Revisit Azur Lane

On the other side, Zhou He, who had just left the command building, strolled along the road and looked up to see a crowd gathered on the dock platform. It was an ordinary event, but there were many people mixed in, such as Jean Bart, Ayanami, Hutten and others whom Zhou He had not met much. Bismarck was also among them. It was no surprise that they were about to conduct training.

Although he has 'commanded' numerous battles, large and small, since coming to this world, Zhou He has seen the actual battlefield almost zero times. The reason for the extra "almost" is that yesterday he experienced the battlefield up close in his dream from Xuefeng's perspective.

Perhaps for this reason, Zhou He began to care about the actual experiences and performance of his ship girls after they set sail.

Although training and sparring are not as good as actual combat, you can still get some insights from them.

Having made up his mind, Zhou He followed the road directly to the dock area. Bismarck had already reached an agreement, and many people had gone into the water, including Hutten and Jeanbart. Judging from their positions, the two seemed to be diagonally opposite each other.

"this?"

Zhou He raised an eyebrow.

He never arranged for his own ship girls to spar with each other because he always spoke in a businesslike manner, and it would be difficult for either the winner or loser to save face.

There's nothing wrong with this kind of sparring match, since no one is going all out, and winning or losing doesn't matter.

This made him a little curious: would Huteng, this barbarian who created a battleship with no historical combat record, be any different from a regular battleship in battle?

Chapter 115 General Overview and Details

"commander."

Most of the people gathered at the dock were members of the Ironblood faction, with a few from other factions. They greeted Zhou He as he approached.

"I've been thinking about developing a training ground for you for a long time, but the sirens are just too much of a hindrance."

Zhou He nodded in response, and as he spoke, he naturally blended into the crowd and looked at the six people heading into the water: Ayanami, Javelin, Cleveland, Montpellier, Jean Bart, and Hutten. They first walked in pairs, side by side, to the center of the bay, and then separated to the left and right. To Zhou He's surprise, Montpellier and Cleveland stood on opposite sides.

"The Sirens currently control the seas, which is unavoidable, so the commander need not worry."

Ms. Hood, accompanied by her new maid, stood by and watched. She picked up on the topic raised by Zhou He. Also present were Bismarck with Z23, Count Spee who remained silent, and the Kaga and Tosa sisters.

Given Bismarck's presence, Zhou He believed U556 was also present. If it wasn't on the ground, it must have been lurking in the sea. Perhaps influenced by wolf pack tactics, it seemed to prefer diving into water. Zhou He reasonably suspected that during the operation, apart from him and Bismarck, no one else knew U556's location.

"only…"

Hood's tone shifted, and his expression became slightly more serious: "Yesterday, the Sirens clearly intended to drive away the snow wind to locate the port area, and our appearance confirmed their guess. It will be more difficult to seize control of the sea than before."

"Right now, those cadres are staying at the base in the West Fourth District, probably discussing how to deal with us."

Zhou He hummed in agreement, but didn't pay too much attention. This kind of situation was bound to happen sooner or later; it was just that Xuefeng's arrival brought it forward. However, after yesterday's bizarre 'delivery to your door' incident, he recalled the responsibilities of several cadres within the Siren Experiment Agency:

The Observer appears and disappears mysteriously in the game, mainly acting as a stealthy troublemaker. The Tester is a regular in various events, and usually ends up being beaten to death along with the Purifier. So, judging from the name, they are here to test the ship girls' skills. The Purifier, who also serves as a tester, has some intriguing actions in the game.

In the story, she deliberately portrays herself as a villain, and then goes easy on the enemy during battles. Even more outrageous is that in a later timeline, she actually gets mixed up with the ship girls, which is enough to prove that she is a traitor who doesn't look like one.

Excluding the somewhat immature and clueless cleaners and the heartless testers, it's almost certain that the Purifier must have tampered with things to ensure that Yukikaze could be delivered so smoothly yesterday.

However, these are all personal speculations and have no practical use. He continued, "I remember that ship girls of Yukikaze's generation have undergone unrepeatable changes in their ship equipment. The most obvious one is that ordinary radar equipment can no longer detect and lock onto them. Did you notice that yesterday?"

"Ok?"

Everyone present frowned and tried to recall. Z23 looked up at Bismarck and was the first to speak up: "My radar detected Yukikaze, and I even locked onto her and launched a torpedo, which hit her."

Taking a direct hit from a mine is quite something.

Zhou He secretly complained that his own ship girl was really ruthless. She showed no mercy when she said she was going to hit him. It was a wonder that Yukikaze only looked slightly injured when she was carried back.

He thought of Yukikaze's durability, which was still several times higher than Bismarck's even after being weakened, and her designated light armor type. If Yukikaze was supposed to be tough, her light armor didn't seem like the type to be tough. But if she wasn't tough, even with high durability, Yukikaze's small frame would suffer excessive penetrating damage from shells penetrating her armor. Even tens of thousands of durability wouldn't be enough.

The fact that he could be ganged up on by the Sirens for hours without getting seriously injured must have some secret; he needs to keep an eye on it.

"I can also lock onto her."

In those short ten seconds or so, the others also gave their responses, and everyone was able to pinpoint Yukikaze's presence.

This actually put Zhou He in a difficult position. If Xuefeng also had a passive ability to hide herself, then the Sirens' radar would definitely not be able to detect her. Invisibility on electronic devices is true invisibility, which can be used to do many things.

Without this passive ability, it's fair to say that a lot of tactical options are lost.

"Well, it's probably because Yukikaze's transformation wasn't complete. It's a real shame."

Zhou He stopped himself from speaking and turned his attention to the three-person teams standing on either side of the bay, asking about the content of Bismarck's training session.

"There's no specific content, it's just about getting to know each other."

Bismarck looked at the figures on the sea: "At this stage, we are just a fleet that has been temporarily put together. When fighting the Sirens, we rely on our own individual combat experience. By fighting each other, we can effectively observe each other's combat habits and use them for wartime deployment, making the team more coordinated as a whole."

"Wow, that's amazing. I never thought of that level."

Zhou He slightly opened his eyes; his understanding of launching an attack was limited to arranging for the flagship to command the fleet.

"The commander is simply exhausted because he has too many things to deal with. We are different. We only need to focus on combat and the inheritance of memories, which is why we have a deeper understanding."

Bismarck glanced at him and began to explain very seriously.

These words came from the heart. In fact, it wasn't just Bismarck; everyone who joined the port had similar thoughts to some extent. After all, in their memories, a military port that required hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of people to maintain was entirely managed by Zhou He. So, they instinctively assumed that Zhou He was usually very busy and would discuss and resolve such small issues on their own rather than submitting them to him.

Of course, there was one guy who suspected that Zhou He was actually quite idle.

"Is that right?"

Zhou He, however, felt that Bismarck was trying to comfort him. After all, he was the commander, and if he hadn't even paid attention to such a crucial matter, it could only be said that he lacked ability.

"Yes!"

Bismarck expressed his approval and wanted to emphasize again how Zhou He's strong reconnaissance capabilities were of great help in the operation, but he was interrupted by the battle that had already begun on the bay. Seeing that Zhou He's attention was drawn to it, he could only give up and also started to observe.

Of the six people on the sea, the Cleveland sisters and Jeanbart had purely simple ship equipment, Ayanami and Javelin had weapons of unknown purpose beside them, while Hutten stood there like a dark boss with wings of light spread out. His indifferent and otherworldly temperament, coupled with the two-headed dragon that was taller than a human body and the extended metal limbs around him, made him extremely attractive.

The battle process was also very simple. The targets of both sides were not the person in front of them, but the open space in front of, behind and to the side of them. At close range, such target identification was even more difficult than hitting the enemy. Therefore, the whole battle process did not look noisy, but rather intense and tense.

However, Hu Teng, whom Zhou He was observing closely, did not show any special combat capabilities. Although the sense of oppression was indeed very strong, the large size of the ship's equipment had the negative effect of increasing the area on which it was hit.

"Although Hutten has powerful ship equipment, it seems that she is not yet able to use it skillfully. The commander can make a comparison. Her aiming speed is obviously stiffer than others, a beat slower. Moreover, her turrets are distributed in various parts of the ship, making it impossible to unleash full firepower on the enemy when facing forward. She needs to turn to the side or spend time fully deploying the ship equipment. I wonder if it can be optimized and adjusted after she becomes more proficient."

Zhou He's gaze was clearly focused on Hutten, and Bismarck was equally focused on Hutten. She was worried that Zhou He wouldn't understand the pros and cons and thought that a ship with big and fierce equipment was powerful, so she offered her comments.

After hearing Bismarck's speech, Zhou He compared it with others and found that Hu Teng's control of the ship's equipment was indeed more rigid than others. He couldn't help but hiss and gasp. In the game, the ship equipment of the Ironblood ships that came out later was more and more fancy. He didn't expect that after the ship was built in reality, the structure of the ship equipment was too complicated, which made the landing position of the turrets inefficient.

However, he still felt that Hu Teng had a promising future, so he said, "Like Tosa, Hu Teng did not inherit any combat experience, and the ship equipment is a completely new system. He will definitely feel a sense of stagnation in the short term, but he will definitely be able to overcome these difficulties after he becomes completely proficient."

For example, Hu Teng's smooth and rapid maneuvering of the ship's equipment around her not only solved the problem of the ship's guns hitting the target, but also made her look cooler—no wonder she was a top-tier shipbuilder, possessing powerful firepower while also being far more handsome than ordinary people.

"..."

Okay, Zhou He admitted that Hu Teng didn't have any outstanding combat abilities at the moment. He wouldn't call it disappointing, but it was just a little different from his expectations, which wasn't a big problem.

"So that's how it is. No wonder you were overwhelmed by my other self back then, Tosa."

Before Tosa could say anything, Kaga, standing next to her, suddenly realized something, causing Tosa's brow to twitch imperceptibly. This was because she hadn't lacked combat experience; she had simply been overwhelmed by the sheer number of aircraft carriers under Kaga's command.

Although it could be attributed to her lack of strength, hearing Kaga speak like that still made her feel uncomfortable.

"If you're interested, Tosa, I can approve your request to fight Kaga again."

Upon hearing this, Zhou He fanned the flames. He had now completely overcome his discomfort in interacting with the expressionless ship girls and even wanted to see what they would look like when they broke the ice.

"No, Commander, if you keep stirring things up like this, it'll cause big problems later!"

Upon hearing this, Kaga's expression instantly changed. She had narrowly defeated Tosa before, but the more she thought about it, the more something seemed off. The reason Tosa had given her the lead back then was because she wasn't used to sparring with ship girls. Now that Tosa was familiar with the process, she might not win if they fought again.

"That's not necessary for now."

Tosa snorted. Unlike Zhou He, who had tricked her, now that everyone knew Kaga was her older sister, what could she change even if she defeated Kaga? Could she shut Kaga up?

pity.

Zhou He sighed inwardly and turned to continue observing the performance of the others besides Hutten. Jean Bart, who was matched up against Hutten, seemed to be in complete control, but still maintained a high intensity of attack without showing any weaknesses. Cleveland and Montpellier laughed as they exchanged barrages, looking like they were having a lot of fun.

As for Ayanami and Javelin... for some reason, the two got closer and closer as they fought, and there was a hint that they were going to have a hand-to-hand combat with swords and spears, but fortunately they stopped in the end and did not put on an absurd show of a battle between cold weapons at sea.

'Huten is a bit lacking, Jean Bart goes all out even against weaker enemies, the Cleveland sisters don't seem to have any distinct characteristics, Ayanami seems quiet but has a very aggressive fighting style and excels at charging in, and Javelin is very good at adapting to the situation.'

According to Bismarck, Zhou He summarized the performance of the six ship girls on site and felt that if these six people were to team up, Hutten's shortcomings would be covered up, and she might even make great progress in battle.

"With this level of ammunition consumption, it's easy to understand why military exercises are less frequent."

Zhou He glanced at the ammunition reserves of the group and smirked. Bismarck and Hood had been practicing here more than once or twice, and most of the time they didn't ask him to replenish their ammunition. Instead, he would suddenly find that some of his ship girls' ammunition was not full when they were about to launch an attack, and then manually refill it.

Fortunately, the more ship girls they have, the more Sirens they sink. Now, they have a huge lead in the number of ammunition replenishment scrolls, with nearly two hundred left, enough to support a large-scale operation that lasts for days.

"Let's not build it today."

Zhou He glanced at his Rubik's Cube reserves and suppressed the urge to use them. Mass production of troops was fun, but making proper arrangements for new members would be troublesome. It wouldn't be too late to build them after Ayanami, Yukikaze, and the others had fully integrated into the port and had more options.

Each training session was short, only half an hour, but the intensity was high. When the group approached the dock, Zhou He could see that their clothes were all wet.

I looked again, and oh, it seems to have been splashed by seawater, otherwise it wouldn't be so thoroughly and evenly wet.

"Commander, please don't keep staring! It's embarrassing."

After Cleveland got ashore, she noticed Zhou He's gaze. She covered her chest with one hand and spread her other hand to try to block Zhou He's view. She still had a smile on her face, but the way she hid her face behind her hand and her coquettish tone made her seem shy.

Ke Die, shy and bashful.

He's not a rebellious son, so why would he have such a dream?

"Sorry sorry."

Zhou He bowed his head sincerely and apologized: "You all performed very well in your practice, and I couldn't help but observe you for a moment."

"Even if the commander did it on purpose, it's not a problem."

Jean Bart brushed a strand of hair from her cheek with one hand. She loved wearing low-cut, tight-fitting clothes, and she looked the coolest in the room right now, but she didn't care at all. Instead, she teased Zhou He.

"Yes, I did bring a lot of personal emotion into it."

Zhou He pondered for a few seconds before giving his reply. Jean Bart paused for a moment, then a smile appeared on his lips: "That's more like it."

"Don't encourage the commander in this regard!"

Cleveland muttered helplessly, "How does this even match up?"

Chapter 116: Advantages and Disadvantages

"Hu Teng".

After finishing his interaction with the Cleveland group, Zhou He walked over to Hu Teng, who was taking off her coat, without waiting for her response: "Once you're familiar with using the ship's equipment, you won't lose to any ship that has made its mark in history."