The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 1015 This "Naval Armaments Limitation Treaty" has too big a loophole!
In October 1888, the autumn sun shone through the arcades of St. Mark's Square in Venice, casting its rays onto the cobblestone streets. A black carriage bearing the diplomatic license plate of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom slowly entered the forecourt of the Palazzo Venezia, its wheels making a crisp sound as they rolled over the leaf-strewn cobblestones.

"Admiral, we've arrived."

Onodera Tsubaki was the first to jump down from the carriage. This Japanese adjutant wore the dark blue uniform of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom navy, with an exquisite samurai sword at his waist. He turned and held the carriage door open, where Luo Xinhua's tall figure appeared. This expeditionary fleet admiral was not yet forty years old, but he had already commanded or participated as a main force in many decisive naval battles, and he was the most decorated commander in the Taiping Navy—no, in the world's navy today!
He adjusted his military cap, looked up at the Renaissance-style palace, where a squad of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom marines stood in neat rows before the palace gates. A major at the head of the squad immediately saluted Luo Xinhua: "Your Excellency! The Prime Minister is waiting for you in the Podesta Hall."

As Luo Xinhua walked down the long corridor, his military boots echoed crisply on the marble floor. Portraits of past Venetian doges hung on either side of the corridor, their stern gazes looking helplessly at this naval commander from the East—the world's maritime power no longer belonged to their descendants!
The doors of the Podsta Hall were wide open, and Luo Xinhua could hear his father's familiar voice from afar: "If all else fails, ask the Tsar to move to Yekaterina Castle, and then ask Li Hongzhang to send Yuan Shikai with 20,000 to 30,000 Tang Dynasty expeditionary troops to help. That should be enough to quell the People's Will Party."

Luo Xinhua straightened his military uniform at the door and coughed softly. The conversation inside the hall abruptly stopped.

"Come in," Luo Yaoguo's voice came from inside.

Inside the spacious conference hall, Luo Yaoguo sat at a long table covered with maps, flanked by his wife Natalia, his second son Luo Xinbei, and Foreign Minister Wu Chaoyue. Sunlight streamed through the stained-glass windows, casting colorful dappled patterns on the maps. Several cups of steaming coffee sat on the table, and the air was filled with the faint aroma of tobacco and coffee.

“Father.” Luo Xinhua stood at attention and saluted, his gaze sweeping over everyone present. Natalia smiled gently at him, while Luo Xinbei winked.

Luo Yaoguo stood up. Although the de facto ruler of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was nearly sixty years old, his back was still ramrod straight. Today he was wearing a dark gray military uniform with a small gold Taiping Heavenly Kingdom badge pinned to his chest.

"You've come at the perfect time." Luo Yaoguo walked to the rosewood cabinet by the wall, took out an exquisite carved wooden box, and said, "Here, take this first."

Luo Xinhua took the wooden box; it was heavy. He gently opened the lid, and two golden general stars gleamed in the sunlight on the black velvet lining.

“This is…” Luo Xinhua’s voice was a little tense.

"The rank of Admiral." Luo Yaoguo said with a smile, "From today onwards, you are the Admiral of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Navy."

Luo Xinhua felt a tightness in his throat. His current rank was General, with three stars on each shoulder. Two more stars would make him a Grand General with four stars on each shoulder—an unprecedented speed of promotion in the history of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's navy.

"Isn't this too fast?" Luo Xinhua asked in a low voice.

Luo Yaoguo had already walked up to his son and personally pinned two gleaming general's stars on his son's head. "Quick? How many naval battles have you fought in these past few years? From the Eastern Pacific all the way to the North Sea in the Atlantic, you've made outstanding contributions to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. No one in the navy has a rank that doesn't respect you." He patted his son's shoulder. "This rank is well-deserved."

Luo Xinhua straightened his back, feeling the weight of the four stars on his shoulders. He knew that this was not only an affirmation of the past, but also an expectation for the future.

"Thank you, Father," he said solemnly. "This is all thanks to the soldiers who risked their lives and the shipyard workers who worked day and night."

Luo Yaoguo nodded in satisfaction and gestured for him to sit down: "Since you've brought up shipbuilding, there's something I need to discuss with you. You are destined to be the future naval commander." He turned to Wu Chaoyue, "Bring me that document."

Wu Chaoyue took a neatly bound stack of documents from his briefcase and handed them to Luo Xinhua. The words "Draft Treaty on Limiting Naval Armaments" embossed in gold on the cover gleamed in the sunlight.

罗新华翻开文件，眉头渐渐皱起。文件详细列出了各国海军主力舰的吨位分配：太平天国：150万吨；大英帝国：120万吨；德意志帝国：60万吨；美利坚合众国：60万吨；法兰西第三共和国：40万吨；俄罗斯帝国：40万吨
"This 'restriction'..." Luo Xinhua looked up at his father, puzzled. "Is it really a restriction? The actual tonnage of our main warships is far less than 150 million tons."

Luo Yaoguo took a sip of coffee, a slight smile playing on his lips: "Go on."

"By this standard, if we used all 150 million tons to build battleships, with a standard displacement of 2.5 tons, we could build 60! That's...that's way too many!"

“Not many, not many.” Luo Yaoguo put down his coffee cup. “How can we build only battleships? We also need to build heavy cruisers and aircraft carriers. Besides, 2.5 tons of standard displacement is too small. It won’t be useful in 20 years. We need at least 10 battleships with a standard displacement of 4.5 tons.”

Luo Xinhua quickly did the mental calculations: "If we build 10 ships, each 4.5 tons, the total tonnage of the battleships would be 45 tons. And then we'd use the remaining 105 million tons to build aircraft carriers and heavy cruisers? That's way too much!"

Luo Xinbei suddenly interjected, "Brother, aircraft carriers are the future." The former naval aviation squadron leader's eyes gleamed. "Clumsy battleships will be phased out sooner or later."

罗耀国接过话题：“具体分配是这样的.”他拿出一张纸，在上面写下几行数字：战列舰：10艘4.5万吨级（45万吨）；试验舰：3万吨级2艘，3.5万吨级2艘，4万吨级2艘（共21万吨）；重巡洋舰：25艘1.2万吨级（30万吨）；航空母舰：20艘2.7万吨级（54万吨）

"Twenty aircraft carriers?!" Luo Xinhua nearly jumped out of his chair. "That's way too many!"

Luo Xinbei excitedly said, "Not many! In future naval battles, aircraft carriers will be the main force. One aircraft carrier carries 80 aircraft, so 20 carriers would be 1600 aircraft! That's equivalent to the strength of three air corps!"

Luo Xinhua shook his head: "It's not appropriate, it's not appropriate." He turned to his father, "The loopholes in this treaty are too big. If I were the Secretary of the Navy of Germany or the United States, I would definitely use all 60 tons on battleships—build 15 4-ton-class or 12 5-ton-class super battleships."

Luo Yaoguo suddenly laughed, his eyes narrowing into slits: "And then?" Luo Xinhua was taken aback, then suddenly understood: "Father...you wouldn't...be hoping they'd do that, would you?"

Luo Yaoguo stood up and walked to the window. Outside, gondolas swayed gently on the canals of Venice, and the surface of the Adriatic Sea shimmered in the distance.

"Xinhua, do you know how much it costs to build a 5-ton battleship?" He didn't turn around, his voice calm.

Luo Xinhua pondered for a moment: "It will cost at least 1500 million silver dollars, and possibly more."

“It’s definitely more than that.” Luo Yaoguo turned around. “We also need to expand the shipyard, renovate the port, and train specialized operators. A giant ship like this takes at least 10 years from design to commissioning, and the cost is enough to bankrupt a small country.”

He walked back to the table and pulled out a blueprint from the folder. The blueprint was a design drawing of a huge battleship, labeled "5 tons, 3×3 410mm main guns, 30 knots speed".

"This is..." Luo Xinhua gasped.

“We might ‘accidentally’ leak the design plans to Germany and the United States,” Luo Yaoguo said with a smile, “making them think that future naval battles will be dominated by these steel behemoths.”

Wu Chaoyue added, "According to intelligence, some people in the German Navy have already proposed building a 4.5-ton battleship. This design will only make them more enthusiastic."

Luo Xinhua finally fully understood his father's plan: "So, on the surface, we allow countries to build battleships, but in reality, we are inducing them to waste resources on outdated weapons?"

“Exactly.” Luo Yaoguo nodded. “By the time they realize what’s happening, our carrier battle group will already be able to dominate any sea area.”

Natalia said softly, "But for this plan to succeed, we must ensure that countries actually use the majority of their tonnage on battleships."

“That’s the brilliance of the treaty,” Luo Yaoguo explained. “We deliberately defined capital ships very broadly—any ship that is over 1 tons, equipped with guns of 150mm or more, or capable of carrying aircraft counts. This way, the navies of various countries will think that building large ships is more ‘cost-effective’.”

Luo Xinhua thought quickly: "But what if they don't fall for it?"

Luo Yaoguo sneered, "They will definitely fall for it. Because battleships represent the glory of 'great ships with big guns,' and no naval commander can resist such temptation." He paused, "Especially since this world war has proven the advantage of giant ships + big guns! Two 26,500-ton Yinglong-class battleships can easily sink four 22,800-ton Heligoland-class battleships!"

"Minister Wu, arrange for someone to 'leak' this design to the German Admiralty. Remember, make them think it was stolen."

"Understood." Wu Chaoyue wrote it down in her notebook.

Luo Xinhua was still pondering the details of the plan: "Father, if all countries really go all out to build battleships, there should be quite a few 4.5-ton super battleships in 15 years. But how many years will it take for our aircraft carriers to truly achieve combat capability?"

"At least 15 years, maybe 20 years," Luo Yaoguo said confidently. "The technological threshold for aircraft carriers is much higher than that for battleships. Aircraft takeoffs and landings, deck operations, and carrier-based aircraft maintenance all require long-term accumulated experience. Therefore, we still need to build 10 super battleships with a standard displacement of 4.5 tons! Add to that the capital ship quotas that the United States, Japan, Korea, and the Inca Empire can receive, and that will be enough to deter the United States and Germany for several years."

He walked to the nautical chart on the wall and pointed to the Pacific region: "And when their 120 million-ton battleships are all operational in 20 years, our twenty carrier battle groups will be able to control all the world's important waterways."

Luo Xinbei added, "Moreover, the construction cycle of an aircraft carrier is shorter than that of a battleship. Once we master the entire process of building and using an aircraft carrier, we can build a 2.7-ton aircraft carrier and put it into service in two or three years."

Luo Xinhua finally smiled: "I understand. This treaty, on the surface, restricts armaments, but in reality, it is leading countries down the wrong path of an arms race."

"Not only that," Luo Yaoguo said meaningfully, "by the time they realize that battleships are obsolete, they may already be stepping into the battlefields of World War II!"

The conference room fell silent for a moment, with only the occasional crackling of the firewood in the fireplace. Everyone was immersed in the future vision Luo Yaoguo had painted—the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's aircraft carrier battle groups patrolling the world's oceans, while those costly battleships became mere decorations in the harbor.

“There’s one last question,” Luo Xinhua broke the silence. “What will the British choose? They’ve always been shrewd.”

Luo Yaoguo was confident: "The British will waver between battleships and aircraft carriers. The treaty gives them a quota of 120 million tons, which is just enough for them to hedge their bets, building battleships on one hand and some aircraft carriers on the other, but they can't do either one to the best of their ability."

He walked up to Luo Xinhua and patted the newly appointed admiral on the shoulder: "Your mission is to establish the first experimental aircraft carrier battle group within three years. Start with aircraft carriers converted from fast merchant ships and explore combat experience."

Luo Xinhua stood at attention and saluted: "Yes, sir!"

(End of this chapter)