In the empty and closed inner room, there was no one but the teenager in front of him, and Ethan felt that there was no need to test each other anymore. His face gradually turned solemn, and he said in a deep voice: "The enemy of the Russian Empire is Japan, the island nation in the Far East. They, with the support of the British, have become the main obstacle to Russia's Far Eastern strategy; For the glory of St. Andrei, we must completely crush this group of yellow-skinned monkeys who dare to challenge the dignity of the Russian Empire! Therefore, I hope that your country will be able to build two battleships and two armored cruisers for our country to expand our Far Eastern fleet. Originally, we wanted to make this order for the interests of both your country and France and the United States, but in view of the close friendship between the royal families of the two sides, we decided to let your family take over the project. Speaking of this, Essen couldn't help but curse the Germans in his heart; If it weren't for the fact that Germany had greatly strengthened the Japanese Navy and made it difficult for the Pacific Fleet to continue, how could Russia have spent such an extra unjust amount of money on the Far Eastern Navy?

Hearing Essen report this number, Qingying finally showed a satisfied smile on her face. The purchase price of the 4 capital ships alone is a considerable expense, plus some bits and pieces such as the salaries of maintenance personnel, the total cost of Maozi for this expansion of the Far East Navy will reach more than 8 million pounds! I used to peddle Maozi with patrols and provide loans to Japan, and I made so many expressions, but now I finally got the effect, and let Maozi throw the money into the bottomless pit of the Far East Navy!

Prior to this, Qingying's idea was to only give the Russians a pretend that they could not seize sea power, and try to make Japan bleed as much as possible without affecting the final outcome of the Russo-Japanese War; However, after carefully analyzing the process of this war, Qingying suddenly found that even if he sold some battleships to Maozi, it would not affect the final outcome of the war as he imagined before. Historically, the main force of the Russian Pacific Fleet anchored in Port Arthur has always been a thorn in the side of Japan, and in order to completely cut off this threat, an undeclared sneak attack has become the best choice for the Japanese. Sixteen Japanese torpedo boats advanced during the night and sank three Russian battleships in the harbor, giving the Combined Fleet absolute sea supremacy for several months. If the Maozi capital ships in this plane can be strengthened and pose a greater maritime threat to Japan, then Japan will definitely carry out a sneak attack before the war; As long as they can blow up a few ships like in history, it is impossible for Maozi to rewrite history!

At the thought of taking this opportunity to weaken Mao Zi again and ease the pressure on Germany on land, Qing Ying was greatly relieved, and the expression on his face also relaxed, and nodded: "Regarding this, your navy can rest assured. Our German-built warships have always been famous for their superior performance, honesty and trustworthiness, and short delivery times, and the one that was built for your country before is the best example! However, I still have one question, are there only these four capital ships that your country has planned for the Pacific Fleet, or are there other components? ”

Essen was slightly stunned, and then replied: "Back to Your Highness, since the Japanese Navy has already posed a serious threat to the Far East of our Russia, it is obvious that these four warships alone cannot regain their superiority over the Japanese Navy. Therefore, this is only the first stage of the expansion of the Far Eastern Fleet in our country. In the next step of the plan, China will also purchase five more first-class battleships for the Far East Fleet to ensure absolute containment of the Japanese Navy. Speaking of this, Essen smiled confidently and said meaningfully: "This group of yellow-skinned monkeys in Japan think that they have such great strength that they dare to be enemies of great Russia, and we must use absolute strength to let them know how unwise it is to be enemies of Russia." ”

Qing Ying's brows furrowed slightly, it had been more than 5 years since he had traveled to this body, and he had been able to understand the words of these upper-class people more skillfully. By speaking in such a calm tone about their enemy, Japan, Essen was clearly showing himself strength, and at the same time implying that he was helping Japan in order to cause any trouble or hindrance to Russia on the battlefield. Hearing these words, Qingying secretly sneered in his heart, Russia in the 20th century has long been a foreign power, and the per capita industrialization level is even inferior to Austria-Hungary; During the First World War, Germany said that it could be beaten into a dog with just one hand!

However, there was something in Essen's words just now that made Qingying feel a little puzzled. In order to counter the expansion of the Japanese Navy, Russia ordered 4 additional capital ships from Germany, which is still insufficient, and even added 5 more battleships to the Far East Fleet? In this plane, the Japanese navy was indeed strengthened by the entry of German warships, but its growth was not very large, far from the point where it would make Russia react in this way. If the first step of the Russians' expansion is understandable, the second step is incomprehensible.

"What kind of calculation is Maozi making, this guy Essen should be deliberately exaggerating Russia's national strength, right? If you add so many warships to the Far East, how can you have the money to build Boroji...... "Qingying's thoughts suddenly stagnated. After a moment, the suspicion between his eyebrows disappeared, and he laughed at himself, and his eyes regained confidence; Although history has changed a lot, many things are still in his hands. The 5 battleships mentioned by Essen should be the Borodino class in the history of Maozi!

On another plane, in 1898 the Russians began their naval expansion program to build eight battleships. Since there are only 5 slipways in Russia that can build capital ships, only 5 battleships can be started at the same time (the statement of 5 slipways recorded by 100 poisons is not wrong). Historically, although Maozi had 6 battleships under construction at the same time, 5 Borodino and 1 Potemkin, there were only 5 on the slipway at the same time), and his ship-building skills were simply a mess, so they decided to order one each from France and the United States. After comparing the advantages and disadvantages, they will fully introduce their drawings and techniques, and build a large number of their own advanced battleships in the country. After some comparison, Mao Zi finally fell in love with the "Prince" built by the French, and used this as a blueprint to start construction of 5 ships of the same class in one go, which was for the famous Borodino in history. According to Maozi's assumption, after the completion of these five ships, two or three of them would be sent to the Far East to deal with Japan, and the rest would stay in the Baltic Sea to prevent Germany from passing the second naval law and starting a large number of violent troops.

In this world, the situation has changed again. Due to the role of Qing Ying, the German Navy did not start to exert its strength in the pre-dreadnought era as in history, but chose the same small steps as the American imperialism in order to accumulate experience first, and the pressure on the Russians in the Baltic Sea plummeted; In this case, dealing with the Japanese clearly became a priority for the Russians.

Although Mao Zi's behavior was completely out of a brainless and reckless riot, Qingying must admit that this practice can indeed make up for the shortcomings of the Russian Pacific Fleet's combat power in history. As the absolute main force of Maozi in the Far East, the three Petropavlovsk-class battleships were only completed in 1899, but they were extremely backward designs that were started in 1892. In terms of armor, the class is still in the protection mode of the ironclad era, with a small strip of 16-inch Harvey armor with a serious overdefense on the waterline, while the upper freeboard has no protection; This design has proven to be a layout that is completely behind the times in the Battle of Dadonggou, and it is simply difficult to gain a foothold in naval warfare in the rapid-fire era. Except for the two early Fuji-class, the rest of the battleships of the Japanese Navy were all excellent orthodox with large areas of hardened armor on the broadside, and their head-on combat capabilities were far superior to those of Maozi's old-designed warships. Thus, in a situation where the armor design of 3 Petropavlovsk-class ships was seriously behind the times, and fire support in naval battles could only be provided with 4 12-inch guns, only Maoko's battleships surpassed the Japanese in numbers and could achieve victory in the war.

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Just thinking about it, Essen suddenly took out a roll of paper out of nowhere, and slowly spread it out, which turned out to be a design drawing. Looking at Qingying's surprised eyes, Esen said softly: "This is a general plan of the warship design that the designers of the Admiralty handed over to me before I left St. Petersburg. We hope that your country will build the two battleships that will be ordered in your country according to the performance marked in this drawing. I heard that His Royal Highness also has a high attainment in ship design, so why not see if this design is good or bad? ”

Qingying nodded slightly, took the design from Esen's hand, and after only looking at it for a few seconds, his face was completely solemn, and his eyes were full of disbelief. After a while, he seemed to think of something, and a smile gradually appeared on the corner of his mouth; It was only at this time that Qingying finally understood Essen's intention. He raised the drawing in his hand, and said with a playful and helpless face: "Admiral Essen, your visit to Germany this time for naval exchanges is fake, and the purchase of warships is also fake, your real purpose is to import the technology of warship design and construction from our Germany!" I don't know how much more gold content of this design is higher than the Retvizan ordered in the United States and the crown prince ordered in France, and if your country could turn this drawing into reality on its own, it would not have asked for the way by ordering warships from France and the United States! ”

Seeing that Qingying had already seen through the purpose of his trip, Esen no longer concealed it, and nodded: "That's true." This design is a version of the battleship that our designers have made up and down after carefully studying the weight distribution of the cruiser that your country has built for our Russia. At present, the Russian Empire has a huge demand for the navy, and it is in dire need of the ability to build excellent battleships on its own, and the country with the highest level of warship design is your country. As long as your country can complete this design and transfer a full set of drawings to our country, including the calculation of the bearing capacity, Russia will definitely pay you a lot of money! ”