Li Hui is confident that even if the West strikes early, China will at least be invincible and will not have to pay too heavy a price. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 The reason why China has such confidence is that the geographical advantage gained after the victory of the Three Kingdoms War is on the one hand, but the main thing is that China has now further strengthened its national defense, especially its naval strength.

The power of the Legend-class battlecruisers was amply demonstrated during the Three Kingdoms War, which shocked the world and stimulated the Western powers to push the shipbuilding race to a fever pitch. It is a naval power in itself, once it concentrates on the development of the navy, it is almost inevitable that the results will be significant, and after just over three years, Britain and the United States have a new type of capital ship that can fully compete with the legendary battle cruisers, and even the German navy, which can only catch up with the German navy before, has the possibility of a head-on confrontation with its latest battleships. However, before the navies of the three countries could breathe a sigh of relief, the eight super battlecruisers that the Chinese Navy had just entered service not long ago made them fall into an ice cellar again......

This battlecruiser is based on the historical British Hood-class battlecruiser, although the latter was completed and put into service after the end of World War I, but the various technologies used in it were developed during and even before the war, so it is still within the scope of the system's "1900 technology".

Perhaps it is precisely because the limit of the system's capabilities has been reached, or perhaps it is the progress of technology that has made the impact of workmanship relatively small, and the speed advantage that was always faster than the prototype has been reduced a lot, but even so, the data of the maximum speed of more than 32.5 knots is still enough to make Western warship designers feel sorry. With such a fast speed, let alone a capital ship, even a cruiser, even the latest light cruiser, once bitten, it will be difficult to get rid of its pursuit, right?

What's even more terrifying is that this new Warcruiser, like its predecessors, not only has unparalleled mobility, but its ability to fight head-on is just as terrifying. Historically, the American 16-inch (406mm) Mk1 naval gun, which failed to catch up with the First World War, came out in advance in this world because of the late construction of the supporting capital ships, and Li Hui continued the good habit of concentrating the strengths of various countries, with the latest domestic successful development of high-quality artillery steel and the detailed design of French naval guns (especially rifling, the rifling of American large-caliber naval guns has always had problems, and the long-distance dispersion radius is more than double that of European naval guns, and the Atlantic Charter was solved only after obtaining the guidance of the British. Even more perfect, compared to the original 16-inch Mk1 naval gun, which was actually just good on paper and actually had a lot of problems, the accuracy was much higher, and the barrel life was significantly longer.

In addition, the fire control technology of the US Navy during World War I was not as good as that of Europe, and Li Hui naturally did not continue to use it, but used whichever was best. Speaking of which, fire control technology is also a shortcoming of the Chinese Navy at present, but Li Hui deliberately did it, because he will soon start to study the last level of system technology, and after completion, he can directly obtain various technologies on the eve of World War II. As for the current demand, it is enough to produce fire control directly by the system, and since there is a golden finger, it is necessary to make full use of it.

As far as the 406mm Mk1 naval gun itself is concerned, the double diameter of 45 may be regarded as a slight flaw, but considering that this naval gun has reached a terrifying caliber of 16 inches, that is, 406mm, its shelling power is still beyond doubt. Generally speaking, the larger the caliber, the larger the charge of the shell, and the destructive power that can be caused will naturally increase with the tide. What's more, the weight of 1 ton brings unparalleled armor-piercing ability, making it easy to tear through the thick armor of any capital ship in the world today, even a battleship, which is more significant than the after-effect of a large charge......

You must know that at present, the largest and most advanced naval guns in the West are only 14 inches, that is, 356mm, and the armor of capital ships designed by the West is also designed for this caliber, or even lower levels such as 305mm, once it encounters the Mk1 naval gun, even at a distance of 20 kilometers, it is still completely impossible to resist. And if it is farther away, the threat of the gun to horizontal armor will increase rapidly, with the current design level of the three Western countries, it is really an unsolvable problem to take into account both waterline defense and deck defense.

Well, it can't be said that there is no way at all, you just need to give up the concept of comprehensive protection and sacrifice the protection of non-key parts, you can ensure the defense of the waterline and deck at the same time. But the problem is that even if it is not a key part, if it is penetrated, it will also affect or even completely lose its combat effectiveness, so this can only be said to be a partial solution at best. If the enemy ships had the same problem, as in history, this approach would be almost sufficient, but the reason why China's super-battleship is considered "the last glory of comprehensive protection" is precisely because she has achieved the best of both worlds that Western capital ships cannot do......

The reason is very simple, the Western Navy does not have such a terrible cannon as the Mk1 naval gun, not only now, but not necessarily in a few years, and even if it does, it will certainly not be on the ship. Considering the jaw-dropping speed of China's warships, the protection level of this new battlecruiser only needs to be able to withstand 15-inch (381mm) naval guns, and naturally it doesn't need to be so thick.

In addition, China's armor materials also have obvious advantages over the West, after all, more than ten years ago, there was a historical Western material process in 1918, and then after so many years of accumulation under Li Hui's special attention, there has naturally been a lot of progress. Even with the progress of Western cemented carbide materials, it is no longer possible for Chinese armor to completely invalidate the hard quilt cap of Western armor-piercing shells, and it has to give up the hard-hardened armor that has been used for a long time, and because Li Hui has long expected such a day and takes precautions, the current performance of China's naval armor is still much stronger than that of Western navies, so if you want the same protection capability, the armor of Chinese warships can be made thinner.

If the armor is thin, it will naturally be light, and it will not be difficult to get the best of both worlds, which is a very simple reason......

But then again, the Super Battlecruiser's thinner armor is actually only relative to its huge size of more than 40,000 tons in the standard row, and if you only look at the absolute numbers, the 280mm waterline armor and 305mm turret frontal armor are actually quite good, even by the standards of a battleship......