"History has too many contingencies, and small and seemingly unimportant characters often play a considerable role in critical moments. For example, the Dutch, who provided a base for the Russians, once put the Chinese fleet in a difficult situation. And Mr. Yan Boxun, a ship designer who was not very famous at that time, but because of his words, Beiyang had a certain vigilance against the possible actions of the Netherlands! This had an immeasurable impact on the subsequent wars. - Yang Yonglin.

"What can the Dutch do? As early as 8 years ago, the Beiyang Fleet could have aimed naval guns at their doorstep, and now a detachment can clear all the Dutch sea forces in the Far East. Yang Yonglin said contemptuously.

"What the Russians lack is not a fleet, but a port, if they can have a good military port in Southeast Asia, then their combat power will increase geometrically, and the offensive and defensive situation of both sides will also change, it turns out that the Russian fleet enters the sea area controlled by us in order to attack our transportation lines, we have too much home advantage, but if the other side has a base in the Dutch East Indies...... They don't have to make a sortie to jam our sea transport lines! And we have to fight across the entire South China Sea! It's horrible! Xu Jie couldn't help wiping 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 go back and study countermeasures with the commanders of the other fleets, I need to know how much combat power our fleet can have if it wants to fight in the ocean. Can the existing system supply the fleet to fight across the entire South China Sea. Xu Jie said.

"No problem, but for now, our ships are not suitable for ocean-going operations. Short endurance was a problem, the freeboard was also a little low, and at that time in order to defeat the Japanese and Russians in the near sea, we paid the price for seaworthiness and range. Yang Yonglin smiled bitterly.

"Alright then, let's not talk about it yet. Let's finalize the plan for this battlecruiser. Since we may have to face ocean-going operations, we must take care of stability. The long bow structure can really improve seaworthiness. But if I carry it in front, I may increase weight and decrease stability. If the hull roll is too large, it will also have a certain effect on the artillery walk. "Yan Boxun is a professional after all. It was quickly analyzed.

"That is to say, if you give up the bow carrying, it means that there is only one plan left, that is, the middle of the hull diagonally arranges 2 twin main guns." Xu Jie asked..........

"If it is as per your request. It seems that this is the only option that works. Yan Boxun said with a wink.

"Okay. Although this layout is ugly, it can at least ensure stability and strong enough firepower, but if you want to give full play to the firepower advantage of 8 guns, it will be a test for users! Xu Jie frowned and said. There is no way, the advanced concept of the traverser is finally defeated by reality!

"But if you want to go to sea, you have to add about 1,500 tons of weight to balance and load more supplies." Yan Boxun said.

Said the supplies. How much ammunition is there? Xu Jie suddenly remembered that the German battlecruiser Von der Tann in history was only in its early 80s! (about 80 rounds of ammunition per gun) This reserve ammunition is only enough to fight one battle, and the second time there will be no shells. If you go out to the ocean, you can't just go home after a fight, right?

"If you only count the ammunition in the ammunition depot, 75 rounds per gun!" Yan Boxun said with a blushing face.

"75 rounds ......." Xu Jie was completely speechless. "What else do you mean by just counting ammunition depots?"

"You can pre-store 8 shells and corresponding propellants in the tail of the turret, plus 1 round in the barrel, almost an average of 80, of course, if Lord Yang agrees to put some propellant packs somewhere in the conference room of the officer's cafeteria, it is estimated that there will be more." The second half of Yan Boxun's sentence is purely to adjust the atmosphere. …………。

"If that's the case, I don't know if the shells will be released, but I guess the food and drinking water will be piled up in the conference room or the restaurant." Yang Yonglin couldn't help sighing.

"Each gun maintains a reserve of 120 rounds. Fuel cannot be less than 2000 tons. This is the bottom line, you can see what you do! Xu Jie set the tone.

"That tonnage will exceed 20,000 tons! The design of this ship is fine, but is your wallet and the situation of our port okay? Yan Boxun said while clasping his nose.

"Where do you think you can lose some weight?" Xu Jie was also a little confused, in order to ensure adequate protection and a passable speed, Feng Detann had a displacement of 19,000 tons, although Xu Jie's speed was reduced by at least 4 knots. But after all, it was more than 5 years in advance, and the main gun was increased to 12 inches, and the last place that could cut weight was only protection!

"Boss, what are your tonnage requirements?" Yan Boxun asked.

"It cannot exceed 19,000 tons...... If it is too big, on the one hand, the cost is unacceptable, and on the other hand, our deep-water berths are not enough, they are all 10,000-ton warships, and the tonnage of battleships has even risen to more than 20,000. No other military port could accommodate so many warships, especially the southern ones. Before Xu Jie could say anything, Yang Yonglin on the side opened his mouth and ..........

"I can't get it by this, boss, come on, I'm really not good, I've never seen such a tricky customer of yours!!" Yan Boxun was completely speechless, holding the drawings and shouting.

"Why don't you think differently? Let's have a retro look," Xu Jie said after thinking about it.

"What's the retro law? With an 11-inch gun, this is a solution. Yan Boxun nodded and said.

"Firepower cannot be saved, and the pressure on the Russian 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 could not penetrate 7-inch Krupp hardened armor at a normal engagement distance. Xu Jie said.

"As for the upper armor. Directly weakened to 5 inches, it can block 8-inch guns. The secondary guns are all double-turreted, so that the bow tower does not need to be arranged with a gun gallery, and some weight can be saved. In addition, because of the elongation of the boat, the power may not be used as much, and this piece should also save some weight. Xu Jie said what he thought.

"It's not retro, is it? The 7-inch main armor belt is not enough. Yang Yonglin shook his head in disagreement.

"We can use the rest of the armor weight on strengthening the dome. If the dome armor is as flat as possible, I think even the 6-inch main armor belt and the 3-inch dome armor can basically block the 12-inch naval gun. Xu Jie added..........

"In this way, although it can ensure that the core area will not be penetrated by a single shot, but if there are too many bullets, it will cause the hull to capsize. It's over, there's no way around this. Yang Yonglin said.

"Even if you can't wear it, you can burn it. When you encounter a large army of the opponent, you can run, this set of defense is to let you have an iron pants, and it would be good to be able to save your life when necessary! Make do with it. Xu Jie said.

"Also, this unit is specially used to intercept and kill the opponent's cruisers, and the opponent's 8-inch gun will definitely not be able to penetrate your 6-inch or 7-inch main belt. You can deal with a 12-inch gun, and then do a good job of fire plugging or something, and you can also deal with the 12-inch gun that the opponent has less. Yan Boxun said that this is a good idea.

"How many battlecruisers are going to be built?" Yang Yonglin finally decided to compromise. Since the quality of the battleship does not meet the requirements in his mind, Yang Yonglin can only retreat to the second best thing and see how many quantities there can be.

"No more than three by sight!" Xu Jie stretched out three fingers and said.

"Boss Xu, are there three missing?" Yang Yonglin said that after a long time of war, he understands very well that in addition to firepower, what is more important to deal with cruisers is speed. If you don't have enough speed, unless you can slow them down at the beginning, the best result is to run away. …………。

Therefore, Yang Yonglin attaches great importance to speed, which is why he admires the battlecruiser very much. The firepower of up to 8 12-inch guns has surpassed the current Ninghai-class battleships in Beiyang, and there is a fantastic speed of 23 knots! It was just perfect. But even so, the number of only 3 ships was not enough to fight the huge Russian armored cruiser battle group.

"Boss, can you bear to let me Beiyang use 3 battlecruisers to fight the other party's loading and patrolling? Although we still have a batch of ...... But the speed could not keep up with the main fleet, and the main fleet also needed direct guard forces. We have too few of them to fight with battle cruiser formations. "Don't look at Yan Boxun hasn't come back for a few days, but Yang Yonglin has already learned a lot of spoken language from the other party!

"Don't even think about it, this pile of weapons and armor is already a bit too much, and it is really difficult to maintain the stability and speed of navigation under heavy loads. And it has been in service for 5 years, and by the time the new ship is built, this class of battleships will be 10 years old, and it will simply not be possible to keep up with the speed of the battlecruisers. Yang Yonglin said helplessly.

"Of the remaining 7 armored cruisers, two Garibaldi-class are already a bit outdated, and only 5 are usable, and these ships must be left to the capital ships as direct guards, and we have very few warships in our hands." Yang Yonglin added..........

"I'll think about the Naoe Fleet. It is actually a waste to use a formation of 10,000-ton armored cruisers as direct guards. The large armored cruiser itself is not flexible enough, and the number of secondary guns is still small compared with the tonnage, and when dealing with the opponent's lightning ships and light warships, the oversized secondary guns are not as good as the 4.7-inch secondary guns, so the direct guard task of the fleet will be handed over to the new light warships in the future. Xu Jie thought for a while and said.

Thank you for the monthly ticket support of Tianji Scholars~~~~. (To be continued.) )。