Since it cannot directly participate in the war, immediately providing weapons to the Russians is an inevitable choice. Of course, this choice also carries great risks. The Chinese Republic does not have much influence on Europe, but in Southeast Asia, which is three acres of land,

On the land, the existing strength of Britain and France is not enough to defeat China. This is not to say that

The Far East fleets of the French and British are not strong enough. Instead, Indochina is right next to China. China does not need a navy at all. If they find some land forces to defeat them, the French and colonial troops will simply kneel down. So the risk is a bit high. Even if it is not

Take action, simple economic sanctions will definitely cause headaches for Britain and France, which have lost the huge market of China.

If the warships can be sold to the Russians while minimizing the hostility of the West China Republic towards Britain and France, then this has become what Britain and France want. As for selling those warships, Britain and France have already thought about it.

The British fleet must not be moved. Now the British are just showing off. In the future, after the battle between the two sides is over, the British will still act as mediators.

Let China and Russia sit together and negotiate, so this face must not be broken. Another reason is that in the future strategic layout, the French and Russians are responsible for fighting Germany, Austria and Italy on land, while the British are responsible for

To suppress the opponent's navy at sea, every battleship is very precious now. Naturally, the British will not sell their battleships at this time.

The British can't do it, Germany, Austria and Italy are even less likely. The Americans' "suggestions" have been rejected by Britain and France, so the only choice is France! Although the French have put their energy into the army, they are too skinny.

Bigger than horses. It is still possible to get together one or two ships and sell them to the Russians. And now

There are several ships in France that are not pleasing to the eye and are ready to be disposed of! And France is not very cold towards the Chinese Republic. Because the French also sold a small ship to the Russians during the last Sino-Russian War, so France

People also said that they could sell it to the Russians if "the conditions are right."

After the last Sino-Russian War, Britain and France knew that selling small ships to the Russians would be just a way to add fuel to the fire. Armored cruiser-class battleships were cannon fodder in the war five years ago. But now, even ships like the Bayan-class

A 10,000-ton armored cruiser is just a gift when it encounters a battleship. No, didn't the Longtai Battle Group of the Chinese Navy just "take advantage of" to clean up two Russian Bayan-class armored cruisers not long ago?

Therefore, the ships that Britain and France plan to give to the Russians are definitely battleships, and they are relatively good ones. However, the French themselves are somewhat disdainful and plan to replace the returned funds. Remember the French "one-class, two-type" Dandong

A class battleship? It’s the one with six secondary main gun turrets on the side strings, ready to be replaced with a single main gun at any time. And the French plan to get rid of two of this class of dreadnoughts! [

Overall, Dandong is pretty good. The 280mm thick main assembly height is still enough, and there are 150mm armor belts at the front and rear. The upper part has been weakened to 50mm. It can only be used as a shield. The thickness of the main gun turret and gun mount are both

300mm. The secondary main gun turret is slightly thinner, only 229mm. It is equipped with 10 12

inch main gun. However, only 7 main guns can be concentrated on the side chord. There are also up to 16 76mm guns. The maximum output power is 23,000 horsepower and the maximum speed is 20 knots. The normal tonnage is about 18,000 tons. When fully loaded, it is 19,000 tons.

. The biggest problem with this battleship after it was "upgraded" to the Dreadnought is the lack of medium-caliber secondary guns.

This cannot be blamed on the designers of Dandong. It was originally designed based on the forward-looking weapon. The 240mm secondary main gun on it originally took into account the function of the medium-caliber secondary gun and was used to deal with armored cruisers and torpedo cruisers. The rest.

The 75mm gun is used to deal with torpedo boats. This combination is actually quite consistent with the principle of forward-looking combat. But now the French

After upgrading it to "Dread", all the secondary main guns have become single-mounted main guns. In this way, there is a gap in firepower. Of course, if you want to use the main guns to knock out the opponent's warships, it will also

Yes. However, while the battle line is "shooting" with the opponent's battleships, the opponent's arrival of several warships firing torpedoes will put Dandong into a rather embarrassing situation.

At the same time that Britain and France finalized the "Naval Assistance Plan" for Russia, Makanov also sent a telegram about adding more warships to Nicholas II's desk. At this time, compared to the army, the Russians

The navy has really run out of gas! Except for the Black Sea Fleet, which can transport people and part of its equipment to the Baltic Sea by rail and then dispatch it to the Far East, Russia has no spare parts.

Even if a capital ship comes to support the war in the Far East, Russia's Baltic Fleet has been completely exhausted. Not only the warships, but even the spare supplies are very few. In order to support the nearly 2,000 officers and soldiers needed to occupy the two ships, Russia

He also needs to vacate the remaining combat personnel of his Black Sea Fleet. This back and forth will take nearly a month to complete the acceptance of the warships.

However, having new battleships means there is new hope. The Russian Navy, which has obtained two Dandong-type Dreadnoughts, will completely gain an overwhelming advantage in the main fleet. At least from the perspective of the Russian Navy, as long as Makanov slowly

Waiting until the new battleships are in place can gain a strategic advantage over the Chinese Navy. After all, there are 8 capital ships. 6 of them are of the Dread type, and they can defeat the opponent's 4 Dread and 3 Dread ships.

Quanwei should have a great advantage. As for fast battleships, the Russians are at least not at a disadvantage. Although the number of fleets that can go to the battlefield is much smaller than that of China, as long as they wait for the correction of the severely damaged fleet to be completed,

, there is no problem for the fast fleet to at least be tied with the Chinese navy. Although the dreadnoughts suffer a loss, there is still no problem for the armored cruisers to leave the Chinese navy alone.

While the Russians were dreaming about a great victory in the naval battle, they were painfully raising nearly 4 million pounds in related expenses. At this time, Russia's finances were on the verge of drying up. Both the navy and the army traveled across Asia to fight each other, which consumed the most money.

It's not the battlefield but the transportation line

! Needless to say, sea transportation. Up to now, some sections of the Trans-Siberian Railway are still simple railways! The transportation capacity is very limited. As a result, a pile of materials accumulated at the station, and then the two low-power locomotives in front slowly pulled a

Transport the little bits of supplies to the front line!

At this time, the French "persuaded" the Russians as an ally to focus on naval warfare. They also said that France could persuade the British to allow Russian and Dutch transport ships flying the flags of other countries to use British and French transport ships in the Indian Ocean.

The base, please note, is a base in the Indian Ocean. It will not work after crossing the Strait of Malacca! As for

The Russians requested army assistance, but the French delayed it on the grounds of "supply" difficulties. Even if the Russians said they could continue to buy at ridiculous prices, the French remained unmoved. 1. What was the best thing about France before the war?

One of the most powerful creditor countries in the world, the most indispensable thing is money. In the context of strategic interests, what is the loss of a few dollars?

If the news of France selling warships to the Russians is kept secret, then the sudden addition of two dreadnoughts to the Russian Navy will definitely have a great impact on China's maritime strategy. But as the saying goes, there is never an airtight wall in the world.

The large capital flows of several million pounds could not be hidden from the covert in London at this time.

Lin. As the top financier of this generation, and as a person with a deep hatred for Russia, he sees every move in the Russian economic field, and the capital flow of up to 4 million pounds cannot escape her eyes.

.After learning the news, an encrypted telegram was sent to Beijing soon.

At the same time, a large number of photos of Russians appearing in the French port were also sent to the Chinese Embassy in France by agents. The arrival of thousands of Russian naval personnel could not be leak-proof. In addition, France did not deliberately

Even when the West China Ambassador to France asked about the attitude of the French "government", the French implicitly admitted the sale of warships to Russia and at the same time stated that they could purchase a part of the national debt of the Chinese Republic as compensation.

This kind of behavior of the French is definitely considered unusual in the eyes of most people. But when the relevant information was sent to Xu Jie's desk, Xu Jie smiled and threw it aside. Because he knew that in his position

On the other hand, the French gave loans to the Russians and built the Prince battleship for the Russians, while at the same time providing the Japanese with loans.

Build the Azuma armored cruiser. In this dimension, although the French provided Russia with dreadnoughts during the war, it was indeed a bit excessive. However, as compensation, Britain and France also absorbed a large number of war bonds from the Chinese Republic. Judging from this action

, the basic principles of the French and British have not changed, they are just trying to balance things out.

Britain and France helped Russia in order to ensure their dominance in Southeast Asia, but at the same time they acquiesced in China's dominance of the Far East. And in the note sent by the French ambassador to China, the French once again expressed their "concerns about Southeast Asia issues"

” and hinted at fewer French

Assistance to the Russian Army. In the original text, the French stated that Russia should exist as a "European country". The too vast Far East is not in the interests of Russia and its allies! This is a proper rhythm of betraying teammates.

I wonder what the Russians would think if they knew about this?

Although Xu Jie was very dissatisfied with France's provision of warships to Russia during the war, after receiving corresponding compensation, Xu Jie also gave up his plan to retaliate against French products during the war. Anyway, France would be in Europe during the war.

Too busy to take care of myself, I have more and better opportunities to repay today's one-shot kill.

Qiu. And what Xu Jie is most worried about now is how to deal with the strengthened Russian fleet? If he waits until the Russians' two Dandong-class battleships are in place before the decisive battle, Xu Jie cannot guarantee that his main fleet can fight against 8 ships.

The Dread plus 2 Quasi-Dreads! China only has 4 Dreads and 3 Quasi-Dreads!

Thanks to my book friend, Sleeping Animals, and thlon9527’s monthly ticket support~~~. Yesterday, Friday, there was none. In addition, it has already been 2 weeks this week--! The subscriptions on Friday were also very low. Please support me more--! (Unfinished)

to be continued..)
Chapter completed!