1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 1902
Li Min was personally accompanied by Ning Qi to explain, and other North Korean students were limited by their status, so naturally they could not enjoy such a high treatment, but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs still provided them with explainers to introduce them to the situation of the Shinsegae.Of course, this group of visitors also had a lot of questions, especially the few students who came to Haihan to learn shipbuilding technology. Many questions were difficult for even the explainers to answer, such as how heavy the ship is, and what are so many steel components? How to connect and assemble it, why not build it with more workable wood, etc.

Li Luo didn't really care about how the ship was built, because he knew very well that this shipbuilding technology was not currently mastered by North Korea. Even if the Haihan people were willing to teach it, it was at most just a dragon-slaying skill.This ship looks powerful, but even the Haihan people don't use it anymore. North Korea has no conditions to use so much steel to build a big ship that can only be placed in the port as a totem.

The Executive Committee granted permission for North Korean students studying abroad to board the ship to visit the part above the deck. This was a treatment that Li Xi had never enjoyed before. I took a closer look, and today, thanks to Li Min, I can really touch this ship.

However, when the North Koreans went up to the deck along the gangway, they soon discovered that there was nothing particularly amazing about it. There were no weapons or other powerful equipment as imagined, only a few tall hangers and a huge cabin on the deck. cover, indicating the identity of the ship as a cargo ship.But within reach, it is indeed full of cold steel, which is not adulterated at all.

Ning Qi introduced with emotion: "Although this ship will no longer go to sea, it carried the hope of hundreds of us Haihan people at that time. Without this ship, there would be no Haihan today. country!"

Li Luo asked curiously: "I heard that the country where you are from is thousands of miles overseas, have you considered returning to your homeland in the future?"

Ning Qi smiled bitterly and said, "Many people have thought about this problem, but it's too far away, we can't go back. And when we left our homeland, we wanted to create a new world, so far it seems that things are going well. .At least here, we have established our own country."

How far away is the homeland of the Haihan people? Li Wei doesn't have an exact idea about it, but Haihan soldiers can point to Liaodong thousands of miles away, but even they feel that it is too far away to go back. Thousands of miles away.Thinking about how these hundreds of people can create such a big situation in the South China Sea with a few boats, and how powerful their original country will be, it is even more unimaginable for Li Luo.

But since Ning Qi didn't want to take the initiative to mention the situation in his home country, Li Luo wisely didn't pursue this topic any further, but shifted to another topic that he was very interested in: "Since your country can build such a With the ability of the big iron ship, if we build a few more steel warships of this size, wouldn’t we even need to install artillery, and just need to ram them all the way to be invincible.”

Ning Qi said with a smile: "Your Majesty thinks things too simply. The construction and maintenance costs of such a large ship far exceed an entire armed fleet, and it is extremely difficult to train qualified operators. Besides, we have no To meet a real opponent who can fight at sea, there is really no need for our country to spend so much trouble at this stage."

Li Min suddenly said: "I understand, this is the reason why you don't need to use a sledgehammer to kill a chicken!"

The current strength of the Haihan Navy is indeed second to none in East Asia. Even several maritime colonial countries from the West have far less naval forces in this region than Haihan.So at this stage, even if Haihan has the technology to manufacture more advanced warships, he still chooses to maintain the status quo. The navy still uses sail warships as the main force, and only a few warships are equipped with steam power systems.

The installation of steam power systems on large warships is not entirely to further expand the performance advantages of ships in combat. Another important reason is to train relevant technical personnel.After all, there are not many talents who can use and maintain large-scale steam engines and power propulsion systems in the Haihan Army, and the military also needs to reserve technical talents in advance to prepare in advance for the real steam ironclad ships to enter service in the future.

Of course, in fact, there is already a quasi-ironclad ship Black Shark in the Haihan Navy that is secretly serving and has participated in several combat operations. However, due to various objective reasons, the Black Shark has not continued to build follow-up ships. As a special training ship of the navy, it is used to adjust marine power engines, test new shipborne weapons and train combatants.But the Black Shark is not the same as the steel warship that Li Wei imagined.

However, Li Lu's understanding is also correct. Haihan's military expenditure has risen to the point where it has to be controlled due to its large spread and rapid expansion. Although the replacement of advanced equipment will help further improve the combat effectiveness of the troops, But as far as the current international situation is concerned, there is really no need for the Haihan Army to rush to invest huge sums of money in the upgrading of weapons and equipment.

After actually coming to this ship, everyone found that the impact was not as great as when they were looking at it from a distance. Mottled rust can be seen on many places on the deck, and the traces of erosion by the sea and sea wind that have been docked at the beach all year round are very clear.And the most important thing is that this thing is bigger than it is, but it can only be parked at the pier, and the majestic appearance of it sailing on the sea can only be imagined, which makes people feel a little discouraged.

Although this ship has a very special commemorative significance to the Haihan Kingdom, it is more like a rusty historical relic to the foreign guests who visit the ship.As foreigners, it is actually difficult to understand the special significance of this ship to Haihan's ruling class. They only know that it is the largest item among the many items brought by Haihan people from their homeland, and that's all.

Among this group of visitors, the only one who really understands the meaning of this ship is probably only Li Mo. With Ning Qi's accompanying explanation, he realized that the existence of this ship reflects Haihan's transcendence of the times. Shipbuilding technology, and because of the huge advantage in combat power of the armed fleet at sea, Haihan seems to have no intention of using these advanced technologies at this stage, which means that for a long period of time in the future, Haihan will still be in its navy Play the role of the overlord of the sea as far as the range of activities can reach.

Of course, this can be regarded as good news for North Korea, because it means that Haihan will continue to serve as North Korea's sea asylum, and there is no need to worry about other countries launching aggression against itself from the sea.

The technology of building large iron ships is indeed very advanced, but Li Min would not choose it as his study abroad subject.So after visiting and disembarking, when Ning Qi asked him about his impressions, Li Luo expressed his thoughts bluntly: "Your country's shipbuilding skills are indeed excellent, but the construction of such a large iron ship has surpassed what our country can achieve. As far as I can imitate, I can only be a spectator."

After leaving the port, Ning Qi took the group of North Koreans to Shengli Port Railway Station.Undoubtedly, a large iron ship parked immobile in a port is definitely not as visually impactful as a train running on a railway.

Seeing the long train whistling white smoke from a distance, and feeling the ground trembling slightly under his feet, Li Lu finally understood why everyone who has been to Sanya would mention the train as a special means of transportation.If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, it would be really hard for him to believe that there would be such a strange existence in the world. The whimsical ideas of the Haihan people were far beyond his imagination, and they could actually create such a steel beast.

"Your Majesty, please!" Seeing Li Luo's obviously distracted expression, Ning Qi knew that this visit session had achieved excellent results.Like those foreign dignitaries who saw the train for the first time in the past, Li Mo couldn't help but lose his composure in the face of this industrial miracle.

Li Min came back to his senses, and walked slowly towards the locomotive with Ning Qi, and found that the top and bottom of the locomotive were indeed made of fine iron. He couldn't help but sigh in his heart for Haihan's iron smelting ability - using fine iron to make cars and pave roads, this is amazing. How many resources must be consumed to do it!

This is probably a powerful country!Li Wei could only sigh again at this.Of course, he also quickly noticed that there were several carriages loaded with goods and people behind the locomotive. It seemed that the rumor that the train could pull tens of thousands of catties was not a bragging, but a fact.

Because they went to the port to visit the big iron ship, they had missed the train to Tiandu in the morning. The train they saw at the Shengli Port Railway Station departed from Tiandu, passed through Shengli Port and finally arrived at Sanya Port.The train departing from Tiandu in the morning is almost full of all kinds of goods, but there are not too many people on this train.

"Lord Ning, building such a car and building such a special road should cost a lot, right?" Li Lu asked tentatively.

Ning Qi smiled and said: "The cost is not only huge, even with the financial and material resources of our country, only two railways have been built so far, and the total mileage is only a little over a hundred miles. What the crown prince sees now is one of them. The railway runs through the busiest area in Sanya, and it not only transports thousands of people every day, but also undertakes more than half of the local freight volume.”

Li Lu asked: "Since the investment is so huge, why not build ordinary roads and use horse-drawn carriages to transport people and goods?"

Ning Qi explained: "The quantity of goods we want to transport is huge, and the second is that it is inconvenient to load and unload the carriage. Please see, my lord, the second carriage of this carriage is full of logs felled from the deep mountains in the inland. The destination is Victory Port Shipyard, in order to make the components of the ship, these logs must be transported as much as possible to ensure the size of the components, and ordinary horse-drawn carts cannot transport them from the mountains dozens of miles away.”

Li Lu saw that the thick logs propped obliquely in the carriage were all about three feet in diameter and more than three feet in length, and a single log might weigh two to three thousand catties. This size and weight were indeed beyond the reach of ordinary carriages. pulled.

Ning Qi pointed to a large pile of coal roads on the platform: "Every day, tens of thousands of catties of coal are transported from the Shengli Port Wharf to the inland Tiandu Industrial Zone. It is time-consuming, labor-intensive and inefficient. But loading by train, it only takes two trips in the morning and one evening.”

Li Lu was a little surprised when he heard this number. He didn't know what secrets were hidden in the interior of Sanya, which required so much coal to be consumed.But what Ning Qi said is indeed reasonable, the loading capacity of the carriage is limited, if there are too many goods that need to be transported on this route every day, it may indeed be less efficient than the train that can pull tens of thousands of catties this time.

Ning Qi finally pointed to the people who were getting on and off the train on the platform: "Compared to horse-drawn carriages, the toll of trains is actually much lower, and people who commute to and from this train every day can afford this expense. Living in the urban area of ​​Sanya , the place where you work every day is dozens of miles away, and this kind of life style is only available in our country.”

As for commuting by train, Ning Qi is actually a bit bragging about it. Although this mode of transportation is indeed better than ordinary carriages and horses, and the cost is relatively low, not all people can easily afford it, and there is no such thing as what he described. So convenient.It still takes a lot of time for the two commuter trains in the morning and one night to go back and forth on the road. If the locomotive breaks down, it will delay more time. Many people who work in Tiandu Industrial Zone have gradually moved to A settlement that is closer to the work unit to save these troubles.

Of course, from an overall point of view, the role of this traffic artery in promoting the development of Sanya is still unquestionable, especially for the transportation of materials. At this stage, there is no other more effective way to replace the existence of freight trains.

Even from the non-professional perspective of an outsider like Li Lu, it is not difficult to understand the special role that trains can play in logistics.Of course, considering the large amount of materials required to build this project, Li Min is very self-aware that this is not a project that his country can emulate—at least it is unlikely that North Korea will engage in such a project before the rapid development of the iron smelting industry. kind of infrastructure projects.

Because there is a large amount of cargo to be unloaded here, the bus stops at Shengli Port for a relatively long time, and the North Koreans have enough time to observe the true appearance of the Haihan train at close range.Compared with the big motionless iron ship seen before, this train and the railway on which it rides are obviously more topical. The North Korean students talked about it while watching it, and made various guesses about the operating principle of this train.

Their clothes are obviously different from the double-breasted jackets popular in Haihan. The local people can tell that these people are foreigners at a glance. Some people who have seen the excitement in Victory Square yesterday have even recognized their identities.At present, the North Koreans are studying the trains, and the local people are watching the North Koreans. It is also a wonderful sight.

(End of this chapter)