Volume 1: The Empire Awakens Chapter 68: Accomplice (Part 2)
On the afternoon of the third day of the negotiations, the United States proposed a recess and proposed that the next round of negotiations be held in Washington.
When no results could be achieved, all countries agreed to the proposal.
At that time, the United States had the least conflicts with other countries, so choosing Washington as the venue for the next round of negotiations was the best choice.
The next morning, Tan Renhao followed Nie Renfeng to visit the naval artillery factory of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Chiba, west of Tokyo.
This was not the largest artillery factory of the Japanese Navy, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' main industry was not in this area at the time.
The Japanese side arranged for negotiators from various countries who came to Tokyo to visit this factory, probably in an attempt to avoid the real issue.
It was also at this time that Tan Renhao saw Japan's heavy industry factories.
If the handicraft workshops in downtown Tokyo made Tan Renhao feel very backward, then this factory of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries made him feel a little scared.
Japan's industry is not completely backward. At least in terms of important military industries, Japan is not much worse than other powers.
The factory covers an area of more than 30 acres and mainly produces naval guns with a caliber of less than 200 mm.
In addition, the factory has a branch that produces torpedoes for the Japanese Navy (in Japan, torpedoes are also called mines). There are a large number of modern machines in the factory. Tan Renhao doesn't know much about industrial things, so he looked for a long time but couldn't figure out what was going on.
"Don't underestimate this factory. I heard that they are currently developing a cannon with a caliber of 460 mm."
Nie Renfeng lowered his voice and said, "However, with Japan's industrial strength, they simply cannot produce good artillery steel. They can only increase the caliber to increase the range and power of artillery. Although these numbers are scary, they are not very effective in reality. If a real battle breaks out, it may not work."
Tan Renhao laughed. Japan's industrial development started much later than other powers.
In the war with the Tang Empire that lasted for hundreds of years, Japan suffered extremely heavy losses.
During the First World War, Japan was again the main target of the Tang Empire.
Between the surrender of Japan and the end of the war, the Tang Empire's occupying forces destroyed a large number of Japanese factories and captured or secretly executed many Japanese scientific and technical personnel.
After the war, Japan spent a long time building up its talent pool, and is only now beginning to take shape. However, Japan still has a long way to go if it wants to catch up with other powers in important technologies.
The next day , everyone rushed to Nagoya again.
There is a tank factory here that mainly produces armored vehicles for the Japanese Army.
Tan Renhao and his friends just took a quick look around here and then headed towards Osaka.
The Treaty of Songjiang did not restrict the development of the army of the major powers, but the armistice treaty between the Tang Empire and Japan contained clauses restricting the Japanese army. One of them was that the Japanese army could not be equipped with chariots weighing more than five tons, and the total number of chariots could not exceed 1,000.
Even Tan Renhao, an outsider to the army, could see that the tanks manufactured by Japan at that time were all light tanks.
In fact, even if there were no relevant treaty restrictions, with Japan's ability to produce steel, after building a large number of battleships, Japan would not have much high-quality steel left to use to manufacture heavy tanks.
Tan Renhao gained a lot from the activities in Osaka and Kobe.
At that time, Osaka and Kobe were Japan's main shipbuilding bases.
Kobe in particular was the location of three of the five docks in Japan that were capable of building 50,000-ton ships.
In addition, there are several large steel mills near Kobe, two of which specialize in providing armor plates for the navy.
The two "Soryu" class aircraft carriers that were being built by Japan at the time, as well as several "Kongō" class battleships that were being modified were all here.
This gave Tan Renhao a very intuitive understanding of the development of the Japanese Navy.
The Soryu-class aircraft carrier was the first truly large fleet carrier built by Japan.
It can carry 84 combat aircraft and has a displacement of more than 20,000 tons.
Japan built this class of aircraft carriers in response to the three "Emperor" class aircraft carriers of the Tang Empire.
Whether it is the displacement, length, speed, number of aircraft, or some specific designs on the battleship, it is very close to the "Emperor" class aircraft carrier.
Tan Renhao even suspected that Japanese technicians had stolen the Empire's aircraft carrier design drawings, made some modifications, and then started building their own aircraft carriers.
The Kongo-class battleship was a battlecruiser when it was built. It was a powerful battleship ordered by Japan from the British Empire before World War I.
At that time, the British Empire's Minister of the Navy, Fisher, strongly advocated the development of this kind of fast and powerful warship, and set off a wave of construction of battlecruisers.
It was at that time that Japan placed an order with the British Empire, purchasing four battlecruisers at one time to serve as the main force of its "88 Fleet".
During World War I, four Kongo-class ships were severely damaged, and actual combat showed that this type of warship with weak armor could not become the main force in fierce battles like battleships.
After the war, probably, except for the British Empire, other countries gave up battlecruisers and focused on building fast battleships, heavy cruisers and other cutting-edge warships.
Depending on the situation, Japan also sent four Kongo-class battlecruisers into the dock one after another for large-scale modifications.
Including replacing the main engine, strengthening the armor, replacing the main gun with more powerful ones, etc.
As a result, the four ships were transformed into battleships with their displacement increased by thousands of tons.
Because the power system has been greatly strengthened, the speed has not slowed down, but has increased a lot.
When I left Kobe, my activities in Japan came to an end.
Tan Renhao had a new understanding of the Japanese Navy's ambitions.
Japan must be expanding its military to prepare for war, otherwise why would it build so many new warships and transform those old and outdated ones? What made Tan Renhao a little regretful was that he did not see the Yamato battleship under construction.
The Imperial Intelligence System has received relevant information that Japan is building the world's largest battleship. However, Tan Renhao did not see any trace of this battleship in Kobe or Osaka.
Tan Renhao finally breathed a sigh of relief when he got on the plane back to the empire.
If he had doubted before whether a war would break out, now he was completely certain that the next war was about to begin, and it was very likely to break out first in the East!
