Although the sale of light weapons brought large profits to the Empire's military-industrial complex, it was obvious that a few thousand machine guns and tens of thousands of rifles could not satisfy the appetite of arms dealers. In particular, he told a company like Krupp that there was no business in the Chilean Civil War, and even if the Chileans bought dozens of guns, they were old goods eliminated by the army, and they didn't have anything to do with themselves.

In fact, Krupp is quite good, at least after the completion of Port Arthur of the Beiyang Naval Division, a large number of Krupp artillery was purchased to strengthen the coastal defense battery. And the major shipyards are very dissatisfied with the fact that there are only a small number of naval orders. In this Chilean civil war, the navy also realized that its strength in the Far East was a little weak and wanted to strengthen it, but the naval strength in its hands was not enough.

However, there is no opportunity to create a zào opportunity, in fact, the international surface is calm and the dark tide is surging. The guys who want to open up the frame and open each other are secretly accumulating strength, and Germany is naturally aiming at this opportunity.

By this time, the naval race between Argentina and Chile had been going on for 12 years. In 1878, Chilean naval vessels appeared on the coast off the Patagonian plateau, threatening access to guano, an important resource for Argentina. And the short-sightedness of Argentina's naval construction has left it lacking an ocean-going navy that can defend its interests. Although Argentina and Chile signed a maritime border agreement in 1879 that curbed Chilean expansion near Patagonia, the Chileans gained control of the Beagle Strait.

In 1879, when the Chileans were unable to expand their navy due to the saltpeter war, the Argentines began their own naval expansion. Between 1880 and 1900, Argentina's national income increased 15-fold, and in 1900 Argentina's per capita GDP was half that of the United States and twice that of Japan. The economy was strong enough to support a naval race with Chile, which had developed on the saltpeter trade.

In 1880, the Argentine Navy purchased the 4,200-ton Central Gun Ironclad Admiral Brown from the British Samuda shipyard for 230,000 pounds to fight against the two Admiral Cochrane classes of the Chilean Navy.

But it never occurred to me that the Chileans' excellent performance in the saltpeter war would put more pressure on the Argentines even more. After Peru's defeat, the Argentines and Chileans were again in tension over the demarcation of the border in the Andes. So the scale of the naval race between the two countries expanded.

After the capture of the Peruvian Navy's Casca ironclad in the South American Pacific War, with 3 ironclads and the fastest protective cruiser Esmeralda (3rd generation) ordered from the United Kingdom, the Chilean Navy had absolute superiority over the Argentines.

To counter the Chileans, the Argentines spent £00,000 in 1885 from the Austro-Hungarian shipyard in Trieste to buy a 1,450-ton protective cruiser Patagonia, a gadget armed with a 254mm Armstrong gun.

In 1886, the British shipyard Armstrong designed a newer protective cruiser based on the Piedmont-class protective cruiser built by the Italians. The 3,180-ton new cruiser, armed with two 210-mm Krupp guns, eight 20-mm secondary guns, and a speed of 21 knots, was originally intended to be sold to Chile, but the deal fell through because the contradictions between Balmaceda and the parliamentarians had become apparent.

The Argentines bought the ship for £260,000 in December 1889 and named it the 25th of May, Argentina's national day, at which point Argentina had a new cruiser large enough to take on the Esmeralda.

But if this is the end of the matter, then how can it be called a naval race? The competition should naturally make both sides want to stop.

In the same year, the Chileans ordered the Captain Prad ironclad and two Elasuliz President-class protective cruisers from the French shipyard LaSeyne, the 6,901-ton Prard Captain with four 240 mm guns had been launched in December 1890, and her appearance once again widened the power gap between the Chilean and Argentine navies.

To counter the Prad Captain, the Argentines naturally also wanted to acquire powerful ships. However, in 1890, Argentina's economy was distracted, and the Argentines had no choice but to order two shore-defense ironclads, the Liberty and the Independence, from the British Laird Shipyard.

The two 2,330-ton gadgets were each equipped with two 240mm naval guns, sacrificing other indicators in exchange for firepower that could compete with the Pride Trowel. For these two small ironclads, the Argentines paid 352,000 pounds.

By January 1891, the Ellswick shipyard in Armstrong had begun construction of an improved protected cruiser of the 25th May, armed with four 152 mm rapid-fire guns and eight 120 mm rapid-fire guns, with a tonnage of 3,600 tons and a speed of 22 knots.

The discerning Argentine immediately began negotiations with Armstrong to buy it for £293,000. According to the original historical trajectory, the Argentines would have bought the ship on July 26, 1892, the day it was launched, and named it the 9th of July after Argentine Independence Day.

Jochen is also not interested in the 9 of July, which Argentina is now negotiating, or the Buenos Aires, which will be claimed to be the strongest protective cruiser in South America. Since the 9 July, the Armstrong-type protective cruisers have begun to move towards the development stage of lengthening the hull and increasing the tonnage, but the firepower has not increased significantly. And the slender hull also makes the structure somewhat fragile. Later, the Yoshino sank immediately after colliding with Kasuga, and the Kiyokuni Kaitian also sank immediately after hitting the reef.

Of course, Jochen didn't plan to mess up the British business, but in the future naval competition of the three South American powers ABC, Germany must participate, otherwise the money will be made by Britain, Italy, the United States and France, how can it be done without the Germans? The first step is to use Munters' commitment to Germany to open a gap in Chile first.

Since the main ironclad ship of the Chilean Navy, the Blanco Nkadala, was sunk in the civil war, Jochen, who knew that the new Blanco Nkadara protective cruiser would be purchased the following year, naturally reminded Munz, who was the Minister of the Navy, to pay more attention to it, and even the type of ship Jochen was thought of for the Chileans, and the design of the protective cruiser that was shot out because of the construction of an armored cruiser could be used to build a new ship for the Chileans.

And once the Chileans bought a German protective cruiser, and the ship was indeed excellent, then it would naturally cause a chain reaction. To let the Argentines know, how can a Armstrong-type cruiser or something, be an opponent of my new cruiser of Great Germany? If you want a new cruiser against the Chileans, come and buy a ship in Germany.

In order to make the Argentines more intuitively aware of this, the German Navy put on a show under the construction of Jochen.

Under the banner of escorting the returning German advisory group and replacing the light cruiser Olga in service with the Far East Fleet, the formation of the Irene-class heavy cruiser Giffion and the Corolla-class light cruiser Marie, which had been refitted and replaced with 150-mm retractable rapid-fire guns, went to Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, on the way to Chile for refueling.

When the Guifion with a standard displacement of 4,690 tons and the Marie with a standard displacement of 3,240 tons docked on the docks in Buenos Aires, the impact on the Argentine Navy, which at that time only had the 25 May, a cutting-edge cruiser, was enormous.

When refueling coal and replenishing water, the Germans also specially invited the Argentine Navy to visit the ship. Intentionally or unintentionally, he mentions the excellent performance of the German-built cruiser Jiyuan in the Sino-French War, as well as the excellent performance of the German warships of the Beiyang Naval Division.

Not only that, but the Germans also revealed to the Argentines that they were developing a 210-mm retractable rapid-fire gun. Then the Argentines learned from the Germans that the 6,000-ton cruiser being built by the German Navy was designed to reach a speed of up to 21 knots.

Then, when the Argentines praised the Guifion, they deliberately used an exclamation tone to indicate that their flagship, even if it was replaced with a 210-mm rapid-fire gun, was an old ship that could only run 18 knots. If you can install a 210 mm rapid-fire gun and run at a speed of 21 knots, it would be a perfect cruiser. So, the Argentines took the bait, saying that they hoped to go to Germany for an inspection after the construction of their new cruiser, and the Germans of course welcomed it very warmly.

The Argentine, who had been instilled by the Germans with the notion that "in addition to the British, there are also Germans who can build good cruisers", suddenly had the idea that "maybe we should go to Germany for an inspection and shop around". The Germans achieved their goal.

Leaving Argentina for Chile, the Germans played this trick against the Chileans again in a very undisciplined manner. This time it was not only the Giffion and Mary, but also the Olga in Port Moresby was called. On the surface, the Germans said that the fleet had picked up people and returned home directly, instead of going to Moresby for the handover, which was too much of a waste of time, and the soldiers were homesick and wanted to go home early, which was a high-sounding statement.

In fact, by the time the three cruisers, both stronger than the Esmeralda, were gathered, the fleet was able to challenge the Chilean Navy, which had lost one ironclad ship. This was both an advertisement for the Germans and a show of force against Monte.

Later, after the Marie returned to Port Moresby as the flagship of the Far East Fleet as Rear Admiral Hoffman's ship, the Giffion and Olga embarked on their way back to Germany with the transport ships carrying German soldiers.

The warships of the Germans left, but the sharpness and formidable figure of the German warships remained in the minds of the Argentine and Chilean navies. The German Navy was a perfect show, and the South American warship market was opened to Germany.

While Germany is trying to pry open the South American warship market, Asia is also at peace.