After the attendants sent fragrant black coffee, ruprecht called the box.
"I really didn’t expect positions will send you! How was your last year? Is it very unaccustomed to leaving the army? Don’t write me anything? "
"Oh, it’s a long story!" Hubert put his crutch aside and then picked up the coffee cup on the table. When he and ruprecht were working together in the General Staff, they liked to go to a small cafe in Berlin to drink this kind of black coffee. The Kaiser sometimes sneaked out with them in a junior officer’s army and called this three-person party the Black Coffee Alliance. Unfortunately, the gathering place was always short. Soon, the three of them went their separate ways and met each other for more than a year, and the opportunities were few and far between.
"Then speak from the beginning! We can talk from noon to night, even if it’s early! " Since ruprecht, Queen of Britain, returned to Bavaria, there were few opportunities for old colleagues and friends to get together. Sometimes he felt that a narrow English Channel blocked him from another world. Now that old friends came, his depression was suddenly swept away.
So for a whole afternoon, they talked about things they had not met for more than a year, and sometimes they laughed together and sometimes they felt together until the attendants came in to wake them up at lunch, and then they remembered today’s topic.
"How did the Scottish mercenary company … come up with such a strange name?" Ruprecht is a little curious.
"The name is just a code name!" Hubert expressed his opinion that "the key is that we don’t want it to attract the attention of other countries!"
Roupret nodded and shook his head quickly. "It is almost impossible for shipyards, arsenals and mercenaries not to be found now!"
Hubert was very impressed. "The situation is so large!"
200 million marks into pounds is more than 1.1 billion! After that, ruprecht added, "Now that the pound has depreciated sharply, businessmen would rather let Mark have those British people or stick to their own currency!"
"At present, I think the mark will become a European currency before long!" Hubert told ruprecht, "It is said that the government is planning a new European mark to replace the previous imperial mark, pound, franc and Austro-Hungarian krona, and gold coins will be completely withdrawn from circulation!"
Ruprecht was not surprised by this news. "In fact, I have heard about it for a long time. It sounds good and can stabilize the money market of the occupied country at least!"
Hubert continued limping with ruprecht to the restaurant.
Ruprecht also deliberately put the pace very slowly. "After the war, Britain’s economy and industry were in a depression. Except for some British people, few people came here to invest and look at the government relief office. There are long queues to receive relief food every day! It’s hard to find a job that can fill your stomach! It’s even harder to find a job that can support the family! Although the pound has depreciated sharply, the hourly wage of an ordinary worker in Britain is still at the level of 20 pence, which is really cheap labor! I dare say that if you pay 25 pence an hour, hundreds of people will flock to your recruitment office immediately! "
Hubert replied without thinking, "Before I came, I had planned to recruit experienced and physically qualified workers and mercenary shipbuilders to give 40 pence to arsenal workers every hour and 50 pence to arsenal workers. If they are shipbuilding technicians and arsenal technicians, the treatment will be higher accordingly!" Ordinary mercenaries pay 5oo pounds a month, and officers rank higher according to their positions and ranks! "
"Well, it’s really attractive in Britain! But I have been worried that the workers will be passive and destructive when they know who will build ships and produce weapons! " Ruprecht stopped and looked at Hubert very seriously. "Mercenaries are even more difficult to reassure. Maybe there will be resistance groups mixed in. If you go to the battlefield, you will defect …"
Hubert also stopped "positions that you can rest assured! Mercenaries are just the cover of this company. Actually, we plan to recruit 500 mercenaries, and the arsenal is also a small-scale purchase and expansion of shipyards. Recruiting skilled shipbuilders from England and Scotland is our main goal! Germany’s imperial position means that Britain is fortunate to be strategically prepared for the shipbuilding industry after the war. Once these shipyards are needed in wartime, they can build additional shipbuilding sources in Germany, and they can also build warships outside the treaty as little as possible without outsiders knowing! "
"warships outside the treaty-"ruprecht a thoughtful expression.
"That’s right! We intend to build an outer ship in Britain that limits the number and tonnage of the Washington naval agreement! " Burt added, "This is not a shameful thing. Who can guarantee that Americans and Japanese will not secretly build warships outside the treaty?"
Tu Mei Chapter 32 Queen’s Resurrection
In July, Europe was in summer.
In the cool weather after a heavy rain, Chen Tian and his party came to visit and inspect the Royal German Shipyard in Port William and attended a number of new ship launching ceremonies.
It is precisely because the Kaiser will visit the water ceremony that the Royal Shipyard will adjust the four guardian cruisers that were originally scheduled to be launched in batches every month to the same day. It is expected that these ships will be completed in the later period of 10 months.
When Chentian came to the slipway accompanied by some generals in Boer, Admiral of the fleet, four "guardians" with a designed displacement of 76oo were silently waiting there for the water ceremony, as well as thousands of shipyard workers and people from all walks of life.
Guardian class is the first-class escort cruiser designed and built by Germany after the war. Facing the increasingly busy German overseas routes, the Kaiser and the navy generals are eagerly looking forward to a more suitable escort cruiser to be put into active service in batches to replace the current limited voyage. After the initial design and the argument lasting for more than two months, the "Guardian" class light cruiser finally came into being. Although this cruiser is a new attempt for the German navy and shipyard, the German navy still can’t wait to order six ships, four of which were built at the Royal Shipbuilder in June 1915 and two at the blom Voss Shipyard in Hamburg a month later. At present, the four construction codes are "Hausen", "Billow" and "mackensen".
In the gust of cool wind, several cruisers’ ribbons and colored balls fluttered with the wind, and their powertrains ―― four oil-fired boilers and one boiler turbine have been installed and designed, with a maximum cruising range of 29 knots and 14 knots, and a cruising range of 6ooo nautical miles. As the floor construction and artillery installation work will continue in the next few months, there is now a bare hull outside them.
After the completion, this class cruiser will be equipped with six main guns with a diameter of 152 mm and 5o times, and three double-mounted turrets will be arranged in the front two and the rear one. The auxiliary gun consists of 4 105mm guns, 77mm anti-aircraft guns and 12 20 mm machine guns, and one 533mm fish laser tube is installed in the side. There will also be a water reconnaissance plane at the tail.
After boarding the viewing platform, I also noticed that there are three ships under construction in the opposite dock, which were introduced by the person in charge of the shipyard. That is, the Schiffin class cruiser was built in February this year, with a designed displacement of 9oo tons, which is larger than that of the guardian class. After completion in 1991, No.1 is expected to be the main ship of the colonial fleet, and will be stationed in the colonial ports at ordinary times and be responsible for patrolling the surrounding waters. If necessary, the Admiralty can order three cruisers of this class, and the Royal Shipyard will be responsible for the construction. It is estimated that a single ship will be 1.75 million
Champagne and colored balls were cheered by thousands of soldiers and civilians, and the admiralty generals watched four new cruisers slowly slide on the slipway. Although the transportation between Germany and the sea will still need to be protected by old warships for a long time to come, these new forces still make everyone feel more gratified.
After the water ceremony, Chen Tian and his party also visited other ships being built in this shipyard. According to the person in charge, at present, the orders for warships received by the Royal Shipyard have been reduced by nearly half compared with those before and during the war. Most docks have been converted to civilian ships, and two large oil tankers with a crude oil capacity of 10,000 tons have been built. It is planned to build an ocean liner with a crude oil capacity of 20,000 tons, an oil tanker with a crude oil capacity of 10,000 tons and two ocean freighters with a crude oil capacity of 10,000 tons in the year.
After the Royal Shipyard’s trip, Chen Tian did not return to Berlin directly, but flew to Hamburg to inspect the vulcan Shipyard, where the battleship "Grand Elector Hou" was built, and the blom Voss Shipyard, where the battleship "De Foehlinger" was built. At present, these two shipyards are undertaking the construction of nearly one-third of the light and medium-sized ships by the German Navy, and the new battle cruiser "Salonika" built in the name of the Turkish Navy is also under intense construction at the No.3 berth of the Broglie Voss Shipyard.
I flew to my "lair"-Konigsberg, East Prussia-the day after the "one-day trip to Hamburg".
At the slipway of Konigsberg Shipyard, I finally saw the future main carriers of the German Navy-the Zeppelin, whose keel was laid in November 1915, and the Zeppelin, whose keel was laid in January 1916. Was it the first time that I had seen them on the drawings before?
Restricted by the Washington Naval Treaty, the designed displacement of the two aircraft carriers under construction is claimed to be 20,000 tons, but the actual displacement will definitely exceed this figure. The design idea of this class of aircraft carriers has changed from focusing on aircraft capacity to protecting the viability. After paying equal attention to aircraft capacity, their expected maximum capacity is only 6o, which is 10 more than the 150,000-ton Lisa and much less than the 75 Prince. However, they still make Germany the world’s first standard aircraft carrier and go down in history.
In this design idea, the Zeppelin-class aircraft carrier has 25 flights, and the water surface and water protection have been greatly improved. Among them, the armor at the waterline position is up to 72 mm thick, and there are watertight compartments and torpedo compartments. The wooden flight deck is covered with thin armor, and the deck of the hangar has 45 mm thick armor. The fire resistance of this class aircraft carrier is equally strong, with 77 mm anti-aircraft guns, 24 20 mm machine guns and 4 machine guns.
A zeppelin-class aircraft carrier under construction and its engine are budgeted at 95 million marks. At present, the German Navy has only two orders, and an order for land has been added after the cancellation of the "Mother Duck". At present, the Konigsberg Shipyard has a total of 12ooo large slipways specially built for aircraft carriers. So at present, in addition to the two slipways of Zeppelin and Erpitz, there are four other 10 slipways and six 10,000-ton oil tankers under construction. With the rapid development of German shipping, the old year and the new year are coming.
Two aircraft carriers under construction certainly make Chen Tian confident, but this is not his planning department.
The sunshine in northern Scotland is blazing in July.
A line of formally dressed gentlemen were walking on the quiet slipway in the dizzying hot sun, and one of them walked with a cane and was a little lame.
"This is John Brown Shipyard’s former berth No.1, which was built before the war. One of the large battleships, the Queen Elizabeth battleship, was built here! You can’t see the position of the mast not far from the water is the battleship, which was sunk by a German plane before it was finished! "
The introducer is a man in his early forties with an old face like a middle-aged man. He is the current owner of this shipyard, Addison Brown. This old shipyard was seriously damaged in the war and Addison didn’t have enough funds. So he has been looking for buyers to sell the shipyard after the war. But the chaebol and the tycoons have long since slipped to the United States and Canada, and the foundations left in Britain are owned by the poor. Until now, he has welcomed a group of buyers with real purchasing power.
Looking in the direction of Addison’s finger, people really saw a small section of the mast, which was the "stillborn" Queen Elizabeth battleship barham. It was completed in October 1913 and was originally scheduled to be completed by the end of 1915, but it was badly hit by the German naval air force in December 1914. In a larger attack in February of the following year, the warship with a designed displacement of 290,000 tons was completely sunk in the shipwreck factory. It is said that it was repaired to prevent the warship from being salvaged by the Germans before the British government evacuated.
In the queue of gentlemen is an old man in his fifties with glasses. He speaks English with a Scottish accent.
"If it continues to be blocked in the waterway, we can’t continue to build ships if we buy this shipyard!"
Addison, the buyer, quickly replied, "In fact, we have also considered this issue, because its tonnage is too large. If it is to be picked up and transported away, the conventional method is to stop leakage and drain water, but before that, the situation of the sunken ship must be clarified! You also know that the original workers in the shipyard fled and scattered, and the water is said to explode at any time. No one wants to go! "
"Oh, what a pity it is to have a shipyard!" The old man said sorry and then prepared to turn around and walk back.
Addison suddenly panicked. "Sir, please stay. In fact, it’s not a big problem to get it up if you are willing to pay more money!"
The old man looked back at the current owner of the shipyard. "This should be your job! I don’t want to buy a shipyard with sunken ships in the way and bombs left behind! "
"But sir, if I have enough money to clean up the shipyard, will I sell it?" Addison looked nai.
"In that case …" The old man thought for half a minute. "I can buy this shipyard, but the cleaning must be deducted from the purchase price!"
"This …" Addison is hard to look at this group of "Scots".
The old man stretched out two fingers. "The price of a bite is 2000 pounds!"
"25ooo million pounds …" Addison was very reluctant, but his price of 500 thousand pounds for a sunken ship made the shipyard depreciate by more than half. Of course, he was unwilling, but after careful thinking for a while, he couldn’t find a better way to discuss it with each other with a bitter face.
"So let’s take a step back, 4oo million marks?"
"mark? Are you talking about German marks, sir? " The old man was surprised.
"Sir, you also know the current situation!" Addison said in a low voice, "The pound is depreciating badly now. If you pay me in pounds, it may not be worth it when I get it!"
"3o mark! Clinch a deal or not just a word "the old man looked at the declining shipyard owner with keen eyes.
"So …" Addison gritted his teeth and stretched out his right hand. "Deal!"
At this time, no one noticed that the middle-aged man with crutches bowed his head and looked in stitches. I’m afraid the price of the warship in the water of 30,000 marks is more than this. It is such a large shipyard with excellent geographical location, covering an area of more than 200 hectares and many warehouses, docks and machine tools. It seems that many shipyards on the Clyde River can be acquired for less than 200,000 marks. The situation is better than expected.
In this way, in a short summer, this group of "Scots" frantically acquired nineteen large and small shipyards on the Clyde River and incorporated them into the industry of Scottish mercenary companies.
Gradually, many people have appeared in Britain. The local people have heard the most about this mercenary company, and they are most willing to believe that this group of people is sent by the exiled British government. They will regain control of the shipbuilding industry in northern Scotland and the secret ships of Edward the Navy. Of course, people also believe that this group of "Scots" have considerable funds and bought off Robert I government officials. The German government will not notice here.
However, some people pointed out that this is a German conspiracy. They want to benefit the British shipyard. They build ships and then attack the government of Edward I in exile in Canada.
People argued fiercely and tried to figure out until the company posted notices all over Scotland to recruit skilled workers with high salaries. The debate has become very important for these workers who urgently need a job. A large number of young people, middle-aged people and even old people who used to work in shipyards flocked to Glasgow to queue up at the company’s recruitment office every day. For one Scot, it is more important to feed his stomach and support his family than fucking politics.
Shortly after entering the former John Brown Shipyard, the new owner recruited divers and repaired the shipyard equipment. One month later, the hull of the barham was salvaged. After three weeks, the dilapidated warship finally returned to the No.1 berth where it was built. People soon found that the warship was not clearing the waterway as the top management of the Scottish mercenary company said. The top management of the mercenary company announced that the warship would be converted into an ocean-going freighter because the hull condition of the barham was better than expected.
Subsequently, the severely damaged storey building in barham and only two main turrets were removed, and the deck was cleared. A hull repair and reconstruction project was soon completed.
When ship after ship of high-quality steel and auxiliary equipment was brought into the shipyard, most shipmen didn’t think carefully about whether the shipyard owner had magical powers to get so many good materials. When the outline of this "ocean freighter" was about to take shape, the shipyard even made a surprising move, transferring the original shipmen to other shipyards and assigning hundreds of workers who didn’t know where to "transfer" the ship for post-construction. A huge arc-shaped ceiling was built on the berth, and a tall barbed wire fence was built around the berth, which was nearly 100 meters away from the berth.
The situation lasted until the following summer, when the "new ship" flooded on a rainy night, and then after two cargo ships dragged quietly away from the shipyard and waited for several mysterious ships to meet in the open sea, it disappeared from people’s sight before dawn.
From the data of German Admiralty in October 1917, a transport ship named "Traveler" was added and incorporated into the North Sea Fleet under the command of Prince Heinrich. Although it was a transport ship, it was full of 156 crew members and outsiders had never seen it in German Ports!
It was not until February 1991, during a naval exercise, that the senior and middle-ranking generals of the German navy saw this top-secret "transport ship" on the sea. After a large-scale modification, the hull of the battleship Queen Elizabeth barham was built with a heavy aircraft carrier with a full displacement of 30,000 tons. In addition to its outstanding armor defense, its 75 aircraft capacity was also equal to that of the "Prince", which set a record. At that time, two ships had the largest number of aircraft carriers in various countries.