The high cost of construction has made the full-time flagship a chicken rib, at least reducing its importance.

Although during this period, the Imperial Navy repeatedly adjusted the performance and technical specifications of the flagship, and controlled the construction cost by reducing the requirements, compared with other major warships during the war, the urgency of the full-time flagship was indeed much worse, and it was not the weapon that decided the victory or defeat.

In Liu Changxun's words, the officers and men of the fleet headquarters are usually pampered and pampered, and they should work hard in battle.

It was only in the second year of the Great War that the Imperial Navy determined the main performance indicators of the flagship.

If anything, there is only one point.

On the premise of ensuring a sufficiently high speed, the command capability should be enhanced as much as possible, and the combat capability in other areas can be reduced or abolished for this purpose.

The first thing to be abolished is the combat capability that combat ships must have, that is, the main armament.

Although dozens of small-caliber anti-aircraft guns were added after completion, the installation of armament was not considered when designing and building.

According to the design idea, it was possible to carry up to several heavy machine guns.

Because there were dozens of Praetorian Guards responsible for maintaining order, and they followed the fleet, the flagship did not need weapons to deal with small ships.

Secondly, there is survivability, including armor protection.

Whatever the time of day, the flagship will certainly be in the fleet, in the rear of the combat ships to be exact, so there is little possibility of participating in the battle.

Then, there is no need for armor protection.

It's also acceptable to reduce survivability after being hit a bit.

To do this, the designers made an article on the structure of the hull.

Because of the success of the "Imperial Capital" class fleet aircraft carriers, the hull structure of the small compartment proved to be effective, so almost all the large warships built in the Great War adopted the hull structure of the small compartment to enhance the survivability after being attacked.

One of the disadvantages of small compartment structures is that they are heavy and more complex to build.

In order to control the construction cost and reduce the difficulty of construction, the flagship did not use a small compartment structure.

Of course, this has to do with the basic design of the flagship.

In order to save time and reduce costs, the flagship adopted the hull of the "Wuzhou" class heavy cruiser.

To put it simply, it is to make changes to the hull of the "Wuzhou" class.

The "Wuzhou" class was a standard treaty-type heavy cruiser that did not have a small compartment structure.

In fact, the choice of the "Wuzhou" class hull is not only to reduce costs, but also related to the tactical requirements of the flagship.

In order to install all kinds of large-scale electronic equipment, especially the long-wave radio stations that are numerous and cumbersome, and to arrange the communication center and the control center together as much as possible to improve the efficiency of command, it is necessary to increase the number of large cabins, and it is impossible to adopt the structure of small compartments.

All in all, because it did not adopt a battleship-level small compartment structure, the flagship had almost no ability to resist strikes, and it was very easy to sink after being damaged.

Tactically, it's not a bad thing.

The flagship is the brain of the fleet, and there must be a lot of secrets on it that make the enemy salivate, such as the communication codebook. If, in the middle of a naval battle, even the flagship is hit, then the fleet commander will definitely hope that the flagship will sink quickly, and not fall into the hands of the enemy.

If you want to say, this is also the least survivable battleship built by the Imperial Navy during the Great War.

Strictly speaking, the flagship is not a battleship, but more like an auxiliary ship similar to a civilian ship.

It's just that, after sacrificing combat effectiveness, protection and survivability, the flagship gains a huge internal space and amazing self-sustaining ability.

Although the tonnage is 50% higher than that of the "Wushu" class, and the power system of the "Wushu" class is still used, the speed of the boiler overpressure is still 30 knots after the use of a bulbous nose bow with a drag-reducing effect and the redesign of the underwater part of the hull.

That's enough speed to keep up with the task force.

The key is that in the standard displacement of nearly 20,000 tons, more than 30% of the main guns and ammunition on heavy cruisers are also saved.

It is precisely in this way that with more than 600 officers and men, hundreds of various radio stations, and hundreds of communication antennas alone, the flagship's self-sustaining power has reached 120 days, the maximum endurance is more than 20,000 nautical miles, and the endurance range at full speed is 7,500 nautical miles.

In addition, the flagship can also make a cameo appearance as a supply ship to provide support for other ships during combat operations.

In battle, providing food, fresh water, etc. for other warships is also one of the main tasks of the flagship.

The reason is the same: the flagship has the largest freezer in the fleet, capable of freezing 500 tons of food, enough to last a fleet for half a year.

Because the power system of the "Wuzhou" class is extremely reliable and maintainable, the design and deployment cycle of the flagship reaches half a year.

Of course, it must be more than half a year in actual combat.

If anything, the greatest value of the flagship is its communication and command capabilities.

Just longwave radio, there are twelve!

Crucially, the flagship carried enough telecommunications officers to be able to repair and even modify the station during the voyage.

The easiest way is to change the signal characteristics of the radio station by replacing the antenna and transmitter.

As for the spare parts needed for repairs, there are a lot of them in the flagship warehouse.

In fact, in actual combat, the flagship often plays the role of an electronic maintenance ship, that is, arranges electronic officers to go to other warships to repair damaged electronic equipment.

In addition to long-wave radios, there are hundreds of various communication equipment such as voice radios and short-wave radios on the flagship.

In addition, radio listening equipment was added after delivery to the Navy.

In other words, the flagship also has the ability to carry out radio reconnaissance missions, which can help the fleet monitor nearby radio activity when following the fleet's activities.

This is a very remarkable ability.

Although there are generally radio monitoring stations on capital ships such as aircraft carriers and battleships, as well as on large battleships such as cruisers, there are not many of them due to space limitations, and their use is also strictly restricted in order to avoid interference from the ship's electronic equipment.

Obviously, on flagships these problems do not exist.

This is also the main reason why Bai Zhizhan brought the "Qinling".

Previous decisive battles of the fleet have proven that radio reconnaissance is an effective means of detecting the enemy, and can be seen as a new method of confrontation.

If the enemy is first discovered through electronic reconnaissance, it is often possible to seize the initiative and win the final victory.

Obviously, this is also a capability that other warships in service lack.

If there is a warship in the fleet with strong radio reconnaissance capabilities, then in a decisive battle of the fleet, the certainty of victory is definitely greater.

Of course, that's not all the reasons.

Bai Zhizhan took the "Qinling" with him and also sent his sister ship "Kunlun" to the 22nd Task Force, which had a great deal to do with the battle plan.

The key to this battle is deception, and through deception to achieve surprise attacks, to minimize the difficulty of the initial battle.

The purpose of bringing the flagship was to deceive the Nuland Navy, or to make the Nuland Navy believe that the target of the Imperial Navy's attack was Wai Island.

Bai Zhizhan felt that it was an extra move.

However, the plan has been decided for a long time, and it is not something that can be changed if you want to.