The sky was drizzling and Charles Street was empty, but at the end of the street, Whitehall Road was as usual with cars and pedestrians, a street in London, England. Whitehall Street, where it is located, is the heart of British politics, with military buildings on both sides of Whitehall and the Royal Admiralty, which commands the world's largest fleet.

No one can ignore the British, and it is the Royal Navy that makes the British so confident that it is the heart of the world's most powerful fleet.

In the conference room on the third floor of the Admiralty, negotiations were underway between an admiral officer in a British Royal Navy uniform on one side and a Chinese in a black or navy blue Chinese costume on the other, including an Asian officer in a British naval uniform.

"Alright then!"

After Rear Admiral Delena finished speaking, Zhang Hao said in a slow tone.

"Now I think we just need to agree on one thing: Agile and Triumph, how much you're going to sell them for. ”

After two days of negotiations, it went very smoothly, and with the recommendation of General Fisher and the tacit approval of Downing Street, the Admiralty officials finally agreed to regard Nanking as a "saleable object." Although Britain did not recognize the Nanking regime, it did not prevent the arms trade between the two countries, and these arms trade was even supported by some British political officials.

"Hmmm! The cost of the Agile is £957,520 and the cost of the Triumph is £956596! ”

"Yes! Mr. Zhang, you are very well prepared! ”

Delener nodded less, and did not deny this public information, anyone who wants to access the relevant information.

"So, we're ready to buy these two warships for £1.3 million!"

"What?"

When Major General Delener heard this, he immediately screamed angrily.

"Are you buying two warships for the price of one? These are two battleships, not cruisers! ”

"I don't want to deny what Your Excellency General said, after Chile offered to sell it, it promised to pay Chile 1,600,000 pounds to buy the two ships, and then Russia increased the price to 1,870,000 pounds to buy the two ships, and in order to prevent the two ships from being resold to Russia, your country bought the two ships for 1,870,000 pounds, didn't you? And this price is the result of the auction of the evil surname! Far higher than his worth! ”

This will Zhang Hao speak more slowly, he stared closely at Major General Draener, using the kind of natural negotiation skills that only those who do not know him would be amazed, and added.

"Major Zheng, could you please tell me what kind of warships these two warships are?"

Zheng Zizhang, who has not spoken, is a naval officer who was brought in from the Royal Naval College in Greenitz in the United Kingdom at the beginning of the negotiations. He studied at the Royal Naval College three years ago, and a year later he was admitted to the Royal Naval Institution with the first place in the naval course, specializing in naval gun manufacturing. During his studies, he was invited to participate in the design and manufacture of the British 35-mile long-range shore gun and was successful, so he was praised by the British scientific and technological community as one of the three heroes of Asia, and he was also the only naval technical officer in Europe.

"General Delane, you should understand that these two warships are far from meeting the specifications of battleships, first of all, his armor belt is only 7 inches at the thickest point and 3 inches at the thinnest point, and the thickness of this armor is even inferior to the armored cruiser built by Armstrong for the day, well! Even considering that his tonnage reached 11,800 tons, but Your Excellency, the armor of a battleship with similar tonnage was 4 inches thick at the thinnest point and more than 9 inches at the thinnest point, and there was no heavy armor, would the "Agile class" still be a battleship? ”

When he asked rhetorically, Zheng Zifan was afraid in his heart, when Armstrong was about to build a long-range shore defense gun, he had participated in the armor-piercing projectile test, the old armor-piercing projectile for the hard-hardened nickel steel armor-piercing ability was very poor, in as many as 100 tests, failed to penetrate more than 7 inches of armor targets, and it is precisely because of this that Armstrong began to research a new type of armor-piercing projectile. From this test, it seems that at least for the next few years, the 7-inch armor belt of the "Agile" class warships can meet the protection needs until the new cap-piercing shells are widely adopted.

"The armored cruiser is an armored cruiser, and his main gun is only four 8-inch guns, while the "Agile" class has four ten-inch guns, according to the Royal Navy's tests, although the caliber of the 10-inch ship gun is small, it is not effective against modern warships, but they are still able to penetrate the latest German and Russian warships! ”

This time, Delener took the initiative to say the lack of agility firepower, and he knew that Zheng Zifan, a widely appreciated naval artillery expert in front of him, could naturally find this fault!

"The Italian armored cruisers also used ten-inch naval guns! Isn't it? ”

"The Italian armored cruisers have only two, while the agile class has four!"

"Yes! Similar to the armor cruiser, with a similar protection, caliber of main guns, can he still be considered a battleship? No, Your Excellency, you know better than I do what a battleship is, with heavy armor and powerful main guns! ”

Almost from the very beginning, Zheng Zifan made up his mind to pay attention, only staring at the main gun and armor when picking stabs, as for the secondary gun, he would never mention it, the firepower of the 14 7.5-inch secondary guns of the "agile class" must be said to be powerful, and the secondary guns can penetrate the secondary armor belt of the battleship in addition to the main armor.

As for the small caliber of the main gun, it seems to have a big impact, but in fact the impact is not too big, since the Battle of Dadonggou, the navies of various countries have adopted high-explosive tactics, and the rate of fire is the key, and a small caliber means a higher rate of fire and a higher hit rate. The powerful secondary guns and the decent main guns are enough to threaten all kinds of warships, even the latest ones.

"Well, even if we classify him as an armored cruiser, let's look at his speed again, poor 19 knots! One section faster than the battleship, but 2.5 knots slower than the cutting-edge armored cruiser, Your Excellency General, compared to the battleship, they have weak firepower and thin armor, and they are far from being the opponent of the battleship, his only use is to deal with the armored cruiser, but they are not fast enough to catch up with the cruiser! What is the "Agile" level? ”

Zheng Zifan asked rhetorically, and without waiting for the other party to answer, he took a sentence by himself.

"They're garbage at all, the only difference is garbage that can float on water!"

Hearing this, Delener couldn't help but be shocked. However, he still regained his composure, since the beginning of today's negotiations, after the two sides reached a preliminary consensus on the sale, they went around for two hours, carefully considering every word, not a word of nonsense, but Zheng Zifan in front of him used one fact after another to tell him a consensus reached in the Admiralty that the "Agile class" is simply two expensive junk, and these two junk even messed up the logistics supply of the British Navy.

But even so, Delener's heart is still unwilling to let the Chinese get such two almost brand new warships that have never even been trained in the ocean as cheaply.

"Okay, I'll admit you're partial to the truth, but don't ignore their powerful secondary firepower, which can easily shred warships below any type of battleship, and even the non-armored belts of battleships will be blown to pieces......"

Major General Delaneer, who calmed down, finally found his strengths after the "agility level" was criticized as worthless by Zheng Zizhang.

"Yes! Before the agile secondary cannon bombarded the opponent, these two thin-hulled ships were bombarded first! ”

Zheng Ziqiao shrugged his shoulders helplessly, and he was talking lightly but confused the fact that even in Dadonggou, the cruiser that hit dozens of shells was not directly sunk, but the two ships of Dingzhen, which were heavily armored, were heavily damaged by the high-explosive shells fired by the cruiser.

After refuting technically, Delener discussed with the officers beside him, and this time he shifted his gaze back to Zhang Hao.

"Let's improve it a little more"

Drainer said in a noncommittal tone.

"You must know that these are two brand-new warships that have only been to sea once, but only once for a few hundred nautical miles of sea training, and if you need to, you can immediately sail back to China."

"£1.3 million is already expensive! According to the general rules of various countries, as soon as the ship leaves the factory, it is an old cargo! ”

Zhang Hao shook his head, in the last two days, he had seen that Madame had not only sold the manor, but also sold all the jewelry except for the ring, and even so, in order to raise money, she even sold her dowry, Miss Catherine's shares in the South African gold and diamond mines to Miss Catherine, in this case, she only made up 900,000 pounds, in order to raise enough money, Miss Catherine had already begun to prepare for fundraising in Europe, but could she make up 400,000 pounds?

"Stop rambling, £1.5 million."

This time, the helplessness and anger that swelled up in his heart made Draener's tone harden, he knew that unless Downing Street agreed to sell these two warships to himself or the Russians, they would not be able to sell them at all, but would instead devour the Royal Navy's military spending, "waste" ordinary warships.

Zhang Hao, who understood that it was easy to receive, knew that maybe this was the last bottom line of the British, and he hesitated for a while before he spoke.

"£1,350,000!!"

"Deal, but not including the ship's ammunition and sailing costs!"

After talking softly with the naval officers next to him, Delener said that 344 rounds of 10-inch shells and 2,100 rounds of 7.5-inch shells were more than 150,000 pounds, not to mention small shells and torpedoes, and if they could, it was better not to leave even coal for these stingy Chinese.

"Deal!" Zhang Hao said without thinking, after all, what Madame needs is a warship.

As if he was afraid that the other party would regret it, Delena ended the negotiation with a sentence.

"Let's sign the contract now!"

(To be continued)