Daming 1805

Chapter 368 The Shipbuilding Competition Is About to Begin
Berlin, the capital of Prussia.

The King of Prussia, Friedrich William III, had returned home from Mexico just before summer.

In the palace, the cabinet ministers and generals of the navy and army were summoned to discuss the news of the New World, France, Britain and the country.

Prime Minister Hardenberg explained the situation to the king and his companions very seriously:
"Your Majesty, gentlemen, the news from abroad has been confirmed.

"The Daming craftsmen stationed at the site got permission from the Ministry of Industry and explained to us the basic situation of the new flagship of the Ming Dynasty.

"The length is 230 meters, the width is 30 meters, the draft is about [-] meters, and the full load displacement is [-] tons.

"Full oil-fired boilers are combined with steam turbines for propulsion, and the maximum speed is more than 25 knots.

"The cruising mileage of fifteen knots is more than [-] nautical miles, that is, more than [-] kilometers.

"The information made public by France and the UK is true.

"However, many details are still classified, such as the specific speed and range, and the power of the power system.

"And the effective range of the new 360mm naval gun, etc..."

William III and the ministers and generals around him had heard the public news from Britain and France before.

Knowing the situation of Daming's new battleship, and now confirming the authenticity of these news, I am still surprised and unbelievable.

There was a suppressed low exclamation at the scene, followed by chaotic discussions.

William III was also stunned for a few seconds, then looked at Hardenberg:

"We Prussia...we Germany, can we build warships of the same size?"

Hardberg was a little embarrassed and tangled and said:
"It should be possible to simply build a warship of this size.

"But it may take a lot of time to really play the role of a [-]-ton warship."

A naval vessel is not a simple piece of equipment, but a very complex mechanical and weapon system.

A ship of [-] tons may not be able to build a warship of [-] tons, and a warship of [-] tons may not be able to play a role, and it may not be able to play the role that a [-]-ton warship should have.

There are four stages with a certain distance that need to be crossed.

William III thought for a while, then asked again:

"Then do we need warships of this size? Can they play a role in our naval strategic planning? Or, do we need to build warships of the same size?"

Hardberg had thought about this a long time ago, and replied directly at this time:
"My judgment and that of the admirals is that we need warships of this size.

"Our original plan was to design and build larger warships in the next few years after thoroughly understanding the existing technologies, with a full load displacement of between [-] and [-] tons.

"The main factor we consider is that the larger the tonnage of the warship, the more cost-effective the actual cost.

"The key point is that the strategic goal of our navy is to pose a sufficient threat to the British navy to force it to give up interfering in our routes to the colonies.

"The larger the warship, the better the deterrent effect will be.

"But now, Ming Dynasty has started to mass-produce [-]-ton warships, and the British and French are likely to follow suit.

"When Ming Dynasty, Britain and France...more importantly, Britain and France built [-]-ton battleships, if we continue to build [-]-ton battleships, we will fall into a cost and efficiency trap.

"According to the experience summed up by the craftsmen of Ming Dynasty, and also the experience estimated and simulated by our craftsmen and generals, a capital ship with a small tonnage is the most uneconomical design.

"The cost of a [-]-ton capital ship may be [-]% of that of a [-]-ton capital ship, but the actual combat capability will be a level worse.

"If more than 4 warships are capital ships, then [-]-ton warships can only be regarded as secondary warships.

"It may take two [-]-ton warships to defeat a [-]-ton warship.

"So if we consider cost and efficiency, we can only build bigger warships, not smaller warships."

William III said with some pain:

"So, in order to achieve the combat goals of our navy, we should not build [-]-ton warships, but must build [-]-ton or larger warships."

Hardenberg also said with a heavy expression:
"It can indeed be said that it is true for us, and it is true for England and France.

"Britain and France also have to consider that if we build [-]-ton warships, they cannot only have [-]-ton warships.

"They also have to build [-]-ton warships.

"Moreover, after the Yinzhou War ended, the relationship between Ming Dynasty and Britain and France has been greatly improved.

"Especially in France, Daming provided a large amount of loans to the French royal family and opened a branch of Daming Bank in Paris.

"Prince Dashi and French Crown Prince Charles have jointly invested in a large number of industrial and basic industries in France.

"After the relationship between Ming and France becomes closer, our role in Ming will weaken.

"We should obtain technical support from Daming as much as possible while still maintaining a good relationship with him."

William III heaved a long sigh:
"Then make a plan based on the [-]-ton target, and start designing and building a [-]-ton battleship..."

Hardberg and the relevant personnel immediately got up and agreed.

Hardberg then went on to report that:
"Your Majesty, Daming Honglu Temple has sent a message that the fleet that is visiting England hopes to visit Prussia in eight days.

"Where is it more appropriate to arrange the port of visit and reception?"

Hardenberg didn't say whether to accept it, and it is impossible to refuse this kind of thing.

Even countries with poor relations will not refuse naval visits.

What's more, at present, Daming and Prussia are theoretically still in the honeymoon period of cooperation.

Daming helped Prussia complete the technical system related to naval battleships.

With the rapid distance between Ming and France, the relationship with Prussia may be alienated.

It is at this time that Prussia has to show enough attention.

William III understood these logics, so he said very decisively:
"Welcome, of course we welcome you grandly. The location of the visit is in Wilhelmshaven, and I will greet you in person."

The matter of receiving Daming's visiting fleet was quickly finalized.

Eight days later, the Ming Fleet arrived in Wilhelmshaven as scheduled. William III took his wife and several children, along with the main nobles and officials of Prussia, as well as the generals of the navy and army, to the pier to greet them.

A large ship of [-] tons appeared on the pier and put it together with the existing Prussian warships, which made the Prussians headed by William III more intuitively aware of the terrifying gap between the two sides.

Then, the personnel from both sides met very enthusiastically, and then held banquets at the pier and on the warship to celebrate.

The Ming Dynasty's cutting-edge high-speed battleship fleet returned to Portugal and Spain after staying in Wilhelmshaven for eight days.

The relationship between Daming and Spain and Portugal is not good, but it is not too bad now.

After all, they have already signed a permanent peace treaty, and they are all members of the League of Nations. They have joined the Mozhou Pioneering Group and have been working together to protect Morocco and build Morocco's public ports.

So it is only natural that the most important members of the royal family and court officials will be arranged to receive them.

At the same time, it is also to observe the situation of Daming's new warship intuitively.

Then the Portuguese and the Spaniards also quickly changed their shipbuilding plans and began to design a [-]-ton capital ship.

Their logic is the same as that of the Prussians. It is not cost-effective to build smaller ships.

The key is that other countries in Europe and America cannot be prevented from building large ships.

So they can only follow the guesswork and build a big ship, anyway, they won't lose money.

After visiting Portugal and Spain, Ming's fleet crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and entered the Daqin Sea (Mediterranean).

Visit Sardinia, Austria, Ottoman, and Lucia in turn.

Wherever the Ming Navy fleet went, they were warmly welcomed by the local nobles.

At the same time, it also directly changed the shipbuilding plans of various countries, and all of them chose to directly increase [-] tons according to the logic of course.

The news of the Ming Fleet's visit to the western continent continued to occupy important sections of news newspapers in western and western countries during the second half of the four years in Ankang.

The scale and general parameters of Ming Dynasty's new capital ship were also evaluated by personnel with naval experience, inquired by newspaper reporters, and published in the newspaper.

Of course, there are also photos in various states released at the same time.

The continued popularity of related news has also pushed the courts and navies of the Thai and Western countries to take action, and quickly came up with various large-scale shipbuilding plans.

A Western and Western shipbuilding competition quickly started.

The Ming fleet's visit to the Black Sea ended, and after leaving the waters of Lucia and Ottoman, they did not enter the Little Western Ocean through the West Sea Canal.

Instead, it sailed west along the north coast of Mexico (Africa), crossed the Daqin Sea again, and returned to the Atlantic Ocean from the Strait of Gibraltar.

Then go south along the west coast of Mexico, and visit the colonies of Daming and Western countries in turn.

At the southernmost tip of Mozhou, bypassing the cape of Xiyang, finally entered Xiaoxiyang.

Continue to go north along the east coast of Mozhou, and visit Dashi, Tianzhu, Nanyang, and Tiannan Continent (Australia) in turn.

After bypassing the entire Tiannan Continent, head north from the eastern part of the Tiannan Continent and return to the mainland of Daming.

This round-the-world visit is not over here, and the fleet will do it again after it is repaired at home.

Visited North Korea, Japan, and Eastern Xianbei (Eastern Siberia) in turn, and sailed to the northwest of Yinzhou.

Then go south along the northernmost coastline of the Daming Ocean (Pacific Ocean), visiting the entire west coast of Yinzhou.

Finally, bypass the southernmost tip of Yinzhou again, return to Xintianfu again, and join the aircraft carrier formation that arrived here.

…………

When Daming's high-speed battleship formation escorted Charles and Charlotte out of Xintianfu and headed for Northern Yinzhou, Daming's aircraft carrier formation also arrived at Xintianfu.

Zhenhai and Jinghai two [-]-ton direct-deck aircraft carriers, and Fengyang Fu, Songjiang Fu, Baoding Fu, and Hejian Fu, four [-]-ton new cruisers.

Since the aircraft carrier is still classified as a secret, this time the fleet did not swagger directly into Xintianfu.

Instead, it stopped at the military pier in Sanqing City.

Accompanied by his grandfather Zhu Zhongliang, Zhu Jingyuan took a boat to Sanqingcheng Military Wharf to visit.

Zhu Zhongliang had seen these two aircraft carriers when they were launched, but now standing under the pier next to the aircraft carriers, he still couldn't help admiring from the bottom of his heart:

"It's really big, it's also [-] tons, and the aircraft carrier is bigger than the battleship..."

Zhu Jingyuan also praised and explained at the same time:

"That's right, the aircraft carrier itself has a shallow draft, and the shape of the hull is closer to that of a cruiser, with a smaller square coefficient.

"There are not as many armor structures as battleships, and the freeboard height is more than twice that of battleships.

"So with the same displacement, the size of an aircraft carrier is much larger than that of a battleship.

"The 230-ton battleship is 270 meters long, but the two aircraft carriers are approaching [-] meters.

"The width of the battleship's hull is 30 meters, the width of the aircraft carrier's hull is 32 meters, and the width of the deck is 48 meters."

Zhu Zhongliang nodded with emotion on his face, and drove back and forth on the pier twice in the car, carefully looking at the hull below the aircraft carrier.

Then, accompanied by escorts and fleet officers, they boarded the deck of the aircraft carrier Zhenhai together.

Both Zhenhai and Jinghai are typical all-through rectangular decks, which is a typical feature of aircraft carriers in the World War II era.

However, the hull size of these two aircraft carriers exceeds that of all aircraft carriers that actually participated in World War II.

Including Shinano, excluding Midway Island, which did not catch up with World War II.

At the same time, compared to all World War II aircraft carriers, their design is very modern,

They both already had very noticeable off-deck floats.

The maximum width of the flight deck has reached 48 meters, which is six meters wider than that of the [-]-ton Midway before the transformation.

The length has reached 270 meters, which is basically the same as the Midway Island before the transformation.

Compared with the [-]-ton Shinano, it is even longer and wider.

Shinano's deck is 22 meters wide at the front, 40 meters wide in the middle, and 30 meters wide at the rear. It is a spindle shape with narrow ends and a wide middle.

This is not only due to the sequelae of the battleship hull transformation, but also the last choice for the difficulty in completing the trim design.

Shinano is the aircraft carrier with the worst cost-effectiveness ratio and the worst ratio of actual combat capability to tonnage.

Both Zhenhai and Jinghai have approximately the same deck width from front to back, and are very regular rectangles.

The elevators are all placed on the sideboard, and they are all on the floating part outside the hull. The use of the elevators does not affect the deck scheduling.

The actual deck operation efficiency of the two aircraft carriers actually exceeds that of Midway before the transformation.

Therefore, both aircraft carriers can use twin-engine propeller carrier-based aircraft normally like Midway Island.

After Zhu Jingyuan and Zhu Zhongliang's grandfather and grandson got on the deck, they saw a large number of carrier-based aircraft placed on the hull.

The great Ming in this world is rich in production capacity, which is richer than the United States during the interwar period.

Of course, I don't mind the large-scale use of deck-tethered aircraft to increase the number of carrier-based aircraft and dispatch efficiency.

And unlike the aircraft carriers in the World War II era, the planes moored on the decks of Zhenhai and Jinghai are not just parked in the rear half of the deck.

There is also a whole row of planes parked on the floating parts on both sides.

After the wings of these two rows of aircraft are folded, the width of the remaining deck in the middle is still enough for two rows of aircraft to take off at the same time.

There are more than fifty carrier-based aircraft moored on the deck, half of which are twin-engine carrier-based aircraft.

There are fifty other aircraft in the hangar.

The total carrying capacity is one hundred aircraft.

If small single-engine carrier-based aircraft are used, then the two aircraft carriers may carry more than 120 aircraft, which is one hundred more than the original design.

However, in actual training and future actual combat, the complete hundred will basically not be used.

When there are too many carrier-based aircraft, especially when there are more than one hundred aircraft, the efficiency of deck scheduling will plummet.

Therefore, some of the aircraft are considered as spare aircraft, and they are all removed from the wings and engines, and hung on the ceiling of the hangar.

(End of this chapter)