Seven Seas Beacon Fire

For more than 70 years since the founding of the People's Republic of China, we have been catching up with the Western aviation industry. Although we have achieved a lot, we have always been a follower.

Now we have finally become the country that truly leads the world in technological development!

This is the best gift we could give to the Chairman!

For the first time, the People's Liberation Army Air Force has achieved air superiority over the North American bandits!

Fortunately, technology is in the hands of civilization!

Long live the People's Republic of China! Long live the People's Air Force!

Back when I was writing about sea power, I heard that the United States was going to start developing the NGAD. At that time, I was amazed that the United States' air superiority had not shrunk like its shipbuilding industry.

This boomerang is so damn awesome right now!

Now I'll make a wish: the United States still has a great advantage in aircraft carriers. When will it be possible to start construction on four aircraft carriers at the same time?

Chapter 197: No matter how hard you try, you can't win

During wartime, countries will naturally go to great lengths to keep their most powerful weapons of war secret. Compared to the army and the nascent air force, the navy has a greater advantage in this regard.

After all, for the army and air force, which are branches of the military that need to engage in close combat with the enemy, the loss of technical equipment and the situation of accidentally falling into enemy hands during the battle are always unavoidable. The Germans were captured by the Soviets when they first deployed Tigers in actual combat during World War II. The time difference between the Soviets and the Germans in acquiring Tigers was not much.

As for airplanes, losses are inevitable in aerial combat, and damaged planes that make forced landings will inevitably fall into the hands of the enemy. You only need to look at how many reskinned factions have captured planes and tanks in a certain Antonian magic game to understand this.

But warships are different. Unless you completely defeat the other side in a war, capturing a warship is almost impossible. After all, no matter how powerful you are, can you be faster than me opening the sea valve? (This is not at all an allusion to my wife Bismarck.)

However, this does not mean that the parties involved in the war had absolutely no information about the enemy's capital ships. After all, the construction of large warships is like pregnancy; it is impossible to keep it completely secret. Even with the extreme secrecy measures taken by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) for the construction of the Yamato, they could only make things up about the tonnage and gun caliber. For countries like Britain and the United States, everyone knew that the IJN had started construction on a new generation of capital ships.

Furthermore, when the keel of the Longyuan was laid, Emperor Yongning personally attended the keel-laying ceremony. The Ming Dynasty announced its intention to build a battleship equipped with 420mm cannons with great fanfare. For Emperor Yongning, who was practically Wilhelm II's half-brother, what was the point of the Ming Dynasty spending so much money on its navy if he couldn't show off his new grand toy? [Your group admin also posts about new tanks in the group immediately. Who do you think this Ming emperor is based on? (puffs out chest)]

For this reason, Longyuan has attracted worldwide attention since its construction began. If all the "super battleships" that countries are building or planning are listed together, Longyuan will definitely be the most famous.

However, after the Battle of the Java Sea, Colombian intelligence had obtained concrete information that the construction of this powerful battleship, which the Ming Empire had placed high hopes on, was basically completely interrupted after being built intermittently for six months. After the Tianjing Incident, the subsequent provisional government did not continue to invest in the navy.

Therefore, the Colombian Navy once believed that this battleship was unlikely to be completed before the end of the war. Of course, this did not prevent the Colombian Navy from using the Longyuan-class as a gimmick to vigorously promote and exaggerate its threat, and push Congress to pass a resolution to build the so-called Type 918 battleship (which is actually the South Dakota-class).

Although the federal intelligence agencies learned that these steel behemoths had resumed construction after the Prince of Jin raised an army to quell the rebellion and took control of Yingtianfu, the Colombian intelligence agencies have found it difficult to obtain first-hand information from the shipyard since then.

After all, the Jinyiwei (Imperial Guard) that took over at this time, although bearing the name of the Jinyiwei, actually consisted of personnel specially drawn from the Northwest Investigation Department—an organization that was not previously part of the official government. Nominally, it was an investigation agency belonging to the Northwest Garrison's public commercial and trade company, but in reality, the Northwest Investigation Department had already begun systematically infiltrating the Jinyiwei's local agencies in the Northwest after the outbreak of war.

In short, a more efficient intelligence department took over the security work at the Jiangnan Shipyard. Songjiang Prefecture was a flat area without even an artificial mountain, and there were no tall buildings around the shipyard. Therefore, apart from the masts of these two ships, it was difficult to accurately know the construction progress of the two earliest Longyuan-class battleships that started construction outside the shipyard's perimeter.

However, based on the construction progress during the Ming Dynasty, Colombian military intelligence estimated that the ship would not be able to enter service until the summer of 20, or even until the end of 20.

But now it seems that the federal intelligence agencies have made another big mistake, exposing their true nature as "allied intelligence agents"!

Facing the two large capital ships that had never been seen before sailing at the forefront of the Tang army's formation, the rangefinder reported that the estimated length of the two ships had reached 240 meters. Although this figure was later proven to be a miscalculation of the length of the Longyuan-class battleship by the Colombian military observers in a panic, it was clear that this was a behemoth whose main dimensions significantly exceeded those of the Dingyuan-class battleship, which was the largest tonnage ship previously in the hands of the Tang army.

After a moment's hesitation, Vice Admiral Zangwell immediately realized that this was the legendary Longyuan-class battleship! After all, what else could a battleship with twin-gun turrets and a tonnage larger than the Dingyuan-class be but the Longyuan?

There is no Nagato Mutsu in this world!

Zangwell immediately had someone open the warship's identification manual. The Federal Navy's warship identification manual included the Dragon Abyss. This was certainly not because there were reborn or time travelers on the Colombian side. Making full preparations for such advanced enemy warships that might appear on the battlefield in the future is a basic task for a qualified navy.

This identification manual contains silhouettes of the Longyuan-class battleships, as speculated by the Colombians themselves, along with their estimated performance data. The former is mainly based on intelligence gathered by the Colombian military, summarizing several characteristics of the Longyuan-class battleships, such as four turrets and two funnels. However, this is not the focus. When identifying warships, silhouettes only need to capture the most important features, without pursuing excessive details.

The focus now is on identifying the data speculated in the manual. The Federation's intelligence agencies have never obtained the specific technical details of the Longyuan-class battleship, but based on the information they can obtain, they estimate the upper and lower limits of the ship. Using this as a benchmark, they can basically determine the basic condition of the entire warship.

In this regard, the Federal Navy received assistance from the Royal Navy of Victoria, which had extensive experience in estimating the performance of enemy warships. The most classic example was during World War II in another world, when the Britons, despite the Leitanians' falsification of tonnage and deliberate secrecy, still managed to accurately determine the tonnage and speed of the Scharnhorst and Bismarck-class battleships through a series of details.

The first thing the Colombians could most accurately determine was the ship's tonnage. After all, thanks to Emperor Yongning, the whole world knew that the Longyuan-class battleship was a battleship with a displacement of around 4 tons.

The Colombian military estimates that the minimum normal displacement of the Lonza-class battleships is 36,500 tons, while the maximum displacement may reach 41,500 tons, which is comparable to that of the South Dakota-class battleships. Based on this, the Colombian military judges that the displacement of the Lonza-class should be 38,000 tons, and the full load displacement can reach 42,000 tons.

Given its tonnage and speed of 23 knots, comparable to that of the Dingyuan-class battleships, the Colombians believed that this battleship was likely equipped with a main armor belt of 350-380 mm, which would be the thickest armor belt in the world at present.

While the exact performance of the 420mm naval gun is unclear, even a 7.5% increase based on the Colombian Navy's own 406mm naval gun would still yield remarkably impressive figures for this era—at least the 13.5-inch side armor once a source of pride for the Federal Navy's standard battleships would no longer be reliable against the main guns of the Longyuan-class battleships.

Most importantly, even if everything is calculated strictly according to the enemy's strength, based on the lowest displacement of 36,500 tons and a main armor belt of 330 mm, the Longyuan-class battleship can effectively withstand the Colombian army's 14-inch armor-piercing shells, and its own firepower is still sufficient to pose a fatal threat to the Federation's standard battleships.

"Shit!"

After reading the identification manual, Zangwell realized that the two terrifying behemoths would be the two most powerful Nevada-class battleships in his possession, opponents that he could not defeat even if he tried his best.

The enemy's tonnage was at least 1 tons, or even 15,000 tons, larger than that of the Nevada-class battleships! The caliber of its guns was also more than two inches larger.

There's a saying in the navy: "A cannon that's an inch bigger can kill a man." But what if the cannon's caliber were two inches bigger?

Not to mention that these two super battleships were followed by seven other capital ships, and Zangwell realized that the enemy was not after the transport convoy at all.

The enemy is after their entire escort fleet!

They themselves are the prey!

What should we do in this situation? There is absolutely no chance of winning if we confront them head-on at sea. It's 5 against 9, and our two big brothers are at most at the level of Ma Dong-seok, but the other side has two Tysons. How can we fight like this?

Should we deploy our destroyer and cruiser forces to buy time for the capital ships to retreat?

This is certainly an acceptable approach, and could even be considered a textbook response. However, a textbook response implies that the other side can also counter with a textbook response.

The Federal Navy does have a greater number of destroyers than the Tang Navy, but that doesn't mean they don't have destroyers.

In particular, the enemy also had several commerce raiding fleets consisting of cruisers around them. Although each one was not large, together they formed a medium-sized force that could not be ignored.

Zangwell made his decision in less than three minutes—disband the formation! Disperse and evacuate!

We can't win, we really can't win! Zangwell did consider calling for another escort fleet to come to our aid, but the problem is that the other escort fleet should have only just left Yingzhou not long ago. After all, the two fleets take turns going back and forth, pursuing the highest efficiency. Even if the other escort fleet arrives at maximum speed... we can't expect it until tomorrow.

The problem lies with the pursuers behind us. The fastest of them are 27 knots, and even the slower ones are 23 knots. We can only manage 21 knots at most. A little calculation will show us whether it's faster to rendezvous with the friendly escort fleet or to be caught by the enemy.

Most importantly, does joining forces guarantee victory?

After the Battle of the Bashi Channel, although the losses on both sides were roughly equal, the Colombian forces had essentially lost confidence in defeating the Royal Navy of the Tang Dynasty head-on when their numbers were roughly equal.

With the enemy possessing two unprecedentedly powerful battleships, can we really win even if we have one more ship?

We'd better run right now!

Disband the formation, and let as many as possible escape!

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

The funniest joke I saw today:

World Fifth Generation Fighter Club

Lockheed: Ah, Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group, you're finally here! News of your new aircraft is everywhere. Are you alright? How's the J-20S development going? I messaged you but you didn't reply...

(Blocking the outstretched hand)

Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group (CAC): I'm here today to talk about something. I'm going to complete the maiden flight of the sixth-generation fighter jet.

Dassault: Huh?

Lockheed: Wait a minute, let's get the loyal wingman done first? Why? What did you work on? Can't you tell us? Or are we the ones holding us back...?

Chengfei: I did it myself.

Lockheed: Why? Weren't you happy when we competed for carrier-based fifth-generation fighters? You even said NGAD had a good chance, right...?

Chengfei: I didn't say that.

Lockheed: Oh, is that so? But you're a crucial link in the club, are you really going to quit? Sukhoi: Have you really... built a sixth-generation fighter?

Dassault: Sukhoi is asking you a question, and you're being far too reckless!

Dassault: How did you develop a sixth-generation fighter jet without releasing a PowerPoint presentation?

Lockheed: Dassault, don't do this...

Dassault: Europe has burned through all its R&D funds, and you've quietly produced a three-engine diamondwing system?

Lockheed: Dassault, stop talking!

Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group: Even if I'm not here, you can still make a sixth-generation fighter jet, right?

Dassault: Huh?

Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group (CAC): If we want the next generation of fighter jets, why don't we just develop them ourselves? Is there a rule that if we make a fifth-generation fighter, we can't make a sixth-generation one?

Sukhoi: But if you were to build it...

Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group: Don't talk like that! Sukhoi, you're the one who should be focusing on basic research and development, but you still can't even reduce the RCS of the Su-57!

Dassault: Tsk, Sukhoi has been waiting for you to work with her!

Lockheed: Let's calm down and have a proper talk. We've all been working together on the fifth-generation fighter for so long, Mitsubishi must think the same way, right?

Mitsubishi: ...I've never felt happy developing fighter jets...

Chapter 198 NGAD

"Never Get American Defeated!"

On the bridge of the battleship USS Nevada, which was already almost a candle in the wind, Captain Elon was still doing his best to boost the morale of the entire crew through the Nevada's domestic broadcast system.

They are now facing an opponent they cannot defeat even if they fight with all their might. In order to buy time for other friendly forces, the officers and men on the USS Nevada can do little more than hypnotize themselves to boost their fighting spirit.

Looking out from the observation window of the command tower, three main warships of the Tang Dynasty Royal Navy, flying dragon flags, were continuously spewing flames at them.

By this time, the Nevada-class battleship had lost more than half of its main guns, the flames in the middle of the ship were almost out of control, and even a birdcage-shaped aft mast had been bent and deformed by the fire. The unprotected areas at the bow and stern of the warship were riddled with holes, and the massive flooding had left the surviving damage control crew exhausted.

The only one of the three capital ships, the Dingyuan-class battleship, had closed to within 12,000 meters of them. At this distance, even the 13.5-inch main armor belt of the Nevada-class battleship, which had always been considered indestructible, could no longer protect the ship's core. The entire ship was trembling, and half of its boilers had been destroyed by shell shrapnel.

Due to the combined effects of the bow listing and boiler damage, the speed of the entire warship has uncontrollably dropped to 14 knots, a speed comparable to that of some ironclad warships at the end of the last century. It can be said that the ship is basically crawling at sea.

Inside the command tower of the battleship Laiyuan, the captain looked at the battleship Nevada, which was riddled with holes, and nodded with satisfaction, but also glanced at the observation window of the command tower with some disdain.

The vice-captain standing next to him seemed to know what he was thinking: "If you think it's too crowded, you better stay here obediently. The higher-ups have repeatedly emphasized that during artillery battles, the captain must enter the command tower."

This was a mandatory requirement pushed by the Navy after Liu Duncheng's death, following the conclusion of the last Battle of the Bashi Channel.

After all, although these captains may have one reason or another for staying on the bridge instead of entering the command tower when giving orders, this behavior is essentially like riding a bicycle without a helmet, which is definitely not acceptable in the long run.

"I didn't say I was going out." The captain of the Laiyuan was obviously a little guilty. "I just think that our new armor-piercing shells are really effective."

Although he knew the captain was deliberately changing the subject, the vice-captain nodded in agreement: "Yes, last time in the Bashi Channel, each of our main guns was only allocated 20 of these new armor-piercing shells. This time we can really fire them as much as we want."

"I just don't know when we'll be able to start mass production."

The captain of the Laiyuan knew very well that in the short time since the Battle of the Bashi Channel ended, the production line for this new type of shell had not yet had time to go into large-scale production. It was still in small-batch trial production. The main reason why the shells could be fired freely now was that there were far fewer ships that could move. By combining the other new armor-piercing shells that had not yet been fired with the new batches of ammunition produced in small-scale production in the rear, it was basically ensured that all the main ships in this sortie had a sufficient supply of new armor-piercing shells.

The Laiyuan, accompanied by two dreadnoughts, is currently besieging the Federation Navy's battleship Nevada. The two relatively poorly protected dreadnoughts are using 280mm semi-armor-piercing shells from a distance of 15,000 meters to damage the non-critical protected parts of the Nevada. Meanwhile, the heavily armored Laiyuan, after weakening the Nevada's firepower to a certain extent, proactively moves to a distance of less than 13,000 meters to finish off its opponent.

The entire ocean is now a scene of frantic pursuit and annihilation, and it all began three hours ago.

After realizing that he had encountered two of the most powerful war weapons of the former Ming Dynasty Royal Navy inherited by the Tang Dynasty Navy, Vice Admiral Zangwell immediately decided to disband the fleet, hoping that every ship that could escape would do so.

Of course, this decision was later considered by some military commentators to have doomed the entire escort fleet, because they believed that if the entire fleet had not been separated, there would have been hope of them withdrawing together to the port of Manila.

However, this opinion was clearly not accepted by the surviving officers and soldiers. Although some declassified documents more than 80 years later proved that the two Longyuan-class battleships may not have been in perfect condition at that time, most people's impression of the Longyuan-class battleships was based on their undefeated record of fighting against a series of capital ships of their own time and newer generations since the 30s.

As battleships that may have achieved the most fruitful results in human history, the two Longyuan battleships did not participate in this battle. However, most people would not ignore the power of these two battleships when evaluating the performance of the commanders on both sides in this battle.

Lieutenant General Zangwell's feelings at this moment were probably exactly the same as those of Rear Admiral Clifton Sprague, commander of Taffy Squad 3, during the Battle of Samar in World War II.

在另一个时空的克里夫顿·斯普拉格少将获知有一批“拥有宝塔型舰桥”快速战列舰编队向自己扑来的时候，他的自己手底下一批跑不到20节的罐头航母和加在一块也只能凑出29门5英寸舰炮和38条21寸鱼雷的护航兵力（一共6条卡萨布兰卡级护航航母，三条弗莱彻级驱逐舰和4条约翰巴特勒级护航驱逐舰）

Although no written or photographic record exists of Major General Clifton Sprague's expression at that time, anyone who puts themselves in his shoes can probably deeply understand it.

Lieutenant General Zangwell's situation seemed slightly better than Clifton Sprague's, after all, he still had a few battleships at his disposal. However, in reality, with Lieutenant General Zangwell considering the two Dragon Abyss-class battleships as his full combat capability, his situation was actually more desperate than that of Rear Admiral Clifton Sprague.

After all, on the day that Taffy Squadron 3 was attacked by Kurita Takeo's First Flying Fleet, it was not only constantly supported by carrier-based aircraft from several other Taffy Squadrons, but these carrier-based aircraft were also supported by bombs, torpedoes or nothing at all. However, Taffy Squadron 3 and several other carrier groups around it had a total of 16 escort carriers that day, with a total of more than 450 carrier-based aircraft. Task Force 38.1 also continuously bombed Kurita Takeo's forces for 4 hours, sending out nearly 200 attack waves.

Anyone who's played War Thunder knows that when playing against the American faction, you often encounter a situation where you can't find many enemy bombs on the ground, but the air is filled with American paramecia. Although this often results in no one being on the ground, causing the American faction to lose the game, when you're trying to capture a point while enduring those paramecia bombs, it's disgusting to win and disgusting for the American players to lose. No matter which is more disgusting, it's hard to concentrate on doing one thing under such intense air attacks.

But for Zangwell now, he is truly isolated and helpless. The enemy he faces can send her capital ships to the bottom of the sea one by one without much interference.

After the order to retreat was given, the first to flee were the Omaha-class cruisers in the formation. Zangwell had ordered these Omaha-class cruisers to evacuate first, since these valuable 7000-ton light cruisers were not disposable resources even for the Federation Navy. Preserving their usefulness was the best policy, so these light cruisers sped away at speeds of over 30 knots.

As for the other destroyers and cruisers that did not receive the "order to retreat," they had to fight desperately to cover the battleships' dispersed retreat.

The Federal Navy's five battleships retreated in two main directions. The two Nevada-class battleships headed east, while the other two battleships planned to retreat to Manila, which was the fastest port they could reach at the moment. The remaining two New York-class battleships and one dreadnought chose to rush north towards Yingzhou.

Although these battleships of the Federation Navy were not known for their speed, with a maximum speed of only 21 knots, Vice Admiral Zangwell's order to retreat was very timely. He issued the retreat order not long after witnessing the Tang fleet cross the waterline.

This kept the two sides at a distance of nearly 30 kilometers from the start. On the Tang side, the earliest battleship, Pinghai, was slower than even the battleships of the Federation Navy, and could only run at most 20 knots, so there was no question of pursuit. The oldest ship, Wudangjian, was responsible for supporting the other cruisers and went to harvest the merchant ships, aiming to kick the North Sea kindergarten.

Among the other warships, the fastest were the three battlecruisers, all capable of reaching speeds of 27 knots. Even so, the speed difference between them and the Federation battleships was only 6 knots. This meant that it would take the three battlecruisers about an hour to bring the fleeing Colombian battleships within their maximum firing range. For the battleships with speeds of 23 knots, this time would be even longer.

Yang Yuchen decisively chose the two more valuable Nevada-class battleships. In order to maximize the results of the battle and avoid casualties on his side, Yang Yuchen organized the main ships he had on hand, except for the two Longyuan, into two formations.