With the visit of the German naval attache to the Admiralty of the Chinese Empire, the mystery of the newest battleship of the Chinese Empire was revealed.

In order to obtain a huge order for warships from the German Navy, Li Haitao, the head of Shanghai Shipbuilding Heavy Industry, did everything he could to design the Caesar-class battleships and Blucher-class battlecruisers for the German Navy.

According to the requirements of the German Navy, they hoped to acquire the Shang Wang-class battleships and the Zhou Wuwang-class battlecruisers under construction in the Chinese Empire.

The Imperial Chinese Navy's Shang Wang-class battleships were upgraded on the basis of the Xia Dynasty-class battleships, and when the nine Xia Dynasty battleships were completed, the construction of eight Shang-Wang-class battleships began. However, with the victory of the Imperial Chinese Navy, the Admiralty cancelled four ships.

The Shang Wang-class battleships had a design displacement of 24,000 tons, and the increased displacement was allocated to the addition of boilers and steam turbine drivetrains, as well as the redistribution of armor weight due to the increase in the caliber of the main gun to 13 inches. Four twin 330 mm 45 x guns and 28 twin 102 mm rapid-fire guns made the Shang King class quite powerful, and the main armor belt was raised to 330 mm to resist the armor-piercing blasting of 13-inch shells. Eighteen coal-fired boilers and four oil-fired boilers drove four Parsons Type 06 steam turbines to reach a speed of 22.5 knots.

After communicating with the Admiralty of the Chinese Empire, Li Haitao was authorized to sell the Zhou Wuwang-class battlecruisers, but the Shangwang-class battlecruisers needed to be lowered for export.

Therefore, Li Haitao found designers to lower the design of the Shang King class battleship by one grade, and submitted a drawing to the Admiralty for deliberation, and then approved by the National Assembly to allow it to be exported to the German Navy.

Approved for export to Germany is the export version of the Shang Xuan Wang class, with a displacement of only 21,100 tons, equipped with four twin 330 mm 40 times extended main guns, 36 88 mm rapid-fire guns, armor protection is only 300 mm, and the speed is 21 knots.

It can be said that the Caesar-class battleships exported to Germany are a streamlined and reduced version of the Shang King class, but for the German Navy, the price is only 36 million marks, but it can suppress the St. Vincent-class battleships in service in Britain, and the surname price ratio is very high.

Therefore, the German Navy decided to import 4 ships to supplement the German Navy as a Caesar-class. The Chinese Empire had just canceled four Shang Wang-class battleships, so it sold the prepared steel and equipment to Germany.

The four Brüchch-class battlecruisers were built by the Shanghai Shipbuilding Industry Co., Ltd. of the Chinese Empire, and the surname parameters were based on the indicators of the Zhou Wuwang-class battlecruisers, but the Imperial Chinese Navy deliberately lowered the speed of the Brüchch-class battlecruisers to only 25 knots in order to maintain the technological superiority of steam turbines. However, for the German Navy, the 25-knot battlecruiser was sufficient for Germany's coastal defense needs and met Germany's needs for breaking engagements.

The price of the Brüchch-class battlecruisers was very high, exceeding the Caesar-class battleships by more than 4 million marks, and finally the unit price of the four Brüchch-class battlecruisers was 40 million marks.

For this reason, the German Navy was required to pay 306 million German marks to the Shanghai Shipbuilding Industry of the Chinese Empire, to be paid in three installments, which were scheduled to be delivered in February 1909.

What the German Navy did not know was that the Brüchch-class battlecruisers exported by the Chinese Empire to the German Navy had become obsolete from the beginning of construction. Because the Imperial Shipyard of the Chinese Empire had begun to secretly build a Zhou Lie-class battle cruiser.

The Zhou Liewang-class battle cruiser is a further improvement of the Zhouwuwang-class battle cruiser, equipped with four twin 330 mm 45 times diameter main guns, 24 102 mm rapid-fire guns, and the armor protection is called the Zhou Wuwang-class increased by 26 mm to 280 mm, and with the protection ability of China Special Steel, it can resist 305 mm shells of foreign navies. Provided, of course, that the charge of shells of foreign navies is not Hesokin.

In order to balance the additional displacement brought about by the increase in the caliber and armor of the main gun, the Zhou Lie-class battle cruiser adopted a complete abandonment of coal-fired boilers, using 30 oil-fired boilers and four Parsons Type 06 steam turbine systems, four-axis propulsion, and a design speed of 28 knots.

The Zhou Liewang-class battle cruiser was only approved to be built, because the price of the battle cruiser was too expensive, the cost of a battle cruiser exceeded the battleship of the same tonnage by nearly 40%, and the Congress thought that the battle cruiser was too expensive, and the number of battle cruisers of the Chinese Imperial Navy was currently in an absolute advantage, and there was no need to build more. Therefore, the Zhou Liewang-class battlecruiser was only used as a test ship to test the steam turbine system that used entirely oil-fired boilers, providing a technical and empirical reference for the construction of more advanced battlecruisers in the future.

The news that the German Navy had once again ordered four Caesar-class battleships and four Brüchch-class battlecruisers to the Chinese Empire spread far and wide, and was immediately concerned by the European and American powers. Of course, this news was deliberately released by the Chinese Empire in order to stimulate the nerves of the European and American powers and attract them to a large-scale naval arms race with Germany. At the same time, another purpose of the Chinese Empire is to make a name for itself, to instigate Europe and the United States while not forgetting to make money, after all, the construction of a Shenbow-type warship is extremely expensive, which can help the Chinese Empire solve 10,000 jobs in the country, and hundreds of companies and enterprises will benefit, which is a good thing for the country and the people.

After the Battle of the Atlantic for the British Navy, Fisher led the experts of the Naval Engineering Department to study the second-class battleships of the Chinese Empire, and it was not until Germany acquired four Blüchch-class battlecruisers from the Chinese Empire that the British Navy did not fight them with nine battlecruisers in the Atlantic.

Since then, the concept of the battle cruiser has been known to the international countries, and Fisher has long had this idea in his heart, so after the end of the war, the British Admiralty immediately began to build the Invincible-class battle cruiser.

Since the British Navy did not want to irritate the Imperial Chinese Navy, only four Invincible-class battlecruisers were built to counter the four German Brüchch-class battlecruisers.

The Invincible-class battlecruiser was built with a long bow and four boiler compartments in the hull to accommodate the 31 steam boilers necessary to maintain high propulsion power (18 were installed on the Dreadnought battleship built at the same time), with a design speed of 26.6 knots. Equipped with a 12-inch 45-fold main gun, 4 twin main gun turrets, one at the bow and one at the stern, and the two turrets in the middle P and Q are arranged on both sides of the hull in a stepped manner (theoretically, the side turret can shoot at the other side when it rotates at a certain angle, but the firing range is extremely limited), and because Britain lost the technical support of Parsons Steam Turbine Company, its steam turbine system was far inferior to the steam turbine system equipped by the Imperial Chinese Navy. Therefore, in order to achieve the speed of 27 knots of the Zhou Wuwang-class battlecruisers of the Chinese Empire, its defensive armor protection was only slightly stronger than that of the first-class cruisers, only 152 mm. The command tower is also only 254 mm, which is much worse than the armor protection of the Zhou Wuwang-class of the Chinese Empire. In addition, the two turrets are very close to each other, which is prone to penetrations and explosions during the battle, and triggers a chain explosion of the ammunition depots of the two turrets.

As a self-built battlecruiser of the first class of the British class, the Invincible class has a displacement of 20,000 tons, in addition to the four twin 305 main guns, there are also 16 102 mm single rapid-fire guns, although the caliber exceeds the Zhou Wu Wang class, but the number is less than half of the Zhou Wu Wang class. However, the British Navy's battle cruisers are designed to be more prominent in terms of endurance, reaching 3,000 nautical miles/25 knots, and 6,020 nautical miles/15 knots.

Similarly, the British Navy designed Neptune-class battleships to counter the Shang King class battleships of the Chinese Empire. Construction of the first ship, Neptune, began at the Portsmouth Naval Yard in January 1907. The ship has changed the layout of the main gun turret of the previous British dreadnought battleship, and adopted a new turret layout design, the two main turrets of the amidship P and Q are arranged on both sides of the hull in a stepped manner, and the turret can shoot at the other side when the turret rotates at a certain angle, but the reverse firing angle is not large, and the firing range is limited. The X and Y turrets in the stern of the hull are knapsack-type, but because the turret protection has not been significantly improved compared with the previous British battleships, the two turrets are prone to joint damage. The superstructure was divided into three parts, connected by a dinghy flybridge, which caused poor artillery firing.

The most embarrassing thing for the British Navy was that the British Naval Engineering Department's large-caliber artillery design lagged behind the Chinese Empire. The Chinese Empire was equipped with 330 mm 45 times the main gun on the Shang King class battleships, and the Caesar-class battleships exported to Germany were also equipped with 330 mm 40 times the main gun, while the British currently only had two models: the 323 mm 40 times the main gun and the 305 mm 50 times extended main gun. Considering that the 50-fold 305 main gun has an advantage over the 40-fold 323 main gun, and the 305 caliber is the standard equipment of the British battleship and the technology is mature, the British Navy is equipped with four twin 305 mm 50-fold extension main guns on the Neptune battleship.

However, the British are also good-looking, as the world's number one naval industrial power, they cannot be surpassed by the Chinese Empire. Therefore, the Neptune battleships were only used for emergencies, and the British Admiralty required that the follow-up battleships need to be equipped with 330 mm 50 times the extension of the main gun, and at least 330 mm 45 times the extension.

Because of the Sino-British War and the Eight-Nation Alliance's war of aggression against Britain, Britain's finances were tight and its deficit remained high. In order to balance the fiscal deficit, the British government budget of 1907 approved the construction of only one battleship Neptune for the navy. Aware of the growing threat to the German navy, Britain urgently allocated additional funds to build three improved Giant-class battleships based on the Neptune.

In this way, the British Navy will also have four new battleships launched in the next two years, balancing the four new battleships of the German Navy.

However, due to financial constraints, the British Navy's naval artillery department failed to complete the design of the 330 mm 45 times extension main gun within the specified time, and finally only completed the design of the 330 mm 40 times extension, which was just equal to the firepower of the German Caesar-class.

In this regard, the British Admiralty had to admit that after the Sino-British War and the Eight-Nation Alliance's war of aggression against Britain, Britain's strength had obviously declined and was not as good as before.

(To be continued)