Empire Conquest
Chapter 412 - 408 Perfunctory

Chapter 412: Chapter 408 Perfunctory

In fact, there was one test that had not yet been conducted.

Testing the armor protection of the Empire’s navy battleships with the massive 460mm main guns of the "Saiyi."

Of course, it wouldn’t actually involve subjecting the battleship to a beating; instead, identical armor steel plates would stand in for the battleship to test solely the armor protection.

To put it directly, it was a test of the ballistic performance of the 460mm naval guns at various ranges.

Initially, the Navy planned to use the assembled 460mm naval gun on the "Saiyi" for testing and even loaded several thousand tons of armor plates onto a landing ship, intending to transport them to a small island outside Long Sorrow Port and then assemble them into target for testing.

If that were indeed the case, the "Saiyi" could have survived for another ten days to half a month.

Later, while searching Wu Port, the Imperial Navy found a 460mm naval gun that hadn’t been fitted in time, along with several new gun barrels.

Crucially, they also obtained the design blueprints for the 460mm shells.

With this, there was no longer a need to use the "Saiyi" for the test.

The test was later arranged to take place in the homeland of the Empire, specifically on an island to the north of the Muddy Sea, utilizing a coast defense turret that had been abandoned for decades.

Although it was only on the twentieth anniversary of the end of the war that the Navy made the test results public, it wasn’t much of a secret to speak of.

These 45-caliber 460mm naval guns, when using the standard 1315 kilogram armor-piercing shell, had penetration capabilities only equivalent to the Navy’s 400mm heavy bullet, or perhaps slightly better. Compared to the 400mm super heavy bullet, there was a clear shortfall.

The key issue was the low shell weight coefficient.

Due to technological limitations in metallurgy, forging, and precision machining, the chamber pressure of the 460mm naval guns was far lower than the Empire Navy’s L55-type 400mm naval guns. Even when firing armor-piercing shells with a full charge, the initial velocity was too low, resulting in very poor external ballistic performance during long-range engagements.

Beyond a range of 20 kilometers, there was essentially no accuracy at all!

In addition, the full charge life of the 460mm gun barrels was less than 100 rounds!

Whether it was the performance of the 460mm naval guns or the fragile armor of the "Saiyi," it all boiled down to the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom’s industrial technology being too backward. They had no choice but to increase the caliber of the main guns and the thickness of the armor to ensure they could contend with the opponents’ new battleships.

For the industrially weaker Saiyi Imperial Kingdom, this was essentially digging their own grave.

Looking at it from another angle, if the resources used to build 2 "Saiyi" class vessels had been allocated to carriers instead, the Saiyi Navy could have had at least 2 additional fleet carriers by the outbreak of war. If the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom had delayed the start of the war by a year, there might even have been hope for 4 extra fleet carriers. Had they not been defeated in the months following the outbreak of war, the resources for 2 super battleships could have been used to construct 8 fleet carriers.

Even just adding 2 fleet carriers would have drastically changed the situation!

If there were 4 more carriers, the Saiyi Navy might even have had the chance to defeat the Imperial Navy!

Regrettably, under Takano’s leadership, the Saiyi Navy chose battleships, which were destined to become obsolete.

However, these are all digressions.

Bai Zhizhan and Zhao Yu returned to the Imperial Capital on the night of the 15th and went straight to the Prime Minister Mansion, where Zhao Yu introduced the Navy’s shipbuilding plan to Xue Yuanzheng.

Zhao Yu emphasized the "Nanzhu Sea" class fast battleships, hoping that Xue Yuanzheng could intervene to cancel or delay the construction plans for these types of battleships.

In order to ensure that the construction of smaller carriers could start on time, Zhao Yu had submitted the design for the "Nanzhu Sea" class before his trip to the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom in early November.

Since the first allotment of funds for wartime construction had already been issued in June, Liu Changxun had no authority to cancel the construction.

Only Xue Yuanzheng had that power.

Xue Yuanzheng didn’t immediately agree, saying only that he would seriously consider Zhao Yu’s suggestion and advised Zhao Yu to rush to perfect the design work of the next-generation mainstay warship, focusing on the large carriers, to ensure that construction could begin immediately after the second batch of "Province-class" carriers were completed.

According to Xue Yuanzheng, there would only be two batches of the "Province-class."

It’s not that this type of large carrier wasn’t good enough—after all, they hadn’t officially entered service yet, and the Navy’s feedback during construction had been satisfactory.

The main issue was that they weren’t big enough!

Because survivability had been the top priority, the "Province-class" couldn’t carry the standard number of aircraft, which meant that after launching two full deck attacks, they would be out of carrier-based aircraft. Normally, carriers that serve as the absolute force should still have a reserve of fighter aircraft for air defense after two full deck attacks, at least one squadron, but preferably two.

For a "Province-class" carrier with a standard capacity of just over 90 aircraft, launching two full deck attacks was already quite a stretch.

By these standards, they needed to increase the aircraft capacity by at least 10, but ideally by 20.

The most direct solution was to increase the size and displacement.

After all, for carriers of several tens of thousands of tons, even without modifying the propulsion system, increasing a few thousand tons would only result in a decrease in speed of about half a knot.

The Navy’s preference was to have a complete redesign.

Zhao Yu had been putting it off, not because he was lazy, but because he wanted to wait until the first batch of "Province-class" had been tested in the flames of war and had received feedback from the Navy.

Actually, this was common sense in warship design.

"Province-class" carriers definitely weren’t flawless. However, to identify what problems they had and how serious those problems were, one would only know after having used them.

Moreover, feedback from the Navy was also very important.

For this reason, Zhao Yu advocated the construction of a third batch of "Province-class" carriers, delaying the start of the next type of large carrier by about a year.

In Zhao Yu’s words, within the next three years, there would be no carrier encountered on the battlefield stronger than the "Province-class."

Implicit in this was that the "Province-class" was already good enough to defeat any opponents they might face over the next three years; there was no issue of being outdated or vulnerable to attack.

However, Xue Yuanzheng’s attitude also provided Zhao Yu with some reassurance.

Evidently, the construction of the large carriers was definitely not going to stop.

Zhao Yu, being perceptive, voluntarily took his leave after completing his report and receiving Xue Yuanzheng’s instructions, not staying to wait for Bai Zhizhan.

"What do you think of this matter?"

"Old Zhao is like a block of wood; I’ve said before that he must have water in his head, always so serious about things, so..."

"It’s not about him, and what he said is somewhat one-sided," Xue Yuanzheng let out a sigh and said, "Although I’m not a Navy General and don’t know much about the Navy, from what I do know, battleships still have value. For example, the ’Yuejiang’ played the role of the Ocean Stabilizer at Sai Island. Moreover, intelligence indicates that the Newland Navy is currently building three types of fast battleships simultaneously."

"Has the ’Yihua-class’ started construction?"

Xue Yuanzheng nodded and said, "The Sixth Bureau sent word a few days ago that the first two ships have already begun construction, and the funds for two more have been allocated. They will start construction in January next year. Also according to intelligence from the Sixth Bureau, these post-Treaty Type fast battleships will definitely surpass our Treaty Type fast battleships."

Bai Zhizhan’s brow was tightly furrowed—this was not good news.

"You should discuss these Navy matters with Liu Changxun."

Bai Zhizhan nodded, already realizing that it was Liu Changxun who proposed the construction of the "Nanzhu Sea-class," which was why Xue Yuanzheng hadn’t adopted Zhao Yu’s proposal.

Zhao Yu was just the Navy’s chief technical consultant, and certainly didn’t have as much say as the Navy Commander.

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