"The flagship of the Japanese exploded and sank in the harbor? Hahahaha, this kind of thing happened at this time? Is this because I played too smoothly before and overdrew my luck, and now I am starting to repay my debts? Jochen leaned back and smiled gracelessly in front of Mashal when he heard the news.

"Your Majesty, please be decent." Mashal said helplessly, saying so, Marcal himself was holding back a smile, and he felt very ridiculous when he got the news, but it was not as exaggerated as His Majesty's immediate reaction.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but this thing is so ridiculous, after returning from the big victory, the flagship set off fireworks in its own harbor, what could be more ridiculous?" Jochen clutched his stomach and apologized insincerely.

After finally calming down, he asked with a strange smile: "Then what is the reaction of the Japanese side to this matter?" Blocking messages? Categorical denial? ”

"Blocking messages? The Japanese can't block it even if they want to. Machar said with a disdainful face: "The battleship Mikasa sank in the middle of the night with a big explosion, and the sound of the explosion almost woke up the entire sleeping Sasebo, and it is said that more than 500 officers and men on the ship were killed in the explosion, and this kind of news cannot be blocked at all." ”

"So what's the reaction in Japan right now?" Jochen was a little gloating, not because the Japanese Navy sank a battleship, and it was salvaged and repaired in the harbor anyway, but because of the huge impact it had on Japan.

"Panic and uneasiness, the Japanese people even think that the Russian Navy infiltrated the harbor and blew up and sank the Mikasa, and that the previous scene of the Russian Navy fleet running to the outside of Tokyo Bay to block the gate has been repeated again, and I think that if the Japanese are afraid that they will not be able to end the war in a short time, I am afraid that the situation at home will go wrong." Marshal said.

As the war continued, the number of casualties increased every day, and the deteriorating standard of living made the fanatical Japanese people begin to taste the bright prospects that the war brought to them, not necessarily the growth of national strength, but also the cruel social status brought about by the war.

A week ago, a week ago, a Hibiya burning incident broke out in Tokyo, Japan, in which radicals set fire to Hibiya Park, and the situation in Japan has begun to surge, and the current explosion and sinking of the Mikasa has added fuel to the fire.

This is different from the fact that Japan and Russia have ceased war at this time in history, and Japan can rest assured at home, and now Japan and Russia are still at war in North Manchuria, and the Russian fleet in Vladivostok is also rumored to have appeared off the coast of Japan, and the panic of the Japanese is growing.

In fact, the Essen fleet at this time did not have much combat effectiveness, and the two strongest Izmail-class armored cruisers were seriously injured and could not sail at all, so Essen gathered all the experienced sailors at his disposal and took over the 2 armored cruisers and 2 protective cruisers of the 2nd and 3rd Pacific Fleets that fled to Vladivostok.

In Essen's view, these wastes who escaped from the road had no combat effectiveness at all, and it was better to hand over these ships that were still fighting to the veterans they trusted to operate, but the personnel and equipment still had to be run in, so in fact, the Urayan fleet that the Japanese were afraid of only deliberately showed its face in the Sea of Japan once, and deliberately let a Japanese fishing boat turn around and run back to Vladivostok after seeing it.

However, this was enough, the Japanese coast was not at peace because of the total annihilation of the main fleet of the Russian Navy, and the ability of the Urayan fleet to harass the Japanese shipping lines could still make it difficult for the Japanese to sleep, so now the first task of the Japanese Navy was to restore the four armored cruisers of the Second Fleet, which had been wounded in the battle with the Urayan fleet, to the best of their ability.

And it is precisely because of this that the battleships, including the Mikasa, have nothing to do for the time being, the management on the ship is loose, the order of the sailors is loose, and it is very normal to do such a thing as the Mikasa.

However, Jochen still has a very malicious suspicion that this bad thing can become a good thing. You must know that in history, after the explosion and sinking of the Mikasa, the Japanese held a ship parade to commemorate the victory of the war against Russia, and the combined fleet without the Mikasa had to drag the Shikishima to make a cameo, but now that Japan and Russia have not ceased war, the Japanese have time to repair the Mikasa.

"The more chaotic they are, the better, because the previous protests and demonstrations in the United States and the smashing and robbery of American stores in Tokyo, Kobe, and Yokohama have made the American people have a very bad impression of those yellow-skinned monkeys, who are pushing Americans to our side on their own." Jochen said with a smile: "Now if Niki can nod on the issue of the right to build the Manchurian railway, then there is no need to worry about the attitude of the Americans." ”

"Your Majesty, you don't have to worry about this, I'm afraid there will be good news coming from the Russian side soon." Mashal responded: "The interest rate at which the Russians borrow from France is not low, and it will not be easy for the Russian treasury to repay the money at that time, so it is better to borrow less if you can borrow a little less now, so I think His Excellency Count Witte will make a suggestion to His Majesty Nicholas on the sale of the right to build the railway." ”

"This is the second piece of good news I heard today." Jochen seemed in a good mood: "Is there any other good news?" ”

"Hmm......" Mashal looked a little hesitant: "There is still one more news that has not been verified, so ......"

"The bad news? It doesn't matter if you don't verify it, let's say, it doesn't hurt to think about the bad things first. Jochen sat up straight and straightened his face.

"You should know that the May issue of Engineering magazine in London, England, has published the news that the Royal Navy has designed and is preparing to build two new warships, battleships and armored cruisers?" Mashal asked.

"Yes, I know about it, there's nothing to make a fuss about the British building new battleships and armored cruisers, right?" Jochen said disapprovingly, in fact, Jochen knew that this was dreadnought and invincible, but on the one hand, he was able to explain how he knew, and on the other hand, Germany really had nothing to fear when it came to the issue of dreadnoughts, so he pretended to be stupid.

His Majesty the Emperor of the Ship did not have the slightest sense of urgency, and Marshal raised his voice in a little anxious: "Your Majesty, the problem is that the news we have now is that the new battleship of the British has a displacement of more than 20,000 tons, and the degree of secrecy is extremely high!"

Our intelligence officers in England had learned that the Royal Navy's Admiralty was dealing with the construction of new warships and the negotiations with the manufacturers on a verbal basis, with fewer written records.

And the Admiralty of the Royal Navy also made the decision not to improve the design of the battleships that have already started, and not to start the construction of any battleships until the new battleships are completed! This is not normal! ”

"The British are not building battleships when they build new ships? This is something that is not normal. But there's no fuss about it, maybe the British are out of money, haven't they been laying off workers lately? Jochen continued to play dumb.

"The Admiralty General Staff believes that the two decisions of the Admiralty indicate that the battleships that the British are preparing to build must have used some very innovative technology, because the basic design of the previous Duncan, Edward VII, and now under construction of the Lord Nelson class is in the same vein, and if it were not for the heavy changes, there would be no so-called demand for no changes in the design of the battleships that have already begun.

The decision not to start construction of the new battleship before it was completed was due to the fact that there was still an indecisive attitude towards this new technology, and it was necessary to decide whether to build it in large quantities after it was completed. And the General Staff of the Navy thus has a very bad inference. Machar's face was a little embarrassed, because this inference was indeed very important.

"What is the inference?" Jochen looked a little curious.

"It is quite possible that the British are ready to build ships of the same type as our newest battleships." Mashal said with a solemn face.

Although Machar did not understand the navy, let alone technology, Tirpitz's words about the new battleships would open a new era, the new battleships would turn all the old battleships into scrap metal, and the new battleships would give the Imperial Navy an unparalleled technological superiority.

Now if the British start building ships of the same type, the German Navy will lose its technological superiority, which is absolutely terrible news for Germany.

Jochen was also taken aback when he heard this inference, not because of the Dreadnought, but because the guys in the Navy General Staff were able to deduce that the Dreadnought was a unified all-heavy gun battleship, and the German Navy did not react so sensitively in history, and the specifications of the newly built ships of the British Royal Navy were full of errors.

There are also a lot of deviations in the speculation of the Dreadnought, although it is known that the Dreadnought is larger than the previous battleships, so Tirpitz made a proposal to Wilhelm II after knowing the news, requiring the tonnage of the new battleships of the German Navy to be no less than 19,000 tons, which is naturally no problem, but the various design drawings that came out later are completely products of the pre-Dreadnought era.

The original design plan, 19,000 tons, installed two twin 283 mm main gun turrets along the center line in the bow and stern, and then installed four twin 240 mm secondary main gun turrets on the two sides of the diagonal, the 240 mm naval gun is indeed a heavy gun above the 9-inch level, and the design can indeed be called a full heavy gun battleship, but the caliber is not uniform, that is, it is the same level as the Lord Nelson-class quasi-dreadnought of the British Royal Navy, not a unified all-heavy gun battleship like a dreadnought.

Later, after the launch of the Dreadnought, the Germans who knew what a real dreadnought looked like unified the caliber of naval guns on the basis of this design, which was the Nassau-class, but the Nassau-class was also called an outdated product of the pre-dreadnought design by the British.

Although the Germans adopted this design with their own naval engagement considerations, and this design was certainly not backward in this era, there is no doubt that its thinking was obviously not as liberal as that of the British.

Therefore, now the German Navy General Staff can guess what Dreadnought is is still very much beyond Jochen's expectations, and it seems that some things really have to be owned first in order to broaden their horizons.

However, Jochen is not in a hurry about this matter, he has 6 ships of the same type under construction, but it is also good to take this opportunity to scare the council: "The inference of the General Staff of the Navy is not reliable, if it is really a 20,000-ton unified all-heavy artillery battleship, then the 18,000-ton battleship we are building must be inferior to the new ships of the British in some aspects!" Is there any plan on the council's side for this? ”R1152