Chapter 179 The key is the speed of shipbuilding! (Please subscribe, please vote)

Zhuge Weidao's current position is Chief of Staff of the Naval Air Force and Commissioner of Naval Armament.

The headquarters of the Naval Aviation is not in Beijing, but outside Beijing, in an airship base at the foot of Xishan Mountain. Therefore, in order to facilitate commuting to and from work, Zhuge Weidao now does not live in the house in Goulan Hutong in the city, but in Xishan.

In the villa, it is not very convenient to go into the city. Fortunately, Zhuge Weidao recently bought a car. It is a newly launched "Red Rabbit" brand convertible car. This car has 16 horsepower and a top speed of 20

kilometers per hour, as well as anti-shock springs, seat belts, gear shifting (not counting the gearbox), soft car seats and a removable canvas roof, it is a pretty good car. It starts.

It was a bit difficult at the time. I had to insert a rocker into the engine and crank it several times before the vehicle could start.

But a person must be content. 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 attend 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 to Beijing at a speed of 960 miles a day. There was no traffic jam on the road, and the more than ten kilometers journey was completed in less than an hour.

.At 9:30 in the morning that day, he had already held a meeting with Guan Tianpei, Zhuge Weiyi, Zhuge Weiyong, Li Tiezhu and other naval armament committee members.

The so-called Arms Committee is, of course, the committee member who participates in the formulation of the naval armament plan and supervises its implementation. It is a very powerful position in the Navy Ministry. Usually there are only the Minister of the Navy, the Vice Minister, the Chief and Deputy Chief of Staff of the Naval Staff, and the Navy

Only the top leaders of the Ministry, the Naval Staff Department 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 Armament 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 sweetness, and naturally they will not change their strategies easily. And there is no way to stud now, because the Ming Dynasty's naval armament also exposed many problems in the Battle of Kii Waterway. It seems that the battleships and cruisers of this generation,

There is no way to shoulder the responsibility for a world war, and it must be developed and constructed again.

"7.5 million tons" Navy Minister Zhuge Weiyi has read the briefing and has a smile on his face. Apparently he is not worried about this surface combat ship with a total tonnage of 7.5 million tons.

Then, the Zhuge family's shipbuilding expert threw the problem 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 while, "the British alone can't make that many, but the British only made 3 million tons of them, and the remaining France made 1 million tons, Rakshasa made 700,000 tons, and Prussia made

500,000 tons, 500,000 tons made in Austria, and 200,000 tons from the Netherlands, Sweden, Spain, the United States, the Kingdom of Sardinia, Portugal, Brazil, Mexico, and Belgium. It seems not impossible. Even if it does not reach 7.5 million tons in the end, 700

There should still be 10,000 tons or 6.8 million tons. However, this tonnage cannot be equated with combat effectiveness. The key is to have strong ships and powerful artillery. If the British really build a million 10,000-ton armored cruisers and dozens of

A 25,000-30,000-ton battleship is not difficult to deal with."

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 much better than the British.

We have the same 30,000-ton battleships. Our speed, defense, and firepower are all 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. Are they trying to break the engagement with us? We use

The battleships that fought the main decisive battle with the British could not catch up with them. If we also built a 10,000-ton armored patrol, this armored patrol would have to fight for the number of armored cruisers in the end.

If our opponent is only Britain, we are not afraid of comparing numbers, but now in my opinion, we have to develop a ship type between armored cruisers and battleships. It should have the speed of armored cruisers and the firepower of battleships.

In terms of defense, it can be worse than a battleship, but it must be far better than a cruiser."

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 building battle cruisers, but if the British led a group of white-skinned friends to build armored patrols, then the Ming Dynasty should develop battle cruisers.

Of course, carrier-based aircraft and aircraft carriers are the ultimate solution!

Even if it is just a biplane, it can cause a dimensionality reduction strike for the battleships sailing on the sea. However, airplanes have not been invented yet. Even if aircraft carriers are built, they will be of little use.

In addition, because battle cruisers require a larger horsepower power system, they are more difficult to develop than battleships of the same tonnage, and are also not easy to build.

Thinking of this, Zhuge Weidao told Zhuge Weiyi, Zhuge Weyong said: "Shang Shu, Chief of Staff, I would like to suggest that we first develop a 20,000-ton battle patrol based on the Hongwu Emperor level. The armor does not need to be too thick.

However, the speed must be as fast as possible, and heavy oil-fired boilers and steam turbines should be used as power. The power cabin must 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 will be able to 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. Wait until we fully understand

After purchasing a battleship of 25,000-30,000 tons, it is safest to develop a battle cruiser of the same tonnage.

In addition, the hull of the 20,000-ton fast ship is of great use to our naval aviation and 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!

An aircraft carrier used to take off and land biplane carrier-based aircraft has a displacement of about 20,000 tons. However, since the range of the biplane is not too far, the possibility of the aircraft carrier being hit by an opponent's surface ship cannot be ruled out.

, so you have to be stronger and run faster.

The hull and power system of a 20,000-ton battle cruiser are of course the most suitable!

"Taozi," Director of Naval Intelligence Li Tiezhu said, stroking his beard, "first develop a 20,000-ton battle cruiser, and then develop a 25,000-30,000-ton battleship. The battlecruiser plan is either safe or slow! If you follow the plan step by step,

Come to the ground, 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 our 3 million-ton battleship be built?

, maybe even the 1 million tons that are in Japan’s name have been finished?”

"Sir Li," Zhuge Weidao said with a smile, "I believe that the key to winning future wars is speed! Of course, the speed of shipbuilding also means 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 the 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..."
Chapter completed!