"I can keep up, I can keep up," Zheng Guoxian nodded repeatedly. "In order to send immigrants to Texas better and faster, the Emperor purchased two of the latest South Island-class cruise ships from my family's Nanyang Cruise Company. Then However, a large ship with a light load of 14,500 tons and a full load of 25,000 tons can provide up to 33,000 horsepower with the help of two oversized three-expansion reciprocating steam engines, with a maximum speed of 22.8 knots... The Hero class is a little slower, but it is much faster than the Hero class! These two ships are now renamed Yamato and Musashi. Taking them for a long voyage is really smooth, fast and comfortable. Just follow It’s like a hotel.”
Well, Yamato Hotel and Musashi Hotel are here again!
But Zheng Guoxian was right. These two boats are indeed flat, fast and comfortable... Of course, this is based on many current navigation and shipbuilding technologies. Nowadays, it is impossible to build a 100,000-ton super luxury cruise ship. A fully loaded 25,000-ton cruise ship is already the limit of the cruise industry.
To be honest, many of the technologies used in luxury cruise ships of this era are no less than those used in warships. As far as the "briquette stove" and three-expansion reciprocating steam engine used by the Nandao class are concerned, they are much larger than those used by the Hero class battleship - the bigger one is more powerful! The space on a cruise ship is much wider than that on a warship, and of course larger equipment can be installed.
In addition, battleships and cruisers of this era are generally "fat". For example, the width of the "Nandao" class cruise ship with a full load of 25,000 tons is only 20 meters, while the width of the Hero-class cruise ship (Hongwu modified one) with a full load of 20,500 tons is 26.8 meters.
The wider the ship, the greater the resistance. With the same main engine power, the speed is relatively slower than that of a narrower ship.
Therefore, the fast cruise ships these days are basically faster than warships. In wartime, it would be ideal to use them to transport personnel or be used as hospital ships... Not only are they comfortable, but they also run very fast, and submarines can't even catch up. If not, even the enemy's destroyer may not be able to catch it.
But this kind of fast cruise ship is not cheap. One ship costs five to six million silver dollars, right?
Zhuge Weidao glanced at Zheng Guoxian and said in his heart: "That emperor sister of yours only took a total of 10 million from the Ming court. Two large cruise ships cost 12 million, plus the money for repairing the house and hiring the northern warriors, it seems that It’s not enough! Isn’t it already heavily in debt?”
Just as he thought of this, Zheng Guoxian smiled again and said: "Brother Daozi, you are taking the Grand Duchess back to your parents' home this time... You will have to travel about 80,000 kilometers along the way, and it will take you half a year anyway. . You are in the navy, so of course it doesn’t matter, but how can those girls stand it? It’s inconvenient. Why not let them take the Yamato or the Musashi!"
"That's not bad! Brother Shenshan is very thoughtful!" Zhuge Weidao smiled and nodded, "I'll also check out the Nandao-class's long-distance navigation capabilities... If it's a good ship, the Navy might have to Order ten or eight pieces!"
Zheng Guoxian smiled and said: "Then I have to thank you, Brother Daozi. This Nandao class is the flagship product of our Zheng family's Yanping Heavy Industry. The two ships Yamato and Musashi are currently anchored outside the Dagu Port of Tianjin, waiting to enter. The naval factory in the naval port is being renovated and a few self-defense artillery pieces are installed. In fact, there are several shipyards in Japan that can do this kind of modification business, but they are all busy moving now..."
According to the agreement reached between the Ming Dynasty and the Tokugawa Shogunate, Japan's domestic shipyards must move out of Japan and move to Hawaii, New Manchuria and California to engage in ship repair and ship breaking business. This arrangement is of course for the purpose of building ships in Japan. When war breaks out in the future, Ming will have factories in the central Pacific and the west coast of the Americas that can overhaul ships.
But from Zheng Guoxian's tone, it seems that he wants to keep one or two families...
"Shenshan," Zhuge Weidao certainly would not accept this question, "I will give a message to the Navy Factory and ask them to collect these two ships first. By the way, what is the condition of these two ships? How new are they? "
Zheng Guoxian sighed: "The two Nandao-class ships sold to Sister Jingzi are new ships that just started operating this year, and they haven't attracted many customers."
The new ship that had just started operating was resold... obviously there was no business!
Zhuge Weidao thought to himself: "It's okay if there is no business. The economy is in a recession recently! But this recession should be over soon. One is Japan's large infrastructure, the other is the naval arms race, and the other is the expansion of American immigrants. Chao. All three are needs! We need to discuss it with Manager He later, and the family’s investment needs to be increased.”
Thinking of investment, Zhuge Weidao turned his attention to Dahei Changshi.
Dahei Chang said with a smile: "Taozi, my turnover was not working well a few days ago. I didn't even pay A Kong's dowry. It's really ridiculous... Now the 1.18 million silver yuan has been transferred to you in the Yangtze River Bank." It’s on my account.”
Daikokusora's total dowry was 1.88 million, of which 1.18 million were silver coins, and the remaining 700,000 was given to shares in Ginza and Daikokuya and a house in Shanghai. The shares and the house have been transferred, but the 1.18 million silver dollars were owed because the Daikoku family wanted to advance military expenses for the Tokugawa shogunate. They were a little nervous for a while.
As he spoke, he glanced at He Tianran.
He Tianran immediately said: "Dong Weng, I have already been to the bank, and the funds have indeed been received. You see..."
Zhuge Weidao smiled and said: "This is A Kong's money. I opened two accounts in her name at the Yangtze River Bank and Yangtze River Investment. Among them, the Yangtze River Bank kept 180,000 for her as pocket money. The rest was transferred in." Yangtze Investment, buying Feilong Industrial, Tongling Telecom, Jiangnan Heavy Industry, Yanping Heavy Industry... Oh, Holy Mountain, Lao Taishan, do you have any good investment directions that you can recommend?"
Hearing Zhuge Weidao's words, Zheng Guoxian quickly shook his head: "Taozi, don't buy my Yanping Heavy Industry... It has been losing money for several years, and it has been bleeding! My Yanping Heavy Industry and your Jiangnan Heavy Industry are not It's the same thing. Jiangnan Heavy Industry can build the best warships and the best oil tankers. These two businesses have high thresholds and high profits. Among them, the demand for oil tankers is growing rapidly, and there is no need to worry about bad debts. But our Yanping Heavy Industry mainly builds passenger ships and general cargo ships. In recent years..."
That's right, if he had his way, he wouldn't trick his sister Jingzi!
"Holy Mountain," Zhuge Weidao smiled at Zheng Guoxian, "Don't worry... The Yanping Heavy Industry Union has an order, and it's an order for warships!"
"Warship orders?" Zheng Guoxian was stunned, "Your Jiangnan Heavy Industry, Zhang Zhennan's Southeast Heavy Industry, the Navy Department's Lushun Naval Factory, Qingdao Naval Factory, and Guangzhou Naval Factory are not doing it?"
"They can't finish it!" Zhuge Weidao said with a smile.
"Daozi, are you talking about the 1,000-ship plan?"
Zhuge Weidao waved his hand: "Not only... we are going to take orders for warships from all over the world this time! When the orders come, the five major factories will not be able to finish them all, and other factories will also be able to get a lot. Yanping Heavy Industry Not bad. You can build the 25,000-ton Nandao class. Are you worried about not being able to get orders? And the Nandao class itself is also first-class! It has high speed, long range, and a deadweight tonnage of more than 10,000 tons! If it is used to transport troops, It's more than enough to transport 3,000 people at a time, and maybe a lot can be sold. Let's do it this way. Yamato and Musashi will also participate in the new ship launch conference in the spring of the eighth year of Taiping... armed high-speed troop carriers! This Nice concept, right?”
"What is a 'new ship launch conference?'" Zheng Guoxian felt fresh when hearing these words.
"It is to display and sell the best and latest battleships, armored cruisers, cruisers, destroyers and fast troop carriers..." Zhuge Weidao said with a smile, "This time we will first invite naval attachés from various countries to Shanghai. Go and see! Then we will open door-to-door sales on the ship and let their navy executives come to see it. I estimate that this 'hero' and 'hero' two-class ship can sell 108 units! With so many warship builders How can I divide the list into twenty and give it to Yanping Heavy Industry?"
