Tan Renhao's departure did not change the Empire's decision to intensify its strategic bombing of Japan. At the beginning of June, Marshal Nie Renfeng applied to the Imperial Cabinet Government to increase the military expenditure of the Navy, and in the middle of that month, the new increase of 2.5 billion military expenditure was in place, which was enough for the 5,000 bombers produced by the Imperial Navy (the ex-factory price of the "Wolf Dove" was about 240,000, and the unit price exported to the Persian Empire and the German Empire was 490,000), or 500,000 tons of incendiary bombs (after mass production, the price per ton of incendiary bombs was reduced to 5,000 yuan, which was much cheaper than ordinary bombs). Or 15000 tactical aircraft, or all the warships of the three carrier fleets.

This was a significant amount of military spending, and it also paved the way for the Imperial Navy's Strategic Strike Force to continue bombing Japan. After receiving an additional bonus, the bomber production plants and ammunition factories were at full speed and accelerated their production, and more and more bombers and incendiary bombs were transported to the front line and put into the bombing of Japan. It is precisely because of this expenditure that there is a second type of heavy bomber of the Imperial Navy, a bomber that can really meet the strategic bombing needs of the Navy.

As mentioned earlier, after the "Wolf Dove" was finalized, Luo Yunchong put forward the requirements for the development of a new bomber, and the "Wolf Dove" was only a transitional aircraft in the emergency period, and could only barely bomb Japan. According to Luo Yunchong's idea, the real bomber is a type that can carry at least six tons of bombs and has a combat radius of 2,000 kilometers. In this way, bombers will be able to take off from Jeju Island or Iwo Jima Island and drop enough incendiary bombs in every corner of Japan. Turn the whole of Japan into a sea of fire.

It was at the beginning of 23 that the development of a new bomber was launched. This time, the Imperial Navy did not open the bidding, but directly asked Shen Fei and Hafei to be responsible for the development of the bomber's engine and fuselage respectively, and the last two aircraft factories carried out test flights and production work together. In the absence of sufficient funding, the development of the two aircraft factories was not progressing quickly. When Nie Renfeng got the large amount of military funds he had applied for, his first thought was to provide research and development funds to two aircraft factories. Speed up the development of new bombers and strive to get new bombers flying by the end of 23. It was also to equip the troops in 24 years at the latest (this plan was unrealistic, because no one at that time took into account how many difficulties it would have to face to create such a bomber as the largest in the world).

By the end of June, Hafei had first come up with three design proposals (in fact, the plans of three design groups, which were the result of internal competition in the aircraft factory). One of the schemes uses the engines used in six "wolf doves", which is almost an improved version of the "wolf doves" that are enlarged in equal proportions and then installed with two more engines. The other uses four high-power engines that have not yet been developed, and uses a large number of new technologies. Almost brand new design. The third option is very advanced, using a flying wing layout, using six engines as power, and its design indicators can even cross the Pacific Ocean and bomb the continental United States! As a result, the Technical Office of the Navy chose the second scheme, the first too conservative, and the third too advanced. Only the second set of solutions can effectively control the technical risks and get the new bomber flying as soon as possible.

The two aircraft factories quickly gathered all the researchers and began to work on the overall design. The Naval Armament Technical Office has requested that the first prototype be produced by the end of the year, but this plan is not realistic. A completely new one with too many technical innovations (e.g. a fully enclosed airtight cockpit, a high-power turbocharged engine. Electric turrets, autopilots, automatic bombers, high-precision gyroscopes, terrain navigation systems), it is almost impossible to solve these problems in half a year.

In fact, the most important thing in the strategic bombing of Japan is not the bomber, the "wolf dove" that carries two tons of bombs and can fly to a distance of 1,800 kilometers to drop bombs is actually enough, and the crux of the problem is in ammunition. If there was no sufficient supply of incendiary bombs, the bombing of Japan would have been limited to two days of fishing. Three days to dry the net. It is difficult to achieve results quickly. Thus, in ensuring the production of bombers. In addition to development, the supply of ammunition has become the most important project.

At that time, the Imperial Navy had ten ammunition factories, which supplied the Navy with bombs, torpedoes, shells, gun shells, as well as some special ammunition. Five of these factories are making bombs, and all of them are already engaged in the manufacture of incendiary bombs. Five other factories were also rapidly expanding (the Reich was not short of manpower, at least not during the war) to produce bombs and incendiary bombs. In August alone, these factories produced 120,000 tons of incendiary bombs, enough for 2,000 bombers to fly six sorties. In September, the production of incendiary bombs increased to 180,000 tons, in October to 220,000 tons, in November to 260,000 tons, and in December to a record 340,000 tons. So many incendiary bombs were sent to the front line in a steady stream, so that the bomber units no longer had to worry about the "food shortage".

The benefits of the Navy receiving the new appropriation are many, and of course, there is no delay in other aspects.

The "Falcon" fighter has begun mass production, Shenfei has a total of three production lines, which can manufacture at least 3,000 fighters a year, and Hafei has also built two fighter production lines, and Nanfei is also building fighter production lines. Finally, the Navy's ground target was that it must have 10 fighter production lines to replenish the HNA with at least 10,000 tactical aircraft per year (at that time, the fighter production line was not much different from the HNA tactical aircraft ground production line). By July, all six aircraft carrier squadrons of the Navy had received new "Falcon" fighters.

The new bomber also completed its test flight in July, which was actually the third batch of bombers of the Imperial Navy's carrier-based aviation. As early as the successful development of the "Vulture", Shen Fei began to develop new dive bombers and torpedo bombers using the engines used by the "Vulture" (HNA has always insisted that carrier-based aircraft units use unified engines to reduce the logistical burden, and this has proved to be a good strategy). As a result, only part of the prototypes of these two bombers were made. When it was time to prepare for the test flight test, the Japanese fleet was finished. The Kingfisher and Osprey proved to be reliable bombers, so HNA did not purchase them. After the "Falcon" was put into service, HNA issued a new research and development task, calling for the development of a new bomber based on the "Feng 16" 22-cylinder high-power engine used by the "Falcon."

Because at that time, Shen Fei was still continuing to revise some technical defects of the "Falcon" fighter, and he also had to concentrate on making "wolf doves". Development of engines for new bombers. Therefore, the two new bombers (airframes) were actually developed by Nanfei and Hafei respectively.

The southern flight was responsibly dive bombers. The new bomber, which was named "Waterbird", used the "Wind 16" engine (which limited the maximum power). An improved fuselage was adopted, a large number of aluminum alloy materials were used, and the fuselage was further strengthened to improve the performance of dive bombing. The biggest feature is that the bomber has a huge speed brake on the belly and back, so that the bomber can drop the bomb at the lowest altitude possible, and then change to a dive.

Hafei was in charge of torpedo bombers. The new bomber was named "Sea Eagle". The "Wind 16" engine was also used (the maximum power was also limited). Hafei did not take advantage of Shen Fei's previous research success (in fact, the "Shooting Water Bird" was improved on the basis of Shen Fei's previous bomber), and it was almost completely new. At the same time, Hafei has taken into account the use of higher power engines in the future, so there is some room for improvement. The fact that the "Sea Eagle" can become a generation of famous aircraft has a lot to do with the improvements that Hafei considered at the beginning of its design. This torpedo bomber, which fought until the end of the war, became the best torpedo bomber in the world during World War II, especially after its use of more powerful engines.

Development of two types of bombers. And the initial test flight work was completed in September, but its production plan was postponed to the end of the year, for only one reason, almost all the "Feng-16" engines provided by Shen Fei were given to the "Falcon" fighters, and very few could be supplied to the bombers. Most of Shen Fei's engine manufacturing capacity is used in bombers, so the number of ground engines that can be supplied to naval tactical bombers is very small.

Arguably. 23 was the spring of naval aviation (including the Strategic Strike Force), and with the entry of new fighters and a large number of pilots, the Imperial Naval Aviation fully recovered and reached its peak in this year. Later, when more brutal wars broke out in the Pacific, it was precisely because the empire had the most powerful naval aviation in the world at the time that the empire was invincible.

In addition to naval aviation weapons, the Imperial Navy fleet received no less benefits, especially in the construction of new warships. The Imperial Navy returned to its pre-war level (total tonnage of battleships) almost within this year. The most important of these is naturally the third type of aircraft carrier in the Imperial Navy.

The "Yangtze River" class aircraft carrier proved to be a very reliable aircraft carrier, and its performance was greatly improved compared with that of the "Emperor" class. Whether it is aviation combat capability, strike resistance, or seafaring performance, it is excellent in all aspects. Of course, this is only relatively good, and the Navy soon discovered the problem of the "Yangtze River" class aircraft carrier. After all the problems were summed up, it all fell to one point, that is, the displacement is too small, and it is difficult for the hull to meet all the requirements. As a result, only four "Yangtze River" class aircraft carriers were built (at that time, the empire had four shipyards that could undertake the construction of aircraft carriers), and the Navy did not place any more orders, requiring the four shipyards to immediately come up with new designs and demand better aircraft carriers.

The design of the new aircraft carrier was completed at the beginning of 23, and the first displacement (light load, unless otherwise specified, light load displacement at one-third of the fuel) was determined to be 24000 tons. The Navy quickly rejected this plan, because it was only 3,000 tons more than the "Yangtze River" class, and the performance improvement was not obvious. In March, the second design was completed, the displacement was raised to 28000 tons, and the Navy was still not satisfied. It was not until the beginning of June that the third plan was finalized, and the displacement was increased to 32,000 tons, and at full load to 36,500 tons. The Navy adopted this plan and demanded that the design work be completed quickly and the construction of the new aircraft carrier should begin as soon as possible.

This new aircraft carrier was named the "Lake" class. In fact, from the name, it can be seen that the Imperial Navy attaches great importance to aircraft carriers. Previously, only battleships could be named after "rivers, lakes, and seas", but starting with the "Yangtze River", these names were used on aircraft carriers, which shows that the Navy has regarded aircraft carriers as the number one main battleship.

The design work was completed in mid-October, and the Navy was satisfied with all the indicators of the new aircraft carrier. Then, construction began at almost the same time at all four shipyards, and the keels of the first four aircraft carriers were laid at all four shipyards at the same time. According to the requirements put forward by the Navy, the first four aircraft carriers must join the battle sequence of the Imperial Navy by the end of 24 years, and after familiarizing themselves with the production process, the construction period of the new aircraft carriers will be shortened to ten months (and later even to the level of one in eight months). The Navy is also preparing to build two other shipyards to be able to start construction of six aircraft carriers at the same time (in fact, each of the four shipyards later built a large dock, allowing the Imperial Navy to build eight aircraft carriers at the same time).

In addition to the new aircraft carrier, the ninth large air defense cruiser of the "Li Jing" class, the "Changsun Wuji", also completed its perching in June. Starting with the "Changsun Wuji", the displacement of the last 16 large air defense cruisers was increased by 1500 tons (2000 tons when fully loaded), lengthened by five meters, the 120-mm anti-aircraft guns were changed to 80-mm anti-aircraft guns (VT shells began to be used in the later period), the number of other anti-aircraft guns was also increased, and the overall air defense combat effectiveness was greatly strengthened. In addition, the key parts of the battleship (especially the engine room) were better armored protection, which enhanced the survivability of the battleship.

New large anti-aircraft cruisers were also being designed, and newly built heavy cruisers of the "River" class (which, in turn, broke the naming conventions of the Imperial Navy) were being built in batches. Submarines, destroyers, and maritime patrol planes all left the factory in droves to join the battle sequence of the Imperial Navy. A large number of excellent soldiers are also leaving the training camps, academies, and barracks to join the Imperial Navy.

The 23rd year (Tang calendar, 1941 AD) was the spring of the Imperial Navy. There is only one reason why the Imperial Navy was able to acquire so many warships, warplanes in this year, the Empire has already completed the war mobilization. The war potential of the empire began to explode at the end of '22, and the all-round war mobilization was completed at the beginning of '23. As the Empire's potential exploded, the massive war machine began to run at full speed.