In Schlieffen's regretful eyes, William did not choose to show his blade to France after all.

Qing Ying had already expected this situation, because Wilhelm was not one of those extreme Prussian war elements "hatched out of shells" led by Schlieffen; As the lord of the empire, all he needs to do is to dominate the imperial machine and be in charge of the overall situation, and only after integrating various factors can he make the final choice that is most suitable for his country.

At present, the situation shown in any other area than the military posture in favor of Germany to wage war is difficult to satisfy the appetite of the Prussian military. At present, the atmosphere of war in Germany is still very weak, and the whole Reich is not mentally prepared for a war. Rather than the "Junker, feudal, conservative, reactionary" brutal Prussian machinery of violence controlled by the aristocratic officer corps, which fired itself in the streets at every turn, roaring and swelling like a wild beast again with the winds of war, it was clear that people preferred the politically innocent navy, which had only been developed in 1871. Moreover, the construction of the navy will give a great impetus to the development of domestic industry and commerce and overseas trade, and will be able to meet the complex and contradictory needs of the Social Democrats, the workers, the capitalists, the Junkers and the MPs in a bloodless and peaceful manner, which no other industry can match!

With this in mind, William decisively put a stop to the war adventures of the military headquarters and elevated the construction of Tirpitz's risky fleet to a routine matter. In view of the "Bellerophon"-class battleships and "Invincible"-class super cruisers that Britain began to build in batches this year, William instructed the navy to quickly come up with designs that could be corresponding, and put them into the construction plan of five capital ships this year in a timely manner. Although the British kept this class of ships under construction a secret. Germany did not know their specific data and performance. However, refer to the Dreadnought, which was launched at the beginning of this year. Bellerophon's performance can also be seen in a glimpse. As a new type of battleship to be built after the Dreadnought, Bellerophon's 10 305-mm guns and a speed of more than 20 knots are certainly a real hit; At the beginning of his tenure, British First Sea Secretary Fisher, who proposed "striking everywhere, striking immediately, and striking hard," could not allow a significant decline in the two key indicators of firepower and speed, and this was the breakthrough point in the comparison of the performance of Germany's new warships.

Historically, because the design of the capital ships of the German Navy was deeply poisoned by close combat, not only the caliber of the main guns was one or two grades smaller than that of the British, but also a large number of 12 main guns only 8 could be used in broadside battles with a hexagonal arrangement of the main turrets. It's just a cheat dad without limits. However, in this plane, due to the role of Qingying as a traverser, the German ship design concept began to enter the hall since the pre-dreadnought era, and the "fleet decisive battle" in Tirpitz's risk fleet theory was deepened. By now, the decisive battle of the battle line on the single side and the large-caliber heavy artillery, two decisive factors for the defeat of the enemy, had been ingrained in the minds of German ship designers and had become the mainstream of development. At Qingying's insistence, Tirpitz threw all the designs equipped with the 283 mm gun into the wastebasket; After some weighing and comparison, he selected 4 better plans from a drawing volume and began to consider them internally.

Scheme A has a standard displacement of 20,800 tons. The speed was increased to the same 21 knots as the British battleship, and its five twin 305-mm heavy guns were arranged along the central axis of the long bow hull in the position of the first 2 in 1 and 2 in the rear of the 2. The two main turrets in the bow of the ship are arranged in a knapsack style. Plan B is a replica of the dreadnought provided for Austria-Hungary: its standard displacement of 18,200 tons, the same speed of 21 knots, and the layout of three triple 305 mm guns in the front 1 and 2 in the front and rear 2 was carried in the stern of the long bow hull, and the entire one-three version of the Wichelsbach-class battleship. Plan C is based on the former with a triple turret and a knapsack arrangement in a horizontal position one level above the bow; As a result, its displacement rose sharply to 22,500 tons. The D scheme was more alternative, equipped with both triple and twin turrets: 10 main guns were arranged in a knapsack arrangement in the form of 3223, and the displacement was reduced to 19,700 tons.

Battleship design has always been a systems engineering. After the combat functions of the warship are determined, the tonnage, size, firepower, armor, power, cost, and other core elements that affect the whole body will be carefully scrutinized and carefully balanced. After some deliberation, the German Admiralty finally chose the more alternative D option at Qingying's suggestion; Under this seemingly puzzling behavior, there are complex reasons for considering gunnery, impact, cost and other aspects.

According to gunnery, 5 or more shells have the best dispersion and striking effect in a half-salvo of 20 seconds apart, and the D scheme can be achieved by alternating the fire of guns 1 and 3 and gun 2 of the two triple turrets of Anna and Dora. Due to the distance between the No. 1 and No. 3 guns of the triple turret, the mutual interference of the muzzle storm is completely negligible, and the final dispersion of its shells will be on par with that of the five twins. Compared with the continuous and stable fire of a half-salvo of 5 shells, the three-seat triple scheme is obviously inferior. Although the number of half-salvo shells of the C scheme can reach 6, it is also a big challenge for the German Navy to be equipped with triple guns; After all, this is a new type of machine that is far more complex than a twin turret, and its final performance and reliability will not be shown until it enters service. The German Hans were notoriously cautious about new techniques, and this time they were able to accept a half-equipped triple turret at their limit.

In terms of impact, the 3223 knapsack scheme is also quite advantageous. The model mini-ship of the D scheme is moderately proportioned, strong and elegant, and the turret and bridge are perfectly integrated without any sense of abruptness. It is conceivable that if this battleship can become a reality, it will greatly enhance the yearning and love of the people in China for the navy: in this way, the navy will not only be able to get more funds from the hands of parliamentarians, but also attract a large number of knowledgeable young people to join the navy without worrying about the lack of soldiers. And the other 3 plans are either delicate and delicate, or the brother is disobedient, or it is simply the chrysanthemum's short and poor frustration against the enemy, which is really barbaric. In terms of cost, the 3223 scheme with a triple turret has obvious advantages over the 5-seat twin turret, and it is much cheaper than the scheme with 12 main guns. Although the 9-gun B case is the most cost-effective in terms of firepower and tonnage, the slightly inferior half-salvo ability, the fully equipped sophisticated triple main gun and the really ugly appearance make it still lose the fate in the end.

Submitted for approval and review, and the design started. Once the solution has been decided, the next step is to refine the design into the various subsystems. Armor and boilers are naturally indisputable, the secondary hardened armor developed by Krupp Military Industry in recent years, and the small water-tube boiler of the German Warship Power Research Institute are the top subsystem equipment on the planet; With the strong power provided by the latter, the German capital ships in history also allowed their battleships and battlecruisers to reach a high speed despite the extreme efficiency of the propellers. The selection of the main engine is also no problem, the introduction of the United States Curtiss steam turbine is particularly suitable for high temperature and high pressure steam work propulsion, which is a natural fit with the small water tube boiler in Germany that was originally going to this field. In addition to 10 boilers and 2 Curtiss steam turbines, the ship's central propeller shaft is composed of 3 boilers and 1 triple-expansion reciprocating steam engine: this not only reduces the cost of the battleship, but also ensures that the battleship has a good range of 14 knots/4000 nautical miles, and the slight vibration of the reciprocating steam engine at low power will not affect the normal shooting of the warship.

However, there was a debate within the German Navy about the choice of the main gun model. Admirals generally demanded that the Krupp military industry increase the caliber on the basis of the 283mm L47 main gun currently equipped with German-class battleships, and further develop a 305mm L47 main gun for the new warship equipment. According to experience, high-speed bullets have excellent penetration at a distance of about 7,000 meters between dreadnoughts, making them ideal naval weapons. However, the naval technicians raised objections from the perspective of artillery manufacturing: the previous 283mm L47 gun was too high in the initial design index, so that the life and accuracy were difficult to guarantee, and finally had to cut the muzzle kinetic energy by nearly 10% to meet the requirements of the military. This time, in order to reduce the risk and ensure the development progress, the length of the barrel of the new 305mm gun should not exceed L45.

In response to this situation, Qingying, who is familiar with history, has long found a way out for the German Navy: in the Austro-Hungarian Skoda Arsenal, there are ready-made 305-mm naval guns! In 1907, although the Austro-Hungarian Radetz-class battleships were dreadnought in style, their main guns were the first in the world: the 305mm L45 naval guns developed by Skoda were extremely powerful, and they were not inferior to the 305mm L47 guns developed by Germany. At present, Austria-Hungary has launched their plan to build a dreadnought, and the development of this gun is on the agenda; And Krupp can choose to join forces with Skoda and exchange and learn from the joint development to improve its technical capabilities.

On May 20, a team of core Krupp engineers packed their bags and boarded the train to Prague, where Skoda headquarters is located, with great anticipation. Hearing this news, Qingying couldn't help but despise the German Navy in history: they didn't want to put such a good ready-made artillery from Austria-Hungary, but they wanted to install 283mmL42 on Nassau, which started construction in the same year. (To be continued......)