Chapter 15: Kee Lung-class destroyer
In return for Liu's motorcycle, David gave him a gift that should be said to have given the whole of Taiwan a gift. This gift was not an object or money, but intelligence, and it was high-level intelligence - the British were going to war. The news actually wasn't something David had overheard, but rather his earl father Joseph in Britain told him.
In recent years, David has been making a name for himself in Europe and America, while the old earl has also overcome his financial crisis and regained his vitality, re-entering London's aristocratic circle and becoming a major force in social events. The parties he hosts at Joseph Earl Manor are top social gatherings that all of London's high society must attend.
The old earl did not want to spend his son's money to be a parasite, so he borrowed some money from David and jointly invested with several upper-class figures to buy a diamond mine in South Africa. However, over the past two years, the situation in South Africa has been chaotic, and the British have increased their expansion in the area to seize diamond and gold mines. But the two Boer republics of Transvaal and Orange stood in front of the British, causing them great headaches. The two sides had been skirmishing for decades, with neither side able to subdue the other. In recent years, the Boers have begun to get close to the Germans in order to counter the British invasion, which has made the British anxious. According to information obtained by the old earl from the Governor-General of South Africa, the British stationed in South Africa are gathering troops along the border, preparing to teach the Boers a lesson and make them hand over their diamonds and gold.
Because the old earl had estates in South Africa and was closely related to the Governor-General of South Africa, the Governor-General specially asked Joseph this time whether he was prepared to invest in gold mines, because British soldiers were about to rush into the Boer's country and seize their gold and diamond mines.
The old earl was anxious and immediately sent a telegram to inquire about his son, who had a business talent. David himself couldn't think of any good ideas, but he had a half-god friend, Liu Fei, who had previously instructed David to help collect information on the movements of several major European powers, which would be used as a gift to send to Liu Fei and ask for his opinion at the same time.
Liu Mou received David's telegram and immediately knew that this was the famous "Yingbu" war in history, which ended with a miserable victory for the British. However, from that year to that year, Liu Mou did not know the specific combat process and losses of both sides. Seeing that David asked for his opinion, Liu Mou could only vaguely reply: The final victory belongs to Britain, but the process is very difficult, and Britain will suffer a blow at the beginning. He also told David to pay close attention and report back at any time.
In November 1899, old Joseph again brought news that the Boers had declared war on Britain and fighting had begun.
Actually, South Africa is 108,000 miles away from Taiwan. The other side is just a bunch of nonsense that has no substantial impact on Asia. However, Liu Fei knew that this war, although seemingly one-sided, had the British suffering greatly in the initial stages. It took tremendous effort to finally take down the Boers, not because they were exceptionally strong, but because they were inherently fierce and received an endless supply of German weapons and training from instructors.
The harder the British fought on that side, the more comfortable Liu Ye became in Taiwan, because the British Far Eastern Fleet no longer dared to act rashly. The British warships that were still cruising near Taiwan a few days ago have now retreated to Hong Kong and rarely come out again. Of course, most of the reason is to guard against the German Far Eastern Fleet.
Now in East Asia, the Japanese are far away, the French are far away, and the Russians and Germans are too far away to come here. The Americans who were closest are currently fighting on the Philippine Islands. Originally thought that after taking down Manila and driving out the Spanish, the Philippines would be their own, but as a result, the local indigenous people declared independence. Although the various insurgent armies were not strong in combat power, they couldn't withstand the many of them, plus the dense tropical rainforest and unfamiliar roads, which made the US military very headache, let alone send fleets to patrol everywhere, it's already good if they can keep the fruits of victory.
Liu Ye looked at the map, counted with her fingers, and laughed. In this region of the South China Sea, it seems that no one is paying attention to themselves. With such a good opportunity, if they don't hurry up and develop, it would be a waste, and irresponsible to oneself.
First, Liu invested in strengthening the mining capacity of Shihtzu Iron Mine and increased transportation to Taiwan; secondly, taking advantage of the absence of external threats, he promoted the experimental cooperative throughout Taiwan, and whoever dared to jump out and make trouble would be resolutely cracked down on; finally, Liu was preparing to build warships.
For a country as large as an island, it's not enough to have just a few warships. Although submarines can fully meet the current defense and partial offensive tasks, they can't rely on submarines for life. Warships are bound to be equipped sooner or later, so why not build a few now to serve as a facade, and incidentally train naval personnel to prepare for the future.
After nearly a decade of effort, the Keelung Shipbuilding Corp. has acquired the capability to build naval vessels, although it still lags behind in the production of heavy artillery, but medium-caliber naval guns have already been put into production.
This time, Liu Ye plans to build a large destroyer with a displacement of 2950 tons, deck armor of 70mm, gun shield armor of 100mm, and fully powered by oil-fired steam turbines providing 19000 horsepower, dual-axis propulsion, speed can reach over 30 knots, endurance can also reach 9000 nautical miles/18 knots; The armament is equipped with Taiwan's own research and development production of 120MM60 caliber rapid-fire guns 4 doors, 12MM heavy machine guns 10 barrels, 450MM torpedo launchers 4 sets.
This large destroyer, named "Keelung-class", partially borrowed the fishing boat shape brought by Liu Yi, such as the bow pillar leaning forward, teardrop-shaped bow, square stern and streamlined rudder, which greatly improved the ship's navigability and range.
The biggest improvement is the abandonment of riveting to connect the hull, but instead adopting electric welding, specifically gas shielded arc welding. With the advent of electric welding technology, the self-weight of the hull has been greatly reduced, and its toughness has increased significantly. Moreover, it can handle various complex shapes. The only drawback is that there are not enough skilled welders at Keelung Shipyard, which seriously affects the progress of shipbuilding. However, this disadvantage will gradually become an advantage over time, and once there are enough skilled workers, the speed of electric welding shipbuilding will far exceed that of riveting.
The tonnage of the "Keelung"-class destroyers is between that of modern gunboats and torpedo boats, and cruisers. Their firepower and armor are superior to those of gunboats and torpedo boats but slightly inferior to those of cruisers. However, the 120mm/60 caliber naval guns and low-alloy ultra-high-strength steel armor developed and produced by Taiwan itself make up for the shortcomings in terms of gun caliber and armor thickness to some extent. After testing, it was found that the penetration capability and firing speed of the Taiwanese-made 120mm/60 caliber naval guns were higher than those of the 152mm guns equipped on British warships at that time. The low-alloy ultra-high-strength steel armor is comparable to the nickel-chromium-molybdenum steel used in German Krupp armor, but it is much lighter and has better heat treatment and corrosion resistance.
The first batch of "Keelung-class" destroyers will have a total of 3 ships built, with a planned construction time of between 8 months to 1.5 years, depending on the progress of training electric welders. After completion, these three destroyers will join the Taiwanese Navy and be stationed in Keelung and Tsoying, serving as main vessels for patrol and training purposes. As Liu Wei equipped this destroyer with a ship sonar converted from submarine sonar, the "Keelung-class" destroyer is also capable of anti-submarine warfare, possibly making it the world's first anti-submarine vessel. Due to Liu Wei's background in submarines, he has a strong obsession with anti-submarine warfare, and although there are currently no submarines for the "Keelung-class" to counter, Liu Wei plans to use his own submarines to train his destroyers' anti-submarine capabilities. As Liu Wei puts it: "The ancients said, 'When you're idle, find something to do.'"
Finally, it is worth mentioning that this destroyer is also specially equipped with a mine laying device. If mining is required, the "Kidd" class destroyer can carry up to 130 mines and accurately lay them out in a designated sea area within less than 2 hours.
