In order to deal with the threat of torpedo ships, the Daheng Imperial Navy directly expanded the caliber of heavy machine guns and made them into machine guns on the ship, and at the same time used with 11 mm heavy machine guns to form a medium and close fire network, which can be used to deal with those torpedo ships and other small and medium-sized targets at close range, and can also deal with enemy ship deck personnel.

This is also a very interesting evolution process, that is, because of the existence of Lin Ziran, the Daheng Empire directly skipped the hand-cranked multi-barreled machine gun and machine gun, and directly adopted the machine gun and machine gun with the principle of short barrel recoil.

The speed is seventeen knots, which is slightly faster than the Luohai-class cruisers that were commissioned before and the Ansu-class cruisers that started construction ahead of schedule.

After all, the latecomer advantage.

This battleship was already under construction in April, that is, the 'Zhenbei', and the estimated cost was only one million.

The Zhenbei-class cruiser, as a large reconnaissance cruiser among the large and small reconnaissance cruisers, is qualified in all aspects, but in the eyes of the navy, this large cruiser is only suitable for reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance.

And if you want to let it take on more important strategic and tactical tasks, then it is very reluctant.

Therefore, on the basis of large cruisers, the Navy has designed a new type of armored cruiser with enhanced protection.

In order to achieve a series of high-intensity tasks, the navy needs armored cruisers to have a speed of at least 17 knots, in short, no worse than the current mainstream cruisers of various naval powers, which are generally between 16 and 18 knots.

In terms of firepower, it is required to be equipped with naval guns of more than 250 mm and 30 times the caliber, and it is best to have four.

Well, this is a more powerful main gun firepower than the unified battleship, and there are only four 250 mm and 25 times the ship guns on the unified battleship, although there is room for upgraded gun mounts, but it is not upgraded yet.

In terms of protection, it is a little worse than the battleship, but in order to comprehensively surpass the current dome cruiser, that is, it is necessary to deploy the waterline armor belt to form the armor layout of the armor box, and the key defense mode can be adopted, but the armor thickness of the main part must be guaranteed, at least to be able to resist the bombardment of the first-class second-class ironclad ships in the navies of various countries, and the messy front-loading rifled guns or the expected two-hundred-millimeter breech-loading guns assembled by the armor belt cruisers.

However, the designers of the Ministry of Shipbuilding, according to these mission requirements and indicators, designed warships are very hurtful to the navy!

Those guys from the Ship Administration Department may have been lazy, and directly changed the Unification-class battleship slightly, and then threw it out to fool people, because according to those people in the Ship Administration Department, it is:

Armored cruisers need to comprehensively suppress the protection and firepower of the enemy's first-class cruisers and second-class battleships, isn't this the protection and firepower standard of the Unification-class battleships, when they were engaged in the Unification-class battleships, they went to this goal......

As for the speed, the hull was enlarged and the alkali was weaker, so as to make more room for coal-fired boilers and steam engines, which could barely reach a speed of seventeen knots.

To put it bluntly, they just got a high-speed battleship out, which is completely different from the armored cruiser that was set before, but the defense was strengthened on the basis of the cruiser.

To a certain extent, in fact, the improved large cruiser designed now can already be called a high-speed battleship.

And in order to achieve this high speed, the displacement of more than 1,000 tons was increased, not to mention, the protection was even worse.

Needless to say, the cost is not to mention, close your eyes and know that this thing is even higher than the unification class battleship, the navy purchase price of the unified class battleship is two million four hundred and fifty thousand Heng Yuan, this thing is much more expensive than the unified class battleship, they estimate that the purchase price will reach three million Heng Yuan.

This leaves the Navy speechless, this thing is too expensive.

However, after Emperor Lin Ziran saw this design plan, he felt that the design plan of the ship administration department was very thoughtful.

The use of high-speed battleships, or battle cruisers, with key protection, in Lin Ziran's opinion, is better than the previous simple armored cruiser scheme.

And this thing seems expensive, but if you compare it to the Yonglin-class battleships, it's nothing.

After the design change, it is estimated that the standard displacement will rise to 10,500 tons, and the new main gun under development and many other new technologies will be adopted, and the procurement budget for the first ship of this class has risen by hundreds of thousands in one go, to 4 million Hengyuan, and even the second ship may need 3.8 million yuan.

So this may seem expensive, but it's not unacceptable!

Although the protection of this armored cruiser is a little worse than that of the Unification-class battleship, the Daheng Imperial Navy has already internally clarified the naval development route, that is, relying on the combined rangefinder to take the long-distance artillery battle route.

This means that the combat distance can be stretched to more than four or five thousand meters, and even then the enemy will begin to use the combined rangefinder and find a way to hit at a long distance, but the combat distance is long, and it can also effectively reduce the power of the enemy's naval guns.

So the protection is almost not unacceptable.

The most important thing is that the speed is fast, and you can run if you can't beat the cutting-edge battleship!

As for the rest of the battleships of the second rank, cruisers and the like, armored cruisers bully people in whatever posture they like.

Undertaking line combat missions on the secondary front is still secondary in Lin Ziran's view, and even insignificant.

In Lin Ziran's view, the most critical role of the armored cruiser plan proposed by the Navy is still to serve as an avant-garde fleet.

At the time of the decisive battle of the fleet, it performs reconnaissance, counter-reconnaissance, diversion and other tasks.

When the time comes, a few armored cruisers will be organized into a fast formation, which will be able to use protection and fire to sling all the enemy's reconnaissance and secondary formations, and use their speed to avoid the enemy's main fleet.

In this way, it will bring huge reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance advantages to one's own side.

Once you gain the advantage of battlefield intelligence, it means that your main fleet will be able to take the initiative on the battlefield.

And this is extremely important for the decisive battle of the fleet.

Therefore, Lin Ziran believed that even though the cost was higher, this kind of armored cruiser still had great tactical value.

For this reason, although there was some hesitation within the navy, Lin Ziran personally promoted the detailed design and subsequent construction of the armored cruiser.

It is intended to transfer the planned funds for the construction of shore defense ironclad ships to the construction of armored cruisers.

The design scheme is based on the previous design scheme, the details are improved, and the design work is expected to be preliminarily completed within three months, and at the same time begin to prepare for the preliminary construction, while waiting for the successful development of the 250 mm 30 times the caliber naval gun, if the artillery research and development is not successful, then there is a spare naval gun, that is, 250 mm 25 ship guns or 200 mm 35 times the ship gun.

After the ship was determined to be built, the plan was called the 'Improved Large Cruiser Program' and was promoted!

This can be regarded as a kind of strategic confusion, the Daheng Imperial Navy will not make all its warship plans public, and even basically do not disclose the construction plans and data of warships to the outside world, but other countries can still determine the basic situation by observing the construction in the shipyard dock and the warships after they are launched into service and some other public or non-public information.

This kind of relatively special warship is estimated to be difficult to hide, just like the Luohai-class dome cruiser, it has only been two years, and all naval powers have basically known and begun to build dome cruisers.

The Orr Kingdom is all looking for the same type of battleship that they want to order the Luohai-class cruiser!

It is estimated that the armored cruiser will not be able to keep any secrets in the future, but as long as the front slightly confuses the enemy for a few years, then it is also a good thing.

If other countries knew about the armored cruiser, they would definitely follow suit, and this has little to do with whether the armored cruiser is good or not.

The most important navy of the Great Heng Empire is there, the Orisa Imperial Navy must also be there, and the Navy of the Krull Kingdom must also be there!

It doesn't matter what type of ship it is, and it doesn't matter how it changes in the future, as long as you have it, I also have it, and more and better mine, then it's enough to be invincible!

This is the core element of naval competition!

However, the navy of the Krull Kingdom is more special, and it is estimated that they will follow up in the short term, but I am afraid that they will change direction soon.

The Admirals of the Imperial Navy estimated that they would at best get a few test ships, or simply some cheap versions of small armored cruisers of four or five thousand tons, to be used for overseas missions.

As for this kind of armored cruiser of seven or eight thousand tons, it is estimated that the Krull Kingdom will not dare to be interested, for the Navy of the Krull Kingdom, this thing is actually very chicken, this broken thing is not cheap, but it can't be on the battle line yet.

As for acting as an ordinary cruiser, playing avant-garde reconnaissance, the armor of about 10,000 tons is too cost-effective, they have a lot of first-class protective cruisers, second-class protective cruisers, besides, in fact, they don't need much avant-garde reconnaissance, a large number of battleships, playing global presence, global attack.

When the war started, dozens of battleships were directly swung towards the enemy's coastline, the enemy's main ports and waterways were completely blocked, and a simple reconnaissance was required, and even the anti-breach of diplomatic relations was saved.

And the generals of the Daheng Empire Navy, the reason why they have such speculations is because everyone didn't say it, but in fact, the current Daheng Empire Navy is touching the Krull Kingdom Navy to cross the river, and even the core global offensive naval thinking is plagiarizing other people's global existence and global offensive strategic thinking.

And the Daheng Navy, who is studying the thoughts of the Krull Navy, this student can still understand the thoughts of the teacher of the Krull Kingdom Navy!

What is the idea of the navy of the Krull Kingdom?

Dozens of battleships directly block your doorstep, so that you can't even get out of a broken sampan, and you want to get an armored cruiser to engage in avant-garde reconnaissance, make a broken relationship, and dream about it!

If your armored cruiser can get from the port, or can find the port for replenishment and maintenance operations after coming out, Lao Tzu's 800,000-ton battleship will sink en masse!

Battleships are king!

However, the navy that can do this, even thinking that armored cruisers are chicken ribs, is only the navy of the Krull Kingdom.

If nothing else, there are not as many battleships from other countries as it has!

A country's naval construction and specific warship design are often influenced by many aspects, not to build what you want, but to build the most suitable naval tactics and warships.

The admirals of almost every country on the Blue Star are particularly envious of the navy of the Krull Kingdom.

I envy their naval strategy of 'global presence and global offensive', and even more envy their huge ocean-going fleet composed of first-class battleships, second-class battleships, and first-class, second-class cruisers, and third-class cruisers.

However, there is only one navy of the Krull Kingdom on this blue star!

The navies of other countries are not like this, but their strength does not allow it!

Many countries, such as the Olisa Imperial Navy, do not want to get a bunch of thousands of tons of shore defense ironclads, even the main battleships of eight or nine thousand tons, they have to deliberately pay attention to firepower and protection, resulting in extremely poor seaworthiness and endurance.

They also want a large number of first-class ocean-going battleships to crisscross the world!

But that thing is expensive, and if it is only used to control coastal defense, to be honest, it is a bit wasteful, and the actual utility is not as good as getting a bunch of short-legged battleships and a bunch of thousands of tons of shore defense ironclads.

Even the Daheng Empire, in a short period of time, it is impossible to build a few new battleships and a large number of cruisers every year like the navy of the Krull Kingdom, and in case of emergency, it can even start construction of more than a dozen battleships at the same time, and complete and serve within two or three years......

The Krull Kingdom's ship-building capabilities are even stronger than the rest of the world combined!

Therefore, even if other countries are unwilling to provoke the Great Heng Empire, its naval development cannot be as extravagant as the navy of the Krull Kingdom, at least not now.

The navy of the Great Heng Empire is intimidating to other countries because of the powerful army, and as for the navy, it is much stronger.

There is a preliminary small goal within the Daheng Imperial Navy, that is, it hopes to raise the scale of the Daheng Navy to the top ten in the world within five years through the preliminary plan of the second phase of the naval development plan, and become a regional naval power, with the ability to basically defend the coastline and the ability to attack the enemy's merchant fleet.

In order to achieve this goal, the Daheng Imperial Navy will need to serve a large number of cutting-edge warships in the next five years.

And these cutting-edge warships must also meet the needs of future naval warfare.

In the internal controversy of the Navy in the past six months, the Daheng Navy has made a final conclusion on the future development of naval warfare, that is, the future will definitely be the era of line duel!

We must resolutely follow the offensive naval line and resolutely adopt the tactics of sideside firepower and horizontal formation, so as to give better play to the first-mover advantage of our own rear-loading naval guns and the long-range auxiliary aiming advantage of the combined rangefinder, which is in strict secrecy.

According to this strategic thinking, the navy of the Great Heng Empire made great strategic adjustments between June and July.

Even the classification of ships has been reclassified to conform to the new strategic thinking of the Navy.

The new classification of ships is based on the purpose of the warship and other comprehensive situations, and all combat ships and auxiliary ships have been classified as new types of ships, and the vague classification of ironclad ships and armored ships has been abolished.

The new classification of ships adopts battleships, cruisers, mine-strike ships, coastal defense ships, mine-laying ships, minesweepers, transport ships and other types of ships.

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