"The majesty of the empire still needs to be maintained by battleships! And next to us is France! According to intelligence reality, the French quickly replenished their main battleships from 1889, an average of 1-2 per year! It's a lot of pressure on us! We must maintain at least a certain balance of power over the French Navy! Our cruiser fleet is strong enough, but now we lack battleships! All the battleships in our existing fleet are old-fashioned warships, not to mention the new ones built by France after the 90s, and the battleships built by France in the 80s! ”

Ruprecht This is not nonsense, from 1889 the French finally got rid of the idea of the green water navy and began to replenish large battleships in one go, if everything is based on history, then from 1889 to 1896 the French Navy started construction of 9 battleships in one go! Three of them were built in 1893! Although some of the warships were only completed in 1900, only Ruprecht knew about this, and no one else knew about it!

"There is some truth to this." Crown Prince Wilhelm looked at the battleship formations of the German Navy, and then at the various 10,000-ton battleships that the French approached a dozen. I suddenly felt a little unbearable both on face and inside! Although the Munich-class armored cruisers are good, they are too few in number, and they also need to carry out ocean-going operations, and they are still too small in tonnage to be suitable for dead-end combat.

In 1890, the French construction had not yet begun, and the coastal pressure of the Germans was not great, so it was naturally correct to choose to build cruisers first, and now the offshore fleet has begun to take shape, and in the case of the French riots, it is understandable to turn around and replenish the battleships!

"So you mean to build battleships first to replenish the main fleet? However, just two Brandenburg-class ships are not enough, even the experiment can be earlier, Krupp's 11-inch gun is less powerful, for the future of the Imperial Navy, we need to develop more powerful guns! "Crown Prince Wilhelm finally said the long-awaited sentence of Ruprecht!

"That's it!" Ruprecht said this in his heart, not simply because of this sentence, but because the future weapon choice of the German Navy behind it will no longer stand up to the Krupp family, in terms of strength, the Bavarian royal family is worse than the royal family, as long as the royal family does not interfere or neutralize, the Bavarian royal family can be said to have an advantage! After all, now the Prime Minister is also half an ally of Ruprecht!

Ruprecht is very fond of overwhelming people with power, which is not simply power and strength, but more of a situation! What Ruprecht has just done has created an advantageous situation in the competition with Krupp! FIRST OF ALL, RUPRECHT EXPRESSED HIS DISSATISFACTION WITH KRUPP 240MM GUNS AND 280MM GUNS FROM AN OBJECTIVE POINT OF VIEW! EVERYONE MUST ADMIT THAT THE 140KG SHELLS OF THE 240MM GUN AND THE 240KG SHELL OF THE 280MM GUN ARE INDEED A BIT UNREASONABLE! You must know that the 10-inch artillery of other countries has a bullet weight of about 220KG!

In this case, even Crown Prince Wilhelm can only acquiesce, and the impression of Krupp in his heart will not be so good at least, and when the upper echelons move their minds, what Ruprecht can do will have a chance to unfold! So Ruprecht took advantage of the new warships and incidentally proposed the use of new artillery! THE NEW ARMORED CRUISERS USED 260MM GUNS, WHILE THE NEW BATTLESHIPS USED 305MM GUNS!

Of course, it was not enough to make His Royal Highness the Crown Prince feel dissatisfied with Krupp, and there were some things that had to be said by the Admiralty, which required Ruprecht and the Bavarian royal family to operate in some other places, and then move forward with the tender process for the navy. UNLIKE THE ARMY, THE COST OF SILENCE IN THE GERMAN NAVY IS RELATIVELY LOW, AND THE 240MM GUNS HAVE NOT ENTERED THE GERMAN ACTIVE WARSHIPS, WHILE THE 280MM GUNS CAN BE USED BY MUNICH-CLASS CRUISERS EVEN IF THEY ARE NO LONGER USED ON NEW WARSHIPS.

And once the tender is launched, then the advantage of Ruprecht will come! IF KRUPP WAS GOING TO GET A NEW GUN, IT WOULD EITHER HAVE TO RENOVATE THE ORIGINAL 240MM GUN OR START ANEW. RUPRECHT CAN BE DIRECTLY BASED ON THE RUSSIAN 10-INCH L40 GUN AND 12-INCH L40 GUN, IN FACT, THE RUSSIANS ARE GOOD AT BOTH GUNS, EVEN IF THEY COPY IT, THEY ARE MUCH STRONGER THAN KRUPP'S 240MM AND 280MM GUNS!

One is almost from scratch, the best is that there is a not very good foundation, and the other is a direct piracy with the technical strength of Skoda! It's clear who has the upper hand in terms of technical difficulty and time!

And the most critical thing is that Ruprecht used his own advice to influence the timing of weapons and equipment! 2 BRANDENBURG-CLASS BATTLESHIPS USED 280MM GUNS, WHICH WAS CEDED TO KRUPP. And Ruprecht's definition of this battleship is a transition! WHETHER IT IS A NEW ARMORED CRUISER OR A BATTLESHIP IN THE BACK, IT MUST BE A NEW 260MM CLASS GUN OR A 305MM GUN, THAT IS, ALL THE PREVIOUS ADVANTAGES OF KRUPP ARE DIRECTLY CLEARED! If you want to win the bid, you have to re-develop!

Let's not talk about whether Krupp can immediately see the situation, even if Krupp redevelops it? Do you have time? The construction of a battleship is only a 3-year cycle, and this battleship is a transitional version! It is quite possible that before the battleship is outfitted, the bidding for the next class of battleships will already begin! This world may be more than 1 to 2 years from now! RUPRECHT CAN SAVE TIME BY USING THE PURCHASED ARTILLERY DIRECTLY COPY. What about you Krupp? ALSO DIRECTLY COPY? What about your samples?

Of course, theoretically Krupp could also buy a sample gun, but the current situation is that the British use a 12-inch L35. The French will not sell, and the Russians now have a request for Ruprecht, and the Americans have at least Roosevelt, deputy secretary of the Admiralty, who has a good relationship with Ruprecht. WELL, TELL ME, WHERE DID KRUPP FIND A SAMPLE TO COPY? So, a mere question of time has already excluded Krupp from the circle!

All Ruprecht needs to do now is to go all out and push the tender forward, preferably when the development of your own artillery is complete and the new Krupp gun is not yet complete! By the way, get the turret and all kinds of servos done! Let's not talk about the technical standards of artillery, just one degree of completion can defeat the opponent!

"So how many new battleships are you going to build? When is the cruiser ready to start construction? Wilhelm II thought for a moment and continued to ask.

"4 ships! All with the latest 11-inch or 12-inch guns! If the performance of this battleship is suitable, I am afraid that for a long time, our battleships can be built according to this template! I also believe that every battleship should be improved, and the further expansion of the tonnage of battleships is the trend of history! Now a battleship is equipped with 6 12-inch guns, which is considered advanced, and in the future, maybe 8 guns is not too much! Ruprecht thought for a moment and said.

"And what about the cruiser? I'm very interested in your second cruiser! The crown prince said.

Thank you for the reward of book friend Differential and zsuzm~~~. There's only one small push this week. Recently, the collection and reward are not good-! The side position is pulling out the cold in the heart-! Ask for collections, ask for rewards~~~.