Berlin, the German Navy Office, the Navy Secretary’s Office.

Tirpitz, with a big white beard, walked slowly behind the desk with his hands behind his back. At his desk, Joachim von Prussia, in naval suit, sat upright.

"I personally agree and support your Highness's decision, but I am a little curious: What made your Highness suddenly change your mind?"

What Tirpitz said about "changing your mind" means that Natsuki decided to accept the position of Navy's shipbuilding director. At the same time, he applied to transfer from the Nassau and transferred to the General Staff of the Navy, thus voluntarily leaving the "dangerous combat post."

Tirpitz may not know nothing about his relationship with Charlotte Hill. This smart naval decision-maker may be able to guess the connection, and Nakaki is reluctant to say anything. He replied with great confidence: "Although my dream is to be a powerful battle on the battlefield with the rumbling of cannons, naval construction also requires us to devote our efforts. Moreover, now is a critical period for the development of the German navy. I am willing to focus my main energy on ship construction."

"Hmm." Tirpitz stopped by the window. "In fact, for a long time, His Majesty and I have the same view: If His Highness can fully utilize the talent of shipbuilding design, it will definitely be of great help to the development of the German Navy, and His Highness will also achieve an incomparable honor and become the most meritorious figure in the history of the German Navy."

Since we reached an agreement on the issue of principle, Natsuki did not go around for many twists. He said: "Dear teacher, I have no intention of offending your absolute authority in the Navy. It is just for technical reasons. I hope to get enough trust and support."

Tirpitz turned around and continued to pace slowly and calmly at his desk.

"Of course, Your Highness is the only ship-building genius in German history, and has an extremely noble royal status. He deserves absolute trust and support. This is the case... If Your Highness doesn't mind, he can make any request and submit it to the Imperial Navy General Office meeting and finally submit it to His Majesty for deliberation."

"The teacher may have misunderstood what I mean. What I need is not appointment or written authorization. As long as I can get the absolute trust of you and Your Majesty, I can feel at ease in building ships." Xia Shu called out a "teacher" to lower his posture and bring closer. If you change to ordinary people, this trick will probably work, but the student's background is too great and he has become famous early, which will inevitably make the teacher worry about "the previous wave dies on the beach."

Tirpitz finally stopped at his desk. He held the table with both hands and sat down in the slow posture unique to the elderly. As usual, he lit a cigar and thought while smoking, as if he was testing the patience of the "Hohenzollern genius" in front of him. After waiting for ten minutes without saying a word, he said, "Your Highness once said that his dream was to become a fleet commander like Nelson who had a reputation in the history of human war."

Natsuki replied: "Yes, this dream is still in my heart."

Tirpitz held a cigar with his fingers, and in a slightly relaxed manner, he said, "Build the best ships in the world and then personally command them to defeat the powerful enemies?"

"Yes." Xia Shutan replied neatly.

"How long does your Highness think this dream will take to be fully realized?"

"It depends on when the war breaks out," said Natsuki.

"If a war breaks out within three years..." Tirpitz made the hypothesis.

Xia Shu replied frankly: "I'm sorry, we will definitely lose."

"What if it's eight years or ten years?" Tirpitz asked again.

"We will still be defeated undoubtedly." Xia Shu replied.

"Oh?" Tirpitz's brow frowned immediately, and he thought reluctantly, "When will your Highness think we will defeat the British at sea?"

Natsuki looked straight ahead: "If our fleet wants to defeat the British Navy steadily, it may take fifty years, or a hundred years. If Gan takes the risk of being destroyed, he may have a peace that will benefit us."

"Just just a matter of the game?" Tirpitz asked immediately.

Natsuki explained: "This is no longer the era of the Spanish Invincible Fleet or the Battle of Trafalgar. Luck is not as heavy as before in a naval battle. We have no advantage over the British fleet in terms of command skills, officers and soldiers' qualities and morale. Either we cannot avoid fighting and preserve our strength, or we will make every effort to win the decisive battle."

As the head of the German Navy, Tirpitz is no stranger to various deductions and analysis, but it is a pity that Natsuki's remarks can always bring him extraordinary feelings. This is destined to be a genius that he cannot control.

"What if our ships have a clear advantage in performance?"

"In a fair battle, it is enough to have the advantage of one against two or two against three?" Natsuki asked back.

Tirpitz was silent for a moment: "If we are destined to not win, what is the significance of His Highness devoted all his efforts to naval construction?"

Natsuki replied without hesitation: "For our army is no longer regarded as a lame man walking on one leg, for our citizens to live in business overseas without discrimination and bullying, and for the ambition of conquering the ocean in our hearts... we need an elite fleet that is enough to fight against any enemy, and when there is no choice in the strategic situation, we can burst out enough forces to shock powerful enemies, and then gain the opportunity to survive, and receive enough honor and respect."

Tirpitz sighed and stood up to pay tribute to Xia Shu and said, "Your Highness is not only the best designer of the Navy, but also the most comprehensive and calm thinking among many colleagues. Appointing you as the Navy's shipbuilding director may be the most important decision in my naval career. I sincerely wish you a brilliant achievement in your new position!"

Natsuki shook hands with him and said, "Thank you for your blessings and be proud of you forever."

...

Although Xia Shu was reluctant to part with the "Nassau" that was approaching service and his new partner who had been together for several months, this change may not be a bad thing for him to the entire German Navy. After being appointed as the director of the German Navy's shipbuilding, he did not return to his boring office life. In addition to participating in design meetings and reviewing technical drawings, he rarely stayed in Kiel. Instead, he visited the German Navy's active ships one by one in the name of collecting basic information and patrolling technical conditions. From battleships, armored cruisers, to torpedo boats, and patrol gunboats, through this accumulated inspection, he had a firm and appropriate understanding of the most detailed situation of the German Navy, and at the same time impressed the front-line officers and soldiers of the German Navy by their down-to-earth working methods and friendly and approachable temperament.

In terms of ship design and construction, although Xia Shu has advanced vision and ideas, he is also well aware of the principle of rising water. After the Nassau class and Helgolan class are completed and put into service, the new designs and new processes they use will soon become the object of research, imitation, and even improvement of engineers from various countries. In order to understand and master the real level of shipbuilding technology of the great powers and draw on their strengths in a certain technology, Xia Shu took the engineer team of the naval design department to large shipyards in European countries for inspection and exchange. The British had unparalleled advantages in power systems and hull construction technology. Ships of the same level and the same performance were ships in the British shipyards at the same shipyards.

The construction period is shorter and the cost is lower than in Germany or other European countries, which also means that the UK has considerable innate advantages in naval competition; the Americans' way of thinking and style of doing things look a bit rough and casual, their hull construction technology is even better than the British, and the assembly line production in the field of machinery gives them stronger competitive potential in armament. Another thing worthy of praise is that the US Navy did not imitate the British Fearless like Japan and France. They recognized the design of the main turret arranged along the central axis from the very beginning, and the wisdom of this design will eventually be proved by time.

The vision has been opened and the thinking has been enriched. Xia Shu devoted himself to the design and finalization of the new warship with unprecedented enthusiasm. After repeated modifications and calculations, the third-class dreadnought of the German Navy, the Caesar-class battleship, which many people regard as the "starting of the super-defying ship", appeared in the magnificent era of fearlessness with a balanced structure and excellent performance. Its standard displacement reaches an unprecedented 26,000 tons, with a full load displacement of nearly 30,000 tons, and is equipped with the newly developed 12-inch 50-caliber naval gun by Krupp. At first glance, the configuration of the four dual-mounted main turrets is not stronger than that of the Nassau class and the Helgolan class in terms of firepower output, but the new artillery is better than before in terms of range and power.

The 11-inch naval gun has been greatly improved, and the formal installation of the unified command system of the entire ship gave the Caesar-class more efficient main gun firepower. Because the main turret is one less than the British battleship of the same level in the same period, the weight saved by more than 900 tons has been strengthened to defense. The thickness of the main armor belt of the hull is still shocking to the British, and the armor of the main turret and commander tower has also been strengthened in breakthroughs in the past. The turret defense of the German battleships (including those former dreadnoughts) has been greatly improved, which means that the German navy fleet commanders have the opportunity to jump out of the "ship protection first" naval battle mode and find opportunities to defeat opponents in a more flexible way.

If Krupp's excellent 12-inch gun gave the invincible sword blade to the new German warships, the Hubert steam turbine, which successfully adopted impulse technology, would provide unprecedentedly strong power for five Caesar-class battleships. According to the test data of the new turbine, they can provide 40,000 horsepower in the ultimate state, making the theoretical maximum speed of the Caesar-class reach 24 knots, surpassing the British dreadnought built at the same time for the first time.

When the technical diagram of the design and shaping of Caesar-class battleships was presented to the shipbuilding engineers of designated shipyards, people could not help but be impressed by its bold and delicate lines. Little did they know that because of the strong personal opinion of the German Emperor, this design with only 8 main guns was almost aborted. In fact, if any designer, even the most respected master in the field of battleships, it would be difficult to use the word "balance" to convince the stubborn German emperor, but Xia Shu did it. It is obvious that direct blood ties played a crucial role in this. After many harmonious debates, the German Emperor finally gave up the rigid requirement of "the main gun is equipped with five-seat double-equipped or four-seat triple-equipped configuration" and agreed to a balanced design with a greatly enhanced turret defense.

In addition to the Caesar-class, the German Navy also completed the design and finalization of the Magdeburg-class cruisers and U-iiia submarines in 1909. These new warships started to build the first batch of ships that year: the 4,500-ton Magdeburg-class cruisers planned to build four, two each in 1909 and 1910; the 720-ton U-iiia submarines planned to build 48 from 1909 to 1912, and operate every year.

In addition, the 1906-class large torpedo boats continued to be built at a speed of 18 ships per year, and the u-i series short-range submarines and the u-ii series medium-range submarines were built 6-10 ships per year. The ships completed and put into service in 1909 include the quasi-combat patrol "Blüchel", the Dresden-class light cruiser "Emden", the Colburg-class light cruiser "Mainz", and several 1906-class large torpedo boats and U-type submarines.

With the support of the whole country, Germany's naval cause stalked forward with a vigorous posture. On the other side of the North Sea, the Anglo-Saxons, who occupied the position of maritime overlord for three hundred years, were also unwilling to be outdone. Under the leadership of Lord Fisher, Britain maintained their dreadnought advantage with its advantage in shipbuilding industry. By 1909, they had already owned the "Dreadnought" and three Palelofen-class battleships. The three Saint Vincent-class that strengthened and improved on the Palelofen-class have also been launched or close to launching, and their strength has been strengthened and strengthened.
Chapter completed!