Valley Emperor

But although it was unpleasant, it didn't do anything else. After all, it's just a department store. If this is replaced by other major events, it is estimated that the Queen Mother Bai will be angry.

In other words, the reason why the Bai family has been doing well these years is simply because Li Xuan has taken good care of his nephew. If Bai Yunqi and the Bai family had counted on the Queen Mother Bai, they would have starved to death!

The first battle Li Xuan inspected in Shanghai was Zhili Textile Bank, because this bank is a representative of private banks, and its overall strength is also the third in China, second only to Royal Bank and Imperial Development Bank. Their headquarters are also located in Shanghai, plus the distance, went to the headquarter of Zhili Textile Bank first.

Then this second stop is the Shanghai department store next door. The reason is that on the one hand, it is close, and on the other hand, Bai Yunqi invites Li Xuan to take a look with his old face.

Uncle's face must be given, not to mention Li Xuan is also very curious about the department stores of this era.

So just go have a look.

After seeing this department store, Li Xuan was also amazed at the courage of the Bai family. This whole building is also the most prosperous and core building on Yanjiang Road in the trade area. The next door is basically the headquarters of major companies. The Bai family even used it as a department store. The annual rent for this building alone would cost hundreds of thousands of yuan.

As for the ownership, don’t ask, it naturally belongs to the Shanghai Terminal Company. On both sides of the Huangpu River, within 20 kilometers from the north to the south, and within three kilometers along the coast, all the land is owned by the Shanghai Terminal Company.

And the policy is dead, it can't be sold, it can only be rented out, so don't look at the large number of company headquarters along the river road, those buildings are also very luxurious, but in fact all these buildings belong to the Shanghai Wharf Company.

Shanghai Wharf Company is not only the largest and only port service provider in Shanghai, but also the largest landlord in Shanghai. Every year, it gets soft on the rent!

Entering the department store, Li Xuan strolled from the bottom to the top, took a closer look, and pretended to buy a few items. During the whole process, he found that the Bai family had some talent for business.

This department store has done a good job, buying all high-end products, expensive, and a complete range of all kinds of luxury accessories.

After visiting the department store, Li Xuan took people to visit several other well-known companies along the Yangtze River Road, but these companies only have their headquarters here, such as Jiangnan Textile Company.

But their production bases are generally in industrial areas, not in trade areas.

After shopping in the morning, Li Xuan took a group of people to the shipbuilding base of Jiangnan Shipyard in the afternoon, ready to see the new generation of the Navy's battleship, the Malacca, and preside over the service ceremony of the ship.

This shipbuilding base is located in the North Shore Development Zone. It is the third shipbuilding base of Jiangnan Shipyard in Songjiang Prefecture, and the other two are not in Shanghai, but in Jiading County next door.

However, this shipbuilding base in the North Shore Development Zone is the earliest, largest, and most mature shipbuilding base of their Jiangnan Shipyard. Not only a large number of civilian ships but also a large number of warships are built here.

One of the new-generation battleships of the Navy, the Malacca.

However, when he entered the North Shore Shipbuilding Base of Jiangnan Shipyard, before going to see the Malacca, Li Xuan first saw a crippled ship lying in the dock of a shipyard next door, and only the skeleton was dismantled. large hull.

Needless to say, Li Xuan knew that this was the battleship Hebei that broke the Navy's heart.

Since the nineteenth year of Xuanping, the Datang Navy has started the steam era. Today, most of the Navy's warships are already steam ships, especially the main ships, which are all steam warships.

However, since the nineteenth year of Xuanping, the Navy has not built too many new battleships. Eight years later, only eleven have been built, and one of them has been scrapped, and two are half-baked. There are only eight battle-worthy steel battleships battleships.

And these eight battleships are the first generation of Jiangnan-class battleships.

As the first steel battleship designed and equipped with steam engines from the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, it was also a steel battleship with wrought iron armor. It was very sensational at the time, and the use effect was also very good.

Therefore, the navy first built six basic types in one go, and then built two expanded and improved types with the same basic design but a tonnage of 1,800 tons.

A total of eight Jiangnan-class battleships were built in the basic and improved types.

However, although the navy is relatively satisfied with the Jiangnan-class battleships, the times are developing and technology is improving. Therefore, when the navy was in the 22nd year of Xuanping, the navy had already started construction of a new generation of battleships.

After all, the tonnage of the new generation of cruisers of the Navy at that time was more than 1,000 tons, and as the main battleship of the fleet, the tonnage of the Jiangnan-class battleship was only 1,500 tons, and even the tonnage of many merchant ships was not as good. This made the Navy very dissatisfied.

Therefore, starting in the 22nd year of Xuanping, the navy designed the second steel battleship, the Hebei-class battleship, a behemoth with a standard displacement of 3,800 tons and many new technologies.

The ship officially started construction in the 23rd year of Xuanping, and was completed last year in the 26th year!

However, the fate of this battleship is very sad. Although the Imperial Navy is not too satisfied with the Jiangnan-class battleships, it does not have too many complaints. On the contrary, it is quite satisfied. It is just that the times have developed and the Jiangnan-class battleships have gradually fallen behind. That's it.

However, this Hebei-class battleship, the navy is full of resentment.

Because in order to pursue the advanced, it turned out to be an unprecedented use of pure steel hulls, pure steam engine power, steam rotating turrets, and many of the most advanced designs of rear-mounted rifled guns. These designs are even seen by Li Xuan back then. Very satisfied.

Because of the above-mentioned characteristics, it almost marks that the battleships of the Datang Empire have entered the real era of modern steel battleships.

For this reason, Li Xuan was still very happy back then.

However, the ideal is beautiful, the reality is skinny.

As a new generation of the Navy's battleship, it is said that the technology is ahead of the Jiangnan-class battleship for an era, and the standard displacement has reached 3,800 tons. The Hebei, which uses a series of new technologies, seems to be very wonderful.

But the fact once again proved that the step too big will pull the egg!

The pure steel hull caused a huge increase in weight, and there was not much space and weight to accommodate the high-power steam engine. In the end, the speed of the ship was only a pitiful seven knots, and the expected speed of ten knots could not be achieved at all. A large number of sailing warships are not as good.

As for the steam rotating turret, there are problems with two ends in three days. The rotating turret driven by steam power is not easy to use at all. There are problems with two ends in three days, and there have been several steam leakage accidents, one of which is caused by suffered heavy casualties.

And the powerful rear-mounted rifled gun that was previously boasted by the people of Jiangnan Weapons Company, the Navy is also full of resentment!

This **** is extremely expensive. It costs more than 10,000 yuan for one piece. Equipped with a few more pieces of this kind of artillery, it is enough to buy a cruiser. In addition, this kind of artillery does not serve as an old-fashioned artillery shell. Special new shells have to be ordered. !

And the rifling of this thing is like paper paste, and the rifling will be ground off after a few shots.

But these navies have endured. After all, the rear-mounted rifled gun, the naval gun that the navy dreams of, is powerful and accurate.

But it’s okay to be expensive and not durable, but if something happens, the Navy can’t bear it.

Because of severe design flaws, only one Hebei-class battleship was completed, which is why the follow-up construction plan was hastily stopped.

The fate of the first ship, Hebei, was also very tragic. After the outfitting of the ship completed the basic sea trial and was delivered to the Navy, the Navy conducted three live ammunition training. Well, there were three live ammunition training in total, but problems occurred three times. .

The first training was an explosion accident, and dozens of artillery crew members in the entire turret were collectively reimbursed~www.wuxiaspot.com~ After repairing for more than a month, they went to sea again to test the sea and play the training bomb test. At that time, a large-scale steam leakage accident occurred in the steam rotating turret, causing more than 20 officers and soldiers to be scalded to death by high-pressure steam.

At that time, the navy was very dissatisfied, but the battleship costing hundreds of thousands of dollars had already been built, and the new technology was definitely risky, so the navy endured it, repaired the steam turret, and went out to sea for the third time for live ammunition. test.

The result is good, this time completely **** off the navy!

During the training, a 48-pound front-loaded rifled gun on the Hebei ship exploded, and the blast was not counted, and it also caused the explosion of the ammunition. The violent explosion destroyed the turret and nearby buildings. He was half paralyzed by blowing up the Hebei number!

This has caused a great shock to the Navy!

In the follow-up investigation and various treatments, there is no need to say how many people were unlucky. Anyway, several admirals were forced to be transferred to the reserve due to this time.

Let’s talk about the navy’s follow-up treatment of the Hebei. The navy directly sold the hemi-paralyzed battleship Hebei as scrap iron, and was then purchased by a ship-breaking company for dismantling and selling. The skeleton was seen by Li Xuan.

This broken thing, the Navy is too lazy to repair it!

Of course, the reason why the navy threw it away was because the Hebei was so seriously injured that the money needed to repair it was enough to build a new one!

The Hebei battleship started construction in the 23rd year of Xuanping, and completed the hull construction in March of the 25th year. Many problems were discovered during the outfitting. The outfitting and basic sea trials were completed in March of the 26th year. Service, decommissioned in September and sold, dismantling began in October, the official service period is six months, and during this service period, four months are spent in the shipyard for maintenance!