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"How much did the 'Don-class' battleships cost? How many ships does the Admiralty plan to procure? Wang Yuze asked. .com The 'Tang-class' battleship should be the last first-class battleship built by China before the start of the Great War. Perhaps by the time the 'Tang-class' battleships were commissioned, the big war would have already begun. At that time, a large-scale war will crowd out a lot of resources, and the navy will no longer be able to build battleships like crazy. Moreover, battleships were never the direction of future development. After the technology is reached, the battleship should make way for the aircraft carrier, and it will be a complete waste to spend huge sums of money on the construction of the battleship!

"Your Majesty, the cost of the 'Tang-class' battleships is relatively high, each one is 30 million Chinese dollars, and the Admiralty plans to build six 'Tang-class' battleships, so that each fleet can be divided into two!" Minister of the Navy Zhang Cheng said. After finishing speaking, he glanced at Wang Yuze carefully, one ship is 30 million Chinese dollars, and if there are six ships, it will cost 180 million Chinese dollars, which is almost equivalent to more than half of the annual military expenditure!

"No, six is too many! Four, four is enough! And, strive to be built and put into service before 1911! Wang Yuze shook his head, and then said. The four 'Tang-class' battleships, together with the 'Han-class' battleships and the 'Hanxin-class' fast battleships that are still ahead of the world, are enough to ensure the superiority of the Chinese Navy!

Zhang Cheng opened his mouth, but in the end he didn't say much. Although there are two fewer battleships, the four 'Tang-class' battleships are still able to meet the needs of the navy.

"Your Majesty, what about the naming of these four 'Tang-class' battleships?" Zhang Cheng asked. The naming of battleships of each class was approved by Wang Yuze. As is customary, the 'Tang-class' battleships will be named after the emperor of the Tang Dynasty.

"They were named 'Tang Gaozu'. Tang Taizong', 'Empress' and 'Tang Xuanzong'! Wang Yuze said.

"Yes, Your Majesty! In addition, the Battleship Design Institute has already begun to design a new class of fast battleships, and it is expected that the design plan will be available in a year! Zhang Cheng said. After the construction of the 'Han-class' battleships, the 'Hanshin-class' fast battleships were built at the request of Wang Yuze. In Zhang Cheng's mind, after the construction of the 'Tang-class' battleship, a new first-class fast battleship should also be built! Even if only four fast battleships of the new class were procured, there would be eight. That's why he agreed to build only four of the 'Don-class' battleships!

"A fast battleship of the new class? There's no need for it! The speed of the 'Don-class' battleships. It is already no slower than the 'Hanshin class', and with more firepower and thicker armor, there is no need to waste resources in the construction of a new class of fast battleships! Wang Yuze said decisively.

"Huh?" Zhang Cheng was shocked. He didn't expect it to be like this, so doesn't that mean. Will the Chinese Navy only have four new battleships in service in the future? How can this work!

"Your Majesty, now countries are speeding up the construction of battleships, the British Navy's 'Orion-class' battleships have begun to enter service, and four 'King George V-class' battleships are under construction. According to the information we have received, the British have completed the design of the new class of battleships of the 'Iron Duke' class and are about to start construction. 'Iron Duke-class' battleships, the British will build 7 at once. Obviously. The British also had a premonition of war, and they were ready to raise their navy to a peak before the war began! Our German allies were also not idle, and their 'Caesar-class' battleships were already in service. The 'King-class' battleship is also about to enter service! In addition, the construction of the latest design of the 'Bavaria-class' battleships of the German Navy has already begun. At this time, our navy cannot afford to lag behind them! Navy Minister Zhang Cheng hurriedly said. Every time he saw Britain and Germany building battleships like crazy, he was a little worried. In the number of battleships of the Navy. China is not weaker than any other country, and it is far ahead of them in terms of quality. Merely. There is more than one enemy of China, and in addition to the British Navy, there is also the American Navy. Therefore, in Zhang Cheng's opinion, the pace of construction of battleships by the Chinese Navy cannot be slow!

"I know all this, however, with the 'Don-class' battleships, there is no need to build fast battleships. Moreover, with the current technology, it is impossible to build a battleship that is much more advanced than the 'Tang-class' battleships! Wang Yuze said.

"Then, Your Majesty, let's build a few more 'Tang-class' battleships! Otherwise, after the start of the war, I am afraid it will be difficult for us to gain an advantage! Zhang Chengjian said. If you don't build new fast battleships, it's the same if you build a few more 'Don-class' battleships.

However, what made Zhang Cheng depressed was that Wang Yuze still shook his head!

"The construction of four 'Tang-class' battleships alone is enough! Let's start researching the next generation of battleships! The battleships of the next class, in terms of speed, could not be inferior to the 'Don-class' battleships, the armor should be thicker, and the naval guns should be more powerful, with 406 mm main guns! Wang Yuze said. It is impossible to completely stop the construction of battleships. The vast majority of the navy are believers in the cannons of giant ships. Moreover, even after the appearance of aircraft carriers, battleships were not completely without courage. In bad weather, the role of a battleship was even greater than that of an aircraft carrier. If the aircraft carrier is brought closer to range by the battleship, the aircraft carrier is even more completely powerless. At the same time, when dealing with coastal targets, the fire support of battleships was much more effective than that of aircraft carriers. Therefore, it is not a waste to build some powerful battleships in small quantities!

"Alright then!" Navy Minister Zhang Cheng still compromised. Although only four 'Tang-class' battleships were built, with the next class of battleships, the Navy would not suffer too much! Moreover, the battleships of the next class use more powerful 406 mm guns, and the power is probably even more amazing!

"By the way, how is our aircraft carrier built?" Wang Yuze asked. Two years ago, with the development of technology, the fighters developed by the Air Force were basically able to meet the needs of war. Therefore, Wang Yuze ordered the Air Force to develop more advanced fighters, and at the same time to make modifications and prepare them for use in the Navy's aircraft carriers. In addition, the Navy was also required to build an aircraft carrier to serve as a test subject.

"Your Majesty, the Navy's aircraft carrier 'Kunlun' has completed sea trials and is now waiting for fighters to board the ship. It is expected that it will be completed in two months. When the time comes, combat effectiveness will be gradually formed! Zhang Cheng said. Hearing Wang Yuze ask this, he understood why Wang Yuze did not agree to build more battleships. Compared with the vast majority of people in the navy who believe in battleships and cannons, Wang Yuze firmly believes that in the future, because of the emergence of aircraft carriers, 'battleships' will withdraw from the stage of history!

The 'Kunlun' aircraft carrier is the first aircraft carrier in China and even the world that Wang Yuze put forward a specific number and then perfected it by the warship design! The Kunlun aircraft carrier has a standard displacement of 17,500 tons, a full load displacement of 23,700 tons, a total length of 195.6 meters, a width of 31.2 meters, and a draft of 7.6 meters. It is equipped with 12 large oil-fired boilers and two new steam turbines, with a power of 38,000 horsepower, a maximum speed of 21 knots (22.5 knots at sea trials), and a cruising range of 12 knots and 9,000 nautical miles. There are 1,200 members, including 200 officers. It was armed with 8 105 mm rapid-fire guns, 12 twin 75 mm air guns and 24 12.7 mm anti-aircraft machine guns. (At a time when China was vigorously developing its aviation forces, the development of anti-aircraft weapons did not stop). The most powerful weapon of the aircraft carrier is not the artillery equipped with the aircraft carrier itself, but the fighters on it! At the time of design, the Kunlun aircraft carrier would carry 48 warplanes and four seaplanes. Fighters are mainly used to attack targets, while seaplanes, with their long range and ease of take-off and landing, are used to detect and discover targets!

"The officers in charge of the 'Kunlun' aircraft carrier at high speed, it's January now, and I'm going to personally check their strength in half a year. When the time comes, a showdown between battleships and aircraft carriers can be arranged. When the time comes, everyone will see the combat effectiveness of the aircraft carrier! Wang Yuze said. He knew that in order to convince the Admiralty guys to accept the aircraft carrier, and willingly allocate resources to the aircraft carrier, only the aircraft carrier would have a strong combat power!

"Yes, Your Majesty, I'll give the order!" Zhang Cheng said. Although, he believes that Wang Yuze's judgment will not change! However, he still had some doubts. Zhang Cheng believes that with the advancement of technology, the combat power of fighters will become more and more powerful, but he does not believe that the current 'toys' made of aluminum and wood can pose a fatal threat to tens of thousands of tons of battleships! Once approached by the battleship, the weak armor of the aircraft carrier is estimated to not even be able to withstand a single shot of the battleship!

Of course, Zhang Cheng also hopes that Wang Yuze's judgment is correct, otherwise, at a time when all countries in the world are desperately building battleships, China has slowed down the construction of battleships and began to build aircraft carriers. By the time war breaks out, the Chinese Navy will be at a disadvantage! If Wang Yuze's judgment is correct and the aircraft carrier really has such a strong attack power, then the Chinese Navy will be able to occupy an absolute advantage!

The combat effectiveness of aircraft carriers is mainly derived from fighters. Regarding the fighter, Wang Yuze is still a little worried. Therefore, after dealing with government affairs, regardless of the fact that the Chinese New Year was approaching now, he rushed to the air base in Nanyuan with Wu Hao, the chief of the guard. Here, it is already the main research and development base of the Chinese Air Force, starting from the very first F1 aircraft, the aircraft design institute has developed several aircraft. It's just that, because of performance problems, these aircraft are produced in small batches, mainly for training troops, and have never appeared on the battlefield!