Chapter 161: Beck's Surprise

"Beck, they're here!" Henrik said with the telescope in his hand raised and looked at the twelve warships that were peeking out from under the sea level in the distance, his face expectant, and his sharp eyes revealed intense excitement.

"Yes, look at the tonnage of their twelve battleships, which is far greater than the tonnage of the eight ironclad ships before them!

Listening to the excitement in his old friend's tone, Henrik nodded with a smile and continued: "In addition, you can see their barrels, although they are not too clear, but I am sure that their multiple diameter is definitely more than 40!

"Oh, by the way, Captain, have you noticed, all of their battleship's main guns seem to be using closed turrets! Aren't they afraid of being smoked to death by the poisonous smoke of cannonballs inside?" At this time, Baker suddenly asked in a startled voice, as if he had suddenly discovered a new world!

"I have noticed that not only did they have a closed turret, but they also did not have the sails and ramming angles that are now common on battleships, and their secondary guns were all located above deck, and there were no gun guns! Although we still don't know what the design on these warships does, we can clearly see that these warships are all made by the Chinese themselves, and they already have their own warship design ideas, and they do not follow the warship design ideas of other countries in the world, which is a very terrible change! As long as they continue to develop like this, then a maritime power will rise in the Far East! At that time, the interests of the British Empire in the East will be seriously threatened!" Henrik suddenly said solemnly.

"Captain, are you thinking too much! Although they are indeed able to build good warships, they are still too far away from threatening the interests of the Empire in the Far East!" said Baker with some disdain.

"Yes, Baker? Now that they have been able to build ironclad battleships of more than two thousand tons, then in three years, that number will probably be four thousand tons! In six years, that number will be eight thousand tons or more! So what will they be like in ten years? Maybe it will not be difficult for them to be like the most powerful Infleclyse ironclad battleship in the Empire right now!"

After listening to his words, Baker's face couldn't help but change, as the admiral of the world's maritime hegemonic country. Since the Chinese can now build this kind of warship that has never appeared in the world, it means that they have a good team of workers and warship designers! I believe that as long as their leaders do not hesitate to invest money in their own naval research and development, then in ten years, even if they cannot fight to the extent that Henrik just said, if they want to build a 6,000-ton warship, I am afraid it will not be a difficult task for them!

If we really wait for that moment, then the Far East Fleet, which only has an ironclad ship of more than 3,000 tons and has not carried out warships for nearly ten years, will not be able to cope with the strong challenge of this new maritime power! Moreover, it will always be dominated by the North Sea, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Mediterranean, and it is impossible for Britain, with Europe as the core, to transfer Jīng's sharp warships to the Far East!

Thinking of this, Beck's face finally changed a little! He had already thought of the grave situation that the British Empire might face in the Far East in the future!

"Beck, look!" At this moment, the look on Henrik's face was unprecedentedly solemn!

"What?"

Somewhat unappetizingly, he lifted the telescope, and through the thin lens, he immediately noticed the abnormality!

"Oh God, how can these warships be so fast?"

Not only him, but almost all the European naval officers and sailors present were shocked by the ultra-high speed of more than 20 knots of Chinese warships approaching in front and behind!

"Get out of here at once, order the engine room, the boiler room, and the helmsman, and we'll leave at once, and get out of here at maximum speed, quickly!" The British, French, and German observation ships saw the Chinese warships flying their battle flags high and rushing at high speed at a speed of more than twenty knots towards the Dutch and Portuguese convoys!

Although the eight Sea Eagle warships have been sailing at a high speed for more than 10 hours, the main shaft of the warship under their feet is no longer the high-strength nickel steel that is now common to all countries! Moreover, it has all been replaced by the special steel plant under the Taipei Heavy Industry Group of Huo Jiajun, and after two years of continuous research and development, the silicon-manganese alloy steel produced in accordance with the formula and process provided by Huo Shan, its strength and wear resistance are enough to ensure that the Huo Jiajun Navy will not lose its combat effectiveness because of the broken main shaft when driving and fighting at high speed for a long time!

Looking at the eight battleships with high-speed forks, the sailors of Britain, France and Germany who let go of the channel all have a ghostly expression, as the main power of Europe, no one knows better than them that the maximum speed of the current warship is far from reaching or exceeding the speed of twenty knots, but looking at the warships that have just sailed past them, according to their long-term experience at sea, their speed has definitely exceeded twenty knots!

"Beck! I retract what I just said! The interests of the Empire in the Far East have now been most seriously challenged! And we are witnesses!" Henrik said with a serious expression as he looked at the eight warships that were almost 10,000 meters away from the fleets of the Netherlands and Portugal.

Hearing his words, Baker surprisingly did not object this time! He was already shocked by the speed of these warships! He never dared to imagine that the British Empire would actually fall behind in the small-tonnage cruisers in the Far East! Although he was sure that these Chinese warships of more than 2,000 tons would not threaten the Empire's first-class cruisers and large-tonnage ironclad battleships! However, the British Empire guarded the sea lanes and colonial interests with such small-tonnage second-class cruisers! Now it seems that they have fallen behind in an all-round way! It is believed that when the details of this naval battle and the results are transmitted back to Europe, the whole world will be shocked by it, and the Admiralty of the Reich will never be as calm as before! Because Britain must find a way to deal with such fast warships! Otherwise, they will not be able to account to the parliament to the people who support the navy! The pride of the British Empire does not allow itself to fall behind other countries or powers on warships of any class! Moreover, especially the yellow race, which they have always looked at with contempt!

"The German Empire, we must acquire the technology to manufacture this kind of battleship!" Tirpitz said in a slow but determined whisper as he looked at the ironclad cruiser sailing at high speed in the distance!

As a German admiral who had been deeply influenced by Britain's Great Naval Policy, he knew very well the importance of speed to a battleship! It meant that a battleship could rush to the battlefield at a faster speed than an enemy ship after receiving an order, and that it could be used more efficiently than an enemy ship! In short, there were so many benefits! So much so that Tirpitz, who dreamed of building a German Grand Fleet, could not resist its temptation!

At this time, he no longer cared about who won and lost this war, he only wanted to get to know this extremely fast ironclad battleship well!