Chapter 145 Jinghai Plan

In the State Council, when Chen Ping and Long Guozhang, who had just returned from Nihao Island, excitedly came to see Li Enfu with a message of adding three submarines, they found that he was in a daze with a telegram.

"Marseio? Is the young master going to do it in Cuba? After the two of them leaned over and looked at the telegram, their hearts trembled at the same time. The young master really lost his temper this time and wanted to move this chess piece placed at the gate of the United States.

"Hmm." Li Enfu nodded: "Half a month ago, the young master asked me to contact Marseille. I guess he has a new idea."

New ideas?

Chen Ping and Long Guozhang are even more puzzled. Generally speaking, the number one thing in Honolulu now is to find a way to buy a few more warships to fight against the crazy ship-building plan. Next is the Russian Da Maozi's escort to the Far East and Nanyang. Why did they suddenly go around to Cuba?

When Li Enfu saw that the two were a little confused, he suddenly lowered his voice: "I'm not very clear, but according to Yan Fu and I when I were drinking, the young master was going to touch Lu Song!"

Luzon!

Long Guozhang and Chen Ping's eyes lit up at the same time. No wonder the young master wants to move Cuba. Isn't Spain stationed there? This is deliberately to make it impossible for the Spaniards to take care of both sides.

While the young master was thoughtful, they couldn't help but worry about whether the fleet was able to cross the entire Pacific Ocean at this moment, especially to ensure the safety of Hawaii and Ryukyu at the same time.

Oh, there are too few warships!

"I said, Lord Yuanzheng, haven't the Germans refused to build a ship for us? Why don't you place an order for ten or eight battleships? Long Guozhang curled his lips and took out a mouth from Li Enfu's scholar's box on the table. Thinking about it, he didn't seem to be satisfied. He stuffed all his big hands into his pocket, and then continued to shout, "If there were no battleships, the cruisers would live!"

Li Enfu's face turned green, and he was so angry that he immediately scolded, "Get out of here! Give me back my cigar! Ten or eight battleships? Cruiser! Do you know how much it costs? I can't make up a steel plate even if I sell you all!"

"Of course you can't sell me." Long Guozhang carelessly put on the cigar and looked like a dead pig who was not afraid of boiling water: "Isn't there a compensation from me?"

Seeing this scene, Li Enfu knew that the cigar would definitely not come back, so he was so angry that he was ready to scold him. Suddenly, he came down and reported, "Mr. Li, the young master sent someone to send someone to let you and the villa for a meeting with the two generals immediately. In addition, he asked me ask you if all my compensation has been paid."

"Meeting? I also came to ask if the compensation was received? What is the young master going to do?!"

Li Enfu looked at the two people in surprise and found that they were also at a loss. Suddenly, he had a bad feeling. Did the young master have any big deal? I'm afraid I can't hide this money! ——

When Li Enfu rushed to the meeting room of Honolulu Villa with several assistants and Chen Pinglong Guozhang, he found that in addition to them, Tang Xiao, Chang Lin, artillery engineer Pierre and other head of the equipment department also came. Even Yan Fu, who had just joined, had already sat upright.

In addition to Zhao Long, who was temporarily seated in Ryukyu, Tan Xiaozeng, who led fleet training, and Duan Fei, a member of the Intelligence Department, basically the core figures of Honolulu appeared in the conference room, filling the whole conference room.

For a while, the three of them were a little confused about today's meeting. I don't know what the young master is going to do? However, the mystery was not hidden for a long time. After the three people sat down, Li Mo took McKinson and several other ship designers to open the door.

With Li Mohe holding a few rolls of design drawings, the red-eyed McKinson quickly walked into the conference room. Everyone stood up and stopped his mouth. Du Dazhuang, who was guarding outside, also quickly closed the door of the conference room.

"Sit down." Li Mo did not delay for a minute. He asked everyone to sit down and came straight to the door and said, "I called everyone here today to discuss with you about our self-made warship."

"Self-made warship!"

It's okay for the others, but Li Enfu was surprised when he heard it. The first experimental ship here has only been launched for less than half a year, and many of the equipment has not been tested, so he is going to start a new round of shipbuilding plans? Is it too early?

Chen Ping and Long Guozhang were also excited first, and then nervous. You should know that the capital ships built today are almost all 10,000-ton big guys. If they are all self-made small cruisers of 3,000 to 4,000 tons, is it better to say?

After everyone could guess what kind of warship they were going to build, Li Mo had already waved to McKinson: "Mike, you talk about it."

McKinson, who stayed up late with his team and Li Mo to discuss the self-made warship for several days in a row, couldn't help but go to the front desk immediately and hurriedly spread out the design and hung it on the wall.

After he finally launched the preliminary design draft, the first person to stand up was the Italian artillery expert hired by a lot of money, Pierre, the earliest probator of triple artillery technology. And Long Guozhang almost took off the drawings again to see it transparent. Even Chen Ping, who usually pays more attention to the image, pulled his collar hard, as if a flame was coming out of his throat.

Even Yan Fu, who came here for the first time, was full of stars. Chang Lin and Tang Xiao tightened their hearts one after another and knew that their burden was going to be much heavier. Only Li Enfu looked at the drawings and frowned. He didn't know what they were talking about in a low voice with Feng Qi and Liao Wentao, the two deputy heads of the State Council. The latter were from nearly a thousand students studying in the United States. The outstanding people who stand out can sit here, which proves that the two have been recognized by everyone.

Light cruiser!

Looking at the sketch, Master Li sip his lips, helpless and a little excited.

The light cruiser he took out this time, of course, does not refer to the domecruisers with a displacement of 3,000 to 4,000 tons used by various countries today, but appeared in the late World War I. It is represented by the Brooklyn class, the Atlanta class and the Japanese celestial ball mill class, which have ocean combat capabilities, mainly with maritime attack and defense, air defense patrols, defense patrols, and defense of their own defense. The main purpose is to destroy the enemy's maritime channel, and it is equipped with a large number of 152 mm and below naval guns.

Of course, this is not the plan that Master Li likes light cruisers, but the final plan after a long comprehensive consideration.

Originally, Li Mo was still considering whether to build several heavy cruisers based on the determination class, with a displacement of about 10,000 tons, equipped with four-door double-loaded Italian version of the 203mm naval gun. However, in the piracy incident, the fleet is in urgent need of a warship that can ensure the safety of the channel and has great endurance and long-lasting combat capability.

Based on the fact that Honolulu does not have the construction of two levels of large warships at the same time, and the fact that it is shown in the battle, and the increasingly important rapid-fire ground support firepower in the future, it finally chose a more widely used light patrol.

The hull is magnified based on Experiment 1, 150 meters long, 21 meters wide, and 6 meters of water. It adopts the flat deck design of the high tread, and the outer Atlantic bow design. The outer upturning is not only conducive to high-speed navigation, but also can prevent waves. At the same time, the raised bridge design is adopted, so that the command and driver have a better perspective.

The standard displacement is 7,950 tons, the normal displacement is 9,000 tons, and the full load is 9,850 tons.

In terms of power, 12 newly developed small water pipe rotary oil boilers are used, and two amplified chimneys are used to meet the needs of air intake and ventilation. They are equipped with four steam turbines, double-axis propulsion, with a maximum speed of 24 knots and a endurance of 12 knots/8,000 nautical miles.

If the first two are more in line with the current manufacturing capacity of Honolulu, then the later firepower will be criticized by Long Guozhang and other guys who advocate heavy artillery.

The gun limit is a practical problem that Li Mo had to face at the beginning of his choice. Although Italy has initially agreed to transfer a complete set of naval gun technology to Honolulu, and the equipment department has also produced several 203mm or even 305mm experimental naval guns, both in terms of life and power, they are not as good as the original, not to mention From technology transfer to the combination of existing technology to the final actual output, there is still a long way to go during this period. For Li Mo, who is determined to completely get rid of external dependence, instead of continuing to buy foreign naval guns, it is better to take this opportunity to start a new stove, step on the shoulders of this technology introduction, and create a stronger equipment support force. .

The idea is good, but it takes time!

So he chose the 152mm naval gun that has been broken through in Honolulu. The innovative name was proposed by Pierre, and the triple-loading technology that has been developed after the last experimental ship exploded. It adopts a backpack turret, the first two and the last two, all of which are arranged along the central axis.

On the secondary gun, because the air threat has not yet appeared at this time, Li Mo gave up the practice of arranging a large number of machine guns and small caliber naval guns. On both sides of the rear bridge, four doors were installed by several Austro-Hungarian designers and were installed in the experiment with double 130mm rapid-fire guns, which not only achieved the main gun. With a unified caliber, and when shooting to one side, 16 guns of more than 100 mm can be injected at a time. Whether it is the fire output or the intensity of the projectile, it will be unprecedented.

But the rear seat brought by so many artillery is also dangerous, so Mike Gold and the design team have been constantly calculating how to strengthen the keel in the past few days, and deliberately increased the area of the keel to reduce the shaking and increase the stable surname, so that the hull can better face the wind and waves at ordinary times.

In addition, in order to cope with small warships and low-intensity maritime conflicts, six single 76mm naval guns and six double 37mm rapid-fire machine guns were arranged on the deck.

At the same time, the seat of the large torpedo launch tube is reserved to prepare for the new type of large torpedo to be developed. However, the layout of the launch tube is different from the current popular installation in the bow and stern respectively. Instead, it is installed in the lower deck of the tern, using two five-compart rotating launchers, thick armor protection, no It only increases the caliber and is more in line with the popular arrangement methods in later generations.

Because Li Mo can use his own knife this time, he completely cancels the ugly and easy-to-wave side port gun design, and piles all the naval guns on the deck, making the hull look smoother and more beautiful.

Finally, there is armor. According to the requirement that Master Li's caliber must be matched with armor, McKinson and other designers chose Honolulu's own latest development and adopted the nickelized steel armor technology developed by the Krump surface penetration method. On the front of the turret, the main armor belt and the superstructure are 152 mm, the sute is 120 mm, and the torpedo protective wall is 40 mm.

Because the cruisers did not rely on artillery and armor to eat, in order to strengthen the survivability, McKinson and others also deliberately optimized the internal compartment, adopting the small watertight cabin design already proposed by Germany to increase the reserve buoyancy.

When McKinson finally said the main indicators to the line chart, almost everyone's eyes widened. After seeing the artillery piled up on the upper deck, he shook his head one after another to show that the indicator was too high. Only he still watched Li Mo make the overall arrangement. He drew the drawings with his own hands, and his lips were dry and his eyes were red. .

This warship designer, who was called a genius by Li Mo and was scolded last time, has been completely convinced by Master Li, and finally knows why he scolded more miserably than Tang Xiao! Look at them, they are so radical that they are perverts! This is a genius!

These data directly blew up the conference room. Even Li Enfu, who didn't know much about warships, felt that it was too risky to build such a large warship now. It was better to build a batch of 3,000 to 4,000 tons of cruisers as Long Guozhang said before. And others forgot that this was a warship designed by Master Li as an overall arrangement, and sprayed directly.

The ship type is nothing. With the test ship in front, it's better than groping blindly, but it's doubled, and my heart is still a little drumming. What's more, the largest ship ever built by the Hawaii shipyard is just a 6,000-ton cargo ship. Now it needs tens of thousands of tons of warships at once, and no one dares to guarantee it. Moreover, a large number of artillery are piled up on the upper deck, which makes the weight of the hull above the water soar, which is a great test for the stability of the surname!

If a warship of tens of thousands of tons can still grit its teeth to try, then in terms of speed, it has become the target of other people's key attacks! Even if the 10,000-ton-class warship adopts a new ship type, it needs nearly 30,000 horsepower to reach a speed of 24 knots. It is not in the current state of research and development at all, and extremely unstable steam turbines can do it.

You should know that in the past six months alone, the steam turbines equipped by the experimental ship have been on strike several times, and one of them was directly scrapped not long ago, so that Tang Xiao had to send a tugboat to tow the tested warship back.

And to maintain a high speed of 24 knots, there is also the biggest constraint, which is the main axis!

At this time, the main shaft of the warship is made of high-strength nickel steel. Although the quality is good, it is not heat-resistant. It is easy to overheat and deform over a long time. Heavy patrols like the determination level are known as 21 knots per hour. In fact, 21 knots can only last for half an hour. Even if it is reduced to 18 knots, it can only last about 4 hours, so it is big Part of the time is to sail at a slow speed of about 12 knots.

But Master Li has his own plans. Li's power laboratory has set up a large-scale steam turbine project three years ago, and the first two have been installed on the experimental ship for testing six months ago. Judging from the data, it does not meet the design requirements, and the failure rate is too high. Both the actual power and the stable surname are very poor. However, after his recent field investigation and understanding, it was found that the cause was not due to design defects, but the problem was processing.

After all, Honolulu has a thin foundation, and heavy industry can't be smashed by money alone, but the process is not impossible to improve. As long as you take time and carefully carve, you can make a breakthrough. What's more, the installation of the power system is always lagging behind when building the ship, and there is more than a year left. Time to improve is enough in his opinion!

As for the heat of the spindle, it is better. The special steel laboratory has made a breakthrough in tungsten-manganate alloy steel with stronger hardness and heat resistance, which can fully meet the needs of high speed for a long time. Even if it does not reach 24 knots in a row, it is no problem to have at least 20 knots in a row. All you have to do is to take it out of the laboratory. It's just engineering at the fastest speed.

The last thing left is the firepower system. Unlike Pierre's shining eyes and clenching his fists, the naval officers led by Chen Ping shook their heads and expressed their dissatisfaction!

This dissatisfaction is not aimed at Pierre and his naval gun design team. After all, the base of Honolulu is too thin. It is indeed difficult for them to take out large-caliber artillery so quickly, but everyone has no confidence in using the 152mm caliber as the main gun.

In addition, although the Italian Pierre, the proposer of the triple artillery, was hired as the chief artillery expert in Honolulu as early as the beginning of last year, his first triple 76mm experimental gun also passed the test. At that time, Li Mo personally solved the most criticized triad artillery and was finally criticized by the Italian Sea. The scattering problem of the military's veto, the design of installing a 0.2-second delayer on the middle gun was hailed by everyone at that time.

But if the accuracy is solved, it does not mean that it can be used. After all, the triple gun is a new thing and has not been tested in actual combat. What's more, the 76mm gun and the 152mm gun in the experiment do not match the structure and weight. It is necessary to take out a brand-new triple 152mm gun in just two years, and the pressure is real. If it is too big, once it fails to catch up with the progress, it will cause a delay in the whole Jinghai plan and cause heavy losses.

So they still suggest to see if they can buy some double-loaded 203mm guns. Although the best-tech British closed the door, the Germans did not consider it for the time being because of the different calibers. Italy and Austria-Hungary both have 203mm artillery technology, and the Italians initially agreed to sell large calibers not long ago. All naval gun technology, even if it can't be engineered immediately, you can buy some for emergency!

You should know that the heavy patrol main guns ordered this time are all built according to the overwhelming determination level, using 45 times caliber 203mm main guns, and even the 10-inch 254mm double main guns are installed on the heavy patrol built in France.

Isn't it an obvious disadvantage to use 152mm on your own side?

On this issue, Master Li once again tried his best to exclude public discussion. Qian Gang was arbitrary and did not give Chen Ping's artilleryists a chance at all. First of all, he told them that he wanted to build a light cruiser, not a battleship, which was originally to assist the fleet.

"10,000-ton-class light cruiser?!" Chen Ping's tongue smacked his tongue.

Master Li curled his lips and continued to explain the advantages and disadvantages of the two kinds of artillery.

The conclusion of the battle between 152mm and 203mm has actually come for a long time. From the data alone, the 152mm gun with the same caliber multiple is not as good as the 203mm gun in terms of range, projectile mass, and armor-piercing ability, but most of the reasons are caused by ammunition.

As a future generation, Master Li knows better than anyone that it is not only the cannon itself that restricts the cannon, but also a considerable part of the cannonball. Therefore, the 152mm artillery he is going to use this time is completely newly designed. First of all, it is the multiple problem. In order to enhance the shooting. Cheng, improving the kinetic energy of the projectile and strengthening the armor-piercing ability, Li Mo raised the length of the barrel to an unprecedented 52 times higher caliber, which is almost the limit of the 152mm gun.

The ensuing change is the use of new materials to increase the molten pressure, increase the quality of the projectiles, improve the amount of propellant, and start to study special armor-piercing bullets. Combined with the current exclusive TNT-containing drugs in Hawaii, the theoretical armor-piercing ability can completely reach 200mm homogeneous steel plates. You should know that there are many large-scale equipment these days. The armor thickness of the armored cruiser is less than 150 mm, so it can be completely coped with. What's more, the role of the light cruiser is not to bombard the capital ship!

Even if the new 152mm triple gun can't catch up in the end, Master Li has another unique trick, that is, to learn from the Japanese version in later generations and change the 152mm triple gun to a double 203mm gun, because the weight and gun seat of the two are almost the same!

Of course, let Li Mo dare to boldly use the 152mm gun, and there is a bigger factor, which is speed.

It is not unreasonable for the later generations of the 152mm naval gun to be called a water pipe. Even in this situation where the high-speed automatic loading is not mature, even if the sub-loading shell is used, the hoist just developed in Germany is used. In the case of mechanical filling, because the mass of the projectile is relatively small, the rate of fire can also be manually filled. Three per minute to six per minute, or even higher!

203mm naval gun is completely the opposite. Take the determination level as an example. Due to the large mass of the projectile and the heavy mechanical auxiliary device, coupled with the current technical level, it can only be maintained in the case of one round per minute and four main guns. The total mass of the projectiles projected in one minute is far less than that of the abnormal 12 152mm guns. The speed The degree is completely suppressed.

Although I chose the large-caliber, at this time, the dreadnought has not yet come out, and the re-in machine is not fully mature. In the case of completely relying on the spring re-inlet machine, even if six 203mm main guns are installed, the total quality of projectiles per minute will be completely surpassed by myself.

There is another quite important reason why Master Li did not say, that is, after the last war, the performance of 152mm artillery in land support is far better than that of 203mm artillery. Considering that the coastline is long, it is very critical to support land. What's more, Master Li's future goals are very Most of them are island countries, and naturally they need strong land support firepower.

With Master Li's explanation, Chen Ping's face was much better, but Tang Xiao was about to cry. He had a 52-fold caliber, and he had to adopt a triple suit. In addition, he had to develop armor-piercing bullets. These tasks must be completed within two years. Isn't this forcing me to jump into the sea! So he crossed Pierre and whispered to him.

When everything was explained, Master Li immediately made a decision and named the Jinghai-class cruiser, with a total of eight ships being built, using the construction method of four plus four, that is, the last four ships must wait until the completion of the previous batch to see the actual effect. The first four ships are Jinghai, Pinghai, Ninghai and Dinghai, all of which are built at the Hawaii Shipyard. .

The whole shipbuilding plan is also known as the Jinghai plan!

(to be continued)