As a rising star among the world's great powers, the Tang Empire has developed very fast, leading the second wave of industrial revolution represented by electrification and chemical industry, and is at the forefront of the world in this field, with full development potential.

The British Empire, on the other hand, stuck to the glory of the era of the world's first revolution in steam craftsmanship, rejecting the new technologies represented by electrification and the chemical industry.

In related fields, it lags behind Germany and France and other countries, not to mention the Tang Empire, which is far ahead.

But this does not mean that the power of the British Empire should not be despised because it is the hegemon of the Seven Seas, which has been glorious for nearly two centuries on the throne of world hegemony, with an incomparably deep heritage and nearly 30 million square kilometers (Note; Not yet at the peak of the Victorian era) vast colony with a population of 330 million (including colonies and protectorates).

In 1869, the British Empire allocated 99.41 million pounds, equivalent to 500 million Tang dollars, and the Royal Navy accounted for more than three-quarters of the military expenditure.

Compare it to

The military expenditure of the Tang Empire is about 75 million Tang Yuan a year, equivalent to about 15 million pounds, and the military allocation of the Royal Army and the Royal Navy is 6:4, and the Royal Army still accounts for the majority of the appropriation, which is used to maintain a total of about 370,000 troops and a series of overseas military operations.

Britain's annual military budget is more than 6.5 times that of the Tang Empire, and in terms of the military allocation of the Royal Navy alone, the British Royal Navy is 14 times that of the Royal Navy of the Tang Empire, which is a huge gap.

This is the basis for Britain to maintain the world's largest Royal Navy, with more than 680 ships of all kinds and a total strength of more than 367,000 troops, which is more than the British Army.

Among the capital ships equipped by the British, the large ocean-going capital ships of 5,500 tons to 12,000 tons are the mainstay, and its naval strength is the sum of France, the Tang Kingdom, the Kingdom of Prussia, the Austrian Empire, and the Ottoman Empire, especially in the Mediterranean, Atlantic and Indian Oceans.

Although the Royal Navy is still armed with a large number of sail battleships and sail frigates, the largest wave of replacement is underway in history.

In the past 10 years, the British Royal Navy has launched more than 17 new steam ironclad warships in service a year on average, with the peak reaching 23.

From 1860 to 1869

Britain spends no less than £90 million a year on its military and invests heavily in updating the Royal Navy's equipment to maintain its maritime supremacy.

In comparison

The Royal Navy of the Tang Empire is a small thing, and in recent years, the military allocation has gradually increased, reaching an average annual scale of about 30 million Tang Yuan, worth about 6 million pounds.

Among them, the cost of equipment maintenance and personnel, the construction cost of 37 overseas naval bases and local fortress batteries will account for most of the cost, leaving less than half of the cost of adding weapons and equipment, that is, 5.5 million Tang Yuan, worth about 1.1 million pounds.

The scale of the Royal Navy is not small, with a total of 27,600 men in two marine divisions, about 41,500 men in 16 coastal fortress garrison regiments, a total of 23,600 officers and men of the main ships and military auxiliary ships (including officers and men on naval rotation), a total of 13,100 officers and men of the Navy's staff headquarters and subordinate agencies, various naval academies and academies, logistics personnel of naval stations and naval warehouses, and more than 7,600 armed officers and men of naval bases stationed abroad, totaling about 113,000 officers and men.

As the main military force of the Tang Empire to maintain sea power, the Royal Navy is a proper high-tech service, and its salary level is on par with that of the United Kingdom, which is about 8 percent of the income of the Royal Navy for the same position in the United Kingdom, and the annual personnel maintenance cost is close to 19 million Tang Yuan, which is the bulk of military expenditure.

Among them

The annual salary of a rear admiral is about 2400~3000 Tang Yuan, about 450~500 pounds, depending on the position. Their salaries are lower at Royal Navy Headquarters and higher at overseas bases, because of the additional cost of overseas subsidy.

The annual salary of naval officers at the rank of colonel is about 1300~1500 Tang Yuan, and most of the naval officers at this level are the captains of capital ships or the commanders of overseas bases, and their duties and powers are very important, and they are also the backbone of the Royal Navy;

The annual salary of a naval officer at the lieutenant colonel level is about 850~1100 Tang Yuan, and the major level is less, almost at the level of 550~700 Tang Yuan, which is about 6 to 8 times the annual salary of ordinary workers, and a proper middle-class income level.

The income of the junior sailors of the Royal Navy is also much higher than that of ordinary workers, about 230 Tang Yuan a year for torpedo men, 260 Tang Yuan for gun commanders, 130 Tang Yuan for first-class sailors, 110 Tang Yuan for second-class sailors, 82 Tang Yuan for third-class sailors, and 22 Tang Yuan for trainee sailors and Marine Division soldiers, and soldiers of ordinary garrison regiments.

This is because the soldiers of the Marine Division and the Garrison Regiment are all compulsory soldiers, and they are only paid a symbolic allowance every month, and they do not belong to the ranks of professional non-commissioned officers and officers, and their incomes are naturally much smaller.

Except for the annual salary of a third-class sailor 82 Tang Yuan, which is about equal to the annual income of an ordinary worker, there is not much difference between them.

Other high-ranking sailors and technical troops are about 2~3 times the family income of ordinary workers, and they are worthy of the title of noble soldiers.

Average it down

The median annual salary of the Royal Navy is 172 Tang Yuan (including low-paid soldiers in Marine Divisions and Garrison Regiments), and the annual personnel expenditure is close to 18 million Tang Yuan, which almost eats up a little less than two-thirds of the Navy's budget allocation.

All things considered

Less than half of the Royal Navy's $5.5 million annual cost of weapons can be spent on new ships, as a significant amount of ammunition is purchased each year for training and stockpiling.

The life of the naval gun barrel is generally about 200~300 rounds, and it is necessary to purchase new gun barrels for replacement, and also to add some necessary military auxiliary ships, which is the force multiplier of ocean-going operations, and investment is essential.

Lin Lin has calculated that the navy's budget cost that can be used to purchase the main new ships every year is between 2.5 million and 3 million Tang Yuan, and the squeeze is a little more, and the hands are loose, which is roughly within this range.

The purchase of an advanced ironclad steam battleship of more than 8,500 tons of "Zhenyang" class will cost 2.3 million Tang Yuan, or about 460,000 pounds.

In other words, the purchase of one such capital ship will almost eat up the Royal Navy's purchase fee for a year.

Coupled with the need to replenish new ships of the light cruiser class, the Royal Navy's annual weapons purchase costs are very tight.

However, Emperor Richard did not allocate additional funds from the Royal House of the Interior, and the generals of the Royal Admiralty did not make any additional requests, and they went their separate ways happily after the Imperial Meeting.

The reason for this

It's that the Royal Navy is not so poor on the surface, and there are a lot of means to make money without violating the law or breaking the law, so as long as His Majesty the Emperor approves it, it is no problem to start construction of two "Zhenyang"-class steam ironclad battleships in a year.

Illustrate;

The Royal Navy was a perennial patrol of the seas and was the best choice for transporting large amounts of cash to the Empire's major banks, telegraph offices, shipping companies, and oil companies. Whether it's escorting large sums of cash back to the empire from overseas, or escorting cash back and forth from various overseas provinces, it is the easiest and safest way to transport it by asking a Royal Navy warship to take it with you.

so far

The Royal Navy has a very good reputation in this area, and there has not been a single case of money being lost, and it is even more favored by banks and large overseas enterprises.

For example, the oil companies that make huge profits overseas every year basically need to escort large sums of gold, pounds, francs, and Deutsche marks back to the empire from Europe every month, and the value is often tens of millions of Tang Yuan.

These precious cargoes are small in size and high in value, and it has become almost a well-known thing that the Navy warships can put down two or three officers' cabins at will, and the escort warships can get a lot of benefits from top to bottom, and the Admiralty is also full of oil.

It is only natural that one-third of this escort income goes into the Admiralty's small coffers, which are used to make up for the shortfall in equipment costs.

In addition, the Royal Navy's daily anti-smuggling and anti-theft, the spoils of ships captured in overseas operations, and the convenience of the circulation of goods stationed in overseas bases all have some benefits to share.

How much money is really in the Admiralty's little coffers?

This is also a matter of secrecy, which is known only to a few high-ranking officials of the Admiralty, the principal officers of the Audit Office, and the court, and outsiders do not know the depths.

Therefore, the officers and men of the navy did not receive such a small salary on the surface, but in fact it was much higher, and they became an aristocratic branch that everyone envied and had a good income.

It's not surprising to think about

The armed militias in South America were able to eat a lot of oil in the wars of colonial expansion, how could the Royal Navy fleet, which was rampant off the coast of the Brazilian Empire, have nothing to fish?

Is the war fought in vain?

A 600-ton merchant ship is loaded with cotton and coffee, how much is the ship worth along with the cargo?

So...... Even if a 6,000-ton cargo ship transports coal, each ton of coal is worth between 2.5 and 2.8 Tang Yuan, and the cargo income alone is tens of thousands of Tang Yuan.

The Imperial Fleet that went on expeditions to South America sank and captured more than 210 ships of various types in the war, and the Royal Navy must have been fattened hard, and only part of the Imperial Treasury was handed over.

The only ones who were unlucky were the Brazilian Empire and the shipowners, and thankfully they were able to get the empty ship back.

As for the goods, there are no doors.

It is precisely because of these benefits that the officers and men of the Royal Navy and the Royal Army are eager for war, and "rejoicing in the war" is not a slogan or an empty imagination, but the voice of the officers and men of the Royal Navy and the Royal Army.

Britain's annual military spending is 6 and a half times that of the Tang Empire, but the economic scale of the Tang Empire is 76% of that of the United Kingdom, and it seems that the gap is not big, so why is the gap in military spending so big?

Didn't the Tang Empire have the money to spend on armaments?

The answer is no.

The royal family of the Tang Empire is the richest royal family in the world, with a huge surplus of hundreds of millions of Tang Yuan every year, and the outside world speculates that it is between 2~300 million Tang Yuan, and no one knows the actual amount.

The government of the Tang Empire has abundant finances, and while investing heavily in the empire's infrastructure and important projects, there are also surplus financial funds used to invest in large mining enterprises, and reap a lot of dividends on a rolling basis.

As long as they meet the standards of science and technology enterprises, they can get tax exemptions and a series of other preferential policies, and get financial support, so as to grow rapidly.

The Tang Empire has several of the world's top banks, eight major oil giants that monopolize the world's petrochemical products, a multinational telegraph office that ranks among the top in the world, a thriving industrial economy, and many tax sources, and there is no shortage of money at all.

Why limit the expansion of the Royal Navy on its own?

This has to mention the policy of "taoguang and nurture obscurity" formulated by the emperor of the Tang Empire, Richard, and the army and navy can be expanded to an appropriate size, without excessively stimulating Britain's sensitive nerves, thus causing a transatlantic arms race.

In line with the principle of sufficient use, the military development of the Tang Empire focused on safeguarding the interests of the Americas, taking into account the existence of maritime military forces in the western Pacific region, and did not develop ocean-going ships of more than 5,000 tons for many years.

It was not until the main fleet of the Royal Navy of the British Empire developed to a certain scale that the "Zhenyang-class" steam ironclad ship was born.

It's obvious

This is the Royal Navy of the Tang Empire deliberately controlling the scale and tonnage of ships when developing the main ships, which conveys an intriguing message.

Some ethnic radicals will oppose this practice, believing that "self-abolition of martial arts" "Since the development of our Tang Empire, the cultural and martial arts have reached their peak, how can it be justified to be in a corner", "The empire should take the initiative to participate in the competition on the European stage, which is the core of the world", "We should not be afraid of the head, we should vigorously develop the Royal Navy and expand overseas colonial interests"......

In the press of public opinion

There was no shortage of these radical remarks, and many "Great Chinese Nationalists" believed that the development of the empire was too conservative, and that it should implement an aggressive policy of expansionist colonization, compete with Britain, France and other world powers for colonies all over the world, and vigorously develop the Royal Navy as the primary condition.

Actually, look back

The strategy of "Taoguang and Obscurity" has ensured the steady and high-speed development of the Tang Empire so far, maintained the close alliance between the Tang Empire and Britain, and fully protected the interests of the empire in the Americas.

At this stage

What the Tang Empire pursued was to digest the fruits of colonization and develop and expand its national strength. In the next 10 years, we will strive to surpass the UK's world's largest economy, so as to sit on the throne of the world's largest industrial economy and achieve the goal of prosperity for the country and its people.

At this stage

The Tang Empire did not pursue transoceanic colonization, did not pursue hegemony with Britain and France, did not seek to participate in the fierce competition in Europe, and did not pursue the maintenance of absolute security of the transatlantic trade route, so why should it stimulate Britain's sensitive nerves?

The stupidest thing in the world is hubris, and the most typical example is;

Decades later, Kaiser Wilhelm II brazenly challenged the supremacy of the British Royal Navy, eventually triggering World War 1 that affected all of Europe and half the world.

If the British want to speak well and speak well, if they don't speak well, they are really going to die.

But no matter who you are, France, Germany or anyone, as long as you threaten Britain's maritime hegemony, you will launch an all-round encirclement without hesitation, that is a real ruthless character.

What are the serious consequences of the Tang Empire's stimulus to Britain at this stage?

The first is the complete disruption of the transatlantic trade routes, and never doubt the ability of the British Royal Navy to dominate the Atlantic, to do this, just by a gesture.

The Tang Empire's proud exports of chemical products, machinery, grain and all kinds of food products were all cut off, the economy suffered an unprecedented major blow, the goods that depended on exports in exchange for huge sums of money piled up, and all transatlantic trade was in vain.

This will cause serious civil strife in the Tang Empire, food prices will plummet, large and small enterprises and financial institutions will go bankrupt, and the oil companies will become a huge burden, and the huge amount of kerosene, gasoline, diesel and other chemical products produced can only be dumped into the ocean in vain.

What else?

There are not so many storage facilities that can hold hundreds of millions of barrels of petroleum products a year, so they can only be burned or discarded in vain.

Secondly, it will definitely trigger a transoceanic expedition of the European Allies led by the British, the scale of which should be more than one million, and the maximum size of ten million people, this unprecedented war may last 5~10 years or even longer.

Unless the British Empire is completely collapsed and decayed, and the entire European coalition cannot be moved, the war will never stop.

At a time when the stakes are at stake for their global supremacy, the British do not care how much it costs.

History has proven that; Whether it is 1 million deaths, 2 million people, or 10 million people in the war, one must fall to be finished.

With the strength of the Tang Empire against the whole of Europe, in other words, against the whole world, the odds of victory are not great.

The combined colonies of Britain and France were more than 50 million square kilometers and had a population of more than 500 million, and the combined war forces mobilized by European countries gave the total population to more than 750 million.

Such a balance of power is an unbearable burden for the Tang Empire.

Never forget

The 19th century was a period of white domination of the world, and Europeans, who had not experienced the beatings of the first and second world wars, were not as peace-loving as later generations. The temper is like a firecracker, and the threshold for waging war is negligible.

The Tang Empire's attempt to develop the Royal Navy with all its might is a naked provocation, not only against Britain's global hegemony, but also against the white world.

One time doesn't work twice, two times doesn't work three times, just as the Europeans once did in the Middle East, triggering endless wars in North America.

It is no longer possible to describe the word "stupid" just to satisfy the arrogant dream of global hegemony of certain national radicals, who have brazenly challenged the bottom line that the British Empire cannot touch, thus causing a major setback in the development of the entire country.

Richard clearly knew how the British dealt with Kaiser Wilhelm II, who challenged his bottom line?

Even if the First World War was launched that spread across Europe and most of the world, with tens of millions of dead and wounded, the Germans would never be allowed to rise.

The British did not accept any explanation and resolutely nipped the German nation in the bud. After the First World War, heavy handcuffs and shackles were put on the development of the German nation, and the tragic fate of being beaten in the future was doomed.

Even if Kaiser Wilhelm II was the grandson of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, it did not affect Britain's determination to fight Germany and completely destroy the ruling foundation of the German Empire, which is the ruthlessness of the British.

How similar are the historical developments?

From the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 19th century, when the French Emperor Napoleon dominated Europe, Britain led the organization of seven anti-French alliances, gathering almost all European forces to deal with the powerful French Empire, and won the final victory.

To challenge the maritime supremacy of the British in this day and age is a self-defeating hatred that leaves no room for relief.

In the development strategy formulated by Emperor Richard

For the next 10 years, the empire focused on the development of economic and political influence, supplemented by the development of military power, until the first world war began as scheduled......

The long road to world hegemony will not be achieved overnight.

(End of chapter)