In 1912, the U.S. Navy also received news that the Chinese Empire was building Yuan-class battleships, and the U.S. Navy also requested the construction of four South Dakota-class battleships as a counterpoint, also requiring 17-inch guns. However, at this time, the European war had broken out, and Britain and Germany had given up the development of 17-inch guns, because the war needed a main gun system that could be mass-produced with mature technology, so the capital ships under construction in Britain and Germany were only 16 inches, and no 17-inch guns were developed.

In this way, with the industrial capacity of the US Navy, without the technical support of British artillery, it is impossible to complete the design and mass production of the 17-inch gun in a short time.

As a result, the sad US Navy had no choice but to settle for the next best thing, and approved the construction of a total of six South Dakota-class battleships equipped with 406 mm guns, hoping that six battleships with 16-inch guns could withstand the four 17-inch capital ships of the Chinese Empire.

Unexpectedly, the Chinese Empire actually completed the Yuan-class battleship in 362 days, which made the United States and Yue Ben suddenly feel that it was far inferior to the Chinese Empire in terms of naval industrial capacity. At the same time, he was also very nervous, and once thought that the Chinese Empire was doing this to start a war against the United States as soon as possible.

As a result, the United States and the two countries have raised their alert levels one after another in view of the fact that the Imperial Chinese Navy is good at sneak attack operations. It is said that the naval bases of the United States and the United States in the Pacific Ocean have all been put on a state of three-level alert to prevent a sudden attack by the Chinese Empire, so that they have lost the initiative in the war at the beginning of the war.

The General Staff of the Chinese Empire did not expect this result, and in the plan formulated by the General Staff, there was naturally a surprise plan, because the surprise attack was a very important part of winning the war, and the Chinese Empire had many experiences in this area and was very skilled, so it was more certain.

However, the accelerated completion of the Yuan-class battleships led to the vigilance of the United States, the level of defense was raised, and the port anti-submarine project was especially strengthened, which made it difficult to complete the first phase of the plan formulated by the General Staff.

For this reason, the General Staff of the Chinese Empire had no choice but to throw out the Ming-class battleships under such circumstances, and planned to complete the Ming-class battleships in three years, in order to confuse the two countries and make them think that the Chinese Empire would not launch a war against the United States in a short time.

Sure enough, this plan succeeded, and after the United States and Yuben held a defense consultation meeting, because they could not get the information of the Chinese Empire's war against the United States, the United States believed that the Chinese Empire would take action against the United States after the completion of the Ming-class battleships. Since the displacement of the Ming-class battleships reached 80,000 tons and the main guns were raised to 18 inches, the US defense secretaries agreed that the Chinese Empire would not be able to complete it in three years.

In this way, the United States drew up a plan for the outbreak of a war between the Chinese Empire and the United States three years later, and soon the naval alert level of the United States and the United States was lowered and the previous status quo was restored.

In March 1913, the Chinese Empire approved the construction of four Ming-class battleships with 18-inch guns, a move that immediately brought the U.S. navies to the brink of madness and collapse. They have not even been able to start the construction of capital ships with 17-inch guns, not to mention that the Chinese Empire has already started construction of super battleships with 18-inch guns.

Regardless of whether the Chinese Empire could develop an 18-inch gun by then, the Ming-class battleships had become the number one enemy of the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Navy. Therefore, the US Navy and the US Navy believed that if they continued to compete in arms with the Imperial Chinese Navy, they would be dragged down and surpassed sooner or later, so they said that the US Navy cooperated for the first time, skipping the research and development of the 17-inch main gun and directly jointly developing the 18-inch main gun, which was planned to be completed within the next three years. In this way, the construction of a hull capable of carrying an 18-inch gun will begin in the next two years.

However, neither the Chinese Empire nor the United States would have thought that the Chinese Empire would not give them time to complete the construction of this class of battleships, because before that, the Chinese Empire would go to war against the United States.

Although the Ming-class battleship was built as a guise, with the strong support of the Emperor and the people of the whole country, it was finally forced by the Admiralty to change it to a real naval capital ship construction plan.

Wang Chenhao, the emperor of the Chinese Empire, was even more looking forward to the Ming-class battleship, calling it the super battleship of the Chinese Imperial Navy, and calling it a symbol of the strength of the Chinese Imperial Navy. The emperor personally donated 210 million dragon coins, which made the Admiralty pay more attention to the design and construction of Ming-class battleships.

The Ming-class battleship is the largest first-class super battleship built by the Imperial Chinese Navy and even the world's navy so far. All indicators have broken world records, and all technologies have reached the world's leading level.

Four Ming-class battleships were built, named after the four emperors of the Ming Dynasty of China. The first ship, Hongwu Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang [BB-63], and the other three ships are Yongle Emperor Zhu Di [BB-64], Xuande Emperor Zhu Zhanji [BB-65], and Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youzhen [BB-66].

The construction of the first ship, Zhu Yuanzhang, started in Shanghai Shipbuilding Heavy Industry, and the weight of all parts of the ship broke the world record. Among them, the hull accounted for 22,212 tons, armor 21,596 tons, defense plates 2,629 tons, weapon systems 14,611 tons, main engine equipment 5,500 tons, outfitting 1,856 tons, fixed equipment 620 tons, non-stationary equipment 656 tons, torpedo 85 tons (torpedo tubes were canceled during construction), 115 tons of ranging, navigation, optical equipment, 1,308 tons of power equipment, 111 tons of carrier-based aircraft, 400 tons of boiler water, 412 tons of prepared drinking water, 8,210 tons of diesel, 100 tons of lubricating oil, 108 tons of light oil, and other miscellaneous tonnage, with a total standard displacement of 73,800 tons (the standard row of the four ships is different, and the difference is roughly about 2,000 tons).

In terms of power system, the Ming-class battleship is equipped with 4 steam turbine units, with a maximum output of 163553 shaft horsepower, a design speed of 30.4 knots (the four ships were tested differently later, and the fastest Yongle Emperor test speed reached 31 knots), with a maximum endurance of 10,200 nautical miles/18 knots. The Ming-class battleship was also equipped with 8 generators with a total power of 6800 kilowatts.

In order to provide a relatively stable platform for the main gun firing, the Ming-class battleship with a displacement of nearly 88,000 tons was designed with a hull length to width ratio of 7:1 and a hull length of 280 meters, making it the most slender capital ship of the Imperial Chinese Navy. In order to obtain a speed of 30 knots, the General Administration of Ships has proposed more than 40 different ship models after more than 10 years of long-term tank tests. In the end, Emperor Wang Chenhao finally determined the type of battleship that conformed to the Ming class according to the modern capital ship type.

The bow of the Ming-class battleship is a flying scissor bow, which is formed at one time using a 10,000-ton hydraulic press, setting a world record. The part above the waterline is obviously tilted outward, the bow is semicircular, and its two sides are greatly stretched outward, so as to reduce the wave on the bow. The bulbous bow is located about 4 meters below the waterline, which can reduce wave resistance by 9% compared to the sharpened bow and reduce the waterline by about 5 meters, thus saving about 50 tons of displacement.

In addition to being used to reduce underwater drag, this bulbous bow is mainly intended for the installation of underwater hydrophones and sonar arrays, which can detect the activity of enemy submarines.

Although the bridge of the Ming-class battleship has been further optimized, it still exceeds the 18 floors of the Yuan-class battleship, reaching a height of 20 floors, like a huge tower, on the top of which is equipped with a main gun observation post (built-in 13-type navigation azimuth disk) and a large 18-meter rangefinder, down to the air defense command post, the line-of-sight bridge (day battle bridge), the war room, the captain's lounge, the compass bridge (night battle bridge), the second chart room, and the command tower. Inside the bridge there is a straight-through elevator.

The Ming-class battleships still used a single chimney, and the flues of each boiler zigzagged backwards to connect with the main chimney. The chimney is also tilted back as much as possible to avoid smoke exhaust affecting the bridge work. In order to ensure the safety of the opening of the hull chimney, a kind of honeycomb plate was installed in the opening, 400 mm thick, with many small holes with a diameter of 180 mm. In addition, 150 mm thick protective decks are installed on the slopes and sides in front of the chimney. In this way, the safety of the chimney is greatly improved. After the chimney was the rear bridge, which was the reserve combat command post. When the artillery is carried out in front and rear, it plays the role of the stern command post.

The main gun is naturally the biggest selling point of the Ming-class battleship. The Ming-class battleships were widely publicized by the political axe of the Chinese Empire from the beginning of construction, and the 18-inch cannon was immediately famous all over the world.

Wang Chenhao, the emperor of the Chinese Empire, hoped that the Ming-class battleships could have a main gun system that was more in line with the identity of the Ming Dynasty, so in order to cater to the emperor's preferences, the General Administration of Ships installed 45 double-mounted 460 mm (456 mm to the outside world) main gun system on the Ming-class battleships.

The total weight of the three guns in one turret reaches 1,720 tons, plus 890 tons of turret armor) and ammunition, and the total weight of the gyratory part of a single turret is 2,800 tons, which is equivalent to the displacement of the Imperial Chinese Navy's storm-class battle destroyers.

The armor of the turret shield was thick, and the Imperial Navy planned to make the Ming-class battleships unsinkable, so the focus was on strengthening the protection. The turret frontal height was 650 mm, and it can be said that even the 18-inch guns of the Ming-class battleships could not destroy it. The rear of the turret was equipped with a Type 12 15-meter baseline rangefinder, and for the first time, an electric compass was installed to allow the Ming-class battleships to remain stable when sailing, and periscope-type sights were installed in front of the sides of the turret and in front of the top.

Because the gun was too heavy, it could not reach 55 degrees like the Yuan-class battleships, and finally it was modified to an elevation angle of 45 degrees, and for the first time, the depression angle was increased to 5 degrees, and when the gun was loaded with shells, it was fixed at 3 degrees, and it took 3 minutes for the turret to rotate around.

The 18-inch guns of the Ming-class battleships had a lower firing rate than the Yuan-class, only 1.5 rounds per minute. Because the shell weighs 1.5 tons, although the automatic mechanical loading method is used, the propellant needs to be more expensive, and the preparation speed to complete the main gun fire is naturally slow. The shell base was reduced to 100 rounds per gun, compared to 150 to 200 rounds for the main guns of all ships. The main reason for this is that the process of the 18-inch main gun still needs to be improved, the main gun bore pressure is too large, and a large number of rifling will be worn off when fired, so after firing about 100 rounds, it must be returned to the factory for maintenance and replacement of the barrel.

The Ming class battleship had a strong firepower, with 12 18-inch guns pointing at one side of the salvo, with a recoil of 10,000 tons, and a very strong shock wave when fired, for which the designers of the Imperial Ship Administration took great pains. In the end, Rosenberg, the designer of the super cannon of the Imperial Beiyang Ordnance Heavy Industry, installed the anti-recoil system technology installed on the super cannon on the Ming-class battleships, so that when the main guns of the Ming-class battleships fired a salvo, the recoil was greatly reduced, and only the recoil of the Yuan-class was 4,000 tons. However, the blast wave of the main gun fire still could not be solved.

The Ming-class battleships still use heavy armor-piercing warheads with low muzzle velocity and high storage capacity, with a muzzle velocity of 785 m/s, a maximum range of 45 kilometers (45 degrees of elevation), and a shell that needs to fly for 90 seconds. However, the long-range rangefinder failed to make a breakthrough, and the effective command distance of the central fire control system was still 25 kilometers, which was the same as the effective firing distance of the Yuan-class battleships.

Compared with the MK7 406 mm caliber 45 times the diameter naval gun equipped with the Colorado class battleships in service, the Guanghua 13-year 460 mm naval gun is in an advantageous position in terms of armor-piercing weight, muzzle velocity and firing range. Artillery shells have stronger armor penetration, purely from the data, the Ming-class battleship can penetrate the main armor belt of any battleship in the world at a distance of 20,000-30,000 meters. On the other hand, whether it is the Colorado-class battleships of the United States, the South Dakota-class battleships under construction, or the 410-millimeter Nagato-class battleships of the United Kingdom, or even the 406-millimeter capital ships under construction in Britain and Germany, their main guns are difficult to do this, and unless they are in close combat at a distance of 3,000 meters, they cannot penetrate the armor of the Ming-class battleships.

In terms of secondary guns, the secondary guns of Ming-class battleships still use 18 152-mm naval guns (6 triple guns), but in order to improve the invasion force of the secondary guns, the extension has been extended to 60 times, making it the most powerful naval gun among the 150-level secondary guns of the world's navies.

The six secondary gun turrets are all arranged on the secondary deck around the central ship island, because the characteristics of the Chinese Imperial ship island are regular hexagonal geometric arrangement (the lines are in line with the aesthetic design), so the six triple auxiliary guns are arranged in six corners, this configuration can ensure that all three auxiliary guns of the Ming-class battleship can be pointed to one side at the same time, greatly improving the attack power against enemy ships at medium and close range.

Starting with the Ming-class battleships, the Imperial Chinese Admiralty also raised concerns about carrier-based aircraft on aircraft carriers (the result of many exercises), so the Admiralty for the first time changed the 152-mm secondary guns to high-level dual-purpose rapid-fire guns, so that the main and secondary guns of the Ming-class battleships could fire in the air. But these two types of artillery were not specially designed anti-aircraft guns after all. Anti-aircraft shooting can generally only play a role in intimidating the flight of incoming aircraft, and the ship's air defense tasks are mainly carried out by its 127-mm and 25-mm anti-aircraft guns.

The Ming-class battleship is equipped with Type 12 60 times diameter 127 mm caliber anti-aircraft guns, 24 guns (8 triple packs, all with shields), the gun has an elevation angle of +90 degrees, a maximum firing range of 19,000 meters, a maximum firing height of 13,400 meters, a rate of fire of 14 rounds per minute, and a barrel life of 1,500-2,500 rounds. Type 12 60x diameter 25 mm caliber anti-aircraft gun, armed with 48 guns (16 triple mounts, all with shields), the gun pitch angle +90 degrees. The muzzle velocity of the gun is 900 m / s, the maximum firing range is 6800 m, the maximum firing height is 5000 m, and the rate of fire is 220 rounds / min.

These two types of anti-aircraft guns can be regarded as two very good anti-aircraft guns in the future war of the Chinese Empire. , which can block the attack of enemy aircraft, but cannot be prevented by domestic aircraft.

In terms of protection system, the Ming-class battleships, as unsinkable battleships, are the embodiment of the indomitable will of the Han nation, and the Admiralty attaches great importance to the protection of the Ming-class battleships. According to the design requirements, the ship's armor should be able to withstand the blow of its own 460 mm main gun at a distance of 20,000-30,000 meters, and the middle deck should also withstand 600 kg of aerial bombs dropped from a height of 3,900 meters (the 500 kg aerial bombs carried by the Cat Demon ship battle in 1913 were used as the defense standard, but it could not withstand the 1 ton aerial bombs carried by the H1N1 bomber).

In order to achieve the above requirements, the Ming class installed a total of more than 20,000 tons of Chinese special steel armor and defense plates, accounting for 30% of the normal displacement of the whole ship. The ship's ammunition compartment, main engine, boiler room and other vital parts are concentrated in the middle of the battleship and protected by heavy armor belts in the defensive zone (from the front of the front main gun to the rear of the rear main gun). The broadside armor of the defensive zone extends from the ship's amidship waterline to the bottom of the battleship, with the thickness of the main armor belt at the upper waterline reaching 450 mm, and the thickness of the broadside plates below the main armor belt being 75-200 mm (decreasing from top to bottom). The armor on top of the defensive division was laid on the middle deck of the battleship with a thickness of 200-230 mm (homogeneous nickel-cadmium alloy steel with molybdenum added). The front and rear ends of the defensive division were protected by 270-350 mm thick armor across the walls.

During this period, China Special Steel has become more excellent. Therefore, after testing, the early Chinese special steel, which originally required to be installed with 460 mm, now only needs to be installed with a thickness of 450 mm, which is enough to withstand the heavy 1.5-ton 18-inch shells fired by the Ming-class battleships, and the 19-inch shells of other countries may be able to penetrate it.

In terms of other electronic communication equipment, in addition to the radio system, telephone system, sonar array, optical rangefinder, fire control command instrument, azimuth navigator and other equipment already equipped with Yuan-class battleships, all have been greatly improved and upgraded, with a reduction in size and weight, and an increase in accuracy and speed.

As a Ming-class battleship, her most outstanding ability, in addition to powerful artillery, armor and speed, this class of battleships was installed for the first time with a plane radar system developed by Beiyang Technology of the Chinese Empire, becoming the world's first real radar and the earliest radar system equipped by the navy.

In fact, radar has been around for a long time, it's just that humans haven't studied it further. After Tesla and others opened Wang Chenhao's Jiaolong submarine, although they could not develop the radar equipment inside (the electron tube technology was not up to par), the theory of radar was similar to sonar, and with the cleverness of Tesla and others, they quickly found the right direction, and with the support of large sums of money from the Chinese Empire, they began to develop the most basic mechanical radar system.

The earliest concept of radar was proposed in 1842, when Christian Andreas Doppler first proposed Doppler radar using the Doppler effect, but it was not taken seriously at that time. Twenty years later, in 1864, James Clerkmaxwell deduced a formula for calculating the surname Potter for electromagnetism, clearing the mathematical hurdle for radar calculations. Twenty years later, in 1886, Hertz began a series of experiments to study radio waves, and in 1888 he succeeded in using instruments to generate radio waves.

In 1897, after Jjthompson began his research on cathode rays in vacuum tubes, Christian Hülsmeyer finally invented the telemobiloscope in 1904, which is a device that uses radio wave echo detection to prevent collisions between ships at sea. Tesla and others successfully developed a sonar system and developed a vacuum transistor, and the world finally had the world's first active electronic component that could amplify signals.

In 1909, Tesla completed the research of radar theory, and began to study short-wave signal reflection with the support of Beiyang Science and Technology, and changed to space-wave band on the basis of sonar to conduct a series of experiments.

Finally, in February 1912, Tesla and others successfully developed a plane angle radar system, which can prevent ships on the water from colliding, and then improved to determine the distance and azimuth of the target through a huge electromagnetic high-frequency transmitter and receiver device, so the military mechanical radar was officially born.

Is this better than Robert? Watson? Robert Watson-Watt successfully designed the thunderstorm locator device (which announced the birth of radar) 5 years earlier.

However, the problem is that this kind of radar requires huge antenna devices, high-frequency transmitters and receiver devices, as well as mechanical mapping that converts signals into accurate mapping, all of which require very large, systematic and sophisticated instruments to assist, and only very large warships can be installed, and even the island of the Yuan-class battleship is not suitable for installing radar instruments with very large volume and weight, but this can be solved in the huge tonnage and ship island of the Ming-class battleship, so the first R1 shipborne radar was born.

This radar can detect sea surface targets at a distance of 40 kilometers and can provide the Imperial Chinese Navy with the approximate position of enemy ships.

However, it is a little regrettable that the central fire controller installed by the Chinese Empire on the Ming-class battleships could not be connected to the radar (the system engineering was too complex to be installed before the Ming-class battleships were built). If the central fire controller can be connected with the radar system, then the sea search fire control command system will be formed, which will be a change in the surname of the naval revolution.

As the most powerful battleship of the Chinese Empire to date, the Ming-class battleship was crewed into 20 combat teams with a total of 3,400 people.

The Ming-class battleships were the ships with the best conditions and the most complete facilities in the Imperial Chinese Navy to date. The canteen alone is divided into three categories: the captain, the officer's cooking room, the non-commissioned officer's cooking room, and the soldier's cooking room. The soldiers' cooking room is equipped with six huge rice steamers, two 15-kilowatt "universal cookers" (rice cookers), rice washers, tableware sterilizers, and other equipment. In addition, there is an oven and a 1-horsepower ice cream making machine, so you can make your own "preserved fruit" (cold drink) such as tea, lemonade, and ice cream. Its dishes are much better than the food standards of ordinary families in the Chinese Empire, and it is also second to none in the Imperial Chinese Navy fleet. In addition, there is a 300 cubic meter freezer on board for storing fresh food.

Since the Chinese Empire had air conditioning units, starting with Yuan-class battleships, large capital ships have been equipped with central air conditioning. Originally, central air conditioning was very power-intensive, and at first Congress objected to the installation of central air conditioning in the navy. But soon some councilors went to the capital ship to feel it, and the larger the capital ship, the more sick they would be if the internal air was not smooth, especially because of the sweltering heat, which caused most people to get sick. The Navy hospital ship sent a report to the members of Congress, saying that after the use of central air conditioning, the general illness rate of soldiers has decreased, and they are more mentally fighting. As a result, the Admiralty forced Congress to agree on the grounds of protecting the right of life of the Navy officers and men.

In addition, the displacement of the Ming-class battleship reached 88,000 tons, and the huge hull increased the space, 1/3 of the soldiers could enjoy special sleepers, and all the officers were double-layer sleepers (2 or 4 people/room), with an average living area of 4 square meters per person. Because of this, the Imperial Chinese Navy liked to call the Ming-class battleships "hotels on the sea".

In short, the Ming-class battleships of the Imperial Chinese Navy surpassed the battleships of the same era in terms of tonnage, main gun power, armor thickness, communication equipment, side detection equipment, and fire control equipment, and were truly the strongest battleships in the world.

(To be continued)