"The Germans have gone ahead of us, and their hostility to the British Empire has been fully revealed, and the expansion of the High Seas Fleet has become inevitable, and they are going to start construction in two years of four ships of the same size as the Longxing-class battleships, which is a full 48 12-inch guns. The ships of the Royal Navy have become obsolete overnight, and I wonder, gentlemen, how many new warships can we start in 2 years? 6 or 8? The British Admiralty Secretary snapped.

"Then we will have to allocate at least £10,000,000 to £12,000,000 to meet your needs, and this is a difficult fund for our present financial situation, and you should know that we are at war in Boer, and that the Dutch are not only condemning us verbally, but are providing practical assistance to the Boers through various channels. The Army is in the war phase, and we have to put limited money where it's needed most. In the face of the First Admiralty's accusations, the Chancellor of the Exchequer said carefully. At this time, his pressure was not only from the Admiralty and the government, but also from the public, which also alarmed the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

The British have been in charge of the sea for so long that almost all the British believe that the ocean should have belonged to the British Empire, not to mention that a certain country dares to challenge the sea power of the British Empire, just the other party has this idea is absolutely not allowed! As for the backwardness of the Navy in armament, it is even more unbearable! The Times even used the headline "The glory of the Nelson era is leaving us" to express the people's dissatisfaction and worries about the Admiralty!

"The British Empire's navy is not only strong because of its loyal soldiers, but also because it has the most elite fleet in the world. So, we can beat the Spaniards, we can beat the Dutch. Defeat Louis XIV, defeat the combined fleet of Napoleon and Spain, hundreds of years later, the British Empire's admirals are still as heroic and good at fighting as their predecessors, but what about our fleet? Just a week ago! A land power has built the most powerful warship in the world for another fledgling nation in the Far East! And at this moment, where are our dreadnoughts? ”

In order to enhance the visual impact. The Times also posted several large photos of the Longxing-class battleships next to the article. As soon as this report came out, it ignited public opinion that had been brewing for a long time! The British people's dissatisfaction with the British government exploded at this moment, coupled with the successive setbacks in the Boer War. In the eyes of the people, the British government has become a government of inaction, and the British Army has become a laughing stock. "General Wellington is going to come back to life in anger!" "We defeated the most elite French legion at the Battle of Waterloo. It is unforgivable to be beaten up by a group of natives! "And all kinds of dissatisfaction ultimately fell on concerns about the development of sea power and the navy.

"The Germans, the French, the Italians and even the Russians and Americans had their own dreadnought plans. The British Empire did not have an advantage in this transformation. In order to ensure the hegemony of the British Empire, and in order for the territory of the Empire to be under the sun at all times, I propose that in the next two years, Imperial Britain start construction of 6 Dreadnought battleships and 2 Dreadnought battlecruisers. In order to continue to maintain the superiority of the Navy. When questioned, the British First Admiral said.

As the saying goes, it's better to do what you say, and as the largest empire in the world, the British Empire is at the peak of the Spring and Autumn Period. Its operational capacity is still quite strong, especially when its fundamental interests are threatened. The British Parliament passed the naval armament expansion plan without hindrance, and in the next two years, eight dreadnoughts will be put on the slipway, and the British Empire has shown its strength and domineering to the world with its indisputable strength and actions.

"Let the British burn their money, we just have to take our time at our own pace." Tirpitz just smiled when he heard that the British were going to build 8 dreadnoughts in one go. In the face of the eager gazes of Scheer and Siper, Tirpitz uttered the following paragraph.

"As a new warship, the dreadnought is just the beginning, with the progress of technology, more advanced and powerful systems will be applied to the warship one after another, such as the small boiler that the Navy is researching, such as the 350MM heavy gun being planned by the Krupp Gun Factory, and the larger tonnage warship being designed by the Naval Design Bureau." Tirpitz paused, then spoke meaningfully.

"The Longxing-class battleship did create a historical precedent, but it is still far from perfect, the founder of the Huaxia Navy. Mr. Xu Jie, the current prime minister of the Chinese People's Republic, once expressed his dissatisfaction with the modified warship in private, in fact, he was not willing to install as many as 12 main guns on a battleship, if he could, he would choose a heavier caliber heavy gun, although the battleship was equipped with the latest 4-meter rangefinder, but in terms of settlement and information transmission, Mr. Xu was not satisfied, the most dissatisfied with him was the power system, and he did not use the small boiler in research and development is his biggest regret. ”

"Respected marshal, but the navy is an army that needs to be accumulated, the construction and service cycle of each warship can be described as long, without sufficient foundation, in the future war, our number will be very disadvantaged, and the North Sea is narrow, the space for guerrilla warfare is very small, at least as soon as the large fleets of the two sides are dispatched, it will be a decisive battle, and there will be no fancy frontal collision!" Scheer said carefully.

"Whether it is the German Empire, or the British Empire, or France and Italy, we are all waiting for one thing, waiting for a standardized warship that is truly suitable for our own national conditions, and this warship must not only have strong combat effectiveness, but also must be able to withstand national strength. You must know that our enemies are not only Britain, France and Russia, we also have an enemy called the budget! The German Empire is a land power, which determines the primacy of the army, although we have a strong industry, there is a strong technology, but without money can do nothing, we have to spend every mark! Tirpitz patiently explained to his proud subordinates the future strategy of naval development, and in his opinion, a good naval officer should not only know how to fight, but also understand the strategy of a country's development!

As long as anything can be standardized, then its cost will definitely be reduced, and because the standard is unified, the logistics supply and maintenance will be very aspect. Liberty wheels are like this, planes are like this, warships are actually like this, in history in World War 1 there are two countries that finally touched this way, one is the United States, the result of small steps is to create a large number of 14-inch iron turtles, these guys equipped with 10 to 12 14-inch cannons moving slowly in World War 1 absolutely belong to the top existence. The other country was the United Kingdom, where the 1909 standard battleships were a group of battleships armed with 10 13.4-inch guns. Starting from Orion, Britain built a total of 12 battleships of 3 classes, and the later George V and Iron Duke were just minor changes to Orion. Although the performance is average, it is cheaper and the construction period is shorter!

Since Xu Jie has decided to strengthen Germany, then changing the layout and ship type of the hundred ghosts in German history has been put on the agenda, Xu Jie's purpose is very simple, Germany must hit Britain hard, and it will be more serious than the one in history, after World War I, it is Xu Jie's ultimate goal to make Britain unable to take care of the Far East!

Compared with the-for-tat between Britain and Germany, the other countries in the world did not react so strongly to this crazy naval arms game. As the third in the world, France, at this time only completed the Danton-class battleships step by step, and did not release a new naval plan, which makes people feel very low-key, the reason is very simple, after reaching an understanding with Britain, France's naval pressure disappeared almost overnight, France is also a land power country, especially in the face of a feud with itself, and far stronger than its own Germany, France needs a strong army to ensure that its territory is not violated, rather than continue to throw money at the navy. Especially with Britain as an ally.

As for the Russians, both the Admiralty and the government of Russia now ignore this competition, the reason is very simple, Britain and Germany have time for this protracted competition, but at this time, the Russians have no time and no money to participate in this competition, in the next few years, the Russian Empire will inevitably have a fateful decisive battle with the Chinese Republic in the Far East, whoever wins this war will be the king of the Far East! At this time, for the sake of this war, the Russians have already written the last ruble into the armaments budget, and it is good to be able to complete the previous plan, so naturally there will be no new plan.

What really makes people curious is the Italian Navy, which can be said to have faintly surpassed the French in this arms race, and the Italian Navy has already approved the plan for the next three new dreadnoughts. After completing the order of the Huaxia Republic, Italy decided to start construction of 3 dreadnought battleships for itself, and did not rule out the possibility of adding new ones. "The Mediterranean should be Italian." In the Italian parliament, someone shouted this extremely hateful word! But it doesn't matter, with the rise of the German navy, it is a foregone conclusion that the British navy will accumulate the main force of the fleet on the mainland, and Austria-Hungary is an ally, so the Italians have a certain certainty of suppressing the last maritime power in the Mediterranean!

As for the Americans? At this time, the United States was more low-key, for the simple reason that since the Spanish-American War, the Americans had a certain suspicion of their warships, and the Americans, who had always had a habit of running in small steps, decided that the U.S. Navy had to limit the pace of the battleships they had built for the Russians before they had been tested in actual combat. The fundamental reason is that the Americans have no enemies in the Americas for the time being, and if they want to go on an expedition to the ocean, the United States is very suspicious of its own navy, so the Americans can only develop their navy in a relatively conservative way.

Thank you for the drunken smile of the book friend、mouse76's monthly pass support~~~~。 (To be continued......)