Compared with the United States, the combined national strength of Britain and France was not enough to challenge the Tang Empire, but this did not mean that the British and French navies were not capable of threatening the imperial navy.

Before the First Global War, Britain had been the most formidable opponent of the Don Empire. It can be said that, to a large extent, it was with the support of the Western powers led by Britain that Japan became entangled with the Tang Empire for hundreds of years, and threatened the Tang Empire several times. From the 1200 years of Tang Li to the outbreak of the first global war, the Western powers exported a total of more than 20 billion yuan of war loans to Japan, of which Britain alone built more than 30 large warships and other large warships for Japan. Before the rise of the United States, supporting Japan to counterbalance the Tang Empire had always been the basic national policy of Western countries, especially Britain. This is the same reason that the Tang Empire supported Germany to counterbalance the Western powers.

After the First Global War, Britain's national power shrank further, not to mention contending with the Tang Empire, and even maintaining its dominance in the North Atlantic was extremely difficult. In particular, the rapid rise of the German navy, if it had not been for the assistance of the United States and the economic crisis that almost completely destroyed the foundation of the German economy, I am afraid that by the time the war broke out, the British would have lost their naval supremacy in the North Atlantic.

Unable to continue to contend with the Tang Empire, the British made a clever choice to unite with the United States, more precisely with the help of America's great national power, in order to maintain British maritime supremacy in Europe. In other words, Britain's basic national interest at this time was to maintain naval supremacy in the North Atlantic and its several colonies on the west coast of Africa, and the responsibility of countering the Tang Empire had been handed over to the United States.

As an island country. The foundation of Britain's survival is the navy. For hundreds of years, it was also the navy that the British poured all their strength into developing. After the onset of the economic crisis, Britain did not hesitate to even sacrifice the army. to make sure that Britain has a navy that is stronger than all the countries around it.

But the problem is, by this time. Britain envisaged that the number one enemy was no longer the Tang Empire, whose tentacles had left the North Atlantic and retreated to Cape Town in the South Atlantic, and it was the German Navy that really posed a mortal threat to Britain.

On the ground, the British could not defeat the German Army. Moreover, Germany's tactical air force was unique in Europe at that time, and almost no country could compete with it. Therefore, to ensure that the British mainland is not invaded, it is necessary to develop the navy and the air force to defend British airspace. This is also reflected in the ground performance of the British Navy's warships. After the First Global War, all the new warships of the British Navy were designed for the warships of the German Navy of the same period, and their performance was basically required to surpass the latest warships of the German Navy, rather than continuing to be on par with the Tang Empire.

This brings up a new problem, the German Navy was not strong enough in the first place, not even "strong". Britain chose such an opponent, on the one hand, to reduce the pressure on the country, and on the other hand, the development of the British navy was gradually abandoned by the Tang Empire and the United States. As a matter of fact. A comparison of the naval development strategies of Britain and Japan at that time is completely clear. Japan has always had the Tang Empire as its number one rival, so its naval warships have always been designed for the Tang Empire's newest warships. The emergence of the "Yamato" class was to completely overwhelm the "new provincial capital" of the Tang Empire's naval territory

Class battleships. And the best that Germany started building before the war was nothing more than the "Bismarck" class battleships, and it is undeniable that the "Bismarck" class battleships are a very delicate one. And very strong warships, which was already reflected in the skirmish naval battle in the North Sea. But the problem is that the "Bismarck" class battleships were not the most powerful battleships in the world at that time, whether it was the "New Provincial Capital" class of the Tang Empire, or the "South Dakota" class and "Iowa" class in the United States, they were actually more powerful than the "Bismarck" class. Therefore, the battleships designed by the British for the "Bismarck" class could hardly compete with the "New Capital" class in terms of performance.

Comparatively speaking, the French Navy was even worse than the British Navy, and on the surface, the French Navy was slightly stronger than the German Navy, but in reality, the French Navy was only a foil.

France's comprehensive national strength has always been inferior to Germany's, but France has two advantages. One is that France only needs to deal with Germany as an adversary on land, and not needs to be deployed in three directions like Germany, so the pressure on France on the ground is much lighter than that of Germany.

The other is that France is the front line of the European continent, the barrier of Britain, and an effective pawn against Germany, so France has always received direct support from Britain and the United States. It is precisely because of these two advantages that France is vigorously developing its army, and it is also striving to build a Euro II navy second only to the United Kingdom.

The French Navy also has clear requirements for the performance of warships, because of the limitations of its own shipbuilding capacity and industrial base, France cannot build world-class warships, but French warships are very distinctive. For example, most of France's capital ships at that time used quadruple turrets, while only the British used this method except for the French, and all other countries used twin or triple turrets. In addition, the French warships have always paid attention to speed, and the requirements for firepower are not high, and the protection is also appropriate. Of course, the biggest adversary of the French Navy was not the Germans, since the main area of mission of the French Navy was not in the Atlantic, but in the Mediterranean, so the main adversary of the French Navy was the Persian Imperial Navy. This is also the basis of the French Navy's strategy of targeted development.

Comparatively speaking, the Persian Empire was even worse than Germany. Although after the first global war, the Persian Empire used the proceeds from the sale of oil to obtain large sums of money and purchased several battleships from the Tang Empire, the problem was that the Persian Empire itself did not have the supporting shipbuilding capacity, and the quality of its officers and men was frighteningly low. On the contrary, the German Navy has been insisting on building warships on its own, rather than building them up through purchases. Therefore, the opponent chosen by France was even worse than that of the British navy, and the French itself did not have much pressure at sea, so the French navy was naturally far inferior to the British navy.

While waiting for the fleet to arrive, Tan Renhao and Chang Jianxin spent a lot of time getting to know the British and French naval warships. These are two completely new opponents, opponents that they have not taken very seriously before. And to defeat the opponent. Then you must first understand the opponent and understand the performance of the opponent's ground battleship, which can be regarded as the most basic homework.

The British Navy built several classes of battleships and battle cruisers after the war. But after the war contacts, the naval arms treaty limited the various naval powers. In particular, the limitation of the displacement of battleships eventually led to the fact that almost all the great powers did not build new battleships during this period, and even decommissioned a large number of old battleships built before the First Global War in order to reduce the total tonnage of battleships. The same was true of the British Navy, during this period. The main work of the British Navy was to make extensive improvements to several types of battleships built during the First World War to improve performance. But like all the other powers, the British Navy knew that sooner or later the naval arms treaty would lose its validity, and after that, it would have to hurry up and build the best warships in the world, so the British Navy began design work on new battleships years before the naval arms treaty took effect. Thanks to the rapid progress of technology, after the 20-year treaty period has passed, the new battleships built by various countries have qualitatively improved their performance compared with any previous type of battleship.

The first new type of battleship built by the British Navy was the "King George V" class. This is the second type of battleship named after "King George V" (the previous one was built at the end of the First Global War).

Battleships of this class were designed at a time when the treaty had not yet expired, so it bears a clear "treaty trace". It is generally classified as a "treaty-type warship". Construction began in 18 years, five ships of the same class, namely: "King George V". HMS Prince of Wales, HMS Duke of York, HMS Anson, HMS Howe. The biggest criticism of this class of battleships is that its 14-inch (about 356 mm) main gun caliber is the smallest among the warships of the same period. And there were only ten guns (the original design was twelve), and the firepower was significantly weaker than the battleships of several other powers of that time. It is commendable for its excellent horizontal armor design, as well as the new anti-torpedo design, and the fact that it is the first battleship in the world to be built with a radar explicitly.

The performance of the battleships of the "King George V" class was enough in front of the German Navy (in fact, not much better than the "Bismarck" class, and in many respects inferior), but much worse than the new battleships of the Tang Empire, the United States, and even Japan. Therefore, then the British put forward a request to develop better battleships on the basis of the "King George V" class. This is the "Lion" class.

The displacement of the "Lion" class has increased a lot compared with the "King George V" class, and the biggest change is that it has been replaced with three triple 16-inch (about 406 mm) main guns, which is relatively close to the American battleship design at that time. However, the biggest problem with the ship is that the interior space is small, the room for upgrading is very limited, and its performance is not fundamentally improved compared with the "King George V" class. At the outbreak of the Great War, Britain once wanted to cancel the construction of the "Lion" class, but later with the entry of Russia into the war, the pressure on Britain was reduced a lot, and the construction work of the "thing" class was resumed. There are four ships of the same class in this class: "Lion", "Brave", "Conqueror", and "Fury". The last one entered service only in the middle of 25.

In fact, both types of battleships had a fatal flaw, that is, a serious lack of air defense, and if they were to enhance their air defense, it would be necessary to overhaul the layout of the ship, which was very difficult to do. Therefore, at the beginning of 22, the British Navy proposed that a battleship with better air defense capabilities should be developed, and it must comprehensively surpass the "King George V" class in terms of performance. And this is where the battleships of the "avant-garde" class came from.

In October 23, the construction of the lead ship of the "Avantgarde" class, that is, the "Avantgarde", officially began. The main features of this class of battleships were the use of four twin 15-inch (approx. 381 mm) main guns for the main guns, the use of high-level dual-purpose secondary guns, and a large number of anti-aircraft guns. The most commendable aspect of this is its excellent seamanship, which fully reflects the British mastery of warship design. Of course, compared to the battleships of the Tang Empire and the United States at that time, its firepower was still slightly insufficient. But the biggest problem is that this battleship is still under construction, and the construction plans of other battleships of the same class have not yet been determined!

Comparatively speaking, the main warships of the French Navy were much worse. Not only in terms of performance, but also in terms of numbers, classes and much less than the British Navy.

The first type of capital ship built by France after the First Global War was the "Dunkirk" class battleship, which was also called a battle cruiser. It was designed for the German Navy's small battleships of the "Deutschland" class. Thus, the speed of the battleships of the "Dunkirk" class reached 295 knots, which was quite amazing in those days, and the emphasis on speed can be regarded as a centuries-old tradition of the French Navy. However, the main gun caliber of the battleship was only 330 mm, and the layout of the turret was extremely unreasonable, and the thickness of the armor of the battleship was the worst at that time. Because of this, some people believe that the "Dunkirk" class should be included in the ranks of battle cruisers, and should not be counted as battleships. And there are only two ships of this class, namely "Dunkirk" and "Strasbourg".

The best battleship that France started building before the war was the "Richelieu" class, and its first ship was started in 17 years, while the "King George V" class of the British Navy was still being designed, and it can be said that the "Richelieu" class was the best battleship in Europe at that time.

The displacement (full load) of the "Richelieu" class was close to 50,000 tons, and its speed reached an astonishing 32 knots, which was later surpassed only by the "Iowa" class. And in 17 years, I am afraid that no country would have thought that battleships would need such speed.

Its main guns were eight quadruple 380 mm guns, and its armor was not weak, better than most battleships of the time. But the problem is that until the outbreak of the war, the first three ships were not built, and their construction period was the longest in the world at that time. Ships of the same class were: "Richelieu", "Jean Bar" (also known as "Baron Jean"), and "Clemenceau".