"My father's concern was that after the merger and increase of the armored cruisers, the cost of the armored cruisers was close to that of the battleships, but they were not close to the decisive strength of the battleships. But I don't think it's that hard to solve! Qingying sorted out her thoughts and tried to explain the complex problem in the most concise words possible, "Since an armored cruiser with a displacement of 10,000 tons cannot play the role of an arbiter in naval warfare, then we can increase the tonnage?" ”

William's eyes widened, and he said with a look of shock on his face: "I heard me right, do you want to increase the tonnage?" Ettel, do you know that the cost of a 10,000-ton armored cruiser has already exceeded 17 million marks, and if the tonnage is increased, the cost will be at the same level as the battleship! What kind of logic do you have? ”

"Father, the reason why armored cruisers cannot join the battle line is that their firepower is too weak compared to that of battleships, and their armor protection cannot withstand the bombardment of battleship-class guns. Since the factors limiting the participation of armored cruisers in the decisive battle are firepower and protection, we only need to equip the armored cruiser with the battleship's guns and lay the battleship's armor. In this way, the armored cruiser can complete the task of clearing the enemy reconnaissance fleet and then join the fleet decisive battle, which is undoubtedly an excellent choice for the German Navy, which lacks capital ships! Qingying opened her mouth to explain. In fact, this theory was put forward by Wilhelm II in 1904, but Qingying now explained this concept accumulated over the years to Wilhelm nearly 10 years in advance.

After listening to Qingying's exposition, William's heart was suddenly startled, and suddenly a lightning bolt pierced the plug in the dark room, and he saw a dazzling brilliance. Prior to this, he and Tirpitz had also reviewed designs with a displacement of 13,000 tons, but from his Kaiser Wilhelm to the trainee designer of the ship, all of them were small repairs and repairs. Either with two more 240-mm guns, or with 2 more inches of waterline armor, no one thought of raising the caliber of the main guns to the same 283 mm as the battleships! In people's impressions, an armored cruiser is a cruiser that is one level lower than a battleship, and the caliber of 240 mm is already large enough, if it is equipped with 283 mm guns like a battleship, then what is it called?

"Ahh With a remorseful and unwilling roar, William's right hand clenched into a fist and slammed it on his head, and the huge knock sound made Qingying can't help but tremble in her heart. Looking at the pale red bulge that gradually appeared on William's forehead, Qingying couldn't help but swallow a mouthful of saliva and whispered, "Father, you're okay, right?" ”

"It's fine." William hissed as he endured the sharp pain of breaking on the top of his head and fingers. He took the glass of water on the table and drank it down, then took a long breath, and the expression on his face finally eased; It's just that there is still anger in his eyes, and he doesn't know whether it is the resentment and chagrin of his stupidity, or the inexplicable anger of Qingying. Seeing this scene, Qingying couldn't help but secretly exclaim in her heart. William is an extremely conceited yellow character, and once frustrated, he will have a strong anger and a tenfold urge to get back on the field. This kind of taste, Qingying knows what it feels like. In his previous life, when he was a student, whenever the math teacher used the unheard of experience of his predecessors to easily solve the problems that beginners were puzzled about, Qingying would have a feeling that his IQ had been played, and he was so angry that he wanted to tear the paper to shreds and eliminate the hatred in his heart. He himself is still like this as an ordinary citizen of the Celestial Empire, let alone Wilhelm II, who grew up with a golden soup spoon?

After worrying for a long time, William's inexplicable gaze of annoyance and anger finally gradually dissipated, and he returned to his normal appearance on a peaceful day. Seeing this scene, Qingying let out a sigh of relief, only to find that a little bead of sweat had oozed from her forehead. It seems that the next time I advise William, I must change the way to a tactful, once this kind of high-eyed and irritable Jun takes the initiative to really fire, the consequences are not what I can bear now!

William looked at the second son in front of him, with mixed feelings and mixed feelings in his heart. Qingying's words just now undoubtedly opened a glorious door to the road ahead for him in the dark confusion. In the case of the high cost of armored cruisers and the inability to join the battle line, it is only necessary to further increase the tonnage of the mounted cruisers, and increase their firepower and protection to a level sufficient for a fleet decisive battle while maintaining the same speed. As for the vicious increase in tonnage caused by this, William thought about it hastily and thought of a solution in his heart.

With the speed of cruising and the fire protection of a battleship, it seems to be an unattainable dream ship on the surface, but if it is really left to the designers, there is a lot to be done. In order to join the battle line, the ship simply had the same gun and armor thickness as the battleship, but it did not have to have the same firepower density and defensive height as the battleship. At present, the German battleships have 6 11-inch guns, and in order to curb the vicious rise in tonnage, the main turret in the middle can be cut off, and only 4 11-inch guns are equipped. With the gun's rate of fire of 2 rounds per minute, it was able to calmly cope with both battleships and cruisers. In terms of protection, due to the surplus tonnage of the battleship, the height of the main armament was increased to 5.5 meters, while the armored cruiser, in order to save tonnage, could completely start at the height of the main armament and abandon the protection of the battleship's firepower in some non-main areas. Through these two means, this kind of loading tonnage that can be added to the decisive battle of the fleet can be completely controlled within an acceptable range!

Although the specific tonnage of the ship is not yet known, and its detailed data is unknown, the backbone has been obtained, and there is no problem. William took a sip of the coffee on the table, a bitter feeling rushing through his throat to the bottom of his heart. The navy, which he has studied for more than ten years, can be described as well-read and self-taught, but in this field that he is most proud of, he is completely compared to a teenager who has just come into contact with the navy for 2 years! If there is still a lot of luck in the theory of "proper enlargement of the tonnage of warships" he put forward in those years, then everything he expresses today is enough to reflect his keen insight and extraordinary thinking in the navy. The obsolescence of a protective cruiser alone was something that even he and Tirpitz, who had been in the army for 30 years, did not think of at all; And William can almost conclude that the naval decision-makers of Britain, France, the United States, and Russia, which are still building a large number of protective cruisers, must not be aware of this layer! The concept of large-scale decisive battles for patrolling is even more unheard of, who would have thought that armored cruisers used for avant-garde reconnaissance could also be added to the battle line?

If these things are broken, there is really no difficulty, and it seems that it takes no effort to get them; But if you want to accurately grasp the most important link among so many distractions, Wilhelm II, who is himself an extraordinary naval attainment, knows the difficulty of it. It took nearly 5 years of exploration for Tirpitz, who has been in the army for 30 years, to condense the conclusion of strengthening armor and anti-sinking ability from the ideological theory of a hundred ghosts walking at night; And the vast majority of people in the navy are still confused by the theoretical struggle between various schools, and they do not even have a fundamental foothold!

When you think about it, it seems that this child can always surprise himself? At the age of seven or eight, the second son showed a handsome appearance far superior to that of the other brothers: the contours of his eyebrows and eyes were almost perfectly matched by William and Empress Augusta. If you don't look closely, you can't find any shadow of the Williams in Ettel's excellent appearance; The combination of genes is so subtle that it is as if God Himself had arranged each of His genetic sequences! Although William, due to his own emotional frustration in his early years, has an inexplicable disgust for this kind of delicate and handsome same-sex; But in his heart, there is still a hint of appreciation. With this guy, William not only has a very important bargaining chip in the family marriage, but also can show the general public the superior blood of the royal family, to prove that the royal power of the Hohenzollern family is granted by the gods and rally their loyalty to the empire. Due to the limited sources of information and the lack of rational understanding of the imperial family, ordinary people could only make an emotional judgment about the imperial authorities through the portraits of the members printed in the newspapers. In this case, this guy Ettel is undoubtedly a golden sign of royal orthodoxy!

2 years ago, in the face of the pouring thunder, this guy miraculously died without any sequelae; Later, he made a great leap forward in the design and concept of the navy through direct or indirect means. From the feasibility of the appropriate size of the battleship and the lead duck in the past, to the obsolescence of the protective cruiser and the fleet decisive battle type of the patrol today, any one of these ideas is immeasurable to improve the strength of the Imperial Navy; Even if he went to meet that forbidden political enemy a few days ago, he could bring back a deafening analysis of the situation!

Rao is William is not a devout Catholic, but when so many factors are combined, he has to give birth to awe-inspiring feelings in his heart. Looking at the handsome face of his second son, a thought suddenly flashed in William's heart: his eldest son, Crown Prince Auguste, was summoned back to the arms of the Holy Angel Michael.