North Korea entered the new year in an atmosphere of turmoil but no riots, and the North Koreans were very hesitant about the sudden loss of the country's Optimus White Jade Pillar and the Purple Gold Beam of the Sea, and the atmosphere of national grief seemed to overpower people's worries about the future, which Qi Yiming did not fully anticipate at the beginning. At this time, the image of Kim Jong-il had not yet been fully established in the hearts of North Koreans, and his death, although it also caused grief, was not as magnificent as it was more than a decade later.

The political committee took over the power of North Korea, and the outside world was actually not particularly surprised by this matter, because the death of the Kim father and son made a vacuum in the North Korean political arena, and it was difficult for both the old and young Zhuang factions to elect a figure who could convince the public, so the adoption of this committee system like the mud was the simplest mode of compromise.

It's just that the outside world doesn't know that the entire committee is all composed of Red Alert spies sent by Qi Yiming, and all the political power in North Korea is actually in the hands of the Strategic Bureau.

Politically, Qi Yiming mainly sought stability and did not make any changes, because there was also the merger of the DPRK and South Korea that he set up later, and the change would be more appropriate at that time. Now the senseless action may cause yourself some unnecessary trouble.

And militarily, Qi Yiming's actions are relatively large. The problem of redundant personnel of the People's Army Qi Yiming is not interesting to solve now, and this can also be reduced in the future merger of the DPRK and the ROK, and the South Koreans will be happy to pay severance pay to a group of DPRK troops at that time. Qi Yiming's main part of the knife is to install a large number of "own people" in the DPRK army to stabilize the morale of the army and the situation. In particular, some people who are dissatisfied with and resistant to the current committee must be labeled as a "counter-revolutionary" and dismissed, or if it is serious, they will be shot directly.

At the other end of the 38th parallel, Kim Dae-jung has also been successfully elected president of South Korea, although he only narrowly defeated Kim Yong-sam and the Democratic Liberal Party in the election, but over time, the Korean Commune Party with the support of China will inevitably grow stronger.

Both North and South Korea will need a certain amount of time to rectify their internal affairs, and when they can fully control the power of the two countries, it will be a smooth road to merge the two again.

――――

Entering 1993, all kinds of things in China were quite dull, and the aftermath of the previous big tiger case had gradually fallen, and the seeds sown by Qi Yiming were basically self-reliant, and there were fewer and fewer things he needed to take care of. At the beginning of the year, China signed an arms sales order with Saudi Arabia, and the Royal Saudi Navy ordered four F45 foreign trade frigates like CSSC.

The F45 type is a frigate with a full load displacement of about 4,500 tons, and this one is also specially designed for Saudi Arabia, so the Saudi side is also called the Riyadh class. In the other plane, the Riyadh class is actually a Lafayette class ordered by the Saudis from France, which was once purchased by Singapore and Taiwan. It's just that the Saudis in this plane have a special paranoia about Chinese weapons, believing that they have always been a representative of good quality and low price.

In addition, China's naval equipment has always led the world trend, and has had a great impact on the shipbuilding design of other countries in many aspects.

These four frigates are similar in appearance to the reduced version of the FREMM frigate (European multi-mission frigate), and the stealth design is stronger than that of the 054A, and the stealth level of the 054B is very similar. The armament configuration of this frigate is also relatively similar to that of the 054B, a 100mm stealth naval gun, 32 Thorn-3 medium anti-aircraft missile vertical silos, 8 C-803EX enhanced anti-ship missile vertical silos, two triple 324mm light torpedo launchers, a 730 close-in defense gun and an 8-pack FL-3000N close-in defense missile. (054B is armed with stronger than this ship)

The most outstanding thing about avionics is that the ship is also equipped with a rotating phased array radar, but the power and detection range are smaller than the 054B one, but it is still much stronger than the traditional shipborne radar. In addition, the ship is also equipped with a data link system that uses other Chinese-made weapons in Saudi Arabia and the air force, enhancing its ability to conduct joint operations.

It can be said that this F45 stealth frigate is second only to the level of 054B in the world, and it is much more powerful than the destroyers of many countries. The price of such a high-equipped ship is naturally not cheap, the unit price of the whole ship is 400 million US dollars, which is more expensive than the 052A destroyer sold to the South Koreans with technology transfer before, of course, there are many cutting-edge naval equipment technologies on the Riyadh class.

Because the technical level of these devices has not been fully mastered by other countries except for China, Saudi Arabia also had to sign a confidentiality agreement, which does not allow any of the parts on it to be displayed or transferred to people in other countries without permission, and it is regularly inspected by Chinese personnel.

Despite these conditions, the Saudis are still extremely happy, and with four Riyadh-class Royal Navy, at least in the Middle East, it has become the most important local power.

At the beginning of the year, the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force also ushered in its own cutting-edge weapon, the fifth ship of the Harutide-class AIP submarine was officially put into service, which is also the first Haruo-class submarine assembled and produced in Japan, and also marks that Japan has obtained the manufacturing technology of AIP submarines obtained from China.

Of course, this manufacturing technology is conditional. Japan's two largest shipyards, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Kawasaki Heavy Industries, are able to manufacture submarine hulls, most of the electronics, and can also be equipped with domestically produced fish and American submarine-launched Harpoon missiles, but the only thing that cannot be built in-house is the Stirling engine imported from China.

And the reason why the AIP submarine is AIP is reflected in her power. Japan has signed a contract with China for a total of eight Chunshio-class AIP submarines, the first four of which are built in China at a unit price of 4. $500 million; The latter four ships will be built on Japanese soil, and after many entanglements, Japan finally got the Chinese side to agree, and they will produce most of the other parts except for the AIP system, and the part that they do not have the ability to build themselves will be provided by the Chinese side. As a result, the total value of the components supplied by China for the last four submarines is also only 2. About $800 million.

At the beginning of 1990, the Chinese military ships delivered the first Chunchao-class submarine to Japan, and after the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force conducted operations and evaluations, they believed that its combat effectiveness was not inferior to that of nuclear submarines, and they also self-righteously felt that they understood why the Chinese Navy was able to rely on AIP submarines to maneuver with the fleet of the US Navy, and even achieved good results in the exercise. At a time when Japan is unable to break through the pacifist constitution and build its own nuclear submarines, the eight AIP submarines, which are not inferior to nuclear submarines, will greatly enhance the self-combat capability of the Sea of Japan.

Not only that, Japan's naval equipment enterprises have absorbed a lot of things from the design data of the Chunchao-class submarines handed over by China, and Japan is already a relatively powerful country in building ships, and the Japanese Ministry of Defense has also ordered Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Kawasaki Heavy Industries to develop the next generation of AIP submarines with stronger combat effectiveness on the basis of the Chunchao-class AIP submarines, and to complete the projects built by their own countries as much as possible.

However, if they want to completely produce their own AIP submarines, the AIP power system is a hurdle that cannot be bypassed, so the Japanese try their best to get China's technology transfer. During the previous negotiations, the Japanese repeatedly threatened to terminate the deal, hoping to obtain the complete manufacturing technology of the Stirling engine, but the Chinese side did not even order them, which fully reflected the true meaning of "love to buy, buy not buy".

The Japanese had no choice but to be shy and ready to buy the technology of the Stirling engine with a large amount of money, but China still refused, saying that AIP technology is an important technology that the country prohibits the transfer of, and it is no longer in the list of negotiations. In the previous case of Kotaro Mito and Sun Tianming colluding to resell important national technologies, the first few civilian technologies were actually just testing the waters, and then they would put their minds on a series of China's most valuable military secret technologies, such as the Stirling engine.

After this line was also broken, the Japanese were a little discouraged about getting this technology in China. However, they were well informed and learned that the Swedes also had the technology of the Stirling engine, although not as mature as the Chinese, but it was also a ready-made thing. Now the Japanese are making all their efforts to the Swedish side in an attempt to obtain the technology of the Stirling engine, so as to completely master the ability to build their own AIP submarines.

In this position, the strength of China's navy has made Japan, a maritime country, feel full of malice in the western Pacific region, so the trend of expanding the sea to deal with China is also more obvious. Moreover, in the mid-90s, Japan experienced a round of expansion of its military capabilities, and the size of its fleet also snowballed, and it soon grew into one of the most powerful maritime forces in the world.

In addition to the Chunchao-class submarines acquired from China, Japan is also vigorously imitating China's naval shipbuilding style and building its own new surface ships. After completing the construction of 8 Asagiri-class destroyers, Japan took out the Murayu-class destroyers and arranged for the construction of 10 in one go. The Murayu second-class destroyer has changed a lot from the 6,200-ton but meager version of the original plane.

First of all, in the design of the hull, the stealth wind led by the Chinese has been adopted, and the hull is streamlined to reduce radar reflection. Although its stealth processing is still relatively immature, it can more or less achieve the semi-stealth effect of 052A. In addition, the biggest change in weapons is that the original design of 16 Sea Sparrow and 16 Aslock has been changed to the design of 24 Sea Sparrow and 24 Asroc, and the armament ability has been greatly improved. In addition, adhering to the mentality of wholeheartedly being the seventh supervising antisubmarine squadron, these Japanese destroyers have an extraordinary dedication and pursuit of anti-submarine warfare.

The rudiments of an arms race in East Asia have already emerged.