With the arrival of midnight in 1914, the skies over Germany's major cities lit up like neon clouds. In addition to the fact that the number of men has decreased significantly, the hinterland of Germany is still a prosperous scene almost as peaceful as usual. On the frontier of the front line, the soldiers guarding this civilization are lying on the ice and snow, listening to the waves with the sea; They buried their most sincere feelings and wishes deep in their hearts, and then fulfilled their own sacred responsibility and glory with resolute actions.

Just after New Year's Day, a majestic German capital ship, escorted by torpedo boats, sailed from a land military port to the vast ocean in the depths of the Baltic Sea. The surging waves continued to crash against the steel side of its ship, stirring up a splash of water. What is surprising is that the mast of this battleship is actually a tall triangular mast like that of a British capital ship, and a firing command room is set up 40 meters above sea level. The shape of the magnificent main turret, which is forged with the power of will, has also changed dramatically from the previous style: its simplicity and smoothness and domineering majesty make people feel like they are in the Pacific theater during World War II!

"Your Royal Highness, I really didn't expect you to come to the trial site of the battleship King." A tall middle-aged colonel gave a military salute to the young man in front of him, and his face was full of respect and surprise, "Your arrival is the supreme glory of the 1,171 officers and men who surrendered on the King; The German sailors will be absolutely grateful from the bottom of their hearts and will always be loyal to the great Hohenzollern dynasty! ”

Qingying smiled and stretched out her right hand, graciously shaking it with Captain Linus's large hand; In the windbreaker, I only heard his clear and magnetic voice echoing in the wind: "The warriors of Germany have always held the sea frontier. His Majesty Caesar and the people of Unai will remember your exploits; It is your tireless struggle. It is the high seas fleet that is strong today! I hope you will remember the oath of the soldiers. Honor and loyalty are the ideals that guide them. ”

Hearing Qingying's words of comfort and encouragement, Captain Linus and more than a dozen officers on his side responded with the most standard military salute. Feeling the oncoming cold wind of hunting, Qingying did not have the slightest coolness; An irrepressible fire of excitement was already burning in his heart, enveloping his entire body.

On December 31, 1913, after the work of thousands of employees at the Kiel shipyard, the new battleship King was completed within 30 months of laying the first keel. The battleship then set fire to anchor and prepared for sea trials in the Baltic Sea and the run-in of various equipment. It stands to reason that dozens of capital ships are currently in service with the German Navy. The completion of a new ship is not a major event that alarms the upper echelons, but for Qing Ying, who is in charge of the main construction of the King-class battleship, no one knows better than him the extraordinary power of this class of ships, which is completely different from the previous warships. If the Caesar-class, the most powerful battleship in the German Navy, is a Tiger, then the King is a Tyrannosaurus Rex: in every sense of the word, she is the unshakable absolute emperor of the current family of battleships!

In another plane, if the strongest battleship in history were to be chosen, the Japanese Yamato-class would undoubtedly dominate the crowd. Yamato's strength lies not only in its tonnage, artillery, and armor, but also in its various fields, which have flashing ideas that other designers are afraid of. Its unique freeboard ship type, smooth and concise underwater line type, supports complete armor design, scientific and reasonable cabin layout...... All of them are the world's best, whether it is the United States, France, Britain and Germany. Or Great Italy, it can't match it. After more than 40 years of mastering the long skills. The designers of the Japanese Ship Administration Headquarters finally perfected the realm, and completed their mastery of the world in the field of battleships with the first-class Yamato.

As a die-hard BB party that is rooted in the red and puts an end to the temptation of a qiē aircraft carrier, Qingying is definitely no stranger to the pinnacle of this battleship. However, out of consideration not to cause the butterfly effect in the early days, he did not comprehensively copy the excellent design of later generations, but moderately retained the characteristics of the warships of this era, and even included comprehensive defense. Anyway, the depth of the shells of the British Navy warships was quite inferior, and the water and underwater defenses were even more miserable, and the battleships of the First World War bloodline were enough to deal with, and there would be no pity to dismantle them after the war.

However, since the Caesar class, the situation has changed radically. As the clouds of war loomed over Europe grew thicker, the countdown to the storm could no longer accommodate the normal construction period of a capital ship: the battleships built under such circumstances would no longer have to make deliberate moves to hide people's eyes. Moreover, after the end of the war, it is highly likely that the great powers will sign a treaty to limit the naval arms race, as is the case in history, out of the consideration that it will take time to lick their wounds; In this way, these warships that need to be preserved for a long time must have excellent combat effectiveness. In the spirit of plagiarism, Qingying began to make drastic improvements, and the current King exudes a strong Yamato atmosphere from head to toe.

What appeared in front of Qingying's eyes at this moment was the forward floating bow like Yamato, and the freeboard of the upper deck, which was slowly raised. The former can greatly slow down the front of the battleship with a very small structural weight and improve the seaworthiness of the battleship, while the latter can make up for the loss of the water compartment of the battleship due to the opening of the underwater protrusion, so that the officers and men on the ship can still have a comfortable living space. The ship's deck was lowered two levels from the rear bridge to reduce the height of the gun mount in the aft main turret and to keep the ship's center of gravity under control. This point, together with the previous protrusion technique, is Qingying's own optimization of the Yamato scheme, and its intention is to save the cost from the perspective of controlling the tonnage. The standard displacement of the battleship is 27,500 tons, and the average price of a single ship is 50 million marks. Although its tonnage, which is slightly inferior to the historical Bavarian class, will give people a sense of unreliable thinness on paper, it will not be long before Qingying will witness the excellent performance of this battleship.

After a three-hour voyage, the detachment reached a body of water located 40 nautical miles off the coast. A series of real-time parameters such as water depth, atmospheric pressure, and wind speed level were reported and recorded, which were used as important numbers for reference in the sea trial table. Whimpering sirens began to sound on the King, and the sailors checked the state of the valves, instruments, and equipment one by one. With the continuous increase of boiler load, the speed of the battleship also began to soar; Looking forward from the navigation room on the forward bridge, you can already see the surging waves on both sides of the bow!

"Phew!" With the roar of the furnace and the dance of heavy oil, the 14 large mixed-fired boilers equipped with the King began to work at full capacity: the turbines of the three steam turbines connected to them also began to rotate at high speed, and after being reconciled by the reduction gear units, the energy was transferred to the propeller shaft and the propeller at the very end. Due to hydrodynamics, the propeller in the water can only be limited to a lower speed, otherwise the thrust will be reduced or even damaged due to the cavitation phenomenon; However, due to mechanical physics, the turbine of a steam turbine is faster and more efficient. In this case, the reduction gear mechanism between the steam turbine and the transmission shaft comes into being.

Under the vigorous promotion of Qingying, German engineers took the lead in completing this technical breakthrough and applied it to the power of this new class of battleships. Steam turbines, which had previously prioritized the need for propellers, were now able to unleash a cheerful rotation, and the power gains far outweighed the weight cost of adding a first-stage gearheader. At this moment, under the delightful eyes of a group of German officers, the total output of the three propellers has steadily reached the design value of 70,600 horsepower: even the De Verber-class battle cruiser, which is the most powerful in the current high sea fleet, is only 61,000 horsepower!

"The battleship has a draft of 10.0 meters, a displacement of 31,000 tons, a measured speed of 24.527 knots, and a propeller speed of 271 rpm. The sea breeze is 6 south-southwest, the pressure is 737.6 mm Hg, and the water depth is 35 meters. "A staff officer, after talking to the power room personnel, quickly wrote down the current real-time numbers in the notebook. Seeing this set of figures, Qingying raised her eyebrows slightly, and there was a look of satisfaction in her eyes.

Although the current speed of warships does not reach the design speed of 25 knots, the speed of ships in shallow water is lower than in deep water due to fluid lì. If placed in the Atlantic Ocean, which is often several thousand meters deep, the seabed turbulence generated by ships while sailing is negligible, and the speed will be a considerable increase compared to the current speed measured at a depth of 35 meters. According to the empirical formula, even at the current full tonnage of 31,000 tons, a speed of 25 knots in deep water is not even a problem!

In order to reduce the navigation resistance as much as possible, German engineers have previously conducted a lot of experiments in the pool with the model, and continue to improve the underwater line type of the battleship. Whether it is a high-speed sprint or a low-speed cruise, the table of German battleships is a shining bright spot among their counterparts in various countries. In subsequent sea trials, the ship's cruising power and fuel consumption were also calibrated; Loaded with 2,100 tons of coal and 930 tons of heavy oil, the King's endurance is 5,600 nautical miles/12 knots, 4,500 nautical miles/14 knots, and 2,050 nautical miles/24 knots, respectively.

"The fact that a battleship with such a large body can reach such high speeds is enough to follow the battlecruiser!" The captain, Colonel Linus, looked at the records of his staff officers, and his eyes were full of surprise. Compared to speed, firepower and defense are the capital of the King: once it appears in front of the British warcruisers, the opponent is left with only a feeling of despair! (To be continued......)

PS: [Note]: The essence of the protrusion is mentioned in Chapter 168 above, and will not be repeated here.

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