At the commissioning ceremony of the warship, Li Fushou's interest has always been very high, and he kept chatting with the big figures on the left and right, especially He Fang, the commander-in-chief of the Borneo fleet, who was the most favored.

The Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet was a wartime position, and after the war with the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies was officially over, the Combined Fleet was disbanded and subordinated to the local fleets, and this position of Commander-in-Chief was naturally abolished.

At present, Queensland belongs to three major fleets, namely the Borneo Fleet, the Shangri-La Fleet and the Queensland Fleet.

Among them, the Borneo fleet is the most powerful, with He Fang as the captain of the fleet, which occupies more than half of the strength of the navy, and its home port is located in Samarinda, East Kalimantan, and the ports are Machen and Semuda, as well as Makassar on the island of Sulawesi.

The Borneo fleet directly faced the Governor of the Dutch East Indies in the south, the Governor's Palace of Luzon occupied by the Spaniards in the north, the Governor's Mansion in the Channel of the British in the west, and the Governor's Mansion of Indochina occupied by the French across the sea.

The second most powerful is the Shangri-La fleet, with Li Jie, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, as the captain of the fleet, and its home port is located in Moresby, and the ports are Tianshu Port, Longmen Port, Jayapura Port and Paradise Island, which guard the main routes for immigration and trade transportation, and is also an important area to prevent foreign enemies.

At the bottom of the list was the Queensland Fleet, with Coast Guard Captain Geng Guigui as the Fleet Commander, with its home port in the Red River Valley and garrisoning the ports of Brisbane, Songjiang, Beilun, Darwin and Cairns.

The Queensland fleet has no real and potential enemies, and the only thing that can threaten the Queensland fleet is the British Imperial Royal Task Force in the South Pacific.

This fleet was purely a retirement home for the Third Battleship in Calcutta on the Indian subcontinent, still equipped with old sail battleships, which lay in the harbor for most of the year, and did not add up to more than three months to go to sea.

The southern states have not yet had the naval power to get their hands on, and several small anti-smuggling steamers have been crushed into slag in minutes, and they are completely weak chickens.

At this grand ceremony of entering the ranks of warships, all the leaders of the fleet were present, looking at the mighty and majestic warships with happy smiles, their eyes looked at the slipway in the distance from time to time, and what really made a group of senior naval officers haunt their dreams was not the four warships in front of them, but the big guys under construction on the slipway.

The 8,800-ton "Qinglong" class heavy cruiser and its successor sister ships "White Tiger", "Suzaku", and "Xuanwu" are each of the first-class ironclad battleships that are enough to deter Asia, only slightly inferior to the 10,000-ton ironclad battleships of the British Empire.

This feeling is like a tiger in sheep's clothing, and it really makes people speechless.

In order to achieve the purpose of concealing their strength, these four 8,800-ton heavy cruisers forcibly reduced their firepower, from the original 305 mm naval guns to 280 mm twin high-caliber long-barreled naval guns, one twin main gun emplacement, one twin main gun emplacement, one in the bow, one amidships, and one twin main gun at the rear of the ship, equipped with a total of six 280 mm guns using the latest hydraulic re-entry technology, and the firing rate per minute was increased from 1~2 rounds to 6 rounds, and the projected firepower in a unit time far exceeded that of the 305 mm main gun.

The classification of heavy cruisers and battleships in the world today is based on the caliber of the main gun, 280 mm (including 280 mm) or less is a heavy cruiser, and the above is a battleship, the caliber of the main gun of the British 10,000-ton battleship has reached the level of 343 mm, and the power is amazing, and the main gun caliber of the German 10,000-ton battleship is 305 mm, which is a level different from the British.

Out of the principle of keeping a low profile, the forced reduction of the firepower of the four "Blue Dragon" class heavy cruisers in Queensland is not a bad thing in essence.

The 8,800-ton heavy cruiser only carried a 280 mm twin small gun, and while reducing firepower, it paid attention to ocean-going performance and high-speed performance, and the maximum speed could soar to 22.5 knots, and the emphasis was on strengthening the armor protection.

In other words, it can be called an ocean-going assault ship, almost a nightmare on trade routes.

The "Qinglong" class heavy cruiser's twin 280 mm naval guns adopt a hydraulic transmission loading mechanism, the entire twin turret weighs 113 tons, and the whole ship is equipped with three gun emplacements along the central axis, which can simultaneously exert all the main gun fire within a range of 160 degrees on the opposite side of the front.

Due to the use of a new hydraulic re-entry mechanism, the density of firepower projected per unit time is almost two and a half times that of the four 305-mm main guns of the German "Saxony" class battleships and the Manchu "Zhenyuan" class battleships.

The Dingyuan and Zhenyuan ships ordered by the Manchu court in Germany have been completed, but due to the hindrance of the ongoing Qing-French war, the Germans have not delivered the ships for the time being.

The displacement of the Dingyuan-class battleships is between 7220 tons ~ 7600 tons (even if the same class of battleships, due to the slight difference in equipment and tonnage, it is normal for tens of tons to hundreds of tons to float up and down), which is similar to the level of the two second-class ironclad capital ships of the British Empire's Far East Fleet in Hong Kong, and is stronger than the capital ships of the French Far East Fleet, and is second to none in East Asia.

Compared with the "Dingyuan" class battleships, the 8,800-ton "Qinglong" class heavy cruisers are more than one level higher in terms of speed, firepower, and protection, and their strength is not on the same level at all.

Aside from the firepower of a single ship, the "Qinglong" class heavy cruiser is equipped with two high-horsepower new steam boilers and 12 circular coal-fired boilers, with a total power of 11,000 horsepower, which can propel the huge hull to a maximum speed of 22.5 knots.

Compare it to

The total power of the Zhenyuan-class battleships is 6,200 horsepower, which is only a little more than half of the total power of the "Qinglong"-class heavy cruisers, and the speed is 14.5 knots, and the speed difference is not half a star.

The "Zhenyuan" class battleships use ordinary armor with a total weight of 1,461 tons, and the "Qinglong" class heavy cruisers use the latest type of reinforced armored steel, while the average defense is nearly doubled, the total weight of the armor reaches 2,550 tons, and the design of dense anti-sinking compartments is adopted, just like a heavy armor samurai who cannot break the defense, and can withstand the firepower of large-caliber shore guns to cover the hard fight, and the power can be seen.

In terms of secondary artillery fire

The Zhenyuan-class battleships were armed with two German-made Krupp 150-mm guns, four German-made Krupp 75-mm guns, eight French-made Habekis 37-mm guns, two 57-mm and 47-mm French-made Habekis guns, and three 14-torpedo tubes (one on each side and one in the stern, with 21 torpedoes).

The "Blue Dragon" class heavy cruisers are equipped with 4 twin 150-mm guns (two on the port side and two on the port side) produced by the Azure Arms Company, a total of 8 guns, 4 twin 95-mm Miss Australia guns (two on the port side and two on the port side), a total of 8 guns, 4 twin-mounted 37-mm guns (two on the port side and two on the port side), a total of 8 guns, and 4 14 torpedo tubes (two on each side with 28 torpedoes).

Due to the use of hydraulic re-entry firing method, the firing rate of the 150 mm guns produced by Azure Weapons Company has been increased from 2~3 to 8 rounds per minute, and the 150 mm secondary guns are equipped with 8 guns, which is much higher than the 2 guns of the "Zhenyuan" class battleships.

In a comprehensive comparison, only in terms of the 150 mm secondary gun, the firepower density projected by the secondary guns of the "Qinglong" class heavy cruiser per unit time is 12~15 times that of the "Zhenyuan" class battleship.

4 twin-mounted 95mm "Miss Australia" guns are also 8~10 times larger than the opponent in terms of power and projection density.

The only firepower of the two is equal to that of eight 37-mm machine guns, and the "Qinglong" class heavy cruisers lack two 57-mm guns and two 47-mm guns.

And in terms of hull styling, the two are not the same style at all.

The "Zhenyuan" class battleship is a standard German-made battleship construction style, with a length of 94 meters, a width of 18 meters, two tall sail masts in front and one in the rear, the hull shape is refined and practical, there is no complex and beautiful floating bow, the tall chimney is located in the rear of the forward command tower, and two German Krupp twin 305 mm guns are arranged in the bow and stern, 27 times the caliber, the maximum thickness of the waterline armor belt is 14 inches (355 mm), the command tower armor is 203 mm, and the cruising range is 4500 miles 10 knots.

The shape of the "Qinglong" class heavy cruiser is much more beautiful, the hull is more narrow and long to adapt to high speed, the length of the ship is 107 meters, the width is 17.2 meters, and the bow has an obvious floating shape, which can cope with the fierce winds and waves in the world's seas, and the effect of pressing the waves is excellent.

Moreover, the middle of the ship is equipped with stabilizer fins, which further increases the stability of ocean navigation to adapt to the harsh sea conditions of the Pacific Sea and the Atlantic Sea Area.

The tall front and rear sail masts have been eliminated, leaving more space to allow for an additional 280 mm gun emplacement, 36 times the caliber long-barreled gun, and a longer and more accurate firing range.

Due to the vast sea area under Queensland, this class of ships attaches more importance to ocean-going navigation performance, with a cruising range of 6,300 nautical miles and 13 knots, a crew of 375 people, and a narrow hull to provide more living space for officers and men, which is conducive to maintaining combat effectiveness for a long time.

In terms of armor configuration, it is even more perverted, with the thickest armor belt on the waterline being 422 mm, the armor of the command tower being 312 mm, and the number of watertight compartments, and the defense power has reached the most advanced 10,000-ton battleship level.

If we look at the three elements of firepower, protection and speed, the Royal Navy of the British Empire is the first in firepower, the second in protection and the third in speed.

The German Navy was the first in terms of protection, second in firepower, and third in speed.

The Queensland Coast Guard is the first in terms of protection, second in speed and third in firepower.

The different needs of each country have caused the warships of various countries to be different, and their strength has their own emphasis, and it cannot be said which warship is better and more powerful, but it can only be said that it is more suitable for the needs of their own naval fleet.

For the long-term planning and positioning of the Queensland Coast Guard, there is no intention to compete with the Royal Navy of the British Empire at sea, which is impossible, unnecessary, and impractical in the foreseeable 40~50 years in the future.

What he had to do was to maintain the security and stability of Queensland's 10,000-mile maritime frontier, deter potential enemies including Germany, France, the Netherlands, and the Spaniards, and maintain the necessary reverence for Queensland's strong ships and artillery.

In terms of national strength, you can not bird me, but you can't ignore me, otherwise you will look good every minute.

To be able to do this, it is enough.