Chapter 127 Naval aviation, attack! (Fifth update, again, again, please subscribe again

"Didn't you say that we have to prepare for ten to fifteen years? Why are we starting a fight now?"

"Didn't you say that Japan has always wanted to be our lackey of the Ming Dynasty? Why did it collude with the British and foreigners to set a trap for us?"

"Brother Zhuge Tenth, Zhuge Fifty-one, have you figured it out clearly?"

"Mr. Yu, how much financial savings do we have left? Can we cope with a long-term war?"

In the office of Prime Minister Zuo's Mansion, Zheng Guozhong, the prime minister, looked a little confused. Although he had made up his mind to beat Japan into pieces, Japan is Japan and Great Britain is Great Britain. Fighting against the former is nothing more than winning.

What's the problem? Moreover, Japan's national strength is limited, its level of industrialization is extremely low, and its resources are quite scarce. It cannot support a long-term war at all.

But the war with Great Britain is different. This is a worldwide war with an unpredictable outcome! Moreover, the Ming Dynasty's economy is in a slump now, and the imperial government's finances have been running deficits for two years. Is it necessary to borrow debt to fight the war?

But what level of opponent is Great Britain? The Empire on which the sun never sets! Moreover, Great Britain also has a bunch of Western allies, all of whom are quite powerful. A war with them will definitely be protracted, and it is not certain for ten or eight years.

Unfortunately, the Ming Dynasty's finances went bankrupt before the war was over!

Therefore, according to Zheng Guozhong's thoughts, he must be fully prepared for the war with Great Britain, and he must have at least a few hundred million silver dollars saved financially, right? And the British must also save money!

But now a fight breaks out all of a sudden? There is also a dangerous situation in which the British, foreign and Japanese pirates are colluding with each other. Moreover, the old guy Zhuge Weijiu has withdrawn again, and another old man Yu has come to power. Is that okay?

"Prime Minister, I feel that this maritime conflict is a provocation and test by the British and barbarians against our Ming Dynasty, and they do not really want to fight a full-scale war. And judging from the results of the current battle, the British and barbarians are not prepared at all. Their

The Sovereign class is exaggerated, and has shortcomings such as weak main battery defense, insufficient number of secondary guns, slow rate of fire and insufficient accuracy of the main gun. As for older warships such as the Indomitable class, their combat effectiveness is not worth mentioning."

Zhuge Weiyi, the Minister of the Admiralty, certainly knew about the equipment problems of the British Royal Navy. Although the Sovereign class was a good ship, it had problems such as unreasonable firepower configuration and weak main gun defense. It was a particularly strong target ship on the battlefield.

.

Of course, the Hongwu Emperor class also has similar problems. Although the 305mm main gun of the Hongwu Emperor class has a guard and an electric loader, and the rate of fire can reach the level of a rapid-fire gun, there is still a problem that the armor-piercing projectile charge is too sensitive.

, the number of main guns is too small, and the sighting and fire control level of the main guns are not high.

Therefore, neither the Ming Dynasty nor the British Royal Navy are ready for war, and both have the need to design and build the next generation of 20,000-ton warships.

In fact, in the Ming Dynasty, the design work of Yongli Emperor-class battleships and Wuwang-class armored cruisers was already in full swing.

Among them, the standard displacement of the Yongli Emperor-class will exceed 20,000 tons, and the standard displacement of the Wu-Wang-class armored cruiser will also reach 15,000 tons. With such a huge hull, these two classes of warships can adopt the piggyback type.

The main gun layout of the turret will be able to install at least eight 305 mm or 210 mm caliber cannons!

In addition, the design demonstration for the 10,000-ton cruiser has also begun, and the design plan should be available this year or next year.

In this case, the possibility of a large-scale war between Ming and Great Britain was almost zero.

"Ziyi (Zhuge Weiyi's brand name) is right. According to the report received by the Naval Staff, Yingyi's monarch-class main gun was destroyed not long after the battle began, while the unyielding 18-inch main gun fired

The speed is too slow and the accuracy is too low, and it cannot deal with high-speed moving sea targets. As for the 6-inch secondary guns of the two ships, there are only 10 and 6, which together are only equivalent to a Lushun-class battleship.

The advantage of it is probably its durability. With the 305mm naval guns and armor-piercing projectiles we currently have, it would be difficult to sink it. So if we were to fight a world war with Britain, I don’t know how we would fight it on land, and in a naval battle.

I'm afraid the outcome will have to be determined by a battle on the side, because no one can use artillery to destroy the other's battleship. Since neither side has the battleships needed to win, of course a war cannot break out immediately."

Yu Quan took over the topic from the two Zhuges and continued: "Your Majesty, we have no money, and the British and foreigners have even less money. They have been hit harder by the economic crisis than us. Dozens of domestic British banks have collapsed. Recently,

If you still have to fight Turkey, how can you spare the energy to fight us again?"

After listening to the analysis of these people, Zheng Guozhong finally felt relieved, nodded and said: "That's right, war is the place of life and death, the way of survival, how can we be so rash? But don't we have airships? Can we use airships?

Sink a British warship?

Since we can't fight for the time being, we'll probably still have to negotiate! If we can sink the monarch's power or not surrender, then our bargaining chip will be huge!"

"My lord," Zhuge Wenyong said, "I have already hung up the phone with the airship headquarters. Whether to dispatch the first airship brigade of Jueying Island in Busan will be decided by HNA's Guan Zhongyin (Guan Tianpei)."

"Where is Guan Zhongyin now?" Zheng Guozhong asked, "I haven't seen him for some days."

Zhuge Wenyong said: "He is now at the airship base on Jueying Island in Busan."

Jueying Island.

This small island next to the Busan Port of the Kingdom of Korea has been the territory of the Ming Dynasty Navy since the era of King Wu Zhong. The entire island is full of headquarters, barracks, warehouses, forts, watchtowers, military ports, naval ship repair yards, etc.

Wait, even the home port of the Beiyang Fleet of the Ming Navy is located on Jueying Island.

Since the advent of airships, an airship base has been built on Jueying Island. After several expansions, by the time Guan Tianpei took office as the naval aviation admiral, the airship base on Jueying Island was already quite large.

There are no less than thirty large warehouses used to store rigid airships, plus various warehouses, gas stations, workshops, large and small buildings, there are more than fifty in total. And they are all solid.

The brick-and-wood structure building looks much more impressive than the airship field at Xianmenguan in the Kingdom of Jin.

In addition, tall castle-like anti-aircraft turrets were built at the four corners of the airship field, which are turrets specially used to erect anti-aircraft guns - anti-aircraft guns, of course, must be placed high to be useful!

Now, all the Feilong III airships placed in the airship hangar have been towed to the open and flat airship landing field. The twenty-five airships are lined up tightly together. The naval aviation ground crew officers and soldiers are pushing forward.

A small car loaded with aerial bombs, machine gun bullets, hydrogen cylinders and gasoline headed for the location of the airship.

Rear Admiral Guan Tianpei, the naval aviation admiral, had already boarded one of the airships that had been loaded with hydrogen cylinders, gasoline and ammunition, and was sitting in the deputy captain's seat.

Different from the Feilong III-type boat that Ming Dynasty "leased" to Daikin, the interior of the cabin of the airship in the Jueying Island airship base has the layout of a combat boat. There are not many crew members, only the captain, driver, and deputy captain.

Co-pilot, No. 1 Navigator and No. 1 Communications Officer, No. 2 Navigator and No. 2 Communications Officer, No. 1 Machine Gunner and No. 1 Observer, No. 2 Machine Gunner and No. 2 Observer, No. 1 Bombardier and Mechanic,

There are a total of eight number two bombardiers and medical officers.

The space saved, except for a small warehouse and lounge, and a toilet, is all built-in bomb bays! When performing bombing missions, the built-in bomb bays can carry a total of 16 100-kilogram bombs or incendiary bombs.

bomb.

"Sir, the routine inspection before takeoff has been completed and all items are in compliance with the requirements."

The captain of this airship is Lieutenant Colonel Ma Xuchen of the First Airship Group. He has completed his routine inspection and is buckling his seat belt while reporting to Guan Tianpei.

"Okay!" Guan Tianpei nodded heavily, "Take off. The target is Muroto Cape, Shikoku Island!"
Chapter completed!