During the naval battle of Chittagong, India, 2 Bellerophon-class dreadnought battleships, 3 all-steel battleships, 1 ironclad battleship, 2 large fast armored cruisers, 1 fast protection cruiser, 4 destroyers and 5 torpedo boats of the British Indian fleet were captured by the Royal Navy of the Chinese Empire.

In addition, some of the warships captured in the decisive battle at sea between the main force of the Royal Navy of the Chinese Empire and the Combined Expeditionary Fleet of the Entente and the Allied Powers were all repaired, but in this decisive battle at sea, because the Combined Expeditionary Fleet finally chose to take the initiative to retreat, the Royal Navy of the Chinese Empire did not capture any decent warships in this war, basically the captured warships were all warships left behind by the navies of Britain, France and Germany, and the best warships were just a few modified ironclad battleships, As well as a number of fast-protection cruisers, destroyers and torpedo boats.

Lin Daxin read the report of the navy, in the two naval battles, in addition to the 2 Bellerophon-class dreadnought battleships, the captured warships also included 3 all-steel battleships, 3 ironclad battleships, 2 large fast armored cruisers, 9 fast protection cruisers, 11 destroyers and 16 torpedo boats, which could be added to the Imperial Chinese Navy.

Now that Japan and the United States are basically going to join the war and declare war on the Chinese Empire, the only thing that wants to strengthen the Royal Navy of the Chinese Empire in a short period of time is these captured warships. The Chinese Empire has a large number of warships under construction, but the construction period of these warships is not short. Far water can't quench the thirst of the near.

Lin Daxin was in the Qianqing Palace in the Forbidden City and sat back on the throne in the main hall. Then he said to Jiang Hui, vice minister in charge of the navy of the Ministry of National Defense: "After completion, the navy will face a very arduous task in the future, not only to guard against the joint expeditionary fleet formed again by the Entente and the Allies, but also to guard against the navies of Japan and the United States. ”

Jiang Hui nodded and said to Lin Daxin: "Your Majesty, rest assured, our Royal Navy has just received 12 Admiral-class super dreadnought battleships, and most of the warships damaged in the naval battle have also been repaired, plus the major shipyards have recently replenished many warships for our 6 main fleets." Counting the captured warships of the Entente and the Allied Powers, the strength of our Royal Navy is even stronger than before the decisive battle at sea, even if the Allied Powers, the Allied Powers, and the navies of the United States and Japan come together, our Royal Navy is also confident that it will defeat them and defend the maritime security of the Chinese Empire. ”

Lin Daxin still has strong confidence in the Royal Navy of the Chinese Empire, which already has 4 mythical-class aircraft carriers, don't look at the current enemy of the Royal Navy of the Chinese Empire to add the navies of the United States and Japan, it is likely to become attacked by the enemy's powerful fleet in both directions and east and west, but the Royal Navy of the Chinese Empire, which has fighters to help the war, is not afraid.

At present, the Royal Navy of the Chinese Empire also has 11 Dragon-class dreadnought battleships, 9 Phoenix-class dreadnought battleships, 7 provincial super dreadnought battleships, 12 Admiral-class super dreadnought battleships, and 2 Bellerophon-class dreadnought battleships captured by the British Navy. There are a total of 41 dreadnought battleships, including 19 super dreadnought battleships, and if you only count the dreadnought battleships, the number of dreadnought battleships of the Royal Navy of the Chinese Empire. Ranked first in the world.

However, in the decisive battle at sea with the Combined Expeditionary Fleet of the Entente and the Central Powers, the Royal Navy of the Chinese Empire also sank 14 all-steel battleships, 10 large fast armored cruisers, 21 fast protection cruisers, 23 destroyers, 33 torpedo boats and 44 submarines. Moreover, all-steel battleships are no longer built in the Chinese Empire, and all efforts are focused on building more powerful dreadnought battleships. Therefore, the all-steel battleships of the Royal Navy of the Chinese Empire were sunk and one was missing.

In this way, the Royal Navy of the Chinese Empire has not weakened in terms of overall combat effectiveness. It can be said that the Royal Navy of the Imperial Chinese Navy is still the most powerful navy in the world, and there is no one of them, that is, the US Navy has not suffered losses in the Great War, and has just added a large number of warships, including six New York-class super dreadnought battleships, in terms of total displacement, which is still much worse than the Royal Navy of the Chinese Empire, and the US Navy is still far behind the Royal Navy of the Chinese Empire in terms of the performance of its warships and the combat experience of its officers and men.

Lin Daxin continued: "However, it is not so easy for the Entente and the Central Powers to organize a second joint expeditionary fleet again, I heard that the defeated joint expeditionary fleet has not yet withdrawn to Europe? ”

Li Kun, the director of the Military Intelligence Bureau, said beside him: "Yes, Your Majesty, the remnants of the Combined Expeditionary Fleet have just retreated to the Mediterranean. ”

The navies of the Entente and the Central Powers, after a decisive battle at sea that had just ended, the Allied and Central Powers sank 53 dreadnought battleships, 48 all-steel battleships, 16 ironclad battleships, 28 large fast armored cruisers, and hundreds of fast protection cruisers, submarines, destroyers, and torpedo boats were also sunk in the engagement, which severely damaged the naval strength of the seven countries of the Entente and the Central Powers.

And the Entente and the Central Powers are not monolithic, although they are now fighting side by side against the Chinese Empire, but they are still guarding against each other, even if they form a joint expeditionary fleet, the scale must not be as good as the first joint expeditionary fleet, after all, they still have to leave enough forces in their own country's waters to protect themselves, and there will not be too many warships that can be drawn.

The remnants of the Allied and Allied Combined Expeditionary Fleet, which were defeated in the decisive battle at sea, because many of the main warships were seriously injured and their speed was greatly affected, and the other warships that were not injured could not get rid of their wounded comrades, and they must know that the seriously injured and able to escape were basically dreadnought battleships, all-steel battleships and large fast armored cruisers, and the commanders of the Combined Expeditionary Fleet could not let these seriously injured main warships break away from the entire fleet and slowly retreat to Europe in the back. If something goes wrong, it's bad. As a result, now the remnants of this fleet have not returned to Europe, but have just crossed the Suez Canal. Into the Mediterranean.

According to Lin Daxin's prediction, if the Entente and the Central Powers want to form a second joint expeditionary fleet, they must mainly rely on the remnants of the first joint expeditionary fleet, that is, they must wait for the wounded main fleet to return to Europe and repair them, so that they can form a second joint expeditionary fleet again to find trouble with the Royal Navy of the Chinese Empire.

Lin Daxin sighed and said to Jiang Hui at this time: "Complete, let the naval officers and men of the 12 admiral-level super dreadnought battleships familiarize themselves with the warships as soon as possible, and conduct a decisive battle at sea again." These 12 Admiral-class super dreadnought battleships and 4 Mythical-class aircraft carriers will be the main force of the Royal Navy, and the navies of the Entente and the Allied Powers will not be able to come over for a while, but we still have the US Navy and the Japanese Navy to deal with, and it would be good if we could take the US Navy and the Japanese Navy first. ”

Jiang Hui hesitated for a moment and said: "Your Majesty, the Japanese are very afraid of our Royal Navy, so they have invested a lot of money in the port coastal defense artillery, so that most of Japan's port cities now have a large number of coastal defense batteries, if the combined fleet of the Japanese Navy is cowering in the port city." Our Royal Navy must pay an unimaginable price to destroy Japan's naval combined fleet, but the Americans on the other side of the ocean have not built too many shore defense batteries on their west coast, and I wonder if we can let our Royal Navy directly attack the west coast of the United States. Destroying part of the US Navy fleet on the west coast of the United States will not only weaken the strength of the US Navy, but will also make it impossible for the US Navy to assemble many warships in the Pacific Ocean in a short period of time. ”

The U.S. Navy is now separated from the east and west coasts of the United States. Moreover, at least half of the warships of the US Navy were concentrated on the east coast, and the Panama Canal had not yet been completed. The U.S. Navy wants to get warships on the East Coast to the Pacific, the safest route. It can only bypass the whole of South America, enter the Pacific Ocean from the Redk Strait, and then return to the west coast of the United States, the entire voyage takes tens of thousands of kilometers, and another more recent route needs to bypass Canada, cross the Bering Strait, and then return to the West Coast of the United States, this route is not close, there are more than 10,000 kilometers, and the route is also close to the sea area of the Chinese Empire, and the safety is not as good as the first route.

Lin Daxin pondered for a moment and shook his head and said: "Most of the warships of the US Navy on this side of the Pacific are concentrated in Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, that Pearl Harbor has been built by the Americans A large number of shore defense guns, if the Royal Navy launches an attack on Pearl Harbor, it will be more difficult than attacking the Japanese port, so that we will destroy some US warships on the west coast of the United States, and we will not be able to shake the foundation of the US Navy, and the Royal Navy needs to cross the Pacific Ocean if it wants to reach the east coast of the United States, and this time is too long. I don't think it's worth it. ”

Jiang Hui sighed and said, "Then our Royal Navy can't wait for the enemy to come to the door all the time!" ”

At this time, Defense Minister Wu Peifu next to him said: "Your Majesty, the strength of the US Army is not strong, what if we let the warships of the Navy escort our Army to land on the west coast of the United States?" Is it a preemptive effect? ”

Lin Daxin touched his chin and said: "This suggestion is not bad, so that the Americans may not have the heart to support the Japanese, after all, we have all hit the American homeland, but how to solve the logistics problem?" It is easy for the army to draw out a few main forces, but across the Pacific Ocean, landing in the US army will face very serious logistical problems, and once the logistics fails, waiting for us to land in the US army will definitely be a catastrophe. ”

Wu Peifu said again: "Your Majesty, how about we attack Alaska in the United States? Alaska is just across the Bering Strait from the Saidong Province of the Chinese Empire, and logistical problems are easy to solve. ”

Hearing Wu Peifu mention Alaska, Lin Daxin considered the gains and losses of attacking Alaska.

Alaska was purchased from Russia by the United States at a price of only 2 cents per acre at a total price of 7.2 million US dollars in the late Civil War, and this transaction was criticized by many Americans at the time, after all, this land has nothing but big, and it is desolate, but from about ten years ago, Lin Daxin set up a mining company, and found a large gold mine and large oil fields in Alaska, which made Alaska suddenly lively, and countless Americans set foot on the land of Alaska and began to look for gold and oil.

Referring to this, I have to say that the Russians who bought Alaska, the earliest Alaska was ruled by the Russians, and in 1854 the Crimean War broke out around the hegemony of the Balkan Peninsula, at that time the relationship between Russia and Britain and France was not as good as it is now, Tsarist Russia was defeated by the British and French forces in this war, and ceded the land for peace, and legend has it that the old Tsar Nicholas I also committed suicide by poisoning because of this.

The newly enthroned Alexander II was also very afraid of the strength of Britain and France, and Alaska happened to be next to the British colony of Canada, he thought to himself, if there was another war, I am afraid that Alaska would not be able to hold it, and Alaska is very close to Siberia, if the British use this as a springboard to attack the Russian mainland, the consequences will be unimaginable, so Alexander II thought, it is better to sell it, not to mention a few dollars, but also to borrow other countries to block the threat of the British to the Russian mainland.

Of course, this reason is high-sounding, but the problem is, if you can't keep it, you will sell it, then St. Petersburg, the capital of Russia at that time, was closer to the British mainland, why didn't you sell it? So another important reason behind His Majesty's wise decision is that Alaska is really useless.

The industrially backward Russia has never excavated the territory of Alaska, which it has occupied for more than a century, on a large scale, and in the eyes of the Russians, it is just a place where there is nothing to want, and there is no use in keeping it.

So Tsar Alexander II began to look for buyers everywhere, but there was no progress for several years, and at that time, the countries in the world that could afford to buy Alaska were not interested in Alaska, for the same reason that Tsar Alexander II disliked Alaska, Alaska is a frozen soil, what is the use of buying it? Whoever has a lot of money and has nowhere to spend it, so he goes to buy that barren land.

As a result, someone really jumped out and bought the barren land of Alaska, this is the American who is stupid and has a lot of money. (To be continued.) )