Siheyuan: I am a trader in both worlds!

Lao Luo and Bai Ling are not people who haven't seen big scenes.

Especially Lao Luo, who personally commanded thousands of troops on the battlefield and is a combat hero who crawled out of piles of corpses!
But this scene, this super-large scene in front of me, is 130 meters long, like skyscrapers laid flat on the sea.

Lao Luo and Bai Ling have never seen this before!

In fact, they wouldn't even dare to think about it, let alone have seen it!
It was like a dream, watching warships shimmering with golden light under the rising sun.

The view was completely blocked; it was truly an endless steel behemoth.

Even someone as resilient as Lao Luo couldn't help but express such sentiments.

“So, so big!”

As for Hao Pingchuan, whose knowledge was far inferior to Lao Luo's, there was no need to mention him.

In his excitement, his tongue became so tied that he could barely speak coherently.

It let out a strange howl and was about to take off.

Get ready to dive into the sea and personally experience the texture of the warship to see if it's real.

Is this still available?

It's late autumn now!

And the North is notoriously cold!
The temperature in the morning was almost 0 degrees Celsius!
If you let him swim a few laps, wouldn't he freeze to death?

They're already a bit slow-witted, not very bright, and if they get frozen on top of that...
"I don't want to play with idiots, I'll catch their idiocy!"

Thinking this, the quick-witted Ximen Lang took a step forward.

Everyone only felt a blur before their eyes, and they only vaguely saw a dark figure. Before they could see it clearly, Ximen Lang appeared directly behind Hao Pingchuan from several meters away.

The sudden burst of speed stunned Gao Cheng, who had been silently watching Ximen Lang's movements.

This inevitably led to suspicion.
"Is that human being?!"

With a swift and decisive move, Ximen Lang grabbed Hao Pingchuan by the collar and lifted him up from mid-air with one hand, as if he were a child. He then casually raised the burly Hao Pingchuan high in the air with one arm.

Now that he was sure, Gao Cheng was finally convinced.

"Ximen Lang can no longer be considered human!"

Combined with the superhuman physical data that Ximen Lang left behind in later generations, and Bai Ling and Xia Yiyi's impressive record of defending against Ximen Lang one-on-one every day.

I was filled with awe.

Simply envious of Bai Ling and Xia Yiyi's extraordinary physical abilities, Gao Cheng, who could rival Ximen Lang in physical prowess, immediately cast an admiring glance at Bai Ling. (Yu Ji's value continues to rise; even the Overlord can defend against her single-handedly—it's simply amazing!)

Meanwhile, Hao Pingchuan, who had been held up by Ximen Lang and exposed to the sea breeze for so long like a sunny doll, finally realized what had just happened.

Then, Hao Pingchuan, whose mind was filled with the desire to get close to the warship, became resentful, like a dog biting Lü Dongbin, ungrateful for kindness.

"Brother Lang, why are you pulling me? Put me down! I need to swim over and see the boat!"

Huh? We have to swim over to see the boats?

Seeing that Hao Pingchuan was truly an incredibly stupid guy.

Fearing that he might be infected by Hao Pingchuan, Ximen Lang immediately put him on the shore and distanced himself from him.

Then, under Hao Pingchuan's eager gaze once again...

He greeted Bai Ling and Lao Luo.
"What are you all standing there for? Hurry up and get on board to see what these warships are all about!"

After saying that, Ximen Lang led Bai Ling and Lao Luo directly onto the shore-ship connector, which is the well-known pier.

Halfway there, they saw Hao Pingchuan stunned by the shore-to-ship connector that was right in front of him.

The corners of his mouth were turned up so wide that he couldn't suppress them.

Ximen Lang immediately retorted.

"You said you were going to jump into the sea and swim across? Stop talking and actually jump! I want to see how you're going to climb onto this 10-meter-high warship from the sea!"

Hao Pingchuan was so embarrassed he couldn't stand it anymore.

However, he still took a serious look at the enormous thing in front of him.

I realized that this thing was definitely not something I could climb up.

Even if you exhaust yourself, you can't climb onto the smooth hull of this steel behemoth in front of you.

While chuckling
"How could I? There's a bridge, why would I climb onto a warship? I'm not that stupid! Besides, this water is freezing cold! What if I get frozen? I have to protect the great Brother Lang! If he freezes, that won't do!"

He followed closely behind the others, diligently staying by Ximen Lang's side, and boarded the warship with them.

He looked exactly like a lackey, making everyone unable to bear to look at him.

Even Ximen Lang didn't like him much, feeling that this blockhead lowered his own standards.

Unfortunately, he had just mentioned the great Brother Lang.

"Sigh, what can I do when Dad loves you so much?"

And so, in the end, Ximen Lang still couldn't keep Hao Pingchuan away from him.

Instead, he looked at Hao Pingchuan with the same gaze he would give his foolish son, and took Hao Pingchuan by his side, introducing the basic information about the Type 051 warship to everyone.

"Actually, there's not much to introduce. You already saw the parameters of the Type 051 destroyer back in Beijing. There's really nothing to say about that. Just look at it with your own eyes; there's no difference at all. I'll just talk about what you're curious about now."

At this point, Ximen Lang turned his gaze directly to Bai Ling, who seemed increasingly uneasy and curious the more he looked at her.

"Ling'er, do you feel that the weapons and equipment are too few, and there are too few gun barrels? It doesn't have the imposing presence of the Soviets, where gun barrels could fill the entire warship?"

That's true, because the Russians love to pursue the ultimate firepower. As long as it can fit, they'll cram it all onto the ship.

受苏联影响颇深的白玲，还真是觉得就只有2座76式双联装130毫米舰炮和4座61式双管37毫米舰炮，以及2座双管25毫米机关炮的051型驱逐舰太过单薄了。

"With this much firepower, is it really enough? In a naval battle, can it truly suppress enemy ships?"

Seeing that Bai Ling really thought so.

And it wasn't just her; Lao Luo and the others, who were still stuck in World War II thinking and believed that the more cannons the better and the thicker the cannon barrels the better, thought the same way.

Simon Lang said seriously, “As all parties conduct further in-depth research on naval warfare, having more gun barrels is not necessarily a good thing. Because main guns and secondary guns, just like the light weapons in the hands of soldiers, are becoming more and more impressive but less practical.”

This is undoubtedly another outrageous statement, especially for Lao Luo and Bai Ling, who are still stuck in the mindset of World War II.

Unfortunately, this is the stark reality.

Therefore, without showing any fear, Ximen Lang continued confidently.

"Do you remember what I said? The rule of modern warfare is to detect and destroy. Naval guns are awesome, powerful, with a range of tens of kilometers. They can be used for anti-ship strikes and provide fire support to the shore. In the past, they were indeed very practical."

"But unfortunately, times have changed. See these rows of vertical launch units under your feet? Depending on the missile model, these things can easily break through the range of hundreds of kilometers, or even reach a terrifying range of several thousand kilometers, or even tens of thousands of kilometers!"

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is a range of several thousand, even tens of thousands of kilometers! The straight-line distance from Beijing to Songjiang Prefecture is only a little over 1000 kilometers. This means that with just a light press of the launch button, the entire Beijing area will be within my strike range!"

"And this Type 051B destroyer we're standing on has a whopping 32 vertical launch cells! Each vertical launch cell can be equipped with a missile with a range of hundreds to tens of thousands of kilometers!"

"It can even launch intercontinental ballistic missiles equipped with nuclear warheads. Compared to that, do you still think that naval guns, at most, can only hit targets within a few dozen kilometers? Am I wrong to say that it's becoming more and more for show than practical?"

Bai Ling and Lao Luo gasped in shock upon hearing this.

Inevitably, Simon Lang couldn't help but belittle the Soviet Union again.

"So, don't be fooled by the number of gun barrels on Soviet warships. They're useless, you know? If a real war breaks out, one missile from me will cripple their warship! No matter how many gun barrels they have, they're just decorations!"

"Not only do they fail to provide more firepower support for the warships, but because they like to cram things into them, they also limit the warships' performance and become a real drag on them!"

"So hurry up and change your mindset! Stop clinging to those old things like they're gold ingots, so precious that you can't bear to let them go. Because modern warfare has fundamentally changed."

"If you keep clinging to those old things and can't let go, and treat them as your guiding principles, you'll suffer a great loss sooner or later, I'm telling you! That could be fatal!"

I once again emphasized to everyone the importance of changing our mindset and adapting to the changes in modern warfare as soon as possible.

It was incredibly disheartening for Lao Luo, who had fought a lifetime of wars and finally accumulated a wealth of experience, to suddenly find himself without any use for it.

With a bitter expression, he couldn't help but sigh.

"It seems that times have really changed, and we must adapt to the times and quickly change our mindset."

Having made up my mind, I realized that I must change my thinking as soon as possible in order to conform to the general policy of the times.

Luo then turned his gaze to a warship next door, pointing to the strangely shaped, futuristic-looking behemoth on the ship, and asked a question.

"What is that? Didn't they say artillery was useless? Why are they equipped with such a big thing? And some of them have it, and some don't."

Following Lao Luo's gaze in the direction he was pointing, we saw that the thing Lao Luo was talking about was the famous Type 1130 close-in weapon system.

Having long heard of the renowned Type 1130 close-in weapon system, Ximen Lang, who was itching to get his hands on it, immediately got excited.

"That one? I told you about it, the 1130 close-in weapon system, a genuine high-end product! And you should know from the name that this thing is specifically designed for defense!"

"After all, missiles are not something we alone possess; others have them too. If someone were to act unethically and launch such a missile at us from a great distance, we would need some form of countermeasure. And missiles are the last line of defense for warships."

"As for why some warships have it and some don't, brother, you've seen the size of the 1130 close-in weapon system. It's huge, and it's also very heavy! Ordinary warships simply can't fit it or carry such a big thing. Of course, some have it and some don't. It's just a matter of different conditions."

I explained the situation of the 1130 close-in weapon system to Lao Luo and the others in detail.

Then, they simply couldn't hold back any longer.

Ximen Lang's eyes lit up.

"Old Luo, since the atmosphere is already this heated, why don't we fire a few shots? Let me tell you, this thing is incredibly powerful, much more powerful than a regular close-in weapon system! I guarantee you'll want to fire again after you've fired it; just hearing the sound of the shells hitting the ground will be irresistible."

Just as she was trying her best to persuade him, Bai Ling, who was standing to the side, couldn't stand it anymore.

"Nonsense! That's not the sound of spent cartridges hitting the ground, that's the sound of money being spent! Tens of millions can be spent in a minute, billions in an hour! With so much money going down the drain, how could the sound not be pleasant?"

It's no exaggeration to say that one bullet is enough to feed a family of three here for a month! (The main type of bullet used, the tungsten-core armor-piercing bullet, costs 1000-2000 each, which is very expensive.)
Even this is the cost price from later purchases.

If we build it ourselves in Beijing.
Bai Ling didn't even dare to think about how much this thing would cost!

As for Ximen Lang, he's someone who can't get enough of playing around. It's foreseeable that if Lao Luo agrees to his request, it definitely won't be something that can be appeased with just a few bullets.

In that case, how much money would it cost, and how many shells would be fired?

Just to satisfy Ximen Lang's desire to get his hands on the game, he had to spend so much?
Isn't this a waste?!
Bai Ling isn't that crazy!

Seeing this, some people will surely say...

"Wait a minute, Brother Lang is rich. He's so rich he's practically broke. Even if the shells are expensive, he should be able to afford them, right?"

In fact, Ximen Lang did say that, and he did do that.

Bai Ling had barely refused when Ximen Lang magically produced a sack of cash from somewhere and launched into a tirade.

"Is that enough? If not, I have more! It's just money, I have plenty!"

But this isn't about the money at all; the key is that we can't spoil him like this.

If he were to act entirely according to his whims, missiles would be fun! Nuclear weapons? That would be even more terrifying!

Should we just let him be?
This is obviously unrealistic.

But he has done so much for Beijing, it wouldn't be right to leave him no room for maneuver.

After much deliberation, Bai Ling finally compromised.

"Finish reviewing the rest of the materials first. After you've finished reviewing them, wait for the relevant personnel to come and take possession of them. When they're verifying the weapons' power, you can fire for a short while. But it can only be a short while, and you must fire according to their instructions. You absolutely cannot fire more than that or act recklessly!"

Ximen Lang never expected Bai Ling and the others to agree to something that even he himself thought was unreliable.

Having been influenced by Bai Ling's example, he also began to become frugal and didn't plan to spend too much money on this.

Therefore, seeing that Bai Ling agreed immediately, Lao Luo also nodded in approval.

He was overjoyed.

Fearing the two might change their minds, he quickly agreed.

Then came the problem.

"Someone definitely needs to take over, but the question is, who should take over? This isn't like a cigarette; it's not a matter of who smokes it. This is an entire fleet, and a top-tier one at that! Who can, who is capable of, taking over this fleet?"

"Furthermore, a single shell for this Type 1130 close-in weapon system costs one or two thousand yuan! Even converted to our local standards, it would be ten or twenty yuan per shell! And that's a conservative estimate! Even a single shell is this expensive. We can afford to pay, but can you afford to maintain it?" (End of Chapter)