On October 20th, John? The Brown shipyard held a grand completion ceremony, and balloons of bunting fluttered in the wind over the harbor, as if to sweep away the gloom of the defeat in the naval battle two months earlier. Although the British people were bitter about the defeat of the Home Fleet, the glory of dominating the seas for more than 300 years had and had long been instilled in their bones a tenacity that grew stronger and stronger; Driven by the will to take revenge for anything, tens of thousands of local residents responded to the official call and gathered near the shipyard in the early morning to celebrate the completion of the warship.

On the makeshift viewing platform, reporters from various media and newspapers around the world set up their cameras, and the intense white light frequently lit by magnesium lights shone on the audience. Their camera was undoubtedly aimed at the large ship anchored in the outfitting harbor. The Tiger Cruise, which began in June 1911, was completed in just 28 months under the efficient construction of the British shipyards, and then was taken over like a hungry dog by the British Admiralty, which was short of ships, with a shortage of ships.

Because the German navy in this plane had embarked on a correct path of pursuing the caliber of artillery under the influence of Qing Ying, the power of the main guns of battleships had made a qualitative leap compared with the same period in history; And the British, on the other side of the Channel, obviously could not be stupid enough to look at the growth of the imaginary enemy without saying anything about it. In order to cope with the increasingly imminent threat to the German Navy, the British military industry accelerated the development of large-caliber artillery, striving to gain a head start in firepower in the dreadnought race. Historically, the development of the Mark I 381 mm naval gun, which had only begun in 1912, was implemented by Churchill, who had just received the seal of the Secretary of the Admiralty, as a key research and development project in 1911. The Iron Duke-class battleships disappeared into the stage of history. In its place was the more powerful Queen Elizabeth class. The Tiger Patrol that started construction at the same time also rose. Equipped with a heavy naval gun that is better than history.

At present, the completed Tiger Patrol has a standing displacement of 29,000 tons, and the maximum full-load displacement can be as high as 35,700 tons; The ship's central axis is equipped with three twin 381mm L42 guns in the front 2 rear 1 layout, which can shoot 871kg shells at a speed of 731.5 m/s. In the preliminary sea trials before the completion ceremony, the 85,000 hp Tiger achieved a maximum output of 105,000 hp, allowing the warship to sail the waves at sea at a speed of more than 29 knots, breaking the previous British combat speed record of 28.1 knots held by the Queen Mary. However, in terms of protection, the Tiger is not much improved from its Lion-class predecessors: its broadside is still a combination of 229 mm main and 152 mm tops, and there is no longitudinal partition of underwater torpedoes. Only the horizontal armor has been slightly strengthened to a better than nothing.

From the point of view of war, the commissioning of a new ship will be closely covered up and kept secret by the government authorities; After all, no one wants to let the other party spy on their own family background, so as to fall into a passive and disadvantageous situation on the battlefield. In the historical Battle of Jutland, Jellicoe did not know how many warships Schell had in his hands, and after the defeat of Germany, the Allies also thought that Germany's last 2 Bavaria-class battleships and 4 Mackensen-class battlecruisers had been put into service, and all of them were listed on the extradition list.

However, the British, who are now no longer strong enough to carry the big stick in their hands, desperately need every opportunity to bluff. In order to boost the morale of the National War, which was already at a low level, and to be able to deter the German navy on the other side of the strait. The British Admiralty's inauguration ceremony for the Tiger Patrol was grand and enthusiastic. The scene of the crowd cheering seemed to be still in the era of peace when Britain and Germany were intimidating and deterring each other. A number of British media have launched special issues to blow the performance of the Tiger battle cruiser: "In front of her new 15-inch cannon, the German battleship will be pierced without suspense as if it were made of tin skin!" ......" The Times declared in its column that day.

Since the British Admiralty has chosen to hold the completion ceremony in public with great fanfare, it is natural that there can be no more secrecy. The German spies blended into the crowd of people watching the ship without any pressure, and even got dozens of high-definition photos of the Tiger battle cruise. Within a few hours, a great deal of information about the ship had been gathered in Tirpitz's hands, and it was delivered to the emperor and the crown prince in a short time due to their own preference for the ship, as well as the potential for more funding for the navy.

For this new ship completed by the British, Qingying, who is familiar with the battleship, has almost no psychological fluctuations. The Tiger with its 381 mm guns was nothing more than a prestige for its weakened speed and increased protection, and even its strengthened main armor had little resistance to the large-caliber shells of the German capital ships. And the fast fleet of Britain after its crushing defeat in the First Battle of the North Sea was by no means able to make up for the decline with the addition of this battle cruiser. At present, even if the High Seas Fleet loses the Moritz, its fast fleet has a lineup of 6 battle cruisers, which is an overwhelming advantage over the only 3 ships left by the British. According to the construction progress reported by the William Royal Shipyards, the new King-class battleship, the lead ship, is only about a month away from completion; Once it has finished outfitting and joined the fast fleet, its power is by no means comparable to that of this thin-skinned battlecruiser!

"Well, you read that right, it's the battleship that joined the battle patrol reconnaissance detachment, and then beat the enemy's battle patrol with its huge cannon and heavy armor advantage." During a night talk a few years ago, Qingying spread out a general plan of the design of a new warship that was not very delicate, but had a core and said to Tirpitz, whose eyes were wide-eyed.

From the Prince Heinrich-class armored cruiser that started construction in 1896, Germany's avant-garde reconnaissance warships have incorporated the design concept of fast battleships under the role of Qingying. The German Navy's technological superiority in power boilers allowed them to achieve greater power output in less space and lighter weight, so as to control the vicious increase in the tonnage of the ship without overly pursuing speed, while ensuring the required firepower and protection. The standard speed of the German pre-dreadnought patrol was 20 knots, and the standard speed of the dreadnought era was 25 knots; Compared with the British Hood, which in history caused a crazy surge in displacement and cost due to its one-sided emphasis on performance, the German warships have always been in a rational state with the best cost performance under the control of Qingying.

By the time of the D-Fringer-class, which had begun construction in 1909, the essence of the German battle cruiser's high-speed battleships was even more revealed: compared to the Caesar-class battleships built at the same time, the D-Vlinger did not have the slightest inferiority in any defensive indicators! The characteristics of battleships and battle cruisers have been integrated and unified on this class of ships, so Qingying decided to merge these two types of ships, and there is no longer a strict distinction between the previous clear and distinct, and in the future shipbuilding budget, the German Navy will only build fast battleships!

The benefits of this merger are multifold. The high-speed battleship not only retained the basic characteristics of the decisive battle of the fleet, but also was endowed with the ability of avant-garde reconnaissance; As a result, their playability in battle will be greatly increased, allowing these ships to make the most of their value. And if it is a slow iron turtle, then it can only stare at the rear in the avant-garde battle, which is undoubtedly a great waste of efficiency. As we entered the second decade of the 20th century, Germany's superiority over Britain in boiler power became more pronounced (power-to-weight ratio), and the cost of pursuing appropriate speed for its warships was further reduced, which made the merger between the German Navy's battleships and battle cruisers more natural.

Since there is only one type of capital ship after the merger, the number of sister ships of the same class will inevitably increase significantly, and this standardization of batch construction will dilute the cost of a single ship and reduce the construction period of warships. Due to the source of raw materials, labor costs, and the domestic competitive environment, the tonnage cost of German battleships has always been much more expensive than that of British battleships, and the rapid battleships of mass production can offset this defect in a considerable way. In addition to this, Qingying has another hidden benefit that Tirpitz did not say, that is, the potential for modification and use of high-speed battleships is much greater than that of slow-moving ships. With the rise of aircraft technology, battleships will inevitably need to increase their speed in order to cope with threats from the air, so as to practice the Ling Bo microstep to avoid bombs and torpedoes. If it is still the standard fleet speed of 21 knots when the dreadnought was first born, then under the siege of barbarian flies, it will only be left to the flesh of the mermaids, and there is no strength to dodge resistance!

Thus, under the influence of the Qing Dynasty, the German Navy completed this historic merger at the end of 1910. According to the naval expansion plan thrown out at the beginning of the following year, the shipyards were to undertake the construction of four new King-class battleships, and no corresponding battle cruises were to be started at the same time. When the Christmas snow covered the streets of Berlin, the German Admiralty, which was greatly satisfied with the overall design performance of the King, immediately passed the internal resolution to build four more ships next year, which was put into practice in 1912 after Tirpitz obtained funding from the Reichstag. At the beginning of 1913, information came from Britain across the Channel that the construction of a new Admiral-class battleship had begun, which put the German Admiralty under pressure; After urgent discussions, a design led by Qingying, codenamed H-40, was pushed onto the slipway, which was also a high-speed product with no low speed. And after the increase in the war in May of the same year, the number of ships built annually is also as high as four.

Because of this, Qingying has long been confident about the main ships of the navy. All his attention now is focused on the upcoming battle on the Eastern Front. (To be continued......)

PS: Thank you to the book friend draclula123, the monthly ticket support of the breath of the soul, the reward of zhouyu1976, and the update ticket of the pigeon model ~~~3k words can finally be eaten ~~~