The submarines imported by European and American countries from the Chinese Empire are all called Seawolf submarines. Although each country has its own name, the international name is still the Seawolf XX type.

The weapons exported by the Chinese Empire were all downgraded by one level, so the export types of Xia-class, Shang-class, Zhou-class and Xihan-class submarines were named Seawolf 1, Seawolf 2, Seawolf 3 and Seawolf 4 respectively, and Seawolf 4 already had ocean-going combat capabilities.

The German Navy further named the export submarines of the Chinese Empire, separately named the UXX submarines.

This was recognized by the German Navy in view of the fact that the Chinese Empire used submarines to blockade the Atlantic Ocean and force the powerful British to submit. However, the surface ships of the German Navy could not break through the blockade of the British Navy, so they had to rely on submarines to break the engagement.

The Seawolf 4 submarine is only a downgraded version of the Western Han class submarine of the Chinese Empire, and the German Navy knows very well that if it wants to truly have the ability to break the engagement of submarines, it must obtain the real combat submarine of the Chinese Empire, at least it must obtain an advanced submarine that surpasses the Seawolf 4.

The arms dealers of the Chinese Empire obtained secret documents from the Imperial Ministry of [***] allowing the export of submarines below the rank of rank, and demanded that the technical standards be lowered, and the most advanced core technology for designing the Imperial submarines was banned from exporting.

In this way, the arms dealers of the Chinese Empire were authorized to export the Eastern Han class submarines on a large scale, codenamed Seawolf 5, and other Eastern Han class submarine technology was allowed to be exported except for the prohibition of the installation of sonar systems.

The negotiations between Germany and the Chinese Emperor [***] fire merchants were progressing very quickly, because the German side was very generous, and there was no objection to the Chinese Emperor [***] fire merchants asking for 1 million dragon coins for the Eastern Han Dynasty-class submarines, and the only requirement was to hope that the Chinese Empire could complete the supply of 200 Seawolf 5 submarines within three months.

The generosity of the German Navy has also won the favor of the Chinese Emperor's firefighters, with the strong naval industrial capacity of the Chinese Imperial Sea, it is possible to complete 200 Eastern Han-class submarines in 3 months, because the Chinese Empire's submarines of this class are already products seven years ago, and the technology is very mature compared to the promotion of the Chinese Empire's current service and Tang-class submarines.

In the summer of Guanghua 13, the Chinese Empire's armament expansion plan for the war against the United States drawn up last year was completed, including the completion of 30 upgraded submarines and 50 Tang-class submarines. At the end of last year, when the European war broke out, the Chinese emperor [***] side increased various military expenditures, including the additional budget for the construction of submarines, the original eleven Tang-class submarines, an additional 39 ships, and Guanghua 13 summer all completed.

Because the Imperial Chinese Navy's upgraded submarines and Tang-class submarines are fully capable of fleet operations, read-power-breaking operations, and anti-submarine warfare requirements, and they have an overwhelming advantage over the submarines of the U.S. Navy. In this way, the 49 Eastern Han-class submarines of the Chinese Empire that had been in service for more than 6 years could be decommissioned, so the emperors who were good at financial management bought the Eastern Han-class submarines from the Imperial Navy at a price of 400,000 dragon coins, dismantled the sonar system and other core equipment prohibited by the empire from exporting, and sold them to the German Navy at a price of 1 million dragon coins, which can be said to have made a lot of money.

After the German Navy signed an export agreement with the arms dealers of the Chinese Emperor [***], the first batch of 30 submarines were secretly delivered to the Bermuda Naval Base of the Chinese Empire within a week, directly received by the German Navy, and three days later they were put into the Atlantic Breaking Engagement, and soon achieved a series of impressive results.

In view of the Anglo-Chinese War, the Chinese Imperial Navy broke the war lessons of the British Empire, Britain vigorously developed the destroyer force, and in seven years Britain built a total of 400 destroyers of 13 classes, anti-submarine has become one of the biggest ideas of the British Navy, the purpose is not to repeat the history of the Sino-British War.

However, the British destroyers were passively waiting for the shortcomings of the German submarines in service, which generally lacked time. It was often after German submarines had sunk British merchant ships and warships that British destroyers rushed to the nearby waters to search. The attack was not possible until a few hours later, when the German submarine ran out of oxygen and surfaced.

After Germany obtained the Seawolf 5 (Eastern Han class) submarine from the Chinese Empire, the diving time was extended to 6 hours, and the diving depth reached 75 meters, making it impossible for British destroyers to effectively sink German submarines.

As the tonnage of sunken merchant ships continued to rise, British politicians and citizens once again fell into a panic, believing that German submarines would repeat the Sino-British Atlantic War of seven years earlier, and Britain would have to surrender after holding out for less than six months.

The British political axe was very panicked, and soon the British MI6 (Military Intelligence Agency 6) intercepted an important piece of information from the Chinese Empire, a British immigrant (agent) in the vicinity of the Chinese Imperial Navy's Huludao base learned from local fishermen that the Chinese Imperial Navy's hunting ships and submarines often conducted submarine warfare and anti-submarine warfare exercises. From the mouths of Chinese fishermen, it is known that not every time the submarine wins, and the anti-submarine destroyers of the Chinese Empire have won many times.

This news stimulated the British political axe, and the Admiral Churchill hurriedly foresaw the Chinese Imperial Chinese Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Li Jingfang, seeking help from the Chinese Imperial Navy in anti-submarine operations.

The Chinese Empire wanted to maintain the balance of power between the Allies and the Entente, and hoped that they would fight as long as possible, so that the Chinese Empire could earn more war money.

However, the Entente countries imported not only materials from the Chinese Empire, but also from other countries, which made the Chinese Empire not very satisfied. For a long time, the Chinese Empire regarded the United States as a great enemy, and was naturally unhappy with the United States' export of materials to the Entente countries.

So, taking this opportunity, Li Jingfang was instructed to ask the British political axe to reduce the import of materials from other countries and import more materials from the Chinese Empire, if the British political axe agreed, then the Chinese Empire would export anti-submarine hunting ships and anti-submarine warfare technology to the British Navy.

For the demands of the Chinese Empire, the British political axe was very helpless. The British political axe did not want to be subject to the supply of the Chinese Empire, so it would seek the export supply of materials from the United States and other countries in many ways, maintain multiple supply chains, and no longer hang themselves from a tree, which was the purpose of Britain to prevent the Chinese Empire from blackmailing Britain in the future.

Today, if the demands of the Chinese Empire are not acceded to, then in terms of anti-submarine warfare, Britain will suffer heavy losses and even lose the war. In particular, the United States, under pressure from Germany, allowed German ships to inspect American merchant ships, so that it was impossible to obtain more military supplies from the United States.

After comprehensive consideration, the British political axe agreed to the request of the Chinese Empire, so the Chinese Imperial Navy instructed a group of arms dealers in the field of hunting ships of the empire to export anti-submarine destroyers to the United Kingdom, but the sonar system was still listed as a prohibited export. All anti-submarine hunting ships are not allowed to install sonar systems.

In order to reassure Britain as soon as possible, the Chinese Empire repainted and refurbished more than 200 decommissioned Exocet-class and Mistral-class refueling ships, installed anti-submarine delivery bombs, and handed them over to arms dealers to sell to the British Navy. Due to the rapid supply of the Chinese Empire, the British Navy also appeared to be very generous, each Exocet-class anti-submarine hunting ship was priced at 900,000 dragon dollars, and the Mistral-class hunting ship was purchased at a price of 1.1 million dragon dollars, a total of 200 ships were ordered, all of which were delivered to the British Navy within four months.

The first batch of 20 converted Exocet-class anti-submarine destroyers were also delivered at the Bermuda naval base, and British officers and sailors were directly sent to fly these destroyers into Atlantic anti-submarine operations. At the same time, at the request of the British Navy, Lieutenant Colonel Li Ming, an anti-submarine expert of the Imperial Chinese Navy, served as an adviser to the British Navy to guide the British Navy's anti-submarine operations.

As a matter of fact, the Chinese Empire was well aware of the capabilities and weaknesses of the submarines exported to Germany, so it was very easy to deal with German submarines, and soon the number of British merchant ship losses dropped significantly, and Britain cheered, and the British political axe was convinced of the sincerity of the Chinese Empire, so it greatly reduced the import of materials from the United States and other neutral countries, and switched to imports from the Chinese Empire.

As a result, seven months after the outbreak in Europe, the total exports of the Chinese Empire to the Entente countries accounted for 90% of the total imports of goods from abroad, and large quantities of gold from the Entente side were shipped to the Chinese Empire.

Similarly, the Chinese Empire's exports of goods to the Central Powers reached 96%, due to the fact that the neutral countries of Europe and the United States were the initiators of the war, and the blockade of the Central Powers by the Entente Powers led the Allies to import materials from the Chinese Empire. The Chinese Empire did not need to use means on the part of the Central Powers to monopolize the profits of exports to the Central Powers.

The United States was immediately at a disadvantage in the battle with the Chinese Empire for the big cake of European war money, which made the contradictions between China and the United States even more acute.

Of course, the huge contradictions between China and the United States are already a secret that the whole world does not open, and it is up to the political axes of both sides to openly admit the fact that the two countries are hostile.

The outbreak of the war in Europe did not affect the hostility between the Chinese Empire and the United States, but on the contrary, the hostile atmosphere between the two sides became more and more intense.

In the summer of the 13th year of Guanghua, after 12 years of large-scale arms expansion in Guanghua, the Chinese Empire for the first time required the major domestic military industries to transfer to the war mechanism, that is, to complete the armament requirements of the Chinese Empire's navy, land and air forces to a limited extent.

This is because the highest levels of the Chinese Empire are already determined to go to war with the United States, so they need to make adequate preparations.

In the summer of the thirteenth year of Guanghua, the Chinese Imperial Naval Industry ushered in an industrial achievement that shocked the world, and the construction of four Yuan-class super divine bow battleships of the Chinese Empire was completed in 362 days, breaking the myth that the British Naval Industry completed the construction of the Dreadnought in 13 months.

Of course, strictly speaking, it took the Chinese Empire 362 days to complete four 60,000-ton Yuan-class battleships, which is far from being comparable to the 13-month construction speed of Britain to complete a 20,000-ton Dreadnought battleship. Regardless of the comparison in terms of construction speed, construction tonnage, construction difficulty, etc., the Chinese Imperial Naval Industry can proudly say to the world that "we are the strongest".

By comparison, the four Colorado-class battleships of the United States equipped with 406 mm guns began construction three months earlier than the Yuan-class battleships of the Chinese Empire, but were completed a month later. Although the United States also competed with the Chinese Empire in terms of naval industrial capacity, the results showed that the United States' naval industrial strength was far inferior to that of the Chinese Empire in other aspects, and the United States was still inferior to the Chinese Empire in terms of naval industry, and the gap was very large.

Although the Nagato-class battleships that started construction at the beginning of last year were stimulated by the construction speed of the Yuan-class battleships of the Chinese Empire, they were still incomparable, and the overtime work was only completed in April 1913, and the main gun system and the superstructure of the island had to be completed at least nine months to complete.

It can be said that the four Yuan-class battleships of the Imperial Chinese Navy equipped with a 432-mm main gun system have completely possessed an overwhelming advantage over the US Navy in combat. However, due to the prudence of the Chinese Emperor and the absolute superiority of the officers of the Admiralty's giant ship cannon doctrine, the Imperial Congress approved the plan to build four Ming-class battleships in March of Guanghua 13.

The proposal of the Ming-class battleship was originally a smoke bomb released by the General Staff of the Chinese Empire in order to confuse the United States. Its purpose was to tell the Chinese Empire and the United States that the Chinese Empire would continue to set off a large-scale naval arms race and would not launch a war against the United States until the Ming-class battleships were built.

Because the war between the United States and the United States was classified as an SS-level, the high-ranking officials of the empire did not dare to drink alcohol during this period, for fear of spitting out the truth after drinking; I don't dare to have sex with my wife, for fear of leaking the news by talking in my sleep; I don't dare to go to entertainment venues, for fear of being detected by foreign beauty spies, etc. In short, Wang Chenhao, the emperor of the Chinese Empire, issued an edict saying that the war against the United States was a war related to the fate of the Chinese Empire, so all the officials chose to be patient and unite at this time.

It was precisely because of the strict secrecy that the Imperial Navy's General Administration of Ships knew nothing about this, but in accordance with the requirements put forward by the Admiralty, it designed a capital ship that could not be surpassed by the United States in the next three to five years.

A total of 19 sets of design plans were put up by the General Administration of Ships, and the seventeenth set of plans was finally approved by the Admiralty. Originally, the Admiralty did not plan to wait until the Ming-class battleships were completed before taking action against Yuemei, because the Imperial General Staff had already drawn up an operational plan and timetable, and it would be done in the summer and autumn of the thirteenth year of Guanghua. Therefore, the Admiralty did not pay attention to the design of the Ming-class battleships, and allowed the General Administration of Ships to exert its "imagination"; anyway, the Imperial Admiralty believed that the existing naval capital ships were enough to defeat the U.S. Navy, and there was no need for the Ming-class battleships to participate, as long as it succeeded in concealing the spies of the two countries and confusing the U.S. high-level officials into believing that the Chinese Empire would not do anything to the U.S. before the Ming-class battleships were built, the Ming-class battleship program would be stopped.

According to the Admiralty's plan, the opponent of the Ming-class battleships is to destroy the capital ships of the US Navy, dominate the capital ships of the global navy, and the capital ships that cannot be surpassed by European and American countries within three to five years.

The Admiralty required the Ming-class battleships to have a displacement of more than the Yuan class, a caliber of the main gun to be increased to 18 inches, armor protection that can resist the attack of the 18-inch main gun, a speed of 30 knots, the ability to detect the enemy before the enemy, a powerful anti-aircraft artillery system and other technical parameters.

The Admiralty gave all the technical indicators that could be thought of, and the Ming-class battleships were made public to the public, with the purpose of scaring and confusing the great powers of various countries.

The General Administration of Ships did not know the strategic purpose, so Wei Han, the director of the Ship Administration, took the lead, and more than 300 warship designers and gunners from various nationalities, as well as engineers, experts and professors in power, communications, optics and other fields participated in the design and development of the Ming-class battleship.

At the same time, after the Imperial Political Axe made public the design indicators of the Ming-class battleships, experts and scholars in relevant fields in China, and even military enthusiasts in the civilian sector of the Empire called and wrote to the Imperial Ministry of Defense one after another, putting forward their suggestions and ideas, and even a large number of supporters of the Giant Ship Cannon Doctrine in China were willing to donate money and become volunteer workers. Personal donations ranged from a meal to a month's salary, and even many retired Imperial Navy veterans donated coffin books. The amount of donations from enterprises and institutions is huge, because these companies and enterprises are deeply affected by the sense of security brought by the strong Imperial Navy and the huge favor obtained by the stimulation of the naval industry, so the donations are 500 dragon coins from small companies, to hundreds of thousands of dragon coins from large companies, and then to the donations of several major arms giants in China are as high as 2 million dragon coins, and they have supported the Imperial Navy to build Ming-class super god bow battleships.

The Imperial Political Axe did not expect that the people of the Empire had such strong expectations for the Ming-class battleships, and the donation was as high as 270 million dragon coins, which was enough to build five Yuan-class battleships.

In the face of this situation, the Imperial High Command was like being driven to the shelves, originally it was just a strategic deception, and now this huge donation in hand does not need to be on the Ming-class battleships, because the Imperial Anti-Corruption Office and the People's Procuratorate, as well as more than 800 news media in the Empire, more than 500,000 workers, and more than a dozen opposition parties in the Empire are closely monitoring the use of this money. If the Admiralty dares to appropriate, then the consequences that await them will be very serious.

In this regard, the few informed officials within the Admiralty were desperate, but they had to use it to fund the construction of Ming-class battleships.

However, the K129 document (the seventeenth plan) designed and finalized by the General Administration of Ships is very large, the design standard displacement of the Ming-class battleship reaches 69,000 tons, the full load displacement is 88,000 tons, and the armor weight alone reaches 23,000 tons, plus it is equipped with an 18-inch giant gun, and it also requires a speed of 30 knots, making the single ship construction cost of the Ming-class battleship as high as 120 million dragon coins.

The reason why the construction scale of the Ming-class battleships has become so large is only because when the Admiralty submitted the design plan of the Ming-class battleships to the Emperor of the Chinese Empire, Wang Chenhao said a sentence with a lot of emotion, which caused the Admiralty and the General Administration of Ships to be particularly concerned.

"The Ming Dynasty, as the last Han feudal dynasty in Chinese history, has no Han and Tang Dynasty and no two Song Dynasty coins, the Son of Heaven and the Imperial Gate, the monarch dies and the iron bones, and has always been admired by future generations. Ming-class battleships, since they are named after the four emperors of the Ming Dynasty, they should be deserved, and they should not be insulted. ”

It was Wang Chenhao's words that made the officials of the Admiralty full of emotion, and immediately called back the original No. 19 plan, and the General Administration of Ships adopted the previous No. 17 plan, so the Ming-class super battleship began to come out in this way.

To build four Ming-class battleships, the donation of 270 million from the people is obviously not enough. The Chinese Imperial Axe and the Admiralty have already blown out the cowhides, and if they were reduced to two, it would be too sorry for the great enthusiasm of the people, and the foreign powers would laugh at the fact that the finances of the Chinese Empire could not withstand it.

For this reason, the Admiralty was ready to ask Congress for money, but the Ming-class battleships costing as much as 120 million dragon coins more than double the Yuan-class 49 million dragon coins, which made it difficult for Congress to pass a supplementary military budget.

Therefore, Wang Chenhao, the emperor of the Chinese Empire, on behalf of the 8 imperial concubines of the harem, 37 princes and princesses, 300 palace maids, 500 inner court Yulin Army, 20,000 royal forest army, 100,000 royal guards, donated 210 million dragon coins in the name of the royal family, so that four Ming-class battleships could be built.

The project for the No. 17 Ming-class battleship began to be studied as early as last year when the Yuan-class battleship was finalized and the construction began. At that time, when the General Staff of the Chinese Empire revised its national defense policy, it clearly put forward the strategy of intercepting the United States to prevent the United States from interfering in the military operations of the Chinese Empire against the Chinese Empire and preventing the US Navy from outside the theater of operations. The strategy of the Imperial Chinese Navy to fight against the United States in the western Pacific region was to destroy the main force of the US Far East Navy at the beginning of the war, destroy or seize the bases on which the US Navy relied to operate, blockade the Panama Canal, and then annihilate the fleet reinforced by the US mainland.

To this end, the Imperial Chinese Navy chose the waters north of Wake Island, the waters east of the Kuril Islands, and the waters south of Easter Island as the predetermined battlefields for a decisive naval battle, and formed a maritime strike force with battleships as the core to intercept US warship formations at sea.

Under this operational guiding ideology, the Imperial Chinese Navy believed that neither the US Navy nor the Chinese Navy could compete with the Imperial Chinese Navy in terms of the number and quality of capital ships alone, so separating the US Navy from the Navy was the preferred tactic.

It was a country with a weak industrial base and a lack of resources, and it was impossible for it to compete with the Chinese Empire, which had a strong industrial base and abundant resources, in terms of the number of warships. In accordance with the policy of "insufficient quantity, quality makes up for it" since the Meiji era, the Navy attempted to offset the quantitative superiority of the Chinese Empire with the quality advantage of a single ship, so it began construction of the Nagato-class battleships with 410 mm guns. The industrial strength of the United States can compete with that of the Chinese Empire, but the United States is so backward in terms of technology that the United States Navy can only rely on the number of capital ships to fight against the Chinese Empire.

After the Chinese Navy learned that the Chinese Empire was building Yuan-class battleships equipped with 17-inch guns, Yamamoto Gonbei also asked the National Assembly to approve the construction of four Kaga-class battleships as a counter-attack, but the company's financial resources were tight and could not afford the cost of four Kaga-class battleships, and at the same time, the shipyards in Japan could not build new capital ships before the Nagato-class and Kongo-class capital ships were completed, because there were not enough large slipways. As a result, the Navy can only speed up the construction of the eight capital ships of the Nagato-class, the King Kongo-class.

(To be continued)