Seven Seas Beacon Fire

Now, these behemoths are lined up under the heavy gantry cranes at the dock to dismantle and remove their turrets. All eight triple 280mm gun turrets of the Haigeng and Hairen battleships, which have not undergone gun replacement and upgrades, have been dismantled. These two battleships, which were the first dreadnoughts designed and built for the Ming Dynasty Royal Navy, have only been in service for about ten years. If we do not consider the factor of outdated warship performance, in terms of the lifespan of the warships alone, these two battleships are only just "middle-aged".

A dreadnought with a standard displacement of just over 2 tons and a firepower of only 12 280mm naval guns would certainly not catch the eye of many military enthusiasts. After all, most military enthusiasts only have the vision of behemoths like the Bismarck, Iowa, and Pike Place, which have a displacement of 5 to 6 tons, or at least the graceful battleships like the Fort Strasbourg and the Alaskan Husky.

But once upon a time, when these battleships with a displacement of over 20,000 tons were in service, they were the largest and most heavily armed battleships in the entire empire.

Li Che couldn't help but think of the pictures he had seen on the internet in another world of the HMS Warspite being dismantled after World War II. The huge 15-inch gun barrels were cut off at the base, and the turrets were exposed with two dark holes at the base. Rust washed by rainwater flowed down from the base of the gun barrels, making it look like a crying face.

Whether it's war-weariness or the current state of the Hai Geng and Hai Ren ships, perhaps for these warships, their comrades who sank on the battlefield are the luckiest.

The artistic period didn't last long. Most men have the ability to regulate their emotions, and Li Che was no exception.

Across from the docks where ships were waiting to be dismantled, a battleship being fitted out and two ships under construction in the dry dock behind it caught Li Che's eye.

The battleship being fitted out was none other than the Longwei, the third ship of the Longyuan-class battleships, one of the most prized possessions of the Tang Dynasty Royal Navy.

Behind the battleship Longwei, in two large dry docks belonging to Jinling Shipyard, two more massive ships were under construction.

This is actually the hull of the "Dragon Phoenix" class battlecruiser originally planned to be equipped with 420mm naval guns. These two hulls with the highest completion rate are naturally the hulls that were planned to be converted into aircraft carriers in the treaty. They are also the only two aircraft carriers of the Tang Dynasty Royal Navy with a tonnage of more than 27,000 tons during the treaty period.

These two are probably the most watched aircraft carriers in the world. After all, Tang Dynasty obtained the only right in the world to build and equip 280mm naval guns during the aircraft carrier negotiations. The hulls of these two ships, which originally belonged to battlecruisers, are naturally widely regarded as carriers for 280mm naval guns.

After all, the largest hull naturally needs to be equipped with the largest naval gun, which is the conclusion most people have drawn.

"Does our aircraft carrier really not need to be equipped with heavy artillery?"

Sa Dingming, who had traveled with Li Che back to Songjiang Prefecture by boat, approached Li Che, who was standing on the deck admiring the scenery. He noticed that the Crown Prince's gaze was fixed on the two unfinished battlecruisers in the distance. Although Li Che had previously stated that the Tang Dynasty's aircraft carriers would not need to be equipped with large-caliber heavy guns in the future, Sa Dingming's tone was still filled with suspicion.

After all, it would feel like a loss if the "privileges" won in the treaty were not used. Although Li Che had explained it to him in terms of efficiency, Sa Dingming, a traditional naval officer, could not imagine what a 3-ton behemoth without large-caliber heavy guns would look like.

Does it rely entirely on aircraft for attacks?

"Of course we won't install heavy artillery."

Li Che's tone remained firm: "Didn't I say before? Our aircraft carriers should aim for the maximum number of aircraft they can carry, and we should aim for the longest and widest possible flight decks, which are useful for air combat. Therefore, we don't need these large-caliber heavy guns that take up flight deck and basic space."

"But if our aircraft carriers aren't equipped with large-caliber guns, what will we do if we encounter enemy cruisers on the battlefield in the future? We can't expect our aircraft carriers to engage in artillery battles with the enemy using 120mm anti-aircraft guns, can we?"

Li Che really wanted to ask Sa Dingming why he kept bringing up the topic of aircraft carrier gun warfare, but then he thought that Sa Dingming was an old officer from the previous era, and it was unlikely that he would quickly accept the views of the aviation faction in the later years of his career after a lifetime of fighting artillery battles.

Moreover, the issue of carrier gun warfare that Sa Dingming was worried about was not unfounded, at least in the first 10 years after the advent of aircraft carriers. Li Che vaguely remembered that in another world, during the series of exercises on the fleet problem of the Lighthouse, his wife and sister-in-law had encountered enemy gunnery formations more than once. His sister-in-law even took down a cruiser with her eight-inch naval gun by impersonating her sister.

"Then equip our aircraft carriers with a few 210mm naval guns. Within the scope of the treaty, the maximum firepower of a cruiser is 210mm naval guns. In this way, our aircraft carriers will have the firepower of a heavy cruiser. In addition, with a 3-ton hull and armor, I think that will be enough to deal with any cruiser threat."

Li Che was not the kind of time traveler who believed that "aircraft carriers should never be infected with outdated large-caliber naval guns." First of all, installing 210mm-level naval guns would not have a fatal impact on aviation operations. Secondly, the development of military equipment should not be overly farsighted. Your design may be very good in a dozen years, but what if an armed conflict breaks out within a few years?

Li Che knew that in another world, no war broke out between the major naval powers during the naval holiday, but who could guarantee that all countries in this world could also pass through the treaty period in the same stable way?

Under such circumstances, it is quite reasonable that the two largest aircraft carriers that were the first to enter service in the true sense of the Tang Dynasty Royal Navy were equipped with several 210 mm naval guns. This was entirely the result of consideration from the perspective of practical needs, and it was definitely not because the "Dragon Phoenix" built in this way looked like the Lexington-class aircraft carriers from another world.

"In that case, it would indeed be enough for us to deal with the vast majority of surface threats."

"Yes, if all else fails, we can always cram more capital ships into the fleet, right?"

"Plant capital ships?" Sa Dingming's eyes widened, as if he were hearing a horror story about stuffing capital ships into future aircraft carrier battle groups from the Crown Prince.

Because the use of capital ships in this era was all about concentrated deployment; otherwise, if I had six capital ships and you had three, I could easily wipe you out.

If we were to draw an analogy between this situation and the army, then the navy's use of warships in this era was like the army's typical large-scale traditional division-level units: massive in size, with high health bars, but not very flexible.

During World War II, both sides began to form task forces that combined aircraft carriers, battleships, cruisers and destroyers. This small pentagonal force with no weaknesses can be seen as a kind of "naval integration". From this perspective, the naval integration reform started much earlier than the army.

"Which design bureau was assigned to design the conversion of these two battlecruisers into aircraft carriers?" Li Che asked casually.

“As usual, the Northern Design Bureau and the Jiangnan Design Bureau are competing for the bid,” Sa Dingming said. “However, the two design bureaus probably don’t know yet that our 280mm naval gun is a decoy, so I’m afraid the proposals they’re preparing now are all proposals with 280mm naval guns installed.”

Chapter 309 Battle of the Giants (2)

"They really designed it according to the specifications of equipping the aircraft carrier with a 280mm naval gun."

Li Che was both amused and exasperated when he heard the news. He hadn’t expected the domestic design bureau to be so honest and actually plan to build a bird-in-the-bat.

Although the name and appearance of a "heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser" like the Kiev are impressive, Li Che believes that if three triple or two quadruple 280mm naval guns were actually crammed onto the carrier, it would essentially lose its ability to operate a large number of carrier-based attack and dive bombers in the future.

"Of course, if we want to deceive the enemy, we must first deceive our own people. The country is currently in a state of chaos, and people's hearts are hidden from each other. No one knows where the information might be leaked from."

Sa Dingming's words were indeed very reasonable. The Tang Dynasty was definitely not a monolithic entity. While Zhu Miaoyun's attitude could appease a considerable number of former Ming loyalists, there were always radicals in any group. Perhaps in their eyes, Princess Yongning was either a puppet being controlled or had already betrayed the Ming Dynasty.

The current situation within the Tang Dynasty is, at worst, similar to that of Persia after Soleimani's death, and at best, perhaps like that of Russia before the Russo-Ukrainian War. Before completely resolving the internal issues of morale, deceiving the enemy requires first deceiving one's own people.

After the Jingyuan docked, Li Che originally planned to visit the Jiangnan Design Bureau first, to pay homage to the "aircraft carrier with a powerful 280mm gun" of the South Institute, and then give some pointers on the right path from the perspective of a time traveler.

But as soon as he disembarked, as if someone had been waiting for him there, two pieces of bad news were delivered to him.

The first piece of bad news came from across the ocean. To be precise, it wasn't really bad news, but rather the news of the commissioning ceremony of the Colombian Navy's South Dakota battleship.

Although this day was bound to come sooner or later, for the Tang Dynasty, which had a deep grudge against Colombia in the last world war, the good news from the United States was naturally something that no one here wanted to hear.

Not to mention, after the USS South Dakota entered service, it even stole the title of the world's largest main battleship from the USS Longyuan.

Prior to this, although the Royal Navy's Admiral-class battlecruisers were larger than the Longyuan, they were battlecruisers that had increased in size and weight to achieve higher speeds by installing more boilers. At the same time, battlecruisers of the same era and with the same technology were larger than battleships.

In any case, given certain limitations, the Longyuan is known as the "world's number one ship".

The South Dakota battleship, which has now officially joined the Colombian Navy's combat fleet, has been touted by Colombian media as the most powerful battleship in the world. With a standard displacement of 43,200 tons, it is 3000 tons larger than the Longyuan battleship. The Colombians consider this a victory!

In terms of firepower, it is equipped with four triple 16-inch guns with a 50-caliber barrel, which seems to be stronger than Longyuan. After all, although the barrel caliber is slightly smaller, 12 barrels versus 8 barrels, the Colombians say this is a two-way victory in terms of firepower projection!

Finally, the new generation of Colombian Navy 16-inch ships, led by the South Dakota-class battleships, all adopted advanced electric drive systems. In this era of electrification revolution, the gimmick of electric drive certainly makes the whole ship sound more advanced than the Longyuan, which still uses traditional mechanical drive. This is a triple win!

In any case, according to the Colombian media, the South Dakota-class battleships have surpassed the Longyuan in every aspect without any flaws. At least before the two battleships equipped with 18-inch guns of the Victorian Empire entered service, the Colombian Navy could enjoy the title of the world's strongest battleship brought by the South Dakota-class battleships.

The fact that the Colombian Navy has taken such a title today is certainly not something that everyone in the Tang Dynasty would be happy about, unless they are traitors. So this is indeed bad news.

The other bad news is... Li Che just learned that his father is sick again, and this time it seems to be the Colombian flu.

This thing is currently at its peak of spread worldwide, and so far no country has been able to develop a vaccine for this Colombian flu.

However, thanks to the joint efforts of disease control departments in various countries and the treatment methods developed by medical workers based on past experience, coupled with the current global surge in interest in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and the availability of various TCM preparations containing sulfonamides, this epidemic, like a roller coaster, has passed its peak, but there is still a long way to go before it comes to an end.

His own father also became one of the unfortunate ones to contract the Colombian flu.

The good news is that the current strains of the Colombian flu that have been circulating have reduced in virulence and mortality compared to the initial versions. During the iteration and spread of viruses, some choose to increase lethality while others choose to increase transmissibility. Generally speaking, the wider the range of influence of a virus, the more points it adds to transmissibility. Those who have played the game Plague Inc. should be well aware of this.

Even so, the damage that the Colombian flu can do to one's health is still not to be underestimated. Li Che knew very well that his father's health was not very good. He was usually as thin as a clothes hanger, and now that he had contracted the Colombian flu, it would surely make his already weak body even worse.

This prevented him from visiting the Navy's design bureau to see how they managed to fit a 280mm naval gun onto an aircraft carrier. Unable to wait for a special train, Li Che directly ordered the Navy to prepare a torpedo boat, just like a certain five-star emperor, to travel upstream along the Yangtze River directly to Yingtianfu.

While Li Che was worried about his father's health and desperately trying to get back as quickly as possible, there was another group of people in this world who were also looking worried.

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

This group consists of professionals from the Royal Victoria Naval Construction Commission.

They are now staring at each other, the generals of the Royal Navy's front-line fleet. It's impossible for the atmosphere to be harmonious when the client and the contractor are in the same room.

"Couldn't we have tried a little harder? The Fury is almost 780 feet long (about 240 meters). How could such a long hull not be able to accommodate a few 10-inch guns, as well as a hangar and flight deck?"

The biggest conflict between the navy and the designers probably lay in the gun specified in the naval treaty. To be honest, if the treaty hadn't mentioned this 10-inch gun, the designers of the Royal Navy of Victoria wouldn't have been very interested in adding large-caliber guns to the aircraft carrier.

The problem is that the treaty now includes this 10-inch cannon, and the reason is the same: if you don't give it to me, fine, but if you do give it to me and I don't use it, many people will feel that this is a huge loss.

The Royal Navy initially thought, "It's just adding a few 10-inch guns, right? Is there really a problem?" But the large light cruisers that were to be converted into the Furious-class aircraft carriers originally carried 15-inch or even 18-inch guns.

Now, installing 10-inch naval guns on them would be a piece of cake.

...........

Really not!

"We have explained to you many times that although the Hush-class large light cruisers are long and slender and well-suited for conversion into aircraft carriers, the Hush is, after all, a light cruiser. In order to achieve the highest possible speed and the best possible Admiralty coefficient, the entire ship is designed to be very long, especially at the very front of the warship, and there is no way to place turrets in these areas."

"Where did the turret originally go?"

Everyone knows that these large light cruisers were equipped with the same level of equipment as capital ships back then. Although the cannons have been removed and the original gaps have been sealed with steel plates, the mechanical spirit seems to really exist. As a result, the sailors on the Fury are more likely to get injured in the port than before.

"I'll show you a sketch, and you'll understand."

The designer pulled out a sketch and hung it on the wall of the conference room: "Generals, please look here. This is the original location of the 15-inch turret's mounting ring, and below it is the empty space for the ammunition magazine."

As you can see, it is not true that just because the 10-inch naval guns we are going to equip are much smaller than the 15-inch naval guns, we can easily adjust the position of these 10-inch turrets. That is completely wrong.

In fact, regardless of what kind of large-caliber artillery we use, whether it is 10-inch or even smaller 9.2-inch naval guns, if we want to install these different caliber naval guns on our HMS Furious aircraft carrier, then these guns must be deployed in positions similar to the original 15-inch main guns of the Furious.

If military enthusiasts in another world saw the explanation given by the designers of the Royal Navy to the front-line generals at this time, they would definitely bring out that classic picture.

A turret as seen by a military illiterate.jpg

Actual turret.jpg

However, this would mean that the length of the hull between the two turrets would be insufficient.

If it's simply a matter of limited hangar space, the Royal Navy of Victoria has plenty of options – double-layered hangars!

The problem is that one floor isn't enough for a hangar. You can consider adding another floor, and if two floors aren't enough, you can even consider adding three.

Historically, there have been aircraft carriers with three hangars, but regardless of the number of hangars, they all ultimately had to have a sufficiently long flight deck.

A sufficiently long flight deck is not only for facilitating the takeoff of bombers carrying bombs and attack aircraft carrying torpedoes, but more importantly, the length and area of ​​the flight deck directly determine the number of aircraft a carrier can recover.

However, when the designers at the Royal Navy were preparing to further remove the bridge, which was originally located in the middle of the flight runway, and completely transform the ship into a true aircraft carrier, they discovered a problem—the distance between the two main gun turrets was not far enough.

How so? The Honolulu Naval Treaty has clear provisions regarding aircraft carriers, allowing countries to equip their carriers with 10-inch naval guns, in order to prevent some countries from trying to exploit loopholes and using the tonnage of aircraft carriers to build large cruisers.

Therefore, the treaty clearly stipulates some hard requirements for the performance of aircraft carriers. The most important ones are that the hangar area of ​​the aircraft carrier must exceed 6% of the displacement, the length of the flight deck of the aircraft carrier must exceed 50% of the total length, and all of the above structures must be reinforced structures rather than the kind of "scaffolding structures" that can be easily dismantled.

For the HMS Furious, it wasn't difficult to have a hangar area equivalent to 6% of its own tonnage, but maintaining a flight deck of over 120 meters was a challenge for the designers.

Everyone knows that the longer the flight deck is for an aircraft carrier, the better, but look at the space between the two turrets. How can this flying chessboard be long?

Of course, at this point, some brilliant minds might say, "Don't modern aircraft carriers have those outward-flaring structures? Why don't you just make the flight deck of this ship flare outwards a lot both forward and backward?"

That's well said, but as mentioned earlier, this ship is to be equipped with main guns, even 10-inch guns. The muzzle blast generated when firing could still cause serious damage to the flight deck.

The Royal Navy's designers were quite pragmatic; they advised against equipping these aircraft carriers with 10-inch guns, suggesting either choosing smaller calibers or abandoning them altogether.

However, the naval generals all expressed their dissatisfaction, saying, "Can't we just move the positions of the front turrets and ammunition depots forward a bit?"

Since the modifications are going to be done inside the ship's cabin anyway, it should be theoretically possible.

The designers were clearly unsurprised by the "brilliant wisdom" of some generals. Theoretically, it was indeed possible; all that was needed was to dismantle and rebuild almost the entire front half of the hull. How simple!

However, when the designers showed the calculated renovation costs to the generals, the generals immediately abandoned the idea.

The cost of this renovation is more expensive than building a new one. The Royal Victorian Navy, which values ​​thrift these days, can't afford to be so wasteful!

Chapter 310 Battle of the Giants (3) A World-Shaking Wisdom

There's a joke about an unknown runner who unexpectedly won a marathon. When everyone asked him for his secret to victory, he just looked around in alarm and asked, "Is that bear that was chasing me not following me?"

When people are pushed to the limit, they can often do things that they wouldn't normally do. Eustace Tennyson d'Eyncourt, now the Director of Naval Construction for the Royal Navy of the Victorian Empire, finally unleashed his extraordinary wisdom under the constraints of the Navy's requirements and budget.

"How about we give up the 10-inch gun?"

He tentatively asked his assistant, probably because he himself was also hesitant and thus sought his assistant's opinion.

Incourt's assistant, however, wore a "What the hell? You're asking me this kind of question?" expression. After a moment, the assistant could only weakly reply, "The Admiralty requires us to find a way to equip ourselves with 10-inch naval guns. They've made a concession... If we can't fit nine guns, six will do..."

"Of course, we can't fit nine guns. Under normal design, even two triple 10-inch gun turrets would make it difficult for us to arrange a flight deck long enough, let alone fit three gun turrets. But even if we reduce the main guns to six, our flight deck layout will still be cramped, since the positions of the gun mounts are fixed and the distance between the two gun mounts is also limited."

Not to mention that the six main guns were not ideal in terms of firepower density and fire control. The Renown-class battlecruiser was perfect in other aspects, but its firepower was somewhat lacking.

Faced with Incourt's mutterings, his assistants could only exchange glances. What could they say after he'd already said that? This was a dilemma, a situation that seemed unsolvable from both sides.

Either the chief architect could use his connections to persuade the navy to increase the budget for the ship's refit, essentially rebuilding the entire bow section to move the main guns forward, or...

"You might as well just convince the Navy to accept that we use smaller caliber guns on these two ships. We can use the 10-inch main guns on the new aircraft carriers we build in the future."

“Smaller caliber guns? Yes, that’s what I was thinking too.” Incourt gave his assistant an approving look, and the young man obviously didn’t expect that his casual remark would hit the nail on the head for the shipbuilding director. Seeing that the director was about to take it seriously, he immediately reminded him: “Director, the Admiralty has clearly required us to equip the ship with 10-inch guns.”

"We shouldn't put the cart before the horse. The Navy Department asked us to equip the ship with 10-inch guns, not to have it engage in gun battles with other countries' aircraft carriers."

The Colombian Navy and the Tang Empire Navy both have aircraft carriers that are modified from the hull of the Lexington-class battlecruiser, making them more than 1 tons larger than our Fury-class carriers, and their armor is also far superior to ours.

The Tang Empire's aircraft carriers were even equipped with 280mm naval guns. Our aircraft carriers never sought the ability to engage in gun battles with them. The Admiralty's request for 10-inch naval guns was intended to give our aircraft carriers the ability to engage in gun battles with treaty heavy cruisers. However, if we were only dealing with treaty heavy cruisers, we didn't necessarily need to equip them with 10-inch naval guns.

“You mean equipping it with eight-inch naval guns?” Another assistant recalled an early draft of the HMS Furious: “If it’s eight-inch naval guns, then we can arrange them in a gallery-like formation, deploying eight-inch naval guns on both sides of the hull in a retro style similar to the pre-Dreadnought era…”

“No, no, no.” Incourt shook his head: “Eight-inch guns can indeed compete with treaty heavy cruisers, but then we won’t be able to overwhelm them with firepower. Besides, the gun turrets are too retro. It’s hard to imagine any designer in this era using such an old-fashioned style on a new generation of warships.”

"So, to summarize, you mean..."

“Don’t we still have 9.2-inch (234mm) guns?” Incourt asked. “I think Armstrong Artillery Plant should have enough capacity to develop a quadruple 9.2-inch turret, right?”

Using quadruple 9.2-inch naval guns? The assistants exchanged glances. This would indeed increase firepower density while maintaining the same weight as two triple 10-inch turrets. Moreover, the power of the 9.2-inch naval guns was obviously stronger than that of the 8-inch naval guns. The weight of an 8-inch shell was only a little over 100 kilograms, and even if a shell with a higher weight coefficient was used, it would only weigh 120 or 130 kilograms at most.