10 Downing Street, June 1828.

In the cramped conference room of the British Prime Minister's residence, a key cabinet meeting is being held.

Prime Minister Duke Wellington and his cabinet members, each of them has a large stack of "ship PPT" in front of them, in the Ming Empire all over the world to engage in "heroes and heroes takeaway", the British Empire's major shipyards and warship designers are also working overtime to do "PPT".

Britain today is not the old imperialist country that will decline gracefully in the future, but an empire on which the sun never sets. Although her industrial scale and technical level are a lot worse than Daming, this does not mean that the British do not strive for the gap in scale and level, because of the factors of population and golden fingers!

And the empire that knows that the sun does not set as good as the Ming Dynasty, of course, can only work harder to engage in 996 - now there is no eight-hour work week and weekends, and the British side is working hard 12 hours a day, even child labor is no exception! If you don't believe in God and have to stay a day for worship, then it should be 997.

In contrast, Daming has an 8-hour working system plus four days off per month (the first day, the second day of the new year, the fifteenth day, and the sixteenth), and there are many other miscellaneous holidays.

With the efforts of a large group of 996 engineers and designers, and at the same time referring to the design drawings and technical parameters of the Ming "heroes", at the beginning of June, the Duke of Wellington finally received the latest "dumpling ship" plan from the British Empire.

By the way, the new battleship program that invited a large group of "friendly countries" to jointly develop is actually a cover for paralyzing the opponent, and what the British Empire needs is a "dumpling" that can be placed immediately, not a "future dumpling" that cannot be made in five years, because there is not much time left for the British Empire.

Three years of preparation, five years of peace. No day is wasted!

"15,600 tons of standard displacement, 6 twin 9.2-inch turrets, 24 3-inch rapid-fire guns, 2 1.85-inch rapid-fire guns, 36 anti-aircraft machine guns or guns, 5 18-inch torpedo tubes, maximum speed of 18 knots, equipped with 15 coal-fired boilers and vertical three-expansion steam engines, the maximum power of the main engine is 16,000 horsepower, this is a modification of the Sovereign class?"

The Duke of Wellington put down the stack of documents in his hand and looked at Viscount Palmerston, the Lord of the Admiralty, and asked.

"Yes," said Viscount Palmerston, "all the Sovereign classes that have been commissioned and are under construction will be rebuilt according to this plan, and we will also build a new batch of battleships of this class. The Admiralty hopes that all the docks and slipways that can build 20,000-ton battleships can complete the construction of a monarch's hull or a major hull overhaul before the construction of our Heroes class starts in large numbers. Although this class of battleships is inferior to the hero class in all aspects, they are stronger than the Hongwu Emperor class of the Ming Dynasty, and they are enough to defeat the Haohan class in naval battles. If you fight a hero, you should be able to defeat one hero with 2 Monarchs, so the Admiralty thinks it's very cost-effective to build a lot of Monarchs. In the future, it may be possible to make the hero and the monarch reorganized into a high-low combination. ”

"Good, that's good!" The Duke of Wellington nodded, and began to continue looking through the information, "Hey, why don't you have the information on the Han-class armored cruiser?" This is. Heavy artillery cruisers? ”

First Sea Lord, Earl Nelson, frowned and said, "Duke, according to our original plan, the main task of the armored cruiser is to break the diplomatic relationship. We expect war to break out in India, North America, and Australia. The Ming will be the first to attack, and their vast army will come across the ocean in warships and merchant ships to fight for new living space for their growing population. We will defeat them by luring the enemy deep and then attacking their lines of communication at sea, while the main fleet stealth and waiting for an opportunity to fight a decisive battle.

This requires equipping capital ships with strong firepower and protection, as well as breaking cruisers with high speed, because we are at least one generation behind the Ming Dynasty in terms of the main engine of the battleship, so we can't design a battleship with strong speed, protection, and firepower, so we can only make trade-offs. And the speed of the broken cruiser is obviously more important than firepower and armor. Therefore, the shipbuilding experts of the Admiralty recommended the construction of a heavy artillery cruiser with a standard displacement of 10,000 tons, equipped with at least four 9.2-inch guns, capable of running at a maximum speed of 23 knots with 18,000 horsepower of coal-fired steam.

At the same time, the high-speed heavy artillery cruiser had to carry more coal to ensure that it could hold out long enough in the waters behind enemy lines. Therefore, the limited tonnage of this battleship has to give priority to the needs of artillery and its servo system, power compartment and coal tank, and the requirements for armor protection cannot be too high. ”

"But how much coal does this ship have to load to ensure its long-term operation behind enemy lines?" The Duke of Wellington then inquired.

"2,000 tons," said Earl Nelson, "we hope it can reach 15,000 nautical miles at an economic speed of 10 knots." At the same time, we will also be refitting a number of East India galleons to serve as armed supply vessels behind enemy lines. In addition, we will design and modify a fleet of fast merchant ships to serve as supply ships behind enemy lines and camouflage attack ships. ”

"Sounds good!" The Duke of Wellington nodded, "But the name of the Monarch and the Hero is too informal, I think the first ship of the Monarch can be called the Indomitable (using the name of the Indomitable that was sunk after the Battle of Kiyin Waterway), symbolizing the indomitable and rebirth of the Royal Navy!" And the lead ship of the Hero class can be named Victory. It will be a new generation of HMS Royal Navy Victory! I hope that when the new generation of Royal Navy Victory class is put into service in large numbers, it will be the time when our British Empire will win victory against the great powers of the East! ”

Xishan Palace, Beijing.

Today is a good day for Zhuge Weidao and Natalie, who had just returned from Rakshasa not long ago, to enter the palace to bid farewell to the Empress Dowager Zheng. Zhuge who grew up drinking "imported milk" looks a lot older than an ordinary one-year-old hairy child, and he walks swaggeringly, very imposing, and his words are very clear.

"Little Bobo, come here, come to the mourning family, let the mourning family hug, the mourning family likes you"

Empress Dowager Zheng and Zhuge Weidao's second son are particularly fateful, and when they saw the little guy swaggering in, they beckoned him forward one by one.

And Zhuge Yangbo, the little guy, looked at the beautifully dressed aunt in front of him, and he was also indescribably kind. However, he still glanced back at his mother-in-law, Natalie, and shouted, "Mommy. That little mommy is so good-looking! ”

"Little Mommy" is the name of Zhuge Yangbo Nalandili and Da Heikong, and now it is actually used to call Empress Dowager Zheng, which is really childish!

Zhuge Weidao hurriedly put on a face, "Boy, don't talk nonsense, that's not a little mommy, that's it"

"It's a godmother! I'm Bobo's godmother! Empress Dowager Zheng glared at Zhuge Weidao, and beckoned Zhuge Yangbo again, "Xiao Bobo, come here, my godmother will give you a big red envelope." ”

Big red envelope. But it was thin, and there was a check in it, filled with 30,000 silver yuan!

Seeing that there was a red envelope, Zhuge Yangbo was immediately happy, and no matter what his father said, he just smiled and went straight to the red envelope, oh, it was straight to his godmother. It's just a little ghost who has become a spirit!

Zhuge Weidao looked at Natalie helplessly, and said in his heart: "Look, this little Bobo is much more shrewd than the great virtuous son you gave birth to." That kid was stupid, he walked and talked slower than his brother, and when he was a child, he was slow to grab a milk bag. It is estimated that grabbing red envelopes is not as good as Xiao Bobo."

When Xiao Bobo was holding the red envelope and gnawing it with his teeth, Zhuge Weidao, Natalie, Empress Dowager Zheng, and Zheng Guoxian, who had just been elected as an "official" (a member of the Zheng family's official party), had already sat down separately.

I don't know if my younger brother has joined the core group of the Zheng family, or if I have met my godson, but now the Empress Dowager Zheng's mood is particularly happy, and when she speaks, her face is like a smile, "Brother Dao, I heard that the mourning family once suggested that you should open a few more countries overseas, so as to give more opportunities to the unsatisfactory children of the eight major families, but is there such a thing?" ”

"That's true," Zhuge nodded for the road, "Sister Yuhuan, what do you think of this number?" ”

"Okay!" Zheng Yuhuan smiled and glanced at his younger brother Zheng Guoxian.

"Brother Daozi," Zheng Guoxian said, "then what kind of system should be implemented in these newly opened countries?" Is it a kingdom, a republic, or a federal state? If it is a kingdom, what is the king's surname? ”