There are many disputes within the navy, and the navy's military spending is also limited, the navy's main investment in recent years will still be concentrated on the battle poles and armored cruisers, and the enthusiasm for those non-main warships that cannot participate in the decisive battle of the fleet is not high.

After all, the funds are limited, and if you build many cruisers, you won't have the money to build battleships.

In addition, the Imperial Navy did not have many overseas colonies to protect, nor did it need too many cruisers of medium and medium tonnage.

Therefore, it has led to the development of the Imperial Navy in recent years, and there has been a situation of two large and small in the middle, the Imperial Navy has concentrated on the development of main warships of more than 7,500 tons, and at the same time appropriately developed auxiliary warships of less than 3,000 tons, but for the warships between 3,000 tons and 7,500 tons, the development has stopped since the Houyi.

After 1870, the strength of the Imperial Navy experienced rapid growth, especially the commissioning of the battleship Chiyou, which caused changes in the situation in the Pacific.

In order to cope with the commissioning of the battleship Chiyou, the British Royal Navy soon reinforced a 10,000-ton ironclad ship to the East India Fleet through rotation, so as to ensure that the overall strength of the East India Fleet was still stronger than that of the Imperial Navy, and to ensure the British Royal Navy's dominant position in Southeast Asian waters.

However, the reaction of the British was also expected by the Imperial Navy, and anyway, although China and Britain have had many contradictions in the past few years, it is unlikely that they will want to fight for a while.

Compared with the increase in the strength of the East India Fleet on the Singapore side, the Imperial Navy was more concerned about the concession of the port of Yokosuka on the Japanese side.

The Imperial Navy sent a fleet to the coast of Japan very early, which was the Japanese Task Force (formerly the Pacific Fleet), which did not have a clear home port. It mainly calls at a number of ports open in Japan, especially those with Chinese concessions. For example, ports such as Kagoshima and Edo.

However, most of these ports were civilian ports, although the warships of the Imperial Navy were able to berth. However, in the end, it was not as good as a regular military port, so all these years, the empire has been seeking to obtain a formal naval base in Japan.

In particular, the port of Yokosuka was quite coveted by the Imperial Navy for this excellent deep-water military port, the core base of the Japanese Combined Fleet, the naval base of the US Seventh Fleet, and the naval base of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces.

Although Yokosuka is still only a small fishing village, its excellent hydrological conditions have long been repeatedly explored by the Imperial Navy, and in order to obtain the right to use this port, the Imperial Navy has thought of many ways over the years. Intimidation and inducement have all been done, but the Tokugawa shogunate is not stupid.

This Yokosuka is so important, if it is passed by the Chinese concession and a fleet is stationed here, it is equivalent to putting an unopened trap on Edo Bay, and all ships entering and leaving Edo Bay will be threatened by the Imperial Navy.

However, although the Tokugawa shogunate was unwilling, it did not dare to refuse explicitly, because if it refused directly, the Tokugawa shogunate was also worried that the empire would be angry. Then he sent troops directly to attack Edo.

This cannot be said that the attitude of the Tokugawa shogunate was too pessimistic, but the reality of this era was that the Imperial Navy was interested in Yokosuka anyway. Whether you the Tokugawa shogunate takes the initiative to give it or doesn't want to give it, the Imperial Navy wants to get Yokosuka in its hands.

In recent years, the Tokugawa shogunate has been reluctant to negotiate the Yokosuka matter. However, the Empire did not stop encroaching on Yokosuka.

Back in 1867, an imperial merchant ship ran aground under the pretext. He then washed straight onto the beach in the port of Yokosuka, where the Empire then used the pretext of protecting the cargo of merchant ships and the safety of the expatriate. A gunboat was dispatched, along with dozens of sailors, followed by the landing of the small fishing village.

It was then reported that the Imperial Navy needed certain facilities to be able to repair the stranded merchant ships, and then blatantly built a small dock in Yokosuka.

During this period, the local Japanese also sent troops to try to expel them, but due to the strong diplomatic attitude of the empire, the Tokugawa shogunate was afraid of completely offending the empire, so it responded with an ostrich policy, that is, neither acknowledging nor refusing.

In this way, the Imperial Navy determined the first foothold in Yokosuka, and then began a long period of infrastructure construction, but due to diplomatic conditions, after all, the Japanese did not sign a diplomatic treaty with the Empire on Yokosuka, and in principle, it still belongs to the territory of the Japanese themselves.

Therefore, the Imperial Navy did not openly build military facilities, but only built docks, ship maintenance, and supply facilities for warships.

But today, after 1870, the Imperial Navy can no longer meet the current petty fights, and they hope that Yokosuka will become the three major naval bases of the Empire outside the country, like Cam Ranh Bay and Pearl Harbor, instead of the small fishing villages and small docks of today.

For this reason, since the beginning of 1870, taking advantage of the launch of the battleship Chiyu, the Imperial Ministry of Foreign Affairs once again exerted tremendous pressure on the Tokugawa shogunate.

Prepare to provide military loans of up to five million imperial yen to the Meiji government!

This move made the Tokugawa shogunate feel a huge pressure, because of the Tokugawa shogunate's non-cooperation in the past two years, the empire has reduced a lot of cooperation with the Tokugawa shogunate, and last year when the Tokugawa shogunate tried to take out a loan to buy warships, it was directly rejected by the empire.

Once the empire provided a huge loan of 5 million to the Meiji government, this would greatly change the balance of power between the Meiji government and the Tokugawa shogunate.

In order for the empire to remove its deliberate support for the Meiji government, the Tokugawa shogunate had to make concessions on the Yokosuka issue, which had been tough for many years.

However, even if they made concessions, they insisted on maintaining a certain bottom line, that is, Yokosuka must not be leased to the empire as a concession, but they proposed that the imperial navy could be free to anchor Yokosuka.

At the same time, they also want to use this opportunity to get more support from the empire, such as rent, loans, military aid, etc.

After repeated negotiations between the two countries, the two sides finally signed the Yokosuka Lease Treaty in June 1870, which stipulated that the Tokugawa shogunate would allow the imperial government to anchor warships in the port of Yokosuka, and build related land facilities to provide housing for the ship's personnel, repair and supply the ships.

At the same time, in order to protect the safety of the moored warships, the Imperial Navy was allowed to build the necessary defensive facilities (batteries) on land.

In order to avoid a potential conflict between the Chinese and Japanese people, the Japanese side will set up the port of Yokosuka and the surrounding area as a military restricted area, prohibiting Japanese civilians from entering and living in the country, etc., and the existing people will be relocated by the Japanese side, and the imperial side will compensate the displaced people.

The above authority was for 100 years, and the annual rent was 500 yen, and the imperial side had to pay the rent of 50,000 yen for 100 years in full at once, which was to be paid in the form of the construction of a shipyard and the purchase of weapons for warships to the Tokugawa shogunate.

Although this treaty was different from the traditional concession and was named after the concession military base, it was in fact similar to the concession, but the Japanese side still maintained the nominal sovereignty of Yokosuka.

The acquisition of the port of Yokosuka would allow the Imperial Navy's Japanese task force to gain a real port instead of having to mingle with civilian ships in Japan's treaty ports, as it had done in the past.

As soon as the treaty was signed, the headquarters of the Japanese task force was moved from the Edo Chinese Concession to Yokosuka, and the port was to become the main base and headquarters of the Japanese task force.

And just when the Imperial Navy was cheering for the acquisition of the Yokosuka naval base, there was a shocking news in Europe, that is, the two great powers of the European continent, Prussia and France, had actually gone to war! (To be continued.) )