The Rise of the Empire

It is the purpose of the Russians to further contact the two countries. And selling the battleship to Russia is the goal of the traversers! The Russians now need to expand their military, but their native shipyards have limited capacity. And Ruprecht wanted to take this opportunity to get himself another client.

"Your Excellency, Admiral, what do you think of today's test? It is said that this matter is related to whether the Russian Navy will import new German armored cruisers?" Rear Admiral Makanov accompanied Admiral Popov to stand on both sides of the ship, watching Said while looking at the armored cruiser Mainz sailing in the distance.

"Whether the result of this firepower display is good or bad, we will buy the Mainz-class armored cruiser. The only difference is to buy one or two." Admiral Popov looked at Makanov next to him Said: "This is arms procurement. Any arms procurement is the result of political operations. Russia purchased a first-class cruiser, and Germany is willing to sell its best warship. This is a political statement, indicating that Russia and Germany have begun Close, there is quite a lot of information revealed in it!"

"It's too complicated, but I'm still happy that the Imperial Navy can have such a warship." When it comes to politics, Makanov has a bit of a head. "However, the only fly in the ointment is that the tonnage of this battleship is a bit small, giving people a feeling that they can't get up or down."

At this moment, the armored cruiser Mainz in the distance suddenly raised the battle flag, and in the distance, pulled by the tugboat, a target ship was also in place. The structure of the old-fashioned cruiser, in terms of size, is about 2,500 tons, which can be regarded as a third-class cruiser. The above weapons and power have been dismantled, and it was finally towed to a distance of about 2,500 meters from the Mainz!

"It's time to start!" On the royal yacht Hohenzollern, Crown Prince William gave the order to start. When the signal flag on the Hohenzollern was raised, Mainz, the steel giant that had just entered service, The beast uttered its first battle roar with a mighty roar!

"The 88MM secondary guns fired!" Following the command of the gunner, the seven 88MM guns on the sidestring of the Mainz began to rain bullets on distant targets. The orange photoelectric lights flew towards the distant target with the shaking of the gun barrel. In just ten seconds, the target was surrounded by dense shells, and an oval-shaped impact area enveloped the target. ferry!

Earl Spey, the gunnery commander, began to adjust the distance and shooting situation according to the situation of the impact area. When the 88MM artillery on the upper deck of the battleship stopped firing, the 150MM artillery group, which is the backbone of the battleship's projected volume, let out a roar that shook the sky. After the correction, this wave of attacks was accurate and ruthless. The high-firing 150mm artillery poured tons of ammunition on the target in a very short time.

Explosions came one after another from the target ship, and within a few minutes, the meeting facility of this warship was engulfed by dense bullet rain and fire. After 5 minutes of firing, Mainz's secondary guns stopped roaring.

The two huge main gun turrets quickly turned to the target. A shell weighing 240KG was removed from the ammunition rack at the rear of the turret, and then pushed into the gun bore with the help of the servo, and then the waist bag. After the machine was adjusted slightly, with the vibration of the turret, a huge fireball flew towards the target!

"One shot every 35 seconds! This rate of fire is almost twice that of our 12-inch artillery!" Makanov put away the pocket watch in his hand, and his words were full of surprise. Although there are only 2 main guns, relying on a higher rate of fire, the Russian battleships with 4 main guns have no advantage in the rate of fire of the main guns per unit time.

At this moment, a 280MM shell hit the bow of the target ship. The violent explosion directly blew up the hull, and the huge smoke column carried debris and flew into the air. When the smoke cleared, the target ship seemed to be destroyed by a Like an ancient monster gnawing off a piece,

There was a huge gap in the front half of the hull, a large amount of seawater poured into the hull, and the entire target ship had a serious bow! At this moment, the damage effect of the large-caliber artillery is fully reflected at this moment.

The rest entered the rubbish time. The target ship could not last more than half an hour during the intermittent attack of Mainz. With the sound of the last cannon, the target ship sank in flames and smoke. the bottom of the sea. Then applause and cheers broke out on the royal cruise ship Hohenzollern, and the Mainz proved the power of the new generation of German armored cruisers with its own actions. And the history of the German Navy has also opened a new page!

After the firepower test was over, the onlookers of the German and Russian high-level officials came to an end. The next step was the sailing experiment. Under the neat promotion of high temperature and high pressure provided by the water tube boiler, two three-expansion vertical steam engines drove two propellers on the water. In this test, the timing output power of the battleship exceeded the design power by 15%, and the peak output power reached 14,000 horsepower! During the next 8 hours of voyage, the warship completely shocked the casual German and Russian officers with an average speed of 21 knots!

"I have never seen a warship of such a tonnage run so fast! Not to mention the Nakhimonov, even the Rurik under construction is difficult to do this!" Major Essen wrote in the report road.

"This is really a perfect battleship, with powerful firepower, super high speed and new armor. Although the tonnage is only 7,500 tons, it is enough to suppress all cruisers in the world. Even if it is against battleships, it is also possible. If you can If so, I suggest buying two." Popov said to Makanov next to him.

"Why don't we buy one, then buy the blueprints and build it ourselves?" Makanov said with some doubts.

"There are two reasons. First, the German side may not be willing to provide drawings. At present, including us, at least three other countries have ordered the Munich-class armored cruiser. This is their cash cow. The Prince of Bavaria has already expressed his unwillingness. Ideas for selling drawings."

"Second, according to reliable sources, the Bavarian Ship Design Bureau has a more powerful planned warship, but it has been stranded due to problems with the German Navy's budget and needs. The chief designer of the design bureau, Baron Vittorio Cuniberti In private, they said that if possible, they are willing to sell this class of armored cruiser to Russia. We have a better choice!" Admiral Popov smiled!

"A bigger and more powerful battleship? How powerful is it?" Makanov pouted. After seeing the excellent performance of Mainz, he didn't think the new battleship could improve much.

"You'll be able to see it this afternoon! I'm looking forward to it now." Popov said with unsatisfactory expression.

There are some special circumstances today, and the update is a bit late, I hope everyone will bear with me~~~, and the second one will be presented later~~~.