Seven Seas Beacon Fire

Therefore, the funds left for Bharat to make great strides in naval development are naturally not so abundant.

"Have you made up your mind, General Spanga?" Li Che smiled and stared at General Spanga in front of him. Li Che still held a trump card that could defeat the Barat Navy, but he was not going to reveal it immediately. So he continued to coax him: "Now, besides our country, what other country in the world can provide your country with such advanced cruisers and all the technology?"

"All the technology?" The Spencer family, as expected, took the bait.

“Yes.” Li Che adopted a sincere demeanor: “General Spanga, I believe that the goal of the Bharat Navy is the same as that of our Navy: to eventually build an independent and powerful maritime force. Independence is the foundation for the development of a powerful navy. Which of the world’s naval powers today would order warships from foreign countries on a large scale?”

The Balat naval officers present exchanged glances. Most of them had never thought of this before, but now that Li Che had "thought of it" for them, given the pride of these Balat people, they nodded in agreement—yes, that's exactly what we thought.

"However, independence is not easy. Therefore, I think your country's naval technology development should follow a two-step approach: first, introduce technology, then digest this technology and then carry out domestic production. We are willing to provide the Kingdom of Bharat with all the technology needed to build a heavy cruiser."

These ambitious Bharat officers' eyes lit up after hearing this, as if Li Che's casual remark about providing all the technology meant that they would be able to build such warships on their own in the future.

“We very much hope to acquire such advanced warships, but the price of £150 million per ship is simply too much for us to bear.” General Spanga said with some difficulty, “Does your country have any cheaper heavy cruiser options? Smaller ones are also acceptable. Our navy only has a total of 4 tons of heavy cruisers. If they are smaller, we can purchase one more.”

"Smaller ones..." Li Che thought to himself, these Indians are even poorer than I thought.

“We also have smaller options. We at Datang have always valued our clients’ opinions. Since your country is facing some financial difficulties, we have another solution besides smaller options.”

"Another solution?"

"If your country is willing to place all its heavy cruiser tonnage orders with our country, I have a comprehensive solution. The first ship will be built in our country, and the subsequent ships will be provided with subsystems by our country. We will also train your country's shipbuilding workers, who will then return to their country to carry out the construction. If your country encounters any problems during the construction process, we can also assist you by purchasing technical assistance."

"The rest of the ships are being built in our shipyard?" General Spanga probably thought of the battleship in the dock that hadn't been commissioned yet, but the temptation in front of him was too great. General Spanga couldn't care less about anything else. This was an opportunity for the Bharat Navy to catch up with the world's advanced technology and become a modern naval power!

“Yes, we will assist your country in building an independent and autonomous Bharat Navy.” Li Che struck a pose similar to Wu Jing’s classic pose: “Moreover, if your country wants to further reduce costs, we can also make concessions on some subsystems that your country can produce. For example, your Calcutta Artillery Factory can produce 7.5-inch naval guns, right?”

Spanga nodded. The artillery factories that the Victorian Empire put into production in Gar in the early 20th century can be said to be the most valuable asset of Barat now. Although this 7.5-inch naval gun is actually the naval gun of the Victorian Royal Navy armored cruisers in the late 1950s, it is not considered advanced by today's standards. However, it is not unreasonable to use it for new heavy cruisers.

"Then your country can consider producing the turrets for this type of heavy cruiser yourself, while our country is responsible for the hull and other parts." Li began to subtly dig a pit for General Spanga again, and the Balat people probably couldn't see what traps he had set for the Balat Navy.

Upon hearing that his own 190mm naval guns could be used, General Spanga was overjoyed. Although the 190mm guns were less powerful, the Spanga family believed they were sufficient to deal with light cruisers. He showed no disdain for this old gun from the pre-Dreadnought era, only elation at the prospect of saving money.

So the Spencer family then said that everything from the secondary guns to the torpedoes could be salvaged from the stock or from other warships, thus saving even more money on a pre-assembled ship.

-------------------------------------

"Aren't you afraid of raising a tiger that will eventually become your enemy?"

Back at her residence, Zhu Miaoyun looked at the smug Li Che and couldn't help but pour some cold water on him. Whenever this guy was particularly proud, he would make some small, excessive demands that she should fulfill.

Our Princess Yongning still has some principles; she feels that sometimes we can't spoil this guy too much.

"At most, I'm raising a gecko. How could it be a major threat?" Li Che sat down next to Zhu Miaoyun with a smug look on his face and comfortably crossed his legs. "How could you think I'm raising a tiger to cause trouble in a country like Bharat? This country may indeed be disgusting, but it's really hard for it to pose any real threat to us."

Influenced by Li Che in another world, Zhu Miaoyun had also read some political commentary from YouTubers: "A country like Bharat, with its considerable land area and abundant human resources, is very likely to become..."

"Will it become a threat? Unless the Bharat people can move their country elsewhere, the Bharat will never become a major power that influences the world order."

"Why?" Zhu Miaoyun was puzzled as to why Li Che was speaking so confidently today.

“There are no strong countries in the tropics, my dear.” Li Che spread his hands: “You’re in Bharat right now. You know how hot it is during the day in this country, right?” Li Che said with an air of confidence: “This is a fatal flaw that all tropical countries cannot avoid. It’s about how to cool down during long periods of high temperatures. For many factories in Bharat, the cost of cooling has become an unbearable burden.”

Moreover, Bharat is a country with very scarce resources. Our country was once labeled as an oil-poor country, but we have always been the world's largest coal producer. However, Bharat doesn't even have much coal. Industrial production requires fuel, whether it's factory processing or power plant generation.

For Bharat, there's a vicious cycle: to make the country rich, it needs to vigorously develop industry; but vigorous industrial development requires more coal, which in turn requires purchasing coal from abroad. However, the money spent on coal purchases represents valuable foreign exchange reserves. Therefore, if Bharat wants to develop a larger-scale, more comprehensive industrial system, the weather is an unavoidable hurdle. Even if people can cope, many machines cannot withstand such high temperatures.

Zhu Miaoyun's cheeks flushed slightly. This girl's understanding of the Third Brother's threat theory was limited to the few political content creators recommended to her by the system. How could she possibly argue with Li Che?

"Alright, alright, you're pretty good, you sold the cruiser on your very first stop."

"Actually, it's not considered sold yet. Barat hasn't made the final decision on this matter."

"Huh?" Zhu Miaoyun was stunned. So the order hasn't been finalized yet, and you're so happy today? Did you eat honey shit?

"Don't look at me like that. I'm over 80% confident that I can secure the Barat order." Li Che smiled and pinched Zhu Miaoyun's cheek. "Think about how Third Brother bought the Rafale. If Dassault Systèmes in France can use that method, why can't I use it now?"

"you mean.........."

"For Bharat's commissioner in charge of procuring equipment, there is nothing that the pound cannot solve."

Chapter 380 The dispute over the arms trade has always been like this.

Large-scale military procurement orders between countries cannot be finalized in just two days during Li Che's visit to Bharat, from initial interest to final implementation.

Unless he can directly control people's minds like Dr. X, even if he becomes a succubus, it won't work. Yes, even a succubus like Liu Bei won't work.

Until the Blue Space fleet concluded its visit to Bharat and left the port of Calcutta, the Tang Dynasty and Bharat had only reached a preliminary agreement on a heavy cruiser order. The Bharat Navy would subsequently organize a group of professional personnel—at least in the Bharat Navy's view—to go to the Tang Dynasty to discuss the specifics of the procurement of heavy cruisers, including the specific design schemes and performance indicators of the warships, as well as the quotations provided by the Tang Dynasty.

One additional point worth mentioning is that when this preliminary order was finalized and announced, the publicly estimated cost per ship was £180 million. Don't ask why the price increased from £150 million to £180 million, but the senior officers of the Bharat Navy were very satisfied.

The high command of the Bharat Navy, including General Spanga, did indeed want to build a powerful Bharat Navy, and they were indeed willing to contribute their strength to the Bharat Navy. However, since they had already made contributions, it would be permissible for them to take a little bit of profit from it... right?

A £30 kickback for a single ship—with so many people in the Bharat Navy involved, everyone gets a share. To be honest, this kickback isn't much at all. Compared to the price paid by a certain prominent 21st-century superpower's commissioner for purchasing Rafale fighter jets, it's practically as clean as water.

Buying 26 Rafale fighter jets for $76 billion, even including so-called follow-up technical support and maintenance costs, is still a ridiculously high price of $2.9 million per aircraft. The base price of an F-35 is less than $9,000 million, and the total cost per aircraft, including miscellaneous maintenance fees, is only $1.5 million.

Commissioner Smith rarely encounters an opponent more capable than himself, but he still has to admit defeat when facing Commissioner Singh.

Although the Bharat Navy currently only has an intention to purchase heavy cruisers, it is very clear that the cruisers it will order in the future will use guns from the Gargodda artillery range. At the same time, in the discussions, they seem to prefer heavy cruisers with a slightly smaller tonnage.

Historically, heavy cruisers with relatively small tonnage and gun calibers between 6 inches and 8 inches... The first thing that came to Li Che's mind was the Russian Kirov-class heavy cruiser.

Of course, this Kirov refers to the Type 26 Kirov-class heavy cruiser equipped with 180mm naval guns, not the Type 1144 nuclear-powered missile cruiser equipped with P800 anti-ship missiles.

If the Soviets had had the Kirov ship during World War II, Berlin would have been bombed with nuclear weapons by the time the Germans were preparing for Barbarossa.

Besides the Kirov-class heavy cruisers, another similar heavy cruiser is probably the Admiral Brown-class heavy cruisers of the Argentine Navy.

The former refers to the Type 26 cruiser, designed by the Russians in collaboration with the Italian Ansaldo shipyard due to their lack of experience in designing large warships. It was based on the Italian "Lemond Montecutri-class" light cruiser.

It adopts a long tower design, with a total length of 186.9~191.3 meters and a width of 17.5~17.66 meters. The standard drainage capacity is 7890 tons, and the full load drainage capacity is 9436 tons.

The waterline armor belt is 50 mm thick, the deck is 50 mm thick, the turret is 76 mm thick, the commander's cupola is 100-150 mm thick, and there is no torpedo protrusion.

The propulsion system was equipped with two Italian-made steam turbines, with a power of 119,700 horsepower (the Voroshilov had 129,500 horsepower), and a top speed of 35.9 knots. The propulsion system was quite powerful. The only drawback was that the range was rather worrying, with a range of only 4000 nautical miles at 18 knots.

The latter refers to two heavy cruisers that Argentina ordered directly from Italy: the Armit Blanc and the October 25th, each with a standard displacement of 6,800 tons and a full load displacement of 9,000 tons.

主炮为6门190毫米双联装炮（由安萨尔多公司制造），副炮为12门102毫米高平两用炮。主装甲带厚70毫米，甲板装甲25毫米，炮塔装甲50毫米。最高32节，续航力8,000海里/14节。

Both of these cruisers are significantly smaller in size and tonnage than ordinary 10,000-ton heavy cruisers. In terms of tonnage and size, they are roughly equivalent to early IJN heavy cruisers like Aoba, but they are slightly inferior to Aoba in terms of firepower and protection.

It can be said that both of these types of warships have a very close relationship with a country.

This country on the Apennine Peninsula has always been at the forefront of naval development.

It can be said that whether it is Italy in the world Zhu Miaoyun originally lived in, or Syracuse in this world, the countries on the Apennine Peninsula always seem to have a pretty good performance in the foreign trade market for warships.

Before the dreadnought era, the Royal Navy's Armstrong-class cruisers can be said to have ushered in a new era, but the Genoa-class cruisers produced in the Apennines were not to be outdone. The subsequent Garibaldi-class armored cruisers can be regarded as the best examples of armored cruisers, without exception!

During the naval holiday period, the Apennine-style ships almost became the early model for the Red Navy. Even in the 21st century, the fact that the Italians were able to export their own frigate designs to the USN and win the Constellation-class missile frigate design is enough to demonstrate their talent in designing warships.

What? You're saying the USN's Constellation-class guided-missile frigates are a complete mess? LOL. What does the bald eagle's botched shipbuilding have to do with me? You didn't even order this ship from my shipyard. Look at the state of the ship you've changed it into!

In any case, the Kingdom of Syracuse, located on the Apennine Peninsula in the Mediterranean, which Li Che was to visit next, would become one of the biggest competitors for the future export of Tang Dynasty naval vessels.

However, the best news so far is that the Kingdom of Syracuse is the only one of the five major naval powers that has not rapidly developed heavy cruisers. Syracuse's heavy cruisers are probably still on the drawing board, and likely still in the sketch stage.

The reason why the Kingdom of Syracuse did not pay much attention to the development of heavy cruisers is quite simple.

No Money!

We really don't have any money!

Although the Kingdom of Syracuse, through its skillful alignment, successfully switched from the Central Powers to the Allied Powers before the outbreak of war and ultimately became a victorious nation in the war, it appears to be one of the biggest winners of the World War.

However, the Kingdom of Syracuse also suffered considerable losses in this war. Unlike the Syracuse navy's ability to overwhelm the Southern Letanian navy at sea, the Syracuse army and the Allied army in the northern mountains seemed to have little chance of large-scale changes in their battle lines. In reality, the manpower invested by both sides in this bloody battle was enormous.

In addition, after the war, all countries generally encountered economic problems. Syracuse, as a poor imperialist country, was naturally short of money. In the past two years, the funds on hand have been used to refit the large warships that were originally acquired by the Allied powers after the war, including a Moltke-class battlecruiser and two Combined Forces-class battleships.

These warships need to undergo some improvements if they are to be effective during naval holidays, especially the two Combined Forces-class battleships. Although they look sturdy and imposing, the Syrian Navy destroyed two of these warships in the war and naturally knows the most fundamental problem of the Combined Forces-class battleships - their underwater protection is too weak, and it can be said that they are still at the level of pre-dreadnoughts.

Now that these ships are all yours, if you're going to continue using them, don't you need to modify them? You'll need to add anti-torpedo bulges, right? That's a huge project!

Even if you keep using the large-caliber guns and secondary guns, you'll still need to replace and add other small-caliber guns and anti-aircraft guns, right? And won't the torpedoes also need to be replaced with the same caliber and model as the Syracuse Navy?

These all cost money.

This meant that the Syracuse Navy had absolutely no interest in the heavy cruiser, a star ship type created by the treaty, over the past few years.

However, the Apennine Peninsula seems to have some kind of "holy land for warship design" buff. In another world, the first heavy cruiser that the Italian Navy started building after it had the money could be considered one of the best among the first generation of heavy cruisers in various countries.

Although the Trento-class heavy cruisers may seem unremarkable, they were also designed for high speeds. Powered by 12 boilers producing 15 horsepower, they achieved a trial speed of 35.6 knots, the fastest of their time. Furthermore, while the first generation of heavy cruisers in the French Navy had almost completely abandoned armor, the Italians still managed to attach 70mm of side armor to their own first-generation heavy cruisers.

Although it is still unclear what kind of design the Syracuse Kingdom's navy will come up with in this world, Li Che has great confidence that the Syracuse Kingdom will be able to come up with an excellent design.

However, although I appreciate your proposal, you can't steal my business.

How can we prevent the superior design proposals of the future Syracuse navy from stealing our orders?

The first option is to focus on quality and compete with Syracuse in the global arms market by offering equally high-quality products.

This is indeed a feasible method. Although the Apennine Peninsula may have a buff in warship design, the Tang Dynasty has a "time-traveling immortal" who only needs to provide some ideas to the designers, and then they can get a cruiser whose performance is obviously better than other warships of the same era.

Take the current Jiangzhou heavy cruiser for example. The similarity between this cruiser and the Kaohsiung is not just that it lacks a turret. In terms of fire protection, it is worlds apart from other cruisers of the same era that were either completely unprotected or had only a few pieces of armor outside the core area that were barely enough to provide psychological comfort.

The 120mm side armor at a 12-degree angle alone is something that no other heavy cruiser can match at the same time. It can be said that in terms of hull protection, the Jiangzhou-class heavy cruiser has surpassed the Myoko-class heavy cruiser (whose side armor is 102mm NVNC armor). In terms of performance, the Tang Dynasty is not afraid that its product quality is inferior to that of the Kingdom of Syracuse.

However, the Kingdom of Syracuse also had a unique advantage.

That's because Syracuse's previous best-selling product—the Garibaldi-class armored cruiser—was incredibly successful.

This product, which originated in the 90s, is now reaching the point of retirement for many navies. Therefore, countries that were previously satisfied with the performance of the Garibaldi-class armored cruisers, or those that were previously badly defeated by the Garibaldi-class armored cruisers, will naturally have a higher regard for the cruisers produced by the Kingdom of Syracuse.

Even in the third decade of the 21st century, many domestic car brands in this great Eastern country have already proven themselves with actual product quality. However, many older people still prefer joint venture brands when buying cars, mainly because of the reputation these joint venture brands have built up over the past.

(My dad insisted on buying a Volkswagen back then, and I couldn't stop him no matter what I did. After he finally bought it, the Volkswagen Passat A-pillar issue came to light. So I said to my dad: "It's a good thing you like riding bicycles. When we go on long drives in the future, I'll have you wear your bicycle helmet on your head." Then I got a "Char Aznable Flying Kick" from my dad.)

Therefore, while Option 1 is not impossible, this approach of "building strongholds and fighting a protracted war" is not what Li Che likes or advocates.

Therefore, Li Che decided to adopt option 2.

You fiend! Watch me disrupt your Dao heart!

As we all know, the secrecy surrounding military equipment is mostly to prevent other countries from learning about or stealing our advanced technology. However, sometimes we exaggerate the performance of our equipment through deceptive means.

Therefore, before visiting the Kingdom of Syracuse, Li Che sent someone to inform the officers and soldiers on the Jiangzhou heavy cruiser that from now on, the armor thickness of the heavy cruiser in your hands will be 150 mm! And the ship can still run at 32 knots.

The goal is to leave the design departments of the Syracuse Navy completely baffled, and having witnessed firsthand the performance of the Tang Dynasty's Royal Navy's heavy cruisers, the Syracuse Navy will undoubtedly place even higher demands on its own design bureau.

The Trent-class heavy cruiser design, which historically neglected protection, might be drastically modified to the other extreme. In that case, the Kingdom of Syracuse would definitely have to postpone the commissioning of its heavy cruisers amidst the back-and-forth struggle.

Heh heh heh heh! As long as you haven't even equipped your own heavy cruisers properly, no matter how glorious your past history is, it won't be convincing enough for other countries to buy your heavy cruisers!

Sorry, Syracuse, but this is how arms trade wars always are...

Chapter 381 Victims of Public Opinion in Europe

"Is the fleet of that Tang Dynasty crown prince currently transiting the Strait of Gibraltar?"

On the bridge of the battleship HMS Royal Oak, Vice Admiral Victor, Commander of the Royal Navy's Channel Fleet, looked at the message from the Gibraltar Maritime Authority and then turned his gaze to the southwest, to the Strait of Gibraltar.

Their fleet is now less than 30 nautical miles from the Strait of Gibraltar. At their current course and speed, it won't be long before they are able to visually observe the visiting fleet of the Crown Prince of the Tang Empire.

In fact, if we weren't currently in the extremely busy Strait of Gibraltar, the smoke columns of the Tang Empire's Crown Prince's fleet might already be visible from the bridge of the HMS Royal Oak. After all, since they are already passing through the strait, the distance between them is practically at the horizon.

However, there are simply too many ships in the surrounding seas, so there is no way to determine which of the smoke columns behind the paddy field line belongs to the fleet of the Crown Prince of the Tang Empire.

"Yes, we are on the same flight path as them now, heading in the opposite direction. It won't be long before we see them."

Vice Admiral Victor nodded. After decades of diligent service in the Royal Victoria Navy, he finally climbed to his current position as Commander of the Channel Fleet after the war, thanks to his seniority and the hard-earned but not necessarily meritorious service he had accumulated during the war.

The Channel Fleet was the least valued fleet in the Royal Navy of Victoria, and could even be called the retirement home of the Royal Navy of Victoria. He served in the Channel Fleet during the last World War, and during the war he climbed to the position of commander of a battleship squadron under the Channel Fleet, with as many as 6 battleships under his command at the most.

That sounds quite impressive, but at that time, the youngest of the six battleships he commanded was over 10 years old, and the oldest was over 15 years old. Yes, at that time, all six battleships under his command were pre-dreadnoughts.

The Channel Fleet is such an unpopular fleet. Whether it's the Home Fleet, the Indian Ocean Fleet, or the Mediterranean Fleet, all the ships that are not needed are dumped on the Channel Fleet. It is truly a retirement home for the Royal Victorian Navy.

Their tasks during the war were mostly mundane patrols and escort missions, occasionally clearing minefields left by Leitanian submarines.

Therefore, compared to Jericho, Beatty, and Thomas, who participated in large-scale fleet battles and were tempered by blood and fire on the high seas, Victor's service experience during the war can only be described as having no merit but certainly hard work.

During the war, he himself felt that the existence of the Straits Fleet was superfluous. In the previous five eras, the Straits Fleet's most important hypothetical enemy was the Gallic Navy. But now, during the war, after becoming enemies with the Leitanian Empire and allies with the Kingdom of Gaul, how could the main ships of the Leitanian Navy possibly cross the British Channel?

Even if someone from such a fleet manages to become the fleet commander, it's practically the same as starting an early retirement, isn't it?

However, now that he has truly become the commander of the Straits Fleet, the good days for him and the Straits Fleet have finally arrived.

The Straits Fleet's status has improved considerably compared to the wartime period. After all, the Kingdom of Gaul has now returned to the level of a "suspected ally" and a "suspected enemy," and the Straits Fleet's hypothetical enemy has once again become the Gallic Navy.

After all, the current Leitanian Navy only has four Nassau-class battleships returned by the Victorian Empire. These were the earliest dreadnoughts of the Leitanian Empire. Not only do they still use 280mm caliber naval guns, but more importantly, they adopt a very traditional hexagonal rhomboid turret layout. Only four of the six turrets can be deployed to one side at a time. Moreover, the power system uses reciprocating triple-expansion steam engines, without even steam turbines. The maximum speed is now less than 20 knots.

The once glorious High Seas Fleet is gone forever. Now, the existence of the Leitanian Navy serves no purpose other than to annoy the Gauls and somewhat restrain the heretical Ursus Federation. No one thinks that four such old Nassau-class battleships can play any substantial role in the future. Therefore, the Straits Fleet can return to its old profession and happily engage in daily confrontations with the Gaulish Navy.