Chapter 10

In the gloomy night, with a bleak and cold wind, in the side hall of Wilhelm II, the furnace fire burned brightly, dispelling the chill of early winter and bringing the warmth of spring. At the moment the clock struck 8:30, a plain knock on the door suddenly sounded. Wilhelm II, seated at the head of the table, put down his pen and uttered a heavy syllable. Two figures in trench coats pushed the door open and then closed it, isolating the cold outside once again.

For the past three days, Qing Ying had been eagerly awaiting this moment, but when it finally arrived, he found that reality was not as good as he had imagined. After taking off their trench coats, Qing Ying was completely ignored by Wilhelm II and Tirpitz; the two quickly delved into their discussion without a single glance in his direction.

"Kiao! Are you two so fickle that you can just ignore me like this?" Seeing Wilhelm II and Tirpitz, these two close friends, talking as if no one else was there, and occasionally making gestures to express their points, Qing Ying was greatly indignant. In his heart, he had already transformed into Godzilla, spewing fire and shaking the Empire State Building madly. He was the greatest contributor to this matter! Now, before his bones were even cold... spit, spit, anyway, that's what it means. Did these two guys just discard him so quickly?

Qing Ying silently cursed, but Wilhelm II and Tirpitz's disregard for him did not stop. After a brief explanation, Tirpitz handed over a neatly bound document and said, "Your Majesty, this is a naval development outline for the next five years prepared by the Naval Department. Please review it."

Hearing the keyword "development outline," Qing Ying's ears perked up, and he temporarily set aside his displeasure. Taking advantage of the moment when Wilhelm II took and opened the document, Qing Ying subtly moved and quietly slipped to Wilhelm II's side. From this angle, with the 1.5 vision of his body, he could clearly see every character on the document. After a brief glance, Qing Ying was thoroughly impressed by the rigor and detail of this development plan.

Tirpitz's plan covered a wide range of areas, including naval recruitment, salary subsidies, research and development of various subsystems, construction of supporting facilities, and ship design, with detailed explanations and evaluations for each item. However, as Wilhelm II flipped through the pages, Qing Ying's brows gradually furrowed. Most of the plan was almost flawless, and the annual construction of one capital ship aligned with Qing Ying's thoughts. However, there was a serious problem with the final ship design!

Since the pre-dreadnought era, the German High Seas Fleet had always had a unique style of large ships with small guns. For the same tonnage, the armament of German warships, in terms of both quantity and caliber, was far inferior to those of other navies of the same period. If the reduction in firepower could be offset by improvements in other performance aspects, it would be acceptable. However, the Germans had weaker firepower, but their armor and speed did not improve accordingly!

For example, the "Kaiser Friedrich III" class battleship, completed by Germany in 1898, had a standard displacement of 11,000 tons, equipped with only 4 240mm main guns and 18 150mm secondary guns, with a speed of only 17.5 knots and a small strip of 300mm armor near the waterline. Its anti-sinking performance was not even considered, which was extremely unscientific! In contrast, the American Iowa-class battleship (not the later Iowa) completed in the same period had a standard displacement of 11,500 tons, equipped with 4 305mm guns and 8 203mm guns, with a main armor strip 456mm thick and a speed of 17 knots! Even though the American ships had a low freeboard, sacrificing seakeeping to improve tonnage utilization, the gap was not this significant!

Not only battleships, but German armored cruisers were also perplexing. The "Prinz Heinrich" class armored cruiser, completed in 1902, used 9,000 tons of displacement to achieve 2 240mm main guns, 10 150mm secondary guns, 100mm armor, and a speed of 20 knots. In contrast, the Italian Garibaldi-class armored cruiser, with a displacement of only 7,300 tons, was equipped with superior 2 254mm main guns and 10 150mm secondary guns, with the same speed and 150mm thick side armor, covering a larger area! Most importantly, this ship was completed in 1896, six years earlier than the German "Prinz Heinrich"! Although the situation with German warships temporarily ended with the design of the "Nassau" class in 1907, the long-standing habit of large ships with small guns had deeply ingrained itself in German designers. Except for the "Bavaria" class forced by the British, the Kaiser, King, and even the old Scharnhorst and Bismarck in World War II, all suffered from this ideology!

What was the reason for this peculiar situation? Qing Ying had pondered this in his previous life, but due to the lack of primary sources, he could only draw a vague conclusion based on some evidence. After this穿越, through the past few days of probing Tirpitz, and after analyzing the words of this future father of the High Seas Fleet, Qing Ying was even more certain of the correctness of his previous thoughts.

The displacement of a warship is composed of the following eight major items: hull structure, auxiliary machinery, propulsion, weapons, ammunition, armor, boiler water, and miscellaneous supplies. With Germany's industrial technology, the weapons and propulsion systems could not be overweight due to technical backwardness. The weight of armor, ammunition, and boiler water varied with design requirements and was not related to technology. Auxiliary machinery and miscellaneous supplies were proportional to the displacement of the warship, and the percentage difference between different ships was small, so they did not significantly affect the total weight. Thus, the only suspect was left—indeed, it was the "hull structure"!

The German Navy had always been obsessed with building "unsinkable sea fortresses." To achieve this, in addition to thick armor, watertight compartments, a double bottom, and reliable structural strength were also essential. These three aspects were directly related to the weight of the "hull structure." The first two were well done by the Germans, but in terms of structural strength, the Germans were overly conservative to ensure the ship's strength, resulting in excessive weight in the hull structure, causing the warship to be seriously overweight!

Looking at Tirpitz's report, Qing Ying felt a chill when he saw that the battleships with a design displacement of 13,000 tons were only equipped with 4 283mm main guns. If the issue of excessive structural strength could be resolved, even maintaining the strong anti-sinking capability, adding 500 tons and another main gun turret would not be a problem! But he couldn't say this directly!

"Very good, Alfred, this plan is very detailed, you have put a lot of effort into it." Wilhelm II slowly closed the few pages in his hand, a faint smile of satisfaction on his face. "Allocating 33 million marks annually for ship construction is only 1.5 times my annual income, and I don't think those people will make much fuss about this amount!" He then turned around, raised his right hand, and said to Qing Ying, who was deep in thought, "Eitel, go and get that stack of buff-colored paper over there; I need to write an edict."

Qing Ying was in a daze, nodded absentmindedly, and walked in the direction Wilhelm II pointed. A small stack of paper was placed in the most prominent position on the bookshelf, thick and hard, yet smooth and supple.

"Hmm, what is this? The top sheet of paper actually has a drawing of a warship?" Qing Ying's brows furrowed, and he suddenly knew what it was. Although ordinary people might not recognize it, as a modern military enthusiast who frequented battleship forums, Qing Ying was very familiar with the warship depicted in this drawing.

The warship depicted on this paper was a barbette cruiser designed by Emperor Wilhelm II himself. In the eyes of German professional designers, the ship's firepower, protection, and speed were too perfect for its 2,650-ton design displacement. All designers believed it was impossible to achieve Wilhelm II's design with this tonnage. If this ship were built, it would be the only one in the German Navy that would not be sunk by the enemy, as it would immediately sink like a lead duck upon launching, thus ending its own life. For this, Wilhelm II was depressed for over a week. This emperor, who was exceptionally fond of the navy, had racked his brains to design such a ship, and when he confidently presented the design to the professionals, he received this evaluation! If this were in the Qing Dynasty, he would have been dragged out of the Meridian Gate and beheaded!

Time flies, and although Wilhelm II's design was once a laughingstock, it was vindicated 120 years later on a battleship forum. According to the simulation by the great S**44 assault rifle, the so-called "lead duck" was actually feasible and had no obvious unreasonable aspects. The accuracy of its speed calculation and the forward-thinking design of its guns showed Wilhelm II's sincere dedication to designing this ship. The reason the designers at the time gave it the "lead duck" evaluation was that they were too conservative in structural design and did not believe that such a small weight could ensure the structural strength of the ship!

Seeing this, Qing Ying suddenly had an idea. Could he not use this "lead duck" to push the design of German naval ships? This was like getting a pillow when you were about to sleep!

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