News of the large-scale construction of warships in the United States soon came back to the Chinese Empire. At this time, Li Weiguo also stopped traveling in the south of the Yangtze River and flirting with girls, and returned to the Forbidden City.⊙.

Many civil and military officials did not know that the Chinese Empire was already building powerful fearless battleships, so they were worried about the large-scale shipbuilding operations of the American Navy and wrote letters to request funds for the navy to build ships to deal with maritime threats from the United States.

With the end of the Battle of the Solomon Islands, the Chinese Empire was nominally the maritime overlord of the Pacific region, but in fact it was still very difficult to control the entire Pacific ocean. Because the Pacific Ocean is too vast, there are many countries around the Pacific, especially the Central Pacific region, which requires a large number of warships to cruise in these waters, indicating the hegemony of the Imperial Navy over the Pacific region.

Previously, during the non-war period, the Imperial Chinese Navy only had the Northern Ocean Fleet, the Eastern Ocean Fleet, the Southern Ocean Fleet and the Seven Continent Ocean Fleet. The combat missions of these four fleets were only offshore defensive and were permanent fleets. Only during the war could they be unified into the Pacific Fleet.

Today, the Chinese Empire has established rule over the Pacific with the British Empire, and the entire Pacific will become the traditional maritime sphere of influence of the Chinese Empire in the future.

Therefore, the Pacific Fleet, which was previously established only during wartime, will now become a standing fleet.

The Pacific Fleet became a standing fleet, which required great adjustments. It was not until the seventh month after the end of the Sino-British War that the Ministry of War and the Navy of the Empire of the Chinese Empire completed this adjustment plan.

According to the new plan, the original North Ocean Fleet, East Ocean Fleet, South Ocean Fleet and Seven Ocean Fleet will be abolished and unified into the local fleet of the Chinese Empire, and will be governed by the Northeast Asia, within 500 nautical miles of the coastal baseline of the East Asia and Southeast Asia and Southeast Asia, and will be responsible for the local offshore defense tasks of the Chinese Empire, with Vladivostok, Jeju Island, Lushun, Weihaiwei, Zhoushan, Taiwan, Hainan Island, Manila and Singapore as the main naval bases.

In addition to the local fleet, a standing Pacific fleet was established to govern the entire Pacific waters, with the Navy Port in eastern Australia, the Darwin Port in the north, the Tamara Port in the west, and the Adelaide Port in the south, connecting Guam Port Apula Port and Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor as naval bases.

The Indian Ocean Fleet was previously just an escort fleet, and now it has been upgraded to a permanent ocean fleet, with Chittagong, Bangladesh as its main naval base.

The three newly established permanent fleets are the strongest in the local fleet. Nine Xiongfeng-class battleships and nine Zhongning-class armored cruisers are all allocated to the local fleet. The Pacific Fleet has the largest jurisdiction area, but it is only equipped with three old Dingyuan-class ironclad ships. The Dingyuan-class ironclad ships do not have the ability to have long-term maritime cruise missions. In fact, after being assigned to the Pacific Fleet, it has been staying in the naval base and rarely conducts combat readiness cruises. The three Haiqi-class dome-class cruisers are responsible for combat readiness cruises in the Pacific waters.

As for the Indian Ocean Fleet, only two restored Haiqi-class cruise ships served as the main force, and they were also in the port for most of the time.

This situation was intentional by the General Staff of the Chinese Empire. On the one hand, it showed to countries around the world that the main naval force of the Chinese Empire still aims to defend the local area as its primary goal, so that countries around the world don’t have to be so nervous.

On the other hand, it is also the current situation of the Chinese Empire Navy. It was originally planned to fight with the Royal Navy of the British Empire. During the war, the major shipyards started construction of nine Xiongfeng-class battleships, but the Royal Navy of the British Empire was defeated in half a year. As the Chinese Empire Navy secretly started construction of the Fearless Battleship, Li Weiguo immediately stopped the nine Xiongfeng-class battleships under construction. After all, it is not cost-effective to build the Fearless Series battleships before they have the Fearless Battleships.

It happened that the European powers such as Germany and France rushed to purchase all-steel battleships from the Chinese Empire, so they modified and castrated them and sold them to the European powers at a high price.

Due to the fierce victory of the Chinese Navy in the Battle of the Solomon Islands, within four or five years, the European and American navies, including the British Navy, dared not provoke the Chinese Empire again. After all, the British Navy did not have all-steel battleships, so it was unrealistic to rely on ironclad ships to provoke the Chinese Navy. The British Navy started construction of all-steel battleships and would not be able to form combat effectiveness at the earliest four or five years.

Therefore, for the Chinese Empire Navy, it will be a security period within four or five years. There are nine Xiongfeng-class battleships here, which is enough to intimidate the great powers of Europe and the United States. Whether it is the Pacific Ocean or the Indian Ocean, I believe that European and American powers dare not easily challenge the Chinese Empire.

At the same time, the Chinese Empire had only one new battleship in the Jiangnan Shipyard, which was an epoch-making battleship. However, the Chinese Empire Navy was not sure whether this fearless battleship could meet the expected performance indicators and strategic deterrence capabilities, so it would take two years to wait until this fearless battleship was launched and tested to meet the standards, and the Chinese Empire Navy could safely build the fearless battleship on a large scale.

Therefore, within two years, there were no orders for battleships from the navy in the major shipyards of the Chinese Empire. However, the major shipyards were not idle because the orders for battleships from European powers were numerous. It happened to use this period to build battleships and cruise ships for European powers, which not only earned a lot of foreign exchange from European countries, but also a kind of maritime strategic military insurance.

Maritime strategic military insurance, as the name suggests, is that during the construction of the main warships for the navy of European powers, these countries dare not easily start war against the Chinese Empire, because once the war begins, the Chinese Empire will freeze these main warships, causing huge economic losses to the enemy country. At the same time, if other countries start war against the Chinese Empire during this period, these main warships will be "requisitioned" by the Chinese Empire's Navy at any time to help the Chinese Empire navy fight.

In fact, as long as these battleships are not officially delivered to European power countries, they will be requisitioned by the Imperial Navy at any time. As long as the Imperial Navy feels the threat at sea, it will requisition warships built by various countries in China, making these warships become the main battleships of the Imperial Navy in a blink of an eye and protect the maritime security interests of the Imperial Empire.

So, this is a warship military diplomatic strategy. It’s like an adult hooking up with a friend with a lollipop: “Do you want to eat lollipops or not? If you want to eat, be obedient. You can do whatever I ask you to do!”

The major shipyards of the Chinese Empire built more than 60 new warships for the navies of European powers. If necessary, they will become warships of the Chinese Empire's navy in a blink of an eye, which is a huge strategic deterrent in itself.

However, after the Chinese Empire and the United States had a feud over the issue of shrimp tail problem, the American Navy announced the large-scale construction of all-steel main battleships, which was clearly targeting the issue of the Chinese Empire's navy and shrimp tail problem. This made many civil and military officials of the Chinese Empire feel threatened, so they wrote a letter to Li Weiguo, requesting large-scale shipbuilding to deal with the maritime threats in the United States.

Li Weiguo planned to cheat the European and American powers, and the American navy built ships on a large scale, which was exactly the result he wanted to see. However, he could not tell the civil and military officials that this was a pit that Li Weiguo deliberately dug. After all, the civil and military officials would not be too strict. If any one leaked the news, it would ruin Li Weiguo's plan.

But if you don’t tell all civil and military officials, you have to find an excuse to give a countermeasure and appease it. In addition, if the Chinese Empire is indifferent even though you know the purpose of the American Navy to build ships, it will also make the European and American powers suspicious.

Therefore, Li Weiguo summoned naval officials and generals to conduct some research. Anyway, the Chinese Empire did lack a large number of warships to cruise the Pacific Ocean and other waters in the world. In order to show off the power of the **** and show that the maritime power of the Chinese Empire exists, we cannot only build battleships for war, but also a batch of cruise ships.

However, if you want to conduct strategic cruises around the world, the requirements for the oceanic nature of warships are extremely high. First of all, the Chinese Empire has no colonies in Europe and cannot supply warships, so it must have strong endurance. Secondly, considering the cost issue, you cannot waste the tax money of imperial citizens just to show off your mission. Then you have to satisfy the strategic deception of European and American powers.

In the end, Li Weiguo received the suggestion of the Minister of Ship and Government Wei Han to divide the cruise ship into two levels. One is a cruise ship with a displacement of 6,000 to 10,000 tons, which is called a heavy cruise ship. The other is a cruise ship with a displacement of less than 6,000 tons and higher than 3,000 tons, which is called a light cruise ship.

Both cruise ships have the main purpose of ocean strategic cruise and escort, highlighting the performance of oceans and focusing on endurance and speed.

Because Wei Han proposed that the construction time of the cruise ship can be short, it can be used to verify the caliber of the fearless unified main gun, install steam turbines, reduce armor protection, and carry more artillery.

This suggestion was approved by Li Weiguo, so the Navy finally issued an order to build 30 cruise ships, including 10 heavy cruise ships and 20 light cruise ships.

The basic standard for heavy cruisers is about 10,000 tons of water displacement, equipped with three triple-mounted 203mm 55-diameter main gun, propelled by steam turbine system, four-axis and four-oars, with a minimum required speed of 28 knots, and a cruising capacity of 6,000 nautical miles per 18 knots. For this reason, armor protection has to be sacrificed, only 140 mm.

The basic standard for a light cruiser is about 5,000 tons of water displacement, equipped with three triple 155mm 55-diameter main gun, propelled by a steam turbine system, four-axle and four-oar, with a minimum required speed of 30 knots, and a cruising capacity of 4,000 nautical miles per 20 knots. The same displacement is limited, and the main armor can only be allocated 122 mm.

Since it is to verify the functions of the fearless unified main gun and steam turbine system, and to build 30 light and heavy cruise ships on a large scale, it requires construction in batches. Naval designers will also summarize experience throughout the construction process and make continuous improvements. Therefore, when the final construction is completed, the final data of the 30 cruise ships are different. Even at the same level, the final performance of first construction and then construction is very different.

Rather than saying that this is a shipbuilding plan to achieve global navigation, these thirty cruise ships are all tested by solemn and fearless warships. After these warships are built, the ultimate beneficiaries will be the first-class fearless battleships of the Chinese Empire.

Of course, in order to strategically deceive the great powers of Europe and the United States, the Ministry of Defense and Information of the Ministry of War of the Chinese Empire still announced the news, saying that the Imperial Navy felt the threat and pressure from the American Navy, and Congress approved the navy to build 15 new surface combat warships and fifteen armored cruise ships.

The concept of the change made the great powers of European and American countries think that they were battleships when they saw large surface warships. Their intelligence departments in China soon discovered that at least thirty docks were started to build large warships at the same time near major naval shipyards, so they believed it.

However, in order to obtain more detailed information, European and American countries are stepping up collecting intelligence in China.

As a civilian military magazine of the Chinese Empire, the attention to Zhang Qunzu was naturally very high. Zhang Qunzu made corresponding analysis, and was immediately regarded as a classic by the intelligence departments of European and American powers, and then studied it in detail.

Downing Street, Prime Minister's Mansion.

Thor was pleased that the Chinese Empire and the United States had set off a large-scale naval arms race, but he was also full of jealousy and worry.

"The Chinese Empire built 15 battleships and 15 cruise ships in one go, which is a complete crushing of the American Navy!"

"What should we do? If the Chinese Empire has 15 all-steel battleships, plus the previous 9, it will reach 24. And our first all-steel battleship is still under construction, and the gap is too big!"

"It seems that our speed up the construction progress of all-steel battleships!"

"It depends now on when the French Navy can obtain the most advanced welding technology of the Chinese Empire! As long as the French Navy obtains this technology, we can soon build all-steel battleships on a large scale!"

"It doesn't matter whether weld or riveting is. Didn't the American Navy start construction using riveting technology?"

"The United States is rich, but our British Empire suffered heavy losses in the war. We ceded land and paid compensation. Now the finances are tight. If you can save, save some!"

A group of British MPs were talking nonsense, full of envy, jealousy and hatred for the United States and the Chinese Empire.

Finally, Thor looked at Fisher and asked, "How is it? Are you sure?"

Fisher nodded and said, "Based on the intelligence we obtained from the French Navy, I am already sure that I have basically mastered the main data of the Chinese Empire's Xiongfeng-class battleship and the Zhongning-class armored cruiser. Our newly designed all-steel battleships surpass the Chinese Empire in terms of armor and power systems. Especially in terms of firepower, as long as you can bring the French Navy's 343mm naval gun technology, our new battleship will completely suppress the Chinese Empire's Xiongfeng-class battleships."

Seeing Fisher nodding with confidence, Thor also smiled bitterly: "I'll try my best. Napoleon, this bastard, doesn't show off his eagle without seeing a rabbit. If we don't give them the core shipbuilding technology, they will never transfer the large-caliber naval technology to us. If we give the core technology of the navy to the French, there will be no secrets in front of the French in the future."

Fisher advised: "Don't worry, Napoleon is too stupid. He wants to develop the strongest army on the European continent and build the strongest navy. In the end, the French will not do anything to the army or navy."
Chapter completed!