To a large extent, these contingency 10,000-ton ships saved the Bran Kingdom and saved the Alliance Group.

In the more than a year since the start of the war, the kingdom of Bran has lost almost half of its freighters, and the threat of submarines has reduced the efficiency of sea transportation by eighty percent.

Fearing greater losses, the Kingdom of Bran also forbade cargo ships to leave the port alone for a time.

It was at this juncture that the Nuland Federation began to build a 10,000-ton cargo ship.

This is the "Liberty Wheel" with an average speed of about 10 knots, and the "Victory Wheel" with an enhanced power system and an average speed of more than 15 knots.

After the entry of the Nuland Federation into the war, the construction of these two 10,000-ton giant ships entered the fast lane.

At its peak, an average of 3 freewheels were launched every day!

In order to reduce the difficulty of construction, or speed up the construction, and because no one believed that these freighters could run several rounds on the route densely packed with submarines, the design of the free ship and the victory ship was simplified, and unnecessary investment was reduced or abandoned as much as possible.

For example, the free wheel uses a three-expansion steam engine and a coal-fired boiler, and it is single-shaft propulsion.

Victory was replaced with a steam turbine, but still with a coal-fired boiler.

The most critical adjustment is actually the structural strength of the hull.

At the time of design, the Nuland Navy only required these ships to be able to sail normally for 5 years, and at most 10 years.

The reason is also very simple, according to the rate of loss in the Great War, the average life of a freighter is 10 voyages, that is, about 5 years.

In fact, no one believes that this war can really last for 5 years.

According to the situation of the last war, after entering a state of full-scale war, none of the participating countries was able to hold out for five years.

If it really lasts for 5 years, even if it is not defeated by the enemy, it will lead to the collapse of the government and even the tearing of the country apart due to internal turmoil.

In the industrial age, large-scale wars generally did not last more than 5 years.

As a result, all freewheels and victory wheels are very "fragile", and the biggest benefit of this is that they are built incredibly fast.

To date, close to 20 shipyards are building these vessels.

Of course, the problem with this is that the amount of resources such as steel is also staggering.

Although the quality standards have been lowered, the amount of steel used to build the 10,000-ton ship has not decreased. A Liberty ship uses more than 4,500 tons of steel, while a Victory ship weighs about 5,000 tons, which is about the same as a treaty-type light cruiser and far more than a large destroyer built in large quantities.

Just the amount of steel used is a huge problem.

Even though the industrial strength of the Nuland Federation is very strong, it is the second industrial country in the world after the Liangxia Empire, and the steel output is not much different from that of the Liangxia Empire, but the average daily use of nearly 20,000 tons of steel to build a cargo ship is also a heavy burden that cannot be underestimated.

So, how much steel is left for the construction of battleships?

Obviously, this is something that must be considered.

No matter how ambitious Niz may be, he must face this reality.

In order to keep the shipping routes, at least for now, there seems to be a lot of value in the kingdom of Bran, and to increase the threat posed by Aozhou to the Liang Xia Empire, it is necessary to build enough Liberty and Victory ships, and not to reduce the production of these two freighters just by building warships.

With the exception of steel, there was no direct conflict between the battleship and the freighter.

As mentioned earlier, in order to reduce the cost of construction, the free wheel used as mature equipment as possible in the design of the victory wheel. It was only because of the higher requirements for speed that the victory wheel used a steam turbine instead of the three-expansion steam engine, which had long been eliminated by the battleship.

As for fuel, that's even more needless to say.

Unfortunately, there is not enough steel capacity, so the construction plan of the battleship has to be adjusted.

After Niz emphasized that the construction of aircraft carriers and battleships must be guaranteed, then only other capital ships can be sacrificed.

The first to be cut down was definitely the large cruisers, which were expensive to build.

Although a few months ago, many admirals, including Niz, believed that large cruisers were the first choice to make up for the lack of air defense forces, but now, even Niz has to admit that the "Arras" class large cruisers, which cost eighty percent of the "Yihua" class and have a far difference in combat effectiveness, are actually a piece of chicken ribs, and it is not wrong to say that they are a drag, and there is no need to continue to build them at all.

To this end, Niz also assured Lofos that no more large cruisers would be built after the construction of the four that had already been started.

When discussing this issue, Niz did not mention the Liangxia Navy.

The reason is also very simple, the Liangxia Navy first built large cruisers, and did not give up because of the high cost, but increased the number of construction.

Of course, this was because the Liangxia Empire was more industrially powerful.

Although according to the statistics of the pre-war, 98 and 99 years of the new calendar, the steel output of the Nuland Federation reached 94% and 96% of that of the Liangxia Empire respectively, the gap is very small, but a country's war mobilization ability will definitely not be reflected in the statistics.

The key is that the steel output of the Liangxia Empire has always been in surplus.

Because the price of labor was more expensive, in peacetime, the Liangxia Empire hardly exported steel, and all the production was for its own use.

As a result, almost all of the steel mills in the Liangxia Empire had the problem of understarting!

During the war, even without mobilization, the Liangxia Empire's steel production increased by about 40%.

As for the Nuland Federation, because it has always been a major steel exporter, the production capacity of steel mills has been fully utilized, so the increase in wartime will not be too large.

It's just about large cruisers, and it's also related to the design ideas of both sides.

The large cruisers built by the Liangxia Navy are actually air defense ships that are used to replace fast battleships and provide direct cover for aircraft carriers.

The main values, in fact, are two.

One is to cover aircraft carriers, and the other is to direct the air defense operations of the fleet.

Other tactical indicators, even if they are necessary, do not pursue excessively high goals.

The most representative is the first large cruiser of the Liangxia Navy, equipped with a 280 mm naval gun directly imported from the Hindan Empire.

Because it is used immediately, it is also common to the main guns of the armored cruisers of the "Zoman" class, so the production cost is very low.

Of course, performance can't be much better.

In addition, because the Liangxia Navy has a full-time flagship, there is no need for a large cruiser to act as a flagship, and only the electronic equipment saves a lot of expenses.

As for armor protection, it was only at the level of a heavy cruiser.

Through this series of methods, the Liang Xia Navy controlled the cost of large cruisers to about 1.5 times that of heavy cruisers in the same period.

Of course, the displacement is also limited to 25000 tons.

It is a pity that the Nuland Navy used large cruisers as a substitute for fast battleships, which not only had strong air defense capabilities, but also could not be reduced in other aspects.

For example, the 12-inch naval gun is completely new.

Because the purchase quantity is limited, the price is very outrageous after the development cost is evenly apportioned.

In addition, the four Arras-class ships were built to the standards of the fleet's flagship and were equipped with a large number of communications equipment, which further pushed up the cost.

Compared to the high cost of construction, the performance is naturally not worth mentioning.

In the words of Lofos, the purchase of 4 "Arras" can be used to build 3 "Yihua" class, so why not build the "Yihua" class?

But the problem is that for the Nuland Navy, the "Yihua" class is also too expensive. 8)