The Rise of the Empire

"God, I have never seen such a huge battleship! No wonder the British Navy hasn't done anything in recent years. It turns out that they are building a brand new battleship!" In a loft not far from the Armstrong Shipyard's slipway, The German spy Holt, alias Charles, is carefully observing this huge ship about to be launched with a high-resolution telescope in his hand.

He 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 warships thousands of meters away. The main project of this warship has been completed and can be launched at any time.

Hult is a senior spy deployed by the German Navy in the UK. The earliest intelligence of the British London-class battleships and Edward's seventh-century battleships was passed on by him. The rich spying experience allowed him to recognize almost all British battleships and first-class battleships. cruiser. Not long ago, the news that the British sold the second-class battleship Agile to the Italians was also spread by him. In this time of intelligence, he added his own opinion to the end of the report for the first time-"This is A very powerful and excellent warship! It is different from all the warships we have seen before! It has incredible firepower, high speed and balanced defense. It can definitely become a rival of the Mainz-class armored cruiser."

What made him unexpected is that after 2 weeks, he once again saw the most elite battleship of the British Empire! Compared with this battleship, whether it is the British main battleship Edward VII-class battleship, the Agile just sold to the Italians, or the current strongest battleship Frederick III-class battleship of the German High Seas Fleet. It's just a bunch of obsolete things.

"When I first saw this guy, I knew that a new era had begun, and all previous battleships would be swept into the garbage dump of history!" Hult commented.

At this moment, Hult was carefully examining the battleship in front of him. By referring to the nearby buildings and proportions, he can roughly estimate that the length of the battleship is about 160 to 170 meters. This is much larger than the powerful class of the largest cruiser in the British Empire. However, unlike the puffiness of the Qiangsheng-class protective cruiser, this battleship has a solid, heavy, and indestructible feeling!

From the side, you can see 4 huge gun mounts. After a rough estimate, these mounts are a lap larger than the Agile’s twin 10-inch gun, and seem to be larger than the Edward VII turret. It's bigger. From this, it can be seen that the British should be replaced with a new 12-inch turret. From the perspective of the arrangement, there is a turret in the kilometer, and then there is a turret on the side chord of the battleship, there should be another on the opposite side, and the other two turrets are placed on the center axis of the battleship in turn.

"The British finally came up with an all-heavy artillery battleship." Although Hult was not proficient in warships, he was born in the navy after all, and he has been a spy for so many years. He still has a certain knowledge of warships. In fact, starting from the Mainz-class armored cruiser, the development trend of German battleships is already obvious. Although he is not clear about the construction of the German fleet, he has realized that future battleships will be equipped with multiple 12-inch main guns. And now the British do the same.

After returning, Hult quickly sorted out what he saw, and then sent it back to Germany through a special channel. What made Hult and the German navy unexpected was that at almost the same time, a ghost was also building a ship in Germania. Wandering around the factory, Germany's first dreadnought ship, the Nassau, also fell into the eyes of spies.

"This is not one of the most powerful warships I have ever seen. The Germans built this brand new warship on the basis of Mainz. It has 5 huge twin 12-inch turrets on it. Because of the two. The artillery is arranged on the opposite side, so at a certain shooting angle, this warship has the firepower of 10 12-inch artillery pieces, which is more than a grade higher than the firepower of the Mainz!

In the report to the British Admiralty, the British spy used the same shocking statement to describe everything he saw. And just after the report was sent out, when the spy came near the shipyard again, several long-awaited German military personnel quickly arrested him. Coincidentally, a few days later, Hult’s identity was also exposed, but he was fortunate than his British counterparts. When the British found out, this buddy had re-entered the long-lost motherland...

As a result, the two European powers, Britain and Germany, knew that each other was building a brand new super warship that could overwhelm all previous warships. And they both discovered that the ideas of the two sides coincided with each other, and the competition between the two great powers had begun before the service of Intrepid and Nassau.

"This is really not good news." Fisher said somewhat frustrated when he saw the relevant information. "We tried in vain to end an era with a brand-new battleship. As a result, while ending this era~www.NovelMTL.com~, we discovered that our greatest potential enemy was doing the same thing! Not only did we not completely overwhelm our opponents, but Pushing the competitive relationship between the two sides to a whole new stage! The whole world will be crazy about it, and all the powerful nations will focus on this horrible steel behemoth!"

"So what should we do now?" asked an entourage next to him.

"The 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 erupted. This war will be directly related. In the future relations between Britain and Russia and the situation in Europe, if the Russians win, then the empire and Russia will still be enemies, and if the Russians lose, we can draw in. The former determines that we do not have sufficient funds to start this Competition, and the latter determines that we cannot be tough against Germany politically. So our best choice is not to act!" Fisher said helplessly.

Fisher’s idea is correct. Only Britain and Germany are building dreadnoughts, and if this happens, then the dreadnoughts will not know the British and Germans, the French, Italians, and Russians. They will abandon their outdated construction plans and start building this new battleship, yes, there are Americans! The value of the British Empire’s huge fleet of former Dreadnoughts will be greatly reduced! This is like, your deposit today can be worth 1,000 yuan, but the next day can only be worth 500, which invisibly reduces the advantage of the UK over other countries...

The third one is here~~~! Seeking subscription and recommendation~~~!