In the middle of July of the seventh year of the Qiansheng Dynasty, Lin Ziran presided over a seminar on new warships in the Mirror Palace of the Daheng Empire.

In view of the fact that the Ministry of Naval Affairs has submitted a number of new warships for detailed discussion and finally decided on the production and construction plans of a number of new warships, if nothing else, this meeting will determine the selection of new battleships, new armored cruisers, new cruisers, and new ocean-going lightning strike ships at one time.

Because the Great Heng Imperial Navy already has no extra time to waste!

Since May, in addition to the warships under construction that have already started, the Daheng Empire has completely stopped starting new warships, and it is now July, and no warships have been started for two whole months, even small warships such as torpedo boats have not started, which is not normal for the Daheng Empire Navy, which is facing huge maritime pressure and at the same time wholeheartedly expanding the size of the fleet.

The Great Heng Imperial Navy doesn't have so much time to waste!

Therefore, after two months of intense discussion and design work, the Ministry of Ship Administration has designed a number of new types of high-freeboard warships according to the needs of the navy's new strategy and tactics, and at the same time combined with the technical capabilities of the defense industry of the Daheng Empire.

The designs of these new warships will be finalized at today's seminar, and the most suitable warship designs for the Daheng Imperial Navy will be selected.

As Lin Ziran entered the conference hall and sat on the top dragon chair, many admirals and core technical leaders in the field of national defense below were seated after Lin Ziran gave him a seat.

Later, Duan Hongxiao, director of the Navy's Military Command Department, was the first to speak: "According to His Majesty's decree, combined with the new strategic and tactical needs in the third phase of our Navy's development plan, our Navy plans to build a main fleet for pure ocean-going operations, and the new ocean-going main fleet will take the implementation of long-distance blockade as the core strategic goal, and complete the above-mentioned core strategic objectives through fleet decisive battles, sea blockade and other measures. ”

"According to the requirements of the mission, the preliminary plan of the new ocean-going fleet is to form a core fleet of eight battleships and eight armored cruisers, and twenty-four second-class cruisers and thirty-two ocean-going mine-strike ships to be used as escorts, reconnaissance, and lightning strikes."

"According to the intelligence, the new battleships of the Krull Kingdom are already equipped with 350 mm and 30 times the caliber naval guns, the Southern Olisa Imperial Navy is also equipped with 300 mm and 30 times the caliber naval guns, and the Valia Imperial Navy is equipped with 280 mm and 40 times the caliber naval guns."

"At the same time, the new warships of the navies of various countries generally use steel-faced iron armor, and the thickness of the armor generally reaches more than 300 millimeters, and some capital ships even reach more than 400 millimeters, and at the same time, some parts of the warships, especially the upper part, begin to use nickel steel."

"It is worth noting that the navies of various countries have successively followed our example and adopted the combined rangefinder as the main means of ranging for naval guns, and the long-range accuracy of the main guns has been greatly improved."

"In terms of speed, the main battleships of the navies of various countries generally have a speed of between 15 and 16 knots, and some second-class battleships with weak armor have reached a speed of more than 17 knots."

"Therefore, the new type of battleship must have the ability to fight the above-mentioned warships!"

At this time, Zhu Zhaoyuan, deputy director of the Shipbuilding Department and the most famous warship designer in the Daheng Empire, said: "In response to the needs of the new strategy and the capabilities of our national defense industry, our Ship Administration Department has clarified the main design indicators!" ”

"In order to ensure the ability to fight in the ocean and the combat capability in complex sea conditions, we have determined the layout of the high freeboard and semi-enclosed open-air batteries to ensure the ability to fight in the ocean while lowering the center of gravity!"

"In order to effectively confront the existing capital warships of various countries already under construction, the proposed battleship should be equipped with at least four new naval guns of 300 mm and 35 times, equipped with our latest research and development of smokeless propellants, No. 2 armor-piercing shells and No. 3 armor-piercing rounds."

The No. 2 armor-piercing bullet in his mouth is the armor-piercing bullet that has been quenched and hardened by nickel-chromium alloy steel that has been applied before, and the penetration is far better than the ordinary steel armor-piercing bullet in the past, and at the same time, the oblique design is used for the armor of many enemy ships now, in order to avoid the shell being bounced off, the Daheng Imperial Navy has also begun to use the No. 3 armor-piercing bullet that has been fraudulently designed since the beginning of this year, so as to strengthen the penetration of the inclined armor.

"The new 300-millimeter naval gun, combined with smokeless gunpowder and armor-piercing shells No. 2 and No. 3, is enough to effectively threaten any type of enemy capital ship at a distance of 4,000 meters."

"At least eight new 150-mm 40-fold rapid-fire guns and 12 50-mm small-caliber rapid-fire guns."

"The protection of the proposed battleship shall be fully protected and hardened armor, and the thickest part of the main armor belt shall not be less than two hundred millimeters of hardened armor, the armor protection of the gun mount shall not be less than one hundred and fifty millimeters, and the thickest part of the command tower shall not be less than one hundred and fifty millimeters, and the main armor belt shall be fully armored belt, completely covering the waterline, and extending upwards to protect the secondary gun emplacements, and downwards to expand the protective area."

"The power of the proposed battleship shall not be less than 16 knots under normal pressure and not less than 17 knots under strong pressure and ventilation."

The design of the main warship, especially the main indicators, in fact, everyone has no opinion, these main performance indicators have been the result of repeated discussions by the top level of the Navy, especially the dispute between the high freeboard plus open battery and the low freeboard plus turret, which directly caused the violent turmoil within the Navy, and finally ended with the transfer of the former Secretary of the Navy to the reserve with support for the design of the low freeboard plus turret, emphasizing the protection performance and firepower, and the former Secretary of the Navy Xi Yibin, the former director of the Strategy Department of the Naval Staff, who transferred to the reserve!

The reason why such a serious consequence was caused by the two important naval ministers was forced to transfer to the reserve was because this was not only a dispute over the design of warships, but also a dispute over the naval route, and behind this line dispute was the overall strategic development of the navy.

Because if these two core proponents of the design of the low freeboard plus turret were still in these two important positions, then the third phase of the development plan of the Daheng Imperial Navy would not have been able to be launched at all.

When the main design indicators are clear, the detailed ship design work has become simpler, and the designers under the Ministry of Ship Administration have directly come up with three main design plans as alternatives.

Lin Ziran looked at the design drawings of these three candidate models, and felt that the designers of these warships under his command were still very radical, among them, the first plan, the front and rear central axis of the double main guns, and at the same time on the side of each deployed a single main gun, to achieve a six-gun layout, but the number of main guns in such a layout is too much, but the number of secondary guns is less, and the tonnage has reached 16,000 tons, the tonnage is too large, and the cost is too expensive.

In order to avoid the hull being too long, in order to ensure the protective performance, in order to ensure the firing boundary, the two main guns of the turret in the middle, the main gun is 300 mm 30 times the caliber of the main gun, not 35 times the caliber of the main gun, this design scheme is also very radical, the direct consequence is that the tonnage is seriously exceeded, the cost exceeds the standard, the same needs 16,000 tons, the speed is only 15 knots.

Plan C, this design scheme is the most conservative of the three main schemes, basically the previous Endless Sea-class improved battleship high freeboard version, in which the axis front and rear twin turret layout is also the traditional layout of the traditional naval guns of the Daheng Empire, due to the small number of main guns, so the number of secondary guns is relatively large, and the 150 mm rapid-fire guns have reached twelve.

The protective area is larger, with the thickest part of the main armor reaching 275 mm, the thickest part of the gun mount reaching 250 mm, the thickest part of the command tower reaching 215 mm, and at the same time there is a layer of 75 mm horizontal armor,

The tonnage control is good, only more than 15,000 tons, the speed of the three schemes is also the fastest, the atmospheric speed is expected to reach 16 knots, the strong pressure ventilation is expected to reach 17 knots, as for the follow-up actual maximum speed, it also needs to be completed after the sea trial to know.

Of the three schemes, the first two are six-main gun schemes, and the latter is four-main gun schemes.

However, after comprehensively considering the cost and comprehensive combat effectiveness, as well as the potential technical risks, the final meeting decided to choose the most conservative C plan, that is, the four-main gun plan.

If the four main guns are planned, the dock only needs a 15,000-ton dock, instead of a larger 20,000-ton dock, there are not many 20,000-ton docks in the Daheng Empire, and at the same time, the small hull means that the cost is also small, and the displacement of the battleship is a ton of money, and the difference between the two main guns and more than 2,000 tons means the price difference of at least hundreds of thousands or even millions of Hengyuan.

After Plan C was chosen, it was initially named Jingzhou, which would be the most powerful warship in the history of the Great Heng Empire, and even in the history of Blue Star!

The 275 mm hardened armor of the Jingzhou is equivalent to more than 450 mm of steel-faced iron armor, which is the highest standard armor thickness of contemporary warships, and adopts the concept of comprehensive protection, using the tonnage saved by hardened armor to expand the protection area, becoming the battleship with the largest protection area among battleships, and even the secondary gun is equipped with a 150 mm hardened armor shield.

In terms of firepower, a variety of naval guns will be used in an innovative way to use a new type of secret smokeless artillery, after this new type of propellant has been studied, the army has not yet applied it first, and the navy will take the lead in applying it as the main propellant.

The 300-millimeter 35-caliber main gun with smokeless artillery is even more powerful than the 350-millimeter 30-caliber main gun, the weight is small, it only needs more than 40 tons, and the rate of fire is faster to reach one round every two minutes, which is much faster than the early 300-millimeter 3.5 times a round every minute.

The gun is equipped with No. 2 nickel-chromium alloy steel armor-piercing projectiles and No. 3 nickel-steel alloy steel armor-piercing bullets.