Shanghai Mansion, Zhuge's 108th Mansion.
This house is located in a quiet area in the Puxi area of Shanghai. It is surrounded by gardens and mansions. The area is not... too big. The house plus the garden is much better than Zhuge Weidao's Goulan in Beijing. The house in the alley is a little bigger than that. As for the house price, it's about 600,000 silver dollars.
Well, it doesn’t look expensive, but this is a silver dollar under the gold and silver standard! The low-end version of a 10,000-ton patrol hero class only costs 6.66 million! This 10,000-ton cruiser can be considered the number one cruiser in the world today! How can it be equivalent to the status of the 055 driver in later generations, right? You can imagine how high the price of this house is.
Fortunately, this house was Daheikong's dowry and was registered in her name, so Zhuge Weidao didn't have to worry about the property taxes, property maintenance fees, and the expenses of a group of servants... He just felt at ease. Just eat Daheikong's soft rice.
And Dai Heikong, with so much dowry and the name "Tokugawa", only had the title of "concubine", so she was actually a concubine.
So the nameplate at the door of this house was grandly hung with the sign "Zhuge's One Hundred and Eight Residences". During these days when Zhuge Weidao was "selling boats" in Shanghai, he lived comfortably in it and let Dahei Sora put on a maid uniform and waited beside Ari. But Daheikong didn't complain at all and was happy to serve. No one can eat this Zhuge Weidao's soft rice...
"Master, General Menshikov is visiting."
This afternoon, Zhuge Weidao, who had just visited the internal combustion engine factory owned by Jiangnan Heavy Industries, was thinking about playing some games with Natalie, Daheikong, and Ali to relax... Daheikong will leave. Entering his study, he reported the news of the visit of a distinguished guest to Zhuge Military Advisor who was sorting out information (internal information obtained at the internal combustion engine factory of Jiangnan Heavy Industry).
"Okay, I'll be right away... You ask my wife to greet you first." Zhuge Weidao ordered as he stuffed the information on hand into a document bag, walked to the safe in the study, and then put the documents on hand into The bag was stuffed into the safe, and then another bag with "Rakshasa Kingdom Contract" written on it was taken out from the safe. After that, he walked out of the study room with the bag in hand, walked along a corridor filled with paintings and calligraphy to the stairs, and then went downstairs.
Downstairs is a large living room filled with sunlight. Outside the huge floor-to-ceiling glass window in the living room is a green lawn, and several workers are busy mowing the lawn. Natalie and Menshikov were already sitting in the living room chatting. When they saw Zhuge Weidao coming down, they both stood up again.
Zhuge Weidao kissed Natalie first, then strode up to Menshikov, smiled and shook hands with him, "Alexander Sergeyevich, I'm so happy to see you..." .Did Nikolai Pavlovich agree to purchase his own Roman Empire?”
While shaking hands with Zhuge Weidao, Menshikov smiled a little apologetically and said, "Commander Zhuge, something has happened..."
situation?
Zhuge Weidao was stunned for a moment, thinking that he didn't tell Menshikov about the kickback, right? But Natalie said there was no need to give it this time, could it be...
"Look at this." As he spoke, Menshikov took out a note from his pocket and handed it to Zhuge Weidao.
Zhuge Weidao took the note and looked at it. On it was a series of battleship parameters. He muttered in a low voice: "The standard displacement is 22,000 metric tons, the main engine power is more than 30,000 horsepower, the main gun is equipped with a 13.5-inch cannon, and the number is 4 twins. , front and rear piggyback turrets." Then he looked up at Menshikov, "Is this the ship Nikolai Pavlovich wants? This ship is not easy to build, and it won't be out in a few years! And this cost......"
In fact, the Ming Dynasty has already developed a better ship than this, which is the 20,000-ton battle cruiser... The standard displacement of that battle cruiser is currently tentatively set at 20,000-22,000 tons. The power of the main engine is 50,000-80,000 horsepower, but the caliber of the main gun is slightly different. It is expected to be a 310 mm caliber cannon, and the 13.5-inch is equivalent to 343 mm. Compared to a 22,000-ton ship, it is a bit big.
However, the hull and power system of this battle cruiser will be shared with the aircraft carrier, so it is highly confidential and cannot be sold to the Rakshasa people. If Nicholas I wanted such a ship, it would have to be specially developed for him... The price is very high, this is an exclusive customized version, but this Nicholas is an oil tycoon!
When Zhuge Weidao was thinking about how to collect the money, Menshikov suddenly spoke: "These are the main technical parameters of the British's next-generation battleship."
"What?" Zhuge Weidao was stunned, "The next generation of British battleships? Real or fake? This ship is equivalent to..."
Zhuge Weidao didn't say anything further, but he already knew in his heart that this ship was equivalent to the Orion class, except that it lacked a midship turret. Orion has a five-turret, this ship has a four-turret.
But the Orion was created after the British had a thorough understanding of the Dreadnought... Although there was only one Dreadnought class, after the Dreadnought class, the British Empire in history built four more classes of battleships in small steps. , each time it was improved a little bit, and only after several years did we have this level of Orion.
Now the British Empire doesn't even build a dreadnought, but jumps directly from Sovereign to Orion. Is this a big step?
Although the Ming Dynasty has a more radical 30,000-ton fast battleship project, it is a pre-research project (it is an exploration project before the hero ship is put into service). In front of it is the 25,000-ton battleship that is in the research and development stage. and the two projects of 20,000-ton battle cruiser, and behind it are the two exploration projects of 30,000-ton battle cruiser and 40,000-ton battleship. The pace of research and development is very steady.
No anti-theft
Just as he was thinking about it, Natalie's urgent and fast Rakshasa language rang out: "Alexander Sergeyevich, how did you know about the British's next-generation battleship plan?"
"The Grand Duchess was the British who took the initiative to develop it with us, as well as France, Prussia, Austria, the United States, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, India and other countries, so we know these parameters."
"Oh," Zhuge Weidao nodded, "The Tsar must think this is a rare opportunity to learn advanced Western European technology, so he doesn't want to buy our hero class and hero class?"
This is a matter of course! The cold goddess of England winked at the furry bear who was eager to fall into the goddess's arms... Now Nicholas I has not yet been heartbroken by those countries in Western Europe!
Menshikov was also very straightforward. He nodded and said: "The British said that if we buy the Ming Dynasty's Hero-class and Hero-class, we are not welcome to participate in joint research and development... Our domestic Shipbuilding experts all believe that this is a very rare opportunity! After all, participating in R&D and technology transfer and directly purchasing products are completely different. This is a very valuable ability."
Zhuge Weidao smiled and nodded, and said to Menshikov: "Alexander Sergeyevich, I know that the final decision on this matter does not lie with you, but with the Tsar. But I hope you can tell the Tsar that he He was at war, fighting the Turkish Empire, and attacking Turkey with a group of half-hearted allies... If he wanted to seize Constantinople in one fell swoop and turn the Rakshasa Kingdom into the Eastern Roman Empire, he would also make himself a rival The great emperors of Peter the Great and Catherine the Great, then don’t think about research and development capabilities!
The most important thing now is to buy, buy, buy our Hero-class battleships, Haohan-class armored cruisers, our Nandao-class troop carriers and fast coal carriers, and of course our Feilong-class airships. Only if he buys enough, will it be possible to send a powerful Mediterranean fleet, just like General Orlov did back then, to attack Turkey from the Mediterranean direction. in addition......"
Zhuge Weidao thought for a while and did not tell Menshikov about this "other thing". Instead, he turned to Natalie and said: "My dear, it seems that you have to go through a hard trip... You and Alexander. Thank you." Let's go to Petersburg with Ergeevich!" His tone suddenly became very serious, "Natalie Pavlovna, you must explain the situation to the Tsar in person and convince him to accept our plan... .... Because it is the only correct one. Now, whether the Eastern Roman Empire can be revived depends on you!"
