At the end of the nineteenth century, when there was no concept of air supremacy, sea supremacy was the goal pursued by the great powers. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

There was no doubt about the strength of the American Navy, and as Grant's health deteriorated, Roosevelt became the supreme leader of the entire United States, the actual ruler of power.

Roosevelt was a soldier who grew up in the Spanish-American War and was highly valued by Grant. As a result, he was influenced by Grant and became a representative of hawkish figures. In particular, in terms of attitude towards China, he was the most affected, and regarded the Chinese Empire as a mortal enemy.

As of February 1894, the U.S. Navy had 18 battleships and 12 battlecruisers, but of the 18 battleships, 12 were dreadnoughts, and the other six were declared to be ultra-dreadnought battleships.

However, after the Grant dictatorship, the United States' comprehensive national strength grew rapidly, concentrating America's human, material and financial resources, making another breakthrough in steam turbine technology, reaching the standard of super-dreadnought battleships proposed by the Chinese Empire.

Previously, Roosevelt also once played a conspiracy, planning to secretly sink a warship of the Chinese Empire and salvage the wreckage for research. Later, it turned out that the scientists in the United States were not much worse than the scientists in the Chinese Empire, and under the pressure of Roosevelt, they finally completed the task of developing high-performance steam turbines.

In September 1893, the U.S. Navy took the lead in using the newly developed Lawrence steam turbine to start construction of the first truly ultra-dreadnought-class battleship in the history of the U.S. Navy.

The displacement of the Arizona-class battleships is basically the same as that of the previously built Rhode Island-class battleships, reaching a displacement of 38,000 tons.

The tonnage of the Arizona-class battleships has decreased, but the caliber of the main guns, the speed of the aircraft, and the armor have greatly surpassed the Virginia-class battleships, indicating that in the past five years, the United States has made rapid progress in science and technology, which has reduced the size and weight of the same equipment.

When it came to the Arizona-class battleships, the target of the American Navy was still the Thor-class super-dreadnought battleships that the Chinese Imperial Navy had started construction in 188-9, because the U.S. Navy did not have a super-dreadnought battleship in the real sense before, but used the super-dreadnought battlecruiser to pretend to confuse the Chinese Empire and the Allied bloc and win strategic breathing time.

It must be said that this strategy of the American Navy was successful. Although the Chinese Empire also had doubts in this regard, in the spirit of preferring to believe that it had something to believe rather than not to believe it, in the end it had to treat the super-dreadnought battlecruisers built by the American Navy as the same as super-dreadnought battleships.

However, a gap is a gap.

The Chinese Empire treated the battlecruisers built by the American Navy as battleships, and for this reason, the Chinese Empire built a number of battleships.

In this way, the American Navy felt more pressure, because they knew that they were not building battleships but battlecruisers, and in the event of an engagement, it was obvious that they would not be able to compete with the Imperial Chinese Navy.

Therefore, when the American Navy was able to build super-dreadnought battleships, they had to start construction in large numbers to fill the gap left by the capital ships left by the last five years in the shortest possible time.

The construction of the Arizona-class battleships started in 1893, and the American Navy began to build seven in one go, namely the USS Arizona, the USS Pennsylvania, the USS New Mexico, the USS Colorado, the USS Maryland, the USS Tennessee, and the USS California.

The Arizona-class battleships were equipped with 12 MK15 381 mm 45 times the diameter main guns (triple × 4), and the American Navy originally wanted to directly use the 406 mm main guns, after all, at this time, the Chinese Empire had already started to build the Fury-class battleships, and the Fury class was equipped with 406 mm guns.

Unfortunately, an accident occurred in the development of the 406-mm gun in the American Navy, which led to the failure of the tests. As a result, the United States had to temporarily abandon the 406-mm main gun and change to a 381-mm main gun, but it was only 45 times the diameter, which was not as good as the 381 mm 50 times diameter main gun of the Thunder-class battleships of the Imperial Chinese Navy.

The secondary guns were armed with 22 MK7 127 mm 50x guns, 20 MK8 37 mm 50x radial rapid-fire guns, and two 533 mm underwater torpedo tubes.

Its main armor belt 343 (forward) - 203 (backward) mm, conning tower 406 mm, deck 88 mm, artillery protection main turret 457 mm, gun mount 330 mm.

It can be seen from the thickness of its armor protection that although the American Navy is aware of the key protection of the conning tower and artillery, it still focuses on defending against shell attacks in the horizontal direction, because its horizontal deck is only 88 mm armor, which will cause the horizontal deck to be directly penetrated once the ship is attacked by shells at an angle of more than 30 degrees.

Of course, this cannot be blamed on the engineers and designers of the American Navy, after all, the American Navy has not participated in large-scale naval battles between super-dreadnought warships, not even naval battles between dreadnought battleships, and has no real combat experience, so naturally it cannot be understood.

In short, the Arizona-class battleships, the first class of super-dreadnought battleships of the American Navy, are aimed at the Thor-class battleships that have been built by the Imperial Chinese Navy, but they are inferior to the Thor-class battleships in terms of overall performance.

But for the American Navy, they have come a long way.

In Roosevelt's words, if the United States is given another five years, it will certainly be able to catch up with the pace of the Chinese Empire.

However, the Chinese Empire would not give the United States this opportunity.

Li Weiguo has already decided to start a war against Japan in the first year of the First Sino-Japanese War, which may detonate a world war at the same time, and the United States will be forced to get involved in the war, at that time their Arizona-class battleships may not have been launched, and the Chinese Empire will not only have Thor-class super dreadnought battleships, but the more powerful Fury-class battleships will also be in service.

At that time, the Imperial Chinese Navy will become incomparably powerful, and the American Navy will not be able to come up with a battleship of the same class that can compete with the super dreadnought battleships of the Chinese Empire.

In the operations hall of the General Staff of the Chinese Empire, operational staff officers from various departments began to systematically assess the strength of the American Navy.

Because the United States is the most powerful in the Entente camp and the closest to the Chinese Empire, and its comprehensive national strength is second only to the Chinese Empire, it is listed as the number one enemy by the Chinese Imperial Military and is taken seriously.

"We propose to launch an attack on the Eastern Fleet of the American Navy at the same time as the attack on the Combined Japanese Fleet."

"At present, the U.S. Navy has the Eastern Fleet and the Asian Fleet in the Pacific Ocean, of which the Asian Fleet is stationed at the Yokosuka base in Japan, and will be annihilated in Edo Bay as soon as possible."

"The Eastern Fleet of the American Navy, currently stationed at the San Diego Naval Base, has 6 battleships, all of which are dreadnought, built 22 years ago in Guanghua (1888), and there are more than a dozen armored cruisers and frigates left, which are not to be worried."

"The main forces of the American Navy are on the Atlantic side, and they are afraid that they will be attacked by the Imperial Navy, so they do not dare to put their main fleet on the Pacific side."

Zhang Xiaoliu suddenly asked: "The main fleet of the American Navy is not on the Pacific side, there are only six Dreadnought-class, and they are not the opponents of the Imperial Navy, they can destroy the Japanese Combined Fleet first, and then go back and destroy them." ”

Lin Jiyun objected: "This is wrong! At the same time that we attack the Japanese Combined Fleet, the American Navy will be ready for battle, and although they will be destroyed by us regardless of their convenience, it is better to be defenseless. Besides, we will not only destroy the American Eastern Fleet, but also the San Diego Naval Base, when the main forces of the American Navy will come from the direction of the Atlantic, and without a suitable naval base and repair shipyard, they will not be able to hold out for long. ”

Zhang Xiaoliu said: "We don't need them to hold out for long, this war must be resolved quickly, and if it drags on for a long time, it will cause a serious burden on the empire's economy." The Panama Canal will also be completed next year, when the U.S. Navy will only need a month to reinforce the Pacific Ocean from the Atlantic, and I will have the Army storm Panama, seize the Panama Canal, and block the American Navy's attempt to enter the Pacific Ocean through the Panama Canal. In this way, the American Navy can only make a detour from South America to the Pacific, and your Navy has enough time to set up an ambush halfway and destroy the main force of the American Navy in one fell swoop. ”

Lin Jiyun shook his head and said, "Of course, this is a reason, but have you thought about it?" It may not only be the American Navy, but also the British Imperial Navy, the French Imperial Navy, and the Tsarist Imperial Navy may form a joint fleet to fight into the Pacific Ocean together, and it will be a tragic Armageddon, and any straw may be the final blow that breaks the camel's back, so we don't hesitate, six Dreadnought-class battleships are also not a small combat power, eat them first, and be prepared. ”

Zhang Xiaoliu retorted: "It is unlikely that the British Imperial Navy, the French Imperial Navy, and the Tsarist Imperial Navy will come to the Pacific Ocean, after all, there are still German Imperial Navy, Austro-Hungarian Navy, and Turkish Imperial Navy in Europe. ”

Lin Jiyun said: "Don't trust the German Empire too much, they will always put the interests of their country first." You must know that if the combined naval fleet of Britain, France, the United States and Russia appears in the Pacific Ocean, the German Empire will be happy to jump high, because this is a dragon and tiger fight, after a tragic battle, the outcome is unpredictable, we will win, but also have to pay a huge price, when the German Imperial Navy retains its strength, will replace the empire's maritime supremacy. ”

Zhang Xiaoliu was stunned for a moment, secretly thinking that the German Empire did have this idea, and wished that the Chinese Empire would fight to the death with Britain, France, the United States and Russia.

Whichever side won, it would be the result of both sides, and it was undoubtedly the best situation for the German Empire.

Therefore, if the navies of Britain, France, and Russia entered the Pacific Ocean, the Imperial German Navy might not do its best to stop it, and it was even possible that it would deliberately not intercept it, deliberately release the water, and watch the joke of the Chinese Empire.

For the sake of national interests, Zhang Xiaoliu has to admit that this is very possible.

Thinking of this, Zhang Xiaoliu stopped insisting.

The Naval Operations Department proposed to attack the Japanese and American navies at the same time, and the Pacific Fleet of the Imperial Chinese Navy was divided into two routes, with the main fleet attacking the Japanese Combined Fleet and the American Asian Fleet in Edo Bay. A detachment was also detached to attack the day after the Battle of Edo Bay.

According to the plan of the Admiralty, after the Battle of Edo Bay, the Entente may declare war on the Chinese Empire the next day, so they would never have dreamed that the Imperial Chinese Navy would attack San Diego on the same day, because even if the San Diego Naval Base knew that China and the United States were at war, they would think that the main force of the Chinese Imperial Navy was in Edo Bay, and it would not be possible to appear off the coast of San Diego within a week.

Psychologically speaking, when a person knows that his enemy will attack him in seven days, then he will relax and prepare for the first six days, and he will lose his guard.

The intention of the Admiralty was to bridge this time gap, after all, the Chinese Empire had a radio system, and even if it was thousands of miles away, it could communicate and command at any time.

"When the Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific War broke out one after another, the Indian Ocean Fleet of the Imperial Navy in Djibouti on the Red Sea, the Mediterranean Fleet of the Imperial Navy in Cyprus in the Mediterranean, and the Caribbean Fleet of the Imperial Navy at bases in Cuba and Puerto Rico would all be attacked by the Allied navies at the first opportunity."

"Our strategy is that the Indian Ocean Fleet will blockade the Red Sea with all its might, use the Djibouti naval base as a base, and deploy radium on a large scale at sea between the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean to prevent the Entente fleet from coming from the direction of the Suez Canal. The Mediterranean Fleet used Cyprus as a base to harass the Allied navies and stall for time. Similarly, the fleet in the Caribbean was to harass the Allied navies, stalling as much time as possible to buy time for the army to seize the Panama Canal. ”

"The above is the second phase of the operational objectives of the Imperial Navy."

Next, it was the turn of the Army Operations Department to conduct a war game.

Compared with naval operations, army operations are relatively simple and intuitive.

According to Li Weiguo's guidance, even if a world war broke out, the Chinese Imperial Army should focus on defense in the early stage, and should not give the Russian Empire, the French Empire, and the British Empire an excessively high sense of crisis.

The purpose of this was simple: to concentrate the forces of the Tsarist Empire, the French Empire, and the British Empire on Europe and deal with the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Kingdom of Italy, and the Ottoman Empire.

The fundamental purpose of Li Weiguo's provocation of the world war was to weaken the power of the entire Western world, and even Germany, Italy, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire were the objects of Li Weiguo's calculations, and it was most in line with the national interests of the Chinese Empire to let the European powers consume each other.

The Imperial Chinese Army will be mainly defensive in the European direction, the African direction, and the West and South Asian directions, but in the East Asian direction and the North American direction, it will be mainly offensive.

That's right, Li Weiguo regarded Japan as a poisonous snake sleeping soundly on the side of the couch, and the United States as a tiger squatting on the doorstep, and the United States and Japan were the number one enemies of the Chinese Empire.

However, if the first phase of the navy goes well, then Japan will not have anything to fear, and Japan, which has lost its sea supremacy, will not be able to pose a threat to the Chinese Empire.

After the second phase of the Navy blocks the American Navy or eliminates the American Navy, the Imperial Chinese Army will launch simultaneous attacks on the North American continent from three directions: Alaska, Hawaii, and Cuba, placing the battlefield on the American mainland, and whether it wins or loses, the economy and industry of the United States will be completely destroyed, and the United States will be completely trampled under its feet. (To be continued.) )