() "There are too many accidents in history. Some seemingly unimportant small roles often play a considerable role at critical moments. For example, the Dutch who provided bases for the Russians once put the Chinese fleet in trouble.

.And Mr. Yan Boxun, a ship designer who was not very famous at the time, but because of his words, Beiyang became alert to the possible actions of the Netherlands! This had an immeasurable impact on the subsequent war.

Influence." Yang Yonglin.

"What can the Dutch do? As early as 8 years ago, the Beiyang Fleet could aim its naval guns at their doorstep. Now, a squadron can clean up all the Dutch maritime power in the Far East." Yang Yonglin said contemptuously.

. .

"What the Russians lack is not a fleet, but a port. If they can have an excellent military port in Southeast Asia, then their combat power will increase exponentially, and the offensive and defensive trends of both sides will also change. It turns out that the Russian fleet is trying to attack us

transportation lines and enter the sea area under our control.

We have a huge home field advantage in fighting, but if the opponent has a base in the Dutch East Indies, they can block our sea transportation lines without attacking! And we have to fight across the entire South China Sea! This is terrible

!" Xu Jie couldn't help but wiped away a cold sweat and said.

"Boss, I'm just talking, don't be nervous." Yan Boxun said with some embarrassment.

"It's better to be nervous now than to be defeated later. Yang Yonglin, you can study countermeasures with other squadron commanders when you go back. I need to know how much combat power our fleet will have if it wants to fight in the ocean. Can the existing system support the fleet to cross the ocean?"

Let’s fight in the entire South China Sea.” Xu Jie said...

"No problem, but for now, our warships are not suitable for ocean warfare. Short endurance is a problem, and the freeboard is also a bit low. At that time, in order to defeat the Japanese and Russians in the offshore, the price we paid was seaworthiness and range.

." Yang Yonglin said with a bitter smile.

"Okay, let's not talk about it for now. Let's finalize the plan for this battlecruiser. Since we may face ocean operations, we must pay attention to stability. The long forecastle structure can indeed improve seaworthiness. But if we go ahead

Carrying it on your back may increase the weight and reduce the stability. If the hull rolls too much, it will also have a certain impact on the movement of the artillery." Yan Boxun is a professional after all. He quickly analyzed it.

"That is to say, if the bow piggyback is abandoned, there is only one option left, which is to arrange two twin main guns diagonally in the middle of the hull." Xu Jie asked.

"If we follow your requirements, it seems that this is the only solution that is feasible." Yan Boxun said with a wink.

"Okay. Although this layout is a bit ugly, it can at least ensure stability and sufficient firepower. However, if you want to take advantage of the 8-gun firepower, it will be a test for the user!" Xu Jie frowned.

Said, there is no way, the advanced concept of the time traveler was finally defeated by reality!

"But if you want to sail across the ocean, the weight will increase by about 1,500 tons for balancing and loading more supplies." Yan Boxun said.

"Speaking of supplies. How much ammunition is this?" Xu Jie suddenly remembered that the German battlecruiser Vondertann in history only had an ammunition reserve of over 80 years old! (Each artillery had about 80 rounds of ammunition). This amount of ammunition was only enough.

If you fight one battle, you will run out of artillery shells the second time. If you attack across the ocean, you can't just fight one battle and then go home?

"If we only count the ammunition in the ammunition depot, each gun has 75 rounds!" Yan Boxun said with a blush.

"75 rounds..." Xu Jie was completely speechless. "What else do you mean it only counts as ammunition depot?"

"You can store 8 rounds of artillery shells and corresponding explosives at the tail of the turret, plus 1 round in the barrel, which will almost reach an average of 80. Of course, if Mr. Yang agrees to put some ammunition somewhere in the officer's mess conference room

As for the medicine pack, I guess there will be more." The second half of Yan Boxun's words was purely to adjust the atmosphere.

"If this is the case, I don't know whether the cannonballs will be released, but I guess food and drinking water will be piled up in places like the conference room or restaurant." Yang Yonglin couldn't help but sigh.

"Each main gun maintains a reserve of 120 rounds of ammunition. The fuel supply cannot be less than 2,000 tons. This is the bottom line, it's up to you!" Xu Jie set the tone.

"The tonnage will exceed 20,000 tons! There is no problem with the design of this ship, but will your wallet and our country's port conditions be okay?" Yan Boxun said while pinching his nose.

"Do you think there are places where we can reduce some weight?" Xu Jie was also a little confused. Historically, in order to ensure adequate protection and a decent speed, Vondetan had a displacement of 19,000 tons. Although Xu Jie's speed was reduced

At least 4 knots. But after all, it is more than 5 years ahead of schedule, and the main gun has been increased to 12 inches. In the end, the only place that can reduce weight is protection!

"Boss, what is your tonnage requirement?" Yan Boxun asked.

"It cannot exceed 19,000 tons. If it is too large, on the one hand, the cost will be unacceptable, and on the other hand, we do not have enough deep-water berths. They are all 10,000-ton battleships, and the tonnage of battleships even rises to more than 20,000. There is no military port.

It can accommodate so many warships, especially the military port in the south." Before Xu Jie could explain, Yang Yonglin on the side said.

"I can't do this anymore, boss, come here, I really can't do it. I've never seen such a cunning customer like you!!" Yan Boxun was completely speechless, holding the drawing and yelling.

"How about changing your mind? Let's go retro," Xu Jie thought for a while and said.

"What kind of retro method? Using an 11-inch gun is a good idea." Yan Boxun nodded and said.

"Firepower cannot be saved, and the pressure on Russia's armored cruisers must be maintained. Since the main target of the confrontation is the cruiser, can the armor be thinner? Even a 10-inch naval gun cannot penetrate it at normal combat distances.

7-inch Krupp hardened armor." Xu Jie said.

"As for the upper armor, it can be directly weakened to 5 inches, which can block the 8-inch gun. All secondary batteries use double turrets. In this case, there is no need to arrange a gun gallery on the forecastle, and some weight can be saved. In addition, because of the elongation of the ship shape

, the power may not be used that much, and this should save some weight." Xu Jie expressed his thoughts.

"This is not considered retro. What if we encounter a 12-inch heavy artillery? The 7-inch main armor belt is not enough." Yang Yonglin shook his head in opposition.

"We can use the remaining armor weight to strengthen the dome armor. If the dome armor is as flat as possible, I think even a 6-inch main armor belt and a 3-inch dome armor can basically block a 12-inch naval gun." Xu Jie

added.

"Although this can ensure that the core area will not be penetrated by one shot, if too many bullets are hit, it will cause the hull to capsize and it will still be ruined. There is no way." Yang Yonglin said.

"Even if it can't be penetrated, it can be destroyed by burning. When you encounter a large opponent's army, run away if you can. This defense allows you to have iron trousers. It's good to be able to save your life when necessary! Let's make do." Xu Jie said.

.

"Yes, this unit is specially used to intercept and kill the opponent's cruiser. The opponent's 8-inch gun will definitely not be able to penetrate your 6-inch or 7-inch main belt. It can also deal with the 12-inch gun, and then plug the fireproof leakage

If you do something better, you can deal with the opponent's missing 12-inch guns." Yan Boxun said this is a good way.

"How many battlecruisers will we build?" Yang Yonglin finally decided to compromise. Since the quality of the battleships could not meet his own requirements, Yang Yonglin could only settle for the second best and see how many they could have.

"Visually there are no more than three ships!" Xu Jie said, holding out three fingers.

"Boss Xu, are there too few of the three ships?" Yang Yonglin said. Having experienced many wars, he understood very well that in addition to firepower, the more important thing to deal with cruisers is speed. If the speed is not enough, unless you can be very lucky to give the opponent a chance at the beginning.

Slow down, or the best result is to beat the opponent away.

Therefore, Yang Yonglin attaches great importance to speed, which is why he admires battlecruisers very much. The firepower of up to eight 12-inch main guns has surpassed Beiyang's current Ninghai-class battleships, and it still has a dream speed of 23 knots! This is simply

It's perfect. But even so, the number of only three ships is still not enough to fight against Russia's huge armored cruiser battle group.

"Boss, can you bear to let me, Beiyang, use three battlecruisers to fight against the opponent's cruisers? Although we still have a batch of cruisers, the speed cannot keep up with the main fleet, and the main fleet also needs direct guard forces. We

There are too few of them that can be used to form battlecruiser formations." Even though Yan Boxun has not been back for a few days, Yang Yonglin has already learned a lot of his spoken language!

"Don't even think about the Guiyuan class. There are already too many weapons and armors in this ship. It is really difficult to maintain the stability and speed of navigation under heavy load. Moreover, it has been in service for 5 years. When the new ship is built,

, this class of battleship is already 10 years old, and it is impossible to keep up with the speed of the battlecruiser." Yang Yonglin said helplessly.

"As for the remaining seven armored cruisers, the two Garibaldi-class ones are already somewhat outdated, and only five are usable. These ships must be reserved for the capital ships to serve as direct guards. We already have very few warships in hand.

Yang Yonglin added.

"I'll think about the matter of the direct guard fleet again. It's actually a waste to use a 10,000-ton armored cruiser formation to serve as direct guard. Large armored cruisers themselves are not flexible enough, and compared with the same tonnage, the number of secondary guns is still too small, and it is difficult to deal with the opponent.

For lightning strike ships and light battleships, overly large-caliber secondary guns are not as useful as 4.7-inch secondary guns, so in the future the direct guard mission of the fleet will be handed over to new light battleships." Xu Jie thought for a while and said.
Chapter completed!