British 1986

"Your Excellency, with all due respect to your requirements, the internationally popular super yachts are no longer small. If this size cannot meet your needs, then we can only redesign a new structure."

The person in charge of the shipyard was a little confused: "As you know, redesigning a yacht with a length of more than 100 meters is a huge workload. There will be various tests in the later stage, both in terms of cost and construction time. trouble."

Allen looked at the workers on the semi-finished frigate shuttled in the dock, looking at the frigate with some envy.

"For such a large hull, can I just use their hull drawings and then modify it?"

Allen's idea is very simple. There is no need to redesign it. He doesn't want to be taken advantage of, but there is something ready-made right now, so just copy it.

"this"

The person in charge of the shipyard looked at the frigate and then at Allen.

According to this line of thinking, it's not impossible, but it just feels weird.

And with this kind of ready-made hull drawings for modification, you can take some shortcuts. The layout of the superstructure and the interior of the hull needs to be redesigned, so that's expensive.

Thinking of this, the person in charge of the shipyard expressed his concerns.

"How much does this ship cost approximately?"

"Almost including the weapons systems, the total is about 140 million pounds."

"."

"Furthermore, if you remove the weapon system and redesign the internal architecture of the ship, you won't be able to save much money. If you insist on using this plan, then the cost of your yacht will start at least 100 million pounds. And it will take three to four years to build.”

"."

Hearing this price, Allen felt for the first time that he was really poor. He couldn't afford this or that.

One ship costs 100 million pounds?

Is there any royal law?

Are there any laws?

"Forget it, is there any compromise? I think the construction time is too long."

Allen's face was a little confused.

I wanted to be arrogant at first, but now I seem to be unable to be arrogant.

If a new castle takes three or four years to build, then he can accept it, but if it takes three or four years to build a yacht, then he can't stand it.

If you spend money blindly, you won’t see anything in kind for a few years.

The person in charge of the shipyard looked at Allen's face and rubbed his hands in embarrassment.

Your Excellency's intention is very clear. You want something taller, but the construction cycle must be short, and the price must be controlled within a certain range.

Just look at how intently he stared at the frigate in the dock.

There is definitely no way around this warship today.

But if we can’t afford the new one, why not use the old one?

"Sir, if you think the construction period is long, why not try using an old ship to renovate it? For example, replace it with a decommissioned warship, and then use it to remove the weapon system and superstructure. In this way, the construction period can be greatly shortened."

A military boat.

They are all big toys, slow to build, but much faster to dismantle.

And if you modify old ships, you can achieve similar effects, after all.

The most important hull does not need to be built slowly, and the construction time can be saved by at least half.

"Oh? Let me think about it."

After being reminded by the person in charge of the shipyard, Allen's mind was instantly opened.

New warships are too expensive to build, but old warships, that doesn't matter.

He has connections and is a professional counterpart.

Looking at the worried-looking shipyard manager next to him, Allen smiled. The advice he gave was good.

"Well, any kind of warship will do? A destroyer too?"

"Yes! If you have a way, you can modify the hull as long as the hull has not suffered too much damage. The specifications of warships are much higher than civilian ships. If you use the hull of an old warship to transform it into a yacht, the protection will be absolutely no problem!"

"Okay! Let's do this for today. I'll go back and think of a solution."

Now that there is a shortcut, Allen doesn't want to stay here any longer. He can't wait to get old warships.

Originally, he planned to stay in Plymouth for one night and then come back, but the discussion ended quickly, so Allen was too lazy to waste time here and asked the driver to drive a little faster and rush to the manor.

It was dark in the evening and we didn't return to the manor until after seven o'clock.

The first time he saw Hu Te, Hu Te cast a concerned look at Allen and said, "Master, did the negotiation at the shipyard not go well today?"

"It went well. It went very well. It's just that there were some changes in the plan. It ended early. I rushed back. You go tell the kitchen to make me something to eat. I haven't had a good appetite these past two days and I don't want to eat something too greasy."

"OK!"

After taking two steps, Allen paused, stopped Hut again and said, "By the way, call Thomas and ask him to come over tomorrow. I have something to tell him."

"Understood! I'll call him after I notify the kitchen."

"Well, go ahead."

He took a hot shower first and walked to the study in a bathrobe. William and Harry were probably playing games in the room at this time. They didn't come out, so Alan didn't bother to ask.

I took out a pen and paper and wrote down a few key words of today's thoughts. I was afraid that I would forget them tomorrow after one night.

The opinion given by the person in charge of the shipyard today was very good, and Allen also had some ideas of his own.

Things like old warship hulls are really beyond the reach of ordinary people.

But if there is a connection, it is relatively easy.

Any big country, and a big naval power, has many different ways of dealing with old warships.

The most common thing is to retire it and then scrap it.

These are all from the factory to entering service, and then they have served for decades and come to an end. The warships are also old and it is time to retire.

For the navy, about half of these old and retired warships will be towed directly back to the shipyard and then dismantled and treated as scrap metal.

In this process, great benefits will be generated.

For example, under normal circumstances, warships are decommissioned on a specific date.

Before decommissioning, whether it is to take better-looking photos or for the sake of dignity, under normal circumstances, a small amount of maintenance will be done on the warships that are about to be decommissioned.

The oil and water come from this maintenance.

For example, changing the cannon. The machine cannon hidden in the basement of Allen's house was obtained through this method.

The old earl asked someone to find some connections. When the warship was about to be decommissioned and maintained, he asked someone to replace the warship with a new machine gun. Anyway, if something broke here, there was something broken, and a new one could be assembled by just getting a bunch of parts.

Just renovate the appearance of the old machine guns on the ship and the problem will be solved.

The newly assembled machine gun was taken home as scrap.

As long as you are brave and have connections, not to mention machine guns, torpedoes will do.

The old earl tried it, but it was not cost-effective to make torpedoes, and it was not easy to use on land. In addition to taking up space, storage was risky, so he only made one and kept it at home for fun.

In addition to being directly towed back to the shipyard for dismantling, there are other places for decommissioned warships to go, such as renovating them and then selling them to some backward countries. This is the most cost-effective and the most profitable.

This is a job that outsiders simply cannot get involved in. It is generally the traditional scope of interests of the big guys within the navy.

If you want to buy something in any foreign region, you have to give gifts and stuff money. Whoever you sell it to includes getting a kickback after the final sale. There is a lot of money involved.

In addition to these two treatment methods, old warships can also extend their service life.

This involves transformation and upgrading.

Drag the old warship back, dismantle the old equipment, and upgrade it again.

Anyway, this price-performance ratio is too low. If you have the time and money, it is better to build a new one.

Unless there is a critical period, under normal circumstances, this is not done.

The above three methods are all common ways that Allen knows about the Department of the Navy's treatment of old warships. There is oil and water in them. How much a broken warship is worth is decided by the Department of the Navy. Every time an old warship is decommissioned, On a warship, everyone gets money from the top to the bottom, and of course the boss gets the most.

If Allen wants to build an old warship, he has to choose one of these three methods.

The first method is to directly drag it back to the shipyard to dismantle the scrap metal. This is the most cost-effective. As long as you find a way to buy the old warship, the price is only a little higher than the scrap metal.

And exclude these normal ways of decommissioning warships.

If you want an old warship that is not particularly old and is in relatively good condition, there is a very hidden and unconventional treatment method. This method is more suitable for special situations and requires a little manipulation.

After writing down a few keywords, Hu Te came in pushing the dining cart.

Today's dinner is a simple sandwich and a bowl of white fungus soup.

While eating, Allen watched Hu Te take out a small black bag and put it on the desk. He stuffed the sandwich into his mouth in several mouthfuls, wiped his hands, grabbed the bag and shook it, and there was a small collision sound inside.

"This is?"

"Master, this is a sample of broken diamonds. Take a look at it. If you can, buy it according to this quality."

"oh?"

Allen unzipped the drawstring on the small bag and dumped it on the desk.

The fluttering diamonds are spread out directly, a bit like the sight of a rice bag being turned over and a puddle of rice being scattered.

Except for the polka dots and highlights, everything else is pretty much the same.

Looking at these broken diamonds, Allen suddenly remembered that in the Hong Kong movies he used to watch, those who were involved in illegal transactions liked to put diamonds in small bags and use them as hard currency.

Xiao Huang, who was standing next to him and dozing, heard the sound here, stretched out his big head, curiously looked at the shiny things on the desk, and then

"Dang."

With a peck of his mouth, a small diamond was gone.

"Go aside, this is not food."

After watching it eat one, Allen didn't take it seriously. It wasn't too valuable anyway.

Don’t look at a few hundred kilograms, it’s more than 100 million, but that’s a few hundred kilograms!

The raw materials of these broken diamonds are not valuable in themselves, and they are also broken diamonds from unclean sources, so the price is even worse. The reason why they are more expensive is the cost of cutting and manual work!

As we all know, one carat of diamond is almost equal to 0.2 grams, and one carat is equal to one hundred points. These broken diamonds are basically about 20 points or 10 points, so they are called broken diamonds.

This is not like breaking a rough diamond into pieces and then calling it a broken diamond.

Except that broken diamonds are not as big as regular diamonds, the other processing techniques are the same as ordinary diamonds.

They also have 57 facets. Only diamonds processed in this way can shine with so many facets.

The kind of diamonds sold in jewelry stores on the market are expensive because of their weight, procedures and publicity. In addition, there are many subdivisions. In fact, ordinary rough diamonds themselves are not expensive as long as they can find channels.

That is to say, the manual cost of cutting and processing is the most expensive.

Even if you replace these broken diamonds with artificial diamonds of the same size, the price is actually about the same.

But now, limited by technology, those are not called artificial diamonds, but artificial diamonds. This kind of artificial diamonds are several grades worse than these broken diamonds in terms of color and clarity.

If you spend the same money and the processing fees are the same, why buy artificial diamonds that are not as effective as crushed diamonds?

I grabbed a handful of broken diamonds and watched the broken diamonds slowly scattering on the table. Not to mention, it felt pretty good.

"Okay, as long as it's of this quality, just keep an eye on it."

Allen was too lazy to worry about these things. Hu Te needed to keep an eye on this. He didn't have the time to see if there was anything fishy in it.

"Okay, the young designer said that he has left a little surprise for you on the outer wall of the castle. You can take a look at it after the castle is built."

"Haha, okay, go ahead and do your work. Thomas has made an appointment for me, right?"

"We made an appointment. I called him just now."

Still by the creek not far from the manor.

Since the construction of the new castle began, the more Allen looked at the current manor, the more displeased he became.

The weather is hot now. Since the old-fashioned buildings in the manor have poor ventilation, the room is relatively hot and humid.

After having breakfast early in the morning, I asked the servant to build a pavilion by the creek.

Allen was wearing big pants, sitting by the creek, stretching his feet into the water, and the fishing rod next to him was just placed on the shelf, not caring whether he could catch any fish.

"a ha ha ha."

The two naughty kids next to them were running and playing with water guns. Water splashed everywhere. The two of them made no movement, and they couldn't catch anything, let alone fish.

Allen pulled twice with his feet, picked up a fist-sized stone, aimed it next to William, flicked his arm, and threw the stone far away.

"Plop!"

William, who was hiding from Harry's water gun, was startled by the sudden splash of water in front of him.

Before he could get angry, Allen's curse came over.

"You two! Didn't you see me fishing? Go away and play!"

Harry held the water gun and looked at Allen blankly, and William also frowned at him.

All three stopped.

After waiting for a long time, William suddenly picked up a pineapple-sized stone from the creek and threw it into the creek in front of Allen.

"Boom!"

This time the splash was even bigger!

"Hahaha!"

Seeing the splash in Alan's face, William laughed loudly, pulled Harry and ran away.

"damn it!"

Allen picked up a stone and stood up to chase after him. As soon as he turned his head, he met the eyes of Thomas who was looking stunned.

"Uh sir, I just arrived and I didn't see anything."

Thomas is the bald MP who is quite capable in Wales.

At this time, he was a little panicked.