() In order to repay Liu Fu for his motorcycle, David gave him another gift. It should be said that he gave a gift to the whole of Taiwan. This gift is not a thing or money, but a piece of information, and it is also very high-end.
The intelligence was that the British were about to go to war. In fact, this news was not heard by David, but told to him by his father Joseph, an earl who was far away in England. He reintegrated into the aristocratic circle in London and became the main social force.
The cocktail parties held at Earl Joseph's Manor are the first-class social places that London's upper class must visit.
The old earl was not willing to just spend his son's money to be a parasite, so he borrowed money from David and formed a joint venture with several high-level figures to buy a diamond mine in South Africa. However, in the past two years, South Africa has
The situation was a bit chaotic. In order to seize diamond and gold minerals, the British increased their local expansion. However, the two Boer republics, Drasvale and Orange, stood in the way of the British, which was very frustrating to the British.
The Chinese people have a headache. The two sides have been fighting for decades, and no one can convince the other. In recent years, in order to resist the British invasion, the Boers began to flirt with the Germans, which made the British anxious. According to
According to the information the old earl received from the Governor of South Africa, the British stationed in South Africa were mobilizing troops to the border, preparing to teach the Boers a lesson and make them obediently contribute all their diamonds and gold.
Since the old earl had property in South Africa and had a close relationship with the Governor of South Africa, the Governor paid special attention to Joseph this time and asked him if he was prepared to invest in gold mines, because British soldiers were about to rush into the Boer country and take away their gold and diamond mines.
It was snatched away.
The old earl was unsure about paying attention, so he quickly sent a telegram to inquire about his son, who had a business genius. David himself couldn't think of any good ideas, but he had a demigod friend, Liu Fu, and Liu Fu had once
I had asked David to help collect information on several major European powers, so I could give the information to Liu Fu as a gift and ask him for his opinion.
Liu Fu received David's telegram and immediately knew that this was the famous "British-Boer" war in history, which ended with a tragic victory for the British. However, from that year to the end of that year, the specific battles
Liu Fu didn't know anything about the process or the losses on both sides. Seeing David asking for his opinion, Liu Fu could only reply vaguely to David: The final victory was for Britain, but the process was very difficult, and Britain would be hit at the beginning.
.And told David to pay close attention and report at any time.
In November 1899, old Joseph sent another message: the Boers first declared war with Britain, and the war began.
In fact, South Africa is hundreds of thousands of miles away from Taiwan. There are just human brains out there, and it has no real impact on Asia. But Liu Fu knows that although this war seems to be one strong and one weak, at the beginning
During this period, the British suffered a lot of losses, and finally defeated the Boers with all their strength. It was not that the Boers were very strong, but that the Boers themselves were tough, coupled with the German weapons and equipment.
The instructor kept sending it off, which made the British man extremely painful.
The harder it is for the British to fight there, the more comfortable Liu Fu's life will be in Taiwan, because the British Far East Fleet no longer dares to act rashly. The British warships that were wandering around Taiwan a few days ago have recently withdrawn.
After leaving Hong Kong, they rarely come out again. Of course, most of the reasons for this are to guard against the German Far East Fleet.
In East Asia now, the Japanese are disabled, the French are disabled, the Russians and Germans are too far away and rarely come here for a walk. The nearest Americans are fighting on the Philippine Islands. They originally thought they would capture Manila and drive away the Spanish. The Philippines
It was his own. As a result, the local indigenous people announced that
Sorry, although the various rebel armies are not strong in combat effectiveness, they cannot stand up to many. In addition, the dense tropical rainforest and unfamiliar roads give the US military a headache. Let alone sending fleets to patrol everywhere, it would be good if they can keep the fruits of victory.
.
Liu Fu looked at the map and counted with his fingers. Haha, in this area of the South China Sea, no one can care about him. With such a good opportunity, if he doesn't develop it quickly, it will be a waste and it will be a disservice to himself.
irresponsible.
First of all, Liu Fu invested in strengthening the mining capacity of Shilu Iron Mine and increased the transportation volume to Taiwan; secondly, taking advantage of the absence of external threats, he promoted the trial cooperative to the whole of Taiwan. If anyone dares to jump out and cause trouble, then
He resolutely attacked; finally, Liu Fu prepared to build warships.
It would be unreasonable for such a large island country to not have a few warships. Although submarines can fully cope with the current defense and some offensive tasks, we cannot rely on submarines all our lives. Warships will be equipped sooner or later, so it is better to build a few now.
It serves as a facade to train naval personnel and prepare for the future.
After nearly ten years of hard work, Keelung Shipyard has the capability to build warships. Although heavy artillery is still relatively behind, general medium-caliber naval guns have been put into production.
This time Liu Fu plans to build a large destroyer with a displacement of 2,950 tons, a deck armor of 70mm, and a mantlet armor of 100mm. It is completely driven by a fuel steam turbine, providing 19,000 horsepower, dual-shaft propulsion, and a speed of 30 knots.
Above, the endurance can also reach 9,000 nautical miles and 18 knots; the weapons and equipment are four 120mm 60-fold rapid-fire cannons developed and produced by Taiwan itself, 10 12mm heavy machine guns, and four 450mm torpedo tubes.
Part of the hull of this large destroyer named "Keelung Class" is based on the fishing boat shape brought by Liu Fu, such as the forward bow pillar, a drop-shaped bulbous bow, a square stern, a streamlined balanced rudder, etc. These new
Technology has greatly improved the seaworthiness and range of ships.
The biggest improvement is to abandon the use of rivets to rivet the hull, and instead use electric welding, or gas shielded arc welding to be precise, to connect various parts of the hull. Thanks to electric welding technology, the dead weight of the hull has been reduced a lot, and its toughness has increased.
Quite a few, and for various complex shapes
It also has processing capabilities. The only drawback is that there are currently not enough skilled welders in the Keelung Shipyard, which seriously affects the progress of shipbuilding. However, this shortcoming will slowly turn into an advantage over time. When there are enough skilled workers, electric welding can be achieved.
The shipbuilding progress will greatly exceed the shipbuilding speed of riveting.
The tonnage of the "Keelung-class" destroyers is between contemporary gunboats and torpedo boats. Its firepower and armor are superior to gunboats and torpedo boats, but slightly inferior to cruisers. However, the 120mm 60-caliber naval gun and low-alloy gun independently developed and produced by Taiwan
Ultra-high-strength steel armor makes up for the lack of artillery caliber and armor thickness to a certain extent. After
Tests have shown that the armor-piercing capability and firing speed of the 120mm 60-diameter naval gun produced in Taiwan are higher than the 152mm naval gun equipped by the British warships at the time, and the low-alloy ultra-high-strength steel armor is also comparable to the German Krupp armor.
It is made of carburized surface-hardened nickel-cadmium alloy steel, and it is much lighter than Krupp armor, and it is even better in heat treatment and corrosion protection.
A total of three "Keelung-class" destroyers will be built in the first batch. The planned construction time is between eight months and one and a half years. The specific time depends on the training progress of welders. After completion, these three destroyers will join the Taiwan Navy.
Stationed in Keelung and Citong, it serves as the main ship for patrol and training. Because Liu Fu equipped this destroyer with a ship sonar modified from a submarine sonar, the "Keelung-class" destroyer
It is also a surface ship capable of anti-submarine warfare, and it is estimated that it may be the world's first anti-submarine ship. Since Liu Fu started out as a submarine, he also has a very stubborn persistence in anti-submarine warfare. Although there is currently no submarine that can make the "Keelung-class"
"Go to rebel, but Liu Fu plans to use his own submarine to train the anti-submarine warfare capabilities of his destroyers. In Liu Fu's words: As the ancients said, if you are idle, use it when you are busy.
The last thing to note is that this destroyer is also specially equipped with a mine delivery device. If mines need to be mined, the "Keelung-class" destroyer can carry up to 130 mines, and it takes less than 2 hours to accurately and evenly lay them out in a formulated
