Daming 1805

Chapter 428 In fact, there is no choice at all

After the naval treaty was formally signed, negotiations on warship equipment and technology transactions between Ming and Western countries began immediately.

The attitude of the Ming representatives was no different from that before the treaty negotiations started.

Even some Taixi people feel that the people of Ming Dynasty seem to be a little more enthusiastic.

After the start of the new round of naval technical support negotiations between Austria and Daming, and after the meeting on the first day, the relevant officials and engineers involved in the negotiations mentioned this point during the internal discussion and summary.

The person in charge of the negotiations, the new Austrian Foreign Minister Metternich, directly sighed and said:
"The attitude of Daming people has indeed changed a bit, and the reason is of course very simple.

"Because after the naval treaty is signed, the number and size of orders they can obtain from European countries, and even the probability of order transactions, will definitely increase significantly.

"For the people of Ming Dynasty, some countries that have no negotiating value and most of them will not buy anything may buy it after the naval treaty is formally signed and made public.

"Like a country like the Netherlands, there are three 'enemies' who are entangled with Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

"Their navy and sea power have already declined in an all-round way, or they have never been really strong.

"In Daming's words, it's already 'not on the stage'.

"Now the naval treaty treats all countries as equals in name, but it gives them a chance to be on the 'table' again in name.

"Under the current environment where public opinion is unprecedentedly prosperous, the monarchs and courts of the four countries must work harder.

"They will probably build a small new battleship or two as the last face of their country and royal family.

"It is a little possible for the Netherlands to design and build completely independently, but it is obviously too troublesome and difficult to achieve the ideal target performance, let alone the other three countries.

"The treaty stipulates that it cannot be imported to other European countries, so they can only ask Daming for help.

"Countries like the Netherlands, even if they don't import finished warships of the Ming Dynasty as a whole, they still have to buy a large amount of warship weapons and equipment produced by the Ming Dynasty.

"Then, under the guidance of the craftsmen of Ming Dynasty, I worked hard to build a hull and tried to assemble it into a warship.

"For the Netherlands, this kind of warship is still somewhat useful, and they still retain some of their colonies.

"For Sweden, the symbolic meaning is greater than the actual meaning, anyway, it is impossible to defeat Lucia in the Baltic Sea.

"Then, countries that may have only a small number of warships with low-to-medium targets may directly double their targets after signing the naval treaty.

"For example, Italy and Portugal, Italy itself is on the rise and wants to prove itself with a stronger force, and they are likely to strive for the target tonnage stipulated in the naval treaty.

"Portugal is a weak local power. After losing Brazil, it is no longer a strong naval country. The development and construction of the new colony in Mexico took up most of their energy.

"However, in the current environment, they must work hard to maintain their status, and they will also work hard to achieve the target tonnage, but it is very likely that they will not be able to achieve it...

"There is also the Ottomans. In order to maintain their own country and delay the progress of collapse, their sultans must invest enough in naval and colonial construction.

"Whether it is the practical value of the navy itself, or the symbolic value to the country and the people, or the trade value of continuing to maintain relations with Ming Dynasty, they will push them to do their best...

"In the end, apart from these more or less problematic countries, the remaining major independent countries in Europe, including us, which are relatively balanced in strength, must also re-examine the cooperation plan according to the treaty and the situation.

"Before there was no contract, we were only considering purchasing some equipment. After signing this naval contract, we had to seriously consider the plan of customizing the whole ship.

"Because even if we don't adopt it, other countries may adopt it.

"The warships we designed and built by ourselves will definitely fall behind Daming's plan, whether it is the overall technological level or the final performance parameters within the [-]-ton range."

At the end of Metternich's speech, he opened a document in front of him again, the diplomatic staff of Daming Honglu Temple, and two draft ship designs of different levels provided by the Shipyard of the Ministry of Industry and the Royal Shipyard.

Members of the royal family who attended the meeting, Grand Duke Karl also flipped through the documents in front of him.

"Paris Naval Treaty Type [-] Ton Capital Ship Design Scheme - Austrian Edition".

The Thai and Western countries have not yet straightened out their own related ideas, and the craftsmen of Ming Dynasty have already worked out this preliminary plan.

Grand Duke Karl couldn't help muttering his own thoughts to himself:
"It seems that Daming really doesn't mind the naval treaty we signed at all, and directly put the most official name of the naval treaty on our plans.

"This is equivalent to the relevant official organizations of Ming Dynasty, which have semi-officially recognized the existence of this treaty, and will not ignore it when encountering related matters in the future.

"The actual cooperation plan itself has not changed at all compared to before the signing of the naval treaty.

"The attached conditions are basically the same as those announced before the start of the negotiations, and have not changed due to the appearance of the treaty, and may even become a little more relaxed.

"They directly explained according to our naval treaty that all equipment and weapons within the scope stipulated in the naval treaty, including related technologies, can be exported.

"A power module that allows a 360-ton battleship to run 45 knots, a [-]mm gun with a caliber of less than [-] times the caliber, and a turret with all the barrels of the true triple installation that can be pitched independently...

"All these technical difficulties that we are currently unable to overcome, Da Ming can now directly transfer them to us."

The previous words, Archduke Karl said quite emotionally and excitedly, but at the end suddenly changed the subject:
"However, this situation does not make me relax, but it is the situation that makes us feel the most stressful..."

Metternich nodded when he heard it:

"Although this attitude shows that Da Ming recognizes the existence of this treaty, it also shows that Da Ming doesn't care about the ultimate goal shown in our treaty at all...

"Our Austria... wants to achieve the goal of 75 tons of new warships stipulated in the treaty, which may be more difficult than Ming's goal of 750 million..."

Archduke Karl is not particularly familiar with the navy, but his understanding of the state of the country and military aspects can be regarded as relatively outstanding in this era.

After being melancholy for a while, Archduke Karl asked other people for their opinions more seriously:

"So, should we use Da Ming's overall plan? It means that the new warships will use Da Ming's technology as a whole.

"As for how much finished equipment to buy and how much technology to introduce, the relevant ratio will not be discussed.

"In terms of design, should we choose this way? Or should we design it ourselves?"

After listening to it, Metternich looked at the generals and engineers of the navy, and then explained his personal thoughts:
"The most ideal situation, of course, is that Daming directly provides a technology transfer agreement without any strings attached.

"But that's impossible, the relevant personnel of Daming have revealed it, and there is no room for discussion on this point.

"Technical support must correspond to the opening of the market, and continue to complete economic binding with market transactions, so as to avoid conflicts.

"This is the future external strategy that the Ming Emperor and the Dashi Prince have made clear.

"The second best idea is that we have selective adoption and selective learning.

"But as I said before, we don't use it, and other countries may use it.

"Our naval base is relatively poor. If we selectively use and design our own warships, other people's warships may have already entered service, while ours have not yet launched.

"The performance of the final warship will be significantly lower than that of other countries...

"There is another very critical issue, everyone should pay special attention to the optional secondary capital ship plan in the appendix.

"The last one has a full-load displacement of 28 tons, a maximum speed of 360 knots, a [-]mm main armor, four twin [-]mm main guns, and a maximum range of [-] nautical miles at a speed of [-] knots.

"According to Daming, this type of plan was originally prepared for countries such as the Netherlands, Denmark, and Norway, but it will also be recommended to other countries. If we need a secondary capital ship, we can also choose it.

"These indicators have actually reached or even exceeded the limit that most European countries can achieve...

"The [-]-ton warships of France and the United Kingdom are at this level...

"In other words, if we don't upgrade, don't adopt Ming's technology, and build a more advanced [-]-ton warship.

"Then countries such as the Netherlands and Sweden may obtain better warships than ours.

"Italy and Portugal can even directly use this kind of warship as a capital ship.

"Even if Prussia and even Lucia choose, they can use the same gross tonnage of 32 tons to obtain two more capital ships with the same performance than us..."

"This indicator plan is shown to us, which in itself can be said to be another strategy and pressure.

"Forcing us and countries like Prussia, Lucia, and Italy to adopt the Ming plan to build new battleships.

"So my suggestion is to directly use Da Ming's plan as a whole. This is also a way to express sincerity to Da Ming..."

The relevant personnel listened to Metternich's explanation, flipped through the plan in hand, and finally fell silent.

In the internal discussion in Austria, there was actually nothing to discuss in the end.

Metternich has thoroughly analyzed the situation, and Austria actually has no choice.

The actual situation is indeed like this. When the Austrians studied Ming's plan, the Prussians, Lucians, French, British, Italians, and Portuguese also encountered similar situations.

In front of or in the hands of representatives from various countries, there is also a very similar naval treaty capital ship design plan.

Except for the different suffixes of "specific for a certain country" in the name, the content of the plan itself is highly consistent.

The meaning of Austria-specific does not mean that the scheme on this document is specially designed for Austria.

It refers to the paper document itself, which is formally intended for the Austrians.

Do not send to Prussia the documents prepared for Austria.

The naval treaty stipulates the upper limit of the main indicators of warships, and all countries must abide by it.

Therefore, after the naval treaty is formally signed, the shipbuilding target plans of major countries in Thailand and the West will of course converge to a high degree.

When the relevant personnel of Ming Dynasty made these specific sales plans, they could directly use one draft for multiple purposes for the negotiation strategies, agreement texts, and even the design manuscripts of similar-level countries.

Even the design itself is not new, it is a fine-tuned version of the [-]-ton high-speed battleship in the early Ming Dynasty.

After reorganizing, print it out, add the words dedicated to a certain country and send it over.

You don’t even need to translate into the other party’s language, you can directly use the plain text version, and the other party’s officials, engineers, and navy generals can all understand it.

Even for many similar professional documents, even if there is a version in their own language, the relevant personnel will read the plain text version.

Because of early learning and long-term immersion, they are more familiar with the special vocabulary and symbols of Ming Dynasty.

All kinds of professional books and drawing documents are mainly in Ming Dynasty, and the words used in the Ming Dynasty version are more standardized and unified.

Switching to the translated version in the native language may seem more laborious.

People who really don't understand Ming Dynasty documents are basically not qualified to participate in this level of discussion.

Under such circumstances, including diplomatic personnel, shipyards, engineering and related sales personnel, their workload has been greatly reduced, and there will be more orders visible to the naked eye. Can they be unhappy...

The proposals for those minor countries that were not prepared to negotiate seriously were also taken seriously.

Ming’s negotiators in the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and other countries first provided them with new designs of two small high-speed battleships with a full load of [-] tons and [-] tons.

The speed can be selected from 25 knots to 360 knots, and the main gun can be selected from four double-mounted [-]mm calibers, three to four triple-mounted [-]mm calibers, and four double-mounted [-]mm calibers.

If the [-]-ton new ship still feels expensive, Daming has also prepared a plan that looks "more affordable".

Based on the original traditional capital ship, it is a plan to carry out dreadnought transformation.

At least the 240mm main gun of the original armored cruiser can be used.

The traditional naval countries of Ming and Taixi have a large number of traditional battleships waiting to be retired.

After the new battleships are in service, it is useless to keep these ships.

Even if the main gun can be changed to a dreadnought type, there is no way to change the line shape of the hull.

Even if the cost is dismantled and replaced with new boilers and turbines, it will be difficult to increase the speed to more than 25 knots.

Such a warship of [-] to [-] tons, placed in the new generation of naval ranks, has very limited combat effectiveness.

However, many of the ships are actually not very old, and it would be a pity to dismantle them directly now.

However, it is a feasible solution to transform it and sell it to a country that does not have high demand as a capital ship.

Even if they are sold at the cost price, it is definitely a profit for the country that wants to eliminate them.

In response to the special circumstances of Denmark and Norway, Daming also provided a low-velocity gunship plan for inland seas with small boats carrying cannons.

However, except for the one modified from Daming's original [-]-ton plan, the plans for other secondary warships are very simple.

At present, it seems that it can only be regarded as a direction and a feasible choice. Only when a certain country is sure to use it will it be perfected into a formal design plan, and the formal drawings will be produced after the purchase agreement is signed.

In the first step of this cooperation negotiation, regarding the selection of the target ship type, in fact, the major countries such as Lucia, Prussia, and Austria have no choice.

They can only use the standard plan of [-] tons, and they can use it without others, and their own design opportunities are weaker than others.

Unless they really unite and build together, there is no way to break this chain of suspicion.

And Da Ming obviously wouldn't allow that to happen.

On the contrary, those secondary countries have some room for entanglement and consideration.

Choose how low the scale of your capital ship should be.

(End of this chapter)