"What do you say? Did the Spaniards sell the island of Cuba to the Chinese Empire? ”

Grant's face was shocked, his mouth was wide, and his eyes were wide.

"Yes! Only 20 million yuan was sold! ”

"Also, Spanish Puerto Rico and the Spanish Virgin Islands are given away for free!"

Grant sat on the sofa for a moment and muttered: "The Chinese Empire only spent 20 million yuan to buy the island of Cuba from Spain, and buy one and get two free, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands!" ”

Poof!

Grant was so angry that his lungs exploded, and he vomited three liters of blood in an instant and fainted.

Just three days ago, the Confederate States of America and the Chinese Empire reached an agreement under which the United States transferred the occupied territory of Cuba to the Chinese Empire for 20 million yuan.

As a result, as soon as the US troops withdrew from Cuba, it was revealed that the Chinese Empire had reached an agreement with the Spanish Empire, and the Spanish Empire transferred Cuba to the Chinese Empire for 20 million yuan, along with Spanish Puerto Rico and the Spanish Virgin Islands.

Due to the successful operation of the Chinese Empire, it was clever that neither the American nor the Spanish Empire knew that they had sold the island of Cuba to the Chinese Empire.

For the Spanish Empire, the economy was also dragged down by the Spanish-American War, and even though the Spanish Empire royal family was very rich, it was also squeezed dry by the Chinese Empire in the past four and a half years. In order to purchase the advanced weapons and equipment of the Chinese Empire, the Spanish Empire paid more than 110 million yuan. Even the United States could not afford to pay the price of 3 billion US dollars (200 million yuan), let alone Spain, whose economy is far inferior to that of the United States.

Because Spain was unable to support the war, the Spanish royal family planned to end the war, but for the sake of face, they could not take the initiative to end the war, and as a result, the Chinese Empire took advantage of the loophole. The Chinese Empire's offer to buy Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands played into the hands of the Spanish Empire, which quickly agreed.

With the same idea as the United States, the Spanish Empire planned to transfer Cuba to the Chinese Empire, so that the Chinese Empire would go to war with the United States and avenge the Spanish Empire.

As a result, both the American and Spanish empires were pitted by the Chinese Empire.

In a Spanish-American war that lasted for four and a half years, the Confederate States of America paid 3 billion US dollars (200 million yuan) for the war, received 20 million yuan, and finally paid 180 million yuan. The Spanish Empire paid 1.2 billion pesos for military expenses, plus 1.1 yuan for the purchase of equipment and medicines from the Chinese Empire, and in the end only received 20 million yuan, losing 110 million yuan, and also paying Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands three colonies.

On the other hand, the Chinese Empire sold weapons and equipment and military supplies worth 110 million yuan to the Spanish Empire, with a gross profit of 68 million yuan, minus the 40 million yuan spent with the United States and Spain, and made a net profit of 28 million yuan.

The Chinese Empire has made a lot of money, and the whole world is envious, jealous and hateful, especially the American and Spanish empires, which are even more angry and vomiting blood.

Since then, the Chinese Empire has a strong territory in the Caribbean Sea, and the islands of Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Spanish Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands, which were previously purchased from the British Empire, have been combined to become a complete Virgin Islands.

The Imperial Chinese Navy soon formed the Caribbean Fleet, which plunged directly into the backyard of the United States, posing a huge strategic threat to the United States. At the same time, the Chinese Empire also cut off the influence of the United States on the Caribbean, Central America, and South America.

For a time, the Chinese Empire was unmatched, and it became a powerful empire that shocked the whole world.

As for the Japanese Empire, there really can't be anything to make the Chinese Empire happy.

However, the Chinese Empire still sent commissioners to negotiate with the Japanese Foreign Minister.

"Nani? The Chinese Empire actually asked for 30 million yuan? How can this be reasonable, it is too bullying! ”

Knowing that the emperor was suddenly angry, he flipped the table and paced back and forth. All the civil and military officials of the Japanese cabinet immediately bowed their heads in shame.

"Not only that, but the Chinese Empire has even more excessive demands! They demanded that the Empire of Japan give the Yokosuka Naval Base a concession to the Chinese Empire for a period of 99 years. ”

"Nani? Put Kaya Deer! ”

Knowing that the emperor suddenly stumbled, he almost fell out of the air.

"Your Majesty, be careful!"

"Fuck off! You bunch of shit! ”

Knowing that the emperor was angry, everyone lay down and shots.

At this moment, Prince Nohisa suddenly stood up and said, "Your Majesty, Foreign Minister Katsura Taro obviously won't negotiate, and if you change ministers, it will definitely not be like this." ”

Knowing that the emperor was stunned for a moment, he always felt uneasy about this brother. But Prince Nohisa has always been very low-key, and he didn't give the Emperor Mingzhi a handle.

"Can you do it?"

"How do you know the result if you don't try? There won't be any worse results than this one anyway! ”

Mingzhi frowned and asked the other ministers for their opinions, but half of the ministers supported it, which made Mingzhi feel pressured and even more suspicious.

"Go ahead, if you fail, you will lose the face of the royal family, I will not spare you!"

Knowing that it was decided to let Prince Nengjiu negotiate, if the negotiations were unsuccessful, then he would be severely suppressed.

"Yes!" Prince Nengjiu received the order, but he sneered in his heart.

No one knew about Prince Noku's secret relationship with the Chinese Empire, he had been secretly accepting the support of the Chinese Empire, and now he was able to win the support of half of the ministers, which was closely related to the help of the Chinese Empire.

Each time, the Chinese Empire caused trouble against the Japanese Empire, and then Prince Nohisa stepped in secret, regaining trust over time and accumulating a large amount of power, preparing to regain the throne one day.

Prince Nohisa personally intervened, and the Chinese Empire then sent a favor, canceled the conditions for the forced rent of Yokosuka, and reduced the cost to two million yuan.

When the news reached Edo, the Japanese people sang and danced, and for a time Prince Nohisa's approval rating rose sharply.

Knowing and aware of the threat, he tightened the checks and balances on Prince Nohisa, and a thick black cloud suddenly shrouded over Japan.

The matter of the Viking group came to an end for the time being, and the Chinese Empire blackmailed Britain, the United States and Japan fiercely, and let the British shoot themselves in the foot, which could be regarded as a bitter revenge, so they stopped the sea attack operation, so that the people of the world praised the Chinese Imperial Navy for not only being powerful, but also defending world justice.

For a time, the international prestige of the Chinese Empire was unparalleled.

However, Britain, the United States, and Japan suffered a big loss, and obviously they would not give up, but secretly they had been preparing for revenge.

The submarine of the Imperial Chinese Navy was invincible in the world, and the success of the Sea Wolf tactics made Britain, the United States and Japan feel the imminent and serious military pressure. The three countries invested heavily and began to conduct scientific demonstrations and tests against anti-submarine warfare.

In April 1885, Second Lieutenant Levi, an engineer of the British Imperial Navy, successfully developed a water listening device for the first time, which was more than ten years earlier than the first water listening device in British history, and was forced by the Chinese Empire.

With the water listener, the British Empire instantly understood why the anti-submarine destroyers of the Imperial Chinese Navy were able to easily find British submarines.

However, the British's water listening device equipment is still relatively primitive, and the effect is very poor, they can only passively listen to the sound of the underwater propeller, and their sense of bearing is poor, and they can only feel that the submarine is nearby, and they cannot effectively judge the location.

At this time, the sonar system of the Chinese Empire has been continuously improved more than a dozen times, and its performance is incomparably powerful, and it only takes one minute to lock the speed, course and depth of the submarine under the surface.

At the same time, the Imperial Chinese Navy has set up a special sonar unit, and the military academy has set up a sonar soldier course, and the cadets have begun to systematically learn sonar technology and anti-submarine technology.

In this regard, Britain was just starting out, without professional knowledge of the system, relying on its own exploration, far behind the Chinese Empire.

But the British were already excited, at least they found the right way and direction to fight the submarines of the Chinese Empire.

In addition to the water listener, the naval construction of Britain, the United States and Japan continued to strengthen, even if it was attacked by the sea wolf tactics of the Chinese Imperial Navy some time ago, and suffered heavy economic losses, the governments of the three countries seemed to feel that they could break the jar, and instead paid more attention to naval construction.

Invisibly, the powerful navy of the Chinese Empire forced Britain, the United States, and Japan to unite more and increase their determination to develop naval forces.

In response to the construction of four powerful battleships equipped with 343-mm guns approved by the Chinese Empire's naval defense budget last year, the British Imperial Navy was forced to increase the naval defense budget, tighten its belt and allocate funds, and build four battleships equipped with 14-inch guns.

Similarly, the U.S. Navy can also share the intelligence of the British Navy and obtain the latest shipbuilding technology of the British Navy. In fact, the British Navy did not want to give the United States, after all, after defeating the Chinese Empire, the United States was most likely to become the new hegemon of the world and become the enemy of the British Empire. It's just that the Chinese Empire was so powerful that the British had to go all out to win over the United States.

Fortunately, the United States did not disappoint the British Empire, and it was still very effective in confronting the Chinese Empire, at least satisfying the strategic purpose of the British to contain the Chinese Empire.

Especially in the result of the Spanish-American War, the United States was pitted by the Chinese Empire, and Grant was so angry that he vomited three liters of blood and vowed to take revenge on the Chinese Empire, which invisibly helped Britain and made the Anglo-American-Japanese alliance stronger.

This time, the U.S. Navy took on more pressure on the Allied defense budget, and the Triple Alliance of Britain, the United States, and Japan should build at least six battleships in response to the military pressure of the Chinese Empire in the Pacific.

The British, American, and Japanese distribution criteria are 2 ships from the United Kingdom, 3 ships from the United States, and 1 ship from the Japanese Empire.

In addition, the British Empire had to defend against the naval military pressure of the Imperial German Navy in the Baltic direction, so it had to build an additional 4 battleships, for a total of 6 battleships.

But the economy of the British Empire was severely damaged by the Chinese Empire's Seawolf program, and the construction of 4 battleships was already difficult, so the other two battleships eventually ceded to the American Navy.

Similarly, the Japanese Navy borrowed money from Britain and the United States to buy Fuji-class battleships, but now the loan cannot be repaid, so it cannot afford the defense budget of one new battleship. Because as battleships entered the dreadnought era, the caliber of the main guns became larger and the tonnage became larger and larger, and the construction cost became more and more expensive. The construction of a battleship of more than 25,000 tons equipped with a 14-inch cannon cost as much as 3 million yuan, which was by no means something that the Japanese Empire could afford.

As a result, Britain and Japan were overwhelmed, and the U.S. Navy had to independently bear the defense budget for all six new battleships.

After the British Empire began construction of four Queen Victoria-class battleships, the British Empire provided the full set of technology, and the American Navy quickly began construction of six Virginia-class battleships.

The class as a whole is still a replica of the Queen Victoria class, but the details are slightly different. In addition to carrying 12 14-inch (356 mm)/45-diameter guns (4×3), the displacement exceeded 30,000 tons for the first time, and the armor also reached 13.5 inches, while the number of secondary and rapid-fire guns was greatly increased. It includes 22 127-mm secondary guns, 40 40-mm rapid-fire guns, and 50 20-mm machine guns.

The main reason for the installation of so many secondary guns and rapid-fire guns was that the American Navy was affected by the Sino-British naval battle of Solomon. In that naval battle, the rapid-fire guns on the battleships of the Chinese Empire were so ferocious that the British Navy's battleships were not sunk, but the entire superstructure was razed to the ground and lost its combat effectiveness.

Thus, the American Navy, borrowing from the advantages of rapid-fire guns, made the first large-scale attempt on a Virginia-class battleship.

The six battleships were the USS Virginia, the USS Ohio, the USS Missouri, the USS Wisconsin, the USS Maine, and the USS Nebraska. The first two ships were designed and built in full accordance with the British drawings, and the last four American navies began to explore and sum up experience on their own, hoping to get rid of the control of the British Empire and realize the ability of the United States to develop its own territory.

This has something to do with the Grant government, after all, although the United States is allied with the British Empire, it also has the same American dream, that is, to defeat the Chinese Empire and seize world hegemony, obviously after defeating the Chinese Empire, I am afraid that the relationship with the British Empire will not be so harmonious, so the Americans are now beginning to take precautions and use British technology to develop local industries.

The move of the United States immediately attracted the attention of the Chinese Empire.

The Imperial Chinese Navy built 4 new battleships, and the American Navy went so far as to build 6 new battleships. The Chinese Empire used 343 main guns, and the United States used 356 main guns, which was clearly a declaration of war in the air.

When Li Weiguo learned the news, he was immediately very happy.

Previously, the Chinese Empire built dreadnought-class battleships for the first time, introducing the global navy into the dreadnought era, and overnight making all the old battleships of all countries around the world obsolete, becoming scrap metal and suffering heavy losses. Subsequently, the Chinese Empire has been strictly secreting steam turbine technology, without mentioning the installation of a steam turbine system on the new dreadnought-class battleships, with a speed of more than 21 knots, which crushed the new dreadnought-class battleships of European and American countries.

Deliberately silent, just to pit European and American countries, let them build a copycat version of the dreadnought battleship, as long as there is no steam turbine technology, the speed will not exceed 18 knots, in this way, the more European and American countries build, the greater the loss in the future. The final result is bound to be cheated, don't want it.

"Wowhaha! Let's build it, build it hard! ”

"The more you build, the worse you end up pitting!"

"Wowhaha!" (To be continued.) )