The crown prince was furious, and in a fit of rage he might have thrown away the order for at least 60 battleship guns, and Krupp immediately stillborn the plan to withdraw the 305-mm 40-diameter guns.

Krupp was honest, but Skoda was sad. The 240mm guns developed and manufactured by myself were intended for the armored cruiser Maria Theresia and the queen and the planned monarch-class battleship, and now they have all been cut down at once, how do you let me live this day?

As one of the shareholders of Skoda, Jochen could not turn a blind eye, so he asked Skoda to continue to improve the 240 mm naval guns, and let them work more on the two calibers of 120 mm and 150 mm, which will be useful in the future, and the 240 mm 40 times the diameter naval guns are not really unsellable.

It just so happened that Popper needed to discuss with Jochen when he was designing the next generation of armored cruisers for the German Navy, and Jochen was ready to tell Sù Popper about the idea of selling 240mm naval guns.

"A cruiser series? We designed it to compete in the Navy's bidding, huh? ”

"Yes, we designed it to compete in the Navy's competition, but it didn't say we couldn't build a series on it. Sigfried, what is the best warship to sell in the world right now? "Joegen Chun Chun is seduced.

"It's a protective cruiser."

"So which shipyard is the best seller of protective cruisers?"

"Armstrong Shipyard, UK. I see what you mean, the basic design ideas of the Armstrong series of protective cruisers have not changed much, they are all modified on the basis of the original to become a system. "A good designer like Poper knows a little bit.

"Your Highness, you mean that the design we participated in the naval bidding is the basic type, and then the variants of different standards are developed."

"True, the Navy demanded a design that required the installation of 210-mm naval guns with no less than 6 guns on the side of the side. However, there are no such hard and fast rules for our derivative models, and they can be reconfigured with firepower as needed to meet the needs of different customers. ”

"Your Highness, you're preparing to turn a derivative design into a foreign trade warship. The more options there are, the better the chances of meeting the customer's requirements. Some people can give up protection, speed, seaworthiness, and habitability in the pursuit of firepower, while others do the opposite. If this is done, first of all, the design of the hull structure must be determined, the division of the watertight compartment, and the arrangement of the compartment will not be changed significantly, and then the overall design of the hull must be considered according to the different configurations of weapons, power, and armor. ”

The basic type of the Armstrong series of protective cruisers was the Chilean Navy's Esmeralda (third generation), and the later models were modified on this basis.

However, Popper's idea is more advanced, based on the design of the hull compartment structure, and adjusts the design of the entire ship according to different weapons, protection, and power combinations, which is very similar to the concept of modularity.

Once the tone of the design was set, the rest was easy to say, and Jochen had a reference in mind, so Jochen's requirements were clear when exchanging opinions with Pooper.

If the best warship sold at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century was the Armstrong series of protective cruisers, then the best armored cruiser sold at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century was the Italian Giuseppe Garibaldi type.

A total of 7 Garibaldi-type armored cruisers were sold, and the design balance was achieved due to their perfect armor protection, powerful firepower and high speed. The armor on the upper part of the main armor was strengthened to the same standard as the main armor, which gave it a huge protection area far beyond that of the armor cruisers and early armored cruisers of the same period.

With such a large area of 80 mm Harvey steel armor, the Garibaldi class can be almost undiminished in the face of 6-inch rapid-fire guns.

Therefore, in its early appearance in the mid-to-late 90s of the 19th century, it was a perfect armored cruiser, and even in the face of a vote of early pre-1900 dreadnoughts, it could go up and take a bite. A large number of people who admired Garibaldi's design were so much admired that they were called Garibaldi's cult.

Garibaldi was good, but the smaller tonnage limited its further development, and the later improved tonnage was enlarged, but still slightly cramped, so Jochen asked for the German Navy's design to enlarge the hull to more than 8,000 tons of standard displacement.

And in order to have technical continuity with the Victoria Luiser class, many designs also refer to the Victoria Luiser class. So Jochen began to build on the Victoria Luiser class, according to Garibaldi's standards.

"With the Victoria Luiser class hull structure and compartment arrangement, scaled to more than 8,000 tons, and using three-axle propulsion, it takes at least 18,000 horsepower to maintain a speed of about 21 knots." Popper frowned.

"At 18,000 horsepower, it is estimated that 18 Dürer boilers are needed." Jochen figured out. Later armored cruisers of the German Navy were users of Dürer boilers for a long time, and Jochen was probably able to estimate the performance of the Dürer boilers that appeared at the level.

"Your Highness, are you going to use the water-tube boiler as a power system? The Navy has never used such a boiler now, will they accept this new thing? ”

"The efficiency of the water-tube boiler is higher, the steam pressure of the Dürer water-tube boiler can reach 15 kilograms per square centimeter, and the horizontal Belleville water-tube boiler has 18 kilograms per square centimeter, which is much higher than the standard of 12.5 kilograms per square centimeter of the circular fire-tube boiler we use now. Moreover, it can greatly shorten the fire time, even in order to improve the efficiency of sorties, the navy will choose water-tube boilers. ”

The inefficiency of the fire-tube boiler made the sortie very tragic for the battleship, and it took 8 hours for the Garibaldi to start a fire with a round fire-tube boiler, while the Argentine-purchased ship of the same type, the General Puerendo, was equipped with a Belleville-type water-tube boiler and set off in 45 minutes.

As for whether the navy is willing to use it, it is not worried, the history of the German Navy in 1893 cruiser construction program began to try the use of various water-tube boilers, five Victoria Louiser class protection cruisers used four different boiler configurations, leaving valuable experience for the design and application of German naval boilers.

"How about installing a twin main turret on each side of the board to meet the requirement that at least six main guns can be used for broadside shooting?" Popper's idea coincided with that of the armored cruiser USS Brooklyn, which the Americans had just started construction on August 2.

"It's a good idea to have a complete turret for the main gun, but we need to strengthen the upper armor to the same standard as the main armor at the waterline, and if we have a twin main turret on the side of the gun, will the center of gravity be raised? The French do this a lot, but their ships can save a lot of weight by tilting their freeboards, so we can't do that, right? Now, instead Jochen has doubts about more advanced designs.

"And how are you going to set it up?"

"The 210 mm naval gun is the same as the secondary gun, but the height must be increased in order not to affect the arrangement of the secondary gun." Jochen's idea was similar to that of the later Scharnhorst-class armored cruisers, with four 210 mm guns in silhouette on either side.

This arrangement is backward from Pooper's idea, and the main gun in the gun frame is not as convenient as in the turret, but it is relatively more secure.

"Then I'll think about both designs, and then I'll let SNRI help me experiment with them." Poper took a step back.

"That's fine, but I like the idea of the main gun with a full turret, if you adopt a sideboard diagonal span layout similar to the Dingyuan-class ironclad ship, Sigfried, you continue to study to see if you can achieve 8 main guns to shoot at one side at a certain angle."

If this layout is realized, it can actually be regarded as an accumulation of dreadnought technology. It does not mean that the German Navy must use this layout, which is not very efficient, but it is also good as a technological accumulation.

"If the design is not a problem, the main problem is the price. The Victoria Louiser class cost £700,000, and if we were to follow our standards, it would be estimated to cost more than £800,000. If it is used as a foreign trade warship, the price is a bit high. ”

Garibaldi's popularity is also very good because of its high cost performance, the Argentine General Belgrano costs only 687,000 pounds, the most expensive General Puerendo is only 780,000 pounds, and the four Garibaldi-type armored cruisers cost a total of 4.38 million pounds, with an average price of 730,000 pounds. The average price of the two improved Garibaldi, the Kasuga and the Nisshin, which was later purchased by the Japanese Navy, was 760,000 pounds

If the German Navy's new armored cruiser is conservatively estimated to cost more than 800,000 pounds, it will be difficult to compare the price gap with the Garibaldi class.

This question is not a problem, Poper immediately said that this is a trivial matter: "Your Highness, don't worry, the standard of the German Navy is an 8,000-ton cruiser, and the speed requirements are relatively high. Foreign trade cruisers, with the same basic compartment layout and armor arrangement, reduce their speed and reduce their firepower, which can reduce the tonnage, so that the price can be reduced. I'll give you a draft design for the 7,000-ton class at that time. ”

"Then it's hard for you, if you want to ensure enough firepower on this 7,000-ton hull, we can prepare a few more plans, such as two single-mounted 260-mm main gun turrets, two twin-mounted 240-mm main gun turrets......"

"In this case, most people will choose two twin 240mm main gun turrets, Your Highness, you want to sell Skoda's 240mm naval guns." Pooper broke Jochen's careful thoughts.

"Is it always necessary to sell Skoda's development, and the Navy doesn't need it, and I always have to reach out as a shareholder, don't I, but they also ask for it." Jochen, who was carefully thought about, simply admitted it generously.

"Haha, there's nothing wrong with this, Your Highness, in the main gun configuration of 2 260, 4 240, and 4 210, I think most people will choose 4 240." Poper also smiled slyly, it is not easy to sell the 240 naval gun, and there is basically no need to choose between the 3 configurations.

What did you say? According to the German Navy 8-door 210? I insist on saying that the tonnage has been reduced, and if you want to ensure that the speed is not too low, you can't install 8 main guns.