In a building in the naval port of Needham of the Krull Kingdom, many of the admirals of the Krull Kingdom pondered.

A rear admiral above was gushing: "From the intelligence analysis we have obtained, it is already very certain that the new generation of warships under construction by Hengren adopts a mixed main gun scheme, and in addition to using four 300 mm main guns, they also carry four single 250 mm main guns in the amidships!" ”

"This artillery layout is very strange, at least in the last ten years, the navies of various countries have never seen such mixed battleships with different calibers with main guns!"

"Why are those barbarians doing this?"

"Just because they're weird and savage?"

"No, we may despise the customs of the Constant Barbarians, but we must not despise their sensitivity to war!"

"In this regard, our technical department has a number of conjectures, and the only logical one is that their mixed main gun battleship is to deal with naval warfare after the two main technological innovations of hardened armor and rapid-fire guns!"

"We have relevant news very early on that they have successfully developed and assembled rapid-fire guns, although we have never seen the real thing, and we have not even been able to get even a photo, but from their high secrecy of the secondary guns on the battleship, and even the daily sea is covered with gun clothing, it can be analyzed that their secondary guns must have major technological innovations, otherwise there is no need for such a high-intensity technical secrecy!"

"And what kind of new technology secondary artillery is worthy of such a degree of secrecy for them? Undoubtedly, a new rapid-fire gun! ”

"Since the Battle of Yi'an, we have also increased the research and development of rapid-fire artillery, and through the intelligence department, we secretly obtained samples of their new smokeless gunpowder from the Daheng people, and after the analysis and reverse deduction of our scientists, we have successfully imitated the smokeless gunpowder, and applied it to our new hydraulic rapid-fire tube gun."

"At present, the 120 mm rapid-fire gun has completed the research and development, and it is expected to be officially put into service in the middle of the year, through the test, we can know that the rate of fire of the rapid-fire gun has been greatly improved, the rate of fire of the 120 mm rapid-fire gun can reach about seven to eight rounds per minute, and the 150 mm secondary gun can also reach more than four rounds per minute!"

"What will this medium-caliber gun with a high rate of fire bring? The dense ammunition projection capability can not only effectively contain the threat of torpedo boats, but also cause serious damage to medium-sized warships such as cruisers with weak protection, and can also cause effective deck damage to capital ships! ”

"At the same time, we can also be sure that their new warships use hardened armor and effectively reduce the tonnage of the battleship, otherwise they would not be able to maintain sufficient speed and ensure protection with so many naval guns!"

"Our designers have carefully calculated, the use of composite armor, even if it is hardened composite armor, its protective effectiveness is still limited, in order to ensure the protection of a large amount of armor tonnage, if equipped with a total of nine mixed main guns, and then ensure a speed of about eighteen knots, its tonnage will reach more than 18,000 tons, obviously, the tonnage of their new warship is definitely not so large, at most only 16,000 tons."

"This means that they are equipped with more advanced hardened armor than us, and there is a great possibility that it is the homogeneous steel hardened armor that we are working on and developing, and only in this way will they be able to save a lot of armor tonnage!"

"If the other side applies these two technologies to the new warship, then they also know the threat posed by these two technologies, and how do they deal with this threat?"

"The caliber of the rapid-fire secondary gun has been expanded, this is the response plan of the Daheng people!"

"We know that by adopting hardened armor, the weight of the armor can be saved, which in turn will expand the protection area to harden the threat of rapid-fire guns. At the same time, the distance of engagement will be shortened, which will lead to the inability of small-caliber rapid-fire guns to effectively threaten the main battleship, so they adopted the method of increasing the caliber of secondary guns to obtain the penetration ability against hardened armor, ensuring the lethality of battleships such as cruisers and even armored cruisers, and at the same time using the higher rate of fire of the second-class caliber main guns to make up for the lack of fire rate of the main guns! ”

"But this point must be based on the premise of their secondary main guns rapid-fire, if they can't be rapid-fire and still maintain a low rate of fire, then it is better to have four main guns with a larger number of 150 mm secondary guns."

"It is obvious that their rapid-fire guns have been successfully expanded and can effectively increase the rapid-fire of 250 mm caliber naval guns, which must be paid attention to."

"The appearance of hardened armor and large-caliber rapid-fire guns, that's why we see their new warships, with large-caliber secondary guns, and the emergence of mixed main gun battleships!"

I have to say that the Krull people reacted quite quickly and had a lot of talents, just from the layout of the Gaoqing's naval guns, combined with other intelligence, so many things were analyzed, basically the design intention of the Gaoqing and even the technological progress behind it were analyzed.

"Now it's not so much why they're doing it, it's how do we do it? Obviously, we are also facing the same problem as the Daheng people, that is, our main gun is too slow, and the small-caliber artillery is not enough to kill the hardened armor, so should we also follow up and adopt a mixed main gun scheme to deal with future threats? ”

"Can we keep up with the progress of large-scale research and development of rapid-fire guns in a timely manner? When will it be possible to come up with a large-caliber rapid-fire gun? ”

"If we start to mix the battleships with the main guns now, will the large-caliber rapid-fire guns be able to keep up with the progress and be loaded in time?"

Soon, the industry of the Krull Kingdom gave a positive answer: yes!

Immediately afterwards, the navy of the Krull Kingdom also quickly determined the plan: since the Daheng people have helped us test out the development path, then what are we hesitating about, follow up in time, and then surpass them!

This kind of thing has not been experienced by the Krull Kingdom once or twice, many years ago, when the ironclad ship first came out, it was also made by the Daheng people, large-caliber front-loading rifled naval guns, that was the first application of the Kell Imperial Navy, the layout of the central gun room, which was made by the Walya.

The rear-loading rifled naval gun was also the first to be carried out by the Daheng people.

The low-freeboard and dew battery layout, well, is one of the few innovations they have in the Krull.

However, the later layout of the fort on the high side of the high console was first developed by the Daheng people.

However, did this affect the navy of the Krull Kingdom to claim supremacy?

No!

On the contrary, it also further promoted the development of the navy of the Krull Kingdom, making the strength of the Krull Kingdom's navy stronger and widening the distance between it and its opponents.

Because, the industrial scale of the Krull Kingdom is larger, the basic industry is thicker, and some small innovations do not matter, once they are discovered, they can quickly follow up and produce in large quantities, and then in turn comprehensively suppress the opponent.

Therefore, the Daheng people are ahead in hardened armor and rapid-fire guns, and now after they come up with mixed main gun battleships, they do not feel strange or unhappy, on the contrary, they are happy, and finally someone has tried to find a way of development for them.

In a few days, the Navy of the Krull Kingdom has carried out design improvements for the warship that has just started, and it is expected to be equipped with a large-caliber rapid-fire secondary main gun.

At the same time, a new design scheme for battleships with mixed main guns was quickly taken out and construction began, and only the first batch of battleships with mixed main guns was an order for four battleships.

This courage is much stronger than the small family of the Daheng Empire.

The mixed main gun battleship of the Great Heng Empire is only a pitiful one!

But the Krull Kingdom started building four ships in one go!

The reaction of the navy of the Krull Kingdom has not been announced, and they have tacitly agreed with the Great Heng people to keep the hardened armor and rapid-fire artillery technology highly secret, and the mixed main gun battleships are also kept secret.

And several other countries are still stupidly building ordinary high-freeboard warships, and even the batteries are generally open-air batteries!

However, since the Krull Kingdom has made rapid-fire guns, and the large-scale homogeneous hardened armor is almost the same, other countries actually have relevant research, and even the progress is not satisfied.

The Krull Kingdom is concerned about the development of the Great Heng Navy, but the Kyle Empire, the Valya Empire, the Olisa Empire, the Gafia Empire and other countries are also highly concerned about the development of the Great Heng Navy.

It is no secret that the people of Daheng have new armor and new rapid-fire guns, the secret is only the technical details.

So they also have related research, but the technical background is not as strong as the Krull Kingdom, just take a casual look, and after knowing the general theory from the words, they can quickly imitate it successfully.

However, they didn't wait too long, in March of the 11th year of Qiansheng, the Kyle Empire completed their own rapid-fire cannon research, although mass production is still relatively difficult, and it will not even be available in large quantities until next year.

But the Kyle Empire did not carry out any secrecy in the field of rapid-fire artillery, but they knew that the Great Heng and the Krull people had already come up with rapid-fire guns, so there was little need to keep it secret in the field of rapid-fire artillery, since there was no need to keep it secret, it was better to use it as a bargaining chip to expand the warship market and make money.

So, they announced in a very high-profile manner that they had developed a new type of rapid-fire gun, with a terrifying rate of fire, which is absolutely easy to use on a new type of warship, and all countries are welcome to purchase it!

Such a high-profile announcement, and even an open sale, made both the Great Heng Empire and the Krull Kingdom unexpected, and even a little resentful.

Ma Dan, I really don't want anything to make money, if this rapid-fire cannon is sold publicly, after this spreads, the entire navy of the Blue Star will be equipped, it will not be of any benefit to these naval powers, how can I bully the navies of those small countries in the future?

Not only that, in July of the eleventh year of Qiansheng, the Valia Empire next door to Kell also came up with hardened armor, well, not counting their own research and development, they stole the hardened armor technology from the Krull Kingdom, and the Walia Empire also has no need to keep it secret, and it is also learned from the Keel Empire to announce the news.

What's even more odious is that as soon as these two sworn enemies turned around, they exchanged rapid-fire guns and hardened armor technology with each other!

Seeing that both countries possess these two technologies and intend to export them publicly, the Krull and Daheng people can't sit still.

It's all at this time, and it's still a fart, and it's true to take advantage of your lead to get more warship orders.

In this regard, the Daheng Empire has the advantage of mass production for many years, can provide spot, and the technology is mature and the performance is advanced, and the Krull Kingdom, they have a strong background, although they are latecomers, but their rapid-fire guns have also begun mass production, hardened armor has also begun to be produced in small batches, this year's production capacity to meet their own use, but next year they will be able to supply a large number of external products.

Both have a greater competitive advantage over the Valia Empire and the Kkarl Empire.

So it didn't take long for the Daheng Empire to usher in an old friend of the Daheng people, Crown Prince Holibat of the Orr Kingdom, to formally discuss the procurement of new warships and technological upgrades.

Lin Ziran promised Crown Prince Holibat that if the empire released the export of rapid-fire guns and hardened armor, then the Orr Kingdom would be the first country to get it!