After the preliminary design was handed over to the German Navy, it caused great controversy in the German Navy. There was no big objection to other designs and parameters, but the armor was too weak, which made it difficult for the German Navy to accept it. The waterline armor belt was only 150mm thick, which was basically the level of an armored cruiser. Although during the exchange, the navy team also said that a battlecruiser was a large armored cruiser equipped with battleship artillery, but a 20,000-ton class, equivalent to an extremely warship of a battleship, only a protection level of an armored cruiser of more than 10,000 tons was not reasonable. Therefore, it was proposed to modify the waterline armor belt to increase to 200mm thick.

The explanation given by the naval team is: First of all, the characteristics of battlecruisers are high speed and light armor. The opponent of the competition battlecruisers is not a battleship, but an enemy battlecruiser or armored cruiser. The waterline armor belt of the battlecruiser Invincible built by the UK is only 150mm thick, and the protection of both sides is basically at the same level. Then there is naturally no need to install thicker armor in the battlecruiser built by Germany. After all, the main gun of the Invincible is also 305mm at the level of the battleship. Unless the armor thickness is increased to at least 280mm above the level of the battleship, the waterline armor belt will be increased to 200mm thick, which will also not be able to prevent the artillery of the enemy battlecruiser. Although this cannot be said to be completely useless, it is honestly useless and will not drag down the speed of the warship. It is better to save armor and increase the speed.

Secondly, the quality of the German Knuber armor is originally better than that of the British Vickers armor. At the same time, the outer floating sidewalk structure designed by East China can reduce the angle of being blasted. Because it is that when there is a long-distance fire, the arc of ballistic flight is relatively large, and the outer floating sidewalk structure can effectively reduce the impact force of the shells. Therefore, based on the combination, the 150mm thick armor is equivalent to the British armor thickness of 180-190mm. It can be said that compared with similar British warships, it has a certain advantage.

Finally, the armor was thickened to 250 mm in important local areas such as turrets, command towers, ammunition depots, and power chambers, which was very close to the armor level of battleships. Here, East China actually introduced the key protection concept pioneered by the Naval Treaty period in the old time and space. During the Naval Treaty period, the tonnage and firepower of warships were restricted. Therefore, warship designers from various countries racked their brains to create the strongest warships within the limited tonnage, so they invented the key protection concept, that is, to strengthen protection for key parts and regions of warships, and simply abandoned the sub-key points, saving tonnage to strengthen speed and endurance.

Locations such as turrets, command towers, ammunition depots, and power cabins are all deadly places for warships. Destroyed turrets will weaken the combat effectiveness of warships; if the command tower is hit, it may lead to the command system of the warship in one place; and being shot in ammunition depot is the most dangerous, and once the stored ammunition is exploded, it will cause a devastating blow to the warship's city-building; and hitting the power cabin will destroy the power system of the warship and reduce speed and maneuverability will basically be a life-and-death situation in naval battles. In addition to these positions, even if you get a few guns in other places, the warships can withstand it. Even if you have a gun on the waterline, it will not hurt the muscles or bones. As long as the pipe is damaged, there will be no major damage at all.

Based on these factors, although the waterline armor belt of this type of warship is only 150mm thick, it still has considerable survivability. Of course, it cannot be compared with the battleship, and it is by no means vulnerable.

These explanations can be understood by the German Admiralty, but they can't get over them in their hearts. After all, German warships have always paid attention to defense before, but now they suddenly made a sharp turn on the right and must have accepted it. So after finally discussing, they decided to increase the waterline armor belt to 180mm thick.

However, this change has two consequences. First, the weight of about 800-1,000 tons is increased, so that the total tonnage must exceed the original 20,000 tons; second, it will reduce the speed of warships by 0.5-1 knot, and the final speed may not reach 27 knots. Unless the weight is reduced in other positions,

Finally, the two sides negotiated and decided to cancel all ** launch tubes; change 6 double 150mm secondary guns to 4; change 8 double 105mm rapid-fire guns to 4 double 105mm rapid-fire guns and 4 double 88mm rapid-fire guns. After this adjustment, the weight of about 5-600 tons can be reduced, and the strength can be avoided to meet the technical requirements put forward by Germany.

In fact, the equipment of the main ship is not very effective, because at this time the distance of artillery battles has far exceeded the range of the **, and the main ship cannot risk getting close to the enemy ship to launch the **. Therefore, the function of the ** is mainly used to replenish guns against enemy ships that have lost their combat power. However, when the main ship is dispatched, there will definitely be a accompanying escort warships. The equipment of these warships can also do this kind of work, and it can do better than the main ship. Of course, this involves the issue of how to calculate the head and the calculation of the battle results, but it has nothing to do with the construction of the warship.

Of course, after this adjustment, the firepower of the secondary gun must be weakened. However, the combat effectiveness of a warship mainly depends on the main gun. As the main battleship, they are all competing for the main gun. The function of the secondary gun is only to supplement the main gun, as well as to use it in some low-intensity battles, or to deal with small warships that are close to the cast, so it has little impact on the overall combat effectiveness of the warship.

The preliminary design was determined in this way. What we need to do next is to deepen the design drawings and calculate various loads, loads, torques, bearings and other data. This is a very complex and meticulous work. In this era when there was no mechanical drawing, it had to be done by hand by humans. Sometimes, as long as a line is drawn incorrectly, the entire drawing will be basically invalid. Therefore, it is of course impossible to complete by just a few people in the naval team. Fortunately, there are some such drafters in Germany. The naval team only needs to provide guidance to them and just talk. All the drawings are left to the German drafters to complete.

While the two sides were having military exchanges, East China's visit to other European countries was also going smoothly. The first one was to visit the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Xu Jichao and Li Sanjie were received very warmly here. The emperors of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Franz Joseph I and Crown Prince Franz Ferdinand all met the two on the same day, showing a very high-standard courtesy.

However, Xu Jichao and Li Sanjie's main impression of the Austro-Hungarian emperor was Princess Sissi's husband, not the emperor himself. However, the princess had passed away for many years, so the two were not able to see Fangyan at first. In comparison, Crown Prince Franz Ferdinand was much more famous in history than his uncle. It was the assassination of the crown prince and became the emperor of the First World War. It was probably that the crown prince would not want to leave his name in history in this way.

Of course, the emperor and the crown prince showed a very enthusiastic attitude towards the visit of the two. On the one hand, this is because, for the sake of the big brother Germany, even the big brother was treated very well with guests from ancient Eastern countries, so those who are younger brothers naturally cannot neglect them. On the other hand, the Austro-Hungarian Empire also hoped to have a good relationship with the East China and restrain Russia. The conflict between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia was mainly in the competition between the Balkans, but Russia's strength was far stronger than the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was entirely up to Germany's support that the Austro-Hungarian Empire had the confidence to compete with Russia for dominance in the Balkans.

The East China Empire defeated Russia in the Far East War, not only Germany hoped to form an alliance with the East China Empire to restrain Russia, but the Austro-Hungarian Empire also had this idea. It is always good to have more useful friends.

The visit to the Austro-Hungarian Empire was a week. Xu Jichao and Li Sanjie held several talks with officials of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, signed a series of economic and trade cooperation agreements, and also attended many events and visited many famous attractions, such as the Grand Theater of Vienna, Prague Square, etc., because Austria and Hungary are both famous travel and cultural areas in Europe. However, after returning to China, they realized that they had missed a major event and did not look for an unsuccessful painter on the streets of Vienna.

After ending his visit to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the two acted separately. Li Sanjie went to sea from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, crossed the Mediterranean, visited the Ottoman Empire, and accompanied by diplomats from the Ottoman Empire in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, while Xu Jichao visited Italy.

After Li Sanjie and his party arrived in the Ottoman Empire, the reception was more grand than that of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Sultan Abdul Hamid II sent his own guard to greet him at the port and sent Li Sanjie and his party to the hotel where he stayed.

On the next day, Sultan held a grand ceremony in the palace and met Li Sanjie. During the talks, Sultan formally proposed to Li Sanjie that the Ottoman Empire hoped to establish formal diplomatic relations with the East China **.

The Ottoman Empire was so eager to establish diplomatic relations with the East China **, but it was indescribable that Russia failed in the Far East War and lost a large number of strongholds in the Far East. The eastward expansion had completely stopped and instead defended its existing interests and territory in the Far East. However, expansion and desire for territory were the nature of the Slavic nation. Since it was blocked in the East, it might as well give it a try in the West, and want to gain some benefits in the Balkans to make up for the losses in the Far East, and at the same time it could also divert domestic conflicts.

However, Russia was contested by the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the Balkans, and the two countries were at a loss for a moment, and the relationship became tense immediately. The world's attention was also focused on these two countries, but it forgot that at this time, although most of the Balkans achieved autonomy or were trusted by other major powers, in the famous discussion, the Balkans belonged to the Ottoman Empire, but no country would care about the attitude of the Ottoman Empire.

But the Ottoman Empire itself could not ignore it, but both sides were the masters that the Ottoman Empire could not afford to offend. Relatively speaking, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was better and was only interested in the Balkans. Russia had greater ambitions, not only wanted to annex the Balkans, but also the entire Ottoman Empire.
Chapter completed!