Even in order to ensure the high freeboard design, while ensuring firepower, protection and speed, the designers did not hesitate to increase the displacement, which further pushed up the cost.

The design of the ship was accompanied by a new type of armored cruiser, a dome cruiser, and a large mine-striking ship.

The design of these warships is all high freeboard, and many details are also designed around ocean-going seaworthiness.

In the third phase of the naval development plan, the Daheng Imperial Navy changed its naval strategy very suddenly, completely stopping the design of low-freeboard warships and changing to high-freeboard warships that are more suitable for ocean-going operations.

Before the Daheng Imperial Navy made such a major change, that is, in April of the seventh year of Qiansheng, the Daheng Imperial Navy conducted a large-scale exercise in the southern seas!

The content of the exercise was that the Imperial Navy dispatched its main fleet to the enemy's coastline to block the enemy's estuaries and ports, and to cover the landing of the army.

But the result of this exercise shocked the top brass of the Daheng Navy!

First of all, when simulating a long-distance voyage across the ocean, it is extremely difficult for a low-freeboard ship to navigate in complex sea conditions, and it is impossible to even sustain a fight, and if there is a surprise attack by the enemy's navy on its own fleet sailing in the open sea, it is needless to say how tragic the end is.

After many difficulties, the exercise fleet finally reached the 'enemy coast' and began to carry out a close blockade mission, shelling a number of ports on the way as planned.

However, it was a ferocious counterattack by the fire resistance of the port shore, and it was regarded as a 'sunk one', seriously wounding a number of people, and the personnel of other ships, especially the members of the guncrew, suffered heavy casualties.

Because the warships in the main fleet were basically battleships with exposed turrets, it was naturally no problem to defend against direct fire from enemy warships, but when attacking the enemy's port, it was attacked by the condescending enemy coastal defense guns, which led to heavy losses in personnel and even sank one battleship, and finally the exercise fleet had to give up attacking the enemy's port.

Now it's okay, you can't shell the port, so let's block the enemy's port!

However, the exercise fleet was set to cross thousands of kilometers to the enemy's coastline for a close blockade, which made it very difficult to replenish the enemy's coastline, and they had to use supply ships to replenish at sea, and when they were replenishing at sea, they were attacked by high-speed lightning strikers in the imaginary enemy fleet......

Although the cruisers in the main fleet tried their best to intercept them, the number of cruisers was not large, and the secondary guns of each ship had a slow rate of fire and weak firepower, so they could not effectively intercept dozens of high-speed lightning strike ships that swooped out together.

After a major scuffle, the exercise fleet was 'sunk' three capital ships by the hypothetical enemy with torpedoes, and several were seriously wounded.

The content of the above exercises is already shocking enough, so the next content is even more shocking!

When the main fleet of his own side carried out a close blockade of the imaginary enemy, the commander of the imaginary enemy fleet, Lin Yongtong Shaoqing, led the high-speed cruiser fleet, and did not engage the blockade fleet at all, but quietly broke through the blockade of the exercise fleet at night, and then 'killed' the coast of Daheng and swept the east coastline of Daheng!

A Lin Yongtong Shaoqing has completely let the naval powers of Blue Star play for decades, especially the 'close blockade' strategic thinking that has reached its peak in the last ten years has been completely bankrupt!

After the exercises, the navy shook, the palace shook!

Immediately afterwards, a fierce controversy broke out within the navy of the Great Heng Empire, but the discussion stopped within a few days.

Many of the admirals who insisted on continuing to pursue a close-range blockade strategy were soon transferred from key positions.

Admirals who supported the long-distance blockade quickly assumed important positions, including Senior Secretary Lin Yongtong, who shone brightly during the exercise, and became the director of the 'Naval Strategy Department,' a core agency under the Navy General Staff.

Today, a month later, there is the third phase of the Naval Development Plan!

The core of the plan is to implement a long-range blockade, and in order to implement a long-range blockade, then eligible warships are needed, and unfortunately, almost all the active warships in the Daheng Imperial Navy do not meet the requirements, even those cruisers are not in compliance with the requirements because the secondary artillery fire is too weak to intercept the mine-strike ships.

In fact, not to mention the Great Heng Empire, the warships of all countries on the entire Blue Star basically do not meet the needs of carrying out long-distance blockade missions.

To this end, the Daheng Imperial Navy needs to build a series of new warships that conform to the new tactical ideas!

Battleships are needed that are suitable for ocean voyages and operations!

It needs to be suitable for ocean voyages, provide avant-garde reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance, and need armored cruisers that can comprehensively suppress enemy reconnaissance cruisers.

It needs a cruiser suitable for ocean voyages and capable of providing avant-garde reconnaissance and anti-lightning missions.

A large ocean-going lightning strike ship suitable for ocean-going navigation and ocean-going lightning operations is required.

According to the above needs, the Navy Ship Administration Department has come up with a series of high-freeboard battleship design schemes!

In fact, when the technology is constant, the funds are constant, and the tactical thinking is also constant, the battleship design is actually a matter of course.

The biggest difference between the new generation of battleships designed by the Ministry of Naval Affairs and the original Endless Sea-class battleships, including their improved versions, is the use of high freeboard, and although a large number of new technologies have been applied in other aspects, many of them have actually been developed and tested in advance before this.

No matter how the new ship is designed, it will basically be used.

For example, the 300 mm 35 times caliber naval gun, the 300 mm caliber naval gun is the main artillery of the Daheng Imperial Navy that has been continuously improved for many years, and now the new model is out, no matter what the design concept of the new warship is, it will basically use this more powerful main gun.

Another example is hardened armor, this thing Daheng Empire has completed the laboratory preparation, and is currently preparing to invest heavily in mass production, and it is expected that it will be produced in small batches next year for the construction of some capital ships, and a larger production capacity will be formed to meet the needs of more warships in the year after tomorrow.

This hardened armor, in fact, although the Great Heng Empire has been working on it for a long time, has just made a breakthrough this year, perfected the production process of surface carburizing and hardening armor, and then used it in the newly introduced nickel steel, and finally obtained hardened nickel steel armor.

This nickel steel technology was bought back by the Daheng Empire after spending a lot of money on the Krull Kingdom.

The nickel steel in these years is actually like that, it is a very chicken thing, otherwise the steel mill in the Krull Kingdom would not have transferred the technology very simply.

Because the protective effect of nickel steel is a little better than that of steel armor, but it is only a little bit, and the price is much more expensive, so when countries use nickel steel, they are basically only used as upper armor to resist small and medium-caliber artillery, and rarely used for the main armor belt.

The Daheng Empire introduced nickel steel technology in order to surface harden nickel steel, and finally obtained hardened nickel steel armor.

Needless to say, this new type of armor can be used no matter what warship, and the Daheng Imperial Navy has high hopes for this!

As for the 150 mm rapid-fire secondary gun that is expected to be used on the new warship, it is a key naval public relations project that the Daheng Imperial Navy and even Emperor Lin Ziran have personally paid attention to for many years.

These new technologies, even if there are no new high-freeboard warships, will still be assigned to low-freeboard warships that continue to be built, and some of them have even been initially tested on other warships.

In other words, from these new technologies alone, in fact, it is impossible to reflect the huge difference between the new warships and the old warships and the changes in the strategic and tactical thinking of the Daheng Empire's navy.

What best reflects the changes in the strategic and tactical thinking of the Daheng Navy is not the 300-caliber 300-millimeter main gun, not the rapid-fire secondary gun with an extremely fast rate of fire, nor the hardened nickel steel, nor the more powerful steam engine.

It's a seemingly inconspicuous high freeboard!

A small high freeboard, this is the core of the third phase of the naval development plan!

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