"Battle alert! The higher authorities have reported that the 'enemy' cruiser formation is coming towards us!"

On the morning of 2 October, the Weiyuan, the flagship of the Pacific Fleet, which had just entered the Arabian Sea, sounded a rapid siren, and the officers and men of the whole ship quickly ended any activities in their hands and ran to their respective battle positions in a fast and orderly manner....... ”

In the dispatch room, a sergeant in charge of communications picked up the phone and pressed the digital button "3", which represents the interrogation room of the main mast, to inquire about the enemy's situation.

"Spot Russian enemy ships and make tactical maneuvers. The target of the enemy ship is 035, the course is 335, the distance is 5500 meters, and the speed is 16 knots. ”

The latest reconnaissance report from the interrogation room came over the phone, describing the position, speed, and course of the enemy ship very accurately.

On the bridge, the sergeant reported the 'enemy situation' to the bridge staff officer, and then the bridge staff officer reported the 'enemy situation' to the fleet commander Lin Jianzhang word for word.

Commander Lin Jianzhang immediately judged that the enemy ship was not good and gave an order.

"Raise the battle flag! Combat speed! Combat readiness of the whole fleet at the first level! ”

With Lin Jianzhang's order, several ship attendants in the dispatch room picked up the phone one after another and issued the highest orders of the fleet headquarters to various departments. The deck sailors of the Weiyuan quickly raised the battle flag, the main gun removed the gun jacket, and with the airlock actuation, the main gun turret made a squeaky metal friction sound in the rotation, and the gun muzzle turned to the combat direction. The officers and men on the gun positions of the auxiliary guns and rapid-fire guns also quickly adjusted the muzzles of the guns to the direction of battle, and all the preparations for the battle were completed within five minutes.

"Report the situation by all departments!"

"All the main guns are ready!"

"All secondary guns are ready!"

"All rapid-fire guns ready!"

...... "The pipe wheel is normal!" ”

"Interrogation is normal!"

…… As the reports of all departments were transmitted back to the general dispatch room, the bridge staff officer finally informed Lin Jianzhang that everything was normal and that he could fight.

All the officers of the headquarters stared at Lin Jianzhang closely, only to see him stretch out his right hand and draw half a circle to the right.

Captain Lin Fan immediately ordered: "The right rudder is full, and the port side is ready for artillery fire!" ”

The flagship Weiyuan quickly turned to the right, and the guns of all classes on the port side were loaded.

"Full rudder right!"

With the completion of the battleship's right-turn maneuver, a favorable "T" prefix horizontal position is formed for the "enemy ship", and at this time, the position parameters of the enemy ship that are constantly corrected from the interrogation room are converted into artillery firing elements under the correction of the main gun commanders at all levels.

"Port side artillery fire ready!"

The bridge staff officer turned to Lin Jianzhang, only to see Lin Jianzhang nodding in agreement, so the bridge staff officer immediately ordered.

"Fire!"

The order was given, and the two single-barreled 240-mm Ghanaian guns in the bow and stern of the Weiyuan and one single-barreled 240-mm gun in the port side lughouse were the first to fire.

Knock knock!

Three 175-kilogram Ghanaian shells burst out of the barrels and whistled in a near-straight trajectory towards the 'enemy ship' 5,000 meters away.

Boom Boom!

Three huge columns of water rose over the sea, up to 100 meters high, and shells exploded near the 'enemy ship'.

Immediately afterwards, four 4.7-inch 45-caliber rapid-fire guns on the port side of the Weiyuan, as well as three 57mm Haqikaisi single-barreled rapid-fire guns, two 47mm Haqikaisi rapid-fire guns, and five Haqikaisi 25mm machine guns opened fire in mourning, and shells rained down on the 'enemy ship'. In an instant, huge waves suddenly stirred up on the sea near the 'enemy ship', and the sea water instantly boiled.

At the same time, other ships of the Pacific Fleet also launched fire strikes against their respective 'enemy ships'. Suddenly, the cannon roared on the sea, the smoke of gunpowder was filled, countless huge water columns rose into the sky, and the waves shot into the air, flashing dazzling rainbows under the refraction of the sun.

"Correct the elements, correct the directions."

…… Soon, the observers in the interrogation room analyzed the impact points of the first round of shelling, and corrected the position of the enemy ship and the parameters of their own artillery fire.

Knock knock!

Twenty minutes later, the Weiyuan fired a salvo of fire on the 'enemy ship' for the sixth time, and this time the impact point hit the 'enemy ship' more.

"Report, enemy ship sunk!"

"Alarm cleared!"

…… Obviously, this is not a real battle, but a routine exercise.

On the bridge, Lin Jianzhang listened to the battle reports from various departments. During this exercise, the combat response time of all ships of the fleet was again shortened, and the alarm entered combat state in less than three minutes. The officers and men of all ships have greatly improved their ability to coordinate operations, and their dispatch is in an orderly manner. The most important thing is that the rate of fire and the accuracy of the guns of the ships have increased significantly, and the theoretical time to sink the enemy ship has also been reduced from two hours when it left Britain to about 20 minutes now.

Looking at this gratifying result, Lyons congratulated Lin Jianzhang and said: "Congratulations Commander Lin, according to the current training progress, when you return to China, the combat effectiveness of the fleet will reach the level of eighty percent of the British Navy." ”

Being able to reach the eighty percent level of the combat effectiveness of the world's most elite British Navy looks like how proud and proud it is, however, Lin Jianzhang didn't show much of a smile, he just smiled faintly.

This kind of result can actually be achieved because there are a large number of British naval advisers on each ship, as well as a large number of excellent British sailors and gunners, and they are already very good, and it is normal to do this to this extent.

"If this is full of our own navy soldiers, if they can reach eighty percent of your Royal Navy's combat effectiveness, then I will be even happier."

Lyons said with a smile: "With the current quasi-alliance between our British Empire and your country, and under the training of our excellent instructors, I believe that your navy will have such a day!" ”

"I hope what you say comes true!"

Lin Jianzhang smiled slightly, he knew very well in his heart that now the Qing and Britain were in a honeymoon period because of the joint situation of dealing with Russia, but as his boss Wang Chenhao told him before leaving Britain, when the Qing Dynasty and Russia fought each other, when Russia withdrew from the Far East hegemony, the Qing Empire was the number one enemy of Britain at that time, and what replaced the honeymoon period was the contradiction of national interests, and even war.

Taking advantage of the honeymoon period between the Qing and the British, we should seize the time to import advanced technology and personnel from Britain, absorb and learn from the advanced tactics and operational experience of the British Navy, and build a Chinese navy that does not depend on Britain and can be comparable to the British Royal Navy as soon as possible. This is Wang Chenhao's political lesson to Lin Jianzhang, and it is also a heavy burden that Lin Jianzhang will have to bear for a period of time in the future.

After the Pacific Fleet set sail from the British military port of Portsmouth, it traveled all the way, and the Pacific Fleet came to military exercises every once in a while. Training times are varied, sometimes sunny days, sometimes dark nights, and the training environment is diverse, sometimes in calm conditions, sometimes in windy weather.

Although only more than 1,000 naval officers and men on the fleet are their own people, and the rest are hired by the British, it is undeniable that through military exercises in various environments, the more than 1,000 naval officers and men of our own side have learned a great deal of knowledge and experience from the British that cannot be learned in textbooks, and these experiences are very valuable, and in the future, these more than 1,000 officers and men will be used as naval seeds to train more naval military personnel for the Chinese Navy.

××××××××××××××××××××××××× Wang Chenhao has been in the United States for two months, and during these two months, Wang Chenhao has planned a series of money collection operations here, piling up his Bank of America vault with gold bars, bonds and banknotes.

Under Goden's matchmaking, Wang Chenhao had several meetings with the American [***] fire magnate Pete Zehringen, and the two held a series of negotiations on the stock issue of Carnegie Steel and reached a series of cooperation agreements.

Before this, Wang Chenhao ordered Tang Shaoyi to investigate Pete's background.

Pete was a fifty-nine-year-old man, but he had a beautiful wife who had just turned thirty. Pete's three daughters were all born to his late wife, and because of the feud between the daughter and the stepmother, the first two daughters were quickly married, and now the third daughter, Rothschild, is left behind, and she will also face a political marriage between wealthy families.

Pitt owns two large arsenals in the United States, one in New York and one in the Navy Arsenal in Philadelphia. The New York Arsenal began during the Civil War and became one of the large arsenals for the supply of weapons and equipment to the US Army. The Philadelphia Naval Arsenal was established by the Zehringen family to develop naval equipment manufacturing after the end of the American Civil War and the lack of procurement of army equipment.

However, because the United States has not had a war for a long time, the business of the arsenal is not good. For these reasons, Pitt was ready to get involved in the hottest steel industry, and Carnegie was planning to sell $800 million for his $2 billion share in Carnegie Steel, which gave Pitt an opportunity.

The Thuringen family used their in-law relationship to unite the First Citigroup and the Cleveland Consortium, and was ready to buy Carnegie shares, but at the moment First Citigroup and Cleveland are small conglomerates, and it is the limit for them to be able to come up with $100 million, because their companies still have to operate, and it is difficult to maintain themselves by buying Carnegie shares.

Even if the Tzeringen consortium sells off its two arsenals, it will only be able to raise $200 million, which, together with the $200 million provided by the First Citigroup and Cleveland consortiums, is only enough to buy half of the shares. And Pete's rival Morgan is also interested in buying Carnegie's shares and is currently actively raising funds. The Morgan consortium has the support of the Rothsjend family behind it, and it won't be long before Morgan can get $800 million in funds, so Pete wants to get ahead of Morgan out of family interests and personal grudges.

In the United States, Morgan's power is huge, and not many banks are willing to help Pitt fight Morgan. But this is no longer the case, and a well-funded American bank has suddenly appeared in New York, and it is the only one that does not operate at Morgan's will. This gave Pete hope that he would be able to get help from the Bank of America, and marriage was the main means of union between the consortiums.

Although Pete knew that Wang Chenhao already had a wife, at the instigation of Mrs. Pete, Pete still chose to marry his youngest daughter Rothie to Wang Chenhao. Wang Chenhao said that he could cooperate even without marriage, but Pitt was worried that if Wang Chenhao sold his shares to someone else halfway, Pitt would lose his right to speak on the board. Therefore, Pete insisted on marriage, and only after the marriage did he feel at ease.

Luo Xier's surname is gentle, she has a beautiful surname, and she is from a noble chaebol, Wang Chenhao can't find a reason to refuse her. The key is Rothier's own opinion, Rothier is not disgusted with Wang Chenhao, and is even full of curiosity about Wang Chenhao, so he has no objection to marrying Wang Chenhao as a child.

Wang Chenhao still has a lot of things to deal with in China, so the sooner the three major families of Zeelingen, Citigroup, and Cleveland jointly acquired Carnegie shares are resolved, the better.

So, Wang Chenhao nodded in agreement, and on August 6, 1896, in the presence of the three major families, he held an engagement ceremony with Rothschild. As for when to get married, Wang Chenhao needs to seek the advice of his wife Li Youyi. Of course, for Wang Chenhao, if Li Youyi agrees, then he will enjoy the blessings of Qi people. Even if he didn't agree, Wang Chenhao didn't think it was a big deal, having a beautiful woman was actually enough, and having one more was just satisfying vanity.

Since among the witnesses were U.S. President Cleveland and Consul General Tang Shaoyi in the United States, these two had enough weight as engagement witnesses, so Wang Chenhao and the three major families finalized the contract for the joint acquisition of Carnegie Steel Corporation on the same day.

Wang Chenhao wants the world's top technical team of Carnegie Steel, as long as he has this technical team, his Zhili Iron and Steel Company can have the ability of a world-class steel company in a short period of time, which will directly break the monopoly of the foreign powers on China's steel and enter the international market.

Since Wang Chenhao did not have any other harsh requirements for Carnegie Steel except for the technical team, the four parties did not have much disagreement on cooperation, and the cooperation was completed in a very pleasant atmosphere.

(To be continued)