"This world is crazy." Beginning in 1907, the world's major countries began to fall into a shipbuilding frenzy. At the Armstrong shipyard, at the Germania shipyard, at the Renaya shipyard, at the Newport News shipyard, at the shipyards in Dalian and Shanghai, tens of thousands of engineers and technicians are busy around the most terrifying battlefield machines of mankind. People are scrambling to perfect these behemoths so that they can have a head start in future wars!

In 1907, the Republic of China started construction of 4 super-dreadnoughts, which had reached the limit of the Republic of China, and at present the naval shipyards of the Republic of China had only the production capacity of up to 4 warships. "What we lack is not funds, because these warships have already been paid for, and what we lack is not only the technology and equipment, the equipment can be imported, but the technology must be laughed at slowly. We also lack sufficient manpower and technical personnel. And the cultivation of talent requires a long process. It's hard to do this overnight. Yan Boxun commented.

Even if the Kaohsiung Shipyard were able to complete the planning on time, we would have to start construction of two more warships after September 1908 at most. And until the previous order was fulfilled, we could not start work on new ships, that is, at least until 1910, we could only build 6 ships. And that was if we were able to complete some of these ships before 1910. Yan Boxun commented on the shipbuilding capability of the Chinese Navy at this stage.

It is clear that the shipbuilding capacity of the Huaxia Republic has reached saturation at once. It is important to know that the British started the construction of a maximum of 7 warships in a year, and they were able to start construction of 4 to 5 warships every year. And the Germans can start construction of up to 5 ships a year. Then keep the construction rate of 3 or 4 ships per year! The Huaxia, on the other hand, was unable to start construction of new warships for several years after six warships in two years. If the British shipyards are short of money, the German shipyards are short of capacity, and Huaxia is short of everything.

It's not that there are too few shipyards in the Huaxia Republic, but that there are too few shipyards capable of building large warships, and it's easy to build civilian ships, but it's not the same to build warships. Although Xu Jie has also improved the capacity of private shipyards through policies and other means, it is clear that this is a very slow process. Huaxia has too many shortcomings, and many parts of its own warships are foreign, and it is obvious that this process of absorption and digestion will continue for a long time. This is a limitation of reality that cannot be escaped!

The lack of shipbuilding capacity is not only a problem of having a large number of orders and not making money. Yang Yonglin soon found out. If new foreign orders are accepted, then for 6 years from 1907 to 1913, the Huaxia Navy will not have a single new warship in service, which is simply unacceptable for the Navy represented by Yang Yonglin! If you count from the last warship that the Republic of China obtained in 1905, then this time will be 8 years! After all, after the start of construction in 1910, according to the current efficiency of the Chinese Republic, it will take at least nearly 3 years to complete.

And so. Yang Yonglin came to Yan Boxun and hoped that Mr. Yan's subordinates would be merciful. Don't push the construction of the Navy aside for the sake of orders. But the problem is that Yang Yonglin seems to be a little late, although the 1908 order has not yet been followed, but according to the agreement between the Republic of China and Germany, in addition to building two super dreadnoughts for Germany as compensation, the Germans also have the right to add orders, and the Germans emphasized that they hope to receive all the warships around 1912, so now because of the British joining, then if the original intention remains unchanged, two more new warships must be built for it between 1908 and 1909. So, in any case, the hull is occupied, that is a certainty.

So Yang Yonglin went directly to Xu Jie and suggested that two super-dreadnoughts should be started in the second half of 1908 before the Germans demanded it, so that around 1911, the Huaxia Navy could obtain new warships. to replace the old fleet, which is already slightly obsolete. However, Xu Jie directly told Yang Yonglin that in the next two years, the military expenditure of the Navy of the Republic of China will not be enough to start construction of two super dreadnoughts. Because now the size of the Huaxia fleet itself is quite large, daily maintenance and maintenance is a large expense, although after the end of the war, all the armored cruisers were either sunk or decommissioned. But the entire fleet still has 12 dreadnoughts and quasi-dreadnoughts, which is already terrifying just by looking at this scale.

Although Yang Yonglin knows the loss of the navy, but if the warships are not updated for 8 years, the combat power of the navy will definitely drop a lot, don't forget, when you stay put, other countries have also begun a new round of military expansion plans, the Chinese Navy is because of the first round of dreadnought expansion to take the lead and lay the current position, and if it is thrown off in the next round of competition, Yang Yonglin said that there is no guarantee to complete the current deterrence task of the navy. After all, at this time the United States had already begun to update its own fleet.

And although the Republic of China and Britain can now live in peace, once the war in Europe is over, if Germany, Austria and Italy fail, what if Britain and the United States take action against China? In Yang Yonglin's view, the duration of this war will not be very long, at least with reference to the Franco-Prussian War or the Sino-Russian War, it will be about 1 year at most. And if Britain wins, maybe the second and third years will come to trouble China, and it will be too late to rebuild battleships! Of course, this is unlikely in Xu Jie's opinion, because on this plane, the First World War will be more protracted and more tragic. It is difficult to say whether Britain will win the war in the future, let alone go back to fight against China. Of course, you can't say this to Yang Yonglin, and he doesn't necessarily believe it.

Xu Jie really doesn't have the money to build new warships for the navy, but it doesn't mean that Xu Jie doesn't know the importance of the navy and the responsibilities it will bear. Regarding the development and maintenance of the combat effectiveness of the Huaxia Republic in the next few years, Xu Jie's opinion can be summed up in four words, that is, the replacement of artillery and maintenance. Judging by the length of service, these warships are still new, and the battle damage is not too serious. You can continue to use it. As for changing guns? This has already been planned by Xu Jie. Changing guns is an old tradition of the Chinese Navy, and the Ninghai-class battleships are Dante-class battleships that replace the turrets of 3 10-inch guns with twin 12-inch guns. And when designing the Longtai-class battleships and Longxing-class battleships, the Huaxia Navy had already considered the need to change guns in the future, leaving a certain margin.

Taking into account the overall weight increase after the triple 12-inch 45L gun was replaced by a twin 14-inch gun, (not only the increase in the weight of the turret, but also the weight of ammunition and related servos.) In order to ensure stability and a certain drystring. Whether it is a Longtai-class or Longxing-class battleship, a mine-protected protrusion will be added under water according to the situation. The result of this transformation is a noticeable increase in firepower and underwater protection, but the speed will be slightly reduced. As for the powertrain, it can also be overhauled, but it is not very suitable from the point of view of cost performance. As for the Longteng-class battleships and Longxu-class battleships, they could not be improved due to the limitations of the gun circle.

In this way, the Longxing-class battleships and the Longtai-class battleships were upgraded from dreadnoughts to super-dreadnought-class battleships, and in history, there is a criterion for distinguishing dreadnoughts from super-dreadnoughts is that the latter is equipped with larger caliber guns. If the improvement can be completed on schedule, the combat effectiveness of the Huaxia Navy will change from 9 dreadnoughts to 5 super dreadnoughts and 4 dreadnoughts. At least on paper, it looks a lot better and can bluff some countries. At the same time, it saves a lot of money, so why not.

Although Xu Jie gave Yang Yonglin a way that was not a way, or a way that could barely fool the past, the Longxing-class battleships or Longtai-class battleships that were upgraded to "super dreadnought" after improvement still could not be compared with the newly designed battleships, and the Longxing-class firepower was almost the same, with 8 guns against 9 guns. But the speed and the new warship are at least about 4 knots worse (taking into account the aging of the power. Protection is also inferior to that of new warships, especially underwater protection. As for the Longtai class? There is not a lot of difference in speed, but the firepower is only 6 14-inch naval guns, and the battle line is not very qualified, and the protection is not as good as the new ship because of the quality of the armor and the layout. Therefore, Yang Yonglin still has a lot of complaints about Xu Jie's plan.

"Even if we can rely on improvements to improve the combat effectiveness of the fleet to a limited extent, after the 14-inch guns of various countries are super dreadnought in service, our improved warships themselves will be weaker than the other side. In 1910, if we started building 14-inch battleships, the other side might have already begun to build larger and newer ships, and we would always be one step behind our opponents in progress. Before leaving, Yang Yonglin was still a little unwilling to say, Xu Jie had already made it very clear that it was okay to improve the battleship, but don't think about the new battleship within a few years.

And just when the Huaxia Navy was worrying about how to maintain and improve its combat strength, and Xu Jie was racking his brains about how to survive the vacuum period for several years, Count Spee, who was far away in the Middle East, was experiencing a fulfillment that could be called a "nightmare". He finally realized how far his reality and his future were. Count Spee was ordered to come to the Ottoman Turkish Empire to inspect the future base of the combined fleet "German-Turkish". According to the agreement, Turkey's security in the Mediterranean will be entrusted to the Royal Italian Navy and the Austro-Hungarian Navy. The main forces of the Turkish fleet, together with the German Far East Fleet, were stationed in Basra. They were to be responsible for launching attacks and blockades on British shipping routes in South and Southeast Asia, as well as coastal areas.

Thanks to book friend Liang Baiwu, the croaking frog, the constellation soaring in the universe, and the monthly ticket support of the Tears of the Republic~~~~. I was on a business trip today, so it's even late——! Sorry——! (To be continued......)