In 1911, the first year of the Chinese Empire, on the first day of the first lunar month of the Chinese calendar (January 30 of the Western calendar), Liu Qianhua, the second female emperor in the history of China, was enthroned in the Taihe Hall of the Forbidden City. On the same day, he canonized his half-brother, Liu Ping, the 20-year-old Prince of Wurui, as the crown prince.

A month later, the empress and the crown prince moved to Qingdao.

In the early morning of March 2, the "Dancing Phoenix" carried more than 100 people from the empress, the crown prince, important ministers and celebrities, and foreign dignitaries, and slowly sailed out of Qingdao Port under the escort of more than 10 large and small ships of the Imperial Navy.

Outside the port, 116 Chinese and foreign warships were arranged in more than 10 parallel columns, spreading out on the sea 10 kilometers square inside and outside Jiaozhou Bay!

From the bow to the stern of each ship, all the ships are covered with flags of various colors, and the officers and men are dressed in the most solemn dresses and stand neatly on the side of the ship. Ironclad steel cannons, intimidating the gods!

The "Dancing Phoenix" first sailed sideways in front of the lead ships of the various columns, only to see three green signal flares flying up the ground on the "Dancing Phoenix," and the pilot ships immediately fired a salute in unison, and a full 33 shots were released.

"Dancing Phoenix" was originally a 7,000-ton large royal pleasure ship built for the late Kaihong Emperor, originally named "Tai'an", but when the ship was completed last year, Kaihong Emperor died, and the ship naturally became the imperial ship of the Empress Chengxian, and was renamed "Dancing Phoenix" by the Empress herself.

On this day, a stepped viewing platform was erected on the top platform of the "Dancing Phoenix", equipped with awnings and sound equipment, which was enough to accommodate more than 100 guests on board to watch the ship here.

At this moment, on the simple throne set up in the center of the viewing platform, Qian Hua is holding a lightweight women's high-powered telescope, looking at the countless columns of smoke on the sea...... With the more than 100 modern steel warships that caused such serious pollution, the heart is surging - who can not be shocked by such a magnificent scene?

The most important thing is to shock the arrogant Caucasian people on the viewing platform!

With the three whistles of the "Dancing Phoenix", Admiral Yan Fu, Chief of Staff of the Navy, the commander-in-chief of the parade, strode to the throne with a saber in his hand: "Your Majesty, the parade fleet at sea has been prepared, please order the review to begin!" ”

Qianhua put down the binoculars: "Let's start." ”

"The sea split begins!" Yan Fu gave an order, and the order flag was quickly raised on the mainmast of the "Dancing Phoenix", and at the same time, several red and green signal flares flew into the blue sky.

After a while, the loudspeaker on the viewing platform began to broadcast alternately in Chinese and English, introducing the columns under review: "Now entering your field of vision is the First Reading Column, which is the leader of the whole team, composed of the First and Second Submarines of the Imperial Navy. There are six offshore submarines and six ocean-going submarines, which are completely designed and manufactured by China and have very good combat performance......"

The world circles and military attachés of the European and American countries present immediately widened their eyes, and they couldn't help but stick their eyes into the binoculars, and looked at the twelve beautiful submarines with blue and white borders and red land golden dragon flags from the outside to the inside, admiring, doubting, jealous, disdainful, and contemptuous, more than a dozen languages with more than a dozen tones, like colorful bubbles emerging from some kind of chemical reaction, as if they were going to drown the entire viewing platform.

At the same time, the Minister of National Defense, Admiral Hooke, who was next to the throne, found a folder out of nowhere and carefully introduced the new ships for Her Majesty the Empress and Her Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

“…… The first type of shark means that it is an inshore submarine developed on the basis of the Sea Dragon and Seal classes that have been in service for many years, although the displacement has only increased by 30 tons compared with the Seal class, and the seafaring performance has not improved by leaps and bounds, but it has been replaced with more powerful 500 mm torpedoes, and the reserve mines have also increased to five. In addition to the six ordered by the Imperial Navy, the Asahi Navy ordered two each. The Navy ordered a total of 20 Shark 2 ships that were finalized last year and have more advanced comprehensive performance, and 6 of them have been put into service so far. The Shark II is equipped with China's unique 550 mm large-caliber torpedo, which is extremely powerful enough to destroy the active warships with the best protection performance in various countries. In addition, the Shark III, which has more ammunition and better sailing performance, is still being designed. ”

In order to complete the scheduled tasks of breaking diplomatic relations in the ocean, reconnaissance and monitoring of enemy ports, this type of submarine has a strong sustained combat capability, and in order to save torpedoes and fight against the enemy's anti-submarine forces, the surface of the ship is equipped with 120 mm medium-caliber guns and 60 mm light anti-aircraft guns. There is also a minelaying type of this type of submarine, a total of four of which can covertly lay mines near enemy ports thousands of miles away to blockade them, and at the same time have a certain direct attack capability. The Whale II, which has a larger tonnage and better seafaring performance and is equipped with 550 mm torpedoes, will soon be finalized this year, and the Navy has already scheduled to order six ordinary and two mine-laying ......"

The folder was presented to Qianhua's eyes, and the performance data of the finalized new Class 4 submarine was copied in beautiful pen letters:

Shark type 1

Standard displacement: 330 tons above water / 369 tons underwater

Maximum speed: 16 knots above water / 10 knots underwater

Range: 850 nautical miles/12 knots overwater, 4 knots/70 nautical miles underwater

Torpedoes: 3 500 mm torpedo tubes (2 in the front and 1 in the rear), 5 reserve mines.

Safe working depth: 45 meters

Crew: 26 -

Shark Type II

Displacement: 380 tons above water / 435 tons under water

Speed: 16 knots above water / 10 knots underwater

Range: 2500 nautical miles/8 knots overwater, 4 knots/70 nautical miles underwater

Torpedo tubes: 3 550 mm torpedo tubes (2 in the front and 1 in the rear), 5 reserve mines

Artillery: 1 90mm/45x single-loading gun, 1 60mm anti-aircraft gun

Safe working depth: 50 meters

Crew: 32 -

Whale 1

Displacement: 556 tons above water / 780 tons under water

Speed: 16 knots above water / 10 knots underwater

Range: 5,500 nautical miles/8 knots overwater, 4 knots/70 nautical miles underwater.

Torpedo tubes: 5 500 mm torpedo tubes (4 in the front and 1 in the rear), 8 reserve mines

Artillery: 1 120 mm/45 x single gun, 1 60 mm anti-aircraft gun

Safe working depth: 45 meters

Crew: 42 -

Whale one bray type

Displacement: 590 tons above water / 816 tons under water

Speed: 12 knots above water / 8 knots underwater

Range: 9,000 nautical miles/8 knots overwater, 4 knots/50 nautical miles underwater

Torpedo tubes: 5 500 mm torpedo tubes (4 in the front and 1 in the rear), 5 reserve mines.

Mines: 16 mines (plug-in)

Artillery: 1 90mm/45x single-loading gun, 1 60mm anti-aircraft gun

Safe working depth: 45 meters

Crew: 42

……

"Did they all write it himself?" Qianhua felt that the handwriting on the document was quite familiar.

Hook did not change solemnly: "Yes, for the sake of secrecy, the old minister personally asked the relevant departments to copy the confidential information, which was specially used to explain to the emperor today, after this review, this information was immediately burned, and if the emperor wanted, he could ask the old minister to present it after returning to the palace." ”

"Sister Huang, it's really rare for Elder Hu to think so thoughtfully." Crown Prince Liu Ping praised.

Qianhua also nodded and smiled: "Elder Hu has worked hard. ”

Hu Ke said respectfully: "These are all habits developed during the first emperor, and when people have habits, they are not easy to change, so they are nothing...... Your Majesty, please see, the second column has turned over. ”

The second column consisted of sixteen destroyers of the same type, with a long and thick bow tower that clearly distinguished it from foreign small destroyers, a semi-enclosed integrated bridge with a round front and a rear, a mainmast close to the bridge, two large chimneys separated by a distance behind the mainmast, a total of three medium-caliber main guns in the front and two in the rear, and two twin torpedo tubes located between the chimneys and installed diagonally on the left and right.

This time, the admiration that rose from the European and American VIP seats slightly overwhelmed the bird's voice, which contained other feelings.

In fact, at that time, no other navy except Britain had such a large destroyer, and judging from the smoke coming out of the chimneys of these destroyers, it was clear that they used more advanced fuel engines, which not only outperformed the coal-fueled destroyers built by Britain between 1901 and 1910, but also seemed to be better than those immature fuel destroyers built by Britain during the same period.

Hook is also continuing to introduce Qianhua: "...... The 1st and 2nd squadrons that have come over now are all the destroyers of the Wolf that were finalized in the first year of Kaihong (1905), and the navy has ordered 24 destroyers, of which 18 have been completed so far, and the Korean navy has also ordered 4 more destroyers and requested that 4 more ...... be built according to the license."

Listening to Hook's introduction, Qianhua turned to the second page of the folder and saw the information on the destroyer Wolf:

Standard displacement: 1090 tons

Maximum speed: 33 knots

Main guns: 3 x 120mm/45x

Secondary guns: 4 37mm rapid-fire guns, 4 machine guns.

Torpedoes: 2 twin 550mm torpedo tubes (8 spare mines)

Crew: 137

"At present, only China and the United Kingdom have more than 1,000 tons of large destroyers, Britain's latest hare hound-class is fueled by coal, with a speed of only 27 knots, although the previous heavy oil fueled tribal class has reached a speed of 33 knots, its endurance and armament are far weaker than the wolf. It can be said that the Wolf destroyer has the highest comprehensive performance among the destroyers in service in the entire world's Lu Navy. Hook said proudly.

As he spoke, the Third Column had already entered the prescribed route, and this time it was a light cruiser, which was almost two or three times larger than the destroyers of the Second Column, with a total of 12 ships of two classes, belonging to four light patrol groups.

There is nothing surprising about the smooth and slender hull, the densely packed chimneys and ventilation pipes, the square bowhouse, the simple semi-enclosed cannon-enclosed main guns and the gunned guns on the sides, and the so-called "protective cruisers" and "reconnaissance cruisers" of this era are basically like this - the foreign VIP seats are quiet.

Hook didn't seem to have any interest in the foreign VIP seats, just focused on his work: "The first two ships are the latest Leopard light cruisers, and the navy has ordered a total of 12 ships, and only these two have been commissioned so far. In addition to the Chinese navy equipped with this type of ship, the DPRK Navy has also ordered 4 ships, and the Japanese Navy is scheduled to build 4 ships according to the license. These two classes of cruisers do not have too high requirements in terms of combat performance, but focus on reliability, that is, the ability to ensure the continuous completion of multiple combat missions in a long-term harsh environment. ”