In the two months that Tan Renhao returned to the Navy Command, the strength of the Navy was also rapidly recovering. It can be seen from the Tang Empire's large-scale operation to provide warships to its allies, and at this time of the war, the strength of the imperial navy was not only not weakened, but strengthened a lot.

At the outbreak of the war, the Imperial Navy had only eight large slipways capable of building battleships and aircraft carriers, and four of them had not been built for a long time, and the infrastructure was seriously outdated. Therefore, at the outbreak of the war, the Imperial Navy spent a lot of effort to expand its shipbuilding capabilities.

By this time, the Imperial Navy already had twelve large slipways capable of building 50,000-ton warships (ships were built on slipways and weighed much less than they were in service, because only hulls were built on the slipways, and then perched next to the docks), and all twelve slipways were operating at high efficiency. In addition, the Imperial Navy has 36 slipways that can build 10,000-ton warships (large air defense cruisers, heavy cruisers, fast combat support ships, large landing ships), and more than 50 slipways that can handle 3,000-ton ships (destroyers, landing ships). As for the slipways of warships with a displacement of about 1,000 tons, such as submarines, small destroyers (mainly used for offshore anti-submarine operations, as well as for escort missions), landing craft, minesweepers, etc., are countless.

The word "slipway" seems a bit monotonous, but it is a direct reflection of a country's shipbuilding capabilities. All large ships have to be built on the slipway first, and how big the slipway is, how big the warship can be built, and the number of slipways is a direct representation of how many ships a country can build at the same time. The above mentioned are all used to build large slipways for military ships.

This is different from the construction of slipways for civilian ships. This is an extremely important message, and if any country wants to have a strong navy, it must first have a strong foundation. And shipbuilding capabilities are the foundation of the Navy.

It was only at this time that Tan Renhao understood how powerful the empire really was in terms of ship-building capabilities. Before, all he knew was that the Imperial Navy would regularly acquire a batch of warships, and guessed that the Imperial Navy had extremely powerful shipbuilding capabilities, but he didn't have an intuitive understanding. And it wasn't until he saw the document that Gan Yongxing gave him that he had a new understanding. The strength of the Imperial Navy was not only reflected in the combat effectiveness of the fleet. More often than not, it is reflected in the shipbuilding capabilities of the navy. Without the support of such a strong base strength, the Imperial Navy would not be the most powerful navy in the world.

Because of its strong shipbuilding capabilities, the scale of shipbuilding in the Imperial Navy is also very large. The main warships planned to be commissioned within two months from the end of '25 to the beginning of '26 include six third-batch "Lake" class aircraft carriers, four third-batch "New Provincial Capital" class battleships, seven second-batch "Rui Beast" class large air defense cruisers, eight fourth-batch "River" class heavy cruisers (the second stage of improved models), and more than 40 "City" class destroyers. Other warships that will be commissioned during this period include more than 30 submarines, more than 80 landing ships, and more than 20 fast combat support ships.

These warships did not enter service at the same time, but were commissioned one after the other during this period. Like what. The four "New Provincial Capital" class battleships of the third batch have all completed their perching in mid-December and are now undergoing initial sea trials and are expected to be officially commissioned by the end of January 26. Among the six "Lake" class aircraft carriers of the third batch. Four aircraft have already completed their perching installations, two of which are undergoing initial sea trials, and the other two are about to complete their perching installations, and these aircraft carriers will be commissioned between the end of January and the beginning of February. The other ships were similar. Like destroyers, small warships such as submarines are subjected to sea trials after they are built and successively added to the naval combat sequence, and are not commissioned in batches.

In addition to the new ships that will soon enter service, the repair of previously damaged ships damaged in battle will be completed by the end of 25. When these warships are repaired, they will make mid-term improvements to improve the performance and combat effectiveness of the warships. For example, all the heavy cruisers of the "River" class will be transformed according to the standards of the second stage when they are overhauled, mainly by replacing the twin 240 mm guns with triple 200 mm guns, and canceling the reduction of two 120 mm secondary gun turrets, adding four 80 mm anti-aircraft gun turrets, and other improvements, such as replacing the same radar as the "Rui Beast" class.

Among these repaired warships, the most important ones are probably the three fleet aircraft carriers that originally belonged to the 1st Task Force and the five battleships of the 3rd Task Force.

The aircraft carrier "Xingkaihu" was the first to complete the repair work, and during the repair period, the aircraft carrier was also improved. There are several key points of improvement, one is to strengthen the structural strength of key parts, such as near the elevator, and strengthen the ability to resist bomb attacks. The second is to increase the thickness of the armor in important parts, such as the armor thickness on the outside of the boiler room and the engine room by 25 mm, and strengthen the structural strength of the anti-torpedo compartment. The third is to replace the latest model of catapult, the biggest improvement of the new catapult is to improve the service life, and other performance changes are not large.

Fourth, the number of antiaircraft guns, especially small-caliber antiaircraft guns, has been increased. Fifth, the number of anti-aircraft artillery ammunition reserves has been reduced, which is mainly aimed at lowering the center of gravity of the aircraft carrier and improving the stability of the aircraft carrier. Finally, the aircraft carrier's radar has been improved and the command capability has been enhanced.

These improvements were carried out during the maintenance period, and the shipyard reasonably arranged the process of improvement and maintenance work, without delaying more time. This is also a good way to upgrade, after all, many warships will be damaged in battle, and the opportunity to use maintenance to improve the combat effectiveness of the warship not only saves time, but also enhances the strength of the navy in disguise.

The "Xingkaihu" completed repair and improvement work at the end of November, and in early December, after completing the initial sea trials, it was delivered to the second task force. Now, this aircraft carrier is no longer in the combat establishment of the First Task Force, but has gone to the Second Task Force, and together with the "Poyang Lake" aircraft carrier, it forms the core combat strength of the Second Task Force. It became the flagship of the 2nd Task Force.

The maintenance work of the "Hongzehu" and "Gaoyouhu" aircraft carriers was only completed at the end of December, and the initial sea trials are now underway. Like the "Xingkaihu", these two aircraft carriers were also improved during repairs. It's just that because the shipyards that repair aircraft carriers are different, the methods of improvement are also different. There are slight differences in its equipment. For example, the "Hongzehu" aircraft carrier, which was repaired at the Guangzhou Shipyard at that time, used the radar equipped on the "Ruibeast"-class cruiser, while the "Gaoyouhu" aircraft carrier maintained at the Dalian Shipyard still retained the original radar system. In addition, the preparation of anti-aircraft guns for the two aircraft carriers is not exactly the same, which is due to the difference in the shipyard for maintenance.

The maintenance of the five battleships of the Third Task Force was much more troublesome than that of the aircraft carriers of the First Task Force. Both from the cost. Or in terms of structural complexity, battleships surpassed aircraft carriers. In addition, the injuries suffered by the aircraft carrier in battle are generally caused by torpedoes and bombs, and the aircraft carrier hull is relatively large, and the flight deck can be removed during maintenance, so the maintenance work is relatively easy. On the contrary, the combat wounds of battleships are generally caused by large-caliber armor-piercing shells, and many armor-piercing shells are hit below the waterline of the hull, and the superstructure of battleships is difficult to dismantle. So, the repair of battleships was much more troublesome.

The five battleships were repaired at the same time, as the injuries were not exactly the same. Therefore, the progress of its maintenance is also different. In addition, the "Guangzhou" and "Guiyang" will also undergo a mid-term overhaul, and this time both battleships will be improved according to the standards of the second batch. Including the replacement of boilers with higher output power and the strengthening of armor defenses, in other words, the two battleships will fully meet the performance standards of the second batch after completing the renovation and repair.

In addition, the bow of the "Nanchang" was knocked out, so a new bow needed to be installed, which was a very huge project and would take a lot of time. And the other two battleships were also badly damaged, and the repair time required was certainly not less.

During the repairs, all five battleships made minor improvements to address the problems exposed in real combat, such as strengthening the structural strength of the battleship below the waterline, optimizing the design of the rear seaplane platform, and moving the seaplane fuel hangar below the level deck.

In addition, some new equipment was newly developed, the most important of which was the installation of the Imperial Navy's first regular gun-sighting radar, which improved the battleship's night combat capability.

The first to complete the repair were the "Nanning" and "Changsha", these two battleships began to carry out initial sea trials in mid-December, and also test-fired Type 25 armor-piercing shells during sea trials, proving that the power of Type 25 armor-piercing shells exceeded the best armor-piercing shells of US Navy battleships (a comparative experiment was carried out with the captured "Wisconsin"), and met or even exceeded the expected requirements of the Navy.

The repair work of the "Nanchang" was also completed in late December, and the maintenance work of the "Guangzhou" and "Guiyang" was completed, but the improvement work was not yet over, and it will probably need to last until the beginning of January 26, and the official service time will be after mid-January.

In addition to the repair and improvement of these damaged warships, there was also a very important batch of "improved" warships in service at that time, that is, the second batch of six "Mountain" class small aircraft carriers completed sea trials in early December and were scheduled to be commissioned in early January 26.

Four of the six small aircraft carriers of the "Mountain" class in the first batch have been sunk, and the other two have also followed Jiang Zhongmin to the South Atlantic. At that time, the Imperial Navy was divided into three batches to renovate a total of 18 aircraft carriers of this class, and the second batch of six aircraft carriers was originally planned to join the Navy in October 25, but there were problems in the transformation progress, so the service time was delayed until the end of the year.

The survivability of small aircraft carriers on the battlefield has been seriously questioned, and all nine of the US Navy's "Independence" class small aircraft carriers have been sunk, and none of the four small aircraft carriers that the Imperial Navy had previously put into actual combat have been spared. Therefore, many people began to doubt the necessity of the existence of small aircraft carriers, which are easily sunk, and these small aircraft carriers that are easy to sink are certainly of little value. Although fleet aircraft carriers are easily incapacitated after being attacked, they are often able to persist in returning to port. For example, the aircraft carrier "Gaoyouhu" was hit by bombs, torpedoes, and heavy torpedoes fired by submarines, and finally struggled to return to port. This is a completely different result from being sunk.

At that time, it was already proposed that there was no need to retrofit small aircraft carriers at all, and that it was most important to ensure more fleet carriers.

Because the renovation of the "Mountain" class of small aircraft carriers has long been decided, and the funds have been allocated in place, the Navy has not canceled the improvement plan for this class of aircraft carriers. However, these aircraft carriers will never go to the front-line battlefield, according to the Navy's plan at that time, the main purpose of small aircraft carriers was to provide air support to the Marine Corps in the rear and provide air defense cover for the landing fleet, and not to participate in the decisive battle of the fleet. It is precisely for this reason that the Navy did not assign these six small aircraft carriers to any task force, but left them alone, and will decide on their specific arrangements according to the situation.

In addition to these six small aircraft carriers, in the 26-year budget, there is also a special fund for the development of "escort aircraft carriers". For the Imperial Navy, this is a new type of warship. Unlike the U.S. Navy, all escort aircraft carriers of the Imperial Navy are newly built, but these aircraft carriers are not built in full accordance with military standards, but adopt a large number of standards and technologies for civilian ship construction, which can shorten the construction period, reduce the construction cost, and achieve the purpose of large-scale construction. The main purpose of escort aircraft carriers is to escort the fleet, as well as to provide aviation cover and support for the Marine Corps.

In mid-December, just as the Second Task Force arrived in the southwest Pacific, the Fourth Task Force returned to Canton, and almost all the warships were sent back to the shipyard for overhaul, and the officers and men were given a rare opportunity to rest.

All this proves that the Imperial Navy has recovered and is marching towards victory. Although during this period, the U.S. Navy was also developing in full force, the gap between the two sides was widening, and the balance in the Pacific Theater had tilted to the side of the Tang Empire!