The complete abandonment of the construction of the battleship was an extremely difficult decision for Jochen, for Tirpitz, for Germany as a whole. The construction of the navy had to be subordinated to the national strategy, and the German strategy was to avoid war with Britain as much as possible, so as to gain room for development.

In this way, it is likely that the cessation of the construction of battleships will lead the British to believe that they have regained their advantage and provoke Germany on various issues, which will eventually lead to the bankruptcy of the national strategy, and Jochen himself had a difficult choice before this, but finally made up his mind to move forward with this plan.

The confidence that made Jochen determined was the 12 battleships equipped with 380 mm guns that had already been started, which gave Germany a great advantage, and the British Queen Elizabeth class would not be completed until the end of 1915, and the Germans would have a huge numerical advantage of at least 8 ships at this time, which was enough to cause a huge deterrent to the British. Even if the British continued to build the Revenge class, the Germans still had the upper hand in the 10:12 overall. By the time the British regained the upper hand, Tirpitz's envisaged period of risk had passed, and if the British had had been a little sane, a full-scale war could have been avoided.

But if the British, or the Royal Navy batons, were not so sensible, then it would not necessarily be a wise move for Germany to continue building battleships.

Throughout the First World War, the British and German sides ran back and forth with their own high-speed mobile fleets, and the battle fleets were basically playing soy sauce in the harbor except for Jutland, which slipped out for a walk, and the main results of the two sides between Britain and Germany in the entire First World War were also fought by the mobile fleet.

In the Battle of Norfolk, the main force of Spee's fleet was annihilated, and the German Navy light cruiser suffered a great loss in the Battle of Helgoland, and the British used their battle cruisers to fight a series of victories in the early stages of the war, which greatly boosted their morale. And the Battle of Dogle Beach, the first confrontation between the British and German battle cruisers, the British gave the Germans a hard lesson with their quantitative and qualitative superiority. The German Navy has since become a shrunken turtle in the harbor. When Jutland arrived, it was still the battlecruisers that played the leading role in the face of the exhaustion of battleships.

The most valuable amount of money spent by the German Navy in the whole World War I was the De Fringer class, and in the Battle of Doger Sandbank, the De Fringer penetrated the Lion's turret and almost caused it to set off fireworks. At Jutland, the D-Fringer-class No. 2 ship Lützov once again penetrated the Lion's turret, once again causing it to almost set off fireworks. The De Fringer took out the Queen Mary first. This was followed by the killing of the Invincible while covering the turn of the main forces of the German Navy. The two D-Vlinger-class ships captured all the major victories of the German Navy throughout World War I.

From this point of view, it is clear that strengthening the reconnaissance fleet is more cost-effective than strengthening the battlefleet. But the biggest threat to the reconnaissance fleet was the 5 Queen Elizabeth-class battleships, and it was the 4 Queen Elizabeth that saved Betty's battlecruiser fleet from being completely eaten by Hipper in the Jutland Vanguard War.

The arrival of the four queens instantly changed the situation, Hippel became passive, and the Moltke and Von der Tann soon lost most of their combat effectiveness and had to retreat in panic. Of course, the 4 queens who were caught by the main force of the German Navy were able to evacuate peacefully in the face of a small 305 mm water pipe, which was the pot of the main fleet. But at this time, 2 of the 6 capital ships in Hipper's hands had no output, so they could only be used as blood cattle.

Therefore, the new large cruisers had to be able to compete with the Queen Elizabeth class. At the very least, it must be able to hold off Queen Elizabeth, hold out until the main fleet arrives, and then use 48 380mm cannons to completely solve this big problem.

And its own large cruisers cannot yet be built only to the standards of the Queen Elizabeth class. The actual speed of the Queen Elizabeth class is only 24 knots, and the low speed and disconnection from Betty's battle cruiser fleet led to a violent beating by Hipper, and at this time the lowest speed of the German Navy's large cruisers, the Blucher class, also had a speed of 26 knots, so the standard of new ship construction can not be lower than this level, and the German large cruisers have always disdained the high main equipment of belt armor, the cost of the new ship must be astronomical, which also requires the navy to reduce the number of construction.

Only a few months after Jochen made a proposal to build a super-large cruiser. A model of the battleship, estimated at 76 million marks or £3.8 million, was placed in front of Tirpitz. That's why Tirpitz said that it was premeditated, otherwise the design would not have been finalized in such a short period of time.

"My shipyard can now start two ships at the same time. In this way, they can negotiate with Krupp and Siemens to buy materials, accessories and other things, and the workers in the shipyard have been relaxed for a long time, and they should be busy when they have enough rest. Jochen tapped his fingers on the wooden model and made a "do-do" sound: "When the Navy places an order, remember to separate the order time." ”

"In this way, we can save a lot of money this year, and if we only start construction of two De Verblinger class and one more this year, it will cost a total of 185 million marks. There is also DM 45 million left to replenish the previously misappropriated project funds. Tirpitz silently calculated in his heart, and found that this was indeed helping him solve a big problem, otherwise that hole would always become a big stone in his heart: "In this way, we can start construction of three ships of the same type every year, and it is not unacceptable to reduce the number of such ships." ”

In fact, Tirpitz is still too much, the main guns of the two Dufflinger-class can wait for the triple turret that was removed during the East Prussia-class modification. This is much better than the situation where only one ship was expected. 6 turrets plus 18 barrels, which is another big savings. In Jochen's estimation, the battleship that started in 1912 could not be completed before 1914 anyway, and with the addition of a six-month training period, it was not expected to be able to form a combat force in 1915 anyway.

Jochen didn't think about cutting two Defringles and replacing them with a super-large cruiser, but considering the speed of production of Krupp and Skoda's 380-mm guns and turrets, the idea was dismissed. After the start of the war, due to the increased demand for war on land, most of the production capacity of Krupp began to be diverted to army equipment, resulting in the supply of artillery, turrets and even armor, and finally could not be completed at all.

And now Krupp and Skoda have to provide the German Navy with a total of at least 64 turrets, 128 gun barrels and a larger number of spare parts to replace the worn bore, which is estimated to be running at full capacity, so instead of increasing the burden on the two, it is better to choose to continue to build the De Fleeter class that can use ready-made turrets and barrels, and with the performance of the Der Ringer class, it is not at a disadvantage against British warships other than Queen Elizabeth and the Vengeance class, for the sake of safety, Eventually, Jochen gritted his teeth and dismissed the tempting idea of building more super-large cruisers.

"We're downnumbered, but I'm afraid the British won't really feel like they've gained an advantage." Jochen said with a smile: "Whoever sees this warship with a standard displacement of 35,000 tons, a full load displacement of 40,000 tons, equipped with 8 380 mm naval guns, and a speed of 27 knots will be ashamed of itself." I believe that 4 such ships will be a greater deterrent than 8 Prussian-class. Since the four battleships that started construction in 1910 can basically be regarded as the East Prussia class using the key defense design, the navy named the first ship West Prussia, so the eight battleships of the second class are often directly called the Prussian class within the navy.

"Yes, Your Majesty. Although she still bears the name of a large cruiser, we know for ourselves that it doesn't matter what the name of a battleship with a 330-mm armor belt with a height of 5.2 meters is. Tirpitz looked at the model and finally smiled.

The East Prussian-class battleships were already the last battleships of the German Navy to use the concept of comprehensive defense design, and the two types of battleships since then have also begun to use the idea of key defense design, and the difference between battleships and large cruisers in the German Navy in terms of protection system has disappeared. Moreover, in the process of building battleships for the Chilean Navy, the American and German technicians also learned from the exchange that the US Navy also believes that key defense is the direction of the future development of the defense system, which is a reassuring pill for the German Navy that made this decision. So Tirpitz understood that this battleship was a battleship.

"Yes, this is a battleship, and it will be one of the best in the world for the next 10 years." Jochen said with a smile.

Among the top warships in the next 10 years, the performance of the Queen Elizabeth class is overwhelmed in all aspects, although Nagato Colorado has an advantage in firepower, but Nagato is a crispy skin with only 305 mm vertical armor belt, and Colorado is a turtle with a speed of only 21 knots, and the comprehensive performance is still not dominant. Only Hood, who cost £6.02 million, is a rival to rival. With 305 mm of 12-degree inclined armor and 127 mm of horizontal armor, the Hood was definitely a battleship in World War I, but the price to pay for reaching speeds of up to 30 knots was too high, and the cost of 6.02 million pounds was simply a ruin. As for the super warships that were sunk by the naval treaty, there is no need to mention them at all, so Jochen has the confidence to say such a bold statement.

The British began to develop high-speed battleships, while the Germans' large cruisers were completely battleship-like, and the two sworn enemies coincidentally followed the same path. (To be continued.) )