Because the construction period of the Chiyou is too long, and this kind of 10,000-ton giant ship not only costs a lot of money, but also has a total of two docks in China to build this kind of giant ship, and now these two docks are occupied, it is impossible to start the second ship in a short time.

At this time, the Navy naturally cannot wait for nothing.

In addition to the Chiyou, the Navy has placed an order for two other giant ships, to be precise, it should be the follow-up order of the eight-year ship, with the official start of the construction of the 10,000-ton ship, a series of experiments of the eight-year ship is relatively successful, and has become a real warship for construction, for this reason, the Navy is to give the ship the official name, is for the 'Tian Wu' Tian Wu is one of the creation gods in traditional mythology.

At the same time, based on the Tianwu, the Navy's Ship Administration Department improved and designed a new type of ironclad ship, the Kuafu-class ironclad ship, with a displacement of 5,500 tons, four 250-millimeter naval guns as the main gun, 10 150-millimeter naval guns as secondary guns, a closed turret, pure steam power, and a maximum speed of 14 knots.

The overall design of the Kuafu-class ironclad ship is actually similar to that of the Chiyou, except that the tonnage is a little smaller, and the number of guns is a little less.

However, some of the core designs are quite similar, because these two warships are derived from the Tianwu, and naturally have great technical commonalities.

The design of the Kuafu-class ironclad ship and the Chiyou are about to start construction also represents a new peak in the development of the Imperial Navy's ironclad ships.

At that time, the Navy stopped continuing to order Pangu-class and Yandi-class ironclad ships, and instead used funds for Chiyou-class 10,000-ton ironclad ships and Kuafu-class large ironclad ships.

This means that the total number of Pangu-class ironclad ships will remain at five, and the total number of Yandi-class ironclad ships will remain at three.

However, this does not mean that the Imperial Navy has stopped building small-tonnage ironclad ships, in fact, due to the long construction cycle of large ironclad ships, the Navy is still eager to have more ironclad ships enter the navy service in a short period of time. It's just not a capital ship.

The Navy intends to return to the path of the early years, and is preparing to design and build a batch of small ironclad ships between 1,500 and 2,000 tons, designed and positioned as fast reconnaissance ships, to replace the existing wooden fast reconnaissance ships of several hundred tons.

At the same time, although the Navy does not plan to develop offshore ironclad ships on a large scale, the performance of the Female Snail still allows the Navy to continue to place orders for the construction of offshore ironclad ships, and the number is not large. There is only one ship, which is intended to fill the gap after the sinking of the Nusnail, and will be deployed in the waters of the Pearl River Estuary in the later stage.

The estimated tonnage is 2,500 tons, although the tonnage is not large, but the protection and firepower are extremely powerful, ready to be equipped with 250 mm naval guns, the protection is also up to the level of five inches, in order to control the cost of naturally will not be stuffed into a large number of steam engines, so the speed is limited. There are only eight knots, not to mention the endurance, anyway, it will go around the port and will not go to the open sea.

Low freeboard, heavy artillery, thick protection, low speed, this is the typical special of offshore ironclad ships.

This series of shipbuilding plans was proposed in just one month after the Battle of the Pearl River Estuary. Then it was implemented one after another, and the first of them to start construction was not the 10,000-ton giant ship Chiyou. Rather, it is an offshore ironclad ship of only 2,500 tons, and the ship is called the 'Emperor'.

The technical requirements for offshore ironclad ships are much lower, and the tonnage is not large, so the requirements for the dock are not high, and the Shanghai shipyard can be built directly, if you work overtime. The construction period is expected to be relatively short, and if construction starts in April now, it is expected to be completed by the end of next year, and it will be ready for service in early 1868.

At the same time, the navy has not forgotten to continue to build those small-tonnage offshore ironclad ships, although the Zhenguang-class small ironclad ships look inconspicuous. At present, nationwide, but at the same time, there are five or six shipyards building Zhenguang-class small ironclad ships, which are expected to be able to serve more than four more ships this year, which can effectively enrich the coastal defense forces of the Imperial Navy in a short period of time.

However, the above-mentioned ship-building plan is unlikely to change the existing strength of the Imperial Navy in a short period of time, and in order to prepare for a possible second attack by the British, it will have to rely on the existing warships!

And whether it can be stopped or not depends not on how strong the imperial navy is, but on how many large ironclad ships the British will send over.

However, whether the British would reinforce on a large scale and continue to wage a second naval war depended on diplomatic negotiations.

On 6 April, after hearing of the defeat of the East Indies Fleet and its withdrawal to Singapore, the British army, which had been holding on to Hong Kong for a long time, could not bear it any longer, and in the afternoon of the same day, the remnants of nearly 1,000 British troops on the island formally surrendered to the Chinese army.

Lieutenant General Zhu Jianjia, commander of the 21st Division, accepted the surrender of the British army!

In the days that followed, the diplomats of the British Army and the diplomats of the Imperial Foreign Office continued to negotiate intensively, mainly on the question of Hawaii and Hong Kong.

During the negotiations, the British repeatedly said that they would send a more powerful fleet to the Far East, and that the British Royal Navy had enough confidence and ability to completely destroy the Chinese Navy.

Although the negotiating team led by Song Guanqian wanted to refute this statement of the British, they knew their own affairs, and the Imperial Navy had such a little strength, and it was already very reluctant to defeat the East India Fleet before, and it was almost impossible to defeat the British fleet reinforced from the mainland or the Mediterranean.

Therefore, Song Guanqian and others did not refute this, but said that even without a navy, the empire could still win the war against Britain.

And directly told the British that the Imperial Royal Army already has six infantry divisions hoarded in the direction of Yunnan, as long as His Majesty the Emperor of the Empire gives an order, he can quickly cross the Ning Kingdom, and then launch an attack on the British Burma, and then you British can hold it?

At the same time, he also said that in the direction of Kokand Province and Xinjiang Province in Central Asia, the imperial military also has up to 30,000 troops ready to send troops to the Indian region at any time.

In a series of confrontation disputes with the British, the battle at sea was just an appetizer, and even if the Imperial Navy was completely destroyed, the Imperial Army was still confident of taking Burma and even sending troops to India.

Fighting on land, the Imperial Royal Army has never been afraid of anyone!

With the current strength of the Empire, it is completely feasible to mobilize more than a million land forces!

It's ridiculous to say. Despite a series of clashes between China and Britain, including Hawaii and Hong Kong, the clashes were dominated by naval engagements.

But it is the army that can have a real impact on both sides!

And when it comes to the army, the empire has absolute confidence!

Compared to the weak navy, the Imperial Army was a huge force. It has the most advanced rifles and field guns of our time, and is also at the forefront of the world in terms of tactics.

In addition, in terms of the critical number, the Imperial Army has more than 700,000 active army troops, and in the event of a large-scale war, it can mobilize millions of troops in a short period of time.

And this huge army force is basically invincible in the Asian region.

Even Russia, known as the steamroller of Europe, was powerless in the face of the Imperial Army, and could only engage in long-term confrontation with the Imperial Army in Central Asia and other regions.

And this, too, was the problem for the British, to achieve superiority at sea. With the current naval power of the British, as long as they make up their minds, then it will definitely be a breeze.

The problem is that it is almost impossible to force the Chinese Empire to submit if it only achieves maritime superiority, and during the Second Opium War, the Empire could only hide in the Yangtze River against the navy, and did not see the Empire surrender!

However, if you want to land for an operation, it is not enough to send 350,000 troops, and if you want to land at the mouth of the Pearl River or the Yangtze River. The British sent 350,000 troops to the end of the total annihilation, and without more than 100,000 troops, it was impossible to gain a firm foothold.

And sent 100,000 troops to expedition to China. Rao is a British, and the world boss is also quite embarrassed!

Not to mention that once a large-scale war really starts, it is estimated that the British expeditionary force has not yet arrived, and the Chinese army deployed in the direction of Yunnan has already entered Lower Burma, and once Lower Burma is lost, this India will be in danger.

Therefore, the possibility of a large-scale landing operation is very small, and it is possible that the British will attempt to launch a landing counteroffensive against Hong Kong. But it is not very likely.

The greatest possibility is that the British will continue to reinforce the fleet, then take control of the coastal waters of China, and retaliate with artillery bombardment of important ports along the coast, and annihilate the Chinese fleet that dares to go out of port to meet the battle.

As for landing, that's not to think about it!

And the economic blockade of the words. Actually, it's not very reliable!

Because this is a lose-lose way, more importantly, the enterprises and merchant ships that carry out international trade in China are generally foreign companies, although China has the Pacific Trading Company and the Shanghai Textile Company and other involved in international trade, but the ocean-going merchant ships are actually very limited, and occupy a very small share of the entire import and export trade.

The trade between China and countries such as the United Kingdom, France, and the United States was basically carried out through foreign companies, taking raw silk as an example.

The cocoons of silkworm farmers will be sold to those silk reeling factories through various channels, and after the silk reeling factories process the cocoons into raw silk, some of them are directly sold to foreign companies, or processed into silk fabrics by domestic silk weaving factories, that is, finished silk products, and then sold to major foreign companies, especially the British-funded foreign companies such as Shun Tak and Jardine Matheson, which organize merchant ships to be shipped to European countries for sale.

In other words, in China's import and export trade, foreign foreign banks occupy a considerable amount of weight, and earn huge profits from this.

For example, after losing its opium business, why was Jardine Matheson still able to maintain rapid growth and compete with Xinde for the position of the largest foreign firm in China? It is dependent on China's import and export business, through the purchase of raw silk, silk fabrics, porcelain, tea and other traditional Chinese export goods, transported to Europe for sale, and then in Europe to purchase machinery products, Indian cotton, and then the United Kingdom, Australia's coal, Southeast Asia's rubber, spices and other materials transported to China for sale.

Therefore, if the British want to completely block the foreign trade of the empire, the empire will certainly suffer heavy losses, but the British themselves will not be any better, and in a year, these foreign companies, as well as those British enterprises that rely on China's import and export trade to survive, will have to lose at least more than 10 million pounds.

You must know that the import and export trade volume between the two countries is as high as hundreds of millions, and it takes great determination to cut off trade!

At the beginning, the British in order to trade with China, but through two opium wars to achieve the current scale of trade, if because of the war to take the initiative to blockade, this is not their own flesh!

Moreover, in Britain, where free trade is pursued and merchants have a huge political position, it is impossible for their parliament to block it without regard to the reaction of the merchants.

Therefore, the current conflict between the Empire and the British seems to be serious, and the decisive battle of the fleet has been fought, but if you analyze it specifically, in fact, both the Empire and the British have actually maintained great restraint in this conflict.

At present, the British have not officially declared war on the Empire, and the Empire has not said anything about sending troops into Burma, nor has it expelled diplomats or anything like that.

Doing business at the same time and negotiating at the same time at the same time was the unique international relations of the 19th century!

But the British must not give up, their reinforcement fleet has not yet set off from the Mediterranean or the mainland, and the several warships sent to reinforce Hawaii have already arrived, and are ready to launch a new attack on Honolulu in Hawaii!

Then a fierce battle broke out outside the port of Honolulu between the British, French, and American Combined Fleets and the Imperial Navy's Hawaiian Task Force! (To be continued.) )