In terms of large armored cruisers, the three wind-catching class displacements of the Chinese Empire reached 13,000, which was almost equivalent to the level of the battleships of the Japanese Navy. The Japanese Navy was short of funds and could only build three large armored cruisers of about 8,000 tons.

Using 8,000 tons to fight against 13,000 tons is no longer a simple gap. The level gap between the two is too huge and is unequal.[]

Therefore, the Japanese Navy finally chose to build two 10,000-ton armored cruisers, and gave up the initial plan to build three 8,000-ton armored cruisers.

The three ships were converted into two, which was rich in funds. Considering that the Chinese Empire had already built a 20,000-ton Divine Bow-class battleship, the Japanese naval industry was still at the level of building 6,000-ton warships. In order to achieve the localization of the naval force, the Navy Department handed over the two warships to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to be built in order to please the Dajuan Heavy Industries Cabinet.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries was naturally happy when they got the order, so they took out the design drawings and set up the construction.

o. The two ships are respectively Zhu

Number o and number Ikoma.

According to the Japanese Navy Department, in order to fight against the large wind-chasing and hunter-class large armored cruisers of the Chinese Empire, the two warships built were required to have the ability to suppress the firepower of the other party. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries initially purchased some design parameters of the Hunter-class battleship from the UK at a high price and prepared to imitate them according to the gourd painting. However, this move was soon discovered by agents of the Chinese Empire. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Chinese Empire urgently notified the British side and asked the British Navy to give an explanation.

The British Navy, under great pressure from the Chinese Empire, immediately demanded that Mitsubishi Heavy Industries not imitate the Hunter-class warships, but the British took the money from Japan and had to express it, so the British designer gave the Japanese Navy a compromise plan.

According to the compromise plan, the British Navy suggested that the large armored cruiser of the Japanese Navy increase the main gun caliber, that is, to be equipped with four 254mm main guns and 16 152mm secondary guns.

However, the Chinese Empire's Wind Catching Class was equipped with a 243mm main gun, and the difference between the two was not big. Because it was a 2:3 number, the Japanese Navy did not like this plan. So the UK came up with another compromise plan, suggesting that Japan build second-class battleships, that is, four 305mm main guns were equipped with 16 152mm secondary guns, but some armor protection and speed were sacrificed. The armor was only 205 knots, and the speed was only 205 knots.

〖Japanese Navy finally adopted this suggestion, and the result will be

Class O is positioned as a second-class battleship.

build

The O and Ikoma were built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industry. From the day of design, the two ships were destined to be a useless person. The reason is that the Japanese Navy thought that the ship-borne firepower of the Imperial Navy had not changed, and they still used the qii-Business gunpowder or cotton gunpowder from the Sino-Japanese War, so they would build it.

The armor thickness of the O-class warship was placed above 179 mm, thinking that it might be able to withstand the attack of the 243 mm main artillery shell of the Wind-Catching Class. But what they didn't know was that the British boasted that their 179 mm surface carbide steel armor could withstand 254 mm shells, but in fact it could only withstand 210 mm shells. The porridge-Catching Class warships of the Chinese Empire could be easily torn apart.

The armor of the ship, and the Chinese Empire's Navy has replaced the Black Sorkin high-explosive ammunition, and the 152mm secondary gun is enough to severely damage the building.

oArmor protection in other places of the ship.

The Japanese navy lacked naval combat experience in the era of all-steel warships. Second-class battleships, such as high and low, were soon proved to be a useless ship.

In terms of 5,000-ton cruisers, since the Chinese Empire continued to use the Haiqi class as the main battleship to supplement firepower, the Japanese Navy had experience in dealing with this. The Japanese Navy upgraded and improved the new advanced cruisers, and Mitsui Heavy Industry was responsible for building three upgraded cruisers, which are the Asu-class cruisers. As a self-built cruiser built by Japan, in addition to improving the new advanced cruisers, the ship was more compact, with two knots faster, and the protection ability was greatly improved. However, the Japanese Navy's self-built capacity was too weak, and 80% of the parts had to be imported from the UK, which was expensive, so that the Asu-class did not have more funds for upgrading.

In terms of hunting ships, the Japanese Navy was restricted by the Chinese Empire's steam turbine export control, and the UK could not help Japan because it did not have a steam turbine patent. In this way, Japan had to improve and upgrade the original reciprocating steam engine to build high-speed torpedo boats to fight against the Chinese Empire's fast hunting ships.

However, the Japanese government also tried to negotiate with the Chinese Empire, hoping that the Chinese Empire could relax export restrictions and export the Parsons Steamer turbines under Beiyang Technology to Japan.

For the Chinese Empire, Parsons steam turbine technology at this time had entered the third generation. The steam turbine had completed large-scale industrial mass production and was equipped for use by Shengong-class battleships. Steam turbine technology will soon be valued by countries around the world because of the completion of Shengong-class battleships. Instead of export controls that allow Japan to successfully develop on their own, it is better to export low-level steam turbines to Japan, which can not only affect the energy of Japanese hunting ships, but also make money.

Such a best-of-the-world plan ultimately led the Chinese Empire to relax the export restrictions on steam turbines to Japan. Beiyang Technology Heavy Industry has exported steam turbine equipment for the first time and started to earn foreign exchange. At the same time, it also hit Japan's domestic research projects on power systems. Japan's self-developed self-development was impacted. Since then, steam turbines rely on imports from the Chinese Empire, which has brought huge hidden dangers to Japan's national defense and security.

The expansion pace of the Japanese navy naturally attracted high attention from the Imperial Navy. The Navy originally planned to apply for funds from the Congress to build new ships to replace the old and outdated warships of the first local fleet, and at the same time as the purpose of suppressing the Japanese navy.

However, at this time, the General Staff of the Chinese Empire focused on active preparations for the war against Russia. Due to the destruction of the Russian Far East Navy, there were no maritime threats from Russia on the Far East Sea, so a large amount of funds originally allocated to the Navy were transferred to the Army and Air Force.

The Imperial Navy applied for fees to suppress the Japanese Navy, but Congress made excuses for various reasons.

In the end, the Navy had to embezzle a total of 1.33 million dragon coins from various funds, salvaged the seized Russian Yuanji fleet's warships and the Russian ships sunk in Ulsan Bay, and carried out corresponding repair work so that they could quickly serve the Imperial Chinese Navy to increase the number of warships and total tonnage of the navy.

Among them, the captured warships of the Russian Far East Fleet include: six battleships, namely the Osliyabiya launched in 1898, the Petropavlovsk launched in 1894, and

o The Altava, Sevasto launched in 1895

O'er, 1900

Victory was launched in 1900, the USSR made in 1900: an ironclad ship, the Duke of Edinburgh launched in 1975: three large armored cruisers, Admiral Nashimov launched in 1884, the Azov launched in 1885, and the Twelve Apostles launched in 1890: four armored cruisers, the Dunskoy and Konilov launched in 1897, the Svetlena launched in 1899, and 18

The Three Saints, launched in 1993, were both products of the 1980s: the Thunder and the Heroes, among the sunken battleships, only two battleships with salvage value, one was the Stislav launched in 1896, and the other was the Peresvet launched in 1898. Others, such as the great Sissoa, Retasrov, Yuqian Shiwei, and Gangut, were seriously damaged and had no repair value. Therefore, after being salvaged, it will be sold to major shipyards as scrap iron.

According to the regulations of the Chinese Digu Navy, these Russian captured warships will be renamed and assigned to the First Fleet of the Chinese Empire. For political purposes of attacking Russia, all the names of these warships were named after women. The warships used to humiliate the Russian Navy were just vulnerable.

The Osliyabea ex is renamed) Suqi, Petropavlovsk is renamed to the Sinan,

o Altava was renamed Nalei, Sevasto

O'er's name was changed to Hongjin's name, 1900

The Victory, which was launched in 1900, was renamed to the Wanru: the Stislav and Peresvet were renamed to the Yuxin and Ina, the Duke of Attenborough was renamed to the Yingyu, the Admiral Nashimov was renamed to the Zishan, the Azov memorial was renamed to the Yuwei, the Twelve Apostles were renamed to the Tanya, the Dunskoi and the Konilov were renamed to the Lingxuan and Lufei respectively, the Svetlena and the Three Saints were renamed to the Zixuan and Luying respectively.

The first local fleet originally had only nine Dayuan as the main warships, and the ships were generally twenty years old. Despite repeated maintenance, the hull was still seriously aging. These Russian captured ships just filled the gap in the First Fleet, and in a short time the First Fleet added eight battleships, one ironclad ship, four large armored cruisers and three armored cruisers, which increased the strength of the First Fleet several times and became a powerful fleet.

The Wanru battleship became the flagship of the first local fleet. This battleship built by the United States for Russia has the best in all aspects, so it is qualified to be the flagship of the local fleet. However, Congress rejected the proposal of the Wanru as the local flagship. Congress believed that although the local fleet is only a defensive fleet, it should not be used as the local flagship. What's more, this battleship was named as a woman's name, which would undermine the majesty of the Celestial Empire.

Therefore, after bargaining, Congress finally approved the list of the large armored cruiser of the Daji as the agent flagship of the local fleet. The Daji led a group of "female warriors" to be responsible for local security, which was a coincidence. After the Shenbow battleship was completed, the Jibow battleship will be the flagship of the local fleet.

In this way, the large armored cruiser of the Daji was incorporated into the local First Fleet as the flagship, and soon the powerful battleship of the Shengong will also be incorporated into the local First Fleet, which will increase the strength of the local First Fleet by five or six times in the next few months, but is slightly inferior to the Second Fleet Pacific Fleet.

After reorganization, the number of main battleships in the first local fleet reached twenty-seven, including one God Bow-class battleship, and eight former God Bow-class battleships (Suqi,

Sinan, Nalei, Hongjin, Jinglan, Wanru, Yuxin, Ina), four iron armored ships (Yingyu, Weiyuan, Dingyuan, Zhenyuan), five large armored cruisers (Daji, Zishan, Yuwei, Tanya, Lingxuan), nine armored cruisers (Lufei, Zixuan, Lunying, Jiyuan, Jingyuan, Laiyuan, Zhiyuan, Jingyuan, Jingyuan,

Pingyuan).

The reorganized local First Fleet became extremely powerful, with the total tonnage rising to 250,000 tons, second only to the 370,000 tons of the Pacific Fleet. However, because the Chinese Empire seized the Russian Far East, the defensive sea area and coastline of the local fleet were twice as long. From the previous four sea areas, the South China Sea, the East China Sea, the Yellow Sea and the Bohai Sea, the Japanese Sea, the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, the Bering Sea, and the East and West Villa Sea.

The actual length of the coastline controlled by the Chinese Empire is the original 43,828 kilometers (including overseas islands such as the Ryukyu Islands, the Caroline Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands), which has increased to 58,250 kilometers.

The area of ​​territorial waters has expanded from 17 million square kilometers to 21.2 million square kilometers.

As a result, the defensive coastline and sea areas of the first local fleet also expanded rapidly. For this reason... the local fleet has been further divided into polar fleets, North Sea Fleet, Yellow Sea Fleet, East Sea Fleet and South Sea Fleet. Among them, the polar fleet is responsible for the defense of the two sea areas of the Bering Sea and the East Villa Sea, and the North Sea Fleet is responsible for the defense security of the Japanese Sea and the Okhotsk Sea. Among them, the Japanese Sea Fleet is renamed Jilin Hai, and the Okhotsk Sea is renamed Beihai. The Yellow Sea Fleet is responsible for the defense of the Yellow Sea and the Bohai Bay, the East Sea Fleet is responsible for the defense of the East Sea, and the South Sea Fleet is responsible for the defense of the South Sea.

The five major local fleets implement a rotation training and defense system. The warships belonging to each squadron take turns to switch defense every year to alleviate the bitter and cold life in the polar regions. Of course, the focus of the local fleet is still on the North Sea, the Yellow Sea and the South China Sea. As for the polar fleet, it is generally equipped with only two warships for combat readiness patrols. The East China Sea Fleet is close to the Pacific Fleet defense zone, so the pressure is very small, and it is generally equipped with three to four warships. The North Sea and the Yellow Sea are equipped with more than a dozen warships, responsible for the security of the Gyeonggi Portal and defending against the Japanese Navy. The South China Sea Fleet is second to pressure, mainly guarding against the French fleet and the US fleet.

Overall, after the Chinese Empire's maritime battle against Russia, it simply salvages and transforms the captured Russian ships through more than one million dragon coins, so the total tonnage of the Chinese Empire's navy soared to 620,000 tons, and the international ranking rose to third place in the world, second only to France's 630,000 tons. Its largest naval power in the world, and it was still very far behind the world's largest naval powers, Britain (900,000 tons), reaching 230,000 tons, becoming one of the three major naval powers in the world. Although the US Navy has expanded for ten years, its total tonnage is only 360,000 tons.

ranks fourth in the world, nearly half of the tonnage behind the Chinese Empire. Russia quickly completed the construction of warships, and its total tonnage increased to 350,000 tons in a short period of time, ranking fifth in the world. The Japanese navy's total tonnage also reached 180,000 tons, second only to the German navy's 260,000 tons, and tied for the seventh in the world with the Italian navy. The Ottoman Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire ranked ninth and tenth in the world with 170,000 tons and 100,000 tons. Chile and Argentina were squeezed out of the top ten naval powers in the world, ranking eleventh and twelfth.

In addition to rectifying the captured Russian ships and allocating them to the first local fleet, the second fleet, the Pacific Fleet, was constantly training under the current war.

In accordance with the training spirit of the naval officers and soldiers of the Chinese Empire, King Chenhao, who gave the naval officers and soldiers that "it would rather have a cannon that hits a hundred cannons that hit a hundred cannons", the naval officers and soldiers of the Chinese Empire carried out a larger-scale live-fire military exercise with the purpose of training officers and soldiers who were in line with the spirit of the emperor's guidance.

In particular, when he learned that the Russian Expeditionary Fleet had set off, Lin Jianzhang and other major officials of the Navy Pacific Fleet Command immediately dropped off the ships of the Pacific Fleet to carry out three-month live-fire training.

To this end, the Navy Department temporarily allocated a budget of 8 million dragon coins to purchase artillery shells to help naval officers and soldiers improve their combat capabilities. Starting from March 5, the main battleships, guards and hunting ships, as well as various supply ships, auxiliary ships, tugboats, hospital ships, etc., held a large-scale live-fire military exercise code-named "Listen Sword" in the Pacific Ocean, 100 nautical miles east of the Baitan Naval Base in Ryukyu.

During the exercise, all ships of the Chinese Empire Navy carried out strategic and tactical maneuvers in the context of actual combat, launching the target enemy ship as an unmanned target ship equipped with a remote control system, and the target ship is modified from an ordinary merchant ship. The entire merchant ship is hung with a Chinese special steel armor baffle up to 280 mm thick. The steel plate protects the merchant ship and packages the merchant ship into a turtle shell. In this way, its anti-strike ability is significantly enhanced. Generally, such a target ship can withstand the T-shaped array of three battleships at the same time. When the number of shots reaches the specified upper limit, or when the steel plate is destroyed, it is declared to have sunk.

The staff then conducted an evaluation report on the target ship's hit rate, ballistics and damage projects, as an assessment of the performance of naval officers and soldiers who fired live ammunition, as well as the accumulation of experience during the next nasal shelling.

In this way, the Chinese Empire Navy was able to quickly improve its combat effectiveness. The more shells were shot, the more accurate they were, and the life rate of the target ship was getting higher and higher. Especially the target ships with remote control systems could make various maneuvers and avoid movements in actual combat backgrounds, making the exercises closer to actual combat and more real. The effect of fixed target shooting is much better than the navy of other countries, because in actual combat situations, both sides were maneuvering at high speed, avoiding, and fixed target shooting is basically not useful in actual combat. Therefore, the combat power improvement brought by the Imperial Navy to naval officers and soldiers is huge.

The British military officer Dibistrand, who participated in the Lising Sword Exercise, wrote in his diary: "Through these days' observations, I believe that the combat quality of the officers and soldiers of the Chinese Empire has reached the level of the British active naval. Since the Chinese Empire Navy has fired all live ammunition during training, the target ship can maneuver back and forth like enemy ships in real naval battles, making the Chinese Empire Navy closer to the actual combat background when shooting. In comparison, the British Navy has not experienced the battle in the era of real steam warships, so I
Chapter completed!