"Sixty first-class battleships, your navy has a great appetite."

At the Military Affairs Office meeting, Liu Jun couldn't help but breathe in when facing the naval warship expansion plan presented by the Navy Commander of the Ministry of War.

After continuous adjustments, the Navy now has four major fleets in the southeast, west and northeast, while the former Yangtze River Fleet is affiliated with the Army and is a land naval division unit.

The Siyang Fleet has a total of eighteen squadrons, each of which has basically equipped three main warships, with at least thirty warships of one to sixth level, not counted as other transport ships.

Basically, each squadron has a first-class battleship. According to the warship standards divided by the Warship Department of the Han Empire, all warships are divided into levels one to six, and the first, second and third-class warships have at least sixty-four heavy artillery pieces. Therefore, these third-class warships are also called battleships and are the main battleships of the navy. During combat, they are mainly composed of naval combat columns to engage in large-scale fleet artillery battles. It can be said that they are the real sea kings in the era of giant ships and cannons in this era.

Such warships are expensive and have a short manufacturing time.

In recent years, in order to equip the main battleships of the 18 squadrons and the Army Navy, Liu Jun has drawn a lot of money. In addition to Liu Jun's emperor flagship, the total value of the Sea God, is one million silver dollars. The cost of other first-class standard battleships starts at least 600,000 silver dollars.

The imperial court spent tens of millions on those first-class warships alone. Not to mention that each fleet also had more than 30 other warships of second- and third-class warships, as well as other level warships.

Even the lowest level six warship will cost 60,000 silver dollars per ship.

Now the navy's appetite is getting bigger and bigger. When the Yangtze River Fleet was taken over by the army in every way, the navy immediately made many moves, and finally successfully made Liu Jun Songkou build a new Western Fleet. The Beiyang Fleet, the old main fleet of the Imperial Navy, has six squadrons, far exceeding the size of the four squadrons of the other three fleets.

The cost of a squadron's warship is no less than three million yuan, not to mention the large number of artillery, gunpowder, etc. that warships require. A fleet has a total of two thousand artillery pieces.

But the Navy is not satisfied now.

They proposed a larger fleet expansion plan, and each large fleet should have 13 to 150 large warships. Both the main warships of one to three levels, each large fleet should have at least 10,000 cannons.

According to his meaning, the four major fleets of the Han Empire had to have at least 600 main warships, and at least 40,000 to 50,000 cannons.

This does not include warships below the sixty-four guns of level 4 to 6, nor does it include transport ships, landing ships and other ships.

This plan was simply crazy, and even Liu Jun couldn't help but roll his eyes when he saw it.

According to Liu Jun, the new European maritime overlords of the same era, although Britain and the Netherlands, were engaged in a maritime arms race, their fleet only had about 150 main warships, and the fleet owned no more than 10,000 cannons.

Liu Jun will not consider whether the current coastal shipyard has the ability to build four or five hundred main warships at the same time. Even if he has this ability, the money needed is quite scary. Liu Jun estimated that according to their expansion method, a large fleet would require at least 50 million silver dollars. This is still a conservative estimate.

For the four major fleets, it will cost more than 200 million.

This is just the cost of casting warships and artillery. After so many ships are built, there must be crew sailors. Even if the navy's marine forces are not included, a standard first-class battleship will save personnel, and the capacities will reach nearly one thousand people.

If each squadron has three first-class warships, it will be more than one hundred, and the number of people on these first-class warships alone will be more than 100,000.

There are also those second- and third-level main ships, as well as those fourth- and fifth- and sixth-level ships. Some auxiliary ships are there.

How many soldiers does the Navy plan to have? Add the Shanghai Marine Forces, are they planning to make one million like the Army?

"Your Majesty, we are not having a big appetite. We have fully considered the coastal situation of the Han Empire. Now, the Western barbarians, such as Spain, Portugal, Britain, the Netherlands, and even Sweden, are riding the wind and waves. In the Ming Dynasty, we even seized our rich mirrors, Taiwan and other places, not to mention that the Japanese were in rebellion and the coastal areas were poisoned."

"Now that the new dynasty was established, of course, there can be no boundless seas. Even maritime trade is so prosperous, countless sea ships are sailing on the sea. Far from Japan, North Korea, and even the Southeast Asian region, this requires the protection of the imperial navy."

The current naval commander is Zheng Cai, the nephew of Zheng Zhilong, and a general of the Zheng family's maritime group back then, who has been transferred to the court as the naval commander by Liu Jun.

After he arrived at the Capital Army, he was not willing to be lonely and actually concocted such a naval expansion plan.

"The court's fiscal budget this year has been formulated, and all funds have been allocated, and the budget given to the army is 200 million yuan. However, it includes the suppression of bandits and quelling the rebellion, the northern expedition against Manchuria and Mongolia, and the use of troops in the southwest and northwest areas. It also includes the food, salary, rewards and expenses of the soldiers, as well as the construction of military stations outside the pass, the southwest and northwest areas, and the establishment of treasury forts, etc."

"These 200 million yuan can only be enough to save and plan to use it. The court has no money to support the Navy's large-scale expansion plan."

Zheng Cai was anxious, "Your Majesty, the court has assigned the Yangtze River Fleet to the Army. This is an unfair practice to the Navy..."

"Didn't I just build a new Western fleet?"

"But although there are eighteen squadrons now, each fleet has only about thirty warships, and there are only three main warships, one in one class and one in two or three levels. This level is even worse than the Spanish in Luzon, not as good as the Dutch in Jakarta, and not even as good as the Portuguese in Malacca."

"Your Majesty, above the South China Sea, the Western barbarians are now strengthening their armaments and new warships are constantly coming. Especially now that the power of Portugal is gradually weakening, the Spaniards are also trapped in the European battlefield and can only defend Luzon in the South China Sea. However, the British and Dutch people have continuously strengthened their strength in the South China Sea due to their successive victory in the European battlefield."

"Your Majesty, now the barbarians and indigenous sultan countries in the South China Sea are brewing a war and conflict that may start at any time. The treaty we signed with the barbarians back then may be broken at any time. In the event of chaos in the South China Sea, we must have enough maritime power to deter the barbarians. Even the ministers think that the court should seize this opportunity of change and intervene our maritime power in Nanyang."

"If our navy can be expanded, then I think it can completely replace the Portuguese in Malacca, or even drive away the Spaniards in Luzon. It is also extremely important to settle for the second best and compete for the Golden Island of the indigenous people opposite the Malacca Trading Port, which is in the hands of the indigenous peoples across from the Malacca Trading Port, which is also very important."

Zheng Cai, along with Zheng Zhilong and others, was quite familiar with the Southeast Asian Sea. He pointed out the entire pattern of the Southeast Asian Sea at once.

Most of the indigenous peoples of the Nanyang Islands were sultanate countries, who believed in the green religion and had many island countries. However, later the Portuguese first came to the east, and they established commercial stations and colonies in Goa, Malacca and other places in India, and went east to the coast of the Ming Dynasty. After failing to occupy Penghu, they finally rented Macau.

The Spanish followed the Portuguese, and the Spanish and Portuguese colonized first and were the first countries to gain sweetness from the great voyage. Spain later became strong and even annexed Portugal.

However, nowadays, both Portugal and Spain have declined. Even Spain, the invincible fleet at sea, was exhausted because it was deeply trapped in the European battlefield. Especially after the Dutch left the country independent, they came from behind. The maritime power surpassed Spain, and the island country of Britain has also become a new maritime power.

Now in the Southeast Asian Sea, the Portuguese still occupy Malacca, Goa, the Spanish occupy Luzon Philippine Islands, and the Dutch occupy Java.

The British and Swedes also began to join this area.

The previous intervention of Liu Jun led several countries to sign a friendly treaty, but such treaties were also limited. When the Spanish and Portuguese continued to weaken, the increasingly strong Dutch and British would definitely not be able to sit still.

Zheng Cai had been a pirate before, so he naturally supported the first move.

Nanyang is a golden land, how can the good things at home be cheaper than the barbarians? What's more, there are a large number of Han people in the South China Sea, which can be said to have a good foundation. As long as the imperial navy strengthens, it will be possible to attract Nanyang to the south. It is not impossible to acquire these island countries into the territory of the Han Dynasty.

Liu Jun looked at Zheng Cai and praised his ambitions in his heart. Since the Song Dynasty, countless coastal merchants and people have gone to Southeast Asia, doing business and even immigrating. There are indeed countless Han people in the Nanyang Islands. The Spanish killed tens of thousands of Han people twice on Luzon Island.

But this idea is good, but it is not available yet.

The court did not have that kind of strength, and I wanted to take advantage of it in a short time, so I had to do it a little bit.

"I don't know what you plan." Liu Jun poured a basin of cold water on Zheng Cai's head with a word.

But he immediately said, "But the navy can be expanded appropriately. I see that each fleet can have two first-class ships, four second-class ships, six third-class ships, and another forty-eight four-five-six-class ships. One squadron can have sixty warships of all levels. Each squadron has a full 20,000 people, and each large fleet is equipped with a marine unit of 5,000 people."

A large fleet of 85,000 people, four large fleets of 340,000, and two additional squadrons from the Beiyang fleet were separated to form a task force with a capacity of 30,000.

The entire navy, eighteen squadrons, had a total of 370,000 people on land and land.

However, this number is still a lot, so Liu Jun told Zheng Cai that the 18th Squadron had 370,000 people, and they could not be expanded at one time, and they were divided into several batches. Finally, Liu Jun decided to complete it in four batches in eight years. One batch every two years, and all the expansion was divided into four batches.

New warships, new artillery, and new naval soldiers were all divided into four batches.

The current navy is 100,000 people, and the remaining four batches are expanded by about 70,000 people per batch, and the warships are also expanded by batches.

This result was beyond Zheng Cai's expectations, and the commanders and chiefs of staff of the other troops participating in the conference were also shocked. In advance, they all thought that Zheng Cai's plan would not be allowed by the emperor at all. After all, the navy now has four fleets of 100,000 people, and it is not a dream to expand it to tens of thousands of cannons at once.

But no one could have thought that although the emperor did not agree, he did not completely refuse.

The navy of 370,000 people will be expanded in four batches within eight years, which is scary enough. The 370,000 people will be expanded at once, 270,000 people will be nearly four times that of the current 100,000 people.

The size of each squadron's sixty warships, of which twelve main warships, was enough to shock many officers, especially the army officers. They couldn't understand when the navy actually took so much attention?

In this way, a squadron has at least three thousand cannons, and the number of guns in its warships is three times that of today.

The eighteen squadrons, although there are only more than 200 main battleships and not as amazing as 600, will still have more than 50,000 artillery pieces.

The generals of the army were shocked and could not speak. The army had an assistant, and the five thousand people had only a field artillery battalion and a heavy artillery company, which totaled only one hundred artillery pieces.

Now the army generals are actively promoting the court to expand the Han army to a million scale, which is actually only about 200 cooperation, including about 200 field artillery battalions and more than 200 heavy artillery companies. In addition, the heavy artillery standards and heavy artillery battalions under the jurisdiction of each town division, all of which may not necessarily have 30,000 artillery pieces.

A navy actually has more than 50,000 cannons. Is there any reason for this?

The generals of the army looked at Zheng Cai, and they were both jealous and amazed. This guy actually succeeded. No, how could our mainland army be suppressed by the navy?

His navy can expand its troops by hundreds of millions and has more than 200 main warships. Then our continental army must have at least four or five hundred cooperatives.

Many army generals began to brew and would also have to make an army expansion plan when they returned. Otherwise, when the news reached the lower level, the commanders and chiefs of staff in the court would not be scolded to death by the people below.

At this time, Liu Jun was still calculating the cost of the navy's expansion. The navy wanted to expand more than 200 main warships. Even if they were divided into eight years and four batches, each batch would have to build forty or fifty new ships. The main warships would have to start with hundreds of thousands of silver dollars. They would have to be divided into eight years, and the cost of building new warships in a year would be at least about 20 million.

Not to mention that we have to build a new naval school to train more naval officers, technical troops, etc.

He even felt a little regretful. Are he too anxious and took too much steps? Although he had been staring at the Nanyang area, there were still Qing Dynasty in the northeast and barbarians in the south. Not to mention that there were still Mongolia in the south and Mongolia in the south. As for the northern Mohe and the Western Regions, the Tubo and other places were beyond their reach.

I didn't want to turn my head and think that if I took out 20 to 30 million a year, the court wouldn't be unable to take it out. And eight years later, it was estimated that a brand new and powerful imperial navy would have been built. At that time, the court should have conquered the north and south and could go to Southeast Asia. (To be continued.)

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