"Externally, the new battleship bears a 90 percent resemblance to the Caesar-class under construction, and the enemy can barely distinguish them at sea distance, while the common parts of the internal structure are also 70 percent, and the biggest advantage of this design is that it saves the time and cost of the shipyard to re-customize the components, and also reduces the probability of technical design errors. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo”

In the conference room of the Technical Committee of the German Royal Navy, Natsuki was still the one to be reviewed and evaluated, but the object of his presentation had changed to those who directly held the power of the navy: Count Tirpitz, Secretary of State for the Navy, Admiral Müller, Chief of the Naval Cabinet, Admiral von Holzendorf, commander of the High Seas Fleet, and Vice Admiral von Ingnoor, Chief of the General Staff of the Navy.

After repeated calculations and demonstrations by the design department and deliberation and discussion by the technical committee, this has reached the penultimate link before the design plan is determined, and the next step is for Kaiser Wilhelm II to finally decide its fate.

The head of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Navy, Müller, first put forward his opinion: "The new warships that the British Navy began to build last year have already decided to adopt 13. The 5-inch cannon is a 343 mm caliber gun, with five twin turrets, a total of 10 guns. Admittedly, our Caesar-class battleships were very well designed, but if the new ships continued to use 8 12-inch guns, they would be a big step behind the new British ships in terms of firepower. In terms of service time and tonnage, they will be direct competitors. ”

Natsuki responded very calmly: "You are right, purely in terms of firepower, our new battleship is weaker than the British warship of the same class. Whereas, Krupp R&D 13. The results of the 5-inch naval gun are uncertain, and at the moment we only have 50-inch guns available with 12-inch guns with a diameter of 12. Fortunately, our naval guns have a long range, and when equipped with C-type armor-piercing shells, the armor-piercing depth is 45 times the diameter of the British Navy's new 13. The 5-inch naval gun was comparable, and it had advantages in terms of rate of fire and stability. My idea is that if one twin main turret is added in pursuit of one-sided firepower, or four triple main turrets are used, the turret defense of the new warship will be reduced, and in the event of a large fleet engagement, the ship with weak turret defense will soon have a loss of combat effectiveness, and if the damage is not properly managed, it may also threaten the survival of the ship due to the explosion of ammunition. In this regard, we can use wargaming deduction for simulation and calculation. ”

Natsuki's reference to "Grand Fleet Engagement" is a phrase that Tirpitz has often used on his lips in recent years. In the past, Prussia/Germany had a weak navy, and once it was engaged in a war with a country with a strong navy, it had to adopt a strategy of breaking up diplomatic relations and attacking to avoid the enemy's edge. With the promulgation and implementation of the German Navy Act, the strength of the High Seas Fleet has jumped from the third rate to the first-class, and the previous strategy seems less suitable, so there is the concept of "Grand Fleet Engagement". On the other hand, after nearly 10 years of continuous investment, the German government has taken on a debt of more than 500 million marks for naval construction, and the German Navy has become the second in the world after the British Navy. The strength of the Grand Fleet at war", the construction of the Navy reached the most basic goal.

"With His Highness's mind and eloquence, the usual wargames must be under His Highness's control." The Chief of the General Staff of the Navy, Ingnoll and Natsuki's immediate boss, seems to have suffered a lot in this regard in the usual war game deduction operations, so he said this in front of Tirpitz.

The elderly can rely on the old to sell the old, and the young also have the advantage of being young. The three people present were all elders, and they were very familiar with each other, Natsuki put away his usual steady and elegant, and said with a mischievous smile: "Wargame deduction is originally a theoretical deduction calculation, and the creator often plays cards out of common sense, so why should we imprison ourselves in our thinking?" ”

Von Ingnoll didn't really have a grudge against Natsuki, and he continued, "Then again, I agree with His Highness's view that turret defense is important. In a naval battle, it is very common for the capital ship to be shelled, and if the turret is knocked out early, even if the battleship can return safely, it will only drag down its companions in this naval battle. ”

"There are two sides to everything." "Between firepower and defense, we can only look for a relative balance," Holzendorf said. His Highness is a genius in the field of technology and an absolute professional, since he is fully sure, we might as well wait and see, right? ”

Natsuki set his sights on the admiral, who succeeded Prince Heinrich as commander of the High Seas Fleet, and at 57 years old, he was in the prime of his life as a fleet commander, and he also had a rich resume and a face of integrity and generosity, which made him often regarded as a "good old man". However, his easy-going personality did not mean a mediocrity in ability and vision, and he was more concerned with new types of weapons, including high-speed torpedo boats, submarines, and seaplanes, than giant ship artillonists like Tirpitz.

Tirpitz buried his head and said: "The firepower configuration of the new battleship, including the placement of all the first-level secondary guns in the fully protected twin secondary turrets, and the second-level secondary guns in the semi-protected twin gun mounts, I personally agree for the time being, the key is the opinion of His Majesty the Emperor, he does not want our battleships to be just turtles with bayonets." ”

It's a good metaphor, but with some irony. The standard displacement of the historical original King-class battleship 2. 50,000 tons, carrying 5 twin 12-inch guns, the performance in Jutland was quite eye-catching, but it was not without its shortcomings. The third main turret of the "King" was the 13 of the British battleship. The 5-inch turret wounded, the "Frederick the Great" and some other German battleships also suffered losses in the battle, and the battle cruiser formation was even worse, and by the end of the naval battle there were few main guns still capable of firing shells, in the final analysis, these were the result of heavy hull armor and small arms defense.

The current "king" design scheme has a standard displacement of 500 tons higher than that of the Caesar class, that is, 2. 650,000 tons, full load is expected to be 3. 10,000 tons, but only equipped with 4 twin 12-inch guns, in the case of the weight and space occupied by the power system only decreased, the remaining weight was of course used to strengthen the already very strong defense, to resist the new British capital ships13. 5-inch caliber main gun. According to Natsuki's calculations, even if such a King-class encounters a British battleship equipped with 15-inch heavy guns, it still has a chance to fight.

"The situation with the main armor belt is the same as that of the Caesar class, the only change is the addition of a 50 mm thick mine protection layer inside the waterline compartment, and theoretically, as long as two torpedoes do not hit the same or adjacent positions, the hull will be safe and sound." Natsuki continued.

The four of them had no objection to this, and they should be able to pass smoothly to Wilhelm II.

"And then there's motivation." Natsuki paused, "This time, the four King-class ships will use the Hubert steam turbine. It is necessary to introduce in detail this novel power equipment, which has been involved in the development, testing and production of this turbine throughout the whole process, which adopts an advanced impulse design, is more compact and lighter than Parsons technology, and its output is more than 20% higher than that of the British steam turbine with the same fuel consumption, and this advantage will be further expanded with the improvement of technology. ”

"In theory, it's perfect." "The only problem is that it has only been tested on two civilian ships and one light cruiser, the longest of which is just over four months," Tirpitz said. Your Highness? ”

For this, Natsuki is not ready to avoid it, but chooses to face it positively.

"Yes, Lord Count, you can always see the crux of things. Judging from the current operating data, the overall condition is very good, except for a few non-technical minor faults, and the rate of component wear is also within acceptable limits. In my personal judgment, it meets the practical requirements of large warships, and this judgment is also supported by a number of power technology experts. ”

Tirpitz, who had two strange beards, tirpitz tapped the table with his fingers lightly, knocked more than a dozen times in a row, and still buried his head and said: "If Your Highness insists on insisting, I reserve my personal opinion." ”

Muller, who had a short beard, then said: "Although the use of British turbines is susceptible to many constraints, their technology is relatively mature and stable after all, and our high-performance engines are also being actively improved, even if the improved models cannot keep up with the construction speed of new warships, the performance of the Parsons-Shuoxiao turbines for Caesar-class battleships is barely qualified." Alternatively, we could install Hubert's turbines on one or two of the ships that started later, which would be safer. ”

Natsuki was very polite when it was time to be humble, and when he should have insisted, he didn't mind showing a bit of conceit or even arrogance: "There will be at least one year between the design of the battleship and the installation of the boiler turbine, and after a year, the improved version of Hubert's turbine should have been put into production, so I am quite sure of the success of this new turbine." Besides, if we use both coal-fired boilers and Parsons-Schulp engines, our new ships will be about 2 knots slower than their British counterparts, and if oil-fired boilers are used, there may be a situation as warned by the Army General Staff, and Hubert turbines can solve this problem. ”

"Since you are so insistent, I have no choice but to reserve my opinion." Mueller said.

In the section on the power configuration of the new warship, neither Holzendorf nor Ingnoll objected.

Natsuki continued: "Like the Moltke-class special fast warships, I have reserved a simple hangar and catapult in the amidships, so that when performing fleet combat missions, they do not have to carry seaplanes, and lifeboats can be hoisted in the spare space, and when they are alone or in small groups, they should carry aircraft to maximize the reconnaissance and alert range. ”

Tirpitz has always been at the mercy of Natsuki for these irrelevant details, but Müller said something suggestive: "Your Highness attaches great importance to the role of seaplanes, just as he attaches great importance to Hubert's engines." ”

Natsuki looked at the Navy Cabinet Commander without anger, there was no contradiction between the two, but the Moltke-class configuration of the seaplane came from Hubert Aviation, and the new warship was likely to use Hubert-powered large steam turbines, so it was reasonable to have this question.

"In the past five years, the profitability of the Friedrich shipyard has increased year by year, and its operating conditions are not inferior to the old shipyards in China, and over time, it is bound to be able to catch up with the first-class shipyards in Britain, and only need to transfer a small number of shares, and the wealth obtained will not be used up in my life, not to mention that the treatment of the royal family is enough for me to live a worry-free life, and money means far less to me than honor."

Mueller had nothing to say, and the atmosphere was a little awkward.

"Okay, that's the main body of the design plan, and there's a digression." Natsuki said, "In the past, our capital ship construction contracts were in the form of competitive bidding, so that the shipyards could be selected on the basis of merit, but in the construction of the Caesar-class battleships, I tried to unite five shipyards to standardize the operation, which was also approved by His Majesty the Emperor and His Excellency the Count. Now the hull construction of the first two ships is nearing completion, the speed of construction has increased by 4%, the cost has decreased by 2%, and the quality is fully up to standard. Considering the tonnage, size and scheduled start time of the new warships, these shipyards are just in time to start construction of our new warships after completing the hull work of the Caesar-class ships, and back to what I introduced at the beginning, the new warships have a high degree of similarity with the Caesar-class, and a large number of internal structures are completely identical, which is conducive to further reducing the construction cost of our capital ships and shortening the construction period. Compared with the British, we had a clear disadvantage in these two aspects, which was very detrimental to the development of the German Navy in the long run. ”

Prince Joachim's status in the field of naval shipbuilding and his image in the eyes of the Kaiser are beyond doubt, and with what he just complained, how could the three high-ranking people of the navy criticize him for serving as the chairman of the shipbuilding alliance? However, the shipbuilding order of a capital ship means a huge profit of one million marks, means hundreds of jobs, affects and even determines the fate of a shipyard, and for the navy, the quality of a capital ship is related to the life and death of thousands of naval officers and men, and it is more likely to become a turning point in a key naval battle, which is something that must not be "casual".

"His Royal Highness's original intentions are good, and on the other hand, market competition has the benefits of market competition, how to choose, we will leave it to the Navy Committee to decide!"

Tirpitz had to forward the proposal to the Naval Committee when he clearly had the right to decide, so that although it was inevitable that there would be lengthy links and heated debates, as long as Tirpitz exerted influence from the side, the result would still be as Natsuki wanted, and even if something really went wrong in the future, no one would have to take responsibility for it, which is the old spicy thing about those in power.

(End of chapter)