Chapter 76

Qing Ying's theory on the obsolescence of protected cruisers once again stirred up a storm in the German Naval Office.

Initially, the reason the German Navy had submitted this budget to the parliament for approval was largely due to following the trend. At the time, the four major naval powers—Britain, France, the United States, and Russia—were all building a large number of smaller and cheaper protected cruisers. Not wanting to fall behind, the German Navy proposed a plan to build five 6,400-ton cruisers. According to the designers' original thinking, these 6,400-ton cruisers were well-balanced and capable of handling all the fast cruisers currently in service or under construction in France. However, after Qing Ying proposed the theory of the obsolescence of protected cruisers, they realized that this design was a waste of taxpayers' money.

Unlike the armchair critics at home, Qing Ying did not merely criticize with words but also presented concrete solutions. As an alternative to canceling the budget for the five protected cruisers, the revolutionary concept of the fleet-decisive armored cruiser caught the attention of the German Naval Office's designers. The core idea of this type of warship was to increase the tonnage of the armored cruiser while maintaining the same speed, thereby enhancing its firepower and protection to the level of a battleship. This way, the warship could serve both as a vanguard and in fleet-decisive battles. In terms of specific design details, Qing Ying also proposed ways to streamline the new warship: fewer main guns and less armor than a battleship. According to Qing Ying's estimates, the standard displacement of the new armored cruiser would not exceed 13,200 tons, which was the displacement of the new battleships under construction.

Upon learning of this innovative concept, Tirpitz, who held real power in the navy, was both surprised and delighted. The new warship, by moderately increasing its tonnage, combined the roles of vanguard reconnaissance and fleet-decisive battles, which was an excellent strategy to compensate for the lack of battleships in the German Navy. He immediately issued an order to cancel the construction budget for the five protected cruisers and instructed the designers to design a fleet-decisive armored cruiser based on Qing Ying's new concept.

At this time, Tirpitz also received good news: the Krupp company, the backbone of German military industry, had already begun developing a new main gun for the next generation of battleships.

The main weapon currently equipped on German battleships was the 283mm SK L/40 gun, which Krupp began developing in 1890. This gun was the first attempt by the German Navy to transition from old-style recoil guns to new-style sliding guns in the 11-inch class. To reduce development risks, the gun fired a 240kg shell, which was not much heavier than the 10-inch shells of other major powers and was considered extremely light. Compared to the 386kg shell of the British 12-inch gun introduced in 1895, the single-shot power of the German gun was clearly inferior. Although the gun had the highest muzzle velocity (820 m/s) among contemporary battleship guns and a firing rate of 2 rounds per minute when mounted in a turret, its single-shot power was still criticized by Wilhelm.

According to the 1895 new ship construction budget, the new battleships would still be equipped with the 40-caliber 283mm main gun. Seeing this, Wilhelm, influenced by Qing Ying's heavy gun theory, could not tolerate it. Although he had a preference for 11-inch guns, he could not accept the 240kg shell. If the propellant coefficients were equal, the single-shot power of British battleship guns was 60% higher than that of German guns, which was unacceptable. Therefore, Wilhelm issued an order to Krupp to develop a new main gun for the battleships to be built the following year by tapping the potential of the existing 11-inch gun.

Krupp did not oppose Wilhelm's order. The designers knew that the 40-caliber 11-inch gun they had previously developed was a makeshift product and not a success. The gun weighed 45.3 tons, with a chamber pressure of 3,200 atmospheres, but it only achieved a muzzle kinetic energy of 80.7 megajoules, with a power-to-weight ratio of only 1.78 megajoules per ton. More frustratingly, this kinetic energy could only be achieved with a 240kg shell; if a heavier shell were used, the gun might burst, even with the same propellant, meaning it would not even reach the 1.78 ratio. For a typical battleship gun, a power-to-weight ratio of 2.4 was considered barely acceptable, 2.7 was good, and 3.0 was excellent.

Given this, Krupp quickly outlined the expected data for the new gun. The first step was to increase the shell weight to 300kg, the standard weight for an 11-inch gun. To maintain a low and flat trajectory for high accuracy in close-range naval battles, the muzzle velocity should remain at 820 m/s. Additionally, the gun's potential must be fully exploited, and the new gun's weight must be reduced to below 42 tons. The entire development process was expected to take three years, with the new gun completing its test firing and being delivered to the navy in 1899.

Since the new gun would increase the single-shot power by 25% and the turret structure would still ensure a firing rate of 2 rounds per minute, Tirpitz decided to temporarily hold the 54 million mark budget. He would wait until the ship designers had developed a mature design based on the new gun's data before starting construction the following year. The typical construction period for a large capital ship was three years, so the new ships starting construction in 1896 would be completed in 1899, just in time for the new gun's service.

Two months later, on the Mid-Autumn Festival, a mature design plan was finally placed on Wilhelm's desk.

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The cold wind howled, and dry leaves flew. Despite the tightly closed windows, they still groaned under the fierce wind. Under the bright light, Wilhelm and Qing Ying, one large and one small, sat facing each other. In front of them was a sheet of paper with line drawings and a wooden miniature model.

"Is this the fleet-decisive armored cruiser?" Wilhelm extended his finger, gently turning the mini main turret on the model, and then spoke softly.

Qing Ying nodded slightly and said, "Yes, this is it. Its design displacement is 12,200 tons, with a speed of 20 knots. It is equipped with four new 42-caliber 283mm main guns and ten 150mm secondary guns, and has a 250mm main armor belt 3.5 meters high along the waterline. According to my original estimate, the ship's standard displacement would exceed 13,000 tons, but these designers managed to keep it under 12,200 tons, which is quite impressive."

Wilhelm flexed his fingers and pointed to the thin armor section above the waterline, asking doubtfully, "Eitel, are you sure this is okay? The 1.6-meter-high upper armor is only 100mm thick, which can only defend against 8-inch quick-firing guns. If this area is hit by the shells of enemy battleships, it will be penetrated for sure."

"Originally, the designers planned to align the bottom of the upper armor with the middle deck. After my insistence, they raised the main armor by 0.5 meters, reducing the area of this weak spot by about a quarter. The 3.5-meter-high main armor extends 2 meters above the waterline, providing better protection than the armor of battleships from other countries. Although its resistance to damage is weaker than our battleships, it is certainly not inferior to enemy battleships. Even if the 100mm light armor is penetrated by enemy battleship shells, there is still a 65mm horizontal armor behind it to protect the core compartments. After all, this ship can reach a speed of 20 knots, and to control the tonnage and cost, some secondary areas had to be sacrificed," Qing Ying explained, pointing to the cross-sectional armor diagram on the line drawing. This armor layout, the classic turtle-back armor used in historical German capital ships, sacrificed space to protect key areas, providing much better vertical protection than sloped armor. Unless hit by a British 15-inch gun from over 12,000 meters, this fleet-decisive armored cruiser could stand firm against any firepower during World War I.

Hearing the words "tonnage" and "cost," Wilhelm smiled slightly and said, "Very good. Cost is a factor that cannot be ignored at any time. The cost of this design is well-controlled due to excellent tonnage management. Whether it's the long forecastle and low freeboard design or the space saved by using water-tube boilers, these are excellent solutions to reduce structural weight without compromising strength. With a 18,000 horsepower engine, the cost of a single ship is only 20 million marks, which is beyond my expectations. It seems that with the cost of one third-class cruiser, we can build three such ships next year."

At this point, Wilhelm suddenly reached out and touched Qing Ying's head, feeling the smoothness in his palm. A strange emotion stirred in his heart. Over the past two years, this young man had made unimaginable contributions to the empire's strategy and naval development. In a few months, he would be 13 years old, and it was time to let him sit in the reserve seat.

Strictly speaking, this position should have been his two years ago, but Wilhelm was not satisfied with Eitel at the time, so the selection of the crown prince was delayed. Now, the boy had achieved far more in both academics and accomplishments than Wilhelm had expected. It was time to determine his successor!