Qin Kai made a high-profile publicity for the Taikang battleship, so he naturally had his intentions. However, the warship ultimately failed to achieve its intended target in design and was then sold. This is one of the most important reasons. But even so, this battleship, which was declared the world's first-class battleship, obviously has an undisputed huge performance advantage, and he also used this method to pour another barrel of oil into the detonation of the European arms race.

The choice to release this news at this moment was naturally a result of careful consideration. Although Britain wisely chose to stop and compromise politically after the defeat of the Sino-British war, in fact, Prime Minister Gladstone was obviously unwilling to let the British Empire fall into the slideway of national decline, and the revitalization of the Royal Navy was included in the agenda of the new cabinet at the first moment.

Due to the poor performance of the monarch-class battleships in the South China Sea, the Royal Navy has lost all its face. Moreover, the monarch-class battleships are now only two ships, the Queen of India and the Revenge, and obviously cannot afford the task of major imperial fleets fighting against potential European enemies, let alone curbing China, a very dangerous opponent in the Far East.

So 10 months ago, Lord Fisher proposed to Prime Minister Gladstone the idea of ​​rebuilding the large fleet, and received full support from the Cabinet and the House of Commons. He planned to build eight majestic battleships on the ship platform, and at the same time, the construction scale of cheap and efficient Edgar-class protective cruisers was expanded from the original nine to 18 to replace the old-style Orlando-class cruisers that were completely unable to compete with the Chinese battlecruisers.

Although the tonnage of the Edgar-class protective cruiser is not as good as the Blake class with very strong protection, and the tonnage has been reduced from 9,200 tons to about 7,500 tons, the improved power and protection make the warship have excellent range and stable high-speed navigation capabilities. The cruising capacity of 10 knots exceeds 10,000 kilometers. This is definitely an amazing achievement, and it can sail for more than 50 hours at a high speed of 18 knots, but the cost is only 360,000 pounds, which is simply the price of a cabbage.

It is expected that within two years, by placing an order to the British Naval Shipyard and major private shipbuilding yards, the defects on the cruiser can be quickly supplemented and the combat power will be greatly improved, which is extremely beneficial to supplementing the large amount of maritime power lost by the empire in the Far East.

In this naval battle, the Xuanyuan battle cruiser, which was majestic in all sides of the Indian Ocean, exposed the unanimous weakness of the Royal Navy. Lord Fisher and Sir White came up with the design plan for the "Vulcan" class battle cruiser two months after the naval battle. At the same time, this plan is also to deal with the German Empire, which will be equipped with four "Emperor-class" battle cruisers. The Royal Navy will place an order to order 8 Vulcan-class battle cruisers to ensure control in the Atlantic, Mediterranean, Arabian Sea, and even the Indian Ocean.

The Vulcan-class battle cruiser has a slightly larger displacement than the Xuanyuan-class battle cruiser, and is equipped with 4 12-inch main guns, 4 210mm rapid-fire guns, and 10 3-level 150mm rapid-fire guns, forming an echelon-style firepower. More importantly, the Vulcan-class battle cruiser with a displacement of 13,500 tons has been greatly optimized for armor configuration. Finally, the power obtained is greatly improved.

The Admiralty issued strict procurement standards for technological improvement to Yaro and Babcock Wilcox, two of the best boiler technology companies in the UK. The potential of the British industry is obviously far from being stimulated. In just 4 months, Yaro took out a reduced-volume improved water pipe boiler.

The Vulcan-class battlecruiser's huge power compartment was stuffed into 24 Yaro 93 thin tube boilers, which made the warship expected to obtain more than 36,000 horsepower, enough to drive the warship to 24-26 knots, giving the Royal Navy an advantage in combat patrol confrontation.

Speed ​​is combat power. Lord Fisher obviously fully implemented his understanding into the construction of cruisers. While the Vulcan-class battle cruiser construction plan, in fact, among the threats the British Empire has always faced, the most direct one was not the German Empire, but the Russian Empire, a land-power power that could not be conquered at all.

Although the Russian navy suffered heavy blows in the Far East, as a land-powered power and a huge empire with endless desire to expand, Alexander III still devoted great enthusiasm to the navy. Moreover, after a series of losses in the Far East, Russia was obviously still licking the wounds, but in the short term, it was no longer able to challenge China's rise in the Far East. This greatly stimulated Russia to be eyeing a large Slavic ethnic gathering area in Europe, the Balkans, which had already started to set off.

After the Bulgarian crisis, Russia began to turn completely to a secret alliance with France, and Russia began to secretly unite the Turkmen Empire, trying to gain control of the Turkish Strait through strong diplomacy. However, this plan was immediately countered by Britain. The British government quickly signed the Second Mediterranean Agreement with Austro-Hungary and Italy, clarifying that if Russia attacks Austro-Hungary, Britain will fight back against Russia's provocation with Austro-Hungary.

The alliance between the two major naval powers of the Mediterranean and Britain almost completely shattered the hope of the Russian Empire entering the Mediterranean from the Black Sea, and this directly led to Russia's comprehensive challenge to Britain's authority in Europe. On land, it was obvious that Britain could not challenge this northern bear. From beginning to end, the Russians had never really become a confidant.

However, after Britain suffered a defeat in the Far East, Russia suddenly deliberately leaked an important information. The Tsarist Russian Navy was building a fast cruiser with heavy artillery and excellent protection performance. There were even reports that this type of warship was enough to challenge the Xuanyuan, a powerful battlecruiser in the Sino-British War.

The rumors are even more rumored that the new warships built by the Russians originated from the outstanding performance of the Chinese war patrol. In Europe, such a long-distance attack ship must be targeted at the British Empire, which has a huge merchant fleet. Therefore, when Lord Fisher built a new large fleet core of the Royal Navy, he had to carefully consider the movements of the Russians.

Fisher even described the terrible terror of breaking the battle after the Sino-British War. He called the battle cruiser with high-speed and heavy artillery American armadillos. When he encountered a merchant ship, he would flock to attack his prey like ants coming out of everywhere. And the Russians were at any time the British Empire could not be underestimated.

Fisher made it clear that if a maritime war against Britain occurred in Europe, the only way for Russia and France to win was to learn from the Chinese's strong battle in the Indian Ocean. Although Russia's combat power has recovered slightly in the past few years, another potential opponent, France, the solid Russian ally, has a huge cruiser formation.

The Royal Navy's senior management generally believed that once war begins, the British Empire will face two enemies of Russia and France at the same time, and at the same time, it is necessary to pay more attention to the German Empire, which is now rapidly advancing by national strength. Therefore, British news media and naval generals have paid considerable attention to such a new Russian cruiser that will pose a serious threat to maritime traffic lines.

Behind this news, there was actually a boost from Qin Kai. It was obviously not enough to reassure Prime Minister Qin that the amazing industrial capabilities of the British Empire broke out before World War I were the ultimate sound of the era of giant ships and cannons. Now that industry is a starting point in China, the most lacking of this explosive power is currently.

The Rurik armored cruiser under construction by the Russians, in terms of actual performance, is quite outdated compared to the battle cruiser placed on the table in Germany today. At that time, Admiral Chikhachev, the Russian Empire, proposed an idea to the state-owned Baltic shipyard to build an armored cruiser that was improved on the basis of the "Assyrian Memories".

However, the Xuanyuan Battle Arcade had just announced its powerful military equipment at that time, so Admiral Chikhachev also emphasized that the new ship must have good nautical performance and strong endurance. His statement was that he required not to stop halfway and could sail from the Baltic Sea to the Far East. Unfortunately, the empire's Vladivostok has now returned to the Chinese name of Sea Cucumber.

With the intervention of Chinese intelligence officials, the warships built by the Russians in the Baltic shipyard were rumored to have combat power that surpassed the Xuanyuan, with a tonnage of more than 12,000 tons, a high speed and 10-inch armor, a range of more than 20,000 kilometers, and a main gun diameter of more than 10 inches... The number of turret seats must naturally exceed 3 seats to surpass the Xuanyuan.

Although this series of news has not been confirmed, it entered the British Empire's Navy through various channels. In the end, Sir White, who was responsible for the design of the warship, decided to build a giant cruiser for the Royal Navy that was enough to surprise the world, to compete with the Russian rumored Liurik protective cruiser.

In the summer of 1894, the Royal Navy's powerful cruiser secretly designed by Sir White was placed on the dry dock of the Devonport Naval Shipyard. It was completely based on the Vulcan Battle Cruise, and the tonnage was even increased to 15,500 tons, which was enough to fight against the legendary 12,000 tons of Liurik.

It can afford to spend, catch up, has a long range, and is extremely large in coal warehouse... Under this series of targeted indicators, this naval protective cruiser has four huge chimneys inserted into it, and the hull has become extremely slender and wide in order to load enough coal. Since it is a cruiser, the protection force has not become an element that hinders the increase of boilers.

This giant warship with a keel of 162 meters long is designed and installed 48 Wilcox water pipe boilers. The number of these boilers is more than twice that of the Vulcan-class battle cruiser. However, for confrontational considerations, Sir White adopts a more mature and stable Wilcox boiler, rather than the Yaro 93 thin tube boiler used in the Vulcan-class battle cruiser. The engine is also a mature Cox three-inflation steam engine. The power of the entire warship is more than three times that of the Edgar-class, with a power of more than 45,000 horsepower.

With such unprecedented huge power, this 15,500-ton protective cruiser is estimated to be able to run at a speed of 25 knots, which is already an amazing speed of this era, let alone a giant warship of more than 160 meters!

When Fisher and Sir White were confidently contributing to the Royal Navy, they suddenly received news from the Far East after Christmas. China announced that it would sell the world's most powerful battleship to the German Empire, the Taikang-class battleship. The appearance of this type of battleship suddenly turned the majestic battleship on the ship's platform into an ugly duckling without any beauty... and Prime Minister Gladston was even more furious about this result!
Chapter completed!