What does the 4-month period mean?

For an ordinary person, when the daily life is highly repetitive, 4 months may be a flick of the fingers, surprisingly fast, but nothing has been achieved.

For a country, 4 months is enough to complete the process from the founding of the country to the decline, or it may be just an extremely ordinary time, with no major events, no waves, and will soon be forgotten by people.

On such a bright spring day, Chen Tian and his entourage, together with the accompanying generals, experts, royal attendants, and escorting guards, a large number of people, accompanied by reception personnel sent by the US authorities, including military generals, high-ranking government officials, diplomats, and intelligence personnel, walked slowly along the wide, straight and smooth road of the shipbuilding area of the San Francisco Navy Yard in the United States. The slipway where the Americans built their new capital ship was not far in front of them, but it was not a mighty battleship with a forest of gun barrels that people imagined, but a huge dark gray hull, which at this time did not have any superstructure, and even the outer sides of the hull were not completely covered by steel plates. From a distance, it looks more like a leftover fish than a large capital warship that will have great firepower and solid armor in the near future and be able to show off its might in the oceans.

Still, no one in the group was disappointed.

For a large shipyard, 4 months is enough time to build a large 100-ton fishing ship with steel bones and wooden hulls, and if they use standardized parts and assembly operations and have enough skilled workers, they can also build a decent medium-sized merchant ship that can carry out ocean-going activities, but as long as anyone with shipbuilding experience knows that it is impossible to complete a light warship of more than 3,000 tons in 4 months, let alone a large capital ship of 30,000 tons!

Since the launch of the dreadnought. The record for the speed of capital ship construction in the world is still held by the Dreadnought, which began laying the keel in October 1905, was launched in February of the following year, and sea trials were conducted in October, even though the inspection of new equipment took some more time, it was still officially commissioned in December. In comparison, the German Nassau class of the same class took two years and three months, the slightly larger Caesar-class took three full years, and the American first-class dreadnought "South Carolina" was declared commissioned in the fourth year after the start of construction due to budget problems. The Satsuma-class battleships built in Japan at the same time were not put into active service until the fifth year after the start of construction for similar reasons. Since then, the capital ships of various countries have become larger and larger, and the requirements for firepower, armor, and speed have become higher and higher, and the time to build a battleship has been extended, and by the end of the 20s of the 20th century, the time to build a large battleship usually takes 2 to 3 years, or even longer.

In this era, even Germany, the number one power in terms of industrial power and technology, can hardly repeat the miracle of the "Dreadnought". Take, for example, the Scharnhorst-class heavy cruisers, which have long been built in batches, with sufficient manpower, funds and resources. It also takes about 270 to 300 days from the laying of the keel to the launching of this class of warships.

The fastest record from start to service was 637 days, and the tonnage of Scharnhorst was only two-thirds of that of this new American warship.

Because of the presence of dignitaries, today's Navy Shipyard is extremely heavily guarded. This atmosphere also makes Chen Tian feel completely different from the usual visits to German shipyards: although the workers here are also busy, they do not have the enthusiasm of the German shipyard workers.

After walking for a while, Chen only thought that on the one hand, there are people who enjoy victory, and on the other hand, people who taste courage, and the psychology between the two is naturally very different.

"It's like a big 'barracuda', isn't it?"

"Yes, except for those who are active underwater, I'm afraid there is no one with such a slender body!"

"I think it must be very seaworthy, and it should be faster than what they announced. It may be 2 or 3 verses faster. ”

"I agree! If you look at the bow, it's supposed to be a flying scissor bow, but it's different from the traditional shape! I have the impression that only the Japanese Navy has ever adopted this design, which they call ...... Uh, it looks like a curve......"

"Hyperbolic bow?"

"Yes, hyperbolic bow! A unique design with good wave resistance! ”

"Unfortunately, it is not clear what kind of boilers and turbines they are going to use at the moment...... If I had to choose, Curtis would be the first choice! ”

"But Americans also know that Curtis owns more than half of the shares in our country's businessmen. In other words, Curtis can't keep the performance of any of its turbines secret! ”

Compared with Chen Tian, who had been silent, the two technical experts from the German Navy in the back were discussing enthusiastically, of course, the sound of this discussion was very small, and only a few people around could hear it.

Chen Tian listened to the conversation between the two experts without saying a word, he himself was very interested in warships, and he usually studied a lot, but it was only about the general performance of warships and the strategy and tactics of naval warfare, which can be said to be something with rough lines. As for the details, such as the data on the design of the battleship and the technology during construction, Chen Tian is almost ignorant. Because of this, he needs to rely on the analysis of experts to make a judgment - judging from the current situation, the battleship that the Americans are building attaches great importance to maneuverability, which is also consistent with the analysis and speculation of the intelligence department.

"Have you noticed those two gantry cranes!" One of the experts whispered, "They seem to be something special!" ”

"Looks normal!" Another expert glanced up at the two large gantry cranes erected on the side of the slipway, which were used to lift boilers, turbines, turrets, and main guns, and were usually installed before the hull was completed. The larger the battleship, the weight of its supporting boilers, engines, main guns and other parts will increase accordingly, especially the main gun, a 406 mm caliber naval gun has a single barrel of more than 100 tons, and the turret composed of thick armor can reach 1600 tons!

"Can you be sure how many objects they can lift at most?" Chen Tian turned his head and asked the slightly taller technical expert behind him.

"It's not difficult, Your Majesty!" The expert took one last look at the two gantry cranes and replied affirmatively: "It is very close to the gantry crane we used when we built the Graf-class battleships, and it may even be the same model!" ”

"So the Americans are ready to install naval guns of the Graff class?" Chen Tian was a little surprised, because the Graff-class was equipped with 406 mm naval guns, and the German intelligence department's previous estimate of the specifications of the main gun of this American battleship was not higher than the 343 mm guns of the Caesar Fitley III class, and the difference between the two was a whole level!

"No, Your Majesty! The specifications of the gantry crane have no absolute relationship with the caliber of the main gun! The other expert, who was about the same age as the former, and both wore large monocles, but were relatively shorter, replied before his companion.

"In fact, this also has something to do with the habits of the naval shipyards of various countries!" After a moment's thought, the tall man added, "The Americans, for example, like to use large gantry cranes, even though they don't actually need that big, while the Japanese are always smart and will never use a 300-ton gantry crane to lift a 200-ton thing!" Another point is that in order to keep the enemy from knowing the situation of their warships as much as possible, the shipyard may also use more than several levels of gantry cranes, so that enemy experts can make unrealistic guesses! ”

"I see, that's ......" Chen Tian was a little disappointed, originally thought that he could guess the specifications of the battleship's main guns by looking at the gantry crane, but now it seems that this view is a bit too simplistic.

"Your Majesty, although we cannot speculate from the current state of this battleship what kind of naval guns the Americans will install on it in the future, but based on our previous observations of the 'San Francisco' and the appearance of the hull of this new battleship, we can at least be sure that this battleship and the 'San Francisco' must have a very important relationship in structure, and it can even be said that the 'San Francisco' was built to verify the rationality of a new design, and the end use of this design is not to be built in batches and' San Francisco's heavy cruiser of the same class! ”

The short expert said this in one breath.

Chen Tian glanced at the tall expert again, and judging from his expression, he also agreed with this speculation.

"In other words, the USS San Francisco is a test ship with reduced proportions, and this one is the ......"

The two experts nodded slightly.

"According to that ratio, this warship will be equipped with ......" Chen Tian said in a low voice: "No more than 365 mm main guns? ”

The two experts nodded again, and the short expert added in a low voice:

"It is very likely to be a 280 mm gun, emphasizing shooting accuracy, speed, high speed, and strong defense, and it will be a good choice to fight against the Mexican Navy's capital ships with large main guns but poor shooting accuracy!"

Listening to this expert's analysis, Chen Tian couldn't help but be stunned, if all this is true, then these Americans are no longer the group of people who are bigger than everything in people's impressions, and this situation is so similar to the story of the other side of the Atlantic in history, the "Treaty of Atlanta" is not the "Treaty of Versailles" after all, and the Americans have not fallen into protracted chaos, poverty and even division as the Germans expected. The recovery of technologists and skilled workers, as well as the high quality of the people that the country values and universalizes education, is not accidental. By contrast, their neighbor Mexico is more of a knowledge-poor nouveau riche who has won the war and demanded large tracts of land and huge reparations from the Americans, but has only temporarily suppressed the United States militarily and politically.