After the visit, Li Fushou and his entourage were warmly received by the shipyard, and after intensive negotiations between the relevant personnel and the shipyard, the two sides agreed to further deepen the cooperation intention and start the project.

First of all, the German Horvaz Naval Shipyard will send 120 senior shipyard technicians to the Hongshan Shipyard to teach advanced shipbuilding technology, and accept the technical backbone of the Australian Hongshan Shipyard to study in Germany to form close technical cooperation.

The relevant technology transfer and personnel costs will be paid by the Red River Valley side, and the Horvaz Naval Shipyard will appropriately reduce or exempt them based on the long-term consideration of the friendship between the two sides.

Secondly, the two sides jointly launched the "Coastal Fast Patrol Ship" project.

This is a fast patrol ship project tailored for the Red River Valley in Australia, and the main technical indicators of this class of ships have been set after gathering opinions from all parties and the needs of users.

The fast patrol ship is designed with a wave-piercing hull with a length-to-width ratio of 7.6:1, a displacement of 960 tons, a crew of 37 people, a design speed of 23 knots, a single-shaft drive, and the use of the latest reciprocating steam engine.

The bow of the ship is equipped with a German-made 239 mm main gun, four Belgian 70 mm secondary guns, four Gatling hand-cranked heavy machine guns, and four steam torpedo tubes.

It can be seen that this is a type of fast ship that is known for its speed and takes into account firepower strikes, and its performance indicators are quite advanced.

The class of ships is named the "Seagull" class patrol ship, which will be designed by the Horvaz shipyard and approved by the Royal German Surveyors Association, and will be built at the Red Hill Shipyard in Australia by exporting relevant technology from the Holvaz shipyard.

Eight ships of this class are expected to be built, each costing 860,000 gold marks, about 43,000 pounds, which is equivalent to the construction of a new 12,000-ton ocean-going freighter, with a total value of 6.88 million gold marks.

Even local tyrants such as Li Fushou not only gasped for such a high price, but also felt helpless.

That's right, the current world naval equipment market is such a price market, small displacement warships are expensive, and the price of large displacement ironclad battleships is even higher, and it is not a money-burning game that ordinary people can afford to play.

Taking the German cutting-edge ironclad battleship "Deutschland" as an example, its displacement of 8,939 tons, mainly armed with 8 254mm guns, is a cutting-edge battleship launched in September 1874, the cost is as high as 8.17 million German marks, about 398,000 pounds.

In order to reduce the acquisition cost, the German Royal Navy had to pinch its nose and use the old horizontal single expansion engine, which is what Count Holvaz called the traditional power configuration, resulting in the ship's speed only being maintained at 12.2 knots, slightly lower than the level of the British ships of the same period.

But the problem is that the British Royal Navy's ships of the same period have a displacement of 12,000 tons, can run an average speed of 13 knots, and the firepower is twice that of the "Deutschland", and the protection is also far exceeded.

From this point of view alone, Germany is not half a star ahead.

The Royal Navy also paid a heavy price for this, and the cost of ordering was far higher than that of the "Deutschland", thanks to the use of eight of the latest large reciprocating steam engines, 24 new coal-fired boilers, and newly developed high-hardness carburized armor steel, the order cost is said to have reached a staggering 640,000 pounds.

The synonym of advanced is expensive, and this is very evident on the "Seagull" class offshore patrol ships.

This is actually a first-class light high-speed destroyer, which has a significant increase in cost due to the new design of the streamlined hull, along with the use of two medium-sized reciprocating steam engines 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.

Ten more shillings are earned for a tonne of steel, and 10,000 tonnes of steel is £5,000, which can drive more value from 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. ”

"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.