At this time, the Imperial Navy was carrying out the "1905 plan" in a step-by-step manner, and the performance of the completed capital ships was also higher than that of the great powers: the broadside firepower of the "Beiyue" class was no less than that of the British battleships with 10 305 mm guns (the "Dreadnought" and "Bellerophon" class had only 8 main guns per side that could fire at the same time), and outperformed the German battleships with 12 280 mm guns (the "Nassau" class with 6 main turrets could also use 8 guns per side at the same time), In terms of gun power and rate of fire, it is stronger than the American South Carolina class, which is also equipped with four twin 305 mm guns.

According to the hindsight comparison, the armor-piercing ability of the Beiyang Heavy Industries' 305 mm/45 x diameter main gun on the "Beiyue" was 15% stronger than that of the British's Vickers Mark X 305 mm/45 x diameter gun. And the rate of fire was faster, reaching 2 rounds / min, while the rate of fire of the British guns was only 1.5 rounds / min. The rate of fire of the 280-mm guns of the "Nassau class" built by the Germans reached 3 rounds / min, which was twice as fast as the "Dreadnought".

In comparison, the maximum bomb drop on the first side of the "Nassau" class is 7.25 tons / minute; "Dreadnought" is 4.62 tons / min; The "Beiyue" class is 6.4 t/min.

Nevertheless, the smaller caliber guns of the "Nassau" class were clearly inferior to the "Dreadnought" and "Beiyue" in terms of power, and the "Beiyue" had an absolute advantage in firepower.

Powerful firepower, a displacement of 19,200 tons and a speed of 22 knots made China's "Beiyue" class the largest and fastest dreadnought warship at that time.

Not only that, but unlike the comprehensive protection method that wrapped the entire hull at that time, the "Beiyue" class adopted a key protection method with advanced thinking. The sub-thick armor that originally covered the bow and stern of the early dreadnoughts was removed, as was the case with the former dreadnoughts, and the subdivision of the compartments and the strengthening of watertightness were adopted to protect them, because according to the cadres of the group's technical department who presided over the design, this was a "non-lethal part" that could be abandoned on the battleship. However, the main armor belt and the armor of the turret and turret mounts were significantly thickened, and at the same time, the main horizontal armor was appropriately strengthened.

The main idea of this concept is to make the tonnage allocated to the protection of the battleship design more effective, that is, its fundamental purpose is to make the armor on the battleship more efficient in resisting attack.

With the advent of the "Dreadnought" era, since the dreadnought no longer has a sub-caliber secondary main gun or even a secondary gun has been canceled, the thickness of the traditional armor protection system can only be used to resist the attack of smaller caliber guns, but it cannot resist the attack of the main gun is worthless. Since it is not effective against the fire of large-caliber main guns, and the bow and stern parts they protect are not fatal in naval battles, it is better to simply cancel them and allocate valuable tonnage to those that are really important and deadly - the main armor belt, the turret gun mount, and the conning tower.

In alternate history, the concept of All-or-Nothing Armor was not first adopted until 1912, when the United States designed the Nevada-class battleships, and of course, the 21st century group technicians did not have to crawl behind the foreigners' butts.

Thanks to the application of the concept of key protection and the rational configuration of the turret, under the premise of ensuring firepower, the maximum armor thickness of the main armor belt, command tower, main turret and turret of the "Beiyue" class has reached 300 mm, which exceeds the 280 mm of the "Dreadnought" and is also better than the 280 mm (maximum thickness of the main turret, gun mount and command tower) of the "Nassau" class - 300 mm (the maximum thickness of the main armor belt). In addition, the Beiyang 1905 armor steel used in the "Beiyue" class also absorbed the advantages of the Harvey nickelized armor steel used on the "Intrepid" and the Krupp surface carburizing hardened armor steel used in the "Nassau" class in terms of comprehensive performance.

In order to defend against long-range projectiles with high trajectory, the "Beiyue" was also equipped with deck armor up to 100 mm thick, in contrast, the deck armor of the "Dreadnought" was arranged in multiple layers, with a total of 75 mm in three layers at the thickest point, and the deck armor of the "Nassau" class was only 50 mm thick.

The "Beiyue" ship is divided into 21 watertight compartments longitudinally, of which the main hull is divided into 18 watertight compartments and the stern is divided into 2 watertight compartments. Electrically controlled watertight doors are used between the watertight compartments, and in the event of battle damage, all watertight doors can be closed by a central control system. The armor thickness of the front and rear partitions of the watertight compartment (i.e., the vertical partitions between the front and rear of the hull armor box, which together with the main armor belt and deck armor form the front and rear vertical partitions of the hull armor box) is 200 mm, which is similar to the German "Nassau" class and superior to the "Dreadnought".

In terms of secondary artillery, the same line of thought was taken as that of the German dreadnoughts, with 12 150-mm guns and 16 75-mm guns, the former being used against larger light cruisers and fleet destroyers, and the latter against small destroyers and torpedo boats. In fact, the 27 12-pounder (76 mm) secondary guns on the British Dreadnought were not powerful enough to cope with the larger destroyers of the future, and although the 12-pounder guns were replaced by 4-inch (102 mm) guns after the Burle-Romon class, the secondary guns were still far inferior to the North and Nassau.

Isn't that enough?

The two "Beiyue" class improved "Dongyue" and "Xiyue" that have been launched have once again broken the tonnage record of the Shilu Realm battleship with a standard displacement of more than 20,000 tons, and at the cost of increasing the displacement by more than 2,000 tons, on the premise of maintaining a speed of 22 knots, the eight main guns have been upgraded to 305 mm/50 times diameter, which is 17 percent more powerful than the previous 305 mm/45 times diameter guns. In terms of protection, although the maximum thickness of the main armor belt has not changed, the turret, conning tower and underwater protection have been strengthened, the main turret panel and conning tower armor have been thickened to 330 mm, and the lower edge of the main armor belt has been extended to the waterline by 1 meter (the end of the lower edge of the main armor belt of the "Beiyue" class is 2.2 meters below the waterline), and the honeycomb compartment anti-torpedo structure and double bottom behind the main armor belt have been set up on the battleship for the first time, which has greatly enhanced the defense against close misses and torpedoes.

The new "Longwei" class battleships that have completed the design will use the 350-mm main guns under development, and the firepower will comprehensively overwhelm all foreign dreadnoughts under construction!

Isn't that enough?

No, there is no end to the ambitions of the battleshipmen, the lure of the cannon is irresistible, and even the futuristic man from the 21st century is not completely immune.

Stronger cannons, thicker armor, faster speed, keep overtaking, the dream of a gorgeous battleship will become a reality in our hands!

Deputy Section Chief Pan, who was spinning a pencil on his fingers, lifted the handle of the teacup with his other hand in a comfortable mood, and took two sips with a certain degree of obscenity towards the beautiful female secretary.

How is it that the Fourth Navy Case, which was supposed to be passed by Germany in 1908, has not been moved?

According to the act, Germany was supposed to build four dreadnought battleships per year from 1908 to 1911 and two dreadnoughts per year from 1911 to 1917, thus constituting a formidable high seas fleet of 28 dreadnought battleships. In addition, according to historical records, the Supplementary Navy Act passed in 1912 also provided for the construction of three additional dreadnought battleships on the original basis.

According to the records of that time and space, in the face of this naked challenge from Germany, the British answered, "Germany can do whatever it wants, but so do we!" In the same year, the British Parliament passed the Royal Navy's new "two-power" standard, which stated that for every new battleship Germany built, Britain would build two to confront it. The Anglo-German conflict then intensified rapidly, and as the High Seas Fleet gradually took shape, Britain withdrew its most powerful Atlantic Fleet from Gibraltar to the mainland, and together with the Channel Fleet and the Home Fleet, it was organized into the "Main Fleet", stationed in Scapaflo in the North Sea, to compete with the High Seas Fleet.

But at this time, the whole year of 1908 was almost passed, and the German Reichstag passed only a small supplementary naval bill, that is, on the basis of the completion of the Navy Act No. 3 of 1906, three more dreadnought battleships were built.

That is to say, the plan of the High Seas Fleet, which aroused the anger of Britain, did not appear on time according to the records of the history books of that time and space, and without this plan of the High Seas Fleet, Germany could not be said to pose a substantial threat to Britain, and the contradictions between Britain and Germany could be eased, and the probability of the future European war developing into a world war or even the outbreak of a European war would be greatly reduced.

What is even more disturbing is that after Britain proposed to negotiate with Germany on the issue of naval arms limitation at the Hague Peace Conference in 1907, Britain and Germany not only entered into serious negotiations, but also "achieved gratifying interim results."

If this continues, maybe the "European compromise theory" and the "East-West war theory" put forward by Miss Liu Qianhua a few years ago will really come true in the near future.

Pan Guochen poked his temple with the tip of a pencil, took a sip of tea, threw away the pencil, took out a pen painted with the royal dragon emblem from the pen holder, and took out a few pieces of official paper to record everything he had just thought.

More questions hovered in someone's sky like a vulture that found a dead body.

The construction of water engine carriers by the navies of the great powers and the development of aviation power are also disturbing. The Battle of the South Seas showed the capabilities of carrier-based aviation, and the British, who sent military observers to the Chinese side, were the first to recognize the potential of this new thing, and in 1907, Britain's first hydro-engine carrier converted from a coal carrier, the "Ark Royal", was built, with a displacement of 7,450 tons, capable of carrying 10 seaplanes, and a speed of 10 knots. This was seven years before the birth of the first naval engine carrier recorded in the history books.

According to the latest information, the British Parliament has approved a budget to refit or build two more fast water engine carriers capable of accompanying fleet operations within two years, and will develop new military aircraft with better performance for the Navy through tenders.

In addition, in 1907, the United States and Britain successively carried out relatively primitive aircraft take-off and landing experiments on large warships, although several years later than the secret experiments of the Empire, but they were more news-effective, and also 3 to 5 years earlier than recorded in the main history.

This shows that once the new military concept of the empire is applied to actual combat, it is easy to be absorbed and used by the other side, and the industrial strength of Europe and the United States is far above that of the empire, and the new concept can only be majestic for a while, and after the war is protracted, it will ultimately depend on industrial strength to determine the victory or defeat.

"In any case, the Empire's all-deck fleet aircraft carriers should be on the agenda!"

Pan Guochen wrote heavily in his notebook.

The pen penetrated the back of the paper, and the next page was full of ink marks, so Pan Guochen had to turn another page to write.

"Section chief, do you want to add tea?" The female secretary is seducing again......

"No need, you can help me copy this document and send it to the section chief."

Pan Guochen couldn't resist the hope of flirting with the female secretary, and casually handed over a stack of manuscript paper.

"Yes, tell me anything at any time."

Ah, female secretary, female secretary...... Molestation, flirting...... Touch, touch...... Long live the Navy!

Pan Guochen twisted the back of his hand in order to return himself to workaholism.

Few Chinese in the 21st century can write such a good neat italic script - and they have to code from top to bottom and right to left on the vertical grid of official paper, but Pan Guochen has long been accustomed to this code format that has been handed down by his ancestors for thousands of years.

"According to the latest information, the United States is preparing a plan for the two-ocean fleet to reach the size of 48 battleships, and if this plan bill is passed in the US Congress before next year, the follow-up part of the Imperial 1905 plan will be completely overturned and a new thing will be started. If the new plan of the Empire is still revised according to the 70% of the power of the United States, the Empire will have to expand the size of its own fleet (including allies) to 34 capital ships, which will be an extremely severe test of the Empire's financial and industrial capabilities......"

"Based on the experience of the war against Russia, Britain has developed a large armored cruiser 'Invincible' class with battleship firepower and high speed far beyond the old cruisers......

"Sneeze ......"

On the other side of the world, on the shores of Scapa Bay on the British island, sixty-eight-year-old senior Admiral John Fisher sneezed heavily.

"General, it's very windy, be careful of catching a cold."

Now in Chinese New Year's Eve, the "young, handsome and charming" Cabinet Business Secretary Winston Churchill kindly reminded the gray-haired and slightly clumsy old man Fei.

"John, how are you?"

Admiral Reginald McKenna, the First Sea Lord, also asked with concern, and the tall, lanky Prime Minister Asquith next to him also gave him an attentive look.

"The sea breeze can't keep me cold, but that, that, that, and those are enough to give me a fever."

The old man pointed to the bay and made a "Z".

In the bay were quietly moored the battleship "Dreadnought", the armored cruiser "Invincible", the seaplane carrier "Ark Royal".

There was a slight hum over the bay, the rain-clouded airship Scarpa skimmed low over the battleship's mast, and three Schott-2 seaplanes aboard the Ark Royal buzzed and circled like flies not far away.

"I promise you'll see even more feverish stuff next." McKenna laughed and whipped people's appetites.