The composition of the British fleet was such that it consisted of eight dreadnoughts, eight large cruisers.

Eight dreadnoughts, each with a displacement of 20,000 tons, were armed with twelve 305-mm guns, with a maximum armor thickness of more than 400 mm, and were equipped with large steam turbines with a maximum speed of twenty knots.

In terms of firepower, in addition to the twelve 305 mm heavy guns, there are only 24 75 mm rapid-fire guns, which are used to hit torpedo boats that are approaching the attack, and there are no longer medium-caliber secondary guns, such a firepower configuration is quite advanced, which can allow the battleship to concentrate fire at a long distance, according to open information, the accurate firing distance of the British dreadnought is about 8,000 meters.

The British dreadnought, inspired by Lin Fei's idea of a full-armed heavy artillery battleship, is the most powerful battleship in the world today, on the other hand, Lin Fei's dynasty-class battleship, due to the limitations of shipbuilding technology, ship engine technology and shipbuilding technology, the displacement is only 10,000 tons, the engine still uses a reciprocating piston steam engine, not a steam turbine, and the gun caliber is only 280 mm.

The difference in displacement made the armor thickness and sinking resistance of the Dynasty-class battleships much weaker than that of the dreadnoughts, and when they received the same number of shells, the dreadnoughts could be unharmed, while the Dynasty-class battleships had sunk.

The difference in engines makes the Dynasty-class battleships have no advantage over the dreadnoughts in terms of maximum speed and economic speed, although the Dynasty-class battleships burn diesel and the dreadnoughts burn coal, but this little advantage is not enough for the Dynasty-class battleships to win.

The difference in the caliber of artillery made the attack power of the Dynasty-class battleships far inferior to that of the dreadnoughts.

However, the Dynasty-class battleships are not completely inferior, the Dynasty-class battleships are equipped with rockets, which can kill and injure the dreadnoughts at a distance of 15,000 kilometers, although the strike accuracy of the rockets is not high, but the Dynasty-class battleships can make up for the lack of launch accuracy by increasing the number of launches, and the dreadnoughts will definitely line up in a line formation when fighting, which greatly increases the probability of rockets hitting the dreadnoughts.

However, the rockets of the Dynasty-class battleships are a double-edged sword, and the rocket launchers are deployed on the stern platform, if the stern of the ship is hit by the enemy's shells, it will likely cause a martyrdom, thus leaving the entire battleship in the sea.

Compared with the dreadnoughts, the Dynasty-class battleships had no obvious advantages, and the Emperor-class cruisers had no advantages compared with the British large cruisers, and Lin Fei obviously had no certainty of victory in this battle with the British fleet.

Lin Fei's most advantageous thing is the submarine, the hell-class submarine, but the hell-class submarine is useless in this battle, which is completely blamed on Lin Fei for not judging the British fleet's march route, Lin Fei has always believed that the British fleet will go through the Strait of Malacca, and then enter Singapore, but Lin Fei never expected that the British fleet did not go through the Strait of Malacca, nor did it go to Singapore, but went north from the Sunda Strait and went straight to Zhurong City.

Zhurong City is located in Borneo, is the core of the oil industry of the Chinese Empire, every day there are countless oil transport ships, to and from Zhurong City and Dayu City, Taiwan, Hainan and other places, all kinds of gasoline, diesel, lubricating oil and other oil products to the front line, to the factory.

The oil industry is not only about oil refining, turning oil into gasoline and diesel is only a small part of the oil industry, and a larger part of the oil industry is to use oil as raw materials to produce various chemical products, the most typical example is explosives and fertilizers.

It can be said that Zhurongcheng is the economic lifeblood of the Chinese Empire and the lifeblood of Lin Fei, and if the British fleet attacks Zhurongcheng, the economy of the Chinese Empire will plummet.

Lin Fei must defend Zhurong City and defend the core of Huaxia's petroleum industry.

It is too late to mobilize Hell-class submarines from the Strait of Malacca, because the Hell-class submarines are too slow, and now they can only mobilize Dynasty-class battleships and Emperor-class cruisers from all over the country, and the British fleet has eight dreadnoughts and eight cruisers, and the Dynasty-class battleships and Emperor-class cruisers must not be less than them.

At this time, Lin Fei had a total of fifteen Dynasty-class battleships and twenty-five Emperor-class cruisers, Lin Fei had four Dynasty-class battleships in 1898, and now four years have passed, only eleven Dynasty-class battleships have been built, which sounds incredible, this is because Lin Fei has mobilized a considerable part of the resources of the shipbuilding industry to the development of aircraft carriers.

Lin Fei had Hell-class submarines and monster-class submarines in his hands, so he didn't need too many Dynasty-class battleships and Emperor-class cruisers to consolidate coastal defense, and Lin Fei also needed some ship-building resources to make inland river gunboats for the recovery of the Outer Northeast.

These warships are scattered and deployed in various places, stationed in Zhurong City, there are only two Dynasty-class battleships and four Emperor-class cruisers, if they are transferred from all over the country, in five days, two Dynasty-class battleships and four Emperor-class cruisers can be transferred back, and in ten days, four Dynasty-class battleships and eight Emperor-class cruisers can be transferred back.

If the time is twenty days, all fifteen dynasty-class battleships and all twenty-five emperor-class cruisers can be concentrated in Zhurong City, not only surface warships, but even hell-class submarines and monster-class submarines can be transferred back.

So what Lin Fei had to do was to delay as much time as possible and prevent the British warships from attacking the Huaxia Empire.

Lin Fei thought of a way to contact the United Kingdom through the US ambassador to Huaxia, and Lin Fei asked directly: "What do your warships want to do when they enter our territorial waters?" ”

Lin Fei's inquiry stunned the British, the British thought that we were declaring war with you, we entered your territorial waters, of course we were going to attack you, what else could we do!

The British pondered carefully, and finally understood that Lin Fei was afraid of the British dreadnoughts, so he wanted to ask for peace, and the British were very happy, so they conveyed this message to Lin Fei through the Americans, as long as Lin Fei agreed to the British conditions, the British could withdraw the fleet from the territorial waters of the Chinese Empire.

At the beginning of the war, Britain wanted to destroy the Chinese Empire, but as Lin Fei defeated the Qing Dynasty, forced Russia to sign the "Armistice Agreement", and forced the Siam Empire to sign the "Treaty of Bangkok", Britain realized that the Chinese Empire controlled a large number of people and land, and it was impossible to destroy the Chinese Empire, so Britain decided to use the diplomatic agreement to grab the maximum benefits for Britain.

Lin Fei was very happy to see the British statement, since the British are willing to put forward conditions, if they put forward conditions, we will have to negotiate with them, this negotiation, there will be more time, I can transfer the Dynasty-class battleships and the Emperor-class cruisers to the waters near Zhurong City, and then my chances of victory will be greater.

Lin Fei then sent a message to Britain that he was willing to negotiate with the British government, and the British government sent the governor of Singapore, McKinson, to negotiate with Lin Fei in person.

Lin Fei's status in the minds of the British is getting higher and higher, when Lin Fei fought the Spaniards, the Governor of Singapore only sent an envoy to intervene, and now the person who comes is the Governor of Singapore himself.

Interestingly, the British did not propose negotiation conditions, the British meant that it was very strange to wait until the two sides met and then exchange conditions, but Lin Fei didn't care, after all, what he wanted to do most now was to gain time to gather troops.

The Governor of Singapore was in Singapore, and since this was the negotiation that Lin Fei took the initiative to request, the Governor of Singapore proposed that Lin Fei personally go to Singapore for negotiations.

Lin Fei originally planned to disagree, but thinking that delaying time now is the most important thing, so he agreed to the governor of Singapore, took Navy No. 1, and rushed to Singapore, accompanied by three hundred elite snipers, two Emperor-class cruisers, as for the two dynasty-class battleships in Dayu City, they have been sent to Zhurong City by Lin Fei, anyway, there are no British warships in Singapore, and Lin Fei does not need to bring many warships.

Lin Fei set off on January 11, and the time he arrived in Singapore would be almost January 25, that is, 14 days, if 14 days, Lin Fei could assemble eight Dynasty-class battleships and 12 Emperor-class cruisers in the sea area of Zhurong City, and if it was delayed for another six or seven days, all ten Dynasty-class battleships would be able to assemble, and there would be at least six Hell-class submarines.

At that time, Lin Fei would be able to gather heavy forces and launch a war of annihilation against the British fleet.

What Lin Fei didn't expect was that on the day Lin Fei set off, the British fleet launched a blow on the merchant ships of the Chinese Empire, and a merchant ship with a displacement of about 10,000 tons was sunk by British warships in the southern waters of Borneo, and all 50 crew members and goods worth 780,000 Chinese coins were sunk into the sea.

Lin Fei sent a message of protest to the Governor of Singapore on Navy One, and the Governor of Singapore quickly replied: "Dear Emperor Fei, this is the punitive blow that our British Empire has inflicted on your country, and if your country agrees to our conditions, we will immediately stop this punitive blow." ”

Lin Fei hurriedly telegraphed back to reprimand the Governor of Singapore for his treachery and attack on the merchant ships of the Huaxia Empire during the negotiations, and the Governor of Singapore responded disdainfully: "As long as the enemy does not surrender, our Royal Navy fleet of the British Empire will strike at it, unless the enemy surrenders." ”

In order to gain time to gather troops, Lin Fei chose to hold back for a while, so he asked the governor of Singapore: "What conditions did you offer?" ”

The Governor of Singapore was quick to send in three conditions, each of which seemed acceptable. (Canghai shared the writing story on the WeChat public platform, please search on WeChat - qietingcanghai, that is, listen to Canghai's pinyin, reply 2 to watch)