Munitions Empire

The new round of the arms race began the moment Shenchu Country signed a peace treaty with Tang Country. After purchasing battleship technology from Tang Country, many nations started constructing their own battleships.

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The Ice Cold Empire built the Everwinter-class battleships, increasing their displacement based on the fearless battleships, taking the displacement up to 30,000 tons, which was larger than the battleships of the Tang Army.

This brand new design of battleships adopted an upgraded power system, with greater output power, ensuring the warship’s cruising speed.

At the same time, the ships’ armor became thicker, their defensive capabilities were enhanced, and their cannons became more powerful.

The 305mm caliber main guns were no longer exciting enough for customers, so a 350mm caliber quickly became the top choice for the Everwinter-class battleships.

All the new technologies were purchased from the Great Tang Group, including the barrel technology for the cannons and the chamber pressure data, among others...

However, the brand-new battleships indeed had an all-around performance advantage over Tang Country’s Dongwan-class battleships, even in terms of cruising speed, by a small margin.

The entire battleship was equipped with a total of five gun turrets, using the most advanced central axis layout, which was more advanced than the turret layout of the Tang Army’s own Dongwan-class battleships.

As this class of battleship commenced construction, the whole world was set into motion. Those countries with coastlines and harbors began the successive construction of their own battleships.

Once the battleship came into being, it became the ultimate weapon for naval supremacy; the cruisers and destroyers built before were just minions who couldn’t make it onto the high-stakes table.

Therefore, the Laines Empire immediately began constructing the Brunas-class battleships, with a displacement of 32,000 tons, also employing the Great Tang Group’s 350mm caliber naval guns that had higher chamber pressure and longer range, and were more precise.

The brand-new Brunas-class battleship’s firepower configuration, just like the Ice Cold Empire’s Everwinter-class, adopted a design with five gun turrets and the same caliber of main guns, but the difference lay in the Brunas-class’s larger tonnage, more cabins, and somewhat thicker armor.

After all, there was a bit of a latecomer’s advantage, so from the design stage, the Brunas-class aimed to outperform the Everwinter-class on all performance indicators.

In fact, the Brunas-class did just that, with better sinking resistance, higher defense, and a cruising speed that was about the same; overall performance was slightly better than the Everwinter-class.

The Dorne Navy directly purchased two Dongwan-class battleships and, at the same time, hired designers from the Great Tang Group to design a battleship unique to Dorne.

Because they were willing to invest heavily, Dorne’s battleships even had a bit of a breakthrough implication—they could be classified within the scope of second-generation battleships.

Dorne’s battleships adopted 380mm caliber main guns, sacrificing the number of main guns for a significant increase in caliber.

The entire warship was equipped with four gun turrets in the classic front-two rear-two arrangement, totaling eight main guns, which purely in terms of gun caliber had already overpowered all previous battleships.

The design of the warship was basically a copy of the Bavaria class, with some performance aspects approaching those of World War II era battleships.

Its tonnage had already approached 35,000 tons, with ultra-thick armor and a clever design, definitely making it a maritime fortress.

Dorne started construction on two such battleships, naming them the Endless Winter-class battleships—three countries coincidentally chose to name their new generation of battleships after port cities, and incidentally, all three were previously port cities belonging to the Great Tang Group.

Chu Country also commenced the construction of new type battleships, with the shipbuilding plan having somewhat of the shadow of the Dahua Empire.

Chu Country, which had never paid much attention to maritime defense, built three large battleships at once, basically copying the design of the Tang Army’s Dongwan class and conservatively choosing 305mm caliber main guns.

Interestingly, Chu Country took a different path from other countries, opting for another route of shallow-draught gunboats: their new type of battleship had a displacement of only 18,000 tons, which was even smaller than the Tang Army’s Dongwan-class battleships.

Because they reduced the tonnage, Chu Country’s battleships had their gun turret arrangement redesigned, also adopting a more efficient central line layout and reducing the number of turrets to four.

Shireck did not sit idle either; they built five battleships in one go, plagiarizing the casting technology of the Great Tang Group, and set their battleship main guns to the relatively mature caliber of 350mm.

Compared to the Dorne Navy’s aggressive choice of 380mm caliber main guns, Shireck was relatively conservative in its choice of main guns, but they definitely did not skimp on the other aspects of investment.

Shireck’s battleships reached an astonishing displacement of 33,000 tons, which were also huge behemoths with endless steel forging their superb defense, and with access to an excellent power system, Shireck did not skimp on installing thick enough armor on the sides of the battleships.

Shenchu Country had not been idle either; although they had gone completely bankrupt, in order to maintain their coastlines and protect the lifeline they depended on for survival, they still, gritting their teeth, mustered all their national strength to build their own new type of battleships.

They actually did not have the docks to build such massive warships, so they had no choice but to order dock equipment from both Shireck and the Great Tang Group and constructed two qualified docks at their Great Southern Bay port.

The construction of the docks significantly delayed the time it took for the Navy to build battleships, so they referred to the battleships of other countries and then modified some of their own battleship’s technical parameters.

After suffering from the disadvantage of inferior equipment in the battle of the North Sea, the Navy was determined not to fall in the same spot twice.

They chose an odd caliber of 410 millimeters for their battleships, gritting their teeth to expand their battleship’s caliber by another 30 millimeters.

In order to enhance their battleships’ combat capabilities, they even squeezed in the installation of 5 main gun turrets, resulting in an alarmingly long battleship hull.

Finally, to accommodate the propulsion system and stack on enough armor, their battleships’ tonnage seriously exceeded the standard, reaching an astonishing 40,000 tons!

It was said that many designers were involved in the design of this class of warship, and some even anonymously consulted the designers from the Great Tang Group. Of course, such consultation wasn’t cheap.

With help from the Great Tang Group, the Empire of Nanla also designed and built their battleships on their own; nearly every coastal country in the world joined the ranks of battleship construction.

The Poplar Kingdom also started building their own battleships, and the Songmu Kingdom did not want to fall behind, so they built their battleships too.

However, both countries, limited by national power, chose a design concept similar to that of Chu Country: their battleships had a smaller tonnage, closer to the concept of a shallow-draft gunboat.

Compared to the destroyers and cruisers built previously by various countries, many new battleships were equipped with various models of anti-aircraft guns.

For the threat from the skies, almost all warships were crazily being refitted, and the upgrades were all about "installing new anti-aircraft weapons."

The airplanes of the Tang Army left a deep impression on navies worldwide; possessing anti-air capabilities became a fundamental consensus among global navies for their expensive battleships.

Since there was no need to consider size or portability, the anti-aircraft guns installed on warships were much more advanced in performance.

Many countries referred to the anti-aircraft guns introduced by the Great Tang Group, installing specialized sights on their mass-produced anti-aircraft guns and increasing their rate of fire.

Installing these guns on battleships, cruisers, and destroyers became an all-out effort for navies around the world.

Warships were too expensive; each one was precious. To have one sink was truly heartbreaking. Any chance to improve anti-air capabilities was seized; they couldn’t just let soldiers take to the deck with rifles to shoot at the skies, could they?

Thus, the battleships of these countries, or should we say all warships, were fitted with a large number of anti-aircraft guns, which could be considered an early widespread adoption of technology.

The calibers and technologies of these anti-aircraft guns varied greatly, with some coming from Shireck, and some from the countries’ own research and development, creating a highly mixed and chaotic state.

Why had so many countries suddenly started building battleships? They had their own calculations.

These countries felt that in terms of air force, they couldn’t compete with Tang Country, which held an absolute technological advantage, at least in the short term. Since they could not secure the advantage, defeating Tang Country would require other methods.

They then remembered the Tang-Chu War, when the Tang Country’s Navy fleet was restrained and unable to move northwards to join the battle.

As a result, these countries saw what they thought was Tang Country’s weak point: cutting off the sea route between Dragon Island and Linshui would seemingly cripple Tang Country’s industry.

The fragile maritime transport line between Linshui and Dragon Harbor appeared to be Tang Country’s Achilles’ heel. Cutting off this transport line would leave Tang Country’s air force and army formidable but facing a predicament with no fuel supply.

From the perspective of these countries, developing the navy and choking Tang Mo’s maritime supply line, while avoiding Tang Mo’s air force, seemed like the best solution to defeat Tang Country.

The investment was substantial, but the effect was also quite remarkable, so countries began building their own battleships, preparing to dominate Tang Country’s fleet at sea.

Now, Tang Country had 5 serviceable battleships, while the other countries had none. However, in two years, Tang Country would have, at most, 10 battleships, but by then there would be roughly 35 battleships belonging to other countries on the Endless Sea...

According to plans, at that time, the number of battleships would be: 6 from the Navy, 5 from the Ice Cold Empire, 2 from the Poplar Kingdom, 2 from the Songmu Kingdom, 4 from the Laines Empire, 7 from the Dorne Empire, 5 from Gobur (Shireck), 4 from Chu Country.

Alone, the Tang Country Navy seemed unable to respond to the collective challenge posed by so many countries.