"I can't eat hot tofu in a hurry!"

Wang Chenhao smiled mysteriously, and his answer was very subtle, but his expression was captured by the generals.

The generals smiled at each other, and they all had the bottom in their hearts.

After the internal meeting, there were still more than two hours before the dinner time. Wang Chenhao, accompanied by Wei Han, inspected Shanghai Shipbuilding Heavy Industry.

In the past year, Shanghai Shipbuilding Industry Co., Ltd. has successively built a number of super-large docks of more than 10,000 tons and a series of small and medium-sized slipways, with an overall designed annual tonnage of 100,000 tons. 100-ton gantry crane up to 100 meters, tens of thousands of staff, top technical team...... With Wang Chenhao's strong support, the largest ship R&D and construction base in the Far East has been formed.

Wei Han saw that Wang Chenhao's face was full of joy and was in a very good mood, so he took the opportunity to say: "My lord, you see that our four large docks of more than 10,000 tons have been completed, I don't know when we can try to build large warships of more than 10,000 tons?" ”

Wei Han's mind is on the design and construction of warships in the shipyard, at this time, the two 5,000-ton docks of the shipbuilding industry are building two Haiqi-class warships, and the other four large docks have been built, Wei Han hopes not to let the dock be vacant, and at the same time he personally hopes to build large warships as soon as possible, which is his lifelong dream.

Wang Chenhao could feel Wei Han's great thirst for shipbuilding, and secretly begged Wei Han to pick up the time, so he smiled and said: "You can design and improve on the basis of the drawings of the Dengyun-class battleship and the Haiqi-class cruiser, and come up with a plan first, if it is feasible, I will strongly support you." ”

"Thank you, sir! In fact, the lowly position has already ordered the ship design department to start the relevant project design, and now there is a preliminary idea, just wait for your speech. ”

Wei Han has already started to study the construction of large ships, which is expected by Wang Chenhao, so he is not surprised.

"Then Mr. Wei's plan is to hear about it."

"Your Excellency, please!"

Wei Han introduced Wang Chenhao to the ship design department and introduced some of the main persons in charge of the technical team to Wang Chenhao, such as Lu Wenjing, Cai Haoyuan, He Jialan, Lu Tiaoyong, Lin Guoxi, etc., as well as more than a dozen technical engineers sent by the United Kingdom. Wei Han invited Wang Chenhao to visit their latest warship design plan, and briefly reported the relevant projects to Wang Chenhao.

As a result of the close cooperative relationship established between the British Navy's Ship Administration Headquarters and Wang Chenhao's Shanghai Shipbuilding Heavy Industry, Britain's advanced shipbuilding technology was opened to China and Shanghai Shipbuilding Industry was introduced. Wei Han led a large number of the best engineers and technicians in China through more than half a year of painstaking study and research, and basically have thoroughly understood the relevant technology of Dengyun-class battleships, and now what they lack is only the experience of designing and building their own.

"We know that we can't eat a fat man in one go, so in a step-by-step manner, we plan to start trying to upgrade the Dengyun-class battleship to strengthen its combat effectiveness. Here's our Design Blueprint report. ”

As he spoke, Wei Han handed over a report on the design blueprint and related data of the new warship to Wang Chenhao for review.

The new warship has increased its displacement to 18,000 tons on the basis of the Dengyun class, and the first-stage main gun has not changed, still two twin-mounted 305 mm main guns, but the caliber of the second-stage main gun has increased, from the original 152 mm to 203 mm, and the number of rapid-fire guns has also increased by four. The addition of an additional 1,000 tons of armor due to the increase in the caliber of the second main gun, and the strengthening of the armor protection by increasing the waterline, conning tower, and turret frontal armor to 280 mm, but still using a reciprocating steam engine, allowed the ship to maintain a speed of only 16 knots.

Wang Chenhao took a general look and knew that Wei Han's design ideas were influenced by the mainstream thinking of the current navies of various countries, and were too restricted by the times, and he still stayed on the large firepower output and full armor protection. As one of the few naval shipbuilding operators in modern history, Wei Han's wisdom is unquestionable, and what he lacks is only a vision for the future development of the navy. So, Wang Chenhao decided to vigorously train Wei Han, and it was time to instill in him some advanced ideas for the future navy.

"Mr. Wei, would you like to hear my opinion on the future direction of the Navy?"

Wei Han hurriedly said: "Please also make it clear to your lordship, and listen to your humble duties!" ”

Wang Chenhao smiled faintly and said: "The three major elements of a battleship, firepower, armor and speed, these three are a discordant body, and it is very difficult to unify them. Improving any one inevitably comes at the expense of the other two. Take this new ship design blueprint as an example, if you increase the caliber of the secondary main gun, it will bring more than 1,000 tons of additional armor weight, and you adopt turret protection, which will affect the overall armor coverage and strength of the battleship, and also reduce the structural safety factor of the battleship. Increased the additional displacement of the battleship, while also reducing the speed. ”

Wei Han explained: "What the adults said is very true! It was only after learning about the torpedo boat destroyer project that the Lord cooperated with the British that he knew that the speed of the torpedo boat would be increased to 30 to 35 knots, which would be a great threat to the main warship in the future naval battle, so the lowly duty increased the caliber of the second main gun and the number of rapid-fire guns. ”

Wang Chenhao nodded, Wei Han's concern was right, and his coping strategy was understandable. The battleship's secondary guns and rapid-fire guns were used against high-speed cruisers and torpedo boats, and with the advent of steam turbines, the threat of high-speed torpedo boats to battleships became serious.

"That's right! The British Navy is building a torpedo boat destroyer with a speed of more than 35 knots, which I call a destroyer. The speed of this new destroyer makes it easy for her to get close to the capital ship and fire a deadly torpedo before it has time to destroy it, given that capital ships are now generally below 19 knots. ”

Wang Chenhao paused, and then said: "The key to making this hunting ship reach such a terrifying speed is the use of a new power system, the steam turbine. At present, Parsons, a steam turbine manufacturing company in the UK, has been acquired by me, and the patent for the turbine technology has also been obtained by us. ”

Wei Han knew that Wang Chenhao and Fisher cooperated in the development of torpedo boat destroyers, and the first two Exocet-class destroyers were built by Britain, and the remaining four were manufactured by Shanghai Shipbuilding Heavy Industry. Two months ago, the key components of the four Exocet-class hunting ships had arrived at Shanghai Shipbuilding Heavy Industry from the United Kingdom.

"The four Exocet-class hunting ships are currently being assigned and will be sent to the slipway in a few days to begin assembly. I studied the steam turbine components that had been shipped, and thought they were very advanced, but I hadn't been able to see what it would be like to have a high speed of more than thirty knots! ”

"It won't take half a year to assemble the Exocet-class hunting ship, and you'll be able to see it soon." Wang Chenhao smiled and continued: "Parsons' main designers and key technologies have been transferred to Beiyang Technology, and we also have the technical ability to develop advanced steam turbines. And it won't be long before the British Navy will install bloated steam turbine equipment on battleships, and then the speed of battleships will increase to more than 21 knots, and as steam turbine technology continues to mature, it will be no problem to reach 30 knots in the future. ”

Wei Han's face was full of surprise, as an expert in this area, he didn't need Wang Chenhao to remind him anymore, he also understood the huge impact it bringed.

"Why didn't I think that since the steam turbine could be mounted on a torpedo boat, it could also be mounted on a battleship. If the battleship could also reach the ultra-high speed of the torpedo boats, then there was no need to worry about the imminent attack of the torpedo boats. ”

Wang Chenhao said with a smile: "Therefore, soon our main battleship will no longer have to be afraid of the threat of torpedo boats, so the setting of the secondary main gun will become redundant, which will affect the overall defense of the battleship and increase the tonnage." ”

Wei Han asked, "Your Excellency means that our battleships don't need to be equipped with secondary main gun systems?" ”

Wang Chenhao nodded, noncommittal.

Wei Han said with questions: "However, even if the battleship is not afraid of the threat of torpedo boats, the second-level main gun can still improve the firepower output, and it can give the enemy ship a huge threat in the main decisive battle, and it doesn't need to be cut, right?" ”

"That's a good question!" Wang Chenhao smiled, continued to instill new ideas in Wei Han, and said: "You have raised the caliber of the second-level main gun to 203 mm in the new ship, but this caliber gun cannot severely damage the enemy's capital ship in the duel of the capital ship, because it cannot penetrate the armor of the opponent's capital ship at all. In the First Sino-Japanese Naval Battle, although the rapid-fire artillery firepower of the Navy's rapid-fire guns was strong, it was unable to sink our ironclad ships. It is futile to hit the capital ship with such a second-class main gun, and it is really a waste to hit the torpedo boats. What do you think? ”

Wang Chenhao's rhetorical question made Wei Han fall into thought. Although Wei Han is very receptive to new ideas, he also needs time to digest. Wang Chenhao gave him time to think, sat down to drink tea and waited.

After a while, Wei Han asked questions again.

"What the lord said, I understand the humble duty. It's just that, excluding the secondary artillery system, it had a great impact on the overall firepower of the battleship. ”

"Aren't you constantly increasing the firepower of your secondary guns in order to increase the overall firepower? But why do you have to install a two-stage main gun? Why not increase the caliber and number of the first stage of the main gun? ”

Wang Chenhao's series of rhetorical questions made Wei Han suddenly realize.

"What do you mean by increasing the number and caliber of the main guns? However, the number of main guns installed is limited, and at present, the mainstream of various countries is four single or two twin guns, and the installation of six guns is already the limit, and the number of artillery is too small, which will inevitably bring about a low hit rate, which will be very unfavorable for naval warfare. ”

What Wei Han said is exactly what military experts in all countries are worried about at present, after all, the current fire control system and observation system are not yet developed, and the hit rate in naval warfare is extremely low, and it needs to rely on the number and rate of fire of artillery to make up for it. This is another reason why capital ships are equipped with a large number of guns.

Wang Chenhao knew that Wei Han, like everyone else, had not yet jumped out of this limitation of thinking, so he directly told him: "If you want to improve the hit rate of the main gun, you only need to unify the caliber of the main gun to facilitate fire control and command; The main guns were all arranged on the central axis, and the rotating turret was pointed to the side of the ship, so as to increase the number of guns in the same direction. ”

Wei Han understood as soon as he heard it, and immediately praised excitedly: "The lord is high, and the guidance of the lord is suddenly opened. This way of arranging the main guns, coupled with the installation of steam turbines, will allow the new ship to have a strong combat capacity. ”

"It's going to be a naval revolution! As soon as this new ship appears, all the existing battleships in the countries of the world will be eliminated, can you imagine her power? ”

Wei Han looked at Wang Chenhao in amazement, of course he couldn't imagine this situation.

"What do you mean?"

Wang Chenhao smiled mysteriously, he already had a plan in his heart, but there was no need to tell Wei Han.

So he replied: "This new concept of battleship needs experience, the British will help us solve the problem of installing steam turbines on battleships, and the rest of the way to unify the caliber of the main gun and the layout of the center line needs to be tested in the relevant way." ”

Wei Han nodded and said, "I understand!" We should first try and test, and then combine them when the technology is mature to build epoch-making warships. ”

"Clever!"

Wang Chenhao was very satisfied with Wei Han's reaction ability, and continued: "Before trying to build an epoch-making battleship, we need to prepare all the links she needs, the first is a new main gun with a large caliber and a long diameter; the second is a new optical sighting and measurement system; The third is the stability of the steam turbine, which needs to be tested for its long-term operation. The fourth is to improve the new artillery charge and develop high-power gunpowder. Fifth, the oil-fired boiler system must be the mainstream in the future, and sooner or later it will replace coal-fired boilers. We have to study these key components, and when the technology matures, they can be directly installed on the warship. ”

Wei Han hurriedly nodded yes, surprised by Wang Chenhao's profound knowledge in this area, and admired it even more in his heart.

Wang Chenhao knows very well that it is not a wise move to build a large battleship if the technology is not mature, after all, even the United Kingdom, which has the best ship-building technology, will continue to have failed battleship models, and a large battleship is expensive, Wang Chenhao is not willing to spend money in vain. At present, it will take at least three years for steam turbine technology to be installed on battleships, during which time it will not be possible to counter the threat of torpedo boats if new battleships are built without secondary gun systems. Based on this problem, Wang Chenhao thought that it was impossible to build a battleship to test, so he decided to build a large armored cruiser with a unified main gun caliber, so as to meet the desire of Shanghai Shipbuilding Heavy Industry to learn to build large warships, and to test the advantages of a unified main gun caliber, and the speed of the cruiser could also avoid the threat of torpedo boats.

This is the best plan to kill three birds with one stone at the moment, so Wang Chenhao said: "It will take at least three years for the steam turbine to be installed on the battleship, so you can design a large armored cruiser first, install and test the layout of all-heavy guns on it, and accumulate experience." ”

Wei Han hurriedly said: "My lord is extremely thoughtful and meticulous, and I admire my duties. ”

(To be continued)