The acquisition of all the shares of the Baghdad Railway by the Chinese Empire, coupled with the establishment of a Kuwaiti-Iraqi oil supply base in the Persian Gulf, could continuously transport all the oil needed for Germany's future development to Germany along the Baghdad Railway.

In this way, there was no need for Germany to worry about the British and Russian oil blockade, so the Bavaria-class battleships of the German Navy could abandon the inefficient coal boilers and switch to all oil-fired boilers, which were more efficient, easier to replenish and more powerful.

The German Navy has 4 Bavaria-class battleships of the same class: Bayern, Baden, Sachsen, and Württemberg.

As a rival to the British Navy's Queen Elizabeth-class battleships, the German Navy's Bavaria-class battleships were based on the relevant designs of the Datang-class battleships designed and started construction by the Chinese Empire in October 1910.

In order to become the world's leading naval power, the Imperial Chinese Navy provoked a large-scale naval arms race around the world. Four Tang-class battleships and two Sui-class battlecruisers were approved by the Imperial Congress of China in the 1910 fiscal year, all funded by the proceeds of the war against Britain, with a total allocation of 120 million dragon coins, all of which would be completed in 1912.

Four Tang-class battleships were built in the same class, namely Tang Taizong Li Shimin [BB-47], Tang Gaozong Li Zhi [BB-48], Empress Wu Zetian [BB-49], and Tang Xuanzong Li Longji [BB-50]. There were two Sui-class battle cruisers, namely Emperor Wen of Sui Yang Jian [BBC-13] and Emperor Yang Guang of Sui [BB-14].

The Tang-class battlecruisers and Sui-class battlecruisers of the Chinese Empire were built in opposition to the four Pennsylvania-class battleships approved by the U.S. Navy at the end of 1909 for construction by the Philadelphia Shipyard, as well as two Birmingham-class battlecruisers to be started at Quincy's Vice-River Shipyard.

After the U.S. Navy started construction of the New York-class battleships and Seattle-class battlecruisers, and learned that the Chinese Empire immediately started construction of the more powerful Han Wudi-class battleships and Jinwudi-class battlecruisers, the U.S. Navy felt that their New York-class and Seattle-class were not opponents (the 13-inch guns and 14-inch guns PK would definitely suffer a big loss), so they immediately developed a 14-inch gun and related equipment to oppose it, and at the same time, the U.S. Congress also allocated $10 million for the development of a 14-inch gun.

A year after the start of the New York-class, the U.S. Department of Naval Engineering completed the loading of 13-inch guns on the New York-class and Seattle-class capital ships on time. At the same time, the development of the 14-inch gun was also greatly advanced, and according to the plan, the development work could be completed in 1911, so that the US Navy could start construction in 1910 on battleships and battle cruisers capable of carrying 14-inch guns.

The Pennsylvania-class battleships were introduced at this time and were an improved version of the New York-class battleships. During this period, the U.S. Navy discovered that the capital ships of the Chinese Empire began to use a triple turret design, so that each turret had an additional main gun, and the combat effectiveness was greatly improved. As a result, the U.S. Navy followed suit and also used a triple turret design on Pennsylvania-class battleships.

As the three triple 356 mm main guns of the Han Wu Emperor-class battleships against the Chinese Empire, the US Navy was unable to develop a main gun system of more than 14 inches in a short period of time, but the US Navy was not to be outdone, considering that the US steam turbine system and the armor protection technology of the warship were inferior to the Chinese Empire, the three major elements of the capital ship The US Navy has lost two, so they are equipped with four triple 356 mm 45 times the main gun system on the Pennsylvania-class battleship, In this way, in terms of firepower, it has 3 more main guns than the Han Wu Emperor-class battleships of the Chinese Empire.

The Pennsylvania-class battleships were equipped with 12 14-inch guns, and four triple main turrets were knapsack along the longitudinal centerline of the hull, two in the front and two in the rear.

After five years of painstaking research, the U.S. Navy finally broke the monopoly of the Chinese Empire on steam turbine systems, and the U.S. Navy itself could also independently develop and design steam turbine systems, of course, they proposed imitation and modification by importing the steam turbine systems of the Chinese Empire. However, the American steam turbine technology has never been able to reach the technical level of the Chinese Empire, because while the US Navy is advancing in technology, the Chinese Imperial Navy is developing more advanced and energy-saving steam turbine systems with faster acceleration, which is a great regret of the US Navy.

Starting with the Pennsylvania-class battleships, the U.S. Navy used a self-developed steam turbine system, and it was also the first U.S. Navy battleship to be fueled with all fuel oil.

There were two Pennsylvania-class battleships of the same class, the lead ship was Pennsylvania (BB38) and the other was Arizona (BB39).

Due to the fact that the battleships of this class were equipped with 12 356 mm main gun systems, which led to a sharp increase in the weight of the battleships, and the US Navy realized that the armor of the battleships of the Chinese Empire was thick and hard, and it was a more advanced Chinese special steel than the American surface carburized steel, the armor quality was one level stronger, which was not comparable to the American armor.

Intelligence stolen by U.S. spies sent to the Chinese Empire revealed that the Chinese Empire's ammunition system had been updated long ago, using a powerful gunpowder known as Hesorkin, which was 10 times more powerful than the intrusive explosion of the U.S. Navy's cotton-loaded artillery shells (the American spy had a strong phobia of the Chinese Empire, so much so that the intelligence was incorrect, but it was only 2.5 times as powerful).

In this way, the US Navy knew that the shells of the Imperial Chinese Navy were amazingly powerful, and had to increase the thickness of the armor, the main armor of the waterline belt reached 13.5 inches, and the turret and conning tower reached a terrifying 18 inches thick.

In the eyes of the U.S. Navy, the 14-inch main guns of the Han Wu Emperor-class battleships of the Chinese Empire, no matter how powerful, could not penetrate the 18-inch armor.

The sharp increase in the weight of the armor brought the displacement of the Pennsylvania-class battleships to 34,400 tons, and the full load reached 39,240 tons.

However, instead of increasing the length of the warship, the U.S. Navy increased the draft to 10.2 meters, becoming the world's first large warship with a draft of more than 10 meters, and there are too few ports that can berth this class of ships, but the U.S. Navy is ready to deploy Pennsylvania-class battleships to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, where the depth of water allows.

Due to the U.S. Navy's increased armor thickness for this class of battleships, and at the same time used its own steam turbine system for the first time, the maximum speed of the ship was only 21 knots, which was a full 3 years less than the Han Wu Emperor class battleships. Although the number of main guns is 3 more, it may not be possible to bargain for a fight. However, the endurance of this class of ships is extremely terrifying, reaching 19,900 nautical miles / 10 knots, mainly because the Chinese Empire controls the Panama Canal, and once the Sino-American war breaks out, then the US Navy will have to bypass South America, so the endurance has to be increased.

The two Birmingham-class battlecruisers of the U.S. Navy are also based on the Pennsylvania-class battleships, and the final armor thickness is only 254 mm, because of the use of self-built steam turbine systems, the speed is also one section less than that of the Seattle-class battlecruisers, only 26 knots. In addition to 3 more main guns, the armor and speed were no match for the Jinwu Emperor-class battlecruisers of the Chinese Empire.

The United States no longer imports steam turbine systems from the Chinese Empire, which makes it impossible for the Chinese Empire to control the U.S. Navy's warships (based on the number and model of steam turbines imported, the surname of the new U.S. Navy warships can be roughly judged). As a result, the Chinese Empire lost a certain basis for judging the development of the US Navy's military strength, and had to expand the scale of the competition for the next class of warships.

The Tang-class battleships of the Chinese Empire had a standard displacement of 34000 tons and a full load displacement of 39000 tons. As a Pennsylvania-class battleship that comprehensively suppressed the U.S. Navy, the Don-class battleship was designed and installed with nine 381 mm 45 times extension main guns and three triple turrets, one in front and two in the rear. The secondary guns have also been upgraded to 20 152-mm 50-fold single-mount rapid-fire guns and 12 102-mm 50-fold double-mounted rapid-fire guns, comprehensively suppressing the Pennsylvania-class battleships of the US Navy in terms of artillery caliber and quantity.

In terms of armor, the main armor belt of the waterline of the Tang-class battleship is 360 mm, the front of the turret, the front of the command tower, the ammunition depot, the engine room, the fuel tank and other key parts are all 381 mm, and the total weight of Chinese special steel armor is 11,000 tons. Enough to withstand the attack of 381-mm shells from enemy ships of the same class, theoretically sinking the non-lethal surname through hit shells of the Tang-class battleships required 32 381-mm shells, or 7.5 21-inch torpedoes, which were extremely survivable.

In terms of power, the latest boiler system and steam turbine system of the Chinese Empire naturally had to be installed on the Tang-class battleships. 28 oil-fired boilers and 4 Parsons geared steam turbine units are used, and the gear accelerator and reducer units are used to greatly improve efficiency. At the same time, it has two fewer oil-fired boilers than the Han Wu Emperor-class battleships, but the output power has increased, and the final design speed of this class of battleships will reach 27 knots, surpassing the US Navy's Pennsylvania-class by 5 knots, surpassing the British Queen Elizabeth-class by 1.5 knots, and only 2 knots slower than the fastest Jinwudi-class battlecruisers in the Chinese Empire, a veritable fast battleship.

It is precisely because the speed of the Tang-class battleships reached 27 knots, which exceeded the speed of most of the battlecruisers of the navies of the European and American powers, so the Imperial Congress of China believed that the advantages of the battlecruisers were no longer obvious, so it was planned to build eight Tang-class battleships, but because the Admiralty continued to ask for the construction of battlecruisers, and the Chinese Emperor Wang Chenhao nodded and agreed, the Congress agreed to build the battle cruiser, but the battle cruiser was expensive, and only two were approved, which was the Sui-class battlecruiser.

The Sui-class battlecruiser is the fastest battlecruiser designed and built based on the Tang-class battleship and the Jinwudi-class battlecruiser.

Since Congress required that the speed of the Sui-class battlecruisers must exceed that of the Tang-class by more than 5 knots, otherwise the construction of battlecruisers would no longer be approved next time.

As a result, the designers of the Admiralty's General Engineering Administration had to do everything possible to increase the speed to more than 32 knots.

It is impossible to change the carrying of 9 381 mm main guns, in order to get a speed of 32 knots, the boilers need to be increased by 10, so that the weight of the armor has to be reduced by 3000 tons, so after the redesign, the waterline armor of the Sui-class battle cruiser is only 240 mm, and the front of the turret, the front of the command tower, the ammunition depot, the engine room, the fuel tank and other key parts are all 330 mm.

But when it was finalized, the designers decided that since it was against the British and Americans, the armor of their war cruisers was generally very thin, and 280 mm was enough. As a result, the thickness of the armor in the key areas was reduced to 280 mm, which allowed the installation of five more boilers, which increased the speed to 34 knots, and continued to be the most powerful and fastest battle cruiser in the world. The designers did this, in fact, the Admiralty was worried that the speed of the battleships in the future would become faster and faster, and in the future, they might have to force the battlecruisers to withdraw from the stage of history, and the officials of the Admiralty were not willing to let the battlecruiser postpone the stage of history so quickly, so they wanted to keep the project as much as possible.

However, the Admiralty soon learned that the Emperor of the Chinese Empire, Wang Chenhao, when listening to the report of the Navy, made it clear that if the battleships of the next class reached a speed of 30 knots, then the battlecruiser program would be canceled. And the designers of the General Engineering Administration of the Admiralty know very well in their hearts that because of the large-scale naval arms race, the development speed of various equipment is extremely fast, and if the development continues at this rate, the next class of battleships will definitely reach 30 knots, so they have secretly regarded the Sui-class battlecruiser as the last class of the Chinese Empire.

In order to counter the British Queen Elizabeth-class battleships and prestige-class battlecruisers, the German Navy built Bavaria-class battleships and Devlinger-class battlecruisers to confront them, but the progress of Germany's main gun caliber was too slow, and it was not the pace of construction of the world's naval arms race, so it had to continue to introduce 15-inch large-caliber main gun technology and equipment from the Chinese Empire, and the steam turbine system had to be imported from the Chinese Empire, which made Germany allocate 500 million marks for shipbuilding. Of this, 300 million marks were used in expensive equipment such as main artillery systems, steam turbine systems, fire control systems, and radio systems imported from the Chinese Empire.

The Bavaria-class battleships had a design displacement of 30,530 tons and a maximum displacement of 34,200 tons, making them the first superbow-type battleship of the German Navy to exceed 30,000 tons. It is armed with 8 twin 381 mm/45 x diameter main guns, 4 twin turrets, 16 single 152 mm secondary guns, 10 single 88 mm guns, and 5 600 mm underwater torpedo tubes.

Install 18 sets of Sunnycroft oil-fired boilers produced in Germany, and 3 sets of Parsons Type 09 steam turbine units imported from the Chinese Empire, with a main engine power of 48,000 horsepower and a maximum speed of 22 knots.

It could have reached 24 knots, but Germany emphasized armor protection to withstand the shelling of the British Queen Elizabeth-class battleships, so the armor of the Bavarian-class battleships reached 350 mm and the turret (frontal) 380 mm; The conning tower is 380 mm, and other important parts are also above 350 mm. As a result, the total weight of the armor increased significantly, allowing the Bavaria-class battleships to remain at a speed of 22 knots.

Of course, this is due to the surname of the Germans, who like to sacrifice speed for armor, just as the British like to sacrifice armor for speed, and even stubbornly to death, no one can change them.

The German Devlinger-class battlecruisers, as a simplified armored version of the Bavaria-class battleships, also refer to the Sui-class battlecruisers of the Chinese Empire, but the Germans' emphasis on defensive forces made the class ships still equipped with 280 mm armor protection, which is 52 mm more than the British prestige class. As a result, the speed also dropped to 27 knots, and it can be said that it would be a nightmare to face the British Queen Elizabeth-class battleships at 25 knots.

(To be continued)