Due to the Anglo-German naval confrontation led to the Citis incident, the British armored cruisers were also more powerful than in history, and only 4 Monmers-class armored cruisers were built, and the subsequent Devon-class armored cruiser construction program was also terminated.

The termination of the program did not mean that the British decided to reduce the number, and the Royal Navy began construction of eight armored cruisers at the same time in 1902, and continued to work on six more this year.

Although the German Navy knew little about the specific performance of this type of armored cruiser, after receiving information from the German naval attaché in the British Navy that the ship had six diamond-shaped turret seats on the deck, Jochen could roughly guess that the performance index of this type of armored cruiser was either the Warrior class or the Duke of Edinburgh class.

Although I don't quite understand why the British are so interested in a single turret, it is clear that two twin turrets in the bow and stern can achieve the same firepower, but the firepower of four 233 mm rapid-fire guns on the side projection can indeed overwhelm the six 210 mm naval guns of the early German armored cruisers.

However, I don't know what the British looked like after building so many armored cruisers, and found out that the Ron-class Germans had increased their broadside fire to 6 240 mm naval guns.

But the performance of the Ron class is not enough to cope with the last armored cruiser of the British, the Minotaur class. Therefore, the performance of the Scharnhorst class had to be able to completely overpower the Minotaur class, and the previous design of the German Naval Technical Commission did not meet this requirement.

There are many assumptions in history about the German Far East Fleet led by Spee, including the conjecture that if the British had not sent battle cruisers to pursue Spee. However, as long as the combat effectiveness of Spee's fleet is not deliberately exaggerated, the result is that nothing will actually change.

Because the Spee fleet was fought against nothing more than the old Monmouth-class and Drake-class armored cruisers in the Battle of Cronel, because the British Royal Admiralty was unresponsive. When the reinforcements that had been agreed to be sent to Clark arrived, it turned out to be a slow-moving former dreadnought.

Therefore, after the Scharnhorst-class completely gained the upper hand in strength, the two old armored cruisers of the British, even if the British Admiralty, which reacted, did not send battle cruisers, then the Minotaur-class armored cruisers, which were promised to Clark but did not actually arrive, were very likely to become Spee's opponents.

There is no advantage in the face of the Minotaur class, and the Scharnhorst class will only be defeated after a hard battle.

So it was enough that the performance of the Scharnhorst-class was enough to overwhelm the Minotaur class, so that the British realized that there was no way to take the Spee-fleet without sending battle cruisers. Jochen's purpose was accomplished.

In order to encircle the Spee's fleet, the British sent three battle cruisers, the Invincible, the Indomitable, and the Australia, and the number of their native battle cruisers dropped to 7.

At this time, the mission of the Spey fleet ended here, and it was better to say that it was not caught by the British battle cruisers, and if it was caught, the fate of the Spey fleet could only depend on God's will. In the face of such a thing that the battlecruiser could still win, Jochen did not do any delusions.

So as a bait to lure the British Royal Navy to send battle cruisers, Jochen did not intend to build the Scharnhorst-class into a battle cruiser equipped with 8 283mm guns, or a quasi-battle cruiser with 6 283mm guns, not to mention the difficulty of achieving such performance by current technical standards, even if it was built at a huge cost, once it was injured after fighting the British battlecruiser, then it was basically hopeless to return.

And the sinking of two battle cruisers and the sinking of two armored cruisers were completely different blows to the Navy, so the Far Eastern Fleet of the Scharnhorst class and Spee. In some kind of chengdù, it is used by Jochen as a bargaining chip. Of course, this kind of thing cannot be said directly. However, the attitude of asking the Naval Technical Committee to revise the design was very resolute.

In the end, the Naval Technical Committee had to reinvent its own design according to Jochen's request, and the designs in Pooper's hands were very advanced in layout because they were older, but they did not meet Jochen's needs in terms of details and technology, so they had little reference value.

As a result, the construction of a new heavy cruiser had to be postponed, and it was not expected until mid-1905 that construction began. Although Tirpitz complained a little about the fact that the new warship he was pushing would not be able to start construction until a year later. But it has to be admitted that according to Jochen's construction, the performance of the new warship will be even more outstanding.

It's a bit sad to think about the two outcasts with outstanding performance, these two warships were destined to have a difficult and bumpy service career from the beginning. But it will be accompanied by splendor and glory.

However, Jochen soon put this feeling behind him, and began to look forward to how much the completion of these two warships would improve the shipbuilding capacity of the German Navy.

The design of the new cruiser was soon in full swing, and Tirpitz was enthusiastic about the preparations for the start of construction of the new battleship, and because of Jochen's request, the construction of the new battleship would have to be kept very secret, so Tirpitz also had a lot of work to implement.

Fortunately, the Germans don't need to buy a lot of palm fronds to solve this problem, and the enclosed docks of several major shipyards in Germany can provide good shading effect.

Thus entered 1904.

It was still unusually cold in Berlin in February, but the upper echelons of the German Empire were unusually lively. For no other reason, the Russians were beaten in the Far East, and the Russians suffered a loss.

"These Japanese are really not small, and they actually carried out a sneak attack on Port Arthur without declaring war, and His Majesty Nikolai estimated that this would be like a thunderous uproar." Marchar said with a little teasing.

Nicholas II's words "There will be no war between Russia and Japan, and I don't want to fight now" can be regarded as well known, but the Japanese did not give face and directly slapped Nicholas II in the face with their actions, and it is indeed possible that Nicholas II's temperament was raging in the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg.

"I didn't expect the Japanese to move so quickly, the Russians only asked Korea in January to exercise the right to harvest forests from the king of Korea in 1898, and before the month had passed, Japan took the lead." Foreign Secretary Bilo shook his head: "But they actually didn't declare war, just like they did 10 years ago, don't these yellow-skinned monkeys have a little bit of morality?" ”

Rosen, the Russian minister to Japan, received a diplomatic note on the severance of diplomatic relations handed over by Japanese Foreign Minister Komura Shotaro on February 4, and before the two countries officially declared war, the Japanese attacked the Russian Pacific Fleet first.

"This is not surprising, because the only way for the weaker Japanese to win is to take them by surprise, but as things stand, the Japanese have not achieved much success by surprise, and the disadvantage they face has basically not changed. The sneak attack first and then the declaration of war, and the sneak attack has not changed the situation of the two sides, and I am not very optimistic about Japan's performance in this war. Kerter commented.

Kerster's assessment is not out of contempt for the Japanese and the same groundless disparagement as the Russians, but the Japanese obviously launched a sneak attack, but they failed to do anything to the main force of the Russian Pacific Fleet, so the strength in the hands of the Russians at this time is fully capable of a battle.

Therefore, it is really difficult to give a good evaluation of Japan's clumsy appearance, the main force of the Russian navy has not been damaged, and the army has an absolute advantage, it is too unscientific to foresee that the Japanese can win this war, with the German way of thinking, how can you think that the Russians will be so useless after the performance?

Just after the Japanese handed over the diplomatic note on the severance of diplomatic relations, the Russian minister Rosen naively asked: "Doesn't this mean war?" ”

And just 4 days later, the Japanese answered him with actions.

On 8 February, the protective cruiser Tsukushi, which was in the port of Incheon in the name of evacuating overseas Chinese, was actually trying to distract the Russians, and was frightened by the new protective cruiser Varyag, which the Russians had ordered from the United States, and the gunboat Koryo, whose tonnage was not much smaller than their own, and even fled quietly after dark.

However, just as the Russians laughed at the yellow-skinned monkeys for their cowardice, and ran away before they could do anything with them, the Tsukushi blocked the port of Incheon with five cruisers, including Asama, Naniwa, Takachiho, Akashi, and Shintaka, led by Kuayu Waiyoshi, and eight torpedo boats.

When the Goryeo attempted to leave the port and return to Lushun to report that the shape was wrong, however, all the sailors of the Tsukushi actually lined up on the first class to salute the Korean, and the Koreana had to return the salute with the same team, the Japanese 9th Torpedo Boat Team's Yan and Pigeon torpedo boats rushed out and fired torpedoes at the Korean, forcing the Korean back into the port of Incheon.

On 9 February, the captain of the Varyag, Colonel Rudnev, decided to leave the harbor to break through and sink the warship if the battle was lost. At an absolute disadvantage, the Varyag and the Koryo engaged the Japanese ships for 50 minutes, and the Varyag sank a Japanese torpedo boat and made several hits on the Japanese cruiser, but it itself was heavily damaged and flooded.

Seeing that he could not break out, Rudnev returned to the port of Incheon and decided to detonate the ammunition depot, but because the commander of the neutral warship in the port believed that the explosion would affect other ships, the Varyag sank in the port, and the Korean detonated the ammunition depot and sank.

At the same time that the fleet led by Gua Sheng Waiji blocked the sea off Incheon, the main force of the Combined Fleet from the Japanese port of Sasebo had also arrived outside Port Arthur, preparing to launch a sneak attack on the main force of the Russian Pacific Fleet in the port. (To be continued......)