The fire crackled, the purple pot hung, and after a while, two cups of hot coffee were placed in front of the two. The white mist is thick and fragrant; Qingying lowered her head and drank a little, only to feel a mellow meaning spread on the tip of her tongue, reaching her limbs and hundreds of bones in an instant, and her mouth was full of relish. Turning his head, he saw that Tirpitz's gaze was still on his manuscript paper, and he couldn't help but say, "Mr. Alfred, what do you think of this plan?" ”

Hearing Qingying's call, Tirpitz's gaze finally slowly lifted from the manuscript paper. He raised his head, looked at Qingying's handsome Lian, and said, "Your Highness, I have a little question. In the next 7 years, you are only going to add 4 small cruisers to our German Navy, is it too much? You know, whether it's the French or the Russians, their small cruisers are counted by hits! ”

Qingying rolled her eyes and said, "Isn't there no way for me?" With only a little more than 50 million marks per year, in order to ensure the basic number of capital warships, the lineup of non-capital ships can only be drastically reduced. In addition to the battleships and the decisive battle armored cruisers, only the small cruiser was left with a knife; The torpedo boat or something is only a few hundred thousand marks 1, there is no more of it, there is no less, I still don't want to be this villain. ”

"Even then, 4 small cruisers are a bit lacking. Or would we cut the budget for 1 large cruiser and invest this money in the construction of small cruisers? Tirpitz asked.

"Mr. Alfred, this offer is not a wise choice. First of all, we must understand that due to the split of power, the amount of money required by a small cruiser in the same tonnage is much higher than that of our large cruisers; If we give up one 12,000-ton main warship in exchange for only four 2,500-ton boats, this will be a great disadvantage both in terms of the total tonnage of the fleet and in terms of comprehensive combat performance. Qingying said.

Qingying tapped his finger on the table, and continued: "Secondly, we must be clear, what is the purpose of building a small cruiser? In my opinion, it has three functions: first, to engage the enemy's small cruisers, second, to carry out torpedo attacks when necessary, and third, to drive away the enemy's mine-striking ships to prevent the enemy's capital ships from being torpedoed by the enemy. Now, our large cruisers are armed with 10 6-inch secondary guns and 10 88-mm rapid-fire guns, and their side-fire on the single side is twice as powerful as that of small cruisers, and it is not a problem at all to hit the opponent's small cruisers. And as for the lightning strike effect, the role of small cruisers is clearly inferior to that of our torpedo boats, which have a speed of more than 28 knots. Therefore, in the vast majority of cases, these small cruisers had only one function, and that was to drive away the opposing mine-striking ships from enemy torpedo attacks on their own capital ships. ”

"At present, Germany's main battleships are equipped with a large number of 88-mm anti-torpedo boat rapid-fire guns, which have a defense against the torpedo boats themselves. In this case, we only need a small number of small cruisers as additional force to further build a torpedo defense system against the main battleship. In my plan, what these 4 small cruisers were to do was to stay next to the main battleship and destroy the opposing mine-striking ships before they reached the firing position. In this case, 4 ships are almost enough. Qingying opened her mouth to explain.

"But Your Highness, our decisive battle patrol has to deal with the enemy's armored cruisers, and at the same time to join the battle line, and its own combat mission is already extremely heavy; Wouldn't it be a little too reluctant to take into account attacking small cruisers now? Tirpitz said with some trepidation.

"Mr. Alfred, the reason why the designers wanted to equip this kind of ship with 10 6-inch secondary guns was to take into account the situation of engagement with small cruisers. With this in mind, I have raised the number of ships built to the same level as battleships, in order to maximize the balance of decisive strength and escort capabilities within a limited amount. I don't have many capital battleships in Germany, do you still have to use the budget of capital ships to build frigates? Qingying glanced at Tirpitz with some dissatisfaction, and then said, "If you really feel that the number of guards is insufficient, then please raise your own funds to build it." Sell some of the old ships that I don't need in Germany, and I'll have the money to build them. ”

After listening to Qingying's explanation, Tirpitz understood the core thinking of the young man in front of him, and couldn't help but be amazed. Because the new patrol has four 11-inch guns, and has the corresponding high speed and thick armor, it can also be used for a series of tasks such as decisive battles, reconnaissance, and escort, so he increased the number of such warships to achieve a balance in various combat missions. Tirpitz looked at the plan made by the boy in his hand, and Tirpitz secretly sighed; Compared with his previous plans, Qingying's plan is obviously more suitable for the current development of the German Navy!

At this thought, Tirpitz nodded slightly; He folded and folded the manuscript and put it in his jacket pocket. Looking at the cup of coffee in front of him, which was almost cold, he raised his head and drank it all; Feeling the thick mellow fragrance that penetrated through it, the corners of Tirpitz's mouth hooked up a trace of bitterness, and muttered: "It took 7 years to build such a small ship, and most of the British would laugh off their big teeth, right?" ”

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At the end of November 1895, Tirpitz's Amendment to the Navy Act was officially passed by more than three-quarters of the votes in Congress. The legal number of battleships in the German Navy was 17 with a service period of 25 years; After the expiration of the period, it will be replaced by a new warship. According to the decree, Germany was to build seven battleships, seven armored cruisers and four small cruisers over the next seven years to replace the old warships in the country, which were already in decay. The German public almost without exception expressed their support for this move by the Navy.

Twenty-five years ago, Prussia won a resounding victory in the Franco-Prussian War, not only by grabbing a huge indemnity of 5 billion francs, but also by acquiring the iron-rich cantons of Alsace and Lorraine. At that time, the relationship between Germany and Britain and Russia was extremely close, and with cheap and abundant raw materials, vast domestic and foreign markets, huge capital injections, and excellent national quality, Germany's economy and industry took off day by day. In just 15 years, Germany has completed a ground-changing capital accumulation and industrial transformation; After Wilhelm II succeeded to the throne, he successively issued a number of laws on the economy, which regulated some unfavorable factors in the country. Under the timely and effective restraint and impetus of these laws, Germany eliminated the vast majority of economic bubbles; A large amount of capital flowed into industry, which promoted the process of industrialization and made the whole country run more rapidly on the road of progress.

In 1878, Germany produced only 48.9 tonnes of steel, less than half that of the UK, but just 15 years later, this changed completely. In 1893, when the Qing Dynasty crossed over, Germany's annual steel output had reached 3.164 million tons, surpassing the British Empire's 2.997 million tons for the first time. Today, Germany has surpassed Britain in both steel production and the number of machine tools, becoming the out-and-out first in Europe; In this case, if you don't build some battleships, how can you be worthy of such a strong industry in your own country?

On the international front, the Royal Navy, the world's largest British Royal Navy, did not say anything about the German fleet's introduction of a naval law to build 14 capital ships over the next seven years, as if it had not happened at all. In the eyes of the British, the German Hans, a group of land creatures, was nothing more than a refurbishment and decoration of their bathtub fleet. At this time, they had to start construction of 7 new battleships to replace the old 7 old ironclad ships, which was understandable; In other words, no country would allow its capital ships to serve for more than 30 years when it has sufficient financial resources.

As for the number of 17 battleships specified in the German Fleet Law, the British never paid attention to it! At this time, the British Royal Navy had reached an unprecedented peak under the reign of Queen Victoria; The total tonnage of the fleet is five times that of the German Navy, the number of capital ships in service is three times that of the German Navy, and the number of frigates and patrol ships is even more than that of the German Navy. The British even had some tacit approval in their hearts about the German navy's renovation plan: after all, a German navy with a certain strength could also contain the French navy's military strength to a large extent, forcing the French, who were the second largest in the navy world, to station more warships in Europe, so as to create an absolute superiority over the French fleet for the British navy in the Mediterranean and Asia.

That being said, though, the British were not idle. In the face of the rise of the navies of the two emerging powers, Germany and the United States, Britain will naturally not sit idly by and watch the seas dominate for more than 300 years. Since the beginning of the 1890s, after successively starting construction of 8 Sovereign-class battleships, 2 Pavreux (Centurion)-class battleships, 1 Prestige battleship and 9 Majestic-class battleships, the British Navy decided to start construction of 10 more battleships in the next three years to ensure its absolute superiority over other countries in the oceans. The horrors of the British Navy in the pre-dreadnought era are unimaginable to people who know this period of history; In contrast, the expansion of the German Navy, which only started construction of 7 battleships in 7 years, was completely a scum with a combat strength of only 5, which was simply weak.

PS: Since the author is an office worker, he can only code words after work, so the normal update time after that is around 11 o'clock in the evening, please forgive me

It seems that there is a recommendation to collect it today