Chapter 372 Tuition Fee 4 Million (First Update, Please Subscribe)
Nanhua needs a "Great Eastern" project of its own!
This sentence was not said by Li Xuelin, but by Zhu Xianhai when the decision to build the 10,000-ton ship was made. Using "major projects to promote national scientific and technological development" is very common in China in the 21st century. There are similar examples in the United States across the ocean - the "Apollo Moon Landing" project is an example of promoting the overall technological progress of the United States through major engineering projects.
And what about in this era?
In this era when the first and second industrial revolutions meet, there are not many examples of key engineering projects promoting the development of national science and technology, but there are some.
The most famous example is the "Great Eastern", but it was not a successful example - the shipyard closed down, the shipowner went bankrupt, and even the "Great Eastern" was sold cheaply to South China.
In this sense, the "Great Eastern" was a failure, and even for a long time its significance was intentionally or unintentionally ignored.
It was not until the 20th century that people realized that although the Great Eastern was a commercial failure, technically it had advanced the British shipbuilding industry by ten years, making it far ahead of other European countries. In the nearly 100 years that followed, the British shipbuilding industry has been ahead of other countries in the world. All this was the reward brought by a seemingly failed business case.
It was the Great Eastern that made Britain's shipbuilding level the world's leader for a century.
Li Xuelin was well aware of this, because he had heard the Marshal mention more than once that key engineering projects should be used to promote technological progress. Not to mention other things, there were many similar key projects in the navy.
Of course, from today's perspective, the key projects that were promoted in the past, such as new artillery, high-power steam engines, new boilers, etc., are definitely not comparable to the "Great Eastern".
“The Navy needs a “Great Eastern” project of its own!”
Taking over Li Xuelin's words, Lu Anda said solemnly.
"Now, for us, we only have two choices. Either we follow the British and learn step by step, forever, at least in the next 20 years, or we take advantage of this era of change and catch up with the British through technological leaps, or even surpass them in technology, and make up for the disadvantage in quantity through technological advantages. Now, we only have these two choices."
These two options are also the choices of many latecomers. Most of the time, those latecomer countries choose to be followers rather than surpassers.
But in Ruanda's view, South China must choose to be the surpasser, only in this way can it surpass Britain in the future.
Holding a teacup in his hand, Li Xuelin did not interrupt Luanda's conversation.
"What are our current technological advantages? The first is our triple expansion steam engine. It was not until recently that the British had similar engines, and we have been using them for many years. The second is our Krupp cannon, which has extremely excellent performance and can be called a military weapon. The third is our steel armor. In the past, we had the best composite armor, but now we have the best nickel steel, and our boiler technology is no worse than that of the British. Commander Li, what are warships made of?"
The answer is very simple and anyone can answer it. Not only because Ruanda has already mentioned it, but more importantly, these are exactly the key projects that the Navy has been promoting in the past few years.
"Armor, artillery, steam engines, boilers!"
Frowning, Li Xuelin shook his head and said.
"These are just a few of the elements that make it up. It doesn't mean that we can build a battleship with them. We also need..."
“It still needs integration!”
Before he could finish, Ruanda interrupted him and said,
"I'm talking about integration, real integration, bringing together all our strengths, all our technical strengths, to integrate these world-leading technologies. They have always been there, just waiting for us to integrate them together."
Integration!
If these technologies can be integrated into state-of-the-art warships, one thing it can be sure of is that the navy will have a class of powerful combat ships.
But is building a battleship that simple? Can we build a battleship just by integrating these technologies together?
Battleships are huge ships that weigh at least 7,000 to 8,000 tons, and at most tens of thousands of tons. The complexity and difficulty of their engineering far exceeds any warship that Nanhua has built in the past.
After staring at Li Xuelin who seemed to be thinking about something for a while, Luanda continued:
"If we can integrate them together, we will have the most advanced combat ship in the world, Commander Li. The most advanced!"
"It is also possible that it will be immature or even fail like the Great Eastern. Don't forget how many improvements we made to the Great Eastern. We replaced the propeller with a new one, replaced the engine, and..."
Li Xuelin stopped talking halfway because he already knew the answer in his heart. Since they could modify the Great Eastern, why couldn't they build it?
"Although the Great Eastern was immature to a certain extent, at least it attempted to challenge the engineering difficulty that was several times higher than the top shipbuilding level at that time with a crazy and ambitious goal. It was a brilliant and respectable attempt. And this is exactly what we need to try, Commander Li. Even if we fail, I think we will benefit a lot from this attempt!"
"You mean paying tuition!"
Li Xuelin stared at Luanda and asked.
"As you said, a 10,000-ton battleship would cost at least two million yuan. Who can afford such a large sum of money as tuition?"
When saying this, Li Xuelin was still looking at Luanda. He just looked straight at him, staring at him without blinking!
"Captain Li, this tuition is worth it. Any latecomer who wants to catch up with the leader must make new attempts and have the courage to pay the tuition. The tuition may seem expensive, but even if we fail, we will benefit a lot. At least we have gained experience from failure and will also achieve certain technological progress. Just like the Great Eastern, Russell's shipyard went bankrupt and Brunel's reputation was ruined, but the entire British shipbuilding industry benefited a lot from it!"
Facing Officer Li's gaze, Luanda emphasized,
"But if we succeed, our navy will have the most powerful warships in the world! At least we will have warships that can rival the British battleships. Why didn't our fleet play a role in this war? Because our fleet is too weak! Therefore, we must build a strong navy through such attempts!"
"You mean, we should use tuition fees to build the navy?"
Looking at Luanda, Li Anlin said:
"We can definitely use this money to buy warships from the UK, and I can tell you that we already have plans to buy battleships from the UK. It would be better to use this money to pay for tuition to buy warships. After all, even if we try, it will take three years, and the navy can wait three or four years before considering building battleships!"
Hearing this, Luanda's mouth drooped, he looked at Li Xuelin and muttered:
"Buy? Can we buy a strong fleet just by buying? We need to buy warships, which is the best way to increase our strength. However, Commander Li, in the end, we still need to rely on ourselves to build large warships. If we do it now, we can at least buy a few years. Isn't this a great time to narrow the gap between us and the British?"
Staring at Luanda who was full of confusion, Li Xuelin laughed: This guy is indeed still very young. He may be a designer, but that's all.
"Show us your plan!"
"What?"
"Take out your plan. Aren't you going to build a large battleship? I'm going to Buenos Aires, and you're here at the perfect time. The navy is..."
Li Xuelin laughed again.
"Thanks to the sponsorship from others, the Navy is very rich and we are fully capable of paying the tuition!"
"However, it's not enough for you to just convince me. You also need to convince the Marshal. Words are not enough! Bring out your plan. As long as you can convince the Marshal, the Navy can afford the tuition of not only two million, but also four million!"
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
