"The Austrians are ready to start building new capital ships. Following the St. Armament of 10 380-mm guns? After the completion of the István and the Prinz Eugen, they will soon start construction of two ships with superior firepower 400 mm guns, and their standard displacement will undoubtedly exceed 30,000 tons! Once these two capital ships are completed, the Royal Italian Navy will inevitably be reduced to a marginal role in the Mediterranean; Not only the Adriatic, but the entire Mediterranean Sea will become an inner lake for this group of Habsburg beasts! ”

In the Prime Minister's residence in Rome, the Italian Admiralty Minister was loudly warning his colleagues present; Turbid, smelly, and fishy spit flew in all directions, as if to carry the owner's anxiety and spray it in front of everyone's faces. In the spacious room, several old men in suits and leather shoes all looked solemn. Although they are not from the navy, they have been in the center for so many years, and they have long been exposed to it, and they have a deep understanding of this core military branch, which directly represents the strength of the country.

Although Italy gained the overall tonnage lead over the Austro-Hungarian fleet in the Washington Treaty, and was second only to Germany, the United States, Britain and Japan in the world's naval rankings, this advantage on paper was instantly wiped out under the provisions of the treaty on the detailed rules of the list of capital ships allowed to be retained by each country. Austria-Hungary not only retained two unfinished heavy firepower super-dreadnoughts, but also obtained permission letters for the construction of two new treaty ships; Italy, on the other hand, can only survive by holding on to its existing capital ships, and is the only one of the signatories that cannot build new capital ships.

"At present, our most powerful ships are the three Leonardo da Vinci-class battleships with a displacement of 22,300 tons and eight 356-mm guns, which are only slightly stronger than the Austrians' Combined Forces class. And saint? The performance of the István class is far from the same. Not to mention the 400mm cannon ship they are planning! The Italian Minister of the Admiral spoke again. The words were full of unwillingness and indignation, "If we could have won tens of thousands of tons of capital ships at the negotiation table, we would not have the situation we have today." ”

Foreign Minister Song Nino was furious when he heard this, and immediately countered: "How did this become the responsibility of my Ministry of Foreign Affairs? In the disarmament negotiations, we have defended enough rights and interests for the kingdom that the total tonnage of the capital ships and destroyers is only higher than that of the Austrians! The unfavorable situation facing the kingdom today is that your navy is fully responsible for it. If it weren't for the fact that you coveted the French ships and took all four of their Kolbe-class ships for yourself just after the armistice was signed. Then even if the kingdom already has 5 active capital ships, it can still obtain the right to start construction of treaty ships equal to Austria-Hungary! ”

Seeing that the two cabinet members were about to quarrel, Prime Minister Giolletti hurriedly interrupted the accumulated hatred between the two: "Ladies and gentlemen, now is not the time for us to shirk our responsibilities, but to negotiate a strategy that can solve the current embarrassing situation of the Royal Italian Navy. Our traditional superiority in the Mediterranean is gradually disappearing with the renovation of the main Austro-Hungarian fleet, and the previous treaties are the joint will of the great powers, and we can hardly afford to unilaterally abolish them. What I need to know is, can we use the advantage on the auxiliary ships to offset the Austrians' single-ship performance advantage on the capital ships? ”

"Your Excellency Prime Minister, this is very difficult to do." Faced with Giolitti's inquiry. The Secretary of the Admiralty finally withdrew his angry gaze from the Foreign Minister and explained. "Under the terms of the treaty, our auxiliary ships are no larger than those of the Austrians, and if they are willing to inject a large amount of money into the navy and fill these shares, we will have a very limited advantage over their auxiliary ships. More crucially, the Germans would almost certainly provide the Austrians with shipbuilding technology, which meant that they would also have a high probability of building ships with superior performance, which further frustrated our idea of a breakthrough in this area. ”

Hearing the other party's reply, Giolitti couldn't hide the look of disappointment in his eyes. His mind turned, and he seemed to think of some more information, and said, "But weren't we allowed to convert the two Caracciolo-class battleships into some aircraft carriers?" As far as I know, the tonnage limit of this new class of ships is much higher than that of heavy cruisers, and if we take advantage of this, we should be able to reverse some of the current disadvantages, right? ”

The Italian Minister of the Navy's eyes flashed with surprise, as if he did not expect that Giolitti had also put a lot of effort into the study of naval provisions. But when he thought about it, he was relieved. For everyone, the Apennines have seen the Habsburgs as their number one threat for more than half a century: the Battle of Lisa 50 years ago has left Italy, a traditional naval power, in its chest, trying to regain its honor. As Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Italy, how could Giolitti turn a blind eye to this important naval treaty?

"Indeed, the treaty gives us the right to transform two unfinished battleships into aircraft carriers of no more than 27,000 tons. And in terms of the performance constraints of this new type of ship, there seem to be certain loopholes in the treaty. Although the caliber of its main guns is limited to less than 254 mm and the number of guns is limited to 10, the firepower of this level has formed a nearly double firepower advantage over the heavy patrol 203 mm main gun, which means that we can build it into a large warship that is far superior to the heavy cruiser. ”

The Italian Minister of the Admiral slowly spoke, with a hint of indescribable complexity in his words, as if he was puzzled, expectant, and worried: "Actually, more than a year ago, the design bureau proposed a plan to equip this type of ship with a considerable number of 254-mm guns. It's just that since the aircraft carrier is not unique to Italy, if we adopt this plan, which is obviously a loophole in the treaty, it will inevitably lead to a vicious situation in which the major powers compete to follow suit; Among other things, the Austrians also have the power to build two 27,000-ton aircraft carriers, and they can completely start new ships to counter our actions. In addition, we don't know enough about this new type of ship, so the renovation project has been delayed.

"It's no longer time to think about that." Giolitti spoke categorically, and his words were already full of the courage of a political veteran who had visited the prime minister three times, "As long as it is a strategy that can improve the combat power of the Italian Royal Navy, even if it exceeds the framework of the treaty, it is a situation that must be implemented for the current kingdom!" In any case, we cannot afford to be left behind by the Austrian navy, and I am sure that the Reichstag will be the same as I am on this point. All you have to do is let your people do it, and then ask the government for funding. ”

Looking at Giuletti's determined face, the Italian Minister of the Admiral was silent for a moment, and finally respectfully confessed.

A little more than a month later, the Italian shipbuilding design bureau immediately presented a large-scale modification of the Caracciolo class. They were going to convert this class of high-speed battleships into cruiser killers in order to gain an overwhelming advantage over any ship except the capital ship.

First of all, the number of boilers on the battleship has increased by 50% on the original basis, and it can obtain more than 150,000 horsepower under the drive of four Parsons steam turbines, which can drive the battleship with a standard displacement of 27,000 tons to run at a high speed of 33 knots under normal conditions. If it can be overloaded as normal, this speed can even reach 34 knots. Since the tonnage of conventional heavy cruisers was strictly limited by 10,000 tons, the Italian designers after calculation had every reason to think that their ships of this type could catch up with the vast majority of heavy cruisers of the great powers.

Secondly, it is guaranteed to defeat the enemy cruiser in an artillery battle. Thanks to its huge displacement of 27,000 tons, the ship still has sufficient firepower and protection at such high speeds: three triple 254mm L50 guns are stacked in the bow, forming a spectacular three-layer piggyback structure, all of which can fire in a forward salvo. With this unique gun layout, the Italians were confident in their class: when encountering an enemy cruiser, the ship would only have one tactical maneuver, which was to chase at full speed and deliver a fatal blow to the enemy ship with nine 254 mm guns!

In terms of armor, the ship's Italian designers also laid strong protection against its own main guns: its wide main armor belt maintained the 200 mm of the PISA-class cruise, but it was tilted 15 degrees, and the main deck was reinforced to 65 mm. This armored box defense structure was deliberately revealed to the opponent by Qing Ying to the German Navy's technicians in the course of communication with their Italian counterparts, who were still German allies, and the purpose was to obtain the Italian Navy's ship power technology. If there is any country in history that can compete with France after the First World War in terms of ship power, then there is only one country that has always been open-minded, Italy; Its destroyer Tashkent, with an astonishing output of 126,000 horsepower, has been flying steadily for 12 hours, and the average speed is more than 42.3 knots, even the Frenchman's Mogadol-class superdrive cannot be compared!

In order to make this class of battleships live up to the title of "aircraft carrier", Italian designers dismantled its rear deck and installed cranes, seaplanes and other related equipment. The ship's aft deck hangar is designed to accommodate 12 seaplanes, which fully meets the treaty's definition of an aircraft carrier. The Italian designers envisioned these aircraft not entirely to circumvent the treaty, but rather to help warships detect enemy ships more effectively at sea, thus greatly improving the hunting efficiency of the cruiser's killers. (To be continued......)