In the command of the North American naval station of the British Royal Navy, the commander John Fisher, a fighter of the British Imperial Navy, was lying unkempt on the table at the moment writing and drawing, seemingly completely ignoring the mountains of documents that had been piled up next to him. ※※※※※ I ※ I ※ ※

Even when the office door was slammed open, he didn't even blink an eyelid.

"Oh God, John, you are a noble nobleman, and you should at least keep yourself tidy." As soon as William White pushed the door open, he was startled by the messy scene in front of him, and quickly fanned his nose with his gloves.

"William, you really came to God, and it's a pleasure to see you here." John Fisher raised his head and suddenly found that it was William White, a master ship designer, who appeared in front of him, and hurriedly threw down his pen and rushed forward.

"Well, John, if you entertain me here, I swear I'll be back by ship at once." William White laughed and pointed to the messy office, teasing.

"Oh, leave it alone, this should be moldy, don't talk about you, I don't like it either." John Fisher waved his hand, and without even thinking about closing the office door, he dragged William White from afar and rushed to the café outside the building.

When the fragrant Cuban coffee was served, William White glanced at his friend with straw-like hair and smiled, "John, what's wrong with you?" You are now the commander of the North American and West Indian theaters of the British Royal Navy, and there is a war going on in your jurisdiction. Why did I hear that they were already negotiating when I came? ”

"The United States and Spain negotiated?" John Fisher scratched his head, as if listening to a legend.

"God" William White almost squirted out all the coffee in one gulp, and said with a wry smile: "John, what's wrong with you?" You're the commander here, don't you even care about the news that's close at hand? ”

"I don't care about this boring war, an outburst and an old knight, it's a waste of time." John Fisher waved his hand and said indifferently: "As long as I can guarantee British sugar and cigars, I don't care who rules Cuba." ”

William White was well aware of the temper of the former Third Lord of the Navy, an outstanding artillery expert of the British Imperial Navy, and said with a smile: "John, you are still like this, and you have not changed at all. ”

"Alright." John Fisher was a little impatient, and seemed almost reluctant to talk about the affairs of his jurisdiction, and took out two cigars from his pocket: "Good Cuban cigars, you know what, I sent someone to Cuba to buy them for you, and I am already a little impatient to wait for your arrival." ”

William White laughed, took the somewhat crumpled cigar, squinted his eyes and lit it, then took out two drawings from his briefcase and put them on the table: "John, I'm very sorry to tell you, I can't do this design at all, I don't think anyone else in this world can do it"

"Can't do it? How is this possible?"

William White's eyes also became serious, opened the first sketch, pointed to the triple naval gun on the drawing, and said: "This is the first picture you gave me, the triple twelve inch naval gun, judging from the sketch, this design is very good, but the Admiralty has found that the triple naval gun is not stable, and because the shells will interfere with each other during the salvo, the scattering is very serious, and the scattering is more than 800 meters at a distance of 10,000 meters." ”

"800 meters" Fisher's eyes are about to pop out, 10,000 meters has an error of 800 meters, according to his original assumption of a large range of 15,000 meters, then the scattering will be more than 1,000 meters, if this error is used in naval battles, it is simply for the soldiers to die

"This can't be, can't be?"

Fisher spread out his hands with a face full of disbelief, and after half a ring, he came to his senses and asked in surprise: "Your Majesty, I have seen the battle of Micronesia with my own eyes, and the distance at that time was 10,000 meters, and their triple naval guns did not have such a big error, and the six-inch naval guns of that type of cruiser also fired at a distance of 10,000 meters, and the error was not very large." (Full text reading, all in. (.i. Want. Wen. Learning Network)"

"I'm sure your observation won't be wrong, but I'm still very sorry to tell you that the triple gun is still immature, and we can't install it on the battleship, but six inches is okay, according to naval research, Li Mo has imported German winches from China before, and he may have used it on six-inch naval guns, so that the rate of fire can reach five or six rounds per minute, and it is completely possible to use density to cover the error, and the Admiralty is ready to build an identical cruiser to experiment."

Fisher shook his head regretfully, he didn't expect that the triple gun would stump the huge naval research department, and he believed that he would never be mistaken, the error of the triple eight-inch triple gun on the first-class armored cruiser of Li Mo was definitely not that big, did he have any special technology?

Thinking of this, Fisher immediately opened the second picture, but unfortunately Young Master Li was not here, otherwise he would definitely laugh out loud, because Fisher's sketch was the shape of a dreadnought in later generations, and it was also the shape of a Chinese ship that had already laid a keel.

"I'm afraid there's no way to do that."

William White's brows furrowed, and he pointed to the picture and said: "Five twin twelve-inch naval guns are too many, I personally calculated the recoil, if a salvo is fired, I am afraid that the deck will immediately shatter, and it may even capsize, so I propose to change it to a three-seat twin layout, similar to the Brandenburg of the Germans." ”

Shatter the deck? Capsized? Fisher was puzzled, the few captured Russian-made cruisers in Li Mo's hands were only more than 7,000 tons, and the hull structure had been old for many years, why could they carry two three-in-eight eight-inch naval guns? You must know that the recoil of the triple eight-inch gun is about the same as that of the two twin twelve-inch guns, and the displacement of 7,000 tons is simply not enough to install this type of naval gun with more than 40 times the barrel

How the hell did he do it?

In an instant, Fisher's hair became messy, and he grabbed his head hard, unable to figure out how Li Mo solved the recoil and triple scattering problems, you must know that the naval research department of the British Empire was already the best in the world, why couldn't it solve a problem that a yellow-skinned person could solve?

As for the Brandenburg-like design proposed by William White, he didn't think about it at all, as an expert in gunnery, he knew very well how strong the firepower output needed for a 10,000-meter engagement, and if he could not achieve more than eight firepower output per ship, it was impossible to achieve an advantage.

"Isn't there anything you can do? It really doesn't work, we can go to Li Mo, buy his naval gun technology like we bought an airship" Fisher blushed and waved his arms excitedly, he didn't want his dream to stop like this.

"John, the Admiralty has tried your method, but Li Mo offered a price of 200 million pounds"

"200 million pounds of shit, why didn't he go and rob it" This is obviously a sky-high price that makes Fisher unable to hold back any longer, throws away the gentleman's disguise, and bursts out foul language.

"I'm very sorry John, Li Mo doesn't want to sell the technology at all, and even if we are willing to pay, there is no guarantee that we will really master the naval guns, because we have already visited the battleship he sent to the king's coronation ceremony, and we have not noticed anything unusual at all."

William White shook his head: "The Admiralty has rejected your plan, a battleship that can be loaded with eight heavy guns cannot be achieved with our current technology, because if you want to load eight heavy guns, and strengthen the keel and hull structure to offset the recoil, the displacement will definitely exceed 20,000 tons, with our current boiler and steam engine technology, it can only reach a speed of fifteen knots, which is simply a slow and useless ox cart, so the Admiralty has decided to continue to build battleships with separate first and second main guns." ”

"John." William White let out a puff of white smoke and said solemnly: "I believe everything you and Philettman have seen, but we really tried our best, and what our country needs at the moment is not a type of warship, but a quantity."

His Majesty the Prime Minister had held three naval conferences, and everyone felt that Britain would have to face more and more complex competition when the Far East was gradually getting out of control, the Germans were expanding their navy, and even Nikolai's madman was clamoring for forty capital ships

The Old Man and Dreadnought classes have all been launched, the Admiralty has already approved the London class order, and the Duncan class has also approved plans to be put on the slipway early next year at the latest.

Of course, if you want to have the opportunity to build a warship of this type, or even get the Navy to allocate funds to build a test ship, then it is not impossible, but there is a premise here"

"What premise?" Hearing that things were turning around, Fisher, who was discouraged, suddenly got up and straightened up. "It's simple." William White smiled and spat out a smoke ring: "Back at the Admiralty, and as First Admiralge."

First Admiralty?

Fisher sat down dejectedly, it would be several years before Prince Badenberg retired, and if he didn't make a big mistake, how could it be his turn to become the First Admiralty

Frustration emanated from every cell of Fisher, even William White could feel the discouragement in him, and he couldn't help but sigh in his heart, he knew Fisher's character very well, this was a man who was willing to give his life for the navy, but unfortunately his ideas were too advanced to be realized at this moment.

But these two good British hull and naval gun combinations didn't know that they were far away in the Ryukyus, and Young Master Li was laughing at the sky with a face full of putty.

After several months of intense work, after getting rid of the complicated government affairs, he seemed to have found the enthusiasm for work in his previous life, came to the dock regularly every day, and then drilled in and out with the designers and technicians, watched the keel be laid one by one, and then dragged his tired body home to enjoy his lover's dinner.

The only difference is that there used to be only one person in the family and often traveled away from home, but now there are four.

In the shipyard, the four repaired Duke-class battleships have left a few months ago to join the active service, after continuous multi-level maintenance and refit experience, coupled with the Jinghai plan of the year, so that the current Li Mo belongs to several major shipyards have trained a large number of skilled workers, they may not be as good as the foreign teachers invited by Britain and France, but with the construction of a series of military and civilian ships such as the Guard-class destroyer, four large oil and water supply ships, etc., they are becoming more and more proficient, and more and more confident.

At this moment, the launch of the China Ship Project is another promotion of these skilled workers, except for a few foreign technicians who have been strictly vetted and voluntarily moved into the shipyard collective dormitory and are subject to strict management and are never allowed to leave, the vast majority of the elite Chinese technicians in this plan are selected.

When the power in Master Li's hands was all concentrated to one point and completely exploded, even he himself was taken aback, although it was not up to the demon-level speed of the British that was launched in four months and conducted sea trials in one year, but there was no problem at all in putting this Chinese ship carrying his hopes into sea trials within a year and a half

Because at this moment, a huge battleship with a displacement of nearly 20,000 tons in the huge dock in front of him has basically shown its outline

"Master, the United States and Spain have reached a ceasefire agreement in Portsmouth, England, and Spain has promised to transfer Cuba and Puerto Rico to the United States, but Maceo refuses to accept this Cuban agreement without Cuba's participation, and they have already exchanged fire with the American team."

"In addition, the telegram sent by the Antarctic Star, which went to the United Kingdom to participate in the parade, did not find the existence of the high-speed ship you mentioned, young master, they have already seen the destroyer Viper, and the high-speed speed has only reached more than twenty-six knots."

"Ten days ago, the German Emperor Wilhelm II revised the naval law again, and he said that he would increase the current rate of capital ship construction again to the scale of five ships per year."

"The British Parliament has passed a resolution calling for an increase in naval spending, ensuring that the British navy must remain large enough to overwhelm the German and Russian forces, and that the number of battleships must exceed 60 percent of the two countries combined."

"The U.S. Congress also passed a bill five days ago, saying that it would build two additional battleships to replace previous losses, and that it would have a navy of twenty battleships by 1910."

"In addition, two American outfitting battleships have been delivered this month ago, and we suspect that they should be deployed to the Pacific to defend us, and the remaining two were also launched yesterday into the outfitting stage, and this month, Germany launched one battleship and two armored cruisers, Russia launched three capital ships, France two, Italy one, Austria-Hungary also had one, and Britain had six capital ships."

A series of intelligence and news made Master Li unable to close his mouth, a large-scale, and tragic naval competition finally began, but this did not surprise him, after he came to this world, broke the inherent balance, and demonstrated the model of naval warfare through two naval battles, this round of steel competition has been pushed on**

And this silhouette in front of you will ensure that you continue to stand on the commanding heights

But unfortunately, he had to leave his beloved shipyard for a while at this time, and could not continue to see the growth of the Chinese ship with his own eyes, because he received an urgent telegram from Lushun.

The telegram brought a piece of news that he had been waiting for for a long time.

According to the internal report, three days later, that is, on April 23, the 24th year of Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty (June 11, 1898), the Guangxu Emperor will promulgate the famous edict of "Ming Dingguo Shi", which opened the opportunity for a revolution in the later Qing Dynasty and announced the official start of the famous Wuxu Reform.

Time, place, and history are completely similar, as if history has returned to its original path.

The next day, after Li Mo contacted Chen Ping, Li Enfu and others by radio, he immediately announced that the three infantry divisions, one cavalry division, and one marine regiment of the army stationed in Lushun had been put on alert, and all soldiers had canceled their vacations and announced that they would conduct annual routine exercises.

On the same day, he set off for Lushun aboard two Duke-class battleships, two Polar-star battleships, and two Vladivostok-class heavy cruisers of the First Fleet stationed in the Ryukyus.

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