Chapter 488 2 Strong Standards

Chapter 488 2 Strong Standards

Chapter 488 Two-Power Standard
The conference room of Zhanjiang Naval Academy is very luxurious, and the long mahogany table is extremely expensive.

Navy Commander-in-Chief Liao Rong sat at the upper seat, Shao Quanzhong sat next to him as an observer, and behind him stood Ping'er, who was wearing a military uniform and a boat-shaped hat.

The naval generals on both sides were all wearing snow-white uniforms and sitting with their backs straight.

The conference room was filled with the aroma of cigars, and almost every admiral had an expensive top-grade Havana cigar in his hand.

Well, the navy stays at sea for a long time without going home, and the military life is lonely, so all countries distribute cigarettes and other things to the sailors as military supplies.

Because life at sea is tough, the navy receives the highest pay in the military, far higher than the army.

For example, the admiral Deng Shichang had an annual salary of 8400 taels, almost as much as a prince.

As for Commander-in-Chief Liao Rong, he held three posts, namely Governor of Hong Kong, Commander-in-Chief of the British Far East Fleet, and Commander-in-Chief of the Daxia Navy. He received three salaries and had no shortage of money at all.

Navy commanders are all wealthy, so they can afford to smoke top-quality Havana cigars. This is the treatment for those who fight hard at sea, against wind and waves, and under enemy fire. It is a bad habit for children to smoke, so don't follow suit.

"In this European war, the American barbarians gained more than our Great Xia. This greatly stimulated their ambitions, and they began to increase their investment in the navy."

"However, their large-scale investment came three years later than ours, and their fleet is still small at present."

"Including three Atlanta-class steam-powered ironclad cruisers, 3,000 tons. A 3,700-ton cruiser, the Charlestown, which is purely steam-driven."

"The 6,600-ton armored cruiser USS Maine and the 6,300-ton second-class battleship USS Texas."

"They now have six ironclad ships with a tonnage of less than 30,000 tons, three of which are backward sailing ironclad ships."

"So if we deploy four modified Saxon-class ironclad ships of more than 7,000 tons to the newly built Port of Vancouver in British Columbia, North America, it will be enough to temporarily suppress them."

"In fact, their main ironclad ships are all in the Atlantic. In the Pacific, they only have the Charlestown, which is far behind our naval strength."

Liao Rong said that the Chinese and American barbarians gained more in the European war than Daxia, but it depends on how you compare.

The Americans were expected to earn more in total because their bankers had lent a large amount of high-interest loans to the European countries involved in the war. The total debt of European countries was close to 20 billion US dollars, and the principal of Britain and France alone was 11.5 billion US dollars.

But this can only be considered as making money if it can be collected back. Shao Quanzhong knows that Britain and France have no money and will default on their debts...

The total amount is slightly higher than that of the United States and the United States. If we only consider the output of industrial products, Daxia can earn more than twice as much as the United States and the United States has already pocketed all the money it can earn, while the United States and the United States still have a long period of debt collection.

"So, I decided to deploy four 7,000-ton modified Saxon-class ships to Vancouver and use them as the backbone to establish the Great Xia North Pacific Fleet. In a few years, the two North American provinces will be safe. The original Pacific Fleet will be renamed the South Pacific Fleet."

"The North Pacific Fleet was formed by the Beiyang Fleet of the Qing Dynasty, and was jointly funded by the Qing Dynasty and the Daxia government, with each party contributing half."

Ding Ruchang was very satisfied. The warship was given for free, and the Qing Dynasty only needed to bear half of the maintenance costs and military pay to protect the safety of the two provinces. It was already quite good, and Li Zhongtang's concubine was not given for free.

"but--"

Liao Rong changed the subject, "According to the investigation of the Navy Intelligence Department, the United States has formulated an ambitious shipbuilding plan, planning to invest $10 billion to build 156 warships within three years, including 10 battleships and 6 battlecruisers."

"There are currently three 10,000-ton battleships under construction in the dock. They are called the Indiana class. They are the Indiana, Massachusetts, and Oregon."

"Of course, they don't have our experience in shipbuilding. These three 10,000-ton battleships all have low freeboard and heavy firepower, so their firing range is problematic and they are not suitable for long-distance sailing."

"But they will definitely learn their lesson in the future. Once their fleet is formed in three years, they will be our heavyweight opponent."

"The British and Americans are of the same origin. If they come into conflict with us, they will definitely join forces. Therefore, we should prepare to win both the Atlantic and Pacific naval battles at the same time, vigorously build more warships, and fight against the two powers at the same time."

Everyone took a deep breath. Commander Liao was generous. The two powers' standard sounded exciting. Do we have so much money to spend? And what about the Navy Intelligence Department?

Well, after Chen Siqi's death, the original Huai Army Detective Department, which later became the Daxia Statistics and Investigation Bureau, was split up by Shao Quanzhong.

Seventy percent of the staff merged with Zeng Xiaoyi's Statistics and Investigation Bureau of the Great Xia Privy Council to form a new "Fenian Statistics and Investigation Bureau". Zeng Xiaoyi became the intelligence chief who was directly responsible to Shao Quanzhong and monitored the Huai Army Intelligence Department.

The other half of the staff, together with the backbone personnel drawn from the Intelligence Department, formed the Naval Intelligence Department, which was specifically responsible for naval intelligence work.

Now Daxia's intelligence agencies have become three parallel organizations: the Huai Army Intelligence Department, the Navy Intelligence Department, and the "Fin Tong". Zeng Xiaoyi is responsible for monitoring the operations of the other two intelligence agencies. "Well, if we want to fight against the two at the same time, how many battleships should we build? Too many, right? Can we build more submarines to save money and fight against the enemy's battleships?"

The speaker was Wang Yongxian, who was the last seat in the audience. In theory, he was a senior official in charge of the economy of Daxia, second only to Zhang Zhidong and Zhang Siwen. In reality, he had no status in front of these naval leaders and spoke with trepidation. This was a question of seniority.

"no!"

The one who opposed was not Liao Rong, but Ma Han, who had never spoken.

"If you want to gain sea power and control the world economy, you must have enough large fleets. A head-on confrontation between large fleets is the right way."

"The victory of the Irish submarines in the St. George's Strait was a result of surprise. Once submarine warfare is mastered, slow submarines will not be able to play a big role."

"Now depth charges that can restrain submarines are being rapidly developed and adopted by various countries, and submarines will be suppressed by escorting frigates."

Deng Shichang shook his head. "We have tried it. The frigates are not very effective in suppressing submarines. It is difficult to detect enemy submarines in the water from the surface, so they are bound to miss them."

"We risk losing ten submarines. If just one of them slips through, the torpedo will hit the battleship's critical part, and more than two million taels of silver will be gone. So - the submarine warfare method is worth a try."

Wang Yongxian was anxious because he had to keep the budget down. When he heard Deng Shichang supporting him, he immediately clapped his hands and said, "Experts always know more than me. Do we not need to build so many battleships?"

Shao Quanzhong didn't care about money. He was only concerned about winning the battle. Suddenly, an idea came to his mind. "If we can't see the submarine clearly on the water, can we see it clearly from the sky?"

"After the bombers were introduced, the positioning of our airship units became awkward. They had to be phased out and used for cargo transportation. If airships followed ships in the sky, could they help detect submarines?"

The meeting room was silent. Shao Quanzhong thought he had said something wrong because he was an amateur. He apologized and smiled, "I am just an amateur talking nonsense. You guys continue."

Liao Rong slapped the table and said, "The Marshal is so powerful. We didn't expect this. Let's try it out right away!"

The meeting was temporarily ended, and several diesel submarines built in Huludao began testing in Zhanjiang Bay.

A thousand-ton armored frigate patrolled back and forth, and an airship was responsible for reconnaissance in the sky.

In the afternoon, the generals reunited in the conference room and decided to establish a naval aviation airship unit to be responsible for reconnaissance of the enemy and anti-submarine operations, which would also save the cost of light cruisers used for reconnaissance by the ocean-going fleet.

Moreover, the combat airship that was about to be retired soon found a place where it can shine again.

Shao Quanzhong, an outsider, spoke up again, "Since the navy can use airships, can they use airplanes? If airplanes drop bombs from the sky, can they destroy the enemy's battleships?"

"Marshal, it seems that it won't work. Planes can't drop bombs that accurately."

Shao Quanzhong rolled his eyes and said, "We need to ask the Aircraft Research Institute under the Haoguozi Company about this matter."

The naval meeting was suspended again, and a day later, aircraft experts came to Zhanjiang on an emergency train.

After listening to Shao Quanzhong's design requirements, Hargrave, director of the Aircraft Research Institute, patted his forehead and said, "No problem at all. We can design a dive bomber specifically for attacking battleships. With TNT ammunition, battleships will be the prey of aircraft."

"But - planes can't fly that far, how can they follow the fleet at any time?"

"Can't planes take off from warships?"

Shao Quanzhong's words were not just a fantasy. He knew about aircraft carriers, but people refused to sell them to him at that time...

The naval meeting lasted half a month longer than expected, and on July 7, the naval meeting ended successfully.

Battleships still need to be built, but the predetermined two-power standard has not been achieved.

The design of two 10,000-ton aircraft carriers, "Feng Xiang" and "Hermes", with different design concepts began at the same time, and were scheduled to start construction in Zhanjiang in half a year.

The design of dive bombers began and the Daxia Naval Aviation Force was officially established.

(End of this chapter)