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On June 10, 1918, the Japanese spy system suddenly came with secret news that China was secretly building a huge ship, and according to the information sent back by intelligence officers, this should be a battleship with a displacement of more than 20,000 tons.

This discovery came as a surprise to the Japanese top brass, knowing that since the Chinese Navy received two Spanish heavy cruisers in October last year, the Japanese Combined Fleet has felt a huge crisis. As a result, the surveillance of the Chinese Navy has been continuously strengthened. Every time a new surface ship appears in the Chinese Navy, it attracts the attention of the Japanese high-top. But to the relief of the Japanese, since the commissioning of two heavy cruisers of Spanish production in February this year, China has only purchased some destroyers in the world, and small surface ships such as light cruisers seem to know that Spanish battleships are outdated. China never came up with a plan to buy Spanish battleships. Seeing that there were no battleships in the Chinese Navy that made him fearful, Japan Gangzeng gradually became relieved. In addition, the Chinese government has repeatedly approached Western naval powers to buy advanced battleships, but they have all been refused. Joke. Although China is nominally a member of the Entente, it has no dealings with Britain and France, and is a mortal enemy of Japan, so it is not treated well by the Entente at all.

In order to break the technological monopoly, in the past six months, China has dismembered more than a dozen large and small ships and obtained a large number of drawings and materials. The technical level of the Shanghai Shipbuilding Bureau and the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau has increased significantly, and many shipwrights with advanced technology have been recruited in the West. At the end of May this year, it successively produced its own destroyers of more than 1,000 tons. And according to Japanese intelligence, the Chinese government built shipping bureaus in several large coastal cities such as Dalian, Tianjin, Qingdao, Lianyungang, Ningbo, and Guangzhou. These Harbour Bureaus recruited outstanding workers from the West and were developing more advanced cruisers. As for the battleships, within the construction plan of the Chinese Navy on the surface, it will not be possible to achieve it in the short term until the cruiser is produced. The Japanese still believe in this, after all, the larger the warship, the more difficult the technology. To be honest, Japan's ability to produce destroyers of more than 1,000 tons in a short period of time has already surprised Japan. But more advanced warships are simply not possible. Moreover, China is constrained by its industrial base, and its steel structure is far from meeting the requirements for building battleships, let alone battleships with a higher level of technology. Japan's naval development can be called rapid, but it is only after decades of development that it has the ability to independently produce battleships, and Japan does not believe that China has the ability to make a breakthrough in all directions in a short period of time.

But soon, intelligence officers sent back photographs secretly taken by Japanese spies at the Tianjin military port in China, shattering the illusions of the Japanese Navy. As a world-class naval power, the top brass of the Japanese Navy can see at a glance that it is a battleship with a displacement of nearly 30,000 tons quietly moored at the Tianjin Military Port in China. This made it hard for Japan to believe that with Japanese surveillance, it did not know when China had such a battleship. And looking at the displacement, it is already close to the battleships of the Fuso class, the most advanced in Japan.

"Check, check it for me at all costs!" This is an order of the emperor.

"Anyway, you have to figure it out!" These are the words of the military bigwigs.

Japanese spies lurking in China have mobilized on a large scale, but the Tianjin military port has been completely under martial law, and China has been on guard in this regard, and it is difficult for Japanese spies to get effective results in a short period of time.

At the Tianjin Military Port, Vice President of the Republic of China Feng Delin came in person, although he did not announce it to the outside world, Feng Delin's actions still let many reporters know, and learned about China's new battleships through internal relations. Feng Delin, accompanied by Navy Commander Zhang Chaoqun, boarded the mysterious behemoth. ..., "This is our own Chinese battleship?" Feng Delin stood on the behemoth battleship and said with some excitement.

"Yes, this is the first test battleship that we produced in cooperation with China and Spain in seven months. The boat is 202.26 meters wide and 28.86 meters wide. The standard displacement is 29,366 tons, and the full load displacement is 35,657 tons. It was planned to be armed with 12 combined 386mm main guns, 16 152mm secondary guns, and 12 120mm high-angle guns. 36 25-mm anti-aircraft guns. Armor: 300 mm on the side armor belt, 300 mm on the front of the turret, 120 mm on the top of the turret, 200 mm on the turret, 80 mm on the dome, 350 mm on the conning tower. Total weight of armor: 8288 tons," Zhang Chaoqun introduced in detail.

Now the battleship was just an empty shell, and the internal facilities were not finished. Such a huge battleship could not be completed in half a year. China is unable to concentrate its forces on manpower, and many ship-based weapons are produced in Spain, and even so, it will take a year and a half to two years for China to complete the battleship, and it is estimated that the actual service will be in the second half of 1919.

Feng Delin is not sensitive to these data, after all, the strength of battleships depends on the actual results.

"How do our battleships compare with the Japanese ones?" Feng Delin asked.

"It's better to have a better battleship than Japan's main battleship Kongo-class, and the performance of Japan's Fuso and battleships commissioned two years ago is about the same, but it is not yet known what kind of combat effectiveness our battleships can achieve." Zhang Chaoqun said.

"That's it!" Feng Delin frowned slightly.

"Vice President, in the real start of war, the battleships of our army must not be weaker than the newest Japanese battleships." Zhang Chaoqun said firmly.

Feng Delin nodded and said: "It's better to be normal, the Japanese Navy has been developing for decades, and we have only been developing for less than a year, if it weren't for the help of Spanish technology, we would not have been able to produce battleships at all." According to our intelligence, the Japanese have discovered the existence of this battleship, and you have to make good use of it. ”

"It was possible to achieve in battleships and was not finished. If you want to put it into service, it will be after June next year at the earliest, and this is a test ship, whether it can meet the requirements of the drawings is not yet known! Zhang Chaoqun said with some puzzlement.

"It's nothing, this time it's not about putting this giant ship into service, as long as we prove to the outside that we are capable of producing battleships. As for whether there were really battleships in service, that's nothing. Feng Delin said with a smile. Now there is a sense of the end of the war in the West, although Germany is trying its best to resist, but the general trend of the Entente has been cultivated, even if there is no internal rebellion in Germany, the Allies are doomed to defeat.

Zhang Chaoqun nodded a little incomprehensibly, political matters are really not something that a pure soldier like him can understand. When he received the news that the Wehrmacht Headquarters had secretly towed the battleship under construction to the Tianjin Military Port, Zhang Chaoqun really did not understand the reason. Moreover, although the Wehrmacht blocked the Tianjin Military Port during this time, it was very difficult to keep the information from leaking in a place like the Tianjin Military Port.

"You can pull it back in a few days. I am afraid that the world war will not be over soon. We always have to get more chips for ourselves. Feng Delin sighed, if it was possible, they didn't want to do it. But the world situation is such that if China does not have battleships, then there is no doubt that in the new world pattern in the future, the Chinese Navy will not have the slightest place. Now all China has to do is release smoke grenades that China has battleships, and no message is as shocking as this battleship, which has already been built in appearance. With the photo of this battleship, countries do not dare to underestimate China. China wants to give the world the false impression that China has successfully developed a battleship and is going to sea for sea trials. As for whether Spain will reveal this, the Beijing government is not worried in the slightest. Spain also needs this ship now to guarantee its own security. According to the plan, two such super-dreadnoughts will be built, one each in China and the West. ..., as the Chinese government led, the Chinese Navy blockaded the Tianjin military port, but the pictures of the Chinese Navy battleships were quickly leaked, and the newspapers of all parties in the country reprinted them, and all forces in the country were discussing the performance and level of the Chinese battleships. Many big newspapers even invited veterans of the Beiyang Fleet to observe the pictures of this battleship. It was finally determined that China's first battleship would have a length of about 200 meters and a displacement of about 30,000 tons. As for the weapon, naturally no one knows. But this news is enough for China.

The news spread even faster in Japan than at home, and it was rare for the emperor and the military department to agree on the theory of the Chinese naval threat. You know, Japan is more authoritative, and the Navy has long determined that the displacement of this battleship is similar to that of the Japanese Fuso class. In the Far East, this was already the most advanced battleship, only slightly inferior to the Japanese Ise-class battleships.

At the same time that Japan felt a huge threat again, Japan took advantage of this incident, and the military department once again put forward a plan to expand its army, claiming that if the empire did not want to be buried by China, it must desperately expand its military strength to protect itself. At the same time, the military department threw out a long-prepared military expansion plan, which can be called the largest since the founding of Japan. The Imperial Japanese Army alone will be expanded from 1 million to 2.5 million, and the navy is even more demanding that the 88 th Fleet be completed in a short period of time. The Emperor of Japan finally agreed to the plan. However, due to the limited financial resources of the empire, it was difficult to achieve the Japanese budget. However, the pattern of national conscription has already begun. Reserve units were turned into regular units, and popular sentiment was mobilized. Japan is a nation with an extreme personality, and if they were to work hard every day to fight the United States, I am afraid that few Japanese would agree, because the Black Ship Incident in those years frightened the Japanese and they have not yet fully recovered. This is also the reason why Japan still does not dare to be disrespectful to the United States after becoming a world power. But for China, the Japanese have a kind of hysterical madness, especially after the Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese slowly established a sense of superiority over the Chinese, and after more than 20 years of propaganda, it has been deeply rooted in the bones of the Japanese. Now that they have heard of the rise of China, the Japanese are naturally afraid and want to destroy China at all costs.

The atmosphere in Japan is becoming more and more militaristic. This is completely different from history. According to the current situation, I am afraid that during the Second World War, a major war will break out in the Far East.

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