Seven Seas Beacon Fire

The third and fourth ships of the Longyuan-class battleships were the two selected ships. However, apart from these two ships, he did not choose the fifth and sixth ships, which also belonged to the Longyuan-class battleships and were relatively more complete than the other ships. Instead, he concentrated some workers to complete the planned 420mm gun battlecruiser.

Compared to the Longyuan-class battleships, which started construction earlier, these battlecruisers, which were built quickly and efficiently, were based on the Longyuan-class battleships but were simply lengthened in the shortest possible time. As a result, the battlecruisers built while maintaining the same firepower and fire control system were actually very low in completion.

This is not surprising, since everyone knows that the decision to start construction on these battlecruisers was made in the last year of the war. Although the design and finalization of the blueprints were nothing short of an engineering marvel, the construction of warships also follows objective laws. The construction progress of these strategic cruisers was generally the slowest. Even the two earliest battlecruisers are barely considered to have completed their hulls.

However, Li Che had his own plans for rushing to complete these two battlecruisers. He knew that these battlecruisers would most likely not be completed, but there was still a possibility that the hulls could be built in the form of other warships.

Since it's also a modified battlecruiser hull, shouldn't this one be considered the Tang Dynasty's own wife in the future?

Chapter 285 White Kimono

During his previous "study abroad" period in another world, Li Che spent a lot of time on the internet, chatting in groups and browsing forums with many silly netizens he knew. Aircraft carriers were naturally a very popular topic. Whether it was chatting in groups or posting in forums, they were all top-notch tools. Often, only by using specific group chat and posting tools like the Bismarck could one outdo them.

When discussing early aircraft carrier design, two classic topics cannot be avoided: one is the discussion of armored and protected aircraft carriers during World War II, and the other is the discussion of dedicated aircraft carriers and converted aircraft carriers during the treaty period.

It can be said that during the treaty period, the most famous aircraft carriers of various countries were basically converted aircraft carriers. Whether it was Lexington and Saratoga or Akagi and Kaga, these ships were popular in both real life and in many anime-style military ship girl games.

The popularity of these converted aircraft carriers stems from the fact that they were built relatively early and the crews were highly skilled, so they were quickly deployed to the battlefield after the outbreak of World War II and became the main force in early naval air operations.

In particular, the images of the first and fifth terminals of "Liankuo Kangtai" have been almost fixed in many ship girl games. Aka and Kaga are experienced seniors, while Shokaku and Zuikaku are inexperienced juniors. This has almost become a stereotype of ship girl images in games.

In addition, another reason is the enormous size of these early converted aircraft carriers. Whether it was the Lexington-class, which was converted from the Lexington-class battlecruiser, or the Akagi and Kaga, which were converted from the Amagi-class battlecruiser and the Kaga-class fast battleship, or even the Furious, Glorious and Eagle, which are considered somewhat awkward in the eyes of military enthusiasts, their size was obviously larger than the early dedicated aircraft carriers of various countries in all aspects (gesture).

Bigger is better, more is more beautiful—this is something written into the genes of naked apes.

However, while many naval enthusiasts enjoy playing games like "Animal Chess," these aircraft carriers, converted from the imposing hulls of capital ships, are often criticized. The fundamental reason for this criticism can be summarized in eight words:

It’s hard to live up to the reputation.

Of course, this statement is somewhat exaggerated, but these eight words are by no means unfounded. A simple comparison is needed: on Earth, the largest aircraft carrier during the entire interwar period was the Lexington-class, with a standard displacement of 36,000 tons on paper. How does the Lexington-class, with its enormous size, compare to the Yorktown-class aircraft carrier with a standard displacement of less than 2 tons in terms of its ability to operate carrier-based aircraft?

The answer is that there is almost no significant difference between the two.

Taking the hangar area, which is quite important for an aircraft carrier, as an example, the hangar area of ​​the 36,000-ton Lexington-class aircraft carrier is only a little over 2232 square meters after deducting the elevator area. Although this figure should have deducted the maintenance area, it is still too small compared to the huge size of the Lexington-class. After all, the hangar area of ​​the Yorktown-class aircraft carrier, which is less than 2 tons, is 2863 square meters.

If the Lexington-class aircraft carriers weren't originally battlecruisers, and didn't have a significant advantage in flight deck length that allowed for more deck-tethered aircraft, then the extra ten thousand tons of displacement on the Lexington-class carriers would seem like it was just thrown to Quincy.

Therefore, Li Che had previously seen people on both group chats and forums confidently assert that if he were to lead a treaty-signing nation, he would absolutely not use capital ship hulls to build converted aircraft carriers! To maximize tonnage utilization, even if they didn't build the best protected aircraft carrier of WWII like the Shōkaku, they should at least build the Essex, right? And if not the Essex, they should at least build the Yorktown, right?

Li Che once shared this view, after all, the treaty period was a very special time, and the claim that warships were wasting tonnage was actually insignificant in most cases, because most countries would consider the cost of warships from the perspective of construction expenses or construction time when evaluating their costs, but they would rarely say that the ship was wasting tonnage.

Because tonnage is often the least valuable factor, in the pre-Dreadnought era, if RN built 14,000-ton Prosperous-class first-class cruisers to chase down the Russians and French first-class cruisers of 7,000 to 10,000 tons, when those Russians and French were caught up and about to be attacked, could they really complain that it was unfair because you had 4000 more tons than me?

In many cases, the combat power gains from increased tonnage are absolute, and many are considered extremely important. This is actually a distortion caused by treaties, since tonnage is limited for all countries, which is why it becomes a kind of "non-renewable resource".

Therefore, building dedicated aircraft carriers with smaller tonnage but greater combat power seems to be a wise approach.

However, the biggest difference between the real world and the online version of Animal Chess is that in reality, the ships you build actually cost the people's hard-earned money, and no normal country would give up the huge initial investment so easily.

Even the wealthy Yankees wouldn't be willing to cut a capital ship once the hull is complete! Considering the cost of capital ships currently being built by various countries, which carry 16-inch or even larger caliber guns, the cost of completing one such capital ship would be several million pounds or even close to ten million pounds. Even if the turrets and superstructure are not yet completed, the cost of the completed hull and propulsion system alone would already be more than half of the total cost.

Such a price, if placed before the outbreak of war, would have been enough to buy a capital ship with money to spare.

For the Tang Dynasty at present, these ship hulls originally intended to be used for conversion were indeed intended to increase its bargaining power in war and treaty negotiations. Building these capital ships was a matter of no choice. However, using these hulls to convert into aircraft carriers also had an unexpected benefit: without these capital ship hulls, the size of a normal first-generation dedicated aircraft carrier would be extremely awkward in the face of the larger carrier-based aircraft carriers of today, in ten or twenty years.

The aircraft carrier test ship that Xu Yueming is currently organizing to test, which is a converted cruiser, has a displacement of just over 10,000 tons. However, the Navy has been very satisfied with the series of tests it has conducted. After all, airplanes these days are only so big, and they can take off from a distance of just a few dozen meters. A 10,000-ton aircraft carrier is more than enough for airplanes these days.

Even if some insightful people realize that future aircraft will be larger, they probably can't imagine how large they will become. In any case, the specialized aircraft carriers with a capacity of just over 10,000 tons built by the US and Japan in their early years were basically insignificant supporting roles in World War II.

Only those large aircraft carriers converted from high-speed battleship hulls can still play their role more than a decade later. No one would deny that the Lexington, Akagi, and Kaga, which were converted aircraft carriers with varying degrees of design flaws, had the ability to compete with the new generation of dedicated aircraft carriers like the Shokaku and Essex.

Therefore, without these "wives" of the Tang Dynasty, it would be quite difficult to persuade the navy to build a larger aircraft carrier. What needs to be done now is to learn from the strengths of many predecessors in another world and help the "Tang Dynasty wives" play the role of the Tang Dynasty's own "aviation pioneers" in this era.

Before he knew it, Li Che had finished writing a lengthy proposal for the future development of naval aviation. He glanced at the clock on the wall; the night had deepened. He stood up, stretched his neck, and yawned; it was time to rest. Starting tomorrow, he would begin rehearsals and preparations for his grand wedding ceremony. Even for ordinary people, wedding preparations were not simple, let alone for him, the crown prince of the empire.

Having spent a long time in another world, Li Che was actually quite uninterested in the tedious wedding ceremonies of this era. He genuinely longed for a destination wedding, ideally with Zhu Miaoyun aboard the Longyuan Yacht for a round-the-world trip. Well, in that case, the Longyuan Yacht could probably be considered the most powerful royal yacht in history, right?

Just as he was happily contemplating this idea, there was a knock on the door of his study.

"Why are you looking for me at this hour?" Li Che assumed that Zhu Miaoyun hadn't rested and had been waiting for him, so he casually said, "Come in, the door isn't locked."

As the study door creaked open, footsteps softly entered. Li Che was tidying up the documents on the table when he looked up and was surprised to find that it wasn't Zhu Miaoyun who had entered. After all, Zhu Miaoyun, who was over 1.7 meters tall, couldn't possibly have such a petite figure as this person.

Akiko Tokugawa was wearing a white kimono, white socks, and wooden clogs. She was holding a tray with a small sake bottle on it.

"Mingzi, what's wrong?"

Li Che was somewhat bewildered by the current situation. It was true that Tokugawa Akiko would often come in to bring him tea and snacks while he was working, and would also massage him when he was tired. However, that usually happened during the day. At night, especially late at night like now, Tokugawa Akiko would not stay overnight in this courtyard.

Moreover, the clothes Tokugawa Akiko was wearing today were a bit off. Although she had worn kimonos before, she had never dressed all in white like this. To be honest, although the clothes looked good on Akiko, wearing such an outfit in the middle of the night... gave people a somewhat chilly and eerie feeling.

In fact, Tokugawa Akiko's outfit tonight was quite elaborate, but she didn't wear the hood that came with it. If she had worn the hood, Li Che would probably have been able to recognize what kind of kimono she was wearing at a glance.

It was none other than Shiromuku.

Chapter 286 Childhood Sweethearts and a Sneaky Cat!

"Mingzi, what brings you here? Is something the matter?"

When Li Che asked the question, he subconsciously looked out the window. For some reason, even though he hadn't done anything wrong, he still felt a little guilty.

"Your Highness, am I only allowed to see you when I have urgent business?" Akiko placed the tray of sake she had brought on the table. "Akiko understands that I am merely a gift from the shogunate, akin to a stray dog, to Your Highness. It would be only natural for Your Highness to regard me as a servant, but Your Highness has never treated me that way..."

Ah, if you dressed up like Liulichuan in a maid outfit, I wouldn't mind... Just as this thought popped into my head, Li Che forcibly suppressed it.

"Our country and the Tokugawa Shogunate have always maintained friendly relations; our relationship is merely a political one between the Shogunate and our country..."

"So Your Highness views our relationship as a political marriage?" Tokugawa Akiko blurted out the word that was almost on Li Che's lips. This girl didn't seem to mind a political marriage at all. Her eyes revealed obvious excitement, as if to say, "Your Highness, you admit that this is a political marriage?"

Li Che suddenly felt that he was a bit like Zhao Dehan from "In the Name of the People".

"Your Highness, most political marriages in this world are devoid of genuine love. I dare not presume to ask for any affection from Your Highness, but my admiration for Your Highness is absolutely sincere... I will first offer this cup of wine to Your Highness."

Having said that, Tokugawa Akiko covered her face with her sleeve and promptly downed the first cup of sake.

The situation is not good!

Although Li Che wasn't a romance expert who had read 200 romance comics, he still sensed something was wrong from the strange atmosphere in the air.

Of course, it's not actually that scary; to put it simply—

In the dead of night,

A lone man and a lone woman

Alone in a room,

A few drinks?

Putting these words together, it all looks like something bad is about to happen, and it seems that Akiko Tokugawa came prepared tonight.

Li Che once saw a saying on the internet in another world: if you ask a girl out and successfully take her home or to a hotel, when she takes off her outer clothes to reveal the lingerie she's wearing underneath, you should realize that you are the prey.

Although Tokugawa Akiko's clothes were still neat, and Li Che couldn't tell whether she was wearing a complete set underneath, he could tell from her tone that the Japanese girl had definitely come prepared tonight and had gone straight to him as soon as she came in.

Damn it! If it weren't for Zhu Miaoyun, I probably wouldn't have been able to withstand this test, but now... Hmph! It's just a few straight balls, right? Watch me defend them all!

-------------------------------------

When Li Che opened his eyes again, he saw an unfamiliar ceiling.

His somewhat numb brain paused for a moment, then he heard soft breathing beside his ear. A strand of long hair brushed against his cheek. Li Che could feel his left arm being used as a pillow under his neck, while also encircling the girl's soft shoulder. His left hand was directly on a "papaya," but unfortunately, his entire hand was numb and he couldn't feel the papaya at all.

Without a doubt, he was now lying in bed, with a girl lying next to him.

Li Che almost instinctively wanted to jump up. His memories seemed to be starting to return. What happened yesterday? Tokugawa Akiko seemed to be wearing strange clothes and bringing wine to his study at night?

Holy crap, did I somehow manage to have sex with Akiko Tokugawa last night?

Are you kidding me? !

Although Li Che believed that he might indeed be a scoundrel to some extent, and Zhu Miaoyun, for various reasons or perhaps due to the realities of the era, was not entirely against him having a harem.

However, he is about to marry Zhu Miaoyun, and if he were to sleep with Tokugawa Akiko at this critical juncture, he himself would feel that he is really a bad person.

But... the girl next to me who shared a bed with me all night obviously couldn't be fake. Could it be that I'm the kind of person who despises myself for having a brain that can't control its cerebellum?

Regardless, I need to find a way to get dressed and leave before Mingzi wakes up. I don't know what time it is now, and Zhu Miaoyun could come looking for me at any moment. If Yunyun sees this...

First of all, we need to get our hands out and leave this place.

But this simplest first step is now incredibly difficult to do. Not to mention how hard it is to carefully pull the girl's arm out from underneath, even the slightest movement of the completely numb arm feels like acupuncture.

He had no way to "precisely control" his arm in this state, so sure enough, just as he tried to pull his arm out, the girl sleeping next to him woke up.

"You came over so late last night and bothered me, can you please not move around so early in the morning and wake me up..."

However, when that familiar complaining voice reached his ears, Li Che's eyes widened in surprise, just as they had when he first watched Hamas Superman's anti-tank gymnastics video: "Yunyun?!"

Yes, that's right, Li Che. Only then did he realize that the girl sleeping next to him clearly had a pair of long legs, and both her size and height were noticeably a size larger than Tokugawa Akiko's.

Although Tokugawa Akiko's body proportions were already quite good compared to the average Japanese person, Akiko was, after all, a girl who was less than 1.6 meters tall. Obviously, it was impossible for her to have legs that were almost 1.1 meters long. Li Che had only seen one person with legs comparable to those of Mai Shutoku.

Zhu Miaoyun sat up lazily, her long hair cascading down and obscuring her exposed body: "What? Are you disappointed to see it's me? Or do you want me to call that Japanese girl over for you, so you can have a second round?"

“No… I remember… I meant to say…” Li Che felt like he was losing his ability to organize his thoughts.

"Some idiot got half-drunk yesterday and suddenly came to me, saying he was burning with anger because he had kept himself pure for me, and asked me to put out his fire. Did I ask you to keep yourself pure for me? Coming to bother me in the middle of the night!" Although Zhu Miaoyun's tone was reproachful, Li Che could clearly hear that Zhu Miaoyun was very happy.

Okay, so it turns out I had to use extreme recoil control last night to accidentally fire at Zhu Miaoyun's location.

“Mingzi suddenly came to see me last night…”

“You don’t need to report these things to me. You told me almost everything that happened last night. I really didn’t expect that Japanese girl would actually do such a thing…” Zhu Miaoyun snorted: “There is never a shortage of philanderers in this world.”

"If you don't like it, I'll talk to my mother and have Mingzi serve her."

"Are you kidding me?" Zhu Miaoyun stared at him with wide eyes. "He's not the Crown Prince's Consort, so what right does he have to serve her?"

Li Che: ???

Dude, you seem to be from the 21st century, but I feel like your thinking is more adapted to this era than mine. What kind of palace intrigue speech did you just give? Are you so concerned about the opportunity to get on good terms with my mother? You're not trying to get my mother to issue an edict like "Empress Zhu must not be deposed" or something like that, are you?

He quickly shook his head; what the hell was he thinking...?

"I'm going to make sure that thieving cat finds out just how formidable childhood sweethearts are in the real world!" Zhu Miaoyun's fighting spirit was visibly high, even though Li Che had no idea what she was so eager for.

Just as Zhu Miaoyun finished speaking, Mingzi's voice came from the courtyard outside: "Your Highnesses, it's time for breakfast."

The two people in the room fell silent. After Zhu Miaoyun's expression changed several times, she turned to Li Che and asked, "Is that Japanese girl trying to show off in front of me? Although I did promise to teach her how to chase men before we met... Although thinking about it carefully, my current behavior does seem a bit like me stealing the spotlight... But I'm your childhood sweetheart, right? I have a clear conscience! I watched the pig grow up, what's wrong with me taking a bite of pork?"

"Alright, alright." Li Che waved his hands repeatedly, somewhat amused and exasperated. "Mingzi definitely didn't come here to show off to you. She probably felt that she didn't succeed last night, so she came back today to continue trying to win over me, her boss."

"Why has he been hanging around you so much these past few days? I don't recall hearing anything like this when he was first sent to you."

"What else could be the problem? I'm afraid the shogunate found out that their little princess hasn't slept with me yet, and they think the progress is a bit too slow, so they're pushing harder."

"You slept like a log all night and still managed to figure this out?" Zhu Miaoyun asked, seemingly somewhat surprised.

"Actually, I figured it out last night." Li Che threw off the covers and started getting dressed. "Alright, I know what to do next. Let's get dressed and go out for dinner."

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"Gentlemen, the Crown Prince has not yet shared a bed with Mingzi. Surely the Supreme Kingdom does not harbor resentment towards us as well? We have never betrayed the Supreme Kingdom."

Today, Shogun Tokugawa Ietatsu summoned his few remaining advisors to his residence to discuss the most important matter facing the Tokugawa Shogunate at present—the issue of Lady Tokugawa Akiko's lack of favor with the Crown Prince.

"General, there is no need to worry. Miss Tokugawa Akiko is one of the most beautiful women in the entire island of Japan. She is a beauty that comes along only once in a thousand years. No man would be unmoved after seeing Miss Toshiko. Could it be that the Crown Prince has some kind of special fetish?"

"Shut up!" Tokugawa Ietatsu slammed his hand on the tea table. "What are you saying? How can such disrespectful words to the Celestial Empire come out of your mouths? And disrespectful to His Highness the Crown Prince?!"

As Tokugawa Ieda slammed his hand on the table, the men quickly prostrated themselves on the ground and confessed their guilt. The entire process was so smooth that even Tokugawa Ieda, who was also from Japan, was taken aback.

"Alright, sit up. I have ample information to prove that His Highness the Crown Prince and Princess Yongning have a very close relationship. Judging from Princess Yongning's behavior, His Highness the Crown Prince is in excellent health, practically a man among men. He hasn't shared a room with Mingzi yet. I think His Highness probably still has some resentment towards us."

Tokugawa Ieda didn't say where he got the information from, mainly because it was difficult to say out loud. He couldn't very well say that his daughter had been eavesdropping and overheard Princess Yongning's frequent tearful complaints late at night.

This level of performance is something I couldn't match even if I had done several times better when I was younger.

"General," another person said, bowing. "In my opinion, the superior nation does not have any objection to us Yingzhou people. The Crown Prince's behavior is likely just that he simply prefers Princess Yongning. I had the honor of seeing Princess Yongning once, and in terms of appearance alone, she is indeed a beauty that can be described as a national treasure. It is not surprising that Miss Mingzi is not favored."

"Isn't it strange? The relationship between the Crown Prince and Princess Yongning seems to have developed naturally overnight." One of the advisors even pulled out a notebook: "General, you see, according to my investigation, the Crown Prince and Princess Yongning had almost no interaction before this, and their communication was normal when they first met."

But suddenly, one day, their relationship became incredibly close, as if they had been together for many years in just one day.

The others in the room fell silent. Regardless of how Princess Yongning and Li Che's relationship had made such a breakthrough, it was not good news for the exiled shogunate.

Why did the Tokugawa family give away their most beloved daughter?

Isn't it because the Tokugawa family has almost nothing else besides this precious daughter?

The great legacy left by Lord Ieyasu was not only destroyed in his hands, but he and his people were also accused of being traitors by the current emperor. If they could not wash away the humiliation, the Tokugawa family's reputation of the past hundred years would be ruined forever.

"General, I think the problem might not lie with Miss Mingzi. The relationship between Princess Yongning and that Crown Prince is progressing so rapidly... Logically speaking, this is impossible. I think this is actually a tactic used by the Li Tang royal family to appease the old officials and people of the Ming Dynasty. Princess Yongning is relying on the more than 500-year-old foundation of the Ming Dynasty. If we want Mingzi to be valued by that Crown Prince, we ourselves need to achieve something more. Marriage alliances can only be icing on the cake, never a lifeline."