-- Compared with the noisy docks in the distance, the Hawaii shipyard area is quiet, and after completing the task of repairing the warships for the fleet, the shipyard no longer accepts any orders, and even the task of building torpedo boats like dumplings some time ago has been suspended, so at this moment most of the workers have taken advantage of the opening of the navy to take their children and families to visit the battleships they have been dreaming of for a long time.

The four huge docks next to each other were empty, and since the first test ship was launched and the warships were repaired, every shipwright was waiting for a new shipbuilding task, but at this moment the order was given from above to stop all work and immediately begin large-scale maintenance of all equipment.

While everyone was surprised, they were also faintly aware that after this unusual sudden and large-scale shutdown, I am afraid that a big plan is going to be launched! Otherwise, a large-scale maintenance of the machinery would not have been ordered.

Today, everything finally has an answer, located in the steel plate cutting factory area behind the dock, the fiery red steel plate slid down the assembly line quickly, and after a few loud sounds, the first steel plate was finally cut.

Looking at the steel plate, the design team led by McKinson had red eyes and was extremely excited, Tang Xiao's body was hot, and Chen Ping and Long Guozhang, who arrived later, were even more excited to shout.

I don't know who took the lead, Young Master Li and the Honolulu officials around him also applauded, and even Fang Boqian and Yan Fu, the two newcomers, also clapped their palms.

Everyone present knew that with this steel plate, the two-year Jinghai Plan was officially launched. Ten days later, the first four Jinghai-class light cruisers will simultaneously lay keels at the Hawaiian shipyard.

"It's an adventure and a bold attempt! Fail, and we'll lose two years! Success, we lead the entire shipbuilding industry! ”

McKinson's suppressed words rang in everyone's ears, and he was right, this was indeed a crazy adventure! This is a completely helpless initiative, a bold reform that is designed and built at the same time.

Yes, build as you design! Whether it is the shipbuilding boss Britain at this time, the United States, which likes innovation, or France, which is born with a love of innovation, has never done this!

This is also helpless, although the experimental ship has completed the first phase of testing, the half-year tortured experience has brought back a lot of data, and at the same time, it also makes the warship look as if it has been wilted.

McKinson is a genius, and his team is busy day and night, but in fact, except for a few engineers who are not taken seriously in Europe and the United States and are poached, most of the others have no experience in building 10,000-ton warships, even if the plan has been launched for three months, even if the experimental ship has been launched for half a year, they still can't complete all the data collection and design!

There was no way, the time was too tight, and the design team led by McKinson only completed the preliminary plan, as for the interior and details, there was still no clue, and finally they had to report to Li Mo and adopt this risky surname plan with the quality of gambling.

What they didn't expect was that when the plan was reported, Young Master Li was completely crazier than them, not only making a new construction plan, but also creating a new construction mode, that is, using the method of building in sections and assembling them, instead of the current fashion, a warship completely relies on a dock, piece by piece of steel plate, riveted little by little.

In addition to the strengthened keel, the warship is divided into nearly ten sections, each section can be built in the factory area, and then transported to the dock assembly, in fact, it is not the first time it has been used in Hawaii, and this method has been used to build submarines, but to take four 10,000-ton warships to experiment, it can be said that it is crazy!

According to the calculation results of McKinson's design team and Li Dashao, after the keel is laid, the design team will complete the overall design of the Jinghai class, and when it is halfway through, the entire ship can be finalized.

What's more, the design team still does not know the size and weight of the triple gun after it is finalized! The length and volume of the new torpedo are not known! Even the steam turbine that Master Li is most sure of is currently being repaired and modified, and there is no data at all, everything can only be done by relying on what is currently on paper, in case the artillery is overweight, or the steam turbine does not meet the requirements, or the length of the reserved torpedo compartment is not enough, etc., it will be a disaster!

Compared with money, the lost time will be more deadly, which means that the Jinghai class will not be able to participate in the future war at all! So when the plan was proposed, everyone shuddered.

In particular, the naval supervision team led by Fang Boqian had to go through rigorous inspections and calculations to find every possible loophole, which was a huge challenge for the former Beiyang pipe belt who had just joined Hawaii.

In the face of pressure, Fang Boqian seemed to have broken out in the second spring, almost eating and living in the factory, with his team, his eyes widened and carefully inspected every material, every steel plate, and every rivet.

Now that the first steel plate has been cut, everything has been prepared, everyone is nervous, only the young master Li is smiling, and he doesn't seem to be nervous at all, because at this time only he knows that he will "create" a new method of shipbuilding.

The experimental ship named Honolulu sped across the sea, and next to it were the Venus and Sirius, which accompanied them to the Ryukyus for training, and the formation of four destroyers they led, compared to the huge battleship, the Honolulu appeared light and fast, and the speed of 22 knots was enough for it to shake off all its companions behind it.

Li Mo chose to take the Honolulu to the South Seas, not because he liked the ship, but because it was currently the fastest warship under his command. There was no way, because he had to preside over the keel laying ceremony, it had already been delayed too much, and it happened that the Honolulu was about to start the second phase of testing, so he pouted and sat on this nondescript monster that cost hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The oil-fired boiler is as efficient as coal, leaving behind the huge battleship formation in less than a few minutes, and it is still sailing without the large black smoke of the previous large puffs of black smoke, and the entire warship is much cleaner.

Standing on the deck, the corners of Young Master Li's mouth were crooked. This is not only because of the cruiser under his feet that has a bit of a modern layout for the first time, but also because of some good news from Zhao Long from the Ryukyus.

According to the news he received, the former Naha area, which was renamed Bahai City, was no longer visible of the depression left by the great evacuation, and during this time, hundreds or even thousands of people set foot on this new land every day, and the houses and land that said that he left became free resettlement sites.

For any island, a good deep-water wharf is the cornerstone of rapid economic development, Bahai City already has a good deep-water port, and after the efforts of tens of thousands of workers and Honolulu engineers during this time, the scale has been comparable to Pearl Harbor.

The huge Honolulu No. 2 Shipyard, that is, the Ryukyu Shipyard, has robbed all the shipbuilding equipment in the city, plus the equipment purchased later, has begun to take shape, and the supporting factories are also accelerating construction, one after another factories have risen from the ground, and workers are also stepping up training in various places!

The most important thing is that the Italian complete set of naval artillery production lines purchased through Chile has all arrived, and the Italians, who were stimulated by huge orders, in order to speed up, even directly dismantled their naval artillery factories and shell production lines, and shipped them all to the Ryukyus, although the machinery and equipment are not the latest, but the construction speed is fast, and now it has begun to be installed and debugged under the guidance of Italian engineers.

Around the completion of the naval artillery factory, a new military logistics base has emerged, and when all the construction is completed, it will greatly reduce the pressure on Honolulu and also facilitate the operation of the Pacific Army in the Far East.

Just thinking of the price paid for this, the corners of Young Master Li's mouth twitched like epilepsy.

it!

The four calibers of 8 inches, 10 inches, 11 inches and 12 inches, both in terms of firepower and rate of fire, are inferior to British naval guns of the same caliber, and they dare to shout a sky-high price of millions of pounds! And it is also required to order at least eight twin 305mm guns before they are willing to transfer them all! Grandma, just eight twin 305mm guns will cost hundreds of thousands! With the addition of technology transfer fees, the young master can directly start building two battleships!!

No way, who let himself just take 30 million! And he is at most a half-ass army fan, and he didn't bring a Baidu Niang and a learning machine or anything when he crossed, even if Honolulu now has a science and technology team of no less than 1,000 people, as well as leaders like Tesla and the Curie, but some things still can't be pulled out to help grow! In particular, the military industry, which is strictly managed by various countries, is controlled by others everywhere.

"One day, I'll get it back with interest!" Young Master Li swore a curse, and vented to Du Dazhuang: "Go, let's speed up." ”

Du Dazhuang's face was dark, you ordered full speed just now, and now standing on the deck, the wind is swishing, specifying that it is already running at full capacity, how can you accelerate?

Young Master Li also had a dark face, facing such a turtle-like travel speed, it really annoyed him, and muttered the names of Adel and Xie Jintai over and over again, one is the chief designer of the aircraft laboratory, and the other is the chief designer of the airship laboratory, can't he share his worries for the young master?

I don't know when the young master will be able to travel on a plane!

In the muttering of Master Li, the formation soon arrived in the waters of the Ogasawara Islands, and the Honolulu immediately waved a series of flags to the two battleships behind it, drew a huge arc on the sea, and left the formation and continued to sail south alone.

Manchester.

In the slightly dimly lit office, a wisp of fire suddenly lit up, and suddenly the room was filled with smoke, and the unique smell of tobacco spread.

John Fisher frowned as he looked at the report he had just arrived, and the suspicion in his heart became even heavier. The sudden explosion a month ago had made him suspect that a competitor had deliberately sabotaged the Huang family's navy, but the report in front of him made him a little suspicious of his own views.

In the whole ten days, eleven explosions, in addition to the first few key military targets, there are mostly residential houses and warehouses in the back, and even two department stores that are completely worthless, and there is no boundary with the military at all.

If that's the case, then these criminals are too accurate in their choice of targets! They destroyed two of the most important laboratories, especially Parsons's factory, which is not at all owned by the military, but is just a very promising new power laboratory!

"Boers?"

Fisher glanced at the names repeatedly mentioned in the report, and his eyebrows deepened, although there has been friction between the Boers and the British, and there are signs of war, but they really have the ability to carry out paramilitary operations across thousands of miles?

The corpses and German-made ordnance left behind can prove that the Germans were supporting the Boers?

Fisher's gaze was fixed on a passage in the report, an ordinary female worker who had escaped from the boiler factory, who, according to her, spoke very poor English, had a distinctly Dutch accent, and were armed with German-made pistols, one of whom mentioned Boer several times, but was stopped by others and did not continue.

This proves that it was the black hand of the Boers?

At the end of the report, the police mentioned that they had encountered two white men, and there was an exchange of fire, and one of them was killed, according to the identity verification at the time of entry, the dead man was indeed of Boer descent, but this made Fisher feel even more strange, if they really hated Britain, then why did those Boers run thousands of miles away to make bombings, don't they know, this only makes Britain more angry?

Fisher gently closed the dozens of pages of the report, which seemed to be extremely detailed, but in fact seemed to lead those who read the report to think of the Boers, but because there was no real evidence, it was vague in many places.

Fisher took a drag on his cigarette and was about to place his cigar on the next ashtray when there was a knock on the door.

"General, Mr. Minister asks you to rush to the Admiralty for a meeting at once!"

"Oh? What happened? Fisher quickly grabbed his coat and asked.

"I heard that the Prime Minister has asked the parliament to pass a troop increase bill in the parliamentary hearing just now, according to the bill, our country will send an additional 30,000 troops to Boer, so the minister asked all the heads of the navy to go and discuss the plan to escort the army to land!"

"It's going to war!"

Fisher chuckled in his heart, did the Prime Minister of the Liberal Party really choose to go to war? Didn't he know that at this moment the Conservatives were preparing to impeach him and re-elect?

Or is this just a political ploy by him to divert domestic attention?

(To be continued)