Climb the stairs through the corridor and go straight into the main house.

Sunlight poured in through the clear windows, illuminating the small room as bright as the outside world. On the flower stand next to the window, there are several pots of small red and white flowers, which are beautiful and clear against the background of the green leaves, exuding a faint fragrance and fragrance. The rooms are lined with one-person-tall data cabinets, and countless brown paper covers and various books can be faintly displayed. The walls are snow-white, the floors are smooth, and the features of newly built rooms can be seen everywhere.

A slender middle-aged man sat at the main table in the center writing and drawing, and the one-sided glasses were hanging on the bridge of his nose with a little joy. Seeing a handsome young man pushing the door in, the middle-aged man stood up from his seat unhurriedly, and after saluting Qingying, he smiled slightly and said, "Your Royal Highness, you came really fast." It's a 100-kilometre drive from Berlin, and I thought you'd not be there until noon. ”

Qingying smiled faintly and did not catch the topic of the middle-aged man. Looking at this designer who only had a one-sided relationship, Qingying paused, and then said: "Mr. Frick, I came here this time for the design of that small cruiser. It's been 3 months since the beginning, and I believe that Mr. Frick should have already designed a good plan, right? ”

Hearing these words, a faint pride flashed in the eyes of the middle-aged man known as Frick, and he smiled: "Your Highness, don't worry. The professional skills of these few of us, even if they are the top team in the entire empire, if it weren't for this, His Majesty would not let us work for His Highness. This kind of small cruiser of two or three thousand tons is exactly what our team is best at; If we can't even make a design in 3 months, we don't have to mix in the field of ship design. ”

With that, Frick stood up, and after tinkering in the filing cabinet next to him for a while, he placed a thick brown paper bag in front of Qingying. He cleared his throat and introduced: "This document is the design drawing of this new fourth-class cruiser, and the layout of various equipment and corresponding calculations are all in it, a total of 283 pages. As for subsystems such as boilers, steam engines, and cannons, which are not part of shipbuilding, only a general drawing is given, and no detailed drawings of the individual parts are drawn. Many of the core subsystems on the battleship are not yet able to be completed independently, so we have to order them from those old shipyards and Krupp military industry, and then return to the factory to assemble. ”

Since the shipyard only started construction two years ago, it has already spent a lot of money and manpower to complete the technical reserves for the construction of the hull of the military ship and the launching and outfitting of the shipyard, and it is really impossible to pursue the A-class production qualification certification of the water-tube boiler and the three-expansion engine. At present, the shipyard is able to produce only some of the machinery necessary for the auxiliary power system. Qing Ying was clear about this basic situation, and when he heard this, he nodded his head and said, "Mr. Flick, don't you mind taking out the final side view and top view and giving me a brief introduction, right?" ”

"It's an honor." Flick untied the wiring on the document and pulled out the two pages of the general drawing.

"I led the completion of this design. With the exception of the old Eumilian at Wilhelm Shipyard, who was able to reduce his tonnage by about 0.5% piecemeal, there was no other person in the entire German Empire who could achieve this feat with a smaller tonnage. With a standing displacement of 2,400 tons, a full load displacement of 2,550 tons, a total length of 100 meters, a width of 12 meters, a draft of 4.3 meters, and a square factor of 0.461, it is an extremely slender ship. The power system consists of 6 water-tube boilers and 2 triple-expansion reciprocating steam engines, with a design power of 8,200 hp, and if nothing else, it will be able to exceed 22 knots. In terms of armament, it is equipped with a total of 10 40x diameter 105mm guns, 8 37mm cannons and 3 450mm torpedo tubes, of which 4 main guns are arranged in the form of 2 twin armored plate guns at the head and tail, and the other 6 are arranged separately on both sides. As for protection, in addition to the 25mm thick protective deck from the bow ammunition depot to the steering gear, only the conning tower has 60mm of hardened armor. Frick said.

Qingying stared at the high-definition drawing in his hand, and saw the chic shape of the double-linked armor plate cannon used, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help but hook a smile. This idea was first proposed by Kaiser Wilhelm II and was first applied to the "lead duck" he designed. Although this glittering idea was buried by the name of "Lead Duck", after the "Lead Duck" was rehabilitated, the idea of this twin deck gun was also taken seriously by the designers. Compared with the traditional layout of installing a single deck gun on the left and right sides of the bow, the use of twin guns not only provides an additional gun in terms of broadside firepower, but also has a clear advantage in the firing range in other directions. The only constraint was the need for a large chassis that could carry two cannons and rotate quickly. For the German engineers, the realization of the combined duplex of small-caliber guns on the deck would not have any technical problems in terms of material strength and structural design.

Compared with the 10 Gazelle class ships that were built in 1898 in Germany, the tonnage of this design is 300 tons smaller, the output power is the same, and the firepower and protection are even slightly better. Of course, in addition to the improvements in the hull structure and power system, the freeboard of this design was pressed very low: except for the freeboard of the front 33% of the length, which is 5 meters high, the rear 67% of the area is only 2.9 meters above the sea surface under normal loading. In this way, although the tonnage is saved to a large extent, the warship has a poor ability to resist wind and waves, and can almost only operate in the offshore area. However, this class of small cruisers itself is not used to compete for the ocean, and Qingying set the requirement of using a low freeboard at the beginning of their design; Now it seems that the effect of the low freeboard is really good!

Qingying looked at the drawings in her hand over and over again, and couldn't help but praise, "Very good design, the freeboard is so low!" Didn't Frederick the Great also say that a sailor who does not like to be immersed in the sea is not a good sailor, and a warship that does not make waves in the bow is not a good warship. In order to reduce the tonnage and realize the improvement of the three elements of the battleship, what is the loss of a little seaworthiness? ”

"Your Highness, while I must admit that the advantages of the low-freeboard design outweigh the disadvantages, your original request was also far-sighted and wise; But this linguistic case seems to have been spoken by the Frenchman who was born in Corsica, right? Frick smiled dumbly. He propped his elbows on the table, crossed his fingers in front of his chest, and said, "According to the combat needs proposed by His Highness, I have tried to optimize this design to the greatest extent. Compared with the small Khedira's 4 150mm guns, this design with a large number of 105mm guns can obviously play a better role in the protection of large warships; Its seven 105-mm guns on the single side could rain more than 100 rounds of 16 kg shells at enemy ships in one minute, enough to tear any torpedo boat that dared to burst forward and fire torpedoes to pieces. For those protected cruisers with no vertical armor on the waterline, a 105mm gun with a rate of fire of 15 rounds per minute could also have a 3 times more chance of penetrating the waterline and flooding it than a 150mm gun. ”

When Qingying heard this, she couldn't help but nod her head and say yes. Although he had proposed the idea of increasing the power of the main gun 2 years earlier, it was for battleships and large armored cruisers; On small warships, it should be analyzed on a case-by-case basis. If such a battleship is used to fight with the opponent's dogs, then the powerful 150 mm gun is undoubtedly the best choice, and it should even be covered with waterline armor; However, if it was only used for escort purposes, the waterline armor was not needed at all, and the 150 mm gun was a bit too large to be proper. At this thought, Qingying was slightly excited in her heart, being able to not stick to the rules, it seems that this Flick is also a guy with great potential!

Frick looked at the paper envelope in his hand, his face showed a little tenderness, as if he was looking at a work of art carefully created by himself, and said angrily: "Every picture in this is painted by the four of us such as me and Little Khedira; Compared with those designers who often borrow other people's design drawings in large shipyards, this design is far better than those lazy barbarians in terms of gold content and intuitive understanding. In order to reduce the weight, we were busy for more than a month, and finally reduced it from the initial 2,500 tons to the current tonnage. If this design can be adopted, it will also be the best consolation for several of us. ”

Speaking of this, Frick seemed to think of something, his voice carried a little confidence, and his face showed a hint of relaxation. He was originally the top small warship designer in China, and the young man sitting in front of him was the largest relational in the entire German Empire; In such a situation where there is both strength and background, how can this boat designed by himself not be sold? After a moment, Guo Qingying spoke, "Mr. Flick, I have you and your team in this time. When I was gone, I took the drawings with me and handed them over to the Admiralty when I returned to Berlin for auditing. If they don't have any problems there, we're ready to start building right away. ”

Hearing the young crown prince's assurance, Flick's face was as bright as a chrysanthemum. I was about to thank the young man, but I heard him speak again in a clear voice, "There is one more thing for me. I wonder if there is anyone in the current shipyard who is particularly good at submarine design? ”

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