After the completion of the two Watch-class small cruisers in 1891, the construction of small cruisers for overseas guard patrols was completely stalled by the German Navy, which focused on battleships, armored cruisers, and ocean-going torpedo boats. The failure to start construction of small cruisers for seven years left the German Navy with a shortage of ships deployed overseas despite the aging of the Corolla-class light cruisers and the American Eagle-class small cruisers.

After all, the two Victoria Luiser class and the five new heavy cruisers under construction are all large ships of more than 6,000 tons, and there is no problem in deploying them in overseas towns, but you can't use these capital ships for everything. Therefore, light ships with smaller tonnage are indeed more needed by the Navy at this time.

Due to this need, the Department of Naval Ordnance came up with a number of small cruiser designs for the Navy to choose from. Although the cruiser construction of the German Navy at this time had already been disturbed by Jochen and was very different from history, Jochen could probably still guess which level of history this new scheme corresponded to.

The design scheme submitted by the Ordnance Department is basically between 1500 tons and 2500 tons, equipped with 8-10 105 mm rapid-fire guns, and the speed is 20-22 knots.

According to the number of about 10 ships that are likely to be built, it should be the Gazelle-class small cruisers built in the historical 1895-1896 naval program.

For the first time in history, Germany gave the name of small cruiser to the Gazelle class, and integrated various functions and tasks such as fourth-class cruisers, notification ships, light cruisers, and small protective cruisers on the Gazelle class.

As the first class of warships in the history of the German Navy with the style of modern new light cruisers, and the ancestor of all subsequent German careful cruisers and light cruisers, its historical position is quite important, which is different from the nature of the armored cruisers with the name of light cruisers such as the Victoria Louiser class.

And under the influence of Jochen, the design proposed now is also very different from the historical Gazelle. The 2,500-ton design proposed by the Ministry of Ordnance has a very different shape from the Gazelle class with a displacement of 2,600 tons in history.

Bow with no backward angle of attack and bow underwater torpedo tubes that affect linearity, a beautiful forward-sloping bow and a sleek underwater linearity have become the standard design of all high-speed ships in the German Navy.

Instead of using two rows of parallel gun arrangement, the bow and stern 1 and 4 on both sides of the gun arrangement increased the side firepower by 20, and the 25 mm thick dome armor was not too low for a protective cruiser of the same era, and the design speed of 21 knots and the endurance of 4000 nautical miles at 12 knots allowed her to complete the design task of her overseas deployment cruise.

Overall, by the standards of this time, it was undoubtedly an economical design model for a fourth-class cruiser that could be built in large quantities.

But in Jochen's opinion, this design is a bit of a frustration. If the design had been five years earlier, Jochen would have adopted her without hesitation, or five years later, Jochen would have vetoed her without hesitation. It was a little embarrassing to appear in this time period when the German Navy's power technology was close to entering a new era with one foot in the door.

Moreover, there were quite a few of them, and it was about 1904 that all 10 ships were built, and even then the design could not be said to be outdated. But in a year or two, when the new water-tube boiler and the perfect steam turbine could propel the 20,000-ton hull to 21 knots, her role would be quite embarrassing.

And as a ship that was only 10 years old by the time of World War I, the Gazelle class was completely useless in this war, and in the case of larger and larger cruisers, stronger and stronger firepower, and faster and faster speeds, the fourth-class cruiser of the Gazelle class really became a harmless gazelle in the eyes of predators.

In addition to the fact that some small countries still have a demand for such warships, the naval powers basically do not even build third-class cruisers, let alone fourth-class cruisers?

Originally, Jochen had not been able to make up his mind to oppose the construction of this kind of small ship that the navy still needed, but after the successful test of the steam turbine, after thinking about it, Jochen finally decided to terminate the construction of this kind of warship.

"Alexander, I don't think we need to build small cruisers in the future, I have a new idea, a new class of ships that can be used to replace small cruisers."

"Oh? Well, it's related to the test ship that just successfully went on trials, isn't it, Your Highness? With a little thought, Muntz came to this conclusion.

Because in the past, when the navy wanted to build a small cruiser, Yochen did not object, but now it suddenly changed his mind, and it was the test ship that was more special.

"Yes, it does have something to do with that. Alexander, the positioning of small cruisers is now more and more blurred, you know what will happen to rapid-fire guns without side armor, then a layer of dome armor can have a limited effect. And the speed of 21 knots seems okay now, but what do you think will happen to a small cruiser without adequate armor protection in the face of a siege by 4 ocean-going torpedo boats of more than 29 knots? Yochen asked.

"Without armor protection, it is estimated that the hull will not last long in the face of an attack by 12 88mm rapid-fire guns, and in the face of 4 high-speed targets, 6 105mm guns on the side alone will not be able to cope at all, and it may even be sunk by torpedoes close enough distance. And if the addition of side armor will inevitably lead to an increase in tonnage, then we need to control the cost of the purpose of not being able to achieve it. Muntz thought about it and found that the situation of the fourth-class cruiser was a bit tricky, not very useful, but it couldn't be without.

"Then what is the reason why you are bringing it up now, Your Highness? Well, do you want ocean-going torpedo boats to replace small cruisers? The problem is not very big in terms of combat performance, but it may not be very suitable in terms of endurance. "Muntz thought of the most likely option.

"Originally, I didn't object because my country's Corolla class and American Eagle class are difficult to continue to use, and they can't keep up with the speed of new cruisers, so they can't fight together in formation, and they can only do the work that gunboats did before, which is inconsistent with our original goal of requiring small cruisers to join the main cruiser." Jochen explained.

"However, the success of this steam turbine test gave me a new idea, the ocean-going torpedo boat has insufficient endurance, so the tonnage should be enlarged to meet this demand. A 13,000-horsepower steam turbine can propel a 700-ton ship to more than 29 knots, so if it is placed on a 1,400-ton hull, it should be able to reach a speed of more than 25 knots.

And on such a hull we can also be equipped with 105 mm naval guns and more torpedo tubes, they do not need armor, speed is their best means of protection, and there is no armor, the power system is the same as that of ocean-going torpedo boats, and it is built in large quantities, and the cost will not be very high, such a new ship should be much better than a small cruiser. ”

It has always been Jochen's goal to make the ocean-going torpedo boat large and turn it into a destroyer, how can such an opportunity be spared by nature trying to sell his own concept, but with the current situation of the German Navy, it is impossible to allow such a large destroyer to be built on a large scale, so simply give her the hat of the flagship of the ocean-going torpedo boat fleet, similar to the concept of the destroyer leader of the future.

"Such a ship can be used both as a small cruiser and as the flagship of the fleet of ocean-going torpedo boats. It can be used as a guard for large ships, or it can use high speed to launch surprise attacks, and it can be used in a wider range and function. ”

"It's a good idea, we can try it. But Your Highness, then we lack a ship that can bridge the gap between the Victoria Luiser class and this super ocean-going torpedo boat. The Victoria Luiser class is said to be a light cruiser, but in addition to the caliber of artillery, it will not be worse than the first-class cruisers of other countries in any way, and the cost is extremely high, and we will not continue to build them in the future, and we will only continue to build heavy cruisers of the same type of warships. So how to fill the gap in this class of light cruisers? "Muntz asks a question.

In fact, this problem is not a problem, in the future, the tonnage of light cruisers will become larger and higher, and the cost will be higher and higher, and I really don't see countries want to build a mid-range ship of about 4,000 tons to fill the gap.

However, it is indeed a problem that the German Navy is not ready to continue to build so-called light cruisers such as the Victoria Louiser class in the future. Historically, the Germans have grown from the 6,000-ton Empress Augusta to the 10,000-ton Marquis Bismarck, and while the large cruisers are getting bigger and bigger, there are also small cruisers such as the 2,000-ton Gazelle class to the 4,000-ton Kolburg-class to meet the needs of the cruiser fleet.

After the Coleburg class, the small cruisers of the German Navy began to slowly embark on the path of modern light cruisers, and Jochen really could not directly cut off this development route.

Since you can't cut it, you can just push it again. "This is simple, the Victoria Luiser class is expensive because its tonnage is close to 7,000 tons and has extremely thorough armor protection, so we lower the standard, the tonnage is 5,000 tons, only install the waterline armor belt and dome armor, and other areas such as ammunition depots, engine rooms and other areas have a certain amount of armor protection and the armor in other areas is canceled. Instead of using a rotating turret with a large weight, complex structure, and expensive, the gun was installed in the form of a deck turret. It should be a lot cheaper.

Moreover, the torpedo tubes that we eliminated in order to strengthen our artillery capabilities can also be reinstalled on this light cruiser, so that its means of attack can be more abundant. This should serve as a supplement to the heavy cruiser to fill the gap. These basic numbers proposed by Jochen were the standard for German light cruisers at the end of World War I.

Skipping the process of the evolution of small cruisers into light cruisers, the German Navy would not fall into the situation where light cruisers suffered from smaller tonnage and smaller main guns. R1152