Volume 1: The Battleship Yitian Changes into the Sino-Japanese War of 1894 Chapter 83 Became a Hero
After leaving the French, he went back to organize the data and drawings about the "Monarch" class battleships that he had collected based on his memories, and prepared to send them to the French master. By the way, he would study with him what China's battleships should look like. It would take some time for the shipyard to be fully built and the equipment to be installed. This was a good time to learn some shipbuilding knowledge from the French. He now felt that as a glorious time traveler, his knowledge was too limited.
He was working hard there when his beloved wife came in humming a song. He didn't know what had happened to make her so happy.
"Why are you so happy? Did you pick up a gold ingot?" Sun Gang couldn't help but ask curiously.
"It's better than that." She said to him proudly, "By the way, I have already dealt with the 'cursed gold'."
"Ah? So fast?" Sun Gang was surprised, "What did you buy?" In just a few days, he spent gold worth 300,000 taels of silver. Isn't that too much?
"I bought something good from the Japanese. You'll know when the time comes." She said mysteriously, "It's hard to spend the Japanese's gold. Let them enjoy it slowly."
"The Japanese are extremely poor, what can they buy?" Sun Gang said casually, not knowing what she was up to.
He never imagined that when the time came, he would almost pop his eyes out.
After packing up his things, he was about to go to the French residential area in the shipyard to find Briand, but he was startled by the loud alarm in the port.
"I just heard from the Military Intelligence Department that General Lin received an order from the Zongli Yamen, requiring the entire Beiyang Fleet to patrol the Japanese waters." Ma Yue said, looking at the warships that were urgently preparing to set off in the harbor.
"Why?" Sun Gang was surprised. The Zongli Yamen bypassed Beiyang Minister Ding Ruchang and gave orders directly to the Beiyang Navy Admiral. What was going on? Were they going to fight again?
"Has there been no news from the Military Intelligence Department in the past period of time?" Sun Gang asked in a panic, "Is it possible that someone is going to attack us?"
"No news." Ma Yue said, "I'm keeping an eye on them. Do you think intelligence is easy? The Japanese navy is hiding in the harbor, and the Russian Pacific Fleet has added two armored cruisers with sails, which seem to have sneaked out from the Baltic Sea. The British didn't react. I don't know if they are too thick-skinned or deliberately letting it go."
"Yes, with so much 'kingdom' in his hands, who can compete with him?" Sun Gang said with a smile, "When they saw that I was 'selling cloth', they ignored me."
Ma Yue was so amused that she giggled. Seeing the blueprint in his hand, she said, "If you can come up with something similar, you will definitely not bother to pay attention to them."
"The blueprints drawn by Lord Sun himself? Can this old man take a look at them?" Pei Yinsen walked in with a smile.
"Mr. Pei, please sit down." Ma Yue brought a chair for the old man. Sun Gang quickly poured him a cup of tea. Seeing the old man getting dark and thin from the sun, he couldn't help but feel apologetic. "Mr. Pei has been busy all these days. I am really ashamed of myself."
"Don't say that. I can't help you in any other way. Although I'm a little tired, I feel relieved." Pei Yinsen took a big sip of tea and seemed to choke. Sun Gang quickly patted him on the back to make him feel better.
Pei Yinsen took a break, and Sun Gang showed him the line drawing of the "Monarch" class battleship that he had drawn. Pei Yinsen looked at the drawing, his eyes instantly fixed on it, his hands began to tremble, and after a while he said, "Is this the ironclad giant ship you were talking about?"
"That's right." Sun Gang said, "I have discussed this with French experts. This type of ship is excellent, but it may be too large and not suitable for our ports. It can be modified slightly."
"If I could see such a warship of my Qing Dynasty being launched, my life would not be in vain." Pei Yinsen looked at the blueprint and his eyes became moist.
"I would like to ask Mr. Pei to lay the first keel of this ship personally. What do you think?" Sun Gang was afraid that an older man would get too excited, so he quickly changed the subject.
Pei Yinsen suppressed his excitement and nodded. "Back then, I laid the first keel of the Longwei ship (later known as Pingyuan) myself. I never thought that in Beiyang, I would be able to..." His voice became choked. Ma Yue and Sun Gang looked at each other. Ma Yue seemed to remember something and said, "How about letting Mr. Pei give this new ship a name?"
"Yes." Sun Gang wanted the old man to get rid of his emotion as soon as possible, so he nodded and said, "Please ask Mr. Pei to name the new ship ."
Pei Yinsen nodded with emotion and said, "We, the descendants of the Chinese nation, can build this huge ironclad warship and stand tall in the east of the world. How about calling it 'Long Yang'?"
"The giant dragon soars into the sky, spreading its might throughout the world. Not bad, not bad." Sun Gang nodded in agreement. The first armored cruiser made by the Chinese was called "Long Wei". The "Yang Wei" ship sank heroically in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. The first battleship made by the Chinese was called "Long Yang". Doesn't it feel like God's will?
"Mrs. Pei is so talented." Ma Yue also said happily. The name of China's first-class domestically-made battleship was decided in this way.
Ma Yue sent Pei Yinsen to rest. Sun Gang brought the blueprints to see Brian. He wanted to call the Military Intelligence Department to ask Ma Yuchen to come and be his translator, but Ma Yue rejected his request. "That master has a translator, and a very, very good translator." She looked at him meaningfully as she left, and emphasized the words "very, very good", which left him completely confused.
"Why didn't I see it last time?" Sun Gang asked. She rolled her eyes at him amusedly and left without answering.
It was not until he reached Briand's that he understood what she meant by "very, very good."
Although he was the Minister of the Navy, he was not arrogant at all. Besides, he already knew Briand, so he did not inform anyone when he went there. He went straight to Briand's study to find him. But as soon as he entered, he found something wrong.
A tall and slim foreign girl was tidying up the books on the bookshelf.
"Sorry, we took the wrong way." Sun Gang's first instinctive reaction was to turn around and walk back, but he was stopped by a soft voice.
"Please wait a moment!" the girl said to him, and Sun Gang immediately realized that she was not a local.
Sun Gang turned around and looked at the "imported goods" in front of him. Somehow he felt a sense of time and space confusion.
This was a big-eyed girl with long curly golden hair, snow-white skin, and an Oriental face shape. She looked very pretty and elegant, but her big lake-blue eyes told him clearly that they were definitely not of the same type.
"Excuse me, is Mr. Briand here?" Sun Gang felt a little embarrassed for some reason and asked the question.
"He will be back soon." The blue-eyed girl looked at his navy uniform and the blueprint in his hand and asked in fluent Chinese, "What do you want to talk to my father about?"
What happened? The French shipbuilder brought his daughter with him?
No wonder they all have blue eyes, Sun Gang thought randomly.
"Please sit down." The girl politely asked him to sit down and poured him a cup of coffee.
"Excuse me, young lady, your Mandarin is so good." Sun Gang looked at her and asked, why didn't he see her last time? However, his beloved wife was right, her Chinese was really fluent.
"You can just call me Lini, sir." The daughter of the shipbuilder was very generous. She recognized his rank and immediately changed her name according to Chinese custom. "What is your name, sir?"
"My name is Sun Gang." Sun Gang replied. Somehow , he didn't feel nervous talking to this foreign beauty.
"Is he the hero who picked up ?" the girl named Lini said in surprise, and her big lake blue eyes immediately showed a strange look.
"I don't dare to be called a hero." Sun Gang looked at her with amusement and said, "In our country, there are only dead martyrs, no living heroes."
"Why do you say that?" Lini was obviously stunned and asked.
"Confucius said to sacrifice one's life for the sake of benevolence, Mencius said to pursue justice." Sun Gang wanted to play a prank on her and wanted to see how deep her Chinese knowledge was. He said, "This is the standard of a hero in our country."
"But in my eyes, heroes are heroes, and they don't necessarily have to be dead," she said vaguely.
Sun Gang couldn't help but laugh at her persistence. When he saw that she was holding a book with a ship on the cover, he couldn't help but ask, "Girl, do you like ships too?"
"Really?" She nodded. "The ship is one of the most important inventions of mankind. With the ship, it became possible for mankind to conquer the ocean." She saw the blueprint in Sun Gang's hand and couldn't help but sigh. "Unfortunately, many ships have now become terrible killing tools."
Sun Gang looked at her strangely. Her sudden words blocked his thoughts for a moment.
"Can you let me see the sir's drawings?" she said again.
Sun Gang handed her the blueprint in his hand. Her eyes fell on his scarred hands. She sighed softly, opened the blueprint, took a "professional" look, and said, "Just like what is drawn on this picture, this should be a battleship. It is the most cruel weapon invented by mankind so far. It has no use except killing people. They cost a lot of money to build, but they become useless when they are retired. This behavior shows the stupidity of mankind."
She looked at Sun Gang and said, "I respect you as a hero because you risked your life to save the lives of your comrades. I respect heroes who save people, not heroes who kill people."
After hearing her words, Sun Gang couldn't help laughing. The girl in front of him showed her pure and kind side, but she was too deeply "poisoned" by the French "chivalry", and he should instill something else in her.
"Lini, I have a question for you. Please answer it." Sun Gang said, "When a wild beast wants to eat you and you can't run away, you just happen to find a gun not far away, so you pick up the gun and shoot the beast to death, saving yourself. If what I said is true, you will definitely do this, right?"
Lini nodded, not understanding why he asked that.
"Then please tell me, is it wrong to invent the gun?" Sun Gang looked at her and said word by word.
