Hearing that Qingying actually used such strange words to arouse Tirpitz's inspiration, which in turn triggered a series of huge butterfly effects, Wilhelm II's eyes narrowed slightly, and a strange feeling appeared in his heart. Before he could savor the mystery, Tirpitz's gushing words pulled him back into his normal state of mind.

"As His Royal Highness said, the German Empire developed its navy in order to compete with the old naval powers, especially with the long-cherished rivals, the French, for land under the sun. In order to achieve this, the Empire's warships must have enough firepower to destroy enemy ships; If you just build an unsinkable target, you won't be able to meet the needs of the Empire! Therefore, the firepower that we have neglected before should also be raised to the same height as the armor; And this part of the increased weight due to increased firepower is compensated for by the increased tonnage of a single battleship. ”

Tirpitz paused, then continued: "Due to this change in basic philosophy, the artillery development plan we drew up before must also be completely reshuffled; Otherwise, there will be a situation where the big ship carries the small cannon and the tonnage is seriously wasted. ”

"Wait, Alfred." Wilhelm II's mind had just returned to normal, and for a moment he had not yet fully understood what Tirpitz was saying. He frowned and thought for a while, then said slowly, "I understand. Due to the increase in the tonnage of the battleship, the artillery originally planned for her appeared to be less powerful, so it was necessary to design another more powerful cannon. ”

Tirpitz nodded, "Exactly. Previously, we planned to equip the next battleship with a 40 times the diameter of the 240 mm main gun, but now it seems that this plan has a big problem. Although the rate of fire of the 240 mm gun is very fast, and the Krupp military industry guarantees that it can reach 3 rounds per minute, its power is too small, and a single shell is only 140Kg, which is simply not enough to pose any deadly threat to the opponent's capital ship. Even in the Baltic Sea, where the engagement distance is relatively close, its high rate of fire cannot compensate for its low power. In addition, Krupp's armor research and development results are changing with each passing day, and the ballistic performance of armor has been nearly doubled; If it is not equipped with more powerful artillery, in the future naval battle, the capital ships of the German Navy will face the embarrassing situation that the artillery cannot penetrate the enemy! ”

"But, Alfred, a powerful cannon means a slow rate of fire, so how do you fix that? At present, the combat distance of naval warfare is not far, and the role of large-caliber artillery with a slow rate of fire is extremely limited, if there is not enough firepower density, even if the power is great, what is the use of not hitting others? The reason why we abandoned the 305 mm in favor of equipping the four latest Brandenburg-class battleships with 283 mm guns was to take this into account. Wilhelm II spoke.

"That's what I've thought of too." Tirpitz picked up the paper on which he had drawn various symbols and figures, pointed to one of the corners, and said confidently, "My idea is to make a compromise between caliber and rate of fire!" ”

"The powerful cannon is what we want; And a high rate of fire, which is also what we want. Since the two are naturally opposed and cannot be taken into account, then we choose an intermediate caliber to take into account the power and rate of fire to a certain extent. At present, the power of the 283 mm main gun equipped on our battleship is usable, and we can directly use this as a basis to allow Krupp to create a combined turret loaded at any angle of this type of gun to increase the rate of fire of this type of gun on the capital ship. In this way, not only will the power be taken into account, but the rate of fire will also be increased several times due to the turret structure! Tirpitz gestured incessantly, foaming at the mouth, as if he wanted to pour out all that was in his mind.

"Compromises the caliber and rate of fire...... Wilhelm II muttered, his brow furrowed, and his heart began to calculate quickly. In fact, Wilhelm II's naval skills were far from being as unbearable as later generations rumored, but he had very profound attainments; It only took him a moment to figure out the point. The German 40-fold diameter 283-mm gun was originally a tube-retreat gun, which congenitally met the conditions for rapid fire; In addition, the problem of smokeless gunpowder has been solved, and only a turret-type structure that can be quickly loaded is needed, so the rate of fire of this gun can be completely improved!

"Wait a minute...... In that case, why do you still hold on to the current 283-mm gun? Just let Krupp Military Industry develop a larger caliber 305 mm gun, and at the same time configure a turret for this gun! When the thought took shape in Wilhelm II's mind, he trembled with excitement; But after thinking about it further, he could only sigh and throw this thought out of the clouds. At present, the German military industry has just completed the manufacture of an 11-inch tube-retreated gun, and there is still a lot of data and experience to absorb in the tests; If the caliber of the artillery is increased rashly, not to mention the slow development time, it is very likely that a failed product will be produced in the end. This was unacceptable to neither Wilhelm II nor the German Navy!

In addition, the development of the turret is also an unavoidable hard indicator. Although Wilhelm II did not know the detailed structure of such a thing, he knew one thing very well: the difficulty of the manufacturing process of such a thing, and the bearing strength required of the hull structure, were directly proportional to the power of the gun. At present, Krupp only dares to guarantee that the 240 mm gun and the supporting turret structure will be made in a few years, and Tirpitz wants to ensure that the caliber of the main gun remains the same, which is already a big step forward, if it is suddenly raised to a 305 mm gun, then this difficulty is not a little bit hard!

Seeing the change of expression on Wilhelm II's face, surprise, joy, longing, and then despair, Tirpitz knew that the young monarch, who had been so happy with his achievements, was beginning to diverge his whimsical thinking again. He tapped his fingers lightly on the table a few times and said, "As for the larger caliber artillery...... With all due respect, Your Majesty, at this stage, I personally advise you not to think about it. First of all, Krupp's technical conditions are not up to standard, and secondly, the rate of fire is not balanced. What's more, at this caliber of 283 mm, our current artillery still has a lot of potential to be tapped! When this type of gun was originally developed, in order to reduce the difficulty of technical skills, the disarmed projectile reached a high speed of 820m/s, and its bullet weight was compressed to only 240kg. This weight is a very low weight light bullet, and the regular bullet should weigh at least 300kg. In fact, Wilhelm II's expression may have been a rejection of this compromise idea, but Tirpitz did not think it was possible at all. In his opinion, this idea of his own has been deduced by him in all aspects, and it is perfect, how can there be a mistake?

Being exposed to Tirpitz in person, Wilhelm II was slightly embarrassed and said, "That's it, that's it, just do what you say." We will inject an additional amount of money into the Navy for an additional bonus for the research of the 283mm twin turret. Alfred, you go and tell the guys at Krupp that I'm only going to give them 40 months; If they can't make a product with qualified performance within this, not only will they not get the allowance, but they won't have to do it in this position. ”

"Yes, I'll do it early tomorrow morning." Tirpitz gladly accepted the order.

"Although you have fulfilled my appointment today, I will not worry about you because you have a reason. But remember, the next is not an example! Wilhelm II put on a serious look, and his tone became sharp, "You go back now, and then draw up a naval development plan; Three days later, I still came to see me in the study in my old days. Do you understand? ”

Tirpitz looked solemn and said in a deep voice: "Your Majesty, rest assured, I will do my best to fulfill Your Majesty's trust, and it will never be like tonight." ”

"Naval development plan?" Hearing this word, Qingying, who had been listening to it and watching the changes, began to spin in her mind. At present, it seems that it has triggered the butterfly effect of German naval construction, but there is still some effort to be made in the development plan of the navy. If Tirpitz, the octopus-head, had drawn up a frantic plan for expansion, and Wilhelm II, the naval madman, had approved it, it would not have been a good thing for Germany at the moment. As soon as she thought of this, Qingying no longer hesitated; He suddenly raised his right hand and said, "I'm going too!" ”

Hearing this immature child's voice, both Wilhelm II and Tirpitz were stunned; It turned out that there was a third person in this room, and they actually ignored the one who caused the whole incident. Wilhelm II rolled his eyes and said angrily: "This is me going to discuss the national plan with the chief of staff of the navy, and there is no room for child's play, where are you children going?" You honestly stay in the study to review your homework, if you don't pass the test in half a month, I won't pick your skin! ”

Seeing Qingying being reprimanded by William II, Tirpitz felt a little unbearable in his heart, after all, he was able to enter the room tonight with his insight into the navy, and he was inseparable from the Zhengtai in front of him. He coughed and said, "Your Majesty, you can let His Second Highness go with you." He is the son of His Majesty, and he knows more about the Navy than the average adult; If you can get in touch with something deeper as soon as possible, it will be good for him and for the country! ”

When Wilhelm II heard this, his heart moved, and he thought so; However, he still has to maintain the image of a strict father, how can he compromise so easily? His face was not good, and he pretended to think for a long time before he reluctantly spoke: "Since Alfred has said so, then...... Come on, Ettel. ”

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Today's second chapter is 3000 words, let's collect it