A confidential dock in Hongshan Shipyard

On the two huge slipways side by side, two "Brave" class cruisers are being built, which are the 7th and 9th ships of this class of cruisers, and the majestic hull of more than 100 meters long is full of the power of the steam age, which is shocking to the heart.

The shipyard workers attached themselves to it, the sparks of welding flew, and from time to time there was the heavy impact of high-pressure riveting guns, like the drums of advancing war.

Four officers in white naval uniforms walked all the way, and in front of them was Lieutenant Colonel Li Sixian, who was the captain of the "Cuckoo" originally stationed in the town of Moresby, who had been promoted for decisively handling the spy infiltration case in the southern state, and had participated in many naval battles.

Walking beside him was Captain Officer Ho Ka Ben, a graduate of the Royal Manchester Naval College, who had distinguished himself in the bombardment of Nagasaki and was a promising young naval officer.

A few steps behind were Lieutenant Chen Mantun and Second Lieutenant Tie Xiong, both members of the Navy Representative Office, who followed closely behind with their brown leather briefcases.

"Brother Jiaben, I recently received a handwritten letter from Brother Zhuzhu, in which I asked me to ask you on my behalf, do you have any correspondence in the near future?" Li Sixian is the sworn brother of Li Xuanzhu, Li Xuanzhu is the second, and the third is Duan Qirui.

He Jiaben was the leader of the student squadron in the Eagle School era, at that time Li Xuanzhu was still his little brother, and six or seven years have passed since graduation.

Now that Li Xuanzhu has been promoted to colonel and deputy division commander of the African Expeditionary Corps, he is one of the high-ranking military officers, and as long as he works in accordance with the rules for a few more years to make up for the shortcomings in his qualifications, he will not be able to run away from the rank of brigadier general, and an officer with old qualifications at the deputy division level can have been promoted to brigadier general.

He Jiaben was still a naval captain, and it was almost delusional to miss the rapid promotion during the war era, and it was almost delusional to catch up with the footsteps of his former little brother.

"I wrote a letter last month, but I haven't received a reply yet." He Jiaben replied as he walked, with no expression on his face.

"The African colonies are too far away, I estimate that it will be at least two or three months before you receive a reply, and the Bolt Pillar brothers have caught up with the good times and left my eldest brother far behind, which is not comparable to ...... Can't compare, now he is a member of the African Expeditionary Force who holds military power, if he attacks the Kingdom of Madagascar in a few years, the bolt brothers may be the first to enter the general industry, which is so enviable! ”

"Sir, I think everyone has their own opportunities, and the future development prospects in the navy are broader, after all, the vast sea frontier still needs the navy to guard, the size of the fleet has been growing steadily, and the strength is gradually improving, so I have confidence in the navy." Captain He Jiaben replied in a firm tone.

"Huh...... That's a good point. ”

Li Sixian laughed twice, looked back at the young officer who was following behind him, Lieutenant Chen Mantun and Second Lieutenant Tiexiong immediately subconsciously slowed down their pace and opened up the distance, leaving room for the commander to talk alone.

Li Sixian lowered his voice somewhat mysteriously and said; "Brother of the family, just by virtue of this relationship between the bolt brothers, you and I are not outsiders, let me tell you a message, our representative office in the annual year-end review of officers, gave you an excellent + score, the director and I are very optimistic about you, after the report has been included in the major rank promotion assessment list, our fleet has expanded rapidly in the past two years, it is estimated that at least seventy percent of the approval is certain, congratulations!"

The good news came too suddenly, Captain He Jiaben's heart jumped violently, and in a blink of an eye, he felt that he was walking lightly, and the ecstasy in his heart was irrepressibly revealed, and he asked with a trembling voice; "Sir, is it true?"

"Of course this kind of big thing can't be faked, see if I'm joking?"

"Thank you for the promotion, the family is grateful."

"You don't need to be so polite, you still need to be hard to strike iron, there is a set of strict standards for officer evaluation, if you don't do well, I can't talk to you, fortunately, I can cross the threshold of the school pass, and be qualified to serve as a captain or other important position on the cruiser in the future, this is a good opportunity for development, we must grasp it well."

"I understand that I will live up to the high expectations of my superiors."

He Jiaben's own positioning is still very accurate, don't look at Deputy Director Li Sixian's "family brother", that is, the chief put down his body to show cordiality, it does not mean that he can shout "Brother Sixian", if you really want to do this, it will be a big joke.

There is a strict hierarchy in the army, and there is no superiority at all, so what is it?

Lieutenant Colonel Li Sixian smiled and nodded, he was still very satisfied with Captain He Jiaben's performance, this is a cautious, detail-oriented young officer, and has a gold-plated diploma to study abroad, he is very favored by the mainstream British faction bosses in the navy, and has a great future.

"Looking at these majestic battleships, it really makes people feel surging, and I hope that in the future, I can drive a heavy cruiser to gallop the sea, and I have no regrets in this life!" Li Siyuan looked at the majestic giant ship on the slipway, and his eyes showed a fiery light.

He Jiaben said in a deep voice; "Sir, I think I have a good chance."

"Oh...... How so? ”

"That's the case, the lowly position can see a pattern from the recently appointed captain candidates, the new cruiser captains are all captains who performed well in the First East Indies War, and the focus is all on the captains of the Seagull cruisers at that time, and none of them have served as deputy captains and navigators, and even the subordinate officers of Commander Geng and Chief of General Staff He do not have, which shows that Shangfeng attaches great importance to the independent command ability of the captain and chief of the ship, which is precisely the advantage of the commander."

Li Sixian raised his eyebrows, it really makes sense when he thinks about it, and it is true.

Commander Geng and Chief of General Staff He are all veterans, and there are not a few who have achieved the posts of colonel or lieutenant colonel, and there is really not a single one who is included in the list of cruiser captains.

"Brother Jiaben, you look at the problem very carefully!" Li Sixian's mood became cheerful, which showed that he had a good chance.

The requirements for the "Brave" class cruisers are different from those of the "Blue Dragon" class heavy cruisers, which require the rank of colonel to be able to serve as captain, and the rank of lieutenant colonel for the "Brave" class cruisers, which is one rank lower.

If you are selected from among the former captains, then you are not inferior to competitors.

This made the corners of Li Sixian's eyebrows filled with joy, the 12 Brave-class cruisers developed by the Navy seem to be quite a lot, but there are also many competitors, and there are no less than 40 people who can be included in the list, and he himself is not sure.

Listening to Captain He Jiaben say this, the competitors in the front row should be at least four or five, then he has a lot of hope.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but feel a stir in his heart, and he felt full of energy, and said with a wave of his big hand; "Let's go, let's carefully weld the compartment of the No. 9 ship today, every inch of the solder joints must be checked for me, and any one that does not meet the quality requirements must be reworked, and there must be high standards, strict requirements, and no sloppiness."

"Yes, sir." The three naval officers of the representative office replied in unison.

It was close to noon

Assistant Luo Yangyi came to the naval slipway under construction, looked around and saw the busy figures everywhere, and did not see the officers of the naval representative office, so he waved to the dock foreman and asked; "What about the people in the representative office?"

"Back to Lord Luo, the chiefs of the representative office are all inspecting in the boat, they are holding flashlights to check the welding process inch by inch, and they almost take a magnifying glass to lie on it and touch it, and hundreds of rectification points have been found in one morning, if this is the case, the work is really impossible to do."

"Oh...... What's going on? ”

"How do I know, welding this thing is a new technology, the best welders in our shipyard can't say that a straight line is all fish scale welding, it's normal to have a little more and less manual operation piles, which fully meets the requirements of military ship construction, and the British Majesty-class battleships we also built like this, how can they have such harsh requirements?"

The foreman was full of complaints, and the assistant Luo Yangyi who listened to it was all too big, and it was his business to deal with the Navy Representative Office, and of course there would be a lot of trouble if the military was demanding.

The steel plate of the warship compartment itself is not armor steel, and it is required to be welded firmly, without water leakage, without dewelding, without trachoma, without virtual welding, and a little more or less weld stacking only affects the appearance, does not affect the practicality, and does not affect the quality.

Just think about it

A heavy artillery shell capable of breaking through the armor steel plates of the cruiser, where can ordinary compartment steel plates be able to block?

The welding requirements of the bulkhead steel plate are anti-sinking, watertight, and not beautiful.

Of course, it would be best if you could make a full and tight fish scale welding wire like a small flower snake, but the vast majority of welders could not do such a requirement, unless there were only a handful of veteran senior welders.

What a hassle!

Assistant Luo Yangyi was a little impatient in his heart, but he still made a serious expression on his face and said; "The shipyard is to serve the construction of the navy, since the representative office has put forward high standards, then we must try our best to complete, so that the naval officers and men can drive high-quality warships to gallop the sea, this is the natural glorious mission of each of our shipyard workers, you as a foreman consciousness can not be low, don't listen to the fart of those workers, have time to organize post training, and improve technology."

"Lord Luo, I'll try my best."

"We can't try our best, but we must do it, the high-quality ships produced by our Hongshan shipyard can't just focus on the second-rate level of Germany and France, but learn from the first-class shipyards in the UK, and strive to catch up with and surpass them, that is the ultimate goal."

The foreman raised his head and looked at Assistant Luo Yangyi with some confusion, and his face obviously showed the emotion of you teasing me, how many years have the British built ships?

Those high-level welders have at least 20 years of experience, and we have only a few years?

Those old qualified riveters in Britain have been playing riveting for more than 30 years, and they have been playing with riveting guns, and they have entered the shipyard since they were fifteen or sixteen years old, and many of them are still in the front-line production positions.

It only takes 4 months and 3 days to build a 13,500-ton ironclad battleship at the Manchester shipyard of the British Royal Navy, and it takes more than 11 months for us to make a lot of effort, this is the gap!

What did the oil seller say; Without him, only familiar hands.

Heavy industrial production is especially a test of heritage, this is not just words, it depends on the accumulation of little by little, who wouldn't brag about it? Shouting slogans can be eaten as food?

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