December 25, 1888. Christmas in the West was supposed to be a time of rest. But in the country house where Leo was commissioned, a genius designer and a genius time-traveling plagiarist are busy. For no other reason, the Italian Navy wants to re-equip a number of new dome cruisers (historical facts, around 1890, the Italian Navy built about 7 new dome cruisers) and the ABC top three in South America are also preparing to vigorously expand the navy (historical facts, Y's Argentine cruisers bought 4!!) In this world, no one can't get along with money. With this in mind. Xu Jie and Leo are vigorously improving the design of this protective cruiser, and the specific compartments and drawings must of course be handed over to Leo to do. Don't look at Xu Jie as a navy that crosses, but after all, he is not a regular ship designer, let alone a ship designer in the 19th century. It is absolutely impossible for him to complete a full set of drawings independently. Fortunately, Leo has a solid foundation when he is entrusted, and Xu Jie specializes in design ideas and naval warfare knowledge, so the cooperation between the two is perfect.

"Xu, look, can this firepower be strengthened a little more?" Leo looked at the drawings and frowned.

"If the cost is relaxed a little bit, and then the seaworthiness is reduced a little, it's still okay." Xu Jie said disapprerovingly. To be honest, Xu Jie thinks that the main firepower of 10 6-inch guns is enough, and any more, it will be a bit of a suspicion of small boats resisting artillery.

"If we could, I think we'd have an 8-inch gun in the bow and stern." Leo was entrusted to think about it

"This stability will definitely be affected, and if the sea conditions are good, it is not a big problem." Xu Jie smiled secretly. The Italian Navy had a habit of piling up as many weapons as possible on the smallest possible ship in the pre-dreadnought era. Of course,Although there is no shipwreck like the later generations of the book.。 But its fanaticism for firepower is absolutely admirable. For example, the Varese class, a 7240-ton battleship, was actually armed with 1 10-inch gun, 2 8-inch guns, 14 6-inch guns, 10 76-gun guns and 6 47-gun guns!! This is a battleship of only 7,240 tons, and it dares to compete with the British 14,000 tons of patrol firepower!! And the protection is not bad, with a powerful 5-inch Krupp armor coverage of the lower deck and middle deck. Of course, the seaworthiness is almost there, and the living environment is estimated to be more tragic. And the initiator of this qiē is the commissioner Leo who stands in front of Xu Jie!!

"Actually, I think that if you fight in the Mediterranean Sea or in your country's Yellow Sea, stability will almost not be a problem." Leo said unyieldingly.

Xu Jie was silent

"Xu, we can increase the tonnage a little more, or reduce the coal carrying capacity." Leo muttered unrelentingly.

"It seems that if we do not make some concessions today, this entrusted Mr. Leo is not going to give up. But then again. On a 4,500-ton hull, an 8-inch gun is not too much. Isn't that the Haitian that the Qing Dynasty bought later? As for seaworthiness. Well, the low point of offshore combat is the low point. What is the best offshore boat? Being able to fight and resist, and having enough speed is the king. Let's play with seaworthiness~~" Xu Jie said secretly in his heart. "Okay, then change the 6 inches in the bow to 8 inches." After a battle between heaven and man, Xu Jie nodded extremely reluctantly.

"You see, conservative calculations, after replacing the 8-inch gun, the tonnage will be close to 4,500 tons, so is the rated horsepower of 10,002 not enough? Do you want to increase the power a little more? Leo was asked to calculate as he spoke.

"I estimate that if you design this ship, it won't be able to hold the last 5,000 tons. The cost will be close to £350,000. Xu Jie said with a dark face and gritted teeth.

"It should be about the same. If it is 2 8-inch guns and 8 6-inch guns, 10,004 horsepower and 4,500 tons of displacement. £350,000 is still a reasonable price. Leo said with a sense of urgency.

"It's over, the first two days of hard work have been in vain." Xu Jie covered his head with his hands and made a heartache.

"Actually, we should think about the customer, if we can, it's better to use one ship type as the basis and come up with multiple sub-plans, so that the customer has more choice, and we will have more chances of winning the bid. Some customers are not bad for money, maybe they want a better ship, and tens of thousands of pounds more is not a problem for them. And you have to know that not all customers have an expert like us as a think tank, (this is the case, even in the era of the dreadnought, the UK produced the dreadnought for Chile with only 229MM main equipment.) Can this NM be called a battleship? When they order warships, they pay more attention to weapons, protection and speed, and as for seaworthiness and human settlements, they don't care at all. Leo, who has been working hard for the Andosar shipyard for several years, began to educate Xu Jielai. …,

"Multiple options? You mean to engage in a family of protective cruisers? The basic number of ships jù is approximate, but it is changed in the individual number jù? Xu Jie's eyes lit up. Sure enough, he deserves to be a master. In this era, similar modular ideas can be come up.

"Well, that's probably what it means. What do you think? Leo nodded.

"That's a great idea, but we need to start by topping the tone like tonnage, power, and the ship's basic line diagram, and leaving plenty of margin for weapons and protection." Xu Jie said. (Historically, there have been many dominary cruisers that have been adapted from their parent types.) For example, Chile's protective cruiser Esmeralda is a prototype of Naniwa. Xu Jie: They just prepared a few plans first)

Then after 4 hours of arguing, scolding and compromise. Tearing off countless pieces of paper and breaking off several pencils. Plus dropped 2 teacups after a tray. The two finally came to an agreement. The basic tonnage of the new protective cruiser is 4300 tons. It is 112 meters long, 14 meters long, and has a draft of 5.6 meters. The base firepower was 10 6-inch guns, 1 at the bow and 1 at the stern, and 8 on the side ear platforms. 3 pounder guns 10 pcs. THE PROTECTION REMAINED THE SAME, THE UPPER PART OF THE DOME ARMOR WAS 50MM. SIDE 120MM. It adopts a subdivided compartment design. The power is a vertical three-expansion steam engine. The total power is 13,000 horsepower, and 17,000 horsepower under strong pressure ventilation. Speed 22 knots. The normal coal load is 350 tons, and the limit is 700 tons. Users can change certain armaments and power according to their needs and prices. The bow and stern terraces are large enough to be fitted with single 8-inch guns or twin 6-inch guns. If you really don't have any money. Well, let's replace the 6-inch side with a 4.7-inch side. As for protection, there is an option for subdivided compartments and large compartment designs. The armor thickness can also be adjusted to a limited extent. If you really have money and nowhere to spend it, the power can also be replaced. Unit prices range from £250,000 to £350,000!! In the end, the two also reached an additional agreement, that is: any design data of the ship cannot be used on warships built for Japan or warships purchased by other countries for Japan!! Violators, 300,000 pounds to compensate two people!!

As for the name, the two finally decided to name it after the location. The ** series of protective cruisers, which were quietly praised by countless expert military fans in later generations, was born in the quarrel between the two. As for this name, Italy and later the Chinese Republic also fought a war of words for a long time. The Italians believe that this class of warships is really designed and produced, and it was perfected by the Italians, and it is understandable to call it **. However, some experts in China insisted that the prototype of this warship was proposed by Premier Xu Jie after reading more than N materials. And the diversification of the concept and weapons of the series of ships was also finally perfected by Xu Jie. Therefore, it should be named after the Chinese name Guiyuan. Of course, the result of this spatting lawsuit in the end is that the Italians are called **. The Chinese people are called Guiyuan. As for other countries? What is love called? But for the two at that time, the four-hour exchange was undoubtedly a victorious exchange, a united exchange, and a great exchange. This exchange, known as the "first meeting of Christmas", finally laid the foundation for the cooperation between the two. It also took the first step for Xu Jie to change history