Wei Dila seemed to have won Wang Chenhao, so he did not make any concessions in the price of the three warships. They were the Brad 300,000 pounds, the Bailanggu 450,000 pounds, and the Esmolarda 800,000 pounds.

Wang Chenhao knew that the Chileans took the opportunity to raise prices, but he would not wait to be slaughtered. He must cut this price down.

"The economic situation of your country is not enough to support your navy. Instead of waiting to turn into scrap iron, it is better to sell it as soon as possible at a preferential price. You should know that the armored iron battleship is outdated, and I can buy it for 100,000 pounds. She has already given you a advantage. As for the Belungu and Esmeralda, I can add an additional 100,000 pounds as a reward."

Wei Dila smiled and shook her head.

Wang Chenhao continued to patiently enlighten him and said, "Why be so loyal to the country? This money cannot be in your pocket."

Wei Dila looked at Wang Chenhao in surprise. Wang Chenhao smiled mysteriously and continued: "If you can give in, I can pay 50,000 pounds as a reward."

Wei Dila's eyes tightened and he was a little uncomfortable with Wang Chenhao's frankness. However, the Chilean government was too poor at this time. Although he was a little lucky as a consul general, he was also a drop in the bucket for his improvement in his life. Now Wang Chenhao gave him 50,000 pounds of remuneration as soon as he spoke. This huge sum of money was really tempting.

However, Wei Dila is an old political fox after all. He felt that Wang Chenhao would definitely give him more benefits, so he relaxed a little and said, "Mr. Wang is really generous! But according to the price you gave, you can save at least 500,000 pounds. This transaction seems to be more beneficial to you?"

Wang Chenhao thought that as long as you were willing to give in, so he smiled and said, "It seems that there is something that you need to think clearly. Although our government agreed to this ship purchase plan, the money was indeed my own. Argentina has ordered two large armored cruisers at the Giovanniansaldo & Co., Italy. The comprehensive performance is far greater than that of your country's Esmolarda. They are now interested in selling these two warships to us. Moreover, the ship platforms of major shipyards in Britain, France and Germany are advanced warships, and they are all staring at this ship purchase case. Therefore, we have too many choices. I hope your country will not repeat the mistake three years ago. Too high requirements will only make you lose this transaction."

Wang Chenhao was not to scare Wei Dila. Argentina did order two large armored cruisers, brenadinorivadavia and marianomoreno, at the Ansaldo shipyard in Italy, to prepare for war with the Chilean Navy. This class of ships was designed specifically for Chile's 7,000-ton large armored cruisers. However, as the relationship between Argentina and Chile eased, Argentina's own financial resources were limited, so it was also ready to sell the two ships just like Chile.

Wei Dila frowned and said, "As far as I know, it will take half a year for these two warships in Argentina to be completed. Lord Wang may not be able to wait?"

Wang Chenhao laughed and said, "Consul is talking about the progress under normal circumstances. The situation is tense. I will allocate additional funds to the Italian shipyard. The eight-hour working system will become twenty-four hours, and it only takes two months for three shifts to be completed."

Wei Dila was stunned for a moment. He understood what Wang Chenhao meant. For the Italian shipyard, if you want these two warships to be completed several months ahead of schedule, it is indeed possible to increase the amount of additional funds and increase labor hours as Wang Chenhao said.

Thinking of this, Wei Dila suddenly laughed a few times and said, "Master Wang may not know that Argentina is very clear about the construction of new warships against our navy from Italy. In order to fight against the Argentine Navy, we also secretly added two large armored cruisers to the French Laseyne Shipyard."

Although Wang Chenhao was not very clear, he also understood that this was an inevitable product of the arms race between Chile and Argentina, so he was not surprised.

Wei Dila continued, "I wonder how much Mr. Wang's financial resources are?"

Wang Chenhao replied in confusion: "I don't understand what you mean?"

Wei Dila smiled and said, "Actually nothing. As Lord Wang said, my Consul General's salary is indeed very low, and even my children can't afford to study abroad. What I want to say is that the large armored cruisers chacabuco and ministrozenteno, which are customized by our country at the Laseyne Shipyard in France, will be 9 months before they can be completed. If the adults have enough financial resources, they might as well buy them, and I will make more extra money."

Wei Dila seemed to have let go, but she just wanted to get more benefits.

Wang Chenhao was secretly happy and smiled and said, "If they meet my requirements, you will naturally benefit from it."

Wei Dila said, please wait, then turned around and took out a document from the drawer and handed it to Wang Chenhao, explaining: "This is their information, please check it out by Lord Wang."

Wang Chenhao took the information and opened it and was stunned when he saw it.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand French!"

Wei Dila smiled faintly, said rudely, and then ordered someone to copy a copy in Spanish to Wang Chenhao's translator. Then the translator translated it into Chinese and handed it to Wang Chenhao for viewing.

Wang Chenhao took the translated information and read it roughly. In order to fight against the large armored cruiser Vadavia, the Chilean Navy ordered a large armored cruiser, the Chacabuco, to the French Laseyne Shipyard in January 1894. In February of the same year, due to continued tensions with Argentina, the Chilean Navy temporarily added the second ministrozenteno when he learned that Argentina had ordered the second armored cruiser Moreno.

The two armored cruisers built by the French Laseyne Shipyard for the Chilean Navy are of the same class, 7628 (7700) tons, the main size is 111.73mx18.9mx7.32m, and the armament is two dual-mounted 210mm 40-caliber main guns, one in front and one in the back; 16 152mm 50-caliber secondary guns, 8 88mm rapid-fire guns, 8 47mm rapid-fire guns, two reciprocating steam engines, speeds of 21.2 knots, 4 450mm torpedoes, strong armor coverage, the turret base and the front armor on the commander tower can withstand the attack of 305 shells, and are a good large armored cruiser.

When Wang Chenhao was reading, Wei Dila said on the side: "These two warships have outstanding performance and believe they can be used to resist the most advanced Liurik, the Russian Navy. If our navy had not had the shortage of funds and the country urgently needed economic development, we would not have sold it."

After reading it, Wang Chenhao said: "Your country will basically not be threatened by too much sea in the Pacific region of South America. The maintenance cost of such large armored cruisers is very expensive, and there is no need for your country to consume the tight funds on it."

Wei Dila agreed with Wang Chenhao's view that if their president had not been a naval officer, the Chilean navy would not have been so aggressive in disregarding the country's economic capabilities.

"The final payment for these two warships has not been paid yet, it will cost about £200,000. We have paid £800,000 in shipbuilding fees for these two warships."

Wang Chenhao said directly: "Including the previous three warships, I will pay 1.7 million pounds to buy these five warships. If you agree, you will get 80,000 pounds of labor raising costs."

Wei Dila replied: "I'm about to retire. It's convenient for others to be convenient for myself, 100,000 pounds, otherwise it's fine."

Wang Chenhao stared at Wei Dila for a while, and saw that his eyes were not giving in, so he stretched out his hand and smiled and said, "Document!"

"Trade!" Wei Dila also smiled and reached out to shake hands with Wang Chenhao. The deal was completed amid the tacit laughter of the two.

After Wang Chenhao reached a private agreement with Wei Dila, he left the Chilean Consulate in Russia. According to Xu Jingcheng's arrangement, Wang Chenhao rushed directly to the Argentine Consulate in St. Petersburg. After Wang Chenhao left, Wei Dila immediately sent a telegram to the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Affairs to inform Wang Chenhao of the purchase of five active and under construction warships in Chile. In his report, he only said that Wang Chenhao invested 1.5 million pounds, retaining a wiggle room of 200,000 pounds. If the Chilean government agreed, the 200,000 pounds would be in his pocket, otherwise he would continue to raise bets until the 1.7 million pounds promised by Wang Chenhao.

The negotiations between Wang Chenhao and Wei Dila have achieved great success, so it is no longer important to the success of the transfer of two armored cruisers in Argentina. It is good to be successful, but if it fails, if it fails, it can also compete with the Russian Navy. Self-protection is enough.

The talks between Wang Chenhao and Argentine Consul in Russia were very easy. Amado was a young politician and did not have the old fox thoughts of Wei Dila. When Wang Chenhao proposed to buy two large armored cruisers Rivadavia and Moreno, Argentina was ordered in the Ansaldo Shipyard in Italy, not only Argentina, but also told Wang Chenhao the expenses and the final payments to be paid by the two upcoming warships.

Rivadavia and Moreno have already spent 780,000 pounds, and the final payment is 125,000 pounds. The Argentine government hopes to transfer it for 900,000 pounds. Seeing that Amado is not good at bargaining, Wang Chenhao took advantage of the construction parameters of the two warships to find fault. For example, the dual-equipped 203mm main gun equipped by Rivadavia is not as good as the dual-equipped 210mm main gun of the Chilean Takabuku, the number of 152 sub-injections is only 14, the 80mm rapid-fire gun is not as good as the Chilean 88mm rapid-fire gun, and the speed of 20 knots is not as good as the other party. At the same time, the armor coverage is only 78% less than the Chilean tonnage 85% armor coverage rate, etc., which makes these two armored cruisers in Argentina very failed.

Amado is a pure literati and does not like to spend taxpayers' money on the army. Wang Chenhao said a lot of words and only sent him a signal that the design of this class of ships was very failed. He really believed it. Then he added fuel to the Argentine government and said that the two warships were useless. As a result, the Argentine government called back and notified that he could reduce the price and transfer it as long as he did not lose money. So Amado finally agreed that Wang Chenhao invested 830,000 pounds to buy the two warships, and the Argentine government only made 50,000 pounds from it, which was a fair deal.
Chapter completed!