Further contacts between the two countries are the aim of the Russians. And the sale of battleships to Russia is the purpose of the traverser! The Russians now need to expand their army, but the capacity of the local shipyards is limited. And the traverser wants to take this opportunity to pull another customer for himself.

"Your Excellency, what do you think of today's test? It is said that this matter is related to the question of whether the Russian Navy will import new German armored cruisers? Rear Admiral Makanov accompanied Admiral Popov to stand on both sides of the ship, looking at the armored cruiser Mainz sailing in the distance.

"Regardless of the outcome of this display of firepower, we will buy Mainz-class armored cruisers, the only difference is whether to buy one or two." Admiral Popov looked at Makanov next to him and said: "This is arms procurement, and any arms procurement is the result of political operation. Russia's purchase of a first-class cruiser, Germany's willingness to sell its best warship, this is a political statement, indicating that Russia and Germany are beginning to get closer, and this reveals quite a lot of information! ”

"It's too complicated, but I'm glad that the Imperial Navy has such a ship." When it comes to politics, Makanov is a bit big-headed. "But the only fly in the ointment is that the tonnage of this battleship is a little small, giving people a feeling that they are not up or down."

At this moment, the armored cruiser Mainz in the distance suddenly raised the battle flag, and in the distance, under the tow of the tugboat, a target ship was also in place, this is an old cruiser of an old ironwood hybrid structure ready to be scrapped, in terms of size, about 2500 tons, which can be regarded as a third-class cruiser. The weapons and power on it have been dismantled, and it was eventually towed to a distance of about 2500 meters from Mainz!

"It's time to go!" On the royal yacht Hohenzollern, Crown Prince Wilhelm gave the order to begin, and when the signal flag on the Hohenzollern was raised, Mainz, the newly commissioned steel behemoth, let out its first battle cry!

"88MM SECONDARY ARTILLERY GROUP SHOOTING!" WITH THE COMMAND OF THE GUN COMMANDER, THE SEVEN 88MM GUNS ON THE SIDE CHORD OF THE MAINZ BEGAN TO RAIN BULLETS ON DISTANT TARGETS. One by one, orange photoelectric light flew to the target in the distance with the shaking of the cannon barrel, and in just a dozen seconds, the target was surrounded by dense shells, and an oval landing area enveloped the target ship!

Earl Spee, the gunner, began to trim the distance and the firing situation according to the situation in the area of impact. WHEN THE 88MM GUNS ON THE DECK OF THE BATTLESHIP STOPPED FIRING, THE 150MM GUN GROUP, WHICH WAS THE BACKBONE OF THE BATTLESHIP'S PROJECTION, LET OUT AN EARTH-SHATTERING ROAR, AND THE 7 GUNS WERE ACTIVATED ALMOST AT THE SAME TIME, AND A STORM OF FLAMES ERUPTED FROM THE SIDE CHORD OF THE BATTLESHIP.

Explosions came from the target ship, and within a few minutes, the battleship's meeting facilities were engulfed in a dense rain of bullets and fire. After 5 minutes of firing, the Mainz's secondary guns stopped roaring.

THE TWO HUGE MAIN GUN TURRETS QUICKLY TURNED TO THE TARGET, A SHELL WEIGHING 240KG WAS REMOVED FROM THE AMMUNITION RACK AT THE REAR OF THE TURRET, AND THEN PUSHED INTO THE GUN CHAMBER WITH THE HELP OF SERVOS, THEN THE WAIST PACK, THE GUN WAS LOCKED, AND AFTER A SLIGHT ADJUSTMENT OF THE HIGH AND LOW MACHINES, WITH THE VIBRATION OF THE TURRET, A HUGE FIREBALL FLEW TOWARDS THE TARGET!

"One shot in 35 seconds! This rate of fire is almost twice as fast as our 12-inch guns! Makanov put away the pocket watch in his hand, and his words were full of surprise. Although there were only 2 main guns, relying on the high rate of fire, the Russian battleships with 4 main guns did not have an advantage in the rate of fire of the main guns per unit of time.

At this moment, a 280MM shell hit the bow part of the target ship, the violent explosion directly blew the hull to pieces, and the huge column of smoke flew into the air with fragments, when the smoke dissipated, the target ship seemed to be gnawed off by an ancient beast, a huge gap appeared in the front half of the hull, a large amount of seawater poured into the inside of the hull, and the entire target ship had a serious head tilt! At this moment, the destructive effect of large-caliber artillery is vividly reflected at this moment.

The rest went into garbage time, and the target ship did not even last more than half an hour during the intermittent attack in Mainz, and with the last sound of the cannon, the target ship sank to the bottom of the sea with flames and smoke all over it. Then there was a round of applause and cheers on board the Royal Pleasure Ship Hohenzollern, and the Mainz proved the toughness of Germany's new generation of armored cruisers. And a new page has been opened in the history of the German navy!

After the end of the fire test, the high-level onlookers of Germany and Russia came to an end, and the next thing was the navigation test, under the neat impetus of the high temperature and high pressure provided by the water tube boiler, two three-expansion vertical steam engines drove two propellers to speed on the water surface, in this test, the timing output of the battleship exceeded the design power by 15%, and the peak output reached 14,000 horsepower! And in the next 8-hour voyage, the battleship completely shocked the casual German and Russian officers with an average speed of 21 knots!

"I've never seen a battleship of this tonnage run so fast! Not to mention the Nakhimonov, even the Rurik under construction will have a hard time doing this! Major Essen wrote in the report.

"It's a perfect battleship, with powerful fire, great speed, and new armor. Although the tonnage is only 7500 tons, it is enough to suppress all the cruisers in the world at present, even against battleships. If I could, I would recommend buying two. Popov said to Makanov next to him.

"Why don't we buy one, then buy the drawings and build it ourselves?" Makanov on the side said with some confusion.

"There are two reasons, first, the German side may not be willing to provide drawings, and at least three more countries have ordered Munich-class armored cruisers if we count us. This is their cash cow, and the Bavarian prince has already vaguely expressed the idea of not wanting to sell the drawings. ”

"Secondly, according to reliable sources, the Bavarian Ship Design Bureau had a more powerful planned warship, which was only stranded because of problems with the budget and needs of the German Navy. Baron Vittorio Cuniberti, the chief designer of the design bureau, privately said that they would be willing to sell armored cruisers of this class to Russia if they could. We're the better choice! A smile appeared on the corner of Admiral Popov's mouth!

"Bigger and more powerful warships? How powerful is it? Makanov pouted and said that after seeing the excellent performance of Mainz, he did not think that the new warship could improve much.

"You'll be able to see it this afternoon! I'm looking forward to it right now. Popov also said with a lot of meaning.

There are some special circumstances today, and the update is a little late, I hope you will bear with me~~~, and the second will be presented later~~~.