Between the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra, there is a slender waterway that runs southeast-northwest. Its northwest end is connected to the Andaman Sea and to the southeast to the South China Sea. This is the Strait of Malacca, named after the ancient city of Malacca along the coast. The Strait of Malacca is a choke point between the Pacific and Indian Oceans, with a history of navigation spanning more than 2,000 years. It is an important sea passage between Asian, African, Australian and European coastal countries, and many countries have to pass through it for import and export materials. Due to its busy sea transport and unique geographical location, the Straits of Malacca is known as the "Crossroads of the Sea".

In the past, about 50,000 ships passed through the Strait of Malacca every year, but since the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, the route from Europe to the East has been greatly shortened, and the number of navigable ships in the Strait of Malacca has increased, and the number of ships passing through the Strait can reach 100,000 per year, making it one of the busiest straits in the world. In recent years, with the rapid development of China, the volume of navigation in the strait has increased dramatically. At the same time, it connects the most populous regions in the world: China, India and China's South Seas. Historically, the Strait of Malacca has been controlled by the Arabs, the Portuguese and the Dutch. Now it's the turn of the British.

The Strait of Malacca is an important international waterway, both economically and militarily, comparable to the Suez Canal or, when completed, the Panama Canal. It is equivalent to that whoever controls the Strait of Malacca is equivalent to choking the neck of the whole of East Asia. At present, the only great power in East Asia is China, and the entire Nanyang region is actually under Chinese control, which means that the British have choked China by the neck, which is intolerable for China, which is trying to revive the prosperity of the Han and Tang dynasties. In the early years, he rammed British warships, forcibly broke into the Strait of Malacca, and later entered the Indian Ocean in the name of fighting piracy, and even hoped to build a military port in Bandazia, in the hope of breaking away from British control. At the very least, we hope to be able to counteract it. But it never ended in failure.

At present, Britain is the world's top naval power, and he controls all the important waterways in the world, which means that he chokes the throat of the world's maritime trade. Because of this, Britain is regarded as an enemy all over the world, France, the United States, Russia, Italy and other countries that pay attention to shipping are more or less contradictory to Britain, not to mention Germany, which hopes to replace Britain.

China, of course, is one of them. Being in the hands of others is not Li Ming's style. It is natural that China's destiny can only be controlled by China. Even if you can't get rid of the British for a while, you have to leave a way out for yourself, which is the Sunda Strait between Sumatra and Java. But also because of the location, the time and distance required to travel through the Sunda Strait will increase dramatically. Therefore, the Sunda Strait is only an option, not an option, and the Strait of Malacca is still one of the places that China must take.

Although the Chinese navy has made great progress after more than a decade of development, the Chinese navy is confident that it will be defeated if it were to fight a British fleet alone. But Britain really wants to fight to the death with China, and China must be the one who ends up in the end. So. Compared with the United Kingdom, which has a century-old history, the gap in China's naval strength is not a big one, so it is necessary to keep a low profile. Of course, being low-key does not mean that you really have to pretend to be a pig, because if you pretend to be a pig for a long time, you will really become a pig, so you have to be high-profile from time to time. It's just that this high-profile seems to be a bit too much.

Zhang Deyi, the Chinese minister to the UK, was summoned to meet with British Prime Minister Arthur? Balfour pointed to Zhang Deyi's nose and asked: Is China planning to declare war with Britain? Zhang Deyi was confused when asked. Because the imperial court had not informed him of any information about this matter, Zhang Deyi could only listen.

But in Beijing. The British minister to China, Douglas, was about to meet the Chinese emperor with a letter of protest, but was told that the emperor had left Beijing for a tour. Receiving Dou Nale was Li Chun, the eldest son of the emperor left behind in the capital, and Li Hongzhang, the auxiliary minister. In the face of Dou Nale's protest with a dead face, Li Hongzhang sadly recounted China's helplessness.

China is a weak country, and 10 years ago, it did its best to develop its navy, but now it has only 20 main warships and a displacement of more than 300,000 tons. But the menacing Russians had a huge fleet of 31 main warships with a total displacement of 450,000 tons. The Chinese Navy wins and loses. How to defend the enemy to protect the country? But as the army of the country, you can't force it on the grounds that you can't defend against the enemy, and let the country be ravaged by the enemy. Therefore, after thinking twice, the only way for the Chinese Navy to resist the strong with weakness is to take advantage of the terrain. The Singapore Strait is narrow. The Grand Fleet needs to pass in a single line, and then the destroyers with a shallow draft have the power to use force. As long as a destroyer assault in a narrow channel and a torpedo sinking the front one at no cost would block the channel, the main force of the Russian fleet would be cut off from the South China Sea. If it drags on like this for another year and a half, the Russian fleet will be dragged to death. As a result, the situation in Asia remains as stable as ever.

"Your Excellency, you don't want to see the whole of East Asia let the Russian fleet flex its might after the defeat of the Chinese navy. Then even your Far Eastern Fleet will be dangerous. ”

Drag on for a year and a half?! Dou Nale's face twitched. Blocking the Russian fleet in the Strait of Malacca for a year and a half would be tantamount to abolishing the Strait of Malacca. In this way, the Sunda Strait, controlled by China, has become the only passage from the Indian Ocean to and from the Far East, so wouldn't the British Empire's Far East Fleet have to look at the faces of the Chinese? Looking at Li Hongzhang's sincere smiling face, Dou Nale wanted to put a tea bowl on Li Hongzhang's head.

Come to think of it, you can't do that. But Dou Nale, who has the quality of an excellent diplomat, snorted heavily, saying that he would ask for instructions from home, and at the same time "ask" the Chinese side not to do anything to anger the British Empire: "In Chinese terms, that is a dangerous consequence." "It's a lot of words.

"Your Highness, you see, this is a foreigner." Li Hongzhang, who sent Dou Nale away, said to Li Chun, who looked confused: "Foreigners will always express their benevolence under various guises, but as long as their interests are hurt, their true faces will be revealed." The old man has been an official for many years and has dealt with foreigners a lot, and he knows that they are the real jackals. If China wants to rise and no longer be at the mercy of others, the only way is to make itself strong as soon as possible. Li Hongzhang's words were more like talking to himself, and after speaking, he arched his hand to Li Chun and retreated.

Dou Nale soon telegraphed the news back to China, and the British Governor's Office in Malacca soon relayed the liaison ships of the Russian fleet that had accelerated their arrival in the Strait of Malacca. Roger Stew, who had just sailed into the Channel, was dizzy when he received the telegram, and he immediately summoned Falk Hill and Norbergatow to discuss. The strait is narrow. The Grand Fleet could not be deployed. A couple of destroyers will be enough to block the entire fleet. Judging from the information sent back by the liaison ship, China has done a very resolute job this time, putting on a picture that it would rather offend Britain than keep them out of Malacca, but they cannot help but go to the Far East. If Malacca can't be crossed, then you can only take a detour, the nearest is the Sunda Strait, but that is also a strait. China can keep them out in the same way, and it can only go further east.

The strait is too narrow. Roger Sterwinster's hand crossed the map, and the entire Indonesian archipelago hung like a chain at sea, blocking the Russian Far East Fleet from entering the South China Sea. If you really want to avoid this chain of islands, you can only go north through the Timor Sea by bypassing the Indonesian archipelago, but even then you have to navigate through the broken archipelago. The Russian fleet had been at sea for too long, and the officers and men were tired and did not care about it first, but the situation with the ships was not optimistic. The once most advanced battleship in the world, the Eagle, has not been well maintained for half a year. The shellfish at the bottom of the ship must have grown well. God bless the fact that the speed that used to be up to 18 knots can now reach 15 knots, and such a speed is a target in front of the newly maintained Chinese Navy.

Although Roger Steinster was just a bureaucrat, and he didn't understand the war with the steel-armored battleships of the steam age, he must have lived through the era of sailing ships, and there was always something to learn from in the same naval warfare. Since the Russian fleet from afar could not meet the Chinese navy one-on-one, it could only assemble a large fleet to suppress it with firepower superiority. Therefore, it is even more difficult to move through the archipelago, otherwise it is easy for the Chinese navy to use the terrain to divide their large fleet. And because of that. The safest way for the Russian Far East Fleet was to bypass the island of Guinea and force it into China from the open sea of the Pacific Ocean. But Nobergatov counted after the voyage. Everyone kept their mouths shut. Because even if they burn enough coal, they can no longer replenish fresh water for food.

"Why don't we go back?" In Mount Falk, where Nosy was seriously ill, he was regained his health after being treated by the doctors brought by Nobergatov. To be honest, Falk Hill has always believed that he should not come to the Far East.

"In that case, His Majesty the Tsar will kill our whole family." Roger Steven's head hung down and looked at the map. He knows his Tsarist Majesty too well, so this time, whether he wins or loses, he has to fight with the Chinese first. At that time, even if he was defeated and fled back to China, he would have a reason to save his life. Roger Steven's sudden and heavy point on Bandazia: "Order the fleet to turn around, let's go to Bandazia." Then occupy it. In this way, the British will force the Chinese not to dare to block the Strait of Malacca. ”

Bandazia is located at the northern exit of the Strait of Malacca, and if the Russians occupy it, such a large fleet would be equivalent to blocking the northern exit of the Strait of Malacca, while the Chinese control of Java and Pontianak would be equivalent to controlling the southern exit of the Strait of Malacca, so that the British in the middle would be bullied at both ends. The British certainly could not agree with the Russians to do this, then they would definitely force the Chinese to lift the blockade of the Strait of Malacca. Falk Hill and Nobergatov nodded, this was indeed a solution.

It is the character of the Russians to do what they say, so the Russian Far Eastern Fleet made a decisive U-turn. In the afternoon of the same day, Bandatzia was shelled, and then the 10,000 Russian troops that came with the ship landed and attacked the interior. The Netherlands is old, and both the navy and the army are already vulnerable. The reason why they were able to maintain such a large colony in Indonesia was only based on the political order among the European countries, and now some people are playing their cards out of order.

When the news of the capture of Bandatia by the Russian Far Eastern Fleet came, the whole of Europe boiled. The Netherlands accused the Russians of massacring the Dutch in Indonesia, the British angrily accused the Russians of provoking the international order, and the United States, Germany, France and other countries were all stunned. However, as the Russian Tsar, Nicholas II sent a telegram highly praising Roger Stewins's decisiveness and asking him to redouble his efforts to completely destroy the Chinese navy.

As soon as the Russians received the news of the bombardment of Bandatsya, the British Parliament immediately called an emergency meeting to discuss how to deal with this Russian move. Of course, it was not a problem for the British to destroy this Russian fleet, and it was enough to mobilize only the Indian fleet and the Far Eastern fleet, and if they planned to completely destroy the Russian Far Eastern fleet, at most the South African fleet would be transferred, and the Mediterranean fleet would be mobilized a little safer. But the crux of the matter is. The Russians were going to fight the Chinese, and no one expected that the Russians would suddenly do this. Regardless of whether the Russians are equal to the British to admit instigation, this is impossible, but can it really be that the British will fight for the Chinese? This is unacceptable! If China is really forced not to block the Strait of Malacca, I believe that the Chinese will definitely back down, but this is like Britain admitting defeat to Russia? The situation has developed to this point. It's really impossible to advance or retreat, and Britain is embarrassed up and down.

"Impossible—" Inside the British Admiralty, Sir William White tore the telegram to shreds.

The British Admiralty had also received news of the Russians' shelling of Bandazia, and they were also convening a meeting to discuss a possible war. At this moment, however, an urgent telegram from Vice Admiral Phillimant, commander of the British Far East Fleet, also reached the British Admiralty. When John Fisher, the first admiral of the British Empire, saw the telegram, he immediately found Sir William White, the best naval designer in the British Empire. It was only because of the pledge in the telegram that Philistine assured that he had seen with his own eyes the latest battleships newly launched in China.

Three days earlier, the main fleet of the Chinese Navy, which had completed its assembly in Naha, was marching south through the Taiwan Strait. This sortie was naturally to meet the Russian fleet, in order to calm the turmoil in the South China Sea caused by excessive propaganda in the early stage as much as possible, so this time the fleet did not quietly advance, but passed through the Taiwan Strait during the day with great fanfare. The Taiwan Strait is the closest shipping route from the South China Sea to North China and Japan. There are countless ships coming and going every day, and there are not only Chinese merchant ships, but also merchant ships from Britain, the United States, Germany, France and many other large and small countries. The Chinese Navy only sent two destroyers to guide the course in front, so each merchant ship looked at the main force of the Chinese Navy - eight battleships and eight heavy cruisers, and four light cruisers and four destroyers patrolled on the periphery. However, the four most central large new battleships caught everyone's attention.

The British Intrepid battleship was on the front page of newspapers in various countries and was accompanied by photos, but the Dreadnought seemed to be a little smaller in comparison. In particular, the Chinese warships resisted the triple assembly. So it was the British merchant ships that headed for the nearest port and immediately telegraphed to Hong Kong. Then the news was delivered to Phililimant's desk in a courier manner. At this time, Phillimante was receiving observers selected from various British fleets to observe the Sino-Russian naval battle up close. They were scheduled to set off the next day, but when they received the telegram, they could not sit still, so they all jumped on the cruiser that had been prepared and hurried over. They caught up with the Chinese South Sea Fleet, which was converging on the main fleet, and soon all the observers on the British cruiser stared wide-eyed at the new Chinese battleship.

This is a battleship with a length of more than 160 meters, and Phillimant dares to say that there are 20,000 tons of battleships that are still in the standard displacement state. The front, two, rear, and one backpack three-seat triple 45L/305mm naval guns are impressively in the column, and the battleships that are being reformed under the 12-knot cruise are flexible and free. Moreover, he also read two large Chinese characters on the bow of the warship at the head of the row, and the translator told him that they were the two characters "Baiqi". Filimante didn't know what Bai Qi meant, but these two words undoubtedly meant that the ships had passed the test and were officially commissioned. Other words. They went into the water before the Dreadnought. In other words, the Intrepid is not an epoch-making warship, and the real epoch-making is China's Baiqi-class battleship.

In addition, the Chinese also fired a salute after seeing them coming. Filimante sat on the deck, and the commander of the naval fleet was not afraid of the sound of the cannons, but because he saw that the nine barrels of the White Rose were pointed to one side at the same time, and a salvo was fired. Although the dreadnought was equipped with five turrets, it could only face one side with only eight naval guns, compared to nine for the Chinese......

"It's not a battleship, it's just a gunboat." "As far as I know, China purchased a batch of 4,000 horsepower steam engines from Germany before building these warships, and only four of them can be installed according to the size of the dreadnought, which means that it can provide a maximum of 16,000 horsepower, which can drive the battleship to 17 knots at most." What's more, they have a larger drainage structure than the Dreadnought, so it's even more unlikely that they will have a higher speed. The Chinese built four of these warships to counter Russia, knowing that the Russian fleet would come from afar. That's all. ”

However, their cruising speed was already 12 knots, and in the telegram they were still nimble in turning. It is common sense to assume that their speed should not be less than 19 knots. Don't forget, the Foundation they built before already had this speed. John Fisher asked cautiously.

"Then they must not be armoured. Just like their Dinghai-level light cruisers. White glared at Fisher and roared, threatening to start a fight if he didn't say a word.

"I think you're right." Fisher finally coaxed White before the outbreak, but he didn't want White to go to the Far East again, he wanted to see it with his own eyes, and asked Fisher to send the fastest warship to send him there. Fisher can only say that the Far East is too far. There is definitely no rush in time.

Fisher knew that what White was talking about was only one possibility, and it was a very small possibility. Battleships were built at a huge cost, because no one would build such a slow battleship just for the sake of a battle. In fact, White also knew that no matter what he said, he couldn't deceive his heart, and it was impossible for such a battleship not to be equipped with armor, because the role of armor was not only to provide defense for the warship, but also to balance the center of gravity of the warship. Start with the Dinghai-class light cruise. White has never understood how China's warships balance the superstructure and overall center of gravity of warships. Because the bomb in the Dinghai ship can prove that the Dinghai ship does not have surface armor.

The appearance of the white horn caused not only Britain to be in an uproar, but also the United States, Germany, France and other countries also expressed great concern. They have not been able to build 20,000 tons of battleships so far, and although China's new warships still need to be tested by war, how did China grow from no shipbuilding capacity to the world's largest battleship in just ten years?

White up. A famous general of the Qin Dynasty. In the Battle of Yiyun, he broke the Wei and Han coalition forces and captured Yingcheng, the capital of Chu State. Later, in the Battle of Changping, the main force of Zhao State was severely damaged, and the meritorious service was great. The battleship is the main force of naval warfare, and the duel between the cannons of the giant ship is like a sword between two generals of the army. China's battleships and heavy cruisers are named after the names of the generals of the Chinese dynasties, which is the latest nomenclature principle for warships. And this time it was Sengoku that was chosen. Bai Qi, Li Mu, Wang Jian, Lian Po, the names of the four famous generals of the Warring States period happened to name the four main battleships, Le Yi, Tian Dan, Xiang Yan, and Zhao Hao. These four will be named for the new four Super Sea-class heavy cruisers. This will not only make these historical generals known, but also inspire the courage of the naval officers.

Even if it is defeated or sunk, it will never disgrace the name of its ancestors. This is the common oath of the eight ships when they accept the naming. The main warships of the Navy bear the names of these famous generals, and it is hoped that by taking advantage of the prestige of these famous generals, they can reproduce the former glory of these famous generals -- defeating the enemy and winning victory.

In fact, the Chinese Navy is not satisfied with the Baiqi four ships. The original design was intended to install four triple guns. It has been calculated that a hull of no less than 20,000 tons is required. After 10 years of catching up with each other, coupled with a large amount of equipment purchased from abroad at a high price, the equipment for building a 20,000-ton battleship was still sufficient. The foundation was built to test the new ship. Although Li Ming used his knowledge to make high-strength nickel-chromium alloy steel for China, he improved the metal production process and greatly improved the properties of the metal. But Li Mingbi is the emperor after all, and it is impossible to follow up on production all day, and he can only spare one day a week to check the research and development progress of samples. As a result, the qualification of the sample still went wrong in mass production. However, it must be admitted that China's industrial base is still too weak and does not have enough technological accumulation and precipitation. As a result, the material uniformity of the large materials is poor, and this is the reason why the Foundation was finally disassembled - the material could not withstand the corresponding naval gun recoil, so that the Foundation did not even have the possibility of being used as a training ship.

In order to ensure the smooth construction of the new ship, the design drawings could only be revised in a conservative direction. However, the weight of the hull increased dramatically, and the battleship could not focus on defense like a light cruiser. So after many trade-offs, only one turret could be removed. However, the standard displacement of the entire warship is still reaching 20,500 tons, and the full load displacement is 23,100 tons. Even so, the Dreadnought has five turrets, which corresponds to five ammunition bins and five ammunition supply systems. And the displacement of the people is still nearly 2,000 tons less than that of the White Rising, which has only three turrets. It is conceivable that the white number is still far behind in the utilization of tonnage. It can also be seen that China's ship design is still a long way from that of the United Kingdom. The only advantage is motivation. The European scientific community, disrupted by the plundering program, has reluctantly slowed down, and the steam turbines that were supposed to be installed on the Intrepid can now only be tested on destroyers. And the growing number of gangsters in Europe at the moment puts the lives of young scholars who are not yet fledgling at risk. On the contrary, Chinese science, which is being promoted by the plundering program, is growing rapidly. Now the steam turbine installed on the White Rise is already a full-fledged product of the second generation, and if it is not in a hurry, perhaps the third generation can be officially equipped. Four second-generation steam turbines, fueled by boilers, provide 25,000 horsepower, enough to drive the White to a high speed of 22 knots.

In any case, the present life of the Bai Qi class announced to the world the fact that China now also has the ability to build its own battleships, and our warships are no worse than those of the British. (To be continued.) )