The capital of Brazil, Rio de Janeiro.

Fang Lang, who had just walked into the Admiralty office building, was smiling, greeting everyone with a smile and an easy-going expression.

This time, in order to promote the Brazilian Ministry of Defense, Fang Yuan Shipyard was entrusted to design and build a new destroyer, and Fang Lang also made great efforts, and the Admiralty office, which would not come twice for most of the year, must come to report every day in the past week.

Even many officers in the Admiralty who were not familiar with him were familiar with him, and when they met, people kept taking the initiative to greet him, which made his facial muscles swell and ache a little when he laughed.

Fortunately, the hard work paid off, and after this period of unremitting efforts, the independent shipbuilding program was finally smoothly promoted, and the Ministry of National Defense officially issued an announcement to entrust Fangyuan Shipyard to design and build a new destroyer.

And made specific requirements for the specific performance of the destroyer, but looking at the request put forward by the Admiralty, Fang Lang could only shake his head helplessly, because this requirement is not much different from the current "Fletcher"-class destroyer.

However, Fang Lang quickly understood what the Ministry of Defense meant, this was also worried about the technical strength of Fangyuan Shipyard, and he was afraid that the requirements put forward would be too high and Fangyuan Shipyard would not be able to complete it, but this was obviously not what Fang Lang wanted.

kept greeting people all the way, and finally came to the office of the Minister of the Navy, and the secretary saw Fang Lang arriving and hurriedly got up to greet him.

"General Fang, you're here! Mr. Minister instructed, you don't need to report when you come, just go in. ”

General Crook's secretary was a young major officer, who said he was young, but in fact he was two years older than Fang Lang, and Fang Lang could still see a trace of greenness on the other party's face.

Unlike Fang Lang, although he is young, he already has a feeling of being old and serious. Of course, this feeling is mainly reflected in the temperament, after all, the commander of the army with heavy troops in his hands naturally has a sense of decisiveness and resoluteness in his words and actions.

At this moment, the major secretary standing opposite Fang Lang felt it very obviously.

Although Fang Lang looked like he had a smiling expression, the confidence and firmness revealed in his eyes were impossible to ignore.

When he came to a territory that did not belong to him, he didn't feel any restraint at all, but like a leader who came to inspect, his eyes revealed this sharpness, and when his eyes stayed on the secretary, he would unconsciously straighten his spine.

Hearing the secretary's words, Fang Lang smiled absently, waved his hand at the other party and said:

"Okay, you go about your business! Leave me alone. ”

Without stopping, he stepped forward and knocked on the office door, and said loudly:

"Report!"

A deep voice came from inside:

"Please come in!"

Fang Lang, who got the reply, turned his head to the secretary and nodded with a smile, and directly pushed open the door of the office. Before Fang Lang could speak, General Crook's voice came from inside:

"Listen to the voice and know it's you kid, come in!"

The secretary at the door heard that General Crook, who had always behaved very seriously, would have such an easy-going side, and his expression was also stunned, looking at Fang Lang's back with envy, and he couldn't help but sigh secretly, when will I have such treatment!

Fang Lang didn't have the heart to pay attention to this secretary's thoughts, and after hearing General Crook's words, he walked into the office with a smile and said:

"I finally had time to spend some time in Rio de Janeiro, and of course I want to be closer to you.

Aren't you welcome? ”

The secretary at the door waited for Fang Lang to enter, and hurriedly stepped forward to close the office door.

General Crook in the office had already stood up and walked to the reception area, pointing to the coffee table in the reception area and motioning for Fang Lang to sit down. Fang Lang was not polite, and sat directly on the sofa in the reception area.

His hand had naturally reached out to the tea tray on the coffee table, which was a set of small tea trays made of mahogany, and the tea tray was full of various tea utensils.

This was put on by Fang Lang when he came to visit two days ago. For more than a week, I came here every day to sit and drink kung fu tea, and under his drive, General Crook was also somewhat accustomed to this novel way of drinking tea.

Seeing Fang Lang looking as casual as he returned to his home, instead of getting angry, General Crook laughed and joked:

"Didn't I say you're not welcome, so you won't come?"

Hearing this, Fang Lang looked up at the other party with a surprised face, and said with a smile:

"No, I'm sure the general will welcome me at any time."

General Crook handed Fang Lang a cigar, took out another one for himself, and then sat on the other side of the coffee table casually, waved his hand and said:

"Okay, let's not talk about that, didn't you say yesterday that you won't come today?"

Fang Lang, who took the cigar and put it on the coffee table, continued to brew tea in his hand, and when he heard this, he also put away his joking expression, and said to General Crook a little formally:

"After I went back yesterday, I carefully studied the destroyer performance requirements put forward by the Admiralty this time, and I personally feel that there is still some room for adjustment, so I want to discuss it with you again."

When General Crook heard this, he glanced at Fang Lang with an unchanged expression, lit the cigar in his hand, and took a deep breath before saying slowly:

"Tell me what you think."

Fang Lang didn't answer immediately, but brewed the tea in his hand, handed a cup in front of General Dowcrook, brought another cup to himself, took a sip before saying slowly:

"I think the Admiralty's request is a bit more conservative.

Since they have decided to produce their own destroyers, they should not just copy them, but should have their own innovations and develop a completely new destroyer that meets the actual needs of our Brazilian Navy. ”

Hearing this, General Crook did not change much in his expression, but continued to smoke the cigar in his hand calmly, and after waiting for a while, he said with a smile:

"Then what kind of destroyers do you think our Brazilian Navy needs?"

Fang Lang already had the answer to General Crook's question in his heart, but he didn't answer this question directly, but picked up the cigar on the table, and thought about how to open his mouth while trimming it, and said slowly after a while:

"Your Excellency, I was born in the Army, and I became a member of the Navy halfway through, and many people may think that I am not professional.

However, when I was training in the United States, I studied the history of destroyers, combined with my own naval combat experience, and my actual feelings in the Pacific theater, and I also had a general direction judgment on the future of destroyers in my heart.

If there is something wrong with what I said, please do not hesitate to give me advice. ”

Knowing that Fang Lang had always been a very humble person, Crook didn't say anything, but smiled at the other party and said:

"You are the mainstay of our Brazilian Navy, and anyone else dares to say that you are unprofessional?"

I didn't expect this old guy Crook to be so naughty, Fang Lang could only show a wry smile and say:

"At my age, I have become the real power of the Brazilian Navy, how can there be no one to gossip!

But I don't care about this, after all, I rose up by real achievements.

Of course, this is also indispensable for the great promotion of me by His Excellency the General.

In addition, I have never forgotten to improve myself, and I have been learning about the Navy from US military advisers.

Now, I consider myself a very professional naval officer. ”

General Crook didn't let Fang Lang say his thoughts directly, but continued to look at Fang Lang with a smile and said:

"Then do you know why the Admiralty would make such a design request?"

Hearing this, Fang Lang smiled bitterly and said helplessly:

"I understand what you mean, the reason why the Admiralty put forward such a design request is also to give us the opportunity to learn and practice in our shipyard.

But I don't think that's right, our shipyard can't always live under the protection of the government, and we must accept the baptism of reality.

Moreover, the times have changed, and communication between countries around the world has become very easy, and we do not have to worry about shipyards not having such capabilities.

It's a big deal that we hire professional designers and excellent engineers from developed countries to work in our shipyard.

And, with the relationship between our Fangyuan Shipyard and Global Shipbuilding in the United States, I don't think it's difficult.

With technical support from the U.S. and around the world, I feel that we are well positioned to take a bigger step. ”

Looking at Fang Lang with a serious face, General Crook also understood that the other party's attitude was serious.

At first, the Admiralty did consider the training of the team, so that the performance parameters of the destroyers were completely closer to those of the American "Fletcher" class destroyers.

In General Crook's view, this is the protection of his country's shipbuilding enterprises, but after Fang Lang's words just now, his heart was a little loose.

As Fang Lang said, they really shouldn't lower their performance requirements in order to protect their own shipyards, which is not only irresponsible to the navy, but also not beneficial to the development of shipyards.

After thinking about this, General Crook had to nod solemnly and said:

"You have a point, but I don't know what kind of destroyer you want? Or how big do you want to go? ”

Seeing that the topic had returned to the direction of the destroyer's development again, Fang Lang took a sip of tea from his teacup, moistened his throat, and then said slowly:

"When I was training in the United States, my teacher said that the first purpose of destroyers was to protect our large warships from small torpedo boats. Enemy torpedo boats were killed and wounded mainly by artillery and torpedoes.

But with the progress of time, the role of torpedo boats is now more and more diverse, and in World War I, with the advent of submarines, destroyers were given anti-submarine tasks.

And in this world war, destroyers were not only used for anti-submarine, but also responsible for protecting aircraft carriers from enemy aircraft, so destroyers were given the mission of air defense.

The tonnage of the ships has also grown from more than 400 tons at the beginning to more than 5,000 tons now.

The role has also changed from the original anti-personnel and damage to the enemy's torpedo boats and the protection of our large warships to the current anti-submarine, air defense, ground attack, support for landing operations, and so on.

As for the future of destroyers, I think that the functions will be more diverse, and the tonnage will be further expanded. And the direction of our construction must also continue to deepen in this direction. ”

As an old navy, what Fang Lang said, of course, Admiral Crook was very clear, but the conclusion Fang Lang came to made him a little surprised, and after a little contemplation, he said with some certainty:

"You said that the future of destroyers is more diverse in function, and I agree with this. But isn't that a variety of features now?

You know, he has covered almost all the directions in which the enemy can attack, whether it is land, sky, sea or sea, it has been included in the attack range of destroyers.

Could it be that the enemy could attack from somewhere else we didn't know? ”

(End of chapter)