The empire is such a large country, and its influence is growing day by day, and its large-scale military operations are closely watched by other powers in the world.

When the empire was partially mobilized due to the turmoil in Kokand Province, and parts of Central Asia and the border provinces such as Yunnan and Guizhou entered a state of combat readiness, and the capital ships of the imperial royal navy began to assemble at the Hong Kong naval base, it naturally quickly attracted the attention of other countries.

The first to react was naturally the British, because the Royal Navy was already the third largest navy in the world, and when dealing with ordinary enemies, it was enough to send a random detachment fleet.

Now in the Pacific Ocean and even in the Indian Ocean, there is only one enemy worthy of the Royal Navy to gather the main fleet and put on a decisive posture, and that is the British Royal Navy.

The British minister to China quickly asked what was the reason for the sudden war of the Empire?

To this, the Empire's answer was that the Royal Navy of the Empire was preparing to hold a large-scale live-fire exercise in the near future, and took the initiative to invite representatives of Britain and France and other countries to watch.

This answer of the empire makes it obvious to others at a glance that this is the imperial royal navy is showing force, and the target is still the world's number one power France and the second largest country, France, the contemporary Britain and France, with the world's largest and second largest navies, are both potential main opponents of the imperial royal navy.

The British just wondered, is it just because of the incident in Kokand Province that the empire held exercises to show off its force at this time?

Didn't you just work with the Russians, and then give a little financial support to the locals in Kokand Province, and then send a batch of ordnance?

This move was just to make some trouble for the Chinese, and the empire of the province continued to expand in Central Asia, because although the Ayyub supported by the empire took control of the situation in Afghanistan in the past two years, the empire's penetration in Afghanistan increased significantly, and the British and Russians were greatly excluded.

Their support for the rebellion in Kokand Province was, to a certain extent, a self-preservation strategy, allowing these rebellions to contain the energy of the empire, so that they would not run to Afghanistan and Persia or even Turkey to cause trouble.

It is a pity that they underestimated the importance and vigilance of the Chinese Empire against domestic rebellion.

If the British were only supporting the local natives to rebel in some of the empire's colonies, such as the island of New Guinea, then the empire's reaction would not be great, at most it would be to send a few hundred people to suppress it.

But now the British have extended their hand to the empire itself, and the rebellion at home is absolutely unbearable for the empire.

In particular, Kokand and some of the provinces of Siberia were newly occupied, and these places were not stable in the first place, and the empire needed to spend a lot of energy to suppress them every year, and even if all went well, it was estimated that it would take many years to completely control these places.

If, in the process, there are foreign forces, especially Britain and Russia, two powerful enemies, who are eyeing each other and sending a batch of funds and ordnance to the rebels across the mountain, then it is possible that this newly occupied territory will never be at peace.

In order to completely suppress this wave, for the sake of the security of the empire itself, Lin Zhe would not allow this kind of thing to happen, so it was only a beginning that was not allowed.

Therefore, Britain and Russia supported the rebels in Kokand Province to cause such a big reaction from Lin.

The mobilization of the army and the assembly of the navy were all manifestations of the strong reaction of the Empire, and this reaction was not the same 'strong protest' of the later republics, and in these years, people generally did not play verbal protests, but generally directly engaged in military intimidation.

If intimidation doesn't work, it's often just a matter of going to war.

And the mobilization of the army, the build-up of the navy, this is what the empire has put out to carry out military intimidation against the major powers.

Therefore, when the Seventh Army, which was responsible for the defense of Kokand Province, began to mobilize troops to suppress the rebels, in 1882, on April 16, the 25th year of Xuanwu, the Royal Navy also held the largest live-fire exercise since the establishment of the army.

Six battleships, four armored cruisers, and a large number of cruisers took part in the live-fire exercise.

Watching the battleships in front of them gradually move forward in a column, and then their main guns pointed at a number of target ships two thousand meters away, with bursts of flames rising, the rumbling of guns began to spread throughout this sea area, and when those 250 mm and 300 mm main guns were fired, the scene was so spectacular that many people watching were shocked.

The British minister to the empire looked at this scene, and then estimated the strength of the current Royal Navy's East India Fleet, and then found very pessimistic that the strength of the East India Fleet was no longer as good as the fleet in front of him.

And he also knew that the Chinese warships were more than what he saw in front of him, as far as he knew, there were no less than seven battleships in the hands of the Chinese, in addition to at least six armored cruisers, and an unknown number of battleships and armored cruisers were under construction.

These warships have completely exceeded the strength of the East India Fleet, and if the British Royal Navy wants to enter the South China Sea and compete with the Chinese for sea supremacy, it must send at least fifteen or even twenty large warships of more than 6,000 tons.

And this is also a very difficult thing for the Royal Navy, because the strategic core of the British Royal Navy is still in Europe, and its Channel Fleet and the Mediterranean Fleet are the top priorities, although the East India Fleet has also been valued, but Britain will not sacrifice the strength of the fleet in the European direction to strengthen the East India Fleet.

Thinking of this, his mood was a little not good, even a little pessimistic, and then he completely lost interest in the spectacular exercise, thinking about how to report to the country, perhaps, to suggest that Congress calm the dispute with China as much as possible, maybe simply recommend that Congress strengthen the strength of the East India fleet, and then develop a war to eliminate the Chinese fleet in one fell swoop, so as to completely eliminate the threat brought by the Chinese?

Although the ministers of other countries such as France and Russia belong to different countries, they all have similar thoughts in their hearts at this time, and after intuitively feeling the strong strength of the Imperial Royal Navy, what they need to consider is how to formulate a policy toward China in the future.

Unlike these diplomats, who were thinking about major events such as relations with China and Asian strategy, the minds of the naval attachés of some countries who came with the diplomats were also spinning rapidly, but these people were judging the actual combat effectiveness of these imperial warships and guessing why the imperial navy was building these warships.

There are a large number of protected cruisers, unprotected cruisers and armored cruisers in the Royal Navy, which are relatively familiar to all countries, and everyone has them, and they are not unfamiliar with them, such as armored cruisers, which began to be built by various countries in the early seventies.

Russia, France, and Great Britain have built a lot of armored cruisers.

The armor cruisers and dome cruisers among those protective cruisers are not new, and all countries basically have similar warships.

The battleships are similar, the six battleships participating in the exercise this time are the Chiyou class and the Shundi class, although the two battleships are somewhat different in the gun layout, but many designs are also available in other countries, such as the use of low freeboard design, this design is basically the common design of the modern closed turret capital ship.

In addition, what makes them more curious is why these capital ships are all in a diamond-shaped layout!

The firepower layout of these main warships of the Imperial Navy in front of them is strikingly similar, that is, they all adopt a diamond-shaped layout, with two twin main guns deployed on the front and rear central axes, and then two single-mounted main guns on the sides of the two sides, for a total of six main guns.

Other countries have actually tried this artillery layout, but they have not used it as firmly as the Empire, and many countries are now advocating the use of four large-caliber guns, and then a bunch of secondary guns, or two primary guns, two main guns, and then a bunch of secondary guns.

It's just that what they don't know is that another battleship of the Empire, that is, the Shaohao-class battleship, no longer uses a diamond-shaped layout with six main guns, but a layout with four main guns.

However, due to the need for military secrecy, the two Shaohao-class battleships that had already been commissioned did not participate in this actual combat exercise.

Also watching the exercise were representatives of several smaller countries, such as Argentina and the Chileans, who were engaged in a naval arms race, and the Chileans' war performance in the last two years greatly stimulated Argentina, which led to a new round of naval expansion and the purchase of a 4,200-ton ironclad from the Empire in 1880, enough to counter the Chilean Admiral Korenk-class ironclad.

But this was not enough, the Argentines were looking for better and more cost-effective ships.

By the same token, Chile, which is still at war and under pressure from Argentina to expand its navy, is also looking for larger, more powerful warships.

And the empire relied on the price advantage and the advantage in artillery, and the British had long been squeezed out of the South American warship market, so now although Argentina and Chile are both potential enemies, they are looking for new warships, but they have all found the empire, this time the imperial royal navy held a live-fire exercise, which is also an opportunity for them to directly observe China's shipbuilding strength.

They were joined by two naval officers from the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan, who wandered back and forth on the most powerful battleships or armored cruisers, unlike the representatives of other countries, who were fixed on the most powerful battleships or armored cruisers. (To be continued.) )