required to provide steam turbine power and diesel engine power as much as possible, as well as to transfer this technology to domestic production and imitation.

On this basis, roughly 12 lightly armored cruisers will be put into service, the Navy will further consider battleships and battle cruisers, the so-called battle cruisers are the strengthening of light armored cruisers, but the caliber of artillery is further unified, the use of new technology to enhance power, to ensure that there is more space to strengthen protection, on the basis of speed and light armored cruisers, with the same guns and excellent all-round armor protection as battleships.

For the Chinese Navy, Song Biao's thinking was to focus on protection and speed, and only consider firepower at the last limit, so even if it was to purchase battleship cruisers, the main guns needed by the Chinese Navy were relatively smaller, and the basic criterion was to be able to penetrate lightly armored cruisers and other battle cruisers, and did not consider a duel with battleships.

The weight of the main guns on a warship is staggering, with six to eight guns increasing by 10 percent for each additional inch.

During this period, Song Biao had already considered the development and transition to the aircraft carrier era as soon as possible after the end of World War I, through a small number of purchases and self-built battleships as a transition, from 1935 onwards fully engaged in the development of aircraft carriers, responsible for the protection of aircraft carriers of warships are also more focused on armor protection of light cruisers as the main body, a small number of battleships to undertake the deterrent effect of artillery output and close naval warfare.

For Song Biao's idea of focusing on protection and speed, Cheng Biguang, Sa Zhenbing, and Song Wenhui did not object, for the Chinese Navy at this time, it was really a beggar who didn't pick food, and it was very good to have a new ship, no matter how small his main gun was!

(To be continued)