Li Guang, who stayed in Uruguay, is very busy now, and he doesn't even have time to communicate with Su Zizi.

Several of his industries, the first battery production line, are now upgrading their products, and are ready to raise the surname of the battery to the extreme that can be achieved so far.

The second item, shipbuilding, now there is no difficulty in building the simplest 4,000-ton dry bulk carrier, there are professional workers and technicians, Arthur factory director only needs to do a good job of management, capital and sales Li Guang has entrusted Alfred to deal with. It's not too difficult to reach the production of one a month.

Thirdly, the torpedo industry has now begun trial production of thermodynamic torpedoes from Ramo. Although there are drawings and some technical parameters, the technology of this torpedo Ramo is not successful and needs to be further improved. And this work is extremely important, Li Guang found through the battle of the pickup that if it was against a real warship, the pickup would not have the power to fight back at all. There are many advantages of electric mines, but the range limits its usefulness, and submarines are probably the best use of electric mines. In order for the Pickup to be effective against destroyers, it was necessary to develop thermodynamic torpedoes. The so-called thermodynamic torpedo actually uses kerosene as fuel and an internal combustion engine as the power to drive the propeller and propel the torpedo forward. Now that the workers in the torpedo workshop are making the first thermodynamic torpedo, Li Guang hopes to find defects and improvements in the manufacturing process.

The fourth industry is the guano business group, and now Li Guang has hired several professional managers in Uruguay and has begun to set up a sales company. The sales company in Argentina will also complete the preparation within half a year.

These are just industries, and the pickup truck and the submarine that is being developed are the core of Li Guang. It's always easy to imagine, but it's definitely not easy to do. The task assigned by Li Guang to the four ship designers four months ago had not been completed by the end of February.

For a 4,000-ton cargo ship, these designers can come up with a plan in two or three days, and they can be perfected in construction. But that is with mature technical parameters, specific to submarines, don't look at the ready-made drawings as a reference. But after Li Guang made a few small requests, the difficulty immediately increased.

First of all, Li Guang thought that the most difficult shape design was the most difficult, and after several engineers made great efforts to do the tank experiment, the specific shape parameters were finally determined.

After determining the shape, the structure of the double-layer pressure-resistant shell stumped the engineers. Li Guang can only provide creativity (boasting), but the structural details still need to be designed by these people. It's easy to say, and the pressure hull and the shell are filled with water and air to regulate the submarine's ascent and diving. But when it comes to the actual design, there are too many factors.

Another difficulty lies in the fact that Li Guang demanded that there should be more torpedo tubes, and that there should be more than enough. The S-class submarines of the United States have a total of five torpedo tubes in the front four and one in the rear. Li Guang demanded that six launchers should be installed in the front, preferably eight. This point, after racking their brains, several engineers finally did it. Six of them can be refilled normally, and it will be filled in about half an hour. The other two will take a lot of effort to refill, at least half an hour to load.

Eight torpedo launchers can be installed, and thanks to the streamlined shape, the head of the submarine is different from the traditional pointed style, but a hemispherical shape with a larger area.

After solving these problems, it is the turn of the core problem - motivation. Without the right engine, all assumptions are in vain. The electric motor is good to say, and now the quality level of Germany and the United States, as well as Britain and France in the world, is basically at the same level. There is basically no problem with reliable surnames.

But Li Guang asked for a diesel engine to drive, and this is the big problem. When the diesel engine is normal, of course, there is no problem. But the problem is that it is normal for diesel engines to have problems in these years. If you really wait until the time of the battle, the diesel engine will fall off the chain, which is a fatal thing.

In this matter, Li Guang finally made a decision to still use dual diesel engines, but the two diesel engines are connected by clutches and gearboxes, and they are still single-shaft output. In the future, the diesel engine designed by Li Guang himself will be converted into a diesel engine after it comes out.

In terms of batteries, Li Guang has full confidence, and several engineers are also very satisfied with this. On submarines, batteries are crucial. In this era, the battery of a basic submarine of 1,000 tons has to account for three or four hundred tons, which is really an astonishing number. If Li Guang uses a battery of the same weight, it can provide at least twice the energy, and there is no doubt that Li Guang is at the forefront of the world.

When all the skeletons of the submarine were built, Li Guang's other requirement stumped the engineer and Li Guang himself.

Li Guang was seriously dissatisfied that the S-class submarine could only be 200 feet shallow water, that is, about 60 meters. He didn't know anything else, but the U-boats of the Germans in the movie could dive 150 meters, and even more than 200 meters in extreme cases. Therefore, without hesitation, the diving depth of the submarine was set to 200 meters.

As a result, the thickness of the submarine's pressure-resistant shell was greatly increased, reaching an astonishing thirty millimeters, which was almost usable as armor.

It's not the difficulty, the difficulty is, the pipe. Li Guang did not hesitate to use argon arc welding with high cost and high quality. The pipes are also made of thick-walled seamless steel pipes. But the largest part valve used on the submarine - thousands of valves, including air valves, water valves, and oil valves. This caused great difficulties for Li Guang.

Many of these large-diameter high-pressure valves are not produced by manufacturers at all in this era. When he learned this, Li Guang knew that his request was actually the peak of this era. As a last resort, Li Guang specially sent someone to customize a batch of high-pressure valves in the United States. And the purchase price of these valves made Li Guang grin, and the inconspicuous thing actually cost 80,000 US dollars, and this can only equip two submarines. $80,000 in China can equip an infantry battalion.

The submarine was a first, specially designed ventilation duct that allowed the diesel engine to work underwater to charge the battery pack. Don't look at this idea as unremarkable, but it has a huge effect. This was originally a modification of the German submarine in the late stage of World War II, and Li Guang did not hesitate to take it for himself. With this telescopic air tube, the submarine can start the diesel engine at the working depth of the periscope, which is not only good for concealment, but also for timely charging of the battery pack. And it can also avoid a danger, that is, when the mistake is made, there will be no diesel engine still starting, and the cabin door will be closed, so that all the air in the cabin will be sucked up, and the Chengren will be suffocated. It is definitely not a joke that such a tragic accident occurred in a submarine, and this kind of tragedy has happened to rabbits in later generations. This structure inevitably sucks in seawater, and the engineers cleverly designed a mechanism that uses the exhaust gases of the diesel engine to blow water out of the cabin.

In the following days, Li Guang spent money distressedly, and almost every day he bared his teeth for expensive materials. The screws were inconspicuous enough, and when Li Guang ordered all high-strength bolts to be used, he knew that it would cost tens of thousands of dollars for a submarine to use all of them.

After the final optimization of the design of the submarine, all the parameters were determined. And at this time, it was completely impossible to see the appearance of the American S basic submarine. Not only has the shape changed greatly, but the displacement has been repeatedly increased, and the parameters are as follows:

1,700 tons on the surface and 2,100 tons underwater.

Maximum speed: 25.6 knots above the surface / 16.5 knots underwater

Endurance: 15,000 nautical miles at 12 knots above the surface, 6 knots at 285 nautical miles underwater

Safe depth: 210 meters

Time to the periscope depth (16 meters): 25 seconds

Torpedo tubes: eight 533mm tubes in the front, 20 torpedoes

It is powered by two 2,500 hp diesel engines and two 1,000 kW electric motors.

The battery pack is a 600-ton lead-acid battery.

Submariners: 6 officers, 24 technical troops, 34 sailors.

All the parameters basically met Li Guang's requirements, but there was one most important requirement that went far beyond Li Guang's plan. He was originally going to build this submarine for seven or eight hundred thousand dollars, but now it seems that even if the deck guns save tens of thousands of dollars, the total cost will still exceed one million dollars.

Li Guang began to make a shortage of money again, originally he got 7.8 million US dollars from the last global robbery, and he still had more than 500,000 US dollars after repaying the debt. According to Li Guang's financial plan, it should have been able to make up. But after overspending two or three hundred thousand dollars again, Li Guang began to have a headache.

Anyway, money is a bastard, and we will earn it after spending it. Li Guang laughed at himself and began to build submarines. This submarine was viciously named by Li Guang: "Pixiu".

Pixiu is the ninth prince of the Dragon King, and he is also a fierce and warlike beast. This point is related to the identity of the submarine, but the other meaning is where Li Guang's belly lies, this submarine is too expensive, and Pixiu only eats things that don't pull.

This was 1938, and world prices had not yet risen in an all-round way, so if in 42 years, wouldn't the cost of the project reach more than $2 million? The sale price is probably more than $4 million. (Actually, this is Li Guang's conservative, arms have never been an industry with double profits.) ）

The high cost can only be blamed on Li Guang's high requirements, from the whole to the parts are high standards and strict requirements. And there is a big cost in this, the battery Li Guang is only calculated at cost price. When Li Guang actually sold batteries, he found out that if the batteries of this submarine were sold at a sales price, this alone would occupy 900,000 US dollars.

In general, this submarine has several advantages, the first is the high underwater speed, the highest speed reaches 16.5 knots, this speed is extremely amazing for the submarine, even in the submersible state no freighter can escape its hunt. The second is strong endurance and submersibility. Submarines of this era generally only survived one to two days below the surface, and this submarine is fully capable of guaranteeing that the submarine will be submerged under the surface for four days. These two aspects belong to the luxury configuration in the eyes of the designer, but as a person with a vision of the next few decades, it is not an exaggeration at all, and even a shabby configuration.

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