In the face of the threat posed by the oceanic submarine programs of the United States, Britain, and Japan, Li Weiguo quickly summoned relevant technical personnel of the Admiralty to set up an anti-submarine destroyer committee to specifically solve the threat of submarines to the surface fleet.

Even, in order to remind the departments of the Imperial Chinese Navy of their attention and attention, Li Weiguo personally assumed the post of chairman of the anti-submarine destroyer planning committee.

Li Weiguo really guessed correctly, after the Admiralty announced the large-scale development of naval forces by the United States, Britain and Japan, officials of various departments of the Chinese Imperial Navy, and even military generals, focused on how to deal with the large capital ships of the British, American, and Japanese navies, and did not pay attention to their submarine plans at all.

This reminded Li Weiguo of the Royal Navy of the British Empire, which was rampant all over the world with hundreds of warships and countless giant ships and cannons, but the submarine aspect had not been developed for decades, and it was not until it was stunned by Germany's wolf pack tactics during World War I and paid heavy attention to submarines.

Today's Chinese Empire has replaced the British Empire and become the most powerful naval force in the world, and Li Weiguo has vigorously promoted his "Theory of Sea Power", which has virtually intensified the belief and worship of the officers and men of the Chinese Imperial Navy in the doctrine of giant ships and cannons, so that they have forgotten that more than ten years ago, when the Chinese Imperial Navy was still very weak, and vigorously developed fish and radium boats and submarines to confront the British Navy.

When Li Weiguo personally joined the anti-submarine destroyer planning committee, the various departments of the Imperial Chinese Navy and even the admirals were shocked, and the senior members of the various departments had to take the submarine plans of the United States, Britain and Japan seriously with 120,000 spirits that His Majesty could attach so much importance to the project.

Anti-submarine destroyers are a function of destroyers, but in the seventies of the XIX century the concept of destroyers did not yet appear.

Because the British Imperial Navy fought three naval wars with the Chinese Imperial Navy in succession, and suffered heavy losses. Today's British Navy is poor, and even the cost of building large capital ships is insufficient, so it has to build large-scale fish and radium boats and submarines, and use this cost-effective naval equipment to counter the naval power of the Chinese Empire.

Even the British themselves were building Fish and Ray boats and submarines on a large scale, how could it be possible to study destroyers to deal with Fish and Ray boats and submarines? Isn't that a joke?

As a result, this arduous historical task fell to the Imperial Chinese Navy, and Li Weiguo became the father of destroyers, because he had to be the first to develop destroyers.

Li Weiguo summoned all the relevant personnel of the Imperial Navy's Engineering Department to study destroyers, including the relevant designers of fish and radium boats, submarines, cruisers, and frigates, as well as experts in weapons, armor, steam engines, turbines, electric motors, etc., a total of 200 people.

These people were involved in the research and development of fish and radium boats and submarines, but unfortunately, with the continuous growth of the Chinese Imperial Navy, the Admiralty paid more attention to large surface warships, and the research and development personnel of fish and laser boats and submarines became increasingly cold.

Now when these people saw Li Weiguo, they were extremely excited, and they knew that they had finally been reused by the empire again.

Li Weiguo also smiled bitterly, when he was still very weak, in order to resist the British Navy, he vigorously developed fish and radium boats and submarines, but now it is the other way around, the enemy has begun to vigorously develop fish and ray boats and submarines, which in turn has formed a huge strategic threat to the Chinese Empire.

More than ten years ago, the Imperial Chinese Navy used the submarine to launch the Fish and Radium weapon for the first time in the Battle of the Yangtze River Estuary, which defeated the British Navy.

Eight years ago, the Imperial Chinese Navy used the Fish and Radium Boats for the first time in the waters of Manila Bay and the Seven Continents Ocean, approaching the British Navy's 10,000-ton ironclad ships at high speed, and sinking them with one one, shocking the world.

After eight years of development, the navies of the European and American powers successively successfully developed the Fish and Radium weapons, as well as the Fish and Ray boats and submarines equipped with the Fish and Radium weapons, which in turn became a threat to the existence of the main fleet of the Chinese Imperial Navy.

"This is the information that our intelligence department has, let's take a look at it first, have a number in mind, and then we will discuss the response problem."

Li Weiguo distributed materials such as the Fish and Radium weapons, Fish and Radium boats, and submarines that had been successfully developed by the European and American powers in recent years to the participants, so that they could first look at the enemy's equipment and strength, and then think about countermeasures.

In March last year, the British Navy built an even more powerful Fish Ray boat "Lightning" and named it the Navy's "No. 1 Fish Ray Boat". The boat has a speed of 24 knots in calm seas, and its 450 mm Fish Radium can travel 684 meters at 22 knots. ”

An engineer was the first to read the word, which immediately surprised the attendees.

"I didn't think the British were quite powerful! I remember a few years ago, their Fish Ray Boat was only 18 knots at the fastest, and the Fish Ray was no more than 18 knots. ”

"The Fish Radium Boat has reached 24 knots, and the Fish Radium has also reached 22 knots, regardless of the power of the Fish Radium, this speed alone is enough to pose a deadly threat to the large surface ships of the Imperial Navy."

"If it is launched from a submarine, the surface ships of the Imperial Navy will not be able to defend against it at all!"

"I have here a data of the D5 submarine of the British Navy, with an underwater displacement of 345 tons, 1 Vickers gasoline engine, a single propulsion shaft, a speed of 8.5 knots, equipped with 2 450 mm bow radium launch tubes, which can launch fish and radium at a distance of 1,000 meters, and the safe diving depth reaches 30.5 meters."

"This is just data from two years ago, the latest E9 submarine data launched by the British Navy, the Imperial Navy is not clear at present, only that this submarine may have a speed of more than 12 knots, equipped with the latest Bacterium Ray, which can be launched at a distance of 1,500 meters, and the safe diving depth may be close to 40 meters."

"What about the performance of the British's fish radium?"

"I have an introduction here, the British Navy conducted a fish radium test in Portsmouth, launched a 450 mm bald head ray 1,000 meters away, and sank a 7,000-ton scrapped ironclad ship, our intelligence officers judged from the power of the explosion, the warhead charge of this fish radium reached 55 kilograms!"

Everyone suddenly gasped and were speechless.

"55 kilograms of hey medicine, if it hits the large warship of the Empire, it will definitely cause heavy damage!"

"It looks like the British are putting a lot of effort into this!"

"As far as I know, the waterline belt armor of the capital ships of the Imperial Navy is protected!"

"But there is no less below the waterline, and the British submarines launch fish radium, not necessarily only attacking the waterline, and completely explode below the waterline, and no warship can prevent it."

"Yes, it's impossible to defend against fish radium underwater!"

Hearing everyone's discussions, Li Weiguo said at a critical moment: "That's right, any battleship below the waterline is fragile, and it can't resist the attack of Fish Radium at all, even if the British's Fish Ray is not as good as the Empire's Fish Radium." ”

"Your Majesty, what do you mean?"

Li Weiguo said with a smile: "That's why I summoned you here to study anti-submarine destroyers together!" ”

Anti-submarine destroyers?

Only then did everyone deeply understand the meaning of these words, and the warships that counterattacked submarines and destroyed submarines suddenly became interested.

Li Weiguo then said: "The idea of the anti-submarine destroyer is very simple, one is the speed, it must be faster than any existing warship, it can catch up with the enemy's fastest fish and radium boat, use rapid-fire guns to sink it, and prevent the opponent from approaching the large surface warships of the empire." The second is weapons, which can be solved with rapid-fire guns on the surface, but submarines under water cannot be attacked with artillery, which requires a new weapon to specifically hit enemy submarines under the surface. ”

After hearing Li Weiguo's words, all the experts and engineers quickly discussed.

The first can be easily solved, now the Imperial Chinese Navy has the world's fastest warships, such as the Zhongning-class armored cruiser, and for example, the communication reconnaissance ship Seahawk, which was sunk in the Battle of the Solomon Islands, the speed is definitely the fastest in the world, even if the British Lightning Fish Ray Boat has to kneel directly in front of the Seahawk.

The Imperial Chinese Naval Engineering Administration is developing a large steam turbine system for the first domestically built dreadnought battleship to be launched three years later. The development of large steam turbine systems has been going on for many years, and the Sea Eagle uses some of the steam turbine system technology.

Although for the time being, the large steam turbine system is still under development, but the small steam turbine system has been successful, so there are no problems with the destroyer's power system at all.

Then, the most critical thing is the weapon, to deal with submarines under the surface, traditional artillery is obviously not good.

"Fish Radium against submarines?"

Someone came up with a plan, but everyone shook their heads.

"The fixed depth of the fish radium does not exceed 10 meters, and if the enemy's submarine dives to 30 meters, the fish and radium are useless at all!"

"And how about using submarines against submarines?"

"Hey, you've got water in your head? If the submarine wants to find the target, you have to go up to the surface! ”

"That is, even if you have underwater clairvoyance to see the enemy's submarine, but the opponent is at a depth of thirty meters, will your Fish Ray dare to launch at that depth? The water pressure alone blew itself up! ”

"What then? If the artillery can't reach it, the fish and radium can't fight! ”

Li Weiguo shook his head, it seems that he has to go out and remind him!

"You can use a deep-water smasher that is detonated at a fixed depth!"

Depth detonation?

Deep-water smashing?

"Since Fish Radium can be launched at a fixed depth of ten meters, it is not impossible to study a fixed depth that can explode at a depth of thirty or forty meters."

"Deep-water smashing can be projectile in large numbers around the spot enemy submarine, and once the enemy submarine touches it, it will be heavily damaged."

"And what if you don't?"

"Submarines have no armor protection at all? Not to mention that it didn't happen, even if the distance was only ten meters, the blast wave of the explosion would cause heavy damage to the submarine and turn the submarine over! ”

Everyone suddenly realized that they cast admiring glances at Li Weiguo.

"Your Majesty is wise, and the ministers admire!"

"Alright, I've already told you the basics, and the rest is up to you!"

"The speed should be fast, the navy can send submarines and fish and radium boats for you to conduct research and experiments, I have directly approved the funding, the anti-submarine destroyer project fund is 30 million, if it is not enough, I will add it at any time, you just waste it!"

"Your Majesty laughed, the ministers didn't dare! The ministers will certainly live up to their mission and successfully develop an anti-submarine destroyer as soon as possible! ”

Li Weiguo smiled slightly, and the anti-submarine destroyer project was implemented in this way.

In order to successfully develop the anti-submarine destroyer as soon as possible, 200 relevant experts and engineers quickly came up with the first design plan in less than three days.

The first anti-submarine destroyer was designed to be only 54.8 meters, 5.48 meters wide, with a displacement of only 240 tons, and was equipped with a small steam turbine system that could reach speeds of up to 27 knots. It is equipped with 1 76 mm main gun and 3 47 mm rapid-fire guns, and a deep-water egg-smashing ejection system with a range of 250 meters.

This can hardly be called a destroyer, only a gunboat destroyer.

The reason why it is so small is to conduct sea trials as soon as possible, and the test ship with only 240 tons can be built in less than a month, everything is ready-made, and the gunboat can be directly remodeled from the shipyard where the gunboat is being built, and then immediately test the deep-water smashing system.

The navy was also very cooperative, bringing in submarines and fish and radium boats for the experts to test. The water in Bohai Bay is shallow, and even if a submarine has an accident, it can be rescued quickly, so it directly uses actual combat to test its anti-submarine capability.

Of course, the first 240-ton gunboat destroyer was only used for testing, and the experts built a dozen of them in one go, while the designers observed the test data while designing and improving on the drawings, and an anti-submarine destroyer in the true sense of the word was soon born.

The anti-submarine destroyer (test ship under design), with a displacement of 1,345 tons, is based on the hull of the Seahawk reconnaissance and communication ship, with a total length of 97.54 meters, a total width of 8.92 meters, and a draft of 2.90 meters.

Using the Fierce Bull reciprocating steam engine system developed by Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, because the system technology is mature, the designers and Admiralty generals after research, think that the steam turbine system technology is not mature, the anti-submarine cause is so important, it is better to be safe, the current speed of the most advanced British submarine will not exceed 12 knots, the speed of the most advanced fish and radium boat will not exceed 25 knots, and the fastest Sea Eagle in the Chinese Empire has reached 26 knots, after being downgraded to a destroyer, the weight is further reduced, The speed can soar to more than 28 knots, so the speed is enough to deal with the enemy's Fish and Radium boats and submarines, there is no need to install a steam turbine, even if the steam turbine system can bring a high speed of more than 32 knots, but unfortunately it is unstable!

As far as the navy is concerned, they never want this kind of instability to occur when they are fighting, this is military common sense, so when this opinion was reported to Li Weiguo, Li Weiguo did not insist, but let the Admiralty and the Technical Department decide for themselves.

In terms of armament, the new destroyer is designed and installed with two 128-mm twin-mounted main guns of a 45-caliber calibre, one 533-mm twin-mounted torpedo launcher, four 47-mm rapid-fire guns, two bloody heavy machine guns, and four sets of anti-submarine deep-water egg-smashing catapults, one set on the left and right sides and two sets on the tail.

These are basic armaments, which will increase and decrease as trials continue to be conducted.

The Admiralty plans to build 4 destroyers for testing first, and the performance parameters of these 4 destroyers are very different, they are listed as No. 1234, and in the end, the Admiralty may purchase one of the models, or it may purchase multiple models, and even if the test fails, it is possible not to purchase any of them, which depends on the ability of experts and engineers, and also tests the ability of the Imperial Chinese Admiralty to predict the sea war of future naval wars.

Li Weiguo didn't want to interfere excessively, he hoped that the Imperial Chinese Navy would be able to go out of its own way, after all, Li Weiguo's lifespan was limited, and he couldn't always command the navy what it could do and what it couldn't do, if it couldn't train the navy into a force with self-upgrading ability and judgment ability, once Li Weiguo drove the crane immortal, the Chinese Imperial Navy would collapse, and that was definitely not what Li Weiguo hoped would happen. Only when the Imperial Chinese Navy forms a complete system from top to bottom and can make rational and correct judgments about the future situation can the Imperial Chinese Navy become strong forever. (To be continued.) )