At the ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Imperial Meeting, Wang Chenhao formulated guidelines and policies to weaken the capital, and the subsequent matters were naturally handed over to the General Staff to deal with.

On the issue of policy towards the United States, the Imperial Chinese Cabinet was divided.

The military officials headed by Wang Shizhen were naturally eager to try, and they defeated Russia and Britain one after another, and they already boasted that they were the world's number one military power, and they did not take the United States seriously at all.

Zhang Feng and other civilian officials are not so belligerent, and they believe that they should avoid war with the United States as much as possible, after all, the United States' industrial capacity is too strong, and its military power is expanding rapidly, and a war between China and the United States will not benefit either side.

The suggestion of Zhang Feng and others was to seize the opportunity of the European war, make money as much as possible to develop domestic industrial strength, and strive to truly surpass the United States to become the strongest industrial country in the world after the war. At that time, if there was a war with the United States, no matter the total national economy, industrial strength, or military strength, they would have enough confidence to fight, and they would be guaranteed to fight.

However, Wang Shizhen and others believe that if they do anything to Yueben, it will be tantamount to knocking out a watchdog of the United States in the western Pacific. Judging by the strategy of the United States, it is possible that they will send troops to participate in the war, and perhaps the war may evolve into a war between the Chinese Empire and the United States at the same time.

In this way, the imperial side had to prepare for the worst, that is, to prepare for the possible involvement of the United States in the war at the same time.

"It's all about the sky, you just want money!" Zhang Feng pursed his lips, and immediately hit Wang Shizhen's true intentions.

Wang Shizhen smiled and said, "We are all for the empire. If we lose the battle, what are the consequences? It must be an unequal treaty that is flying all over the world, and the land is ceded and reparated. Think about the consequences of the defeat of Britain, Russia, and the Empire, or not a large amount of land ceding and reparations to the Empire! If we are defeated because of lack of funds, you have to pay several times or more than ten times more than what we are asking for now, and it is better to give us money than that, what do you say? ”

Zhang Feng rolled his eyes and said, "You can't give another reason?" Every time you use this reason to ask Congress for money, don't you like to lose the price? ”

Wang Shizhen smiled: "This reason is the most effective, it has been tried and tested, why change it?" ”

Zhang Feng sighed helplessly, and had to admit that every time Wang Shizhen used this reason, it was enough to persuade the congressmen to pay for it happily. The reason is that China has been defeated many times in the past, and the land reparations have frightened them, and now the Chinese Empire has won many wars and demanded reparations from other countries, which makes them really understand that this era is the law of the jungle, and only military victories can have the right to speak. Everything else is puffy clouds. Therefore, whenever Wang Shizhen threatened Congress with the possibility of losing a war if the military did not have enough funds to upgrade equipment, it worked, and the congressmen immediately approved the bill reimbursement application submitted by the military.

This time it was the case again, Wang Shizhen had to bring the United States in order to prepare for the war against Yue, so that the Chinese Emperor [***] team needed to be prepared to go to war with the United States at the same time, and it had to ask the Congress for money to buy equipment.

Zhang Feng asked, "How much are you going to want?" ”

Wang Shizhen said casually: "About 500 million." ”

"Five hundred million?" Zhang Feng suddenly glared when he heard this, and said, "Why don't you go and grab it?" ”

Wang Shizhen asked with a smile: "The treasury has a lot of gold reserves, right?" If I grab one vote, I will have to pay tens of billions, right? ”

Zhang Feng said: "It's not a lot, about 4,000 tons." ”

Wang Shizhen swallowed his saliva in surprise and said, "There are so many!" ”

Zhang Feng nodded and said, "The provincial branches still have gold reserves totaling more than two thousand tons, and many other private banks also have a lot of gold reserves. ”

Wang Shizhen asked: "So the Imperial Bank has 6,000 tons of gold reserves!" How much do you have to exchange? ”

Zhang Feng said with a smile: "The gold reserves of all countries in the world are only 33,000 tons, of which 10,000 tons are stored in personal homes as private jewelry or gold bars, and the gold reserves of political axes in various countries are only about 20,000 tons." How much do you think we can exchange for these 6,000 tons of gold? ”

Wang Shizhen smacked his lips and said, "How can I get 10 billion!" ”

Zhang Feng didn't say anything, just walked by himself, and seemed to disdain to explain to him. Wang Shizhen was bored, and then remembered that he wanted money, and immediately chased after him.

In the summer of 1912, the Imperial Congress of China issued a white paper on the global military strength, in which it wantonly exaggerated the level of military strength of the United States and the United States, and vigorously trumpeted the theory of the military threat to China from the United States and the United States.

After the release of the white paper, the people of the empire were immediately shocked and demanded that the political axe strengthen its military strength in order to deal with the military threat from the United States and the United States.

Subsequently, the Imperial Congress passed the Guanghua 12-year military expenditure supplementary appropriation budget, which allocated a total of 500 million dragon coins for the navy, army, and air forces of the Chinese Empire in the next two years to update equipment and improve the lives of the officers and soldiers of the Chinese Empire.

Such a large military budget would have caused heated discussions among the people of the empire. Because the Chinese Empire was a boiled country, the imperial expenses came from the tax money of the citizens, and the people had the right to know the items and uses of the political axes. The emergency supplementary budget of 500 million dragon coins, which accounts for 25% of the Empire's annual financial expenditure, plus 15% of the defense expenditure at the beginning of this year, has reached 40%. Unlike other fiscal expenditures, other expenditures will eventually flow into the hands of the people, forming a closed cycle. Military spending is a non-circular expenditure, and eventually this money will be consumed, rather than 'taken from civilian use, for the people', so the amount of military spending has always been a concern of the people of the empire.

However, because the Imperial Congress had previously issued a national defense white paper on the large-scale expansion of military power by the United States and the United States, which had greatly exaggerated the theory of the threat posed by the United States to China, the people were attracted by the threat brought about by the expansion of the United States' military strength, and did not criticize the empire's huge military budget.

Of course, in the past few years, every time the Chinese Empire increased its military budget, it would always introduce some sensitive events in advance to divert the attention of the people, thus paving the way for the Congress to smoothly pass the military budget.

Unlike the Ministry of Finance's strategic material reserves, the military's war reserves are used to fight against the United States, not to make money.

Due to the shipbuilding budget approved in April 1912, the Nagato-class battleships and Tango-class battlecruisers could not be completed until the end of 1914 or early 1915 at the earliest. The Navy's existing four Fuso-class battleships and four Kong-class battlecruisers are not enough to compete with the Imperial Chinese Navy, and the Song-class battleships of the Imperial Chinese Empire will be completed at the beginning of next year, so the strategy formulated by the General Staff of the Imperial Chinese Army is to wait for the completion of the Song-class battleships before taking action against the Imperial Chinese Navy, which will be more certain.

However, the U.S. Navy allocated funds for the construction of Colorado-class battleships and Philadelphia-class battlecruisers in this fiscal year, with a caliber of 16 inches in their main guns, which is already at the level of the Song-class battleships that the Chinese Empire began construction last year. With the shipbuilding capacity and speed of the United States, it is believed that it can be completed within two years, and once the Chinese Empire fights against it, the United States may complete the project and enter the war ahead of schedule in a short time, which will pose a threat to the Chinese Imperial Navy.

To this end, the Imperial Chinese Admiralty decided to build a new class of battleships as part of this year's naval armament expansion program. In addition, the construction of additional destroyers and submarines began, including the Tempest-class destroyers and Tempest-class battle destroyers, as well as the new Tang-class submarines.

The Admiralty requested the construction of a Yuan-class battleship equipped with a 17-inch 45-fold main gun, and the expert engineers of the Navy Ship Administration immediately set out to develop the main gun of this caliber and the hull of the ship that could carry the 17-inch main gun.

According to the operational requirements put forward by the Admiralty, the Yuan-class battleships will have four triple 432 mm guns, as well as 400 mm armor protection that can resist the impact of the same caliber main gun shells, as well as a required speed of 30 knots.

However, after technical demonstration, the General Administration of Ships believes that although this kind of battleship can be built, the total tonnage must be at least 70,000 tons, because the weight of 17-inch shells is as high as 2.5 tons, and all the equipment that drives the main guns and shells of this caliber requires extremely high strength and automation, which cannot be completed by manpower. The total tonnage of each triple gun mount is more than 5,000 tons, and four is 20,000 tons, plus 400 mm of armor protection, and the installation of enough boiler and steam turbine units to achieve a speed of 30 knots, so at least 70,000 tons.

But this is not the key, the Navy Ship Administration is only responsible for the design, whether it can be built or not has to contact the Ministry of Navy Industry. As a result, the drawings were stopped after they arrived at the Ministry of Naval Industry, because there are currently no slipways for 70,000-ton battleships in the country, and the largest tonnage is a 50,000-ton slipway. At the same time, the Naval Armament Department will not be able to develop and produce 12 17-inch guns and related equipment in a year, and will be able to develop and produce up to 6 sets.

The Admiralty did not want to wait too long, so it asked the Naval Armament Department to produce as many as nine main gun systems as possible, and at the same time ordered the designers of the General Administration of Ships to redesign it, so that the standards could be appropriately lowered.

Eventually, the General Administration of Ships came up with a feasible surname plan for the Admiralty. The Yuan-class battleships were modified to have a standard displacement of 49,500 tons, which exceeded the full load displacement of the Song-class battleships of the Chinese Empire. As for the full load displacement of the Yuan class, the lead ship Genghis Khan will have a full load displacement of 64350 tons.

The main guns of the Yuan-class battleships are three triple 9 45 times caliber 432 mm M12 guns, using fully automatic loaders, electric drive, theoretically its main gun rate of fire is not inferior to the main guns of Song-class battleships, the rate of fire is 3 rounds per minute, which is also the highest rate of fire of the main guns of battleships in various countries in the same period, and the requirements for gunnery commanders and soldiers are extremely high, that is, the officers and men of the Chinese Imperial Navy who have experienced a hundred battles can do it, and other countries generally cannot reach this level, including the British Navy. The main turret is symmetrical in front and rear, with two in front of the bridge and one in the stern.

In order to give full play to the natural advantages of large-caliber main guns, the maximum elevation angle of its main guns reaches 55 degrees, and the firing range will be greatly provided, theoretically it will reach 25 km, making it the main gun with the longest firing range. The artillery technology benefited from the strong technical support of Rosenberg, an artillery expert of Beiyang Ordnance Heavy Industries, who passed on the core technical ideas of the Paris cannon to the naval artillery engineers, so that the 17-inch super-extreme gun could break through the theoretical limitations.

In addition, Rosenberg also wanted to obtain technical specifications about his super cannon from the 17-inch cannon, because he also encountered bottlenecks in the development of his super cannon, which needed to be solved urgently.

He designed a specialized armor-piercing shell for the main guns of the Yuan-class battleships. The armor-piercing projectile uses a "low muzzle velocity heavy projectile", which has very strong power and accuracy at long-range combat distances, giving full play to the long-range strike capability of battleships of this class. But there are gains and losses, and the survival speed of this armor-piercing projectile can be reduced accordingly at close range, and it cannot give full play to the power of the 17-inch cannon, only the intrusive and destructive power of the 16-inch main gun.

The armor protection of the Yuan-class battleships follows the design mode of comprehensive protection, and the Navy requires the construction of unsinkable battleships, so this class of ships has the largest protection scale among all battleships in the same period, and its main armor sidewalls cover 85% of the waterline length and 66% of the broadside height, while the total weight of the armor reaches the largest proportion among the battleships of the same period, accounting for 41.85% of the standard displacement.

In addition, while achieving a large protection scale, the ship relies on the space compensation provided by the large protection scale, and arranges the main horizontal armor on the third deck, so that it overlaps on the ballistic trajectory at the same time with the main broadside side armor, so that the protection of the critical parts of the hull has also been greatly strengthened, surpassing other battleships built at the same time.

The TDS (Torpedo Defense System) of the Yuan-class battleships was designed to withstand underwater blasting of 250 kg TNT, and in fact the defense capabilities of China Special Steel proved to be super strong, which could withstand 400 kg of black Sokin Lie's explosives.

For the first time, this class of ships used a comprehensive welding method, because riveting can no longer guarantee the anti-sinking ability of the Yuan-class battleships, and only the strongest welded hull and high-quality Chinese special steel armor protection can make the Yuan-class battleships invincible. These conditions enabled the Yuan-class battleships to play the role of the main battle of the fleet, destroying the main battleship of any enemy country, and entering the vast waters of the ocean, and the power of its main guns could easily destroy the enemy convoys encountered.

In terms of power, the Yuan-class battleship adopts 16 high-pressure boilers and 3 Parsons gear impulse repulsion steam turbine units, with a design maximum power of 138,000 horsepower, an actual stable maximum power of 150,170 horsepower, and an actual maximum power of 163026 horsepower, which can drive the Yuan-class battleship to sail at a high speed of 30 knots for a long time.

Of course, the fuel load of the Yuan-class battleships also hit a new high, reaching 8,000 tons, and the endurance was 8,500 nautical miles / 19 knots, 10,000 nautical miles / 15 knots.

However, the cost of Yuan-class battleships is also terrifying, with a single ship costing as much as 49 million dragon coins, which can almost build two Song-class battleships. At the same time, the annual maintenance cost of the Yuan-class battleship was also as high as 1 million dragon coins, which exceeded the annual maintenance expenses of the Beiyang Naval Division.

Imperial Congressional officials disagreed with the Imperial Navy's construction of such a terrifying warship, but given the current tensions in the world, they chose to shut up, and if it was placed in peacetime, or if there was no large-scale global naval arms race, this kind of battleship would not be approved by Congress. Even if the Emperor strongly supports it, they will have to fight with reason, because this kind of warship is really a gold-eating beast.

Because the Yuan-class battleships were too expensive to build, Congress eventually cut the other four of the eight and allowed only four to be built. The first ships are the Yuan Taizu Genghis Khan [BB-59], the Yuan Shizu Kublai Khan [BB-60], the Yuan Chengzong Temur [BB-61], and the Yuan Wuzong Haishan [BB-62].

Because the main gun caliber of the Yuan-class battleships of the Chinese Empire reached 17 inches, the displacement reached 60,000 tons, and the speed reached 30 knots, the battleships of this class became the most powerful battleships in World War I, and the battleships of no country could compete with them, and even the battleships loaded with 16-inch main guns could only escape in front of the Yuan-class battleships.

(To be continued)