The Imperial Chinese Navy has become a global projection force, which the British Navy has to admit and accept, but the British Navy absolutely cannot accept that the German Navy has also broken through the Baltic Sea to the Atlantic, so for the rise of the German Navy, the British Navy has to be curbed under huge financial pressure, so the large-scale naval arms race between the British and German navies has begun.

Britain and Germany launched a large-scale naval arms race, and France, which was caught between the two countries, was naturally not far behind. However, the French political [***] case caused political turmoil in France, and moderates and radicals pulled each other's back, causing the budget of the French Navy to be delayed again and again.

The internal political turmoil in France is no longer a matter of a day or two. Beginning with the Panama Canal [***] case in 1892, the rule of the moderates was violently attacked by the radicals. And when Dreyfus was released from prison in 1899, the Royalist Restoration's delusions came to naught. A series of events brought the moderate republican axe to the spurning of the French people. In order to maintain its rule, the French bourgeoisie replaced the moderates with radicals.

In 1902, the radical Mir? The cabinet of Kömbo implemented the separation of church and state, and excluded Catholic interference in politics and culture. However, in 1906, after the well-known radical leader Clemenceau formed a government, he refused to abolish the Senate and oppose the imposition of progressive taxes and other reforms, which completely exposed the reactionary features of the radicals and lost confidence among the masses. The monopoly bourgeoisie in turn formed a cabinet of radicals and so-called "socialists", the Burian cabinet. The participants, Brian, Millerand, Viviani and others, presented themselves as socialists, but in fact they were pawns of the financial oligarchy who carried out reactionary policies and brutally suppressed the workers' movement.

The Chinese Empire imposed an arms embargo on France on the grounds that France had no human rights, but in fact, the Chinese Empire was trying to avoid the rapid expansion of the French navy, and the British and French navies were too strong to be detrimental to the German navy. In order to maintain the balance of maritime power in Europe, the Chinese Empire had to limit the expansion of the French navy.

However, this did not stop the French Navy from vainly trying to expand, and the improvement of Anglo-French relations allowed the French Navy to obtain the technology related to the Dreadnought from the British Navy, although it was inferior to the technology of the Chinese Empire's Shenbow warships, but it was better than nothing.

However, in 1907, the moderates who were pulling the back leg in the audience joined forces with other opposition parties to prevent the Senate from passing the French Navy's 1907 Naval Law, cutting the French Navy's 300 million francs shipbuilding budget at once, and the French Navy's Dunkirk-class battleship and battle cruiser plans were in vain.

The political turmoil in France, coupled with the recession of the French economy, caused the French Navy to have no budget for new warships for four years from 1907 to 1910, and France was once disqualified from an arms race with the British and German navies.

And other European powers, although they also have corresponding plans for Divine Bow battleships, but because the cost of Divine Bow battleships continues to soar, the cost of a Shang Wang-class battleship has reached more than 10 million dragon coins, which is not something that ordinary countries can afford. Even if they could afford it, they couldn't afford an annual maintenance fee of up to 2 million dragon coins.

The economically weak Tsarist Russian Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Turkish Empire, and the Kingdom of Italy could be said to be difficult to match with such money-burning warships.

The Austro-Hungarian and Turkish Empires, as well as the Kingdom of Italy, were relatively good, and they imported several Shenbow battleships from the Chinese Empire, which could temporarily support the façade and did not need to order new ships for a short time.

However, the Russian Navy has never had a Sharpbow battleship, and in the face of the expansion of the navies of neighboring countries, the Russian Navy has also tried in vain to restore its status as a naval power.

After the Sino-Russian War, the Russian Navy faced an extreme shortage of battleships. In 1903, the Chinese battleship Shengong, which had a revolutionary breakthrough in design and surname, quickly made the few remaining battleships of the Russian fleet obsolete. At the same time, the appearance of the "Shengong" also marked the beginning of a new round of naval arms race around the world.

In 1906, the powerful Shenbow battlefleet of the Chinese Empire defeated the world's largest British Navy in one fell swoop, which made the Russian Navy feel a lot more balanced.

Due to the loss of Russia's access to the Far East, the center of gravity of the Russian Navy was concentrated in the Baltic and Black Seas.

With the introduction of the Shenbow battleships from the Chinese Empire by Germany and Turkey, the Russian Navy felt great pressure.

The Russian Navy demanded money from the Russian Duma on this basis, and the Russian Navy, unwilling to be left behind, planned to secure for itself four battleships of the Divine Bow type, all of which would be equipped in the Baltic Sea, in order to compete with the power of the Germans in the Baltic in the event of a possible war. The Russians envisioned the new battleships to have a minimum speed of at least 21 knots, 10 12-inch (305 mm) main guns, and at least 16 4.7-inch (120 mm) secondary guns. This is also in line with the traditions of the Russian Navy: firepower first, speed second.

The defeat of the Russo-Russian War has intensified the social contradictions in Russia, and the poor performance of the navy has also made it the best target for criticism by various forces. After the 1905 revolution, the new Duma insisted that the navy needed to carry out major administrative reforms, but the tsar and the navy top brass insisted that there was no need for reform, so the Duma vetoed all the navy's shipbuilding plans, and the new battleships became victims of political struggle. In 1907, Tsar Nicholas II decided to forcibly push forward with the reconstruction of the Navy despite the objections of the Duma. Under these circumstances, the Duma was forced to back down and reach a certain compromise with the Navy, which had been operating dismally for four years, and finally began to rebuild.

Compared with the new concept of the Divine Bow ship, the design and construction capacity of the Russian shipyards was extremely insufficient, so the Admiralty launched a tender for major shipyards at home and abroad, and soon the Admiralty received 51 design proposals from 27 shipyards at home and abroad, which came from the Chinese Empire, Italy, France, Britain, the United States and even Germany, but only 4 of the 27 shipyards were Russian. At first, the Admiralty was very interested in the plan of the Shanghai Shipbuilding Heavy Industry of the Chinese Empire, but the cost was too high, so that the Russian Admiralty, which was shy in its pocket, had to give up. They were then intrigued by the Italian company Cuniberti's proposal, but when they learned that the Italians had installed the 120mm secondary gun in the turret (instead of the Russians' desired gun profile) and insisted on not making changes to the design, the Russians immediately abandoned the proposal. The next proposal of the German company Blohm & Voss came into the eyes of the Russian Navy, but the Russians proposed that the battleships must be built in Russian shipyards, which the Germans were of course unwilling to accept, and the two sides parted happily.

As a result, the Russian Admiralty decided to use the design drawings of the purchased Chinese Imperial Shengong to revise the original design of Shanghai Shipbuilding Industry in accordance with Russian standards, and the Baltic Shipyard accepted the task.

The revised design gives the impression that the new battleship is a kind of warship between a battleship and a battlecruiser, and the Imperial Chinese Navy jokingly called the Russian version of the "Baltic battleship". The design underscores the unprecedented firepower: all six twin main turrets are arranged along the longitudinal centerline of the hull. Two main turrets are arranged in the front and rear of the hull, and two turrets are arranged in the amidships. Its 305 mm guns fired more broadside salvo firepower than any Imperial Chinese, British, or German battleship of the same period. The battleship was designed with an icebreaker bow so that it could move freely in the Baltic Sea even in the winter freeze.

Because the Russian Navy was very interested in the nine Zhou Wuwang-class battlecruisers of the Atlantic Fleet of the Chinese Empire, the Baltic Shipyard introduced a lighter Beiyang Type 02 boiler from the Chinese Empire to replace the previously commonly used Belleville boiler, so that the speed of the scheme ship reached 24 knots, which was 2-3 knots higher than the speed of the Shenbow-type battleships of various countries in the same period. Too much armor protection was sacrificed to ensure high speeds, and the thickness of the broadside waterline armor was 229 mm, and the armor belt in most parts of it was 1-3 inches (25-76 mm) thinner than that of the world's major battleships of the same period.

However, due to the ignorance of the Russian Navy, this plan made this battleship less than half a bottle, and 24 knots were between battleships and battlecruisers, that is, it could not be used as a battleship, because the armor was too thin. It can't be used as a battle cruiser, because the speed can't catch up with the mainstream cruisers at all, and it can't take advantage of the battle cruiser PK of the same caliber.

The construction of the new Russian battleship began in 1906, but due to the inefficiency of the Russian shipyards themselves and the fact that it was a completely new type of battleship being built, the construction of the new battleship was difficult and the progress was slow, and even came to a standstill in 1907, because the navy was not satisfied with the strength of the hull and the construction process of the battleship under construction, and thought that it could not meet the design requirements at all.

During this period, the Duma's persistent efforts finally paid off: the shortcomings of the shipyards were improved, and the poor administrative system of the Navy was finally improved to a certain extent. After solving a series of problems, the construction of new types of battleships continued, but it was in these years that the world's naval powers also developed rapidly, the Chinese Empire had begun to build 13-inch large-caliber naval guns, and Britain and Germany had also successively launched battleships with 13-inch main guns, so that the firepower advantage that the Russian Divine Bow ships expected at the start of construction was gone.

At this time, the German Navy and the Turkish Navy each had four Sharpbow-type battleships in service, while the Russian-built Sharpbow-type battleships were still far away. At the same time that the Russian Navy was entangled, the Chinese Empire threw an olive branch to the Russian Navy, willing to resell the Dengyun-class and Jianwei-class battleships of the Chinese Imperial Navy in service to the Russian Navy, and the price was only 5 million dragon coins each, the price was reasonable, and the difference in combat effectiveness between the quasi-Shengong ships and the Shengong-type battleships exported to Germany and Turkey was not very large, and the surname price ratio was extremely high.

The Tsarist Russian Navy was overjoyed, and if it purchased nine quasi-divine bow ships at the same price, it would be equivalent to balancing the military pressure of the German Navy and the Turkish Navy on the Russian Navy in a short period of time, which was very cost-effective.

However, the Tsarist Navy was unable to buy nine battleships of the Chinese Empire in one go, and in the end it only planned to shell out 20 million dragon coins to buy four. However, the Chinese Empire seems to have given these battleships a loan, willing to lend them to Russia to pay for the remaining five.

In the face of such help and enthusiasm from the Chinese Empire, the Russian Navy could hardly believe that this was their former enemy. After research and discussion, the Russian Navy believed that the armor of the Dengyun-class and Jianwei-class battleships of the Chinese Empire was completely capable of withstanding the attack of 305-mm shells, and had been tested in war. The point is that the surname-to-price ratio is extremely high, and for the Russian Navy, which has been reduced to a third-rate naval country, these nine battleships can fill the gap in the Russian naval power in a short time.

Although the Russian Navy remembered the wounds it had suffered from being wounded by the Imperial Chinese Navy, the Russian Navy decided that it could not compete with the Imperial Chinese Navy, and its current opponents were the German Navy and the Turkish Navy, so the Russian Navy finally agreed to borrow money from the Chinese Empire to buy nine battleships.

On April 2, 1907, the Imperial Chinese Navy retired nine ships, namely Dengyun [BB-4], Tayun [BB-5], Chongyun [BB-6], Cirrus [BB-7], Bayun [BB-8], Panyun [BB-9], Jianwei [BB-10], Xuanwei [BB-11], and Zhiwei [BB-12]. Three days later, after the first payment of 22 million dragon coins, the Russian Navy officially received nine ships at the Xiangshan Naval Base in Zhejiang Province of the Chinese Empire.

The Russian Navy classified six Dengyun-class battleships as Sevastopol class and deployed them in the Baltic Sea, becoming the main force of the Russian Baltic Fleet. Three other Jianwei-class warships were deployed in the Black Sea to form the main force of the Black Sea Fleet.

The Russian Navy received nine main battleships of the Chinese Empire at once, and its naval strength was greatly improved, and it was able to maintain Russian sea power for the time being.

The Russian Navy suddenly raised its eyebrows, but the other powers were thinking about the real purpose behind the Chinese Empire's actions.

In the eyes of Europe and the United States, the Chinese Empire definitely did not just want to ease the tension with the Tsarist Empire, but there must have been a greater conspiracy behind them.

Soon, the intelligence systems of the European and American powers learned the true purpose of the Imperial Chinese Navy, and it turned out that the Imperial Chinese Navy needed more funds in order to obtain more advanced and powerful warships, and more advanced battleships needed more funds.

The day after the Imperial Chinese Navy sold nine former Shenbow battleships to the Russian Navy, the Imperial Chinese Navy placed orders for three new battleships from the Tianjin Royal Shipyard.

The three new battleships were classified as Qin-class battleships, which were significantly different from the Xia Dynasty-class and Shang-King class battleships, and the Admiralty referred to them as Chaoshengong battleships.

The Qin-class battleship has a design displacement of 27,000 tons, equipped with 4 triple 13-inch 45-fold main guns, 16 127-mm 50-fold single-mount rapid-fire guns, and 32 47-mm twin 55-fold extended-close defense guns, two 18-inch torpedo tubes, 300 mm main armor belt, turret, conning tower, ammunition depot, boiler room and engine room are all 330 mm key protection, all using 30 oil-fired boilers, 4 sets of Parsons Type 06 steam turbines, 4 shaft propulsion, and a speed of 23 knots.

The biggest difference between the Qin-class battleships and the previously built Shenbow-type battleships is that the artillery system on board has changed dramatically. The original Shenbow-type battleships were equipped with 4 twin-mounted main guns, while the Qin-class battleships were equipped with 4 triple 330 mm 45 times the main guns, and the firepower was 4 more than the Zhou Liewang-class battleships, and the rapid-fire guns were also increased from 102 mm to 127 mm 50 times the Shang King class, and the overall firepower was extremely powerful.

The design idea for the Imperial Chinese Navy's triple main gun came from the engineer Lee Leonardo da Vinci Perrault at the Genoa shipyard in Italy, and because the Italian Navy chose to import their Divine Bow battleships from the Chinese Empire, Perot had to go to China to learn advanced design techniques. When he arrived in China, he was immediately attracted by the prosperity of the Chinese Empire and tempted by the super high treatment of Shanghai Shipbuilding Heavy Industry, so he stayed in Shanghai and worked for Shanghai Shipbuilding Heavy Industry.

Because of this, his design idea of triple main gun was valued by Wei Han, director of the General Administration of Ships of the Chinese Empire, so his design idea of triple main gun was quickly transformed into Qin-class battleships.

Of course, when making the sample naval gun, Wei Han and Pace found that the impact point distribution of the triple main gun was not as good as that of the twin main gun, and the impact point at a distance of 12,000 meters was too scattered. The reason for this was that when the triple gun fired a salvo of fire, the vibration and recoil of the turret affected the ballistics of the shells.

The Admiralty had questioned that the triple assembly was not as stable and reliable as the twin assembly, but Wei Han withstood the pressure and promised to solve the problem before the Qin-class battleship was launched.

Since the hull of the Qin-class battleship would not be launched until a year later, Wei Han and Pace had a year to improve the firing point of the triple main gun, and as long as this problem could be solved within a year, the outfitting of the Qin-class battleship would not be delayed.

In order to solve this problem, Wei Han and Pace designed a delayed firing system, when the three cannons in the triple turret fire in a salvo, they each fire with a delay of 0.1 seconds, so that although they are fired sequentially, the time difference of 0.1 seconds cannot be felt by the naked eye, and it still looks like a salvo of fire.

It took them only half a year to solve the problem of salvo fire of triple guns, for which the Admiralty awarded Wei Han and Pace the Order of Harvest of the third class as a token of encouragement.

The three Qin-class battleships were named Yingzheng [BB-42], Huhai [BB-43], and Ziying [BB-44]. It was scheduled to be completed in June 1909.

The Admiralty of the Chinese Empire classified the Qin-class battleships as the Chaoshen Bow type, and defined the battleship with a main gun caliber of more than 330 mm as the Chaoshen Bow type.

After learning that the Chinese Empire had secretly started the construction of the Chaoshen Bow battleship, the European and American powers were not to be outdone, and convened their own naval experts one after another to discuss and develop the Chaoshen Bow battleship. The British Navy, in particular, would have tapped a nerve when they heard anything about the Chinese Empire.

In this way, the Chinese Empire continued to set off a global naval arms race, leading European and American countries into the era of superbow navy. The cost of building a single ship of the Super God Bow Battleship has reached 12 million Dragon Coins, and any country participating in the Super God Bow Battleship Competition will be dragged into the endless abyss.

(To be continued)