Chapter 51: The Rise of the Two Great Book Merchants

  Yang Feng stayed in Germany until the beginning of 1894, during which he signed dozens of procurement and cooperation agreements with major German companies, from military to civilian use, almost replicating his entire business here. This included the Didi project, which had already started production in the United States, and was jointly established with Hirsch & Co. in Germany. Additionally, a series of patent licenses were signed with Krupp, the king of German industry, allowing Krupp to produce all new Bofors weapons in Germany, from automatic pistols to howitzers, including the latest 75mm gun.

  Although this guy is quite black-hearted, Krupp not only cannot export these weapons, but also has to pay him 10% of the selling price as patent fees for each weapon produced. However, for Franz Krupp, it's still an unexpected joy, especially with the Type 75's rate of fire reaching 15 rounds per minute and a maximum speed of nearly 30 rounds.

  This thing has been the most sought-after weapon on the arms market since it emerged in Yang Feng's conquest of Kuwait, with the German army ordering 100 at once. Being able to obtain the patent rights for this cannon is of great significance to both Krupp and the German army, which also earned Yang Feng the genuine friendship of Old Glass.

  It wasn't until Yang Feng took Zhang Quan to Sweden for a test drive of their destroyer that he left Germany, and during this time, the young governor's son can be said to have received a thorough baptism. Whether it was Europe's powerful industrial strength or the monarchic system that seemed unbelievable to him, as well as the terrifying wealth of European financial groups, especially when Yang Feng casually mentioned a business contract involving funds that were at least no less than the investment in the entire Hanyang Iron and Steel Factory, he can be said to have been truly shocked.

  "Money and technology dominate the world, not those stinky saintly ideas. The Industrial Revolution brought about a leap in human society, not some philosopher's nonsense. Strength lies not in how glorious your history is, but in how bright your future is." Yang Feng lectured him like a charlatan.

  "Look at this, this is the future!" Then he pointed to the two destroyers on trial voyage and said that these two destroyers were the main products of Yang's shipyard in the future. Not only could they reach a speed of 37 knots, but also equipped with two quadruple torpedo tubes, using 533mm steam-powered torpedoes, and one twin turret at the front and rear respectively.

  Originally, Yang Feng wanted to use a 130mm naval gun, but later his shipyard designers thought the caliber was too large and the 500-ton small ship could not withstand it. So he simply contributed the US military's 76.2mm naval gun during World War II. The bow had a twin turret, the deck had a semi-open turret on one side, and the stern had another twin turret. This way, when charging forward, there were four main guns that could fire forward, with nearly 100 rounds of ammunition per minute. Before launching torpedoes, the target could be turned into a sea of flames, and what was left was just torpedoes going up to supplement the attack.

  With the completion of these two destroyers, Yang's Beiyang Fleet was formally completed, with one armored cruiser, four destroyers, and as for those six landing ships, they would soon be available. Armstrong Company even pushed aside two merchant ship contracts to meet his simultaneous completion requirements, and after a year of continuous construction, finally met the deadline he required.

  As for the Viper and Spectacle, they also completed their refit at Yang's shipyard, using exactly the same weapon system. These four high-speed destroyers and heavy torpedoes would be his main weapons to deal with the combined fleet. After receiving the warships, Yang Feng immediately returned to London. Now that it's only a few months away from the start of the war, he has to hurry up and deliver the 305 shells to the Beiyang Navy. I wonder what results they will achieve this time with these 600 rounds of bitter acid-filled shells and the twenty 152mm quick-firing guns, 4,000 rounds of smokeless powder, and 4,000 rounds of bitter acid-filled shells that he gave them.

  To be honest, Xue Fu Cheng thought these shells were already useless, after all, Yang Feng had given the Beiyang Navy a lot of things, even if he didn't give them these shells it wouldn't matter, but unexpectedly he actually sent the shells over, since they were sent over of course they would accept them, praising Yang's patriotic spirit, and quickly dispatching the merchant ship carrying the shells to China.

  Zhang Quan originally wanted to follow the ship back, but Yang Feng told him that he might also go to China in a few months. Since then, it's not a problem to go together, not only him, but also Xue Fucheng is going together, his term as envoy has expired, and Gong Zhaoyuan who replaced him has already set sail from Shanghai.

  In the following days, Yang Feng was relatively free and continued to live a happy life with abundant wealth and beautiful women surrounding him. Although there were more and more women around him, which had already caused dissatisfaction from his legitimate fiancée, Lin Luoke, who grew up in China, was very aware of the reality of Chinese people having multiple wives and concubines at that time. Moreover, none of the women around Yang Feng had any formal status, so she tolerated it with difficulty. After all, one was a maid, and even if European rich men flirted with maids, it was a common thing; another was a female slave, which was not even as good as a maid's status. This Persian woman had no use other than dancing for Yang Feng and warming his bed, let alone her status.

  As for the other two, Ye Zi still hasn't gotten his hands on Yang Feng, and Catherine was sent to school by Yang Feng and is no longer by his side, so his harem problem isn't prominent yet.

  It was his large-scale cooperation with the Germans that caused a slight dissatisfaction among the British. To show his friendship to the British Empire, Yang Feng immediately listed all his cooperative projects with the Germans and offered them to British companies if they were interested in cooperating. As a result, he sold the same things again, and his income grew exponentially during this period until Gong Zhaoyuan arrived as the new ambassador to the UK.

  Gong Zhaozhuang was also one of Li Ergouzi's people, and he had naturally heard of Yang Feng long ago. When they met, they couldn't help but flatter each other a bit, after all, it would be necessary to deal with each other in the future, so it was better to have a good relationship.

  At this time, Yang Feng's landing ship was also completed. Six flat-bottomed ships with a displacement of 3,000 tons were equipped with three high-power diesel engines. During the trial voyage, the maximum speed could reach 20 knots. The deck was equipped with 76 naval guns from Bofors, eight per ship. The internal cabin was divided into three layers, each layer being fully open and able to accommodate 1,000 soldiers. The bow had a large hydraulic opening ramp, after which soldiers could rush out of the cabin through the ramp and onto the beach. The topmost layer also had a special cabin for gunners, and war horses could pull cannons in the same way.

  Unfortunately, this kind of rough landing is still very difficult for today's cars. Otherwise, it would be great to have a few trucks surrounded by armor plates and mounted with machine guns. On the battlefield, an armored vehicle would be almost invincible. As for those tanks, they don't dare to show up yet, let's talk about that later.

  "Feng Sheng, what are these ships?" Xue Fu Cheng looked at these strangely shaped giant vessels with great curiosity.

  "Merchant ships, ocean-going merchant ships, can not only run on the sea but also on inland waterways, and even dock on beaches without ports." Yang Feng said with a straight face.

  "What are those big guns up there for?" Xue Fucheng asked with a smile.

  "Are you going to pirate? Malacca is a place where pirates are rampant, don't believe me, ask your goddaughter, she was almost robbed by pirates last time." Yang Feng said. Because of his natural reverence for officials, Ye Zi behaved very ladylike in front of Xue Fu Cheng. Having studied in private school for several years, she looked like a noble lady. Xue Fu Cheng, who was alone in London, took her as his goddaughter, but he didn't know that this ladylike girl could burn a whole boat of people alive with kerosene without blinking an eye.

  Of course, Xue Fu Cheng would not believe such nonsense about pirates. As soon as he thought of Yang Feng's evil deeds in robbing the Kowshing last time, he understood what these six ocean-going merchant ships, each capable of carrying a thousand passengers, were used for. A thousand passengers could be replaced with a thousand soldiers, and they could land without using a dock, or even sail directly into inland rivers. During the Sino-French War, if the French had such ships, it would have been troublesome for him to defend against them in Zhenhai.

  Six ships can transport six thousand soldiers, Yang Feng's men are all European mercenaries, even if they are Chinese, they are known for their strong fighting power as stick soldiers, equipped with the most advanced weapons, and there are five warships. Xue Fu Cheng suddenly understood what this guy wanted to do, this is a large-scale pirate group, why prevent pirates, he himself is probably going to play pirates, last time he destroyed Kuwait with two thousand people, if it's six thousand people, many small countries can't stop him, and with Yang Feng's influence in Europe, no matter what he does, these countries won't intervene, since that's the case, why not let him play on the high seas, this is the real pirate king!

  Yang Feng didn't know that the old man beside him had already seen through his evil nature, and he was now full of longing, imagining the scene where he would lead a pirate gang to plunder the imperial palace.

  "When the time comes, find a few African gorilla-level black devils to let His Majesty thoroughly enjoy himself." He thought to himself with an evil grin.

  Apart from the warships, his ground forces were also ready. In more than a year, at the office in Wuchang, he had recruited two thousand soldiers, plus European and American mercenaries and Chinese workers. Except for the training base in Western Australia and the security of the Persian oil fields, there were still troops left in Kuwait. He could mobilize at least four thousand mobile forces, and then after arriving in Taiwan, he would recruit one or two thousand local people, a large pirate army of division size was formed.