Ryukyu Naha is now one of the cities with the highest spy coverage in East Asia, and it is definitely number one. Great powers all over the world, including the Qing Dynasty, stationed countless spies and spies here.
Even though the CIA had huge funds from Xiao Letian and the talented spy master Wang Huaiyuan in charge, it still couldn't achieve perfection.
The reason is very simple. If you can be a thief for a thousand days, how can you prevent a thief for a thousand days? There are too many forces that want to find out the details of Ryukyu, and Ryukyu is an open and mercantilist country. The free flow of people and funds will definitely make intelligence come in like a tide.
In fact, this situation was also the result of Xiao Letian and Wang Huaiyuan's deliberate connivance. In fact, many countries' spies appeared in Ryukyu, and the CIA had already known their identities. However, the CIA did not interfere with their actions. On the contrary, they deliberately condoned them.
As long as the core secrets of the Prime Minister's Office are not leaked, even if some small information is exposed, a killing order is rarely issued.
Not only that, the CIA also used its financial and local advantages to dig up some double agents, and even consciously released some intelligence for them to sell.
Gradually, a very important intelligence trading market in East Asia appeared in Naha, Ryukyu. Many times, some important intelligence that did not involve Ryukyu would be brought here for trading.
Because many spies know very well that as long as you abide by the unspoken rules of the Chinese CIA, then the transactions you conduct will be protected by the unspoken rules.
Xiao Letian’s plan is to make Naha the Casablanca of East Asia and the port of fortress on the Pacific...
The information passed back and forth in this world is like a big river. All Xiao Letian has to do is let the main road of this river pass under his nose. Not only can he get a lot of information by taking advantage of the convenient location, he can even use the river to Make it an industry.
This is a dark industry, and it is also a very profitable industry.
It was with his connivance that the appearance of the Zhiyuan became a show for top spies. The men released by Wang Huaiyuan were all stunned. They never expected that the level of their European counterparts would be as high as that of their counterparts in Europe. So high.
The latest camera is one-third smaller than the one used by the CIA and has twice the resolution. The best sketching talent, a charcoal pen can clearly print the outline of a battleship more than a thousand meters away on paper in more than ten seconds, and the scale is not messy at all.
What is even more shocking is the military literacy of those military attaches. Some things can be guessed just by looking at them.
Obviously the Zhiyuan's main gun has been wrapped in canvas, but they can still see the twin 210-caliber parameters and other parameters, and can even infer that the Zhiyuan cannot launch a twin salvo, and the size of the Zhiyuan is not that big at all. Strong keel.
There is also the air duct next to the chimney of the Zhiyuan. Most people would not know what it was for, but these military attachés had already guessed that it was the strong ventilation vent of the boiler unit just by looking at two or three people touching each other.
They knew at that time that the Zhiyuan had adopted very advanced strong wind pressurization technology. To put it bluntly, it forced fresh air into the boiler to increase the firepower.
Among them, the British spies were especially the best. Those CIA officials responsible for monitoring the British could see the pens of several British military attaches flying across the paper, and strings of cursive writing and data flowed.
The foundation left by a century-old strong navy is not comparable to that of other countries. Just a few military attachés assigned to East Asia can make so many assumptions about the attributes of the Zhiyuan in a moment. Let alone whether there are any errors in it, just rush here. Thoughts, this sensitive brain is already scary.
With just a parameter of the main gun's diameter, they had already inferred Xiao Letian's naval thinking. This kind of talent is terrifying when you think about it.
"With a main gun with a caliber of 200 mm or more, based on the barrel length, the caliber is close to 25! What does Xiao Letian want to do? It is obvious that we want to build a high-quality navy, and we must use quality to outweigh quantity..."
"With the current main gun technology, it is already incredible to have a caliber of 15 times. Every additional point above 15 times the caliber will cost a lot of money. It may even double or triple!"
The two British military attachés were writing furiously while talking. They never expected that among the bearers hired by Ryukyu, there were actually CIA spies who were proficient in English and recorded every word they said in their hearts. .
The caliber discussed by the British military attache is an important data for artillery. Most people know what caliber is, that is, the diameter of the barrel. Whether it is measured in British pounds or metric millimeters, it all follows the same principle. The greater the power, the greater the diameter. The bigger.
And what is the diameter? This is actually a piece of artillery data that was discovered only after the emergence of rifled guns. The caliber is the ratio of the caliber to the length of the artillery barrel.
For a rifled gun, you divide the length of the barrel by the caliber of the barrel, and the resulting value is an integer. That number is the multiple diameter.
For example, for a 50 times 160 howitzer, these two sets of data actually tell you some basic parameters of the artillery. 160 means the gun caliber is 160 mm, and 50 times the caliber can be used to calculate the length of the barrel.
50 times 160 millimeters equals 8000 millimeters, which is eight meters. Judging from this data, you will know that this is a very large heavy artillery.
The larger the diameter, the longer the barrel. The advantage of a long barrel is that it allows the cannonball to rotate in the bore for a while, and gets more of the rotational acceleration force from the rifling.
Theoretically speaking, the longer the barrel, the straighter the trajectory of the projectiles fired, the more stable the trajectory, and the higher the accuracy. This is an important factor for the Zhiyuan to single out the heroes in Iquique.
Although you have more cannons and can shoot more, your shots are not as accurate as mine! If I fire a cannon, one will be pregnant. If I fire another cannon, another one will be conceived. All the cannons will fail. Let’s see if you are afraid! I just asked you if you are afraid?
However, large-diameter artillery also has shortcomings. First, the long rifling of the barrel takes a long time, which will consume more power, which results in a reduction in the ultra-long-range armor-piercing effect.
There is also the problem of rifling wear. This is really an incurable disease of rifled guns. The shells are constantly wearing against the rifling. As the rifling becomes thinner, the life of the barrel will naturally be reduced, and the accuracy will also be reduced.
The last important factor is the cost. This kind of artillery is too expensive. For the same caliber artillery, if the length is increased by one meter, it will add countless problems to the casting process and rifling manufacturing process, and the corresponding cost will be doubled. Increase.
The two British military attaches speculated that the cost of each of the Zhiyuan's main guns was 100,000 pounds. Unfortunately, they guessed wrong. Each of the Zhiyuan's main guns cost more than 150,000 pounds. This cost is said to scare the B.C. Mai was stunned for a long time.
With just one artillery piece, the two British military attachés had already guessed the basic naval strategy that Xiao Letian was about to build. "...The Ryukyu Navy should be a deterrent naval force that follows a small but refined strategy...What he pursues is to build a naval force in East Asia or the West." Absolute advantage in the Pacific..."
"According to this idea of naval development, Xiao Letian will never be able to compete for global hegemony. There is no doubt about this!"
