The second thing the headmaster mentioned was what to do with the four captured battleships. Most of this is not a matter of the Navy, especially the two American battleships, which have long been taken over by the Cabinet government. However, this is still related to the navy, because after all, the navy is responsible for the maintenance of warships, and the warships are also captured by the navy, so the cabinet government naturally needs to seek the navy's opinion when determining how to deal with it.

The problem of those two American battleships was well solved. Already at the end of October, the two battleships were towed into the dock of the Jiangnan shipyard and underwent basic repairs. At that time, the government had not yet taken over the two warships, and the maintenance work was the responsibility of the navy, and the specific department in charge was not the naval logistics department, but the equipment technical office. This arrangement is more delicate, because the Equipment Technology Office is responsible for the Navy's own equipment design and manufacturing work, and the two battleships were captured, and after handing them over to the Equipment Technology Office, the first thing that comes to mind is that the Navy is ready to repair the two battleships and use them for themselves.

At the beginning, there were indeed many people who thought about it, even Nie Renfeng and Gan Yongxing thought about it. After all, the combat effectiveness of the two battleships cannot be underestimated, and even if they are not incorporated into the task force and placed on the sea surface as a mobile battery to provide fire support for the marines, they can also exert great power. This is also the reason why Gan Yongxing asked the Naval Equipment Technology Office to be in charge of the maintenance of warships.

It was at this time that the Technical Office of Naval Equipment presented a plan for the modification of the two battleships. Several issues had to be solved in order to make these two battleships available to the Imperial Navy.

First, the power system of the battleship was seriously damaged, and it must be replaced. And it can only be replaced with the ground power system used by the Imperial Navy. The second is that the guns of the battleships must be replaced, the caliber of the guns of the Imperial Navy is different from that of the American Navy, and there is no relevant ammunition production line. So this has to be changed. Third, the command system of warships and ground had to be replaced to meet the operational requirements of the Imperial Navy. These are the three main problems. In order to solve this problem, the Naval Equipment Technology Office has also set up a special team to consult with engineers at the Jiangnan Shipyard to determine the feasibility of improvements, as well as improvement plans.

The main problems of improvement are in the power system and artillery. If you want to replace it with a power system of the "new provincial capital" level. It was necessary to redesign the ship's cabin structure and make adjustments to some of the main structures. At that time, the engineers of the Jiangnan shipyard spent a lot of effort on this, and finally determined the most feasible plan, which was approved by the Naval Equipment Technical Office, that is, to modify the ship design of the two battleships, .16

The problem of artillery was relatively easy to solve, and the main problem was not in the caliber of the gun, but in the structure of the gun tail and the way the turret was arranged internally. After repeated demonstrations, the feasibility of installing 400 mm guns on US battleships is still very large. Moreover, the changes to the turret structure are not very large, and the other thing that needs to be changed is the design of the bomb bay, and these improvements do not involve the main structure of the battleship. So it's a lot easier.

The improvement of the command and communication system was even simpler, originally both battleships had flagship facilities, and only needed to install the radio station of the Imperial Navy, as well as supporting facilities. And the improvement does not involve the main structure of the battleship, so the amount of work will not be very large.

After careful planning and detailed calculations, it was finally concluded that the construction period for the renovation of the two battleships would take about a year, and the cost would be the purchase price of one and a half "new provincial capitals". In addition, the slipway occupation time is only about six months to nine months, and other modifications can be carried out on the dock without continuing to occupy the slipway. In addition, the modified warship should be able to reach more than eighty percent of the "new provincial capital" class in terms of performance.

From the perspective of cost-effectiveness, this is still relatively cost-effective.

However, after the Naval Armament Technical Office completed these tasks, the refit program was cancelled, and the order was issued directly by the Imperial Cabinet Government, and the two battleships would not be incorporated into the battle sequence of the Imperial Navy, but would be taken over directly by the Imperial Government. Now, even Gan Yongxing and Nie Renfeng are a little dumbfounded, isn't all the work done before in vain?

In fact, at that time, Nie Renfeng was not thinking about integrating these two battleships into the battle sequence of the Imperial Navy, after all, the performance of the "New Provincial Capital" class was better, and with the third batch of "New Provincial Capital" class battleships in service, the number of battleships in the Imperial Navy had exceeded 15, and the demand for battleships was not large. At that time, Nie Renfeng thought of selling the two battleships to Germany or Persia in exchange for a batch of funds.

Germany and Persia did express a keen interest in these two battleships. Unlike the two Japanese battleships that were not built, these two American battleships were in stock, and the repair work certainly did not take much time. The German Navy was even willing to build a special ammunition production line for the two battleships, as well as provide spare parts for repairing the battleship's power system. In terms of combat effectiveness, both warships were not bad, better than the existing warships of Germany and Persia. In particular, the USS Wisconsin, one of the most advanced battleships built by the U.S. Navy today. But then the matter was settled. Judging from the information released after the war, the German and Persian governments had already submitted a request to the Tang Imperial Government to purchase and fund the repair of the two battleships, but the Tang Imperial Government directly rejected the request of the two countries and said that it would not consider any proposal to sell the two battleships.

Judging from the post-war information, the Tang Empire government at that time kept the two American battleships at the request of the intelligence and propaganda departments.

These two battleships are the crystallization of the American shipbuilding industry, especially the "Wisconsin" with a large number of the most advanced American shipbuilding technology. Not to mention anything else, the composition of the armor steel used by the US Navy, the processing technology of the artillery barrel, the manufacturing process of the main gun armor-piercing shell, the electronic communication equipment, and even the overall design of the battleship. This is extremely valuable information. Moreover, it is worth learning from the naval shipbuilding engineers of the Tang Empire. Even if the Tang Imperial Navy maintained a leading edge in many technical aspects, it had to be admitted that the warships of the US Navy had their own uniqueness. And to defeat the enemy, you must first understand the enemy. Knowing the enemy's weapons is a natural point. In other words, these two battleships are two mountains of gold, and Dongguo's analysis and study of the battleship site can allow the trainers of the Imperial Navy to find a way to build better warships. At the same time, it will be possible to find a more effective way to deal with American warships!

In addition to the intelligence importance, the political significance of using the two battleships for propaganda purposes was extremely significant. After the 3rd Task Force captured the two battleships, the Empire's propaganda department decided on a method of using the two battleships for propaganda. At the end of October, the first round of propaganda had already been done by the Imperial Propaganda Department, and then the Minister of Propaganda directly approached the Prime Minister, hoping that the Prime Minister would approve the two warships to travel to various ports of the Empire, as well as the major ports of the allies, in order to improve the morale of the Empire and the Allies. Hit the morale of the enemy!

With these two important points in front of us, even if Germany or Persia offered a sky-high price, the imperial government would never sell these two battleships. Xue Xiyue is a politician. And the first thing politicians think about is, of course, political significance, and to put it bluntly, the political significance of preserving the two battleships far exceeds any kind of economic significance.

"Now the Prime Minister's attitude is that these two battleships will be repaired. After our engineers have thoroughly studied the warships, they will be handed over to the propaganda department, who will arrange personnel to control the two ships and cooperate with the propaganda department to carry out propaganda work in dozens of ports. Nie Renfeng gave a document to Tan Renhao, "As for how to deal with it in the future, it has not yet been decided." In addition, the two Japanese battleships had to decide what to do. ”

"Jackals sell scrap steel?"

Nie Renfeng immediately laughed. "Isn't that a waste?"

Tan Renhao also laughed, he was just joking.

"Tens of thousands of tons of scrap steel can't be sold for much money, and if it is returned to the furnace, it will also include transportation costs." Nie Renfeng also made a joke, "Now, our basic opinion is to install a power system for the 'Musashi' so that it can sail freely. When they returned to the Imperial Territory, they were first thoroughly studied by engineers in order to master the shipbuilding techniques of the Japanese. What to do next, it has not yet been decided. ”

"The Propaganda Department is not interested in these two battleships?"

"Japan has been defeated, and now that Japan's new government is supported by us, propaganda against Japan is not in our interest, is it?"

Tan Renhao nodded slightly, this is a fact, the new Japanese government is serving the empire.

"So, the prime minister asked us to come up with a solution first." Nie Renfeng hesitated for a moment, "The Prime Minister's request is also very simple, first of all, try to save expenses, after all, the Navy's military spending is very tight, and we can't afford to spend much money to dispose of garbage." The second is to try to give full play to political significance, since these two battleships are difficult to produce economic and military significance, then we have to let them bring more political benefits, which is also the main point of the prime minister's request. ”

Tan Renhao thought for a while, and suddenly came up with an idea. "Headmaster, why don't we consider building a war museum on these two ships?"

"War Museum?" At this time, Nie Renfeng was also a little surprised.

"The Imperial Navy hasn't had many war museums, and we can do something about it." Tan Renhao quickly sorted out his thoughts, "You can tow the 'Musashi' back without even installing a power system for it, and then choose to set up a permanent wharf in Zhoushan or Dagu Port to transform the battleship into a war museum, so that the people of the empire can come to visit, this must have a very sensational effect, right?" ”

Nie Renfeng hesitated for a moment, then laughed. "It would have been better if the Imperial Navy's loot over the centuries had been displayed on the battleship. Moreover, we should call it the 'Victory Museum', as a way to display every great victory of the Imperial Navy over the centuries, which will not only play a role in raising morale, but also increase the understanding and support of the Imperial people for the Navy!" ”

"Yes, then the one left in Japan will be transformed into a museum in another sense, so as to warn the Japanese, so that the Japanese will always remember that they are the initiators of the war and the losers of the war, and let them know what will happen to the losers!"

"This ......" Nie Renfeng was a little hesitant this time, because he thought more about it than Tan Renhao. I'll submit this to the Prime Minister, but I don't think it's very feasible, because there are a lot of political issues that we can't think of, right? ”

Tan Renhao also felt that his second suggestion was a bit abrupt, so he didn't insist on it anymore.

"Okay, we'll talk about it today." Nie Renfeng stood up as he spoke, "There will be a meeting tomorrow, you go and prepare well, and when the chief of staff is free, I will let him contact you." ”

"Headmaster, then I'll take my leave."

Nie Renfeng sent Tan Renhao to the door. "You don't have to work overtime at night, take me to say hello to General Liao Hanxiang."

Tan Renhao nodded, said goodbye to the principal again, and then left the principal's office.

He didn't go home immediately because he still had a lot of things to deal with. At tomorrow's meeting, he will be responsible for explaining the fleet's combat operations and cooperating with Yan Guozhong's Marine Corps as much as possible.

What's more, he also had to contact Gu Xunlei to determine the plan on the army's side.

He had to deal with all these things himself.

When he was busy until the evening, Tan Renhao was free, Yan Guozhong's report had been submitted to Gan Yongxing, and Tan Renhao got a copy. The situation on Gu Xunlei's side was also determined, and a copy was sent to Tan Renhao. In the evening, Tan Renhao went to Gan Yongxing again, but Gan Yongxing was not in the office, but went to the naval logistics department to discuss the logistics support of the campaign. Tan Renhao didn't wait long, and after handing over the results of his work to Gan Yongxing's secretary, he left the naval headquarters.

By this time, Tan Renhao also felt a little lighter, at least not as busy as some time ago. And judging by the meaning of the principal, after deciding on the battle plan, he can find an excuse to return to the fleet and no longer have to stay in the naval command!