1825 My New Daming

Chapter 292 First Air Battle, Attack! (seeking subscription and monthly ticket)
Little Luzon Bay.

Taiping ten years, September 24, early morning.

Snow-white searchlights pierced the darkness before dawn, and countless Bullhead military tractors (actually trucks, but they looked and sounded like old-fashioned walking tractors) were commuting between the warehouse and the dock.

Amidst the yelling and sharp whistle of the sailors, the booms on the dockside and on the warship swung back and forth, hoisting all kinds of supplies, even Ssangyong carrier-based seaplanes, onto the aircraft warships parked beside the dock. Cruisers and aircraft carriers.

Standing on the top of the Shuzhongwang bridge, looking at the various warships being prepared around, even Zhuge Weidao, who can pinch and count, turned red with excitement. He returned from Brunei Bay to the small Luzon military port, the Nanyang Fleet. At the confluence of the Battlecruiser Squadron and the HNA Fleet, his spirit was extremely excited.

Although the most powerful battle cruisers, aircraft carrier battle cruisers, and aircraft carriers of the Ming Navy are a bit of a stitched monster, they are still the most powerful battleships and aircraft carriers in the world today!

The four "Loyal King" battle cruisers with a standard displacement of over 2 tons, just this "block", are the largest known battleships and battle cruisers!Although they have been given the title of "Battle Cruiser", this does not mean that the firepower and armor protection of this level of Battle Cruiser are not outstanding.

In fact, the 45 caliber 300mm naval guns they used were the most powerful rapid-fire naval guns of this era.Its design idea is to fire at a "safe distance" above 7000 meters, hit and sink a battleship of the "Hero" class!
The armor of "Loyal King" adopts a rather advanced key protection concept. It has an armor box with a solid inclined main armor belt and a thick armor deck as the main body to protect the most deadly parts such as the ammunition depot and the power zone.At the same time, an armored torpedo compartment was set up under the bow deck, and a large number of waterproof compartments and lightning protection barriers were designed at and below the waterline. The four main turrets and the command tower of the "Loyal King" class have also adopted a key protection design, which is protected by thick surface-hardened armor steel!

In other parts of the "Loyal King" class, relatively thin armor protection is used, which can only protect the fragments produced by the explosion of large-caliber shells, in order to reduce weight to the greatest extent.

It is no exaggeration to say that the armor protection of this "Loyal King" class is the best among 2-ton battleships and battlecruisers. The "Zhongwang" class can also be used as a destroyer after upgrading the power system. Its hull design can continue to be used to build a 3-ton fleet aircraft carrier as long as its hull design is slightly improved.

Speaking of aircraft carriers, although the aircraft-based battlecruiser is a bit "stitched", it is also suitable for use in the present. After all, the current carrier-based aircraft only has a combat radius of about 100 kilometers. If you consider the time required to form a fleet, the 100 Kilometers have to be discounted.

In the case of carrier-based aircraft with short legs, the aircraft carrier cannot hide far behind.And if you want to move forward, it is easy to be hit by the enemy's battleship.Therefore, it is quite appropriate for this aircraft carrier battlecruiser to serve as the flagship and bodyguard of the aircraft carrier formation.

As for the other three "Liaodong"-class aircraft carriers built with the hulls of "Nandao"-class passenger ships, although they are not as powerful as the "Shu Zhongwang" class, the construction cost is much lower and the time spent is much shorter. The number of carrier-based aircraft is similar to that of the "Shu Zhongwang". Currently, there are 25 Ssangyong aircraft (hangar capacity).

Based on the Zhongwang-class and Nandao-class hulls, a new type of fleet aircraft carrier with a larger hangar, a direct access deck, and an island-style superstructure has already been designed and tendered according to Zhuge Weidao's order.It is estimated that in three to five years, Daming will have a real fleet aircraft carrier!
At that time, Daming will own the entire ocean!
When Zhuge Weidao was looking forward to the future, hurried footsteps sounded behind him, followed by standing at attention, saluting and reporting loudly.

"Chen Jian, the head of the battle cruiser team, reports that the battle patrol team has been replenished and is ready to go at any time!"

"Report from Lei Teng, the head of the first division of the first flight battle, the first division has been resupplied!"

"Wang Leiyong, the chief commander of the second team, reports that the second team has been resupplied!"

"Report from Yu Tianzhu, the head of the third team, the third team has been resupplied!"

"Ling Zongjun, the head of the fourth division, reports that the fourth division has been resupplied!"

Zhuge Weidao turned around, looked at the commanders of the five units under his command, as well as Ma Xuchen, the chief of staff of the First Aviation War, Wang Wen, the chief staff officer, and Guo Xiaobao, the aviation staff officer, and nodded heavily.

"First Air Force, let's go!"

Zhuge Weidao raised his arms, gave a military salute, and then gave the order to attack in the simplest words.

Four in the morning.

Under the military salute and eyes of Major General Huang Shuren, the head of the Airship Corps of the Naval Air Corps staying at the Little Luzon Base, the newly formed First Aviation Team slowly sailed out of the Little Luzon Bay, and then disappeared into the sea and sky under the cover of the morning glow. In one color.

The home port of the Nanyang Fleet, Brunei Bay.

At the same time that the first flight battle set off from Little Luzon Bay, Vice Admiral Guan Tianpei, the admiral of the Nanyang Fleet, was already standing neatly in uniform in the command tower of the flagship Hongwu Emperor.

The Hongwu Emperor has now been refitted and has become a "Hanwu Emperor" class with 6 main gun turrets and 12 240mm 45-caliber cannons!Although the battleships of this level are not comparable to the four hero-class battleships abandoned by the Raksha Kingdom, let alone the four loyal king-class battlecruisers assigned to the First Aviation Battle, they are definitely a very cost-effective battleship.

Among them, the Hongwu Great Emperor was once the flagship of the Ming Navy, with luxurious and complete internal facilities, and a powerful communication command center.Sitting on this battleship, Guan Tianpei can command all the teams, squadrons, and bases under the Ming Nanyang Fleet, and can also get important enemy information from the scout airship in the sky in time.

That's why he didn't choose any of the four hero-class Taishan, Huashan, Hengshan, and Songshan in the fleet as his flagship.

"Army gate," Ge Yunfei walked to Guan Tianpei with the telegram just received at this time, "the first flight battle has already started! They will maintain an economical speed of 15 knots and will cross the Lombok Strait in 100 hours. They will remain radio silent until they cross the Lombok Strait."

"The economic speed of 15 knots." Guan Tianpei sighed, "It's really fast!"

"It's really fast!" Ge Yunfei laughed, "It's a pity that we can't run at that speed, and we can only maintain a speed of 10 knots at most."

Guan Tianpei said with a smile: "10 knots is enough and 65 hours later we will be able to reach the entrance to the east of the Strait of Malacca!" He paused, "Where is the Nanyang Army? Are you ready?"

Ge Yunfei smiled wryly and said: "The army is always not very quick to do things, not to mention that this time we have to use two Japanese divisions to lead the battle. But after all, they have been preparing for many years, so they should not be too lazy."

The army of this era does not have any high-end mechanization, only digging pits, pulling barbed wire, setting up machine guns, and zooming in on cannons.

Guan Tianpei smiled and said: "It's okay, our navy will fire the first shot to attack Malacca! Tell me to command the main force of the Nanyang Fleet, and set off now, aiming at the Strait of Malacca!"

"Yes, Junmen!"

As Guan Tianpei's order was conveyed by the lights on the Hongwu Great Emperor, the boiler had already been heated up, and the main force of the Ming Nanyang Fleet, which had activated the main engine, suddenly woke up like a dormant monster.

Four hero-class battleships, eight Hanwu Emperor-class battleships, and twelve hero-class armored cruisers formed the second battleship squadron, the third battleship squadron, and the fourth armored cruiser squadron respectively. Underneath, the mighty drove out of the bay.Following behind them, there is an equally large landing team!

(End of this chapter)