The Thunderbolt, first established in 1861, was a steamship platform during the American Civil War. Mainly, on the sticks protruding from the ship, mines or stuffed explosive objects are used to attack enemy ships in a collision manner. Later, this method of warfare spread to the Atlantic coast, and the British engineer Whitehead invented a torpedo that could sail like a ship based on this principle, which greatly increased the role of the mine-striking ship.

Easy to imitate, economical, and lethal are the characteristics of the mine-strike ship, which soon became the new favorite of the navies of the countries along the Atlantic coast.

Because the lightning strike ship itself has no defensive weapons, it must take high-speed penetration and surprise attacks, therefore, at the end of the 19th century, the tonnage of the lightning strike ship was not too large, and the small one was only a few dozen tons. Quick attack and quick withdrawal is another characteristic of this type of warship, and about 100 tons are already considered large lightning strike ships, which has a lot to do with the number of torpedo tubes and bomb loads on board.

Mine-striking ships with larger tonnage will follow the ship formation to areas with better sea conditions under the protection of frigates, while small-sized mine-striking ships can only cruise in the coastal waters and extend their strike force with shore-based artillery fire. After all, the tonnage is too small, and its navigation ability is limited in complex sea conditions.

After the end of World War I, almost all of the German mine-striking ships remained, because the British simply did not look down on these small warships. After the large-tonnage gunboats were towed, they were either disassembled. Either it will be remodeled and then put back into service with the British Navy.

Most of the remaining lightning strikers were moored at the William Navy Pier, and Eric also looked down on it, and through some cabinet members going to sea in the early stage to experience the sea, Brauchitsch, Hipper, and others found that the president already had the idea of replacing the old lightning strike ships.

In the bidding hall, the Colonel provided the Z-21T mine strike ship scheme to the bidding enterprises beyond everyone's imagination, many shipyards are not optimistic about the profit margins of such small ships, there is no intention to bid, and there is no bidding plan, although most of them are present to participate in the meeting, at most just to see the excitement.

However, when Party A (Navy) showed the design drawings and data of this type of warship, the shipyards that came to bid for the bid really realized what it means to be a rich lightning strike ship can become a behemoth of several thousand tons, and at the same time, it also made those enterprises who voluntarily gave up the bid regret it.

The Z-21T on the drawing is the plan of the lightning strike ship, the streamlined hull design can improve the speed of the ship, and the high bow can resist the wind and waves in the complex sea area, which is completely different from the previous small lightning strike ship. Because of the characteristics of this type of ships, only one 127-mm twin-mounted high-level dual-purpose gun is installed on the forward main deck platform, and three 37-mm twin-mounted anti-aircraft guns are installed on each side of the ship.

The four eight-mounted 450-mm torpedo tubes in the center line of the hull are the highlight of the lightning strike ship, and when attacking from the sea, 32 torpedoes can be fired at an effective angle of 150 degrees on each side at the same time. In order to enhance the torpedo attack capability of this type of mine-strike ship, the designers used four launch tubes to occupy two-thirds of the entire deck space, and there was an electric elevator and automatic loader between every two torpedo tubes to increase the attack speed of the torpedo tubes.

The elevator platform can be equipped with 24 torpedoes required to load 3 launch tubes, which can be loaded within 5 minutes and then put the launch tubes into the firing state again, that is to say, 56 torpedoes can be fired at the 150-degree sector on one side of the ship itself in 5 minutes.

The German Confederation adheres to the tradition of saving labor and labor in automatic machinery, and the four transmitter steering machines are also electrically driven, and the 180-degree rotation time takes only 9 seconds.

The new mine-striking ship has 56 bombs on board, including 24 bombs pre-positioned on the elevator, and the other 32 bombs are placed in the internal bomb compartment of the hull. Due to the scattered storage, once the first round of attacks is over and the spare torpedo has been fired, it is impossible to accurately estimate the preparation time for the second round to be fully ready.

However, the combat capability of the lightning strike ship to launch another round also makes the Z-21T mine strike ship have a greater repetitive strike function, rather than throwing it away and running away.

This plan was the culmination of some of the admirals, not President Eric's wishes, and in fact, deep down he did not approve of such a design. If a large-tonnage ship has only one gun and a pitiful number of anti-aircraft guns, once the torpedo is fired, such a ship can only quickly withdraw from the war zone

Otherwise, it will become a live target for enemy ships, and it will be difficult for them to bring into play the ability of sustained combat and self-protection in future naval battles, not to mention the possibility of cooperating with other fraternal warships when encountering a short-range enemy at sea.

However, Hipper, Marshal Henin and others, including Tirpitz, were very optimistic about this design, believing that this battleship had a strong instantaneous explosive ability and a very reliable rapid projection ability.

The reason is very simple, the combat nature of the lightning strike ship itself is to fight quickly and withdraw quickly, so that the enemy will be hit hard in an instant, and the deployment of the other side will be completed without the ability to return fire. On the whole, everyone agreed that this goal had been achieved.

Soldiers who have really fought on the battlefield of naval warfare understand that the role of torpedoes is not only to kill large warships, but also to use their rapid maneuver to divert the enemy's attention, break the enemy's formation, affect the enemy's favorable position, and make the enemy unable to care about each other like a blue wolf burrowing into a flock of sheep.

If a fan is launched, if the opponent does not quickly adjust the course, it will face sinking after hitting the torpedo, and after adjusting the course, it will break away from the formation, especially large warships, it is difficult to keep up with friendly ships again, and the tactical role is very large.

According to Eric's idea, the aggressiveness of such a destroyer was limited, and if the torpedo launcher was optimized, it would be possible to add a torpedo tube on each side of the ship on the basis of the Z-21 prototype. Eric's idea is not unreasonable, you must know that the Z-21 is not cheap to build, and its combat lichen should be maximized. The Z-21S is the cheapest of this type of destroyer, with an initial offer of 8.2 million marks, and even if the first test ship requires some additional funds, it will not exceed 9 million marks. The cost of creating a unique model for the Z-21T alone will not be less than 8 million marks. Torpedo tubes are not as expensive as artillery, but the torpedo itself, the 32 to be fired plus the spare 56 torpedoes, a total of 88, which is almost equivalent to the money of five twin 127-mm turrets, and the torpedoes are exhausted, and the turret can still have thousands of shots, and this account is calculated, Eric feels that it is too much of a loss.

In the end, it was Ruetjens who understood Eric and convinced him with several sets of powerful data. Because since all naval battles, it has not been possible to sink a large-tonnage armored warship in a lifetime with small-caliber artillery fire, but torpedoes can do it.

Data is the last word, and Eric had to agree to build three mine strike ships as planned, and then consider the issue of mass production after the test ships were launched for testing, and after the actual combat results were obtained.

The colonel finished talking about the functions of the thunderbolt, showed all the data, and then asked the bidding enterprises to go back to the budget.

Obviously, there is a big difference from the previous two, and what everyone cares about is not whether it can be built, but the profit margin that can be obtained when it is built, after all, the technical content of the lightning strike ship is the lowest among the three.

After several days of competition, the Hamburg Volken shipyard received an order for three Z-21Ts.

The Hamburg Volken shipyard, which had a very difficult time to protect itself, made the Z-21T, the least high-tech, the biggest winner in this order.

In the meantime, Blom and Krupp are competing for each other, and there is no room for competition in price, so they will fight for time, technology, and indicators. However, small factories can always win over large factories in terms of details, because Blom and Krupp will indeed not give up the next big orders because of the battle for small orders.

After several rounds of competition, many factories began to give up bidding, except for some shipyards that still have the strength to continue to stay to compete for the index of cruisers, some small shipyards either hurry to find large shipyards to seek cooperation, or hurry back to start expanding private order business, in order to survive.

The world of capital is like this, interests are an unavoidable topic, and if there is no living space here, there is naturally another market waiting to reach out and fight for.

More than half a month of destroyer bidding activities have finally come to an end, and what is about to usher in is the shipbuilding plan of the German Navy cruiser. The shipyards that did not have the capacity or had already received other orders also began to speculate about the tonnage of these cruisers.

Krupp arrived not too late, coming to Berlin from the Ruhr in a hurry when the competition between destroyers and shore defense ships was about to come to an end. Compared with other manufacturers, he seems to be very confident and has a look of ambition.

Some time ago, although Krupp himself was not in Berlin, he learned about everything that happened here, including the fact that the Bloom shipyard failed in the bid for its own reasons, and finally couldn't help but snatch the destroyer project with the small shipyard.

In Krupp's view, the only ones in the country who can compete with Krupp Shipping Company are Wilhelm Royal Shipyard, Weser Shipyard, Blomforth Shipyard, and Germania Shipyard.

Originally, there was a Desimag shipyard, but this time, the Decimag shipyard did not seem to have any preparations.

In fact, it is not that Desimag does not care about such an attractive order for naval ships, but because of the chaotic management of the factory, the whole factory is in a low period.

For some time, Decimag has not received any new orders for private business, and only some of the employees of the few small-tonnage ships on the slipway have to grind foreign workers to the death.

The restaurant on the second floor of the Hithofen Grand Hotel was very busy, and Krupp looked up at the lively atmosphere around him, and asked the Berlin-based speaker sitting opposite him: "Mr. Lettger, those diners don't seem to be serious about eating, what are they discussing?" ”

Leterger picked up the towel and wiped his mouth, and said unhurriedly: "These people may be our competitors, and they are discussing tomorrow's bidding." ”

"Let's continue to drink Leterger, what's there to discuss tomorrow, isn't it just a few cruisers?" Krupp, to put it mildly, doesn't seem to take bidding seriously.

"Nope! No, no! Mr. Krupp, don't you remember what I told you earlier about the project for the new destroyer Z-21 for the Navy? Lightger asked rhetorically.

"Remember, it's the same as cruisers in general, times have changed, it's not surprising." This was Krupp's first feeling. Because Krupp started by building artillery, and although he was involved in the shipbuilding industry, it was not his strong point, so he was also superficial in understanding.

"These people are speculating about the tonnage of the cruiser that the Navy spokesman will probably announce tomorrow. Let's put it this way, Mr. Krupp, with the precedent of this destroyer with a ceiling of 3500 tons, how big will the cruiser be? You can guess now. Lightger was also very interested, and he already had a few very unreliable predictions in his mind.

"It's also true, a 3500-ton destroyer, this is a cruiser at all. Still, the cruiser should have been much larger. Krupp's self-confidence was not greatly affected, and then he asked Leitger, "Tell me what you think, you are an expert in this area." ”

Leithger has been dealing with shipping since he was a child, and he is also a rising star in the German berthing industry, a chance encounter, was favored by Krupp, hired as the general manager of Krupp Shipping Company with a high salary, and became the chief voice of Krupp in the marine berth construction business. Krupp has always attached great importance to Leitger's proposals.

"Conservative estimates, at least above 10,000 tons." Leiterger's very cautious guess did not satisfy Krupp, after all, cruisers of more than 10,000 tons were common before.

Leteger coughed dryly to resolve his embarrassment, and then continued: "This time, because of the lack of naval warships, the armed reinforcements to the Ottoman Empire were canceled, allowing Greece to take advantage of its military advantage, and President Eric may learn from the pain and relax the cruiser standard to more than 20,000 tons, this is just my small guess, how big this type of battleship will be, and we will really see tomorrow." His voice was not small, after all, it was a large hall now, and there were too many ears and eyes.

None of the guests at the surrounding tables paid attention to their conversations, and on this occasion, they were busy increasing their odds of winning their bids, and where could they care about what others said. Krupp looked at the guests around him, and saw that they were all speaking cautiously, and that strange behavior made everyone look like his competitors.

"There are obviously not a few people who have your guess, but everyone is now secretive and secretly competing." Krupp noticed that the people around him were unusually sensitive, and did not seem to want others to see his intentions, and he felt very funny that no stranger looked at each other with strange expressions.

"A 20,000-ton cruiser, that's the equivalent of a battleship! I don't think the shrewd President Eric would put his eggs in one basket, and with so many cruisers, I estimate that the odds of several larger shipyards winning the bid are very large. Although Krupp does not understand shipbuilding technology, he has not spent his interactions with Leitge in the wine pond meat forest in the past few years, and has more or less gained some knowledge, of course, he knows that the 20,000-ton ships are undoubtedly big ships and huge guns, and he can't help but be slightly surprised, and the half piece of beef in his mouth almost fell off.

"Mr. Krupp doesn't have to be too alarmed, and in my opinion, President Eric has something even more unexpected and surprising, and this is just the beginning." Letger said with a laugh.

"God! How big is this naval order? "Krupp can't hold it anymore" I have a very optimistic estimate, in case we can't compete for the construction of cruisers, so many 20,000-ton cruisers, we have to purchase a lot of our cannons! ”