For Britain, the world's number one power, it is not a problem to start construction of several battleships at the same time in a year, and the pursuit is large and complete.

For countries like France and Russia, most of them also shouted how many ironclad ships to build and how many large ironclad ships as the core of the huge fleet, and France put forward an expansion plan to build 217 new ships in 1872, which is expected to cost more than 90 million US dollars.

It was also in 1872 that the Germans proposed a ten-year plan for the development of the navy, proposing to build a hundred ships.

China, which is on the rise, has an ambitious naval plan, with more than 100 new ships being built in the ongoing naval development plan, as many as six 10,000-ton battleships, and five armored cruisers to replace second-class ironclads.

Most of the traditional second-rate European countries such as Italy, Austria-Hungary, and Spain also have plans for large warships, and these countries generally have the ability to build their own large warships, which is nothing more than the strength or weakness of performance.

After these countries, some small countries below the third rate are difficult to afford the cost of forming a large-scale naval fleet, and warships mainly rely on external purchases, even if they occasionally buy one or two large warships, but it is difficult to become the norm.

For these countries, those ironclad ships of tens of thousands of tons are not a luxury, and they prefer to have more of their own strength and purchase some ships of several thousand tons.

And these warships of several thousand tons are irreplaceable capital ships for the navies of these countries.

Chile did the same. As a South American, its national strength is very limited. The purchase of two multi-thousand-ton ironclads was basically their most important naval expansion in the seventies.

Therefore, they attach great importance to the warships they are expected to procure.

They demanded that these two warships be able to take on the task of the absolute capital ship of the Chilean Navy in the future, and that they could compete with the existing and even future warships of South American countries. Including Argentina's two existing offshore ironclad ships, Bolivia, Peru and other countries of small and medium-sized ironclad ships.

Of course, they did not have the luxury of expecting that the thousands of tons of ironclad ships they purchased would be able to compete with those large ironclad ships of seven or eight thousand tons or even tens of thousands of tons.

They just want to have an advantage in South America, and as for the fight against 10,000-ton ironclad ships, they are not considered for the time being, why?

Because now in the world, there are only a few countries with large ironclad ships of more than 7,000 tons, which are nothing more than European countries such as Britain, France, Russia, Italy, and Austria-Hungary.

As for the Americas, the navy is basically weak. The Americans are still immersed in development, ignoring the changes in the outside world, let alone building large warships, and now they do not even build small ships of several thousand tons, not because they have no money or insufficient industrial strength, but because they themselves do not want to build them.

In this environment, Chile is not really a very strong enemy in South America.

Of course, even so. The Chileans still want their ships to be as strong as possible.

It's just that the performance of the battleship is directly proportional to the cost, and how good the battleship can be built with how much money you get for what you pay for.

Now they are very satisfied with the design of the Shanghai shipyard's continuous oblique rotating turret scheme, and they are even more satisfied with the four 250 mm steel rear-loading guns on it, but the price is too expensive!

Chileans count the offers. It was found that if they were to buy two of these ironclads, the overall purchase cost would be 35 percent more than they expected.

With a budget of more than 35 percent, this is a big deal for any country.

And so. These Chileans began to send telegrams to their countries and then made various contacts. The only consolation on the part of the empire was that the Chilean navy was very supportive. And to promote the procurement of such warships.

This is not surprising, as the admirals of each country want the more powerful the warships under their command, the better.

Lin Zhe is also more concerned about the Chilean ship-buying plan, as a latecomer, he also knows some of the ABC tri-national naval competitions in South America, although the scale is smaller, but it is also a competition to buy super dreadnought naval armaments.

What's more, none of them have the ability to build their own warships, so they can only rely on outsourcing.

For these orders, it is impossible for Lin Zhe not to be impressed.

Moreover, these military foreign trade orders usually greatly deepen the relationship between the empire and the South American countries, and if you have good relations with the Chileans now, it will be much easier to purchase saltpeter from South America in the next few decades.

In addition, the export of such large warships has a very great role in promoting the domestic industrial system, because the profits are very high, which can bring huge profits to shipyards and other related manufacturers, and then allow defense enterprises to replace the technology upgrading.

Therefore, Lin Zhe also appropriately expressed a certain amount of concern about the Chilean procurement case, hinting that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should strive for Chilean orders as much as possible.

In the final negotiations with the Chileans, in order to solve the biggest problem, that is, the price, the negotiators on the imperial side did not say that they would reduce the price, but they said that they could provide a low-interest commercial loan.

The use of low-interest loans to sell arms or support a certain country or force has been the usual method of the empire in the past few years, and the three kingdoms of Japan, the kingdom of Vietnam, the kingdom of Ning, the kingdom of Korea, and the kingdom of the Ryukyus have basically owed a lot of debts to the empire.

And it's basically money borrowed for the purchase of ordnance!

In order to repay the money, most of them use various agricultural products, or simply sell minerals and the like to repay the empire.

How did the empire's mineral mining rights in North Quay in Vietnam come about? It was through this model that coal from Quang Ninh in Vietnam was now supplied to China in large quantities, and anthracite became the main coal for the imperial navy.

However, in the past, loans to purchase ordnance often had a strong political background, but now it is a relatively simple commercial behavior.

Chileans don't cede sovereignty in order to buy two warships or something.

However, even if it is an ordinary commercial loan, but once the number increases, it can naturally evolve into various political privileges in the future, and how did the British get their huge influence in Chile, that is, through direct financial loans in the early stage, direct investment in the later stage, through slow penetration, and then expand their influence in Chile.

Now the Reich is doing much more than the British in Chile.

For example, the empire's Jiangnan Mining Company cooperated with Chileans to invest in the development of saltpeter mines.

In the end, through various negotiations and negotiations, the relevant agreement was finally reached.

The Chilean side purchased two large ironclad ships from the Shanghai shipyard and two 500-ton shallow water gunboats, that is, mosquito ships, from the Guangzhou shipyard.

In addition, the Reich side will provide the Chilean side with the construction of military port infrastructure, including the construction of deep-water docks, necessary repair shops, etc.

The total price of the package order is 3 million yuan.

The Chilean side paid 2 million yuan directly, and the remaining 1 million yuan was supported by a loan from the Royal Bank, and the Chilean side paid it in 10 subsequent installments.

The two ironclad ships purchased by the Chileans were named "Admiral Corenque" and "Blanco? The 'Nkadara', also known as the Admiral Colenke-class ironclad.

With a standard displacement of 4,200 tons, the ship had a waterline armor belt, a swivel turret layout, two twin enclosed turrets, and four 250 mm 25 x caliber steel breech-loading guns.

It used an inverted steam engine with 3,300 horsepower and two-shaft propulsion, which could propel the ship up to 11.5 knots, and was equipped with a sail system.

The armor was wrought iron, the waterline armor belt varied from one hundred and ten to two hundred and twenty mm, and the turret mounted from one hundred and fifty to two hundred millimeters.

This is a classic second-class ironclad ship with the main tactic of bow-to-face enemies.

The price quoted for a single vessel is 12 million yen.

Two ships are 2.4 million yuan, plus two shallow water gunboats and supporting repair shops, dock expansion, etc., the total price is 3 million yuan.

When the contract was signed, the Chileans were all smiles on their faces, and they were already fantasizing about the scene when the two warships were built and returned to Chile.

At that time, these two Admiral Colenk-class ironclads will be the most powerful warships in South America, and even in the entire Americas, and the Argentines, Peru, and Bolivia will not be frightened by that time.

After the contract was signed, the representatives of the Shanghai Shipyard and the Pacific Trading Company also laughed, and the Shanghai Shipyard took the order for the two ironclad ships, but took the largest profit.

The Pacific Trading Company, a second-tier dealer, acted as a middleman, and also got a lot of practical benefits.

For the Empire, the order for these two ironclad ships is of great significance, representing the Empire's inheritance of arms sales to Argentina in previous years, thus completely opening up the warship market in South America.

In the future, the navy competition in South America is expected to be able to reap a lot of benefits from it.

After all, there is a great deal of continuity in arms sales, especially for large warships.

When the Chileans are accustomed to the warships built by the Empire, are familiar with the standards and performance of the 250 mm, 150 mm, and 80 mm naval guns of the Imperial standard, and have established relevant logistics systems in their own countries, it is not so easy to replace the warships of other countries' standards.

Therefore, although the initial order did not make much money, the empire was still very active in promoting it, which was for subsequent orders and profits.

This can be known from Argentina, after learning that the Chileans purchased two large ironclad ships from the Empire, Argentina also reacted quite quickly, Argentina and Chile are also potential enemy countries, and the growth of Chile's naval strength is not a good thing for Argentina.

At first, they did not hesitate to order two wooden sail gunboats of more than 500 tons, which were very cheap, only more than 100,000 yuan each, and the total was less than 300,000 yuan.

But just when the head of the Pacific Trading Company thought that this was the end of the matter, the Argentines offered to get a loan from the Imperial side to buy large-tonnage warships! (To be continued.) )