The Rise of the Empire

What is a friend? A friend is one who can seek common ground while reserving differences, and can turn the not-so-big differences between each other into minor matters. What is an enemy? Anything as big as a shit can be fermented, and then it can't be dealt with. From the current point of view, Ruprecht and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince obviously belong to the former. What Ruprecht said is so righteous, Crown Prince William can't say that he refuses the bidding, can he? And judging from the current situation, it is also possible for the Kaiser to take a stake in the Bavarian-Austrian arms complex, after all, the other party is not blocked.

So His Royal Highness the Crown Prince decisively chose to put aside the controversy and talk about other topics first. "You just said that there are two plans for the new cruiser, so what is the other plan? Can you tell me now?"

"Another plan is currently being designed. It is similar to the first plan in terms of tonnage, defense, and number of artillery pieces. The biggest difference lies in the way the artillery is deployed. The eight 260MM heavy guns of the second plan are divided into four double-mounted turrets. Two are arranged at the end, and the other two are arranged at the diagonal position of the hull. In this way, at a certain angle, the second plan can exert the firepower of eight 260MM artillery pieces," Ruprecht said, asking people to add another A model was brought in.

"This is really extraordinary!" When the No. 2 armored cruiser model of almost the same scale was delivered to Crown Prince William, His Royal Highness immediately felt a shock! A feeling that I don't understand, but I feel very powerful! This strong visual impact is definitely beyond the description of simple words!

This battleship is really beautiful, and the simple and clear layout of the ship made His Royal Highness Crown Prince William very comfortable to look at. Although the diagonal arrangement somewhat affects the aesthetic feeling, but in terms of overall vision, this battleship still makes Crown Prince William feel bright!

"In order to allow the artillery to have a better reverse shooting range, we deliberately reduced the number of chimneys and integrated the chimneys and the ventilation pipes. To make the ship surface cleaner, while optimizing the hull layout as much as possible, our artillery anti-corrosion The shooting range reaches about 90 degrees. The power of the main gun is fully utilized! This layout is more advanced and more scientific than the No. 1 plan," Ruprecht said.

Of course, compared with the real central axis layout and the fundamentalist BB on the head and tail, this quadrilateral layout is definitely not advanced, but in the current technological environment, this layout still has its advantages, before the fearless era The unit weight power of the battleship's power system is extremely low. If the warship wants to be high-speed, it must install a large number of boilers, and the proportion of the power cabin is very large.

Although with hardened armor, the cost of defending heavy artillery in the same situation has come down, but a huge protective area is also required in close-range high-explosive bomb face-to-face combat, so the overall weight of the armor is not much less.... In the era of slow artillery and black powder shells, it was not easy to burn down warships by projectile volume, so the defense area of ​​warships at that time was usually relatively small.

In the end, the contradiction between the length of the hull and the armor defense has not been completely resolved, so limiting the length of the core area and compressing important equipment in a smaller range has become what designers must do. The central axis arrangement is indeed beneficial, but the length cost is a bit high. Not only the length of the core area, but also put a lot of pressure on the area of ​​the ship's equipment.

Moreover, there is a hidden danger in the arrangement of the turrets on the central axis, that is, if the distance between the two turrets is too close, it is very likely that one shell will abolish the two main guns... . This will never happen in a layout similar to the battlecruiser Von der Tann!

So after some hesitation, Ruprecht still adopted a cannon arrangement similar to von der Tann's, optimized the ship's deck equipment and pipelines, and completed the fusion design of the chimney and ventilation duct ahead of schedule. The funnel of the battleship was reduced to two. And it adopts a strong and durable triangular mast design. The armed mast plate has been cancelled. Anyway, this design is really trendy and beautiful enough!

"That's the design!" His Royal Highness the Crown Prince made a final decision.

"Your Highness, this design has not been completed... It may take a long time." Ruprecht made a helpless expression.

"Then what about the battleship plan?" Prince William said with a little interest.

"It can be regarded as an enlarged version of the Brandenburg battleship. The firepower layout is still 1 front and 2 rear. The two rear turrets are one on the extended sales floor and one on the main deck. The thickness of the side string armor is 10 inches. It is gradually weakened to 6 inches and connected to the upper deck. The armor thickness of other parts refers to the cruiser plan. The main guns are 6 12-inch L40 guns. The secondary guns are 12 150MM secondary guns. The speed should be around 19 knots, because it is a battleship, and the endurance The requirements can be lower. The displacement is about 15,000 tons."

"This plan is not very attractive except for firepower. It is basically a simple upgrade. Sacrificing speed for defense and firepower." William II said.

"This is true when it comes to the defense of artillery. But the biggest advantage of this new battleship lies in the defense against torpedoes and mines! We have adopted a thin compartment at the bottom of the hull and used three layers of TDS for defense. The outermost layer is an empty compartment. , the middle layer is the liquid tank, which is used to hold ballast water. The innermost layer is the coal bunker, and the back plate of the coal bunker is made of armored steel. In time, the shrapnel penetrates the outer three layers of compartments, then the last layer of steel plate It can also block the remaining fragments and protect the internal facilities." Ruprecht explained.

Originally, Ruprecht also wanted to give the armored cruiser a three-layer lightning protection compartment, and even a lightning protection protrusion or something, but considering the high speed requirements of the cruiser, an overly thick hull is obviously not good. Therefore, the outer empty bunker and the inner coal bunker are still used. Then use the subdivided compartment design. So this original design was used on the battleship. As for the layout of the three-story boiler room, let's think about it now.

The current situation is like this, 2 sub-plans, 3 small plans, Ruprecht has all explained, it depends on how the German Navy chooses.

"What do you mean?" William II thought for a while and decided to listen to Ruprecht's opinion first.

"After completing the two Brandenburg-class battleships, I am more inclined to build two battleships first, and then consider the issue of cruisers." Ruprecht said after thinking for a while.

"Is there any reason for this?" William II raised his eyebrows slightly and asked.

"Of course there is a reason! The reason is very good!" Ruprecht kept roaring in his heart. Today, after working hard for a long time, it is finally time to talk about serious business! Ruprecht has always believed that since he has made so much contribution to the development of the German Navy, it is right for him to let the German Navy help him when he has difficulties!

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