When the cannon goes off, there is a thousand taels of gold! This is indeed true! This sentence not only means that war consumes a lot of money, but also has another meaning, that is, the impact of military on the economy.
Human beings have been a creature that does not understand peace since ancient times. Peace has never been the mainstream. War and preparation for war are the destiny that all nations must accept!
Defeat the enemy and plunder the enemy's resources for your own use. This is the simplest and most original way to solve all economic problems!
Therefore, a military victory or even a large-scale military performance will boost the economy. The most obvious one is confidence in the financial market.
Xiang Ying took action. He conducted a large-scale military performance outside the mouth of the Yangtze River. Anyone with a discerning eye could clearly see that this was a demonstration to the world and a demonstration of the powerful military power of the Chinese people!
The brand-new Eighth Eighth Fleet was all pulled up and lined up three kilometers away from the coast of Chongming Island. The scene was extremely spectacular.
Following the Eighty-eighth Fleet were ten cruisers named "风", their muzzles facing the shooting range for the second round of fire coverage!
In front of the array of battleships and destroyers, six destroyers were advancing through the waves, and their artillery targets were small, close-range targets on the sea.
Boom boom boom...these destroyers of more than 900 tons quickly penetrated and destroyed the small warships that penetrated at high speed!
Behind the maritime military exercise brigade, three civilian ships took the best position in the battle, including Chinese civilian officials, leaders of the Jiangnan business community, and envoys from various countries who were 'friendly' with the Chinese, including military attachés from Britain, France, and Russia!
These people all witnessed the whole process of acting. Amidst the thunder-like shelling, the side of Chongming Island facing the Pacific Ocean was blown into a piece of scorched earth!
A layman sees the fun, an expert sees the door!
Maybe many people in the industrial and commercial circles say they are laymen, but there are really experts among the civilian officials and foreign Japanese envoys, and their expressions gradually changed!
"The Chinese Eighth-Eight Fleet... we have wasted so many lives of spies before. We were unable to get first-hand data at close range, but now they are all brought out for us to watch!"
"Damn it, this Chinese warship is not weaker than the British Empire at all! This news must be sent back to the country as quickly as possible!"
The concerns of the British envoys are not unreasonable. These envoys who came all the way from London to China have not been in office for more than a year or two.
The past few years have happened to be a critical moment for the global naval upgrading. They have not seen Britain's own Zhiyuan battleship with their own eyes, but have only seen some secret information!
But the feeling of looking at the information is completely different from looking at the real thing. The real thing brings more than the slightest shock to the soul. Even the most advanced cameras of that era could not record that sense of oppression!
To put it bluntly, in Europe, this is a group of people with outdated vision observing the glory of new warships at close range!
Xiang Ying took out his blood book today. Not only did he show it to these people, he also wrote some publicity notices on the merchant ships he visited, including the names and basic parameters of the warships participating in the show.
These foreign devils no longer had any scruples, and they no longer wanted to lose face in diplomacy. They took out their notebooks and copied them.
Where did the name of the Eighth Eighth Fleet come from? Laymen don’t know this, but navies from all countries know it. This is Xiao Letian’s design vision for Chinese battleships!
The eight ships currently in service are actually the eight oldest ships. Each ship has technological breakthroughs and each ship is making technical reserves for the next ship.
In the future, Xiao Letian's goal is to research a finalized advanced battleship based on these eight ships. In the future, the standards for the new eight ships will be more unified.
The old eight ships plus the new eight ships, this is the origin of the name of the Eighth Eighth Fleet! It is also the total number of Chinese battleships in the future. There are only so many battleships, no more will be added!
If one of the old eight ships is eliminated, a new one of eight standard battleships will be replaced. In the end, the Chinese will maintain a dark blue navy with 16 battleships as the core in East Asia!
These are what Xiao Letian said personally when he was interviewed by a foreign reporter. As for whether Xiao Letian was lying, no one can tell!
The Zhiyuan is not considered a battleship. The more than 3,000-ton Zhiyuan is actually a cruiser, not even a heavy cruiser in size.
The Zhiyuan is actually more of a reflection of the Chinese military spirit and a symbol of the navy in the new era!
In addition to the Zhiyuan, there is also the battleship Yanshan, with a displacement of 6,800 tons, two main guns at the front and rear, 24 secondary guns, and a crew of 1,240 sailors!
The Taihang battleship has a displacement of 7,000 tons, three main guns at the front and rear, and 28 secondary guns. It has 1,480 sailors.
The battleship Kunshan has a displacement of 6,700 tons, and the battleship Qinling has a displacement of 7,500 tons. It has four main guns at the front and rear in a twin-tank style, 38 secondary guns, and 1,650 sailors.
The battleship Minshan has a displacement of 7,000 tons, the battleship Laoshan has a displacement of 7,000 tons, and the battleship Yandangshan has a displacement of 7,300 tons.
Finally, there is another ship, which is the most mysterious and advanced Taishan among the Chinese, Xiang Ying’s flagship!
There is very little data on this battleship. It only gives a displacement of 8,000 tons, a main gun of 210 caliber, and six main guns arranged in twins.
There are four cannons at the front of the ship, two at the stern, and the number of the remaining secondary guns is unknown. The armor, size, and number of sailors are all blank.
The British are professionals. They know that the Taishan is the latest flagship of the Chinese. In the future, this towering Taishan on the sea will be the hardest nut to crack.
The British military attaché and his companions from Shanghai bit their ears in a low voice, "Something's wrong... There's something wrong with this battleship. Why do you feel that the visual data is different from the data they announced?"
"It's normal. Who will tell us the real data? If it wasn't to appease the people of Jiangnan, I'm afraid Xiang Ying wouldn't hold this military exercise. Let us watch!"
"Hurry up and make quick sketches, and let our naval experts back up the data based on the comparison of appearance..."
While he was talking, the muzzle of the Taishan suddenly rotated slightly, followed by a bang... six main guns fired a salvo, and the waves of the entire sea were shattered. The Taishan's displacement of more than 8,000 tons actually reflected towards the muzzle. The direction shifted by two meters!
Everyone's ears were about to be deafened, and then there was the sound of cannonballs rumbling in the sky, and several mushroom clouds suddenly rose into the sky like a line on the coast of Chongming Island in the distance!
"Long live!" The launch of the Taishan made the Chinese officials and Jiangnan gentry excited. They had never seen such a passionate scene in their lives!
It makes sense when you think about it. Even the foreign devils have never seen the size of the Eighty-eighth Fleet. They are like Grandma Liu, not to mention the ordinary people in the Qing Dynasty. In their eyes, this is as incomprehensible as the gods. Super fighting power!
The Eighth-Eighth Fleet fired a total of two salvos. Xiang Ying did not dare to fire too many because the main gun shells were too expensive. The navy had to burn more than 500,000 taels of silver just for this exercise!
The battleship performance is over, followed by the cruiser's additional fire. The 10 battleships named after the word "wind" have equally powerful firepower!
Hurricane, Arashikaze, Morrowind, Cold Wind, Shuofeng, Kushikaze... the displacement of the ten cruisers is about 4500-5500 tons.
A discerning person will understand at a glance that these are all heavy cruisers, not even a light cruiser!
"Hiss... Such fierce firepower... The caliber of the main guns of these cruisers is also 210... The Chinese are too secretive about firepower!"
