Chapter Thirty-Three: A Stirring Speech

Facing the warm sunlight that poured in from the window, Huo Shan couldn't help but squint his eyes and stretched his waist greatly!

After putting on his clothes and washing up, he called Lei Zi, who had just pushed the door in, and rushed towards the cafeteria of the academy! Originally, Huo Feng was going to send one or three meals directly to his room! However, in order to experience the feeling of eating in the crowded cafeteria when he was a student in his previous life, Young Master Huo rejected Huo Feng's kindness!

At this time, all the cadets and teachers of the Naval Academy had already finished running the daily compulsory course of 'five-kilometer cross-country' and were leading their own teams; after the instructor gave the order to disband, they walked in twos and threes toward the troop cafeteria not far away! On the road, there were people who knew Huo Shan, and they all saluted and greeted them solemnly.

There are not many people in the Naval Academy, so the restaurant is not too big, of course, limited to the current conditions, the food inside is not as rich as in later generations, which makes Huo Shan a little disappointed.

With Leizi and a few internal guards who came with him, holding fritters and soy milk, after finding a wide dining table casually, a group of people sat down!

To be honest, this time he came to the college cafeteria for dinner, Huo Shan admitted that he had miscalculated!

Looking at the concerned eyes and whispers around him, his meal was really not delicious! He had no choice but to eat it! As a result, the Chinese food that was originally slandered has now become a cow chewing peonies, and he doesn't know the taste!

Walking out of the restaurant in some embarrassment, Huo Shan let out a long breath, under the attention of hundreds or thousands of people, eating breakfast is really not a human job!

"Young Master, I'm just about to look for you!" When I just came out of the restaurant, I happened to meet Huo Feng who came in a hurry!

"What's the matter?"

Looking at his somewhat ugly face, Huo Feng asked differently: "Young Master, why is your face so ugly, who is this angry with!" Hearing his words, Young Master Huo couldn't help but roll his eyes, and replied angrily: "Can thousands of people feel good watching you eat a meal?"

"Hehehe, young master, when you gave Huo Shi and their army lessons, wasn't it natural to face so many high-ranking officers at the same time, why can't you do it today!"

"Can that be the same? Forget it, don't talk about it! Are you in a hurry to find me now?" Huo Shan then asked.

"Oh, that's right! Yesterday, after everyone learned that the young master had come to Saipan, the teachers and students of the whole school were very excited, and strongly hoped that the young master could give everyone a lesson!"

"What's the matter!" Huo Shan asked with some disbelieving. He didn't know that he still had such prestige and charm in the navy.

"Yes! The book "Theory of Sea Power" written by the young master has always been regarded as a classic in our naval academy, and many naval cadets and teachers are crazy admirers of it! Therefore, now that we have met the author of this classic book, of course, we must listen carefully to the teachings! Also, those naval talents we have recruited from the Mawei Naval Academy and the four major naval divisions of the Qing Dynasty also need you to come forward to appease the people's hearts! After all, they have only just joined our revolutionary ranks not long ago!"

Young Master Huo's demagogic methods, he has learned many times!

After listening to his words, Huo Shan couldn't help but nod thoughtfully, and secretly thought in his heart: "These talents who have been plundered by dishonorable means are the seeds of the expansion of the navy in the future, and it is very necessary to transform them into staunch supporters of the revolution! Besides, it doesn't matter if you go to the United States a day late!"

Thinking of this, he glanced up at Huo Feng, who was full of anticipation, he nodded with a smile and said, "Then let's go!"

Soon, the news that the instructor was going to give a public lecture in the auditorium of the academy spread throughout the academy, and a large number of teachers and students put down their work and training and rushed over at once! Everyone wanted to listen to it for themselves, and wrote so many speeches by a naval master of classic strategy and tactics and a master of naval warfare.

"Hurry up, a few times, otherwise it's too late, there will be no seats!" Xu Shoushan pulled Yan Fu and hurried towards the large hall located behind the academy!

Although it's very uncomfortable to be pulled and run like this, I can't take care of so much at this time!

Beside the two of them, naval cadets wearing white sè naval uniforms and rushing towards the auditorium could be seen everywhere.

The specifications of the auditorium are in accordance with the design of Huo Shan's later generations, with rows of seats extending backwards in a stepped shape, which not only saves space, but also does not block the sight of the people behind.

At this time, the auditorium, which was originally designed to carry a capacity of 500 people, had already filled up to nearly 1,000 people! Looking at the students who didn't grab seats and stood in the aisle, Huo Shan was still a little surprised by his appeal!

These are not the army that is often brainwashed by him! The main personnel of the navy, most of them are still the escorts of the Huo family's fleet, and the naval personnel of the four major fleets of the Qing Dynasty, and the soldiers recruited from the army are only a minority here!

Although these navy soldiers have no problem in their loyalty to the Huo Jiajun! However, they do not have the crazy admiration for themselves like the army generals! He is very confident in the results brought about by the propaganda methods of the army that combine the methods of pyramid marketing in later generations.

"Is the young master still very popular?" Huo Shan looked at it, and was already standing on the podium, and thought with secret satisfaction in his heart.

Seeing that the people were almost there, he didn't wait any longer, turned around and walked towards the high platform in the middle of the field, there was no megaphone at this time, but on the lecture table, there was a copy of "The Theory of Sea Power" written by himself.

Although he has lectured many times, being watched by so many people for the first time still makes him instinctively a little unaccustomed. Fortunately, he himself knew how many pounds and taels he had, so he had been insisting on studying for the past six months, relying on the huge knowledge of his past life on the computer, combined with the information collected by the Intelligence Bureau! Now, although he is not as familiar with military affairs as professional personnel, his insight beyond the times still makes him a step ahead in national strategy!

"To be honest, it's the first time I've stood on the podium and given a speech to thousands of people, and I'm really a little nervous!

After a round of warm applause, Huo Shan continued: "Everyone knows that the most powerful country in the world today is the British Empire! Its land area is not even as large as that of a province in China, with a population of 20 or 30 million, and it is only one-twentieth of China, but such a country occupies more than one-third of the world's population and land, and is spread over all continents of the world, and is known as the Empire of Empire! So how did such a country rise?"

After glancing at the crowd listening attentively in the audience, Huo Shan said heavily: "Navy! Relying on the navy that spans the seven seas! Over the past few hundred years, they have defeated Spain, defeated the Netherlands, and even defeated the invincible Napoleonic France in the Battle of Trafalgar! Completely established its position as the world's first empire! In 1865, the British economist Jevons once described it like this: The plains of North America and Russia are our cornfields, Canada and the Baltic Sea are our forest areas, Australia is our pastures, Peru is our silver mines, South Africa and Australia are our gold mines, India and China are our tea plantations, the East Indies are our sugar cane, coffee, spice plantations, and the southern United States is our cotton plantations. From this blunt description, it is clear that the Victorian splendor now shines on Britain, and the whole world is enveloped in its hegemony. It can be seen from this that the navy and sea power are important to a country, so what does it mean to be a strong navy?"

"Strong national strength, advanced industry, numerous talents, bases and waterways all over the world!"

"Only with these four elements can we truly become a strong navy!"

"First of all, we know that a warship needs a lot of money to build, maintain, replenish ammunition, and pay the crew, so how much money do you need to maintain dozens or hundreds, or even hundreds of warships? I am afraid that this number is unimaginably huge! It can be seen from here that the strength of a country's national strength, and also the most important economic strength, will directly determine the size of the country's naval fleet! Since the defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, the indemnity of 5 billion gold francs and the huge cost of rebuilding the army have seriously slowed down the pace of construction of the French navy, and the only way to do this is to rely on the construction of torpedo boats for coastal defense to protect its harbors and cities, and to resist the pressure from the British Royal Navy, which is getting stronger and stronger from above! The decline of the country's economic strength has directly led to the fall of such a world's second naval power that can compete with Britain! It can be seen from this that a country's national strength is important to the country's naval construction!" After a pause, Huo Shan continued: "Looking at the next important factor 'advanced industry', many of us are from the Beiyang, Nanyang, Many of the four major naval fleets of the Qing Dynasty, such as Fujian, had studied in Europe and had interned in the fleets of the British and French naval powers, so they should have some understanding of Europe's big industries and the advanced equipment on their warships; to be honest, compared with our Mawei Shipyard and Jiangnan Shipyard, the warships built by themselves are much more advanced! However, why can't we build the kind of ironclad giant ships that exceed 10,000 tons? Are we not the personnel who have no personnel to do it? I'm afraid not, we have also built our own naval warships! Therefore, although we do not have as many shipbuilding talents as Westerners, we have retained a contingent of workers who are not much worse than them in our two shipyards! Under such circumstances, the reason why we are inferior to other people's warships is that our backward industry is far inferior to the powerful industries that have undergone the first industrial revolution and developed for several decades! The equipment of the shipyards is outdated, the iron and steel mills have not been able to produce qualified steel so far, and the steam engines have always broken down frequently! This is the reality of our shipbuilding industry now!