Watching Li Fushoulin staring at a huge ironclad giant ship parked at the anchorage of the bay, his face was full of fascination, and the proud beard of Count Horvaz curled up, and he introduced;

"Your Excellency Lord Queensland, what you are seeing now is the most powerful ironclad battleship in the German Empire" Cornish Wilhelm", this big guy has a displacement of 10,933 tons, and its main armament is 18 238mm main guns and 5 210mm secondary main guns.

Launched in April 1868, its massive 1,233-foot-long, single-propeller, powered by a conventional horizontal single-expansion engine, and reaching speeds of 11.6 knots, is an absolute terrifying behemoth in a duel at sea.

Today, the Horvaz shipyard also has the capacity to build 12,000-ton ironclad battleships, and the only thing needed is a budget allocated by His Majesty the Emperor, which makes us wait and see. ”

Speaking of which

The Earl of Holvaz sighed regretfully, and turned his eager gaze to Li Fushou again, the man standing in front of him was a well-known super-rich man, a big rancher from Australia, and one of the largest exporters of pure wool wool in the whole of Europe.

From Manchester in the UK to Lyon in France, from Munich in Germany to Milan in Italy, hundreds of European printing and dyeing factories and garment factories use high-quality Australian pure wool wool yarn, almost completely destroying the local wool mill industry.

The problem is that the new British aristocracy has a deep background, and no European country dares to stop the influx of British goods, or even adopt discriminatory tariff policies to protect their own industries, because that would inevitably anger the British.

As for the British mainland

As the only industrialized country in the world today, the United Kingdom accounts for 23 percent of the economy, while light industry, services and agriculture together account for less than 13 percent.

The textile industry is the pillar industry of the British light industry, but the main varieties are cotton spun from India and Egypt, and the wool textile industry is only one of the insignificant branches, accounting for no more than 6% of the entire textile industry.

and other new technologies, resulting in high costs.

Li Fushou had a forward-looking vision, until the ironclad battleships would be eliminated by the former dreadnought-class battleships in more than 10 years, and they would be reduced to a large pile of expensive and useless scrap metal, which consumed a huge amount of resources in vain.

The Royal Navy of the British Empire can afford to burn deeply, but the Red River Valley is not so capable, so it can only pick up affordable toys first, and temper a small elite team by the way.

In this era when the concept of naval destroyers did not appear, it was the first to create an affordable and economical ship, named the Haieu-class offshore patrol ship.

If the hull is enlarged, it is an out-and-out destroyer.

In the late 19th century

The mainstream of the development of the world's navy is the "giant ship cannon", with ironclad battleships dominating the seas and cruisers supplementing them, relying on larger tonnage ships, thicker armor, larger caliber guns, and longer-range guns to crush the enemy.

The advent of the steam torpedo changed the rules of engagement at sea, and in the 70s of the 19th century, Britain built the first torpedo boat "Lightning", and similar ships quickly became popular.

The torpedo boat has a displacement of about 100 tons, is equipped with 30-40 mm small guns and two torpedo tubes, and has a speed of about 20 knots, which can fire torpedoes at close range and threaten the survival of giant ships.

The Seagull-class light patrol ship is a new type of ship developed for torpedo boats, which can use the ship's artillery fire to shred torpedo boats at a long distance, with a higher speed and all-round combat effectiveness.

As for dealing with ironclad battleships, this kind of good thing can be heard as a joke, but don't take it seriously, you will be stupid to the top.

Although the large ironclad battleship was slow, it had thick armor, fierce firepower, and wide artillery coverage.

Equipped with more than a dozen or twenty main guns at every turn, it is known as the "sea hammer", and when fighting with all its might, it is like a sea beast full of fire, pouring out dense and terrifying large-caliber heavy artillery shells, stirring up a large area of the sea as if it were a pot of porridge.

Not to mention that a single shot is torn into pieces like a toy, even the huge water pressure caused by a close-in arrow bullet can crush and deform a small toy like a Seagull-class light patrol ship, and even cause the hull to rupture and sink.

Therefore, in the Battle of Tsushima more than 20 years later, the collective charge of the destroyers of Fuso Province fired torpedoes, which was known as the "decisive charge".

The third major cooperation between Australia's Red River Valley and Germany's Horvaz Naval Shipyard is for the Red Hill Steel Works to provide marine steel plates that are 10% below market price to offset related costs.

Other words

The Red River Valley and the Horvaz Naval Shipyard were essentially barter, with one side exporting technology and advanced products, and the other side exporting marine steel plates.

Li Fushou is certainly happy to see such a situation, because the marine steel plate of Hongshan Iron and Steel Plant has not yet opened up the most lucrative export market in Europe, and this agreement can be described as an ice-breaking journey, which is of great significance.

It was of great significance not only to the Red Hill Iron and Steel Works, but also to the 19th century United Shipping Company.

Why?

In Australia's direct transoceanic trade routes to Europe, Australia's output of wool or pure wool wool, high-quality coking coal these bulk goods, are typical light materials, even if pressed into a large bag, 5000 tons of ships can not carry 5000 tons of goods, because the capacity is not enough, the pile is too high to affect the safety of ocean shipping.

When the wind and waves of the sea came, even the cargo ship was blown over and sunk.

As for milk candy, milk powder, canned food and other agricultural and animal husbandry products, the quantity is small, and the second is only ordinary goods, which cannot save the storage capacity.

Marine steel plates are different, more than a dozen layers of steel plates are pressed on the bilge, and then loaded with large bags of pure wool wool, or other goods, which are safe and can be loaded with more goods.

The marine steel plate exported by the Red River Valley not only opens the ice of the European market, but also can obtain a lot of income from it by virtue of its resource advantages.

An extra 10 shillings per tonne of steel, and 10,000 tonnes of steel is £5,000, which can drive more value to related industries.

On the occasion of parting

The Earl of Holvaz held Li Fushou's hands tightly, hoping that Li Fushou would have the opportunity to visit the manor located on the outskirts of the city, the apple pie baked by the Countess of Holtz herself is very famous, and the apples are also homegrown in her own apple orchard, which is guaranteed to be absolutely fresh.

Li Fushou politely declined the other party's invitation, and was about to leave Europe, he really had too many things to do.

In the parting greetings

Li Fushou learned from the other party's mouth that the German Royal Navy owed a huge amount of money to the Horvaz Naval Shipyard, up to millions of gold marks, which put the operation of the entire shipyard in a difficult situation.

The German Royal Navy intends to dispose of a batch of steam ironclad warships to pay off the shipyard's debts, and the key is that ordinary people can neither afford to buy nor use this thing, all of which are gold-swallowing monsters.

A large-caliber heavy artillery shell is often worth hundreds of pounds, and more than 20 cannons fired together can cost thousands of pounds, personnel costs, coal costs, maintenance costs, daily operating expenses, etc., just like a bleeding wound, a slightly weaker country simply cannot support it.

Germany was a traditional land power, and the Royal Navy had always had a small portion of its budget, so it had to make a budget.

As a result, poor Count Holvaz had to go around recommending the old ironclad battleships used by the Royal Navy like a street vendor, and after a few years none of them were sold, but instead became a figure in the upper nobility of Munich.

Li Fushou quietly asked about the price, and Count Horvads's eyes lit up and said; "Dear Mr. Lord, the "Cornish William", a big guy with a displacement of 10,933 tons, only needs 150,000 pounds, plus more than 100,000 pounds of rebuilding costs, it is an invincible battleship in the Indian Ocean, and other smaller warships can be 100,000 pounds, that is, the price of two new patrol ships, as long as you are willing to take over, the price is negotiable. ”

"Hehe...... Li Fushou laughed dryly twice and said to the hopeful Earl of Horvatz; There is certainly no such need in the Red River Valley, but I can use my connections to help you ask if there are any Eastern countries willing to take over and hope to help you. ”

Li Fushou is reluctant to jump into this bottomless pit, the price of buying it is indeed cheap, but the cost of reconstruction is high, it is a bottomless pit.

The old horizontal mono-expansion engine has very low thermal efficiency, and if you want to replace the new reciprocating steam engine, you need to rebuild all the pipes, which is equivalent to a big disembowelment of the warship, and you don't have to think about it without a budget of more than 100,000 pounds.

The three tall masts in the front, middle and rear of the warship are connected to the hundreds of tons of pulleys and sail lines, sails and other facilities, and it will cost tens of thousands of pounds to rebuild.

There are many other projects with a wide range of names, and when they end up leaving the factory, they will definitely have to double the original price, and this is just the beginning.

"Your Excellency, Lord Earl of Queensland, are you really unwilling to think about it?"

"Thank you for your kindness, no, I hope I can bring you good news in the East."

"Uh...... Well, hopefully so. Count Horvatz replied with a disappointed expression, and this perfunctory language was usually a polite refusal, and the result would never be seen.