Remote in a corner

Li Fushou felt the expansion pace of Germany and Tsarist Russia, especially Germany sent a Far East fleet to land on the Jiaodong Peninsula and divided it into its own sphere of influence by imposing unequal treaties.

The German Far East Fleet was also expanding in the Pacific Islands, and it had friction with the Ocean Empire on the ownership of the Samoan Islands.

Li Fushou chose to endure these things. The Samoan Islands are temporarily in a state of co-management between the two countries. The Germans spent a lot of effort to build port towns, roads and bridges, reclaim wastelands, and immigrated more than 6,000 people. They established naval logistics stations, warehouses and coal storage yards, and used them as a logistics base for the German Far East Fleet to build them.

Now the German Emperor II is so arrogant that he doesn't even take the British Empire seriously, let alone the Ocean Empire?

Li Fushou didn't want to argue with this lunatic. He was ahead of him, and he would give up some of the interests of the Pacific Islands for the time being. He would not have time to develop anyway, so he would get back the capital and interests at that time.

In recent years, the task is to farm and then farm, to truly develop the national economy, further promote the in-depth industrialization process, and to make the cake bigger.

At the same time, actively carry out military preparations.

This is reflected in the reorganization of the army and the construction of a strong fleet by the navy. The related work has been progressing in an orderly manner and has achieved phased results.

This is to prevent the military adventures of Fuso after the Russo-Japanese War.

The "Nomenkan Incident" that once occurred in history clearly shows that there is nothing impossible for such a fanatical country stimulated by ambitions.

So, in the Army;

The size of the Ocean Empire Army expanded from 124,000 to 168,000, and the original nine A field divisions and 15 B divisions remained, but the posts of each A division increased from about 8,500 to 11 to 13,000, and the number of B divisions increased slightly from 3,500 to 4,200.

The Royal Imperial Guard had 24,000 troops under the command of three divisions, and expanded to 4 divisions with 48,000 troops, with 12,000 troops each.

The reorganization of the entire army was completed, and the scale of 216,000 standing troops was maintained. In addition to local garrison troops, 120,000 to 130,000 field mobile troops could be used to invest in the direction that was most needed during war.

This refers to the army forces that have not mobilized wars, which can basically cope with critical situations in the surrounding areas and ensure the safety of the territory.

at the same time

The zero-type semi-automatic rifle, which has been developed and has entered the production stage, will be equipped with the Tasmanian garrison for combat drills and continuous improvements.

The tiger-type tank is undergoing cold zone tests in the mountainous areas of southern Tasmania, and the combat performance of the cold zone has been verified.

Between July and September each year, cold cyclones from the Antarctic continent pass through the mountainous areas of northern Tasmania. The temperature here often drops below zero degrees, with the lowest temperature reaching minus 15 degrees, and heavy snow falling.

Therefore, it is the most ideal place to conduct cold zone tests for tiger-type tanks here.

Next, the Army Department plans to establish a large winter training base in the mountainous areas of southern Tasmania. From July to September each year, the army will be rotated here for mountain combat and cold area combat training.

In addition, the Army will organize high-end subjects such as live-fire confrontation training, mechanized offensive collaborative training, infantry and artillery training, etc., and build this place into a winter training base for the entire army to temper the troops' harsh climate combat capabilities.

The fresh battle examples from the South African front were constantly delivered to the Royal Army Whampoa Military Academy, greatly enriching the modern war lesson plans. The army had long been eager to find a large drilling ground to try its skills. The mountainous areas in southern Tasmania just met this condition.

The reorganization of the Army Department did not simply add an infantry regiment, but greatly enhanced the strength of the artillery regiment. The artillery regiment was equipped with an additional heavy artillery battalion, equipped with 12 122mm and 6 152mm large-caliber artillery guns, and equipped with Qidong Camp, which was specifically responsible for heavy artillery traction and artillery shells and logistics supplies transportation.

The other two divisions' artillery battalions were each equipped with 18 95mm "Miss Australia" artillery guns, and were equipped with a car company to transport and towing.

The subordinates of the Class A field division are equipped with three infantry regiments, one artillery regiment, one cavalry regiment, one baggage regiment, one teaching brigade, one engineer battalion, and one communication battalion. They are semi-animal power semi-mechanized field divisions. The division's firepower has been greatly enhanced and they have strong independent combat capabilities.

In the reorganized Army combat sequence

The attacking fists are undoubtedly armored divisions, and there are two armored divisions with the highest equipment level.

The Army is the Royal Red River Valley Meritorious Armored Division. The entire division is equipped with a "Cubic Tiger" medium tank regiment, two "Wild Wolf" light tank regiments, a 122mm self-propelled artillery regiment based on the chassis of the tiger tank (currently missing), a large-scale automobile regiment (currently missing), an engineering battalion and a communication battalion, and a guard battalion.

The Royal Guards are the Royal Queensland Guard Armored Division, with the same equipment as the former, and are the Iron Fist of the Royal Guards.

For confidentiality, the "Tiger Cub" tank regiments of the two armored divisions were all stationed in Tasmania for reorganization training.

Scientific Research Base in Toubaolang

A group of scientific researchers are conducting cold-zone scientific research experiments on the "Tiger Cute" tank, starting to solve various technical problems in cold-zone combat, and further improving the combat performance of the "Tiger Cute" tank.

Another group of scientific researchers has begun the research and development of the "Twenty-ton Tiger Tank" project. The new project will develop a tracked chassis with stronger bearing capacity and carefully create an advanced land warfare king that transcends the times.

Everything we do is aimed at preventing future wars before they happen.

According to the Army Department’s equipment plan;

The "Wild Wolf" light tank will be produced by Dongfanghong Tractor Company, with an annual output of 110 units, and the Hongshan Machinery General Factory will produce "Tiger" medium-sized tanks with an annual output of 45 units. Except for the two armored divisions mentioned above, the rest will be included in the strategic reserve warehouse for sealing.

To this day, the number of two light and heavy tank types sealed by the strategic reserve warehouse has reached nearly 200, and is still increasing steadily with a number of more than 150 units per year.

The reason why slow production is maintained is mainly to maintain the manufacturer's production line and technical capabilities and maintain the supply chain of supporting manufacturers.

The production of a tank is never a matter of a certain manufacturer, but it is related to hundreds of supporting manufacturers with thousands of components. Even an alloy bolt must meet the requirements of the design standards, otherwise the chain will be dropped at any time in battle. This is not a false statement.

On the other hand, it is to increase inventory in case of emergency needs.

These land war steel monsters were produced and entered into the strategic reserve library, which added the empire's foundation, and it was accumulated bit by bit.

Navy

After the main battleships were put into service, the 6,500-ton general cruiser was being built step by step, basically growing steadily at a rate of 3 to 4 ships launched each year, forming a strong front-line combat lineup.

Next step

After several rounds of revisions, the Navy Department's "Ocean General Destroyer Plan" was finally finalized and placed on Li Fushou's desk, waiting for review.

The early Seagull Type 1, Type 2 and Type 2 were modified destroyers. The ships had aged 22 years and the shortest were 15 years, and basically entered the middle and late stages of their service life.

Especially the seagull-type destroyers that participated in the First East Indies War, experienced the baptism of artillery fire, high-intensity combat and cruise during the war, and had extremely strong use and had different degrees of structural damage. Specifically, they were reflected in steel cracks, wavy folds of steel plates, structural deformation, etc., and there have been 13 warships retired from service.

In the next ten years, these early high-speed patrol ships will be retired one after another and fulfill their historical mission.

Now the Royal Navy needs a type of high-speed destroyer that can accompany the large fleet to fight in the ocean, which requires strong endurance, adapt to the harsh sea conditions of the ocean, high speed, certain firepower, and limited armor.

It also requires low price and good equipment, and can adapt to various performances such as escort and fishing, patrolling the sea and sea, and supporting large fleet operations, so it is called a "sea-wide general destroyer".

After reading the secret note of Tsarist Russian Far East arms, Li Fushou put it aside and no longer cared about it.

The authority of this information is top secret. General Yuchi Shouzhuo, Chief of Staff of the Army Department, Deputy Chief of Staff General Mo Rufeng, General Liu Shan, Lieutenant General Nan Huaiyu, and Lieutenant General Huo Xiaohu have the authority to review.

The Royal Imperial Guards are commander General Li Shuanzhu, and deputy commander Lieutenant General Duan Qirui has the authority to review.

If necessary, the military will naturally respond.

Li Fushou has freed himself from the cumbersome military and political affairs of daily life, and now he has become much more relaxed. He only needs to pay attention to the policies of major policies and policies. He works for about half a day and rests for half a day every day.

Every quarter, I will take my wife and family on vacation, wander around the mountains and forests, and enjoy a better life.

He found the "Ocean General Destroyer Plan" presented by the Navy and read it again.

This type of destroyer has a designed displacement of 3,200 tons, a length of 87 meters, a maximum speed of 32 knots, and a full load displacement of 3,530 tons. It has reached the standard of foreign light cruisers and the rhythm of standard small ships built.

Due to the increase in displacement and its endurance, the ship can reach a high level of 6,500 nautical miles. It uses two three-inflated vertical steam engines that ruin the street to reduce costs and push through the two-axis to reach a maximum speed of 32 knots.

The key is to use eight new heavy oil boilers to squeeze old equipment into a higher power output, which can last up to 3.2 hours.

From this limit, we can see that the 16,000-ton Metropolitan Class Battleship built with a lot of money can maintain a limit speed of 22 knots for more than 10 hours, because the steam turbine built with heavy money is advanced in power performance and high upper limit. If further technological improvements are made, it can perform better.

For cost considerations, the general destroyer used two old three-inflated steam engines as the main power, and the dual-axis propulsion has reached high speed. This was originally used for ironclad ships and cruiser-level power. Because the technology is old and the upper limit is not high, it can only be pressed in a heavy oil boiler for a short time, with an extreme duration of up to 3.2 hours.

If the time is long, the high-pressure steam pipeline will be fryed, and the heavy oil boiler will be fryed into scrap iron, which will be unimaginable.

But this is a compromise for costs, and it is a last resort.

The main equipment of the Ocean General Destroyer is three dual-equipped 152mm naval guns, with a total of six gates, two on the bow, with a hunchback and one on the stern.

This dual-equipped 152mm main gun is also mature equipment. The biggest highlight is its strong firepower, approachable price, and can be equipped on a large scale.

This class of ships is equipped with ten 95mm "Miss Australia" guns, ten 40mm caliber rapid-fire guns and four torpedo tubes, and 307 people are assigned.

The biggest advantage of this type of ocean destroyer is that it is low purchase costs, with each ship budget of 770,000 Jinyang, equivalent to 385,000 pounds.

Due to the rapid development of technology in today's world, the use of new technical equipment has increased significantly. Compared with the cost of purchasing ships 20 years ago, this is a general trend.

In order to add a certain armor defense capability to this class of destroyers, Krupp's ultra-hard carburized alloy steel technology was used to armor protection for the main gun and command tower, which is an unsavory investment.

Compared with the advanced horizontal warships in the world today, the German "Victoria Louise" class cruiser is very representative. There are 5 ships of this class. The "Victoria Louise" is the first ship. It entered the German Hellmann Shipyard in 1897 and entered service in 1899.

Subsequently, the "Herta", "Feria", "Veneta" and "Lhangsha" entered the German high seas fleet to serve in service from 1899 to 1901 respectively.

The ship of this class has a displacement of 5060 tons, a length of 1       10 meters, a speed of 19 knots, and a military equipment of 2 210 mm main guns, one in front and rear, 8 150 mm guns, 10 88 mm rapid-fire guns, 10 machine guns and three torpedo tubes, with 477 crew members, and the construction price is equivalent to 567,000 pounds (converted by German Mark).

Compare the latter

Ocean General Destroyer has far inferior firepower and defense capabilities, but its speed and endurance capabilities are far superior to the latter. It has a natural advantage in occupying the position and is not uncommon.

You know, this is the opponent of the Ocean Empire's 4,600-ton Brave Class cruiser and the 6,500-ton Ocean General Cruiser.

If it is against a German destroyer with a displacement of only a few hundred tons, it will be a complete crushing, and there is no suspense in the win or loss.

From the perspective of cost-effectiveness, the new Navy Ocean General Destroyer is indeed good, with relatively low procurement costs and high cost-effectiveness.

The so-called low procurement costs are relatively inconsistent. In the development of the navy, it requires a lot of money to invest. Giant ships are too expensive, and small ships are not cheap, so it is almost impossible to be truly cheap.

"Greedy and seeking the ocean" is the label of the Navy Department. After several changes to the original 4,000-ton cruiser plan, it became a 6,500-ton ocean-wide general cruiser.

After several changes to the original 2,000-ton destroyer plan, it became a 3,500-ton ocean-wide general-purpose destroyer.

Li Fushou's little thoughts on the Navy were like a palm-viewing pattern. Considering that the empire's vast territory and small ships were indeed unable to handle long-term cruise missions and combat missions, he turned a blind eye to the point.
Chapter completed!