1825 My New Daming

Chapter 51 The "One Thousand Ships Project" of the Ming Navy

"Daozi, how do you plan to trick and mislead the British?"

The questioner was Lin Zexu, minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. When he mentioned cheating, beating, and robbing the British, he became very energetic.British imperialism is too bad, and bullying is right!

After hearing Lin Zexu's question, Zhuge Weidao smiled and said to Zhuge Weiyi: "Brother Ten, our strategy of weakening the heroes is your work, or you should explain it yourself."

The main content of this "strategy of weakening the British" is a false shipbuilding plan, so it should be proposed by Zhuge Weiyi, the armament servant of the Ministry of the Navy.

"Shaomu, let me tell you." Zhuge Weiyi accepted the question with a smile, "I have already asked the Naval Armament Bureau to prepare a 'One Thousand Ships Plan'!"

"What is the 'One Thousand Ships Project'?" Lin Zexu didn't understand, so he asked.

Zhuge Weiyi smiled and said: "It is a comprehensive fleet update plan to build three hundred [-]-ton ironclad ships, three hundred four- to five-thousand-ton fast cruisers, and four hundred two- to three-thousand-ton protected cruisers in batches!"

"What?" Lin Zexu was taken aback by Zhuge Weiyi's words, "Marquis Wanling, is what you said true or false? Build a thousand ironclad ships and cruisers. How much will it cost?"

"One billion at most," Zhuge Weiyi said with a smile, "If mass production can be realized, the cost can be reduced a lot. Seven to eight hundred million may be enough!"

Zhuge Weidao also said with a smile: "Lin Zhongtang, King Yanping, what do you think? Spend [-]-[-] million to build [-] ironclad ships and cruisers, can you scare those British guys to death?"

This "Thousand Ships Plan" is of course non-existent, but it can be discussed now, which is enough to show how amazing the industrial strength of Ming Dynasty is today-this plan was not thought up by Zhuge Weidao, but by the Ministry of the Navy. Zhuge Weiyi, the military assistant, came up with it.Since he can be the Minister of Armaments, he is of course proficient in armaments and shipbuilding.

The "1200-ship plan" is really not impossible for Daming's shipbuilding industry. That kind of cruiser of 305 to 12 tons is just a random product for Daming.What is really difficult is the three hundred [-]-ton ironclad ships and the [-] [-]mm caliber naval guns equipped on them.But it is not impossible to build, but it just takes a little time. It will take [-] or [-] years. On average, [-] ships will be started a year, and they will be completed in two years (the warships at that time were relatively simple, and they were built relatively quickly). After [-] years, won't there be a thousand ironclad ships and cruisers?

Lin Zexu turned his head and glanced at Zheng Guoan, Minister of the Admiralty, "My lord, this matter... can't be true, can it?"

"It's definitely fake," Zheng Guoan said with a smile. "It's okay to say that the shipbuilding cost of [-] to [-] million is good. Our annual income in Ming Dynasty is at least one billion silver dollars! The [-] million to [-] million shipbuilding costs are divided into eleven or two. In the next year, it is not impossible to get it out, and if it is not possible, you can issue some bonds. But the maintenance cost of the thousand ships is very high. The personnel alone will require hundreds of thousands of people, and many military ports, barracks, and repairs will have to be built. Shipyards, and even naval schools need to build a few more."

He smiled and said to Zhuge Weidao: "Daozi, you are planning this plan to trick the British into following up, right?"

Zhuge Weidao said with a smile: "My lord is wise, this 'Thousand Ships Project' is to trick the British into following up the British and they dare not refuse to follow. Didn't they always say that our Ming Dynasty is the Yellow Peril? Now the disaster is coming, They can't be cowardly! If they are going to be cowardly, how can they be the overlord of the West?

But can they afford it?The British mainland plus Ireland, Scotland, and the white population in overseas colonies totaled more than 2000 million people, and even including the population of India, it was only more than 2 million.And we have a population of [-] million, steel, electricity, coal, oil, any one of them is several times that of the entire British Empire, even if it overwhelms the entire Europe, it is more than enough!There is only one item of shipbuilding, and Britain can still compete with us a little bit.But the income of the British government is much less than ours. Even if the money collected from India is counted, the annual income is only a small half of ours. Hey, a thousand ships, how can they follow? "

Zheng Guoan stroked his beard and said, "Daozi, can you finish your sentence at once? You are a young man, don't be like those old military advisers who talk half of what you have to say. Come on, those British people If you want to follow but can’t follow, will you do it in the end?”

"My lord," Zhuge Weidao said with a smile, "They dare not not follow, but they can't all follow. In the end, of course, they will find an opportunity to negotiate with us on naval armaments! Otherwise, Lin Zhongtang will finish the fire in the Kingdom of Jin, and it will be impossible There is no reason to go to the UK to lure them into the trap and then support the Daoguang Emperor of the Jin Kingdom."

"Hahaha!" Lin Zexu laughed again when he heard the words that made him happy, and then interjected, "Daozi, how do you think the old man can fool those British people?"

Zhuge Weidao said with a smile: "Of course they tricked the British into building more [-]-ton iron-clad ships. They couldn't afford to build [-] ships in ten years, but it is still possible to sell them to make [-] ships! "

One hundred pre-dreadnought ships cost two million silver dollars each, and two hundred million!
When the British have finished building these pre-dreadnoughts, Ming will be able to launch the dreadnoughts. By then, all these pre-dreadnoughts will be obsolete.

In this way, the British will spend [-] million in vain!And this is not the worst. The worst thing is that in order to build so many former dreadnoughts, the British shipyards will definitely build many [-]-ton docks and slipways.

Once the dreadnought ship comes out, these docks and slipways are useless (of course, civilian ships and small-tonnage warships can also be built), and those shipyards have to continue to spend money to build larger docks and slipways!
This is another waste!
Of course, the Ming Dynasty Navy will not really go crazy to build this kind of [-]-ton pre-dreadnought.It is better to build a [-]-ton armored cruiser than to spend money on building a pre-dreadnought. It is best to use full oil power and full naval guns in one step.In this way, when the "World War I" starts, Ming can have at least dozens of armored cruisers, which is much more practical than the same number of former Dreadnoughts.

"One hundred ships?" Lin Zexu laughed, "Our concession is a bit big!"

Zhuge Weidao said with a smile: "Lin Zhongtang, this 'Thousand Ships Project' is not only designed to deceive the British, but also created as a bargaining chip to put pressure on the British. If we make concessions on the number of ships we can build Make up for it from other places, such as the sphere of influence. On the one hand, we have the bargaining chip of arms negotiations, and on the other hand, we also have the bargaining chip of Daoguang to add chaos to the British. It is impossible to justify not blackmailing the British."

"Scope of influence?" Lin Zexu asked, "Where do you want it?"

"I think we can propose that Japan and the Hawaiian Islands be included in our Ming's sphere of influence!"

"Japan?" Lin Zexu was taken aback, "This is not easy!"

"Lin Zhongtang, we won't do Japan this time!" Zhuge Weidao laughed, "But we have to use this as a bargaining chip to force Japan to withdraw from the competition for Hawaii."

I have to say that when playing international politics, Zhuge Weidao is also a master without reading the "Book of Heaven"-he is better than King Wu Zhong in this respect!King Wu Zhong is a master of science and engineering, but the information about his era is still relatively closed. I don't know how the villains in the world play?And Zhuge Weidao is well-informed, and he himself is familiar with the methods of those diplomats in history.

He knows how to create chips and exert extreme pressure!

And the two demands he puts forward now, "Japan" and "Hawaii", are actually creating chips and exerting extreme pressure. He regards Japan as a bargaining chip that can be traded, and at the same time puts pressure on Japan to force them to deal with the problem in Hawaii. make concessions.

The Hawaiian Islands were not of much value in the age of sailing—it was not on the "wind mouth", and sailing ships rarely docked in Hawaii.But in the era of steam and fuel power, the value of Hawaii can be revealed.

So Ming, Britain, and Japan all wanted to compete for the Hawaiian Islands. The three countries each occupied some islands and refused to give in to each other.

This time, Zhuge Weidao wanted to use the arms negotiations and Daoguang Printing to exert double pressure to force Britain to make concessions.At the same time, they put pressure on Japan by bringing Japan into their sphere of influence and forced the Tokugawa shogunate to withdraw from Hawaii.

(End of this chapter)