There is a sentence that is in the ascendant, when the Huaxia side is thinking about how to dispose of the dreadnoughts that are gradually becoming obsolete in their hands, and at the same time planning for new ships. The European powers in the far Western Hemisphere have also begun the second wave of shipbuilding plans, and China can quietly wait for the emergence of new artillery and power systems to update their dreadnought fleets, now European countries must ensure the number of warships, because the outbreak of war is inevitable, but no one knows when it will begin! No one dares to bet!

By the end of 1906, the strength of European countries was such that the British Royal Navy, as the world's largest maritime power, was still the leader. The number of battleships and battle cruisers in the British Navy that have been launched and commissioned has reached a total of nine, the same number as the Chinese Navy. 5 battleships and 4 battlecruisers, respectively. Five of the battleships can be regarded as first-class, all built according to the drawings provided by the Huaxia Navy, and the lead ship is still called the Dreadnought as in history. It is armed with 10 12-inch guns and has relatively adequate armor belts. The four battlecruisers were built according to the drawings of the Long Xu class, two of which were almost identical to the Long Xu, and the other two were reduced by armor protection under the influence of Fisher and increased their speed, with a maximum speed of more than 25 knots.

At present, Germany has launched and completed 6 new dreadnoughts, of which 4 are Nassau-type battleships that imitate the Longxing-class battleships, because the power system still uses reciprocating steam engines, so the speed and endurance are not as good as the Longxing-class battleships that use kerosene mixed boilers and steam turbines. Two of the four ships have already been completed and two are being outfitted. The other two fast battleships are copies of the Longtai type. The two warships are currently in service and the other is also being outfitted.

The French Navy, once the third largest in the world, is now a little confused. The French fleet, which has been second only to the British Royal Navy since the time of Louis XIV, has been the second only to the British Royal Navy for hundreds of years, and now it is finally unable to do it! In fact, since the defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, France has fallen from the position of a first-class power. It is not easy for the Navy to survive until now. Today, there is no need for France to continue to maintain a world-wide fleet, both in terms of national strength and national strategy, and it goes without saying much about its national strength. Germany produces three to four times as much steel as France! This gap is even more desperate than the population gap.

As a land power, France needed to confront Germany, and although there were also Britain and Russia, the pressure on the French was not small at all. Without the navy, France would still be France, but without the army. France, let's wash and sleep. So after accepting the British proposal, France began to reduce its naval armaments. So much so that in this round of naval planning, the French are very low-key, and there is not even a plan for the construction of new ships for the time being!

Just as cautious as France is the United States. The Americans were going to borrow a knife to kill. As best they could, they produced Borodino-class battleships for the Russians. I wanted the Russians to kill all sides with American-style equipment. As a result, he was beaten by the Chinese fleet at the door of the Dutch. This incident was privately considered by the US Navy to be a defeat of the US Navy, and the result was not much worse than that of the Spanish-American War. "It has been 10 years since the Spanish-American War, and in these 10 years, we have tried our best to revitalize our navy, but I didn't expect that the military industrial complex and shipbuilders still gave us a pile of scrap metal!" An American officer lamented.

Although along with the commissioning of the Florida-class battleship, the US Navy is still quite satisfied with this product that embodies the crystallization of the US military industry and shipbuilding industry. But the budget is relatively tight, and the US Admiralty, which is scared, still does not dare to mass-produce warships. The sinking of the battleship caused more than just the loss of personnel and equipment. Along with it, great power ambitions and popular aspirations have passed, and the fundamental reason for the current US prudence is the defeat of the Spanish-American War. Once bitten by a snake for ten years, I was afraid of the well rope!

After taking stock of these first-class countries, the rest is to look at the second-rate countries of Italy, Russia and Austria-Hungary. The Italians were still very interested in their navy, Germany had already provided Italy with endorsements on land, and the mountainous terrain of northern Italy was not suitable for large-scale army build-up and movement. So the Italian Army is weak and understandably weak. But it's not the same at sea. Italy was tasked with containing France in the Mediterranean, and in order to ensure that Italy could cooperate with Germany to the best of its ability, Germany privately stated that if the war was won, Germany could "persuade" Turkey to hand over its colonies in North Africa to Italy, and that Egypt and parts of Algeria would be included in Italy's sphere of influence.

Although it is a private occasion, these conditions are also very attractive for Italy. So in the next stage of the process of expanding armaments, the Italian Navy is still relatively hard-working, after the completion of three dreadnoughts, the new dreadnought designed by Count Vittorio finally passed the budget, equipped with 10 14-inch guns super battleships were put on the agenda of the Italian Navy, and these warships are planned to build three! In addition to this, the Italian Navy will also update its light cruiser formation, and at the same time accelerate the reduction of old ships, in order to maintain a high level of combat proficiency for the entire Italian Navy.

As for Austria-Hungary? How to put it, they still ignore the navy, although they have a king who is also enthusiastic about the navy, but this king can't help the council that is not interested in the navy! Add to this the many problems in the design and construction of Austro-Hungarian warships. (For example, the Combined Force battleship, which costs more than Queen Elizabeth.) So it was still a very tragic thing for Austria-Hungary to build its own battleships.

But seeing that other countries are building navies, if you don't get it, I'm afraid I'm a little too sorry for the audience, even if you come out to play soy sauce, it's not hard. Therefore, at the request of King Fritz, the Austro-Hungarian Parliament agreed in principle to the next phase of the naval expansion plan, which could obtain relevant drawings from Germany and design a new dreadnought equipped with eight 14-inch naval guns. But it's impossible to know exactly when you'll start doing it.

The last country is Russia, a powerful empire whose navy was still ranked at the top of the world one year ago, has truly experienced the situation that a fluffy phoenix is not as good as a chicken. After losing its powerful fleet, the Russian government finally faced up to the reality, no longer considered the question of sea power in the Far East and the world, and began to honestly run its own army. But this does not mean that the Navy will be abandoned. One of the reasons was the stubborn and stubborn Nicholas II's preference for the navy and large warships, and on the other hand, it was an unavoidable problem.

What about the Baltic if there is no navy? After several wars, the Russians did not just realize that their navy was a coffee table. At the same time, I am more aware that my army is a cup! So much so that now the Russian Army has begun to consider that if Germany concentrates its efforts on attacking Russia at the beginning of the campaign, then the Russian Army will consider abandoning Russian Poland, and then straighten the battle line as much as possible, save troops, and use trenches and fortified areas to defend against German surprise attacks. Even the Chinese Army can't beat the field war, so why fight the Germans?

The land problem is solved, but what about the sea problem? What if the Germans knocked a gap in the Baltic Sea and then came to land behind enemy lines? In terms of the level of Russia's railway communication lines and mobility capabilities, if you bring troops back from the front, maybe the daylilies will be cold before you go! So in any case, the Baltic Fleet must maintain the most basic deterrent. And this kind of deterrence cannot be achieved by submarines and mines alone.

As a result, the Russian government decided to strengthen the Baltic Fleet under the condition of guaranteeing the army, and in the plan of the Russian Admiralty, in addition to the three dreadnoughts redeemed from the Chinese Republic, the Russian Navy will rebuild at least four new dreadnoughts.

However, in this battle, because the Russians thought that the Longquan class played better. So, the Russians hoped that the new battleships would be armed with 10 larger-caliber guns instead of using a triple. This point deviates from the choice of the Russians in history, which chose to equip 4 3-pack main guns. 4 turrets are tiled, not only the Gangut and other ships in service, but even the follow-up unfinished ships, the Izmail-class battleships, are also like this, 12 14-inch guns, 4 triple layouts!

In addition to these countries that are always ready to face war, South American countries on the other side of the world are not willing to be lonely. After the end of the Sino-Russian War, Chile, which was overwhelmed by the wealthy Argentine fleet, first secretly contacted the Huaxia Republic, hoping to purchase a Longxu-class battle cruiser to restrain the Argentine Navy's pre-dreadnought cruisers, including the early PISA-type armor.

After Chile's actions were learned by the Argentine government, Argentina naturally could not sit idly by, and they immediately launched countermeasures, saying that if Chile buys warships from other countries that "destroy the regional balance", the Argentine Navy will inevitably carry out a new round of military expansion plans, and within the navy, the call for warships to be equipped with larger-caliber guns is also increasing, the reason is very simple, the example of the Sino-Russian war shows that even in the face of battlecruisers like Long Xu, 12-inch guns are a little insufficient, The 8-inch outer armor can be pierced, but the inner dome armor can't be pierced. And this is unacceptable to the Argentine Navy.

In addition to Argentina and Chile, the old enemy, Brazil is not willing to be lonely, when Chile and Argentina are implementing their own naval expansion plan, Brazil has also begun to consider its future warship procurement plan, because there is no foreign enemy oppression, and at the same time, under the effect of the pursuit of high-end and high-grade thoughts, the Brazilian Navy government actually put forward a plan that is very NB on paper! In this plan, Brazil required its new battleships to be armed with at least 12 14-inch guns! The total displacement reaches more than 30,000 tons! Purely on paper, the performance surpasses all the current planning rowers of the great powers!

Thanks to book friends such as ianmonne, I am love Zhao Yun, Yi Yi scarf and Liang Baiwu for their monthly ticket support and reward~~~~. (To be continued......)