The Rise of the Empire

"God, I have never seen such a huge warship! No wonder the British Navy has not done anything in recent years. It turns out that they are building a brand new warship!" In an attic not far from the slipway of the Armstrong Shipyard, The German spy Holt, whose alias is Charles, is carefully observing the giant ship that is about to launch with a high-resolution telescope in his hand. \u003c/p\u003eHe slightly adjusted the focal length of the telescope to make the distant image clearer. This is a brand new Zeiss 28x telescope. After fixing it on a specific bracket, it can easily see thousands of meters away battleship. The main project of this battleship has been completed and can be launched at any time. \u003c/p\u003eHolt is a senior spy placed by the German Navy in the UK. He passed on the earliest information about the British London-class battleship and Edward VII-century battleship. His rich spy experience allows him to recognize almost all of the British Battleships and cruisers of the first class. Not long ago, he also spread the news that the British sold the second-class battleship Agility to the Italians. In this intelligence, he added his own point of view at the end of the report for the first time—"This is A very powerful and excellent battleship! Unlike all the battleships we have seen before! It has incredible firepower, high speed and well-balanced defense. It can definitely become a strong opponent of the Mainz-class armored cruiser." \u003c/p\u003eWhat he didn't expect was that after 2 weeks, he once again saw the most elite warship of the British Empire! Compared with this battleship, whether it is the main battleship of the British, the Edward VII-class battleship, or the Agile just sold to the Italians, or the current strongest battleship of the German High Seas Fleet, the Frederick III-class battleship is nothing. It's just a bunch of obsolete stuff. \u003c/p\u003e"When I saw this guy for the first time, I knew that a new era had begun, and all previous warships would be swept into the dustbin of history!" Hult commented. \u003c/p\u003eAt this moment, Holt is carefully looking at the battleship in front of him. By referring to the nearby buildings and proportions, he can roughly estimate that the length of this warship is about 160 meters to 170 meters. This is much larger than the Qiansheng class, the largest cruiser in the British Empire. However, unlike the puffiness of the Qiangsheng-class protected cruiser, this battleship feels solid, heavy, and indestructible! \u003c/p\u003eFrom the side, you can see 4 huge gun mounts. After a rough estimate, these gun mounts are a circle larger than the twin 10-inch guns of the Agile, and they seem to be larger than Edward VII The turret of the gun is also larger. From this, it can be seen that the British should have replaced it with a new 12-inch turret. Judging from the layout, there is a turret for the kilometer, and then there is a turret on the side string of the battleship, and there should be another one on the opposite side, and the other two turrets are placed on the central axis of the battleship in turn. \u003c/p\u003e"The British finally came up with a full-heavy artillery battleship." Although Holt is not proficient in warships, he is from the navy after all, and has been a spy for so many years, so he still has a certain understanding of warships . In fact, starting from the Mainz-class armored cruiser, the development trend of German battleships has become obvious. Although he does not know the construction situation of the German fleet, he has already realized that future warships will be equipped with multiple 12-inch main guns. And now the British are doing the same. \u003c/p\u003eAfter going back, Holt quickly sorted out what he had seen, and then sent it back to Germany through special channels. What Holt and the German Navy could not expect was that at almost the same time, a ghost was also there. Wandering around the Germania shipyard, the Nassau, Germany's first dreadnought, also fell into the eyes of spies. \u003c/p\u003e"This is one of the most powerful battleships I have ever seen. The Germans built this brand new battleship on the basis of Mainz. It has 5 huge twin-mounted 12-inch turrets .

Because the two cannons are arranged on opposite sides, at a certain shooting angle, this battleship has the firepower of 10 12-inch cannons, which is more than one level higher than the firepower of the Mainz! \u003c/p\u003eIn his report to the British Admiralty, the British spy described what he saw in equally shocking terms. And just after this report was sent out, when the spy came near the shipyard again, several long-awaited German military personnel quickly arrested him. Coincidentally, after a few days, Holt's identity was also exposed, but he was luckier than his British counterparts. When the British found out, this buddy had already set foot on the long-awaited motherland... \u003c/p\u003eSo, the two European powers, Britain and Germany, knew that the other side was building a brand new super warship that could overwhelm all previous warships. And they both found that the ideas of the two sides coincided with each other. Before the Dreadnought and the Nassau entered service, the competition between the two great powers had already begun. \u003c/p\u003e"This is really not good news." When Fisher saw the relevant information, he said with some frustration. "We tried in vain to end an era with a new class of warships. As a result, while ending this era, we found that our greatest potential enemy was doing the same thing! Not only did we not completely overwhelm our opponents, but we pushed the competition between the two sides to a new level. It has reached a brand new stage! The whole world will be crazy about it, and all powerful countries will focus on this terrifying steel giant!"\u003c/p\u003e "So what should we do now?" asked a follower next to him . \u003c/p\u003e"This timing is a bit bad. The Imperial Army is entering the most critical stage of counterinsurgency. Although the Boers have been suppressed, it will take time for us to completely defeat them. The war between Japan and Russia has not yet broken out. The war will be directly related to the future relationship between Britain and Russia and the situation in Europe. If the Russians win, the empire and Russia will still be enemies, and if the Russians lose, we can win over. The former determines that we do not have enough The money to start this race, and the latter determines that we cannot be tough on Germany politically. So our best choice is to do nothing!" Fisher said with some helplessness. \u003c/p\u003eFischer's idea is very correct. Only Britain and Germany are currently building dreadnoughts. The Russians and the Russians will abandon the original outdated construction plan and start building this new warship, yes, and the Americans! The value of the British Empire's huge pre-dreadnought fleet will be greatly reduced! This is like, your deposit can be worth 1,000 yuan today, but it can only be worth 500 the next day, which invisibly reduces the advantage of the UK over other countries.... \u003c/p\u003eThe third one is here~~~! Please subscribe and recommend~~~! \u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e