In the study, Li Mo blinked his eyes. ※※※※※ I ※ I ※ ※

The Pensacola-class heavy cruiser is a first-class American heavy cruiser familiar to many naval war fans, and the second of them, the USS Salt Lake City, participated in the Battle of Comandos Island and the Battle of Kuah, and joined the artillery formation to strongly support many landing battles.

But the problem is, this is a perverted product of thin armor and multiple turrets during the Navy holidays!

Li Mo quickly opened the intelligence folder, wanting to see what the Pengsakra class was like, and after opening it, the design drawings and data on it really opened his eyes, in addition to holding abroad, the excellent work ability of the Ministry of Intelligence also made him secretly admire, but when he turned to the next page, his sword eyebrows twisted, and his face was extremely gloomy.

History, finally completely bifurcated at this moment!

Because whether it is data, indicators, or sketches, he has seen the shadow of the invincible class, in addition to multiple chimneys, and the traditional American cage mast, whether it is the L45/305 mm naval gun, or the thin 127 mm armor, it can be said that it is completely the American version of the invincible class battlecruiser!

Although the Americans also learn from themselves and start the classification of heavy cruisers, this is not a big deal, even if such a cruiser is doubled, it will not be able to scare itself, because last month Britain put the first 2000 horsepower steam turbine on the ship experiment, and came back with such a big golden finger, from the Jinghai-class supporting to the full maturity of the current 16 years, no matter how strong the British ability is, it will take at least 6 to 7 years to be able to install the capital ship, So they themselves are desperately trying to improve the efficiency of the current reciprocating steam engine.

Historically, before World War I, and even after the United States entered the war, the power system of warships has always been a big trouble, and boiler explosions are not uncommon, so whether it is the United States or Europe, battle cruisers or heavy cruisers, the speed can only reach 25 knots.

What really shocked and frowned him was not because the United States had six more battle cruisers, nor the name of the Pensacola-class in the future, but the sketch that the intelligence officer obtained, "six power compartment split layouts and boiler and steam engine models!"

If it weren't for the fact that the Intelligence Department had obtained the Invincible-level design drawings before, he might not have paid so much attention, but now it's completely different! Because he saw exactly the same layout of the boiler room, and also saw exactly the same power combination model!

This is definitely what the UK offers!

In fact, because the invincible class has more boilers than in history, the layout of the boiler compartment is extremely sophisticated and complex, and if other countries do not get the drawings, then they can only copy the appearance, but now? What's more, the models of boilers and steam engines are exactly the same!

This is no small matter!

After entering the era of super dreadnought, both the battleships and the three Lion-class battlecruisers that Britain had already started construction encountered big power trouble, and the speed of the Orion class dropped to 18 knots, while the design speed of the Lion-class battle cruiser was only 23 knots!

From the current point of view, Germany is undoubtedly good in the technology of reciprocating steam engines, the Kai class that has started construction and the King class that is preparing to start construction, the full load displacement of more than 27,000 tons still reaches 20 knots, which is only one section less than in history, so in order to hide people's eyes, he also deliberately sent people to lobby Britain and Germany, and then bought six sets of reciprocating steam engines and all the drawings from the more friendly Germany at a very high price, and pretended to be proud that they would be used on the Beijing-class and subsequent battleships.

With the accumulation of haze in Europe, the competition has reached a white heat, and the economy has been completely destroyed by the two major groups! Everyone began to consciously cover up the technology, but at this time, the arrogant Britain generously took out the power model to an unpleasant United States, what does this mean?!

It shows that "some tacit understanding should have been reached" between the two countries!

This has never happened in history, the United States had been neutral before the war, just to reap the benefits of both the Allies and the Entente, and now it has turned to Britain, is this just a commercial cooperation" Or are they targeting something?

If it's the former, it's not that big of a problem, but if it's the latter——!

Then the target must be yourself! It shows that Britain has foreseen the inevitability of war, and with their arrogance, they will never think that they will have the opportunity to participate in the European theater, so they must have begun to worry about the security of their colonies in the Pacific after the war, "hoping to take this opportunity to pull the United States into the water to contain themselves!"

Because power is the heart of a warship, no matter when and where! Gouging out the heart to someone else" unless it is an ally, what explanation can there be?

"Da Zhuang" You immediately go to Chen Ping and tell him to immediately order the Ministry of Intelligence, the National Security Bureau, and the Military Intelligence Bureau to start investigating whether there is any secret agreement between Britain and the United States, and you must find out! ”

"No matter what the cost!"

When Li Mo was so serious, Du Dazhuang hurriedly took the order and left. ※※※※※ I ※ I ※ ※

After sending Du Dazhuang away, Long Guozhang still did not leave, in fact, Li Mo, who put down the information, knew his thoughts, he was so eager to get the information to himself, or for the four capital ships behind.

The plan to complete the twelve capital ships before the old occupation was set by himself, four Beijing-class and four Hebei-class battleships have begun to be built, and the first Beijing has even been outfitted and delivered for sea trials, but the problem is that it is only more than four years away from 1915, and the last four battleships have not been decided, and the potential opponents have begun to explode again.

In fact, he knows the potential of the United States better than anyone else, but it is not that he does not want to build capital ships, but he is really a little stretched.

The $300 million he made from the United States was transferred to the Prime Minister's Office in disguised form in the name of buying a world-expensive royal ship for military expenses, and the remaining $70 million in Thomas's principal from selling the Panama Canal was also returned and converted into blue coins, which means that he controls a huge military budget of up to 560 million at the moment.

Of these, 300 million has been handed over to the Ministry of Armament for the construction of four Hebei-class ships, as well as logistics and ammunition procurement, and 60 million for destroyers and third-generation submarines, with another 200 million in hand.

200 million seems like a lot, but in fact, the cost of Hebei has soared from 16 million blue coins at the Beijing level to 23.8 million blue yuan!

The important thing is that, according to his idea and suggestion, "the first 9,000-ton amphibious landing ship built at the Dalian shipyard has been launched and started sea trials; compared with the top Britain, France, and other countries, the Chinese Navy owes too many debts, and the logistics supply has been improved with the launch of more and more supply ships and speed supply ships, but the transportation of personnel has not been developed for a long time."

At present, the Chinese Navy has five large troop carriers, plus the Na wheel and the ro-ro wheel in Lin Yongxiang's hand, which can send a complete armored division, or even half a marine division, to a distance of thousands of miles, but this is not enough!

In Li Mo's view, once the war starts, the Pacific theater and the European theater are completely different, and he needs more auxiliary ships that can carry out ocean-going landing operations, so he must have at least one ability to deliver at least armored divisions or 50,000 infantry.

Although he still has the world's fourth largest civilian fleet in his hands, like Na Wheel and Ro-Ro Wheel, they are all very slow big guys, and the survivability of civilian ships cannot be compared with military products at all, so he originally planned to wait until the landing ship completes the sea trial and meets the standard, and then put the money into it to purchase ten ships.

Of course, Hua is not without money, in fact, according to Li Enfu's statistics, today's Hua's gross national income will exceed the 20 billion blue currency mark, which is converted into about 15 billion US dollars, and has become the world's second largest economy, and this is still a conservative estimate.

But the problem is that he does not plan to use domestic funds, because once the defense budget is still increased, then the economic development in the period of rapid growth will be suppressed, just like the current Britain, the huge naval budget starting with the dreadnought has overwhelmed the country, and the economic growth figure has only maintained about 2 percent per year, and even Germany, which has maintained more than 10 percent before the competition, has dropped to about 6 percent at present, and the United States can only barely maintain 10 percent.

The ship-building frenzy expected by the United States did not scare Li Mo, but these six heavy cruisers suddenly made him sober up a lot, and sometimes the technical advantage also needs a certain number to maintain, according to the time budget, the United States can complete the construction of the current twenty capital ships before 1913, so even if it starts construction now, the next four, the United States will have two more ships than itself, not to mention the New York-class in history, which is destined to start construction!

Suddenly, Li Mo found that his advantage of setting fire to the world and killing people was being offset by the American ship sea, which made him very uneasy, because this whirlpool was caused by him, and now there are signs, and even he has gradually pulled himself in.

And all this because of the appearance of six American battlecruisers that have never appeared in history! made the connotation of the behemoth of the United States burst out all at once!

"Damn British!" Li Mo cursed fiercely in his heart, he heard that the naval fighter Fisher had stepped down, why was it so difficult?

There is another thing that worries him, the killer feature that he originally thought of is currently difficult, the high-octane formula aviation gasoline is still not up to standard, the engine is still hovering around 300 horsepower, whether it can double in five years as expected, he has no bottom in his heart!

In addition to these economic and other reasons, the battleship itself also had minor technical flaws, although both the power and the structure appeared, and even the triangular mast and square stern appeared, and the five-bladed propeller was also used in the destroyer not long ago.

However, because of his lofty thoughts, he wanted to wait for the 16-inch naval guns to see if he could get it before the war, but from the current point of view, it was basically impossible to achieve it before 1916, so he had to immediately start thinking about the plan to build the next four capital ships.

Personally, he was inclined to build a fast battleship with high speed and endurance, similar to the Beijing class, and could even accept to continue to use the current L50/305 mm naval guns at the expense of some protection, but the Admiralty wanted to continue to build an improved version of the Hebei class, because it was more secure, and there were signs that Germany, Britain and the United States, and even France were seeking to equip them with large-caliber naval guns, so the Admiralty's opinion was in the majority.

Look at Li Mo pacing back and forth in the study, even the anxious Long Guozhang understands Li Mo's hardships, there is so much money, the plan is so small, the previous debts are also many, and it can't destroy the development situation in the country that has been so hard to get up, so it is really difficult to fill this big hole!

As a navy, although he wishes that all the money in his hands would become a capital ship, but no matter how powerful the navy's artillery is, it is the army that will eventually solve the problem, and today's army is not at all ten years ago when one person had 200 rounds of ammunition for a gun, and the price of the M2 tank alone is as high as 40,000.

At present, only 100 vehicles have been purchased for advanced personnel training and tactical testing, and if the equipment is rolled out according to the plan, the number will be at least a few thousand, plus artillery, Wildcat armored vehicles, etc., the burden is not small.

"Smoke at noon?" Suddenly, Li Mo interrupted his thoughts and snapped his fingers.

Long Guozhang understood that Li Mo usually didn't smoke, but whenever he smoked, he would definitely have to make a big decision, so he hurriedly took out a pack of Chinese cigarettes and handed it to him.

Lighting a cigarette and watching the milky white smoke swirl around his fingertips, his chaotic thoughts gradually subsided as there were six unanticipated heavy cruisers, and he walked back to his desk and began to write.

Time passed minute by minute, cigarette butts accumulated on the ground, Long Guozhang didn't dare to disturb Li Mo, he stood far away all the time, not knowing what was written on the white paper.

After five pieces of letterhead, densely filled with all kinds of data and indicators, Li Mo raised his head and handed it to Long Guozhang with a solemn expression: "This is written in front of you, and the next four battleships will continue to build the Hebei class according to your requirements, but you go and contact Tang Xiao to see the progress of the L50 type/356mm barrel, I hope to be equipped all according to this requirement!" ”

"Yes!"

Hearing this, Long Guozhang suddenly became excited, but when he opened the letter to see what improvements Li Mo had made, he was suddenly stunned, and after a while, he raised his head sharply, and the starlight in his eyes flashed: "Your Majesty, this is?" ”

"Hehe, tell McKinson that the requirements are all on it, and if it can be achieved, you must tell me within a year!"

"By the way, there is another thing you can do personally, that is, immediately arrange for people and dockyards to refit all six Duke-class ships according to what I said last time, and you yourself will personally go to the Ottomans to see if they are willing to buy the improved Duke-class."

"The Ottoman Empire?" Although the retirement of the duke from active service was a long-term plan, and a sale was inevitable, why Ottoman? What's more, I have asked the Ottoman Empire before, they have always wanted to get a big super battleship, not a second-hand ship like the Duke class!

This matter was reported last time, the emperor should know? Then why go to the Ottomans yourself? What's more, the current funds are already very tight, and it seems that the gains outweigh the losses to refit six more Duke-class ships.

"Don't worry, this money won't be in vain Hu Mo knows what Long Guozhang is thinking, and suddenly the corners of his mouth are mysteriously hooked: "Mohammed V, will come to ask us!" ”

Seeing that Long Guozhang was still a little hesitant, Li Mo was about to be said a few words, but the guards suddenly ran in: "Your Majesty, urgent telegram." ”

Li Mo took the telegram, his face suddenly became ugly again, and he looked at Long Guozhang and sighed. Gas.

"There was a big explosion on Ishigaki Island!"! ~！