It was not until October 17 that Bai Zhizhan returned to Naqiu Harbor with the "Accompanying Beijing".

Although the "Companion Jing" was not damaged in the battle, the old problems of the power system were committed again, and it had to be repaired while returning to Hong Kong.

In the coming months, the "Companion Beijing" will be the only aircraft carrier of the Imperial Navy capable of fighting.

And what about the "Yokoe"?

According to the information sent by the Navy Command on the 16th, the hull of the "Yokoe" has structural damage, and it was originally planned to return to the shipyard for overhaul at the end of the year. Because there are a lot of capital battleships to maintain, the overhaul of the "Yokoe" has been postponed until next year.

This aircraft carrier cannot be counted on for the time being.

As a matter of fact, because the "Yokoe" was absent, the Navy Command was ready to transfer back the "Sea Dragon" that had followed the First Fleet southward.

Whether the First Fleet has the "Sea Dragon" or not is not a big problem.

However, the impact on whether or not a large number of pilots recruited after the outbreak of the war can be trained on aircraft carriers will be very huge.

Even if it is just a few times to land and take off on an aircraft carrier with a carrier-based aircraft, the significance is extraordinary.

Onshore simulation site?

No matter how realistic the simulation site is, it is impossible to restore the scene of the aircraft carrier sailing against the wind at 30 knots.

Along with the "Companion Jing" arrived at Naqiu Harbor was the "Luhe" fast battleship.

Because the "Longjiang" had to return to the shipyard for repairs, according to the arrangement of the Navy Command, the "Luhe" was temporarily assigned to the Fourth Fleet.

The "Luhe" was first overhauled at Naqiu Harbor, and after finding out the damage, a maintenance plan was formulated.

As for the other damaged ships, they all went to the home ports of the empire and returned to the shipyard for repairs.

Only aircraft carriers and battleships need to occupy the docks of large shipyards, and other warships can be repaired by small shipyards or by docks.

Because there was no arrangement, Bai Zhizhan stayed in that port for one night.

Don't look at that ball port as the home port of the Fourth Fleet, Bai Zhizhan has come and gone several times, but before that, he had never stayed here.

It's no surprise that the port is almost a big construction site.

After more than two decades of devastation, and the devastating damage it suffered in the last war, the first thing the Imperial Navy had to do after reclaiming the port was to repair the port's infrastructure and then build more infrastructure by current standards.

If nothing else, it takes a lot of effort to build a deep-water wharf.

During the last war, the standard for deep-water docks was to dock battleships with a draft of less than 9 meters, but the current standard has to be increased to at least 15 meters. That is, the draft of the next generation of fast battleships of the Imperial Navy reaches 12 meters with a full load, and at least 15 meters is required to count the redundancy.

In addition, most of the construction work actually began in earnest after this naval battle.

The reason is that if the naval battle is lost, the Imperial Navy may not be able to hold the port, and it will have to be built according to strategic defense standards.

Now that the naval battle has been won, it has to be built according to a different set of standards.

To put it simply, it was to build Naqiu Harbor into the largest military port outside the Imperial Mainland, and to become the starting point for the Imperial Navy's march into the Guia Ocean.

In fact, when the Navy was making this plan, it was questioned by many people.

The port is 1,000 kilometers away from the mainland of the Empire, so even if you don't have it, you can still go out of the Guia from the mainland port of the Empire.

Is it necessary to expend resources to expand the port?

Obviously, this question has to be looked at in a different way.

In the eastern part of the empire, the only port that can be regarded as ideal for various conditions is Puzhou Port.

As for the home port of the former home fleet, the port of Mazaku, the conditions are very ordinary, mainly on the islands, and the transportation is not convenient.

The Imperial Navy has not been very enthusiastic about the port of Matsukashi, that is, it is too close to the mainland.

Turn the port of Puzhou into a military port?

Obviously, this is certainly not possible, because the port of Puzhou also undertakes the business of democracy movement, and is the most indispensable commercial port in the eastern part of the empire itself.

It can be seen that for the Imperial Navy, it is either the ball port or the mast port.

A choice had to be made, and it was definitely the port.

Before the last war, Naqiu Port was the number one military port facing the Guia Ocean, and the home fleet with Naqiu Port as its home port was mainly active in the Guia Ocean.

At that time, the Imperial Navy's home fleet was an invincible presence in the Guia Ocean.

According to the Navy's plan, several major wharves will be completed by the end of the year at the earliest.

At that time, all warships, including the large aircraft carriers that will soon be commissioned, will be able to dock at Naqiu Harbor and will be fully supported.

If all goes well, in the 103rd year of the new calendar, all the infrastructure works of the port will be completed.

By that time, it will be able to accommodate hundreds of warships!

Until then, I am afraid that the Imperial Navy has advanced thousands of kilometers to the east, and the port is no longer a forward port.

After dinner, Bai Zhizhan and Zhou Yongtao took a turn in the port. As for Lee Myung-bak, he followed the "Imperial Capital" to the port of Puzhou.

In terms of location, the port is located at the southernmost tip of Ryujima, and to the west is the right-arm peninsula that stretches out into the sea like an arm, which just encloses the harbor and forms a natural deep-water harbor.

More than 10 kilometers north of the port, there is also a large airport under construction.

According to the plan, it is a naval aviation base, and it is the general base of the Guia Fleet air force, which can deploy hundreds of combat aircraft when completed.

The main purpose of building an aviation base is to expand the scale of training.

Under the new training system, newly recruited pilots must first train on shore for three months, fly for 200 hours, and then transfer to aircraft carriers for take-off and landing training, complete 50 landings, and pass the assessment before they are formally integrated into combat units.

The point is that the size of the aviation force has expanded several times compared to the pre-war period, and as it continues to expand, it will require greater efforts to train pilots.

Although it was nighttime, it was still very hot in the harbor.

In addition, they also discovered a very peculiar thing.

Some workers are building a battleship out of reinforced concrete, or more precisely by pouring cement, to build a ship that looks like a battleship.

Of course, it was just a vessel.

After asking Zhou Yongtao to inquire, Bai Zhizhan figured out that it was an engineering ship, a self-propelled dock ship.

What is being built is a section, several of which have been pieced together, and when all the sections are completed and put together, the dock will be more than 300 meters long and capable of servicing ships, including 50,000-ton battleships, and will be able to expand further.

In the future, it will even be able to accommodate 60,000 tons of battleships.

The concrete was poured into the dock walls, and the bottom of the ship was still built in the normal way.

The relay of each segment is a small pontoon, which, after emptying the ballast water tanks, is able to float.

In order to be able to sail, it is possible to add a section at the rear and front with diesel-driven propulsion sections, depending on the actual situation.

With concrete, one is that the strength is enough, the other is to save steel, and the third is to be easy to repair after breakage, in fact, the main purpose is to save steel.

In this regard, Bai Zhizhan sighed very much.

It's not that there is not enough steel, but in a large-scale war, this kind of military auxiliary ship without combat effectiveness is no less valuable than a battleship.

Because it saves the time it takes for a damaged ship to sail back and forth, a docked ship is equivalent to a fleet under certain circumstances. 8)