In December 1906, with the frost and snow falling, the battleship Intrepid finally revealed her true form in the berth of the Portsmouth shipyard. Compared with the short and ugly German battleship that was completed half a year ago, the body of the Intrepid appeared slender and elegant; Coupled with the tall freeboard and towering bridge, she is more like a glamorous nobleman than her German counterparts.

Perhaps it was because the successive launches of German all-heavy artillery warships greatly stimulated the nerves of the British Navy's top brass, and when this huge ship was completed with the strength of the whole country, the Royal Navy held a grand completion ceremony for her. In the face of observer reporters from all over the world and naval spies who wanted to spy on the truth, the British, who was in charge of the ocean, did not have the slightest idea of making a fortune in silence, but showed almost all of her abilities in a very high-profile manner in front of the world without reservation. At the ceremony, Admiral Fisher, dressed neatly and neatly, made a great display of the 10 305mm L45 heavy guns and the speed of up to 21 knots equipped with the Dreadnought, as if this steel giant ship with a standard displacement of 17,800 had the absolute ability to overturn ten at a time when it was walking with a German sling wire that was one size smaller in caliber and one section slower.

For Fisher's move, Qingying had already expected it before. Since March 1906, seven German dreadnoughts have been launched or completed in 1903-1905, which is undoubtedly a resounding slap in the face of this group of gluttonous, vicious and murderous pirates in the maritime field of great pride of Britain. This time, the British finally seized an opportunity to regain face, and naturally they wanted to make a big deal of propaganda to the world in order to maintain their maritime glory. As for Fisher's advocacy of the Dreadnought's speed superiority and firepower over the German battleships. Qing Ying could only repay his contempt: relying on the absolute superiority of the hard cap armor-piercing shell over the British scum shell. The German 283 mm L47 gun was able to blast the British 305 out of the air. And the speed advantage of less than 1 knot is difficult to achieve practical results on the battlefield of naval warfare where large groups are clashed.

And the next actions of the British Navy were also expected by Qingying.

As the New Year's bell rang and the whole of Europe was immersed in a joyous and peaceful atmosphere, a State of the Union address from the British Navy spread rapidly in the British Isles. In this comparative document, which is intended to show the naval line-up of Britain and the world, Britain turns a blind eye to the French and American navies, which are the second and third largest in the world in terms of gross tonnage and equipped with a large number of armored cruisers that can be used to break diplomatic relations overseas, but directly targets Germany under the leadership of the eldest grandson who held Queen Victoria's hand tightly at the time of her death: by 1909, the German navy would have a huge fleet of eight dreadnoughts and four battle cruisers. And in the same period, Britain had only 4 dreadnoughts and 3 battle cruisers to deal with it! This document, which completely ignores the huge gap between Britain and Germany in the pre-fearless era, is tantamount to dropping a super bombshell in Britain.

Since the victory over the Spanish Armada in 1588, England has been the only absolute hegemon on the seas, and over the centuries, the idea that the vast sea is a treasure bestowed upon them by God has been deeply ingrained in the minds of every Englishman. They regard the ocean as their own property and will not allow outsiders to touch it. Thus, when the British people learned that the "warlord state" across the Channel had a top-of-the-line fleet even greater than that of the Royal Navy, the anger that had accumulated over decades of German production crowding out their world market erupted in an instant. The indignant British people, under the deliberate propaganda of the naval mouthpiece and the press broadcast, began to roar and shout frantically in a state of almost hysterical madness; Statements made by the militants that "let the German fleet be completely destroyed like Copenhagen". It's all over the UK. The public and Parliament exerted several times more intense pressure on the British government, which had already been overwhelmed by the previous budget for the expansion of the army by nine capital ships in 1906, and they even proposed it. It is necessary to use the speed of "two ships against one ship" to allow the Royal Navy to re-establish the absolute initiative over Germany.

Under the pressure of surging public opinion, Prime Minister Bannerman, who was determined to balance the budget, had to bow to the will of Parliament to increase the strength of the Royal Navy, and threw the task of reducing financing and reducing debt into the clouds. But even so, it is obviously impossible to achieve the "double standard" proposed by those who just talk about it - because from any point of view, Britain could not have the possibility of starting construction of 17 capital ships in 1907, especially since this is the most conservative figure in the case of the Germans doing nothing in 1907! The huge budget for the construction of nine capital ships in 1906 had already caused the British treasury to undergo unimaginable hemorrhage; Now don't say that there are 17 ships, even 7 can't get enough funds, you must know that these dreadnoughts are money-burning machines that represent the economic strength and industrial power of the top powers!

After much planning and operation, the British government dug into the ground and finally scraped together a huge sum of money for the navy, which could maintain its construction of five additional capital ships in 1907. The members of Congress changed their usual style of procrastination and passed this "shabby" budget with unprecedented efficiency, which they were not satisfied with at all. A month later, the Royal Navy officially announced this year's specific shipbuilding plan to the world: in addition to the remaining three Bellerophon-class battleships postponed in 1906, they would also build two Invincible-class battlecruisers and three St. Vincent-class battleships with a standard displacement of 19,560 tons. With the astonishing speed at which 14 capital ships were to be built in two years, Britain clearly demonstrated to the world that they were determined to control the seas: "The Trident of Poseidon, the Emperor of the Sea, will always belong to glorious Britain!" A Royal Navy spokesman said in front of a crowd of reporters.

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Faced with this situation, it was clear that the ambitious Kaiser Wilhelm and Tirpitz would not back down. As a matter of fact, Britain's huge shipbuilding plan not only did not make them give up their willingness to engage in naval competition with Britain, but strengthened their unwavering belief in building a risky fleet. Although the number of capital ships actually started in the UK this year has increased compared with last year, the navy's shipbuilding budget has dropped sharply compared with last year. Britain only behaved like this in the face of the pressure of the dreadnoughts of the superior scale of Germany, which shows that the construction of 7 capital ships a year is the limit of British finances! Qing Ying's previous speculation based on history has been confirmed, even if it has the world's hard currency, the British pound, it is impossible for the British government to borrow money without restrictions, let alone invest more than half of the entire national income in military spending, as in the national war!

The sudden and sharp reduction in the speed of British shipbuilding undoubtedly greatly encouraged the confidence of the German decision-makers in victory. By developing a navy, a violent tactic that had always been at the heart of the British Empire's hegemony, Germany had been given an unprecedented opportunity that had previously been unattained by any diplomatic manoeuvres and political deception. As long as the German Navy continued to maintain the rate of five capital ships per year, it would easily build a powerful fleet with more than 70% of the size of the Royal Navy, which Britain could not easily defeat. And Germany will also rely on this fleet, which is enough to drag the navy on which the sun never sets to sustain the empire into the third-rate backing, even after its own destruction, to obtain a pass to the road to absolute hegemony on the European continent - friendship with Britain, a very important offshore balancer!

With the full support of William and Qingying, Tirpitz began to move quickly. The father of the High Seas Fleet, who brought the German Navy to unprecedented turbulence in history, was not only a recognized authority on naval tactics and an excellent admiral, but also an extremely flexible politician. During his ten years as secretary of the Reich Navy, the development of the German Navy was supported by industrial magnates, parliamentarians and the general public. Through the guidance of carefully concocted public opinion, the national sentiment in Germany was suddenly ignited by the British very targeted shipbuilding plan; Tirpitz moved on and quickly passed the same annual plan for the construction of five capital ships in Congress as last year.

In order to ensure that the battleships could be built quickly and put more pressure on the British, the four new battleships in the plan directly followed most of the design of the Type 1906 battleships, but made some improvements in power according to the technological development of the year. On another battlecruiser that started construction this year, the caliber of its main guns was enlarged to the same 305 mm as the battleship, and the four twin turrets were arranged in a front 2 rear 2 knapsack arrangement, which was completely superior to the British class in terms of appearance and connotation, which was only equipped with battleship main guns on armored cruisers. The problem of oil shortages was greatly alleviated by the fact that oil reserves under the leadership of Qing Ying began to be established in Germany, and for the first time, the ship used a kerosene co-fired boiler that could be used for fuel injection, which undoubtedly greatly benefited the speed of the warship.

With such a fanfare in the dreadnought race between Britain and Germany, the turmoil spread from the two top powers of Central Europe and caused widespread and far-reaching changes in the navies of other unresponsive powers. (To be continued......)