The arms race between China and Britain is in full swing, and the shipyards of both sides are lined with warships waiting to be built.

The Chinese Navy has released to the world some data on the Dingyuan-class ironclad and Haiqi-class dominary cruisers, and announced the construction of nine additional ironclad ships and nine dominary cruisers in the next five years.

There is naturally moisture in the news, but how much moisture is included, countries can only see the wisdom of the benevolent.

The British Navy was most concerned about the development of the Chinese Navy, and they immediately convened a naval enlargement meeting to discuss countermeasures. British Prime Minister Benjamin was also invited to attend, which shows how nervous the British government is.

"Based on the intelligence obtained by our Navy's MI5, combined with the information released by the Chinese government itself, we roughly deduce that the nine new ironclad ships and nine new cruisers built by the Chinese Navy in the next five years should be an increase in displacement of 10% to 20% on the basis of the existing Dingyuan-class ironclad ships and Haiqi-class dome cruisers, that is, the displacement of the new ships is between 11,000 tons and 12,000 tons; The 12-inch 50x diameter twin gun was supposed to be used, since this artillery was technically mature and battle-tested, but it was not excluded that they would install a larger caliber gun on the new ship. The armor should not change much, it is still 300 mm wrought iron armor. The power system in most cases should use the existing proven technology, that is, the cruising speed of 14 knots and the combat speed of 18 knots, but the possibility of a small increase is not excluded. ”

Admiral Newcastle first gave a briefing to assess the performance indicators of the Chinese Navy's main battleships for the next five years for others to refer to.

Benjamin asked directly: "How does the performance of our navy's capital ships compare to theirs?" ”

Newcastle was slightly embarrassed and quickly replied: "Before, we underestimated the Chinese's ship-building technology, which caused the defeat of the Battle of Scarborough Shoal." In all fairness, the performance of the capital ships of the Chinese Navy far exceeds that of the Imperial Navy. ”

Benjamin went on to ask, "Now that you've evaluated the performance of the Chinese Navy's capital ships for the next five years, what are your plans?" ”

Newcastle then turned to Fisher, the Third Sea Lord, and asked him to answer.

Fisher then handed a report to Benjamin, explaining: "Based on intelligence assessments. As well as the Empire's shipbuilding technology, for the next level of capital ships of the Chinese Navy, I and the relevant departments jointly designed a set of shipbuilding plans, which I named the Revenge class. ”

The revenge-class battleship, designed by Fisher, the British Third Sea Lord, has a design displacement of 12,500 tons, and is equipped with two twin 12-inch 40-diameter main guns, 6 6-inch secondary guns, 8 3-inch close-in defense guns, and 2 Fish and Radium launch tubes. The armor is propelled by 14-inch wrought iron armor, 10 boilers, and two reciprocating steam engines, with a rapid speed of 14.5 knots, a combat speed of 17 knots, and a cruising range of 3,000 nautical miles.

Benjamin read the report and listened to Fisher's explanation, and soon he had questions.

"Fisher, why do I think your design is similar to the Chinese Navy's Dingyuan-class ironclad ship?"

Fisher blushed slightly. After all, it was a reference to someone else's design, but he still insisted: "Your Excellency, I can't admit that many designs are borrowed from the Chinese Navy's Dingyuan-class ironclad ships, because we have taken a detour in the design of warships before. Look at the ironclad ships we designed and built, all kinds of strange and problematic, and finally sank in the First Battle of Scarborough Shoal. It shows that our design failed, and the Chinese Navy succeeded with only one Dingyuan class, indicating that their design scheme is the direction of future naval warfare. It's worth learning from. ”

The mention of the Battle of Scarborough Shoal is tantamount to poking at the scars of the British government and navy, and everyone is gloomy.

Benjamin then asked: "I don't object to you borrowing from the design scheme of Chinese warships, but I don't understand, last time we suffered a big loss in the caliber and range of the main gun, and now that we know that the main gun of the Chinese Navy is 12 inches and 50 times the diameter, why do you still have to install a 40 times the diameter of the main gun, this is not the same as knowing that the opponent's main gun can hit 10 kilometers, but you install a main gun that can only hit 8 kilometers, isn't this still going to be beaten?" ”

In the face of Benjamin's questioning, Newcastle and other British naval officials, who knew the inside story, immediately lowered their heads in shame.

Fisher sighed and replied: "Your Excellency Prime Minister is right, it's not that we don't want to, but we haven't successfully developed a 12-inch gun with a diameter of 50 times the diameter until now, and at present we can only increase the diameter to 35 times, which is already the technical limit of our artillery factory, and even the Krupp factory in Germany, the most advanced gun factory in Europe, can only make a 12-inch barrel with a diameter of 35 times, and other countries can only make a 12-inch barrel with a diameter of 25 times the diameter at most." ”

This is a painful fact, in the history of the nineteenth century from the sixties to the nineties, although the ironclad ships of various countries are developing, the tonnage is getting bigger and bigger, but the maximum caliber of the main gun has not exceeded 12 inches (305 mm), and the maximum diameter is only 25 times, for example, the Dingyuan ship built by Germany for the Beiyang Naval Division of the Qing Dynasty at that time is this kind of Krupp cannon.

The core of the problem lies in the larger caliber and longer times the diameter of the main gun, the more serious the rifling wear of the rifling, a shell out, almost can lose one or two heavy iron filings, corrosion is more serious, in the absence of the rifling high temperature resistance, high pressure resistance, corrosion resistance, wear resistance of the inner chamber material came out, the largest caliber main gun of various countries are staying within 25 times the diameter.

Of course, there is one of the most important reasons, that is, since the appearance of ironclad ships in history, there has been no large-scale naval battle for decades, until the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese First Sino-Japanese War, so the navies of various countries do not know the huge tactical role brought by the range of the main guns in naval warfare.

At the same time, there is also a tactical reason, and that is the shipborne artillery sighting system. All countries are using mechanical sights for naval warfare, relying on the gunner's eyes to aim and fire, the sea conditions are bad, the distance is too far for the human eye to see clearly, so the British Navy has pursued the purpose of 3,000 meters of effective combat distance for decades, and the bore pressure of the main gun with a diameter of 25 times is enough.

These reasons have led to the fact that during this period of history, the main gun diameter of various countries has not changed much, and there is no special pursuit of higher diameter main gun development, after all, it is very expensive and has no market value.

But now it is different, the Chinese Navy under the leadership of Li Weiguo has rewritten the course of history, and the Chinese Navy's artillery aiming system has been upgraded from mechanical human eye aiming to sighting with optical instruments, and the observation distance has reached 10,000 meters, so the barrel chamber pressure of 25 times the diameter naturally cannot shoot the shell to a distance of 10,000 meters. As a result, the Chinese Naval Artillery Research Institute continued to develop a larger diameter of the main gun barrel, and under the guidance of Li Weiguo, a powerful naval gun of 305 mm and 50 times the diameter was finally born.

Now that the British Navy has been defeated by the Chinese Navy, they have to increase their efforts and funds to invest in the development of large-caliber and large-diameter guns, but they have not been able to find suitable rifling materials for the inner wall of the barrel that are resistant to high pressure, high temperature, corrosion, and friction for a while, and they can develop a 12-inch gun with a diameter of 35 times, which is enough to be proud of.

But the enemy of the British has a 12-inch gun with 50 times the diameter, and once this Nima fights, the British Navy will still suffer!

Benjamin was in pain, stood up and took two steps. It still hurts to pull the egg.

"Intelligence shows that the Chinese Navy has a new type of aiming technology that can achieve a high hit rate at a distance of 10,000 meters, and if our main guns do not reach a range of 10,000 meters, we will still be beaten."

"Your Excellency, we have considered your concerns, so we have increased armor protection, 14-inch wrought iron armor, which can absolutely protect against 12-inch armor-piercing bullets fired from 10,000 meters away."

Newcastle hastened to explain. In fact, he himself does not know if he can defend against it, after all, they cannot get the 305 main guns or shells of the Chinese Navy. The main reason why it can be prevented is to dispel Benjamin's concerns, so that he agrees to increase the allocation of funds and policy preferences for the navy.

"I hope you're right. I hope that in the next war, the British Imperial Navy will be able to wash away the shame. ”

"Revenge level is very good, it's called revenge, we just want revenge!"

Benjamin was busy. He didn't have time to listen to the report in detail, he came for only one purpose, and that was to see that the navy was confident that it would win the next war. Otherwise, he would never have allocated funds easily.

Before the twentieth century, the military expenditure of all countries accounted for more than 35% of the national financial expenditure, and Britain, as a maritime power, spent a very large amount of naval expenditure, as high as 20 million pounds, accounting for 50% of the country's total financial expenditure.

Now, in order to prevent the rise of China and maintain Britain's hegemony in the world, the British government has to continue to expand the financial tilt of the navy, since the Fourth Hip War, the British government's budget for the British navy in 1872 has reached 35 million pounds.

After Benjamin left, the first naval grant of 16 million pounds was quickly disbursed for the construction of 18 revenge-class ironclad ships for the navy, as well as to speed up the development of large-caliber naval guns and other research funds.

It can be said that the British are already going crazy, hoping to defeat China in a short time, after all, they can't afford to drag on an arms race with China for a long time. If China is not defeated this time, Britain's prestige will be further weakened, and its economy will be hit hard, and the consequences will be unimaginable.

Benjamin was gambling, and so was the Chinese Emperor Li Weiguo, far away in the Forbidden City in the East, and more insidious and cunning, digging a bigger and deeper pit for the British Navy to lure it in.

In the No. 1 dock of Jiangnan Shipyard, the Hsiungfeng-class battleship with a design of 12,000 tons of full load displacement is under construction in an intense and orderly manner.

The Hsiungfeng-class battleship is the third class main battleship of the Chinese Navy after the Weiyuan-class shallow water heavy gunboat and the Dingyuan-class ironclad ship, and it is also an all-steel battleship in the true sense of the modern navy.

Nine battleships of this class will be built, which is expected to be completed by the Guanghua decade (1876). Using the Chinese Navy's mature 305 mm caliber 50 times diameter twin main gun, rifled electroplated tungsten chrome material to improve the service life, the normal use of 39711 type armor-piercing projectiles, the life of 200 rounds, when using other types of shells, depending on the actual use of about 180 rounds ~ 250 rounds of floating.

Six secondary guns, 155 mm 50 times the diameter of the single guns, set in the earrings on both sides of the battleship. Due to the use of special steel construction, the same weight of the turret is much lighter than the traditional wrought iron manufacturing, and the space is also larger, according to the experience of the naval battle of Scarborough Shoal, the previous ear platform was vulnerable to heavy damage, so this time the armor protection of the ear platform was increased.

The number of 75-mm three-stage secondary guns was reduced, only eight were retained, and a large number of 40-mm rapid-fire guns were added.

This is a new type of rapid-fire gun, using the structural design of the Gatling machine gun, five barrels, chain feeding, the rate of fire is as high as 20 rounds per minute, mainly used to attack small high-speed ships and enemy superstructures, with the rate of fire enemy ship personnel as the mainstay.

This is a matter that Li Weiguo particularly told the relevant departments of the Navy to pay attention to, because after the Battle of Huangyan Dao, European and American countries soon learned about the two sharp weapons of naval warfare, submarines and fish and radium boats, and all countries are rapidly developing them, so the Chinese Navy must take precautions to prevent suffering big losses.

With the 40mm five-barreled Gatling rapid-fire gun, the success rate of enemy submarines and Fish and Radium boats when they approach will be very high, ensuring that Chinese warships are not attacked by such small ships, otherwise the losses will be large. After all, a small submarine is only 300,000 yuan, a small fish and radium boat is only 80,000 yuan, and a 10,000-ton all-steel battleship costs as much as 1.33 million yuan, which cannot be lost.

The overall appearance of the Hsiungfeng-class battleship is basically the same as that of the Dingyuan-class ironclad ship, but the material is no longer wrought iron, and all of them are replaced with high-quality special steel. In terms of armor, 240 mm thick nickel-chromium carbon steel is used as armor, covering the entire length and key parts of the battleship, and its armor protection capacity is equivalent to the traditional 350 mm thick wrought iron armor.

The power system adopts kerosene mixed combustion boiler and three-expansion reciprocating steam engine, and the thermal efficiency of the work is 10% higher than that of the Dingyuan-class ironclad ship, and the maximum speed of the 12,000-ton Hsiungfeng-class battleship can reach 19.5 knots, the normal cruising speed is 16 knots, and the endurance is 6,000 nautical miles.

Although the shape of the Hsiungfeng-class battleships has not changed much, the construction of steel saves tonnage and space compared to wrought iron, and can be used to carry more fuel, ammunition, and supplies, increasing staying power.

At the same time, the new optical sight matching with the Hsiungfeng-class is also under intense development, according to the plan, it will be equipped with the Hsiungfeng-class battleship before it enters service in three years, as for how far the effective range of the new sight can help the shipboard artillery, it is still unknown, but the Chinese Navy is confident in this and is slowly looking forward to it.

Li Weiguo has been sore recently, except for appeasing the hungry women in the harem every day, the state affairs are very relaxed, a lot of work can be completed by hundreds of civil and military officials, and the whole country is on the right track, Li Weiguo is naturally relaxed, and he doesn't have to bow down and be tired like a dead dog.

However, Li Weiguo soon found interesting things to do.

When he learned that Britain had allocated a huge amount of money to build a British naval force, Li Weiguo's stomach quickly poured out, and he wrote a paper called "On Sea Power."

That's right, it is the theory of sea power, which belongs to the historical Mahan writings, and his overview of the theory of sea power and giant ships and cannons has influenced the navies of all countries in the world for two centuries, and even in the 21st century, it is still regarded as a sacred canon.

Now, Mahan is still working hard at the bottom of the US Navy, and Li Weiguo once again exerts his doctrine of taking it, and does not blush at all and publishes "The Theory of Sea Power" under his own name to the world.

In addition to pretending to be forced, the deeper meaning is self-evident.

When the theory of sea power is promulgated in the world, the navies of all countries in the world will be guided to the road of giant ships and artillery.

This is a huge pit, the old Japanese navy in history was pitted, but now Li Weiguo wants to pit the British navy, because this is the pit that Li Weiguo dug for the British, as for whether other countries will jump into it together, it is unknown. (To be continued.) )