For the days that followed, the nations engaged in a lengthy, philistine-like tug-of-war over the tonnage reservations of auxiliary vessels. Since all parties have different interests and demands, and they all hope to get some advantage in this final battle, the progress is even slower than the previous capital ship negotiations. Faced with this situation, Qingying, who had already arrived here with the group, could only rub himself and kill himself, and did his best to defend the bottom line in his plan. Referring to the provisions on auxiliary ships in the historical London Naval Treaty, Qing Ying set the tonnage of the German Navy's future cruisers, destroyers, and submarines at 320,000 tons, 160,000 tons, and 80,000 tons, respectively. Although he himself was reluctant to give so much tonnage to less cost-effective cruisers, as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Kidren said at the meeting: post-war Germany has become a country with extensive global interests, so it must have enough cruisers to replace the restricted capital ships to patrol all sides of the sea.

According to Qingying's original plan, it is undoubtedly impossible to build a 6-inch slag light patrol equipped with a 6-inch class. However, in the specific negotiation process, Qingying found that this condition was difficult to be accepted by other countries: not to mention that the heavy patrol had an advantage in tonnage and firepower over the light patrol, just as the initiator of the light patrol classification, but not building one, was enough to arouse the strange suspicion of various countries. In order to allow the negotiations to proceed smoothly according to his own script, Qingying could only reluctantly give the light patrol a share of 52,000 tons, while still retaining the 270,000-ton heavy patrol request. Anyway, I've taken advantage of enough of it, and I'll just put up with it if I spit some out.

After a long exchange of verbal artillery, the noisy participating countries finally reluctantly reached an agreement on the allocation of auxiliary ships on July 10: the total tonnage of heavy cruisers of Germany, the United States, Britain, Japan, Italy and Austria should not exceed 270,000 tons, 180,000 tons, 140,000 tons, 130,000 tons, 80,000 tons, and 70,000 tons, respectively. The share of light cruisers was limited to 52,000 tons, 117,000 tons, 156,000 tons, 78,000 tons, 52,000 tons, and 39,000 tons. Both Britain and the United States received more than 90% of the cruiser tonnage of the German Navy. Japan, on the other hand, received a 70 percent share of the United States under Germany's pull bias; For the three parties. This is an acceptable outcome. As for the two countries in the Mediterranean, Italy also got its wish to gain an advantage over Austria-Hungary on auxiliary warships, which greatly satisfied its superiority as the first naval power in the Mediterranean; And although Austria-Hungary was at the bottom, the updated advantage in the capital ship was enough to make them forget this little unpleasantness.

After the completion of the negotiations on the cruiser, which is second only to the capital ship, the competition for cannon fodder destroyers will be much easier. After all, these guys are weaker than cruisers, and they contain much less power; And their construction period of only one year also allows them to temporarily expand their numbers after regional tensions. Less than two days. The representatives of each country signed the informal memorandum: the tonnage of Germany, the United States, Britain, Japan, Italy and Austria is 160,000 tons, 140,000 tons, 140,000 tons, 100,000 tons, 60,000 tons, and 50,000 tons, respectively. The situation of submarines was similar, and in the end, countries ended the protracted war of words with a limit of 80,000 tons from Germany, 60,000 tons from the United States, and 25,000 tons from the rest of the countries.

"Gentlemen, perhaps we have another type of ship that is not qualified." Looking at the representatives of various countries who had already begun to sort out the papers, Qingying suddenly said at the venue. A moment later, a series of hesitant eyes were cast from all directions; Everyone looked puzzled, and never found a key flaw in the previous clause.

"Is Your Highness talking about small torpedo boats? Although we do not specify their total tonnage, it has been defined in the destroyer negotiations: destroyers with a displacement of between 600 and 2,000 tons, and torpedo boats with a displacement of less than 600 tons. And for such pocket ships, I don't think it is at all necessary for us to limit their number, because of their low displacement. This greatly limits their combat effectiveness and can only be used as a limited coastal defense. Even if we don't limit it. I don't think any country would spend money to build such a gadget on a large scale. Rodman, commander of the U.S. Main Fleet, said in a relaxed tone.

Qingying shook her head slightly and said, "I'm not talking about traditional ships, but new seaplane carriers in this European war. ”

"In this war, the Imperial German Navy was the first to convert the merchant ships of the American Eagle and Cormorant into ships capable of carrying and retracting seaplanes, and the British Navy later built their seaplane carriers with the unfinished merchant ship Engedin. And if the admirals present here are concerned about the European maritime strategy, they will inevitably see the irreplaceable role played by such ships in naval warfare. It has reconnaissance capabilities that no traditional warship has ever achieved before; And because of the closed aircraft inventory, the aircraft it carries can be retracted into the ship in bad weather, avoiding the fate of the airship that is also used for reconnaissance to be forced to return home, or even damaged and crashed, which makes the time of aerial reconnaissance have been greatly extended! ”

Qing Ying faced a cast gaze with different looks, and continued to say unhurriedly, "Please think about it. If we do not restrict such warships, then the fleets of all countries in the future will be filled with such barbarian goods carrying aircraft; And when the planes they carry are flying in the sky, even the cruising submarine will have nothing to hide from their overlook! In any case, we should list a new type of ship with aircraft on board and limit its performance. The German Navy has given this type of ship a new name, which is called an aircraft carrier. ”

Hearing these words, the active admirals of the delegations fell into a deep silence, and the politicians next to them, who knew almost nothing about the navy, could only sit back in their seats after seeing that no one objected for a long time, ready to wait for the next speech. While waiting, some people couldn't help but wonder: isn't the navy just a bloody arena of armor, artillery, and torpedoes, and what does it have to do with those ugly planes?

"Then, what does Your Highness think should be defined and restricted by this kind of warship?" After a while, the American Rodman finally spoke again. The generals of all countries also locked their eyes on Qingying, waiting for the initiator to finish the current play.

"Although the current technology is still in its infancy, this aircraft-carrying aircraft carrier already has a place in the future naval arms. In a way, it played a higher role than several reconnaissance cruisers! Taking into account the current experience of Germany and Britain with such ships, its tonnage limit should well exceed the upper limit of 10,000 tons of cruisers, second only to capital ships. Qingying sorted out her thoughts and told her deliberate plans in this meeting that would determine the development of the navy in the next 15 years, "The German Navy believes that as long as a ship with more than three aircraft is designed, it should be classified as an aircraft carrier; As for its single ship tonnage cap, a standard displacement of 27,000 tons may be a good choice. ”

"27,000 tons?" The delegates of various countries were suddenly startled, and their hearts were already flooded with unbelievable monstrous waves. You must know that even the current active capital ships of various countries can be counted with one hand in terms of more than this tonnage, and according to the previous distribution ratio of capital ships, even after each country has completed the construction of new ships, more than half of the list of capital ships it retains is less than this amount. "Is this a trick by the Germans to increase the strength of their battlefleet?" This thought came to the minds of the admirals. Having been in the navy for decades, they already know very well that having tonnage is almost the same as having a qiē: whether it is the main gun, armor, or speed, it can be achieved one by one with the help of a huge displacement!

Just when they were in doubt, they heard the clear and clear voice speak again: "At present, this kind of ship in the German and British navies is converted from large merchant ships, and the British Engelding has reached 18,000 tons; considering the needs of future development, 27,000 tons is not a sensational figure. However, in order to avoid any future forces that will transform it into a capital ship, it is necessary to limit the caliber of artillery that it is allowed to load. Warships of this type must not be armed with naval guns exceeding 254 mm, and their number must not exceed 10. In this way, we can put an end to the possible capital ship of this type of ship, after all, 10 10-inch naval guns can hardly pose a threat to a regular battleship with heavy armor in any case. ”

Qingying's voice fell, and there was a buzzing discussion among the delegations like a swarm of bees. Except for him, who has the memories of later generations, it will take a while for anyone to accept and adapt to this new ship division with a good displacement after suddenly hearing about it. And if that's all it takes, this type of ship also has two-thirds of the tonnage limit of battleships, which is several levels larger than the previous second-ranked heavy cruiser: the combat effectiveness formed by relying on such a displacement is definitely not comparable to any non-capital ship!

"Since your navy already has the concept of aircraft carriers, presumably it has also taken into account the total tonnage that each country can have, right?" I don't know how long it took for a U.S. representative to ask. Regardless of whether the Germans intended to use this type of ship to exploit the loopholes of the treaty, it would not be wrong to listen to the proportions of the other side first.

Qingying smiled slightly and said, "Since this type of ship has greatly exceeded the category of cruisers in terms of tonnage, it should be distributed according to the share ratio of 10:8:6:5:3:3 of the capital ship. Among them, Germany is 150,000 tons, and the tonnage of each country is determined in turn. Only when treaties are concluded in this area will there be a real peace in the world with a healthy investment in armaments. (To be continued......)

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