Since it is almost impossible to achieve a balance between offense and defense under the premise of ensuring the speed of the treaty, all countries have begun to develop super-treaty heavy patrols. By concealing their displacement and sacrificing some speed, the new heavy cruisers built by the great powers were somewhat defensive: the core compartment of the best was completely immune to direct fire from the light cruiser's 6-inch guns, and the ammunition depot was able to block even its own 8-inch shells. Japan's Tone, Italy's Zara, France's Algiers, and the United States' Baltimore are examples of the super-treaty revisit. Among them, the most superior comprehensive performance is Ligen: under the condition of ensuring attack and defense, it can also have a high speed of 35 knots and 6 seaplanes with considerable attack power, even the Zara class of the Big Noodle Country is difficult to compare!

After passing the historical heavy patrol information out of his mind, Qing Ying also had a rough outline of the design of the new German heavy patrol.

First of all, the caliber of the main gun of the new German heavy patrol had to be chosen at 203 mm. The first criterion of battleship design is to install cannons first, which is the core cost of striking the enemy to achieve victory. As the development of the quadruple turret entered the practical stage, the ambitious Qingying was ready to equip the new quadruple main gun with three quadruple guns on the new heavy cruiser to gain a clear firepower projection advantage over the 8, 9, and 10 main guns of the remaining powers. In fact, this is also a decision made by Qing Ying after some calculations: the weight reduction effect of the quadruple is extremely amazing, and the turret itself can be nearly 15% lighter than the twin with the same number of guns. Coupled with the significant reduction in the area of the gun mount, the overall weight cost is no heavier than the traditional 5-seat twin layout! This is where the quadruple turret opens. And given that the cannon of this caliber was already powerful enough against the enemy's heavy patrol, Qingying no longer pursued the length of the barrel like the Hipper-class. Instead, it was set at an inconspicuous 50 times the diameter.

And in the selection of secondary firepower. Qingying used the same 128 mm twin turret as on the Bavaria-class battleships. And equip 5 blocks to meet the needs of future air defense. One of them was carried behind the main turret C, and the other four were located on both sides. However, at a time when the threat of aircraft is almost non-existent, it is the other eight 40mm anti-aircraft guns that are responsible for air defense. Based on the combat mode of the later heavy cruise, Qingying did not equip the ship with torpedoes, but replaced it with 4 seaplanes and corresponding auxiliary equipment: this can be regarded as a painful compromise that he had no choice but to make as a BB party under the premise that the aviation era was approaching.

In terms of speed, Qing Ying raised the file in his hand as usual and slashed the file on the power system of the new heavy patrol. In addition to freeing up tonnage for firepower and armor. More reason is the mission of the German Heavy Cruiser: with the conclusion of the Washington Naval Treaty, the German Navy, which has stepped on the corpses of many "ship men" of the Royal Navy, has indisputably become the new world first, and in this case, its Heavy Patrol no longer needs to be the flagship of the mine squadron like its Japanese counterparts in history, leading the destroyers to launch lightning strikes against the enemy's main fleet. If it is only to carry out the tasks of escorting the main fleet and artillery battles, the speed of 32 knots is more than enough.

Qingying then used this speed indicator to carry out cabin demarcation and ship type design for the new heavy cruise. The classic technique of reducing the width of the water is also used, which greatly reduces the defensive area of the main deck and improves the utilization of armor. Under the influence of the multi-fluid method of the bulbous nose bow, the large square tail, and the tail plate, the threshold required for the German heavy cruisers to reach this speed was greatly reduced. After some exhaustive calculations. Qing Ying was pleased to see that the new cruiser on his drawings had saved enough weight from the power itself and the hull structure. Enough armor to be immune to an 8-inch gun at a regular engagement distance!

According to the penetration depth of the 203-mm guns of later generations, the Qing Ying laid a complete defense for the new German heavy cruisers. Its 93-meter-long core is tightly guarded by case-hardened armor up to 140 mm thick and arranged at a 20-degree inclination; Even the most powerful 203 mm guns of the Hipper class with vertical penetrations are difficult to penetrate at regular engagement distances when there is a course angle. In order to resist heavy patrol shells falling from a long distance, and at the same time take into account the future defense against aerial bombs, Qingying laid 60 mm of main horizontal armor on the upper edge of the main armor belt, thus forming a solid and solid armor box. The turret and turret also have the same protection as the core module, which is sufficient to effectively defend against 203 mm guns at regular engagement distances.

Qingying also made corresponding defenses against the water-borne bullets that often appeared in artillery battles, as well as the most lethal torpedoes. A 1.5-meter-high homogeneous armor with a gradient thickness of 140 to 60 mm is mounted on the underside of the 4-meter-high main armor belt and is responsible for defending against water bullets entering the water at close range. Further down is 60 mm of highly elastic homogeneous steel that runs through the bottom of the ship to withstand the more deteriorating underwater bullets and torpedo blasts. With the addition of 4 meters in depth and 3 compartments, the underwater mine protection of the new cruiser is amazingly powerful: even a torpedo with 350kg of TNT will hit its amidship, and it will not even be enough to break through the TDS and damage the core module!

In order to avoid a situation where the combat effectiveness is greatly affected by the damage to the secondary parts, Qingying also exerts a certain defense outside the core cabin. The bow and tail waterline of the battleship had a 50 mm light armor, which could barely withstand direct fire from the destroyer's guns; The horizontal armor at the stern was kept at 60 mm to the core compartment to protect the propeller shaft below. The level of defense of the stern steering room is also comparable to that of the core cabin.

Since this type of cruiser needs to carry and spread the will of Germany to the world, its ocean-going performance cannot be ignored. Qing Ying raised the freeboard of the main body when it was fully loaded draft to 5.4 meters, and greatly raised the bow of the floating type to 8 meters, so that whether the bow was on the wave or rolled too fast, the new cruiser was well solved. With the exception of the unfinished Bavaria-class battleships, there is no warship in the current German Navy that surpasses it in seaworthiness; Although the King-class has a larger tonnage, it is still inferior to this heavy cruiser in the field of bow waves.

After half a month of fine-tuning calculations, a general design plan for a heavy cruiser was finally drawn under Qingying's pen. It has a total length of 168 meters, a total width of 22 meters, a maximum draft of 8.1 meters, and a standard displacement of 11,000 tons. The power system adopts 9 oil-fired boilers and 3 sets of gear reduction steam turbines, with a rated output of 73,000 horsepower; Under the tripartite opening of the three-way operation of using the fluid Dafa to ensure safety, the ship is expected to still have a speed of no less than 31.5 knots at a full load displacement of 13,680 tons. Thanks to the flat acceleration of the stern and bulbous bow, the ship's endurance is also significantly improved compared to the average square-tailed vessel: it can carry 2,350 tons of fuel and can travel 9,500 nautical miles at a cruising speed of 14 knots. It can be said that this heavy patrol scheme not only has a perfect balance between the three elements of the battleship and the sailing performance, but also has a very prominent highlight in terms of firepower!

As for the ship's tonnage exceeding the treaty limit by 10%, it was not considered by Qingying at all. Because although the Washington Naval Treaty stipulates the upper limit on the tonnage of a single ship, it lacks the necessary means of supervision and control: first, the number of warships itself is a core secret of a country, and it is impossible to leak it; And even if the designer adheres to the treaty and controls the weight meticulously, it is very likely that during the actual construction of the battleship, it will be overweight due to various construction problems. Even if the weight of 11,000 tons set by Qingying is now, it is very likely that there will be a certain rise after the actual completion. In this case, Germany can directly declare 10,000 tons; As long as you don't go too far, no one will make a fuss about this!

Thinking of Japan's top-class cruiser in history, which claimed to be 8,500 tons, but in fact eventually exceeded 12,000 tons, Kiyoei said that he could not find a more conscientious executor of the treaty than himself.

As for the slag light cruisers equipped with 6-inch guns, Qingying had no intention of building such a thing at all. Because the artillery combat capability of this kind of ship is not at the same level as that of heavy patrol, and its 6-inch guns are still too heavy in air defense and lack the flexibility that anti-aircraft firepower should have. Although Germany's current financial situation is unprecedentedly abundant, it is far from the situation where local tyrants know that they are scum but still want to invest money. According to the provisions of the Washington Treaty, Germany could have 270,000 tons of A-class cruisers, and if it could build 27 heavy cruisers in the current form, it would be enough to achieve the purpose of cruising the colonies and asserting its strength in the seas.

According to Qingying's plan, Germany's 59,000-ton light cruiser share should be built into an anti-aircraft cruiser like the Atlanta-class in the United States in history. Compared with destroyers with narrow decks and tight tonnage, the Light Cruiser is obviously a better platform for carrying anti-aircraft firepower; Due to the marginal effect, the anti-aircraft firepower of one 6,000-ton cruiser is obviously more than that of three 2,000-ton destroyers, and its stability as an air defense platform is even more incomparable. This kind of anti-aircraft light patrol equipped with a large number of 128 mm guns, after being equipped with VT fuses, will be the ideal escort of the barbarian aircraft carrier, and its effectiveness is obviously much higher than that of the artillery battle type light cruiser!

However, at the beginning of 1915, when there was not even a shadow of all-metal aircraft, it was obviously too advanced to build such an air defense cruiser. Qingying was ready to leave this tonnage first, and wait until the quota for heavy patrols was used up before watching the time. The cost of a single ship of the new heavy cruise is expected to be 27 million marks, and the budget of 27 ships is enough for the German Ministry of Finance to allocate funds for a long time. Compared with the average price of 51 million marks of the King class and the 70 million marks of the Bavarian class, the low cost performance of the heavy patrol in terms of combat effectiveness has also been proven again. (To be continued......)

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