"What? The Imperial Congress of China approved the export of four super-dreadnought battleships to Colombia? ”

"How is this possible?"

"Are you joking internationally? It's not April Fool's Day! ”

International public opinion was in an uproar, and no one expected that the Chinese Empire would export the killer super-dreadnought battleships to the outside world, and it was to Colombia, a third-rate country in South America. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

"What's going on?"

International public opinion has speculated about the intentions of the Chinese Empire, and the British Empire public opinion reports speculated that this is the Chinese Empire is preparing to meddle in South American affairs, before the Chinese Empire helped the Brazilian Emperor Pedro II to restore and established a strong alliance with the Brazilian Empire, and now relations with Colombia are warming, with the intention of wooing Colombia as an ally.

The French newspaper published a commentator's article saying that this is a blatant cultivation of power in the Caribbean, with the intention of making trouble in the backyard of the United States, and exporting four super dreadnought battleships to the Colombian Navy, which is enough to kill any dreadnought battleship in the United States Navy in an instant, once the Colombian Navy is equipped with these four super dreadnought battleships, it will dominate the Caribbean Sea, and even the entire American continent is not an opponent, once China and the United States go to war, these four super dreadnought battleships of the Colombian Navy are very likely to cooperate with the Caribbean Fleet of the Chinese Imperial Navy, Attack the American Navy together.

Countries in South America, such as Venezuela, Argentina and Chile, are nervous because they all have a history of war with Colombia and fear retaliation from Colombia. In particular, Venezuela is next to Colombia, and the two countries have about the same land area, but Venezuela is more abundant in resources and has always been peeped at by Colombia.

In today's South American countries, the most advanced warship is the ironclad ship, and there is not even a decent dreadnought battleship, let alone a super dreadnought-type battleship.

Once Colombia is equipped with four super-dreadnought battleships, it will definitely crush the navies of South American countries.

The New York newspaper complained: "The Chinese empire is too shameless, and it supports Colombia behind it, not only with the intention of containing the United States, but also by harshly pit the United States and France recently." ”

The commentary pointed out that the Chinese Empire, in collaboration with Colombia, sang and made peace on the Panama Canal, making it difficult for the developers of the United States and France, forcing the United States and France to add a huge cost of 200 million yuan to the original 300 million yuan for the construction of the canal, and this money is said to have been divided equally between the Chinese Empire and Colombia, and the reason why Colombia had the money to buy the four super dreadnought battleships of the Chinese Empire was because of the huge amount of money of the United States and France.

As soon as the news came out, the whole world was shocked and in an uproar again, it turned out that there was such inside information about the Panama Canal, which was really amazing.

Relatives and enemies are fast!

As allies of the United States and France, the British Empire, the Russian Empire, the Japanese Empire, the Dutch Republic, and the Portuguese Empire have all expressed their condemnation of the Chinese Empire and the United States of Colombia, which they consider too shameless.

As the countries concerned, the United States and France were extremely sad, especially Grant and El, who were directly involved, when they learned that the Chinese Empire was interfering in the Panama Canal, and the Colombian government intended to let the Chinese Empire take over the Panama Canal, but the two leaders panicked and did not find out that this was a trap, and as a result, the Chinese Empire and Colombia were pitted together.

The Panama Canal is like bidding in an auction house, and the Chinese Empire is a childcare, constantly raising the price, and as a result, Grant and El have to increase their investment, an additional 200 million yuan than the expected investment of 300 million yuan, and they are miserable.

Now Grant and El are very sorry and vomit blood in anger, but they know that they have been trapped, but they cannot admit that they have been cheated, and they can only say that after the successful digging of the Panama Canal, they can not only make huge profits, but also have a huge strategic military role, and even have to instruct some newspapers to defend this and make the people believe that the government has not suffered a loss.

is a typical beating, and you have to swallow your anger and tell others that you were accidentally injured.

One can imagine how aggrieved and angry Grant and El were.

Half a month later, the annual Entente summit was held in London, and American President Grant, French Prime Minister Eyre, Japanese Prime Minister Ito Hirobumi, and Tsar's special envoy Storay, these five countries are the main parties, all of them are indispensable, and the personnel sent are also the highest, in addition to the Netherlands and Portugal, which are just small countries and have no right to decide, so they only send special envoys to participate in the meeting symbolically and obey the orders of the five countries.

This meeting was very important, and the five major members of the Entente had made adequate preparations in advance.

"According to our intelligence, the four Xianxia-class battlecruisers of the Chinese Empire have completed the final sea trials, and in two months, the final outfitting will be completed, and they will be delivered to the Imperial Chinese Navy for service. According to the news, four of the four super-dreadnought-class battleships of the Chinese Empire, the Thor-class battleships, were launched one after another last month, and according to the progress, it is inferred that the superstructure and main gun system should be installed, and they should be completed within the next year, and they will be put into service in a year and a half at the latest. ”

Speaking was Japanese Prime Minister Hirobumi Ito, who said that at present, the main intelligence gathering of the Entente against the Chinese Empire is entirely dependent on the Japanese special high school spy organization. This is because the Japanese, as Asians, are no different from Chinese in appearance, and it is easier to blend into the Chinese Empire than to be detected. The spies of Britain, the United States, France, and Russia are all white, and they are easy to be noticed and discovered by the Chinese Imperial Police and Intelligence Bureau, while the overseas Chinese trained in the West are also easy to be discovered by the Chinese Empire because they are too far away from the Chinese Empire and have huge cultural differences.

"This is too fast, it's only been two years, and the shipbuilding industry of the Chinese Empire is so strong!"

"I really didn't expect that our intelligence also said that the four Thor-class battleships of the Chinese Empire would be launched next year, and it seems that they were fooled by the Chinese Empire again, or the Japanese agents are powerful, so easy to detect."

Countries complained or praised the Japanese agents for their awesomeness.

Ito Hirobumi smiled bitterly: "Ladies and gentlemen, we Japanese agents also paid the price of blood. As you know, the Chinese Empire's counter-espionage capabilities are very strong, and we have lost a large number of agents. This time to reconnoiter the Thor class battleships of the Chinese Empire, our agents were on the submarine of the Great Japanese Empire, and they have been lurking in the sea area 200 nautical miles away from the coastline of the Chinese Empire, and the Chinese Imperial Navy dispatched a large number of warships and anti-submarine destroyers to search for the Xianxia-class battlecruisers during the sea trial, and we dispatched ten submarines, nine of which sank, and the last one survived, because it was hiding under the fishing boat, and the sonar system of the Chinese Empire had a dead end. ”

Countries sympathized and expressed their gratitude for the contribution of the Japanese Empire.

At the same time, American President Grant's eyes lit up and said: "So, the anti-submarine destroyers of the Imperial Chinese Navy also have blind spots, and they can't detect submarines hidden under the fishing boats?" ”

Hirobumi Ito nodded, "That's it!" ”

"Great!" Grant suddenly became excited and said: "This must be kept secret, once the war breaks out, our submarines want to blend into the Pacific Ocean and attack the warships of the Imperial Chinese Navy, they can be camouflaged under the fishing boats to avoid the anti-submarine reconnaissance of the Imperial Chinese Navy." ”

William frowned and said, "However, once the war breaks out, the Chinese Imperial Navy will not let our fishing boats go!" ”

Grant laughed, "You're so brainless, why are we using our fishing boats?" We can disguise ourselves as ships of neutral countries, not necessarily fishing boats, but cruise ships, cargo ships, etc.! ”

French Prime Minister El said: "Okay, we are not studying submarines and fishing boats, the super dreadnought battleships of the Chinese Empire will soon be put into service, and we have not come up with a countermeasure until now, have we been oppressed by the Chinese Empire all the time?" Our Majesty the Emperor of France is already very unhappy! ”

Everyone was silent for a moment, and in the face of the Chinese Empire's super-dreadnought-type battleships, countries also wanted to build super-dreadnought-type battleships that could match them as soon as possible, but unfortunately the technological gap was too great.

William sighed and said: "Our sea minister, Mr. Fisher, has worked very hard, but the current steam turbine test power is still not ideal, if you want to push a battleship close to 40,000 tons, you have to reach a speed of more than 25 knots, you must install at least 28 sets of boilers, but so many boilers occupy a lot of space and tonnage, and will inevitably squeeze the weight of armor and main guns, and 28 sets of boilers burn coal or oil, which is simply a bottomless pit, and you need to load more than 5,000 tons of crude oil to ensure endurance, And this consumes a lot of space and squeezes tonnage, no matter how we plan it, it doesn't make sense, unless ......"

"Unless what?"

Everyone asked, looking very anxious.

After all, the super dreadnought battleships of the Chinese Empire have been launched, and the super dreadnought battleships of various countries are still entangled, which delays the precious strategic time of the navies of various countries.

William smiled bitterly: "Unless we cut the armor protection!" ”

"Cut armor protection?"

Everyone was stunned for a moment, and then they all frowned.

"Isn't that the same as changing a super-dreadnought battleship to a super-dreadnought battlecruiser?"

With the same firepower and speed, if armor protection is drastically reduced, it will not be a battleship, but a battlecruiser of the same class.

In the eyes of everyone, they all know that battleships are invincible, but battlecruisers do not dare to guarantee tickets, after all, the armor is too thin, and if a battleship of the same level is touched a few times, it will be miserable.

"You mean strategic deception?"

Grant asked suddenly, and he noticed that William didn't seem to be too nervous, so he had this guess.

William was also taken aback, not thinking that his intentions had been discovered by Grant.

So he smiled bitterly: "The Chinese Empire has carried out strategic deception and deceived us many times, so I am also thinking about whether to carry out a strategic deception as well!" ”

Japanese Prime Minister Hirobumi Ito was suddenly shocked and hurriedly objected: "No! It's too dangerous! You must know that the strategic deception of the Chinese Empire is to deliberately reduce its performance on the basis of the original and show weakness to the enemy, so that even if war breaks out, it will take advantage. But if the Chinese Empire is not fooled and goes to war with us, then will we suffer a great loss? ”

William said helplessly: "What is now in front of us is that the four super dreadnought battleships of the Chinese Imperial Navy have been launched, and they will not be more than a year and a half away from service, and once they are put into service, they will cause us serious military oppression." We need time to improve the performance of the steam turbines, and this time we will build a batch of battlecruisers, and I believe that in less than three years, we will be able to solve the performance problems of the steam turbines, even more than the Chinese Empire. It's only been three years, and I don't think it's possible for the Chinese Empire to find out that there is fraud. ”

El agreed: "I agree too! In fact, it is impossible to see the thickness of the armor when building battlecruisers and battleships, and unless a war breaks out and the two sides open fire, we can know whether the armor protection of both sides is strong or weak. At present, the Chinese Empire does not seem to have the intention of taking the lead in provoking a war, otherwise in the past ten years, their naval power would have already reached Europe! ”

Grant also has nothing to say, at present, the United States is also developing its own steam turbine, armor and artillery technology, and has also encountered bottlenecks, and wants to turn to the British Empire, but the British Empire does not seem to be able to solve it.

"If it's just a short-term strategic deception, I believe you can still give it a try in three or five years! As His Excellency William said, we need to build a large number of battle cruisers anyway, after all, the Chinese Empire also has a large number of battle cruisers, and we must not lag behind in this regard. As the Chinese Empire's seas expanded, they had to invest more and more naval power if they wanted to control the world's oceans. If we build one, the Chinese Empire will probably build three or four ships in the future to deal with it, and it is also possible to use this kind of arms race to drag down the Chinese Empire. ”

The Russian envoy Storay finally couldn't help but say: "Mr. President, the cost of building a battlecruiser is twice as high as building a battleship, that is to say, the Chinese Empire builds a battleship, and we build a battlecruiser and emerges from the battleship, which is actually equivalent to us spending money on building two battleships, not that we drag down the Chinese Empire, but that the Chinese Empire drags us down!" ”

Grant was suddenly embarrassed, and glared at Storey fiercely, which pot is not opened, if you don't want to be so direct, you can't save some face!

Although there is a bit of a hiccup, the countries really have no way to balance the Chinese Empire, so they can only temporarily use the method of building battle cruisers to deceive the Chinese Empire, so that the Chinese Empire thinks that all countries are building super dreadnought battleships, so that the Chinese Empire will be afraid and will not easily provoke wars and will not easily bully countries.

In the end, the countries reached an agreement to build a total of nine super-dreadnought battlecruisers, which were claimed to be super-dreadnought battleships, of which the United States allocated 4 ships, the British Empire allocated 4 ships, the French Empire allocated 4 ships, the Russian Empire allocated 2 ships, the Japanese Empire allocated 2 ships, and the Netherlands and Portugal allocated 2 dreadnought battleships each.

After the meeting, the Entente Group issued a joint communiqué to make public the large-scale naval shipbuilding plan.

The purpose is clear, that is, to let the Chinese empire and the Allied bloc know.

Thus, the ultra-dreadnought naval arms race provoked by the Chinese Empire, the Entente group finally began to respond.

A large-scale global naval arms race has once again reached a climax. (To be continued.) )