Just as the new 16-inch battleships of the Chinese, the United States, and Great Britain began to be launched, and the Germans began to think about the next class of battleships, all the other countries interested in the sea had to drag their half-dead bodies already dragged by the war to keep up with the pace of the advancers. And two of them are the most active, one is France and the other is Italy! The reason for France is very realistic and tragic, after this war, the French Navy can already be described as existential in name only, and finally there are only 2 capital ships left, you know, at the beginning of the war, the French Navy is the fifth in the world, ranking higher than Italy, but after many bloody battles, the French Navy lost as many as hundreds of thousands of tons of warships, it can be said that the old capital of the years have been thrown in. However, as a country with a vast colony and adjacent to Italy as a Mediterranean sea power, France has to have a strong navy, although the current French navy no longer has the ambition and strength to compete for the ocean, but at least it can't be bullied by the Italians at home!

France, which also has no money, will not build it immediately...... However, preparations are still underway. In general, the French were quite satisfied with the Brestani-class battleships. Even with the battleships of the US Navy were relatively satisfied. In addition, the mission of the French Navy has changed from competing for hegemony in the oceans to ensuring the security of the Mediterranean and the colonies, so the requirements for endurance and speed are not very high. As a result, the French Navy focused on armor and protection for new battleships. But even so, the French Navy still has a lot of criticism about the Americans' Colorado-class battleships. The low speed is really okay. And the protection and firepower are still a little worse, they feel that the firepower arrangement of the Tianjin-class battleships in Huaxia, as well as the performance in all aspects, is very balanced, the speed is not particularly fast, but it is enough, and it is also a ......... focusing on firepower and protection.

However, considering the relationship between France and China in general. It's hard to get the technology and design you want. At the same time, the Americans are not very happy with the Colorado class. So the French decided to follow the old path of the Brestani. Work with the Americans on a new battleship of the first rank.

The French planned to start construction of two battleships armed with 16-inch guns in 1921. The fast battleship, named the Dunkirk class, had a guaranteed displacement of about 38,000 tons and a speed of more than 25 knots. Armament is 9 16-inch L45 naval guns. The armor protection requirements were stronger than those of the Hood-class battleships of the British. Except for this class of fast battleships. The performance of the air force in World War 1 also attracted the attention of some of the top brass of the French Navy, in the new plan of expansion at sea. The French also came up with their own aircraft carrier design. However, at a subsequent meeting of the Admiralty's top management, questions were raised about the fact that the French Navy fought mainly in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. So there is no too strong enemy in the Atlantic direction, and the Mediterranean Sea is too narrow and almost within the combat radius of the French Air Force, in this case, is it necessary to build aircraft carriers? As a result, the two sides were at loggerheads. Plans for the construction of aircraft carriers were put on hold for the time being.

And the expansion plans of the French will inevitably affect Italy. Although compared to the French Navy, the Italians still have a lot of possessions left, but in addition to a Longxiang-class battleship purchased from China, the remaining 3 Caraccino-class battleships are not ranked high in various countries, Germany's Bismarck-class battleships and two York-class battleships, the British's revenge-class battleships and Queen Elizabeth-class battleships, and the United States' Tennessee-class battleships are actually superior to the Caraccino-class battleships in terms of performance, and because of the damage caused by previous wars, It left quite a lot of hidden problems for this class of battleships. So the Italian Navy also intends to update its own fleet. And the new expansion plan of the French navy has given Italy a sense of urgency. The Italians will not forget that Italy had a lot to gain from the war from France! …………。

Italy's national power is not as strong as France's. But the losses suffered in the war were also much smaller than those of France, and after the end of this war, Italy had nothing left except 4 capital ships and some destroyers. So replenishment of battleships is also needed. But in addition to these well-known reasons. There is another reason for Italy's military expansion, that is, Italy no longer trusts the Allied bloc led by Germany! Credibility can only be done once! Since last time, Germany was able to heed the advice of Austria-Hungary and use it to stumble on Italy. Then there will definitely be a next time, this time Italy is luck, and it was Huaxia who came forward to help solve the problem, so what about the next time? And strategically, Italy is content with the current situation, and after acquiring parts of the Balkans and parts of North Africa, Italy is not much aggressive. Therefore, the opinion of Germany aimed at creating a unified Allied fleet was not heeded. Italy is thinking more about how to preserve the fruits of its current victory, and if necessary, to use its strength to ensure its neutrality.

And on the battleship design scheme. Vittorio, who was already old, suggested that Italy copy the Tianjin-class battleships of the Chinese Dynasty...... Taking into account naval cooperation between the two countries. I can still get some information. So it was decided to design a new ship on this basis, because the economic situation was not good, so Italy decided to start the same number of warships as France. In terms of aviation, the Italian Navy is a little ahead of the French Navy, and the reason is that the Italian top brass realizes that only the Navy can really constitute a certain deterrent to other powers, and in terms of land, Italy is not as good as Britain, France and Germany, even Austria-Hungary and the Russians! But fortunately, there are mountains in the north as a block, and the pressure is not very great. Therefore, in order to maintain the deterrent power of this long sword at sea, the Italian top will do everything possible to strengthen the construction of naval aviation, including aircraft carrier ..........

And in addition to these two countries, Austria-Hungary was also considering its own plans for the reconstruction of its navy. After all, the current Austro-Hungarian Empire only has one capital ship, and similar to the German strategic situation, since the fall of Russia, the ground pressure on Austria-Hungary has become very small, and the demand for land forces will also be reduced, and at the same time, in response to Germany's strategy of eastward expansion into India, Austria-Hungary also urgently needs to expand its fleet. This was not only because of the recovery growth after the defeat, but also because of the tendency to expand.

As in history, Austria-Hungary also decided to hug Germany's thigh this time, and how the next German battleship was built, then how it built itself. Considering that the other two naval powers in the Mediterranean are planning to start construction of two capital ships, let's start one by ourselves, it is really faceless, let's start construction of three, and the economy is very tight, so they simply start construction of two, as for aircraft carriers, Austria-Hungary has no idea. The Germans had never done this, and Austria-Hungary had nothing to learn from, and more importantly, it was not so urgent.

In addition to these countries, there is also a silent country that is also on the verge of revolting again. This country is Russia that was born on the corpse of Tsarist Russia. With the support of Germany, the former Russian Provisional Government finally swept away all the opposition forces in the country, although Russia had lost North Asia at this time, the entire Central Asian region was also independent, and even the most elite part of Russia in Eastern Europe was gnawed off a large piece, and Ukraine was also split from it. However, if you only look at the total area of the country, the newly born Russia is still a large European power! …。

After Italy's abnormal behavior, Germany felt that it needed to make up for the impact of the lack of an Italian navy, so Russia became an excellent choice to replace Italy, but at this time Russia no longer had the need to have a navy, the Baltic Sea was Germany's inland sea, and the Black Sea coast was basically no longer connected to Russia. However, as a government supported by Germany, Russia did not have much choice. And considering the reason why Russia's vitality was greatly damaged at this time, and the domestic disputes had just been settled, Germany's request to Russia was also very simple, mainly to provide some destroyers, light cruisers and submarines. …。

The war has ended, but the major powers are preparing for the next war, the vast majority of countries are already powerless, Britain and France have shed blood in World War 1, and Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy have obtained war dividends, but it will take time to digest these dividends. Funds are also very tight in a short period of time. Although the United States and China do not have any economic problems, they both want to exchange their own advantages at the lowest price, and the result of the endless arms race can only be thankless, and for the United States and China, these two countries are in the best economic situation at present, and the possibility of direct confrontation between these two countries is extremely low from a geographical point of view...... The vastness of the Pacific Ocean makes it impossible for either side to do anything with the other, so it is better for everyone to sit down and talk. Sometimes muscles are just to deter the opponent and prepare for the peace talks that follow..........

As for Britain, France, Germany, Austria, Italy and other countries, they have long hoped that they can limit the opponent's armament through negotiations, and in order to heal the wounds of the war, it is impossible to have a few years, so they wish that everyone would not build warships. Then wait until the strength is restored before starting the arms race, although the strength of the countries is strong and weak, but in the end they all accept the solution of ending the arms race through a negotiation!

This time, it was US President Nelson who proposed the naval arms talks, and then Britain and France responded, China expressed its support, and the Allied bloc also said that it was acceptable after studying, and unlike history, more countries participated in the naval arms negotiations this time, including China, the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, and Turkey, a total of nine countries participated in the negotiations. Of course, the latter two countries were strongly requested by the Entente to join, because the other side was an enemy country, although it was not very strong, but it was also asked to join the negotiations in order to completely close the loopholes, and Germany also asked the British Dominion to join the British Navy in terms of warship tonnage. As for the place of negotiations? After agreeing on the agreement, the two sides decided to hold negotiations in Beijing, the capital of China, the only neutral country. As a result, the negotiations on arms limitation in Beijing, which had a huge impact in later generations, slowly kicked off ..........

Thanks to the book friend zhouyu1976 for the tip~~~. The second is more presented, ask for support and subscribe ~~~. (To be continued).