Although Britain lost the global dominance of the empire after the First World War, it is undeniable that the Royal Navy during this period can definitely be called sweeping through the world, looking at the past and the present. The construction of 8 capital ships in a single year and 17 capital ships in 3 years is something that Germany simply cannot achieve by devoting all its resources to the navy. Historically, the German Navy spent only 40% of the military expenditure of the United Kingdom in the same period, and it was almost impossible to use this money to build a high seas fleet equal in number to the Royal Navy in the age of dreadnoughts; Therefore, in order to defeat the British on the sea, in addition to improving the quality, it is necessary to start building capital ships that can join the final battle line in the pre-dreadnought era!

However, the naval column of 1914 was by no means the battle line of 1904. During the Russo-Japanese War, the main battleships of various countries were still 4 305 mm guns with a speed of 18 knots; Ten years later, this standard has been suddenly raised to 10 343 mm guns and 21 knots. The rapid development of naval technology has caused the huge number of former dreadnoughts of all countries in the world to lose the ability to fight on the front line; Whether it's in firepower, armor, or speed, these old guys are already too many notches behind.

Due to the limitations of the background of the times, even if Qingying has the thinking and opinions of more than 100 years later, it is completely impossible to build a battleship that can defeat the dreadnought super dreadnought in 10 years with the current level of technology. However, defeating an opponent in a decisive battle and joining in a decisive battle are two completely different concepts; The former needs to be stronger than the enemy, while the latter only needs to qualify for a fight with the opponent! As for the characteristics of this kind of warship, Qingying already has a detailed idea in his heart.

First, as a member of the battle line, such a battleship must have excellent protection. Due to the limitations of technical conditions, the external area of the battleship and even the waterline can be lost, but the internal core cabin must be tightly protected, and the enemy must not be fired at the first shot. And to this point, the dome armor structure commonly used by German warships in history has been the best answer to this. This heavy armor is mounted behind the main armor at a large angle, and its biggest advantage is that it has excellent vertical protection against shells; Once the main armor is penetrated, there is also a large inclination armor standing proudly behind, which can protect key parts such as power compartments and ammunition depots from loss. With this iron underpants, the only way to sink this battleship is to penetrate the waterline and cause it to enter the water and overturn; In this way, they could share enough artillery fire for the main fleet.

Second, such a ship must have a speed of not less than 20 knots. In the Battle of Jutland in history, the British Grand Fleet dispatched 28 battleships and 9 battlecruisers, but there was not a single former dreadnought in the jungle of the battle line at the end of this space. The reason why Jericho put aside the dreadnoughts of various types with a number of up to 50 ships and let the main fleet go it alone, in addition to the fact that the main fleet itself has a huge advantage of almost 2 to 1 over the German Navy, and there is no need for these old guys to be stubborn, there is a more important reason, that is, the speed of these old guys cannot keep up with the pace of the main fleet. British pre-dreadnoughts were generally designed to reach a speed of only about 18 knots, and many of them had fallen sharply due to poor maintenance over the years, which had led to a sharp drop in speed (the British Dreadnought before the old man Asterisk, completed in 1899, was 18 knots when it was newly built, and by the time the Speese fleet was captured in 1914, the ship could only crawl at 14 knots), while the dreadnoughts were all running at 21 knots. In this case, the main decisive battle with them will instead become a drag on the maneuver of the fleet. For dreadnoughts, a speed of 20 knots is the minimum requirement; And in order to keep up with the pace of the main fleet, the old guys of Germany, who were built in advance for the decisive battle of the fleet, should also have this ability to maneuver.

In addition to this, the ship had to possess a certain level of firepower in order to be able to inflict damage on the original British dreadnoughts and attract hatred. The 11-inch guns currently on German battleships were sufficient to meet this need. As for the number of 11-inch guns, it is best to have 6-8 guns; However, it was still 1895, and the various techniques were still immature, and the tonnage of more than 6 11-inch guns was too large, so Qingying decided to temporarily equip 4 guns to reduce the construction pressure.

Now that the German Navy is ready to start developing cruisers, this is the best opportunity. If William can be said to increase the tonnage of the new cruiser to about 12,000 tons, it will be enough to achieve four 11-inch guns and a speed of 20 knots, and lay a 250 mm waterline armor that is not inferior to the original British dreadnoughts, and a 65-70 mm thick iron underpants. The ship can be called an armored cruiser due to its speed of 20 knots; However, after the outbreak of the World War, it can be directly caught on the battle line and participate in the decisive battle of the fleet! This kind of battleship, which rushed to the decisive battle of the fleet at the beginning, was much better than the Braunschweig and old Germany that Shisscher used to make up the numbers!

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As soon as she thought of this, Qingying perked up and nodded, "What my father said is extremely right. We can't just be prepared for the last war, we should look at the big picture and think carefully. The French have always been insidious and cunning, and perhaps they are already preparing for the construction of large cruisers. In the absence of a clear prospect, it would be better for us to make this kind of cruiser larger, at the expense of abandoning the overseas cruising function, and to deal with the large cruisers that the French might have. In addition, with the proper amplification of the warship, its performance will also be improved geometrically by the combination of protective space and power efficiency. At the same cost, the combat capability of 5 6400-ton ships is not as good as 4 8200-ton warships, and the performance of 4 8200-ton warships is not as strong as 3 11500-ton ships! Therefore, I propose that instead of building 5 cruisers of the 2.5th class of 6400 tons, it is better to build 3 large cruisers of the 1st rank of 11500 tons! The British had already started construction of 14,200-ton large cruisers, and it was hard to guarantee that France would not follow suit. ”

Hearing this, William knew what Qingying was trying to express. This young man who is not yet 13 years old proposed the concept of appropriately large warships, and if three small warships are merged into two large warships, it can not only save the weight of the power system, but also greatly reduce the armor area of the defense core compartment, and use a lot of weight in other places. This is a brilliant guide to ship design alone, but when it comes to armored cruisers......

William smiled slightly, his face returned to his former conceited and proud look, and said hesitantly, "Ettel, you are right. However, you only grasp the shortcut to improve the performance of the warship, but ignore another crucial core, which is the cost of the warship. In October last year, Alfred proposed to me a plan for an armored cruiser with a displacement of 10,000 tons and four 240 mm guns, but I rejected it. Because if the tonnage is increased as he did, it will inevitably greatly increase the cost of armored cruisers, so that the cost of armored cruisers is almost no different from that of battleships, and armored cruisers are not the main force in naval warfare. This practice of excessively enlarging the size of armored cruisers is completely putting the cart before the horse, and investing too much money in non-capital ships will inevitably affect the number of capital ships of our German Navy! ”

Rao is Qingying has already known William's concept in later generations, but when he heard him say it himself, he still couldn't help but praise his cheap father from the bottom of his heart. The tonnage of the armored cruiser was enlarged, and he had a keen insight into its essence and connotation; To be able to have this insight in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when new techniques and new ideas were surging and dazzling, it is estimated that no one can match it except Qingying, who is a traverser!

Looking at William's confident smiling face, Qingying couldn't bear to use the knowledge of later generations to deal a blow to him. However, this matter is related to the future development of the entire Imperial Navy, and Qingying can only make up his mind to find the solution to his cheap father. He pondered for a moment, then said with some hesitation: "If that's the case, I seem to have a way to solve it?" ”

"Huh?" William's eyelids jumped, and there was a look of disbelief in his eyes. If it had been half an hour ago, William would have thought that his prettiest boy was talking nonsense; However, just now, I had just learned his outdated and strict theory of protecting cruisers, and I felt a little unconfident in my heart. This boy of his own attainments in the navy is not inferior to him William; Now that he has said such a thing again, how can William not think about it?

William was silent for a long time, and then slowly spoke, half affirmatively and half hesitantly: "Ettel, I admit that the issue of protecting the cruiser in front of me is indeed something that I have not fully considered, but this issue does not fall into this scope. In the past six months, in order to strike a balance between cost and combat effectiveness, Alfred and I have asked the designers to draw up many design plans, but none of them have been able to completely solve this problem. I know that you, like me, have a strong interest in the navy that ordinary people don't have, but you can't always do this! Speaking of the last word, William had a wry smile on his face. I have been conceited for many years in technical planning and ship design, and I will not have the slightest fear in front of those senior designers; Why is it that in the face of a child now, it has become a little lacking in self-confidence?

PS: Roar, my Grand Fleet decisive battle armored cruiser is about to be born, baa haha haha Ha