afterglow

Chapter 213 Chapter [-] Ship Review; Tank Evaluation
As the name suggests, a ship parade is a maritime military parade held by a country. On the one hand, it is to let the domestic people feel the strength of the country and inspire the fighting spirit of the military and civilians. At the same time, it can also express the intention of strategic deterrence to foreign countries.

Because of the many functions, since the era of sailing warships, all major ocean powers in the world have held various ship review ceremonies.The empire on which the sun never sets with its navy is naturally the best at this. Queen Elizabeth has inspected the Royal Navy many times.

Now that the world situation is unstable, just as the new king is succeeding to the throne, the British hope to hold a grand ship review ceremony to inspire the self-confidence of the domestic people and declare the might of the Royal Navy to the world.

And...the sun has not set on the Empire on which the sun never sets!

Zhou Changfeng was naturally disdainful of this, and he murmured, "It's just the afterglow of the empire. In a few decades, the British navy will only have a few small sampans left..."

But no matter what, at least the current Daming still attaches great importance to it.

The British enthusiastically sent an invitation to the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Ministry of Rites, hoping that the Ming Navy would also send warships to participate in the ship review, and asked the Emperor of Ming to order an imperial envoy to participate in the review together.

It was obvious that the British wanted to ease the tense relationship caused by the border war, show off their martial arts by the way, and give Daming a little bit of shock.

"Of course we have to go. As for the size, old and new, let the cabinet and the military discuss it."

The emperor set the tone from the very beginning. On this point, there was no objection from the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty. The most important thing was which ship to send.

In the Wenhua Palace, besides the cabinet ministers, several naval generals including Xu Zhanming also came to the meeting today.

As the sun gradually rose, the temperature also slowly rose, but the air conditioner here was not turned on, only the large ceiling fan above was turning slowly.

"The British have already sent invitations to other countries a few days ago. The United States plans to send the battleship New York, and France plans to send the battleship Dunkirk. Italy...rejected the invitation."

Lin Xi, who was a minister of the National Defense Cabinet, first explained the known news straight to the point. As for other small countries, it seemed unnecessary to mention them.

"New York? If I remember correctly, is that an old ship from more than [-] years ago?" someone asked.

"Yeah, the New York class, an old ship with a displacement of 350 tons and a [-]mm naval gun, the Americans don't take it too seriously." Another vice admiral said with a smile.

Xu Zhanming raised his hand and waved it, "You can't say that, you have to pull their latest gadgets over like the French to save face? They want to show off to the Germans by the way."

The Dunkirk-class battleship is a cutting-edge warship that the French entered service only last year. However, although the French call it a battleship, its original intention of design is more like a battlecruiser.

Its imaginary enemy is not the battleships of other countries, but the pocket battleships of the Germans and cruisers of other countries.

"Then let's make a compromise and send Zhenguan or Yonghui."

"I think it's fine."

"Too moderate!" Li Guangyuan, a scholar of the Huagaidian University and Minister of Finance, waved his hands again and again. "This time, we might as well be bolder and send the latest big ships. This kind of foreign affairs and political affairs require that kind of aura."

He thought for a while, and then asked: "Hey, it shouldn't involve secrets, right? Are there any new technologies up there that should not be known to other countries?"

Some helpless Xu Zhanming reluctantly said: "Yes, but internally, the British look down on it."

The so-called "latest big ship" naturally refers to the Longshuo, so everyone debated for a while, and finally decided to send the Longshuo, there is definitely a lot of attention.

And it should be able to confuse the British to a certain extent - Ming people generally don't send out new things to show off, so this means that the Ming Navy has already started building new battleships after the Longshuo, and may even have already launched them?

At this time, Xu Zhanming looked at the several cabinet ministers present, "By the way, it's rare to come here once, and I'd like to ask you something."

Minister of Foreign Affairs Yu Shenhua had just packed up some documents on the table, and was about to get up to leave, when he heard the words, he sat down, "Is there anything important for the navy?"

Xu Zhanming was also unambiguous, and asked bluntly: "Well...the embassy has heard that the new torpedoes that the Germans are working on have already taken shape. Can Mr. Yu manage to buy a few?"

The term "adult" was widely used to address high-ranking officials from the Yuan Dynasty, and then gradually spread, and officials with big sesame seeds were also called by people this way.However, after the constitutional government, this kind of flattering term is no longer popular among the people. Today, calling officials "adults" is either respectful or eccentric.

Co-authors, did you guys fall in love with someone else's treasure, and then invite me to be a lobbyist?

Yu Shenhua stretched out his index finger and tapped on the table, and said with a smile: "Okay Xu Zhanming, you also said that this is a new thing, how can it be so easy and easy to use? Isn't this embarrassing us."

"Hey, this is indeed a good thing. Whether it can be done is one thing, and whether it is tried is another matter."

"Understood, let's talk about it later."

The navies of all countries in the world have not given up on improving their own torpedoes. The steam gas torpedoes currently in use will produce air bubbles because of the exhaust, so the flight path is very obvious. In actual combat, it is easy for the opponent to detect it early and avoid it in time.

Therefore, countries have put a lot of effort into other power methods. The Germans are the only ones in the field of electric torpedoes. They have put electric torpedoes into use as early as the end of the European War, and now they have made considerable achievements in hydrogen peroxide torpedoes.

The initial research direction of the Ming Dynasty Navy was oxygen torpedoes. Traditional thermodynamic torpedoes use compressed air as the oxidant, but it is well known that oxygen only accounts for 21% of air, and the rest of nitrogen does not participate in the reaction, and a large number of bubbles will be generated when the torpedo is discharged. Pure oxygen, wouldn't the thermal efficiency be greatly increased?
But the Navy quickly abandoned research on replacing compressed air with liquid pure oxygen—without it, it was too dangerous and unstable.

Due to its own characteristics, electric torpedoes have smaller range, speed, and power than traditional torpedoes.

Although the performance of the Type [-] electric torpedoes equipped by the Ming army is acceptable, except for submarine forces, surface naval forces still don't like to use them.

So the remaining road is the hydrogen peroxide torpedo. This thing is quite complicated, and it is very difficult to develop. After several years of tossing, there are still a few difficulties that have not been overcome. So after hearing that the Germans seem to have achieved results, The navy wondered whether it should make a few finished products and come back for reference.

After leaving the Wenhua Palace, several admirals walked and chatted, and the commander-in-chief of the Second Battle Fleet of the Nanyang Fleet complained: "Speaking of which, the Germans really plan to go on like this? Such a scale does not even exist in the fleet." It doesn't count."

Xu Zhanming pondered: "It's hard to say, just a few small battleships and submarines are too thin, at least a few battleships must stay in the port, so that part of the British navy can be restrained to some extent."

Although the German Society does not recognize and implement the Versailles Peace Treaty, and is not subject to the restriction that "the navy prohibits the equipment of dreadnoughts and can only have offshore defense ships", they have learned the lessons of the European War and do not seem to plan to invest too much in the navy?

The full name of the German Navy is Arbeiterinmarine, which means the Workers' Navy, and the ship number is generally AMS; in contrast, the former German Imperial Navy was called Kaiserlichemarine, the Emperor's Navy.

What is interesting is that the word Arbeiterin has a feminine and a masculine in German. Arbeiter means a male worker, and Arbeiterin means a female worker. That is to say, the literal translation is actually a female worker's navy. Of course, Chinese people generally don't pay attention to it.

Unlike the British who like to call warships "she", the masculine Germans have always used the masculine, neutral "er" or "es" to refer to warships. As a result, the German navy sailors also Naturally, it became popular to call one's own battleship "sie".

The Germans' current naval construction idea is simply "fly, dive, and fast":
Using medium-sized and large submarines as the main ocean-going warfare weapons, they waged war against Britain, cut off, obstructed and reduced the transportation of strategic materials, and made the British Empire an isolated island.

At the same time, the naval shore-based aviation, small submarines, and speedboats cooperate with each other to carry out coastal defense operations, delaying and hindering the coastal bombardment or landing operations of the enemy navy.

But what is not known to the outside world is that the Germans have now begun to build new battlecruisers and battleships. Their mission is to go deep into the Atlantic Ocean and attack the British sea line of communication.

These two classes of warships are designed to have a maximum speed of more than 30 knots, and have a range of more than 18 nautical miles at a cruising speed of 30 knots.Their tactic was to leave the port suddenly and quietly, and quickly cross the North Sea at a speed of [-] knots, breaking through the blockade of the Royal Navy.

Once they are washed into the Atlantic Ocean by them, the sky will let the birds fly, and the sea will let the fish jump, and the British will be in a state of distress.

Although the Royal Navy is large in scale, there are not many high-speed capital ships-the two sisters "Prestige" and "Counterattack" can run to 29 knots, and the speed of "Hood" has dropped to 29 knots because of the heavy transformation, while "George V World" actually has only 28 verses.

Therefore, the British can only carefully plan the hunt, and once they miss, they will be quickly slipped away by the opponent. During this period, the Germans can slaughter all merchant ships on the route as they please.

If they knew that the Germans were planning a plan that was already in progress, the Ming Navy would naturally have to celebrate a little bit—so echoed from a distance, the British would not be able to look after each other from head to toe, so how could they spare time to take care of the Nanyang region?
On the same day, a telegram from the Navy Department of the Ministry of War was sent to the Hangzhou Naval Base, requesting the battleship Longshuo to suspend the follow-up routine training arrangements and wait for instructions.

In the morning of the next day, Qixia Prison.

Zhou Changfeng, who had been spanked, tried to go to the cafeteria to eat at noon yesterday, but it ended in failure, so Mu Yu brought him the two meals last night and this morning.

At this time, a corporal came over with a list and shouted: "Ding Zi [-], your relatives will come to visit later, come with us."

Zhou Changfeng, who didn't know why, asked suspiciously: "Usually, prison visits are not allowed until the end of the month, isn't it the middle of the month?"

The few gendarmes who came to pass the order naturally couldn't answer, so they only told him to leave quickly, so Zhou Changfeng slowly moved to the edge of the bed and slowly got off the ground.

Then, he was helped all the way to the visiting room, but the distance of a hundred steps seemed to be longer than several miles of mountain roads.

It is conceivable how surprised Xia Xiaoshi was when she saw such a scene. She subconsciously stood up and said nervously, "Mr.... you are..."

"It's okay, it's just that I got that board in advance."

"Is it okay to eat and live here?"

"Sure, I feel like I'm going to gain a few pounds."

Whether it is to protect self-esteem or to avoid the worries of his lover, what Zhou Changfeng said is calm and calm, but he does not know that only those who have really endured it understand the discomfort and pain.

However, he seems to have forgotten one special feature, that is, in the eyes of Xia Xiaoshi, who is a teacher, his words are typical stubborn ones.

Therefore, Xia Xiaoshi felt that her initial distress faded a little in an instant, and she felt a little more gloating.

These days she has been thinking about coming to visit, so she begged in every possible way, and Xia Bing reluctantly agreed to go through the back door, but it was only limited to the days of early visits.

She curled her lips and said: "Students who are unscrupulous will be beaten by the ruler, and soldiers who exceed the rules will be punished with military clubs. Sir, you have endured this board well, and you should not commit any crimes again in the future."

"That's natural."

"I'll wait for you to come out..."

"Well, don't worry."

The brief visit ended soon, and Xia Xiaoshi left a large bag of pastries and snacks before leaving.

When the smug Zhou Changfeng returned to the cell with the basket, Mu Yu's eyes lit up immediately.

However, Zhou Changfeng waved his hand and said solemnly: "Airplanes are very sensitive to the load capacity. If you eat too much of these high-sugar and high-oil foods, you will gain weight, so..."

Mu Yu, who wanted to cry without tears, threatened to break up with him after he was released from prison, and did not agree with the friendship of the window.

"Classmate? Which classmate?"

"prison!"

But he didn't even have a good day, and he was notified early the next morning.

Yuan Huai, who came to the door in person, glanced at the cell, and then waved his hand to signal Zhou Changfeng not to stand up so as not to affect the wound.

"It's like this. There is probably something in the navy that needs your participation, Mr. Zhou. I guess we have to go tomorrow or the day after."

Oh?Get away early?
Zhou Changfeng applauded secretly, and asked: "Sentence commutation or parole?"

"No, it's execution outside prison."

"..."

Recently, the trial production of the Type [-] light tank has been finalized and put into mass production. Its official name is "Type [-] Guerrilla Chariot".

The heavy tanks that took four years of research and development have finally produced results. Wuhan Yangyue Company and Yanjing National First Heavy Machinery Group have trial-produced prototypes of their respective plans, and will soon conduct comparative tests at the Laizhou Proving Ground. The results of the competition will be Decide who gets it in the end.

At first glance this should be the concern of the Army, what does the Navy have to do with it?

The reason is that there are also different opinions within the Ming Navy. Some people think that tanks suitable for landing operations should be light, easy to transport, and even float; Otherwise, the landing troops are likely to be driven into the sea to feed the fish by the opponent's counterattack.

There is no basis for empty talk. Since the two sides insist on their own opinions, they can only make a few prototypes for actual testing.

Therefore, not only Zhou Changfeng was ordered to participate in the evaluation, but Yan Chenwu, who was in the Second Marine Regiment of the Nanyang Fleet, also received the same order.

(End of this chapter)