The diplomatic branch of the empire recognized the above three countries at the same time, sent relevant diplomatic officials, and established consulates.

Moreover, the empire maintained a supportive attitude towards these three countries, and at the same time sold ordnance products to these three companies, especially warships, which were large quantities of warships, and basically sold a warship to the Tokugawa shogunate, and it would definitely be sold to the Hokkaiguo or the knowing government a warship.

At present, the strength of the Tokugawa shogunate is still the most powerful, and the North Sea country is small and outnumbered, but because it is a real island country, they have done their best to develop the navy, and in just four years, they have built a large navy.

The Meiji government developed in parallel, with both army and navy in size, but the army was not as large as the Tokugawa shogunate, and the navy was also inferior.

On the whole, the Meiji government reached a verbal alliance with the Hokkaido to work together against the relatively powerful Tokugawa shogunate.

Japan's three-kingdom situation also announced the success of the empire's foreign policy in Japan for many years, and it was basically impossible for Japan to return to reunification, at least not until the empire declined.

A divided Japan would no longer pose a real threat to the empire.

However, although Lin Zhe paid attention to the affairs of Japan, he also knew that the current Japan was not the target of the empire, and it was not even worth the empire's defense.

From the place where the empire was founded, there were only two large empires, one was Russia and the other was Britain.

On the Russian side, it is because of the long border between the two countries and the natural greed of Russians for territory.

Britain was due to its powerful navy, which was ready to threaten the empire's long coastline at any time.

An East India fleet. It was enough to put the Imperial Navy on guard for many years, in order to fight the East India Fleet. In order to counter the threat of the British Royal Navy to the Empire's coastline, the Empire has invested heavily in the development of its navy over the years.

Such a huge amount of investment has also allowed the Imperial Navy to achieve considerable development!

Since in 1870 the empire commissioned the first battleship, the Chiyou. In 1871 the Empire commissioned another battleship, the Windber.

After entering 1872, the empire will serve two large warships, namely the battleship "Yinglong" and the armored cruiser Chang'e.

The Yinglong is the third ship of the Chiyou-class battleships and the last of the class, and the performance parameters of the ship are roughly the same as those of the Chiyou-class, but there are improvements in details.

After the Yinglong, what is currently under construction in the Empire is the second type of battleship of the Empire, the Shundi-class battleship, which is an improved version of the Chiyou class. However, the difference is bigger.

The main improvements were focused on the power system and armor, and the armor was made of steel-faced iron armor, which improved its performance by at least 25 percent compared with the previous wrought iron armor.

The power system adopts the most advanced inverted cylinder steam engine, which is more than 10% higher than the performance of the old steam engine.

The improvement of armor performance is to make the protection performance of the battleship stronger, and the power system system also makes the speed of the battleship faster, and its maximum speed has reached 15 knots, which is faster than the 14.5 knots of the Chiyou class.

The Shundi is currently under intense construction. According to the construction period, it will be able to be put into active service by the end of next year, and the construction of the second ship also began in 1870, and it is also under construction. If nothing else, it should be able to enter service by the end of 1874, and by the beginning of 1875 at the latest.

Other words. By 1875, the first phase of the Imperial Navy's development program had ended. The Imperial Navy will have five active battleships.

In addition to the battleships, the Imperial Navy by the time of 1875. At least three more armored cruisers will enter service.

The armored cruiser was developed relatively late in the Imperial Navy, as a new type of ship, in the absence of foreign warships to refer to, the design of the armored cruiser was to cross the river by feeling the stones, the first armored cruiser Chang'e-class, the first ship was started in 1868.

After four years of construction, Chang'e is expected to enter service this fall, becoming the first active armored cruiser in the Imperial Navy.

Its sister ships are also expected to be commissioned this winter.

However, after the Chang'e-class, the Imperial Navy was limited by the number of docks, and was not able to continue to build large-tonnage armored cruisers, but waited until 1871 to start the construction of the third armored cruiser.

This armored cruiser named Qinglong, its displacement is an astonishing 7,800 tons, which is almost close to the tonnage limit of contemporary second-class ironclad ships, this tonnage of Qinglong, equipped with a power system of up to 7,000 horsepower, the surging power and the armored cruiser's ship type was originally improved from the cruiser, the aspect ratio is relatively large, compared with the battleship is compared with the high voyage.

Therefore, the speed of the Qinglong is also quite fast, and its maximum speed has reached seventeen knots, which is one section higher than the previous Chang'e and two knots higher than the Shundi battleship.

The Blue Dragon was not expected to be commissioned until around 1875.

If the ship goes into service, by 1875 the Imperial Navy will have three armored cruisers.

The five battleships and three armored cruisers were the core objectives of the first phase of the Imperial Navy's development plan.

Of course, this is not to say that the Imperial Navy has no other warships besides these main warships, in fact, the current empire has the most second-class ironclad ships in the past.

Five Pangu-class ironclad ships, three Yandi-class ironclad ships, two Kuafu ironclad ships, and Tianwu ironclad ships are still the absolute main force of the current Imperial Navy.

Although these ironclad ships are some second-class ironclad ships or third-class ironclad ships, they are not much behind in terms of performance, among which the Tianwu and Kuafu-class are still the absolute main warships in the seventies.

As for the Pangu-class and Yandi-class, after these two classes of warships entered the seventies, they were already embarrassed and useful, and their performance was relatively reluctant compared to some cutting-edge warships.

Some of these long-serving warships, such as the Pangu, which pioneered the Empire's ocean-going ironclads, were designed in 1861 and commissioned in 1863, a full nine years ago.

Nine years is enough for a warship to completely withdraw from the first line and be reduced to the second line.

However, the follow-up ships of these two ironclad ships were all in service relatively late, such as the last Jumang of the Pangu class and the Yellow Emperor, the third ship of the Yandi class, which were only commissioned in 1867, and it has only been five years since they were fully completed.

Therefore, although these two types of battleships are already difficult to resist the cutting-edge warships in terms of performance, it is naturally impossible for the Imperial Navy to throw them all away, and how can the ironclad ships that have been built with tens of millions of dollars be thrown away in a few years.

Now the Pangu-class and Yandi-class ironclad ships have been commissioned in the First Fleet, but they are no longer in the main position.

"When the Shundi is commissioned next year, we will start to gradually transfer the Pangu-class ironclad ships to various coastal defense fleets!" Admiral Shen Tongdeng, who had just taken over as the chief of the Navy Department, told Lin Zhe about the development plan of the fleet.

"We plan to wait until the first phase of the development plan, and transfer all five Pangu-class ironclad ships in the First Fleet to various coastal defense fleets, and the battlefleet will be equipped with more advanced battleships in the future!"

After the Battle of the Pearl River Estuary, Shen Tongdeng has become the second admiral in the navy after Lin Dabiao, and it is impossible for Lin Dabiao to always occupy the position of chief of the Admiralty.

So last year, Shen Tongdeng replaced Lin Dabiao as the chief of the navy, but for the time being, he has not taken over Lin Dabiao's position as the Minister of the Navy, Lin Zhe intends to give them a transition time, but if everything goes well, Lin Zhe is expected to revoke Lin Dabiao's Minister of the Navy in the second half of this year, and then give this title to Shen Tongdeng, and replace Lin Dabiao into the command committee.

And then complete the succession of the Minister of the Navy.

The First Battle Fleet and the Coastal Defense Fleet in Shen Tongdeng's mouth originated from the reform of the imperial navy after the Battle of the Pearl River Estuary. After the Battle of the Pearl River Estuary, the Imperial Navy established the 1st to 5th Coastal Defense Fleets, and also organized the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd fleets.

Among them, the first fleet is the main decisive battle fleet, the second fleet is the second-line force, and the third fleet is the reserve training fleet.

At the same time, a number of small squadrons were formed, such as the 1st Battleship Detachment, the 2nd Battleship Detachment, the 1st Cruiser Detachment, and the 1st Frigate Detachment.

The basic principle is to form a separate squadron of two to five warships of the same class or similar performance, and to participate in naval battles as the most basic squadron.

This concept was transformed from the previous columns, but the Imperial Navy further reduced the columns during the Battle of the Pearl River Estuary.

At present, the empire has four battleship detachments, namely the five Pangu-class ironclad ships of the first battleship detachment, the three Yandi-class ironclad ships of the second battleship detachment, the Tianwu ironclad ship of the third battleship detachment, and the two Kuafu-class ironclad ships, and the fourth battleship detachment are the three most cutting-edge and powerful Chiyou-class ironclad ships in the empire.

In addition, there were three cruiser fleets, namely the first cruiser detachment with three new fast cruisers, the second cruiser detachment with two old fast cruisers, and the third cruiser detachment with the empire's first armored cruiser, Chang'e, and its successors.

The above-mentioned battleships do not include all the battleships of the Imperial Navy, but the above-mentioned battleship detachments are all the capital ships of the Imperial Navy for decisive battles, whether they are ironclad ships, battleships or cruisers, they are basically configured according to the decisive battle.

Ordinary cruisers, whether they are protected or not, or offshore ironclad ships, small ironclad ships and other ships, even Kunlun-class cruisers of more than 3,000 tons, are not incorporated into the cruiser detachment, because this kind of conventional cruiser is not suitable for participating in the decisive battle of the fleet, its speed is too low to provide reconnaissance capabilities for the main fleet, too protective to participate in fierce artillery battles.

This kind of conventional cruiser can only be used in low-intensity tasks such as escort and cruise. (To be continued.) )