On June 10, 1918, the 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, it should be a battleship with a displacement of more than 20,000 tons.

This discovery came as a surprise to the higher-ups, knowing that the combined fleet had felt a great crisis since the Chinese Navy took delivery of two Spanish heavy cruisers last October. 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 top brass of Rìben. But to the relief of Rì himself, since the commissioning of two Spanish-made heavy cruisers in February this year, China has only successively 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some destroyers in the world, and small surface ships such as light cruisers seem to know that Spanish battleships are outdated.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, Rì Bengang was gradually relieved. In addition, China's zhèng fǔ has made several contacts with Western naval powers, and wants 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, and is not treated 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. Moreover, according to Rìben's intelligence, China zhèng fǔ built shipping bureaus in several large coastal cities such as Dalian, Tianjin, Qingdao, Lianyungang, Ningbo, Guangzhou, etc. 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. For this, Rì himself still believes in this, after all, the larger the warship, the more difficult the technology. To be honest, China's ability to produce destroyers of more than 1,000 tons in a short period of time has already surprised Rìmoto. But more advanced warships are simply not possible. Moreover, China is constrained by the industrial base, and the steel structure is far from being able to meet the requirements of building battleships, and the development of the navy can be called rapid, but it is also after decades of development that it has the ability to independently produce battleships, and I do 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 the Chinese military port of Tianjin, shattering the illusions of the Navy. As a world-class naval power, the top brass of the Rìben Navy could see at a glance that it was a battleship with a displacement of nearly 30,000 tons quietly moored at the Tianjin Military Port in China. This made it hard to believe that with the surveillance of the rìmoto, it was not known when China had such a battleship. And looking at the displacement, it is already close to the most advanced Fuso-class battleship in Rìmoto.

"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.

The spies lurking in China have been 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 the 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 high shè 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 does our battleship compare to Rìben's battleship?" Feng Delin asked.

"It's better to have our battleship Xìng stronger than the main battleship of the Rìben King Kong class, and it is similar to the Fusang and battleship Xìng that were commissioned two years ago, but it is not yet known what kind of combat effectiveness our battleship can achieve." Zhang Chaoqun said.

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

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

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

"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 this matter will be revealed in Spain, Běi Jīngzhèng Fǔ 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 expected, the Chinese Navy blocked the Tianjin Military Port, but the pictures of the Chinese Navy battleships were quickly leaked out, and domestic newspapers reprinted them one after another, and all forces across the country were discussing the xìng ability 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 China than in China, and it was rare for the emperor and the military department to agree on the theory of the threat to the Chinese navy. You know, the battleship is more authoritative, and the Navy has long determined that the displacement of this battleship is similar to that of the Fuso class. In the Far East, this was already the most advanced battleship, only slightly inferior to the Rìben Ise-class battleships.

At the same time that he felt a great threat again, Rìben took advantage of this incident to once again propose a plan to expand the 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 plan for the expansion of the army, which was the largest since the founding of the People's Republic of China. The Imperial Army, which alone was to be expanded from one million to two and a half million, was finally agreed to by the Emperor. However, due to the Empire's financial resources, it was simply impossible to achieve this budget. However, the pattern of national conscription has already begun. If they were to work hard every day to fight the United States, I am afraid that few people would agree, because the Black Boat Incident of that year scared them out of their hearts, and they have not fully recovered until now. This is also the reason why after becoming a world power, Rìben still does not dare to be disrespectful to the United States. But for China, rì himself has a kind of hysterical madness, especially after the Sino-Japanese War, rì himself slowly established a sense of superiority over the Chinese, and after more than 20 years of propaganda, it has penetrated into the bones of rì himself. Now that he has heard that China has risen, Rì himself is terrified and at the same time, he naturally wants to destroy China desperately.

The domestic atmosphere 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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