Lin Yuan continued: "In view of the predicament we are facing now, I think that in the future war, we will not use aircraft carriers as a means of direct attack, aircraft carriers will play more of a killer role, our next goal is to learn to use the warships of our captured Japanese Combined Fleet as soon as possible, the just concluded Sino-Japanese War tells us that it is not enough to have a strong navy, we also have a strong army." ”

Su Zhengming asked: "Captain, what kind of weapons should our army be equipped with?" ”

Lin Yuan said: "I think so, limited to the level of the times, mechanization is impossible, and informatization is even more unthinkable, I plan to equip the army with a batch of semi-automatic rifles and grenades, and now we are poor and white, and that's all." ”

Su Zhengming said: "Captain Lin, these are relatively easy to make, this aspect, Old Liu, you can tell me." ”

Su Zhengming was very polite to this Liu Lao, obviously this Liu Lao's qualifications and abilities were not under Su Zhengming, I saw an old man in the crowd waving his hand and shaking his head again and again, which means I have nothing to say, Lin Yuan looked over and knew that this Liu Lao's name is Liu Jinqiu, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and a well-known expert in China's metallurgical industry.

Lin Yuan knew that this Liu Lao's temperament was the most gentle, and Su Zhengming was simply two extremes, so he smiled and said, "Liu Lao, you can say a few words." ”

Liu Jinqiu walked out of the crowd and said: "I just heard what Academician Su meant, our biggest difficulty now is materials, all industrial products, the most basic thing is materials." If you want to build army weapons, you can't do without steel. This brings us to the issue of basic industries. ”

Liu Jinqiu continued: "Basic industry, to put it bluntly, is the manufacture of means of production, such as energy, minerals, metallurgy, mechanical processing, etc. In order to make you understand, I will take the smelting of iron and steel as an example, in terms of minerals, we need iron ore and fuel, and if we want to make iron, we must use coke; In terms of energy, the most common steelmaking method is blast furnace steelmaking, when the blast furnace makes steel, it will use a blower to blow the wind into the blast furnace, what is the blower used to drive? We can only use the steam engine to drive it now; In metallurgy, it is to take out the iron in iron ore. ”

"With these basic industries, it's like having 0 and 1 in binary, and you can make up all the other numbers, but the problem we're facing now is that we don't have any of these things." Liu Jinqiu said with a smile.

Lin Yuan said: "I will find a way to buy coal and iron ore from Taiwan, and we need to use our brains to think about other equipment." ”

At this time, someone came to report: "There are several Englishmen who want to see the Ryukyu Emperor, and Shotai wants Hayashi Yuan to help." ”

The meeting had been going on for a short time, so he asked the experts and professors to go back and rest. The meeting place is the headquarters of the Japanese Navy Fleet in the port of Naha, which is the only building in the port of Naha.

There is an old Chinese saying: "If you want to know your confidants, you need to listen to what you say." Lin Yuan came to the reception room, borrowed a set of local clothes, pretended to be a handyman, and put on a big straw hat to cover his face, and walked into the house where the British were located.

This room was originally the conference room of the Japanese Navy in Naha Military Port, it was very clean, four Britons were sitting in the room, and when they saw Lin Yuan walking in with a bucket and a rag, an Englishman was surprised: "Such a young person, he should go to work in a factory, how can he do these jobs here?" ”

When the British saw Lin Yuan wearing a local's clothes, they thought that he was a local and must not understand English, so he didn't care about anything when he spoke in English.

Another said, "Mr. Green, you're just nosy, what are we going to do with this?" What we need to be concerned about is: How much interest do we charge for lending to the Ryukyuan people? ”

The man known as Green said: "Let's not raise the price too high, our bank went to the United States and wanted to give Lincoln a loan, and offered 35%-45% interest, but Lincoln pointed directly to the door and said: Get out of the way." ”

The four Englishmen all laughed, and after Lin Yuan heard this, he thought to himself: "They are coming to provide us with loans, and needless to say, these loans must be secured by the financial income of the Ryukyu Kingdom." ”

Then the man named Green said, "Mr. James, I don't understand, why do you want to come here for the Krupp Steel Company, and here are all barbarians, do you see where you need steel and farm tools?" ”

The four of them laughed again, and James smiled, "We'll be here and help them build a steel production line." ”

When he said this, Lin Yuan was cleaning the glass, and when he heard this, his hand cleaning the glass couldn't help but stop, and he thought, "Why did they come here to build a steel production line?" They must have some conspiracy, but building a set of steel production lines means that the general layout of basic industries has already been established, and in the future, with our technical strength, we will definitely create something that shocks the world! ”

Soon, Shang Tai came with a few retinues, he was light and simple, and he had the demeanor of an ancient sage. Lin Yuan hurriedly went out to change his clothes, and when he came back after changing his clothes, several Britons had already handed over the contract.

Where did Shang Tai understand this, seeing Lin Yuan coming in, it seemed that he saw a savior, Lin Yuan apologized softly and took the contract, one contract was a loan of 10 million pounds, with the financial revenue of the Ryukyu State for five years as collateral, and the other was a contract for the establishment of a steel factory, the contract content included, the Ryukyu Kingdom invested 2 million pounds to introduce a set of steel production lines, including steam blowers, iron-making blast furnaces, Martin steel-making furnaces, coke production lines, desulfurizer production lines, continuous casting machines, 2,000-ton hydraulic presses, and so on.

Lin Yuan saw the Martin steelmaking furnace and thought: "This kind of steelmaking furnace has been completely eliminated by converters later. So he said, "We're going to have another converter." ”

The British did not expect that there were knowledgeable among this group of uncivilized barbarians, and they were surprised but agreed.

The additional clause of the contract stated that the iron ore used in the Ryukyu State Iron and Steel Plant, the coal used in coke smelting, and the raw materials for desulfurizers need to be imported from the United Kingdom, and the transportation costs shall be borne by the Ryukyu Kingdom. Steel produced in the Ryukyus is not allowed to be sold to third countries.

Lin Yuan thought to himself: "This Englishman is really a weasel to give a New Year's greeting to the chickens - not well-intentioned, these raw materials are shipped from the UK, and the money is still from us, and the British will definitely ship the raw materials from the nearest colony, and then tell us that this is from the British mainland, so they ask for a sky-high price." ”

Lin Yuan was not worried about this, he had his own way to deal with them, so he smiled and said: "We generally agree to the contract, however, when we buy iron ore, we need to determine the grade of iron ore, if the grade does not meet the requirements, we will not buy it." ”

Lin Yuan also said: "We not only have equipment, but also hope that the British side can provide personnel training and technical guidance, and the salary of the instructors is preferential." ”

James pointed to a young man beside him and said, "We have already thought about this, this young man named Will is an excellent talent of our British Empire, and he will stay to guide you in the selection of the site of your steel plant, and be responsible for the training of your personnel." ”

Lin Yuan glanced at this person named Will, just now when the four of them were talking, he laughed the most, obviously he looked down on the Ryukyuan people the most, thinking that the Ryukyuan people didn't understand science at all, Lin Yuan couldn't help but smile in his heart, and an interesting word suddenly appeared in his heart: "Pretend to be a pig and eat a tiger." ”