readx; The Americans found that the New Hampshire had been completely outdated before it was completed, so the surname Suo had no intention of rushing to work, so that the later outfitting project of the former dreadnought battleship was completed for more than two years, and during this period, the Americans put all their thoughts on the new battleship, that is, the dreadnought battleship. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

After two years of grinding foreign labor, the New Hampshire was finally completed and put into service, but this former dreadnought battleship that had just been launched and had already declared a backward era was only used as the main force in the US Navy for two or three years, and after a large number of dreadnoughts in the United States were launched, they immediately took a back seat, and in the past two years, like other former dreadnought battleships, most of the time it was used as a training ship. As the last dreadnought battleship was like this, the first few were even more unusable. The battleships USS Louisiana and USS Vermont began construction earlier, in 1903 and 1904, respectively, and entered service in 1906 and 1907, respectively. So far, they have long been no longer within the scope of the main force of the US Navy, and they are only used for the most basic training and coastal defense tasks, and the Americans have never expected them to come to the enemy's naval fleet to conduct a decisive battle on the battle line.

The two Mississippi-class dreadnought battleships built before him were intended by the U.S. Navy to be sold to the Greek Navy, and the two sides are already negotiating and are expected to sign contracts soon.

It can also be seen from this aspect that a large number of dreadnoughts in the U.S. Navy now have little strategic value for the U.S. Navy, and on the other hand, these battleships are still relatively new, and they have only been in service for a few years, and it is definitely impossible if they are all decommissioned. For example, the two American dreadnoughts that Greece intends to buy are intended to be used as the main force.

The U.S. Navy expects that if China is given two dreadnoughts, it will be enough to greatly increase the strength of the Chinese Navy in a short period of time, although the dreadnoughts are nothing to the U.S. Navy, but if they are put into the Chinese Navy, they will be able to greatly strengthen the strength of the Chinese Navy, and then cause great constraints to the Chinese Navy. No matter how arrogant the navy is, it will allocate a part of its forces to contain these two former dreadnought battleships. In this way, the pressure of the US Navy in the Pacific Ocean will be partially weakened.

As for whether the strength of the US Navy will be weakened after the sale of these two dreadnoughts, the US Navy is not worried at all, because these dreadnoughts are only used for training and coastal defense tasks in the US Navy, and one or two fewer ships will have no effect.

The United States has such a plan, and Jia Leheng, as the minister to China, naturally has to come to discuss this matter.

Jia Leheng told Chen Jingyun about this, which made Chen Jingyun stunned for a long time and didn't reply! This was not because he was moved by the sudden transfer of two former dreadnought battleships by the United States, but because he was dissatisfied with the fact that the Americans were fooling themselves with these rags.

The obsolescence of the former dreadnoughts is something that the world's navies know, and the Americans still want to sell these outdated goods to themselves? Isn't this a clear fool to play this, Chen Jingyun would rather have a 10,000-ton heavy patrol equipped with eight-inch guns than these 16,000-ton standard former dreadnought battleships.

Chen Jingyun didn't want it, but as soon as the people from the Admiralty heard the news, Sa Zhenbing and Cheng Biguang came to the door together.

"Although these two battleships are a little old, they are two battleships anyway, and they have twelve-inch naval guns on them!" Cheng Biguang already did not hide his expectations for the twelve-inch naval guns on these two battleships.

"As long as we have these two battleships, as long as we don't encounter the latest battleships, we will have the strength to fight against the other battleships!" If we combine it with our high-speed cruiser fleet, we may not have a chance of winning a decisive battle! Cheng Biguang was full of confidence and made wild words, and Sa Zhenbing, who bragged about the bull to practice, felt a bit fake.

Sa Zhenbing also spoke at this time: "Of course, these two battleships cannot be compared with the latest dreadnought battleships of various countries, but there are not many new battleships of various countries, and there are only a few of them in this navy, and there are still a large number of former dreadnought battleships and even armored cruisers in the current navy, and these are our potential targets." {}{. {}{..} Therefore, even if they are inferior to the new battleships of our navy, they can still cause great restraint on our navy, attract the attention of our navy's main fleet, and create a wider space for the activities of our high-speed cruiser fleet! ”

"As long as there are these two battleships, the Navy cannot ignore them!" This is the argument of Sa Zhenbing, Cheng Biguang and others of the Admiralty, they did not say how powerful these battleships were, but said that even if the combat effectiveness of these two battleships is weak, it is enough to contain the main fleet of the Navy.

In the face of the Admiralty's arguments, Chen Jingyun was also a little uncertain, in his heart, these former dreadnoughts naturally had no effect, but these generals in the Admiralty also followed the development trend of the world's navy, and it was impossible for them not to know this fact, on the contrary, they knew better than Chen Jingyun that the former dreadnoughts were outdated, but for the navy, which had always been weak, the twelve inch naval guns and the displacement of 16,000 tons were enough for them to abandon other ideas.

Of course, in addition to these, Cheng Biguang also said that with these two battleships, it is also possible to train naval personnel for China, train enough naval talents to build up new battleships in the future, and at the same time let the navy test more battleship tactics, a navy that only has destroyers and cruisers will not be able to appreciate the tactical essence of the decisive battle on the battle line. And with battleships, even former dreadnoughts were enough to develop such a tactical base.

In addition to all these reasons, the Admiralty has a very strong argument that these two ex-dreadnoughts are cheap enough! The Americans knew that Chen Jingyun had no money, and even more so that if it was expensive, these two former dreadnought battleships would not be sold, and besides, these two ships were old ships that had been in service for many years, so naturally they could not be bought at the cost of the year. Moreover, this is not a simple contract for the purchase of ships, but military aid with strong political implications, and if it were not for the fear that it would be difficult to explain to Congress, the US Navy would not have been distressed to send it for free.

So in the end, a price was found for scrap iron, and the United States sold it in a package for a total price of $40,000! This is hundreds of thousands of dollars cheaper than the unit price of the two heavy cruisers ordered by the Chinese Navy, which is only 11,000 tons of standard displacement and is only equipped with six eight-inch guns and four-inch main armor, but in order to achieve a high speed of 29 knots, the cost has climbed to more than 40,000 dollars.

In other words, buying two former dreadnoughts for less than the price of a new heavy cruiser is more cost-effective than buying and selling, and some people think it is not cost-effective, and in general it is a question of how to use it.

For the Chinese Admiralty, any opportunity to enhance the strength of the navy will not be missed, Sa Zhenbing and Cheng Biguang and other admirals know that in the next few years, don't expect the political axe to allocate funds to order new battleships for them, the cost of building those battleships is as high as more than 10 million US dollars, but it is not what China's current finances can afford, although Chen Jingyun has promised to build it in the future, but God knows when it will go, so now with this opportunity, Sa Zhenbing, Cheng Biguang and others will not give up, and even Sa Zhenbing has already told Chen Jingyun that if the Ministry of Finance is unable to allocate additional funds, then the Admiralty would rather abandon the shipbuilding plan of 1914, which is to prepare for the construction of two thousand-ton destroyers, that is, the domestically produced version of the American-made 1,000-ton destroyers, and the order cost of the two warships is extremely high, which is much higher than the order from the United States, and the unit price is expected to be as high as 250,000 yuan. Two ships are five, and if the navy moves some more, it is really possible to draw out 80,000 Chinese yuan, that is, 40,000 US dollars.

However, in this way, Chen Jingyun's plan to develop the shipbuilding industry in his heart came to naught, which Chen Jingyun did not allow.

However, the Americans originally had the idea of military aid, and they never thought about making any money from Chen Jingyun, and they knew that Chen Jingyun was a poor man, so they took the initiative to contact the bank for the Chinese Navy to take out a loan, and finally solved the payment problem by means of a loan.

When Sa Zhenbing and Cheng Biguang were excitedly looking forward to China's imminent possession of two battleships, Chen Jingyun looked at the bill depressedly, even if it was a loan, in the final analysis, the money still had to be paid by China's Ministry of Finance, but it was just a payment of 40,000 US dollars in installments.

The news that China is going to buy two battleships from the United States has not been made public, but has maintained the form of a secret agreement like previous military aids, after all, if this matter is made public, it will be completely different from when China ordered cruisers and destroyers from the United States before, and for me, China's purchase of a few cruisers and destroyers is not a big deal, and even I am sorry why I didn't get the orders for those destroyers and cruisers, but the battleships are different. This battleship would have had a major impact on Ben's sea power in the Far East, even if those two were only former dreadnought battleships.

At that time, there will definitely be many accidents and waves, and in order to avoid too long and leak the news, the US Navy decided to act quickly, just after the contract was signed, the US Navy is to organize a nautical exercise, including a number of battleships, cruisers, destroyers including a huge fleet from the United States, and then prepare to sail across the Pacific Ocean to the Philippines, and make its friendly visit to China!

This huge warship includes the two former dreadnought battleships purchased by China, as well as two heavy cruisers, four light cruisers and six destroyers ordered by China in the same two rounds of military aid treaties.

In order to avoid being blocked by this side, these warships will be officially delivered to the Chinese Navy after they arrive in China!

After a long voyage across the Pacific, on March 31, the eve of April Fool's Day, the huge formation arrived in Shanghai, and on the same day the Chinese and American navies carried out a low-key handover of warships.

On 1 April, the Chinese and US navies held a press conference in Shanghai to officially announce the arms purchase to the outside world, announcing that China had purchased two battleships and a number of cruisers and destroyers from the United States.

Since this day is April Fool's Day, quite a lot of Westerners are thinking that this is just an April Fool's Day joke, and even said, "I suspect that this is an April Fool's joke, but then the news proves that this is not a joke, but a fact, and when I say, I immediately made a strong reaction!"

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