At the end of the Battle of the Atlantic, the German Navy's idea of protecting ships was once again staged, which caused the US Navy to seize sea supremacy in the Mediterranean Sea and prepare to cover the landing of American troops from the Italian peninsula.

On the Soviet-German battlefield, there was still no possibility of the German army turning the tables, and with the end of the Battle of Kursk, the Soviet army gradually drove all the German troops out of Soviet territory.

Germany's successor, Liliang, is also drying up, and the amount of hard currency available for payment to the Tang Empire is greatly decreasing, which means that Germany has run out of oil.

Zhang Meng quickly convened a pre-imperial meeting to discuss a new round of international strategic decisions of the Tang Empire.

At the meeting, Zhang Meng proposed to abandon Germany and Italy, because these two countries have nothing to fish, but the Soviet Union is still importing various strategic materials such as steel, grain, and medicine from the Tang Empire on a large scale, and the Soviet army is eager to obtain advanced weapons and equipment from the Tang Empire, which is a big opportunity for the arms dealers of the Tang Empire.

"Germany and Italy are probably in danger of defeat, Europe can't let the United States and the Soviet Union divide it, and the empire should get a piece of the pie!"

"We now have the atomic bomb, and even if we continue to stand on the side of Germany and Italy, we will win, but trying to conquer the United States and the Soviet Union will probably be a huge war of attrition, and the gains will outweigh the losses."

"That's right! If, on the other hand, we supported the United States and the Soviet Union and got a piece of the pie in Europe, we would surely have atomic weapons that would make the United States and the Soviet Union dare not disagree. ”

"The empire has allied with Germany and Italy before, seizing a large area of territory and colonies in Britain, France and the Soviet Union, will there be anything wrong with us helping them at this time, and the international community will laugh at us!"

"There's nothing wrong with that! Datang is different from Germany and Italy. Germany slaughtered millions of Jews and committed unforgivable crimes against humanity on that basis alone. We can build momentum and win international opinion. ”

Zhang Meng consulted with the ministers of civil and military affairs, and Zuihou decided to strike at the right time to snatch the fruits of victory from the United States and the Soviet Union.

After more than two years of strategic recuperation, the Tang Army had taken full control of Oceania, the Far East, and the captured British strategic positions.

On the military side, the Datang Royal Navy has twelve more main aircraft carriers in service. As a result, the number of main aircraft carriers has increased to 24, and the warships that captured the British and French navies have completed a huge modernization and refit, and the command and combat system of the Tang Army has been replaced. It was re-outfitted into a special dark gray for the Tang Army, and was equipped with the major fleets of the Tang Navy.

During this period, the Tang Army also eliminated a number of old and outdated warships, and those that remained were enough to be competent for the battlefield of World War II, so that the main fleet of the Tang Royal Navy finally had 24 main large aircraft carriers. 56 escort aircraft carriers. 28 battleships, 3 battle cruisers, 31 heavy cruisers, 58 light cruisers, 472 destroyers, 104 submarines, and thousands of reconnaissance ships, training ships, troop carriers, supply ships, patrol ships, gunboats, gunboats, torpedo boats, etc., with a total tonnage of 6.39 million tons, 110,000 tons less than before, due to the elimination of some warships that were not qualified.

Before World War II, the Tang Army already had four Tianwang-class first-generation aircraft carriers with a displacement of 30,000 tons, four Doukui-class quasi-second-generation aircraft carriers with a displacement of 40,000 tons, and four Chiyou-class second-generation aircraft carriers with a displacement of 55,000 tons, which were commissioned on the eve of the outbreak of World War II. After the outbreak of World War II, the war machine of the Tang Empire was in full swing. With the glorious victory of the Tang Army during World War II, the 8 Chiyou-class aircraft carriers were not put into the war after they were completed, and the Datang Admiralty did not continue to build more Chiyou-class aircraft carriers, but adopted the designer's new aircraft carrier design. The construction of four more powerful aircraft carriers has been started, and the Chang'an-class large second-generation aircraft carriers with a displacement of 68,000 tons have a longer and wider flight deck than the Chiyou-class aircraft carriers, a larger number of loaded aircraft, and more advanced fleet command systems and radar systems.

The Tang Army's original escort aircraft carriers numbered more than 200, but most of them were eliminated during the two-year strategic recuperation period, and the six aircraft carriers captured by the British Navy were incorporated into the category of escort aircraft carriers, and finally the scale of 56 escort aircraft carriers was retained.

The powerful battleship formation composed of 28 battleships is a new highlight of the Tang Navy, although all of them are battleships captured from the British and French navies, but the Tang Army has modernized and upgraded them on a large scale, it is difficult to see that they were once British and French warships, they have been reequipped with new ship islands, re-outfitting, have a modern command and control system, and have an advanced fire control radar system, which greatly improves the accuracy of the main gun shooting, and has installed a large number of Vulcan Phalanx air defense systems. What is even more striking is that each battleship is equipped with two quadruple cruise missile launch systems, equipped with Trident cruise missiles with a range of 200 kilometers, which can carry out land attacks.

The 28 battleships were 5 Queen Elizabeth-class (Queen Elizabeth, War-Weyware, Barham, Warrior, Malaya), 5 Revenge-class (Revenge, Resolve, Ramiri, Royal Oak, and King's Power), 5 George V-class (HMS George V, HMS Prince of Wales, HMS Duke of York, HMS Anson, HMS Howe), and 4 Britannia-class ships (HMS England, USS Scotland, HMS Wales, HMS Northern Ireland), Four of the Britannia-class battleships belong to super battleships, which are 67,000 tons of displacement built by the British Navy to counter Japan's Yamato-class battleships, equipped with four super-battleships with three 406 mm main guns and a speed of 30 knots.

The other 9 battleships were captured from France: 1 Brittany-class battleship (Lorraine), 1 Colbe-class battleship (Paris), 2 Dunkirk-class battleships (Dunkirk, Strasbourg), and 4 Richelieu-class battleships (Richelieu, Jeanbar, Cascoyne, Clemenceau).

Among them, the Richelieu-class battleships belonged to super battleships, and the Cascoyne and Clemenceau were towed back to the Tang Dynasty by the Tang Army and reinstalled the main guns developed by the Tang Dynasty, and the four Richelieu-class battleships were all equipped with 406 mm main guns, which were consistent with the Britannia-class to ensure convenient ammunition supply. The original Brittany, Provence and Corbe were considered to have lost their value of modification and upgrading after returning to Datang due to poor maintenance, and Zuihou sank in the atomic bomb nuclear Shiyan.

The three battle cruisers of the Tang Army were all from the British Navy, the Hood, the Prestige and the Counterattack, the latter was sunk by the Don Army in the Battle of Oceania and salvaged and repaired, and Zuihou was modernized and upgraded to be equipped with the Tang Navy, which was also equipped with Trident cruise missiles.

The other 31 heavy cruisers and 58 light cruisers were not equipped with cruise missiles, but they were equipped with the Vulcan air defense phalanx system on a large scale, and like the other 400 destroyers, they were mainly used as the air defense needs of the fleet, and the Tang Army's naval combat system centered on aircraft carriers was thoroughly perfected.

With such a powerful navy, Liliang is enough to offset the pressure of the US Navy and support the Tang Empire to take a share of the pie in Europe. (To be continued......)