I want to be emperor

The inspection fleet left the Yangtze River estuary one after another, and then entered the real sea. At this time, Luo Zhixue and others saw the truly endless blue sea.

On this blue sea, more than a hundred ships of various types sailed.

Starting from the front, left, right, and even behind, there are naval battleships driven by the officers and men of the Guards Fleet!

At the forefront, more than ten nautical miles ahead, is a battleship formation composed of four battleships and four cruisers. Four of the cruisers are in a fan shape, separated by five or six naval forces from each other, covering a width of more than 20 nautical miles ahead. Carry out all-round reconnaissance and vigilance in the sea area.

These four cruisers are the most advanced Yangzhou-class cruisers in the Dachu Empire Navy. Their full load displacement can reach more than 3,200 tons. They are equipped with six single-mounted new 150mm naval guns. The maximum speed can reach 20 Festival.

The first ship, Yangzhou, was built and launched in the 43rd year of Chengshun and entered service at the end of the same year.

Because of the ship's excellent ocean navigation performance and endurance, as well as speed, firepower and protection, of course... the most important thing is that although this warship has good performance, it uses a large number of mature technologies, so the overall cost is not Expensive, the purchase price of a single ship is only around 600,000 Chu Yuan.

Today, when an unprotected frigate costs more than 300,000 yuan, this price is no longer expensive.

Behind these four cruisers are four battleships sailing in a single column. These four battleships are the most advanced South Africa-class battleships in the Chu Empire... If this thing is based on the standards of the late 19th century in the original time and space, If you look at it, you will see that it is actually an armored cruiser, and it is a low-speed version. After all, it has a displacement of just over 8,000 tons, its protection is not very good, and its speed is not very high.

This thing is actually the core link in a series of low-cost shipbuilding plans of the Dachu Empire Navy after it entered the 1940s, that is, to use cheap and practical main battleships of less than 10,000 tons to replace the expensive ones, which are also useless in actual combat. A 10,000-ton battleship with a huge advantage.

South Africa class battleship, with a full load displacement of about 8,000 tons, equipped with two twin 200 mm guns, and ten single 150 mm guns, in addition to sixteen single 120 mm guns Cannon, the speed is good and can reach 18 knots.

Despite its small tonnage, this thing is not equipped with many large-caliber naval guns, but its firepower is quite fierce, because there are too many medium-caliber naval guns and its firepower projection capability is very strong.

Relatively speaking, the small number of large-caliber naval guns actually has little impact... In the contemporary Da Chu Empire Navy, the role of large-caliber naval guns is mostly not used for naval battles... To be fair, the Da Chu Empire Navy In fact, there are no enemies, there are only internal enemies!

Therefore, in actual combat, most of the large-caliber naval guns of the Da Chu Empire Navy were used to conduct long-distance bombardments against enemy land targets... targeting targets such as ports and forts.

Well, in fact, most of the time, the 150mm naval guns and even the 120mm naval guns in the navy do the same job!

After all, there are no enemy warships on the sea for them to fight... As for the sail warships of the indigenous countries, they are not worth mentioning. Not to mention these warships, even the many merchant ships equipped with weapons in the Dachu Empire can use dozens of millimeters at will. The civilian version of the single-mounted naval gun can also kill those indigenous sail warships.

Therefore, the Dachu Empire Navy's shipbuilding is no longer pursuing the so-called ultimate performance, but is more pursuing cost-efficiency.

The intention is to use less funds to complete more cruise, training and combat missions.

Well, this is also the reason why the Chu Empire Navy's ships are not very good, but the accuracy of its guns is generally very high... The naval gunners' gunnery skills are also very good. Why? Cannonballs are expensive... What I'm after is to be able to kill the enemy with one cannonball instead of using two!

Sometimes in order to pursue a hit rate, Navy warships would even reduce their speed or even stop the ship when performing bombardment missions on indigenous ports. Some warships with good protection capabilities would even approach directly for bombardment.

This is why the warships of the Da Chu Empire Navy obviously have no maritime opponents, but some battleships, especially the new cruisers, are also equipped with armor... In addition to guarding against internal enemies, they also consider approaching bombardments and using armored weapons to attack enemies. Resist the enemy's smoothbore coastal defense guns, and then use naval guns to kill the enemy at close range.

Under this kind of naval construction thinking, so-called cost-effective battleships such as South Africa-class battleships and Yangzhou-class cruisers were naturally born, and they were also built on a large scale...

Among them, eight Yangzhou-class cruisers have been launched into service, and many more are under construction. It is expected that the total number of ships built will reach more than ten.

Among them, four South Africa-class battleships have been launched into service, and another four battleships are under construction. The total number of construction is expected to be eight, which can just be formed into two battleship formations.

At the same time, the Navy also plans to build a speed-upgraded version of the South Africa-class battleship, and build eight more, eventually forming a total of sixteen ships, divided into four battleship formations.

This means that this series of 8,000-ton to 9,000-ton sub-first-class battleships has become the core force of the navy now and even for many years to come.

As this class of ships was built and put into service one after another, some old battleships that had been in service for many years in the Navy were also gradually withdrawn from active service. Mainly some battleships built in the late 1920s and early 1930s and equipped with forward-loaded rifled guns are now basically all Gone.

For example, there are eight Suzhou-class battleships, one Hantian-class battleship, and six Yingtian-class battleships. In fact, in the 1930s, these three-class battleships with front-mounted rifled guns had already been retired to the second line one after another. After entering the 1940s, Then they began to retire one after another.

Up to now, they have all been decommissioned and sealed... It is worth noting that these main battleships retired from the ocean fleet have not been transferred to local fleets, nor have they been converted into training ships.

The main reason is that although the performance of these battleships is not good, the actual maintenance cost is very high. In fact, daily maintenance and even use are more expensive than new battleships... The people in the Navy made a calculation and continued to use these battleships in local fleets. Toy, it is better to just build a new warship for the local fleet, which will save money in the long run.

The general principle is that the coast guards of some later countries would rather use speedboats than retired main battleships from the navy.

At the same time, these retired old battleships still use front-mounted guns, and their power systems are also relatively old, which is incompatible with the existing battleship combat mode. Therefore, the price of converting these ships into training ships is not high... If you train on it, The effect is far inferior to those of professional training ships.

Therefore, these old battleships, which seem to be quite good, will be directly stored after the first-line fleet is decommissioned... Unless there are special circumstances, they will not be reactivated.

The same situation applies to a large number of cruisers and frigates from the era of front-mounted rifled guns. These ships were relatively backward in overall technology at that time. In order to obtain sufficient combat performance, they adopted relatively advanced designs and processes at the time... advanced It means immaturity, many faults, and high consumption.

The combat system of front-loaded cannon is very different from that of rear-loaded cannon, and even the logistics system is different.

Therefore, their fate will most likely be that after they retire from the ocean fleet, they will be directly decommissioned and sealed, instead of being given to the second-line local fleet!

The local fleet also dislikes these things. They would rather have some new ships such as offshore patrol ships and frigates, rather than these former navy ocean-going battleships that seem to have very good combat capabilities... They are not just collecting rags. As for retaining the hull and power system, replacing the front-loaded guns with rear-loaded guns and continuing to use them... You must know that the cost of a naval gun system often accounts for about a quarter or even a third of a battleship, so it is better to replace it with new guns. Just build a new hull and install the new cannon.

These are all effects caused by the rapid development of technology and the rapid upgrading of naval equipment.

In the 1920s, the Chu army was still using front-loading smoothbore cannons, but in the late 1920s and early 1930s, the navy used front-loading rifled cannons, but within a few years, breech-loading rifled cannons came out, so Beginning in the mid-1930s, the naval guns mounted on newly built warships of the Navy became exclusively rear-mounted naval guns.

The changes in these three types of naval guns are very big, not only in performance, but also in the tactical changes and training changes brought about by the performance improvement... And the navy is a branch that relies heavily on daily training. It is impossible for the navy to say that it will retain both types at the same time. Training and logistics supply models under different tactical systems.

Therefore, it became inevitable that the front-loaded rifled gun battleships would be relegated to the second line after a short period of service, and then quickly decommissioned and mothballed.

So far, in fact, there are no forward-mounted rifled gun warships in the navy's ocean-going fleet, and there are very few even in the local fleet and inland fleet... These things have basically been retired.

Today's maritime forces of the Dachu Empire, including the ocean fleet, local fleet, inland fleet in the navy, the army's naval warfare division, the army's speedboat support force, and even armed patrols, armed tax police and other armed forces, no longer use any front equipment. Rifled guns, but all breech-loading rifled guns.

The warships that were transferred into the inspection fleet are currently the most advanced warships in the Imperial Navy.

The four South Africa-class battleships and four Yangzhou-class cruisers in the front formed a large formation for forward reconnaissance and surveillance.

It directly covers a width of at least twenty nautical miles directly ahead, and maintains a distance of more than ten nautical miles from the core transport fleet behind the fleet, ensuring sufficient buffer space.

At the rear of the reconnaissance formation, there are actually several Bangkok-class frigates of more than 1,000 tons. The Bangkok-class frigate is also the latest frigate in the Imperial Navy, with a full load displacement of about 1,500 tons. Although it is not as large as its contemporaries, The Longchuan-class frigates built in batches and put into service are large.

But the Bangkok-class frigate has higher speed, better protection capabilities and even more powerful firepower... This thing can actually be regarded as a small cruiser.

It is different from the development concept of frigates in the Imperial Navy in the past twenty years.

The frigates of the Da Chu Empire Navy in the past twenty years are, to put it nicely, multi-functional frigates. To put it in a bad way, they can do whatever they want... Excessive balance has led to overall mediocrity, and the pursuit of low cost. This resulted in the vast majority of frigates in the Chu Empire's navy being used for miscellaneous purposes.

It's not even as fast as a cruiser!

For example, the Longchuan-class frigate has a speed of only eighteen knots... while the Yangzhou-class cruiser has a speed of twenty knots.

Why does the Longchuan-class frigate only have a speed of 18 knots, which is as slow as a battleship? It is because the navy wants to control the cost of shipbuilding... The cost of modern battleships depends on the power system, weapon system and hull (including protection), among which power The system is the big one, accounting for a higher proportion than the weapon system.

At the same time, the faster the ship, the higher the cost of the power system. For the same ship, if the speed differs by one or two knots, the difference in power costs is very large.

Therefore, to reduce the cost of warships, the most obvious effect is to reduce the speed requirements.

With the same protection and the same firepower, the cost difference between frigates with a speed of 18 knots and a speed of 20 knots can reach tens of thousands of dollars.

And how much does a Longchuan-class frigate cost? It's less than 300,000...

Therefore, the Longchuan-class frigate created in this way is actually a typical miscellaneous warship... Even because of its unprotected design, it has to stay away even when participating in land support bombardments. As for fighting deep into rivers, it is even more dangerous.

Of course, you can't say it's not good... If it wasn't good, the Da Chu Empire Navy wouldn't build more than thirty ships at once, and would continue to build its improved version.

It's pretty good in many areas.

It is cheap, has low cost of use, has good ocean seaworthiness, large living space, strong endurance, and good self-sustainability. It is very suitable for long-term blockade and patrol missions at sea.

However, it is also true that the speed is slow, the firepower is poor, and the protection is slag.

In order to make up for this shortcoming, the Navy designed and built a true fleet-type frigate specifically for the main fleet in the ocean fleet, that is, a frigate that pursues performance.

This is the origin of the Bangkok-class frigate. The displacement of 1,500 tons is not as large as that of the Longchuan class, but the six 120mm and 40 times caliber naval guns attached to it are still so-called compared to the Longchuan-class frigates. A mature product, a 120 mm 35 times caliber naval gun.

Even though the difference is only five times the caliber, the difference in barrel cost alone is several thousand Chu Yuan, which also brings better range and shooting accuracy.

The speed reached twenty knots, two knots faster than the Longchuan-class's eighteen knots... Moreover, this thing also experimentally used the latest technology strong ventilation system, which can run out of Blackjack and Five in a short time under extreme conditions. knot of high speed.

And very importantly, the Bangkok-class frigate is not an unprotected frigate, but imitates the Yangzhou-class cruiser, using dome armor. This kind of armor is roughly an inverted bowl, with a bulge in the middle above the waterline, and two sides at the same time. The coal bunker is arranged on the side, and its comprehensive protection effect is quite good.

This is why the Bangkok-class frigate is called a frigate rather than a small cruiser... because the design concept of this thing is similar to the current dome-armored cruiser, but the tonnage is a bit smaller.