The Rise of the Empire

"What?! The supply of the new hardened armor will be delayed?" When Sir Watts had just finished the meeting with the Argentines and was about to go back to retreat for two weeks and get out a sketch before talking about it, the representative of the Armstrong Shipyard brought him There was a heartbreaking news for him!

"How is it possible? Didn't our government negotiate with the other party? The first batch of 2,000 tons of hardened armor will be delivered in 5 months!" Watts said angrily.

"This is just a cooperation intention. The two sides still have differences on the price issue. Just last Saturday, the Russians suddenly proposed to eat the first batch of all hardened armor at a price of 15 pounds per ton. Two new armored cruisers have been started, and the goods that were originally allocated to us were divided between the two!"

The other party's answer made Watts completely desperate. He knew that because of some people's actions, the Argentinian's order completely missed him!

"This is a conspiracy!" Sir Watts, in anger, quickly connected a series of recent events. First, Krupp held a firepower demonstration, which dismissed the dome cruiser as worthless, and then The Russians ordered a large number of armor steel to squeeze out the part of the British, and then the orders they got themselves just flew away.

The customer's requirements and his own survival did not meet the specifications, and even if Watts' personality exploded to create a design, it would still be aborted due to armor supply problems. Faced with such a situation, he had no choice. After all, the other party's decision was reasonable. The Russians offered a higher price, and the Germans would naturally give priority to supplying goods. What can the British do if they are overbearing? The agreement was not initialed, and liquidated damages are impossible!

It's not that Sir Watts didn't think about making a final gamble. After all, the American Harvey armor steel is also hardened armor. Although it is a bit worse, he gave up soon. The price of Harvey armor steel plus shipping It is already higher than the German hardened armor produced locally in Europe. If the price remains unchanged, the profit of the warship will be so low that the shipyard cannot tolerate it, and the Argentines have also expressed their preference for German hardened armor!

When Sir Watts expressed regret that due to various reasons, he could not fulfill the customer's request, the Argentine did not express a trace of loss. On the second day after the talks between the two parties collapsed, the Argentine boarded the ship bound for Germany, and Naturally, their goal is only one Bloom-Forth Shipyard! This is the only country in the world that can guarantee the supply of armored steel and is building new armored cruisers!

"Well, pay attention to the price. It is better to reduce the endurance, firepower and tonnage of the battleship slightly. The Argentines don't need these. They are just an offshore navy." When the Argentines came to Germany, Rupp Prince Recht specially sent a telegram to the baron.

In his memory, Argentina in the early 1990s just ordered a second-class protected cruiser of more than 3,000 tons in the UK. It's hard to say. Therefore, the traveler suggested that the Baron reduce the performance and reduce the price!

But what the prince didn't expect was that maybe the result of the experiment was too exciting. The Argentines not only stopped the plan of the cruiser purchased from England, but also stopped the plan of two other small coastal defense ships. The Argentines woke up earlier than in history. This time, they decided to buy a warship that could confront Chile's Captain Platt head-on!

"For a 6,800-ton warship, let's calculate it at the price of 100 pounds per ton, and then add miscellaneous fees. Let's round up. How about you give 700,000 pounds?" When Baron Vittorio held a slightly smaller foreign trade version of the Munich armor When the cruiser was delivered to the other party, unexpectedly, the other party accepted the offer without any counter-offer!

"700,000 pounds, plus the required ammunition, individual weapons and return insurance costs." The Argentine almost nodded to accept the offer! The smooth negotiation made the baron seem to suspect that something was wrong with his head!

"It's so fucking smooth,

It's almost impossible to go smoothly! Seeing that the Argentine stamped the contract decisively, the baron felt that he was in a mess! "There must be something wrong here!" Certainly! "But at this time, it seems that nothing can be changed. The contract is signed, what else can I do?

However, in line with the rigor of a designer, the baron still wanted to understand the matter, so he prepared to use his eyeliner to investigate the matter. But as soon as the work was assigned and the investigation was not carried out, the answer came to him by himself. As soon as the Argentine left, the Spaniard came back!

"General Severa, do you also want to order a Munich-class armored cruiser?" The baron, who has been fighting in the field of battleship design for more than ten years, thinks he has profound skills and has seen all kinds of worlds, has seen such an active guest for the first time! After the Spanish representative expressed his intentions, the baron calmed down his thoughts slowly, and finally understood the causal relationship!

Although the Spanish Empire has fallen, they still bear the name of a great power anyway, don't they? And as a basic feature of a great power - a colony. Spain does have three remaining colonies overseas. Distributed in Africa, America and Asia. Since there are colonies, there is a need to protect the colonies. Although it cannot be compared with those real first-rate and second-rate powers, the Spanish navy can still be regarded as a small power for a period of time. At least during the Sino-Japanese War, it was stronger than Japan and the Qing Dynasty. !

If nothing else, Spain in history should build the first ship of the Maria Theresa-class armored cruiser at this time. How should I put it, this is a paper tiger that looks good on paper, but in fact it is just a paper tiger because it has no hardened armor and the protection area is not enough.

She and her sister ships were crushed in the Spanish-American War by 4 American battleships of 10,000 tons and a 9,000-ton Brooklyn armored cruiser. Along with them was the Garibaldi-type cruiser Clone, which nearly ran away and ran aground...  

But this time, because of two comparative experiments, the Spaniards unexpectedly discovered that the cruiser they are about to start will be a chicken in the future! The firepower of rapid-fire guns and high-explosive picric acid bombs can smash the unprotected area into slag, and the ordinary steel-faced armor is really backward. The 10-inch to 12-inch heavy armor is not even as good as the 7-inch hardened armor! This makes the Spaniards feel unacceptable!

Since I can't produce a suitable warship in a short time, the best way is to buy one right away! Looking around the whole of Europe, it seems that only the Bavarian Design Bureau and his partners can provide such warships. After all, other shipyards are not authorized...

"Well, the Cologne was born prematurely like this?" When the prince received the telegram, he couldn't help feeling the power of the butterfly effect. At first, he just invited military attaches from various countries to do a comparative experiment! That led to so many things. Thinking of the performance of the Spanish Navy in the Spanish-American War, the traverser couldn't help but shudder.

"Don't get my sign smashed by the Spaniards in the end!" the prince thought in his heart.

The second is more ~~~, please collect, recommend, and click!