Many people liked to call the French Gallic chicken. Based on the ancient name of Gaul, there might be some truth in the name. But in terms of blood, the Gauls and the French were not the same. The blood brother of the French was the Germans. The Roman Gauls were not directly related to the Franks who later entered France.
Foreign Minister Li Xin did not experience the experience of China calling the French Gauls. He just took this knowledge as one of the lessons for his visit to France.
Like the Osman Empire, Italy was also ruled by the rich and powerful, and the aristocracy held great power. Unlike the Osman Empire, Italy at least had a little industry. For the industrial system to be able to operate, the feudal system had to make concessions. The better the industrial system operated, the weaker the feudal system would be. Foreign Minister Li Xin was more concerned about the problem that Italy did not need China's industrial products. The industrial products of Britain, France, and Germany could meet Italy's needs at any time, so it was very difficult to break into the Italian market.
The China liner that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs took docked in Marseilles. According to the French arrangement, the China Foreign Minister and his party took the train from Marseilles to Paris to meet with the French Council of Foreign Affairs. They discussed the issue of China and France resuming the exchange of ambassadors. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs actually wanted to continue to delay, but with the speed of China's current development, time was not on France's side.
When France began to build 10,000-ton ironclad warships, China just began to install five-centimeter thick iron armor on one or two-thousand-ton ships. Now China's warships could beat the British Fleet, but the French lost a lot of money after losing the Franco-Prussian War. They paid five billion francs in war reparations and ceded Alsace and Lorraine, which had a large amount of iron ore. Under such continuous attacks, the gap between France and China rapidly widened. Perhaps when China began to build more than 10,000-ton battleships, France was still building ironclad warships with wooden bases. From any point of view, there was no possibility of the French fleet going to the Western Pacific to challenge China.
Since the French no longer had the power to deal with China, there was no need for China to take the initiative to restore friendly relations with France. Waiting for France to suffer more defeats, waiting for the French to come to their door was probably the best response. Li Xin actually hoped that the French Foreign Minister would do something stupid, such as attacking or insulting the China Foreign Minister, so that China could naturally ignore France. It might not be right for the Minister of Foreign Affairs to have such an idea to save trouble, but Li Xin and his comrades from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs came to such a conclusion.
The first time on French soil, Li Xin of France, was the result. In a sense, landing on French soil meant that they had truly arrived at the core of Europe. European countries with good industrial levels were all in Europe. European countries with good industrial level were on the North Atlantic coast.
Italy's industrial strength was far inferior to these European cores. As for the Ottoman Empire, which was only recognized as a European country by Europe in 1865, it was even more incomparable to the European countries in this region. Ten years ago, Empire countries not only of European countries, of world countries of Of the world, but Kingdom of Europe of Of, but of of. of of Europe of Of World of Empire of the.
At that time, even China had to feign civility with England and collude with France to carve up Vietnam. When France began to invade Vietnam, China tried to monopolize the interests of Vietnam, so they invited Vietnam to join hands against France. China's price was that Vietnam would give China the actual control of Jiaozhi County in the north. The Vietnamese court was more afraid of China than France. They actually played a small trick, leaking China's intelligence to France, hoping to get France's support.
In this era where the big powers had the real right to speak, France not only did not cooperate with Vietnam, but also negotiated with China to divide Vietnam. In the end, in the Sino-French secret agreement, China agreed that France occupied southern Vietnam, France guaranteed the safety of China's Siam and Vietnam's rice route. China did not get the land, only the actual control of the Hongji area.
At that time, the Liberation Army thought that Military Governor Vaize was a bit weak, but the Navy was not strong, and the Liberation Army was used to fighting prepared battles. No one dared to take the risk of a war they could not control.
Now the Liberation Army had a different view. France opened up territory in southern Vietnam, annexed Cambodia, and signed treaties with the surrounding countries. Now France was making itself a big fat sheep step by step. If China did not eat this fat sheep, it would be unfair to itself. By now, the Liberation Army had fully understood why being able to keep one's composure was a true virtue. When the balance of power changed dramatically, the side with the advantage would be able to keep calm. The longer the time dragged on, the greater the final benefit. If China had a showdown with France early, China would have swallowed Cambodia with its own hands. In fact, Li Xin thought that with China's internal pressure, China would not be willing to spend so much effort.
While China's Foreign Minister was heading to the capital of his partner, Britain, which was across the strait from France, was not idle. The British Admiralty held a special meeting at the Devonport Navy Yard in London. Of course, the content of the meeting was not what the China Foreign Minister was going to do after going to France. The meeting was to determine the warships of the Royal Navy against the Chinese Navy.
Not long ago, the Chinese Navy proved that they had the strength to defeat the British Royal Navy. The purpose of this new British battleship was to have the strength to defeat the Chinese Navy. Now no one could be sure which battleship plan would be chosen by the British designers, but the class name of the new battleship had been decided. In honor of the great Queen Victoria, the new battleship was named the Sovereign class. The first warship of the Sovereign class battleship was called "Revenge."
Even if filled with the determination of revenge, the British Royal Navy still did not lose its mind. This special meeting was only the first one, and the Admiralty was ready to hold it for a year or two. In the past year, all the members of the British Royal Navy Designers Association were desperately studying all kinds of information about the Chinese Navy cruisers. The people who participated in the three naval battles seriously talked about their experiences in the three naval battles and their personal observations of the Chinese Navy during the naval battles.
The people who gained the most were not the shipbuilders, but the British artillery. China's 150 cannons fired thousands of shells at the British warships, and the shells that hit the hull did not explode. When these shells were dismantled, a few exploded, killing and injuring more than a dozen disassemblers and other personnel. But the reason why the Chinese Navy's shells were so excellent was also known by the British.
The fuze composed of dry batteries and electric wires was far more advanced than other fuzes of this era. This epoch-making chemical technology amazed the British artillery. The electric fuze solved the fuze problem that had troubled the British artillery for many years, and it also gave the British Navy confidence in their warships.
Although the Chinese warships were agile, their tonnage was not large, and the detonator and Nobel's safety explosives were not products that the British could not produce or obtain in large quantities. The British 7-inch, 8-inch, 9-inch, and even 12-inch cannons, after using the new shells, could easily pose a huge threat to the Chinese warships.
Moreover, China's double cartridge belts, as well as the lines on the cartridge belts and the wear and tear of the lines, also let the British understand some of the technical parameters of China's cannons. It was a 12-rifled cannon. The lines on the copper cartridge belt matched the rifling, increasing the airtightness and rotation stability. After being imitated, the penetration of the British cannons was greatly reduced, and in terms of armor-piercing shells, it was completely unqualified. And China did not use armor-piercing shells in the naval battles, but explosive shells, which showed that China also had this problem. But the Chinese Navy did not force an immediate breakthrough, and used this technology on the explosive shells.
In terms of artillery, the British had not yet figured out the principle of China's high-speed artillery. But the British Artillery Designers Association was very confident, and they believed that it was only a matter of time.
The British also had the triple-expansion steam engine, but China had taken the lead in using it on the navy. The British did not think that they were bad with that kind of strong armor. China's warships only had a tonnage of more than 4,000 tons, while the British warships were already in the 10,000-ton class. In terms of armor, the British were no weaker than China.
The Royal Navy was a navy with more than 300 years of history. They did not underestimate China just because their warships had a large tonnage, thick armor, and thick cannons, and because they understood some of the equipment technology of the Chinese Navy. They did not think that they could immediately take revenge.
The Royal Navy fully admitted that the Chinese Navy demonstrated a comprehensive weapon system that was better than the British, and the more than 4,000 tons of cruisers were the perfect crystallization of many genius designs. Armor, power, cannons, each design was clear, the purpose was clear, and the mutual cooperation was perfect. China must have an excellent ship design team and artillery design team.
This understanding puzzled the British Naval Designers Association and the Artillery Designers Association. It took the British hundreds of years to accumulate the current team of engineers, but China only took 20 years to surpass the British in all aspects. Thinking of China's thousands of years of history, the British designers could not help but wonder if the Chinese were really better and smarter than the Europeans. Otherwise, there was no way to explain how China was able to surpass the British in 20 years.
Of course, the discussion about race was a private matter. The public discussion was about how to learn from these experiences and build a new invincible warship. In the three naval battles with China, the Royal Navy paid the price of thousands of lives, most of which were excellent artillerymen. In addition to the loss of personnel and warships, the British Empire also lost national prestige and was forced to admit China's hegemony in the Western Pacific. This revenge must be taken, and it must be carried out in a very safe manner.
From the industrial and design capabilities that China had shown, it was impossible for them to stop moving forward. While the British were working hard to design new battleships, the Chinese must be working hard to design new warships. Perhaps these new warships had already begun to be built on the shipyards.
Anyway, the British and China were only in a truce, not a peace treaty. The treaty of neutrality was still in effect. It would take a year or two to design, and another two to three years to build and train. After five or six years, when the new British Grand Fleet finished building and training, they would make a judgment based on the situation at that time. In the meantime, the British would isolate China from the world.
The British had a new idea for the cannons. Even if they could not win a naval war with China, after adopting the new cannons, the British Royal Navy other navies outside of China would be like ants in front of them. They could be easily crushed.
To the surprise of the British Admiralty and the Royal Naval Designers Association, a man named William Henry attended the meeting. William Henry White, a 30-year-old designer, based on the parameters proposed by the Royal Navy, came up with a high-freeboard warship of about 14000 tons. This design combined sturdiness, uniformity, reliability, and efficiency, and won high praise from the participants.
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