When Lin arrived in Hong Kong, the empire also submitted a formal ultimatum to Spain, demanding the immediate and unconditional surrender of the Spaniards in the Philippines, supporting 58 million imperial gold yuan as compensation for the Jinhua incident and a large number of Chinese casualties and property losses, and temporarily handing over the Philippines, Guam and other Asian colonies to the imperial trusteeship.

These demands are basically forcing the Spaniards to refuse!

Because if the Spaniards agreed, it would basically be equivalent to directly handing over all the colonies in Asia to the empire, which was equivalent to an empty white wolf, and could obtain these colonies without even fighting.

Spain's refusal was expected, so the empire was also ready to do so, and the first landing force of more than 5,000 marines had already departed from Hong Kong, and they would land directly in the Philippines under the cover of the naval fleet.

On January 16, twelve days after the Jinhua incident, the Imperial Ambassador to Spain officially submitted a declaration of war to Spain!

Thus, the Chinese Empire and the Kingdom of Spain officially entered a state of war!

At the same time, a naval detachment is also covering the marines to the Philippines, and although the naval detachment covering the landing force has a large number of warships, in fact there are not many capital ships, and the detachment that shelled Manila before is the main cover task.

The detachment, which has two old armored cruisers and a number of cruisers and other auxiliary warships, has been officially designated as the 'Luzon Task Force', and will be responsible for supporting and covering tasks in the Philippines in the future.

The main force of the detachment is two Qinglong-class armored cruisers, namely the Qinglong commissioned in 1875 and the Yuelao commissioned in 1876, these two armored cruisers have been in service for more than 20 years, and they are the two oldest capital ships in active service in the Imperial Navy.

However, with the tense situation, after the empire was ready to start a war in 1895, the navy pulled these two old ships out of the new and incorporated them into the main fleet to participate in the decisive battle, but it was still possible to integrate them into the local sub-fleets and take on some tasks such as shelling land and covering the landing force.

There are also three old battleships that have been pulled out of the Third Fleet, all of which are old ships that have been in service for more than 20 years, and they have many problems and weak combat effectiveness, so after they are pulled out, they will only carry out some coastal combat readiness tasks.

For the Imperial Royal Navy, these 20-year-old ships are basically of little use, and even some Shaohao-class battleships that are only 16 to 11 years old cannot bear the main force, and can only serve as a second-line force in the main fleet.

The true essence of the Royal Navy was the former dreadnought battleships, which entered service after 1888, and the new armored cruisers, which were built and commissioned during the same period.

The new main warships of contemporary countries all have the same characteristics, the power system uses a three-expansion steam engine, and the speed of the battleships of various countries can generally reach 16 knots, and the ship type of some countries can even reach 18 knots, while in the empire, which has always paid attention to speed, the speed of the former dreadnought battleships has generally reached 18 knots.

The speed of an armored cruiser or a first-class protected cruiser can reach 20 knots or even more than 22 knots.

In terms of firepower, four or six large-caliber main guns are generally used, and the body barrel length of large-caliber is more than 30 times, if it is only 12 inches, most of the guns are 35 times, and a very few are 40 times the caliber of the main gun, such as the Empire's latest service Houyi-class battleship, its main gun is 300 mm and 40 times the caliber of the barrel length.

Then there is a very obvious important feature on the secondary artillery, that is, the general use of six-inch level, that is, 150 mm or 152 mm or about 152 mm rapid-fire guns, the rate of fire is mostly between five and seven rounds per minute, the specific rate of fire is related to the technical level of various countries and the level of training of artillery, theoretically, everyone can shoot seven rounds per minute, but in practice can do very little.

In terms of protection, hardened armor is generally used, that is, Harvey armor is the majority, of course, some parts of some warships built in the early stage are still using steel-faced iron armor, but there are also Harvey armor, such as the British monarch class.

The great progress of the three major elements of power, firepower, and armor has greatly improved the combat effectiveness of the new capital ships of various countries, and in the face of these new capital ships, those ironclad ships in the seventies and eighties basically had little resistance.

On the side of the Imperial Royal Navy, the cutting-edge capital ships with these characteristics are the earliest pre-dreadnought battleships Yandi class, a total of four, which were commissioned from 1888 to 1890, with a standard displacement of 14,000 tons and four guns of 300 mm and 35 times the caliber of the main gun.

Then there is the improved Houyi class of the Yandi class, which is also a four-class ship, which was in service between 1893 and 1894, with a standard displacement of 15,000 tons, and the main guns are four guns of 40 times the caliber of No. 3 mm.

In addition, there are two newest battleships, the Fengbo-class battleships, which have just completed the main construction at the end of 1895 and are still in the final stages of intense construction, and are expected to be put into active service in May 1896, that is, in June of this year, and the other two are still under construction, and are expected to be put into active service by the end of this year or early next year.

In addition to battleships, there were also armored cruisers, and the armored cruisers built by the empire were ready to go to the battle line, so the tonnage was relatively large, and the firepower and protection capabilities were relatively strong.

The new armored cruisers include the Taiwu class, which was commissioned in 1887, and there are quite a few ships of this class, as many as five, and the service time is between 1887 and 1890.

In addition to the Taiwu class, there is also a Ziyuan, this Ziyuan is a bit special, because this is a test for the empire to prepare to build a larger armored cruiser, its displacement has reached 14,000 tons, which is equivalent to the Yandi-class battleship, equipped with six 250 mm 40 caliber main guns and 12 guns, the power is very strong, the speed has reached 20 knots under normal pressure, and it can run at a speed of 22 knots under strong pressure.

It is the fastest of the Empire's capital ships.

However, the Ziyuan armored cruiser has paid too much for the speed, the huge tonnage and firepower are seriously inconsistent, and the protection cannot keep up with the level of the same tonnage battleship, so in the Imperial Navy, it is called flashy, and more importantly, its cost is very high, an armored cruiser, its price is about to catch up with the price of the battleship, reaching a terrifying four million yuan, you must know that the cost of the Houyi-class battleship is only four and a half million yuan, which makes the navy quite complaining, many people say, With this money, it is better to add a little more and directly build an additional battleship.

Therefore, only one was built and the follow-up plan was stopped, and the Qing'e-class armored cruiser was later started, which was also a shipbuilding plan after the ninth phase of the Navy's expansion plan in 1893, and the first ship was started in 1893, and it is expected that the first ship Qing'e will be officially put into service at the end of this year.

There are three ships of this class under construction, and whether they will be added in the future mainly depends on whether there is a better design to replace them and whether military spending can keep up.

To sum up, the new capital ships of the Imperial Navy currently in service have a total of eight battleships and six armored cruisers.

In addition, two of the most cutting-edge Fengbo-class battleships have been completed and are currently undergoing final adaptation training, which is expected to be ready for combat effectiveness in a few months, and two Qing'e-class armored cruisers are expected to be put into active service by the end of the year.

In the future, I will not talk about it in advance, but only discuss the current situation, these eight battleships and six armored cruisers are the main reliance of the Imperial Royal Navy.

Of course, as the world's third navy, it is naturally impossible for the Imperial Navy to have only these fourteen capital ships, in fact, in addition to these new capital ships, the Imperial Navy also has a large number of old warships.

For example, the five Shaohao-class battleships and four Laurel-class armored cruisers that were commissioned in the eighties, although their combat effectiveness is no longer comparable to those cutting-edge warships, they are still an important force of the Imperial Royal Navy, and when necessary, they can participate in the decisive battle of the fleet as a second-line force.

In addition to the capital ships, the Imperial Royal Navy also had a large number of cruisers, frigates, torpedo ships, minelayers, coastal defense ships and a large number of ships.

For example, many battleships in the early years, after two rounds of service for 16 years, will generally be incorporated into the Third Fleet and converted into coastal defense ships, and the three Shundi-class battleships are now incorporated into the Third Fleet as coastal defense ships.

Minelayers and torpedo ships are what kind of warships they look like at a glance, minelayers are used to lay mines, and torpedo ships are small-tonnage ships with torpedoes as the main combat weapon, mainly used for coastal and port defense, but in recent years, the Imperial Navy is also studying ships that can go to sea for ocean-going operations, and ships with torpedoes as their main weapons, if they are called by later generations, then they are destroyers.

Frigates, in the Imperial Navy, are mainly used to carry out coastal cruises, low-armed small-tonnage ships, with a displacement ranging from a few hundred tons to a thousand tons, and are mainly attached to various coastal defense fleets and foreign fleets to undertake daily chores.

In the case of cruisers, in the Imperial Navy, they are subdivided into first-class cruisers, second-class cruisers, and third-class cruisers, and the armored cruisers of the Imperial Navy are a typical first-class cruisers.

According to the standards established in 1888, a cruiser with a displacement of more than 7,000 tons is a first-class cruiser, a cruiser with a displacement of less than 7,000 tons and more than 2,000 tons is a second-class cruiser, and a cruiser with a displacement of less than 2,000 tons but still designed for ocean-going operations. (To be continued.) )