Insufficient balance

  Here is the translation:

  Now let's talk about Liu Yubao's plan to save his life. According to Liu Yubao's idea, first in Keelung, under the cover of Liu Mingchuan, use 10 years to build an industrial base that integrates steel, machinery manufacturing, shipbuilding, chemical industry, mining, and scientific research. The role of this base is to develop two defensive weapons in the shortest time: submarines and torpedo boats. Liu Yubao repeatedly weighed his own strength and the warfare of this era, feeling that submarines and torpedo boats should be the most effective, cheapest, and most suitable defensive weapons for Taiwan.

  Battleships and cruisers are great, but Liu Ye can't build them himself and doesn't have the conditions to buy them. Although he hasn't tried it before, Liu Ye is certain that if he goes to Britain or Germany to find Armstrong or Vulkan shipyards, they will take his money for a 2x price order of two battleships, then pretend nothing happened, or more kindly, have security throw him out.

  Some officials said that, then let your father Liu Mingquan go buy it. This idea is even more brain-damaged. Do you think the governor of Hainan Province would spend his own money to buy a used aircraft carrier from the US and bring it back for his son to play with on the coast? Even if the Chinese government agrees, the US government and Southeast Asian governments wouldn't agree. What if one day your son gets drunk, hugs a beauty in the weapons control room, and presses the launch button of that missile? Who would take responsibility?

  Another official said, "Let your father represent the Qing government to buy it." This idea is also quite stupid. The Qing dynasty strictly controls the frontier officials, fearing that you will rebel or something. Unlike during the warlord era of the Republic of China, when a few thousand people could occupy a piece of land and become the master. Moreover, with Li Hongzhang and Shen Baozhen around, why would they need your Liu family to buy warships? The Beiyang and Nanyang navies are already there. Since ancient times, cutting off someone's financial resources is like killing their parents. Those two old brothers will not let the Liu family live in peace.

  There's another official who said, why don't you go to Li Hongzhang and write a plan book, look forward to the future, cheat old Li, maybe you can even inherit Beiyang. This idea is not brainless, it's just that there's no brain at all, same as what I said before, can't even cheat your own father, how can you go cheat others? Whether it's the Qing dynasty or the Ming dynasty, officials may not have low IQ, none of them are not professional players. You want to cheat a group of old rivers and lakes to be your stepping stone, it's too confident. They might not understand your intentions, can't imagine your deep plans, but relying on intuition, they can also smell whether something is beneficial or harmful to themselves.

  Let's not talk about it for now, or else this wouldn't be a book, but rather an online post full of arguments. Originally, I thought it was a bit far-fetched to have David, that young noble, go to Europe to sell medicine and purchase equipment, but there really wasn't any other way out. I think writing is just making up nonsense, and you have to make it sound convincing for people to believe it. If the logic doesn't hold up, no matter how beautifully written the nonsense is, it's useless. Let's continue talking about submarines instead.

  Why is it said that submarines are more reliable? Firstly, the tonnage is small, and a large shipyard is not needed to manufacture them. With the current time, economy, and industrial conditions, building a large shipyard is not feasible. That requires a complete industrial system, which can only be achieved through long-term accumulation. Secondly, submarines do not need naval guns. Compared with torpedoes and naval guns, Liu thinks that torpedoes are easier to study. Finally, submarines require fewer personnel. Unlike warships that have hundreds or thousands of crew members, the number of people on a submarine is negligible, only tens of people, which makes them much easier to maintain.

  As for torpedo boats, they are even simpler to build and require fewer personnel. Although they cannot engage in long-range combat, as a defensive weapon, if there are enough of them, they can be quite formidable.

  Submarines and torpedo boats both need a powerful heart, that is, an engine. Liu Ye asked David, in fact, this era, at least France already had submarines, but the speed on the water and underwater was too slow, just a few knots, it was impossible to catch up with others or escape from them, and the duration underwater was short, plus the torpedoes were not powerful enough, seemingly only able to shoot a few hundred meters, and even if they hit, they might not explode. These shortcomings made submarines unpopular among navies of various countries.

  But Liu Mo has confidence to make up for these shortcomings, so where does his confidence come from? Does he understand submarines? Understand a P, except in movies and online, he hasn't even seen a real submarine. Everyone may have forgotten, what did Liu Mo ride to cross over? That's right, it was that fishing boat. First of all, why are the submarines of this era slow and small in tonnage? It's because diesel engines haven't been invented yet.

  At first, David had asked Liu Ye why his ship didn't use people to burn the boiler, and one person could start it. Liu Ye inquired about the situation of the Far East Fleet's ships, and according to what David knew, countries did not have pure oil-burning ships yet, generally large ships used steam boilers which burned coal.

  Diesel engine, especially this high-power marine diesel engine is the heart of a submarine. As long as it can be successfully replicated, the submarine will regain its vitality. The ship that accompanied Liu Ye to cross over was a fishing boat, but Liu Ye had read the instruction manual of the fishing boat, which was an ocean-going fishing boat. Not only was it equipped with high-power diesel engine units, but also various ocean-going matching facilities, and there were not a few motorcycles and cars in the cabin. As for developing a marine diesel engine that far surpasses this era, it can't be said to be easy, but it's just a matter of difficulty in shanzhai.

  There is also the issue of underwater endurance. The reason why submarines in this era can't stay underwater for long periods of time is that they need oxygen, and snorkel technology has not been invented yet. Moreover, battery technology is not mature, and electric motor technology is also not mature. However, these problems can be solved by imitating the equipment on fishing boats, which also have battery packs and various sizes of electric motors.

  Speaking of torpedoes, a submarine without good torpedoes is like a gun without bullets. Liu didn't quite understand torpedoes, but roughly knew it was a power device pushing a big bomb to run, still inseparable from power.

  Finally, Liu had a killer trick, that was sea mines. This was inspired by an article in the "Ship Knowledge" book on the fishing boat. The book said that during World War II, the United States dropped tens of thousands of sea mines into Japanese ports, sinking hundreds of Japanese ships. Although Liu didn't understand sea mines, he could probably see that they were much easier to manufacture than submarines, speedboats and torpedoes.

  With the submarines, torpedo boats and sea mines as weapons, Liu Fei felt that defending Taiwan base should still be possible. Taiwan is an island, no matter who comes, you have to come by boat, as long as you can sink enough of your ships, no matter how strong your army is, how hard you train, how terrifying your combat power is, you can't get on land, what can you do to me?

  Liu Yi repeatedly deliberated on his plan to save his life, thinking that the logic was still reasonable, and it could be solved from an economic and technological point of view, but he didn't know if time would permit. In the Taiwan scenic spot introduction section of the travel guidebook, when introducing the Jinguashi gold mine, there is a sentence "After the First Sino-Japanese War, Taiwan was ceded to Japan in 1895..." That is to say, by 1895 at the latest, enough submarines, speedboats and torpedoes had to be built, enough sailors had to be trained, and enough resources had to be stockpiled to prepare for a protracted war.