Although it wasn't time for dinner, Bai Zhizhan came all the way, not to mention lunch, and even breakfast and yesterday's dinner were just casually dealt with.

After some greetings, Bai Zhizhan directly proposed to go to the restaurant to eat and talk.

The commander has said it all, who would dare to oppose it?

On the way to the restaurant, Li Mingbo gave a general introduction to the situation of the fleet, to be precise, the situation of the two aircraft carriers.

It's all a cliché.

Although they were extremely brave in the first battle after the start of the war, it was only that time, after that, the two "Imperial Capital" class ships were exposed to a lot of problems.

Bai Zhizhan was a little angry, but the shipyard actually thought that it was the responsibility of the navy.

The reason: during the Guia operation, the power system of the aircraft carrier was overloaded, and it lasted too long, exceeding the design limit, resulting in hidden dangers in the boiler and steam turbine, such as the extensive peeling of the insulation layer on the inner wall of the boiler.

To eradicate it, it can only be overhauled in advance.

After learning about this incident, Bai Zhizhan also made a special call to the director of the Puzhou Shipyard.

Although the factory director said on the phone that it was just a misunderstanding, the specific problem was made very clear by the factory director, and it really needed to be overhauled to solve it.

It's just that it is simply impossible to carry out a major overhaul in advance.

These two aircraft carriers were delivered only before the outbreak of the war, they have not yet been damaged in battle, and where is the reason to return to the shipyard for overhauls?

The point is, the overhaul has to go to the dock, and it has to be disemboweled, and it can't be done at all in a few months!

At this juncture, let alone two, one cannot be missing!

According to the arrangement of the Navy Command, even if everything goes smoothly in the future, it will not be until the middle of next year, after the four large aircraft carriers have formed combat effectiveness, that there will be a chance to return the two "Imperial Capital" class to the shipyard for overhaul, and how to arrange it depends on the actual situation.

In short, just one sentence, as long as it can be used, don't care so much.

Fortunately, most of the minor problems can be solved by the officers and men themselves, and with enough equipment and parts, there is no big problem with short-term deployment.

It's a lot of trouble, but there's no other way.

In Li Mingbo's words, the state of the two aircraft carriers is not perfect, but it is not bad, even if it is tossed, it can withstand it.

When he said this, it was tantamount to giving Bai Zhizhan a reassurance.

The key is that when the "Imperial Capital" class was designed, there were redundancy in many aspects, such as when the power system reached 95% of the maximum rated power, it could run to 33 knots. As long as it is used normally, even if it is on a combat mission, there is no need to over-squeeze the mechanical properties.

When Li Mingbo said this, he was also warning Bai to stop the war and not to take the extreme performance of the aircraft carrier as the standard.

This is also the number one reason for falling into hidden dangers.

During the Battle of the Guia Sea, the White Stop War almost brought the performance of the two "Imperial Capital" classes to the limit, especially the sailing performance.

When summarizing after the war, that is, deducing the engagement process of the Third Air Task Force, even Bai Zhizhan admitted that many times there was no need to run so fast. For example, in the battle to intercept the troop convoy, if the speed had been slowed down a little on the first night, the heavy cruisers of the Narrow Navy would not have been encountered in the early morning of the next day, and not only would there be no need to flee in embarrassment, but carrier-based aircraft could be dispatched to bombard those heavy cruisers in the morning.

According to later investigations, when fighting in the Guia Ocean, the maximum sailing speed of the two "Imperial Capital" classes reached 35 knots.

Although it was in a light-load state at the time, it also meant that the power output of the powertrain reached 115% of the rated powertrain.

In Li Mingbo's words, Bai Zhizhan was too eager to win, so he longed for the aircraft carrier to fly.

In fact, this also proves from one side that the reasons put forward by the shipyard are not wrong, and if you want to be held responsible, the first thing you need to look for is to stop the war in vain.

As for the escort warships, they are all in a relatively good state.

The 41.3 detachment of the four "Wuzhou" class ships was still under the command of Wei Jun, and after learning that they were going to be assigned to the 41st task force, he voluntarily submitted an application to the Navy Command for a delay in the transfer, that is, after the end of this battle, he would go to the battleship that was about to be commissioned as the captain.

In addition, all four "Wuzhou"-class heavy cruisers were equipped with fire control radars during maintenance at Matsukachi Port, and air defense search radars were also upgraded.

Although the "Wuzhou" class is no longer the most advanced heavy cruiser of the Imperial Navy with the commissioning of the post-treaty heavy cruisers and the incorporation of the 21st Task Force, these four "Wuzhou" class are still the most powerful heavy cruisers of the Imperial Navy in terms of overall combat effectiveness, especially the quality of officers and men.

In addition, four light cruisers were not bad.

The four "Guangcheng" class light cruisers organized into the 41.4th Detachment were actually the first post-treaty light cruisers designed and built by the Imperial Navy after the abolition of the treaty.

Actually, this name is not quite appropriate.

To speak, it would be more accurate to call it an "ocean-going cruiser".

Compared with the treaty-type light cruisers, the most prominent feature of the ocean-going cruisers is that the tonnage is increased to the level of heavy cruisers while the caliber of the main guns remains the same, or even reduced, and the excess space, especially the deck, is used to deploy anti-aircraft guns.

It was for this reason that in the first days it was also called an "air defense cruiser".

Due to the limitation of tonnage, the anti-aircraft combat effectiveness of ocean-going cruisers was much inferior to that of later air defense cruisers.

To say that ocean-going cruisers are actually meant to replace "anti-aircraft heavy cruisers", reducing the cost of construction by reducing the requirements for main gun firepower.

This was actually an emergency need, after all, in the early days of the war, under the pressure of a large number of aircraft carriers and capital ships, the Imperial Navy did not have the ability to build tens of thousands of tons of air defense cruisers.

Thanks to the huge deck area, the air defense combat effectiveness of the four "Guangcheng" class ships is actually higher than that of the four "Wuzhou" class.

The key point is that for the first time, the "Guangcheng" class was equipped with 80-mm "medium-caliber anti-aircraft guns" between 130 mm and 40 mm.

Theoretically, this kind of anti-aircraft gun has a range and power close to that of a 130-mm anti-aircraft gun, and a rate of fire that is not much slower than that of a 40-mm anti-aircraft gun, but it occupies a much lower deck area than a 130-mm anti-aircraft gun, almost twice as much as a 40-mm anti-aircraft gun, so the combat efficiency of air defense on paper is very considerable, not only to fill the gap in the air defense network, but also to be the preferred anti-aircraft weapon for small and medium-sized warships.

As for the actual combat effectiveness, it is not yet known.

In addition, the four "Guangcheng" class ships are also equipped with anti-aircraft search radars, but because they do not participate in artillery battles, they are not equipped with artillery radars for fire control.

Comparatively speaking, only eight destroyers are slightly worse.

Although they are all large destroyers with a displacement of more than 1,500 tons, adhering to the tradition of the Imperial Navy, the air defense capabilities of the eight destroyers are very poor.

In the fleet, the task of destroyers is simply not air defense.

To say that, in addition to the lack of fast battleships, in fact, four heavy cruisers were used to replace two fast battleships, and the escort battleships were basically flawless. Thanks to the addition of four ocean-going cruisers, the anti-aircraft combat capability of the 41st task force has not actually decreased much.

If we take into account that we are fighting in completely open sea areas, it is impossible to judge the direction of the enemy's aircraft, it is more advantageous to bring a few more cruisers.

The cover provided by four cruisers was certainly more thorough than that of a fast battleship.