Chapter Fifteen: Yang Feng's Warship

  Xue Fu sank into contemplation, although this matter was indeed unfounded according to international conventions. However, similar things in the imperial court were not uncommon, just old tricks like deceiving heaven and earth, stealing beams and changing pillars, which Chinese people had been playing for thousands of years.

  The key is that this guy's opening price was too high, making it impossible to refuse. The six-inch Armstrong quick-firing gun is the most advanced naval gun at present, and twenty of them were given away in one go, which is enough to replace all the similar guns of the Beiyang Fleet. Not to mention so many shells, and the Beiyang Fleet just needs to sign a name, of course, the imperial court may still have some trouble, but the European envoys are all from the North Ocean, as long as they don't say it, those dignitaries at home won't know, maybe they even don't know where Sweden is.

  "This matter is of great importance, I need to report it to the imperial court for further decision." Old Xue said in an official tone.

  Yang Feng smiled and knew that this matter was settled. Li Hongzhang wasn't a fool, how could he let go of such a wonderful opportunity that fell from the sky?

  However, which model of cruiser to choose is worth considering. To be honest, he hopes that Armstrong Shipyard can replicate the Raider for him, and let Beauty Avatar be responsible for manufacturing the power system. But that would be too cheap for the British, and many advanced design concepts would be given away for nothing. Moreover, it would be troublesome to maintain and repair in the future, especially in terms of secrecy. So he decided to get a normal level one now.

  Back in his own manor, he began to filter through the most famous cruisers of this era in his mind, and soon a name appeared, the Blanckenburg cruiser that Li's ghost wanted to buy during the Sino-Japanese War but didn't get, also known as Katori's senior.

  4,500 tons displacement, 22.8 knots speed, two 203mm main guns, ten 152mm secondary guns, and even five torpedo tubes, except for the slightly slower speed, all other performance aspects are enough to crush Kiyoshimo.

  "It's good, but at this time the cruiser seems to be not very solid, for example, Kiyoshima sank after being hit. This makes Captain Yang very entangled, he has always regarded his own safety as more important than anything else."

  But he soon came to his senses, after all, buying a warship wasn't about going into battle personally, it was the mercenaries who would be fighting to the death, so why worry so much?

  "Mr. Yang, Mr. Eric has arrived." His butler Franz came over and interrupted his thoughts.

  When he was in Sweden, the vampire couldn't wait to send him eight telegrams a day to urge him to return. Now that he's really back, it's natural that he can't help but come to the door. However, this time it's not because of his own illness, but because one of his friends is ill, and this friend is a woman. It's not a serious illness, just ordinary pneumonia, probably doesn't even need penicillin, just a shot of ceftriaxone will do.

  Yang the divine doctor brought Catherine, riding his own pumpkin carriage, and followed the vampire to that small villa. The fool came out with a smile on his face, this guy has been having a great time with the help of Yang Feng's two powerful artifacts, as can be seen from the consumption of the suits, so now looking at Yang Feng is like looking at a family member.

  "Eddie, I'll show you something good in a minute, my latest invention. It's already being manufactured in Sweden." The two of them walked and talked together as they entered the small Gothic-style building.

  "Who is this young lady?" Mr. Yang, the big boss, had an exaggerated look of surprise on his face as he gazed at his patient this time, a girl who was not yet twenty years old. Although, in terms of aesthetic appreciation, she didn't compare to Catherine, who was still developing by his side, the delicate beauty that came from living a life of luxury and pampering was something that Catherine, who grew up in the slums, couldn't match.

  The girl raised her hand slightly with a proud and arrogant attitude, granting Yang Feng the right to a kiss. She looked at him with some curiosity, knowing that Chinese people were still quite mysterious in Europe at this time. Although Mr. Yang was a bit older, he still had some charm for girls. It was clear that this girl had a good impression of him.

  Especially after learning that he was the boss of JY company, Alice's surprise was beyond words. Although it had been open for only a few months, this small building with two large red lanterns hanging at the door had already become a holy place for upper-class women in Britain.

  As for her illness, it was very simple, just a slight case of pneumonia. It's likely that the fool was trying to curry favor with Yang, otherwise this minor illness wouldn't have required Yang's expertise. Half a dose of ceftriaxone and she was already starting to recover while Yang Feng was still boasting about his new invention to the fool.

  "Take this half pill again in two hours, sleep and you'll be fully recovered tomorrow." Dr. Yang took her temperature again and said, then handed the drooling Browning to him and said: "Eddie, I'm giving you this gun, have someone come to my place tomorrow to pick up a few boxes of bullets."

  This handgun is already a mature model, and after several key components were replaced with those produced by the beautiful woman, the jamming rate has plummeted to an even lower level than the original version. Yang Feng had Bofors make him a luxury edition, with ivory inlays on the grip, gold plating on the outer casing, and intricate engravings. He plans to sell it as a luxury item in London, believing that this novelty will be extremely popular among the old pirates of Britain.

  After finishing all this, he bid farewell and left. When he went out the door, he asked the vampire who saw him off: "Erik, do you have any friends at the Armstrong shipyard? I've opened a small shipyard in Sweden and thought of going there to visit and learn from them. Of course, you also know that if I go myself, they might not necessarily let me visit."

  "No problem, I'll take care of it." The vampire shrugged and said lightly.

  Yang Feng did not expect that this guy's energy was indeed not small, and the next morning a staff member from the Armstrong shipyard in London came to his mansion to visit. After learning that Yang Feng had time, he enthusiastically invited him to go to Newcastle together to visit the largest British warship manufacturing base there.

  Mr. Yang gladly accepted the invitation and the two of them boarded his private yacht, heading straight out to sea. Along the way, the Black Arrow's power system left Richard, the engineer, utterly amazed, especially after learning that these two compact diesel engines could provide a massive 1,000 horsepower. His mouth was left agape in astonishment.

  "In fact, up to now, it can be said that mass-producing this diesel engine is almost impossible, because it uses a lot of expensive materials. To put it bluntly, this is just a showcase for the Yang's Power System Company's technical strength, and truly mass-produced machines would have much larger volumes, and are far from being as mature as steam engines."

  From London to Newcastle, it's only a few hundred kilometers by sea route. The 25-meter high-speed yacht arrived in just over ten hours, and it was already late at night. Armstrong Shipyard arranged his accommodation, and after sleeping for one night, he visited the shipyard with Richard the next morning.

  This is not only the largest warship manufacturing base in Britain, but also in the world. It has manufactured nearly half of the main warships used by both sides in the First Sino-Japanese War, including Zhiyuan, Jingyuan, Yoshino and Yashima. To be able to do military-industrial business to this extent can be said to have reached the pinnacle.

  However, for the warships on the dock here, Yang Feng could only describe them as trash. After all, he was used to seeing modern warships and it was hard for him to have a good impression of those strangely-shaped monsters in this era. Just looking at those solitary masts made him speechless. Of course, verbally, he still praised these warships to the point where they almost rivaled space battleships, listening to which Richard's face was filled with pride for the British Empire.

  Two people walked and talked, almost colliding with someone coming from the opposite direction.

  "Hello, Mr. Parsons." Richard gave a casual greeting, the other tipped his hat and slightly lowered his head, then looked at Yang Feng with a somewhat strange gaze before hastily leaving.

  "Mr Parsons, are you the Mr Parsons who invented the steam turbine?" Yang Feng suddenly stopped him and asked.

  "I am Parsons," he said, stopping and looking at Yang Feng in puzzlement. "And you are...?"

  "Let me introduce myself, I am Yang Feng, General Manager of JY Company, President of People's Publishing House, General Manager of General Electric Company, Chairman of Swedish Yang Power System Co., Ltd. and Chairman of Bofors Steel Corporation." Mr. Yang said his long string of titles in the midst of Parsons' stunned gaze, just like a medieval nobleman reciting his own titles.

  But to say that these titles are now even more resounding than some noble titles, JY doesn't need to be said, now in the UK almost everyone knows, Yang Feng even plagiarized the name of General Electric, relying on tungsten filament light bulbs has completely driven out Edison's bamboo carbon filament light bulbs from the British market, and is currently spreading to the European mainland, it is estimated that within half a year Edison Electric Light Company will have to withdraw from the European market.

  As for People's Publishing House, Yangtze River Power Company, they are also in their heyday. Even Baofeng is a century-old brand. So many enterprises on one person, it's much more dazzling than those increasingly worthless noble titles.

  "I'm delighted to make your acquaintance, Mr. Yang!" Parsons said with a friendly handshake, he was now just the owner of a small factory in Newcastle, having just sold his first set of steam engines, barely scraping by, and couldn't be compared to industrial giants like Yang Feng, probably one of Yang's carriages was worth more than his entire factory.

  He didn't know that he would soon regret his actions.

  "I'm honored too, ah, how about this, why don't we sit down together and find a place to have a drink?" Yang Feng said with a sly smile, since the prey had already appeared, it was naturally not to be let go.