Shanghai Wusong Wharf, a seaside wharf, not far from a teahouse.

"Sa Lao, please." A middle-aged man dressed in Tang costume raised a glass to greet an old man who was nearly sixty years old but in good spirits.

The old man's waist was straight, although his beard was gray, but the soldier's breath was extremely strong, he sniffed the hot air rising from the teacup, and said with a smile: "Good tea, it's really fragrant." It's a pity that my old man is a soldier, and drinking tea is like a cow chewing peonies, and any tea is the same. ”

The middle-aged man said with a smile: "Sa Lao is really a military man, no wonder the commander-in-chief has repeatedly asked Yang to persuade Sa Lao to join the navy." ”

The old man's eyes were in a trance, and he sighed: "This matter will never be mentioned again." I should have died at that time, but I haven't been able to let go, and I hope to rebuild the Chinese Navy and the Beiyang Fleet. You know? Why did I resign in Xinhai year? For my heart is dead, and I have no hope left. ”

The middle-aged man said with a smile: "If Sa Lao's heart is really dead, he will not deliberately come to Shanghai because of the three light sea-class light cruisers 'Poyang', 'Dongting', and 'Chaohu' for sea trials in Shanghai." What does Sa Lao think of these three warships? ”

Sa Zhenbing sighed and said, "General." The firepower is weaker, and the armament is single. However, it is already commendable that the commander-in-chief can concentrate manpower and material resources to build such a warship. Yang Yongtai, you go back and tell the commander-in-chief that you don't have to waste time on my old man. It was too expensive to charter the entire teahouse, so I took a boat back to Fujian in the afternoon. ”

Yang Yongtai smiled: "Don't be anxious. The commander-in-chief just ordered a group of new warships to conduct sea trials, and they are going to the Sanduao base, and you can take the warships to the south. ”

"New warship?" Sa Zhenbing was taken aback, and couldn't help asking, "What warship?" Is there still a light sea-class cruiser? How many ships have you built? ”

Yang Yongtai smiled: "It's not a light sea level, it's bigger than him." ”

Sa Zhenbing was a little excited, and asked, "Bigger than the Light Sea Grade?" The light sea class is already 5,000 tons, is it possible that the new warship has more than 6,000 tons? ”

"It's bigger." Yang Yongtai replied as if the cloud was light and the wind was light.

Sa Zhenbing became excited, clenched his fists and said, "Is it seven or eight thousand tons?" How did you build such a huge ship? It's amazing, it's great. ”

Yang Yongtai smiled and said: "Sa Lao, don't guess, you'll know when you see it." According to your guess, you don't have to guess many times. ”

"Guess how many times?" Sa Zhenbing lost his mind for a while, and suddenly stood up suddenly, his hair was all open, his face was red, and he said with some trembling: "Could it be 、、、 is it a 10,000-ton giant ship!" Spit out these words, the old eyes stared at Yang Yongtai with a hopeful light, and the expressions on his face were varied, including joy, expectation, and fear of guessing wrong.

Yang Yongtai took a sip of tea, shook his head, pointed to the sky with his hand, and did not speak.

"It's not!" Sa Zhenbing instantly looked like a deflated ball, as if the spirit of his whole body had been drained away, and he turned into a depressed old man, and said with a self-deprecating wry smile: "I should know, Weihaiwei is ruined, Mawei shipyard is rotten, where can China build a 10,000-ton giant ship." ”

Yang Yongtai saw that he would be mistaken, and hurriedly said: "Sa Lao, you guessed wrong this time." Don't you see my hand pointing upwards? You should guess a little further. ”

"Guess up, hehe, huh?" Sa Zhenbing's eyes suddenly widened angrily, glared at Yang Yongtai fiercely, and said word by word, "You mean to guess up?" ”

Yang Yongtai nodded affirmatively.

"Bigger than 10,000 tons?" Sa Zhenbing lost his mind for a while, then jumped up and shouted, "Could it be, it's a battleship!" Is it? Is it a battleship? For a moment, he only felt that the blood in his whole body was burning, and the whole person was almost exploding, and he couldn't describe the feeling in his heart.

"12,000-ton Jiangsu-class pocket battleships, a total of three!" Yang Yongtai is categorical.

"Battleship! Really battleships!! Sa Zhenbing burst into tears for a moment, crying like a child. How many years of thinking about it, how many years of anticipation, and disappointment again and again, he can only feel the power and strength of the giant ship in his dreams, but every time he wakes up from his dream, he becomes infinitely melancholy, but today he is actually going to make his dream come true?

Yang Yongtai was taken aback, and hurriedly comforted: "Sa Lao, Sa Lao, don't be like this." Three were built, not battleships, pocket battleships. ”

Sa Zhenbing suddenly said angrily: "Pocket battleships are also battleships!" Men are human beings, but aren't women human beings? ”

Yang Yongtai was so frightened by his roar that he took a few steps back, feeling that Sa Zhenbing was like an angry hero, which made him frightened. At this moment, he had a feeling in his heart that he had met a soldier, of course, he was confused, and he couldn't understand these things in the navy, whether a pocket battleship was considered a battleship?

Fortunately, Sa Zhenbing quickly realized that he had lost his temper and made amends again and again. Yang Yongtai is very helpless, this is the person the commander-in-chief wants, and he is not good at losing his temper with an old man who is over the age of 65, right? I can only say that it is fine. He started lobbying again, but the old man couldn't listen to it at all, and he fidgeted and looked at the sea at Wusongkou, and asked vigorously, "When will it arrive, why hasn't it arrived yet?" and so on, which also made him understand that he was playing the piano to a cow.

Yang Yongtai drank pot after pot of tea, and Sa Zhenbing gradually became more and more irritable.

Finally, there was a loud cheer in the distance, and Sa Zhenbing swooped out of the window like a rabbit and looked towards the mouth of the Yangtze River.

Three huge warships loomed and were heading towards Wusong Wharf.

Sa Zhenbing's face changed, and he grabbed Yang Yongtai and said, "Didn't you say three?" Why are the other two so small? ”

Yang Yongtai smiled bitterly: "Sa Lao, I built three ships, but only one has been completed now, and the other two are Nanjing-class armored heavy cruisers 'Nanjing' and 'Shanghai', which are 8,000 tons." ”

Sa Zhenbing also returned to his senses, with China's industrial capacity, it is already incense to be able to build so many battleships at once, it is really difficult to build three battleships at the same time, and he is not unaware of the advanced degree of battleships, it is simply a combination of a country's cutting-edge science and technology, and it is said that it has been built with the strength of the whole country for many years. After coming back to his senses, he laughed and said, "Hehe, the 8,000-ton class is also a giant ship, not bad, not bad." ”

Yang Yongtai had no choice but to smile and say, "Yes." At most, a pocket battleship 'Fujian' and a heavy cruiser 'Fuzhou' will be completed. ”

"Really!" Sa Zhenbing's eyes widened and he held Yang Yongtai's hand tightly.

"My hand" Yang Yongtai screamed, only to feel as if his hands had been clamped by iron tongs, and his bones were about to break, and he wailed on the spot.

But no one paid attention to Yang Yongtai's expression, and everyone at the dock saw the giant ship with the five-color flag, and they all boiled in an instant, and they burst into cheers. It was a huge steel beast, an unprecedented and terrifying war machine built in human history, but all the Chinese felt that it was so kind and beautiful at this moment.

Foreigners in the area of the dock were dumbfounded, although this battleship looked a little weird, but people from Europe and the United States who went to sea often saw the battleship, and they could recognize it as a real battleship at a glance, but it seemed to be a little smaller, and the main gun was also a little smaller, but even so, it was definitely not comparable to a cruiser.

"Buy Ka, the Chinese can actually build battleships, big news!" A Western reporter was first so shocked by the huge battleship that he couldn't close his mouth for a long time, and then reflexively kept taking pictures with his camera.

"Pretty, so pretty." Sa Zhenbing had long been fascinated by the pocket battleship Jiangsu, and he didn't know how he got on the warship, as if he saw his own heart and liver, he touched every inch of the place, the gun, the cabin, and even every willow, at this moment he forgot everything.

Yang Yongtai smiled bitterly at Li Haijun and said, "General, Sa Lao will be handed over to you." I have to go back to Nanking to report to the commander-in-chief. ”

Li Haijun smiled: "Don't worry. You just say that Sa Lao agreed to join the Navy. Seeing that Yang Yongtai was a little stunned, he said to Sa Zhen Bingnu, "You also saw his appearance, even if you drive him away, he won't leave." ”

Yang Yongtai looked over, just in time to see that Sa Zhenbing was stunned, and a drop of saliva dripped onto the naval gun, and the old man immediately wiped it with his sleeve without hesitation. This situation made him feel pitiful and sad when he saw it, and he could also see how sacred the status of the navy was in his heart, and he sighed and said: "Although Sa Lao said that he would no longer talk about the navy, he was actually still trying to cultivate naval talents for the country. With such a naval veteran who regards the navy as more important than life, I believe that our navy will surely rise again and move towards the deep blue. ”

Li Haijun said lightly: "I have no doubt about this. ”

Yang Yongtai smiled: "Out of politeness, I'd better go over and say goodbye to him." But what he never expected was that he went to say goodbye, which disturbed the old man's appreciation of the warship, and he was driven away by flies, and his attitude was extremely bad, which made him cry and laugh.

A huge whistle sounded, and the warship started slowly.

Sa Zhenbing was also awakened, he found that the warship had started and was slowly leaving the port, the slight vibration seemed to make every cell in his body wake up, full of vitality, at this moment, he seemed to feel that he had returned to his youth.

"Sa Lao, this is our naval commander, Admiral Lee." A lieutenant commander in his early thirties reminded softly.

Sa Zhenbing's spirit was shocked, he felt that this lieutenant colonel was somewhat familiar, and then he saw Li Haijun, who was dressed in a snow-white vice admiral uniform, standing upright on the spot as if he was in the Beiyang Fleet, and said loudly: "Navy veteran, salute the commander!" He suddenly found that he was no longer in the navy, he was old, and he only felt a sadness.

Li Haijun also stood solemnly and said loudly: "Salute to the predecessors and pioneers of the navy!" With the command of "salute", all the officers and soldiers on the warship saluted Sa Zhenbing

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