"Dear General Lin, for some reason, this time your country only wants our country to buy high-explosive shells and not armor-piercing shells? All the 12-inch battleships in your country used British guns, but why did they use German shells? At the banquet held on the evening after the end of the sea trial, Jericho took the opportunity to toast Lin Yongsheng and asked about something that he had always been very concerned about, that is, the development trend of the armament of the Huaxia Navy.

Although I don't want to admit it in my heart, Jericho's actual action is to keep up with the pace of Huaxia naval construction, you build dreadnought warships, I also build, Huaxia decided to build fast battleships, then Jericho also has to step up the operation of this matter. Recently, when he overheard that the Chinese fleet had begun to drastically reduce the amount of ammunition ordered from the British, he at first thought it was the revenge of the Chinese Republic for some unfriendly acts of the British Empire, but soon he realized that things were not as simple as he thought.

First of all, Huaxia's orders for some basic industrial products of Britain did not decrease, and if it was retaliation, it would be a bit of a fuss to just get stuck on the battleship shells, after all, the consumption of battleship shells was very small. After careful investigation, Jericho found that the Republic of China only canceled the order contract for all armor-piercing shells, and the high-explosive and semi-armor-piercing shells still use British-produced shells.

And thinking of this, Jericho only felt dizzy, if something went wrong with the shell. In particular, the armor piercing that determines the victory or defeat of the sea has a problem, which will have a huge impact on the outcome of the war, so Jericho needs to figure out what is going on on on the ground.

"Your country's armor-piercing shells are very unstable. Not only is the picric acid explosive inside unstable, but the fuse is also set for too short a time, and it is easy to explode early, so the shell will explode before it can penetrate the opponent's armor. Of course, the only advantage of this is that the shells do not fire dumb. Lin Yongsheng also received instructions from Xu Jie, so he "revealed" some actual conditions to the British.

"Are the armor-piercing shells of the Germans good? All this can be changed. General, you should have confidence in the military industry of the British Empire. Jericho asked, with the last glimmer of hope.

"The shells of the German Empire, although there were duds, were relatively speaking. I would still prefer to use the shells of the German Empire, after all, their shells have a better chance of penetrating the opponent. Lin Yongsheng said slightly apologetically.

"Really? May I ask, what was the armor-piercing depth of the 12-inch shells of the Germans? Jericho asked in a low voice.

"I'm sorry, but that's a bit overwhelming. But judging by the experimental situation. Penetrating the main armor of any armored cruiser within 7KM is not a big problem. Lin Yongsheng pondered for a moment and said.

"Thank you for your help, you will be a friend of the Royal Navy of the British Empire and me forever." Jericho left the venue quietly, he now felt that the actual situation was more dangerous than he expected, the Royal Navy not only had misunderstandings in the design of warships, but also had various loopholes in the most basic links of military production. It's horrible.

Three days later, Jericho's office door was pushed open, and before Jericho could speak, Thomas delivered a report to Jericho's desk.

"It's a bad situation. Our shells did have the problem of early explosion, and the test results of the 12-inch 45L gun on the shooting range were tragic. At a simulated distance of 6KM, we can't even penetrate 6-inch hardened armor, and this data is already lower than the actual combat data of the Chinese fleet in the Sino-Russian War! Thomas said.

"Damn, if such a shell is brought to the battlefield, I'm afraid it will be difficult to penetrate even 5 inches of hardened armor. We have to do something, and at the next naval conference I propose to improve the shell fuse and charge. Jericho said.

"In addition, Sir Fisher decided to start construction of three battle cruisers at the same time, and his requirements were simple, at least eight 12-inch guns with firepower, and at the same time the speed must reach more than 25 knots, but in terms of defense, Sir Fisher thought that 6 inches of armor would be enough." Thomas said angrily.

"I'll prepare now, and I'll pay a visit to Sir Fisher in the afternoon." Jericho thought for a moment and said. "Don't worry, my friend, I'm not going to confront Sir Fisher head-on, I'll take a detour, well, just like the Roman general Fabian did back then." Looking at his friend's concerned gaze, Jericho said with a smile.

"You're looking for me? General Jericho, my time is busy, at most, half an hour. Fisher looked at Jericho who walked in and frowned slightly and said, in fact, for Jericho, Fisher was not very satisfied, in his impression Jericho was too conservative, and it did not fit well with the British Empire's extremely offensive naval tradition. Betty is capable and aggressive, but she can't convince the crowd. The reason is very simple, Jericho is at least an officer who participated in the Spanish-American War and observed the two wars of the Beiyang Navy, and in terms of actual combat experience, the Royal Navy is unparalleled, so in the entire Royal Navy, Jericho is already the commander of the Grand Fleet.

"First of all, I congratulate the Royal Navy on finally being able to solve the problem of armored cruiser safaris of potential enemy countries." Jericho said as he entered. "But I have a question for you, Mr. Chancellor, who are our hostile nations now? The French are already in alliance with us, and the Russians are about to enter into an alliance with us. ”

"This is already an empty secret in the Admiralty, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy. And maybe Turkey. Fisher thought for a moment and said.

"So Mr. Sir, if we are going to deal with the Turks, 3 battlecruisers should be enough, right?" Jericho asked.

"Is it necessary to use valuable battle cruisers against Turkey? Cruisers of the British Empire were enough. The battlecruisers were to serve as an effective avant-garde force for the Grand Fleet. It had only one goal, the avant-garde fleet of the German High Seas Fleet. Fisher said impatiently.

"But the problem is, my battlecruiser has the same firepower as the opponent's fast battleships, but the protection is not as good as the opponent's, too high speed? This one is very exploitative of escape. Jericho teased.

"More firepower, faster rate of fire, we can destroy the opponent before they destroy us." Fisher said. "We have more battle cruisers. In terms of firepower, we have an absolute advantage. ”

"Well, I think Mr. Chancellor should take a look at this report first, the data of the shells used by the warships of the British Empire in the test site is actually not as good as the data of the Huaxia Navy in actual combat, and the latter uses German shells, which can easily penetrate the 6-inch armor and the dome armor behind it at a distance of 8KM. The small angle of the dome armor has no practical effect at all. So, if the two sides were to fight, perhaps with just one shell, our battleship, and the valiant Royal Navy officers and men on it, would hate the North Sea. Jericho said.

"Hell, but the people at Vickers Gun Factory say that 6-inch armor is enough to defend against a 12-inch main gun." Fisher said. Historically, there were deep reasons why the British battlecruisers adopted a lightly protected design, in addition to Fisher's intention to use battlecruisers against cruisers at that time, the poor quality of the British's shells also played a key role. In the tests of the British, the 12-inch 45L naval gun still could not penetrate the 9-inch armor around 1910!

Then the British thought that since their 12-inch naval guns could not destroy the 9-inch hardened armor, then the 12-inch 50L on the German battleship could not destroy the 9-inch hardened armor, in this case, then their own battlecruiser equipped with a 9-inch high enough armor belt and the dome armor behind it was enough to resist the 11-inch 50L main gun of the German battlecruiser, since the protection was enough, then the weight could be used in other aspects.

But the actual result, everyone knows, because the British shells were too bad, and the British overestimated the effect of the armor, so in the design of the protection of battleships and battle cruisers, the British had serious deviations. The British are not stupid, and they are not willing to build a battleship as fragile as paper. And now, with the emergence of Xu Jie, a butterfly, Britain realized the seriousness of the problem 10 years earlier.

As for whether this will negate the superiority of the German Navy? Xu Jie is not worried, the reason is very simple, even if the soft quilt cap armor-piercing bullet solves the problem of fuse and charge, its effect is still not very good, and in this plane, the strength of the German Navy is much higher than the original, maybe Bavaria can be put into service in advance, and the German 15-inch naval gun can penetrate the defense of the revenge-class battleship!

"General Jericho, how can you go and verify your claim?" Fisher asked.

"It's very simple, we can buy some German-made shells from the Huaxia Navy, and then import some shells from other countries for testing and comparison, which is enough to explain everything. But now the problem is that the relationship between the two sides is not very harmonious, so there are some difficulties. Recalling Lin Yongsheng's change in attitude, Jericho said with some concern.

"Well, this is a political problem, but the result is to be borne by the navy, but it is not a good thing for the British Empire that China is too strong, Malaya, Singapore, and Burma in Southeast Asia are all colonies of the empire, and I am worried that the strong China will not only have a strong impact on Southeast Asia in the future, but also have some impact on the South Asian subcontinent." Fisher said.

"This is the inevitability of history, the rise of a great power is unstoppable, there is no force in the entire Far East that can contain it, in the face of the crisis in Europe, I think the British Empire can still consider making appropriate concessions." Jericho said.

"Although the Far East is gone, no matter how far the ocean is, it does not mean that the country with stronger industry and technology than China will be willing to see the rise of China. The Pacific Ocean is big, but the ambitions of the two countries are greater," Fisher said meaningfully.

Thank you for the light reward from Shuyoushan~~~~. (To be continued......)