"The British are really not willing to be lonely, and they are catching up, even the Japanese are stronger than in history!" After a cursory glance at the information gathered, the prince had to sigh at the depth of the British's heritage. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info they sometimes lack a little bit in theory, but once they recognize the direction, relying on their strong scientific and technological strength and industrial base, the British can quickly erase the gap between the two sides, and now, they are doing the same!

In the Battle of the Philippines, the Japanese learned the power of the Asama-class armored cruisers, and their ambition and self-confidence were extremely inflated while not forgetting the potential danger, although this time they relied on deception to obtain 4 German armored cruisers to successfully survive the crisis, and quite successful, but they also knew very well that once German-Russian relations eased, it would be difficult for Japan to obtain new warships from Germany.

And when the news came out that Russia had ordered a new generation of super battleships from Germany, the Japanese finally couldn't hold back and made a request to Britain the next day to buy a new generation of battleships. And it is required that their performance data in all aspects cannot be lower than the level of the Russian warships ordered from Germany!

At the time of the initial order, the Japanese did not know the data of the Russian order of battleships, so they decided to set their future order of battleships based on the Asama, because it was a battleship, then it must have a 12-inch main gun, and according to actual combat experience, the Japanese believed that the 2nd level of the main gun was also needed, and the former had a better damage effect, (although it could not penetrate the main armor belt, but the larger caliber gun had a better damage effect on the superstructure.) And the latter has a faster rate of fire.

While requiring the battleship to have two twin 12-inch guns, the Japanese required that the battleships of this class must also have a second-class main gun. But it was precisely on the issue of the second class main gun that the Japanese and the British had a dispute, according to the British idea, since the Armstrong 8-inch gun that was originally sold to you was used well, then continue to use it, it is cheap, and the rate of fire is high, and each battleship can install a twin 8-inch turret in each of the four corners.

But the Japanese disagreed, because they suddenly discovered that the twin 10-inch L45 main guns developed by the British for the new second class battleships of the first class had a decent rate of fire. It was hoped that the twin 8-inch guns could be replaced with twin 10-inch guns. The British thought about it and felt that there was no reason to return the door-to-door business, so they said yes, and then offered the Japanese an almost unacceptable high price, 1.2 million pounds!

In the face of high price and performance, the Japanese finally compromised, they adopted a compromise design, still 4 corners to deploy the second-class main gun, but the twin 10-inch guns were replaced with a single turret, and at the same time a large number of 6-inch guns were used to make up for the lack of firepower, compared to the 10-inch guns that required complex servo equipment, the 6-inch guns were much more convenient, and basically the loading and pitch control were manpower.

As a result, construction began on two battleships that were almost similar to the later Katori-class battleships at the Armstrong shipyard in England. The two battleships, named Katori and Kashima, had a displacement of up to 15,000 tons and were armed with two twin 12-inch turrets, four single-mounted 10-inch L40 turrets, up to 14 6-inch guns in the first class, and a large number of 12-pounder anti-lightning guns. The main armor belt was 9 inches, the height was sufficient, and the turret and conning tower were up to 10 inches thick. There is also a dome armor with a thickness of 3 inches to 2 inches to provide protection inside, and this class of battleships must be at high speed according to Japanese requirements, at least the same speed as Fuji and Yashima, two second-class battleships, so the British also learned from Germany and used kerosene mixed boilers, with a design speed of more than 19 knots! It's a decent battleship, at least better than the French and Russians' own warships.

And in this way, the Hatsuse and the Others disappeared into the long river of history. And according to the contract signed by the British and the Japanese, at least 4 warships of this class will be built, but what is unexpected is that the Japanese regretted these two warships as soon as they started construction, for no other reason, because they obtained specific data on 4 super battleships built by Germany for Russia! With 4 12-inch L40 guns and 4 10-inch L40 guns, the Rurik 2-tier supership bared its sharp fangs at the Japanese. The Katori-class battleships were already behind the times before they were launched.......

As a result, the red-eyed Japanese could no longer care about the problem of money, and they urgently demanded that the British could come up with a weapon that completely overwhelmed their opponents, and the British were not ambiguous and directly decided to increase the number of secondary guns of the Katori-class battleships to 12! As a result, the historical Satsuma class battleships once again appeared on the drawing board of the British Design Institute, with two twin 12-inch turrets at the beginning and end, and six twin 10-inch turrets on the side of the hull, and other data remained basically unchanged, and the tonnage of this class of battleships successfully rose to 19,000 tons! In terms of performance, it has almost reached the pinnacle of quasi-dreadnoughts in history!

"History is almost five years ahead of schedule." After reading the information, the prince had a general assessment in his mind, and it is worth noting that the British also seem to be considering the design of the dreadnought, because among the alternatives for the Satsuma class battleships designed by White for the Japanese, there is a scheme that uses all 12-inch main guns, and the gun layout of this plan refers to the invincible class of later generations, and the quadrilateral distribution of 4 twin main guns constitutes his main firepower. But for some reason, the British eventually abandoned this plan, and it is said that Japan did not know about ....... The meaning of this is intriguing.

The Japanese ordered 4 battleships, 2 Katori-class battleships, 2 Satsuma-class battleships, plus 2 Fuji-class battleships of the 2nd class and 4 Asama-class 1st class armored cruisers and 1 captured armored cruiser of the Carlos V. Before 1903, the Japanese had at least 6 battleships and 5 armored cruisers. On the number is a little less than in history. (provided that no additional orders are placed) but in terms of quality, the Japanese fleet in this plane can easily crush the historical Japanese 68th Fleet. No way, the concept is almost a generation behind, can the standard pre-dreadnoughts and quasi-dreadnoughts be compared?

Of course, the prince just looks at these things, after all, as long as the ship is sold, what does it have to do with the prince what kind of war between Japan and Russia becomes? Anyway, looking at the situation of the Russians, it is unlikely to order warships from Germany, and what the prince really cares about is the cruisers that the British built for themselves, you know, in the future, Germany will have to confront the Royal Navy, these cruisers may be useless in the Great War in the North Sea, but they are a huge threat to the attack ships deployed by the Allies outside!

The third is more present~~~! Ask for subscription, ask for tips~~~! (To be continued.) )