Chapter 176 What! 200 aircraft carriers? (Please subscribe, please vote)

Hearing George Elliot mention airships, Prime Minister Robinson suddenly became interested and asked: "George, in fact, airships are the real trump card of the Royal Navy, right?"

"Yes, but not entirely," said George Elliot. "The Admiralty believes that airships are only part of the real trump card that the Royal Navy has in future wars. And the other part of this trump card is that the British Empire is the world's number one

Merchant Fleet!"

"Merchant ship?" Robinson was stunned, "George, does the Navy want to establish an armed merchant ship force and use privateers to deal with the Ming Empire?"

"Prime Minister," George Elytsu said, "Of course we should equip a large number of armed assault ships. The four camouflaged assault ships that caused the Battle of Kii Suido are quite excellent weapons!"

Robinson interjected: "Who do they belong to?"

"It should be Japan," George Eryu replied. "To be more precise, it should be the Satsuma Domain of Japan. With the poor strength of the Satsuma Domain, if they want to establish a regular navy, it is impossible for the Ming Dynasty to build a regular navy."

Their opponents may even become a thorn in the side of the Tokugawa shogunate prematurely. However, by building camouflaged attack ships, they did pose a threat to behemoths like the Ming Empire. In fact, so far, the Ming Navy has still not captured those camouflaged ships.

Attack the ship!

It can be seen that the Satsuma Domain's camouflaged raiding ship tactics are quite effective. So of course we should follow suit. The Navy should secretly build and modify a batch of raiding ships that can go deep into the Pacific and Southeast Asian islands to conduct diplomatic operations.

However, these raiding ships can only play a role in harassment and diversion, and are still unlikely to be the key to determining the outcome of the war. Because they cannot attack the transport fleet escorted by cruisers, they cannot cut off the logistics of the Ming army invading India or Australia.

."

"Well, how do merchant ships become part of the Royal Navy's cards?" Robinson asked.

"Prime Minister," George Elliot replied, "The Admiralty believes that we can convert some of the 10,000-ton merchant ships powered by coal-fired steam into airship carriers that can take off and land airships! The British Empire owns and maintains the largest fleet in the world.

There is a huge merchant fleet, some of which are 10,000-ton ships over 160 meters long, equipped with steam engines that can generate thousands of horsepower, and the maximum speed can reach 15 knots.

If we can design a 10,000-ton merchant ship with the chimney and bridge placed at the bow or stern, we can reserve a huge space of 100 meters to 140 meters for laying the airship deck. At the same time, we can provide

These merchant ships were equipped with powerful steam engines, allowing them to reach speeds of more than 20 knots per hour, so that they could keep up with the naval fleet during wartime.

In peacetime, these 10,000-ton merchant ships are just cargo ships for peaceful purposes, used to transport grain, coal, iron ore or cotton. In wartime, we only need to store grain, coal, iron ore or cotton in

With a wooden deck covering the cabin and a few modifications, it becomes an airship mothership that can take off and land airships or large airships!"

It turns out that the British Admiralty also thought of building an aircraft carrier! However, their aircraft carrier is not used to take off and land aircraft, but to take off and land airships. And it is not used to take off and land small airships, but is used to take off and land larger ones than the Flying Dragon III.

of a giant airship!

Obviously, the Battle of Nagasaki greatly stimulated the British Admiralty, so they decided to follow up with all their strength - the previous effect of using airships to blow up ships was not satisfactory, and it could also be used for effective defense. But using airships to go into the city

The power of dropping napalm bombs is a bit scary.

Such a terrifying weapon, the British Empire must have it!

Not only must they exist, but they must also develop carrier-based airships that can be carried by airship carriers to follow the main fleet. In the opinion of experts from the British Admiralty, the United Kingdom has a greater advantage than any other country in developing carrier-based airships.

An advantage that doesn't exist.

Britain is currently the world's number one shipping power!

George Elliot said with some pride: "Because our colonies are spread all over the world, and countless bulk materials are shipped to our homeland every year, we can maintain more than 1,000 large cargo ships of 10,000 tons or larger. We can absolutely

By 'hiding' our airship motherships among these civilian ships, we can easily have 100 or even 200 airship motherships in wartime!

Moreover, these airship carriers 'hidden' in civilian ships do not occupy the tonnage of warships at all. If the naval armament treaty reached at Versailles would limit the total tonnage of the navy, the British Empire would have increased by 1 million out of thin air.

Two million tons of quasi-military ships!”

This is awesome!

Because the current total tonnage of the British Empire's navy is only over one million tons. If a ceiling of 2 million to 3 million tons can be signed at the future naval armament conference, the Admiralty will have a party to celebrate.

The airship mothership plan proposed by Elliot on behalf of the Admiralty will suddenly give the British Royal Navy an additional 2 million tons of quasi-warships! Moreover, most of the cost of these 2 million tons of quasi-warships can be borne by commercial companies. The British

The government can at most provide some shipbuilding subsidies, and the British government does not even need to provide subsidies. All investments can be pushed to the Indians.

This is so wonderful!

"Okay! This is a good idea!" British Prime Minister Robinson thought about it and said, "Can I understand that in the future, the main ship of the navy will be an armored cruiser of about 10,000 tons, and at the same time, we will also have 200 airship carriers.

The ship is hidden among the civilian ships as our last resort?"

"Yes, Prime Minister."

"Then do we still need to build bigger, stronger battleships with stronger firepower?" the British Prime Minister asked again.

"Of course!" said George Elu, "Mr. Prime Minister, we also need a heavy battleship with a displacement of 25,000 to 30,000 tons, 6-9 14-inch or even 15-inch caliber main guns, and a speed of more than 20 knots!

"

"What? Do we really want to build such a large battleship?" Robinson was stunned. "George, didn't you say before that our main force should be 10,000-ton armored cruisers?"

"Mr. Prime Minister," George Elliot said with a smile, "our main force is indeed 10,000-ton battlecruisers, but we still need some large-tonnage battleships to show the glory of the Royal Navy. At the same time, these large-tonnage battleships can also be used

To mislead the Ming Dynasty, let them allocate their main financial resources and total tonnage to large battleships, thereby neglecting the construction of 10,000-ton cruise ships and airship motherships.

When a war does break out, our fast mounted patrols and airships will be like the ancient light cavalry, firmly grasping the initiative on the battlefield and encircling and annihilating their small units through sneak attacks, luring the enemy, setting up ambushes, attacking logistics lines and concentrating the main force.

Formation and other methods continue to destroy their huge, clumsy, expensive capital ships."

Robinson frowned: "How many big, clumsy, expensive capital ships do we need to build for this?"

"Prime Minister, the British Empire's huge, clumsy and expensive capital ships will only exist on paper!" George Elliot said, "What we really need to build are huge and high-speed battleships! But we will build huge and slow battleships.

In the name of the battleship, we used wrong paper data to mislead the Ming Dynasty and let them follow up and build such a battleship."

Robinson thought for a while and seemed to think it was not reliable, so he asked Count Nelson: "Your Excellency, Marshal of the Navy, can we really defeat the Ming Empire with a small number of large and high-speed battleships, a massive number of armored cruisers and 200 airship carriers?"

?”

Earl Nelson smiled and said: "Prime Minister, it depends on how you define defeat? If you want the Royal Navy to go straight to the Ming Dynasty, land in Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Tianjin, occupy and destroy their most prosperous cities, then the Royal Navy can't do anything

.

If you want to defeat an enemy on the soil of India, Australia or North America who comes from afar and must rely on long sea supply lines to maintain the war. Then, we will be able to use a small number of large and high-speed battleships, a massive number of armored cruisers and 200 airships

Mothership wins victory for the British Empire!”
Chapter completed!