"The last point is the 11-inch gun that my Germany used. Except for our country, Germany, the other powers are equipped with heavy guns of 12 inches or more on their capital ships, and Britain, France, the United States, Russia, Italy, Austria and other countries are without exception. Therefore, for them, the same firepower as a battleship would not be an 11-inch gun, but a larger 12-inch main gun; But for this kind of heavy gun, which is often more than 50 tons, to be equipped on a battleship, the conditions required are far more stringent than our 11-inch guns! Speaking of this, Qingying stopped, there was something for Wilhelm II to figure out for himself, and it was a better choice for himself.

William was silent for a long time, and then slowly spoke: "I understand. For our Germany, the standard firepower configuration of the battleship is 6 11-inch guns, so we can completely reduce the number of main guns to 4 in the decisive battle type to solve the problem of vicious increase in tonnage. And due to the high rate of fire of our 11-inch guns, which can reach 2 rounds per minute, the hit rate of the 4 main guns is still at a relatively high level. But in other countries, it's a different story. ”

William's mind turned, and he said: "Due to gunnery, a gun with a rate of fire of only 1.2 rounds per minute such as a 305 mm caliber should be equipped with at least 4 guns on the battleship to ensure an effective hit on the target." And because of physics, it was almost impossible to load 4 of these heavy guns on a cruiser. 4 12-inch guns were the standard firepower configuration of their battleships, and if they did, it would be tantamount to making a battleship with a speed of only 17 knots run at 20 knots! Carrying out the task of a decisive battle of the fleet requires strong armament and defense, and this kind of ...... does not reduce firepower and protection Something similar to a fast battleship, a vicious rise in tonnage is simply unimaginable! If they choose to compromise and be equipped with two 12-inch main guns, they will not be able to form a continuous strike at all, and the actual combat effect will be extremely limited. The reason why Britain abandoned 2 12-inch guns and developed second-class battleships equipped with 4 10-inch guns was based on this consideration. Therefore, even if they knew the meaning of the decisive battle type of patrol, they could not have built something equipped with a 12-inch main gun, which could not enrich their main fleet! Speaking of the most lush, William's eyes gradually lit up, and his face bloomed with a look of surprise.

Hearing William's words, Qingying's heart was greatly shaken; Looking at William's familiar face, I couldn't help but feel a sincere admiration for his profound naval attainments. Although this emperor is only an amateur, he has a keen insight into the navy that ordinary people do not possess at all, and has extremely unique opinions in many places. At this moment, in the face of such a new type of ship that has never appeared at all, William instantly grasped the essential core of it and created a new word such as "fast battleship"! Historically, as early as 1903, when the construction of the Scharnhorst-class armored cruiser had just begun, William proposed the concept of a fast battleship because he was dissatisfied with the cost-effectiveness of large disguised cruisers; If it weren't for Tirpitz's philosophy to the left, believing that Germany's large cruisers only needed to be able to deal with their British counterparts, the strength of the German fast fleet would have increased dramatically!

"Father is wise. In my estimation, if Britain and France and other countries want to build fast battleships equipped with four 12-inch guns, protection and speed comparable to ours, the tonnage will at least soar to more than 18,000 tons; And whether it is from the perspective of slipway, technology and cost performance, it is impossible for them to build the same type of warship. Even the Italian designers needed to enlarge the ship to 14,000 tons if they wanted to create such a decisive battle with four 12-inch guns. Since Italy is an important ally in the Mediterranean to contain the power of Britain and France, it would not be a disadvantage for us in Germany if they had the will to build. Qingying smiled. According to his memory, Italy will start construction of a battleship called "Margaret" in November this year: its design displacement is 13,200 tons, equipped with 4 305 mm L40 main guns, 4 203 mm L40 secondary guns and 12 152 mm L40 guns, with a speed of 20.3 knots, and a large area of 6-inch Harvey armor at the waterline. In addition to the armor protection is only at the level of Garibaldi, its comprehensive performance has almost reached all the above conditions of Qingying!

Strictly speaking, the Margaret-class, which began construction in Italy in 1898, was the first real battle cruiser in the world; Its 4-door 12-inch, 4-door 8-inch, and 12-door 6-inch firepower was enough to sweep away any of the cruisers, and its speed of 20.3 knots was not inferior to that of the armored cruisers of the time. Invincibility is just a fluke by virtue of the power advantage of the steam turbine. As for the Tsukuba, built in 1905, and the agile, which some call the Battle Cruiser, where can they compare to the Margaret class, which began construction in 1898? In the pre-dreadnought era, the warships of Britain, France, the United States and Russia were all a group of clumsy turtle barbarians, and only my Great Italy represented the highest level of naval ship design at that time!

William nodded and smiled, his heart as if he had been congested for a long time, spacious and bright, comfortable and comfortable. For the above four reasons, it is impossible for Britain, France, and Russia, which pose the greatest threat to Germany, to replicate Germany's decisive battle patrol; If you force it, you will inevitably draw a tiger and not be the opposite of a dog. If you think about it carefully, not only the installation of 11-inch guns, but even the installation of 10-inch guns, Britain, France and Russia will hardly build them! At the moment, France and Russia want to destroy Britain's sea lines of communication, and Britain wants to protect them; This kind of combat purpose determines that the warships they build must put speed and endurance in the first place, and the firepower and protection cannot be very powerful. Considering their technical inferiority and the existing naval weapons system, Britain, France, and Russia are equipped with 9.2-inch, 7.5-inch, and 8-inch naval guns for armored cruisers respectively.

"I don't have any doubts about cruisers. The 7,000-ton low-cost installation and patrol plan was immediately cancelled and the original construction plan for the decisive battle type was restored. William glanced at Qingying, who was beaming, and then said, "However, after all, the decisive battle type is a product of high speed, and its role in the main decisive battle is still far inferior to that of a real battleship. And the size of our main fleet is simply too lacking. What's more, the 3 warships we sold this time are all main ironclad ships, and corresponding warships must be built to make up for this shortcoming; Since we have sold 3 ships, we should build 3 to make up for them now! ”

Qingying sighed secretly, and a bitter meaning spread in her heart. In all fairness, William's choice was not wrong, because in order to pursue the number of lines of 20 knots, the decisive battle type patrol not only cut down 1 main turret, but also shrank the height of the main armor by 2 meters, and its strength on the battle line was indeed inferior to the orthodox front dreadnought. If it weren't for his own obstruction, maybe William would have begun to expand the main fleet a lot, as in history, with the intention of starting to compete with Britain for territory under the sun at this stage. The reason why he chose the decisive battle type was to add a few more ships to the German dreadnought array in the future, so as to help the main fleet share a large amount of damage. His thin lips twitched, and then he said, "Why don't we build 2 battleships and 1 decisive battle for patrol?" I recently had an improvement plan for the Battle Patrol, and I can use this windfall to test it. ”

"What's the improvement?" When William heard this, he was immediately interested. After a series of previous events, William already had a high level of trust in his child's idea in the navy, and now seeing that he was about to throw out a new thing, he couldn't help but feel itchy and asked.

"According to the experience of the Qing-Japanese naval battle, the effective hitting distance of naval artillery at the moment is within 3,000 meters; The new 450-mm torpedo, which we began developing the year before, is expected to be successfully developed the year after that, and its range will also reach 3,000 meters. And the threat posed by torpedoes to warships is much greater than that of naval guns! Qingying said.

William frowned and said, "You mean to equip the torpedo on the battleship and use it as the main weapon?" But we have special torpedo boats, isn't that what they do? ”

Qing Ying smiled gloomily, Qing Jun's face showed a bit of treacherous brilliance, and he said hesitantly: "Since artillery can be mechanically loaded and loaded at any angle through the turret structure, then what can't torpedoes do?" My idea was to equip each side of the Decisive Battle with a turret on each side, but this turret was specifically designed for firing torpedoes! In this way, with the turret structure and the bomb carrier, we can load the torpedo tube like a cannonball, and this speed is obviously several times faster than the normal torpedo loading speed! A 450-mm torpedo weighs about 650kg, and with the turret structure, it takes less than 2 minutes to complete a round of reloading! In order to ensure that the torpedo is not detonated by enemy fire, we can lay the same defense for this combat torpedo tower as the main turret; In this way, the turret for firing torpedoes is thus completed! ”

After listening to Qingying's words, William's mouth was wide enough to stuff a duck egg; It took a long time for him to hold back a complete sentence: "Etter, I'm afraid you are the only one in the whole world who can come up with such a thing, right?" ”

Qingying glanced at William when he heard this, and said: "In order to realize this idea, I have specially consulted a professional designer, and there will be no problems in the technical skills of torpedo delivery and loading." Father, think about it, as long as the distance between the two sides is shortened to within 3,000 meters, the frequency of firing a torpedo every 2 minutes is enough for enemy warships to avoid it! Looking at the world, only Germany can have a torpedo with a range of 3,000 meters, so other countries can't copy it if they want to! ”

"But in this way, the tonnage and cost of the decisive battle will be greatly increased. If your idea proves unviable in real combat, the Empire will lose a lot! William finally came to his senses and pointed out the biggest problem.

The corners of Qingying's mouth hooked up a trace of demonic arc, and he said hesitantly: "For this situation, I also have a back hand!" He leaned over to William's ear, and muttered a few words in a voice that only William could hear in the latter's puzzled eyes.

After a moment, William suddenly chuckled, louder and louder; At the end of the day, even the forest birds outside the door of the study were startled by him and flew away!

Thanks to the blood-spattered tip, who knows the real role of this combat torpedo tower? You might as well guess it in the book review area, if you guess correctly, the author will add a new chapter tomorrow~

Regarding this idea of the torpedo tower, the author once again worships the great sage 229, and is very grateful