Professor Yuan's second report, in Li Guang's view, was a bit strange---- the Americans wanted to buy torpedoes from the Naval Resistance Army.

This is simply funny, Li Guang never thought that the torpedoes of the Naval Resistance Army could be sold to the Americans. In Li Guang's concept, throughout World War II, the United States was an allied supplier of weapons and materials, so how could it be possible to buy torpedoes from the outside?

Moreover, Haitang has repeatedly sold submarine batteries to the United States, but it can't get into it at all, and the chaebols see these ways to make money to the death. Torpedoes are even more of a profiteering industry, are the arms dealers in the United States really willing to spit out this piece of fat? I'm afraid Truman can't get a piece of the pie, right?

However, it is a fact. Moreover, this issue was personally raised by US Vice President Harry S. Truman to Premier Yuan Ye.

There are two main reasons for this.

First, the United States had just transitioned to a wartime system, and its torpedo production capacity was seriously insufficient. Before the war, the production of artillery guns and ammunition by the Americans was already quite large-scale, because the British needed it.

However, the naval weapons of the British Empire were advanced, and the proud British did not look down on torpedoes produced in the United States at all. To put it bluntly, the torpedoes that the United States is now installing are still copycats of the British. Since there is no demand, a commercial country like the United States will not produce in large quantities.

The second point is that although the Americans do not produce in large quantities, they should always have basic reserves, right? Li Guang didn't understand this. But when he learned about the dilemma faced by the US submarine force in Asia, he learned the ins and outs.

Immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese attacked the Philippines. On the third day of the war, that is, on December 10, the Americans were still in a panic, and Japanese warplanes bombed the port of Krabi in the Philippines. This is the submarine base of the Americans in Asia, and although the bombing did not blow up the American submarine, all 233 torpedoes in the warehouses of the US Navy in Krabi were blown up at once.

The US Pacific Fleet has sixty-four submarines. Branches are in Hawaii and the Philippines. There are quite a few submarines in the Philippines, a total of thirty. But the unprepared American submarines did not carry torpedoes at all. In peacetime training, U.S. submarines are equipped with training shells that do not carry ammunition. It's not a combat state, and the American GIs who love life naturally don't equip submarines with that kind of dangerous guy. Without torpedoes, American submarines would have had to be blinded.

This was the most miserable time for US submarines, seeing that the Japanese offensive was like a rainbow, and the US troops were being defeated and retreating one after another, both at sea and on land, but it was a pity that such a powerful submarine force could only watch stupidly.

In the Pearl Harbor incident, the Americans were beaten badly enough by the Japanese devils that the miserable US Navy simply had nowhere to vent its anger. It should be said. Neither the government nor the people of the United States are willing to join the war, and the well-to-do young Americans do not want to fight at all. However, the Pearl Harbor incident really aroused the anger of the Americans, and the US submarine force was no exception, and the nimble US submarine officers and men came up with an unruly solution--- bringing in mines. Drop mines on routes frequented by the Japanese army. And then just stay there and wait for the rabbit. It was hoped that the Japanese ships would hit the mines. But this method is too much of a test of character. There is no way to mention the poor effect.

Before the Japanese army began its offensive in Southeast Asia, the Japanese base camp had made a budget for the loss of merchant ships, which they estimated to be 500,000 tons in the first two months of the war. However, in fact, due to the lack of torpedoes in American submarines, the Japanese army only lost less than 100,000 tons of merchant ships in battles with the United States, Britain and the Netherlands, and not as many merchant ships captured by the Japanese army in Southeast Asia. This is in between. The contribution of the US submarine forces was made.

In less than two months after 8 December, the three submarine units not only completed their military operations against the Japanese army, but also sank more than 150,000 tons of Japanese merchant ships.

That's the whole thing. The Americans really need to buy torpedoes from the Naval Resistance Army. However, the torpedo was a real high-tech product in this era, and it was also a weapon that Li Guang believed needed to be kept secret. Once sold to the Americans, there will be no secrets.

The torpedoes of the Naval Resistance Force were born from Mr. Rameau's design, and then combined the technology of British torpedoes, French torpedoes, German torpedoes, and Japanese torpedoes, and by 42 years it had really matured. Li Guang dared to say at this moment that the torpedoes of the Naval Resistance Army were already the most advanced and reliable torpedoes of this era.

Whether it was Li Guang or the technicians of the Naval Resistance Army, or the director of the Torpedo Factory of the Maritime Resistance Army, and the chief engineer of Lei, they all exhausted their efforts and sold them to the Americans so easily, Li Guang was really unwilling.

This is also the reason why Premier Yuan Ye cannot make his own decisions and has to discuss with Li Guang. However, if they are not sold to the United States, it will be detrimental to the confrontation with Japan, and second, the "friendly" relations that have just been established with the Americans will be affected. Third, the Maritime Resistance Force has also lost a channel for generating profits. Fourth, it also does not help Vice President Truman, the main target of American political speculation for the Naval Resistance Forces.

After much deliberation, Li Guang agreed to the Americans' request to purchase torpedoes. However, Li Guang said that the Maritime Resistance Forces did not need money to sell torpedoes, and asked the Americans to exchange B17 and B25 and other advanced fighters for them.

Although the Naval Resistance Force has made a great diplomatic breakthrough, the Naval Resistance Force still does not have access to the most advanced weapons of the United States. For example, the B17 strategic bomber, a large bomber with a bomb load of eight tons, is also a strategic-level weapon in the United States, and the level of secrecy is quite high. Even the most valued ally of the United States at the moment - the United Kingdom. Didn't get a single one either.

Historically, Britain only got a batch of B17 long-range bombers in the second half of 42.

In this way, a few days later, the United States and Tang reached an agreement. The first batch of 200 torpedoes was supplied to the US submarine forces. In return, the United States promised to supply the fighters urgently needed by the Naval Resistance Force, but the first batch was only 12 B17s, which is already the largest amount that the Americans can draw now.

The selling price of a torpedo is staggering, $12,000 for an electric mine and $24,000 for a thermodynamic torpedo. However, the price of the B17 given by the Americans is also terrifying, more than 270,000 US dollars each. Twelve B17s, including spare parts and other expenses, cost four million dollars, which is simply too much for Li Guang to grin.

At this time in the United States, the arms dealers were already making huge profits as a whole, and the prices of all arms were surprisingly high. For example, the DC3 transport aircraft purchased by the Naval Resistance Force in the past, the aircraft factory only made a small so-called change to adapt to military use. The model became the C47, and the price soared from more than $30,000 to $85,000. The World War was simply a feast for American arms dealers. The Maritime Resistance Army had to break a penny into two petals, and under normal circumstances, Li Guang was not willing to buy such an expensive weapon. You must know that such a bomber, two planes can withstand the cost of a small submarine of the Shanghai Resistance Army. It was only when the weapons of profiteering were exchanged for profiteering that Li Guang was willing to buy these strategic weapons.

However, if the Naval Resistance Force can equip these twelve bombers, then the battlefield effect will be extremely terrifying. Twelve bombers can drop nearly 100 tons of bombs at a time, and their power is not at all a grade compared to the C47 transport planes used by the Naval Resistance Army.

The third thing that Premier Yuan reported was that the Haitang Kingdom and the United States had reached a military cooperation agreement, and now Liu Guobang and other pilots of the Naval Resistance Army had begun training with the US military.

If it is said. The first three things are all good, then the fourth thing is a little bad.

That is, the PC of the Maritime Resistance Army, as well as four other merchant ships and two oil tankers, must be escorted. There is no escort. Premier Yuan said that going to sea is an extremely risky thing.

Since December, Japanese submarines have appeared on the west coast of the United States. Historically, the Japanese army rarely launched attacks on American merchant ships. In the minds of the Japanese Navy. The first operational target of the submarine is the opposing warship. Attacks on the opponent's supply lines are not paid at all, and even less it is thought that submarines can weaken the opponent's war potential.

However, due to the attacks on Japanese merchant ships by the Maritime Resistance Force over the past two or three years, the Japanese devils have opened their minds a little and believe that attacking US merchant ships can contain the combat strength of the US Navy. By this time, the use of submarine forces by the Japanese army was an improvement over history, but the progress was limited. They are still stuck in the shallow thinking of containing the US Navy, and they do not really realize that such an attack on merchant ships can weaken the economic potential of the United States, even though in fact the attack on merchant ships is a weakening of the economic potential of the United States.

As a result, the Japanese army did not send many submarines to the west coast of the United States. Only eight.

But eight submarines were also terrible, and the stirring mess on the West Coast of the United States. The US Navy, which has little experience in anti-submarine warfare, is in a state of panic, and it is difficult to maintain even its own merchant ships, so it is even more indifferent to the merchant ships of the Shanghai Resistance Army.

But no matter how many Japanese submarines there were, the naval resistance army could not afford to be injured. Looking at the fleet formed by the Maritime Resistance Army this time, you can see how important this batch of materials is.

PC number, in addition to the fighter plane, the cargo carried is anti-aircraft artillery, gasoline and diesel. All of them are the arms that the Maritime Resistance Army urgently needs.

The four large merchant ships, all of which were high-speed ships that had been traded with the Germans in August last year, could reach speeds of more than 22 knots. Among the large ships of the Maritime Resistance Army, they are the four most elite, and their structure and performance far exceed the free ships manufactured by the Oolong Shipyard, and they are the same class of merchant ships as the PC. These merchant ships are expensive to build, and if they were converted into seaplane carriers, they would not cost much money at all. Even if it is converted into a light aircraft carrier, it will not cost too much.

In addition to some valuable raw materials and explosives, the largest amount of goods transported by these four ships were all production and living materials. An entire shipload of them was equipment purchased by Sumaud to prepare for the refinery.

These production and living materials are indispensable in the national plan of Haitang.

These tens of thousands of tons of materials are not used for the funds of the Maritime Resistance Army, but for government funds and private funds. After two or three years of development, the Tangcheng Development Zone in Uruguay has made a profit of 1 million US dollars from the hard work of tens of thousands of people in four or one years, and all the production and living materials have been purchased at one time.

These supplies are basically sickles, hammers, axes, saws, nails, and wires. There is a wide variety and covers almost every aspect of life. Although these materials are not expensive, they cost nearly $2 million just to procure them, and it took more than a dozen NDRC officials and more than 20 businessmen to organize them in the United States for four or five months.

Premier Yuan has put a lot of effort into it. If this was sunk by a Japanese submarine, not to mention that Premier Yuan couldn't stand it, Li Guang would also be unable to bear it.

There seem to be a lot of anti-submarine ships in the Maritime Resistance Force, but there are not many that can sail in the ocean, and they are more useful. As a last resort, Li Guang still divided three Baxia-class air defense destroyers, which were only equipped with eight and 16 antiaircraft guns, and went to the west coast of the United States to escort the convoy. These two destroyers were French destroyers purchased from the Germans, not to mention anything else, the speed was okay, not to mention that they only had a displacement of more than 1,300 tons, but the seaworthiness was good. Although the anti-aircraft firepower is seriously insufficient, there is no shortage of anti-submarine capabilities, whether it is active or passive sonar, as well as depth charge projectiles. By the way, you can also install the anti-aircraft guns loaded on the PC to the destroyer, which can be regarded as killing two birds with one stone.

At present, there is not much trouble for the warships of the Maritime Resistance Force to enter US waters, as long as they contact through the diplomatic department, the procedures are very simple. (To be continued......)

PS: Thank you for the Northern Tiger book friend.