In the early morning, two hundred nautical miles southeast of Chang'an, clouds and mist were entangled in the sky over Daxing Island.

On the eastern side of the sea, a vast rainforest has been cleared, and the Fourth Shipyard of the Tang Royal Navy is located.

Thousands of people gathered around the large dock No. 5, and a huge hull was parked in the dock, covered with colorful flags.

Today is the day of the launch of the hull of the battleship Chiyou, which has been built for four years since the keel was laid in February 1932.

It took four years to get the hull into the water, which can only be described in one slow word.

But in fact, it is not, and there is a reason for slowness. This Chiyou battleship announced to the public that it was a super battleship standard, in order to mislead other powers to continue to pay attention to battleships, and she succeeded, because the Japanese Imperial Navy spent a lot of money to start building four Yamato-class super crossbow battleships in order to compete with the Tang Empire, which was known as the strongest battleship in Shijie.

In fact, the Chiyou and the other three sister ships were built at a snail's pace because they were not super battleships at all, having been built according to the standards of second-generation aircraft carriers from the start. The deliberate delay is to prevent the outside world from guessing that they are aircraft carriers, of course, there is another reason, that is, the Jishu ability of the Tang Empire four years ago has not yet been able to meet the standard of perfecting the second-generation aircraft carrier, and the slow construction is also slowly groping forward.

Now that four years have passed, the industrial capacity and Jishu reserves of the Tang Empire have fully equipped themselves with the ability to build second-generation aircraft carriers, which is reflected in the fact that all four Doukui-class aircraft carriers were launched a year ago. Although there were many problems during the sea trials, the overall standard was met. With this experience, as an enlarged version of the Doukui-class aircraft carrier. The launch of the Chiyou-class aircraft carrier is a matter of course. At this time, the launch of the Chiyou is not actually intended to hide, but to disclose the fact that the Chiyou is a super-large aircraft carrier and not a super battleship.

The Chiyou aircraft carrier, numbered [CV-9] by the Datang Royal Navy, is the fifth aircraft carrier developed and built by the Datang Empire on its own territory after the launch of four Doukui-class large aircraft carriers a year ago, and it is also the fifth second-generation aircraft carrier in the whole Shijie. Its signature is that it has an angled flight deck, which integrates the take-off and landing decks to carry out operations at the same time without affecting each other.

As an improved and enlarged version of the Doukui-class aircraft carrier, the Chiyou aircraft carrier has a design displacement of 50,000 tons. The actual displacement is 55,000 tons, the through-type straight deck is 280 meters long, the beveled flight deck is 205 meters long, and the draft is 10 meters. On the starboard side of the ship is a trapezoidal octahedral bridge.

The armor protection is stronger than that of the Doukui-class aircraft carriers. It is completely built in accordance with the hull defense standard of the super battleship, with the main armor of the waterline belt up to 350 mm thick, the horizontal deck 300 mm, and the key protection of key positions, the strongest up to 600 mm, which is equivalent to the front protection standard of the turret of the 16-inch gun, and the use of HM1 hot-made special steel specially developed by Datang Iron and Steel Company for aircraft carriers, has many characteristics such as high temperature resistance, corrosion resistance, and crit resistance. Eight oil-fired boilers are used. 4 sets of steam turbine systems, 4 shafts and 4 propeller drives. The output reaches 250,000 horsepower, loaded with 7,500 tons of high-quality fuel, the cruising range is 10,000 nautical miles at 25 knots, 5,000 nautical miles at 30 knots, the cruising speed is 30 knots, and the maximum speed is 33 knots.

The flight deck area of the Chiyou is somewhat larger than that of the Doukui-class aircraft carriers, and it is equipped with 54 Raptor heavy carrier-based fighters of three squadrons, 54 Hellfire heavy carrier-based bombers of three squadrons, 8 FC-1 torpedo reconnaissance planes, and 5 Hellfire ship-bombers and 5 Raptor shipfights in the hangar.

The air defense weapon system continued to be strengthened, which was manifested in the sixteen MK1 Vulcan Array, four more than the Doukui-class aircraft carriers.

As for the three brother ships of the Chiyou aircraft carrier, Lizhu, Yinglong and Kuafu, their construction progress is almost about to be launched, and the tonnage is similar, and the difference in displacement is no more than 800 tons, indicating that the shipbuilding capacity of the Tang Empire has reached a very high level in order to control this tonnage error between warships of the same class.

At about 9 o'clock in the morning, Zhang Meng appeared in full costume at the bow of the Chiyou ship, and was in a warm applause.

At this time, the Chiyou was only completed by the hull, and the superstructure, armament system, electrical and electrical system, and the outfitting of the Zuihou were to be carried out after the launch, which would take about a year.

The Ship Administration and the Admiralty jointly presided over the launching ceremony, and the only thing Zhang Meng had to do was to push the Chiyou into the sea with his own hands.

A rope was unscrewed down from the gantry crane, and a bottle of Datang's self-produced famous wine Sheng Tangchun was tied at the end, and Zhang Meng grabbed the wine bottle and threw it towards the bow of the Chiyou ship.

With a snap, the bottle shattered, and the aroma of wine was tangy.

Immediately after that, a rumbling sound came, and the battleship Chiyou moved slowly along the slide rail, and soon the stern entered the water, and then the entire hull completely entered the water.

Applause rang out again, celebrating the successful launch of the Chiyou. Then Zhang Meng made a routine speech, he had many experiences before, Zhang Meng didn't need a secretary to prepare a manuscript, and he was completely able to memorize it.

Zhang Meng watched as the battleship Chiyou slowly sailed towards the dock under the tugboat tow, where he would complete the construction of Zuihou.

"Has the Japanese Navy made any recent moves?"

Hearing Zhang Meng's inquiry, Li Haichen on the side replied: "At present, the Japanese Navy already has four Osumi-class aircraft carriers, and there are four newly-built aircraft carriers in the dock under construction, and the level and tonnage are not yet known. What is certain, however, is that four of their Yamato-class battleships are also about to be launched. ”

Zhang Meng nodded and said, "It's earlier than expected, it seems that the Japanese are really ruthless, I'm afraid they want to take revenge in the next Tang-Japanese war." ”

Li Haichen said with a smile: "The Japanese Navy only has four aircraft carriers, while the Imperial Navy has already commissioned eight aircraft carriers, if they know that we are not building battleships but aircraft carriers, and in a year we will have twelve large aircraft carriers, I don't know what kind of expression they will have when the time comes." ”

Zhang Meng said: "Today, the Chiyou was launched, and soon the Japanese will know that we have played them." ”

Li Haichen said: "Even if they know the facts, I'm afraid there is no way." Their Yamato-class battleships are more than half complete, and if they are converted into aircraft carriers halfway, I am afraid that it will have to be delayed for three years, during which time we will leave them far behind in terms of the number of aircraft carriers. But ......"

Li Haichen changed his words, showing some concern, and said: "I heard that the Japanese Navy has converted many commercial ships into escort aircraft carriers. ”

Zhang Meng nodded and said, "That's right! The intelligence bureau said that the Japanese Navy had converted more than 40 escort aircraft carriers. ”

Li Haichen frowned and said, "They want to win by quantity!" ”

Zhang Meng snorted coldly and said: "No matter how much it is, the Japanese aero engine is a fatal shortcoming, and their carrier-based aircraft have not been able to pass the test for a long time, and they simply cannot meet the standard of competing with our aircraft carrier-based aircraft." ”

Li Haichen said worriedly: "But the Franco-Japanese alliance, France is strong in this regard, if they help the Japanese, it won't be long before the Japanese Navy will have carrier-based fighters that can compete with us." ”

"Yes! France was indeed able to greatly increase the strength of the Japanese army! However, they never thought that we would strike first. ”

Zhang Meng nodded, revealing a wicked smile. (To be continued......)