Regarding Duan Qirui's answer, Li Fushou gave him a high score from the bottom of his heart, which can be regarded as excellent+!

He waved his hand, and the secretary Gu Kaizhi handed two thick documents to Duan Qirui, on which the word "top secret" was written in crimson handwriting.

Duan Qirui simply flipped through it and found that this was a compilation of materials summarizing Fuso's preparations for the war against Russia, including the headquarters of the War Department and the "General Program of Post-War Operations after the First Sino-Japanese War" of the Admiralty, which put forward a 10-year goal of rearmament in 1895 just after the end of the First Sino-Japanese War.

In the eyes of the Fuso people, this is an absolutely unbearable shame, and it is bound to take revenge on the back.

All kinds of confidential information are very detailed, including the conversations of the leading figures of the Japanese military and political terms, the espionage and intelligence activities of Japanese spies posing as military attachés stationed in Russia, and the promises and support of the British side in supporting Fuso's invasion and occupation of the Korean Peninsula.

Duan Qirui didn't dare to look too closely, and after flipping it over, he raised his head with a shocked face, just in time to meet His Majesty's confident gaze.

"General Duan, in this world, there is light and darkness, justice and evil, and there are demands under the interweaving of various interests.

It is a pity that the great powers of the world today are accustomed to using force to solve the problem.

The oceanic empire that rises in Australia is like a giant ship, and if you want to sail away, you must avoid the shoals and reefs along the way.

Now that you're the deputy commander of the Royal Janissary, you've stepped into the upper echelons of the military, and you've had access to many classified documents, which will give you a glimpse of the squalor and undercurrents beneath the calm waters.

After years of military expansion, the army has more than 370,000 front-line combatants and 1.82 million reserves. The navy has a fleet of 6 cutting-edge battleships, 6 cruisers, and 152 warships of various types, totaling 260,000 tons, and its strength far exceeds that of the Sino-Japanese War.

In light of this

The Imperial Army General Staff Headquarters will start an expansion plan to expand the army from 140,000 to 200,000 men, and the Royal Janissaries will double from 24,000 men in three divisions to 48,000 men, for a total of 248,000 men.

Coupled with the 3.5 million reservists in the empire, it can be safe.

The Admiralty will launch a new battleship construction program, a new class of battleships "Typhoon" will be built, which is now at the stage of program demonstration.

Your mission is mainly to expand the Royal Guard. ”

Speaking of this, Li Fushou's tone paused, looked at Lieutenant General Duan Qirui with encouraging eyes, and said earnestly;

"I don't need to stress enough the importance of the Royal Praetorian Guard, and I hope that you will be able to use modern army tactics to create an elite army loyal to the Empire, strong-willed, and powerful.

General Duan, the world is not peaceful, we will not covet other people's yards, but we must also guard our own one-third of an acre.

The heavy responsibility is on our shoulders, and we will forge ahead.

These 8 words are sent to the general for encouragement. ”

Hear here

Duan Qirui stood up excitedly, folded his legs and "snapped" to stand upright, gave a military salute with a solemn expression, and said loudly; "The minister started from the end of the micro, this is a wandering grass people, thanks to the grace of His Majesty to have today's slight achievements, now His Majesty's trust, when the body is broken to repay it, will work hard to train a loyal and strong army, in order to live up to His Majesty's high expectations, if you violate this oath, even if you die without shame to see the ancestors and ancestors, ghosts and gods hate it."

"Okay, what I want is your impulse to give up on me." Li Fushou pointed to the information next to Lieutenant General Duan Qirui and said to him; "You are also the deputy director of the Imperial Chamberlain's Military Attache Office, and you have an office in the outer hall, take these materials to study, and Gu Kaizhi will explain the relevant rules to you."

"Obey, Your Majesty, Weichen retires."

"Well, go ahead."

After sending away Lieutenant General Duan Qirui, Li Fushou felt his emotions fluctuate, so he paced to the imperial study, where there was a hand-drawn world map that occupied an entire wall, and he could clearly see the confrontation pattern of the world's great powers today.

After the victory of the First Sino-Japanese War, Fuso suffered heavy setbacks, so it was more fanatical than in the original history, and the strength of the army and navy increased significantly, which made Li Fushou also feel the pressure.

As a typical maritime country, the Ocean Empire has always spared no effort in naval construction, and has built the most powerful Royal Navy fleet in the Western Pacific.

By 1900

Among the Metropolis-class battleships, the 13,000-ton "Red River Valley" and "Brisbane", the 16,000-ton "Songjiang", "Melbourne", "Beilun", and "Tianshu" were all completed and put into service.

The two additional ships of the same class, the "Qingdao" and the "Seoul", are also under construction in full swing and are expected to be commissioned this year and next.

By the end of 1901, the Royal Navy of the Ocean Empire would have eight world-class former dreadnought steam ironclad battleships with a total tonnage of 124,000 tons.

Besides

The Royal Navy also has a cruiser fleet led by four heavy cruisers, "Qinglong", "White Tiger", "Suzaku" and "Xuanwu", including 24 4,300-ton "Brave" class cruisers with a total tonnage of 145,000 tons.

The Royal Navy is building a 6,500-ton general-purpose cruiser, named the "Snow Mountain" class, the lead ship "Snow Mountain", the second ship "Mahler Mountain", and the third ship "Barry Mountain" have all been completed and launched, and are in sea trials or habitat installation, and it is expected that the fleet can be equipped by the end of the year.

The class of ships is planned to take three years to build 8 ships, and the follow-up ship construction plan is still to be approved by the parliament, and additional funds for special ship construction will be added.

The Snow Mountain Range and the Barry Range are both famous mountain ranges in Australia's Great Wind and Water Range, stretching for hundreds of kilometers at every turn, rather than the small territory of Snow Mountain Town.

The Mahler Mountains are part of the central Shangri-La mountain range, with an average elevation of more than 3,600 meters, and are known as the geographical dividing line, dividing Shangri-La Island into two, and the Qingshui River basin is located on the southern slope of the Mahler Mountains.

After the completion of the construction of 8 general-purpose destroyers of the "Snow Mountain" class, plus the captured 3,600-ton Fuso cruisers "Naniwa" and "Takachiho", the total tonnage reached 60,000 tons.

So

Not counting the destroyers of the "Seagull" II in the naval sequence, the main fleet of the Royal Navy of the Ocean Empire has reached the scale of 330,000 tons.

At first glance, it seems that it is only 70,000 tons more than the 260,000 tons of the combined fleet of Fuso, and it seems that the advantage is not great.

In fact, the account cannot be calculated in this way, the main force of the Fuso United Fleet is 6 battleships, 6 cruisers, all of them are built by British advanced technology, the age of the ships is generally less than 4 years, the main ship gun and the secondary main gun are 305 mm caliber + 254 mm caliber configuration, the secondary guns are all rapid-fire guns, the firepower is strong, and the combat effectiveness is good.

The Asahi class battleship of Fuso has a displacement of 1.52 tons and a speed of eighteen knots. The Mikasa-class battleship has a displacement of 15,100 tons, a speed of 18 knots, and a total tonnage of about 90,000 tons of 6 battleships.

The displacement of the eight battleships of the Royal Navy of the Ocean Empire is 124,000 tons, which is three percent stronger.

Fuso's six cutting-edge main cruisers have a total displacement of 33,000 tons, plus other old ironclad ships, which is 80,000 tons at the top.

The cruisers of the Royal Navy of the Ocean Empire are much stronger, with a total of 38 ships and a total displacement of 205,000 tons, and in addition to the 4 heavy cruisers and the Naniwa and Takachiho, the other new ships have a large displacement, fast speed, and fierce firepower, and the age of the ship is not more than 8 years, and the strength crushes the other party.

The 152 warships of the Fuso Navy's combined fleet, including a large number of destroyers, old-fashioned ironclad ships, torpedo boats, and military auxiliary ships, all have a combined displacement of 260,000 tons, which is too much water.

The 330,000 tons of the Royal Navy of the Ocean Empire are all capital ships, and the worst ones are the 3,600-ton Naniwa and Takachiho, which are full of dry goods, Qinglong, White Tiger, Suzaku, Xuanwu, and the strength of the four heavy cruisers can be ranked into the battle line to fight.

Then, in the actual naval battle, the Royal Navy of the Ocean Empire can dispatch a lineup of eight battleships and four heavy cruisers, a total of 14 large warships to form a battle line, and carry out a suppressive strike on the six battleships of the combined fleet of the Fuso Navy.

In the case that the caliber of the main and secondary guns of the two sides is the same, and the rapid-fire gun technology is comparable, the Royal Navy of the Ocean Empire has 220% of the opponent's main guns, 242% of the second-level main guns, and 275% of the rapid-fire secondary guns, and there is almost no suspense about the outcome of the battle.

The only problem is...... At what cost?

The difference in the strength of the cruiser fleets of the two sides was too great to be at all comparable.

Li Fushou is very confident in the strength of his fleet, this is a well-trained, tenacious style, high fighting spirit of the elite army, with a military spirit tempered after the bloody battle, enough to be trusted.

In the fleet of the Royal Navy

The 950-ton Seagull-class ocean-going cruisers, which have now been relegated to the second line, plus the 1,500-ton Seagull-2 and 2,000-ton Seagull-2 destroyers, have a total of more than 70 ships, of which about half belong to local marine police districts and have withdrawn from the naval fleet sequence and belong to local garrisons.

Most of the ships still in service in the naval fleet are the later Seagull II and Type 2 modifications, with a total of 36 ships and 6 destroyer detachments.

Two fleets are deployed on the mainland, two in the South China Sea, one in Africa, and one in Shangri-La.

Torpedo boats are not established in the Imperial Royal Navy sequence, if you really want to say it, the role is almost equivalent to the "mosquito" class patrol boats, 80 tons, 120 tons, 200 tons, 300 tons to 450 tons of various grades, equipped with a total of more than 500 ships, all over the Australian mainland, Luzon, Shangri-La to Africa's Mozambique Marine Police District, all are machine gun boats and gunboats, not a single torpedo boat.

Among these "mosquito" patrol boats, those under 200 tons are only equipped with machine guns or 20 mm guns, and only ocean-going patrol boats above 200 tons are equipped with small-caliber guns, generally 60 mm and 95 mm rapid-fire guns, to strengthen deterrence when performing tasks.

The Royal Navy of the Ocean Empire was an ocean-going navy, and there was no place for torpedo boats in the fleet formation.

The task of releasing torpedoes is completed by the destroyer fleet, generally each destroyer is equipped with 6~8 torpedo tubes, due to the high instability of torpedoes in today's era, these torpedo tubes are empty in peacetime, and will only be loaded with live ammunition in wartime.

Compared with the torpedo boats of more than 100 tons in Fuso, the torpedoes equipped with high-speed destroyers of more than 1,500 tons pose a lot of threat, and they can be called "lightning strike fleets" and are used to undertake battlefield assault missions.

The medium-caliber rapid-fire guns equipped on destroyers are a huge shadow of death for torpedo boats, and they should not be avoided.

It was precisely because of its far inferiority in strength and the psychological shadow of the Royal Navy of the Great Ocean Empire that the Admiralty of Fuso rejected all plans for southward expansion, only supported the colonization of the Korean Peninsula in the north, and made every effort to expand to Manchuria, and set the combat target on the Tsarist Far East Fleet.