The night breeze blows and the moonlight is clear. Qingying lay quietly on the bed in the guest room, but her thoughts were still full of the situation in the naval negotiations that had been temporarily concluded a few hours earlier.

The representatives of various countries, including Austria-Hungary, gave a mediocre response to the aircraft carrier qualification they proposed today: although they approved the aircraft carrier as a new type of ship under their statement, they did not immediately agree with the final tonnage ratio. For Britain and the United States, they even suspect that Germany's move is to improve the strength of its main fleet in disguise, so as to make up for its previous lack of share advantage in the total tonnage of cruisers: if this kind of "aircraft carrier" with a displacement of 27,000 tons is enough to fit 10 254 mm guns, then its ability in artillery battles is much stronger than that of a heavy cruiser with only 10,000 tons!

Thinking of this, the corners of Qingying's mouth couldn't help but show a wry smile. As the most loyal BB party, deep down in his heart, he didn't have the slightest idea of building such a barbarian CV with no beauty or power to speak of; However, the pace of the progress of the times will not deviate from the course of history with his will. As the 20th century continues to advance, the civilization with the internal combustion engine as the core will inevitably replace the current steam coal steel that has reached its peak and become the core of the times: in this case, he can only put aside the faith in his heart and devote himself to planning for the future.

In view of this, Germany must acquire enough gross tonnage of aircraft carriers to give a clear advantage over other countries. In fact, even according to the current share of capital ships, Qingying was a little unhappy in his heart: after all, the Americans accounted for 80% of his own, which undoubtedly added a considerable amount of uncertainty to the future. If the tonnage of the capital ship is still negotiable. Then the tonnage of aircraft carriers is the bottom line that the German Navy must adhere to!

Besides. Qingying also can't make a reduction in the sensitive 27,000-ton aircraft carrier single ship limit. Because according to the experience of the design of aircraft carriers of later generations. This kind of flat-topped ship must be at this tonnage in order to achieve a balance of aircraft capacity, protection and other indicators in the propeller era, Japan's Xianghe and Taiho are typical examples; If the tonnage is too low, the performance of the aircraft carrier will inevitably be sharply weakened due to the marginal effect. Although the Qing Ying was able to use various means derived from the knowledge of later generations to achieve a large leap in the performance of battleships, cruisers and other ships, it could not reduce the tonnage of aircraft carriers under the given performance. In addition to his own lack of experience in designing capital ships and aircraft carriers with completely different freeboard and compartment divisions, the most important hanger in his design is the underwater protrusion. It cannot be realized on an aircraft carrier, and it is also the core key to it.

For orthodox artillery-type ships, the water space is basically only used as the living and working quarters of the crew; Therefore, Qingying can completely cut off part of the width of the ship on the water, saving the weight of the structure and saving the deck protection that is meaningless in the depth area of TDS. And the Barbarian aircraft carrier is not. The water space of this cargo should not only be used as a hangar to park the aircraft, but also ensure that the deck area is used as the docking of the aircraft, which determines the water space and deck area of the aircraft carrier, and the larger the conditions permit, the better. In this case, Qingying's method of drastically reducing the tonnage by reducing the width of the ship on the surface will naturally not work. Even if he still has a tail plate and a bulbous bow plug-in based on the fluid science of later generations, they can only speed up the ground by about 1.5~2 knots. It is useless to control the qualitative degeneration of the tonnage of aircraft carriers.

And the upper limit of the artillery that the aircraft carrier can carry is also a treaty loophole that Qingying deliberately prepared to leave for the navies of various countries. Due to the relatively slow development of carrier-based aircraft technology and the deep-rooted traditional thinking. Historically, until the mid-30s of the 20th century, the positioning of aircraft carriers by the navies of various countries was still very vague, and the idea of preparing aircraft carriers to take into account artillery warfare has always prevailed. The Washington Treaty stipulates that large aircraft carriers are not allowed to carry naval guns with a caliber of more than 8 inches, so the Americans installed 8 guns in the form of twin turrets on the Lexington class; And the Japanese, who only wanted to take advantage but refused to suffer a little loss, even equipped their first air battle duoshu with 10 8-inch guns, and their total armament even exceeded that of most treaty cruisers!

In view of this, Qingying deliberately raised the upper limit of the artillery that the aircraft carrier can be equipped with to 254 mm. If the aircraft carriers of the United States and Britain and other countries are misled by this restriction and are equipped with guns of this caliber, then their aviation capabilities and armor protection will be greatly reduced, and they will not be able to compete with professional German aircraft carriers at all. If this restriction had been accepted by the participating countries, then Qing Ying would almost certainly have made a big fuss about this: how could countries in history have missed such an obvious opportunity when they have gone to great lengths to find loopholes and drill around in the detailed Washington Treaty? What's more, except for Germany and Austria, the rest of the countries have a ready-made caliber of 254 mm, and it is easy to change this barbarian ship that jumped out of nowhere into a handsome and majestic gunboat; Although the main gun of this caliber is undoubtedly used against battleships, it has an overwhelming advantage when used against cruisers, coupled with its huge potential of 27,000 tons of displacement, resulting in any technical bottleneck at all in the true sense of the "battlecruiser"!

However, it will take time for these to ferment. Qingying was ready for a long war of resistance with the delegations of various countries, and it was imperative that they accept this proposal. The way to realize the will was to maintain close ties with the Austro-Hungarian satellite, and at the same time to work with Japan itself, which had the same interests against the United States, to try to shift their position to their side. Taking advantage of the fact that the current aircraft carrier is still in the embryonic state of being unknown, Qingying must preemptively make its restrictions clear in this meeting.

In the days that followed, Qingying once again began to liaise with allies in order to put pressure on the United States and Britain at the negotiating table. Although the representatives of Austria-Hungary, Italy, and Japan all had an inexplicable unfamiliar resistance to this solo performance by Qing Ying, out of respect for the future successor of the European empire, they all chose to support him after resisting. After all, Austria-Hungary will have to follow Germany in the future, and Japan will also rely on Germany's strength to contain the United States and Britain in the Atlantic; Although Italy was somewhat dissatisfied with Germany's arbitrariness in the previous post-war distribution of interests and the current capital ship negotiations, they instantly turned against it under the highly suggestive words of Qingying and became the vanguard of the aircraft carrier negotiations.

There is no other reason. Due to the previous tonnage limit of capital ships, the four new Caracciolo-class battleships of Italy had to be abandoned: in the face of the fact that Germany, the United States, Britain, Japan, and Austria all have the right to start construction of new capital ships, the Italians are undoubtedly extremely anxious about their own experience. At present, Qingying's "aircraft carrier" idea gives them an excellent opportunity to build large ships. Their new battleship has just started construction, and it is completely possible to change the design on the slipway and continue to be built and put into service as this kind of "aircraft carrier" that appeared out of nowhere. As for the restrictions on the caliber of artillery, I first complied with it; As for whether to keep the 254-mm guns against the cruisers in the future, or to restore the original 381-mm guns to become battleships, it all depends on your mood!

After getting the Italian side to join, Qingying had already gathered the strength of four countries at the venue. And because Britain itself had ships with aircraft in the war, the United States was already in a situation of fighting alone in some way. After many wrestling, the total tonnage limit for aircraft carriers was finally finalized: Germany, the United States, Britain and Japan could have the upper limit of 150,000 tons, 120,000 tons, 100,000 tons, and 80,000 tons, respectively, and Italy and Austria-Hungary 54,000 tons. At the strong request of the Italian delegates, the participating countries also added an additional agreement: the Italian Navy allowed the construction of two Caracciolo-class battleships as aircraft carriers, subject to the restrictions on displacement and artillery.

Looking at the excited faces of the noodles, Qingying also breathed a sigh of relief in her heart. With a little overweight on its own, the German Navy can have 6 standard fleet carriers; Coupled with his own guidance on design concepts, it is enough to ensure that the strength of the fleet that will surpass the world in the next twenty years will be safe.

And on the guiding sign for the development of the mobile aircraft carrier, the selfless Italians also made the best pioneers for Germany. Qing Ying was almost certain that, under his words, the two large Italian aircraft carriers converted from battleships would inevitably carry a heavy gunboat element, and the attention that this forerunner would receive would be unprecedented. Once the Italian aircraft carrier model is accepted by the navies of all countries and follows suit, Germany will be left alone on the road of another wide platform, laughing at the navies that have been led astray into the pit. Qingying's achievements in this point with the help of the Italians are even higher than his original expectations!

Since then, the delegates have imposed restrictions on the service life of various ships. The capital ship is undoubtedly limited to 25 years, and the replacement ship must start construction no earlier than the 22nd year of service of the target ship. The term of service for aircraft carriers and cruisers is 20 and 18 years, respectively, and for destroyers and submarines - 15 and 13 years. The Treaty on the Limitation of Naval Armaments is valid for 20 years. During this period, the countries returned to a harmonious situation, and the fierce competition that had previously been fierce seemed to come from another world. On July 16, 1914, the treaty was finally signed, and the situation in the world entered a new era. (To be continued......)

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