Chapter 850: I, the Ming Dynasty, will abolish my martial arts (first update, please subscribe)

"Clang, clang"

This is the sound of the train's wheels passing over the joints of the rails. The sound of the whistle and the impact of the wheels and rails made the earth tremble, and the carriage was also shaking slightly.

“Steel companies should be advised to develop 50-meter tracks.”

Feeling the vibration of the train carriage, Emperor Zhu talked to himself.

Ming Dynasty has always been ahead of the world in rail technology. As early as 10 years ago, it began to produce 10-meter rails. At that time, European countries only produced 3-meter-long rails. This meant that more fish plates, bolts and other raw materials were needed to build railways with them, and the cost naturally increased a lot. When European and American countries entered the 10-meter era with steel rails, Ming Dynasty had already produced 15-meter tracks, but in the future it will use longer rails, and of course they will eventually become seamless rails.

Of course, Emperor Zhu was not only considering such a trivial matter as the railway track. After the war broke out, he, the supreme commander, should be with his headquarters. The reason why he left Yingtian at this time was not to go to the front line, but to go to Nanhua.

Although Emperor Zhu had already set the national policy of "killing the British and eating their meat" for the rise of the Ming Dynasty six years ago, he was still very cautious when it came to its specific implementation. The "Quadruple Alliance" was the first and most critical step in the disintegration of the British Empire.

But this is just "push"!

With insight that was a century and a half ahead of his time, Emperor Zhu Da knew that the struggle for hegemony between countries was an extremely complex and lengthy process.

Especially when facing the number one superpower, if you want to replace it, you must not just go all in.

The experience of World War I and World War II clearly told Emperor Zhu the consequences of going all in.

Therefore, the path to hegemony between Ming Dynasty and Britain should be "gradual erosion".

On the premise of avoiding a final showdown, we should weaken and erode the sphere of influence of the British Empire as much as possible, while at the same time cautiously and resolutely expanding the sphere of influence of the Ming Empire.

Therefore, Emperor Zhu has always chosen to "implement expansion within the scope acceptable to Britain", such as in Japan and Africa. This major policy is completely based on the "bottom line" acceptable to Britain!

Of course, the standard of this "bottom line" is very clear. It was drawn by Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang standing on the shoulders of historical giants. But this does not mean that this bottom line will not change. From the day Britain occupied Egypt in advance, Britain's bottom line has changed.

Therefore, Emperor Zhu instructed his ambassador to France to negotiate with the French side to form the "Imperial Alliance Fleet" in order to deter Britain and force it not to take military risks.

The air raid on the Brazilian Navy in Montevideo was, to a certain extent, also a "strategic deterrence operation" to tell Britain that the Ming Empire's airships were very powerful. As long as the Ming Empire was willing, it could send airships to bomb your Royal Navy at any time and turn the Royal Navy's warships into scrap metal.

It can be said that the spacecraft performed unexpectedly perfectly in Montevideo!

It's simply perfect.

It took less than two hours to completely destroy eight Brazilian Navy warships, including four battleships. Such a perfect record was unprecedented. You know, before this, no country had ever sunk so many... battleships in a single battle! And they were the latest ironclad ships!

But not only can the airship do it, but the loss is almost zero!

On the train to Nanhua, Emperor Zhu was busy writing most of the time. He had to make some preparations in advance before Britain and other countries responded to this miraculous air raid. This proposal would be sent from the palace to the Admiralty. This proposal was to add air defense facilities to naval bases and fleets, and to further expand the floating forces.

The chief of staff of the floating force, Wang Xinyue, also accompanied the emperor to Nanhua. Now he was in the same box with the emperor. As the chief of staff of the floating force, the more he looked at the emperor's plan, the more his brows furrowed.

"Your Majesty, is it necessary to establish a floating interception force? What is a combat airship? Is it a new type of airship?"

As he spoke, the joyful look on Wang Xinyue's face disappeared.

The display of strength shown by the airship force in Montevideo this time has made the floating force the darling of the empire. Your Majesty's suggestion will definitely become the guiding ideology for the development of the floating force in the future.

But as he continued reading, he discovered that the plan formulated by His Majesty actually included a plan to attack airships.

"Yes, a few years ago, I instructed the spacecraft company to strengthen its research and development work in this area. Although they have some plans, I am still not very satisfied with them overall. After all, the maneuverability of small airships is still too poor."

Emperor Zhu said with a smile.

"At that time, we had some technical problems that we had not yet overcome. Now, technologies like ducted engines are almost mature. With the tiltable ducted propeller vector thrust control, the airship will have the ability to take off and land vertically or in short distances, which means its maneuverability will also be greatly improved. This kind of combat airship specially used to intercept airships still has great prospects..."

Although Emperor Zhu had the idea of ​​developing a combat airship several years ago, due to limitations in size and other aspects, the combat airship has remained just an idea until now.

But in the past few years, some technological advances have been made, and with these technological advances, it has become possible to make combat aircraft.

His Majesty's explanation made Wang Xinyue's heart skip a beat, and he immediately felt a little uneasy.

"With combat airships, when a base or fleet is attacked, combat airships can take off directly from a naval location or a floating helicarrier and use machine guns to shoot at the airships."

Emperor Zhu explained his idea directly, even mentioning the aircraft carrier, but this aircraft carrier was used to transport airships.

"Shoot the airship with machine guns!"

Wang Xinyue opened his eyes wide in shock and then said.

"The cloth covering the airship cabin can't stop the machine guns at all. The crew will definitely die."

As machine gun bullets had made dozens or even hundreds of small holes in the dozens of air bags of the airship, Wang Xinyue was more worried about the safety of the crew!

"Not only can they attack the crew, they can also attack the engine. If the engine catches fire, the airship will definitely turn into a big torch. In this way, with the protection of the combat airship, it will be difficult for the heavy airship to cause damage to the base or fleet..."

The emperor's words made Wang Xinyue completely dumbfounded. He looked at the document in his hand in astonishment, then looked at His Majesty, and after a long while he said,

"Your Majesty, this is absolutely unacceptable! Airships are the trump card of our Ming Dynasty. It would be unreasonable to abandon our military strength. The airships of the floating troops can bomb warships, destroy fortresses, and transport troops thousands of miles away. If we don't give full play to such a powerful weapon, we will abandon our military strength. Isn't that..."

Looking at Wang Xinyue who looked a little nervous, Emperor Zhu smiled.

"Isn't it something? Are you trying to say, isn't it extremely confused?"

Wang Xinyue quickly stood up and bowed.

"I dare not!"

"There is nothing I dare not do. What I need are loyal subjects! Especially military men, they should say whatever they want!"

Emperor Zhu waved his hand and asked Wang Xinyue to speak out what he was thinking.

"Your Majesty, I think that after several years of development, the combat effectiveness of our Ming Dynasty's airships has just been improved. It is time to build up a large number of airship troops. How can we abandon our military strength by using combat airships?"

"Discarding one's own martial arts..."

Emperor Zhu nodded and said.

"This is not to say that we are destroying our own martial arts. Since we can use combat airships to intercept heavy bombing airships, we can also use combat airships to protect heavy bombing airships!"

(End of this chapter)