The chief designer Hou Haishaoqing is directly equipped with eight 300 mm 45 times caliber naval guns, adopts a four-seat twin-mounted layout, and the main gun range also reaches 18,000 meters, equipped with an ultra-luxurious power system, which is enough to make this armored cruiser of more than 17,000 tons run 24 knots.

This is already about the same as the maximum speed of the second- and third-class cruisers in service today, and as for the armored cruisers, they do not have such a fast speed for the time being, and they generally stayed at about twenty knots before.

This armored cruiser, in fact, is the same as the previous Fengyang-class armored cruisers, which belongs to the weak protection firepower and high-speed version of the battleships of the same era, which is also the consistent design idea of the armored cruisers of the Daheng Imperial Navy.

But an armored cruiser of more than 17,000 tons is not suitable to continue to be called an armored cruiser, so this time the Daheng Imperial Navy simply called it a battle cruiser and gave a new classification.

The battle cruiser, the lead ship was named the Chipping, and two ships of the same class were scheduled to be built.

After finalizing the development ideas and construction plans of the battleship and the battlecruiser, the construction plans of other auxiliary ships were also quickly followed.

Since the speed of the new battleships reached 20 knots, the battle cruisers went to 24 knots, which means that the early four Fengyang-class armored cruisers, and the number of more than a dozen Klan-class armored cruisers under construction were limited to 20 knots, which was no longer able to provide avant-garde reconnaissance missions for the main battleships.

At the same time, the development of second-class cruisers was not very smooth before, and the original batch of fourth- or five-thousand-ton second-class cruisers did not play well in the two Bova naval battles, and they did not play any tactical role in the heavy losses, and even in the two Bova naval battles, their tactical role was not as good as the Yuchi-class cruisers of more than 2,000 tons.

However, the more than 2,000-ton Yuchi-class cruiser still has its own limitations, and it is okay to act as a destroyer leader, but it is still not qualified to really accompany the capital ship in combat and provide avant-garde reconnaissance.

For this, the Daheng Imperial Navy needed a new medium-tonnage cruiser.

The speed can not be lower than twenty-seven knots, and it is best to be able to further increase to about thirty, but the ultra-high speed of thirty knots is still too difficult for the existing steam engine power system, so the initial set is twenty-seven knots, even so, in order to achieve the speed of twenty-seven knots, the super large aspect ratio used by the class of ships, and the armor protection is also very weak, but it is also a side armor belt, and it is no problem to block those small-caliber rapid-fire guns......

At the same time, in combination with the concept of 'light armored cruisers' protection, which appeared in the first half of the year, and the concept of long-distance engagement, it was proposed to adopt eight rapid-fire guns of 150 mm and 45 times the caliber of a unified caliber, and adopt the layout of the broadside armor belts used only by the main warships.

The tonnage is not large, only about 5,000 tons, and in terms of combat use, it is actually classified as the previous reconnaissance cruiser.

The new type of cruiser is named the Pingxi-class light cruiser, and it is planned to build eight ships initially, four of which will start this year, and four more will be built next year, depending on the situation, or an improved version will be built directly.

As a destroyer or destroyer lead ship, it is on the basis of the Yuanlin-class destroyer, and the Guanglin-class destroyer is further improved and built, the tonnage of the class ship has been further expanded to 1,500 tons, and the speed has been further increased to 30 knots......

The main gun was planned to be a 120-mm rapid-fire gun, paired with a 75-mm rapid-fire gun.

However, there is also an extremely important improvement of these two auxiliary ships, which is that the torpedoes that are expected to be matched above will be thermodynamic torpedoes.

The Daheng Empire has cooperated with the Kele Empire to develop thermodynamic torpedoes many years ago, but the Kell Empire has developed thermodynamic torpedoes relatively early and has more technical reserves, but the Daheng Empire has paid a certain price to obtain their related technology, and then cooperated in research and development.

At present, samples of thermodynamic torpedoes have been manufactured and tested, although it will take several years before it is perfected, but the Daheng Navy is now preparing the thermodynamic torpedo.

Only after this kind of thermodynamic torpedo, which can reach an effective range of several kilometers, can the destroyer become a real destroyer, and not only serve as a platform for anti-lightning firepower and miscellaneous use, as in the past!

In addition to the above-mentioned cruisers and destroyers, with the low speed and low firepower of armored cruisers, and with the expansion of the maritime trade of the Daheng Empire, the need for protection of sea routes increased day by day.

Therefore, the Daheng Imperial Navy also urgently needs a successor warship to the Crane-class armored cruiser, which can barely act as a high-speed formation to join the avant-garde formation in the decisive battle of the fleet, but more importantly, it is a cruiser that carries out ocean-going escort and hunts the enemy in wartime.

In terms of the nature of the mission, it is actually more similar to the Crane-class armored cruisers.

Originally, the best battleship is naturally a new generation of battlecruisers, but this thing is expensive, a Qiping-class battlecruiser of more than 17,000 tons can be no cheaper than a battleship of more than 18,000 tons......

Such an expensive battle cruiser must be scarce in number, and it is intended to be used to participate in the decisive battle of the fleet, how can it be used for ordinary escort and hunting enemy cruisers.

Therefore, the Daheng Imperial Navy needs a large cruiser that can be built in large quantities to escort ships, garrison overseas, and counter breaking diplomatic relations, and the Daheng Imperial Navy's Ship Administration Department is very direct and directly expands the Pingxi-class light cruisers, and then makes out a Hechuan-class heavy cruiser with a standard displacement of 10,000 tons, with a speed of 26 knots.

It is worth noting that the ship also belongs to the category of armored cruisers, equipped with a side armor belt, the main gun layout follows the concept of unified full heavy guns, the main gun adopts one front and rear, one on the side staggered, a total of four twin 200 mm 45 times the ship gun, all four main guns can be fired at the side at the same time, and the side fire is eight main guns.

The speed is good, the firepower is strong, but the armor protection is not good, and the main armor belt is only a meagre seventy-five millimeters!

However, the design idea of the battleship was to unify the all-heavy guns, play long-range engagement, and the elevation angle of the gun was designed to be as large as possible, even if it is not needed now......

At an elevation angle of 30 degrees, the maximum firing range of the main gun can reach 18,000 kilometers!

Including the new battleship, the battlecruiser and the heavy cruiser, the main guns of these three battleships have a maximum range of 18,000 meters in advance, but this maximum range is actually meaningless for the time being, and even for many years to come.