Empire Conquest
Chapter 371 - 367: Taking Shape

Chapter 371: Chapter 367: Taking Shape

By October 17, Bai Zhizhan had returned to Nagiu Port aboard the "Peijing."

Although the "Peijing" had not been damaged in combat, its power system’s chronic issues had resurfaced and needed to be thoroughly inspected while back in port.

In the coming months, the "Peijing" would be the only carrier in the Empire’s Navy capable of engaging in battle.

The "Heng River"?

According to the message from the Navy headquarters on the 16th, the "Heng River" had structural damage to its hull, and it was originally planned to return to the shipyard for major repairs by the end of the year. Due to many main battleships requiring maintenance, the overhaul of the "Heng River" had been postponed until next year.

This carrier cannot be counted on for the time being.

In fact, due to the absence of the "Heng River," the Navy headquarters had planned to call back the "Sea Dragon" that had followed the First Fleet south.

The presence or absence of the "Sea Dragon" in the First Fleet was not a significant issue.

However, for the large number of pilots recruited after the outbreak of the war, their ability to train on a carrier had a considerable impact.

Even if it was just a few landings and takeoffs from ship-borne aircraft on a carrier, the significance was extraordinary.

A land-based simulation field?

No matter how realistic, a simulation field could not replicate the scenario of a carrier traveling at 30 knots into the wind.

Accompanying the "Peijing" to Nagiu Port was the "Lu River" Fast Battleship.

Since the "Longjiang" needed to return to the shipyard for repairs, according to the arrangement from the Navy headquarters, the "Lu River" was temporarily assigned to the Fourth Fleet.

The "Lu River" would first be inspected at Nagiu Port to assess the damage, and then a repair plan would be formulated.

As for the other damaged battleships, all were to proceed to the Empire’s domestic ports to return to the shipyards for repairs.

Only carriers and battleships required the use of large shipyard docks; other battleships could be repaired at smaller shipyards or even alongside the pier.

Because there was no arrangement, Bai Zhizhan stayed overnight at Nagiu Port.

Though Nagiu Port was the home port of the Fourth Fleet and Bai Zhizhan had come and gone several times, he had never stayed here before.

It’s no wonder; Nagiu Port was practically a huge construction site.

Having been abandoned for more than twenty years and suffered ruinous destruction during the last war, the first task for the Navy after reclaiming this port was to repair the port’s infrastructure. Subsequently, according to current standards, more infrastructure had to be built.

Not to mention, merely constructing a deep water pier necessitated a significant effort.

During the last war, the standard for deep water piers was to accommodate battleships with a draft of up to 9 meters, but the current standards required at least an increase to 15 meters. This was because the next generation of Fast Battleships for the Empire’s Navy had a full-load draft depth of 12 meters, requiring at least 15 meters including redundancy.

Furthermore, most of the construction work actually began after this naval battle.

The reason was that if the naval battle had been lost, the Empire’s Navy might not have been able to hold Nagiu Port, so construction would have to proceed according to strategic defense standards.

Now, having won the naval battle, a different set of standards must be applied.

Simply put, the project was to develop Nagiu Port into the largest military port outside the Empire’s mainland, making it the starting point for the Navy’s advances into East Ocean.

Indeed, when the Navy was making this plan, there were many who questioned it.

Nagiu Port is only 1000 kilometers from the Empire’s mainland, so even without Nagiu Port, advancing into East Ocean from the mainland ports was still feasible.

Was it necessary to expend resources to expand Nagiu Port?

Clearly, this issue needed to be viewed in a different manner.

On the eastern side of the Empire’s mainland, the only port that met desirable conditions was Puzhou Port.

As for Mast Harbor, the former home port of the Domestic Fleet, the conditions were very ordinary, primarily because it was located on an island, which did not facilitate convenient transportation and transit.

The Empire Navy had never been too enthusiastic about Mast Harbor, as it was too close to the homeland.

Turn Pu State Port into a military port?

Obviously, that was out of the question since Pu State Port also handled civilian transport and was an indispensable commercial port in the eastern region of the Empire’s homeland.

It seemed, for the Empire Navy, the options were either Nagiu Port or Mast Harbor.

If a choice had to be made, it would definitely be Nagiu Port.

Before the last great war, Nagiu Port had been the premier military port geared towards operations in the East Ocean, serving as the home base for the Domestic Fleet mainly active in the East Ocean.

During that era, the Domestic Fleet of the Empire Navy was an invincible force in the East Ocean.

According to naval planning, by the end of the year, several major piers would be completed.

By then, all battleships, including the soon-to-be-commissioned large carriers, would be able to dock at Nagiu Port and receive comprehensive support.

If everything went smoothly, by New Calendar year 103, all construction projects in Nagiu Port would be completed.

By that time, the port could accommodate hundreds of warships!

Before then, the Empire Navy would likely have advanced thousands of kilometers eastward, and Nagiu Port would no longer be a front-line port.

After dinner, Bai Zhizhan and Zhou Yongtao took a tour around the port. As for Li Mingbo, he followed the "Imperial Capital" to Pu State Port.

In terms of location, Nagiu Port was at the southernmost tip of Liu Island, with the Right Arm Peninsula jutting out into the ocean like an arm on the west, perfectly enclosing the harbor to form a natural deep-water port.

More than ten kilometers north of the port, a large airport was under construction.

According to the plan, it would be a Navy Air Force base and the headquarters for the East Ocean Fleet’s Air Force, capable of deploying hundreds of combat aircraft once completed.

The main purpose of constructing the Navy Air Force base was to expand training capacity.

Under the new training system, newly recruited pilots would first train on land for three months, accumulate 200 flying hours, then move to the carrier for takeoff and landing training, complete 50 landings, pass the examination, and then officially join the combat unit.

The key point was that the scale of the Air Force had expanded several times compared to before the war, and it was still growing, requiring more effort to train pilots.

Although it was nighttime, the port was still bustling with activity.

In addition, Bai Zhizhan and his company discovered something quite unusual.

Some workers were using reinforced concrete to construct a battleship, or more precisely, they were building a ship that resembled a battleship using a method of pouring concrete.

Of course, it was merely a ship.

After sending Zhou Yongtao to inquire, Bai Zhizhan realized it was an engineering vessel, a self-propelled floating dock.

What was being constructed was a section, and several sections that had been completed were already assembled, and once all the sections were completed and assembled, the dock would stretch over 300 meters, serving ships including 50,000-ton battleships, with potential for further expansion.

In the future, it could even accommodate 60,000-ton battleships.

The use of concrete was for the dock walls, while the bottom part of the ship was still constructed in the normal manner.

Each section was transferred using a small floating vessel that could rise after ballast tanks were emptied.

To enable navigation, sections equipped with diesel-powered propulsion could be added to the rear or front, depending on the actual situation.

The use of concrete was chosen because it was strong enough, conserved steel, and was easy to repair in case of damage, although the primary reason was to conserve steel.

Bai Zhizhan was quite impressed by this.

It wasn’t that there wasn’t enough steel, but in large-scale warfare, such non-combat military auxiliary vessels held value equivalent to battleships.

Since they could save the time spent by damaged warships traveling back and forth, in certain specific situations, a floating dock was equivalent to a fleet.