The Shaohao-class battleship, with a design displacement of 18,000 tons, adopts a double-mounted turret layout in the front and rear of the central axis, with a closed rotating turret and is equipped with four 300 mm 30 times the caliber main gun, and is equipped with ten 150 mm 35 times the single main gun and several 80 mm secondary guns and Gatling guns.

The armor is made of steel-faced iron armor, with a thickness ranging from 150 mm to 350 mm, but with the concept of key defense, most of the armor in the core part is maintained at more than 300 mm, and the key parts such as the front of the turret are basically 350 mm armor thickness.

It was powered by two steam engines with twelve boilers, with a maximum power of 8,000 horsepower, and twin shafts and two propellers, which could propel the ship to 15.5 knots.

In terms of cost, it reached a huge 2.8 million yuan, which was 300,000 yuan higher than the Shundi-class battleships of similar tonnage. The reason why the cost will continue to rise is mainly because the guns with the above are all in need of new research and development, and this research and development cost must be relatively expensive.

However, although the construction has begun, there is still a big debate within the Navy about the Shaohao-class battleships, especially many people think that the number of main guns is too small, and the firepower is sacrificed for seaworthiness, which is unacceptable for many people.

They believed that if seaworthiness was required, more armored cruisers could be built, and the seaworthiness and endurance of armored cruisers were much stronger than those of battleships.

And this dispute within the Navy also led to the fact that in 1876 and 1877, the Navy did not start construction of a single battleship, but started the construction of three armored cruisers in a row.

Throughout the second half of the seventies, the Imperial Navy, like the British, was in a state of confusion about how to design new ships.

For this situation, Lin Zhe is also a little helpless, he naturally knows about the former dreadnought battleships, and he also knows the dreadnought battleships, but the development of these battleships is laid on the breakthrough of new technologies, there is no hardened armor and a three-expansion steam engine, what do you use to build a former dreadnought battleship?

Therefore, Lin Zhe also turned a blind eye to the controversy within the navy, but on the other hand, he increased investment in the research and development of new technologies.

In 1876, the empire approved the latest revision of the patent law, which further strengthened the protection of technology patents and stimulated domestic enterprises to increase investment in technology research and development, the most important core of which was to extend the patent protection period, from the previous 15 years to 20 years.

In addition, in the relevant judicial regulations, the punishment for patent infringement cases has been further increased, and the act of infringing patents and making profits will be subject to severe fines.

After the promulgation of this patent protection bill, it caused a great reaction in China, and many infringed companies began to sue the infringing enterprises, such as Jiangnan Mining Company, which was brought to the 'Supreme Court' by the North Coal and Iron Company because it infringed a number of patents of the North Coal and Iron Company.

The case attracted great attention from the Ministry of Justice and the Supreme Court system, and finally a group of old scholars referred to the relevant patent laws in force in the empire, as well as the patent laws of Western countries, and finally ruled in favor of the Northern Coal and Iron Company.

Jiangnan Mining Company was ordered to pay up to 800,000 yuan in compensation to the North Coal and Iron Company and immediately cease the infringement.

This is also the largest patent infringement case in China, which directly promotes enterprises to increase the research and development of new technologies, even if they do not have their own research and development capabilities, they try to obtain patent authorization.

On the one hand, the Patent Protection Act is on the one hand, and on the other hand, Lin Zhe is also trying his best to improve the social status and treatment of scientific researchers.

The most obvious example of this is the 'Royal Prize for Science Fund', established in 1876, which was funded by the royal family and operated separately, and from the operating profits, it was used to award the prize money of the Royal Prize for Science.

The Royal Science Prize is awarded to scientists who have made important contributions to scientific research in China and in their countries, and is awarded once every three years.

The prize money for each award is tentatively set at 50,000 yuan, but the money is not the most important thing, more importantly, the winner will also be awarded the title of 'baron'.

This is a noble title, a noble title that countless people in the country want, although the empire will appropriately increase some nobles every year to maintain the overall number of nobles, but the total number of nobles is about three hundred.

But now, Lin Zhe has sent out as many as four awards at one time, corresponding to the four major awards of physics, chemistry, mathematics, and medical science.

Lin Zhe is engaged in such a big stroke, in order to stimulate people's attention to scientific research, so that students can devote more themselves to scientific research.

The most immediate consequence of this was that the following year, in 1877, the number of graduates of the country's higher secondary schools enrolled in science increased by at least 30 percent.

The students who entered in 1877 would become the new generation of the Empire's technological elite after four or three years of study.

And in the same year, a remarkable event occurred in the world, a rebellion broke out again in the Kingdom of Binin, and more remarkable than the third large-scale attack of the Dutch army defeated by the state of Langang in Borneo.

That is, in this year, a new round of Russian-Turkish war broke out between Russia and Ottoman Turkey.

The hatred between Russia and Ottoman Turkey has been going on for more than two hundred years, starting with the first Russo-Turkish war, and now the latest war between the two countries, which is already the tenth time.

This Russo-Turkish war is also known as the Tenth Russo-Turkish War.

Since the expansion in the Far East was suppressed by the Chinese Empire, and even lost a large part of the territory of Siberia, the Russian side could not counterattack China and counterattack, so in the early seventies, Russia focused its expansion on Central Asia, trying to gain an outlet to the Indian Ocean.

But the British are not vegetarians, and how can they allow Russia to move south along Afghanistan or Persia and then reach the Indian Ocean, threatening the security of Britain and India.

Therefore, the British used various means to block Russia's southward movement, and in addition, on the Central Asian issue, although China and Britain also had conflicts, they were quite consistent on the issue of containing the expansion of the Russians in this direction, so the empire also helped the British to pull the Russians back.

As a result, in the early seventies, Russia took over a large part of Central Asia, but in Afghanistan and Persia it stagnated.

In this case, the Balkan Peninsula, a thousand-year-old powder keg in Europe, exploded again, because the Ottoman Turkey had an internal rebellion, and the Russians just felt that the time had come and wanted to intervene, so the two countries broke out into war again.

Ottoman Turkey received support from the Chinese Empire and Great Britain, and it was very strong.

After learning that the war between Russia and Turkey officially broke out, Lin Zhe did not hesitate to order the troops in the direction of Central Asia and Siberia to enter combat readiness!

In view of the long border conflict between the Reich and Russia, the Reich has been actively looking for allies against Russia in other directions over the years, such as the Germans, Turkey, Austria-Hungary and other Russian neighbors are all active targets of the Reich.

However, unlike the international situation in later generations, because of the Three Emperors Alliance, the Germans and Austria-Hungary are still allies of the Russians.

So there were not many options left in the empire, only Ottoman Turkey remained.

Although Lin Zhe clearly knew that this Turkey was muddy and could not support the wall, he still increased his support for Turkey, among which the large export of the 1864 Linde rifle and rear-loading artillery in the early years was of a relatively obvious nature of military aid.

Turkey is strong, who is the hardest? It must be Russians!

Russia is uncomfortable, who is happy, that is the empire, of course, there is an Englishman next to it.

In this new round of war between Turkey and Russia, the empire and Britain once again stood on the same front, and the war between the two countries had not yet broken out, and Ottoman Turkey had received strong diplomatic support from Britain, and the empire took the initiative to ask if they wanted to buy ordnance.

In order to support Turkey, the empire not only greatly discounted the price of ordnance, but also allowed the Turkish army to expand and mobilize rapidly, directly using a huge scale of mothballed materials.

The 100,000 1864 Linde rifles and up to 300 front-loading rifled guns and more shells were pulled out directly from the mothballed warehouses by the Reich crossed the Indian Ocean and then arrived in Turkey through the Suez Canal, and when the ordnance arrived in Turkey and was accepted, Russia had declared war on Turkey for only two months.

The intervention of the Empire and Britain made this Russo-Turkish war even more confusing.

In August, the Turkish army's counterattack caused heavy losses to the Russian army.

In the early stage of this war, the performance of the Russian army can be described as quite poor, and several fiascos have not only caused heavy losses to the Russian army, but also worsened the external environment of the Russians.

Russia's enemies are not only Turkey, but also Britain and the Empire, the British, they play a continental balance policy, the pursuit of the balance of the continental countries, but they rarely go into battle in person, most of the time they stand behind the back.

But the Empire is different, the Empire and Russia have deployed a large number of troops on their long borders, and the border conflicts that have lasted for many years are not very pleasant for the Empire.

Now seeing that Russia is mired in the Russo-Turkish war, the empire will naturally not remain indifferent.

Russia had just declared war on Turkey, and Lin Zhe ordered the troops in Central Asia and Siberia to enter a state of combat readiness, and the poor performance of the Russian army in the early months of the Russian-Turkish war prompted many senior generals of the empire to take advantage of the opportunity to fight.

The Russians also know about this situation, but they have no good way, they can only grit their teeth and fight in Turkey, trying to win the war as soon as possible, and on the other hand, they also change the normal state of refusing to negotiate in the past, and begin to contact the empire frequently, trying to negotiate the border conflict between the two sides that has lasted for many years, so as to avoid war.

But the Russo-Turkish war is a very rare opportunity for the empire to take advantage of the fire!

If he gave up in vain, Lin Zhe would not forgive himself.

On the one hand, he let the diplomatic department talk to Russia, but on the other hand, he began to personally arrange preparations for war against Russia, and he had already made up his mind, if Russia was unwilling to give in at the negotiating table, then he would not mind launching a few more large-scale wars against Russia.

It is unlikely that the war between the Empire and Russia will change the outcome of the long-term inability to distinguish between the two sides, but it will have a fatal effect on the ongoing Tenth Russo-Turkish War.

Just imagine, when the empire launched a new round of large-scale offensives against the Russian army in the direction of Siberia and Central Asia, how could the Russian army have to fill in more than 100,000 or 200,000 troops in these two directions.

In this way, the forces of the Russians in the Turkish direction will be weaker, and it is not certain that Turkey will be able to overthrow the Russian army all the way at that time.

Such a result, presumably, is unbearable for the Russians.

As for saying that the Empire is now attacking Russia, but the Russians still defeated Turkey, and then it doesn't matter if they turn back against the Empire.

It's not that this kind of thing has not been done before, at most it is just a few times back and forth between Central Asia and Siberia, and then both sides will quietly cease fighting due to factors such as unimpeded supplies and rising pressure on military spending.

In short, the current state is that the empire can at any time, and is happy to take advantage of this opportunity to punch Russia! (To be continued.) )