"The Saxony was sunk?" Jochen asked lightly, not taking to heart the news of the sinking of one of the only four battleships of the German Mediterranean Fleet.

"Yes, Your Highness, the Saxon was sunk at about 13:30 on August 12 40 nautical miles southwest of the port of Pula." Tirpitz replied in a calm tone, as if there was no point in losing a quarter of the strength of the Mediterranean Fleet's battlefleet.

"How are you preparing for the reorganization of the battleship of the Mediterranean Fleet?" Yoheng didn't raise his head, and continued to look at Wen Jiàn in his hand and asked.

"I plan to wait for all five Braunschweig-class battleships to enter service, and then the Wittelsbach-class and Braunschweig-class battleships will be incorporated into the First Battleship Squadron, while the Caesar Frederick III-class battleships in the original First Battleship Squadron will be incorporated into the Second Battleship Squadron, and the four Brandenburg-class battleships will be transferred to the Mediterranean Sea to join the Third Battleship Fleet." Tirpitz replied.

"When the new battleships are replenished into the second battleship squadron, will CaesarFrederick III be transferred to the Mediterranean? You are careful of the Austrian guys accusing you of using the Mediterranean Fleet as a retirement home for warships, and stuffing all kinds of old goods there. Yoheng continued to stare at Wen Jiàn in his hand, and shook his head with a smile and said.

"The Brandenburg class is only a battleship of 10 years ago, far from being old, and if it is only to ensure the security of the Adriatic, the current strength of the Mediterranean Fleet is sufficient, and it is a complete waste to equip them with cutting-edge battleships." Tirpitz said disapprehantly.

At this time, Yoheng finally put down the text in his hand and asked, "How do you feel?" ”

Although the question was a bit clueless, Tirpitz knew what His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was asking, and immediately replied: "The power of the new naval guns has not increased much, but the weight has been reduced, and the rate of fire has not decreased, and the navy is ready to adopt this naval gun on the battleships to be built next."

Moreover, after testing, although the power of the current 283-mm naval guns is enough to penetrate the main armor belt of all the current battleships in service in our country at a distance of 15,000 meters, the Navy still believes that this is not enough. ”

"Oh? Being able to penetrate the main armor belt don't you think it's powerful enough? Jochen asked with interest.

"Yes, Your Highness, the explosion of a shell into the boiler compartment after the shell penetrated the armor during the test was enough in actual combat to deactivate the power output of this chamber and force the evacuation of personnel, but such damage can be restored by entering the factory for overhaul in the harbor. So if you want to completely destroy this place, you need more powerful cannonballs, and the number of tests can be seen on the text in your hand. Tirpitz said.

"Well, yes, I saw that." Jochen nodded, and the line drawing of the battleship Saxony was impressively displayed on the text in his hand, but this line drawing had circles of different colors and numbers added to it, and the content behind the text Jiàn recorded the damage effect corresponding to each circle.

It turns out that Saxony has also become a glorious target ship, as a battleship of the German Navy in the late 70s of the last century, Saxony's service life has exceeded 20 years, according to the standards set by the previous "Navy Law", Saxony has withdrawn from the German Navy's active service sequence, and now it is dedicated to its own weapons performance tests.

However, Jochen was somewhat surprised by the conclusion reached by the German Navy, not that Jochen was unaware of the destructive effect of larger shells on the core compartment of a warship. Because similar experiments have been done in various countries throughout history.

However, it is still somewhat unexpected that the German Navy can put forward this opinion now, and Jochen is not the Wilhelm II in history who has a soft spot for 283 mm naval guns, and the German Navy naturally supports the hope of having more powerful naval guns.

"Isn't the existing 283-mm naval gun powerful enough to completely destroy the core compartment?" Jochen muttered to himself, then looked up to Tirpitz and said, "I naturally support the need for more powerful naval guns and shells for the navy, but you still have to study how much power it needs to meet the needs of this complete destruction of the core chamber." I want to meet your needs, but I can't just have a caliber of more than a dozen millimeters. ”

"Yes, Your Highness." Tirpitz nodded.

"The Navy is preparing to equip new battleships with Skoda's improved naval guns, and it seems that this time it is time for Krupp to ask others for technology, so it's okay to give them a stimulus." Jochen said with a smile.

"Yes, I heard that after Krupp found out, he immediately stepped up the research and development of a new gun, and it would be good if there was a stimulus." Tirpitz laughed too.

Tirpitz's so-called new guns to be installed on the new battleships were not the development of anything larger and longer, but a version of the original 283 mm 45 times the diameter of the naval gun.

However, this is not the credit of Krupp, but the work of Skoda, so that the battleships built in the Mediterranean no longer have to wait for factories in north-central Germany to deliver the necessary parts, so some Czech and Austrian manufacturers can produce some of the core components needed for warships after renovating their production lines.

Naval guns and turrets are one of them, and after obtaining all the technical licenses from Krupp, Skoda can now produce all the types of naval guns currently required by the German Navy, unlike Krupp, which is not in a hurry and focuses on the development of the next model of new naval guns, Skoda, which has relatively little research and development work, has put a lot of effort into improving the version of the partition threaded gun latch.

Now that Skoda has robbed Krupp of his job, Krupp naturally can only hope to win back a city in the newer main gun, which is a good phenomenon.

Both Jochen and Tirpitz were more than happy to see this kind of competition, with Krupp developing new naval guns and Skoda not, giving the navy more options.

"However, it is not very perfect to do such a test with our own warship, after all, the effect on the hull structure and shell damage of other countries is unknown." Tirpitz said with some regret.

"That's no way, you can't allocate a sum of money from the navy to buy a capital ship of another country to come back and shoot targets and then study it, right?" Jochen said with a smile.

Suddenly, there was a sharp knock on the door, interrupting the conversation between the two.

"Come in!" Jochen shouted with his voice raised.

Prime Minister Machar hurriedly pushed open the door and walked in: "Your Highness, the news from Qingdao!" ”

After breathing a sigh of relief, and finding that Jochen and Tirpitz were waiting for the next step, Machar immediately reported: "The telegram just sent back from Qingdao says that yesterday the Pacific Fleet of the Russian Navy left port and engaged the Japanese naval fleet in the waters of the Yellow Sea, and a destroyer of our detachment in Qingdao watched the whole engagement.

The engagement ended with the loss of 3 battleships by the Russian fleet and the loss of 2 battleships by the Japanese side, and a more detailed report of the battle will be sent back to China at a later date. ”

"The Russians lost, not only because of the greater losses than the Japanese, but also because they were forced back to Port Arthur, and it was very unsafe for the fleet to stay in Port Arthur as the fighting on land at the fortress of Arthur became more and more intense." Tirpitz judged.

"The Russians should be preparing to break through to Vladivostok." Jochen knew from history that the Russians would run away nine times out of ten: "Even if they lose 3 battleships, the rest can reach Vladivostok, and the Russians will win." But being forced back to Lushun, I'm afraid it's unlikely that he will fight again. ”

"Well, with the in-port facilities and resources of Port Arthur, it is indeed impossible to make the remaining 4 battleships fully prepared to fight again." Tirpitz nodded in agreement with Jochen.

"If the battle on the ground is lost and the fortress of Arthur falls, the Russian fleet will probably have no better outcome than to sink in the harbor so as not to be captured." "It's like a repeat of the 10-year-old war," Jochen said. ”

"The naval battles fought in the same sea area turned out to be basically evenly matched, and it was the land forces that ended one side in the end, which is indeed very similar to the war 10 years ago." Tirpitz chimed in.

"In fact, the Russians returned to Port Arthur with only 3 battleships." Marcal interjected.

"Huh? Lost 3 ships, returned 3 ships, where else went? Tirpitz wondered.

"The Russians Sevastopol broke into Jiaozhou Bay, and the cruisers of the Japanese Navy followed and blocked our access to the sea, what are we going to do now?" Marchar asked, this was the real reason for his hurry.

"The Russian battleship ran into Jiaozhou Bay? We are now in a neutral position, seizing the Russian warships and providing the Russians with medical care, food and accommodation. Then tell the Japanese that the Russian battleships have been disarmed, let them roll as far as they can. Jochen commanded.

"Why didn't the Russian warship return to Port Arthur, why did they come to Qingdao?" Yochen asked, having thought of what to do.

"I'm really sorry, Your Highness, we don't know the specific situation now, and we can only wait for a more detailed report from Qingdao." Mashal said that a telegram could not be explained clearly, and now he had to wait.

"What about the Russian battleships? I mean, what about the damage? Tirpitz suddenly asked.

Although I don't know why Tirpitz cares about this, Machar still replied truthfully: "The details are not clear, but the telegram said that the damage was severe and there were heavy casualties." ”

"That's great!" Tirpitz stroked his hands and laughed, "This is really a research object sent to the door!" ”

Then he turned to Jochen and said, "Your Highness, in addition to providing medical care, food and lodging, we can also help the Russians repair the warship, and while we are repairing, we can study the damage effect of the Japanese guns and shells on the Russian warships." ”R1152