Early the next morning, Lixia Jia II arrived at Guangzhou Prefecture, then slowed down and slowly docked at a pier at the naval base. What came to greet them were several officers from the Nanyang Fleet and two civilians from the Intelligence Department.
As soon as they met, they all bowed their hands and saluted, and the leader of the navy major said with a straight face: "You are very lucky to have returned safely from slaying thieves from thousands of miles away. You have been working hard all the way, so you should rest for a few days."
Zhou Changfeng jumped from the deck onto the pier and said with a smile: "Is the Navy so enthusiastic?"
"Hey, this is an outsider. We have returned victorious this time, and our Nanyang Fleet welcomes you." The dark-skinned, medium-sized major made a "please" gesture, "I'm Li Yuanhai, Fuqing captain."
Looking at the three destroyers parked side by side not far away, Zhou Changfeng couldn't help but asked curiously: "Captain Li, which one is your ship?"
"That's the first one you face."
"I saw it, um... what's that ship in the distance?"
Looking in the direction pointed by Zhou Changfeng, Li Yuanhai replied without hesitation: "Oh, that's the Wuyishan. It's waiting for maintenance. It is estimated that it will be docked tomorrow."
The so-called Wuyishan is actually the first ship of the Wuyishan-class heavy cruiser, which is the latest treaty-type heavy cruiser of the Ming Dynasty.
According to the "Washington Naval Treaty", the standard displacement of auxiliary ships other than capital ships shall not exceed 10,000 tons, and the caliber of the main gun shall be less than eight inches, that is, 203mm; later it was further stipulated in the "London Naval Treaty" that Those whose main gun caliber is greater than 155mm but not more than 203mm are heavy cruisers, and those whose main gun caliber is greater than 129mm but not more than 155mm are light cruisers.
However, the firepower layout of the Wuyishan-class heavy cruiser is two in the front and two in the back, a total of four twin six-inch and a half, or 208mm naval guns; the front armor of the turret is 176mm thick, which can withstand direct hits from eight-inch shells, and the main armor belt on the side It is 144mm thick, the bridge control tower armor is 192mm thick, and the slightly weaker horizontal armor is 64mm thick.
The power configuration is twelve heavy oil boilers and four steam turbines, with a total output of 122,000 horsepower, which can drive the entire ship with a standard displacement of 12,600 tons to a speed of 32.2 knots.
In fact, the Ming Navy is not very interested in treaty-type heavy patrols. They generally think that this thing is too useless.
Light cruisers and heavy cruisers themselves are very deformed products - light cruisers are a natural extension of armored cruisers, which is normal; but heavy cruisers are a forced division of the naval treaty, and in fact everyone is not happy with it.
If possible, any country's heavy cruiser will never be limited to a standard displacement of 10,000 tons. This is really too restrictive in design and makes heavy cruisers a bit useless.
Naval treaties are undoubtedly toilet paper in the minds of warship designers from all over the world, and they want to throw them away as quickly as possible.
In addition to not exceeding the displacement limit and not violating the main gun caliber limit, the designers had to make difficult choices in many aspects.
For example, the United States' New Orleans-class heavy cruiser was forced to shorten the length and width of the hull, and the bow was also lowered, which deteriorated ocean seaworthiness and hull stability.
It can be said that the standard displacement of 10,000 tons is an embarrassing range, which not only affects the seaworthiness, but also cannot increase the armor much.
The Ming Dynasty was unwilling to be bound by this, so it proposed to go through the back door alone.
Since the "London Naval Treaty" also stipulates the total number and total tonnage of heavy cruisers of Britain, the United States, and China - 14 British ships, 17 American ships, and 14 Chinese ships; 146,000 tons for the British, 170,000 tons for the United States, and 146,000 Chinese ships. Ton.
The Ming Navy proposed to proactively reduce the total number of ships to 10, but to "appropriately relax" in terms of displacement and main gun caliber.
I'd rather have less chicken breast than more chicken ribs.
So after some negotiations, the British and American sides requested to reduce one more ship, and the single ship should not exceed 12,000 tons; Daming said that it could, but the upper limit of the displacement of a single ship must be 13,000 tons.
The result of the bargaining was that the Ming Navy made a special exception - although the total number of heavy cruisers could not exceed 9, the displacement of a single ship was relaxed to 13,000 tons, with a total tonnage of 110,000 tons, and the remaining 36,000 tons of heavy cruisers were allocated to Light cruisers and destroyers.
Are Britain and the United States willing to accept the restrictions of the naval treaty? Naturally, they were unwilling to do so. However, due to the impact of the economic crisis and limited financial budget, they finally decided to build a cheap treaty-type heavy cruiser.
"Zhao Rong, you take your brothers to rest while Captain Li and I go shopping."
"yes."
Although Zhou Changfeng originally wanted to go shopping with Li Yuanhai, Shen Yu said that he was also bored, so the three of them went together.
"By the way, can we go aboard the Wuyishan?" Zhou Changfeng asked, tilting his head.
"Visiting for a while? It's a small matter." Li Yuanhai didn't care.
The three of them arrived at the berth of the Wuyishan and saw many sailors and forklifts coming and going. Everyone's movements and expressions were quite leisurely.
Because we have to go to the dock for maintenance tomorrow, we need to remove most of our personal belongings and supplies.
Standing on the pier, I saw the huge twin-mounted naval gun tilted slightly towards the sky. The heavy cruiser with a standard row of 12,600 tons and a full row of 15,400 tons was right in front of me, like a steel hill.
The solid, steady and generous look and feel, and then imagining the scene of engaging the enemy on the side and firing a salvo of main guns, Zhou Changfeng's heart was filled with excitement.
A heavy cruiser is like this, how shocking would it be if it were a battleship?
To be honest, he really wanted to see China's own battleships with his own eyes and touch the huge naval guns that were enough to accommodate an adult.
Unfortunately, Li Yuanhai told him that several battleships of the Nanyang Fleet had already gone to sea for gunnery training, and the Zhenguan and Yonghui in Hong Kong were also anchored at the Zhanjiang base.
Zhou Changfeng, who was somewhat regretful, followed him onto the deck of the Wuyishan. After expressing his intention, a small lieutenant enthusiastically took the initiative to lead them around.
Zhou Changfeng suddenly sneezed while walking through the various cabins of the heavy patrol. It was really strange - there were only ventilation fans inside each cabin, and it was also very stuffy. How could he sneeze? Could someone be scolding me?
At the same time, in a mansion in the middle city of Beijing...
"Is that person short-sighted? He actually went there after being encouraged a few times?"
Zhu Lingjing just learned today that Zhou Changfeng had led a hastily organized team to go to Batavia to kill the traitors. Her first reaction after hearing this was: Is this guy out of his mind?
The reason was that she planned to summarize her network resources and potential people she could win over in the past two days, so she thought of Zhou Changfeng, a guy who impressed her deeply at that press conference.
After checking again, it was outrageous. How could this guy do such a shameful job?
The female attendant on the side said helplessly: "Your Highness, it is normal for people like this to hate evil so much that they are willing to take risks to kill thieves."
Zhu Lingjing let out a "huh" and said, neither salty nor coldly: "Remember it first, it's best if you can return safely, otherwise you will waste a candidate."
(End of chapter)
