"Teacher, the Navy is still quite satisfied with the Count Cavour-class battleships, and the improved versions of these three Dragon-class battleships are very suitable for use in the Mediterranean, and we have reduced their range and increased their speed. The firepower and walk of the 10 12-inch guns were also very satisfying, but we could not be satisfied with this, we needed to build new battleships for future wars. The Germans had to face the British fleet in the North Sea, and we had to face the French Navy, and we could not compare with the French in terms of size, but in terms of quality I hope that both the current and future ships will give us an absolute advantage. Tycho Persano, who has become a rear admiral of the Royal Italian Navy, said respectfully.

"According to Xu's meaning, the new warships of China and Italy will be equipped with larger caliber guns in order to gain an overwhelming advantage, and the Longxing-class battleships have brought the combat effectiveness of the 12-inch gun dreadnought to the extreme, if we want to surpass it, then we need larger caliber guns, and at present, it is difficult for Ansaldo's gun factory to come up with new guns with enough power, but it is said that the Austrians have come up with some new products." Vittorio Cuniberti said thoughtfully.

"The Admiralty will have 3 Earl Cavour-class battleships by 1908, what are their requirements for new ships? How much money can they come up with for the sake of these behemoths armed to the teeth? The French also had plans to upgrade the firepower of dreadnoughts, and they were tired of the backward Danton-class battleships, and it was likely that they would design a battleship with a central axis layout and 10 guns of more than 12 inches. Vittorio said.

"It is for this reason that the Admiralty wants Your Excellency to design a more formidable warship to deal with the French Navy. In terms of tonnage, it can be appropriately relaxed to about 26,000 tons, and in terms of firepower, the Admiralty hopes that the firepower of the new warships will be no less than 10 guns of the 12-inch class or above. In terms of protection. , it must be able to withstand attacks from the opponent at a normal engagement distance. In short, to put it simply, our new warships must overwhelm the French warships in all aspects! Tycho said.

"I am afraid that it is a little difficult to meet this requirement at this tonnage, and it is very difficult to put so many weapons and heavy armor on this battleship, because now the battleship needs not only thick vertical armor, but also enough horizontal armor and an underwater protection system that can withstand a torpedo. These all require weight. Go back and tell the old folks at the Admiralty that if they want a good battleship, then give me at least £2,400,000 and a displacement of more than 27,000 tons. Vittorio said unceremoniously.

To put it mildly, he has become the first ship designer in the Kingdom of Italy. And Vittorio Cuniberti, who holds the title of a duke, does not need to give those admiralty bureaucrats a good look. His opinion can now be used to influence the Admiralty's decisions. Mr. Vittorio was quite dissatisfied with the bureaucrats who were reluctant to spend money and at the same time wanted good ships, so he decided to go for it. In order to make the design that took more than a year of his own painstaking work come true!

Ever since the Kingdom of Italy began building the Count Cavour-class battleship, Vittorio began planning the construction of the next class of battleships, and in the eyes of one designer, the best ships will always be the next class. There is no endless pursuit of perfection and limits, which is the fundamental motivation for a good designer to keep improving! And Vittorio is such a person.

This time, Vittorio decided to completely get rid of Xu Jie's influence. Build a battleship in a completely Italian style. After careful comparison, Vittorio was not satisfied with the gun layout of the Count Cavour-class battleship, and he now began to favor the central axis layout, but how exactly? It's a question worth considering, and at this time, the divergent thinking and romantic feelings of the Italians gave Vittorio a new idea!

If it is said that Xu Jie's plane, the battleship with the most guns in the world is the one with the most guns, and those who know a little bit about the navy are probably aware that the Dao is the Agincourt, and the monster with 7 turrets and 14 main guns has become the holy object of the multi-turret god cult in that time and space! But if it comes out with the second most barreled battleship in the world. I'm afraid that there will be fewer people who know the Tao. After completing the first rank of the Dante dreadnought, the Italians designed and built the 2nd class dreadnought. They were the Count Cavour-class battleships and the Cariodurio-class battleships. A total of 5 battleships of two classes were built, each with 13 12-inch 46L guns. And their layout has a lot of personality!

All 5 ships are a combination of 3 3 turrets and 2 twin turrets! The three turrets 1, 3 and 5 are 3-packed, (for the sake of description, the turrets are numbered from the bow here) while the 2nd and 4th turrets are twin-packed! It has to be said that the Italian design is too personal. And in this plane, Vittorio actually wants to inherit the Italian dreadnought design of the previous plane. Of course, the turret placed in the middle is gone, and the whole battleship is equipped with 10 main guns of more than 12 inches, with the No. 1 and No. 4 turrets being double-mounted, and the No. 2 and No. 3 turrets being triple-mounted. The purpose of this design is to ensure that the underwater protection width at the turret is as wide as possible.

In order to prevent the destruction of two turrets by one cannon in the Sino-Russian naval war, Leo was entrusted to specially enlarge the space between the No. 1 and No. 2 turrets and put the motor room in it. Turrets 3 and 4 also made the space as large as possible. In addition, there is a certain gap between the ring and the rotating part, and it is filled with highly elastic steel to prevent caving. Weapon protection is only the first step.

In terms of hull protection, Vittorio also intends to completely abandon the dome armor, as an ally of the Chinese Republic and Xu Jie's friend, Vittorio can see a lot of top-secret information, after repeatedly weighing the pros and cons, he decided to completely abandon the dome armor on the new warship, the main horizontal armor and the main armor belt upper edge are connected. This design may not be a big deal, but Vittorio's underwater protection makes Xu Jie have to praise it! After maintaining a sufficiently wide underwater protection system, and arranging empty compartments and tanks, Vittorio actually extended the lower edge of the main armor belt all the way to the bottom of the ship! Of course, the thickness will be gradually reduced. THE THICKNESS OF THE LAST PIECE OF HIGHLY ELASTIC STEEL UNDER THE WATER IS MORE THAN 60MM! From the design point of view, the armor box design of the new battleship is already very close to the Yamato-class battleship of Xu Jie's plane!

Yamato, as the most powerful battleship in Xu Jie's plane, is definitely not just because of the large tonnage! Its design and combat power are definitely worthy of the title of the world's No. 1 in the world! Yamato's armored box is as strong as possible for horizontal, vertical and underwater protection! If there is a battleship in the world that can block the underwater bullets of the capital ship of the 2nd battle, then it must be Yamato! And although Vittorio has not yet realized the lethality of the underwater bullet, he still prepares for this unknown demon, which means that the newly designed battleship entrusted to Leo has the ability to block large-caliber artillery bullets in the water under certain circumstances!

As for the question of power. Vittorio didn't have much of an idea, firstly, Italy could not produce its own steam turbines, and secondly, power was too expensive. Even with the cost of the entire battleship, whether to install a steam turbine or a steam engine, and how many boilers to install is to some extent not decided by Vittorio, but by the Italian wallet! With guaranteed firepower and protection, the rest depends on how much money the Navy can get from the budget! So the overall design concept Vittorio is there, but what exactly the design looks like depends on the meaning of the bureaucrats at the Admiralty. Anyway, it's still a long time, and Vittorio is not in a hurry.

If the Italians were determined to forge ahead and produce a good dreadnought, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, across the sea from Italy, was more conservative. In Xu Jie's plane, Austria-Hungary looks like a country, but in fact, Hungary is quite independent, and the Hungarian local council is quite uninterested in the navy! He even claimed that if the Imperial Navy's shipbuilding plan did not bring benefits to Hungary, the Hungarian local council would not agree to allocate funds. Later, King Fritz intervened and promised to give part of the construction to Hungary, and the only strike dreadnought in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Combined Force battleship, was able to pass the budget. And the unit price of each ship is as high as 2.8 million pounds! A Queen Elizabeth-class battleship is only about 2.6 million! Bavaria is only 2.5 million pounds, I really don't know how to build the warships of the Austro-Hungarian Empire!

And in this plane, the Austro-Hungarian dreadnoughts are still difficult to deliver! AFTER THE LAUNCH OF ITALY'S FIRST DREADNOUGHT, THE AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN EMPIRE WAS STILL ARGUING OVER THE PLANS OF THE FUTURE DREADNOUGHTS, THEIR PLANS WERE VERY CONSERVATIVE, SKODA'S 350MM HEAVY GUN WAS NOT ON THEIR SHORTLIST, AND AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN EVEN PLANNED TO GET A 12-INCH 50L MAIN GUN. And in terms of design, they also tend to find a successful example, anyway, King Fritz just has a hobby and doesn't know much about it. As for desperately fighting with opponents at sea? Although the Austrians do not want to admit it, but in this plane, the battle of the German, Austrian, and Italian Triple Alliance in the Mediterranean still has Italy to play the leading role! Then after thinking about it, the Austrians felt that the Longxing-class battleships of the Huaxia Navy were still quite good, or should they build a few of them and replace them with their new 12-inch 50L main guns?

So the only thing that hasn't been too touched by this dreadnought frenzy than history is Austria-Hungary, at least for now. Austria-Hungary did not have the strength of the German Empire, and at the same time the pressure on the ground was not small at all, and in addition to dealing with Russia, it had to face the small states of the Balkans. Coupled with the inexplicably high cost of building ships in Austria-Hungary, Fritz had to control the size of the navy, even if he was interested in the navy. "I am afraid that the control of the sea in the Mediterranean can only be relied on by the Italians." Although some are unwilling, the situation is stronger than people!

Thank you for the monthly pass support of the Nazis of Light ~~~. (To be continued......)