Daming 1805

Chapter 70 New Battleship Naming

If there is no aircraft carrier to disrupt the situation, after the high-speed battleship is formed, the tactical effect formed will be somewhat similar to that of the aircraft carrier.

There is no need to clearly distinguish between avant-garde battles and decisive battles, and the main fleet can also be divided into several squadrons to go out independently, just like the screen fleet.

Each squadron is assigned an aircraft carrier. After searching for and discovering the enemy's screen fleet, the main squadron overruns and destroys the enemy screen fleet.

Then continue to search for the enemy's main fleet, and notify the other main squadrons to assemble after finding it, and cut in at the most suitable angle to initiate a decisive battle.

The actual effect may be like skirmishers versus line infantry, and the battle pattern will change dramatically.

The craftsmen and military personnel on the scene, without a complete concept of the high-speed battleship, did not immediately realize this change in operational logic.

But everyone's military literacy is there. After Zhu Jingyuan's reminder, everyone quickly understood.

All capital ships have more defense and firepower than the enemy's capital ships, and at the same time have a speed that exceeds that of cruisers, which is totally unreasonable.

If the high-speed battleship appears in this era, it is really unreasonable.

It's just that the cost of construction and use of such a fleet is conceivable, and it will also be unreasonably high.

Under the same budget, the number of high-speed battleships that can be built may be only half, or even only one-third of traditional capital ships.

Cao Zhenyong and other officials, as well as the designer and the emperor, also quickly realized this.

Therefore, after a short period of consternation, Cao Zhenyong, who had already stood up, once again asked relevant questions as a representative:

"His Royal Highness, the cost of this kind of battleship will definitely be too high.

"If the enemy avoids a decisive battle with us, and instead uses traditional capital ships to act alone, to disrupt our sea lines of communication and attack our cargo fleet, what should we do?
"If we only use high-speed battleships, it is obviously impossible to mark one-on-one. How should we respond at that time?
"So I feel that although it is not cost-effective to build a large cruiser, she can be more numerous and can deal with the enemy's traditional capital ships..."

After listening to Zhu Jingyuan, he felt that this situation was a little familiar.

This is the United States with deep pockets. It wants to build an Alaska-class cruiser to deal with the German and Japanese super cruiser plans?

But in history, countries such as Germany, Japan, Britain and the Soviet Union were not financially wealthy, so how could it be possible to build the most cost-effective large cruisers in batches?
Therefore, the large cruise plans of Germany, Japan, Britain and the Soviet Union were finally abandoned in the middle. The drawings of the British "super cruiser" were not finished, and it was found that this thing was "unknown".

So what B65 (Awife), O-class (Egil), Pr69 (Kronstadt), all are impossible things.

Only the Americans foolishly built the Alaska-class, and they ordered six at once, and finally built two, one was demolished on the slipway, and three were cancelled.

"So what did I make this?"

This may be the mentality of the US Navy at the time.

No wonder Admiral Ernest King rated the Alaska-class cruiser as "the most beautiful waste".

With some mixed feelings, Zhu Jingyuan tried his best to stop Daming's military staff from going the wrong way of a large cruiser again:

"Cao Junji, if you're talking about the enemy's traditional capital ships, the ones with a displacement of less than [-] tons and a speed of less than [-] knots, we also have them.

"We can defend against traditional capital ships, and at the same time use high-speed battleships to hunt and kill.

"That kind of old ship faces high-speed battleships, let alone fighting, there is no room for escape.

"Old ships accumulated in the past are quickly exhausted in this kind of battle, and the speed of building new ships cannot keep up with the speed of hunting.

"So the enemy will definitely abandon traditional battleships and build similar all-main-gun battleships.

"If the enemy adopts a conservative strategy and builds a ship with a displacement of 25 tons and a speed of 27 to [-] knots, it will fall into the trap of a medium-sized ship.

"The construction cost is [-]-[-]% of ours, the combat power is only [-]-[-]% of ours, and two ships can't beat one of ours.

"The key is the number of them built, and they have no absolute advantage over our high-speed battleships, and they will still be quickly hunted by us.

"If the enemy chooses to follow up head-on, build a high-speed battleship with a displacement similar to ours.

"That's because they're a little bit less technical, a little bit more expensive to build overall, or a little bit less performant at the end.

"Even if the cost and performance are the same, their military spending cap and production capacity are lower than ours, and the overall construction volume will be a bit less than ours, and there is still basically no chance of winning.

"I think that after considering this, the enemy may choose to take a more radical route and build a larger capital ship than us."

Cao Zhenyong was stunned for a moment, and found that it was indeed such a logic, so he subconsciously asked:
"Then if the enemy really builds bigger ships, what should our navy do?"

Zhu Jingyuan said very decisively and directly:
"We also build larger capital ships, or just the other way around, we can take the initiative to master the rhythm and let the tonnage of the capital ships continue to expand.

"After the [-]-ton battleships were mass-produced, the design and production of [-]-ton battleships began, and after [-] tons, the design of [-]-ton battleships continued.

"The overall strength is not as good as our enemy, no matter which level you choose to follow, it will be crushed by our arms race.

"Of course, if the enemy calmly gives up chasing and stays at a level that is clearly behind us, then we don't need to continue to overweight.

"We only need to continue to maintain our relative fleet superiority and ensure the power to maintain the world order."

Cao Zhenyong was obviously stunned for a moment. This is a typical arms race logic, and it can also be said to be a soldier who is defeated without a fight:
"Thank you for the ideas provided by Your Highness. After I go back, I will conduct a strategic discussion with my colleagues and form a strategic plan..."

The discussion of cruisers is now over. Daming will not build large-scale cruisers after it is basically determined. High-speed battleships will be paired with [-]-ton light cruisers to form the main battle fleet of Daming.

Further down, there are six to seven thousand tons of colonial guard light cruisers, two to three thousand tons of fleet miscellaneous destroyers (cruisers), and more than 1000 tons of escort destroyers (frigates).

The design requirements of this kind of warship are much simpler, that is, to find the target positioning, meet the target needs, and on this basis, be as cheap as possible and as easy to mass produce as possible.

Therefore, Zhu Jingyuan instructed the relevant designers to try the feasibility of the modern destroyer type.

That is, the sides of the hull are completely straight, and the tail is also completely cut flat.

The top view of the hull looks like a slender square with a sleek pointed tip in front, which can be said to be extremely concise.

The simpler the more convenient the design, production and mass production...

The status of low-level cruisers and destroyers was briefly described, and the future ship system of the Ming Navy planned by Zhu Jingyuan, and the design indicators of all major ships, was officially completed.

Of course, the formal design work has only just begun.

The designers on the site will continue to hold meetings when they go back, carefully study the design indicators given by Zhu Jingyuan, slowly plan the specific implementation plan, and finally draw the design drawings.

In this process, Zhu Jingyuan still has to follow up the whole process, and also give tips when answering questions to ensure that the design direction will not deviate.

When the design indicator presentation finally ended, it was almost noon, and it was time for the meeting to end.

However, in Zhu Jingyuan's heart, there was still one big and no small matter that he wanted to solve on the spot.

Zhu Jingyuan looked at the craftsmen and officials around him, then looked at the old emperor who was closest to him, and tried to make a final request:

"Grandpa Huang, can I specify the names of these battleship design plans directly now?"

There are currently no clear rules for the naming of warships in Daming. Whether it is the names of mountains, rivers, lakes, place names, or various common phrases, they can be used as ship names.

There are also no clear rules for naming warships. It is possible from the beginning of design, to ordering, starting construction, launching, and serving. Especially unimportant ships may not have ship names.

However, the opportunity for Zhu Jingyuan to name the battleship has not always been available, and now is the best time.

The old emperor himself did not think too much, and asked very casually:

"Then you talk about it now, I'll listen to see if it works."

Zhu Jingyuan said directly:

"Two battleships, named Dreadnought, Invincible..."

Zhu Jingyuan subconsciously wanted to continue, but the old emperor waved his hand and interrupted:

"Fearless is okay, invincible is not good, it's easy to break through just too hard, let's call it fearless."

Zhu Jingyuan was stunned for a moment, what the old emperor said was quite reasonable, and it was also in line with Eastern culture.

Being fearless and fearless is your attitude, it has nothing to do with winning or losing.

So Zhu Jingyuan nodded:

"That's called fearless, and then there are two aircraft carriers, I want to call them Dinghai and Zhenhai respectively."

This time, after Zhu Jingyuan finished speaking, he first glanced at the old emperor, and found that he nodded directly without expressing any opinion.

Zhu Jingyuan breathed a sigh of relief, and continued to talk about the name of the boat:
"The two cruisers are named Chongqing Prefecture and Jinan Prefecture respectively.

"The two bow destroyers are named Weihaiwei and Jinzhouwei respectively."

Although the old emperor didn't know why Zhu Jingyuan chose these place names, the place names themselves had nothing to say, so he didn't think too much, and nodded again and said:

"Okay, let's name these ships that way."

When Zhu Jingyuan heard these definite words, he breathed a sigh of relief in his heart.

The name of "Fearless" is likely to become the type of this kind of ship. In order to make it easier for him to call him and not cause confusion in his memory, Zhu Jingyuan kept this name.

Fearless belongs to a similar phrase followed by fearless, and other reasons for naming it are not enough for outsiders.

(End of this chapter)