"Alfred, isn't it a very bold idea to equip a cruiser with battleship-class guns? With cruiser-level speed and battleship-class firepower, such a battleship would be a nightmare for all cruisers. Jochen smiled and flicked his fingers on the sketch he was holding in his other hand.

"Your Majesty, do you like this design very much? However, this design does not conform to the unified fire control shooting method that we have been working on now. Tirpitz was a little shocked, the design of 2 turrets and 4 main guns was not what he wanted at all, but if His Majesty the Emperor insisted on choosing this plan, then would the German Navy really have to accept such a nondescript thing?

Tirpitz was very stubborn knowing that His Majesty the Emperor was at some point, especially towards the navy.

Of course, Jochen didn't want a German version of Tsukuba, shook the sketch in his hand and threw it on the table, this action made Tirpitz have a little more hope, maybe the emperor Xià accepted his opinion?

Jochen's next sentence made the big stone in Tirpitz's heart fall slightly: "What you said makes sense, the four main guns are indeed incompatible with the gunnery of our current capital ships, and it is indeed not a very good choice." ”

But before Tirpitz could breathe a sigh of relief, Jochen opened his mouth and lifted Tirpitz's heart again: "But I still think the idea of a high-speed cruiser equipped with battleship-class guns is very good, and I think this idea can be deepened." ”

Is the emperor still not ready to give up, Tirpitz wants to continue to persuade: "But, His Majesty is ......"

Before he could finish speaking, his words were interrupted by Jochen's raised palm: "I know what you want to say, Alfred, isn't this a good problem to solve?" If the number of 4 main guns is too small. So let's increase the number of main guns, and install 6 high-speed ships with 283 mm guns according to the layout of the Braunschweig-class, so there will be no problem, right? ”

Tirpitz was shocked by Jochen's request. If the previous design of four 283mm naval guns was just a fool of Tirpitz, now Jochen's idea completely overturns Tirpitz's perception.

An armored cruiser armed with 6 283-mm naval guns, is it still an armored cruiser? Although the heavy cruisers N and O had 8 240-mm naval guns. The 240 mm naval guns can be regarded as the main guns of the second class battleship, but they still belong to the category of armored cruisers in the eyes of ordinary people.

But what kind of armored cruiser is the ship that Jochen proposes now! Moreover, the weight of the 3 twin 283 mm naval gun turrets is not too different from the 4 twin 240 mm turrets, so the hull of the N and O heavy cruisers is completely fine with such firepower.

Although such a firepower configuration may not have an advantage over the 240 mm naval gun in terms of rate of fire and shell projection, a much more powerful shell can easily tear the enemy's armored cruiser to pieces as long as it hits!

Thinking of this, Tirpitz felt his whole being excited, such a battleship would sweep all the old battleships into the garbage heap just as the German-class battleships under construction would sweep all the old battleships into the garbage heap!

Tirpitz changed his original tone and said urgently: "Your Majesty." The power of such a battleship is incomparable, and she will overwhelm all armored cruisers. I think that the design of the heavy cruiser N should be improved immediately, and the drawings should be completed quickly, so that we can start construction next year with the British, and then the British will probably be stunned when they see the appearance of our new warship! ”

When the time comes, it should be you who will be stunned when you see the true appearance of the invincible, Alfred, Jochen is a little funny in his heart, and even if it is designed like this now, it is impossible to scare the British, in the case of not being able to judge the performance indicators such as armor and fire control. You can only look at the caliber of the ship's guns.

The invincible class is 8 12-inch (305 mm) naval guns, and the 6 283 mm naval guns on their side have nothing to fear, who knows that the shells of the German naval guns are hanging?

So Jochen decided to continue stirring Tirpitz's nerves: "6 main guns is the minimum requirement for a unified fire control salvo. I think it's still a little less, since we want to build a super battleship that can overwhelm all armored cruisers, then we might as well be bolder, continue to enlarge the tonnage, and install 4 twin turrets according to the German-class artillery layout, and increase the firepower to 8 guns, so that we can really say that we can completely overwhelm all armored cruisers, right? ”

"But in this case, the tonnage of the battleship will be difficult to control. I'm afraid it will be more expensive than the German-class battleships in terms of cost. Tirpitz agreed with Jochen's idea, but as chief of the Navy's General Staff. Tirpitz also had to think about the budget, so he was embarrassed.

Tirpitz's fears were not wrong at all. The battlecruiser was a huge gold-eater from the beginning, and in order to meet its high speed, it required a huge amount of money to install a huge power pack, and in order to increase the speed of only 4 knots, the number of boilers in the Invincible class was nearly twice as high as that of the intrepid.

"And such an expensive battleship, although it can hunt armored cruisers lightly, is it too wasteful to build such a non-capital ship at the price of building a battleship?" Tirpitz was skeptical.

Germany is not Britain, and needs such expensive warships to meet its strategic needs for global sea power, and Tirpitz can naturally feel that this kind of warship is not suitable for the German navy.

"Isn't that easy? Equipped with battleship-level naval guns, it's good to have them join the battle line in the capital ship engagement. Jochen deliberately understated.

"It's absolutely not going to work!" To Jochen's surprise was Tirpitz's resolute objection: "Your Majesty, the German Navy does not have the same numerical superiority as the Royal Navy, so every one of our warships is very valuable!" As long as they can survive the engagement, the wounded ships can return to the port for repairs and regain their combat effectiveness under the protection of the entire fleet.

However, these ships have battleship-level firepower, but their armor is too weak, so they can easily be hit hard when they join the battle line, and if these ships can't make it back, we will lose our valuable ships! ”

To Jochen's surprise, Jochen thought that Tirpitz would approve of the idea that the battlecruisers would join the battle line. However, it is normal to think about it carefully, the need to join the battle line was taken into account when building the Marquis Bismarck-class armored cruisers in history, but after all, this is still an inferior armored cruiser, and it is not unacceptable to lose it.

Now this kind of falsification, which is likely to be more expensive than a battleship, is unacceptable to Tirpitz, who values the survivability of each battleship and hopes to smooth the numerical gap with the Royal Navy.

"So why don't we equip these ships with battleship-class armor?" Joechen said with a strange smile in his eyes.

Looking at the strange smile of the emperor, Tirpitz realized that his majesty was joking with himself, but now Joheng's construction is completely unreliable.

Tirpitz was not resolutely opposed at this time, and asked a little helplessly and a little funny: "Your Majesty, how much do you think such a design will cost?" If there's no budget pressure, I'm strongly welcome it. ”

With the high speed of an armored cruiser, as well as the battleship-level firepower and thick armor, such a battleship is completely out of specification, how could Tirpitz not welcome it? But how expensive is such a thing, and the budget is limited, so I can't build a few of them.

In fact, Fisher is about to face the same trouble, high-speed battle cruisers are an important part of his global sea power, but the weak Fisher of battle cruisers in protection is not invisible, although shouting "speed is defense", but Fisher has not considered making his battle cruiser more perfect.

Two weeks after the design drawings for the Dreadnought and Invincible were approved by the Admiralty, he appointed Otley, the director of naval intelligence, as chairman and formed a new design committee to design a fusion scheme for a new class of ships that combined invincibility with invincibility in attack and defense.

The proposal was completed in January 1906, but the high hopes of Fisher were rejected by the committee that designed her, as it was too expensive and would greatly reduce the number of ships in the Royal Navy, and therefore would not improve the overall combat effectiveness.

Therefore, although the fusion plan is of great value, the UK should still prioritize the construction of battleships, and it is enough for high-speed warships to have three Invincible-class ships that started construction in the same year.

Most of the members of this committee were loyal supporters of Fisher, and their conclusions prevented Fisher from overturning them as aggressively as he did with his opponents.

As a result, Fisher's long-cherished Fusion was not realized until 1912 on the Queen Elizabeth-class high-speed battleships, which cost an average of £2.7 million and were perfect in the Battle of Jutland.

That's right, what Jochen wants to build is a high-speed battleship, and he doesn't plan to make all the battleships into high-speed battleships anyway, and the battlecruisers are already so expensive, it's not a big problem to be a little more expensive. Besides, it is not impossible to make the battleship have battleship-level protection while ensuring high speed, and at the same time save the displacement as much as possible.

"Alfred, if there is a new system of protection arrangements that can bring this new battleship to the level of protection of a battleship with less armor tonnage, then we may not be able to afford to build a new battleship that combines the firepower and protection of a battleship with the speed of a heavy cruiser." (To be continued) R640