This is certainly not the case, the general-class aircraft carrier (prototype Essex-class) has a standard displacement of 27200 tons, a full load displacement of 34880 tons, a length of 265.79 meters, and a flight deck length of 262.13 meters. It adopts eight boilers and four geared steam turbines, with an output of 150,000 shaft horsepower, a speed of 32.7 knots, a fuel load of 6,300 tons, and a cruising range of 15,000 nautical miles/15 knots.

The most important thing for an aircraft carrier is its carrier-based aircraft, the total number of general-class fighters that can be carried is 103 aircraft, and the aviation group of the White Rise includes: 1 fighter squadron of 37 units, a fighter-bomber squadron of 37 units, 1 dive bomber squadron of 15 units, and a torpedo squadron of 15 aircraft.

The other three ships of the General class were launched in 1908, the third and fourth Weiqing and Zhang Liao, respectively, and they were delivered to the South China Sea Fleet. The fifth Xiang Yu and the sixth Zhao Yun are under construction in the shipyard, and the Navy plans to produce a total of 12 aircraft carriers of this main fleet, all of which will be delivered to the Navy by 1911.

In addition to fleet aircraft carriers, the Navy also placed orders for "Ryukyu-class" escort aircraft carriers and "Taiwan-class" light aircraft carriers to shipyards, but before 1909, Huaguo Shipyard was filled with orders for the Navy's main warships, and the construction of escort aircraft carriers was ranked after June 1909. According to the plan, the Chinese Navy will need a total of more than 100 escort aircraft carriers and 30 light aircraft carriers to meet the operational needs of the Pacific theater, Southeast Asia, and the Indian Ocean region. Such a large number of warships would have been difficult to accomplish before 1911 without entering the wartime system.

The appetite of the navy is so great that it has obtained resources second only to the army, and even has the posture to catch up with and surpass the army. After the general-class aircraft carrier was launched into active service, another warship soon defended the glory of China's shipbuilding industry, and the ridicule of Huaguo by the navies of various countries came to an abrupt end, and they devoted great energy to studying Huaguo's newly launched warship.

The battlecruiser named "Imperial class" was called a "fast battleship" by the Chinese Navy, and the first "Daqin" was launched in January 1909 and entered service in the East China Sea Fleet in July 1909 after sea trials. The mature design shortens the sea trial time of the warship to a minimum, which is also one of the advantages of the Chinese Navy. (Refer to North Carolina-class battleships)

The addition of the Imperial-class to the Chinese Navy caused another panic among the British Navy and the U.S. Navy, because from the photos taken secretly, technical experts speculated that this kind of battleship was similar to the Wuyue-class battleships, and even had a larger main gun caliber, and if the Chinese Navy was equipped with more than ten warships of this type, the British Navy would need to prepare more than twenty Dreadnought-class battleships in the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia to compete with them, obviously, this number could not be achieved in a short period of time.

Since the quantity cannot meet the demand, we can only work on the quality, thicker armor, larger displacement, larger caliber naval guns, and stronger power, these indicators have become a nightmare for shipbuilding technology experts in various countries, especially the British, who seem to be catching up with the Chinese navy farther and farther on the road.

In fact, the British were not more alarmed than so, the Empire-class battle cruiser was a new type of warship used to follow the aircraft carrier formation and protect the aircraft carrier. In order to increase the power of the main engine and reduce the weight of the battleship to increase the speed, the Imperial Battlecruiser also took into account the possible future air threat and strengthened the horizontal defensive armor, so that the broadside armor belt could only resist the penetration of 14-inch caliber shells, that is, 355 mm caliber. The latest type of battleship launched by the British in 1909 was already equipped with 15-inch guns, and according to information obtained by the intelligence services, the British had successfully developed 16-inch guns, which were about to be equipped on the next class of battleships.

The performance data of the Imperial-class war cruiser is 34,600 tons of standard displacement, 42,300 tons of full load displacement, eight boilers, four double reduction gear transmission steam turbines, and the main engine output is 121,000 shaft horsepower. The maximum speed is 28 knots, and the cruising range is 16,450 nautical miles, 5,560 nautical miles/25 knots. It is completely possible to follow the aircraft carrier formation in combat. With 3 triple 406 mm/45 x diameter guns and 10 twin 127 mm high-level dual-purpose guns, the ship was designed and built with air defense needs in mind and did not need to be retrofitted in the later stage.

According to the plan, a total of eight Empire-class battle cruisers will be built, and subsequent construction will be modified according to the battle situation and usage, or the modification of the hull, or the modification of the number of warships.

The Navy's Genetic Officers didn't feel anything, they were basically cold-blooded animals, but the Navy's ordinary officers were ecstatic about it. These officers felt the same as the British Navy when they were launched to serve on aircraft carriers, or had more resentment, why didn't the upper echelons of the Navy build more battleships, but chose big toys like aircraft carriers? There are no large-caliber naval guns, no heavy armor, nothing at all!

As a result, the extreme disappointment turned into great joy after the service of the Empire-class battle cruiser, and the Chinese Navy finally ushered in a new capital ship after two Wuyue-class battleships! When facing the expeditionary fleet a few years ago, the lack of capital ships had been etched in the minds of naval officers, who dreamed of having more and more advanced battleships. In particular, the sadness of watching four battleships being sent to Germany even led to the suicide of an extreme naval captain officer, and after the tragedy, the navy rushed to pacify it, suggesting that there would be a new type of battleship launched, as long as you waited patiently.

The patience paid off, even if the armor was slightly thin, the Imperial-class battlecruiser was one of the most advanced battleships in the world, and the triple 405 mm caliber main gun even surpassed the firepower of the Gotsu-class battleships. The sailors who were fortunate enough to be selected to be part of the crew of the White Rise Warpatrol trained day and night to become proficient in handling the steel monster. In contrast, the sailors and officers who served on the general-class aircraft carrier were a little depressed, they considered themselves to be abandoned by the navy, and when the battle patrol sailors of the Baiqi experienced the roar of the main artillery and the rapid secretion of adrenaline, they could only carry out boring tactical training, formation training, fighter take-off and landing training, and every time they returned to the port, they would be ridiculed by the battle patrol sailors, so that they could not raise their heads.

This situation changed to a certain extent in November 1909, when the South China Sea Fleet and the East China Sea Fleet dispatched some of their capital ships to conduct a naval military exercise in the Bohai Bay. The exercise was extremely secretive, and even the entire navy in the Bohai Bay, where nongovernmental trade is very busy, was closed to any civilian vessels, and no civilian vessels were allowed to leave the ports in the Bohai Bay, and more than 100 warships patrolled back and forth just to prevent the contents of the exercise from leaking out.

The course of the exercise was not mentioned, and the results of the exercise allowed the officers and men of the Navy to fully understand the reasons for such secrecy. The squadron with two Goyue-class battleships as the core confronted the squadron composed of two aircraft carriers, and less than two hours after the exercise began, the battleship squadron was discovered by reconnaissance planes sent by the aircraft carrier squadron, and then the first batch of 50 planes took off from the aircraft carrier and arrived over the battleship squadron half an hour later.

Despite the fact that the Gotsugaku-class battleships had sufficient anti-aircraft artillery fire and the detachment also had fifteen anti-aircraft cruisers and destroyers, the battleship squadron was defeated by three batches of aircraft. As a result, two battleships in the battleship detachment were heavily damaged, one was judged by the director team to sink after an hour, three cruisers were sunk, and five destroyers were sunk. And the aircraft carrier detachment lost only forty-two aircraft, and in comparison, the aircraft carrier detachment won a complete victory!

If there were no air defense cruisers and destroyers, the aircraft losses of the aircraft carrier squadron would be even lower, since the initial construction of the Chinese Navy, its main battleships are characterized by high speed, light armor, and light firepower, this type of battleship is incompatible with the mainstream of the world, but fortunately, the two Wuyue-class battleships let China go through that difficult time.

After this exercise, the officers and men of the Navy finally understood the true role of the Nanhai-class cruisers and Guangzhou-class destroyers, which was to provide air defense support for the aircraft carrier formation, not to use them for warship bombardment. A large number of cruisers and destroyers built at the time were used directly in aircraft carrier formations, saving a lot of dockyard for the current shipyard, allowing the shipyard to concentrate on building capital warships such as battle cruisers and aircraft carriers.

The officers and men of the Navy participating in the exercise were required to keep the exercise strictly secret, and not a single word about the course and results of the exercise could be revealed. This is an exercise that can change the pattern of naval warfare and the world pattern, and it is of great importance to the Chinese Navy. On the other hand, the officers and men who participated in the exercise did not want to recall the battle, especially the officers and men of the battleship detachment, the overwhelming number of aircraft, dive bombing, and torpedo attacks, even the dense anti-aircraft artillery fire could hardly stop the crazy attacks of those pilots.

However, from another point of view, even if Britain, France, the United States and other countries obtain the content of the exercise, it will not change the structure of naval combat forces with battleships as the core, and after the baptism of World War II in another time and space, countries around the world will use aircraft carriers as the real core. At the end of World War II, Japan was still investing heavily in the construction of Yamato-class battleships, and the navy's pursuit and fanaticism for giant ship artillery would not change because of a single exercise.

Admirals and sailors are even more superstitious about the bombardment of naval artillery within the visible range of the naked eye, and there is still a long way to go in this time and space if they want to transition to naval warfare outside the visual range, so the Chinese navy can grasp the tactical advantage for a long time. (To be continued.) )