"Opening a school?" Seeing the news someone sent, the lord of Linshui City put aside the book in his hand in surprise and looked at his confidants.
If he didn't have any strength or his own eyes and ears, he wouldn't be able to be the city lord here, so he still knew what the nobles who paid him a lot of money were doing.
The other party has been working hard to build roads before. The standards of these roads are very high. They must at least be paved with gravel and compacted. This standard is almost the highest standard of post roads in Zheng State.
Even these roads have to be elevated and waterproofed. The roadbeds on both sides are carefully built and waterproof ditches are dug.
In the opinion of the old city lord, such roads are expensive and of no use at all. It is a complete waste to build such good roads for the civilian merchants who come and go.
But he couldn't say anything, because the other party didn't intend to explain to him. In his opinion, these people might be planning to build workshops on his site, which required a lot of trade support.
This also explains why the other party chose Linshui City - sea transportation here is convenient, and if land transportation is improved, it can be used as an important transportation hub.
Later, those noble people who gave money began to build factories around Linshui City, which also made the old city owner a little confused.
Such a large-scale factory has never appeared in Zheng Guo. People come and go at the factory construction site every day, which is busier than the market in Linshui City.
What’s interesting is that the construction of these factories started more than two months ago. When these factories had already reached scale, King Zheng Tong suddenly issued an edict, advocating that merchants from all over the country raise funds to build workshops on their own, so as to relieve the country’s worries.
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This kind of construction behavior before the king's order made the old city lord see something different: it meant that the nobles who bribed him had a powerful background that could know the national decision-making in advance.
In other words, these nobles can directly influence national decision-making! Let King Zheng and Zheng Tong issue orders that are beneficial to them!
However, the roads and factories outside the city were actually nothing. What surprised the old city owner the most was the renovation project of the Linshui port by these nobles.
Not long after he accepted the bribe, Linshui Pier was bought by these noble people, and now it has become a private property, and no other people are allowed to get close to it.
Linshui Port is not so much being renovated as it is being rebuilt: the entire Linshui Port is full of construction scenes, and piers that can dock giant ships are extending towards the sea.
Next to the pier, there is a large area of shipyards under construction. These shipyards are so huge that even if you take a casual look at them from a distant highland, you will be shocked by their scale.
No joke at all, such a shipyard can build at least six to eight of the largest sailing ships at the same time, which can no longer be described as huge.
What the old city owner didn't know was that these docks and docks were built to the highest standards, using reinforced concrete, and sewer lines that could be walked directly were built in advance to facilitate the connection of cables and equipment in the future.
At the same time, these facilities also reserve positions for gantry cranes and unloading cranes, which can be installed immediately as long as the equipment is available.
Connecting these abnormal behaviors, the old city lord felt that he probably understood the operations of these people.
In his opinion, these people who bribed him knew Zheng Guo's strategic decision in advance and took advantage of the time difference to prepare to make a lot of money under his protection.
Just imagine, because the industrial base in Linshui is being built in advance, it will be put into production in advance. Then there will be a time lag and we can start making money on a large scale in advance.
Their transportation conditions are the best in Zheng State, so the products they produce can be quickly sold to every corner of Zheng State using roads, so they can definitely make a lot of money.
With its own protection, the workshop can evade taxes, and there will be no obstacles or obstacles on the road. One million gold coins... it took almost a year and a half to earn it back!
Thinking of this, he felt that he had seen the truth. He even felt that he had guessed the identity of these noble people: maybe they were wealthy businessmen from Dahua, or even imperial businessmen with more background.
Otherwise, it would be impossible to explain why they have so much energy.
Now, these people are planning to open a school here... The reason is obvious, the common people of Zheng State are of no use to them!
If you don't spend money to train these poor people to learn something, where will the workers be recruited after the factory is built? Therefore, some people must be trained in advance to work. This is a very logical behavior.
The old city lord, who consciously figured out all the key points, smiled disdainfully and looked at his confidants: "Don't worry about it, they are just making money."
"I understand!" The confidant nodded slightly, and then exited the old city lord's study. The moment he closed the door, the confidant touched the gold coins in his pocket, looked at the door again, and walked away.
It is true that the other party has opened a school, but most of the students recruited by the school are children. Night schools are only opened at night to teach adults how to read and work... These are obviously two things...
However, the other party gave him too much, enough to block his eyes and cover his mouth, so he only reported one thing.
…
"Type 1 destroyer! Displacement 1,075 tons! The hull is slender and the speed is 45 kilometers per hour! It is equipped with two 120 mm caliber naval guns, which are installed on two rotatable turrets at the bow and stern of the ship! There are also two 75 mm guns
, one door on each side! Powerful firepower!" On the pier of Bunas, the receptionist of Bunas was introducing the latest warship products of Datang Group to a group of naval officers from various countries.
"It can definitely compete with Bunas-class battleships. Although it does not have the upper hand in terms of the number of guns, its speed is faster and its price... is also cheaper!" Pointing to this new type of battleship, the salesman introduced it skillfully.
Advantages and disadvantages of various types of battleships.
The destroyer in front of you is actually a World War I destroyer without torpedoes. In terms of combat effectiveness, it is actually very average, but the price of this thing is really cheap.
You can purchase one such warship with 40,000 gold coins. Datang Group even promised to sell supporting production and maintenance equipment after purchasing 10 warships. All navies of various countries can produce such warships on their own.
Because it is not large in size and is much smaller than the Bunas-class ironclad, this kind of warship can be docked at the dock used for sailing ships for simple supplies, which is indeed convenient for many countries with poor port conditions.
In addition, the speed of this kind of small warship is also fast enough. Although the range is much shorter, it is still barely enough. It is perfect for port defense and patrolling.
This subtraction design scheme has given navies of various countries hope to improve the combat effectiveness of their fleets: with half the artillery of a Bunas-class ironclad, the speed is faster, and although the protection level is worse, it is definitely worth the money.
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Because this new type of warship can be mass-produced and replace old sailing ships from various countries, and can also be gathered together to confront the larger Bunas-class ironclads in naval battles, it is obviously a good choice.
What's even more exciting is that there is no need to wait for this kind of warship, Datang Group can build it very soon - after all, it has a civilian standard hull, plus a few cannons, and its tonnage is small, so it is easy to manufacture.
No need to wait means that users can produce them immediately as long as they place an order. For the navies of various countries who are in urgent need of eliminating sailing warships, this is much better than having to queue up and wait for delivery of the Bunas-class ironclads.
As for why Datang Group launched this small warship, it was actually because Tang Mo had to put aside his dignity to compete with the Cyric Consortium for the market.
Because of the squeezed production capacity, the Bunas-class ironclad ship is not actually a project that makes a lot of money. If it is too high or too low, it is already useless to the Datang Group.
The shipyard that produces Bunas-class ironclads can also produce Wolf-class cruisers, so continuing to produce Bunas-class ironclads is completely outweighing the gains.
However, the warship market cannot be discarded casually, so Tang Mo used the remaining small shipyards in places such as Osa and Rewind Port, slightly modified them, and designed and built this kind of offshore destroyer with a thin skin and a large filling.
The power used by this thing is improved from the power used on the Bunas class, and the technology is actually very backward.
The artillery used by it is also the same as that of the Bunas class, and the technology is also backward. Even its optical sighting system is also from the Bunas class and is outdated.
However, none of this is important! What is important is that it is still more powerful than a sailboat and can still challenge several or even a dozen sail warships.
For the navies of various countries, it is still a better warship than Cyric's popular paddle steamer, and it is also a more suitable choice for their situations.
In the eyes of naval commanders from various countries and high-level decision-makers from various countries, even if they purchase Bunas-class ironclad ships, they cannot have the ability to challenge Datang Group's sea power. Therefore, for them, Bunas-class warships
The performance is actually a bit...excessive!
They have neither the ambition to challenge the sea power of the Datang Group nor the desire to go to war with rivals of comparable strength. So in the short term, everyone just wants to expand the fleet, accumulate experience in using steel battleships, and maintain the size of the navy.
In this way, cheaper and cheaper destroyers have become a better choice for them.
Ever since, on this day, Datang Group's destroyers were successfully sold, and navies from various countries bought at least ten of them, and some even purchased twenty of them at once!
In just one morning, Datang Group received an order for 100 destroyers, kicking off another round of naval arms race.
It was also on this day that Datang Group's Yucheng-class battleship, Yucheng No. 1, was launched, and the world's navy officially entered the battleship era.
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The next update will be later, you can watch it tomorrow morning.