Li Guang knew nothing about Raeder's conspiracy. He is now trying to think about the direction of the development of the Naval Resistance Force, especially the construction of the navy.

In Li Guang's plan, although the Naval Resistance Force did not have such a behemoth as battleships, he believed that it was still necessary to build several destroyers and cruisers, and as long as the capital ship was in the 21 st century, people would definitely choose aircraft carriers.

But after seeing the fate of this German pocket battleship, Li Guang realized that his idea was probably not the most suitable for the current situation.

It's time to adjust the fleet's thinking. Whether attacking enemy warships or merchant ships, submarines are the most cost-effective weapons. But submarines are not omnipotent.

In Li Guang's plan, in the future, he will take the free wheel and improve the power to fight as an improvised aircraft carrier. And the escort warships are more formal.

However, Li Guang now realizes that his idea is definitely not a plan for maximizing combat effectiveness with limited funds.

History tells Li Guang that no matter how powerful a battleship is, it is no match for an aircraft carrier. After all, no matter how powerful a naval gun is, it is impossible to attack from a distance like a fighter.

And the escort fleet of aircraft carriers, in the XXI century, is mainly about air defense and protection against submarines.

Imagine that if it was escorted by a cruiser with strong guns, if it was approached by a battleship, it would still be destroyed, and the end would be the same as that of a destroyer. As long as the aircraft carrier group is approached by the opponent's battleship and does not notice it, it is definitely a failure. Regardless of whether there is a destroyer or a cruiser escort.

That being the case, what to do with spending huge sums of money on the construction of full-fledged destroyers or cruisers?

After careful consideration and based on his own financial situation, Li Guang came to the conclusion that a relatively formal aircraft carrier should be built, and the destroyers and gunboats (cruisers) should be converted into merchant ships. This is the best path for the development of the Maritime Resistance Force.

It took two days for Li Guang to draw a sketch of an aircraft carrier, and then he and a group of ship designers began to study the plan.

Aircraft carriers are still a novelty in this era, just like modern people always feel a little bit of science fiction when they see God Ten in the sky. Although there were already many aircraft carriers in the world in this era, aircraft carriers did not play a role in naval warfare. Therefore, many people still think that this weapon is only an experimental product.

In fact, aircraft carriers at the beginning of World War II were simple and far less sophisticated than those of later generations. Some clues can be seen from the cost.

For example, the German pocket battleship had a standard displacement of 12,000 tons, a full load displacement of 16,000 tons, and a cost of 82 million marks. The only German aircraft carrier, the Graf Zeppelin, is being built in Germany, with a design displacement of 33,000 tons, and a full load of more than 38,000 tons.

The displacement of the two was almost 2.5 to 1, but the cost was only 92 million marks.

This aircraft carrier is equivalent to a single ton, which is 2,700 marks, or about 700 dollars.

And this German aircraft carrier, like many aircraft carriers of this era, was armed with large-caliber naval guns. This era is not like later generations, and the concept of naval warfare of giant ships and cannons is still the mainstream. Later generations of aircraft carriers have long abandoned the giant artillery and concentrated their firepower on air defense.

The island superstructure of the Graf Zeppelin is up to 150 mm thick. To deal with a potentially approaching enemy ship, the Graf Zeppelin was equipped with eight twin 150mm guns. And the force of these eight twin 150mm naval guns has actually surpassed that of a cruiser. It can be seen that the Germans did not completely change the thinking of the giant ship cannon at all. If we talk about the cost, these 16 guns alone, as well as the attached protective settings and turret bases, can account for one-third of the cost of the whole ship. And the weight of its main turret plus the weight of the ammunition compartment and other appendages can reach two thousand tons.

Li Guang planned to keep only the anti-aircraft artillery fire, and not a single main gun. As a result, the cost immediately dropped to less than $500 a ton.

In fact, before China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Chinese Navy Minister Chen Shaokuan once asked the United States about the price of aircraft carriers, and the price at that time was only $500 a ton. And there are also main artillery fighters.

In fact, a modern person is most familiar with naval weapons, not destroyers, not submarines, but aircraft carriers. Li Guang's plan can be said to have collected all the information on the aircraft carrier in his mind.

However, Li Guang was not an expert on ships, and several of the designs that Li Guang considered natural were overturned.

First of all, the shape of the hurricane head, which Li Guang advocates, has been recognized by several designers, believing that such a design can avoid the front of the flight deck being damaged by wind and waves. This shape is actually a closed bow, which not only avoids damage to the deck, but also strengthens the structural strength of the hull by using the upper deck as part of the hull structure. It can also reduce the drag and wind and wave interference of the aircraft carrier when sailing. In fact, the American Lexington aircraft carrier uses this structure, but the style is slightly different. Of course, according to the appearance of the Liaoning aircraft carrier, Li Guang's design was a little more advanced.

Then Li Guang asked for the use of a closed hangar, but was rejected by the designers, because the fighters all burn gasoline, and once they catch fire, they cannot be thrown out at all. And this designer Robert had real experience, he was involved in the construction of aircraft carriers before the economic crisis in the United States in 1927. Since people have put forward the truth, Li Guang does not insist. (Modern aircraft carrier hangars are closed, mainly to protect against nuclear radiation.)

Since seeing the armor arrangement and watertight cabin design of the Earl Spee, several engineers said that they could learn from it, and even copy it, or strengthen some of it. Li Guang had no experience in this point and did not oppose it. He admired the armor design of the Germans very much, the bottom of the ship turned out to be three layers of armor, with an air compartment in the middle, even if it was blown up by a torpedo, it would blow through two layers at most, and the protection effect was excellent, and the total thickness was not much. As many as thirteen watertight compartments and more than a dozen compartment divisions, so that the German battleship was knocked out of several large holes in the side without sinking, which is really admirable.

The side armor was more inventive than the Germans' design, with a 100-millimeter armor on the outside and a 40-millimeter-thick layer of anti-mine alloy armor lining the key points, such as the waterline.

Li Guang did not hesitate to adopt these advantages, as for such armor is still difficult to resist 203mm guns, Li Guang doesn't care at all, what he wants to build is not a battleship.

However, an armor installation proposed by Li Guang was opposed by the majority, but it was forced through. That is, the flight deck had to be laid with armor, and it was three inches of heavy armor. Li Guangke did not forget that his opponent was a little devil, who was dying at the end of the war, but he had a kamikaze daredevil's hobby of drilling the plane directly onto the deck.

The situation of the deck was undoubtedly identified by Li Guang as a sliding take-off deck and an inclined deck. No one understands this, but Li Guang is very arbitrary. (Most people think that the glide jump take-off was only available to aircraft carriers after World War II, in fact, the German aircraft carrier mentioned above was the first to use the skid jump deck, but the German battleship did not go to the battlefield at all and sank.) Not many people know. ）

As an aircraft carrier, the most difficult design was power, and several engineers unanimously demanded the use of oil-fired boiler steam turbine engines. In terms of cost, oil-fired boilers and engines are not expensive, and even the weight is not much. The only drawback is that the fuel turbine consumes a lot of fuel, and Li Guang requires a cruising range of more than 15,000 nautical miles. It is estimated that this would require carrying nearly 7,000 tons of fuel, resulting in a full load displacement of more than 35,000 tons.

Li Guang suddenly remembered that in later generations, it seemed that there was an aircraft carrier that was a hybrid of diesel and fuel oil. Li Guang has four high-power diesel engines and more than a dozen medium-power diesel engines, which squeezes out a lot of money.

I discussed this hybrid scheme with a group of engineers. (Thai)

As soon as this suggestion came out, it was despised by the engineers for a long time, which was theoretically feasible, but the power arrangement structure was complicated.

But when the discussion was deep, I realized that maybe it was a good idea. Because the gas turbine gas turbine has a large fuel consumption and poor economy when cruising in low working conditions. Therefore, the diesel engine is specially equipped for the cruise, which reduces the fuel consumption of the cruise, which not only improves the economic surname but also increases the endurance. Oil-fired boilers only need to consume a little fuel to maintain boiler pressure in peacetime, and do not affect the need for an urgent increase in speed in a sudden battle.

The oil-fired boiler heats up extremely quickly, and can even switch from a cold boiler to a normal operating state in just over ten minutes from cruising to full power by relying solely on the diesel engine.

After everyone basically determined this plan, the Chinese engineer Lippmann said: "If the propeller shaft and propeller on the German battleship are still there, it can be used for salvage, and it will be more economical." ”

Lippmann said there was a reason for this, just two days after the sinking of the Earl Spee, British Navy divers went into the water to search the side, found that there were not many high-tech items left, and immediately abandoned the steel monster. The wreck was only more than eight meters deep, and although the warship was blown up, many parts were only two or three meters above the water, and even now there is steel exposed on the sea.

But the level of technology in this era is simply not able to salvage this giant ship. Don't underestimate the cost of transmission mechanism and propeller, 30,000-ton ship, if you want to achieve high speed, the propeller weighs dozens of tons, plus the transmission mechanism, the cost is expensive.

Lippmann came up with an idea: "It's not easy to salvage the whole thing, we will use high explosives to blow the ship into small pieces, one or twenty tons a piece, and it won't take long to salvage them all." ”

A word woke up the person in the dream, high is really high.

Everyone is engaged in engineering technology, and they immediately contributed ideas. It is estimated that the salvage cost will definitely not cost more than $100,000. (In the 21st century, it was estimated that it would cost $5 million, or about $100,000 at comparable prices.) In the novel, it was blown to pieces again and salvaged, and there should be less. ）

And the weight of this ship is also more than 10,000 tons, even if it sells scrap iron, it can be worth half a million dollars, it is definitely a money-making business, maybe you can salvage a few cannons that have not been blown up, then it will make a lot of money. And even if the battleship is blown to pieces, many things can still be used directly. At least the quality of the armor engineers agree that it should be above the American product.

Li Guang also made a design requirement, that is, the power should be strong enough, and finally made the decision to use two 1200 horsepower diesel engines as generator power to power the whole ship. After such a long period of shipbuilding experience, Li Guang still discovered a shortcoming of ships in this era - insufficient power equipment. If you don't pay attention to the power supply, the power of the water pump will not be enough when the aircraft carrier is injured or caught fire in the future, not to mention the electronic equipment and lighting facilities needed in the war. Li Guang has also seen a few warships, but it seems that all countries do not pay enough attention to this issue.

With regard to several other requirements for the aircraft carrier, everyone expressed support for Li Guang's proposal. As for the purely technical issues of how many watertight compartments there are and how many cabins they are divided into, Li Guang has no experience, so he listens to these designers. But Li Guang did not know all the two technologies that he knew about and would be used on aircraft carriers in the future, which were known as the three major innovative technologies of aircraft carriers after World War II.

Li Guang demanded that the displacement of about 25,000 tons be designed, and the hull structure, pipelines, cables, and electrical equipment should be designed in accordance with the civilian ship construction specifications of Lloyd's Register of Shipping, and the relevant materials and equipment should be civilian products. Due to the wide sales and large production of civilian goods, the price is much lower than that of military supplies.

As a matter of fact, as long as the quality of civilian supplies is strictly controlled, and the individual assessment indicators are not as harsh as those of military supplies, the results will not be bad. Although some of the civil ship construction specifications are applied, the design and construction of key items related to combat and vitality, such as flight deck, power plant, power distribution system, damage control system, etc., are still carried out in accordance with the requirements of military standards. Secondly, in the selection of equipment, the key point of ensuring flight operations should be highlighted, and other equipment that can be installed or not installed will be exempted.

However, according to Li Guang's requirements for armor power in all aspects, the engineers estimated that the displacement of this warship in the future is estimated to exceed Li Guang's expectations, and it may be about 28,000 tons. The full load displacement is around 35,000 tons.

The use of civilian standards alone can reduce the cost by a quarter, or even a third, while the shipyard excludes profits and certain capital costs, and the anti-aircraft guns are all self-made costs, and Li Guang estimates that the net cost in the future will be 300 US dollars per ton of displacement.

In other words, the minimum cost of this aircraft carrier will be less than 10 million US dollars. The engine is already half, two million dollars. In other words, Li Guang needs to borrow about 8 million funds.

The design fee offered by Li Guangwei for this ship design was one dollar per ton, or $30,000. This price is not high, but it is normal according to the current market, and the key is that for every one built in the future, you can still get half a dollar a ton. According to the standard set by Li Guang, with the production capacity of the shipyard, one can be built in one and a half years, and if there are two large docks, it is not very difficult to build two ships in a year and a half. For a ship design institute with a total of more than 20 people, this is not a small benefit.

Several engineers of the shipyard have admired Li Guang's vision, and the two civilian ships launched by Li Guang are in short supply. However, the price does not meet expectations for the time being, and the order for the Liberty ship has now left the factory for four ships, and there are still two ships under construction. And the dry bulk carrier now adds 100,000 US dollars to renovate, and it will be 300,000 US dollars immediately.

Since the start of the war in September, six dry bulk carriers have been retrofitted. Except for two for the transport of Statue Island and Tonga, the remaining four have all been sold. Due to the distance between Nauru and Uruguay, although Li Guang made concessions on the price of guano, the cost of shipping was high, and the price was still around three US dollars. The sales volume is not very large, but the profit is no problem to maintain the normal operation of the enterprise. And Li Guang was only going to leave twenty freighters to continue to transport guano, and the rest were all modified and sold.

Li Guang is ready to make five million in the transformation of dry bulk carriers. The shipyard can now provide three million in stock. In this way, the funds for the aircraft carrier will basically be enough.

After determining the main parameters of the aircraft carrier, Li Guang began to place an order with the United States without waiting for the drawings to come out, but the high-power oil-fired boilers and engines were not in stock, and they had to go to the front. The parameters of the main power are not difficult to determine, and there are quite a few to draw on in this era. Due to Li Guang's strict requirements for the construction period, the engineers of the ship design institute immediately began to design the keel and prepare to manufacture it while designing.

Another fortune project, the salvage of a sunken ship, has also been rapidly underway. The leader was Fang Gonghai, a veteran of the 88th Division who had studied explosives, and it was not suitable to stay in the army because of his injuries, but he was quite competent in organizing such dangerous work. The rest of the salvage team were recruits who had not passed the three-month basic training. The basic discipline is still quite good, enough to be promoted to this kind of shallow sea salvage work.

What Li Guang did not expect was that in the war in the years that followed, this salvage team made great contributions to the Naval Resistance Army, far exceeding his expectations.

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