"The three basic elements that make up a warship are firepower, protection and speed, in addition to a few bits and pieces such as stability and seaworthiness. But from a design point of view, no warship can be perfect in every aspect, and some trade-offs must be made in some aspects. You know this, right? Tirpitz asked.

Qingying nodded slightly, motioning for Tirpitz to continue.

"'Combined with the national conditions of our country.' You said this very well. In fact, all the warships of the great powers were designed and built around their own national conditions or imaginary enemies. For a long time, the German Navy has always regarded the French Navy as an imaginary enemy, but since the number of warships in the German Navy is not large, the area of activity of the capital ships is limited to the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, which are not very expansive, so seaworthiness can be pursued. Also because of the insufficient number of warships, our main warships must put armor protection and survivability in the first place, after all, there will be output if you are alive! If the ship sinks, it is useless to equip even the most powerful weapons! ”

Tirpitz tapped the table with his knuckles and said, "So, the capital ships built by the German Empire should be the first to be protected!" Only with solid armor and excellent damage management can we be inferior to the enemy in battle damage, and we can hope to consume the second French in the world! Every warship we build now is guided by this ideology; If our ships had sunk faster than the French, there would have been no need for this battle. ”

Qingying looked at the middle-parted goatee in front of her in surprise, and didn't say a word for a long time. Although the historical High Seas Fleet was indeed built according to this standard, he did not expect that Tirpitz had already laid out a blueprint for the development direction of the German Navy's battleships before the Sino-Japanese War! From the perspective of posterity, Tirpitz's idea seems to be a rotten street thing that can be thought of without much effort; But at the end of the 19th century, in that era of great change, all kinds of new techniques and ideas surged out like a blowout: the small ship torpedo party, the big cannon giant ship party, the green water chaos war party, and the high-speed cruiser party...... In the midst of this thousand flowers, Tirpitz was able to find a path suitable for his country, which is in itself an extremely remarkable thing!

Seeing that Qingying didn't say a word for a long time, Tirpitz estimated that he had finally calmed down this genius child. With a slight smug look on his face, he couldn't help but open his bow left and right, and stroked his two goatees with both hands.

"Good protection, meticulous watertight compartments, and excellent damage management capabilities are indeed a vital part of the German Navy's ships, which can greatly ensure the survivability of the warship and save the Imperial Navy's not very rich family." Qing Ying carefully said the biggest defect of the German High Seas Fleet in history, "However, our development of the navy is to compete for space under the sun, not to create an unsinkable target; If you don't have great firepower, how can you destroy enemy ships and win a naval battle? ”

Tirpitz's eyes lit up. But after a moment, as if he had thought of something, he slowly fell silent again. He sighed softly, and a helpless smile appeared on his face: "Your Highness, do you think I didn't think about this?" It's just that theory is one thing, but in practice it's another; Battleships have to take into account both firepower and protection, but there are two problems that are difficult to solve! ”

Qingying perked up and said seriously: "What is the problem?" I would like to hear about it. ”

Seeing Qingying so diligent and inquisitive, Tirpitz couldn't help but nod with satisfaction. Although he knew what he was going to say next, the one in front of him was too much and half incomprehensible; But in order to let his students understand the essence of the navy and stimulate his enthusiasm for learning, Tirpitz coughed and said, "Since you want to know the Tao, I will tell you to listen." ”

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The moonlight pours out, and the lights complement each other, illuminating the entire study room. A Zhengtai and an uncle sat across the table, and on the table were two cups of freshly brewed coffee, hot and mellow. In the whole room, except for the slight sound of the clock, only the deep voice unique to the middle-aged man remained.

"One is the problem of the artillery itself. In fact, the top brass of the Imperial Navy wanted to carry more powerful guns on our warships, but unfortunately, the largest modern gun that Krupp could build today was only 283 mm in caliber. Although the caliber of the old 305-mm gun is larger, it is far inferior in terms of power per shot and armor-piercing thickness. Speaking of this, Tirpitz's words were slightly bitter, "Krupp military industry has done its best, but due to the limitations of material technology and metallurgical capabilities, we are still inferior to Britain and France in terms of large-caliber artillery." It's a matter of technology, not design; If you don't make a breakthrough in technology, then even the best design can only stay on the drawings. ”

Qingying nodded silently and did not speak. He is not a double specialist in metallurgy and artillery, and he has no way to do anything about this kind of pure technical thing, but can only rely on the artillery engineers of the Krupp military industry.

"The second is the balance of the battleship. As I said earlier, no warship can be perfect in all aspects, and there must be trade-offs. If we emphasize protection and have powerful guns, the result is that the ship's power is greatly reduced, and the speed of the turtle is no different. And even a battleship must have a certain speed to complete tactical maneuvers on the battlefield! If there is a ship that is powerful and well protected, and not slow......" Tirpitz paused and smiled, "then she has only one drawback, and that is that she will sink to the bottom like a duck cast in lead as soon as she gets out of the water...... Just like the cruiser designed by His Majesty the Emperor half a month ago. ”

Thinking of the look of embarrassment and chagrin on Wilhelm II's face that lasted for several days, Qingying couldn't help but laugh. Seeing that Tirpitz had finished speaking, Qingying frowned slightly, and said slowly in an uncertain tone: "I seem to have a solution to this second question?" ”

"Huh?" Tirpitz was amazed, he thought silently for a while, and then calmly, with a casual look on his face. This beautiful Shota must have come up with something strange that didn't actually have any effect. Just kidding, how can the three elements of a battleship be exhaustive? Unless someone can overturn the laws of physics created by Newton, or develop an anti-gravity device!

However, European education is obviously not as stifling students' creativity as the Celestial Empire; Although Tirpitz knew that this was impossible, he said, "Is it? Then you might as well tell me about it. ”

Qingying said: "Why don't you build a bigger ship?" If the ship gets bigger, won't it be able to equip it with more powerful artillery? ”

"It turned out that it was just an increase in tonnage, I thought it was some kind of clever plan!" Tirpitz was silent on the surface, but he was secretly laughing in his heart. It is necessary to know that shipbuilding is a technical work, which affects the whole body; This kind of practice of adding more water and more water to the surface only cares about the present, and the actual design will inevitably be full of loopholes, which is the most taboo in the design of warships!

But...... That seems to be the case? Although his statement is very general and simple, and it requires a lot of tedious and complicated calculations to add boilers and armor to implement, these are all problems that the designer has to consider, and they have nothing to do with the child in front of him. If you only look at the results, increasing the tonnage can indeed increase the firepower while ensuring protection and speed!

Count your blind cat running into a dead mouse! Tirpitz let out a sigh of annoyance and said, "Absolutely. Increasing the displacement of the battleship can indeed increase the firepower, but the cost will also increase significantly, and it will not be discounted at all. In addition, the shipyards of the empire have just completed the construction of capital ships with a displacement of more than 10,000 tons, and if the tonnage suddenly increases too much, it will also be a big challenge for our industry. ”

Qingying said unconvinced: "The cost will also increase significantly?" There's always something universal! If you combine three small boats into two large ships, wouldn't you save one mast and two iron anchors? ”

Faced with Qingying's behavior of being unconvinced after being denied and always wanting to get something back, Tirpitz laughed dumbly. Just as he was trying to comfort this cute Zhengtai, a flash of lightning suddenly flashed in his head!

"Wait a minute...... Large warships, combined generic? Tirpitz read blankly, as if he had lost his mind. Qingying looked at Tirpitz like this, and finally breathed a sigh of relief in her heart; After some guidance from himself, Tirpitz finally realized the key to this case!

The laws of physics and a large number of examples have proven that at the same speed, the thrust-to-weight ratio required by a large warship is much smaller than that of a small warship. For example, the speed of the two warships is 20 knots, and the 22,000-ton warship only needs about 22,000 horsepower, and the thrust-to-weight ratio is 1 horsepower/ton; And a 6,500-ton warship needs 13,000 horsepower to reach a speed of 20 knots, and the thrust-to-weight ratio is 2 horsepower/ton, which is 1 times higher than the former! If the ship is built properly, a considerable amount of power weight can be saved and invested in weapons and armor.

Not only the power, but when the tonnage of the battleship is appropriately enlarged, its protective area is not proportionally expanded; For example, a 10,000-ton battleship and a 15,000-ton battleship, the latter's protection area will not reach 150% of the former, and will only increase to 120% at most. If the protective strength is kept unchanged, the armor weight of the latter is only 120% of the former, which can save a lot of weight and use it in other aspects. Coupled with the fact that the weight of the structure and auxiliary machinery can be combined a little, the combat effectiveness of 2 15,000-ton battleships will definitely surpass that of 3 10,000-ton battleships!

And the reason why Qingying didn't explain these things directly to Tirpitz was because he was afraid of causing too much trouble to himself, after all, this body was only a 10-year-old Zhengtai. Once you behave too unreasonably, or even shocking the world, it is purely asking for trouble. The words that I said before can also be said by a person with a rigorous mind and some knowledge of the navy. With Tirpitz's mastery of the navy, under his guidance, he will definitely be able to figure out all these tricks!