"The Imperial Navy's is outdated. In the face of the well-equipped Beiyang Fleet, our navy has a certain gap with the other side in terms of quantity and quality, it is true that because of the problems of the industrial base, the products of the Imperial Navy shipyards cannot be compared with the warships ordered by the Beiyang Navy Division in Italy and Britain, so we must overwhelm the opponent with sufficient numerical superiority, and in the next battle, the Russian Navy must do its best! - From the memoirs of Makanov.

During the Sino-Russian War, the battleship formations of the two sides collided only once, and that was the time when the main force of the Russian fleet led by Makanov fought with Liu Buyun's battleship formation. In this sub-battlefield, the Russians lost 2 armored cruisers and 1 battleship, and the remaining two were also seriously damaged. This engagement made Makanov completely give up the courage to conduct a decisive battle with the Beiyang Fleet.

"The gap between the battleships of the two sides is huge, and the Imperial Navy simply does not have the strength to fight a decisive battle with the Beiyang Fleet. We need newer and more powerful ships, don't fool me with 4 12-inch guns and a bunch of 6-inch guns that don't work! Makanov complained in a letter to the Admiralty.

When the letter was sent to the Russian Admiralty, a colleague in the Admiralty felt the same way, "It's not that we don't do our best, it's that Beiyang is too sharp!" "The frenzy of asking for money, people, and warships was brewing in the Admiralty, and it exploded completely when Nicholas II inquired about the plans of the navy!

Faced with all sorts of complaints from the Admiralty about his own designers and shipyards, Nicholas II was forced to decide to continue ordering battleships from the United States and France, of course, as the Russians were customary. In general, it is to order a battleship in a foreign country, and then get the drawings back by the way. After some research, mass production began on a certain type of battleship that they thought was good. The Borodino-class battleships that have been built 5 times in a row in history are knockoffs of the Prince-class, and the Prince-class is man-made by France!

Doesn't that sound a bit like the behavior of a certain country in the future? Actually, it's nothing, all the big countries started with copycats of other countries' products at the beginning, and when they were stronger than the American imperialists in the 2nd World War, didn't they still find the jet engines and magnetrons of the British empire to build their own engines and radars? It's nothing, as long as you can digest and absorb it.

Although Nicholas II agreed to the plan to import warships to the United States and France. But agreeing to import does not mean that there will be one immediately, not to mention anything else. A single ship design led to a "civil war" in the already chaotic Russian Admiralty. And the core of the "civil war" is whether the battleships pile up a large number of secondary main guns, or learn from the Ninghai-class battleships in Beiyang to install more 12-inch guns!

One of the naval officers, who had participated in the Sino-Russian naval war, thought it would be humiliating to learn from their opponents' ideas and then imitate them. It will also definitely be half a step slower than the other (nonsense. You only follow others, can you be faster than others? )。 But it was definitely the most effective and reliable method, and in the face of the protection of battleships, even the 11-inch 40L guns were slightly insufficient. Not to mention the pile of 8-inch burning sticks.

The second-level main artillery faction immediately ridiculed each other, and they took out the investigation report after the end of the war as a basis, pointing out that even the 12-inch main gun was difficult to break through the defense at a long distance. The medium-thick armor belt was fully capable of defending itself against the 12-inch 40L Armstrong heavy gun at long distances. And after the two sides approached, the rapid fire of a large number of medium-caliber guns was the final cause of the destruction of the battleship. The Russian battleship was not destroyed because the ammunition depot was penetrated, but because it was sunk by too many heavy bombs. Therefore, the team's second-level main gun is king!

But soon the heavy artillery faction pointed out. Under the command of advanced fire control systems, the Beiyang Fleet tended to inflict heavy damage on the Russian fleet first at long distances. Entering the medium and short-range to clean up the mess, the Russians were defeated not by the amount of firepower, but because of the lack of firepower density at long distances. Being crippled from a distance is the root cause of failure. At the same time, the heavy artillery faction also took out the research report of the Sino-Russian naval battle, pointing out that even if the main equipment cannot be penetrated, a 12-inch heavy bullet hitting the armor plate will still cause the armor plate to crack, and even tear off the entire armor, resulting in serious water ingress.

It seems that the heavy artillery faction has gained the upper hand, but then, without waiting for the heavy artillery faction to sit down and drink tea, the second-level main artillery sect members launched a counterattack, and they said confidently that the fundamental reason for the long-distance firepower gap between the two sides lies in fire control and projection, fire control needless to say, everyone understands this, as for the projection, it is not necessarily necessary to increase the heavy artillery to increase the projection. The 10-inch level artillery still has a good walk at a long distance, and the projection volume is larger, and more importantly, since the long-range main gun cannot penetrate the main equipment, it is better to use high-explosive shells to suffocate the opponent, no matter how good your protection is, you can't even press the superstructure with heavy armor, right?

And the heavy artillery faction quickly proceeded from the point of fire control, they claimed that the ballistics of the artillery were different, how to control it with fire control? Is it possible to install two different fire controls to command the firepower of the whole ship? And soon the other side will take the information obtained from the French to fight back, and the fire control system will naturally only use one, but it will be enough to settle the main gun and the secondary gun at the same time when settling, just one more console, what's not to do? (The last dreadnought Danton-class battleship in France during World War 1 was to install two consoles and then command the firing of 12-inch guns and 240mm guns respectively)

The two sides argued like this, and even Nicholas II was annoyed in the end, how could there be a result if the argument continued like this? So the two factions of the Admiralty decided to bid separately and then take the design drawings and go to the war of words! That's more convincing, isn't it? So, the two factions issued a tender announcement at the same time, and then at the same time from the same design institute in the United States to get two completely different design drawings, it is said that the personnel of the two factions in the United States were living in the same hotel, even next door, of course, the accuracy of this message, people can not verify.

The first to get back the shooting drawings were the second-level main gun sectarians, and when they unfolded the drawings, they didn't know which official said cheaply: "Isn't this the battleship Iowa of the U.S. Navy?" Did you get it by mistake? Just this sentence made the other party feel extremely embarrassed!

This battleship is indeed based on the battleship Iowa, in order to improve seaworthiness, the Iowa class long bow layout is continued, the beginning and tail are two twin 12-inch 45L main guns, and four twin 10-inch 45L secondary guns are arranged at the four corners of the hull amidships. The main armor is 10 inches thick and reaches a height of 3.5 meters. The thickness of the upper armor was 6 inches. The frontal thickness of the turret is up to 12 inches, and the armor of the secondary main gun is up to 8 inches. IT HAS 100MM HEAD AND TAIL ARMOR.

In the selection of secondary guns, the Russians gave up the long-used 6-inch guns, on the one hand, because the tonnage of the entire battleship was already a little large. On the other hand, the 6-inch guns are a little high or low, hit the frigate, the rate of fire is a little slow, the 120 gun is fine, and the big ship is useless and the range is close. In terms of power, a vertical reciprocating steam engine is still used, with a theoretical output of 21,000 horsepower, a speed of more than 19 knots, and a tonnage of about 15,000 tons

Supporters believe that the combat power of this battleship can already suppress the Ninghai-class battleships in Beiyang, and the easiest thing to achieve is just an expanded version of the original Iowa-class battleships, but because of the new turret and main gun, and the armor belt is further optimized, its combat power has also been greatly improved. Not comparable to the original. What's more, the Iowa of the year could fight with the Spanish-class battleship of the same type as the Ninghai, and now after some rough time, there should be no problem with the new warship. As a warship that can be used against the Ninghai class in the future, such a design is undoubtedly the most cost-effective and easy to implement that Russia can accept at present.

And the opponents put forward their own objections at this time, first of all, the first point is that there is a waste of firepower, a total of 8 10-inch 45L main guns, can only play half of the firepower on one side, and the main gun on the other side can only be used to play soy sauce, which is definitely a waste of resources and a crime against the Ministry of the Navy! In a few words, this technical issue has risen to a political level! On the other hand, it is a question about the power of the 10-inch gun, and it is true that everyone can only ignite the ship at a long distance, but at close range, the 10-inch gun is not enough to smash through the opponent's heavy protection, and the effectiveness will be greatly reduced.

Proponents have put forward such a theory. First of all, only half of the 8 10-inch guns could be used in engagement, and it seemed that half of the firepower intensity was indeed lost. But at the same time, in the event of an engagement, four 10-inch guns can be on guard on the non-combating side, and these idle guns will be useful if the opponent kills a fleet from the other side or has torpedo boats to launch a surprise attack. And it will not be like a battleship with a central axis layout that cannot take care of both sides. 、

As for approaching? The opinion of the supporters is this, in the face of the entire Russian fleet, the Beiyang Fleet is definitely at an absolute disadvantage in terms of numbers, and in this case they will definitely not easily approach the Russian fleet, and will inevitably use their long-range superiority to slowly wear down the opponent. So the arguments of the naysayers are certainly not true!

After the last, the second-level main artillery faction has come up with the most powerful killer feature! That is, our plan has been released, and it is completely achievable after the verification of the technical staff, so what about your plan? Are there any blueprints yet? Is it acceptable to the Russian Navy shipyards? You haven't even written a word, why are you laughing at us? No matter how good the battleship is, it is useless if it cannot be realized!

And now, the officials of the heavy artillery faction really haven't figured out what their battleships will be like when they arrive on the ground, whether to learn from the Ninghai to arrange 6 12-inch heavy guns on the central axis, or 8 12-inch heavy guns on the central axis, or to use other methods to arrange heavy guns? Of course, the most important thing is whether the Russian naval shipyards can cope with such a heavy task. If it can't be completed with quality and quantity, then everything is still empty talk. This debate is just the beginning. (To be continued.) )