The time was advanced by two months, in the third lunar month of the 23rd year of the new Qin dynasty, and at the beginning of May 1899 in the western calendar. Istanbul by the Aegean Sea!

In addition to the five European powers of Britain, France, Germany, Austria and Italy, there are also governments of small countries such as Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, and Belgium. and representatives of many powerful consortia and families. All the visitors walked into Istanbul University with large sums of real money in their hands. One of the oldest universities in the world, it will be the main battleground for this chase. Because, the year-long oil exploration work in the Middle East has come to an end, and the fruits have been fruitful, one oil field after another has been discovered, and one after another self-injection wells have risen into the sky. The Middle East, more precisely the surrounding areas of the Persian Gulf, is rich in oil resources, and in just one year it has become a fact that no one can deny!

And now it's time for Europe's hyenas to chase the results. China and the Ottoman Empire promised to publicly auction the oil development rights in the Persian Gulf region in Istanbul, and even the Riyadh oil field [Ghawar oil field], which was first discovered by China, is in this auction. The Chinese seem to be going all out to retract Kuwait and Persia.

The entire Arabian Peninsula and the Two Rivers Valley were divided into fifty-three regions for auction, and the entrance fee was £50,000, which was non-refundable. The Ottoman Empire has publicly declared that the highest bidder wins. So the private 'diplomatic effort' has no effect, but it is not big, because the owner is not only the Ottomans but also the Chinese. Therefore, the main battlefield is in the auditorium of Istanbul University. The only weapons they can use are a large sum of real money!

The Ottomans accepted payments in kind, but China only needed real money!

The Chinese dollar has successfully become the legal currency in the cultural circle of China, but foreign trade, Europe, South America, and Africa do not recognize the value of the Chinese dollar, and everything still depends on foreign currency savings - pounds, French francs, German marks, or real money!

Compare the British pound, the French franc, the Deutsche mark. China naturally prefers real money.

"Your Majesty, you don't need to do anything, just wait for the countless bills to fall in front of you." The head of the Ottoman side, who was in charge of the auction, had a smile on his face. More than a million pounds were received for just one entrance fee, and the Sino-Austrian family divided half a million, and the rest was given in return to Istanbul University.

Abdul. Hamid II was really pleased with the entry fee, half a million pounds. The money could fit entirely into his small coffers, and he had rarely seen so much money flow into his pocket since he had banished the vizier Midhat Pasha and taken power on his own.

Before many people became emperors, they would think that the whole country belonged to the emperor Lao Tzu alone. Only those who sit on that throne know how hard it will be. Especially during the period of decline of the empire.

Abdul. When Hamid II was overjoyed at the 500,000 pounds in income, Liu Xian, who was far away in Beijing, did not think so, and the next harvest was the time for a real harvest. And even so, this money is average for the New Qin Empire at this moment. This is the biggest difference between an empire where the sun rises and an empire where the river sets.

Abdul. Hamid II paid attention to every beat of money throughout the auction, but Liu Xian paid no attention to this. And only pay attention to the movements of Liang and China's first battleship with "fully armed heavy artillery" that is about to be launched - Taishan!

This is a successful climb of the Chinese Navy's threshold for dreadnoughts. Five 12-inch 35-diameter twin turrets, two in the bow and two in the stern, and one behind the boiler room in the amidships, arranged on the center line of the hull, with a maximum firepower of 10 main guns on the side of the ship, and 6 main guns in forward firepower, the firepower is increased in theory. And the main gun with the same ballistic performance. made it possible to adopt a unified fire control system. The secondary guns were retained only for guns of caliber of less than 3 inches and many anti-aircraft guns for air defense and defense against small torpedo ships.

However, the power mechanism on the Tarzan still uses old-fashioned duplex steam units - two three-cylinder vertical three-expansion steam engines, three-shaft and twin rudders. The steam engine wheel that Shijingshan has worked hard for many years has yet to continue to develop—the steam engine wheel can be used on small warships, but it is relatively clumsy to be used on a large battleship like the Taishan, which is too large and lacks horsepower—Shijingshan also needs to develop a steam engine wheel with more horsepower and smaller volume. So the Tarzan paid a certain price for this - the maximum horsepower output is 11,000 horsepower, and the maximum speed of the Tarzan is only 16 knots, which is unsatisfactory. 13500 indicated horsepower when ventilated under strong pressure. Maximum speed 17.5 knots.

The displacement of the Tarzan-class battleship was 14,500 tons, and it would have exceeded 15,500 tons when fully loaded. China's shipbuilding industry has learned from the manufacturing and design experience of four small battleships - the maximum displacement of 12,500 tons, and a number of ironclad ships and armored cruisers have been refitted as training, and finally solved a flower that represents the highest honor in the naval shipbuilding industry - large battleships! A large battleship with advanced performance first.

Although it has not yet been launched for testing, it can theoretically be a battleship Tarzan. Heads-up is definitely not inferior to the British monarchy!

At this point in time, the theory of "fully armed heavy artillery" has already taken shape in Europe, and China is actually only one step forward. This will certainly irritate the British even further. Liu Xian hurried up, the dreadnoughts of this time and space should not wait for 7 years to reappear.

It is with China's current technological level, as long as the performance of the steam engine wheel can be further breakthrough, the next manufactured battleship can burst into a genuine dreadnought. Therefore, after the launch of the Taishan, China will temporarily stop the manufacture of battleships, and instead carry out the manufacture and discussion of high-speed armored cruisers, and then take the opportunity to trigger the concept of battlecruisers.

If the Germans could show a certain interest in this, Liu Xian 'hehe', he really wanted to see how the British at that time were still staring at China.

Of course, there is also a reason why battleships are too expensive. A Taishan-class battleship, with China's current cheap labor and prices, under the condition that the government comes forward to regulate and control, the total cost of the Taishan alone is infinitely close to 600 million Chinese dollars, and according to the pound sterling, the cost of the Chinese dollar to the pound sterling is now internationally recognized, and the cost has reached 850,000 pounds.

But after the completion of this Taishan, the price is also obvious, if there are three, it is best to start construction of four Taishan together, the cost of a single battleship can be reduced to about 500 million Chinese yuan. It is equivalent to about 700,000 pounds.

This cost should be relatively cheap in the current world warship market - the British Sovereign-class battleship, the world's first all-steel battleship, also cost 1.1 million pounds. Although there are many 'innovation' factors in this, and some pounds are unjust money to pay for tuition, even now, seven years later, such an export-oriented monarch-class battleship will be sold for at least a million pounds. What's more, the British did not have an external outreach

If the British had produced their own land, it was estimated that the cost price could have been reduced by 200,000 pounds - it must be said that the warship trade was very profitable.

China didn't have the capital + resources to play in this big circle before, Liu Xian has long been salivating for this piece, and he has always been unable to enter the courtyard, and now he has a stepping stone that can be used - Taishan-class battleships, and he can take a bite of the big cake of battleship trading.

The auction in Istanbul took place over a 10-day period, with the Chinese and Ottoman governments collecting more than £13 million in auction fees, with an average cost of £250,000 per plot of land. And there are still vast tracts of land 'to be developed' in the Arabian Peninsula and the Two Rivers Basin.

Counting the previous income of 500,000 pounds, China and Austria can share 7 million pounds.

European powers such as Britain and France, as well as consortia, families and other interest groups in the Western world, also hoped that the Ottoman Empire and China would be able to auction off the remaining land development rights on a larger scale. Hamid II first firmly refused. Because after this auction, he can see clearly, and he has clearly talked about the land found in the oil field is far more valuable than the land that has been carved out of thin air. For example, the land in the east of Riyadh was auctioned for a high price of 1.2 million pounds, accounting for almost 10% of the overall income. Many of them have not been explored, but have been demarcated next to oil-rich areas, and some of them have only been sold for the reserve price of £50,000, which is a huge difference.

Before the auction was over, the Ottoman Empire's newly formed energy chief, Ishad Pasha, began to contact the exploration team, saying that the Ottoman Empire could hire them at a high price, hoping that the members of the exploration team would agree. At the same time, Istanbul also generates electricity from Beijing.

Liu Xian expressed doubts about the oil development rights of the entire Ottoman Empire. Hamid II has already been handed over to China, is it necessary for the Ottomans to hire their own oil exploration team? Liu Xian didn't think that the Ottoman Empire had the idea of kicking China out. Abdul. No matter how mediocre Hamid II is, he will not kill himself.

Istanbul soon sent a telegram that the Ottoman Empire was hoping that an oil exploration team would conduct an exploration in the waters of the Persian Gulf. Their Sultan's Majesty believed that oil was buried at a depth of several thousand meters, and that when there was a lot of oil under the land, there must be a lot of oil at the bottom of the sea. Because the water depth in the Persian Gulf is only a few tens of meters!

Moreover, the right to develop oil under the surface of the sea was not handed over to China by the Ottoman Empire, which means that it was unique to the Ottoman side. Even though the development value of offshore oil is much lower than that of land, for the current Ottoman Empire, any profit is necessary to be sought.

Liu Xian couldn't help but raise his eyebrows after reading the palindrome. Abdul. Hamid II seemed much smarter than he thought. Even Liu Xian himself has selectively forgotten the offshore oil in the Persian Gulf, because the offshore drilling and platforms in his impression are high-tech, and they do not seem to be able to be overcome by the technology of this era...... (To be continued......)