488 Eagle over North Africa (Season 4)

Ryukyu, in the port of the Navy. 【 I want: super fast update 】

A ship of about ** thousand tons, with a strange appearance, with eight thick iron pipes erected on the hull, and the iron pipes seemed to have a flat top on them, with the help of a defense-class destroyer and two ocean-going tugs, slowly sailed into the waterway.

When it entered the harbor through the waterway, countless sailors and workers were attracted by this ship, if it was just weird, it would be fine, after all, Hua now has all kinds of strange ships, than a square stern, such as a freighter with a lock behind the buttocks, but this one is not only strange, but the big flat roof on the top is now miserable, the charred black planks have been lifted in half, the back half is exposed a large hole, and even the one-man thick supporting iron pipe on the left side of the stern has also been deformed.

Experienced sailors and boatmen knew at a glance that it was caused by an explosion that caused a fire.

After the flat-topped boat staggered into the dock, which had been filled with water, the lock quickly closed, and four high-power pumps began to continuously pump water out of the dock so that the workers could make repairs.

Today's Ryukyu Bahai can be said to be the only large city with shipbuilding and military ports, and the natural superior geographical environment, coupled with the support of resources on the mainland behind it, has made this large island shine.

Four 20,000-ton docks, four 5,000-ton docks, two maintenance docks, and a 20,000-ton floating dock that has just been launched.

However, this position is expected to decline in two years, because on the nearby island of Changxing in Shanghai, a super shipyard with a total of eight large shipyards is about to take shape, but in any case, the reputation of Ryukyu Shipbuilding Island is indelible.

Good logistics and the variety of warships that spread throughout the harbor made it an important base for the Navy in Northeast Asia, and if it were not for the diversity of the bases, the Admiralty would have even planned to close Lushun.

With more than 50,000 workers of all kinds, plus military personnel and their families, the city has gradually developed into a city that has been well planned from the beginning, so that the whole city still retains the beauty and tranquility of the harbor.

Originally, this beauty made Li Mo very happy, but after seeing the tragic situation of this simple aircraft carrier training ship converted from a coal carrier, his brows furrowed suddenly.

"Your Majesty, Lefei is here to report."

The young and handsome commander of the naval aviation who had always had a cold face saluted solemnly, and his emaciated and swarthy face confirmed that he had been training hard with his soldiers during this time, and after Li Mo returned the salute, he walked to the training ship under his leadership.

"I've lost a lot of weight, isn't it too hard?"

"Thank you for your concern." Le Fei said: "It's just that the weather in the Great Xia area is too hot, so I tan a little." ”

"Hehe, it's not a little bit, it's Bao Qingtian at all" Li Mo stopped, turned his head and smiled: "I heard that you recently hooked up with Mr. Li's girl, she didn't dislike you like this, right?" ”

"Your Majesty."

Li Mo's sudden words made Le Fei blushing with a cold face, scratching his head and not knowing how to answer, and then he could only squeak and laugh twice: "How can it." ”

"Don't always take care of work, pay attention to the combination of work and rest, come back to rest and rest if you have nothing to do, that girl hasn't seen you for a long time, and she has been pestering Li Enfu to ask me where you are" Li Mo smiled slightly and said: "Besides, it's a good thing that you are alone, but if you take care of all the work, how can the people below exercise it?" ”

"Remember, you're the Commander, not the Trainer"

"Yes"

After chatting with concern, Li Mo focused his attention on this aircraft carrier training ship, which has three training ships converted from coal carriers, mainly for exploring the use of future aircraft carriers, helping the design department accumulate experience, and for sea take-off and landing training.

Before the engine has not broken through, take-off and landing training has been very difficult, near Hanyang and Changchun have come up with a 450-horsepower engine, has been able to ensure that the current light biplane in the narrow deck take-off and landing requirements, so after Lefei got the plane, began to strengthen the special take-off and landing training, but accidents also appeared. ※※※※※ I ※ I ※ ※

"What's going on?" Standing on the wide wooden flat deck, looking at the blackened hole that was more than three meters wide that cracked behind him, Li Mo asked patiently.

It is not easy for aircraft carriers to take off and land, especially when landing is risky.

As the engine power continues to increase, the speed of the aircraft changes, the pilot needs to slow down very carefully when landing, and constantly adjust the angle, but the problem is that the current aircraft weight is too light, such as the F3F naval model modified by the Air Force Vulture currently used, once slowed down, the impact of crosswinds and turbulence will be greatly increased, as long as the young hands are not careful, they are either high or directly loaded into the stern or the sea.

After strengthening take-off and landing training during this time, dozens of pilots have encountered such troubles, and even paid the price of three sacrifices.

In addition to the impact of strong winds, after the F3F engine was enhanced, it had the ability to carry two 50-kilogram bomblets for the first time.

This accident originated from this kind of training, because of the problem of the bomb pylon, a pilot failed to drop the bomb, at first he thought that the bomb should not fall, so he landed with the bomb, but when the wheel fell on the deck, the vibration caused the bomb to slam on the deck, causing an explosion and fire.

The 50-kilogram training bomb was only loaded with one kilogram**, but because it was all a wooden structure, the explosion still caused a large fire, which eventually caused this situation.

Fortunately, Le Fei happened to be on this training ship at that time, and decisively ordered non-essential personnel to jump into the sea to escape first, and at the same time personally led the management team to rush into the front line to suppress the fire with a water hose, and finally did not destroy the entire training ship.

Squatting on the edge of the dark deck, listening to Le Fei's narration, Li Mo also scratched his head.

Until not long ago, Li Mo knew that he had been thinking wrong, in his opinion, the technology of the first generation of aircraft carriers did not need to be too high, in fact, just the large elevators used to lift ammunition and aircraft, the armament department had just come up with a prototype not long ago.

The hydraulic cylinder of the blocking cable is also very troublesome, and the current aircraft structure can not use the blocking cable at all, last time Adel they also used the only aluminum aircraft on the ground to carry out the blocking cable experiment, when the tail hook hung the blocking cable, the fuselage was directly torn into two by the impulse.

In addition to the fact that the structure of the aircraft is not strong enough, the main reason is that they have no experience in taking off and landing at sea, thinking that landing at sea is the same as land, and can descend slowly, and even some old birds turn off their engines early and glide down against the lift of the wings.

But this is not feasible at sea, because the take-off and landing deck is not as long as the land airport when landing, so it is necessary to maintain a certain power, for fear that in case the landing point is too far in front of the aircraft can be pulled up again, which makes the structure of the aircraft, the strength of the landing gear put forward high requirements.

If you can harden these things, you need a strong engine, so it seems to be a dead knot.

The aircraft is too light, which causes crosswinds to affect take-off and landing stability, and the high air utilization rate of the wing of the biplane will increase this problem, and the reinforcement of the fuselage and landing gear requires strong and strong materials, which has to go back to the engine being raised again.

It's a vicious cycle, as he calculated, unless the engine is increased to at least 600 horsepower and the plane is reinforced with all-aluminum, the problem will always exist.

However, it is not all pessimistic, at least after a large amount of accumulation before, the engine power enhancement has broken through the critical line barrier, the V-shaped eight-cylinder engine of the Hanyang factory, and the 11-type star engine of Changchun have come up with a 600-horsepower prototype, and the turbocharging technology has been applied to it for the first time.

This is the era when a good engine creates a generation of famous aircraft, so it has arrived in North Africa at this moment, and it is extremely critical to wait for the forty-eight vultures hired by the Ottomans, because training and actual combat are different, although the aircraft engine in Europe at the moment is inferior to itself, but just like the Italian pigeon biplane encountered by the Nujiang not long ago, due to the use of double-layer large wings, which improves air utilization, it still has a certain ability to maneuver.

This makes them initially have the ability to grappling, and when the actual combat, once into each other chasing and fighting, pilots often make a lot of subconscious evasion and offensive actions, which can not be imitated during training, in that extreme case the engine and the aircraft itself will be exposed to big problems, and when these problems are fed back and solved, it is undoubtedly a leap forward development opportunity for their aviation industry.

In addition to these problems, the Air Force is also the only young unit in China that lacks actual combat experience, and through this kind of combat in which the intensity is not high, a number of pilots have been trained, and when they return, they can quickly pass on their experience to more people, and this will also greatly promote the improvement of the combat effectiveness of the troops.

It was these factors that prompted Limer to devote his air force to the Italo-Turkish war, but the Ottomans obviously did not realize how big the threat of Italian planes and airships was, but it didn't matter, when they had had enough, they would come to him for help.

Thinking of this, the corners of Li Mo's mouth were crooked, and as soon as he came down from the gangway, he saw a jeep stopped in the distance at a rapid speed, and Zhang Zuolin ran over in a hurry.

"Your Majesty, Osman agreed to Wu Yingke's conditions"

"Oh? How many did they buy? ”

"Three, all of them" Zhang Zuolin smiled excitedly: "450,000 pounds per ship, a total of 9.45 million blue coins, the first batch of 3.5 million blue coins to pay, the rest in three years in the form of a loan from us." ”

"In addition, they promised to transfer the Baghdad Railway to us as long as we could convince Germany, and they also hired Wu Yingke as a naval guide to help them deal with Italy."

"Navy Guidance?" Li Mo was stunned for a moment, and then smiled: "This is Wu Yingke's ghost point, right?" ”

Zhang Zuolin nodded: "Yes, Wu Yingke said that the three duke-class ships were handed over to last night, but the ability of the Ottoman Navy sailors and generals was too poor to use the three battleships at all, so he promised Muhammad V to temporarily join the Ottoman Navy in a private capacity, and he called to say if he could give him dozens more veterans and officers, so that the Ottomans could go to sea for a decisive battle." ”

"Yes, send a telegram to him immediately, and select twenty people from the previous three battleships, but they are still the same, they must be in the name of a private person, and they must not be leaked"

"Yes"

Zhang Zuolin was just about to take the order and leave, Li Mo suddenly stopped him again and asked, "By the way, Yuting, how did Feng Qi talk with the Germans?" ”

"The Germans initially agreed, the Baghdad railway is already chicken ribs for them, and Britain, France and Russia would rather use the threat of war than let them build it, but." After a pause, Zhang Zuolin said: "Germany wants us to provide a loan of 500 million blue coins, in addition to buying our eight Gray Spine Shark submarines and manufacturing technology."

Zhang Zuolin's news made Li Mo and Le Feidu beside him smile: "500 million really dare to speak, what's the matter, Germany has no money?" ”

"There is no money, mainly because German resources are currently starting to be tight, except for steel, everything else has been nervous, especially rubber, cotton, and some heavy metals, we estimate that Germany's request for a loan this time should be more of a test for us, and we are beginning to make full preparations for the war."

"Eight gray spine sharks want these Germanic bastards, and their eyes are quite pointed" Li Mo said with a smile: "You tell Tang Shaoyi that you can agree to Germany's conditions, but the loan must be mortgaged with gold or other things, and submarines can't be taken in vain, I heard that Germany is preparing to develop a 15-inch naval gun to suppress Britain, you go and tell Wilhelm II and Tirpitz that our naval guns are also in trouble, and I hope to share technology with them in joint development."

"By the way, the plane thing?"

"The Ottomans haven't agreed yet, but Wu Yingke called and said that there is no need to worry, because since Italy has developed a seaplane, as long as the Ottomans suffer a loss, they will definitely come to ask for help."

"Okay, let's do it."

After Zhang Zuolin drove away, Li Mo turned his head to look at the training ship behind him, and suddenly wanted to turn it into a real aircraft carrier overnight, if that, why would he bother to borrow Ottoman's hands? Directly with Osman, this European wall grass will be beaten down first, and it will also save you from getting in the way in the future

It's a pity that the dream is beautiful, but the reality is cruel, and he still has to wait for a while.

On November 2, in order to win over the Ottoman Empire and China, after overnight secret consultations between the ambassadors of the three countries in Beijing, Germany quickly agreed to exchange the Baghdad Railway for eight Gray Spine shark-class submarines, and also agreed to China to jointly develop 15-inch naval guns to counter the British.

In addition to this great exchange agreement, an important foreign loan agreement in China's history was also reached, in which Germany used gold and German-controlled Guinea as collateral to lend 500 million blue coins to China, of which 300 million must be used to purchase all kinds of urgently needed materials in China

Blue coins are not as valuable as the pound, and they are a little worse than the dollar, but the figure of 300 million is a huge amount of money in future generations, not to mention the current era

On the first day of the signing of the agreement, Tang Shaoyi immediately convened the relevant departments of industry and commerce, and also contacted a number of ocean shipping companies, including Pacific Freight, to make every effort to ensure the smooth completion of this big business in the presence of the German ambassador.

At the same time, he also contacted Long Guozhang, who was in Luzon, and asked the navy to ensure the safety of shipping from Luzon to the Suez Canal, and to provide ocean escort for the fleet.

After getting the news, Long Guozhang, who was doing nothing, suddenly became excited, and with a stroke of his pen, he even encircled the Mediterranean Sea into the escort range, so that Li Mo, who got the news later, shook his head, If you want to escort, you have to get by

Compared with the sky-high amount of loans that Britain and France continue to make to the United States, the 500 million blue coins provided by China are just a drop in the bucket, but the significance is very significant, which not only means that the two major groups have begun to make full preparations for war, but also means that China has changed from a capital importing country to a capital exporting country at once

And Germany is just a test this time, as long as they see Hua's determination to complete this super business wholeheartedly, including the Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary, they will come to take out loans to prepare for war

A huge capital export war officially broke out

On November 5, Li Mo strictly ordered for the first time that, in addition to the German goods, which continued to maintain the original price, the rest of the materials, including rubber, sugar, gauze, and other materials that could be used for war, were all increased by 10 percent, including all enterprises belonging to him personally or controlled by Thomas Mining.

Because Hua controls seventy percent of the world's rubber, sugar, tobacco, copper, manganese and other materials, a whirlwind of price increases is spreading all over the world, and the United States, the world's second largest exporter of resources and the largest equipment industry, will naturally not go to play against Li Mo, and it has also opened the curtain of price increases.

The two countries that were originally mortal enemies reached a subtle tacit understanding this time, and even Chile, Brazil, Argentina and other export-oriented countries have also taken action, which made Europe, which was already lacking in resources, suddenly miserable.

Britain and France are good to say, at least there are huge overseas colonies as a guarantee, Germany has also temporarily alleviated the urgent need because of the previous 500 million loans and 300 million orders, but Austria-Hungary, Russia, Italy and other countries are in trouble, especially Russia, although Britain helps, but now Britain is too busy to take care of itself, so it can only watch the gap be widened.

The situation was even worse for Italy, which had colonies and was still fighting for North Africa, but which clearly lacked sufficient resources on its soil, because they suddenly discovered that the Ottoman Empire had transferred three apparently modified Duke-class battleships from the Black Sea overnight, which were said to have been secretly purchased before the war

Suddenly the situation in the Mediterranean changed dramatically, and one Izmail forced Italy to speed up the construction of Dante, and now the three Duke-class ships that have been converted almost to the standard of quasi-battleships have begun to make the Italian Navy take the greatly strengthened Ottoman Navy seriously.

On 8 November, Italy formally lodged a strong protest against China, accusing it of violating the Geneva Convention's regulations prohibiting the sale of weapons to belligerents, and also visited Britain, France, Germany, and other countries in the hope of putting pressure on China, and even demanded the closure of the Suez Canal at one point

Although it was an ally, Germany naturally could not offend China at this time and push this increasingly important country to the side of Britain and France, so it refused to make any evaluation, and Britain and France were not willing to overdo the Chinese Empire, but for the purpose of winning over Italy, they made a verbal protest and demanded that the fleet of the Chinese Navy passing through the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea must be escorted.

On 9 November, after Italy quickly sent the latter army to the coast of North Africa, the fleet pounced on the Dardanelles, hoping to keep the Ottomans in the strait.

On the same day, at Wu Yingke's suggestion, the main force of the Ottoman Navy, which had been training and adapting to three battleships in the strait, also drilled out of the Dardanelles Strait and set off along the coastline towards Cyprus.

Encounters in the Mediterranean are on the verge of breaking out