Seven Seas Beacon Fire

However, not exceeding the limitations of the treaty does not mean that countries do not want to have their own agendas within the scope defined by the treaty.

Among these acts of exploiting loopholes in the treaty, the most common one is that the tonnage of various countries exceeds the standard. Most countries exceed it by only a little bit. For example, a cruiser with a capacity of 10,000 tons actually has a standard displacement of 11,000 tons. This is actually quite normal. After all, shipbuilding in those days was not as precise as it is now. It was not uncommon for a ship to be built with an error of several hundred tons.

Of course, there are also some countries that have transformed from maritime hegemons to comedians, building treaty ships with a tight grip on tonnage, only to find after completion that they have accidentally cut too much, falling short of the limit by 2000 tons!

When it comes to exceeding the tonnage limit, many people naturally think of a classmate who is living a good life, or a classmate who likes to eat pasta. The Kaohsiung and Zara are the two heavy cruisers that are most qualified to compete for the title of the king of treaty heavy cruisers, and their actual tonnage clearly exceeds the limit of 10,000 tons.

Of course, some students might say that those who are living a good life are even more seriously exceeding the limit, and their intentions are more sinister than those who eat spaghetti. Ah, this is actually a misunderstanding about those who are living a good life.

Both ships were essentially designed to exceed the limit by more than 1000 tons, aiming for a tonnage of 12,000 tons. This is because under the 10,000-ton limit, it is indeed impossible to achieve good protection. Although this exceeds the limit by a little, it is not particularly excessive.

Zara controlled its displacement better, at 11,900 tons, so it received less criticism. Kaohsiung, on the other hand, exceeded that limit a bit. Its standard displacement is 13,000 tons, but this 13,000 tons is not what Kaohsiung wanted. Kaohsiung's initial displacement was only 11,490 tons, but due to the well-known Fourth Fleet incident, those who were doing well had to improve the stability and seaworthiness of their destroyers and cruisers.

The 13,000-ton increase in tonnage was not something that those who were living comfortably wanted; it was a forced overweight. The result was that the heavy cruiser could not reach the originally envisioned top speed of 35 knots. For those who were living comfortably, this was strictly speaking a design failure.

Besides tonnage, another loophole to exploit is changing guns. The most typical example of this is the Mogami, whose story is well-known. Although some naval battle games have special mechanics that make many people think that the Mogami might be stronger without changing guns, this is actually completely wrong.

In Li Che's view, the Borneo navy was probably just focusing on these two aspects as well; this kind of issue didn't really rise to the level of a matter of conduct...

"They are preparing to build a small destroyer with a standard displacement of 699 tons.......... Although this is the claimed tonnage, the actual tonnage should be more than 700 tons, close to 800 tons, but they seem to be preparing to mount 120 mm or even 150 mm caliber naval guns on such a hull, and on top of that, they will also equip it with torpedoes."

"?????"

Li Che couldn't help but pick at his ears. What did I just hear? A 700-ton ship, going to mount 120mm or even 150mm naval guns?

I've never heard of a designer named Kikuo Fujimoto from Borneo before, have I? Where did you get this from?

Chidori-class minesweeper?

This thing is quite famous in the naval circles of another world, and in some ways, it can be considered a famous negative example.

Following the signing of the Washington Naval Treaty, in order to maximize the combat capability of auxiliary ships beyond the treaty's limitations, the "mineboat" evolved into a high-speed vessel under 600 tons, equipped with a large number of torpedoes and medium-caliber guns. Its role was more similar to a small coastal destroyer, and it was fundamentally different from the torpedo boats of other countries.

Originally, such ships were not highly valued, but in another world, the Washington Naval Treaty was not detailed enough, so countries later signed the London Treaty, which severely restricted the development of the "Lian Kuo Kang Tai" destroyer.

In order to circumvent this restriction, the students who are doing well plan to build destroyers under 600 tons that are not subject to the treaty restrictions, and classify these destroyers as mineboats.

The plan is to build 20 of these warships, which will have half the firepower of the Fubuki-class destroyers. This will not only greatly supplement the destroyer force, but the smaller tonnage ships will also be cheaper to build, making it a win-win situation.

However, the Japanese crammed far too many weapons onto this small 600-ton ship. There were three 127mm guns alone, housed in two turrets. Besides the turreted 127mm guns, there were two 533mm torpedo launchers, and even a reloading system!

Then, unsurprisingly, this top-heavy thing crashed during the Tomozuru incident. Of course, from this perspective, the Chidori-class minesweeper was definitely a good ship, having killed dozens of Japanese before the start of the anti-fascist war.

The Fourth Fleet incident forced the shipbuilders to re-examine all the ships they had built, from aircraft carriers to cruisers, and the Chidori-class minesweepers were no exception. After significant weight reduction modifications, the displacement of the Chidori-class minesweepers was reduced to 535 tons, and their armament was reduced to three 120mm deck guns and one torpedo launcher.

Although Li Che hasn't seen the blueprints yet, just hearing the words 120 mm and 150 mm tells him that this is another Chidori-class aircraft.

"Are they planning to mass-produce warships with a standard displacement of less than 700 tons to circumvent the treaty restrictions on our destroyers?" Li Che rubbed his head, looking somewhat troubled. "We haven't even used up our destroyer tonnage yet, have we? Is it really necessary for them to do this?"

"We do not currently have all of our destroyer tonnage, but there will come a day when destroyer tonnage will be exhausted. More importantly... those officers who originally came from Borneo also tend to assume that we are facing a pincer attack from two first-class naval powers, Colombia and Victoria. In such a situation, our current destroyer force is insufficient."

"Who proposed building such a ship?"

Li Che decided to make an example of this issue. Even if such warships were built, they would be very vulnerable to loss in actual combat. It could be said that if such ships were built, the officers and soldiers serving on these ships would inevitably face higher casualties in future wars.

“It wasn’t just one person who suggested building such a ship, Your Highness.” Xu Yueming’s next words left Li Che speechless: “You can think of this as a collective effort by Borneo officers. Our night raid on Wonsan left a deep impression on navies all over the world. As far as I know, initially, it was just someone who suggested that we should learn from the experience of the Battle of Wonsan and vigorously build up the torpedo boat force.”

In particular, the treaty did not restrict the number of warships under 700 tons, so initially they only wanted to develop a relatively large ocean-going torpedo boat, about 400 to 500 tons, with 6 fixed torpedo tubes, and then equipped with some ping-pong guns or 75mm guns.

Such ocean-going torpedo boats can play a certain role in the island-strewn waters of the South China Sea, but the situation is changing as naval treaty negotiations progress.

"What changes?"

“Some Borneo officers felt that we were being pressured by the West in the negotiations of this naval treaty, and that we had not actually obtained naval tonnage equal to that of Colombia and Victoria. Therefore, some young officers at the time said that we should not sign such a naval treaty because the situation was not right. So the South Sea Fleet shifted the focus to how to help the main fleet close the gap in manpower between the Yingzhou Navy or the Bharat Navy.”

"This strategy of using minimal force to achieve maximum effect is quite good, turning the conflict into motivation, but in the end, it leads to something like this? And they're even preparing to build it?" Li Che was somewhat puzzled. "The battle of Yuanshan was a last resort, a desperate measure we had when we were driven to the brink. It's like someone walking on a mountain, cornered by a tiger at the edge of a cliff, forced to jump off to seek a sliver of survival. Would you jump off cliffs every day for fun if you didn't encounter a tiger? This is a matter of life and death for our naval officers and soldiers..."

“Your Highness,” Xu Yueming interrupted Li Che, a rare occurrence, “In fact, everyone is well aware of these issues, especially in the process of perfecting the design of this 700-ton small destroyer. Those officers and designers from Borneo are more aware of these issues than anyone else, but these people are precisely the driving force behind the 700-ton small destroyer design.”

"what?"

“That’s not hard to understand, Your Highness.” Xu Yueming sighed deeply. “More than a million people died in the entire northern part of Borneo, Your Highness.”

Li Che was speechless.

When the Colombian expeditionary force landed in Borneo, their purpose was the very traditional killing of immigrants. Although not all of the more than one million dead were directly caused by the Colombian expeditionary force, the vast majority of their deaths were indeed directly or indirectly related to the Colombian expeditionary force.

How many people are there in the entire Borneo? What does the death of more than 100 million people mean for the entire Borneo? It means that the vast majority of Chinese living on this land have relatives, friends, classmates, or teachers who died at the hands of the Colombian invaders.

"Most of the Borneo-based naval officers and soldiers have deep-seated hatred for the Colombian invaders. Many of them can understand that we are considering the bigger picture now. Whether it is for the sake of the people's livelihood or the stability of our country, a ceasefire with the West is the best outcome under the current circumstances. However, while they understand, they cannot accept it emotionally."

Li Che nodded slowly: "I understand, I know."

Yes, he had seen too many such situations, whether in the history of the two worlds that once crossed paths in this world or in the history of another world.

Put yourself in their shoes. Why would someone who is eating millet and carrying a rifle insist on fighting to the death against an invader who seems almost invincible and can build battleships and aircraft carriers?

Why do waves of young Hamas members still flock to Israel like moths to a flame in the face of its planes, cannons, and tanks?

If your loved ones died at the hands of invaders, if your lover was defiled by those beasts, if your siblings also sacrificed themselves before your eyes, what would you most want to do at that moment? What would you care about most?

Is it possible for me to come back alive?

No, I'm already dead.

Is it that the weapon in one's own hand disregards the life of the user?

No, any weapon that can kill Japanese soldiers is a good weapon!

I've already done anti-tank gymnastics, why would I care if I come back alive?

Is it possible to achieve final victory?

It doesn't matter, I don't need to live to see that day, all I want right now is for the enemy in front of me to die!

“Take me to the design bureau.” Li Che sighed deeply. “They can be impulsive, they have a reason to sacrifice themselves, but we cannot fail to cherish the lives of our colleagues. Since they choose to remain beastly, we need to remain rational.”

Chapter 318 The Arrow Shot at the Blue Star Flag (3)

After seeing the design drawings, which were supposedly sent by the South Sea Fleet, Li Che raised an eyebrow in surprise.

Although this is not a complete and detailed warship design drawing, it is clear that the drawing in Li Che's hand has gone beyond a simple sketch. It is a drawing that could only be produced by someone with professional shipbuilding skills and a highly proficient drafting ability.

Frontline officers and soldiers have always had many ingenious ideas in the development of weapons and equipment. However, most officers and soldiers are limited by their own knowledge, education, and professional skills, so the weapon design drawings they draw based on their imaginations are quite... cute.

Li Che had seen some weapon design drawings made by some soldiers and even nurses during the Great Patriotic War on the internet in another world. For example, there were steel fortresses several stories high, and tanks that could travel on land using sails... Most weapon design schemes that non-professionals "think about" are very imprecise.

Even a genius like Kalashnikov, after self-studying, first came up with a somewhat immature submachine gun design before the famous AK47 was born.

Through this design drawing and the data marked on it, Li Che gained a more accurate understanding of this "small destroyer" that he had previously thought of as an ordinary Chidori.

It is 75m long, 8m wide, and has a draft of 2.8m. Its standard displacement is 756 tons. However, the drawings indicate that the claimed standard displacement is 696 tons. The block coefficient of the entire ship is 0.45.

On such a small hull, a gun emplacement is set on both the foredeck and the aft deck. This emplacement can be used to mount a twin-mounted 105mm naval gun or a single-mounted 150mm naval gun.

In addition to the main gun positions at the bow and fore, the ship also had several gun positions for 40mm single-mounted ping-pong guns. These early machine guns performed quite well in the Battle of Wonsan. Although in daytime battles, these early machine guns, which did not have a very high muzzle velocity, did not have the ability to wash the enemy's deck at normal combat distances as they did in the night battle of Wonsan, they were clearly capable of dealing with enemy torpedo boats as well as shooting down floating mines and submarines.

In addition to the guns, the ship was also equipped with two quadruple torpedo launchers. Because the ship was only 75 meters long, the arrangement of the two quadruple torpedo launchers was somewhat similar to that of dreadnoughts with their main guns mounted diagonally. These two torpedo launchers were also mounted diagonally in the middle of the hull. Although this did affect the firing arc to the left and right, it was still a way of equipping as many torpedoes as possible in the smallest possible space.

To be honest, Li Che felt somewhat relieved after seeing the ship's weaponry, because although the ship's weapons looked impressive relative to its tonnage, they weren't actually that exaggerated.

First of all, all the cannons were deck guns, whether it was the 150mm gun design or the twin-mounted 105mm naval gun design. For those of you who are living comfortably, the Chidori-class minesweeper that capsized was initially equipped with turret guns, which were not in the same league in terms of weight and center of gravity.

As for torpedoes... judging from the torpedo launching devices, there are indeed more than those of the Chidori-class minesweepers. However, the Chidori-class minesweepers were equipped with torpedo reloading systems (which were later removed). The two torpedo launching devices were deployed diagonally in the middle of the hull... so it would not have a devastating impact on the ship's center of gravity.

Most importantly, this ship is obviously much larger than the Chidori-class minesweeper, with a displacement of more than 100 tons. Don't underestimate this 100-ton displacement; it means that the size difference between the two is already a fraction of that.

"This drawing is very professional." Li Che shook the drawing in his hand and turned to ask several senior designers from the design bureau beside him, "This drawing must have been done by professionals, right?"

The senior engineers looked at each other, and the oldest one stepped forward: "Your Highness, as far as I know, the design for this small destroyer did indeed originate from the Borneo officers in the South Seas Fleet. However, after those officers and soldiers combined their ideas and needs, they did find one of our designers to help them refine it."

"Very well, I've only ever heard of people polishing articles before. I never thought that warship design drawings could be polished too. Who polished them?" Li Che's gaze swept over the group, his eyes revealing neither anger nor interest.

The senior designers looked at each other, clearly none of them wanting to be the ones to answer the question.

Why do you look so troubled? Could it be one of you?

"No, no, no, it wasn't us, Your Highness." The group quickly waved their hands: "In fact, most of the people in our design bureau refused their request, but who would have thought that they would actually find a young girl from Institute 229 to help them draw up the plans? That young girl helped them make some modifications to the design."

"Yes, they initially wanted to mount two twin 120mm gun turrets on the 700-ton hull."

"In addition to the turrets, we also want to install torpedo reloading devices, and we also want this ship to be able to run at more than 30 knots."

"Yes, the initial design was much thinner than the ship on the blueprints now. To be honest, even without calculations, we all felt that this kind of ship might easily capsize, after all, we've never seen such a top-heavy warship before,"

After one person started talking, several designers found themselves joining in the critique of this small destroyer.

The actions of these designers were not only because, in the eyes of orthodox warship designers, warships that clearly exploited treaty loopholes were already at the bottom of the naval design hierarchy, but also because the ship's initial design revealed a strong sense of "unprofessionalism."

A ship as heavy as a lead duck cannot earn respect.

"They asked a young girl to help them draw the plans, so it's probably because no one else would be willing to turn this plan into blueprints, right?" Although Li Che didn't ask for her name further, he knew he had basically guessed who had modified the original design and drawn the blueprint.

After all, from the Ming Dynasty to the present, it seems that there is only one female warship designer in the several design bureaus of the navy, and even if we look at the whole world, there is only one female designer.

"Is it Cheng Mingna?" Li Che put away the design drawings. "Alright, I'll just ask the person in charge later."

The Crown Prince's actions surprised the other designers. None of them had expected that the Crown Prince knew Cheng Mingna. They had never heard of that crazy woman having such a relationship before.

-------------------------------------

Li Che had a fairly deep impression of Cheng Mingna. After all, the military industry was traditionally considered a male-dominated field. Suddenly seeing a female designer designing steel warships gave Li Che the feeling of watching a beautiful girl drive an F1 car.

What? You say it's unscientific for a beautiful girl to drive an F1 car? Before meeting Cheng Mingna, Li Che also thought it was unscientific for a beautiful girl to design a warship, but when the facts were right in front of him, he couldn't care less about whether it was scientific or not, and he was quite impressed with this "beautiful designer".

Li Che sent someone to the 229th Institute to invite Cheng Mingna over. The girl was brought before Li Che with a bewildered look on her face. When the design drawing she had drawn was placed in front of her, Cheng Mingna was slightly stunned, but then she showed a bright smile: "I knew Your Highness would also think that my drawing of the ship is good, right, Your Highness?"

"What makes you think His Highness thinks your boat drawing is good?" Xu Yueming tapped the table with his hand, somewhat speechless. "Do you think His Highness called you here just to praise you?"

"Why not?"

"........."

Xu Yueming, who had encountered a talented player by chance and was unable to defeat her despite his best efforts, shook his head. This Cheng Mingna was really confident in herself.

"It seems you have a lot of confidence in your ship design, putting so much weaponry on such a small vessel. If a design flaw causes a maritime accident after the ship is built, do you know that you would bear joint liability?"

“As long as you don’t idly sail these small boats into typhoons, I don’t think there will be any problems,” Cheng Mingna said seriously. “Their original design was probably more prone to maritime accidents, but I have lowered the center of gravity of the entire ship as much as possible, and I have also increased the width of the hull and shortened the length of the hull. Although this has reduced the speed a bit, it is at least a stable navigation platform, well, a relatively stable navigation platform.”

"What is the expected speed of this ship?" Li Che asked.

"Twenty-six or twenty-seven knots," Cheng Mingna said. "It's definitely much slower than a normal destroyer, there's no way around it. They initially wanted a speed of at least 30 knots, but on the one hand, to achieve a speed of 30 knots, a relatively high length-to-beam ratio is needed, which will greatly affect the stability of the ship."

On the other hand, even a speed of 30 knots is far from enough for a regular destroyer. Since it's impossible to achieve a speed comparable to a regular fleet destroyer, I think there's no need to pursue 30 knots at all.

"So, under what circumstances do you intend to use this ship?" Li Che asked. "Although its firepower is strong for its tonnage, it is only so-so compared to a regular destroyer, and it is still at a significant disadvantage compared to the new generation of destroyers. Its limited speed makes it impossible for this small destroyer to assume the functions of a full fleet of destroyers. I want to know what you envision this ship being able to do from a designer's perspective."

“This…” Cheng Mingna thought for a moment, then tentatively asked, “Your Highness, you only saw the design drawings for this one ship, right?”

"Yes, do you have any other design drawings?"

"Yes, Your Highness." Cheng Mingna's expression was beaming like a golden retriever: "Although this ship was designed by some officers in the South Sea Fleet who asked me to draw it for them, and I made some modifications to it, I am still quite interested in this kind of ship after the design was completed. After I went back, I started thinking about how to continue to exploit loopholes in the treaty. Just a few days ago, I completed a few new designs."

"Another option for a small 700-ton destroyer?"

“No.” Cheng Mingna shook her head: “It’s the 2000-ton cruiser proposal.”

"A 2000-ton cruiser proposal?" Xu Yueming frowned slightly upon hearing this. Decades ago, there were indeed quite a few cruisers of over 2000 tons. For example, the Ming Dynasty Navy began building a batch of 2600-ton cruisers in the late 1980s, equipped with two 210mm naval guns and six 150mm naval guns. At the time, they were quite popular with the navy due to their relatively low price and good firepower for their tonnage.

However, this cruiser did not receive high praise during its service. Its cramped tonnage resulted in weak survivability, limited range, and poor living conditions. This was before the dreadnought era. Looking at the present... what country in the world is still building 2000-ton cruisers?

What can such a small cruiser do? You built cruisers this small... wait a minute?

"Is your ship also exploiting loopholes in the treaty?"

"Yes, the treaty also stipulates that there are no restrictions on the number of ships that can be built, with a tonnage not exceeding 2000 tons, no more than four cannons of 76 mm or larger, and a speed not exceeding 20 knots."

P.S.: I got sleepy while writing last night and fell asleep. Sorry for the food. This is yesterday's update; this is what I was supposed to do today.

Since we've gotten onto the topic of AKs today, let's have a little poll: Do you prefer the original AK, the Zening AK, or some other AK? I'll be honest, I'm a Zening supporter. You can vote for your favorite AK, and you don't have to vote for just one, but please leave only one sentence under each vote.

Various original AKs (the ancestral methods cannot be changed).

Zenin AK (a more modern AK)

AK12 (AK12 is also AK)

RPK16 (I became human so that I could be with the Commander...)

MB47 and similar weapons (Western-modified AKs are also AKs).

Other AKs (can be added freely)

Chapter 319 The Arrow Shot at the Blue Star Flag (4)