Towards the end of the year, Italy was getting busier and busier, and Admiral Yagir, who had been half angry with the new battleship program, finally waited for satisfactory results. After a fierce battle, the proposal of His Excellency Benedetto Brin, the chief designer from the Andosal shipyard, finally won the favor of the Admiralty.

In this scheme, the new battleship has a total length of 128 meters and a width of 22.5 meters. The gross tonnage was limited to a standard displacement of 13,400 tons, a full load displacement of 15,900 tons, and a draft of 8 meters.

In terms of firepower, the new battleship is equipped with two twin 356-mm main guns, which are laid out in the way of one in the past, and eight 254-mm second-class guns are also in the layout of the previous one, one behind, one in the middle, and two.

Although the layout is a little weird, it is also something that cannot be helped. The 254 mm secondary gun is much larger than the 152 mm that has been used before, so the two twin 254 mm guns arranged in the amidship are arranged in a staggered arrangement, which can ensure the output of firepower on both sides.

In addition to this, the form battleship was armed with 12 76-mm secondary guns and 6 47-mm guns.

On the armor, its broadside armor belt was 3.4 meters wide and 160-320 mm thick, the deck armor was 72 mm, and the turret armor was 320 mm. That's right, you read that right. The thickness of the armor was cut, and the reason for the cut was simple, after the adoption of Krupp armor steel, the thickness of the armor is now sufficient, and thicker armor is not needed.

On the contrary, the hull structure needs to be improved, which takes into account the threat of more and more advanced torpedoes to the battleship, so various small compartments divided inside and outside the hull are considered.

Of course, the mine protection capsule alone is not enough, and the use of armored boxes is also indispensable, so the armor protection of key compartments is also essential.

In terms of power, 12 single-head cylindrical water-tube boilers and two 4-cylinder vertical three-expansion steam engines with 2 shafts and 2 propellers can provide 17,000 horsepower and push the warship to a maximum speed of 19.4 knots. The cruising range is 10 knots 6500 nautical miles.

The most commendable in terms of power is this water-tube boiler, as the latest masterpiece of the Naval Power Research Institute, this water-tube boiler is very good, can provide higher power and greater economy, can improve endurance and efficiency, and is also the world's first battleship to install a water-tube boiler.

Overall, this new battleship has limited performance improvement over the Turin class, and is more of a version of endurance and firepower, but in terms of construction costs, it is not much lower than the Turin class. The 24.5 million lire ship is also almost the same.

Of course, the cost is enough for conscience, and the ship will have to be raised by at least 1 million lira from the outside.

The Navy had a great year in 1895, but it was also a great year for his family, such as the Ministry of Education.

In the 1896 budget, the Ministry of Education won a record high budget of 348 million lira in one fell swoop.

The Ministry of Education was able to obtain such a large budget thanks to the Ministry of Education's proposal to pilot an eight-year compulsory education system. That's right, the Ministry of Education believes that the current five-year primary education mechanism implemented in the country can no longer meet the demand for talents in Italy, so it is necessary to change the five-year system to an eight-year system to provide the country with higher quality talents.

To this end, Education Secretary Renlien Dillon has repeatedly campaigned to the Prime Minister and the King on the importance of compulsory eight-year education. According to him, if compulsory education is raised to eight years, at least 250,000 qualified skilled workers will be provided to Italy every year, and at the same time, 20,000 students from higher education institutions will be added, which will greatly improve the level of scientific research in Italy and help Italy catch up with the great powers in all aspects.

His Excellency Dillon is not talking nonsense, there is ample evidence for this. In the case of the current compulsory education in Italy, the enrolment rate is 96.4 per cent of school-age children and the graduation rate is 91.7 per cent, which is a testament to the level of support that Italian families have for their children to attend school.

The addition of three years of study will not reduce the enrollment rate too much, so that more school-age children can learn more knowledge, and it will also have a huge demographic dividend for the development of Italy.

That's right, this is said by the wise and martial King His Majesty, is the word demographic dividend too good, and there is a population trap on the contrary.

Of course, with a budget of 348 million lira, the Ministry of Education needs to spend it effectively, all this has already been planned by the Ministry of Education.

At present, the Ministry of Education intends to carry out the eight-year compulsory education on a pilot basis in several places: Lombardy (Milan), Lazio (Rome), Campania (Naples), Sicilian Viceroyalty (Palermo), and Borneo Colony (Pontianak).

You read that right, the Ministry of Education has the ambition to give one-third of the population at home and 70 percent of the population overseas to eight years of compulsory education. It's not a one-year plan, but it's still ambitious.

Of course, the Ministry of Education also has its own ideas, and the local governments of these first regions and colonizers to implement eight-year compulsory education must share part of the financial burden.

It varies from person to person, such as the Campania and the Viceroyalty of Sicily, which are not very wealthy in the south, and the Ministry of Education may allocate more funds. In the northern region of Lombardy and the capital of Lazio, the local government is more dependent on the financial burden of the burden. As for the colony of Borneo, this is more self-funded, with the Ministry of Education supporting a number of teachers at most.

That's right, that's what the colony looks like, and fortunately the colonial government of Borneo has the money and can afford it. Of course, according to the words of the Ministry of Finance, if you want to say who is the richest local government in Italy, Lombardy is not as good as Borneo, and selling all kinds of resources is money.

In addition, the reason why the Ministry of Education is so slammed is that it takes a lot of money to build a secondary school. A medium-sized secondary school with a capacity of 800 students, for example, would require about 2.1 million lire of capital and more than 40 teaching staff. According to the current target set by the Ministry of Education, 150-180 new and 180 primary secondary schools need to be added or expanded in the country (some large and some small, and in some places the number of primary and secondary school students does not meet the standard of facilities).

This is needed for construction or expansion funds alone, 300 to 400 million lira, how can it be possible with the money from the Ministry of Education. So at this time, it is necessary to take into account the funds, of course, it is not possible to rely on the consideration of funds, such as the two major regions in the south to take into account the balance between the north and the south. Lazio, on the other hand, takes into account the capital factor, and as for Borneo, it is completely a big dog.

As for the northern districts such as Piedmont (the capital of Turin), Venijo (the capital of Venice), and Liguria (the capital of Genoa), which are also rich, why not choose. This faculty is not enough, and it can only give priority to satisfying the carefully selected regions, and other places are behind.

In addition, considering that the addition of junior high schools will increase the number of students from higher secondary schools and universities in the future, it is not just a matter of establishing junior high schools. The expansion of higher schools and universities also needs to be considered.

In a word, the increase in the number of years of compulsory education is not a matter of words or money alone, and the issues that need to be taken into account are also not ignored.