"These damn yellow-skinned dwarfs dare to blatantly rebel against the rule of the Empire! They all deserve to go to hell! Tell every officer and soldier who participated in the extermination that what we have to do is to exterminate all the rebels and supporters, and not take them prisoner! We are going to bring the Japanese to their knees completely with sabers and artillery! The roar of Tsar Nicholas II resounded throughout the hall

"Yes, Your Majesty, the Japanese must pay the price for their reckless actions, but it should be noted that the Japanese operation this time makes it necessary to transfer back some of the troops we have transferred to the mainland, which is very detrimental to our future attack on the northeast region of the Qing Kingdom." Kuropatkin whispered.

"I don't care about this, immediately send another 10,000 soldiers from Europe to Japan, whether by land or sea, and within two months, we must send this force to where he is needed. Then contact the French minister in Moscow and ask them to supply and equip our troops in the Far East, and we will stock up on sufficient supplies before the war. Nicholas II said resolutely.

"And the Navy, the Japanese have already ordered 2 armored cruisers from the British, both of which are 8500 tons, which is a big threat to our Far Eastern Fleet, so we must take this instability into account. If the Far East Fleet were to land in Hokkaido under the cover of the Navy after the Far East Fleet had been heavily damaged by the Beiyang Fleet, the entire Japanese Governor-General would be in danger, so I suggest that we continue to strengthen the strength of the Far East Fleet. Even if there are no armored cruisers, it would be nice to send some protective cruisers. Kuropatkin continued.

"Well, Rozdvinsky. Tell me, how many warships does our Navy have left to send to the Far East? Tsar Nicholas II turned around and asked, the rear admiral next to him, who had been silent.

"The capital ships of the Baltic Fleet, such as battleships and armored cruisers, have been compressed to a minimum standard. We're running out of boats. Rozdvinsky said.

"Well, Rear Admiral, answer me, can the Russian fleet remaining in the Baltic Sea help the empire to expand its territory?" Nicholas II snapped. "Can it help the empire solve the crisis in the Far East? Since they can't, why should they stay in this pond in the Baltic Sea? Is it fear of the arrogant German peacock, or is it afraid of Sweden's insignificant navy? ”

"Your Majesty. Your resolution cannot be passed at the Admiralty. Rozdvinsky plucked up his courage and said.

"Sooner or later, those old fellows at the Admiralty will let me replace, now, Rear Admiral. I ask you to send at least one more armored cruiser to the Far East and deploy it before our plans begin. Nicholas II paid no heed to the opposition of the other side.

"We really can't take out an armored cruiser, the same ship of the class as the armored cruiser USS Russia, the USS Grombowie. It is being built in France, and the remaining armored cruisers and battleships of the Sea of Azov are also being built in docks, and it will never be possible to reach the Far East before 1899, God can't do it, as for the protective cruisers? Their budget has been changed to armored cruisers. Makanov on the side couldn't stand it anymore and said something to stop him.

"Well, gentlemen, why don't we learn from the Americans? Renovating a few protective cruisers from merchant ships and sending them to the Far East cannot be used for decisive battles, but they can also reduce the pressure on the Far East Fleet if they are used to break diplomatic relations. Isn't it? The Tsar's tone was also full of helplessness, after all, the battleship was not completed, but even God could not change it!

"We could convert two 6,000-ton merchant ships into protective cruisers with sufficient crews in six months, but then the ships would only harass the Japanese in the Sea of Japan. It simply could not be used in a decisive battle of the fleet, and even the Guiyuan armored cruisers of the Beiyang Fleet could not beat it. "Makanov despised such shoddy ships, because in the Far East, whether in the East China Sea, the Yellow Sea, or the Sea of Japan, they had to face the existence of a behemoth, and such a warship was obviously too weak. …,

"It's better than nothing. Isn't it? Well, it was settled, let the Admiralty prepare for it immediately, and the two warships needed to arrive in the Far East before the official start of the war. With that, Nicholas II waved his hand and motioned for the two to leave. This was already the biggest concession, and he had no interest in anything else.

That night, Makanov, who got 2 protective cruisers, was not as happy as people thought, and even privately, Makanov named the two battleships Cannon Fodder No. 1 and Cannon Fodder No. 2, in Makanov's opinion, it would not be a good thing to "advance" from a merchant ship to a protective cruiser in 6 months. Now, in the face of the possible intervention of the Japanese fleet, Makanov had to reformulate his tactics, the original time, Makanov only had to think about how to implement the blockade of the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea from the blockade of the Beiyang, but now, Makanov must consider how to deal with the possible sneak attack of the Japanese fleet while maneuvering with the Beiyang Fleet!

"First of all, I want to ensure the safety of the port of Muroran, so we need to deploy mines in the port of Muroran and the surrounding waters to slow down the enemy's attack, and at the same time, we will also ensure the safety of the Hanguan and Karumtsu Straits, and we can enter the Sea of Japan if necessary and ensure contact with Vladivostok." Makanov muttered to himself.

"We need to leave 3 armored cruisers in Vladivostok at the same time to ensure the safety of shipping in the Sea of Japan, so that we will have only 4 armored cruisers and 3 battleships, well, and we need to face 3 battleships, 4 armored cruisers and 4 light armored protection cruisers in the North Ocean, and even the warships of the Foreign Fleet." Makanov thought as he spoke.

"God, this is a battle that is bound to lose." After a long time, Makanov threw the pencil in his hand the table, and then collapsed weakly on the chair.

General Makanov, three days later, submitted a report to the Admiralty. It is full of his own pessimism and disappointment about this war. And repeatedly stated that if he could, he wanted to suspend the operation against the Qing and start a battle with the Japanese, of course, all this was vetoed by Tsar Nicholas II, the de facto commander of the Russian Navy.

However, Nicholas II still attached great importance to Makanov's opinion, and after patiently listening to the report of the Admiralty. Nicholas II also had to admit that it would be a death to fight with the Beiyang system with a fleet of this size, but to give up the perfect opportunity to dominate the Northeast in the eyes of the Russians, Nicholas II and his ministers still disagreed, in this case, how to increase the strength of the navy has become a topic of conversation in the Russian court for some time!

Since it is too late to build a ship, then you can only buy a ship. The bigwigs of the Russian Admiralty searched and found that they could only turn to their allies, the French. The reason is simple, the British will never help Russia. The Italians will not easily sell to Russian ships because of Xu Jie's relationship, and the battleships on the Italians' slipway have owners. There were also no surplus warships for the Russian Navy. Not to mention the Americans and Germans, the former of whom had been beaten in the Battle of the Western United States and were about to regain their naval strength. The latter, after passing the first naval act in 1898, was in a hurry to expand its navy. There are simply no extra battleships to sell to the Russians. So, in this case. The Russians had to go to the French.

According to the French, Russia has already ordered two armored cruiser ships in France, and in order to show its friendship with Russia, France has decided to sell active warships to Russia under pressure from Britain and the Qing Dynasty. And the Russians were ecstatic about it. They rummaged through the list of French battleships and finally chose the battleship Bouvet, which had just been commissioned.

The battleship used Harvey nickel steel armor with a thickness of 11 inches at the waterline and 7 inches on the upper part. In which the upper armor extended to the upper deck. (Historically, the waterline armor is 16 inches, and the upper armor is 4 inches, which is the experience of the Sino-Japanese War.) The French changed the armor layout in subsequent construction) 6 to 8 inches of armor at the nose and tail, 12 inches of armor in the front of the turret, 10 inches in the gun mount, 6 inches in the front of the secondary turret and 4 inches in the gun mount. It is equipped with two 12-inch 45L single-mounted main guns. and 2 10.8-inch single-mounted main guns, 4 main guns in a cross layout. At the same time, the battleship also had 8 6.4-inch naval guns (historically 5.5-inch guns) and 8 5.5-inch naval guns (historically 3.9-inch guns). All of the main guns and 5.5-inch naval guns were turret guns, while the 3.9-inch naval guns were gallery guns. The total length of the ship is 121 meters, the width is 21.4 meters, and the draft is 8.63 meters. The displacement is 13,000 tons. The output is 15,000 horsepower, and the maximum speed is 18 knots. It can be said that the improved battleship Bouvet turned out to be more plausible than in history. It has also been enhanced in terms of watertightness and lightning protection. …,

For this battleship. The Russians were still quite satisfied, although the layout was not very good, but the turretized artillery, large protection area and good speed still made the Russians decide to buy this ship. (There was nothing better, and the French battleships in service from '96 to '98 were all arranged this way.) And it was precisely because the French were not satisfied with this that they agreed to sell it to the Russians in exchange for more new warships. ）

But soon, the pleasant deal between the two sides soon came to an impasse. The reason is simple, the problem of money! Don't look at the atmosphere at the beginning of the two sides is very good, but when it comes to really getting the money, the baht must be more certain! The Russians said they could accept £1.2 million, while the French said they were free to talk about anything less than £1.6 million! The French have a good reason for this, this battleship was already more than 1.5 million pounds (in fact, 1.2 million pounds) according to the price standard of 1896, and now it is very humane to charge you 1.6 million!

And the Russians retorted that the battleship was actually comparable in firepower to the Rurik, and not as fast as that, in this case, 1.6 million pounds was absolutely unacceptable, at most 1.3 million to the sky. The French retorted that the Bouvet's protection was much stronger than that of the Rurik, which was only 7-inch main, and that the middle deck below was completely immune to the blows of the 12-inch naval guns, and more importantly, the turret of all 6.4-inch secondary guns gave the secondary guns an excellent angle of fire, and the firepower that could be exerted far exceeded that of Rurik. THE HIGH RATE OF FIRE OF THE 274MM TURRET GUN IS ALSO STRONGER THAN THAT OF RURIK'S 10-INCH GUN, WHICH IS A SERIOUS PRODUCT OF THE FRENCH NAVY, NOT AN EXPORT PRODUCT!

At the end of the day, the French focused on supporting that only the French would resell a new warship that had been in service for less than two months to Russia in the current world, and the pound sterling paid by the Russians would become a piece of land in the Far East. Why should the Russians be stingy with the £1.6 million for the sake of the land?

After hearing this, the Russians finally understood that the French were going to knock on the bamboo! The so-called allies are worthless in the face of real money. But now Russia has no choice, he can only accept this bitter fruit. And just when the Russians were about to sign the agreement, suddenly the French threw out another battleship!

And this cruiser is the French and the cruiser Potuau, which was commissioned in 1897, this battleship is equipped with a single 7.6-inch gun at the bow and stern, 10 5.5-inch guns, 10 3-pounder guns, and 4 18-inch torpedo tubes, the thickness of the armor is 6 inches for the main armor belt, 4 inches for the upper armor, and 7 inches for the turret armor. The number of plates is 6,000 tons, the output is 15,000 horsepower, and the maximum speed is 22 knots. In order to save military spending, the French planned to sell the battleship that the Admiralty thought was backward to the Russians, and of course, in order to take care of the mood of the Russians, who were already about to run out, the French said that with the corresponding ammunition and spare collar ships, the two battleships totaled 1.9 million pounds!

£1.9 million? The Russian delegates almost went crazy at that time, and the two Rurik were only 1.7 million pounds that year! But then the understanding French calculated such an account for the Russians, the Japanese bought the Yoshino from the British for 300,000 pounds, and the Russians know what the performance of Yoshino is, and now, it is equivalent to buying a 6,000-ton armored cruiser that just entered service in 1897 for 300,000 pounds, what are you not satisfied with? (Of course, the French directly ignored the Bouvet, which was suspected of rip-off)

And just when the Russians were ready to continue bargaining, the French, who were already very impatient, said that Russia had only two options, the first was to buy a battleship or a battleship and an armored cruiser at the price of the French, and the second was to avoid talking about it, and everyone went home!

And when the news reached the ears of the Tsar, the supreme ruler of Russia, after weighing it again, gritted his teeth and stomped his feet and decided to buy two warships for 1.9 million pounds. And having made up his mind, Tsar Nicholas II yelled at Makanov: "Don't let me down, Mr. Lieutenant General, the Russian Empire spent a whole thousand pounds more to meet your needs!" Give me back the Northeast, and let the Northeast and Japan completely turn into Yellow Russia! ”

Thanks to the book friend athln9527 for the reward and the book friend has a breeze to comment on the vote~~. Yesterday's subscription was still quite tragic, and the author decided to turn his grief and anger into strength~~. Today I present a 4,000-word chapter. I hope you will support us a lot~~. (Your support is my biggest motivation.) )