Aside from the U.S. Navy and the German Navy, the remaining maritime forces in the Far East are Russia, Britain, Britain and France.

In 1894, Russia produced 2.1 million tons of industrial steel and 6 million tons of iron, ranking fourth in the world. However, the Russian Far Eastern Navy at the moment has only two large armored cruisers and a number of coastal defense ironclads, protective cruisers and gunboats. The main forces of Russia's navy and army are concentrated in Europe, which is too far away from the Far East to pose little threat for the time being.

However, Wang Chenhao believes that Russia is adjusting its strategy, Nicholas II is actively aggressive, and there will be a war between China and Russia in the next five to ten years, and the medium and long-term threats are very great.

In 1894, the output of steel was 800 tons and the output of iron was 700,000 tons, ranking 17th in the world. The main force of the navy was destroyed, and within a few years there would be only a few old coastal defense ironclads and old cruisers of the West Sea Fleet, which would not pose a threat in three years.

In 1894, the Qing Empire produced 1,300 tons of steel and 1.9 million tons of iron, and the domestic demand was 120,000 tons of steel and 2.3 million tons of iron, almost all of which were imported.

Compared with the Westernization Movement of the Qing Empire, the reform of the Meiji Restoration was more thorough, and the development speed of the Ming Empire in the future was still faster than that of the Qing Empire, and the threat to the Qing Empire after three or five years was very high.

French pig iron production increased from 110,000 tons in 1820 to 3.38 million tons in 1894. During the Second Industrial Revolution, French steel production increased from 1.18 million tons in 1870 to 1.9 million tons in 1894, while in the United States it increased from 120,000 tons to 8 million tons in the same period.

Because France lost Alsace and Lorraine in the Franco-Prussian War, France's original industrial base was occupied by the Germans, otherwise France would not have fallen to the fifth place in the world, ranking behind Tsarist Russia.

The greater the achievements of the Germans, the more they hurt the feelings of the French, and the deeper and deeper the beams, this account will have to be settled sooner or later.

After all, France is an old industrial power, although it has been reduced to fifth, but hundreds of years of industrial accumulation have made France relatively strong. In order to maintain its overseas colonies, France had to maintain its navy at 60% of the size of the British navy.

Due to the British all-steel battleships, a large number of French battleships were immediately obsolete, and this loss was very large, and the French Navy finally started to build the Brenas class battleships after a few years of egg pain, imitating the British Sovereign class to build two battleships, the Brenus (Brennus) and the Charlesmartel (Charlesmartel), which were similar in configuration to the British Sovereign.

Since the French Navy is still in the exploration stage, it has not been built on a large scale, and the French Far East Fleet only has a number of old armored iron battleships and armored cruisers, since the Sino-French War, the French Navy has become very honest and does not easily provoke the Qing Empire, so Wang Chenhao believes that the threat of the French Far East Navy is not great.

In the end, Wang Chenhao set his sights on the United Kingdom.

In 1894, Britain produced 4.9 million tons of steel and 9.1 million tons of pig iron, ranking third in the world, second only to Germany.

However, for the British Navy, Wang Chenhao knew in his heart that it would be the world hegemon in the next twenty years, and no one would be able to defeat the British Royal Navy.

Since the launch of the first all-steel battleship, the Sovereign, the British Navy has been a frontrunner in new technologies. The navies of various countries imitated the Sovereign class to build their own all-steel battleships.

What Wang Chenhao wanted to buy most was a dreadnought-class battleship with a unified main gun caliber, but the kind of advanced battleships that crossed the era did not appear until 1905, and now even if Wang Chenhao proposes it, he has no ability to build it.

There is no dreadnought, so Wang Chenhao can only choose the best one from the former dreadnoughts of various countries.

Of the two battleships that Britain has built so far, one is the Sovereign-class battleship with the surname of the symbol, the other is a scaled-down version of the Bafleur-class battleship for Far Eastern Russia, but there is also a new battleship Majestic-class under construction.

In 1895, the British Royal Navy began construction of the 14,000-ton Majestic-class first-class battleship, which was designed by the famous warship designer Sir William White (sirwilliamwww.xstxt.orgk3 type of 40 times diameter 305 mm twin guns. The armor-covered hull bends under the armor belt, and the main gun is capable of firing armor-piercing shells with smokeless gunpowder, which is much more penetrating than the previous 305 main gun.

At the same time, in view of the improvement of the seaworthiness surname of the Sovereign class and the export Fuji class, Sir White no longer insisted on the top speed of 18 knots like the Fuji class, which would cause too much damage to the hull, but set the standard speed of 17 knots with better damage management, increased the stability surname, and at the same time raised the freeboard and widened the cabin, so that the warship's roll period reached 17 seconds, which greatly improved the ocean-going seaworthiness surname.

The British Navy had high hopes for the warship, planning to build as many as nine, and its reliability earned it to serve until after World War I, and it won numerous accolades for its seaworthiness in escorts.

This warship is undoubtedly the first choice, but in Wang Chenhao's opinion, the powerful guns of the Majesty class are disproportionate to her 203 mm Harvey steel armor protection. Both thickness and quality are inferior to the German Krupp armor, and under the same strike resistance, Harvey steel is weaker than Krupp by more than five to seven millimeters.

At this time, although the German navy was not as strong as that of Britain, Germany's advanced industrial technology was stronger than that of Britain. Wang Chenhao wanted the Dengyun-class battleships to use the Majesty-class design, but it was better to replace them with German Krupp armor. In this way, the Dengyun class will surpass the Fuji-class battleships in terms of firepower, protection, tonnage, and seaworthiness.

The speed of 17 knots in the majestic class will be better in terms of stability, and it is impossible for the Fuji class to maintain a speed of 18 knots for a long time, so there is no gap in the speed of 17 knots used by the Dengyun class.

Wang Chenhao built the blueprint for the Dengyun-class battleship, and Ding Ruchang and the others thought it was very good, so they waited for Li Hongzhang to come back and finalize it. However, it depends on how much money Li Hongzhang can get, according to Wang Chenhao's estimate, the unit price of the Dengyun-class battleship is at least more than 11 million taels of silver.

"That's too expensive, isn't it?" Ding Ruchang couldn't help frowning.

Wang Chenhao said with a smile: "This is just a bare ship, it only includes basic needs, if you install a telephone system and radio communication, it will cost 12 million taels." ”

Deng Shichang and others came over and asked: "We know the telephone system, there is a British Concession in Shanghai, but what is this radio system?" We haven't heard of it, what's it for? ”

Wang Chenhao was stunned for a moment, thinking that he had overdone it, but after thinking about it, this radio system had already come out in 1893, so he breathed a sigh of relief and said with a smile: "There is a man named Nikola Tesla in the United States, who first publicly demonstrated radio communication in St. Louis, Missouri, USA two years ago. You can understand that our telegraph can send and receive telegrams without wires. ”

"Radio, even if you don't use wires? It's new. Deng Shichang and the others were surprised, but they had heard the surprise from Wang Chenhao, so they were already immune, and they were not interested in radio.

Lin Taizeng said suddenly: "Just now Chen Hao said that he wanted to install a telephone and radio system on the warship, and this phone can transmit messages and orders in the ship, so there is no need to shout; And since this radio can be transmitted without wire, the fleets can use radio communication with each other, saving the trouble of not being able to read the flag clearly. ”

Liu Buyun said happily: "This is a good thing!" ”

"Good things must be expensive!" Ding Ruchang couldn't help but smile bitterly: "Chen Hao also said just now, plus these expensive equipment, how can you get 12 million taels of silver." Things are good, but it's a pity that our Qing Dynasty is poor and can't afford it. ”

Everyone immediately had disappointed expressions on their faces.