Australian Storm 1876

  Chapter 809 International Situation Surging

  The six Metropolis II battleships have a displacement of 16,200 tons, ranking first in the world today, and their strong defenses are also the first, which can be described as "an iron knot that can't be broken."

  Technically advanced battleships are naturally expensive. The average construction cost of each ship reaches 3.3 million Jinyang, and the contract is between 1.62 million and 1.7 million pounds. The price is 30% more expensive than the 15,100-ton Shikishima-class battleship.

Six battleships killed the budget of 20 million Jinyang. Such a large battleship is equipped with 926 officers and soldiers. The annual maintenance and normal training costs are expensive. If it goes around the sea, it will burn tens of thousands of Jinyang’s high-quality coal and heavy oil. , This is the price of power.

  The most expensive part is the extra 1100 tons of super-hard bulletproof carburized steel, the technologically advanced steam turbine power system, the high-speed, deep-V, long and narrow wavebreaker type, and the advanced twin-mounted 305mm 44-caliber main gun.

  All the advanced performances are piled up with funds, such as the twin-mounted 44-caliber main ship gun, which is a little bit more, the price is twice as expensive as the 40-time-caliber twin-mounted 305mm main gun.

  The idea of ​​establishing the Royal Navy of the Ocean Empire is different from that of Britain, Germany and France. It is a bit similar to the Kingdom of Italy. It does not pursue a large-scale ocean-going fleet, but pursues a powerful single-ship, capable of producing a small but strong regional maritime force.

   "Metropolis" Class 1 and 2 battleships, which clearly embodies this idea of ​​army building.

  In the subsequent inspection, the concept of the all-heavy artillery battleship proposed by Sir Lin Huitang attracted great attention from Li Fushou. He knew that the all-heavy artillery battleship was the future development trend and ordered detailed planning and design on this.

  To accumulate technical knowledge for the next generation of battleships in advance. As for the design goals of the next generation of battleships, Li Fushou briefly mentioned;

  The ship displacement index is advanced, ranging from 20,000 to 24,000 tons.

   still requires outstanding defense, sailing speed among the world's advanced level, and equipped with the next generation of twin-mounted 343 mm large-caliber main ship gun.

  The research and development work of this type of artillery is intensively carried out by the Blue Weapons Company. The relevant research and development work has been carried out for 4 years, and there are still 2 to 3 years before the technology is mature.

  In order to give full play to the firepower of the main ship’s guns, the Azure Weapons Company has received two major research and development projects funded by the Ministry of the Navy.

at the same time

The research and development of the 381mm main ship gun is also on the agenda. It is said that the United Kingdom has made technological breakthroughs. In this field, the technical strength of the United Kingdom ranks first in the world. It is not a second thought.

The concept of a full-heavy artillery battleship was first proposed by Italian engineers, and it has aroused extensive discussion in the academic circle. Considering that it faces huge risks in its implementation, the Royal Italian Navy did not rashly adopt it.

In today’s world, it is generally popular to install the second-level main guns. In addition to the large-caliber main ship guns, the second-level main guns are installed to compensate for the slow launch speed and poor fire density of the main ship’s guns. This is common in the former Dreadnought-class battleships. Features.

The true Dreadnought-class battleship is a full-heavy artillery battleship. It removes the second-level main gun setting and uses more main guns to achieve intensive fire coverage. Due to the uniform ballistic performance, it has a better attack effect on enemy ships and more damage ability. powerful.

  In the evening, stay at the Sydney Palace

  After dinner

  Li Fushou will work in the study for a period of time. There will always be a large hand-painted world map in the study. When he passes by, he habitually pauses, and his eyes pass on the map and nod in satisfaction.

  Today

  He is quite satisfied with the territory of the empire, and there are no conquer goals that are inevitable. If there is any, then Sumatra Island is one place, and Kuwait and its surrounding areas are one place.

  Britain will never allow Russian power to enter the warm Mediterranean, and European powers will not allow the power of ocean empires to enter the Mediterranean. This is a certainty.

  A game was set in Guinea ahead of time, which was almost at the limit.

  A few years ago, the French were always messing around around Guinea. It must be because the Ocean Kingdom forces are obstructing the eyes here. If you want to find opportunities to make trouble, the old colonial countries are like this.

   now finally disappeared, it is also because the Ocean Kingdom is flourishing and its strength is advancing with each passing day.

  If France is doing things in West Africa, Li Fushou would not mind the army coming out, driving the French out of the Indo-China Peninsula and letting them taste the iron fist of the Western Pacific hegemon.

  Since it disappears, the two are good.

  War is killing people, and it also costs a huge amount of war funds. Of course it’s best not to fight if there is no vital interest.

  Li Fushou walked to the desk, drew out a dozen memorials and walked back, sat on the comfortable sofa to read them, and commented casually.

After reviewing a few memorials, he picked up one memorial and looked at it seriously.

  This is a detailed description of the preparations for the Russian forces in the Far East by the Political Situation Bureau, including the deployment of troops in various places, the large number of troops stranded in the three northeastern provinces, the construction of fortresses in the Far East Vladivostok, the progress of the Trans-Siberian Railway, and so on.

  What caught Li Fushou’s attention was the Tsarist Army armored vehicle that appeared in Vladivostok. There were more than 10 photos attached to the intelligence. He held it in his hand for a moment and smiled thoughtfully.

  Each of these armored vehicles is different. Some are modified with iron bull tractors, and some are armored with cars. If there is no similar concept, then look at the armored vehicles in the later Syrian wars. They are all strange.

  It is not surprising that armored vehicles appeared in the Russian army. This aggressive land power has a high degree of acceptance of advanced army equipment, and it will be introduced almost immediately.

  If history has not changed, Tsarist Russia will also have armored vehicles in the past few years.

Compared with the heavy investment in naval construction, Tsarist Russia has searched a lot in the army. It did not spend money to import the "Wild Wolf" light tanks of the Ocean Empire. Instead, it purchased some civilian vehicles and modified them by themselves, with two machine guns on them. Even if it's over, it looks nondescript.

  With the backward industrial level of Tsarist Russia, the development of tanks on its own strength is purely idiotic, at best it is to fool people with these tin carts.

  Li Fushou bet;

  According to the rough craftsmanship of Lao Maozi, these tin cars are not even equipped with armor plates, and they use ordinary iron plates.

How much effect    can play in actual combat is worthy of scrutiny. It is more of a psychological comfort.

  At a high position like Li Fushou, he can clearly perceive the undercurrent of the turbulent world. Recently, London has sent several confidential letters to test the Ocean Empire’s views on the situation in the Far East and the reaction to the alliance between Britain and Fusang.

  It can be seen from this point that Japan’s preparations for the Russian war have entered the final stage.

  At the same time, the Ocean Empire is one of the two pillars of the British Asian policy, and the other is naturally the Indian subcontinent. Before the Far East launches major operations, London must take into account the feelings of the Ocean Empire. This is a prerequisite.

  Li Fushou gave a positive response to London’s temptation;

   expressed willingness to exercise some restraint for the policies implemented by the British Empire, maintain a limited neutral position on the Far East issue, and reassure domestic people, provided that Japan and Russia do not do anything to hurt the feelings of Chinese Americans.

Last year’s Blagoveshchensk tragedy, a series of reports in the media community caused an uproar within the empire, and the public sentiment was infuriated. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, together with Britain, Japan, Germany and other countries, issued an official note to Tsarist Russia to severely criticize this anti-human evil, and Reserve the right to take further action in this regard.

  The strong protest of the Ocean Empire has been effective, and the actions of the Russian army have been restrained a lot since then.

Li Fushou’s statement removed the last obstacle to the alliance between Britain and Japan. The two sides have been interacting frequently in private recently. The United Kingdom is also lending, and it has also facilitated other European and American powers to lift the unequal treaty with Japan, and also promised support. The alliance between Britain and Japan can be seen. It was an open platform in London, and it supported Fuso Kingdom and Tsarist Russia to a bloodshed.

  Now there is a big problem looming in front of London, that is, the "Russian-French Alliance Treaty". Once a war breaks out in the Far East, the French army in the Indochina Peninsula is obliged to support the Russian army.

  Furthermore, the strength of the French fleet in Asia is not weak. If it joins forces with the Tsarist Russia Pacific Fleet, Fusang Elementary School's body is really overwhelming.

  After inquiring that the Ocean Empire had no intention of taking action and forming a two-on-two war pattern in the Western Pacific region (ie, Ocean, Japan and France and Russia), London rushed into action and carried out a series of harassment operations.

  From the perspective of the global situation

  The French-Russian alliance confronted the three-nation alliance of Germany, Italy and Austria on the European continent, forming two distinct military camps. They are the main contradiction in today's world and the main direction of irreconcilable struggle.

  On the one hand, France does not want Tsarist Russia to devote too much energy to the expansion of the Far East. European confrontation is the fundamental. On the other hand, it is eager to draw Britain into the alliance, implement all-round anti-siege to the enemy, and form a firm strategic advantage.

under these circumstances

  In response to the urgent desire of the French side, London and Paris communicated closely in private to discuss the possibility of establishing an Anglo-French alliance, but this all-round alliance exists to harm the interests of Tsarist Russia.

  Proposed by the British side;

  The French-Russian alliance is based on the premise that it cannot harm Britain’s interests in the Far East. If Tsarist Russia’s military expansion in the Far East violates this article, France has the right to refuse to fulfill its ally obligations and maintain a friendly and neutral stance.

  In other words, the separate alliance between France and Tsarist Russia and the United Kingdom will form a de facto alliance of Britain, France and Russia, mainly in Europe to besiege the three-nation alliance of Germany, Italy and Austria, but in the Far East and Africa, they do their own things, and even indirectly hostile relations.

  You can still operate like this among allies, you can’t help but admire the British guys.

The formation of the Anglo-Japanese alliance will form a strong containment against the expansion of Tsarist Russia in the Far East. It is an out-and-out hostile relationship.

  The formation of the indirect alliance between Britain, France and Russia has laid a sky and earth network in Europe against the three-nation alliance of Germany, Italy and Austria, which is a complete military alliance in nature.

  Through the above operations

  London’s interests in Europe and Asia are fully guaranteed, and it is Tsarist Russia itself that will ultimately be damaged.

Fortunately, Tsarist Russia has been betrayed by European countries, and it doesn’t care much. In the Crimean War, Tsarist Russia was betrayed by Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the benefits of millions of soldiers were exchanged for their lives. All vomited out, the instigators were Britain and France.

Regardless of the fact that Tsarist Russia is rampant in the Far East, where there are five people and six people, in fact, everyone in Europe is not waiting to see. Kaiser Wilhelm II is extremely disgusted with Tsarist Russia and will no longer sign the "Reinsurance Treaty" with Tsarist Russia after taking office. Relations between China are broken.

  The traditional ally Austria-Hungary confederated with the German Empire and ignored Tsarist Russia.

  So on the European stage, Tsarist Russia has only been selected, not its allies, and it has no bargaining qualifications. It is obviously on the weaker side.

  It is only reasonable to be played with by the applause of Britain and France.

  Behind the glorious, there are all tears!

  (End of this chapter)