In April 1870, the Songhu Naval Base in Shanghai, which used to be relatively low-key in the eyes of outsiders, there were still many marines standing guard outside the base, and some people who wanted to see the excitement were expelled by the soldiers.

However, if you are on a ship at the mouth of the Huangpu River at this time, you can see directly from the center of the river that a huge warship is moored on the pier of a naval base on the bank of the river.

Shanghai Songhu Naval Base, because it is directly built at the confluence of the Huangpu River and the Yangtze River, its geographical location is not good for a naval base, the concealment is not strong, and there is no shelter.

Of course, this is only a glance from afar, and if you try to get close to the naval cordon set up on the perimeter of the dock, you will immediately attract the expulsion or even shelling of the navy's patrol vessels.

In the past few days, many people passing by the Yangtze River channel have discovered that a huge warship has appeared in the Songhu Naval Base, and some people who have been in close contact with the ship can basically judge that this is a steel giant ship of at least 10,000 tons or more just by looking at the size of the ship.

Therefore, in the past few days, some newspapers in Shanghai have begun to report on this huge warship newly commissioned by the Navy, and surprisingly, the imperial authorities did not conceal the news of the warship, which is completely different from when the new warships such as the Yandi and Tianwu were put into service.

From the beginning of the construction stage, in order to conceal the new design of the 250 mm rear-loading naval guns and the enclosed turret, the Tianwu stayed at the Qingdao Naval Base from the time of construction to its commissioning, and did not appear at the Songhu Naval Base in Shanghai for the first time until last year, officially announcing the existence of the ship to the outside world.

However, the battleship Chiyou has been under construction since then. In fact, the outside world has been speculating about the ship, and ordinary people may not know about it, but foreign intelligence officers can always know more or less about the news that the empire is building battleships.

In particular, after the Baoshan Branch of the Shanghai Shipyard started the construction of the Fengbo, the second ship of the Chiyou-class battleship, such a huge hull was built in the open dock, and the surrounding area was not as hidden as the Qingdao Naval Shipyard, so it was not full of people at all.

The hull of the Windbo has not yet been formed. Virtually all the world's major naval powers know that the Chinese Empire is building a 10,000-ton steel giant, and at least two are under construction.

Just as the Imperial Navy regards the British Royal Navy as the biggest imaginary enemy, the British Royal Navy also regards the Imperial Navy as its major threat in the Pacific Ocean and even the Indian Ocean, especially after learning that the Imperial Navy is building 10,000-ton ships, within the British Royal Navy, the threat of the Imperial Navy has risen to its top three, second only to the French Navy and the Russian Navy, and the Italian Navy and the Austro-Crarian Sea in the same level.

And it is worth noting that among these five navies. With the exception of the Imperial Navy, the other four were all European navies, and a large part of their threat to Britain was due to their relative proximity to Britain.

As for the Imperial Navy, it was purely because of the expansion of shipbuilding, which caused the alarm of the British Royal Sea Ju.

For potential enemies, the British will naturally collect relevant intelligence, and after so many years of intelligence collection, those capital ships in active service in the Imperial Navy include seven ironclad ships such as the Pangu class and the Yandi class. The female snail-class offshore ironclad ship, the Emperor Offshore ironclad ship. Even as far as the Tianwu and the Kuafu, the two most recent second-class ironclad ships, their relevant information was learned by the British.

Of course, all the British know is some superficial information, such as appearance, approximate displacement and number of guns, etc., and the specific performance is naturally difficult to know.

The British paid attention to the active warships of the Reich. Naturally, we will not forget to detect some of the warships being built by the Empire, such as the Chiyou-class battleships, the Chang'e-class armored cruisers, and other warships.

Although they paid some attention to the Chang'e-class armored cruisers, they didn't think it was too strange, thinking that this was a successor ship developed by the Imperial Navy from the second-class ironclad ships of the Kuafu-class. Although the tonnage may be larger, it is still a traditional second-class ironclad, and they do not know that the Chang'e-class armored cruiser under construction is completely different from the traditional second-class ironclad.

Relatively speaking, they pay more attention to the Chiyou-class ironclad ships under construction in the empire, and they have more or less known some information about the ship in recent years, but it is all very shallow information.

However, this shallow information alone is enough to attract their attention, because they only need to know one thing, that is, the displacement of the Chiyou-class battleships is as high as 10,000 tons.

10,000-ton battleship, but the British call it a first-class ironclad ship or the empire called it a battleship, although the name is different, but the essence is the same, that is, this kind of battleship is the top warship of our time, and it is the pillar of a strong navy.

Two days ago, after the battleship Chiyou went south from Qingdao and prepared to hold a formal commissioning ceremony at the Songhu Naval Base in Shanghai, in the past two days, a number of British diplomats or military attachés stationed abroad, or simply businessmen, used various excuses to sail in and out of the Yangtze River, just to be able to witness the battleship Chiyou and speculate some hull performance data.

Then he directly reported the relevant information of the Chiyou to London through a secret telegram.

Therefore, when the Chiyou was not officially commissioned, the British Royal Navy had already learned about the ship, with a displacement of up to 10,000 tons, equipped with eight 10-inch rear-loading guns, and also used the closed rotating turret that the Imperial Navy had been using in recent years.

Other performance figures, such as maximum speed, cruising range, and armor thickness, are not yet known, but the mere fact that the diamond-shaped layout and eight guns are equipped is enough to attract the attention of the Royal Navy.

Although the Royal Navy had already used a ten-inch gun on the Hercules-class ironclad ships commissioned in 1868, and also installed eight main guns in one go, this was very different from the diamond-shaped turret layout and rear-loading main guns of the Imperial Navy.

The Hercules-class ironclad and the Sultan-class ironclad are both typical central gun gallery ironclads with a ten-inch front-loading rifled gun with the main gun.

One is a diamond-shaped turret layout and the other is a central turret layout. The layout of the two is very different, in addition to the rotation of the gun, the loading speed has an impact, more important is the play of the artillery, plus at this time the British have not completely abandoned the sail system, still on the capital ship to install sails. As a result, the firing range of artillery was affected even more.

Therefore, although it is the same eight guns, the gap between the two is relatively large in terms of firepower.

In addition, the gap between the front-loading rifled gun and the rear-loading rifled gun is also very obvious, although the front-loading rifled gun has the advantages of mature technology, reliability, and low cost, but its range and accuracy. Of course, there is a more important power, which has a significant gap with the rear-loading rifled gun.

Because the front-loading rifled gun is limited by the way of loading, it is impossible to make a too long barrel, generally about 20 times is almost the end, it is difficult to make a large-caliber front-loading rifled gun with a caliber of more than 25 times, which is not that it cannot be built, but after it is built, the gunner cannot load.

Breech-loading rifled guns do not have this limitation. As long as the technology is permitted, it is completely possible to manufacture 25 times, 30 times or even longer barrels of naval guns. And the long tube represents greater penetration.

The battleship Chiyou in service with the Imperial Chinese Navy, as well as the two second-class ironclad ships in front of it, the Tianwu and the Kuafu, all adopted a turret layout and were equipped with 10-inch rear-loading rifled guns.

If this is one, the British may think that they are trying to innovate various types of ships like themselves, but the emergence of warships of this type one after another has to attract the attention of the British Royal Navy. Could it be that the artillery layout of the central gun gallery, as well as the front-loading rifled guns, are really outdated?

This also caused a lot of controversy within the British Royal Navy, and the people who supported the front-loading rifled guns and the supporters of the rear-loading rifled guns once again argued, and at the same time sparked other debates, such as whether to cancel the capital battleship is no longer useful, and even affects the firing circle. A sail system that can easily cause fires and cause a large number of casualties in battle?

Also, what is the layout of the central gun gallery? Or is the turret layout good? In terms of turret layout, is it a diamond-shaped layout, a front-to-back layout, or a left-right staggered layout?

After entering 1870, the British Royal Navy was in a kind of confusion about the future!

In fact, this confusion has been present since the sixties, as can be seen from the repeated testing of various ship types by the Royal Navy, and the hesitation of various layouts and technologies:

Remove the breech-loading rifled gun and thus continue to use the front-loading rifled gun!

After experimenting with the capital ship with pure steam power, but I went back and continued to equip the capital ship with a sail system!

The gun layout of the battleship is also hesitating back and forth in the turret, central gun gallery, shipside cannon, open turret, low freeboard with turret, high freeboard with turret, etc.!

In the past 30 years, the British have been exploring, hesitating, and even stopping the construction of new large ironclad ships for nearly 30 years, because the British at this time did not know what direction to take.

Historically, it is not that there are no other countries that have brought the British direction of development, but the British have not been affected, for example, the French and Italians have always insisted on the development of rear-loading rifled guns, but the British still stubbornly used front-loading rifled guns until the eighties.

The three new warships in the current Imperial Navy, the Tianwu, the Kuafu, and the Chiyou, can be regarded as bringing a certain direction to the development of the contemporary navy, but whether they follow up and learn is another matter.

After all, to be honest, the Imperial Navy's current discussion of some new warships does not mean that they are very advanced, and even have certain disadvantages.

For example, after the use of eight ten-inch main guns, coupled with the weight of the turret, the center of gravity of the battleship is very high, so the freeboard of the Chiyou-class battleships is very low, and strictly speaking, it is not suitable for ocean-going combat.

In a way, a low-freeboard battleship was a large offshore ironclad, but faster, with better firepower and armor.

Limited by the overall technological capabilities of the present era, it is impossible for the development of warships to exceed the technological level of this era, and there is no distinction between good and bad warships, only suitable ones.

The best is what suits your home!

The British have a large overseas colony to protect, so they need a large number of cruisers and second-class ironclads to protect the route and deter the world, while the empire or several other countries do not have any colonies to protect, and all of them are not interested in the development of cruisers and second-class ironclads, preferring to build those first-class capital ships, or armored cruisers that can be on the battle line.

The appearance of the Chiyou not only brought a trace of vigilance to the British, but also caused a warm response to domestic public opinion, with the intentional cooperation of the official, some domestic newspapers are intensively reporting on the Chiyou, and there is no need to say anything else, just one thing is enough: this is the most powerful warship in the world!

And the word 'strongest' is enough to arouse the pride of the Chinese people.

Enslaved by the Manchu Qing Dynasty for two hundred years, and in the forties and fifties, it was invaded by two successive opium wars, although because of the rise of the empire, which continued to allow the people to maintain a certain national self-confidence, but after opening their eyes to the world, many people know that the most powerful country in the world is no longer the Central Plains Dynasty, but the empire on which the sun never sets all over the world - Britain.

When many Chinese people first came into contact with the outside world, they thought that England was a small island country in Europe, but after they really got to know it, they knew that Britain controlled the world's largest population, with a population of 400 million to 500 million people who were subjects of the British Empire, controlling more than 30 million square kilometers of territory and occupying a quarter of the world's land area.

Although in the Second Opium War in 1858 and the Hong Kong War in 1866, the Empire had defeated the British twice, but this victory was incomplete, the simplest example is that the current Imperial Navy is still not capable of blocking the British Royal Navy, as long as the British are willing, they can launch a naval battle or even land on China's 10,000-mile sea frontier at any time.

Although the Empire has a large and powerful army, and is sure to destroy any enemy force that dares to land, it is a fact that it cannot stop the naval fleet of others.

And now, the Imperial Navy is using the Chiyou to tell the people at home that the Imperial Navy already has the most powerful warships in the world, and there will be more such warships in service in the future, and the Imperial Navy is fully capable of protecting the Empire's thousands of miles of sea frontiers at that time.

The news that the Chiyou is going to be put into service is flying all over the sky, which has a great relationship with the Navy's fueling, because the battleship is useless to hide and tuck, and the biggest role of the battleship is not to participate in actual combat, but to deter!

The greatest deterrent power of battleships is actually not after the outbreak of war, but in peacetime.

For example, if the British knew that the empire had five or six battleships, they would have carefully considered before a potential war broke out, whether this could kill these battleships of the Chinese, how much it would cost to kill these battleships, and whether this price was worth it?

This kind of consideration, to a large extent, can allow the empire to avoid many wars, and even gain an advantage in diplomatic situations, which is the gunboat diplomacy in peacetime.

But if the enemy doesn't even know you have a battleship, it's a fart! (To be continued.) )

PS: 2-in-1 chapter