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"Return to the original station?" Huo Long was surprised, it was too far from what he had expected. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

"Young Master, this, are you thinking about it again......" Huo Long hesitated.

After waving his hand to interrupt what Huo Long was about to say, Huo Shan continued: "I know what you want to say? But our campaign to fully occupy Vietnam will be postponed after the Qing court and France sign a peace agreement, do you understand?"

"Yes, young master!" Although he didn't know what Huo Shan's idea was, Huo Long still strictly followed the order.

"Well, the French in Vietnam can't move for the time being, but there's one place where you don't have to wait any longer. ”

"Young Master, where?"

Compared with Huo Long's anxiety, Huo Shi, who has now stepped down as chief of the general staff, and Huo Feng, the minister of the navy, who is in charge of the military affairs of the Qing Dynasty's internal base areas, are much calmer.

"Siam"

"Siam?" said the three of them in surprise.

"Yes, Siam is now one of the few independent countries in Asia! Originally, I wanted to use the battle of Indochina last, but now we are in urgent need of labor for the development of various provinces and cities in the Americas, so now we have to take Siam first!" Huo Shan explained.

Among the countries in Southeast Asia, the population of Siam is not inferior to that of Vietnam, probably more than 13 million, but in recent years, the Huo family army has been quietly plundering the population in the base area of Siam, and then exported to Nanyang, which is now the provinces and cities of the Americas. In more than seven years, about two million people have left Siam!

However, the remaining population of Siam is still very sizable, and the entire Indochina Peninsula is six countries. There are about 40 million people, and in addition to about 10 million Chinese, the remaining 30 million Tai, Malay, and Khmer are all targets of the Huoshan purge. Of course, they are also the cheap labor prepared by Huoshan for the development of provinces and cities in the Americas.

Of course, Huo Shan is not ready to kill these people, if they can survive the labor and not die under the condition that the development of the Americas is almost the same, then Huo Shan will be merciful and let them go.

"I understand, young master, I'll do it immediately!" Huo Long stood up as he spoke.

Siam still retains its political integrity to this day. Moreover, the terrain in the country is flat, the small peasant economy is developed, and the society is relatively stable. It is close to the coast and relatively rich in the country, and playing such a place is definitely not much worse than the United States in terms of money.

"The military order is not in a hurry. Siam is right there. It can't run, why are you in a hurry?"

"You sit down first, I still have something to ask you?" Huo Shan said with a wave of his hand.

"Yes, young master!"

"Well, let me ask you, how many people are there in our Qing troops in Guangxi now, and how many troops can they control now?"

Because I have long known that the Qing-French War will start, and it also involves the overall situation of the northbound strategy. So Huo Shan was as early as five years ago, when he had just occupied Nanyang. He had already begun to order the Military Intelligence Bureau to begin to place intelligence personnel in the Qing Army's Green Battalion, Hunan Army, and Huai Army.

A lot of money and experience was spent on the MIA, and now that five years have passed, it is time to reap the fruits of labor.

"Young master, now we have entered the Qing army in Guangxi, the highest military rank is the general, now there are a total of 5 generals, 12 thousand are always our people, and the soldiers under our control are about 5,000 people. Although he didn't know why Huo Shan asked this, Huo Long still replied quickly.

"Five thousand?

"Huo Shi!"

"Young Master, please command!" Huo Shi snapped and stood up.

"Well, after you go back later, you will immediately take enough personnel to Guangzhou-Southwest-Ning, have a round with Huo Hu, form an advance headquarters to the north, and make all the preparations before the war starts, and then wait for my orders!"

"Yes, young master!" Huo Shi said with an excited face.

Hearing this, Huo Long and Huo Feng's faces showed envy almost at the same time. It's a pity that in order to avoid suspicion, they are destined to not be able to participate in this huge war of liberation.

"Huo Feng, what are you looking for me?"

"Young master, the design of the Admiralty's next episode of heavy cruisers has been finalized!" said Huo Feng took out a stack of documents from his briefcase and put them in front of Huo Shan.

Originally, the design of heavy cruisers began in 83, but after the trials and tribulations of the Nasang-class light cruisers, the design of larger and more demanding heavy cruisers was also extremely cautious.

Wei Han, Chen Zhaoao, Zheng Qinglian and other top warship designers in the Huo Jiajun Navy, after the successful launch of the light cruiser for sea trials, once again concentrated on the debate for a year, and finally came up with the complete design plan of the next 'Zhenhai' class heavy cruiser.

Zhenhai class, ship type: heavy cruiser, normal displacement 9500 tons, full load 11250 tons, length 189.5 meters, width 19 meters, draft 5.98 meters.

Power: 12 boilers, 4 three-rise four-cylinder steam engines, maximum output of 45,000 horsepower, maximum speed of 25 knots. It has a range of 8,000 nautical miles / 14 knots.

Armament: 12 triple 210mm/45 caliber main guns, 6 twin 130mm rapid-fire guns, 8 single 76mm rapid-fire guns, 16 37mm machine guns, and 24 double-mounted Fang-2 heavy machine guns. 4 quadruple 450mm torpedo tubes. Two water reconnaissance airships.

Armor: broadside waterline main armor belt: 200 mm, armored deck: 55 mm, mine bulkhead longitudinal wall: 35-55 mm, main gun turret: 210 mm (frontal), gun mount: 76-138 mm, total armor weight: 3480 tons.

Crew: 678 people.

After reading the data on the data, Huo Shan nodded.

Although the Zhenhai-level materials are not excellent in the 20th century, they are good enough in this era. However, excellent warships are also not cheap, and the cost of the Zhenhai-class is 6 million Huaxia coins, which is equivalent to 1.5 million pounds, which is more than double the cost of the Mingxiang-class light cruisers.

“...... According to the young master's orders, the Zhenhai class built four ships in advance. They are Zhenhai, Jinghai, Fubo, and Yuanyang!"

After listening to Huo Feng, the information in Huo Shan's hand was roughly browsed.

"Very good, I agreed! You can go to the shipyard and place an order!"

"Yes. Young Master!" After agreeing, Huo Feng rubbed his hands and continued with a hint of eagerness on his face: "Young Master, you see that our navy now has so few ships, do you want to build us a few more?"

"Are there still fewer warships in the Navy?"

"Of course there are few? Now all the forty-eight frigates of the Sea Eagle class have been handed over to the Coast Guard! Now we have forty general-class destroyers and eight converted coast guard ships left in our navy! It is really stretched to take care of the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans, young master!" Huo Feng said with a bitter expression.

Listen to him. Huo Shan was not surprised.

The construction of forty-eight Seahawk-class warships was a product of the shortage of warships in the Huo family, although it was said to be a warship. But in addition to the first eight, the rest is not only firepower, but also in terms of speed, hull structure and protection. All are basic to the standards of civilian vessels. Later, after the establishment of the Huaxia Republic and the official separation of the navy, the 48 Seahawk-class frigates were simply allocated to the coast guard.

"There will be no major war in the Huaxia Republic in the next ten years, what do you want so many warships for, and aren't you already allowed to build 8 light cruisers and 16 new-type Seahawk 2 frigates? Together with these four Zhenhai-class heavy cruisers, a total of 28 warships and 120,000 tons of shipbuilding tonnage. By the end of the Second Five-Year Plan in 1890, the Navy would have 250,000 tons. With 76 warships, it should surpass Italy and become the fourth in the world, are you still not satisfied with your navy?"

"Moreover, now that the domestic funds have been invested in economic development, there is no extra money for you to build ships!"

"Young Master, we don't need the Government Council to allocate funds, our Admiralty has already raised the money ourselves......" As soon as Huo Shan's voice fell, Huo Feng hurriedly said beside him.

"You've already raised the money?" Huo Shan was stunned.

However, after seeing the excited smile on Huo Feng's face and the trace of a bitter smile on Huo Long's face, a hint of surprise flashed in Huo Shan's eyes.

"I said just now, I just said that I was going to fight Siam, Huo Long was so excited? It seems that the small treasury of the military department has been scraped off a lot by you, right?"

After listening to Huo Shan's words, Huo Feng scratched his head, but there was no trace of shame on his face.

"Hehe, it's not much! a little, just a little!" Although he said this, looking at Huo Feng, who was about to crack the back of his ear, and Huo Long, who was sighing helplessly next to him, this amount was not small.

"Tell me, what kind of warship is your Admiralty planning to build!" Huo Shan said with a smile.

Since it was the military department itself that raised money to build warships, he didn't want to care about it.

"Hehe, young master, we want to build 2 more Zhenhai-class heavy cruisers, 4 Mingxiang-class light cruisers, and 8 Seahawk-2 frigates. ”

The Seahawk 2 frigate is an enlarged version of the original Seahawk frigate, with a displacement increased to 2,000 tons, and is armed with a twin 130mm naval gun, 3 single-mounted 76mm rapid-fire guns, and 5 single-mounted 37 rapid-fire guns, 12 heavy machine guns, a speed of 21 knots, and a range of 4000 nautical miles/10 knots!

It is mainly responsible for patrolling shipping lanes, coastal defense, and supporting landings.

After listening to Huo Feng's words, Huo Shan glanced at Huo Long with a smile and said, "Huo Long, it seems that you are very generous, as soon as you make a move, it will be 20 million Chinese yuan!"

"Young Master, I was also entangled by him, I really can't help it!, and the strength of the navy really needs to be strengthened!" Huo Long said with a wry smile.

"Hmm!" nodded, looking at the nervous look on Huo Feng's face, Huo Shan nodded.

"Well, I agree to the Admiralty's plan!"

"Great, thank you, young master!" Huo Feng jumped up happily.

"However, don't be too happy! I allow you to build these warships, but after they are commissioned, all eight coast guard ships must be decommissioned, except for the largest tonnage of sea guard No. 1 and No. 2 handed over to the Naval Academy as training ships, the remaining six are all demolished, and one is not left!"

After listening to Huo Shan's words, the joyful expression on Huo Feng's face suddenly froze. (To be continued.) )