After the American Civil War, the development of ironclad ships entered a new era, and rotary battery ironclad ships became the mainstream.

China and Britain launch at least eight ironclad ships every year, and the tonnage is getting bigger every year.

In the first year, the ironclad ships on both sides were 8,000 to 10,000 tons, in the second year they reached between 12,000 and 15,000 tons, and in the third year they broke through the 20,000-ton mark.

However, because of the technical limitations of the steam engine in this era, in the case of multi-stage expansion of the steam engine, the steam engine is limited by the flash point of the lubricating oil, the maximum temperature of the steam can not exceed 200 °C, and the horsepower is difficult to break through 5000 horsepower, in order to maintain a certain cruising speed, 20000 tons has become a node, and a larger tonnage cannot maintain the speed of the main battleship.

Therefore, the capital ships of both sides basically maintain about 10,000 horsepower, 20,000 tons of class, and a speed of about 15 knots.

Moreover, the capital ship also developed to the era of full armor, the thickness of the armor reached the caliber of the cannon was also unified, and the British chose 4 16-inch (406 mm) caliber Armstrong steel front-loading rifled guns and 6 20-pounder steel breech guns. China chose all 305 caliber steel breech guns, the capital ship adopted a four-company battery design, and one battleship was equipped with sixteen giant guns.

The first phase of the arms race came to an end after the pinnacle design of the ironclad was discovered, and in the past five years, Britain built 42 ironclads of various types and China built 60 ironclads of various types. Both sides spent up to £50 million.

After the large-scale construction of both sides, the cost of a finalized capital ship has dropped significantly, and the average cost of each ship can be reduced to 800,000 pounds.

The timing of the Germans' entry into the arms race was good, as the pioneers had figured out the limits of the steam power era, and the shipbuilding industry in Germany had developed in recent years, and industrial giants such as Krupp had completed the layout in the shipbuilding industry and had the technical ability to build large steel ships.

So Germany immediately announced their ambitious shipbuilding plan, announcing that within three years, 50 million marks, equivalent to 25 million pounds, would be allocated for the construction of 30 first-class ironclad ships, which is equivalent to building 10 ships per year.

And there are only 16 such first-class ironclad ships in the UK, and only 20 in China. Britain immediately announced a follow-up plan to add 40 first-class ironclads to the British Imperial Navy, and in order to save money, the 10 cruisers planned to be built before were scrapped, and all the funds were used to build capital ships.

China has long given up the construction of cruisers and other auxiliary warships, and these fast warships used to escort ships are all handed over to overseas companies to maintain, stipulating that the fleets of the four overseas companies must ensure 20 10,000-ton cruisers and 40 cruisers of less than 10,000 tons to maintain shipping safety, while the domestic fleet will concentrate on developing capital ships for sea supremacy.

After Britain and Germany both announced their plans to build ships, the Chinese Navy immediately announced that it would build 80 first-class ironclad ships in the same three years, and at the same time eliminate a number of ironclad ships that are less than 10 years old, and these ironclad ships will be half sold and half given to overseas companies. It is used to save the maintenance cost of the navy.

China's iron determination to maintain twice the number of capital ships of the British stimulated the British, who have been suppressed by China on the ocean for many years, and have chosen to retreat as a result of many confrontations, especially in the confrontation between the Chinese occupation of Sicily and the Greek occupation of Albania, the humiliating concession of the British navy, so that the British people have lost their sense of security.

As a result, the British cabinet proposed, and the parliament unanimously passed, to maintain the number of capital ships at least at a level equal to that of China. The British immediately repaired the ship plan, demanding the same 80 first-class ironclad ships, while the Chinese announced that they would build 160 ships. The British gritted their teeth and increased the budget and expanded the three-year ship building plan to 120 ships.

Now it is no longer a question of money, but of productivity, the shipbuilding industry has ushered in a carnival, and all major shipyards have received heroic orders from the navies of various countries, and all the slipways that can build large ships are full of naval warships.

And in the competition of productivity, Britain finally lost. The British found that only 40 large warships could be built at the same time a year when they searched their own large slipways, while China's shipbuilding capacity was as high as 90 large ships a year. Among them, China can build 50 ships on its own soil, about 15 ships along the coast of North America, American companies have two bases in South America that can build large warships, European companies can build 10 large warships on the Black Sea coast every year, and African companies have the ability to build four. There are also scattered large military bases, such as Singapore, Suez, Congo and other places, all have large shipyards, which used to be only responsible for maintenance, and after improving equipment, they can have shipbuilding capacity in a short time.

The largest slipways were used to produce warships, which led to a sharp rise in shipbuilding prices and the suspension of construction of large merchant ships.

The shipbuilding industries of the two countries began to develop at a rapid pace, and the major shipyards took the deposit of the navy to expand the scale of shipyards and improve shipbuilding capacity while producing warships. The shipbuilding industry of the whole world is expanding. It led to the smelting of iron and steel, and the mechanical processing industry followed the expansion. Under the naval race, the world economy is actually growing.

This growth is certainly not benign, because it is the result of governments raising industrial markets in the short term through high debt.

This kind of economic growth, which is neither consumption nor investment, is not only unlikely to be sustainable, but will also place an increasingly heavy burden on national finances.

Relatively speaking, China's burden is actually lighter, because China is a super economy unimaginable to Europeans, the total Chinese population is 20 times that of Britain, the size of the economy is 15 times that of Britain, and it is not an unbearable burden to bear a military expenditure that is only twice that of Britain.

But for the UK, it is difficult to bear. 120 first-class ironclads, and because of the arms race, the price of shipbuilding skyrocketed, each priced at 1 million pounds, a total of more than 100 million pounds of expenditure, and the expenses that would need to be used to maintain this huge fleet in the future, let the British know what it means to tighten their belts.

Britain is starting to be overwhelmed, and countries whose economies are far inferior to those of Britain are even more struggling. Stimulated by Britain's additional shipbuilding program, the Germans also announced that they would greatly increase the scale of their own shipbuilding, increasing the number of ships built to 60 in three years, but the Germans found that the German shipbuilding industry could not bear this scale, because the German shipbuilding industry, which had only developed for a few years, was not a level compared with the British.

The Germans even stuffed their Polish shipyards with warships, and could only build a maximum of 12 ironclads at the same time a year.

However, German industry does not lack technology, nor does it lack skilled workers, and its ability to expand is extremely strong. Stimulated by naval orders, Krupp and other giants have opened new shipyards, striving to catch up with Britain in Germany's shipbuilding capacity in three to five years. The Germans planned the development of the shipbuilding industry, which was surprisingly fast.

But it still can't match China, which has expanded a large number of shipyards in just one year, increasing its shipbuilding capacity to a level that can produce 120 first-class ironclads per year, while Britain has only expanded to 60 ships per year.

The ironclad ships of various countries entered the sea like dumplings, quickly conducted sea trials, quickly armed their armies, and intensively conducted exercises in order to form combat strength as soon as possible.

After a dramatic increase in shipbuilding capacity, merchant ships still struggle to find shipyards to produce large merchant ships, as China begins to trick its allies into joining the arms race.

Although the British maintained double the number of capital ships, the navy felt that it should go all out, but it was difficult for the navy military budget to continue to expand indefinitely, so fooling the allies became a necessary way to share the pressure.

Under Chinese scuffle, or pressure, some allies began to join the naval race. North Korea accepted the offer to equip four first-class ironclad ships; Not to be outdone, the shogunate also decided to equip four first-class ironclad ships. The shogunate was built, and on the one hand, out of the desire to tie up with China, and on the other hand, they were worried that the shogunate would use its naval superiority to threaten the southwestern strong domain, so they also had to equip four first-class ironclad ships. The strong feudal domains in the northeast also need to equip four ships.

The East Asian allies combined were sixteen first-class ironclad ships.

Annan accepted the proposal to equip eight first-class ironclad ships. Annam lost the Red River Delta region in the north, but it was no weaker than Vietnam in later generations, because under the influence of China, the Nguyen clan completed the industrial revolution and the country increased greatly, and they annexed the weak Cambodia. Cambodia is a better country than the Red River Delta. Therefore, the population of Annam has reached more than 10 million, which is five times higher than that at the beginning of the founding of the country, and of course, there are a large number of Chinese immigrants who have emigrated to the Mekong Delta.

Siam, which has always been concerned about Annam's annexation of Cambodia, decided to purchase four ironclad ships to maintain its own security.

Egypt, which is increasingly dependent on China and has a dispute with France off the Mediterranean coast, has decided to equip 10 first-class ironclad ships to defend its maritime rights. The Balkan Empire, which is also a Mediterranean country, has also decided to continue to maintain its own right to speak in the Mediterranean region after both its territory and national strength have expanded, although it cannot be compared with China, Britain and France, it is still possible to benchmark Italy and Austria-Hungary, so the Balkan Empire, which is supported by the shipbuilding industry as the national strategic industry, decided to build thirty first-class ironclad ships in Greek shipyards. The Balkan Emperor reached an agreement with European companies, which would provide technical support to Greek shipyards, help them upgrade their shipbuilding technology and capabilities, and provide a full set of drawings for warships, while heavy artillery and other weapons that Greece could not produce for the time being would be purchased from European companies.

Among China's allies or quasi-allies, the most powerful is actually the South African Empire. Under the influence of African companies, the South African Empire suddenly decided to become a maritime power, and they announced that they would build a large fleet of 60 first-class ironclads, including a total of 150 warships of various types.

The Kingdom of South Africa has always insisted on being a vassal state of China de jure in theory, although China does not care much about the life or death of this vassal country.

Although the national strength of this vassal country is actually extremely powerful. With a population of more than 200 million and a vast and rich territory, they can get half of the world's gold production every year, and they can get half of it. The abundance of agricultural products made them a semi-industrial country relying solely on the agro-processing industry, and one-third of the country's population was separated from agricultural labor.

And at the same time give them the ability to maintain a navy that does not lose to any country in Europe.

Through the sharing of allies, quasi-allies and vassals, China's naval power in wartime is not twice as large as that of Britain, but triple.

This made the British despair.

Time is not on their side, and if they continue the arms race, they will either be dragged down by the endless arms race, or they can only accept the risk of losing their supremacy over the sea.

The cost of continuing the arms race already exceeds the cost of war.

The wisest option, then, is to start a war in advance!