The global naval arms race provoked by the Chinese Empire is in full swing, and the navies of the major European and American powers are all involved, and the huge naval armaments expenditures have caused the European and American countries to maintain huge fiscal deficits for five consecutive years, with armaments spending at least 40 percent of the annual budget and reaching a maximum of more than 60 percent.

Among them, because of the country's face problem, Britain has always pursued the policy of adding two capital ships to the British Navy for every additional capital ship in Germany, so that British expenditure has climbed to 120 million pounds sterling in the 1911 fiscal year, accounting for 61% of the annual budget. As the world's third largest economy, Germany's military spending has also reached 3.2 billion German marks, accounting for 59% of the annual budget, of course, this is mainly because Germany not only has a large naval expansion plan, but also its army must maintain the status of the world's second army power, so the total military spending is not less than Britain.

The two major economic powers in Europe were caught in a frenzied naval arms race, and Britain suffered great economic losses because of the frenzied plundering of the Chinese Empire. Coupled with the colonial ransacking of the Eight-Nation Alliance, Britain launched several wars in order to regain the lost colonies, and the consumption was also very large, so Britain could not stand it at first, and in early 1911, the newly enthroned King George V visited Berlin, Germany as the cousin of Wilhelm II, demanding that Britain and Germany stop the large-scale naval arms race.

However, Kaiser Wilhelm II had a very tough attitude towards his cousin George V, who had just succeeded to the throne, hoping to give this young cousin a blow and let Britain take the lead in softening.

However, Wilhelm II underestimated the temper of his cousin, and as a result, the two parted unhappily, and the last chance for reconciliation between Britain and Germany was lost, and from then on Britain and Germany continued to maintain a huge naval arms race, even if the finances were tight, and neither country would stop.

Britain and Germany continued to engage in a large-scale naval arms race, to the delight of France and Russia, because Britain would then abandon the last hint of reconciliation and cooperate more closely with the Entente.

However, France, Russia, Italy, and Austria are unable to bear the arms race, and their national strength is far behind that of Germany and Britain.

The French Navy was no longer able to sustain a massive naval arms race, and in 1909 the French political axe approved the construction of four Lyon-class battleships with 14-inch guns and two Jemmapes-class battlecruisers (Jemmapes and Valmy) with 14-inch guns. By 1910, France's finances were already very tight. The French treasury could no longer afford to build more 15-inch capital ships, and finally gritted its teeth and approved the construction of three Richeliu-class Richelieu-class battleships and two Bouvines-class battlecruisers. This can be said to be a project that France has managed to approve with great difficulty. By 1911, it was no longer possible to approve the construction of more powerful capital ships, so the last class of battleships of the French Navy before the war was the Richelius class with 15-inch guns, and the last class of battlecruisers was the Bouvigne-class.

Similarly, in 1909, the Italian Navy built the Francisco Fried, armed with a 14-inch gun, in line with the world's naval arms race. Four Krasglio Franescocariolo-class battleships (Francisco. Fransescocariolo, Francisco Morosni, Francesorosini, Christopher Columbus, Cristofocolombo, Macatiño. Marcantoniocolonna, no battlecruiser program. By 1910, after the introduction of battleships and battle cruisers with 15-inch guns, the cost had soared to 4 million pounds (20 million dragon coins), and the Italian budget was facing serious challenges. Four battleships of the Vinetto Vittoriovo class (Vittorio?) The Veneto Vittoriovo and the Litorio were later changed to the Italian Italia, the Roma and the Impero Impero), also without the battle cruiser program. By 1911, Italy's fiscal deficit had exceeded the warning line, and it could no longer be invested in the naval arms race, and Italy's finances would collapse.

Coincidentally, Italy discovered that France's 1911 budget did not add an additional budget for naval shipbuilding, and the budget immediately secretly negotiated with France to stop the expansion of the two countries' naval forces in the Mediterranean, and both sides recognized the existence and interests of the other side's navy in the Mediterranean, and Italy and France stopped the arms race in the Mediterranean at the same time.

As a member of the Central Powers, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, whose maritime supremacy in the Mediterranean had long been reduced to a third-rate navy, could not afford to build the Austro-Celestial Navy after building the first three Divine Bow battleships, and from the time of the Super Divine Bow, the Austro-Hungarian Navy could not afford to build them. Fortunately, the power of the Italian and French navies in the Mediterranean was in a state of balance, so the Austro-Hungarian Navy did not build superbow battleships, and Germany did not impose on them.

Similarly, among the members of the Entente, the naval strength of the Tsarist Russian Empire was not good, and after the Sino-Russian War, the naval cause of the Tsarist Empire has been in a state of stagnation, and there is no money to build a fleet and no technology.

Originally, the Russian Navy purchased second-hand Dengyun-class battleships and Jianwei-class battleships from the Chinese Empire, a total of nine quasi-divine bow battleships had excited the Russian Navy for several months, but soon they found that these nine quasi-divine bow battleships were outdated. The Turkish Navy's Shenbow-type battleships imported from the Chinese Empire had an absolute advantage over the Russian Navy, and the German Navy's Shenbow-type battleships and Super Shenbow-type battleships made the Tsarist Navy have no power to fight back at all. What's even more annoying is that the small Greek Navy was able to get two perverted versions of the Super God Bow battleships built for it by the Chinese Empire, and the 12 356 mm cannons made the Russian Navy want to find a crack in the ground to get into, which was really shameless.

Of course, the Tsarist Navy did not give up the development of its own Shenbow-type battleships, but unfortunately the technical strength of the Tsarist Navy was too poor, when the Tsarist Navy began to build the Shenbow-type battleship Gangut-class, the Russian Navy equipped the Gangut-class battleships with four triple 305 mm main guns, thinking that it could completely defeat the Chinese Empire's Shenbow battleship and the British Dreadnought, as well as the German Natsui-class battleships.

However, the Imperial Tsarist Navy soon sadly discovered that the Russian Gangut-class battleships had less than 200 mm of armor and a speed of 23 knots, which was between battleships and battlecruisers.

Moreover, by the time the Gangut-class battleships of the Tsarist Russian Empire were launched, the caliber of the main guns of major naval powers such as the Chinese Empire, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States had reached 14 inches, and they had entered the era of super-divine bow battleships.

As a result, the Russian Navy immediately began to design a 14-inch main gun, which was planned to be equipped with the Empress Maria-class battleships that were being designed.

In January 1910, the Russian naval attachés in London and Constantinople simultaneously sent urgent information to Petersburg, and the news of two 14-inch superbow battleships ordered by Turkey from the shipyards of the Chinese Empire was confirmed. The prospect of an expansion of the Turkish Navy worries the Russian Navy.

Nevertheless, the Admiralty did not immediately intend to strengthen the Black Sea Fleet. The Admiralty decided that it was necessary to save money for the "Sevastopol" class, which had already begun construction, so that they could quickly complete the work to meet the German threat. But the Cabinet of Ministers held the opposite opinion, and the bureaucrats considered the Black Sea their backyard and demanded that the Black Sea Fleet must guarantee absolute superiority over the Turkish Navy at all times.

In this way, the Admiralty had to carry out the order of the Duma meeting against its own wishes, preparing for the Black Sea Fleet to build superbow battleships that could compete with the new Turkish ships.

The General Staff of the Navy developed technical and tactical standards, modeled on the Sevastopol-class battleships. The General Staff considered that a speed of 23 knots was not required in a completely enclosed water area such as the Black Sea, but a maximum speed of 20.5 knots and a short-term overload speed of 22 knots would be sufficient. This allows more weight to be allocated to armor protection and weapon systems against Turkish battleships, whose names are not yet known. The turret armor was to be increased from 203 mm to 250 mm of the "Sevastopol" class, and the maximum elevation angle of the gun was to be enlarged to 35 degrees.

Despite the initial appearance of the design of the knapsack turret, the Admiralty eventually opted for a single-deck plan layout. The 102 guns originally conceived were also replaced with 130 mm guns to deal with destroyers with increased enemy displacement. In March, the Duma adopted a plan for the expansion of the Black Sea Fleet, which became a formal decree in May after being signed by Nicholas II. The enlargement bill envisaged the construction of three battleships for the Black Sea Fleet by 1913 with a budget of 102,220,000 rubles (budget 27,700,000 roubles each), and the rest of the money for the purchase of nine new destroyers and six submarines.

The Admiralty of Tsarist Russia came up with most of the basic technical specifications for the Black Sea battleships. It is diesel powered and is equipped with 12 356-mm guns or 5 305-mm triple turrets. Obviously, this is simply not realistic. In April of the same year, Russian spies further confirmed that Turkey had ordered a superbow battleship in the Chinese Empire, armed with 356 mm guns. With the rich experience and efficient work system of the shipyards of the Chinese Empire, it was only a matter of course for the Turks to obtain the super-divine bow ships and overwhelm the Black Sea Fleet.

The Admiralty of Tsarist Russia immediately stepped in to stop the discussion of diesel-powered and five or six turrets in the technical department, and the immediate priority was to provide the Black Sea Fleet with super-god bow ships that could be put into service as soon as possible. The Naval Staff proposed that the new ship should be equipped with 356-mm guns to gain a firepower superiority over Turkish warships. However, the Technical Committee of Artillery disagreed, and in its April report it clearly warned: "It is impossible for the Obukhovsky plant to produce a sufficient number of guns (37 guns) to equip the Black Sea battleships by the deadline of January 1, 1913, set by the General Staff." If the 356 gun had to be used, then the construction period would have to be extended for another year and a half."

The Tsarist Navy tried to solve the problem by ordering artillery from foreign companies. The General Staff successively sent invitations to the British Armstrong and Vickers companies, the Shanghai Shipbuilding Industry Co., Ltd., the Royal Heavy Industries, the Dalian Shipbuilding Heavy Industry Co., Ltd., and the Beiyang Ordnance Heavy Industry Co., Ltd. of the Chinese Empire, the German Krupp Co., the Austro-Hungarian Empire's Skoda, and the French Schneider Company, hoping that they would participate in the design competition of the 356-mm gun.

But in the end, the Navy's research concluded that 12 305 guns could be used against the enemy's 8 356 guns. The first 2 ships were planned to be armed with 305 guns, and the last 1 was replaced with 356 guns. 3 Divine Bow Ships plus a corps of former Divine Bow Ships, it is completely possible to defeat the Turks who are only equipped with 2 new Super Divine Bow Ships.

However, the Russian Navy did not realize that the Super Bow class and the Divine Bow class were no longer the same level concept, and no matter how many Divine Bow class main guns were equipped, they could not beat the battleships equipped with the Super Divine Bow class main guns.

Due to the urgency of the situation, the Admiralty ordered the Baltic Shipyard to immediately modify the "Sevastopol" class into battleships suitable for operations in the Black Sea. At the same time, the Admiralty hoped that the Baltic Shipyard and the Naval Shipyard would accumulate sufficient experience in building dreadnoughts after completing the "Sevastopol" class. In this way, the Black Sea battleships were also handed over to the shipyard in Petersburg for construction, which would certainly greatly shorten the construction period.

But an unavoidable question arises, will the Turks open the straits for freedom of navigation? Due to the extremely inferior performance of the Turkish armed forces in the Turkish-Italian war of 1910, and the great powers such as Britain, France, and Italy were also dissatisfied with the closure of the Turkish Straits of Turkey. The Admiralty is looking forward to the Turks, under strong international pressure, to revise the Turkish Strait Navigation Treaty to allow free access to all countries, especially Russian [***] ships. Within a few months, however, the Russians abandoned this unrealistic idea, as they had learned that the Turkish Empire had officially joined the Central Powers.

So, the Russians had to build on the Black Sea. The design of the new battleship was fully rolled out on June 22, 1910, and Beiyang Ordnance Heavy Industry, Krupp and Vickers were invited to participate. However, the Russians no longer had any intention of building battleships abroad, and their move was just to take the opportunity to absorb advanced shipbuilding ideas from abroad.

In addition to the Baltic and Naval Shipyards, the Nikolaev Shipbuilding Industry Complex in Nikolaev and the Russian Shipbuilding Joint Stock Company are participating in the competition. Halfway through the design, the Admiralty had already canceled the intention to build a ship at the Petersburg shipyard. The inexperienced Nikolaev plant and the Russian plant each found technical backers -- the Vickers Company and the Beiyang Ordnance Heavy Industry Co., Ltd. On 2 September, the Navy decided to start construction of three ships at the Russian Plant and the Nikolaev Plant respectively, and the Russian Plant won the majority of the contracts for the construction of the two ships, most of which were imported from the Beiyang Ordnance Heavy Industry of the Chinese Empire.

In mid-November, the designs of the two sides were compared, and the Russian plant won. The Nikolaev / Vickers scheme has a displacement of 25100 tons, which is larger than the requirements of the Technical Committee of the Navy, and the three-axis power system does not meet the requirements of the General Staff for the use of 4 main engines. On October 30, the groundbreaking ceremony was held at the same time for three battleships, named "Empress Maria" and "Tsar Alexander III" at the Russian factory, and "Catherine the Great" at the Nikolaev plant.

In fact, by the time the construction of "Queen Maria" began, its final design had not yet been completed. In order to speed up the process, the Baltic Works and the Naval Shipyard provided Russian technicians with a complete calculation process of engineering drawings and related data for the "Cypriot" class ships. On December 13, 1910, the contract between the Navy and the Russian shipyard was officially signed. In particular, the contract emphasized that "Empress Maria" and "Tsar Alexander III" should undergo sea trials before September 2, 1913. In July, August and November 2 of the same year, after all the drawings and construction plans were completed, the "Empress Maria", "Tsar Alexander III" and "Catherine II" really entered the construction stage. The shipbuilders were Koromati, V?P.Koteko and M.I. Sasnovsky. The work on 3 ships is progressing relatively smoothly.

However, by the beginning of 1911, the intelligence services of the Tsarist Russian Empire had once again gained international intelligence, and the arms race between China, the United States, Britain, and Germany had progressed and escalated, and the caliber of the main gun had soared to 15 inches. Of course, other countries learned about this information as early as last summer, but the Russian intelligence services were always half a beat behind the others.

The Queen Maria class fell behind just after the start of construction, which was too much of a blow to the Russian Navy.

As a result, the Russian Empire hurriedly began to design and build a superbow-type battleship with a 15-inch gun at the Baltic Shipyard, which was classified as the Nicholas I class. However, the Russian Navy did not even understand the 14-inch main gun super bow battleship, and the technology had to be learned from China and Britain, and the equipment had to be imported from China and Britain. Even the 37 203-mm ball and bearing systems needed to build a 14-inch gun were not manufactured by the Russian naval industry, and the British did not have enough of their own warships, so Russia had to import all of them from China.

Under these circumstances, the construction of the Nicholas I-class Superbow battleship was delayed indefinitely, and in the end, it was not completed until the end of World War I. In this way, the Empress Maria-class battleship became the last battleship of the first class in the Tsarist Empire.

However, the Imperial Navy of Tsarist Russia was not completely undesirable. When participating in the bidding for the Empress Maria-class battleship, China unexpectedly discovered a new concept warship being built by the Imperial Tsarist Navy.

This new concept of battleship was called a destroyer battleship within the Russian Navy, and its design concept was worthy of reference by naval technicians in the Chinese Empire.

At the same time as the construction of the "Queen Maria" and "Nicholas I", the Russians also had an interesting design: the destroyer battleship - this is really an unheard of term.

The initiator of this plan was actually the Admiralty of Tsarist Russia. The Russian Admiralty believes that after the design and construction of several Sharpbow ships, the country's shipbuilding industry has the ability to complete the Sharpbow ships. As a result, in January 1911, the Minister of the Admiralty I. K. Grignovich issued a directive to the two shipyards in Petersburg "On the task of designing a new type of battleship", asking them to immediately start the conceptual design of the new "Supergod Bow Ship". The Admiralty particularly stressed that the new ship should have the same epoch-making significance as the "Shenbow" and completely change the rules of the game in naval warfare, so as to ensure that Russia, which is inferior in financial and technological resources, can gain a completely superior position in terms of large ships and huge guns.

In order to completely overwhelm the types of ships that may appear in the next three years for the enemy and the allies, the Russian Admiralty required that the warships of the new program be equipped with at least 12 main guns of more than 381 mm caliber and the number of projectiles per minute should not be less than 36 rounds. The secondary gun should be equipped with at least 24 152 mm cannons with a rate of fire of 12 rounds per minute; Anti-torpedo nets and anti-aircraft guns should be equipped. At the same time, the Navy General Staff particularly emphasized that torpedo equipment should be strengthened, and the more torpedo tubes the better, and they should be concentrated in the middle of the underwater hull to "ensure that the densest and most concentrated torpedo curtain can be fired at the target." This is probably the original concept of destroyer battleships.

The design task requires that "the maximum speed of the warship is 25 knots, the endurance should not be less than 5,000 nautical miles/15 knots, and the ship should be equipped with a long-wave radio station with an effective range of 1,500 nautical miles, which should be compatible with the British radio communication system." The new battleship should be seaworthy enough to meet the harshest sea conditions in the ocean, and at the same time should have the best stability and recovery capabilities. ”

The mission also advises designers not to stick to the traditional icebreaker type of bow shape, which may not be suitable for ocean navigation. The Admiralty also ordered "to have the best ability to stabilize and recover the surname, and to give active consideration to the use of anti-roll water tank structures to reduce the roll amplitude of the ship." ”

Since warships must navigate the Baltic Sea, the draft must not exceed 9.15 meters. Perhaps in order to maximize the imagination of the designers and officers, the "Mission" did not make any instructions or restrictions on the most important displacement.

Although the strong words "must", "must not", and "not less than" in the upper echelons of the navy are full of confidence, such a plan is almost an impossible task for Russia, which is relatively weak in technology. But the Russians still completed dozens of conceptual designs with their own characteristic romantic surnames.

A special committee was set up under the leadership of Vice Admiral Fetzen, the head of naval shipbuilding, and was authorized to receive the necessary technical support from the gun, torpedo and engine departments. Among the members of the committee were several outstanding captains of the Baltic Fleet: И?P. Len of the "Prince", "Andrey? A.P. Zelenoy of the "Pevozvany", A.K. Nepolesen of the "Pavel I" and Colonel M.K. Baknov of the large armored cruiser "Rurik".

Due to the special emphasis of the Admiralty on the torpedo attack capabilities of the new ships, the commander of the new fleet destroyer "Novik", Colonel D. N. Verdrovsky, was recruited as a torpedo warfare specialist. After the first round of defense inquiries, the Admiralty review panel selected several promising proposals for the next round of competition. Lieutenant Commander A.V. Kolchak of the Ministry made a detailed report to his superiors after studying the whole plan in detail in February 1911.

In the end, they agreed that the idea of the commander of the Baltic Fleet, Admiral A.N. Essen, was the most attractive. Admiral Essen's genius came from an argument with his subordinates: several captains of the new ship planning committee agreed that the 120 mm guns of the "Sai" class and the 130 mm secondary guns of the "I" class were too powerful to deal with the swarming enemy light ships. They demanded that the number and caliber of secondary guns should be increased for the new warships, and Verdrovsky even proposed that secondary guns with combined turrets should be used to increase the range of secondary guns.

However, Admiral Essen, in his own conceived introduction, pointed out sharply: "The existing destroyers and submarines are perfectly capable of taking on the task of meeting the enemy's light ships in future engagements, and their tactical capabilities are better suited to such operations, so it is completely pointless to devote too much energy to secondary guns that have nothing to do with the basic combat effectiveness of the battleship." ”

Essen then laid out the idea of a little-known lieutenant engineer: "In the current naval battlefield dominated by the Divine Bow ships, the armored cruisers with the surname high or low have become completely chicken, and the torpedo attacks of enemy destroyers are becoming more and more threatening. Imagine a fast destroyer armored cruiser with a speed of more than 30 knots, but with three or four 178 mm turrets of the same structure as the dreadnought, which is more space-saving than the original cruiser's cluttered main and secondary guns, and has less cost and crew (referring to the reduced number of gunners). It can destroy enemy surface ships that try to attack us with intensive firepower. Destroyer armored cruisers can withstand artillery fire from ships below enemy light cruisers, and due to their high speed, they can also effectively evade enemy torpedoes"

That young lieutenant's name is Paul? Viktonovich? Ivankov. Ivankov graduated from the Kronstadt Naval Engineering School in 1909 and then worked at the Baltic shipyard. His original idea was a 15,000-ton cruiser with only 12 130-mm guns, but 64 underwater torpedo tubes were installed.

Later, Ivankov enlarged the hull to 22,000 tons, armed with 10 178-mm guns and 84 torpedo tubes, while also carrying 700 mines. The maximum fuel reserve of the warship is 1800 tons. This would allow her to sail from Revel (today's Tallinn) at a speed of 25 knots, returning safely at the same high speed after laying mines outside Kiel.

In May 1911, Lieutenant Engineer Ivankov finally turned the ideal into a rigorous design, and perhaps the most unconventional type of ship in the history of battleship development appeared. The destroyer battleship in the scheme has a standard displacement of 23000 tons and a full load displacement of 26500 tons; The total length is 203.4 meters, the waterline is 200 meters long, the waterline is 25.5 meters wide, the normal draft is 8.2 meters, and the crew is 1,250 people.

The hull is a long first floor type with a good seaworthiness surname, and from top to bottom it is the first floor deck, upper deck, middle deck, lower deck, tension deck, platform deck and inner bottom, and the middle deck that runs through the whole ship is a strong deck. The bow of the ship follows the ice-breaking type of the "Yi" class ship, which is adapted to the freezing surface of the Baltic Sea in winter, but at the cost of a poor Naipa surname. 84 tons of cast steel were poured into the ice-breaking corner, which is very strong. In this way, the destroyer battleship could quickly break through the ice and open a channel for the subsequent high-speed light hull.

The main armament of the destroyer battleship was 84 450-mm underwater torpedo tubes, 41 on the port side and 43 on the starboard side. Each tube has 1 standby mine and 2 standby mines, so the whole ship carries a total of up to 252 torpedoes. However, how to get so many torpedoes safely from the deck to the torpedo magazine was a very headache.

The battleship was armed with the latest 456-mm Type 45-16 steam torpedoes. The torpedo has a total length of 6 meters and a warhead charge of 170 kg TNT; Range 4000 m / 40 knots, 6000 m / 30 knots.

In order to later be able to launch long-range torpedoes of larger size, Ivankov designed torpedo tubes that were 45 meters longer than the 16-1.5 torpedoes. However, the Navy Staff was still not satisfied, and they demanded that the torpedo tubes should be installed in a "modular" manner, so that they could be replaced with 533 heavy torpedo tubes in a few years. The structure of the torpedo tube is simple, and the torpedo adopts the self-propelled launch method.

In addition, the destroyer battleship was armed with four triple 52x diameter 178 mm turrets. However, at that time, there were no ready-made 178-mm naval guns available in Russia. To this end, the shipyard is preparing to make a new turret for a new turret with a 52-diameter 305-mm turret of the "Cypriot" class.

Since the main combat object was ships below the light cruiser, the main type of artillery was a semi-armor-piercing shell weighing 76 kg with a 10.5 kg bottom charge. The planned rate of fire was up to 8 rounds / min, so that the warship could fire almost 1 shell in 100 minutes; The firing range in the turret direction is 320 degrees, and the high and low firing range is 0-22 degrees; In order to ensure that the turret can keep up with the target at a speed of 35 knots at a distance of 2 knots, the turret rotates horizontally at a speed of 20 degrees per second. The firing command post on the roof of the bridge was equipped with a 6-meter rangefinder. Other than that, there are no other secondary guns. However, it can be installed with a simple 3-inch deck gun at any time to cope with aircraft and submarine attacks.

The armor protection of the destroyer battleship was designed to withstand targets with 15-inch guns. Interestingly, the Admiralty insisted that the enemy's possible 406-mm guns could penetrate 65-inch armor plates with an inclination of 30 degrees at a distance of 18 chains.

For this purpose, the ship was heavily armoured: 400 mm of Krupp carburized armor for the main armor belt between the ammunition magazines of turrets 1 and 4 on the side of the gun, 150 mm of bow and stern armor plates, 85 mm of main horizontal armor (high-strength steel), 300 mm of turret armor, and 450 mm thick armor of the conning tower. The underwater defense had a full-line long anti-torpedo compartment with a spacing of 600 mm and a double-bottom structure, and impermeable fuel tanks were arranged outside the boiler compartment and engine room.

In order to ensure the high speed of the warship during the attack, the power system of the destroyer battleship was completely different from that of the battleships of the past. It is equipped with 15 Yarrow oil-fired boilers and 4 Parsons impulse-reactionary high and low pressure steam turbines, with a working parameter of 17.5 atmospheres and a superheated steam temperature of 220 degrees, which is the best of all Russian ships. The main engine power is 72,000 horsepower, the maximum speed is 28 knots, the overspeed speed is 30 knots, and the cruising range is 6,000 nautical miles/14 knots. Since the torpedo tubes of warships cannot be turned, the orientation of torpedoes is completely dependent on hull steering, which puts forward high requirements for the hull to turn quickly and accurately. This is not an easy thing to do for a large guy with a length of more than 20,000 tons and 200 meters.

On the one hand, it adopts an efficient single-main-auxiliary rudder system, and on the other hand, a lot of effort has been put into the main engine arrangement. The main engine of the destroyer battleship was not arranged on the centerline, but was offset outward by 2.2 degrees. In this way, when the warship is turning, the inner main engine reverses, and because the inner and outer thrust lines have a relatively large deviation from the hull route, the positive reverse steering effect is obvious.

According to calculations, it should be able to reach a steering diameter comparable to that of a light cruiser. However, such a design wastes part of the main engine power during normal sailing, which is a pity. The speed loss is relatively large when the vehicle is reversed, which is not conducive to a rapid retreat after completing the attack.

Since the torpedo compartment took up too much space inside the ship, the four main engines had to be connected in pairs. The normal main engine is arranged separately in the watertight cabin. The two turbines share a common chamber to drive a single spindle, which not only increases the complexity and weight of the deceleration device, but also reduces the survivability of the power system.

In June 1911, the plan was handed over to Admiral Essen's command, and Essen, who had commanded the mine-laying cruiser, saw it at first sight and immediately recommended it to the Admiralty, as mentioned above.

As soon as this proposal was submitted to the Admiralty, it immediately received widespread attention and praise from torpedo supremacists. They had long hoped for a high-speed heavily armored ship armed with 178 or 203 mm guns capable of leading a light cruiser-destroyer detachment to a 10-15 chain distance from the enemy's main battleship and firing a salvo of 40-50 torpedoes in one go, completely destroying the entire enemy battleship detachment.

The Admiralty was well aware that, with the industrial capacity of the time, the most optimistic estimate in a few years would be to create a 40-fold diameter 381 mm short-barreled gun, and that the ballistic surname of such guns could not be used as the main guns of battleships. The torpedo faction took advantage of this opportunity to trumpet that torpedoes might make significant progress in speed and range in the near future, and that artillery should be replaced as the main attack weapon of future warships.

So the design of the destroyer battleship was highly valued by the Navy. In November 1911, they conducted two wargames based on the technical characteristics of the destroyer battleship. The exercise on the map does not give a very definite answer, and the enemy battle line may turn to avoid direct confrontation when the enemy's destroyer is close to the 33rd chain distance. Since it is generally believed that the enemy's battleships are much stronger than their own, it is already a great result to be able to force the enemy to withdraw from the battlefield.

The Admiralty then included the destroyer battleship in its shipbuilding plan for the second half of 1911. However, at that time, the shipyard was busy with work, and there was no spare strength to build a new ship, so the plan was postponed to 1914.

Colonel Chen Haifeng, a ship technical expert of the Beiyang Ordnance Heavy Industry of the Chinese Empire, immediately realized the new ideas for naval development brought about by this kind of fast hunting ship after learning of the whim of the Russians, so he spent 30,000 yuan from Paul? Viktonovich? Ivankov bought his plans for the destroyer battleship and took them back to the country for study.

The Imperial Chinese Navy does not give up the advanced technology of any country, even if it is a weak navy, there is no shortage of advanced technological ideas.

After Chen Haifeng reported the design concept of the Russian destroyer battleship to the Admiralty of the Chinese Empire, the Admiralty attached great importance to it and ordered him to be responsible for the technical demonstration in this regard.

On July 5, 1911, at the meeting of the General Administration of the Admiralty of the Chinese Empire, Chen Haifeng converted the Russian destroyer battleship plan into his own design plan and renamed it the battleship.

The battle destroyer designed by Chen Haifeng, as the name suggests, is to carry the firepower of a battleship and the high speed of a destroyer. This is similar to the definition of a battlecruiser. However, the battleship's small hull did not allow it to carry the battleship's main gun caliber on its own.

For this reason, Chen Haifeng's battle destroyer is defined as having the destructive power of the battleship's guns, that is, the battleship fires a salvo of 9×381 mm shells, which is 15.3 tons of shells, and the attack yield is equivalent to 7 21-inch red-headed torpedoes (black gold charge). Theoretically, the most advanced Tang-class battleship in the Chinese Empire, its advanced fire control system commanded the main gun to hit the enemy ship in three salvos of fire, and if it was replaced by a torpedo attack by a battle destroyer, 15 21-inch red-headed torpedoes were enough to create the same combat result.

In this way, Chen Haifeng's concept of a battle destroyer is to have the torpedo destruction power that can sink the super god bow battleship, and the ultra-high speed of the hunting ship, and the product of the combination of the two is the battle destroyer.

According to Chen Haifeng's design blueprint, the design standards for battleship destroyers he came up with at the meeting of the General Administration of Ships were:

The standard displacement is 2,567 tons, the full load is 3,048 tons, and the main scale is 129.5 meters (full length) / 11.2 meters (width) / 4.1 meters (draft). The power system adopts 3 Parsons 10 gear brake steam turbines and 3 Diesel high-efficiency diesel boilers, with an output of 75,000 horsepower, a design speed of 39 knots, and a cruising range of 8,000 nautical miles/18 knots.

In terms of artillery, three twin Guanghua 10-year 127 mm 50 times extended-fire rapid-fire guns, five twin 25 mm high-level rapid-fire guns, and two twin 12.7 mm Browning machine guns were used. In terms of torpedoes, it is equipped with three five-pack 610 mm red-headed torpedoes and 30 Guanghua Type 10 torpedoes. In terms of anti-submarine, it is equipped with 6 deep-bomb projectors and 2 slide rails.

Chen Haifeng's battle destroyer plan was affirmed at a meeting of the General Administration of Ships, but it is still unknown whether it will eventually pass the review of the Admiralty and Congress. After all, the concept of battle destroyers has no experience, unlike the concept of battle cruisers, the Admiralty and Congress did not agree to the plan to build battle cruisers at the beginning, and if it were not for the strong support of His Majesty the Emperor, I am afraid that there would not be battle cruisers.

Now that the concept of battle destroyers has appeared in the Imperial Navy, Deng Shichang, Minister of the Admiralty, immediately entered the palace in person, hoping that before submitting it to the Congress for review, the Emperor would take a look at it, and if Wang Chenhao nodded, then the Congress would not embarrass the Admiralty.

In the imperial study, Wang Chenhao looked at the battle destroyer plan placed on the imperial book case, and couldn't help but smile bitterly.

Wang Chenhao thought that this kind of thing would not appear again, and this destroyer battleship of the Russians was adopted by the Japanese and the U.S. Navy, and the project began to be developed after World War I. In 1917, the U.S. Navy successfully developed two Benson-class battle destroyers with a speed of 7 and 40 knots, and the Navy as a confrontation, considering that the Oriental system was not as good as that of the Westerners, so in 1920 it successfully developed three 5 and 39 speed Shimakaze-class battle destroyers, but with the World War II, the speed of the main battleships reached more than 28 knots, and the fate of this kind of battle destroyer was the same as that of the battle cruiser, and finally withdrew from the historical stage in 1943.

What Wang Chenhao didn't expect was that without his reminder and guidance, the officials and experts of the Imperial Admiralty would be able to create the concept of this kind of battle destroyer, which is enough to show that after more than ten years of development, a large number of scientific researchers with independent ideas and creativity have emerged in the Empire, which is the result that Wang Chenhao hopes to see the most.

Although this kind of battle destroyer will have to withdraw from the stage of history like the battle cruiser sooner or later, her combat effectiveness in World War I is still very strong, and the threat to the enemy's battleships is very great, and if it is well coordinated with the main fleet, it can still shine.

So, with a stroke of his pen, Wang Chenhao wrote the word "approval" in red on Deng Shichang's report.

After receiving the support of the emperor, Deng Shichang submitted the battle destroyer plan to the National Assembly for deliberation and asked the National Assembly to allocate funds for construction.

As a result of the Emperor's approval, the members of Congress made it less difficult for the Admiralty, and in October 1911, after asking about some key technical parameters and combat capabilities, the Congress approved the construction of 20 battleships, classified as the Tempest.

(To be continued)