Those words sent Chen Houpu, who had only just calmed down from his fervor, into another blaze of excitement.
He looked at Zhang Xueming. His lips moved as if he wanted to say something, but he had no idea where to begin.
He'd seen plenty of people draw grand plans, but this was the first time he'd met someone like Zhang Xueming, who had gone from listening to you "dreaming the impossible" one moment to telling you to make a list and get started the next.
Was the Young Marshal serious?
Zhang Xueming saw his doubts, but didn't bother explaining.
He glanced around Xizhou, then spoke to the guard standing nearby.
"Go get me a few sheets of rough paper and a pen."
The guard soon returned with paper and a pen.
In the reception room, Chen Houpu and his companions exchanged confused glances. They had no idea what the Young Marshal intended to do.
Was he going to take notes himself?
Zhang Xueming paid no heed to the looks around him. He picked up a sheet of rough paper, spread it on the tea table, grabbed the pen, bent over, and began sketching.
He moved quickly, the pen scratching across the paper.
At first, Chen Houpu and the others watched with curiosity.
But gradually, their expressions changed.
Curiosity turned to surprise, then to shock!
Because what appeared beneath Zhang Xueming's pen was the outline of a warship!
And as he added more lines, the ship's form grew clearer and clearer.
A sleek hull, a towering bridge, a distinctive flush-deck design, and turrets and torpedo tubes arranged with just the right degree of compactness...
"This... this is..."
One of Chen Houpu's companions, a foreign-educated prodigy specializing in naval architecture, stared fixedly at the sketch, his breath caught in his throat.
"This turret arrangement! Superfiring! Two twin main turrets, two forward and two aft... no, one forward and two aft! Good heavens, that's radical!"
"And look at the anti-aircraft firepower! On both sides of the bridge, around the smokestacks... He's drawn so many anti-aircraft gun positions!"
Chen Houpu leaned in too, his eyes wide as bells.
A seasoned naval expert with decades of experience, he immediately saw how far ahead of its time this destroyer design was!
This ship was unlike any destroyer currently in service with Japan, White Bear Country, or even the Eagle and John Bull!
It was simpler, more powerful, and more... deadly!
"This destroyer... did you design it?"
Chen Houpu's voice quivered almost imperceptibly.
Zhang Xueming stopped writing, blew at the nonexistent dust on the sketch, and replied casually.
"I was just doodling."
"I call it Octopus One."
Pointing at the drawing, he listed a series of specifications in the same tone someone might use to introduce the cabbages in his garden.
"Full-load displacement: 2,500 tons."
"Maximum speed: 37 knots."
"Main guns: three twin 130-millimeter dual-purpose guns."
"Torpedoes: two quintuple 610-millimeter torpedo tubes, with reload capability."
"Anti-aircraft armament: several small-caliber autocannons."
Boom!
At the last specification, the minds of everyone in the reception room who knew their stuff were struck as if by a heavy bomb.
2,500 tons?!
A speed of 37 knots?!
130-millimeter dual-purpose guns?!
And those damn quintuple torpedo tubes with reloads?!
Was this thing even a destroyer?!
It was a cruiser wearing a destroyer's skin!
After all, Japan's most prized Fubuki-class destroyers, the special-type destroyers, had a full-load displacement of only a little over 2,000 tons! Their firepower was already hailed as the best in the world!
But compared to the Octopus One on the sketch, the Fubuki class was little brother!
"Gulp."
One of the young men who had come with Chen Houpu was so shocked that his eyes rolled back. His legs gave way, and he dropped straight onto his rear, muttering to himself.
"Fake... it's all fake... This can't be real..."
Zhang Xueming paid no attention to the young man's loss of composure. He pushed the Octopus One sketch in front of Chen Houpu, then picked up another sheet of rough paper.
"If destroyers are a wolf pack, then they need an alpha wolf."
"A light cruiser is too small. Its fire support isn't strong enough."
"So I'll pair you with this."
The pen flew across the paper once more.
This time, a larger, more imposing warship took shape before their eyes.
Three triple-gun main turrets, in the classic arrangement of two forward and one aft.
A tall, imposing box-shaped bridge.
Dense clusters of secondary guns and anti-aircraft gun positions.
Chen Houpu's heart began racing uncontrollably again.
"This is... a heavy cruiser!"
"Exactly."
Zhang Xueming nodded, once again speaking as if it were nothing special.
"Octopus Two, a heavy cruiser."
"Full-load displacement: 9,500 tons."
"Main guns: three triple 203-millimeter turrets."
"Speed: 32 knots."
This time, no one cried out in surprise, and no one fell over.
The reception room fell utterly silent.
Everyone seemed to have been frozen in place, staring dumbly at the sketch and at the young man who looked so unconcerned.
If Octopus One was ahead of its time, then Octopus Two was crushing its time!
This was a heavy cruiser displacing nearly 10,000 tons! It was practically the product of the Washington Naval Treaty's upper limit!
Warships of this class were the absolute backbone of any navy in the world!
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