There was a brief silence in the room, and finally Tan Renhao broke the silence.

"Anyway, we've got to do something!" When Tan Renhao heard the news from Colonel Ji Xiaobin, his reaction was almost the same as Hao Dongjue's, but he didn't show it. "The colonel is very satisfied with our last report, and he is ready to submit it to General Liao Hanxiang and then promote the new training program. This time, the Colonel made our task much easier, so we couldn't let the Colonel down! ”

"Okay, so what are we going to do?" Chang Jianxin is much calmer than the other two.

Tan Renhao smiled and nodded at Chang Jianxin. "We will first collect information on the Japanese naval fleet, make an analysis report on the fleet that may visit, and then come up with an outline of the plan for the friendship exercise. There will be another person in charge of the specific exercise plan, and our task is to make preliminary preparations! ”

"Japan has four fleets, where should we start?"

The four Japanese fleets mentioned by Hao Dongjue are the Home Fleet, the Oriental Combined Fleet, the Southern Fleet, and the Southwest Combined Fleet. These four fleets are responsible for defense and combat operations in the four directions of the Japanese mainland, the North Pacific region in the northeast of Japan, the Pacific region centered on Truk in the south, and the western Pacific region on the imperial side. Among them, the greatest threat to the empire is its home fleet and the Southwestern Combined Fleet.

"This is what we have to determine, first of all, we must determine which fleet is visiting, and then formulate a targeted exercise plan." Tan Renhao sat down, "What the colonel told me is that the Southwest Combined Fleet is the most likely to visit, but it does not rule out the possibility of temporarily changing to another fleet. What fleet do you think Japan will send this time? ”

"If it's a targeted visit, then the South-Western Combined Fleet is the most likely!" Chang Jianxin frowned slightly, "At least, in nature, the Japanese Southwest Combined Fleet is very similar to ours, both are fleets focused on aviation operations, and the first two fast fleet aircraft carriers built by Japan are in the Southwest Combined Fleet. ”

"Yes, if we only visit the port of Naha this time and conduct joint exercises with us, then it is more likely that Japan will send the Southwest Combined Fleet!"

Tan Renhao didn't rush to speak, but he also agreed with the views of the two.

After two rounds of arms negotiations after the end of the last war, the world's nine major naval powers signed the Songjiang Nine-Power Naval Arms Limitation Treaty (Songjiang Treaty) in Imperial Songjiang. The treaty imposed extremely strict restrictions on the armament of the United States of America, the British Empire, the Kingdom of France, the German Empire, the Kingdom of Italy, the Russian Empire, the Persian Empire, Japan, and the Tang Empire, the nine major naval powers in the world, ranging from battleships to destroyers, displacement, artillery caliber, and number. This also includes the emergence of aircraft carriers.

According to the terms of the treaty, the Tang Empire, the United States of America and the British Empire could build three aircraft carriers with a total displacement of 120,000 tons, while Japan, the Kingdom of France, and the Persian Empire could only build aircraft carriers with a total displacement of 80,000 tons. There are also strict restrictions on the specific displacement of the aircraft carrier, its geometric dimensions and the number of aircraft carriers. After the treaty came into force, the six countries with the right to build aircraft carriers have all started to build their own aircraft carriers, and Japan is the most active one.

Two years after the end of the last war (before the treaty entered into force), Japan converted its first experimental aircraft carrier, the Hosho, gaining a lot of experience and perfecting the aircraft carrier technology. Subsequently, Japan converted the Amagi-class battlecruisers under construction into aircraft carriers.

According to the treaty restrictions, Japan's capital ships (battleships and battle cruisers) have exceeded the regulations, and the newly built "Amagi" class is in danger of total demolition. Therefore, Japan converted the "Amagi" and "Akagi" that were still on the slipway into aircraft carriers, but a later earthquake damaged the keel of the "Amagi", and only the "Akagi" was left as an aircraft carrier. However, the "Akagi" can only be regarded as a semi-experimental aircraft carrier, and in the eight years after its service, it has undergone a total of three large-scale refits, and almost all of it has stayed in the shipyard, and it has very little time to go to sea for training.

Based on the experience of the "Akagi" refit, Japan rebuilt another battleship under design to replace the "Amagi", which was damaged in the earthquake. This is the aircraft carrier "Kaga". It was originally one of the Tosa-class battleships. The construction of the Kaga began almost at the same time as the Akagi, but it was completed a year later. The two are very similar in appearance and have a slightly larger displacement.

According to the terms of the treaty, the displacement of an aircraft carrier converted from a battleship or battlecruiser can reach 33,000 tons, while the displacement of a newly-built aircraft carrier cannot exceed 23,000 tons. The displacement of both the "Akagi" and the "Kaga" is close to 35,000 tons, and the Japanese announced that it is 32,000 tons. Counting the "Fengxiang", Japan still has 8000 tons of aircraft carrier construction left. Under these circumstances, Japan decided to build a brand-new small aircraft carrier similar to the "Fengxiang", but later found that the construction of a small aircraft carrier did not outweigh the losses, so Japan still followed the method of refitting, using the hull of the heavy cruiser "Aoba" with a displacement of more than 8,000 tons, and refitted a small aircraft carrier. However, in the end, the aircraft carrier named "Long Shout" had a displacement of nearly 13,000 tons, not 8,000 tons!

It can be clearly seen that Japan is also full of twists and turns on the road of developing aircraft carriers, and the navies of other powers are almost the same. It is also undeniable that Japan continues to design new aircraft carriers, and as a top second-rate naval power, Japan has used aircraft carriers, a new weapon of naval warfare, as an important means of challenging the powerful Tang Empire to the west. At least, at this point, the Japanese Navy did a better job than the Navy of the Tang Empire!

All three of them knew that all four of Japan's aircraft carriers were now part of the Southwest Combined Fleet, which was a clear manifestation of provocation against the Tang Empire. However, the largest of the four aircraft carriers, the Akagi and Kaga, have returned to the shipyard for renovations, so the Southwest Combined Fleet, which has only two light aircraft carriers, has come to visit Naha for the time being.