Back in the backyard study, Li Fushouwu felt angry, the British Royal Navy's old silver coins are really fucked, they really slaughtered themselves as fat sheep.

Originally, his plan was to build four heavy cruisers at a cost of about £1 million, the first and second at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in England, and the next six (including four for Queensland's own use) to be built by the Red Hill Shipyard, so as to achieve a magnificent upgrade in naval shipbuilding technology.

The planned heavy cruiser has a displacement of about 5,500 tons, and the maximum can be relaxed to about 6,000 tons, with heavy armor, high speed, and the main gun uses 4 German-made 280 mm naval guns.

The cost standard is to refer to the German Volkeng Naval Shipyard for the Manchu Qing Dynasty built more than 7,000 tons of Dingyuan and Zhenyuan two ships, Germany for the Manchu Qing Dynasty to build these two ironclad warships, each ship cost about 35~360,000 pounds.

Looking at the South Pacific region as a whole, the naval strength of various countries is not strong.

The main ships of the British Far East Fleet stationed in Hong Kong have a displacement of more than 7,000 tons, four German Krupp 305 main guns, and armor up to 355, which is basically a hegemon in the South Pacific region and can run amok.

The four capital ships planned by Li Fushou for the Queensland fleet are equipped with four German Krupp long-barreled 280 mm main guns, and the firepower of the main guns is slightly inferior, but the armor protection capability is stronger, the speed is higher, and the actual combat power is not inferior.

It was enough to have four such heavy cruisers, a shrunken version of the "Majestic" class battleships of Sir William White was not needed at all.

Considering that Harvey armor steel is quite expensive, and the new coal-fired steam engine is not cheap, the cost of a 6,000-ton heavy cruiser should be similar to that of a 7,300-ton Dingyuan ship, which is slightly more expensive.

If you take into account the factor of placing it in the Hongshan Shipyard, the cost can be saved a lot.

More than 80 German expert technicians have been training employees at the Hongshan Shipyard for nearly four months, and the Hongshan Shipyard has initially been able to undertake the construction of heavy cruisers, but all that is owed is practical experience.

Come to think of it

Li Fushou summoned the secretary and commanded;

"Inform Sir William White privately that he should complete the design of a ship according to our design requirements, the displacement requirements may be relaxed to 6,200 tons, a twin 280 mm turret in the front and rear of the main gun, a speed of not less than 22 knots, and a construction cost not more than 350,000 pounds, and ask him to design a heavy cruiser according to this standard.

Oh...... That's right.

The main guns are arranged along the central axis, the high freeboard design is still retained, and the Harvey armor steel plate is used to strengthen the protection, and the construction budget is mainly built by the Hongshan Iron and Steel Plant, which is believed to reduce a large part of the budget. ”

"Understood, I'm here to convey your meaning." The secretary took the order and left.

Looking at the back of the secretary leaving, Li Fushou shook his head with a wry smile, and muttered, "These Brits, they really don't miss the opportunity to climb up the pole, they are all difficult characters." ”

Next

Lord Hugh Howard repeatedly asked to meet Li Fushou, presumably for the sake of the design of the ship, and Li Fushou was so annoyed by this that he simply hid.

He didn't want to follow the baton of the British, since he played yin for me, the young master didn't have the time to accompany him, and directly built four heavy cruisers at the Hongshan Shipyard and sent them, if I didn't want them, I would take them back for my own use.

After making up his mind, Li Fushou was in a much more cheerful mood.

Beilun Town

The ceremony of the formation of the Guards Cavalry Division is approaching, and the streets of Beilun Town are lit up to welcome this grand event, and flaming red lanterns are hung in front of the shops, bringing a strong Chinese festive atmosphere.

Ride through the streets in a horse-drawn carriage

Li Fushou can feel the vitality of this town that blends China and the West, which makes him very gratified, and the duo of Pan Shoudao and Zhang Li is still very powerful, and the town of Beilun is very good.

The larger the urban population, the greater the ability to absorb the working population.

The geographical conditions of Beilun Town are extremely superior, and now the scale is facing the threshold of taking off again, and it is possible to overtake Sydney, whose population has stagnated, in a few years, and achieve corner overtaking.

The more prosperous the development of Beilun Town, the stronger the attraction to talents, which is exactly what Li Fushou is happy to see.

Dozens of minutes later

Li Fushou and Zhang Li, the mayor of Beilun, and others stood on the seaside construction site, where work had long since stopped, surrounded by piles of timber and heavily mined stones, as well as rows of dismantled sheds.

There is a huge building foundation pit near the sea, which has been untended for a long time and has been filled with rainwater and turned into a small square lake.

This is the construction site of the Bay Bridge in Sydney, which has been suspended for half a year.

Li Fushou stood by the big puddle and looked at it, and saw a few fish swimming happily, and couldn't help laughing; "Mayor Zhang, when did you put fish fry in the puddle, it looks very good."

"Lord Earl said with a smile, we wish we could return to work one day earlier, how can we bother to put fish fry in the puddle, this may be the labor who takes care of the construction site is very boring, and we will know when we ask."

"Just keep it, it's not bad to fish in your spare time." The velvet shawl on Li Fushou's body was fluttered by the sea breeze, and he wrapped his body tightly with his hands on both ends, and took a few steps forward to look at the blue strait.

The Sydney Bay Bridge under construction connects the north and south shores, is a typical single-hole large iron bridge, the highest point is 147 meters from the sea surface, and the weight of the entire large iron bridge is carried by the concrete pylons at both ends, so the foundation pit of the bridge tower of the large iron bridge should be dug very deep and large.

The town of Beilun raised £450,000 for the pre-construction of the project, but it was soon halted by the turbulent political situation.

The North Shore construction site is nothing, but the South Shore construction site on the Sydney side has been obstructed by many parties, and even encountered frequent shootings by bandits, and some extreme white elements have openly clamored; "There is not an inch of soil left for the Chinese in Sydney, and if you don't want to die, get out."

Under the blue sea and blue sky

The bay is a thrilling blue color, and the buildings in the distant city are beautiful, but only separated by a strait, but faintly become two opposing worlds.

Li Fushou looked into the distance with complicated eyes, and felt that there was a long way to go.

"Mayor Zhang, are there any recent developments in New South Wales?"

"Some Earls, New South Wales has recently introduced the National Guard Act, which plans to reorganize the Sydney White People's Militia into five regiments, equipped with standard rifles for formal training, with a specific number of more than 9,000 people, and the white herdsmen are still being recruited, which is obviously aimed at us, and the sense of confrontation is very strong."

"Oh, the city of more than 200,000 people has tens of thousands of militias, and this mobilization is not small!"

"Back to Lord Earl, this is only the National Guard plan in the Sydney area, there are many towns in southern New South Wales, and there are many white pastures, and there is no shortage of human resources, I heard that they will be successively reorganized into battalion and company-level white militias, and the combined strength is not weak."

Speaking of this, a trace of melancholy appeared on Zhang Li's face, and he shook his head and continued to say with deep feelings; "White cowboys are generally rude and aggressive, and are extremely unfriendly to immigrants under the hostile propaganda of the Southern States, and now many Chinese immigrants who have lived here for many years have been forced to leave their homes and come to Beilun in search of development opportunities, and they are in a worrying situation!"

"Is this widespread?" Li Fushou asked.

Zhang Li replied; "Since the beginning of this year, hundreds of Chinese compatriots have fled the southern state almost every month because of extremely aggressive persecution and verbal discrimination, and these two months have been slightly better, but there are also five or six hundred people who have come to settle in Beilun Town, many of whom are still seriously injured, and they are almost penniless when they come here, and everything they have struggled for years has been wiped out."

"Has the town done anything about this situation?"

"The town made a special report for this, and with the approval of General Manager Pan, more than 6,000 pounds of special funds were withdrawn from the treasury to help these compatriots who fled from the south, and called on everyone to donate money and materials, raising a total of more than 2,100 pounds and some materials to help them tide over the difficulties, but this money is a drop in the bucket for more and more southern refugees, especially for the treatment of some injured compatriots, which adds a heavy burden to us."

"Well, this issue is really worth paying attention to." Li Fushou nodded with a serious expression, thought about it for a while and said;

"Your town immediately made a report, from the inner treasury to spend 20,000 pounds for the relief of refugees, the healthy give priority to recruitment, so that they have the ability to support themselves as soon as possible, some of the refugees who have been seriously traumatized physically and mentally should strengthen treatment, pay attention to psychological counseling, these funds should be strengthened to supervise the use, especially pay attention to one point, the relief funds are not distributed in cash, all converted into food and medicine are distributed on demand, pay attention to do a good job of registration, do the work more carefully, and some long-term mixed relief people must be resolutely eliminated, We don't keep slackers here. ”

"Understood, Lord Earl, Beilun Town will resolutely follow your instructions." Zhang Li said solemnly.

The wind blows, pushing the waves over and over against the reef on the shore before crashing to pieces.

Li Fushou lost the mood to appreciate the beautiful scenery in front of him at this time, and said with a long sigh; "The trees want to be quiet and the wind doesn't stop, let's go, let's go back, the Sydney Bay Bridge project can't be built in a short time, and the town will focus on other work."

"Understood, Lord Count." Zhang Li bowed and replied.

Li Fushou took one last look at the beautiful blue strait and resolutely turned around and left.

Now that the Red River Valley is entangled in all kinds of things, it is not appropriate to intensify the contradictions between the north and the south, and this matter can only be resolved in the future.

Time is on the side of the Red River Valley, by the end of this year, Australia's population may reach 5 million, and next year it can reach 6 million, of which two-thirds are authentic Chinese immigrants.

Stemming from the natural cohesion of the Chinese compatriots, Li Fushou is confident that he will lead an overwhelming numerically superior immigrant group to win the status of the Juche nation.

Before that, we must work hard to develop ourselves.

North Australia, led by Queensland, is making every effort to achieve industrialization, and after a few years of development, it is bound to leave South Australia far behind, and lead the other side by a large margin from strength to heritage, which will be a contest of disparity in strength, and North Australia will win.

Therefore, Li Fushou is not in a hurry, and let him be rampant, some accounts can be slowly calculated in the future.

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