With the gradual implementation and development of the naval renewal program, and the end of a series of naval battles in the South Pacific War.

At the beginning of 1877, there was another great discussion in the Imperial naval circles about the direction of the development of cruisers. The cruisers of the world's major naval powers are still divided into protected and unprotected, among which Britain and France in Europe have basically completed the protection of their cruisers a year ago (that is, from the keel to the shell are all steel and no longer have wood), all cruisers are basically steel and with waterline armor, and the backward ones such as Germany, Spain, Italy, Austria-Hungary and Russia have just begun to eliminate the cruisers with iron-hulled wooden hulls; The third echelon, such as the Ottomans, the Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden, is still using old wooden-hulled steam warships, or their current national strength is not capable of development. Of course, three Shaoxing-class medium cruisers, built for the Ottomans with Chinese assistance, are already being outfitted.

In 1870, the empire divided cruisers according to displacement, of which cruisers with a displacement of more than 4,000 tons were large, those with a displacement of 2,000 to 4,000 tons were medium-sized cruisers, and those with a displacement of less than 2,000 tons were small. In addition, the gunboats are also divided, divided into shallow water gunboats and ocean-going gunboats, the former is suitable for inland river and coastline activities, belongs to the low-board river gunboats, and the latter is a flying scissor type, which can be used for ocean-going voyages with the fleet, and because of the shallow draft, it can reach the beachhead or port to shoot at the beachhead or harbor when grabbing the beach.

Seven years ago, the discussion of cruisers in the Imperial Navy established the current division of Imperial cruisers into large, medium, and small classes, but it should be noted that the Imperial cruisers here are not the armored cruisers of the late 19th century in history, at most they are dome armor. There is no doubt that cruisers play a pivotal role in the current naval world, as early as the 17th and 18th centuries in the era of sailing ships, cruisers refer to those fast gunboats that are equipped with fewer guns and generally do not directly participate in battle line battles, but mainly perform patrol and escort missions. And the current task of the cruiser is to escort and carry out a broken engagement. This means that cruisers must focus on speed and range and endurance. That's why the designers of the Imperial Navy built those cruisers with 4 chimneys.

Because speed and endurance are the main indicators of the cruiser, the cruiser's armament is pitifully weak compared to the battleship, but the empire's latest Hangzhou-class large cruiser has a displacement of 4120 tons and a maximum speed of 17 knots, and the armament is a twin-mounted 210mm 45 times the caliber of the main gunboat at the front and rear, and the amidships are equipped with four twin-mounted 120mm caliber secondary guns, in fact, such armament is unprecedented. The current European cruiser armament is generally a main gun on the front side, plus a secondary gun in the back and a few machine guns on both sides are done, while the Shaoxing-class and Shangyu-class are both miniature versions of the Hangzhou-class, and the armament is naturally not bad at most caliber.

This year's cruiser debate was sparked by the Hangzhou class, which has a displacement of more than 4,000 tons and is currently the largest cruiser in the history of the Imperial Navy, and the 210mm caliber main gun he is equipped with is the reason for the madness of the navy this time. Previous cruisers have never been armed with more than eight inches (about 203mm; 1 inch = 25.3999999614 mm) caliber guns, the purpose of the cruiser was not to bombard the main battleship, but the 210mm 45 times caliber main gun now equipped with the Hangzhou class is completely frenzied when equipped with hard cap armor-piercing shells, and has the ability to fight at 3,000 yards (2743 m; 1 yard = 0.91439999861 meters) to penetrate the armor protection of the current British Warrior-class ironclad ship (the Warrior class is equivalent to the Empire's Shang class, its main gun caliber is 10 inches, and the frontal armor is only 203.2mm, or wrought iron, not steel, or alloy steel on the Emperor * ship), of course, the Hangzhou class will be scrapped if it is hit by the main gun of the Warrior class, but how to say that the speed of the Hangzhou class is not the gap between 17 knots and 14 knots, which is also a major reason for the shock of the imperial navy.

With this possibility, of course, the navy exploded, and a group of young designers led by Chen Zhaoao in the Navy Design Bureau believed that the cruiser would be equipped with larger main guns in the future, and with the advantage of speed, it would become the main force of the fleet. Chen Zhaoao is still very capable in history, in the first year of Guangxu (1875), he was sent to Europe to travel, and two years later entered the French government school to learn turbine manufacturing. During his study abroad, he created a new type of boiler and pumping machine, and the pumping machine project filled the technical gap in the world at that time, and won the honor named after Zhaoao, and was the first inventor in modern China to contribute to the world's science and technology. Subsequently, the wheel blades were improved, and the side was flattened, and foreign countries competed to follow suit. In December of the fifth year of Guangxu (1879), he returned to China after completing his studies, and Dai Lanling served as the chief engineer of the Ship Administration Engineering Office, specializing in the design and supervision of ship turbines. Soon, he ascended to guerrilla and wore a flower feather. Since the ninth year of Guangxu (1883), he has participated in the manufacture of more than ten ships such as the gunboat "Kaiji" and the first ironclad cruiser "Pingyuan" in modern China, and also participated in the supervision and acceptance of new ships ordered from abroad.

However, the opposite of Chen Zhaoao is the people of the Naval Staff Department, and the naval staff officers believe that the cruiser does not need to be equipped with any large-caliber main guns to deal with the enemy's capital ships, and our own battleships are responsible for them, so the cruisers should not be blindly mixed, the cruisers have their own missions, and everyone should honestly perform their duties.

What is the Young Zhuang School? It is not an exaggeration to be bold and reckless. Chen Zhaoao first picked up his little friend Xu Jianyin and a large group of designers to start designing the ideal battleship in his mind, and it only took half a month to complete the design, Chen Zhaoao named this ideal battleship "Battlecruiser"——

"Battlecruisers?" Lin Hong almost didn't drink the tea into his trachea.

"Yes, Your Majesty, it was named by Zhonghu (Zhonghu is the character of Xu Jianyin). We believed that this warship was capable of fighting battleships, so we called it a battlecruiser. Chen Zhaoao, who was only 23 years old at the time, was not false at all in the face of the emperor, and asked confidently: "What does Your Majesty think?" Is it feasible? ”

"Heting, the navy funds have been fixed, what is the use of you showing me this, even if I think it is good, the Congress will not necessarily approve it again." Lin Hong hasn't come out of the name of the battle cruiser yet, in fact, in Lin Hong's opinion, what these young men made is just the Sanjing ship built by Japan in the original history, which is a typical example of small boats carrying cannons.

It's just that this challenge-level battlecruiser is really bold enough, the design displacement is 4700 tons, the main gun is two 300mm 40 times the caliber of the giant cannon (one in front and one in the rear), 300 mm caliber! Although the Empire uses the metric system, which is different from the British system, the caliber of 300 mm is far less than the 406 mm of the British Everlaity White-class battleship that has just been launched (although the caliber is scary, but in the eyes of the Imperial Navy, the rate of fire of such naval guns is a big problem, and it is actually a breech gun), but the caliber of the Empire's current capital ships is generally 280 mm 45 times that of the skilled 280 mm, and the 300 mm caliber naval guns are the main guns of the next level of main battleships! Judging from the design drawings, the only armament of the entire warship except for the main guns is the two 150-mm secondary guns in the amidships, and the others do not even have torpedoes.

"Why are there only four guns?" Lin Hong asked.

"Your Majesty, the main gun in the bow of the warship is the latest product of the Imperial Jinling Arsenal, and its 50 times the caliber is fully capable of piercing the armor of all warships in service in the world today within six thousand yards when equipped with hard cap armor-piercing shells, including the latest battleships of the Empire. Therefore, Chen's battleships do not need too many naval guns, and they can use secondary guns against ordinary cruisers (the caliber of the main guns of cruisers at this stage is 120 mm to 180 mm), and too many naval guns drag down the speed. Chen Zhaoao said.

The speed is very fast, two Su Fang steam engines (Hua Fang history of the late Qing Dynasty Chinese mathematician, translator and educator, he designed a new three-expansion steam engine in 1866 by the emperor named the Yu Fang type), eight round boilers provide 8,600 horsepower, the maximum speed of 18.5 knots, are close to the empire's current fastest cruiser Shangyu class (Shangyu class maximum speed of 18.7 knots, 10 knots = 5.1444444509 m / s). But the shortcomings are more obvious, in order to pursue the speed, the warships in the drawings basically have no protection capabilities, and even the basic design requirements of the Imperial Navy do not have waterproof and airtight compartments, and the protection capacity can be imagined, so brittle that even if it is bombarded by 120 mm caliber naval guns or large-caliber army guns, it will have to be finished.

Lin Hong is also used to such warships, after all, even a clipper with four chimneys has been built before, and there is nothing strange to see.

"You want to build such a battleship? The Navy's funds are all used for the renewal plan, I'm afraid there is no money allocated to you! Lin Hong said while looking at the drawings.

"That's why I came to see Your Majesty! I believe that Your Majesty must have a way! Your Majesty, no matter what you say, you are also the big boss of the royal consortium, no! "To be young is to be bold, and only a young man like Chen Zhaoao dares to say this in front of the emperor.

"Chen Zhaoao! How can you be so frivolous in front of Your Majesty! There are no rules! Xu Shou on the side couldn't stand it anymore, he was already displeased with Chen Zhaoao's abduction of his son (Xu Jianyin), and now he dared to be disrespectful in front of the saint, which was unbearable for uncles and aunts.

"Hehe, yes, the idea is very good, but it's not easy for me to meddle in military affairs now." As soon as Lin Hong finished speaking, Chen Zhaoao's whole person was like being deflated, "However, I will build one in Mawei Shipyard with internal funds, by the way, how much does this one cost?" ”

"The rough step is estimated to be 1.55 million Chinese yuan," Chen Zhaoao replied honestly.

"Why is it so cheap? It's about the same as the Shaoxing level? In Lin Hong's opinion, the displacement of this warship is almost exceeding that of the Hangzhou class, how can it only be the price of the Shaoxing class.

"Your Majesty, the ship does not have watertight compartments and is less armed." Xu Shou suddenly reminded that Xu Shou originally wanted to remind the emperor of the shortcomings of this ship.

How could Lin Hong not know, but Lin Hong didn't want to discourage young people's enthusiasm and enthusiasm for work! I feel that such a warship is built, there is no loss to the navy, and it is not a large-scale replacement, the most important thing is that Lin Hong himself knows how to go about the future development of the navy, such a design should be regarded as the tuition fee paid for cultivating talents, anyway, it is not expensive, he thought about it and said: "There are shortcomings, there are advantages, and there are advantages, since I don't know whether such a warship is good or bad, let's build one!" Practice it! After it is built, your design department will observe it carefully, and let the people in the navy see and then make a final conclusion, whether such a warship is good or bad. I will inform the cabinet of this matter, and after the warship is built, it will not be incorporated into the major fleets of the Navy and put into my special fleet! "The so-called royal special fleet is a fleet composed of those strange warships built at the emperor's expense.

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Chen Zhaoao thanked the emperor with joy