After a long discussion, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has officially replied to the United States that it is willing to participate in the Washington meeting. In appointing the members of the delegation, he also laid down the following principles for negotiations: full support for the limitation of armaments, and no objection to general principle slogans such as "open doors", etc., but must resolutely maintain the "vested interests" in the Far East, especially in Siberia, and for this purpose the question of the status of the Philippines and Hawaii, the neutralization of the Panama Canal Zone, and the abolition of tariff barriers in India, French Indochina and the Dutch East Indies. and the issue of racial equality, which had been raised at the Paris Peace Conference, as a countermeasure against adverse circumstances.

Unable to sleep, Hirohito sat up from his bed, put on his clothes, and began pacing back and forth around the room.

The shadow of the sinking of the Kaga and Tosa and the destruction of the Amagi hit Hirohito again.

Although the news of the loss of these capital ships had been tightly sealed, and the details of the negotiations at the Washington Conference had been finalized, Hirohito's mind could not be settled.

The thought of the twelve terrible Chinese ships made Hirohito feel restless.

In fact, after the news of the defeat in the Battle of Busan, Hirohito was not as calm as the warlords and politicians in the country, and his real feeling was that a catastrophe was coming.

He could even imagine the annihilation of the fleet in a battle similar to the Battle of the Celtic Sea.

Because, it is not that such a possible surname does not exist.

The six "Republican" class battleships of the Chinese fleet can send almost all the main forces of the German High Seas Fleet, which is far stronger than the "Honorable" navy, to the bottom of the sea, and with the addition of six "Glorious" class battle cruisers, it is not too difficult to destroy the Navy.

The reason why such a tragic scene did not happen was that Britain, which was an ally of the Chinese Navy at that time, did not want to weaken the Chinese Navy too much and make the Chinese Navy a monopoly, so it managed to retain the six "Republican" class battleships of the Chinese Navy for a period of time, and because he and Yuan Jing made a timely and decisive decision to negotiate a peace and truce with China.

Although the peace with China was reached on rather humiliating terms (renunciation of Manchuria, Taiwan, the Ryukyus, and northern Korea), it gave him a precious respite.

But now the book has fallen into a dilemma.

In order to deal with the threat posed by China and the United States behind China, it is necessary to develop a large navy, but the current economic situation of the company simply cannot afford it.

Therefore, the Washington Conference was actually a good opportunity for Ben to use international treaties to bind his opponents.

Although the Washington meeting has not yet begun, the United States has already announced the agenda of the Washington meeting. The agenda of the Washington meeting is as follows: 1. The issue of arms limitation, including naval arms limitation, control of new war forces, and arms control of the army; 2. The question of the Far East in the Pacific, including the question of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, the question of China, the question of Siberia, and the question of the Pacific Mandate Islands. Among them, the Chinese said that the issue only touched on the territorial preservation of the two countries, the opening of the door, the equal industrial and commercial opportunities of each country, the development of railways, and the price of the currency, and excluded the Korean issue and the Ryukyu issue.

In terms of limiting naval armaments, as long as China can be successfully forced to join, it will be a victory for Yueben!

"As long as we can digest the resources of the eastern region of Siberia that we have already obtained, defeating China will not be a problem! It takes time! Time! ”

A voice shouted in Hirohito's heart, as if it was his grandfather, Emperor Meiji, reminding him and cheering up.

Hirohito involuntarily knelt on the floor, clasped his hands together, closed his eyes, and continued to listen to his inner voice.

Jiangnan Shipyard, slipway.

By this time, the hull of a large battleship on the slipway was almost complete.

Designer Dr. Fu Jing looked at the hull on the slipway and nodded with satisfaction.

"We'll be in the water in a few days." Lin Yuqing, the ship-building superintendent, said to Fu Jing with a smile, "The main thing is to get ahead of the United States meeting, hehe." ”

"That's nature." Fu Jing nodded, of course he knew what Lin Yujing meant by "the United States", "Actually, this meeting is really not at the right time, and I don't know how many frames will be set for us at that time." ”

"Yes, I'm afraid we won't be able to build big ships in the future." Lin Yuqing wanted to comfort him, but he sighed first, "If we are forced to dismantle the twelve big boats, Lao Tzu will not do it." ”

Fu Jing listened to Lin Yuqing's words, smiled confidently, patted Lin Yuqing's shoulder, pointed to the hull on the slipway meaningfully, and said: "The development of the navy must not stop, so no matter what the frame is, there are still loopholes to exploit." ”

At this time, what was being built on the slipway was the "Zodiac" class large cruiser designed by Fu Jing.

"This is our last armored cruiser in China, isn't it?" Lin Yuqing asked.

"Yes." Fu Jing nodded, "For our Chinese shipbuilding industry, this is the largest armored cruiser, and it should also be the last class." ”

The large cruiser of the "Zodiac" class is the last armored cruiser of the first class built by China itself. The standard displacement of the design is 20,350 tons, and the main dimensions are: total length 234.7 meters, waterline length 227.8 meters, mold width 27 meters, draft 9.29 meters. Power: GE steam turbine - "Pratt & Whitney" motor, four-axis push, power 168,000 horsepower, design speed 36 knots, endurance 15,000 nautical miles / 18 knots. The armament system of the "Zodiac" class large cruiser is 9 American-made MK4 280-mm 55-diameter naval guns, with three triple main turrets, two in the front and one in the rear, and 6 American-made MK15 twin-mounted 127-mm 51-fold diameter high-level dual-purpose guns, 3 seaplanes, and a catapult. In terms of protection, its main armor belt is designed with 200 + 50 mm and camber 19 degrees, the armored deck 140 + 80 mm, the armored compartment 50 mm turret 180-300 mm, the gun mount 250 mm, the command tower 220-350 mm. The observation and sighting optical equipment adopts two "Zeiss" optical 10-meter baseline shooting commanders and two "Nord" unified shooting commanders.

Since China has never been a naval power, in the eyes of the great powers and the Chinese themselves, it was not qualified to participate in the naval armaments conference, and the European powers that had just fought were not ready to fight with China, so in the case of almost no restrictions (except for money), the most powerful large cruiser in the current world navies appeared on the scene!

Like the "Republican" class battleships and the "Glorious" class battlecruisers, after the completion of the design work, due to the limited ability of China to build large ships at present, the eight "Zi Rat", "Ugly Cow", "Yin Hu", "Mao Rabbit", "Chenlong", "Si Snake", "Wu Ma", and "Wei Yang" of the "Zodiac" class cruisers were handed over to the Fore River Shipyard and the Philadelphia Navy Shipyard under the "Bethlehem Iron and Steel Heavy Industry" of the United States for joint construction, and the construction began on May 21, 1920. The "Shen Monkey", "Youji", "Hu Dog" and "Hai Pig" were imported from the United States by the Jiangnan Shipyard under the "Jiangnan Heavy Industry", and the construction of "Shen Monkey", "Youji", "Hu Dog" and "Hai Pig" was started in China on April 5, 1921.

"Did you hear that? In the Great Kanto Earthquake, two newly built battleships sank. Fu Jing said to Lin Yuqing.

"With my own style, they won't just admit it." Lin Yuqing said, "I will definitely spare no effort to build bigger and stronger things." He looked at the hull on the slipway with some melancholy, "Maybe it's bigger than our current 'Republic' class, and we're building these small ships instead." ”

"A 20,000-ton ship, you say it's a small boat?" Fu Jing looked at Lin Yuqing with some surprise.

"Compared with the ships we built in China before, of course they are big ships." Lin Yuqing said, "But if I make a huge ship with a capacity of 70,000 or 80,000 tons, isn't it a small boat?" ”

Fu Jing understood why Lin Yuqing said this, but he didn't argue with him anymore on this topic.

In the Battle of the Rails and the Battle of the Celtic Sea in World War I, the performance of the battleships that dominated the sea attracted the attention of the whole world and left an indelible impression on naval observers all over the world. Therefore, after the end of the war, the development of the world's navies focused on battleships, and the construction of larger and stronger battleships was not only still the goal of the navies of the great powers, but also the outstanding ship designers of all countries in the world racked their brains to focus on strengthening the surname of battleships, and China was of course no exception. Designers like Lin Yuqing also focused their design ideas on building bigger and stronger battleships.

"This meeting on limiting naval armaments will definitely limit the tonnage of capital ships." Lin Yuqing continued, "But the treaty has a time limit, and once the deadline expires, we must go back to the old way." ”

"Not bad." Fu Jing remembered the valuable new ship design materials and data that Yang Shuoming gave him in his safe, and nodded thoughtfully, "That's why we have to run in small steps, and we can't delay a little longer." ”

On October 1, 1923, the Washington Conference opened at the Continental Memorial Hall, which belonged to the palatial American Revolutionary Daughters' Association, and the agenda of the meeting included three major items: the limitation of naval armaments; Abolish the British Alliance; The Siberian question and the Pacific Mandate Islands. Present at the meeting were the United States, Britain, China, China, France, Belgium, Italy, and the Netherlands, with US representatives including Secretary of State Hughes, former Secretary of State Rutte, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Lodge, and Foreign Affairs Committee Chief Cook Party member Underwood; China's plenipotentiary representatives included Foreign Minister Gu Weijun, Vice Premier Zeng Qi, Minister to the United States Shi Zhaoji, and Attorney General Dr. Wang Chonghui, accompanied by a large number of senior advisers, including Zhou Ziqi, former Foreign Minister and Prime Minister, Lu Zhengxiang, former Foreign Minister, Admiral Cheng Biguang, and Vice Admiral Cai Tinggan, with a total of 130 Chinese delegations, four times the size of the Chinese delegation at the Paris Peace Conference. The delegates included Minister of the Navy Biao Tsugabe of the Navy, former Minister of the Navy Yuzaburo Kato, Ambassador to the United States Kishigero Bihara, and Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Masanaka Uehara; The British Imperial delegation was headed by Lord Balfour, former Foreign Secretary and Speaker of the House of Lords, and included Lord Lee, Secretary of State for the Navy, Ambassador to the United States, Geddes, and representatives of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and India; France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, and other countries have sent such figures as ministers of colonial ministers, members of Congress, ambassadors and ministers to the United States, most of whom are diplomatic experts familiar with the Far East.

At the first meeting of the Washington Conference held on the same day, Secretary of State Hughes did not deliver a traditional, elegant, and empty opening speech, as the delegates at the meeting had expected, but bluntly threw out the first card of the United States at the beginning: stop the naval arms race, and the six major naval powers, the United States, Britain, China, China, France, and the United States. It intends to reduce naval armaments in a ratio of 5:5:4:3:1.75:1.75, to abandon or sink all capital ships and auxiliary ships in excess of this ratio, and to completely stop building new capital ships in the next 10 years. "The whole world is watching this meeting to ease the heavy burden that comes with the arms race," Hughes said. The United States believes that we should meet this desire without delay. Hughes's speech won "thunderous applause" in the hall of the venue.

Reducing naval armaments was the direct cause of the Washington Conference; although Britain, China, and other countries had previously decided to abandon their shipbuilding plans because they could not afford huge naval military expenditures, they still had to fight for what conditions and proportions they could accept.

At the time of the Washington Conference, the ratio of the total tonnage of the navies of the United States, Britain and China was 7.5:5:7:4.9, and the ratio of tonnage of active capital ships was 10:6:7.2:6.8. If the part that has already started construction is counted, the ratio of capital ships becomes 10:7:9:8.7, and Britain no longer has much advantage, especially since the British capital ships are more aging than the United States. The United States hopes that the ratio of naval strength of the four countries will be 10:10:7:6, and China hopes that the ratio of the strength of the four navies will be 10:10:5:5, expressing its desire to reduce the navy and develop the economy, but it wants to maintain at least a ratio of 10:10:6:7.

Because of his stubborn insistence on maintaining a "70 percent" ratio to the United States, the atmosphere at the beginning of the Washington meeting was very tense.

The Americans do not understand that the "seventy percent theory toward the United States" has always been the basis of the Nakamoto naval policy, and this viewpoint originated in the last years of the Meiji era, when the Nakamoto naval strategists Yoshida Kiyokaze and Akiyama Shinyuki proposed that in a war with Britain and the United States, the Nakamoto Navy must retain at least 70% of the opponent's strength in order to have a 50% chance of victory; Tetsutaro Sato's credo is that the attacking fleet must maintain a force advantage of more than 50%, that is, 3:2, over the defending fleet, so the strength of the defending fleet must exceed 2/3 of the opponent's strength, reaching 70%, in order to have a minimum basis for a draw.

Based on the above-mentioned proposition, the Navy concluded that on the premise of the strategic assumption of the United States attacking and defending, if the Navy's fleet cannot maintain more than 70 percent of the strength of the US fleet, the result will be that it will not be able to prevent the outbreak of war in peacetime, and it will not be able to prevent the US fleet from attacking the coastal waters and the mainland of the United States and landing in the coastal waters and the mainland of the United States in wartime. The 1907 "Imperial Defense Policy" decided to maintain 70 percent of its naval strength with the United States as the main hypothetical enemy, and the 1918 revised version of the "Imperial Defense Policy" reaffirmed this idea, and on the eve of the Washington Conference, the "Committee for the Limitation of Armaments" stated that "it is absolutely necessary to have more than 70 percent of the naval forces against the United States, and there is absolutely no room for compromise below this ratio."

The views of the U.S. side on the comparison of U.S. naval forces are similar. In the materials submitted for the Washington Conference by the expert committee composed of Roosevelt and Admiral Koontz, Chief of Naval Operations, it was necessary for the United States to maintain a 3:2 superiority in forces in order to make up for the shortage of naval bases in the Pacific region. Secretary of the Navy Dunby finally approved the requirement to allow the United States, Britain and China to maintain a ratio of 10:10:6:6 to naval forces.

In accordance with the established policy before the trip, the delegation proposed amendments to Hughes's plan, saying that the ratio of the US Navy to at least 7:10 is at least 7:10, and Kato, a representative of the US Navy, who participated in the negotiations, said: "The US Navy's struggle for dominance in the Pacific Ocean and the contention between the United States and China will inevitably lead to a war for supremacy in the US Navy, and this is not conducive to a protracted war." …… The United States has a strong industrial strength, and there is no need to maintain a large armament in peacetime, even if it uses a standing force that is equal or inferior to the original force, it can still expand its fleet in time after the outbreak of war and maintain security. However, a country like this, which is absolutely inferior in terms of resources and industry, does not have a strong standing army in peacetime, and has nothing to rely on in case of crisis. Kato also claimed that as a sovereign country, Ben should have the same armaments as the United States, and maintaining 70 percent is the biggest concession. The chief representative of the Ministry of Finance, also believes that the ratio of 70 percent to Britain and the United States should be maintained.

Due to the stalemate between the two sides, the delegation has repeatedly asked for instructions from the country, and the Foreign Affairs Advisory Committee has instructed the delegation to insist on the 70 percent ratio, but the United States has not budged because the US Navy is not satisfied with the 10:6 ratio, believing that even according to this ratio, the US Navy will not be able to establish its absolute superiority in the Pacific Ocean (the reason for agreeing to such a ratio is based on the concept of joint operations between the Chinese Navy and the US Navy), and Britain also supports the US position, He even put forward a 10:5.5 requirement on the grounds that the US Navy should be spread across the two oceans, and the British Navy would be scattered all over the world, and that a 55 percent ratio of the two navies would be enough to establish absolute superiority in the western Pacific.

The United States said that the debate between the two countries over "60 percent or 70 percent" had become the biggest obstacle to reaching an arms limitation agreement, and in the face of joint pressure from the United States, Britain, and China, both Biao Biao of Finance and Yuzaburo Kato realized that a decision must be made.

(To be continued)