PS: The phone fell off, and I changed my phone, so it was delayed. Excuse me.

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It is not surprising that the bearded man would make such a request, the USSR was not a signatory to the Washington Treaty, and they themselves were naturally not limited by that treaty. However, China and the United States are signatories to the Washington Treaty, and according to the treaty, they cannot build warships for other countries that exceed the limits of the treaty.

But we all know that this Washington treaty has not been strictly implemented from the beginning, and the signatories are trying to exploit loopholes. And the fact that the Soviet Union is not a signatory country has a lot to do, anyway, the treaty does not clearly say whether the "other country" includes a "non-signatory country" like the Soviet Union.

The undisciplined Yankee agreed without hesitation, and it would be a bastard if he didn't make money. Especially in times of economic crisis, how many enterprises can be saved and how many unjobs can be solved by such a large order. As for the requirements for the transfer of relevant technology, there is no problem, with the current Yankees' temperament, as long as they take money to slap their faces, these grandsons dare to sell anything. In their opinion, no matter how strong the Soviet Navy is, it is impossible to hit the United States, and they are afraid of a bird. Wouldn't it be better if someone should be in a hurry, and it should be the British and Germans who should be in a hurry. This kind of good thing that makes money and can add blockage to the two families, so a fool doesn't do it.

As for the Washington Treaty, to hell with it, who cares about your treaty, anyway, they are not signatories.

In the history of the original time and space, Starshu asked the United States to buy super-dreadnoughts in 1936, but it was Roosevelt as president at that time, and Master Luo took ideological issues very seriously, and he crushed those chaebols who drilled their money eyes to death. And the Soviet Union in that plane is also stronger, and he has more reasons to refuse. The most important thing is that in 1936, when the economic crisis had passed, the pressure on the US government was no longer so great, so the United States rejected the Soviet Union's intention to buy ships. Master Luo even claimed that for the USSR, a heretical country, they would not consider any orders above the destroyer.

However, the situation in this plane is different, none of these things exist. Whether it is "Hoover the Humanitarian" or "Cactus Ghana", the control of the chaebol is far less powerful than that of Master Luo, and this period is the most serious time of the economic crisis, and there are still two Maozi on the plane. Under such a premise, the United States naturally took over the order.

They were also very fast, and after getting the bid, they immediately turned over the originally planned "Iowa-class" super battleship. Note that the "Iowa-class" on this plane is not quite the same as the original plane, this is a large guy equipped with nine Mark-I 18-inch 48-diameter main guns with a displacement of 63,000 tons. In order for it to pass through the Panama Canal, the United States also began work on the expansion of the Panama Canal in 1917.

This class of battleships was unlucky, and it was supposed to start construction in the spring of 1918, but the development of the 18-inch gun was delayed. The construction of this class of battleships was delayed until October 1919, and just after the start of construction, the Spanish flu struck, and the construction period was forced to be delayed again, and this delay was delayed until the end of World War I. Then came the Navy holiday, when the first two "Iowa-class" ships were forced to cancel after only completing the laying of keels.

The Americans have now turned over this "Iowa-class" drawing that was forced to be dismounted from the pile of old papers, revised and optimized the design on the original basis, replaced it with some more advanced subsystems, and sold it to the Soviets. It must be admitted that the Yankees of this era were still very conscientious in arms sales, and there was not much difference between such export battleships and their own use.

And unlike the United States, which is happy to be in trouble, after China got this tender document, it began to struggle.

It would be a shame not to eat such a large order. Moreover, it does not matter if the technology is transferred, this is the same as the consideration of the United States, no matter how strong the Soviet Navy is, can it still hit China? It is the British and Germans who should be anxious. There is no way that Starshu is brainless enough to deploy battleships in the Caspian Sea and the Arctic Ocean.

But China itself is not worried about the strengthened USSR, but it cannot but take into account the feelings of the younger brothers, and the sale of battleships is a political issue. If it were sold to a bearded battleship, what would the two younger brothers, White Russia and Turkey, think? Hey, it's hard to be the boss.

However, this matter could not be delayed, thinking that Wen Deji had received reliable information from the inside lines of the United States and the Soviet Union, and the United States was also participating in the bidding. If China does not participate, then the United States will have a big advantage. The order for four super battleships, how much benefit this Nima has to bring to the United States, the economic crisis will be alleviated a lot. Because this is not only the cost of warships, but also involves a large number of upstream enterprises, which can live a large area at once.

The Yankees must not be allowed to eat this big cake alone! This is the bottom line of Wendehei.

As for whether he can receive the order, Wen Desi is not worried. With the internal line in the Soviet Union, as long as China participated, it would be no problem to take half of the order. This inside line is also very clear, because Starshu is not stupid, and his ideal result is that China and the United States will each get half of the orders. The bearded man wanted to rely on the order of these four battleships to get the technology of the two, and he could also create an atmosphere of competition. This is far more beneficial to him than handing over the entire list to one family.

Well, since China wants to consider the feelings of its younger brother, it must take a detour, and it cannot just sign and start doing it like the United States.

So Wen Deji first negotiated with the bearded man, asking him to ensure that these battleships would not be deployed in the Black Sea and the Arctic Ocean, increasing the pressure on the two younger brothers. The bearded man readily agreed, and it was the same consideration for him.

The bearded man is not a middle two, on the one hand, he doesn't want to have an unpleasant quarrel with the People's Revolutionary Union, and on the other hand, it is a bit stupid to deploy battleships in these two places. The same is true of the Black Sea, although it can threaten the Turkish coast and other countries, but the Black Sea is an inland sea. As soon as Turkey blocks the Bosphorus, it can only become an existential fleet. So the center of gravity of the Soviet Navy was still in the Baltic Sea, which was also a tradition from the time of Tsarist Russia, and in any case, it was much more convenient to enter the ocean from the Baltic side than from the Black Sea. With the ideal of a beard, a mere bathtub navy could not satisfy him.

After this problem is resolved, this list cannot be directly taken over by China itself, otherwise the government on the younger brother's side will not be able to explain to the following. So Mr. Wen pulled Japan on the board and asked the Japanese to come forward to take over the list. As for Starshu's dissatisfaction with Japan's technology, Japan will change hands from China.

While this kind of round-and-forth behavior may seem boring, that's politics. In this way, it will smooth out several things, and if it is not deployed in the Arctic Ocean and the Black Sea, this is that there is no pressure on the younger brothers, at least Turkey will have no pressure at all. Moreover, the order was received by Japan, and the White Russian government could explain it to the lower levels, even if White Russia was unhappy with Japan, it was nothing. Anyway, Japan is not the boss, and a little contradiction between the younger brothers can be easily resolved. For Japan, even some hatred is worth it. Not only can they make a fortune from it, but they can also take the opportunity to obtain a batch of advanced technologies related to warship manufacturing.

As the intelligence said, after China responded and provided a design plan, Starshu made a decision to divide the batch of four Soviet battleships between China and the United States, two each. Well, to be precise, the United States and Japan, because it was Japan that came forward to sign the contract in this matter, and China was just remote control and technical support behind it. The little brother is used to carry the pot, who will go if the little brother doesn't go to this kind of thing?

Although it was Japan that came forward to take over the work, most of the designs of this class of warships were completed by China, and the technology and manufacturing equipment of the main subsystems were also provided by China. And in order to save trouble, Wen Deji took out the Yamato-level materials of the original time and space, and asked domestic engineers to design on this basis. Moreover, China also sent a lot of technicians and workers to Japan to build the ship together, mainly to gain experience by the way.

Construction of this class of battleships began in the second half of 1932 in both the United States and Japan, in August in the United States and in October in Japan. The design tonnage on both sides is about the same, both are more than 60,000 tons, but the claims are 45,000 tons.

The main guns on both sides also coincidentally chose the 18-inch level, the same three-seat triple, with two front and one rear layout.

This is not surprising at all, because by the end of World War I, the 16-inch guns were already on the streets, and the major naval powers were developing thicker tubes, such as the Mark-I 18-inch 48-diameter gun in the United States. China is also developing a 460 mm 50 times diameter main gun codenamed "Pioneer No. 2 Project" (Pioneer No. 1 is currently in service with 420 cannons, so this type of artillery is also called "Pioneer Cannon"), and the rest of Britain, Germany, Japan and other countries are the same. Later, the naval holiday began, and the countries did not continue to play.

Japan's large-caliber artillery technology mainly came from Britain and France, but Britain and France did not have their own 18-inch artillery technology at that time, and Japan continued to deepen the research on the 15-inch naval gun technology given by Britain on the basis of the 15-inch naval gun technology. However, Japan's industrial foundation is still a little worse, and when it began to take contracts, 18-inch guns could indeed be made, but they could only be made 40 times the diameter, and no matter how long they were, they would not work. In this era, the 40-fold diameter main gun is a cut worse anyway, and the ship gun is just thick and useless, and it has to be long enough, otherwise it is not a mortar.

However, now there is China behind Japan, and at this time, the "Pioneer No. 2 Project" has already been completed, and China has already developed a further "Pioneer No. 3 Project". In order to verify the technology, China supplied the Pioneer 2 cannon to Japan and put it on warships ordered by the Soviet Union.

In the first half of this year, the super battleships of the United States and Japan were completed one after another, and both China and the United States were interested in carrying out technical verification on the Soviet warships, so they loaded a lot of things on them. At the same time, the Japanese also wanted to test the performance of the triple turret, which they had been using before. Now they are all testing new subsystems in their own homes, adding experience to themselves with Soviet money, and at the same time testing their own subsystems, which is of course a good thing.

Just when everyone was in high spirits, Vice Admiral Hori Yoshikichi, who was the commander of the First Fleet at the time, poured cold water on the side and said: "Gentlemen, in fact, I think that in the future, the role of battleships may not be as good as before, and the role of air carriers will be more prominent in the future. I think that the navy of our Federation of People's Revolutionary Societies should be dominated by air carriers......"

Another aviation backbone of the Japanese Navy, Rear Admiral Wada Hideho, commander of the First Air Force, also helped beside him: "Indeed, this kind of battleship is too expensive, and the cost of a single battleship is more than 60 million yen, which is equivalent to two Xianghe-class air carriers, and its combat effectiveness is definitely not comparable to that of two Xianghe-class." "At this time, the yen is pegged to the renminbi, 1:1 exchange, that is, the daily yuan is equivalent to 0.5 grams of gold.

"You only counted the money for the warship, not the money for the plane. ”

"The Type 108 battleship is actually cheap, just because it is larger, it looks more expensive. If the average cost per ton is calculated, it is cheaper than the Nagato class. ”

The officers of the battleship faction were upset and immediately counterattacked, so the two sides began their daily verbal artillery again.

Leon watched them arguing, but just smiled and didn't speak. For the development of future warships, China has its own plans. Aircraft carriers, of course, are the point, but battleships will not be left unwanted either.

Wen Deji has always adhered to the principle of "bringing people into the ditch," so how could he not build a battleship? Not only should he build it, but he would also build this kind of super battleship. As one of the world's four top naval powers, if we don't build battleships ourselves, how can we bring people into the ditch? Who will believe empty words?

President Wen plans to announce the launch of China's super battleship program as soon as the naval treaty officially ends at the end of this year, thus setting off another arms race.

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On August 25, after returning to Kure Harbor after completing this sea trial, the No. 108 ship received a new order. "Ship 108 will sail to the Soviet Union for delivery, and the technicians and workers of ship 109 will also go at the same time. ”

On 31 August, ship 108, carrying 1,200 Soviet naval officers and sailors who had come to pick up the ship, left Kure Harbor, where they would enter the Indian Ocean route from the Strait of Malacca and then return to the Soviet naval base in the Baltic Sea around the Cape of Good Hope.

According to the plan, the 108th ship will be accompanied by a passenger ship carrying technicians and workers, as well as an auxiliary fleet of supply vessels. To escort them, the Japanese Navy sent a detachment of cruisers on escort duty.

However, at the end of the voyage, the fleet was greatly increased, and a large fleet was added. The flotilla carried a brigade of army officers and soldiers, and an air wing.

"What are these people doing? Could it be that the army and air force also went to the Soviet Union?" asked Colonel Hidetoku Miyasato, chairman of the outfitting committee, puzzled. He was the person in charge of the delivery.

"No, they're going to Spain......" said Colonel Yoshihachi Takayanagi, a well-informed source. This time, as an instructor, he was going to teach Soviet sailors to get acquainted with the warship.

"Is it because of the Spanish Civil War?"

"That's right, didn't you see that they even changed their uniforms......"

"No wonder I think it's a little different, I changed my uniform......" Miyazato Hidetoku said suddenly.

"I heard that they are going to serve as volunteers...... "Takayanagi Yihachi said: "This time, the People's Revolutionary Federation will send troops, well, nominally all volunteers." Hey, it's a pity that this time it didn't matter to our navy...... Well, that's not right, it's not our surface ship forces, the Navy and the Marine Corps may still be able to use it......"