The impetus of the First World War for Chinese industry was enormous, and it was incalculable.

In the past 1917, although the United States formally joined the Entente and intervened in the "Entente Reinsurance Treaty", as well as China's large-scale participation in the war, resulting in a sharp decline in the scale of China's industrial export growth, but after all, China itself did not suffer from the threat of war, the country's gross industrial output jumped to more than 40% of the gross national product, while the European steel production capacity fell sharply, China's steel production capacity doubled compared with 1914. The total annual production of crude steel and steel exceeded 13.5 million tons.

The first Aurora-class dreadnought battleship built in China was officially delivered to the Navy in March 1918, becoming the new flagship of the Imperial Central Navy.

What an epoch-making moment it was.

After returning to China, Song Biao's first thing was to go directly to the Jinzhou Shipyard to participate in the delivery ceremony of the Aurora dreadnought, and without even seeing the battleship, his heart was already filled with infinite pride, because he knew that this was a great beginning, and from now on, China would also continue to build larger battleships and other warships.

This is the real first step towards the rise of the Chinese nation.

In the future, China will further localize until even steam turbines and main guns are all domestically produced.

At a time when the European battlefield was in full swing, the Chinese nation was ushering in the greatest and most prosperous years of rejuvenation in history, which is called the golden twenty years, and from 1914 to 1918 was the golden twenty years of war prosperity, and the entire empire became more vigorous and full of youthful vitality.

Song Biao returned to China on the lightly armored cruiser Haiqi, and did not even return to the capital of the empire first, but went directly to the port of Jinzhou, and in order to welcome his return, the Admiralty delayed the delivery of the Aurora dreadnought for two weeks, as the greatest praise and praise to the emperor.

The harbor was heavily guarded and newly framed, with white welcome tents lining up hundreds of meters long along the harbor, many of whom had already arrived long in advance, some from the United States and the United Kingdom.

The large-scale victory of the Imperial Army in the European theater greatly enhanced the prestige of the Imperial Army in the international community, especially after the Imperial Expeditionary Force easily defeated the Wehrmacht of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the world officially believed that the military strength of the Chinese Empire was really different from what it used to be, far superior to the ordinary powers of Europe, and it could also be said that it was among the world's first-class army powers.

The empire only used 1.1 million land forces to defeat the 1.34 million Allied forces dominated by the Austro-Hungarian Wehrmacht, since the empire declared war on Germany, the empire has sent a total of 1.838 million troops, destroyed more than 2.7 million enemy troops, and suffered 435,000 casualties, and the combat effectiveness is the highest among the four major entente countries in China, Britain, France and Russia, and there are still 1.3 million elite troops in the Europe, Middle East and Africa theaters.

It is precisely because the prestige of the empire in the world has increased rapidly that the world will pay so much attention to the service of China's first self-built dreadnought, before that, although the imperial navy has a fleet of nearly 300,000 displacement tonnage, in fact, it has always relied on cruisers, destroyers and various auxiliary ships to support naval operations, and the re-returned Zhenyuan ironclad ship and the two old armored cruisers purchased from France are the strongest warships of the empire.

The Chinese Empire's status as a world army power is undisputed, but it is also the undisputed world naval weakness, and this situation may be rewritten from the Aurora dreadnought.

For European and American journalists, the expansion of the naval power of the Chinese Empire meant the overall superiority of the Entente and would put an end to this protracted world war.

China is indeed developing too fast.

Especially when the Aurora dreadnought was launched, the elites of the Great Empire seemed to feel the sound of the horn of the Sino-Japanese Naval Battle again.

At this time, at this stage, both at home and abroad already knew that it was His Majesty the Emperor Hua who commanded the Imperial Expeditionary Force on the front line in Europe, and His Majesty the Emperor Hua would also return to China in the next few days to participate in the handover ceremony of the Aurora, so the media at home and abroad would come to report on this matter so intensively, especially the media generally had ulterior motives.

The rapid development of China and the great victories of the Chinese emperor in training and commanding the army in combat have led to a great deal of discussion in the country, the power of the imperial faction has expanded dramatically, and the clamor for the emperor to take charge of the government has become louder and louder.

Under the protection of the cruisers Haitian and Glory, the cruiser Haiqi that Song Biao was riding slowly docked, and in the cheers of the people on the shore, accompanied by the Minister of the Navy Cheng Biguang, Song Biao walked out of the warship, and on the side of the ship, he was wearing the military uniform of the commander-in-chief of the Chinese Imperial Navy and Army.

People need that real sense of security.

The port is gathered with the gentry, celebrities and people of Aurora Mansion, as well as the workers of the shipyard, the officers and soldiers of the navy, as well as the media reporters at home and abroad, Song Biao is standing here as an emperor who has returned triumphantly, at a glance, watching tens of thousands of people and officers and gentry crowded on the dock to warmly welcome him, colorful flags are displayed, gongs and drums are noisy, and even the lion dance team and dragon dance team have more than 10 people.

Song Biao took off his military hat on the side of the ship, took it in his hand and waved it with the people in the port, and the people's joy became more enthusiastic, and many people even cried happily, crying and laughing excitedly.

Song Biao walked down the Banqiao passage under the protection of the Secret Service.

He was not in the habit of shaking hands with people, especially in such chaotic occasions, even if the Secret Service, the Secret Service, the General Investigation Bureau, the National Intelligence Administration, the Central Military Intelligence Department, the Aurora Provincial Patrol Detachment, and the Police Department were all gathered here to be vigilant.

There are many people who worship the emperor, and the forces that want to assassinate the emperor have never stopped, don't think that the Manchus and the remnants of the former dynasty, Zongshe, are really willing to withdraw from the stage, in Yueben, people still have overseas political axes and emperors, and Mr. Sun's followers are not lost in a day or two, and the secret agents are not without secret activities.

It's just that compared with the intelligence agencies of the empire, they all seem to be a bit pediatric, and to put it mildly, who Mr. Sun meets with every day and what he talks about secretly, Song Biao generally knows where those people from Xuantong and Zongshe are hiding, and he also knows where those people from the Xuantong and Zongshe Party are hiding.

It's just too lazy to start.

Under the protection of the Secret Service, Song Biao passed through the port and then went to the shipyard.

The emperor just returned to China today, it is impossible to hold the handover ceremony of the Aurora immediately today, the official ceremony is held tomorrow, in the shipyard, Song Biao first met with Hu Weiqiao, Zheng Qinglian and others and the British Vickers company appointed by the supervision team, after thanking him, Song Biao held a meeting directly in the shipyard conference room, listening to Zheng Qinglian's report on the experience in the construction process of the Aurora, as well as the achievements made by the Jinzhou Shipyard in this process.

Today is definitely a big formation, and all the figures who can reach the Imperial Navy are present, such as Navy Minister Cheng Biguang, First Chief of Staff of the Central Military Department Sa Zhenbing, Central Navy Commander Song Wenhui, and Coast Guard Chief Lin Baoduo are all present, and even Finance Minister Zhang Kangren and General Director of the Science and Technology Administration Cheng Daqi are also present.

Song Biao sat on the chair of the long conference table, and listened to Zheng Qinglian's report very carefully, such a report is definitely not the Central Propaganda Body, but has the charm of the Eight Strands, but Zheng Qinglian is telling the truth.

This Aurora dreadnought can be said to be the first dreadnought built by China, but it cannot be said to be the first built by the Chinese themselves, because the dockyard supervisor, project director, director, mechanical director and other important positions are all undertaken by the British consultant team sent by Vickers, and the Chinese can only say that they spent money to ask Vickers to build a dreadnought in China, and the total allocation for the entire warship is 24.3 million yuan, which is about 36% higher than the cost of the dreadnought, except for the steam turbines, boilers, main guns, and other important positions purchased from the United Kingdom. In addition to the high cost of the propellers, the cost of consulting and design to Vickers alone amounted to £240,000.

Therefore, Zheng Qinglian proposed that the Admiralty continue to provide appropriations, continue to invite Vickers as a consultant, and the Jinzhou Shipyard will continue to build two dreadnoughts of the same class within three years, and gradually complete all the construction work by the Jinzhou Shipyard itself, and arrange for Fuzhou Shipyard, Jiangnan Shipyard, Jinzhou Shipyard, Tangshan Shipyard, Guangzhou Shipyard, Zhenjiang Shipyard and other shipbuilding companies involved in warship manufacturing to observe and practice at the same time.

In the four aspects of steam turbines, boilers, main guns, and propellers, the Admiralty and the Ship Technology Bureau of the General Administration of Science and Technology should organize a unified effort to tackle key problems, complete this historical breakthrough in the heavy industry bases of the three eastern provinces, and strive to achieve localization on the third Aurora-class dreadnought.

If you really want to agree to Zheng Qinglian's proposal, the Admiralty will pay an additional 35 million yuan a year, which is almost equivalent to 1/3 of the Navy's annual military expenditure.

This was still a time of war, and once the war was over, it was really unknown how much the Imperial Navy would be able to maintain military spending.

Before the Aurora, it was a question whether China's shipbuilding industry could build battleships, and the navy had some doubts about this dreadnought until now, and it was a bit risky to continue to build new ships now.

Song Biao groaned for a while, and asked Cheng Biguang, Sa Zhenbing and others, "What do you think?" ”

Cheng Biguang didn't dare to make his own decisions, and said: "This matter is very important, and the emperor should be asked to make a holy judgment, and his subordinates think that it is reasonable to continue to build another one at this stage, and then we should look at the situation." ”

Sa Zhenbing also said: "It's better to build another one first." ”

Zheng Qinglian hurriedly explained: "Now that the equipment has been updated and the technology has been learned, the difference is experience, where will the experience come from if you don't continue to practice?" The span of Jinzhou Shipyard is a little larger, but because of this large span, it is more necessary to strengthen the training of striking iron and heat to stabilize the current results. ”

Song Biao pondered for a moment.

Now it is not that we cannot support the continuation of domestic ship building, it is true that there is a larger-scale war waiting for China in the future, and military spending is limited.

Last year, the empire's military spending suddenly increased to 25 percent of the total expenditure of the central government, which is much lower than the proportion of more than 40 percent in Britain, France, Germany, Austria, and other countries, but after all, China is a high-speed economic environment, and the foundation is weak, and a large amount of expenditure is still needed to maintain further development in education, railways, waterways, and water conservancy, and last year's big increase in military spending still has an impact on the development of the domestic economy.

After thinking about it, Song Biao said: "Iron striking is indeed to take advantage of the heat, first continue to build another one in the shipyard to increase the accumulation of experience, after the two are put into service, according to the situation of these two dreadnoughts, if there is anything to modify the design, then it must be appropriately improved, and the military department will continue to support the shipyard to build two more ships, a total of four dreadnoughts into service." Although in this way, military spending will be a headache for us, but don't worry too much, I will figure out the next two ships, instead of blindly drawing the poor military spending of the navy. ”

Hearing this, everyone couldn't help but cheer.

Four dreadnoughts.

This is the age of dreadnoughts.

Since the British built this damn thing, not only did not prevent the arrival of the war, but greatly made the war break out years earlier, in South America and Asia, even a dreadnought will make the opponent shudder, in the Atlantic battlefield, a formation of a dreadnought and two battle cruisers can be enough to keep the whole of Britain awake at night, they are like the indestructible Grim Reaper cruising in the vast ocean, frantically tearing up all ships and warships, they are the end of the ocean supply, For any country that is overly dependent on the sea, it is like a shadow of the end of the day.

Many years later, with the exception of nuclear weapons and nuclear-powered giant aircraft carriers, there is no weapon more formidable than the dreadnought, and not even nuclear weapons can have the tactical and strategic suppressive power of the dreadnought, which can easily suppress everything in a country by cruising around the country.

China has become involved in the Middle East, and in order to firmly occupy its interests there and maintain the development of its empire, China needs more dreadnoughts, not just one, but two.

However, for such a ship-building plan, Song Biao still told everyone to only announce the plan to continue to build one for the time being, and it is okay to build it slowly, but it must be localized as much as possible.

He had a hunch that the British Empire's frontal suppression of the Chinese Empire would begin immediately after the war.

After this meeting, Song Biao officially visited the Aurora dreadnought that led the empire, this type of dreadnought is actually a pocket-sized and improved design of the Queen Elizabeth-class battleship, considering the characteristics of the wind and waves in the Pacific Ocean, Vickers Company adopted a different design from the Queen Elizabeth-class battleship, which has a shear bow that floats outward, while the bow of the Queen Elizabeth-class battleship is vertical and non-floating.

This is also a general judgment of the Imperial Navy, the Xuanzhou light armored cruiser with a displacement of 6,500 tons built by the Empire itself for the first time to adopt the design of the flying shear bow, compared with the cruisers of the same class, both wind and wave resistance and the surname of the seakeeping have been greatly improved, so that when inviting Vickers to design the Aurora-class dreadnought, Vickers was also asked to consider the design of the flying shear bow.

Due to the lack of experience in building battleships and the lack of relevant equipment and capabilities, in addition to the time spent on importing equipment from Britain and the United States and expanding the dockyard, the Aurora took two years to complete, and in addition to Vickers as all the consultants and shipbuilding supervisors, the Far East Consortium hired more than 40 shipbuilding chief engineers and engineers from a number of warship shipyards in the United States through the San Francisco Shipbuilding Company, which is controlled by the Far East Consortium.

It was in this difficult tempering process, in the process that Song Biao felt a little skeptical, that the Golden State Shipyard still built the ship completely with the support of the consortium and the entire empire.

On the day of the handover, the warship was painted pure white, the sides and chimneys were made of vermilion, 172 meters long, 25.5 meters wide, and 8.3 meters draft, Vickers originally expected to install 10 305mm 50 times the diameter of the main gun, but in order to save money and leave enough space for later modernization, the Aurora-class battleship was only equipped with 8 305mm 50 times the diameter of the main gun.

Because there are only eight main guns, the design adopts a balanced arrangement of four in the front and four in the back, which is a disadvantage that the front firepower is not strong, but for the Imperial Navy, which does not even have a battleship at all, this is not a disadvantage at all.

Huge battleships are moored in the harbor, people are celebrating here, reporters are still taking pictures, and the steel monster is here to convey not only a great deterrent effect, but also the patriotism of the whole nation and the spirit of restoring prosperity and strength.

Accompanied by Zheng Qinglian and Cheng Biguang, Song Biao boarded the warship to visit every detail of this dreadnought, he couldn't believe that this was a dreadnought built by the Chinese themselves in 1918, at least he couldn't see any flaws, industrial technology has become sophisticated, all kinds of technologies introduced from Britain, Germany, France and the United States are skillfully applied to this warship, in the use of marine steel, they chose the special steel developed by the American Bethlehem Steel Company, and used cold oil mist spray cold forging surface hardening technology, This is the method of the German company Krupp, which is not quite the same as the British, but it can also make the surface of the steel plate harder.

The whole warship is filled with the hard lines of real steel, the beauty is so beautiful that it is almost impossible to breathe, standing here, facing the cold sea breeze, all Song Biao can feel is the gaze of this nation looking forward to the future, perseverance and patience, fearlessness, enthusiasm and perseverance, and nothing to fear.

This is our Chinese battleship.

Standing on the vast deck, standing on the breathtaking and magnificent "12-inch" main gun, he sighed and was excited in his heart, as if the mission of his whole life had been praised and proven in this moment, and had been sublimated like never before.

O Imperial Navy, set sail, and start flying from this moment!

Fly, gallop over the vast sea.

In the Pacific, in the Indian Ocean, and in the Atlantic, let's show a new era of the Chinese Empire's cannon and giant ship doctrine.

(To be continued)