The Iron and Steel Frenzy of the Republic of China

The so-called chain reaction is probably the case.Zhu Bin didn't know whether he leaked the news of building a large battleship intentionally or unintentionally, just a gust of wind blew past, and it set off boundless waves in all directions in the world.

〖ri〗Ben passed the plan of building new battleships at an unprecedented speed, and there were even four ships as soon as construction started.

It was undoubtedly the British who were most annoyed by this.

Since the last European War, the British economy has been half-dead. The troubles caused by the Great Depression have affected them deeply after the United States. Even if there are colonies all over the world as dumping grounds, they still cannot get this old and rigid old empire out of the mud drag out.Seeing that Germany, 〖ri〗Ben, and the United States are starting to recover their economies one by one, even France has boosted its economy by wantonly building the Maginot Line due to Chapter 359 Shipbuilding Chaos ([-]). Digging trenches and digging underground air-raid shelters, and all kinds of forced infrastructure construction have led to economic recovery, which is simply grotesque.

That's all, what they can't stand the most is the rapid growth of [China's] economy.Since the major basic industries were put into production last year, the gross national product has risen sharply, almost quadrupling compared to previous years, and agricultural production has also recovered rapidly from the lag of the economic crisis, mainly due to the massive investment in high-yield crops and chemical fertilizers in the southeastern coastal areas caused by pesticides.

In the final analysis, it was because of the huge changes brought about by Zhu Bin and his so-called gd group.Most of the factory owners and industrialists in this era are landlords in their rural hometowns, straddling both sides of industry and agriculture, and followed Zhu Bin to make a fortune in industry.Agriculture is also willing to invest.As a result, agricultural output has increased by at least three or four times or more under the comprehensive changes in mechanized cultivation, improved seeds, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and water conservancy conditions. It is expected that by this summer, the total summer grain output will double nationwide.In autumn, when the high-yield potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, soybeans, etc. are all harvested, it will double again.It is optimistically estimated that the total amount of agricultural products in Shandong alone will catch up with the whole country in the past next year!Chapter 359 Shipbuilding Chaos ([-])

Such a big change did not bring much benefit to the British. Among the exported products, only cotton, iron ore, high-quality coal, and timber increased, and the industrial products increased very little.The soaring consumer market was firstly taken advantage of by the United States and Germany, and most of it was absorbed by China's emerging industries.

It's not that the British have never thought of launching a new round of joint sanctions, trying to use their League of Nations as an excuse to fool the [China] government into giving up industrialization and gain their political support.Or simply force them to open up the market by further threats of force.

But this time, neither of the tricks worked.

Even Lao Jiang no longer believed in the so-called League of Nations, and put into practice the entire set of national economic and military construction plans proposed by the National Defense Construction Committee, and renamed it the "Resources Committee". There are 2 large-scale heavy industrial projects and a series of subsidiary projects. The credit contract officially signed with Germany alone has 2 million gold marks, and there are also [-] million loan projects with the United States. Almost all of them use industrial facilities. .Procrastinating and extremely unfriendly, a dime relationship never happened.

After the Americans discovered that the [China] government had shown a clear pro-American tendency from the very beginning, they also quickly changed their strategy and stopped messing around with the UK. Don't even think about joint sanctions, such a big emerging market , an export quota of hundreds of millions of dollars or more a year, employing 10,000+ American workers in China, what a big problem that is, how could Roosevelt destroy the Great Wall casually!

Isolationism, which tends to be conservative, makes it impossible for the United States to launch a war to snatch the market.That kind of backward and barbaric behavior is long gone.So the United Kingdom can't do it alone. Seeing that the task force pulls out a whole new high-speed fleet, it can't even handle 〖RI〗. up.

Seeing that the last naval agreement signed is about to expire.Countries have begun to move around again, and the British are limited to the difficult economic situation.There was really no spare energy to continue to maintain the title of the world's number one veteran navy, so they began to think about political containment.

Finding that the Germans could not be restrained, they deceived themselves and signed the so-called "British-German Naval Agreement". After the three "German-class armored ships", the Germans immediately started construction on a bunch of ships, and new battleships will also start construction.

In order to counterattack, the French first started construction of the "Dunkirk-class battleship" and last year started building a more powerful "Richelieu-class battleship".

In order to ensure the balance of power in the Mediterranean Sea, the Italians started construction of the "Veneto-class battleship" with three triple-mounted 1934mm main guns in 381.

It is foreseeable that in the next few years, there will be a new batch of powerful battleships rampant in the waters around Europe, but there will be no shadow of Britain.That's all, anyway, the total tonnage of the British Empire Navy is still the first and second in the world, and it can scare a lot of people, right?

But going on like this is not a long-term solution, so he declared that for the sake of all countries and world peace, he proposed to sign a new round of the London Disarmament Agreement.

But this time it was not so smooth. The Germans claimed that they were not members of the former London Naval Agreement and were not subject to this restriction. They were unwilling to limit the new battleships to less than 35000 tons of standard displacement and did their own work; Yue directly announced that he would withdraw from the negotiation and stop playing with you; the Italians said that if Germany signed it, I would sign it, so only Britain, France and the United States were left to play by themselves, and the Americans had additional conditions. 〖ri〗I abide by the restrictions of the treaty If not, we will not break the agreement.

In this way, in fact, only Britain and France really want to abide by this so-called agreement. The Americans have already released their new warship plan, and it is too easy to build up their huge economic strength.

The British realized that a new round of naval competition was inevitable. While continuing to negotiate, the Royal Navy urgently formulated a plan to build five new battleships, ignoring the original plan for a giant ship with a 15-inch main gun. Let’s make do with it first. Making it out is key....

At this point, they can finally breathe a sigh of relief. The British calm down and start thinking about how to continue their balance of power diplomacy, dragging the world's naval armaments until they rise again.Unexpectedly, at the critical moment, the [Chinese] Chinese strike without warning, completely disrupting their calculations!

[China] started building battleships!Still a big guy with a 406mm main gun!Although the gossip says that it only has a standard displacement of 35000 tons, anyone who is not a fool can guess that there must be water in it!Looking at the time frame, equipped with such cannons, it is impossible to get it without 4 tons!

But this is not the key point. The key point is that when [China] starts building battleships, the opposite [ri] will definitely not be idle, and will inevitably manufacture more and larger battleships. Then breaking through the restrictions of the naval agreement is a foregone conclusion, and the Americans I will not allow myself to be threatened, and I will definitely build more and bigger guys. The result is... British wishful thinking has become a big joke!

Prime Minister Baldwin and the general moderates and appeasers in the British government responded very slowly to this, and did not make too many comments, but Winston Churchill declared with great indignation: "This is the biggest mistake in the history of the British Empire! No Controlling the military expansion of the Germans and [Chinese] will surely pay a heavy price for it!"

It's just that he can't do anything alone, no one listens to this, and the whole of Britain is immersed in a false pacifist atmosphere, and they don't even realize how big a crisis is gestating in it!

Churchill was a smart man. He knew very well that although the divided [China] was not united, it still pursued the same goal of seeking sovereignty and independence from the outside world, and re-emerging on the stage of world powers. He was vigilant against Japan's aggression , and always brewing counterattacks and revenge is inevitable.As an old empire that has led the world for many years, the British know very well how angry they are when a suzerain country is trampled by their servants and vassals. That anger must be vented, otherwise it will become uncontrollable sooner or later horrible disaster!

And this time the construction of the battleship is to sound the horn of revenge!It is foreseeable that when the newly built giant ship of [China], which can fully suppress all the old battleships of [Ri], enters into service, coupled with its air force that has already shown comprehensive advantages, and the army that is rapidly reorganizing its armed forces, it will be very difficult for Ri Initiating an unprecedented and tragic revenge is bound to begin!That day, maybe three years later!

At that time, the whole of Asia will be corrupted. If Britain is not prepared enough at that time, no matter which country wins, Britain will be forced to withdraw from the Far East, losing a large part of its colonies and markets, and will not get much benefit.

At this point, things are out of order!

Churchill was very sad to find that he seemed to be the only one with a clear head in the whole country, but no matter how he yelled or warned, he even clearly saw that the Germans had seized the Rhineland Demilitarized Zone and regained the mineral resources here Afterwards, its military construction will surely reach a new level. As Germany began to actively participate in the Spanish Civil War and blatantly export various advanced weapons and equipment for experiments, it is almost a certainty that Europe will be shrouded in Hitler's clutches!

Can the UK's future change for the better?

Nobody knows.

In June 1936, the U.S. Navy decided to build two brand new battleships. According to the naval agreement, the design standard displacement was 6 tons, and the main gun was originally limited to 35000 inches. The first 〖ri〗 can’t have a smaller caliber than this, so there are very good reasons to enlarge it, and the drawings have already been prepared, and it can be replaced with the same 14mm and 406mm main body with a little modification. gun.

In addition, in view of the results of several naval battles between China and Japan, the anti-aircraft weapons in the original design have become very weak, so it needs to be enhanced, and 10 127mm38l high-level dual-purpose guns will be replaced, as well as 40mm anti-aircraft guns and 20mm cannon.The blueprint of the new design is expected to be completed by the end of the year, when it will be submitted to Congress for approval, and construction can start early next year.

So far, the naval shipbuilding competition around the world has officially kicked off. (To be continued. !!!