"The end of the war means the beginning of a new war." - Excerpt from forgotten history. After the end of the Qing-Japanese War, there were actually two winners in this world, and the first one was naturally the Qing State that won the war and received a large amount of reparations and privileges. More than 20 years of wealth from the Meiji Restoration flowed into this ancient empire. The other winner was the one who began to help Japan against the Qing and then treacherous Russia. Not only did they get a lot of money through the arms trade, but they also got a lot of land from Japan through a fatal blow at the last minute. Of course, the main one is the ice-free port near the Kamatsu Strait.

"From then on, the great Russian Empire received a strong sea fortress in the Far East. The great fleet under the banner of St. Andrew finally did not have to be held back in the narrow Baltic and Black Seas. They will have an even wider ocean in the Far East. When Nicholas II heard that the Russians had occupied Hokkaido, he excitedly said this to his minister.

The will of the tsar is the will of the Russian Empire. In order to carry out this will, in order for the roar of the machines of the Russian fleet to shake the entire Pacific Ocean. The Russian Admiralty specifically talked about the two 10,000-ton battleships sent to the Far East, although it was not yet finalized, but the anxious tsar could not wait. He needed Russia to hold firmly on the occupied territories. It is necessary to have enough fleets to deter a strong enemy in the Far East. And at the right time, take revenge on that First Fleet in the Far East!

Between the defeat of the Russian fleet in the Sino-Japanese War. The Russian Admiralty conducted a systematic analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of both sides. Without a well-defended port as a base, it was impossible to repair large warships. This is certainly an important reason for the failure, but the difference in the performance of the battleship is also an undeniable fact. The expensive Rurik class played a mainstay in the battle, and even at the worst of times, Rurik maintained a considerable level of combat power. But the Sea of Azov, as a low-end ship, did not perform well and was completely unable to suppress the Garibaldi-class armored cruisers of the same type in the Beiyang Fleet.

At a time when the Admiralty was blaming the Azov-type battleships, Makanov, as the commander of the participating fleet, came out to defend the Azov-type armored cruisers. "Although the Azov-type armored cruiser is at a disadvantage compared to the Garibaldi class, it is also a very good warship of the first class on the whole. With a little improvement, it will be a very good battleship. When Makanov said this, the whole country was in an uproar. Only the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Russian shipyard have a shred of gratitude to Makanov.

Is Makanov stupid? No, absolutely not, for what the Russian Navy needs, how to exchange the minimum investment for the maximum benefit. Makanov knew it very well. The Beiyang Fleet took the route of elite troops. Each battleship is a cutting-edge representation of industrialization, whether it is the early Guiyuan class or the later Garibaldi class and its derivatives. The combat effectiveness of each battleship is quite high. And the conditions under which such a route applies are that the Beiyang Fleet has only one enemy. That is the warships sent by Russia to the Far East, and they only need to fight in the relatively small area of the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea. But not in Russia.

What kind of country is Russia? He needed to maintain two powerful fleets in Europe and the Far East at once. The goal of the Russian fleet is to pose a serious threat to the most powerful navy in the world. Russia needs its warships to have the ability to sail in the oceans, after all, its warships are to be transferred from Europe to the Far East. Moreover, the three main fleets of Russia were divided into three relatively independent geographical regions, and in this case, ensuring sufficient numbers became the overriding premise. If the policy of elite troops is followed and sufficient numbers are ensured, the Russian treasury will probably be eaten up by the navy, right? …,

There are really some problems with the Azov type, but in Makanov's opinion. The problem of relatively weak firepower can be solved by numbers, and the problem of protection can be solved by weakening the main equipment and increasing the area of protection. Compared with the various types of warships of the Beiyang Fleet, the range advantage of the Sea of Azov is obvious. Russia is no better than the Qing State, which has too many ports from north to south that can be used for supplies, but what about Russia? I am afraid that after leaving the European colonies in Southeast Asia, the only places that Russia can use for supplies are Hokkaido and the newly occupied port of Muroran. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the endurance of the fleet.

In addition, Makanov has another reason that he cannot speak. The Russian Navy is simply too corrupt internally. Compared with Britain, France, Italy and other naval powers, they can export a large number of warships to feed the shipyard. But Russia can't, don't look at the size of the Russian navy is powerful enough, but there is still a gap between shipbuilding technology and the other three powers. So. The Russian shipyards are completely dependent on orders from their own navy, and as a result, sooner or later there will be some inexplicable relationship between the Admiralty and the shipyards! Some of these off-the-table actions have become an open secret in the Navy in the various shipyards in order to obtain orders. For both technical and institutional reasons, if the Russians redesign the first-class warships with excellent performance and equip them in large quantities, I don't know how much valuable money they will have to waste.

So, Makanov continued the original idea of armament of the cruiser. That is, the cruiser force will have a small number of elite and powerful cruiser lead ships, plus a large number of average performance cruisers. The installation of a large number of these equipment will be improved on the basis of the Azov-type installation. The new cruiser leader will abandon the Rurik-type battleship, which was used in naval battles, and will be redesigned by French and Russian designers for a new type of cruiser.

"In order to ensure a sufficient amount of projection. I would like this ship to use your country's new 274mm guns, and the turret must be duplex and the rate of fire must be fast. At the same time, in order to ensure sufficient speed. I need the most advanced powertrain in your country. As for the layout of the armor belt? The requirements are simple, the main outfit can withstand the 12-inch cannon. The upper part must be able to withstand 10-inch guns, and all secondary guns must be turreted. By the way, and the range. I need it to be able to sail freely in the seas of the Far East without supplies. "Faced with the French designer, Makanov made his own demands." These conditions are very uncomfortable. A French designer said afterwards.

And in addition to the two new types of cruisers, the Russians paid more attention to battleships. In their opinion, large cruisers can only have an advantage in avant-garde warfare and against cruisers of the same class, and once they fight real battleships, the difference in tonnage and weapons is enough to easily solve the opponent in a hard-fought battle, even if the top cruisers like the PISA class are not enough. And stimulated by the possibility of ordering a new Dante-class battleship in the North Ocean, the Russians decided to build a new type of battleship.

The construction of warships with a tonnage of more than 14,000 tons like the Dante class was undoubtedly a risk for the Russian shipbuilding industry, when designing battleships. The Russians still decided to use their numerical superiority over their opponent's qualitative superiority. In terms of the choice of weapons, 4 12-inch guns are a given, and the twin-electric drive turret, newly developed by the French, will be used. The rate of fire is guaranteed, and at the same time it is equipped with a picric acid high-explosive shell exclusive to the French

In terms of secondary artillery, the Russians abandoned the 6-inch rapid-fire guns that were originally heavily equipped, and in the eyes of the Russians, these guns, which had a relatively short range and could not effectively penetrate the opponent's secondary protection zone, had no role in facing the opponent's main ships. As for deck sweeping, the faster 4.7-inch rapid-fire gun would do the trick, so the Russians could use the tonnage saved for larger secondary guns. Therefore, the Russians decided to install 8 8-inch guns and 8 4.7-inch guns in the choice of firepower of the battleship's secondary guns. The 8-inch guns were arranged in the turrets of the 4 corners of the battleship, so that the Russian battleships could guarantee the side-chord projection fire of 4 12-inch guns, 4 8-inch guns and 4 4.7-inch guns. …,

The division of fire was quite clear, with 12-inch guns used against the main armament of the opposing side, 8-inch guns for attacking the enemy's secondary protection areas, and 4.7-inch guns for torpedo boats and sweeping the decks of the opposing side. Originally, it was proposed in the Russian Navy to learn from the Italian PISA-class cruisers and Dante-class battleships with the main and secondary main guns, but this idea was rejected by both the navy and shipbuilding, for the simple reason that if the central axis was arranged, the hull would be elongated, which would be a challenge for the Russian shipyards and the dockyards in the Far Eastern port of Muroran. However, if the main gun is lowered to the deck, and the 8-inch gun is arranged in the back to form a pseudo-piggyback layout, it will seriously affect the sea trial. So I had to give up.

As for armor protection, the Russians already have a basic understanding of the new armor layout, and in this regard, the Russians have done a good job, with a 10-inch main outfit covering the middle deck and 6-inch upper armor on top. Even the stern of the hull has 100mm armor protection, and it can be said that most of the side chords except for the bridge are fully immune to the attack of guns below 6 inches.

Perhaps because the armor and weapons were stacked so hard, the counterweight of the power system left for the ship was a little too low. It is already difficult for a battleship of more than 12,000 tons to pile up so many weapons and protection, and more importantly, it is necessary to consider sea trials and range, so the speed of this class of warships has been weakened to about 16 knots. For this, Makanov once raised objections, even at the expense of increasing the tonnage. But under pressure from the Russian shipyards and the Admiralty, Makanov finally relented. In this way, the new Russian battleships were designed as Iron Turtle battleships that focused on firepower and protection, but with a slower speed.

The Tsar was so excited when he learned of the new shipbuilding plan that he did not hesitate to stop some of the warships that had already started construction to provide slipways for the new ships. And a certain type of battleship, which served as the lead ship of the new Russian armored cruiser, was built in France. Under the dream of dominating the Far East, the huge Russian war machine finally began to exert its strength, and a large number of capital ship construction plans were put into practice. A new round of naval arms race has begun!

Thank you for the reward ~~~. Why has this collection gone down again——! Look at the pirated version and give some non-material support, so that the author has some motivation~~~~.