Zhuge Weidao's current position is Chief of Staff of Naval Aviation and Naval Armament Committee.
The headquarters of the Naval Aviation is not in Beijing, but outside Beijing, in an airship base at the foot of the West Mountain. Therefore, in order to facilitate commuting to get off work, Zhuge Weidao now does not live in the house in Goulan Hutong in the city, but in a villa in Xishan. It is not convenient to go to the city. Fortunately, Zhuge Weidao recently bought a car, a convertible car of the newly launched "Red Rabbit" brand. This small car has 16 horsepower, a top speed of 20 kilometers per hour, and also has anti-shock springs, seat belts, gear shift (not counting the gearbox), soft car seats and removable canvas The roof makes it a pretty good car. It's just a little difficult to start. You have to insert a rocker into the engine and crank it several times to start the vehicle.
But a person should be contented. He now has a house, a car, and a wife (more than one), so what else is there to be dissatisfied about?
So after learning that the Navy Department wanted him to go to a meeting, he immediately took action by himself, dressed neatly, washed up, had a casual breakfast, picked up his briefcase, and called his orderly Yu De (Yu De's clan brother) , named Yu Gang), drove the "Red Rabbit Car" together, heading towards Beijing at a speed of 960 miles a day. There was no traffic jam on the road, and the journey of more than ten kilometers was completed in less than an hour. At 9:30 in the morning that day, he had already held a meeting with several naval armament committee members including Guan Tianpei, Zhuge Weiyi, Zhuge Weyong, Li Tiezhu, etc.
The so-called Arms Committee is, of course, the committee member who participates in formulating the naval armament plan and supervises its implementation. It is a very powerful position in the Navy Ministry. Usually, only the Minister of the Navy, the Vice Minister, the chief and deputy chiefs of the Naval Staff, and the top leaders of the Navy, the Naval Staff, and the important subordinate departments (commands) and bureaus can serve as this committee member.
However, Zhuge Weidao made an exception and became the Arms Committee as the Chief of Staff of the Naval Aviation Command, so today he is qualified to sit in the conference room of the Ministry of the Navy and look at the Naval Staff and the Naval Armaments Department. , a briefing prepared jointly by the Office of Naval Intelligence on the Versailles Arms Conference.
After successfully regaining the dog Japan, the Ming Dynasty still unhurriedly implemented the strategy of "small bets and small wins" - starting from the "Gongjin Printing", the Ming Dynasty had already made several "small bets" They have all tasted the benefits, so naturally they will not easily change their strategies and play stud. And there is no way to stud now, because the Ming Dynasty's naval armaments also exposed many problems in the Battle of Jiyin Waterway... It seems that this generation of battleships and cruisers are unable to shoulder the responsibility of a world war. , must be redeveloped and constructed.
"7.5 million tons..." Navy Minister Zhuge Weiyi had finished reading the briefing and had a smile on his face. Apparently he was not worried about the surface combat ship with a total tonnage of 7.5 million tons.
Then, the Zhuge family shipbuilding expert asked the difficult question to Zhuge Weidao, who was "really" capable of calculations: "Daozi, what do you think? Can they build so many warships?"
"Well," Zhuge Weidao thought for a moment, "the British alone can't make that many, but the British only made 3 million tons of them, and the rest were made by France, 1 million tons, Rakshasa, 700,000 tons, and Prussia. 500,000 tons, Austria makes 500,000 tons, the Netherlands, Sweden, Spain, the United States, the Kingdom of Sardinia, Portugal, Brazil, Mexico, and Belgium are all 200,000 tons... It doesn't seem impossible. Even if it finally arrives Less than 7.5 million tons, 7 million tons or 6.8 million tons, there should still be some. However, this tonnage cannot be equated with combat effectiveness. The key is to have strong ships and powerful guns. If the British really build a million tons It’s not difficult to deal with mounted patrols and dozens of 25,000-30,000-ton battleships.”
Zhuge Weiyi and Zhuge Weiyong looked at each other. Zhuge Weiyi smiled and took a sip of tea and asked: "Taozi, tell me, how should we deal with it?"
"Those dozens of slow-speed battleships of 25,000-30,000 tons are not difficult to deal with," Zhuge Weidao considered. "We can use 30,000-ton battleships to deal with them... Our shipbuilding level is better than that of the British We have to be much stronger. For the same 30,000-ton battleship, our speed, defense, and firepower will be better than those of the British. We are not afraid of not being able to win. What is really difficult to deal with is the one million 10,000-ton battleships... Is this to break the war with us? The battleships we use to fight the main decisive battle with the British cannot catch up with them. If we also build a 10,000-ton armored patrol, this armored patrol will compete with the armored patrol. In the end, I am afraid we will have to fight for quantity.
If our opponent was only Britain, we wouldn't be afraid of comparing numbers, but now... In my opinion, we have to develop a ship type between an armored cruiser and a battleship. It should have the speed of a cruise ship and the firepower of a battleship. It can be worse than a battleship in terms of defense, but it must far exceed that of a cruise ship. "
Zhuge Weiyong laughed and said: "Let's call this kind of ship a battlecruiser... The tonnage can also be set at 30,000 tons!"
Zhuge Weidao nodded. He originally did not agree with the construction of battle cruisers, but if the British led a group of white-skinned friends to build battle cruisers...then the Ming Dynasty should develop battle cruisers.
Of course, carrier-based aircraft and aircraft carriers are the ultimate solution!
Even if it's just a biplane, it can still cause a dimensionality reduction strike for battleships sailing on the sea. It's just that airplanes haven't been invented yet...even if aircraft carriers are built, they won't be of much use.
In addition, because a battle cruiser requires a larger horsepower power system, it is more difficult to develop than a battleship of the same tonnage, and it is also not easy to build.
Thinking of this, Zhuge Weidao said to Zhuge Weiyi and Zhuge Weyong: "Shang Shu, Chief of Staff, I would like to suggest developing a 20,000-ton battle cruiser based on the Hongwu Emperor class... ..The armor should not be too thick, but the speed must be as fast as possible, and heavy oil-fired boilers and steam turbines should be used as power. The power cabin should be as large as possible to retain room for upgrades.
As for the main gun, a four-seat twin 280mm design can be used... to test the design of a backpack turret.
By developing and producing this level of battle cruiser, we can fully understand the hull and power system of the 20,000-ton fast battleship, and then we can develop a 25,000-30,000-ton battleship based on it. It is safest to wait until the 25,000-30,000-ton battleships are fully developed before developing a battle cruiser of the same tonnage.
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In addition, the hull of the 20,000-ton fast ship is of great use to our naval aviation. It can be converted into an aircraft carrier, so we are not afraid of waste! "
The great use he mentioned is of course as the basic hull of an aircraft carrier!
For an aircraft carrier used to take off and land biplane carrier-based aircraft, a displacement of about 20,000 tons is sufficient. However, since the range of the biplane will not be too far, the possibility of the aircraft carrier being caught by the opponent's surface ships cannot be ruled out, so it must be stronger and faster.
The hull and power system of the 20,000-ton battle cruiser are of course the most suitable!
"Taozi," Director of Naval Intelligence Li Tiezhu said, stroking his beard, "the plan to develop a 20,000-ton battle cruiser first, and then develop a 25,000-30,000-ton battleship and battlecruiser is a sound plan... It’s just too slow! If we go step by step, the 20,000-ton battle cruiser will be built for at least three years, the 25,000-30,000-ton battleship will be built for at least one or two years, and then the battlecruiser and aircraft carrier. When will this happen? Finish building our 3 million tons, and maybe the 1 million tons in Japan’s name?”
"Chief Li," Zhuge Weidao said with a smile, "I believe that the key to winning future wars is speed! Of course, this also includes the speed of shipbuilding... Building fast also has combat effectiveness!
Not only must we build ships quickly before the war, we must build them even faster during the war! "
As soon as he finished speaking, Zhuge Weiyi, the shipbuilding strategist and admiralty minister, knowingly asked, "How can we build it faster?"
"There should be many ways," Zhuge Weidao said with a smile, "First of all, of course, mass production is taken into consideration when designing. In the future, we will mass-produce the same warship..."
