()ps:ps: Thank you for the great reward to the Easterners, such as "Dream Awakening Moment", "Thousands of Trees and Pear Blossoms", "??er", "Ivan Jade", "SCCSDC", "Dream Breaking Army", etc.

Chapter 193 Keelung Shipyard

As soon as he got off the train, Huo Feng was bustling here, and the lively scene was hot, he had not been to Keelung for more than half a year, and he couldn't come back to his senses for a while!

"What, you're surprised, aren't you?" Chen Zhaoao, the chief designer of Keelung Shipyard, vice president of the Ship Design Institute, and academician of the Academy of Sciences, who came to pick him up, couldn't help but ask with a smile.

"Yes, now I still remember the first time I came to Keelung to send Huo Hu and their army to the war zone, at that time the shipyard had not yet been established, and the steel plant had just started production! There is no current railway, although there are more than 100,000 people in the whole Keelung, but there are more fishermen, and the whole city looks lifeless! I didn't expect that less than three years have passed, and this place has changed greatly! I haven't been here for half a year, and I almost can't recognize it!" Huo Feng couldn't help but say with some sighs.

"Yes! Keelung now is not what it used to be, and the population has exceeded 500,000, and the number of factories here has become more and more! The economy has also become more and more developed! Especially after the opening of the Taiwan Ring Island Railway, this trend of development has also become more obvious! Now I hope that the young master will soon march into the mainland, defeat the Qing Dynasty, and dominate the world! At that time, our country and our people will not have to endure the exploitation of foreigners as they are now!"

"Hehe, what Brother Heting said is reasonable! I believe that this day is not far from us!" Huo Feng said with a confident smile.

"Alright. Don't talk about this! This kind of thing will be considered by the young master and the prime minister, so let's talk about our warships. It's been revised so many times in the middle of the process, and now it's finally finalized! Now it's up to your shipyard! You must have finished refitting them sooner?"

Looking at his appearance, Chen Zhaoao couldn't help but smile, "Your five wooden-hulled cruisers are not too troublesome to change, add waterline steel armor, replace steam engines and naval guns, remove redundant secondary guns, sails and ramming angles, and it can be completed in half a year! But the other eight ironclad ships are a little more troublesome! They are seriously damaged." Moreover, the structure of the warships has aged and cannot be adapted to our new twin-mounted 152-mm naval guns and twin-mounted 203mm naval guns! In addition, they have to be replaced with boilers and steam engines, a fire control system, a spindle, and even a rearrangement of superstructures such as chimneys and conning towers! In short, these eight warships have to be changed in almost everything except a layer of iron sheets, and I really don't know how your navy can still look at such a thing that is completely outdated. Doesn't it match our current logistics system at all?"

Listening to his words, Huo Feng couldn't help but touch his nose in embarrassment, these battleships could have been left by him! But this person in front of him was the benefactor of the navy, and if he wanted a good battleship, he couldn't help without anyone, so he couldn't offend!

At this time, the carriage that picked them up also came! Huo Feng hurriedly pulled him up!

Because Young Master Huo hated the violent bumps on the carriage. Taiwan's highways have been built very quickly, and the main roads in the city are basically all paved! Therefore, the good road conditions have made the carriage much more comfortable, and the speed is much faster than before!

Because steel mills and shipyards are highly polluting. And it also needs to be kept secret, so at the beginning of construction. Huoshan placed them all in the suburbs of Keelung City! And it was not very far from the Keelung Railway Station, which had just been built, so after half an hour of running, the two came to the huge field of Keelung Shipyard!

After nearly three years of all-out development, the current Keelung Shipyard has become a special steel mill, a naval gun production plant, a steam engine production plant, a boiler factory, and other sub-factories, with a total annual shipbuilding tonnage of nearly 150,000 tons! The largest shipyard in the entire Far East! Huo Jiajun's 35 percent passenger and cargo ships of all kinds, and more than half of the navy's warships, are all produced here! If the enemy blows up this huge shipyard, then Huo Jiajun's shipbuilding capacity will be directly lost more than half! Of course, the probability of this happening in Keelung, which is densely packed with shore artillery and has a regiment of jǐng reserve troops stationed, is too small!

"Brother Heting, I haven't been here for more than half a year, and your Keelung shipyard has expanded a lot!" Huo Feng walked in the wide and busy field with great interest, looking left and right, and said loudly with a voice in his mouth, as if admiring and excited.

"Hehe, if the shipyard is bigger, won't you be able to build more warships, which is something that your navy can't ask for?"

Listening to his words, Huo Feng couldn't help but touch his nose, but although he was guessed what he was thinking this time, there was not the slightest embarrassment on his face! For Huo Feng, as long as there are more and more navies, it will be stronger and stronger, as for what others say, it has nothing to do with him at all!

"Well, why are these two guys here?" Huo Feng couldn't help but widen his eyes with curiosity as he looked at the two young men in lieutenant colonel uniforms who were pointing at the battleship in the distance!

"What else can you do, of course you are here to repair the battleship! Your navy guys are now almost a tradition, replace the gun barrel every half a month, and overhaul it every month! The money spent on this alone every year is nearly 10 million silver dollars, that is, the young master is generous, so accustomed to you, if you change to other countries, I'm afraid their naval logistics department and the Ministry of Finance will not be able to stand it for a long time!" Chen Zhaoao couldn't help but shake his head and sighed! However, although this kind of high-intensity training has greatly increased the wear and tear of the warships, it has indeed trained some naval soldiers who are rich in theory, have solid training, and have superb skills! The reason why Huo Jiajun has maintained a good combat capability despite the continuous expansion of the navy is that it has a great deal to do with this kind of hard training!

"Brother Heting, if this is not the case, how can we defeat the combined escort fleet of the Netherlands and Portugal, and how can we stabilize the South Seas in one fell swoop! Therefore, when our navy is in urgent need of qualified soldiers and the quality of the navy needs to be improved urgently, such a price is worth it! It is also necessary to pay!"

Hearing his words, Chen Zhaoao couldn't help but nodded! Just as Huo Feng said just now, for the final victory of the war, these monetary costs have become necessary!

"Looking at this appearance, the Mingxiang-class battleship will be able to be launched in more than half a year! I don't know how the military department will choose the captain when the time comes?" Sa Zhenbing said with envy on his face as he looked at the majestic steel hull lying on the slipway, which had already revealed its majestic steel hull, and was busy with workers coming in and out.

"Yes, with a displacement of more than 5,000 tons, it is more than twice that of the current Admiral-class destroyers, plus five twin 152mm naval guns L45 naval guns, and a speed of 20 knots, it is a new type of sea heavy cavalry! If we encounter a thick-skinned ironclad battleship like the Dutch Seven Provinces Alliance and the Portuguese Queen Maria, we don't have to fight as hard as we did in the Battle of Engano Island!" Lan Jianshu remembered the scene when they concentrated their nine general-class destroyers and fought for more than half an hour before finally destroying all the combat power of those two sea giant beasts, and couldn't help but say with a sigh!

"Well, yes! Now we only need to wait until the end of the year for the first batch of four Mingxiang-class light cruisers to be launched for sea trials, and with the refitted Seven Provinces Soyuz and Queen Maria, we will have six warships of more than 5,000 tons by then! At that time, there will be no one in the Far East who will be our opponent anymore!" said Sa Zhen Ice God proudly and confidently.

"Hehe, it's a good idea, but you still have to train hard!"

Hearing these somewhat familiar words, the two hurriedly turned around, and only after seeing clearly the group of people walking towards them did they hurriedly salute and said: "Sa Zhenbing, the captain of the destroyer Le Yi, and Lan Jianshu, the captain of the destroyer Baiqi, have met the minister!"

He shook his hand with a smile, and a hint of obvious appreciation flashed in his eyes, "Okay, it's not in the barracks now, so you don't have to be so polite!" After a pause, "Why is it just the two of you, and the others on your battleship?"

Hearing his words, a trace of hesitation flashed on Sa Zhenbing's face, but in the end, he said honestly: "Because the two warships are being repaired, except for a few soldiers left on duty, everyone else has gone to Keelung City!" In an era when there is no Internet, no television, and even few books, being a soldier is really a very boring thing! The army is relatively better, they have regular vacations almost every month! But the navy is different, they are usually crowded in a small cabin, often adrift on the sea for several months, and they can't even see the shadow of the land, let alone take vacations! Therefore, every time the navy has very few opportunities to call at the port, and it is also very rare! As the minister of the Admiralty, of course he understands this! Moreover, under the influence of Huo Shan, Huo Feng, who has always loved his soldiers very much, only nodded and did not say anything!

"Since you two are here, go up with me!!See how this battleship that makes you envy is built!" Huo Feng couldn't help but smile and said!

"Yes, thank you, Minister!"

Nodding with a smile, Huo Feng took Chen Zhaoao, who came with him, and walked towards the slipway with his feet!