"Read the newspaper, read the newspaper! The era of the dreadnought has arrived!"
"Eight 14-inch cannons, an unprecedented cannon battleship..."
"Read the newspaper, read the newspaper. The Centurion, the pride of the British Empire, has suddenly become a joke!"
"Read the newspaper, a 27,000-ton giant ship challenges the Royal Navy!"
"Read newspapers……"
In London, just two months ago, those naval observers in London were still there swearing about "the determination and will of the Royal Navy to once again go to the sea", and they were still showing off the power of the "Captain".
But what about now?
An unprecedentedly huge ship from the New World made them all dumbfounded.
27,000 tons!
Four twin 14-inch cannons!
Not only that, the speed even reached an astonishing 26 knots!
What kind of battleship is this?
Even the cruiser can't run as fast as him.
Of course, what is more surprising?
It's his strength!
He is so powerful that no one can ignore his existence, and so powerful that no one can look at him rationally.
Everywhere on the streets of London, you can hear newspaper sellers shouting a word that scares everyone.
"The Dauntless rules the seas!"
No one doubts the conclusion drawn by the newspaper anymore. After all, it is so powerful that even the most ignorant people can draw conclusions from those simple numbers.
After being extremely shocked, almost everyone felt a little bit more frightened about it for no reason.
"Eight 14-inch cannons, the firepower of one Dreadnought, even two Centurions cannot match it!"
"The weight of the cannonball is close to 1,500 pounds! One shot is almost equivalent to two 12-inch 800-pound cannonballs! It is not only the largest warship on the ocean, but also the most powerful warship!"
"All warships in the world's navies were eliminated overnight..."
Yes, they were all eliminated overnight!
With the newspaper reports, even the most ignorant people knew that the Royal Navy, which just two months ago claimed to rule the oceans, turned into a joke overnight.
In the past few years, the Royal Navy has spent tens of millions of pounds to build a number of seemingly powerful warships, but what about now?
With the appearance of the "Fearless", they were eliminated!
Eliminated without any doubt!
"Don't worry, the Imperial Navy only has one "Dreadnaught"!"
While people were comforting themselves, as a ship designer, William White, the most outstanding ship designer in the British Empire, fell into some kind of collapse.
"How could this happen? How could this happen?"
William White said to himself again and again.
"How did they figure it out?"
"Fully heavy gun battleship? Canceled the secondary main gun? Why... why is this? They don't want the rate of fire?"
Why did the Royal Navy choose a 9.2-inch Tier 2 main gun?
This is because the 9.2-inch naval gun has a faster rate of fire than the ten-inch cannon. Although it is slightly less powerful, its rate of fire is significantly higher than that of the ten-inch cannon.
"Okay, the reason couldn't be simpler. The idea of the Ming Empire Navy is very simple."
Philip Watts, with red eyes, said from the side.
"They just want to use cannons on giant ships, and then beat our warships to pieces from far away from the range."
While speaking, he held a simple sketch in his hand. This was a sketch based on the description in the telegram by the embassy's naval intelligence attaché. Although the sketch was very simple, its structure could be clearly seen.
.
"Look at the four twin-mounted main turrets all arranged along the longitudinal central axis of the hull, with two turrets on each side of the hull in piggy-back style. In this layout, 8 guns fire sideways salvos at the same time, or 4 guns fire in the forward and rear directions.
, can exert broadside salvo firepower and ensure that the main gun has a good firing range in the forward and rear directions - the person who can come up with this turret distribution method is definitely a genius, a real genius."
If Wang Zhensheng had heard the praise from Philip Watts as his British colleague, he would have said proudly - "Yes, that's right."
Yes, for this era, the piggyback turret is definitely the finishing touch of genius. In fact, the mid-19th century to the early 20th century was an era of change, and the same was true for naval technology. There were all kinds of strange things here.
The door's unique skills are in full bloom.
However, in the past ten years, the Ming Empire has been leading the direction of naval technology. Compared with the proliferation of various strange skills in European and American countries, the Imperial Navy does not seem to have so many strange skills.
But often just one finishing touch is enough to shock navies around the world.
From Nanhua to Youzhou, from Youzhou to Huizhou.
Just when the British were complacent about having built a warship more powerful than the "Huizhou", the sudden "Fearless" hit them in the face like a loud slap in the face.
.
"It doesn't matter now..."
William White turned to look at Philip Watts and said in an extremely annoyed tone.
"The important thing is that in our shipyard, there are six "Centurion-class" ships under construction. God! Can you imagine how those warships will be far away from the Imperial Navy's dreadnoughts in future naval battles?
Beaten to a pulp?"
Six "Centurion-class" ships!
This is William White’s pride!
Before this, it was also the pride of the Royal Navy and the confidence for the Royal Navy to meet challenges. But what about now?
They become jokes.
The problem isn't just becoming a joke, it's that they are being built. Every ship is money.
"What should we do? Should we stop construction? Two of them are already half-completed. If we stop work now, the losses will be very heavy..."
Now for the British Empire and the Royal Navy, these warships are money no matter whether they are built or not. If we continue to build them, what will be built will be nothing more than outdated warships that have been eliminated. But if we do not continue to build them,
, and they have already spent so much money.
It's hard to get off the tiger.
"The question now is not whether to stop work or not. The question now is whether the Royal Navy will want them! No navy will want warships that are already behind before they even get off the slipway."
"What should we do?"
"Let's stop work first, and let's think of some ways to see if there is any way to remedy it?"
Because William White, the Director of Shipbuilding of the Royal Navy, felt extremely heavy when he made this decision. There was a time when he believed that his "Centurion-class" could help the Royal Navy re-establish maritime superiority.
But what about now?
His "centurion level" became a joke, and not only that, he was eliminated overnight.
"Damn it! Why didn't we have any information before this!"
William White said with some indignation.
"Why didn't our people in the Ming Empire send back any news?"
The reason why he was so angry was that in the past few years, London had not received any information about the Ming Empire's construction of new warships.
"Dereliction of duty! Those damn guys! What on earth were they doing there? Why didn't they give us any information?"