Now that the Germans have already made a move, it is impossible for the Reich not to accept it. Otherwise, the Germans would have thought that the Reich was afraid of them, and they would have become even more arrogant. It will also have a severe impact on the morale of the Imperial Navy. The Reich had gained far more in this war than the Germans, and since the Germans were about to embark on a massive naval arms race, the Reich would not be afraid of them.

"In this way, the four 'Don-class' battleships under construction, continue to be built. In the second half of the year, if the German Navy starts to build new battleships again, four more 'Don-class' battleships will be added. In this way, even if all the eight battleships built by the Germans this year were in service, the Imperial Navy would have sixteen capital ships. If the German Navy continues to build battleships on a large scale next year, for every battleship built by the Germans, the Reich will build two. The Empire is never afraid of the arms race. The economic shape of the empire is much better than that of the Germans, and if it drags on to the end, it is still them who cannot afford it! Long Yufei said. The Reich Navy now had eight battleships, which gave the Reich Navy an advantage, and even if the German Navy started building eight battleships this year, the Reich Navy would only build eight battleships. But the Reich also had twice the advantage of capital ships over the Germans.

In addition, the Imperial Navy built ships much faster than the Germans. It took the Germans about three years to build a first-class battleship. As the Germans built more and more battleships, the technology became better and better, and the construction period was shortened. But now, the construction of battleships of the 1st rank in the Imperial Navy will take no more than two and a half years. Therefore, even if the Imperial battleships were built later than the Germans, the Imperial battleships would have entered service before the Germans. In this way, it was possible to ensure that the Reich would not be deceived by the Germans.

After all. Building a battleship required a large slipway. With such a huge battleship, it is almost impossible to keep it completely secret. The Reich's military intelligence also had enough time to determine whether the Germans had begun construction of new warships. Once that is decided. The Reich would also be able to ensure that the Reich Navy continued to be ahead of the German Navy.

"Yes. 陛xià! Navy Minister Wei Yong nodded, and once again received the assurance of the Emperor Long Yufei, which made him very satisfied. At the very least, the two-fold advantage promised by Long Yufei will not change, which will make the Imperial Navy have more advantages in the face of the German Navy in the future. The Imperial Navy was able to make tactical arrangements more calmly, unlike the Germans, who needed to be careful with their calculations.

After the Chinese Navy decided on this plan, the naval arms race between China and Germany entered a high tide. Though. The large-scale shipbuilding of the Reich Navy was a year later than that of the German Navy. However, the scale is much larger than that of the German Navy. When the Reich* Military Intelligence determined that the German Navy had built four 'Wittelsbach-class' battleships in 1857, the Reich Navy immediately began construction of eight improved 'Don-class' battleships. In the second half of 1857, while the German Navy continued to build four 'Braunschweig-class' battleships, the Reich Navy began construction of eight 'Don-class' battleships in the ultimate modification.

The Imperial Navy's division of the 'Tang-class' battleships was that the eight in the early stage were 'Early Tang-class' battleships, the eight in the middle period were 'Middle Tang-class' battleships, and the eight in the later period were 'Late Tang-class' battleships. There is not much difference between the 'Middle Tang class' battleship and the 'Early Tang class' battleship, it is still three triple 343 mm main guns, but. The armor was thicker and the displacement was somewhat larger. However, the speed is the same as that of the 'early Tang class' battleships, which remains the same. As for the 'Late Don class' battleships. It is equipped with a more powerful three-seat triple 356 mm main gun, which makes the firepower of this class of battleships more powerful, and the defense is similar to that of the 'Zhongtang-class' battleships, but because the power system uses steam turbines. The 'Late Don class' battleships had a speed of up to 23 knots. Judging from the number of warships built by China and Germany, the number of 'Early Tang class', 'Middle Tang class' and 'Late Tang class' of the Chinese Navy is the number of 'Kaiser. Frederick III's class, twice as many as 'Wittelsbach' and 'Braunschweig'. Judging by the performance of the battleship. The battleships of this third class of the Imperial Navy were also slightly stronger than the German Navy. Having attained superiority in numbers and performance, the Reich Navy was already twice as strong as the German Navy. This gives the Imperial Navy a firm advantage in the future naval competition.

Of course. The Reich Navy carried out twice as many battleship construction programs as the German Navy, so that the Reich Navy's military expenditure was also more than twice that of the German Navy. Germany received 640 million dollars worth of shipbuilding funds from the British, but the empire also received more than 10 billion Chinese dollars in development funds during the war. Although the military expenditure was only 4 billion Chinese dollars, the army and navy accounted for the lion's share. The Army received 60 percent, the Navy 35 percent, and the Air Force only 5 percent. However, the 1.4 billion yuan fund made the Imperial Navy's shipbuilding funds very sufficient.

In addition, Emperor Long Yufei also decided that India would pay 800 million Chinese dollars in tribute to the empire every year, and the empire* army would share half of it, that is, 400 million Chinese dollars. The other 400 million Chinese dollars were given to the military as a supplement to military spending. The navy can get almost 200 million Chinese dollars, which makes the navy have more funds for building ships.

After the world war, the empire's economy began to grow by leaps and bounds with the injection of tens of billions of dollars. A large number of immigrants from overseas made the life of the people of the empire better and better, and their purchasing power was also increasing. Together with the two colonies of India and Africa, the empire's industry provided a vast market, and the empire's economic development became more rapid. The development of the economy has made the military expenditure of the empire continue to increase, and the military expenditure allocated by the navy has also increased a lot. Under such circumstances, the Imperial Navy began to build ships on a large scale, but it was able to develop according to plan without additional expenses. It will not put too much strain on the economy of the empire.

On the other hand, the German Navy, after the British paid for the construction of ships ran out, in order to maintain the German Navy's frenzied shipbuilding, the German treasury had to tighten its belt and tilt towards the German Navy. If it weren't for the growing strength of Germany, they would not have been able to afford such a huge shipbuilding program. Even so, from 1858 onwards, the German Navy's warship construction program was reduced from eight to four per year. If eight more ships are maintained, the economy of the Germans will not be able to support it in the first place.

Of course, the Germans reduced the number of ships, and the Reich immediately reduced the number of ships. The Germans started construction of four ships a year, and the Reich built eight ships a year. In short, the Imperial Navy battleships always remained more than twice as large as the German Navy. This made it impossible for the German Navy to challenge the Reich Navy. Although the German Navy soon surpassed other countries and became the second maritime power after the Reich. However, the gap between the German Navy and the Imperial Navy was something that they could not make up even if they tried desperately.

However, at least in 1856, the Germans were not yet able to appreciate this, and they were still immersed in the dream of a strong navy.

The Reich's military intelligence was collecting information on the construction of the German navy, and in the same way that German intelligence was collecting information about the construction of the Chinese navy. In order to be able to take the lead in future naval battles, both sides are desperately trying to collect information about the other side.

When the Germans learned that the Imperial Navy had not increased the number of 'Tang-class' battleships, the Germans thought that the Reich was afraid of them. This made the German top brass, including Kaiser Wilhelm I, very satisfied.

"Ladies and gentlemen, according to the information received by the intelligence services, only four of the Chinese' 'Tang-class' battleships have been built. The Chinese boasted before that once the empire started building battleships, the Chinese would build more battleships to deal with it, and for every empire built, the Chinese would build two. But now it seems that this is a broken word by the Chinese. They simply don't dare to enter into an arms race with us! Kaiser Wilhelm I said excitedly, and he seemed to think that it would not be long before the German navy would be able to catch up with the Chinese navy.

"Yes, Father. The Chinese are afraid, and after we have started construction of four 'Brandenburg-class' battleships, we will continue to work on four 'Caesar-class' battleships in the second half of the year. Frederick III class battleship. Once these warships are commissioned, the gap between us and the main ships of the Chinese Navy will be reduced by 8 to 12. Moreover, the Chinese battleships are distributed in the world's oceans, and our warships only need to challenge the Chinese Navy in the North Sea. Our Navy will have a local advantage! "Frederick. Crown Prince William was full of confidence.

"Cheers, for the sake of the Navy!" William I said excitedly. He had already decided that when the strength of the German navy was barely equal to that of the Chinese navy, Germany would begin to challenge China's world hegemony. The German Navy's challenge to China's maritime supremacy was only the first step. If successful, the German Navy will be able to replace the Chinese Navy and control the world's oceans. In that case, even if Germany is not able to defeat the Chinese Empire in the end, it will at least ensure that Germany and the Chinese Empire will divide up the world.

Former British Admiralty Charles Murphy, who was responsible for the construction of warships for the German Navy. Sir Adam took the opportunity to come up with plans for the construction of cruisers and destroyers. After all, the Navy cannot only have battleships, but also a large number of supporting warships. The British Navy suffered mainly from torpedo attacks from light warships of the Chinese Navy. Kaiser Wilhelm I gladly agreed. (To be continued)

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