In February 1893, after six months of training, the cruiser Marie Valerie officially joined the Imperial German Navy.

It didn't make much sense for the two newest cruisers to stay on the mainland, and the German Navy realized that its navy in the Pacific was too weak during the Chilean Civil War, so Marie Valerie was sent to the Far East Fleet in March, along with her sister ship, Victoria Louiser, who had joined the Navy three months earlier.

The Victoria Luiser became the new flagship of the Far East Fleet, and the original fleet flagship, the Corolla-class light cruiser Mary, returned home with the fleet commander, Rear Admiral Hoffmann.

Rear Admiral Hoffman returned home as commander of the 1st cruiser fleet, and his successor was the forked beard, Tirpitz received the rank of rear admiral two years ahead of schedule, and three years earlier as commander of the Far East Fleet. Jochen asked him to experience the Sino-Japanese War for himself.

The arrival of two Victoria Louiser-class light cruisers greatly increased the strength of the German Far East Fleet.

The standard displacement is 6893 tons, the full load displacement is 8070 tons, and it is equipped with 2 twin 150 mm 35 times diameter tube recoiling rapid-fire gun rotating turrets, and 6 guns of the same type on each side of the board, and 10 main guns can be put into the side at the same time.

The frontal armor of the turret is 80 mm thick, the main armor of the side side with a height of 3.7 meters is 50 mm thick, the dome armor is 35 mm thick, and the horizontal armor is 15 mm thick, all made of the new Krupp surface carburized armor. The power system consisting of 8 round boilers and 3 vertical three-cylinder three-expansion reciprocating steam engines produced 16,048 horsepower, propelling the battleship to a high speed of 21 knots and a maximum range of 3,400 nautical miles at a speed of 12 knots.

Although it is a light cruiser, it can be said that these two warships alone are enough for the Far Eastern Fleet to go sideways in the Pacific region, provided that it does not fight to the death with the main ironclad ships of various countries.

If the hit-and-run tactics are resolutely implemented, the Dome Cruiser will not be an opponent at all. Naval guns under 6 inches would have little damage to their main armor, and conversely, 10 150 mm guns per side could shoot up to 50 rounds per minute of high-explosive shells to the waterline of the dome-armored cruisers.

Tirpitz sailed to the Far East with two cruisers, making special stops in Argentina and Chile along the way, and then went to Hong Kong instead of Moresby, the home port of the Far Eastern Fleet.

Although it has gained a foothold in British New Guinea, it is still too far from the real center of the Far East, the Qing Kingdom. Although Germany began to invest in the Spanish colony of the Philippines in recent years, and the number of German expatriates in the Philippines has also increased year by year, the ideal Asia-Pacific foothold in Jochen's mind is still uncertain.

Although the port facilities in Port Moresby are being built intensively, they are not the ideal fleet station in Jochen's mind, so other supporting facilities are not being built vigorously. The Far East Fleet could only continue to borrow Hong Kong's port facilities from Britain as before, taking advantage of the honeymoon period in Anglo-German relations.

Although the German Far East Fleet will not be under the nose of the Chinese fleet of the British Royal Navy (Note 1) with Hong Kong as its home port as before. However, the maintenance of German warships sometimes depended on the British. Therefore, the commander of the Far East Fleet was changed, and Tirpitz naturally led a team to visit Vice Admiral Edmund Robert Philmantle, the current commander of the Chinese fleet.

After visiting the Chinese fleet, Tirpitz did not end his journey and went north to visit Port Arthur, the base of the Beiyang Fleet. The seven capital ships of the Beiyang Fleet are all German-made, and Tirpitz naturally pretended to be cordial to inquire about the use of warships, give feedback on problems, and said that Germany is very willing to continue to contribute to the construction of the Qing Navy.

Seeing the two cruisers, which were not much smaller than their main force Dingzhen No. 2 and were more powerful and majestic, made the Beiyang Naval Division, which had not updated its equipment for several years, envious.

After his visit to Kiyokoku, Tirpitz went to Japan again. At this time, the Diet had approved the Navy's plan to purchase two ironclad ships and two cruisers, and allocated a naval budget of 18.08 million yen over six years.

The two small cruisers were built by Japan itself, the Suma-class protective cruisers Suma and Akashi.

As for the ironclad ships, the Japanese Navy is considering what kind of big guy it should choose to deal with the Beiyang Fleet, and the preferred supplier is naturally the British. However, the arrival of two tall and mighty German warships made the Japanese react, and it might be a good choice to ask the Germans to take a look.

So a Japanese Navy ship-buying expedition went to Europe, preparing to order two ironclad ships in Europe after the inspection, led by the captain of the cruiser Naniwa at this time, Togo Heihachiro, and the first stop of the expedition was Trieste.

Jochen was very surprised by the arrival of the Japanese, which was not the same in history, and was still on the shore of Trieste. However, Trieste is now a German port, and it is much faster to go ashore from Trieste and take a train to Wilhelmshaven than to take a boat around Wilhelmshaven.

The Japanese came to investigate, and Jochen, who knew the reason, could only give Tirpitz 32 likes in his heart. The Navy was also enthusiastic, and immediately took the Japanese to visit the armored cruiser Empress Theresia and Queen, which was being outfitted at the STT shipyard.

Since Austria-Hungary had already paid the full amount at that time, the German Navy did not have to pay the STT shipyard for the whole ship, but it still had to pay another refit fee to modify the design.

The original 240 mm single-mounted guns were replaced by twin 150 naval guns, but due to the progress of the project, it was too late to dig holes in the hull and install rotating turrets, so the old-fashioned structure of open batteries and gun covers had to be adopted.

The armor was replaced with Krupp carburized armor, and the bridge and mast were modeled in the style of the Victoria Louiser class.

The Germans didn't make any major changes, and they didn't want to spend money on them. Thanks to the replacement of new, thinner armor, the tonnage decreased without reducing the defense, and the speed increased by 0.15 knots to 19.5 knots without changing the power system.

The Japanese showed great interest in this battleship, and Heihachiro Togo even hinted privately that although this ship was inferior to the two ships of the German Navy's Far East Fleet, if it could be purchased, it would definitely become the most powerful cruiser in Asia.

Although Heihachiro Togo was very interested in it, it was a pity that the Japanese came to see the ironclad ship this time and did not have any extra funds in hand, so Munts wanted to sell the ship for money.

After visiting the STT shipyard, the Japanese went north, and the old wrecked ships of the Mediterranean Fleet were really difficult to arouse the interest of the Japanese, and the destination was Wilhelmshaven, which was equipped with the latest battleship Brandenburg.

The Brandenburg-class battleship with a full load displacement of 12,633 tons was indeed a behemoth for the Japanese, and the Japanese were indeed very excited to see such a huge ship for a while, but soon their enthusiasm fell.

The accompanying German naval officer was very strange, you are not interested in such a huge battleship, so what else do you want? However, his question was soon answered by the request of the Japanese.

"Although there are 6 main guns, but the caliber is only 260 mm, the power is too small, what we want is the firepower that can resist the ironclad ships of the Qing Guoding Yuan class, do you have any larger caliber guns?"

This can stop the Germans, the 283 mm 40 times diameter frame artillery has not been developed at all in history, where can I find a larger caliber naval gun?

Now the largest caliber naval gun in the hands of the Germans is the 305 mm 25 times diameter gun, which is the main gun of the Dingyuan class, and the Japanese don't look down on it at all.

The second ship of Dingzhen left a shadow on the hearts of the Japanese. In order to be able to get enough firepower to deal with the second ship of Dingzhen, he did not hesitate to give the third view ship, ah no, now it should be the second view ship, this 4278-ton small body is equipped with a 320 mm 40 times the diameter of the giant gun, not only sacrifices protection and speed, but also the main gun slightly changes the angle, the muzzle deviates from the central axis to fire, and the huge recoil will make the battleship change course.

The mind is full of dealing with the second ship director of Dingzhen, and it is reasonable that the Japanese who like thick and long are not looking down on the 260-mm naval guns of the Brandenburg class.

After serving on the Brandenburg, he had already used the Deutsche ironclad to shoot targets...... The German Navy, which had tested it, said that with six 260 mm rapid-fire guns, it was possible to defeat enemy ships at close range.

But the Japanese don't care about that, they only have one request, the hull is very good, but I want it to be thick and long.

The Germans can only express their regret for this, we are thick and long, I am afraid you will have to wait for several years. Just as the Japanese were disappointed and preparing to leave for England, Jochen asked Muntz to arrange for a Japanese delegation to visit Kiel.

Due to the commissioning of the Brandenburg-class battleships and the deployment of them all in Wilhelmshaven, the two Oldenburg-class ships were transferred to Kiel and the two Electoral-class companions, so there were four ironclad ships equipped with guns like Dingzhen and two ships in Kiel Harbor at this time.

"Your Highness, do you mean to let the Japanese buy the Electoral or Oldenburg?" Muntz asked anxiously.

"yes, otherwise I deliberately let the Japanese go to Kiel to do something."

"Your Highness!" Muntz hurriedly aggravated his tone: "Oldenburg and the Elector are the main forces of the Russians in the Baltic Sea now, how can they be sold like this?!" The Mediterranean Fleet is still short of capital ships! ”

"Aren't you going to transfer 4 Saxony-class ships to the Mediterranean Fleet? The calm Mediterranean bath tub is indeed suitable for an inshore ironclad like the Saxony-class. ”

"It's not a matter of whether I can adjust or not, this is the main force you want to sell the navy, if you introduced them to the Saxony class, I wouldn't have said anything a long time ago, you are now asking them to see Oldenburg and the Elector."

"I want to sell, the Japanese may not buy it, what they want is a strong firepower that can deal with the Qing Dingyuan, Oldenburg and the Elector's firepower is just the same as the Dingyuan, and the price is not cheap, and the Japanese are really lacking interest." Jochen replied indifferently.

"But......" Muntz was about to say something, but Jochen interrupted him.

"It's nothing good, but selling two Oldenburgs is enough for you to build another Brandenburg, what's the harm. And didn't I say that now the Japanese absolutely do not look down on Oldenburg and the Elector. ”

"Then you let them go to Kiel." Muntz was a little confused.

"Let them go to Kiel to let them know that we have a more powerful warship than the Dingyuan class, and it is in stock. Let your people give the man named Heihachiro Togo a message: 'No matter who they order new battleships from, it will take at least 3 years to form combat effectiveness, and if there is a war between Nissin and Japan within 3 years, then what is the Japanese Navy going to use against the Dingyuan class?' We've always liked to do business with an open door, and as long as there are buyers, we don't mind who the buyers are. ’”

Jochen smiled slightly: "I think when this sentence is transmitted back to Japan, someone will know what it means." If we do a good job of introducing what we need to do, Japanese people will become our future customers. ”

Note 1: The British Royal Navy fleet does not have the official name of the Far East Fleet, the official name is ChinaStation, which is an independent detachment from the East India Fleet.