These four first-batch Crane-class armored cruisers, although they are still equipped with the first generation of Luohai hardened armor (Harvey armor), are very thick, with the thickest part of a few core parts reaching 170 mm, and the thickness of the armor belt of important parts reaching 150 mm.

The ship's protection design standard is that the core compartments, such as ammunition depots and power compartments, should be able to resist the attack of 250 mm ordinary barrels or 230 mm long barrels of naval guns at normal combat distances.

The main armor belt, turret, conning tower and other important parts should be able to resist the attack of 200 mm long-barreled naval guns, while most parts, such as the gun gallery, should resist the attack of 150 mm rapid-fire guns.

The ship adopts the concept of comprehensive protection, the protective area of the main armor belt is very large, the upper armor is very thick, and the battleships of the Daheng Empire for their own use, the armor layout generally adopts inclined armor!

Its protection is quite strong.

Other Blue Star countries want to completely lose the combat effectiveness of the ship or even sink the battle, either use large-caliber main guns to enter the soul one by one, or use large-caliber rapid-fire naval guns with a caliber of more than 200 millimeters to wash the deck.

As for the ordinary rapid-fire guns of 150 mm caliber, they could not pose any real threat to the ship, let alone smaller-caliber rapid-fire guns such as 120 mm.

Because almost all significant parts of the ship have armor thickness of more than a hundred millimeters, and the Daheng Imperial Navy itself tested the protection of various types of armor.

At a distance of 3,000 meters, when ordinary pointed armor-piercing shells are used and smokeless gunpowder is dispensed, the effective penetration depth of the 150-millimeter rapid-fire gun is 100 millimeters of Luohai armor and 80 millimeters of Luojing armor.

However, if soft armor-piercing shells are used, then this data will be greatly improved.

After a series of live-fire tests, the Daheng Imperial Navy came to the conclusion that against the 150 mm rapid-fire gun, which is the biggest threat today, the 100 mm Luo Hai armor or the 80 mm Luo Jing armor is sufficient.

This is also the reason why the thickness of the armor of the main part of the ship of this class is a hundred millimeters of Luohai armor!

While the protection is strong, its firepower is also very strong!

There were not only two twin 200-mm rapid-fire guns, but also fourteen 150-mm rapid-fire guns, eight 75-mm rapid-fire guns, and six 40-mm rapid-fire guns.

And it also has a speed of twenty knots.

Such strong protection performance and firepower are currently comparable to the capital ships of the entire Blue Star navies, only the Jingzhou-class battleships, the Fengyang-class armored cruisers, and a few cutting-edge talents in the Krull Kingdom can match

Looking at the sea power of the Kingdom of Liedi and the surrounding areas, the Kingdom of Krull is deployed in the Southwest Fleet of the Kingdom of Kean, with four battleships and several cruisers, which is powerful.

The kingdom of Liej itself, which itself had two Bourgil armored cruisers, and the kingdom of Orr, on the other side of the strait, also had two cutting-edge battleships and two Garin-class armored cruisers.

And this time, the other side of the practice of the Liej Kingdom, the Gafia Empire, is one of the powerful countries, and its navy is the fifth largest in the world, which is even larger than the size of the Olisa Empire's navy, second only to the Krull Kingdom, the Walya Empire, the Kekel Empire, and the Great Heng Empire.

Its strength is naturally extremely strong!

In this case, in fact, many countries can't understand that since the Great Heng Empire has decided to carry out a military adventure in the Lieti Kingdom, it has to be stationed at the military base in Bowa City, no matter what, it must send a few battleships over, otherwise the Gafia Empire will send a battleship fleet over at will, and it will not be finished......

However, they didn't know that in order to be able to find a big nail in the southwest continent, protect the empire's interests in the southwest continent, and at the same time curb the further expansion attempts of the Gafia Empire, the more than ten capital ships sent by the Great Heng Empire were all the most advanced warships.

In the eyes of the Imperial Navy, if it wants to strengthen the strength of the Southwest Fleet, then it can only send more Jingzhou-class battleships.

But it's not possible.

The Empire's own maritime defense is not easy, because of the existence of the damn endless strait, the Imperial Navy is stationed on the east and west coasts, with the focus on the east coast, and the west coast is mainly a defensive strategy.

At the same time, facing the threat of the navy of the Krull Kingdom, we must also guard against the navy of the Olisa Empire!

Therefore, the six Jingzhou-class battleships of the Imperial Navy plus two Fengyang-class large-tonnage armored cruisers, these eight most powerful warships of the Empire, all of which were deployed along the coast of the homeland, were incorporated into the First Fleet, serving as the cornerstone of the Empire's coastal defense, and it was impossible to easily mobilize.

As for sending old warships overseas, just like the Krull Kingdom, to be honest, the Daheng Empire's navy is a little worried.

The old Endless Sea-class battleships and Yonglin-class cruisers, as well as four Chongke-class armored cruisers, are weak in protection because they are key protection.

Moreover, the rate of fire of the old main gun is relatively low and the power is small, so it is estimated that it will have to rely on the upgraded and modified rapid-fire secondary gun to really fight.

Although the Empire has continued to upgrade and modify them in recent years, adding fuel injectors to increase their power and replacing them with rapid-fire secondary guns, they can still only serve as second-tier missions.

Originally, the navy had considered dismantling the old main guns of these old capital ships and replacing them with new large-caliber rapid-fire guns to strengthen some protection.

Later, it was found that the cost of such a refit was too high, and it was better to build a new ship directly, so the large-scale refit was abandoned.

And because of the low freeboard and not very suitable for ocean-going voyages, the actual combat effectiveness of sending these old ships in the past is too low, and it is better to deploy them along the coast of the mainland to serve as coastal defense.

Under the compromise choice, the Klan-class armored cruiser will be used as the core warship of the overseas fleet in the Daheng Empire, and the flagships of the Southern Fleet and the Southwest Fleet, both overseas fleets, are Klan-class armored cruisers.

Many countries have ordered the Klan-class armored cruiser from the Daheng Empire, but there is no foreign trade Klan-class armored cruiser completed and delivered, which takes time to build, and the construction period of this kind of capital ship is longer, from the hull construction to the final delivery of outfitting, it generally takes three or four years.

Therefore, the current Klan-class armored cruisers are only used by the Daheng Empire.

Because the class of ships is cheap and the performance is good, and the potential for modification and upgrading is greater, the Daheng Empire has ordered a large number of Crane-class armored cruisers, and continues to upgrade and refit, the first batch of four, the second batch of five, and the third batch of three was added last year, a total of twelve ships are planned to be built, and each batch has greater technological progress.

The difference between the self-use version of the Daheng Empire and the foreign trade version is also very great, the main difference is the main gun, the Klan-class armored cruisers of the Daheng Empire are equipped with front and rear double-mounted 200 mm main guns, the first batch of the front is 200 mm 40 times the caliber main gun, and the last two use each other's 200 mm 45 times the caliber main gun.

The barrel itself is not the point, the export models are actually forty times and forty-five times the ship guns, the point is on the rate of fire.

The traditional half-rapid-fire naval guns are used for export, because the Daheng Empire has not opened the export of large-caliber rapid-fire guns with a caliber of more than 150 mm.

The self-use is a large-caliber rapid-fire gun, and the third batch of the latter is a 200 mm 45 times ship gun, and with an integrated turret, its rate of fire is quite terrifying, not to mention, and the turret protection ability has been greatly improved.

There is also a difference between the armor for self-use and the export model, and the export model is currently using Luohai armor.

However, the self-use version is gradually improved, the first batch is Luohai armor, the second batch is Jingzhou armor, and the third batch is already using Luojing armor, although they are all hardened armor, but there is still a large gap in protection performance.

The four Crane-class armored cruisers belonging to the Southwest Fleet, which is now dispatched to the Lieji Kingdom, are the first batch of Crane-class armored cruisers, equipped with Luohai armor and rapid-fire naval guns of 200 mm and 40 times caliber.

The four armored cruisers were accompanied by two Xialin-class cruisers, two Yuchi-class cruisers, and eight Yuanlin-class destroyers.

Its two Charlin-class cruisers have nothing to say, they are ordinary second-class dome cruisers, but they use new technologies such as hardened armor and rapid-fire guns, and the prototype ships of this cruiser are actually not many built and served by the Daheng Empire itself.

Because the positioning of the ship was to cooperate at the beginning, the auxiliary armored cruiser was used for avant-garde reconnaissance, but with the reform of the navy, this kind of cost is not cheap, but the protection and firepower speed are not good, and it is difficult to give the armored cruiser too much help.

The top brass of the Daheng Imperial Navy believed that it would be better for armored cruisers to simply form and act alone, at most with some high-speed reconnaissance cruisers and destroyers that assisted in operations, and this kind of half-hung second-class cruiser was useless.

As a result, the construction of the second-class dome cruiser of the Xialin-class was stopped after only two ships, and then the navy did not give up, and strengthened the power system of the Xialin-class, and built a 25-section Anlin-class cruiser on the basis of the Xialin-class cruiser, but because of the large number of power units crammed into it, the price was extremely expensive, so there was no follow-up after building four.

Therefore, there are actually only six warships in this series, and they are basically sent overseas, and they are not included in the combat sequence of the First Fleet, the core fleet on the east coast of the mainland......

How to say it, whether it is high or not low is not the embarrassment of this cruiser.

However, the low-speed and low-configuration version of this cruiser is very popular in small and medium-sized countries, and it is quite good to buy, with orders for more than a dozen ships. After all, for small and medium-sized countries, even if it is a low-speed and low-configuration version, this kind of second-class protected cruiser of more than 4,000 tons with a bunch of rapid-fire guns is enough to cooperate with the capital ship as a high-speed two-wing fleet.

The unsuccess of the Xialin-class and even Anlin-class cruisers within the Daheng Empire's navy directly gave birth to the Yuchi-class cruisers.

This Yuchi-class cruiser is a bit special, the tonnage is not large, only 2,800 tons, but the speed is extremely fast to reach 25 knots, the most critical is to sacrifice firepower and protection at the expense of the hull, and at the same time lengthen the hull, under the premise of increasing the speed, effectively control the cost, it can be regarded as a relatively cost-effective reconnaissance cruiser made by the Daheng Empire in recent years.

Although the ship is protected from slag, it has a waterline armor belt, and its protection mode is actually an imitation of an armored cruiser.

It's just that the armor belt is thin...... It basically can't carry medium-caliber naval guns, let alone large-caliber naval guns, and it can withstand small-caliber rapid-fire guns.

Its main gun was only 75 mm and 40 times the caliber rapid-fire gun, but there were quite a few of them, as many as ten.

The tactical positioning of the ship is very simple, the main thing is to lead the destroyer, carry out high-speed reconnaissance, perimeter alert, anti-lightning operations, and at the same time lead the destroyer to launch lightning operations.

The tactical positioning of this type of ship is relatively clear, and at the same time, after the failure of the Xialin-class and Anlin-class cruisers, the Daheng Imperial Navy does need a battleship between an armored cruiser and a thousand-ton destroyer to balance the difference between the types of ships, and of course, more importantly, this thing has a high speed and is cheap......

Therefore, the Daheng Imperial Navy has built many ships of this class to use as reconnaissance cruisers, and is thinking about continuing to improve and improve performance.

Yuchi-class reconnaissance cruisers are a lot cheaper to build, and Yuanlin-class destroyers are even more, because this thing is cheaper!

For battleships and armored cruisers that are millions of dollars at every turn, the little guy like the Yuanlin-class destroyer is very cheap, and the Daheng Imperial Navy directly treats this thing as a large lightning strike ship and various miscellaneous ships, and more than 30 have been built before and after, which is the largest number of warships of more than 1,000 tons built in the Daheng Empire.

And improvements are still being built......

The four classes of warships consisting of the Klan-class armored cruisers, the Xialin-class cruisers, the Yuchi-class cruisers and the Yuanlin-class destroyers are all a series of typical cutting-edge warships that the Daheng Empire started to build seven years after the Qiansheng Dynasty.

Its unique ship shape is so recognizable that when they sail in the southern waters of the Endless Strait, they have just entered the central waters of the Lieji Kingdom, and this is already a foreign warship in front of and behind them.

They followed from afar, and at the same time, they all took cameras to shoot at the southwest fleet of the Great Heng Empire!

But just as they were about to arrive at the military base in Beauva City, the battleships of the Gafia Empire appeared in front of the fleet!

With the appearance of the battleship of the Gafia Imperial Navy, the scene suddenly became tense, and soon the battleship of the Gafia Imperial Navy sent a transport boat over, and after the people of the traffic boat arrived, a captain of the Gafia Imperial Navy said that the Gafia Imperial Navy fleet was holding a military exercise in the sea area, and in order to avoid accidental injury, the Southwest Fleet of the Daheng Imperial Navy and the landing fleet were to go around.

Rounded? Their so-called exercise area includes the entire sea off the coast of Beauva!

Listening to the words of the Captain of the Gafia Empire in front of him, the reply of Ren Zhongping, the commander of the Southwest Fleet and the lieutenant secretary of the Daheng Empire Navy, fully embodies the tradition of the Daheng people!

"The Imperial Navy has the right to navigate freely in all public waters, and any attempt to block the Imperial Navy's right to freedom of navigation on the high seas will be considered a declaration of war against the Empire!"

After letting the Gafiya get out, the chief of staff in the Southwest Fleet was a little worried: "I'm afraid they have deployed a lot of warships in front, what should we do now?" ”

Admiral Ren Zhongping said: "Contact the Lieji people, let our landing fleet land from their port nearby, and let the army go to the Bova military base by land!" ”

The chief of staff said: "What about our fleet?" ”

Ren Zhongping snorted coldly: "Continue to move east!" ”

The chief of staff looked cautious: "Isn't it prudent to contact our minister in the Lieji Kingdom to discuss one or two first?" ”

After speaking, he glanced at his chief of staff and said, "There are so many strong people in the Imperial Navy, why did Your Majesty choose me to be the commander of the Southwest Fleet?" ”

After speaking, without waiting for the chief of staff to answer, he himself said: "Because Lao Tzu has hard bones!" ”

Saying that, he looked into the distance: "Back then, Lao Tzu dared to fight the battleship of the Krull people with three small broken ships, and now Lao Tzu is coming with a whole fleet, and they Gafia people still dare to play tricks with Lao Tzu, they really dare to go to war, Lao Tzu will kill him!" ”

After finishing speaking, he took several deep breaths, calmed down a little, and then pointed to the several looming observation ships of various countries behind the side, and said in a slightly low tone: "Now everyone is looking at us, if we back down, what will be the face of the empire?" How will the empire safeguard its overseas interests in the future? ”

The chief of staff also nodded slightly, and said in a serious tone: "Understood!" ”

Soon, the warships of all countries observing from the outside saw the huge fleet of the Great Heng Empire, which was divided into two, and a large number of transport ships, escorted by only one destroyer and several torpedo boats, turned directly to the south of the Kingdom of Lower Season, and went straight to the port of the nearest Kingdom of Lieji dozens of nautical miles away.

However, the remaining more than a dozen capital warships and more than a dozen torpedo boats continued to advance eastward at a uniform speed!

This is not the point, the point is that the naval attachés of various countries observing from the periphery have seen that the warships of the Southwest Fleet of the Great Heng Empire have already raised the red peony flag on a white background!

Anyone who has a basic understanding of the Daheng Navy will know that the red peony flag on a white background is the battle flag of the Daheng Navy, and raising the flag means entering the highest level of combat readiness, ready to fight enemy ships at any time!

On the Gafia Navy liaison ship opposite, the captain who had just returned from the negotiation couldn't help but exclaim: "What are they doing here, are they going to provoke a war?" ”

"These madmen, damn madmen!"

"Quick, we must go back immediately and report to the fleet, these Daheng people are really going to break through, our fleet must be prepared in advance!"

As he spoke, the more excited the man's expression became: "Quick, full speed ahead!" ”

As he spoke, he muttered, "I don't want to die here!" ”

As Admiral Ren Zhongping led the Southwest Fleet to continue to advance eastward, the Gafia Imperial Navy will inevitably make a certain response, and if one of the two sides is not handled properly, then war will break out!

War is on the verge of breaking out