Chapter 314: Avoiding disaster

"Actually, I'm not a big deal. I'm just explaining to you about our Tangzhou Coast Guard."

"Coast Guard?"

"It's the Navy."

...

It's the navy.

In the Blue Hall of the White House, Guo Jinzhang's gentle words almost made Cleveland so hard that he wanted to vomit blood... In such a big battle, the president and vice president took action together, and the Secretary of State was there, and he also pulled the Secretary of War, and even prepared to call other cabinet members over, intending to "fight" with the guy in front of him together, but what this guy said was just to explain the matter of the Navy... Isn't this just sending a telegram?

"Mr. Guo, you said that you rushed to Washington in person, but you were just trying to explain to us the matter of ordering warships from Britain?" Cleveland took a breath and confirmed to Guo Jinzhang. He didn't believe that this guy came to Washington just for such a "small thing"... Although the new steel battleship of ten thousand tons can pose a powerful threat to the entire American navy, it was because the United States has not carefully developed its navy. If you are serious, with the United States' national strength and construction level, not to mention one or two battleships, more than a dozen or twenty ships will not be a problem. Therefore, such a thing is not worth Guo Jinzhang's personal action.

"That's right, it's just for this." Guo Jinzhang smiled, "I'm afraid that I can't explain it clearly in the telegram, and I'm worried that others can't figure out the attitude we should have, so I came here in person... Of course, I didn't notify the White House in advance, and it was also considered that many people don't have any good feelings for me and are afraid of something happening in the middle. Everyone knows that I am very afraid of death!"

"Afraid of death? You are so humble." Sdicott couldn't help but say.

"Haha, Mr. Minister, you are so kind. I have always been like this." Guo Jinzhang smiled.

"..." I've never seen such a thick-skinned person. Sidicott was choked and his face turned red. He was just sarcastic about Guo Jinzhang, but this guy just recognized himself as being very modest and always like this... Isn't this obvious that he praised his noble character? The Minister of War has never seen such a shameless person in his life. This guy's face is probably thicker than the barrel of a 400mm caliber cannon.

"We are not interested in whether Mr. Guo, your humble personality, but if you are here to explain the warship matter to the government... then you can start now." Bayard was secretly alert. Guo Jinzhang is the leader and leader of Tangzhou. In just one sentence, the Red Corps can immediately kill Rocky Mountain, and now the hundreds of thousands of residents in Tangzhou will immediately become hundreds of thousands of quasi-soldiers with guns and ammunition... Only then did such a person suddenly arrive in Tangzhou personally?

I don't believe it's just for a few warships. Although that's a big deal, even if it's a big deal, Seattle and Washington have only communicated with telegrams. It's also a precedent for Washington to send people to Seattle. Seattle has never sent people to Washington. Now, the other party finally made an exception, and as a result, it's such a big man. How could they not be nervous? The name of cunning in front of me has been floating over America for many years.

"Since you have no objection, I'm not polite." Guo Jinzhang seemed not to see the obvious defense of everyone present. He signaled to Li Dongbao, who was sitting on the side. Li Dongbao immediately took out a roll of paper from the wide briefcase in his hand and stood up.

"I need a picture board!" Li Dongbao looked around and said with the roll of paper.

"Go now." Cleveland ordered to the secretary who was staying there. Soon, a board with a wheeled frame was pushed over, and there were even a few magnets used to absorb paper and fix it to the board... When Cleveland and others were a little depressed when they saw this thing. The tiny and unobtrusive "made  in   seattl" in the upper right corner of the board became so dazzling.

"This is the floor plan of one of the "Dreadnought"-class battleships we customized to the UK." Li Dongbao unfolded the drawings, flattened them, and then sucked them on the drawing board. "This battleship has a total of 10 single large-caliber 305mm main guns, powered by steam turbines, with an estimated maximum speed of 21 knots, and is fully heavily armored protection..."

"Wait, what did you say just now?" Vice President Hendrisk suddenly reached out and interrupted him. "You say that all such battleships are single-caliber main guns? Does it have no secondary guns?"

"There is no secondary cannon!" Guo Jinzhang interjected lightly.

"Why?" Hendrisk looked at him in confusion, "Although I don't understand the navy very much, I also know that a warship must also need a secondary gun while requiring a main gun!"

"Warships have main guns and secondary guns. That is because the combat levels that warships need to face are different. In many cases, they do not need to use main guns at all, but can achieve the purpose of combat with only secondary guns." Li Dongbao replied seriously, "But battleships are different. Battleships themselves are the main combat ships. Its existence exists for war, for large-scale maritime wars or landing operations, for sea control... In other words, when it is necessary to dispatch battleships to fight, what we need to face is already a war, and it may be a big war. Since this is the case, a more powerful main gun is naturally a better choice... and we install main guns on this new type of battleships for more powerful firepower."

"Although I don't understand the navy very much, the weight of 10 305mm main guns is quite considerable. In addition to the mass of the warship itself, how did you make it reach a high speed of 21 knots? Increase the number of steam engines?" Sdicott had just exchanged views with Cleveland and asked the presidential secretary to quickly invite Secretary of the Navy Whitney, but before that he had to take the lead... You can't just let Guo Jinzhang and the other two say there, they don't say anything, right?

"Of course not." Li Dongbao shook his head, "Increasing the number of steam engines in one aspect will only occupy the volume of the hull, which will be forced to reduce the amount of ammunition. Moreover, even if the number of steam engines is increased, it is difficult to increase the 10,000-ton warship to a speed of 21 knots... Therefore, our new "Dreadnought" class battleship uses steam turbines, and to be precise, it should be a steam turbine as the power. In the power part of the entire battleship, we have installed a total of 18 three-swell steam boilers and 4 steam turbine units, which can theoretically provide 26,000 horsepower..."

"26,000 horsepower?" Sdicott couldn't help but take a breath. Although he was not a pure navy, as the Minister of War, he also had a certain understanding of the navy. As far as he knew, even the largest and fastest battleship of the US Navy, the USS Rochester, which is currently the largest and fastest, has only less than 20,000 horsepower, or even more than 16,000 horsepower. In other words, this new "Dreadnought" class battleship is nearly twice as big as the "Rochester" in terms of power alone...

"Is this steam turbine very powerful?" Hendrisk asked with a frown.

"This is hard to say." Guo Jinzhang smiled, "This is a by-product of our power station construction. After many experts' research, we finally moved it to the ship... But during the first experiment, the ship equipped with a small steam turbine ran a speed of 37 knots!"

"What?"

37 knots? Sdicott couldn't help but be shocked. When most ships could only run an average speed of more than ten knots, how could he not know what the speed of 37 knots mean? It represents absolute initiative. If you can't beat it, you can run, if you can beat it, you can chase it...

"How is your battery life? I'm talking about the battery life of the highest speed!" Sdicott asked again withstood the surprise in his heart.

"Because the waters have not been tested, the data on high-speed endurance can only be estimated at present. However, according to calculations, our steam turbines can ensure that the "Dreadless" class can continue to travel at a speed of more than 20 knots for at least 13 hours and maintain good reliability." Li Dongbao replied.

“13 hours?”

"Yes."

"..." Sdicott was silent. 13 hours, which means that the dreadnoughts equipped with steam turbines can continue to maintain a high-speed combat state, which is extremely important in naval battles. Because, as far as he knows, many battleships are now very weak in high-speed endurance, and some can't run for two or three hours at a speed of more than ten knots. But now...

"Epoch-making." An adjective suddenly popped up in Sdicott's mind.

"It seems that there are 8 main guns on the 'Rochester', right?" Bayard suddenly asked Sdicott.

"Yes." Sdicott glanced at the Secretary of State. He didn't understand what the guy suddenly asked about it, "But the caliber of the eight main guns was only 203mm!"

"Um?"

I wanted to show Guo Jinzhang and the others that he also had a powerful battleship, but when he heard Sdicott's words, Bayard's old face was immediately red. 203mm and 305mm are completely different concepts. Who are you scaring?

"Why do you want to order such advanced battleships from the UK?" Cleveland couldn't help it. From Li Dongbao's introduction just now and Sdicott's reaction, he could already realize that these two battleships in Tangzhou were obviously better than all American ships... What do these guys want to do?

"I'm here to explain this to you." Guo Jinzhang signaled Li Dongbao to sit down again, and said, "Actually, we can't do this."

"I can't force myself? Who else can force you to force me?" Hendrisk frowned. "All you have always been forcing others? Washington, Toronto, Madrid... Which one is not forced by you to have no way out?"

"Sir Vice President, it seems you don't seem to be calm?" Guo Jinzhang glanced at him, "But it doesn't matter. Because what you said is exactly what we are most proud of!"

"you……"

"Okay, let's not talk about this, Mr. Guo, let's talk about your reasons first." Bayard interrupted, pushing Sdicott again. He found that the Minister of War was a little stunned.

"When we ordered battleships from Britain, we were sending troops to British Columbia because of the abuse of Chinese workers in Canada. The British had already intervened at that time. Therefore, in order to avoid fighting directly with Britain, we had to choose this method!" Guo Jinzhang replied.

"Just that's it?" Cleveland asked suspiciously.

"Of course." Guo Jinzhang nodded, "Otherwise, what are we anxious to do to the Navy? Defend Alaska?"

"Maybe you regard the navy as your imaginary enemy?" Hendrisk asked coldly.

"In the past, but now, do you think we still think so?" Guo Jinzhang asked with a smile.

"This is hard to say." Hendrisk snorted coldly.

"Then it's up to you. Anyway, America is a country with free speech." Guo Jinzhang spread his hands and smiled.

"... Just to explain this sentence, you have crossed the entire United States? Mr. Guo, this seems not your personality." Bayard also said.

"Of course not. But I can't do anything." Hearing this, Guo Jinzhang suddenly smiled bitterly... He really had no choice. He ran to Washington. It was better to say that it was "avoiding disaster" than to explain the problem of the warship. As for the reason? It was not a woman's problem.

Since he was talking about it at Qian Shide's house, the problem of this wife has become the most frequently considered issue for the senior executives of Tangzhou recently... Especially older young people such as Li Asheng, Liang Zuying, Chu Si, and Zhao Dachang were even more worried that they would never die from now on. Especially Zhao Dachang, who didn't know where he heard that it would be difficult for men to have children after they reached the age of 40, so these guys couldn't stay even more stunned.

But what can he do?

He could send a telegram to Liu Tongfu or give orders to ask the bastard who "married early" to find a few wives for these needy families... But it was not only these older young people who were not married in Tangzhou. Even Wan Gongxiang and Ding Huaiyuan were still single, and the old man Hou Nan was still here, and they all wanted to find a companion... In addition to these, there were more than 100,000 bachelors waiting there. What should you do if you ask him to do? What reason did he have to ask Liu Tongfu to find these people first?

That’s right, according to the Chinese custom, everything is enjoyed first. For example, when the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, men and women were separated and even couples had to live separately, the Emperor of Heaven, who was known as the second son of God, had already found countless women, but that was the end. Hong Xiuquan had already had many women before the Jintian Uprising and his life was not very good.

It is said that around the time when Hong Xiuquan started preparing for the uprising, there were already many wives and concubines. Li Jinfu, who was captured at the beginning of the Jintian Uprising, and Hong Daquan (Jiao Liang), who was captured outside Yong'an City the following year (1852), said that he had "thirty-six women"; on February 2, 1853, Hong Xiuquan "selected concubines" at the Marquis Factory in Wuchang, "had more than ten years of extraordinary women". On March 19, the Taiping Army captured Nanjing. On March 29, Hong Xiuquan entered the city from Shuiximen. His wives and concubines entered with him and then converted into the Liangjiang Governor's Office of the Heavenly Dynasty Palace. Most of these women were unable to get out of here again.

Hong Xiuquan is irritable and moody, so although there are many women, there are very few good relationships with him. Even he himself admits his own uniqueness, and his relationship with his concubines is quite tense.

As early as the Jintian era, he often had conflicts with his newly married wives and concubines, so that Yang Xiuqing and Xiao Chaogui had to entrust his heavenly father to descend to earth and threaten the "snow flying in the clouds" (beheading) to threaten the "little aunts" not to "dislike neglect" Hong Xiuquan. On November 22, 1853, Yang Xiuqing, Wei Changhui and Shi Dakai met Hong Xiuquan. Yang Xiuqing advised Hong Xiuquan to treat the "Empress" kindly, hoping that he would not use "boot to kick" to the "Empress" who "anti-ant" the "Empress" who "angrily angered the Heavenly King" to avoid the miscarriage of the pregnant "Empress"; nor should he have "pregnant" be pregnant "

"Empress" "The Queen" is punished by a stick. Even if you want to beat it, you should wait until after giving birth. Hong Xiuquan did not refute this. It is obvious that Yang Xiuqing is not talking about empty words. "Kicking boots" and "responsible sticks" are common. "The Poem of Heavenly Father" was published in 1857. It talks about the punishment of "Empress" including "not giving out new clothes for three years", "separating hunger, shutting down a dark room, slaughtering hands and feet, "cooking glutinous rice" (lighting the sky lantern to burn it to death), beheading heads, etc. "The Poem of Heavenly Father" mentioned many times that "grandfather was angry and raised and killed three people". Obviously, at least before 1857, three "Empress" were executed by Hong Xiuquan.

However, hatred is mutual. Hong Xiuquan treats his wives and concubines like this, so naturally the women will not give him a good look.

Before he was the Heavenly King, the girls who were asked to serve "Mr. Hong" were "disgusted with negligence" to him, so they wanted to alarm the "Heavenly Father and Brother Tian" and assisted in dealing with Hong Xiuquan's family harmony in the busy schedule of the uprising. When he arrived in Tianjing and entered the Heavenly King's Mansion, he could not and dared not to "disgusted with negligence", but authority could oppress others and dare not resist, but could not force others to be happy. In "The Heavenly Father's Poem", Hong Xiuquan tirelessly persuaded, warned and even begged for his women to "go to be happy in the face", provide smile services to him, and even threatened with torture. Judging from the frequency of appearance of such poems, the effect of "ideological and political work" was obviously not ideal - this Hong Tianwang obviously did not understand that he was not happy in the mood and could not be happy in the face.

But Guo Jinzhang is not only facing the unhappy problem of his brothers at the top. He is worried that if his group of people enjoyed it in advance, the hundreds of thousands of bachelors who were not very happy would become even more unhappy... That is a big deal! However, if he can persuade Li Asheng and other close friends, can he persuade all the officers or officials who came to him after hearing the news?

But without persuasion, Tangzhou still lacks women, and these guys still can't find their wife, so they still have to come to find him, the big leader.

So, in desperation, he had to "escape"!

By explaining the reasons for the naval behavior to the federal government, he fled to Washington to "avoid disaster"!

...


Chapter completed!