Berlin, Office of the German Navy, Office of the State Secretary of the Navy. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

Tirpitz, a white-bearded man, paced slowly behind his desk with his hands behind his back, and in front of his desk, Joachim, dressed in civilian navy clothes. Feng. Prussia sat upright.

"I personally agree with and support His Highness's decision, but I am a little curious: what made His Highness suddenly change his mind?"

Tirpitz's "change of mind" refers to Natsuki's decision to accept the position of Navy's shipbuilding director, and at the same time, he applied to be transferred from the Nassau to the Navy's General Staff, thus voluntarily leaving his "dangerous combat position."

Tirpitz may not be ignorant of his relationship with Charlotte Hill, and this clever naval decision-maker may be able to guess the connection, but Natsuki is reluctant to say anything about it. He replied with a high crown: "Although my dream is to dominate the battlefield with the sound of artillery, the construction of the navy also requires our efforts, and since this is a critical period in the development of the German navy, I am willing to devote my main energy to the construction of ships." ”

"Uh-huh." Tirpitz paused by the window, "In fact, for a long time, Your Majesty and I have shared the same opinion: if Your Highness can give full play to his talent for shipbuilding and design, it will certainly be of great help to the development of the German Navy, and His Highness will surely achieve an incomparable glory and become the most decorated figure in the history of the German Navy." ”

Now that an agreement has been reached on a matter of principle, Natsuki does not detour much, he said: "Dear teacher, I have no intention of offending your absolute authority in the navy, but for technical considerations, I hope to be able to get enough trust and support." ”

Tirpitz turned around and continued to pace slowly and steadily at his desk.

"Of course, His Royal Highness is a unique ship-building genius in German history, and he has an incomparably noble royal status, and he deserves absolute trust and support, as he should be...... If Your Highness does not mind, you may make a request, and I will submit it to the Imperial Navy Office for your Majesty's consideration. ”

"The teacher may have misunderstood what I meant, what I need is not an appointment or written authorization, as long as I can have the absolute trust of you and Your Majesty, I can rest assured that I can build ships." Xia Shu is a "teacher", used to lower his posture, shorten the distance, and change the ordinary person, this trick can probably work, but the student's background is too big, and he has become famous early, which will inevitably make the teacher worry about "dying on the beach in the front waves".

Tirpitz finally stopped at his desk, sat down in the slow posture characteristic of old age with his hands propped up on the table, lit a cigar as usual, and smoked as he thought, as if to test the patience of the "Hohenzollern genius" in front of him. Natsuki waited for more than ten minutes without saying a word, and he spoke, "Your Highness once said that his dream is to become a fleet commander like Nelson who has engraved his name in the history of human warfare. ”

Natsuki replied, "Yes, this dream is still in my heart today. ”

Tirpitz held his cigar between his fingers and said in a slightly relaxed manner: "Build the best ships in the world, and then personally command them to defeat powerful enemies?" ”

"Yes." Natsuki replied crisply.

"How long does Your Highness think it will take for this dream to be fully realized?"

"It depends on when the war breaks out." Natsuki said.

"If war breaks out within three years......" Tirpitz hypotheticals.

Natsuki replied calmly, "Unfortunately, we will definitely lose. ”

"What if it's eight or ten years?" Tirpitz asked again.

"We are still bound to lose." Natsuki replied.

"Oh?" Tirpitz's brow immediately furrowed, and he thought reluctantly, "Then when does Your Highness think we will be able to defeat the British at sea?" ”

Natsuki looked straight ahead: "If we want our fleet to defeat the British Navy in a stable manner, it may take fifty years, maybe a hundred years. If we risk being destroyed, we could have a good chance of a draw in our favor. ”

"Just a draw?" Tirpitz immediately asked.

Natsuki explained: "This is no longer the era of the Spanish Armada or the Battle of Trafalgar, luck is much worse in a naval battle, and we have no advantage over the British fleet in terms of command skills, quality of officers and men, and morale of the soldiers." Either avoid the battle and fail to preserve the strength, or make a desperate attempt to win the decisive battle. ”

As the head of the German Navy, Tirpitz was no stranger to various deduction analyses, but Natsuki's remarks always gave him extraordinary impressions - unfortunately, this was destined to be a genius that he could not control.

"What if we have a clear advantage in the performance of our ships?"

"In a fair match, is it enough to have an advantage of one against two or two against three?" Natsuki asked rhetorically.

Tirpitz was silent for a moment: "If we are not destined to win, then what is the point of His Highness pouring all his heart and soul into the construction of the navy?" ”

Natsuki replied without hesitation, "For our army to no longer be seen as a cripple walking on one leg, for our citizens to be free from discrimination and bullying in their overseas business life, and for the ambition in our breasts to conquer the seas...... We need an elite fleet that can stand up to any enemy, and when the strategic situation has no choice, it can burst out with enough power to deter a strong enemy, and then get a chance to survive, and be honored and respected. ”

Tirpitz let out a long sigh and stood up to salute Natsuki, "Your Highness is not only the best designer in the Navy, but also the most big-picture and calm-minded person among many colleagues, and the appointment of you as the Director of Naval Shipbuilding may be the most important decision in my naval career, and I sincerely wish you brilliant achievements in your new position!" ”

Natsuki shook hands with him and said, "Thank you for your blessings and always be proud of you." ”

……

Bidding farewell to the "Nassau" that was about to enter service and the new companion who had happily spent months together, Natsuki was certainly reluctant to give up, but this change was not necessarily a bad thing for him to the entire German Navy. After being appointed Director of Shipbuilding for the German Navy, he did not return to the boring office life. Aside from attending design meetings and reviewing technical drawings, he rarely spends time in Kiel, but visits the German Navy's active ships one by one in the name of gathering basic information and inspecting the technical condition. From battleships and armored cruisers to torpedo boats and anti-aircraft gunboats, he gained a solid and appropriate understanding of the most nuanced conditions of the German Navy, and at the same time impressed the front-line officers and men of the German Navy with their down-to-earth work style and friendly temperament.

In terms of ship design and construction, although Xia Shu has advanced vision and ideas, he is also well versed in the truth that a rising tide lifts all boats. After the Nassau class and the Helgoland class are completed and put into service, the new designs and new processes they use will soon become the objects of research, imitation and even improvement and transcendence by engineers from all over the world. In order to understand the true level of mastering the shipbuilding technology of the great powers and learn from their strengths in a certain technology, Xia Shu took a team of engineers from the naval design department to large shipyards in European countries for inspection and exchange - the British have unparalleled advantages in power systems and hull construction technology, and ships of the same level and performance are built in British shipyards in a shorter period and lower cost than in Germany or other European countries, which also means that Britain has a considerable innate advantage in the naval competition; The Americans' way of thinking and style of doing things seems to be a bit rough and casual, their hull construction technology is better than that of the British, the assembly line production in the field of machinery makes them have a stronger competitive potential in armaments, and another commendable thing is that the American Navy did not imitate the British Dreadnought like the Japanese and French, and they decided from the beginning that the main turret was arranged along the central axis, and the wisdom of this design will eventually be proven by time.

His horizons have been broadened, his thinking has been enriched, and Natsuki has devoted himself to the design and finalization of the new warship with unprecedented enthusiasm. After repeated revisions and calculations, the first **** dreadnought of the German Navy, which is also regarded by many as the "beginning of super dreadnoughts", appeared in the magnificent dreadnought era with a balanced structure and excellent performance. It has an unprecedented standard displacement of 26,000 tons and a full load displacement of nearly 30,000 tons, and is equipped with Krupp's newly developed 12-inch 50-diameter naval gun. At first glance, the configuration of the four twin main turrets is not as strong as the Nassau-class and Helgoland-class, but the new guns are significantly more effective than the previous 11-inch guns in terms of range and power, and the official installation of the ship-wide unified command system gives the Caesar-class more efficient main gun firepower. Because the main turret was one less than that of the British battleships of the same class in the same period, the weight saved by more than 900 tons was strengthened to the defense. The thickness of the main armor belt of the hull continued to stagger the British, and the armor of the main turret and command tower had been enhanced in a breakthrough - a significant change in the turret defense of German battleships (including those formerly dreadnoughts) meant that the German Navy's fleet commanders had the opportunity to break away from the "ship first" mode of naval warfare and find more flexible ways to defeat their opponents.

If Krupp's high-performance 12-inch guns gave the new German ships an invincible edge, then the successful use of the Hubert steam turbine with impulsive technology would provide unprecedented power to the five Kaiser-class battleships. According to the test data of the new engines, they are capable of delivering 40,000 horsepower in extreme conditions, allowing the Caesar-class to reach a theoretical top speed of 24 knots, surpassing for the first time the British dreadnoughts built at the same time.

When the technical map of the design of the Caesar-class battleship was presented to the shipbuilding engineers at the designated shipyards, people could not help but be impressed by its bold and delicate lines. As everyone knows, because of the Kaiser's very strong personal opinion, this design with only 8 main guns was almost aborted. In fact, it was difficult for any designer, even the most respected master in the field of battleships, to convince the stubborn German emperor with the word "balance", but Natsuki did it. Obviously, direct kinship played a crucial role in this, and after much conciliatory debate, the Kaiser finally abandoned the rigid requirement of a five-seat twin or four-seat triple gun and agreed to a balanced design with greatly enhanced turret defenses.

In addition to the Caesar-class, the German Navy finalized the design of the Magdeburg-class cruiser and the U-IIIA submarine in 1909. The construction of the first ships of these new warships began that year: four 4,500-ton Magdeburg-class cruisers were planned, and two each in 1909 and 1910; The 720-ton Type U-IIIA submarines were planned to be built 48 between 1909 and 1912, with 12 units starting each year. In addition, large torpedo boats of the class of 1906 continued to be built at a rate of 18 per year, short-range submarines of the U-I series and medium-range and short-range submarines of the U-II series were built 6-10 units per year, and ships completed and commissioned in 1909 included the quasi-battle cruiser "Blucher", the Dresden-class light cruiser "Emden", the Corburg-class light cruiser "Mainz", and several large torpedo boats and U-boats of the 1906 class.

With the support of the whole country, Germany's naval career strode forward with vigor, and on the other side of the North Sea, the Anglo-Saxons, who had dominated the sea for three hundred years, were not to be outdone. Under the leadership of Lord Fisher, the British maintained their dreadnought advantage by virtue of their superior shipbuilding industry, and by 1909, they already had the "Dreadnought" and three Palerophon-class battleships, and the three St. Vincent-class fortified and improved on the basis of the Palerophon class had also been launched or were close to being launched, the more powerful Giant-class had also moved from the drawing board to the slipway, and the so-called new armored cruisers, that is, the battle cruisers of the same dreadnought era, the British "Invincible" was better than the German "Blucher". "The ship was in service half a year early. The British Navy would acquire at least two Cruisers within a year, and the German Navy would only be able to enter service in 1910 – and while relations between the two countries were showing signs of easing on the international political stage, the fact that the naval shipbuilding race was intensifying remained unchanged......

(End of chapter)