In fact, the result of the naval battle of the Natuna Islands was indeed much beyond Fisher's expectations, because Fisher received Owen's assessment report before the war, believing that the Far East Fleet had at least a 60% chance of this naval battle, and at worst it could be a draw, plus now the British government also needs a victory to boost morale, so Fisher decided to fight this battle, but he did not expect to greatly underestimate the combat effectiveness of the People's Army Navy.

If he had known that this would be the result, Fisher would certainly not have ordered the Far East Fleet to fight, so that the Far East Fleet would still be able to preserve its strength, support Japan, and contain the KPA navy. But now it was too late to regret it, and before the expeditionary force arrived, Britain also ceded control of the sea. However, Fisher still couldn't figure it out, the KPA navy was really so strong that it could beat the British Navy when the strength was roughly the same?

However, after reading the war report sent back by Owen, Fisher understood a little. It turned out that after the end of the naval battle of the Natuna Islands, Owen knew very well that his military career was basically over, but looking back on this war, the combat effectiveness of the KPA Navy was indeed beyond his and even the expectations of the entire British Admiralty, and the evaluation report he wrote before the war was completely wrong. Therefore, out of a sense of responsibility for the soldiers, Owen asked the personnel of the entire naval battle of the Natuna Islands, the performance of the KPA naval vessels, and the personnel of the warships that had fled back to the base, and then wrote a detailed report and sent it back to Britain, and because of the extremely long length, the telegram took more than 10 hours to complete.

Fisher attaches great importance to this report, and he first read it carefully, and then he has a feeling of sudden realization, and at the same time he is very self-reproachful, he still despised the People's Army's navy too much, in fact, there are many clues that the naval technology of the East China government is not under Britain, and the East China government and Germany have deep military cooperation, and Britain has a lot of information through the spy personnel located in Germany, such as the German class battleship designed by the East China government for Germany, and the battleship Ganjiang customized by them in Germany, all of which are similar to the design ideas of the dreadnought battleship being built by the United Kingdom, and they all use the concept of full heavy artillery designIn addition, the East China government is also jointly developing integrated fire control systems and steam turbines for warships with Germany.

It is a pity that the British Admiralty, including Fisher himself, did not pay enough attention to this information for various reasons, such as the slow construction of the German-class battleships, which lagged behind the Dreadnought, and there was still a lot of controversy within the German Navy about the design of this type of battleship, and even Kaiser Wilhelm II complained about it. Therefore, the original plan of the German-class battleships was to build five ships in batches to form a formation like the previous German battleships, but because of the controversy, the German Minister of the Navy Tirpitz had to decide to build two first, to test the effect, and to start building the Hanover-class battleships, following the design of the previous type of Braunschweig-class battleships, equipped with first-class and second-class guns.

Although the battleship of the Commander customized by the East China government in Germany was completed and delivered before the war, the tonnage was too small, only 12,500 tons, 8 main guns, but the caliber was only 280 mm, and the British Dreadnought under construction could not be compared, the design displacement of the Dreadnought was 18,000 tons, and it was equipped with 5 2 305 mm main guns. The tonnage of a warship is its combat effectiveness, so it is clear that these two types of warships are not of the same class. In the British Admiralty, some people even thought that the battleship Cadre, designed by the East China government, was just to build up firepower, and they could not have the concept of full firepower. As for the integrated fire control system and steam turbines, the Admiralty believed that because the development time of the East China government and Germany was too short, at least about five years behind Britain, it did not pay much attention to it.

However, in the naval battle of the Natuna Islands, the East China government's cadre general, These are the design ideas of the Dreadnought, using the integrated fire control system to raise the arch firing unit for the whole ship, and to expand the firing range and improve the hit rate in the way of the main gun salvo, the East China government has obviously done all of this, and it has also gone to the front of the British, because the design idea of the Dreadnought was proposed by Fisher in 1904, the design was completed in May 1905, the construction started in October, and the outfitting was launched in February this year; and the Cadre General was started in Germany in 1903, so the design was completed in 1902 at the latest, almost every one of these nodes is at least 2 years earlier than in the UK.

The strength of the British Navy is not only reflected in the scale of the second-power standard, but also in the level of naval technology about five years ahead of other countries, although the design of a warship cannot prove that the naval technology of the East China government is ahead of Britain, but at least in some aspects, it is indeed better than Britain.

Thinking of this, Fisher couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat, fortunately, the East China government has not yet become a general trend, although it is also a separatist party, but after all, it cannot be regarded as a real country, otherwise the cornerstone of British hegemony may really be shaken.

However, now the East China government has a close relationship with Germany, not only customizing battleships in Germany, but also helping Germany design battleships, and jointly developing naval technology with Germany, and Germany's comprehensive national strength is not comparable to the East China government, and now because of the vigorous development of the navy and the relationship with Britain is tense, if Germany's industrial manufacturing capacity and the East China government's naval technology are combined, it is the most unfavorable situation for Britain, so Fisher suddenly gave birth to a conflict, imagining that the prime minister suggested that Britain should change its strategy, regard the East China government as the biggest enemy, and at all costs, eliminate the East China government first, and never suffer later。

Although Fisher is a soldier, he also has a very shrewd political mind, otherwise he would not be able to sit on the throne of the British Admiralty, and he is also very clear about the current international situation, Britain's center of gravity has always been in Europe, and since it is in the case of the rise of Germany and the deterioration of Anglo-German relations, of course, it is impossible to turn the spearhead and go all out to deal with the East China government that is thousands of miles away. However, if Fisher really suggested to the Prime Minister to change Britain's strategic goals, I am afraid that he would be dismissed by Prime Minister Bannerman, so although Fisher was worried, he could only remind Prime Minister Bannerman euphemistically by knocking on the side.

First, Fisher assured Prime Minister Bannerman that despite the defeat of the Far Eastern Fleet, the Navy of the Expeditionary Force would never be defeated by the KPA Navy. At this time, Fisher had to make such a guarantee, and of course, Fisher also thought so in his heart, that the People's Army Navy now has only eight battleships in total, and there are only two battleships that have reached the level of the Dreadnought, and that the Expeditionary Force Navy has 24 battleships, 14 of which Britain alone has, and there are also cutting-edge battleships such as the Edward VII participating in the battle, and the huge numerical superiority can completely offset the technological superiority of the People's Army Navy.

After listening to Fisher's explanation, Prime Minister Bannerman finally felt a little relieved, as the British Prime Minister, he still has a certain understanding of the navy, and he also has a lot of trust in Fisher's professional ability, so he can basically trust Fisher's guarantee. Fisher also took the opportunity to point out to Prime Minister Bannerman that the East China government probably possessed some more advanced naval technology than Britain and was providing these naval technologies to Germany, which was quite unfavorable to Britain, so he hoped that the cabinet would carefully consider countermeasures.

After hearing this, Prime Minister Bannerman pondered for a while and said that he would seriously consider countermeasures after the Far East War, but the top priority now was to end the Far East War as soon as possible and with dignity.

At this time, Prime Minister Bannerman knew very well that it was impossible for the expeditionary force to completely suppress the East China government, and at most it could only have a certain advantage at sea, so he could only hope that the expeditionary force's superiority at sea could add some bargaining chips to the negotiating table, and if necessary, it could force Japan and Russia to accept the conditions of reparations in exchange for peace in the Far East.

As for the question raised by Fisher, Prime Minister Bannerman is not unconcerned, but after all, the East China government is now not enough in terms of comprehensive strength, and it may be possible to dominate the region, but if it wants to challenge Britain's global hegemony, it will take at least 2 or 30 years of development, and Germany is now the second most powerful country in the world economy and the first in industrial strength.

Although the East China Government's provision of naval technology to Germany can indeed pose a great threat to Britain, Prime Minister Bannerman knows very well that the East China Government will never be able to unconditionally provide Germany with advanced naval technology, because advanced naval technology is highly confidential strategic technology to any country, and it will not be provided to other countries unless it has no choice but to do so. For example, the battleships built by Britain for other countries are one step lower than those used by its own navy, and the naval technology provided to other countries must be second-class in the active service of its own navy. The East China government is now providing Germany with naval technology, but because its own development time is too short, the foundation is too weak, and it needs Germany's industrial basic technology and equipment, but this will not last long, once the East China government completes this primitive accumulation, it will not easily provide Germany with advanced naval technology. Moreover, after the end of the Far East War, Britain could also consider providing some technology and equipment to the East China government.

In addition, Prime Minister Bannerman also firmly believes that the East China government's naval technology will never be completely ahead of Britain, at most it will only surpass in some technologies, so there is no need to worry too much.

Fisher was actually not satisfied with the Prime Minister's answer, and even thought that the Prime Minister was a little perfunctory, but now he can only talk about this step, after all, he cannot force the Prime Minister to make any promises to himself, this time it is just a reminder to the Prime Minister, and after the end of the war in the Far East, he will collect sufficient information and write a detailed report to the Cabinet.