In the newly built military port in the northwest sea of Manchester City, Australia, two Western sailing ships that have been renovated have undergone preliminary sea trials and tests, and everything is in a stable state, and it has been officially delivered to the naval department by the shipyard.

The two new warships, with a full load displacement of about 600 tons, have been painted and numbered, according to the warships formulated by the naval department of the Australian Ministry of Defence, and named after the dynasties that have appeared in China in history.

So as the first generation of warships, they were named the Xia class, and a super era product like the Sea Blue was directly designated as a republican-class battleship.

The naval soldiers who have undergone intensive training have also mastered the operation of the two warships, and with the national defense authorization, they are about to set foot on the land of the East.

There are also two different voices in the domestic parliament for the Ming Dynasty to lease Hong Kong troops against Australia, one is to use tough means to let the Ming court see the strength of Australia, and the other is to circle with it by relatively soft means, and wait until two years later the Nanming government is established, and it is using sharp means.

The former's proposal is just a thunder and a little rain, even the military people do not agree with this kind of tough means, if you really choose to start a war with the Ming Dynasty, it will not be an immeasurable war, maybe Chongzhen's megalomania may transfer the forces to deal with the peasant army and the Houjin into Guangdong.

The two battleships of the Xia class were named Shunfeng and Sortie respectively, and the origin of the name was also elected by many votes, and the name was indeed a bit pitfall, but this did not hinder its performance.

The latest 60-horsepower steam engine was capable of reaching speeds of up to 18 knots at full speed downwind, and the large-caliber cannon was equipped with a maximum of more than 25 pounds and a range of about 2,500.

Although the number of guns equipped with the whole battleship is not large, the firepower will never be low. In addition, steel armor protection has been added to each key area of the ship, and to a certain extent, these two warships are semi-blacksmith ships.

In the military port, two white-painted ships stood upright on the edge of the pier like two guards, while not far from it stood a group of soldiers and officers in white naval combat uniforms, talking, and pointing at the ships from time to time.

"General Wang, your naval department is still satisfied with the modification of these two warships, this has taken me a lot of thought, and many new technologies have been used this time, such as the weight and volume of the steam engine are relatively reduced and reduced compared with before, and we have also set up a simple water treatment and filtration device inside the cabin, which can well filter the water stored for a long time before use."

You Nanzhe handed a report to Wang Tiezhu while introducing, the cost of the renovation of these two warships has been written on it, as long as you are sure that there is no problem, we can pay if you sign it.

"100,000 RMB, I'm not mistaken," Wang Tiezhu looked directly at the total column of the quotation and saw the final number, and he was very lucky not to be taken aback.

Looking at You Nanzhe beside him, he looked at it with a smile, yes, this price is not high at all, considering that the task of the naval department is to build for national defense, so we also put a discount, 20,000 yuan cheaper, if you don't believe it, you can ask the Ministry of Foreign Trade, I will give them the amount of the same ship to transform is definitely higher than this.

"The price is too high, can't it be cheaper?" Wang Tiehammer took the report and asked tentatively: "The navy can't be compared with the Ministry of Foreign Trade!" "That is the department that has the right to allocate import and export goods in Australia, although half of it has been ceded now, but after all, the foundation is still there.

When he thought of the Ministry of Foreign Trade's right to allocate goods for Australia's import and export, Wang Tiezhu couldn't help but think of why other departments were so jealous, and almost no second department in Australia dared to do so if they could spend money like the Ministry of Foreign Trade.

"Lao Wang, I also know your difficulties, but you also have to understand our difficulties, the ship research institute is a place to burn money, don't look at the transformation of a ship for you to cost 100,000 yuan, we have invested a huge amount of research funds in the early stage, such as this steam engine, there are no less than 100 experiments back and forth, and the steel plate is almost useless."

You Nanzhe changed his name and told Wang Tiezhu about his difficulties, but almost no one would believe it if he said this, there are only a few people in that place in the Ship Research Institute, and there are less than ten people in your old tour, what kind of money can be invested, and what is the salary in the shipyard with you, will everyone be unclear?

To put it bluntly, this is just a bitter strategy of You Nanzhe, I don't want to reduce the price, it seems necessary to propose to the government department that a slap in the face must be issued on the monopoly industry, otherwise there is no country in the eyes of these damn capitalists. Wang Tiezhu had already nodded silently in his heart, and after this matter was discussed, it was like a proposal from the Ministry of Defense.

"Ming people don't say dark words, Lao You, you just say the minimum amount of money."

"Ninety-five thousand, that's the lowest price. Lao Wang, in fact, this transformation ship is really expensive, don't be unhappy, this is really much more expensive than directly building one, let me make an analogy, if we directly build a steam ship locally, we can win at most 200,000, and the transformation plus various costs will be at least 20,000 to 50,000 yuan. ”

Hearing this, Wang Tiehammer's eyes suddenly lit up, which means that your shipyard has the ability to build.

"Hehe, almost, basically no problem, we have basically eaten some technology through the transformation of the ship, if you place an order, as the first customer to support local manufacturing, we will give you a 20% discount, and it will cost 180,000 to build a ship with the same displacement as the Shunfeng."

You Nanzhe saw that Wang Tie Hammer was interested, so he simply started to sell, in fact, secretly he also had this intention to increase the cost of renovating the ship.

"180,000, you can take down a ship of the same level, Lao You, you're not kidding, I doubt that you deliberately raised the cost of renovation to promote your own ship." Wang Tiezhu is not a fool, as soon as he heard the coincidence, he immediately questioned him face to face.

"It's really not, don't think about it, rebuilding a ship requires dismantling a lot of places and reloading it back on, in fact, there is no difference between the price of building one, we used to lack the technology in this area so we bought it, and now that we have eaten it thoroughly, as a national defense military department, should we support local manufacturing."

"Support local manufacturing, of course, but if the cost of the renovation of your two ships can be reduced, I can apply to the Ministry of Defense." Wang Tiehammer said meaningfully.

"It's easy to say, it's easy to say," You Nanzhe smiled, compared to being able to sell the shipyard's new ships, the reduction in the renovation cost is nothing.