As the main force of the Ninth Fleet's screen protection fleet, the modernization and refit of the two "Green Ridge" class battleships has reached the final stage.

Ling Wencha was promoted to colonel and appointed chief of staff of the Ninth Battleship Fleet, the commander of which was Rear Admiral Ho Xun Chi. "When will you be promoted if you stay on the shore, Wencha, think about it, the chief of staff of the main fleet on the surface, soon you will be able to hang a gold star on your shoulder."

Born into a naval family, Ling Wencha's boss when he served in the torpedo boat unit persuaded him to become his chief of staff.

Promoted to general, it's definitely tempting. In the days when the torpedo boat unit got along, Ling Wencha understood that Huo Xunchi was a character who would never give up until he reached his goal, and he was extremely adventurous and keen to pursue honor.

As the commander of the torpedo boat, Huo Xunchi never had any interest in small prey, and he would only choose to attack the enemy's main battleship. In addition, he trusts his subordinates very much, and as his chief of staff, he has a great chance of receiving high honors, which is another reason why Ling Wencha is tempted.

Now Ling Wencha felt hesitant and didn't know how to decide.

As a result, Huo Xunchi called home and asked An Jiaqi to do his work.

The monthly salary plus subsidy of the naval colonel is 856 Chinese dollars, and as long as you are promoted to rear admiral, you can earn 1530 Chinese dollars per month, and the other is the treatment, and his wife is well aware of the huge gap between this.

In this way, Ling Wencha accepted the new appointment in a mood of crying and laughing amid his wife's nagging, and became the chief of staff of the Ninth Battle Fleet of the Imperial Navy's surface fleet. Moreover, the task was urgent, and the battleship "Qinling," which had already completed modernization and refit, was about to set sail, and on the second day after receiving his appointment, he had to rush to the Beibu Gulf United Shipyard in Haiphong Port to report to Rear Admiral Huo Xunchi.

The "holiday period" of the Navy for more than 20 years after the war had many negative effects on the development of the Imperial Navy, and there was also a certain fault line in the composition of the naval personnel, and the commanders of the surface fleet: the senior officers of the First World War were now old, and the subsequent personnel training did not keep up. This also provided conditions for the promotion of the former young submarine commanders, who now account for one-third of the number of important generals from the submarine force, but they also lack the qualifications to command large surface ship units.

Half a month before the "Qinling" resumed sea trials, the personnel composition of the new fleet was hastily completed. Rear Admiral Huo Xunchi was the commander of the fleet, and Colonel Ling Wencha was appointed chief of staff of this fleet, and became the number two person in this battleship fleet.

The captain of the "Qinling" was Colonel Lin Taixiang, who was born into a family of cultural celebrities in Fuzhou. The captain of the "Nanling" was Colonel Liu Mingliang, who had served as the commander of a destroyer in the last war.

Colonel Ling Wencha was no worse than anyone else: as the youngest ace torpedo captain of the last war, he served as commander of two torpedo boats of the Imperial Navy, and briefly as commander of the 7th torpedo boat detachment before the end of the war.

After the war, he also served as a staff officer on the former dreadnought training ship Chongming Island, then as a military attache at the embassy in Constantinople for more than two years, and then as deputy chief of the Imperial Navy's Aviation Armament Service.

Ling Wencha's first task after taking office was to assist Huo Xunchi in establishing a capable and excellent operational staff team, and this organizational work needed to be completed within half a month.

It's really nervous.

As the economic crisis spread, the Fangtian cultists of the Samanid Kingdom (Persia) began to stage a large-scale rebellion with the intention of overthrowing the ruling class of the Vulcan Cult, which was supported by the Tang Empire. The Great Food Empire and the Byzantine Empire, which had been opposed to the Tang Empire for more than 200 years and eventually lost most of their Asian territories, supported the Fang Tianjiao forces of the Samanid Kingdom behind their backs, and the Tang Empire and its vassal Tianzhu countries were naturally the Zoroastrian faction that supported the Samanid Kingdom.

Seeing that the Zoroastrian regime was defeated by Fang Tianjiao, the Tang Empire simply tore off its camouflage and directly sent troops to intervene in the civil war of the Samanid Kingdom in the name of "maintaining peace".

It was under these circumstances that the Imperial Navy Command was in a hurry to send the "Qinling" and "Nanling", which had just completed refit, to the Indian Ocean for "sea trials", to put it bluntly, to stand on the stakes for the rulers of the Samanid Kingdom, cheer them up behind their backs, and play the role of cheerleaders.

In addition to the more than 1,200 crew members of the "Qinling," the "Qinling" also brought some additional engineering and technical experts, who will be responsible for comprehensively inspecting and evaluating the technical performance and indicators of this modified battleship, and providing valuable experience and data for the "Congling" and "Xing'anling" that are about to be modernized.

From the top view, the "Qinling" is almost identical to the "Count Alfonso" class battleship in the Kingdom of Spain, which is being modernized, but in fact there are great differences in the appearance of these two classes. The Spanish battleships were long-bow ships with a lowered deck stern, while the Imperial Navy's "Green Ridge" class was flat-decked, with a clear straight line from bow to stern.

Since the hull was lengthened to 217 meters and the hull was widened to 29.7 meters, the standard displacement of the old battleship, which was originally only 27,000 tons, was increased to 31,200 tons, and the full load displacement was close to 35,000 tons. With the complete renewal of the power system, its speed has been increased to almost 30 knots, and its comprehensive performance has been quite successful among the old battleships in service.

On the 3rd of the Republic month, after completing all the preparations, accompanied by a long whistle, the "Qinling" regained its vitality, and the giant ship with a full load displacement of nearly 35,000 tons slowly left the naval shipyard in Qinzhou and sailed into the main channel of the port under the traction of two tugboats.

Standing on the bridge of the "Qinling" and looking down on the front, Ling Wencha would naturally be amazed by the appearance of this rejuvenated old battleship, the rebuilt bow has a beautiful flying scissor shape and a high freeboard, which greatly increases the seaworthiness of this warship. And the five huge 330 mm barrels protruding from the two huge knapsack turrets pointing forward, naturally giving people a great sense of oppression.

Due to the insufficient pitch angle of the newly developed 150 high-level dual-purpose turret and the fact that it did not pass the acceptance of the naval armament department, the naval shipbuilding department, which is already extremely air-defense-conscious, simply adopted the double-mounted 130-mm high-level dual-purpose turret as the secondary gun of the battleship. Although this caused a lack of firepower against the sea, it was obviously more important for the Imperial Navy, which had seen the power of dive bombers many times, to defend against threats from the sky.

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