It is not far from Taranto to Malta, if you go fast, you can basically eat Italian food in Taranto for breakfast, and you can go to Malta in the evening to drink Ceylon black tea prepared by the British....... www.biquge.info The Germans finally sent only two battleships to Malta, and in response, the British were relatively low-key, with only two prestige-class second-class battleships to greet them, although they were low-key, but the reception specifications were not low, and all the heads of the British Mediterranean Fleet who could arrive were led by the fleet commander Sir Fisher to greet the prince and his party.

Although Fisher has seen no less than 100 photos of the Mainz-class armored cruiser flowing out from various sources, but when the real thing appeared in front of him, he was still shocked by the 160-meter-long and 23.5-meter-wide behemoth in front of him.

The 4 twin 10-inch guns exuded great power, which made Fisher feel a little excited, yes, excited! The Royal Navy will not be afraid of any opponent! He looked at the battleship with a hint of appreciation and admiration!

"See? Wells! This is the battleship I want! Although the Prestige is already very good, compared to the beautiful cheetah in front of him, the Prestige is a kitten! I'd rather trade two prestige for a Mainz-class armored cruiser! This is what the Royal Navy needs, whether it is monarchy, dignity, or Drake-class armored cruisers, they should be swept into the dustbin of history! There was a tremor in Fisher's words, a man's reaction to seeing something he liked!

"However, the cost of such a battleship is said to be 1.3 million pounds, and if all of our cruiser formations were replaced with such battleships, it is estimated that the council will go crazy!" Wells next to him said expressionlessly.

"Damn, don't talk to me about these frustrating words, if I were the Lord of the Navy, I would cut all those big and inappropriate things and replace them with new cruisers, in this era, there is nothing in naval warfare that cruisers can't do, do you say? Wells? Fisher said to himself.

"However, the Germans were building four new battleships at the same time as the Mainz-class armored cruisers. Cruisers, perhaps, are not as versatile as you say. Wells's cold words rang out beside him again.

"Do you know why you're still a captain now? Because you don't know how to say your demands in a language that everyone else can accept, so your military career is over. Fisher was so angry that he ignored his colleagues and focused on observing the ship.

Everything went according to the agreement, with a gun salute fired, and then sailed into the island of Malta accompanied by British warships, followed by a ceremony. After all this series of programmed things had been done, Fisher finally boarded the battleship, which was arguably the most powerful armored cruiser in the world at this time, accompanied by German officers! When Fisher put his feet on the floor, the battleship completely caught his attention!

"This is truly an outstanding design, with two turrets diagonally arranged in the middle of the battleship, giving the ship the firepower of eight main guns within a certain range! 8 10-inch guns! This kind of firepower has steadily surpassed the battleship, even if it fights with the world's top battleship, it will definitely not suffer! ”

Fisher really deserves to be the Minister of the Navy, and single-handedly created the existence of the Dreadnought era, at the first time, he discovered the advantages of the full main gun battleship and the diagonal arrangement of the side chord, but at this time he has not yet transitioned to the extent of the central axis of the arrangement of all the main guns.

"I really want the British Royal Navy to be equipped with such a warship. This battleship is much better than all the cruisers of the British Royal Navy, and it must be said that your battleship surprised and shocked the Royal Navy. Especially the cruisers of this class made me feel even more pressure. Fisher said with a meaningful smile.

"You're laughing. It's just a compromise. The prince smiled a little embarrassedly and said, he didn't expect that as soon as the two sides met, they would talk about such a sensitive issue. The other party's words are not only about naval technology, but also implicitly wary of the German navy.

"A compromise product?" Fisher's brow furrowed slightly, and his eyes were full of inquiry.

"That's right. The German Empire was a land power, and we had very little money to invest in naval construction, so our warships needed to take on as many tasks as possible, and cruisers needed to take on some of the capital ships in addition to maintaining colonies and sea communications. Our battleship formations were so small that if we didn't count the cruisers, we would probably be the size of a Russian detachment. ”

"And in order to undertake this task, while enhancing firepower and defense, the endurance and other performance of the battleship must be sacrificed, as you may have noticed, the battleship we designed is actually more suitable for decisive battles at sea than for breaking diplomatic relations at sea. You can think of the Mainz as a second-class battleship. The prince explained.

The prince also has a level of speech, first of all, we are very poor in Germany, we can't afford to build capital ships, we can only make do with cruisers, you British don't worry, we just maintain the minimum bottom line for our own maritime security!

And you don't have to worry about the sea lines of communication, our cruisers were not born to break diplomatic relations at all, in the design, the weight of the decisive battle is greater than the breaking of diplomatic relations, so you can also rest assured that the sea lines of communication of the British Empire, anyway, we Germany have no idea about this!

The prince is sincere, he really doesn't plan to break the Mainz-class armored cruiser full-time! Think about it, if nothing else, there will be 15 years before the outbreak of World War 1, 15 years! How old is Mainz? How many more knots can this battleship run when it goes out? It would be more appropriate to stay in the Baltic against the Russians.

As for breaking the relationship? There is such a cheap thing as a submarine, which has a huge effect, and the expensive capital ship has broken the relationship and gone down. Therefore, when the open-minded prince said it, he was sincere!

"Your Excellency is modest, although in terms of size, the German Navy is even inferior to the French Navy, but in this world, who dares to underestimate the German fleet? Whether it is the Japanese, who once beat the American and Russian fleets in the Philippines, or the old European naval power, France, who of them has not been cleaned up by your Excellency's warships? ”

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