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Chapter 476 Circumvention of Treaty Restrictions

According to the content of the Five-Power Pact, the Imperial Chinese Navy allowed the retention of thirty-six capital ships, but after a series of studies, the Imperial Chinese Navy decided to retain forty-nine capital ships. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 infodomain name, please be familiar with the fact that 27 of the capital ships are the original capital ships of the Imperial Chinese Navy, and the remaining 22 are capital ships captured by the US Ocean Fleet.

As the world's most powerful super battleship, the eight Ming-class battleships of the Imperial Chinese Navy were the first to remain. The first four Ming-class battleships were the Hongwu Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang

, Yongle Emperor Zhu Di

, Xuande Emperor Zhu Zhanji

, Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youzhen

Built before the war, equipped with an 18-inch cannon, a speed of 30 knots, 450 mm armor protection, and a displacement of up to 88,000 tons, this super battleship performed outstanding in the Battle of the Atlantic, proving its existence as the world's strongest battleship, recognized by the world's naval circles, and crowned with the glorious title of sea overlord. The last four Ming-class battleships are upgraded and improved versions of the first four, built before the Sino-American war, failed to catch up with the Battle of the Atlantic, and entered service shortly after the war, and their Xing ability is stronger than the first four Ming-class battleships.

The second is the four Yuan-class battleships built in 1912, this super battleship equipped with a 17-inch cannon performed prominently in the Battle of the Atlantic, and for the post-war world order, it is still a powerful existence that surpasses the active battleships of other European and American navies.

The eight Song-class battleships built in 1911 and the four Tang-class battleships built in 1910 are already slightly outdated, and the capital ship standards of European and American countries have reached and exceeded these two types of battleships. Although these two super battleships are no longer in the lead, the navies of Europe and the United States were unable to maintain the daily expenses of such super battleships after the war, so the Chinese Empire retained these twelve battleships, which still had a practical deterrent in the treaty era.

The battle cruiser program of the Imperial Chinese Navy has long been terminated, and only four of the fourteen battle cruisers participated in the Battle of the Atlantic, among which the Battle Cruiser of Emperor Wu of Jin was bravely sunk, and the only two remaining Sui-class battle cruisers and one advanced battle cruiser continued to be retained after repair, while the other ten battle cruisers were completely decommissioned and dismantled on the slipways of major shipyards, as the actual action performance of the Imperial Chinese Navy in response to the Five-Power Convention and playing the role of ambassador for world peace.

The remaining 22 capital ships came from captured battleships of the US Navy, including four Iowa-class battleships, four Olympia-class battlecruisers, three North Carolina-class battleships, five South Dakota-class battleships, four Frankfurt-class battlecruisers, and two Denver-class battlecruisers.

Among them, four Iowa-class battleships with a displacement of up to 62,000 tons, equipped with 18-inch guns and speed, and Olympia-class battlecruisers equipped with 18-inch guns and a speed of 30 knots, are recognized by the world as super battleships second only to the Ming-class battleships of the Chinese Empire, and they are super battleships that have been captured by the Chinese Imperial Navy from the shipyard, which is equivalent to the capital ships built by the US Navy directly for the Chinese Imperial Navy for free.

Then there were the three super battleships equipped with 17-inch guns, the USS Maine, the USS Missouri, and the USS Ohio, three of which were all North Carolina-class battleships, the first of which was sunk by the Imperial Chinese Navy. As well as the South Dakota, the Mengdana, the Indiana, the Massachusetts, and the Chilshach, the five battleships equipped with 16-inch guns, are all powerful battleships for the Chinese Imperial Navy and even the world navy, and it is not a problem to continue to serve for ten or eight years.

The North Carolina-class battlecruisers corresponded to four Frankfurt-class battlecruisers, and the four battlecruisers Frankfurt, Honolulu, St. Paul, and Helena were all captured by the Imperial Chinese Navy. They are equipped with 17-inch guns, 30 knots, and only half a year old, which is four new battle cruisers for the Imperial Chinese Navy. The other two battle cruisers, the Indiana Boly and the Des Moines, both belong to the Denver class, equipped with twin 16-inch guns with a speed of 30 knots, and the age of the ships is only one and a half years, and the Imperial Chinese Navy is also reluctant to abandon it.

In this way, the number of capital ships of the Imperial Chinese Navy actually reached forty-nine, which was thirteen more than the stipulated thirty-six.

To this end, the Imperial Chinese Admiralty decided to mothball eight Ming-class battleships, four Yuan-class battleships, four Iowa-class battleships, three North Carolina-class battleships, and four Olympia-class battlecruisers and four Frankfurt-class battlecruisers for maintenance until they were needed in the future.

Through this means, the Imperial Chinese Navy has preserved twenty-seven super warships, and once the world situation changes, the Chinese Imperial Navy can quickly unseal these super warships, and with a slight modification and upgrade, they can quickly enter the battle.

Of course, the Imperial Chinese Navy kept this highly secretive, and used other captured American large battleships and battle cruisers to be dismantled on the slipway, and successfully deceived the eyes of the inspectors of the Five Nations Convention.

In the end, the Imperial Chinese Navy retained only 24 capital ships for service, which greatly reassured the navies of Europe and the United States, and highly praised the Imperial Chinese Navy for setting an example for the peace of the world's navies, and the navies of other countries were also able to reduce their naval warships with confidence.

According to the statutes of the Admiralty of the Chinese Empire, the remaining twenty-four capital ships were divided into three batches of eight capital ships, the first batch was four Song-class battleships, one Tang-class battleship, two Sui-class battlecruisers and one advanced battlecruiser, the second batch was four Song-class battleships, two Tang-class battleships, and two Denver-class battlecruisers (Indiana Boley and Des Moines), and the third batch was five South Dakota-class battleships (South Dakota, Mengdana, Indiana, Massachusetts, USS Chilshaji), three Colorado-class battleships (USS Colorado, USS Maryland, USS West Virginia).

It was divided into three groups, the first group patrolled the world and was on combat duty outside, and the second group was anchored in Hong Kong and served as a vigilance mission. The third group will go to the dock for maintenance, and in the event of a sudden war, at least a third of the capital ships can be ready to fight.

The captured U.S. capital ships basically did not meet the requirements of the Imperial Chinese Navy in terms of air defense, so they were assigned to the third batch of capital ships and maintained and upgraded in the advanced dockyard. The main ones are to upgrade radar systems, sonar arrays, central fire control systems, sighting equipment, radio equipment, and most importantly, anti-aircraft weapons systems. Of course, the speed of US warships was generally much slower than that of the active warships of the Imperial Chinese Navy, so the steam turbine systems of captured US ships were also extensively upgraded and refitted.

In addition to the capital ships, the Imperial Chinese Navy also made significant adjustments to heavy cruisers, light cruisers, and hunting destroyers. Among them, the heavy cruiser, in accordance with the provisions of the five-nation convention, the caliber of the main gun shall not exceed 203 mm. After the world war, the armored cruisers of various countries proved to be ribs, especially in the case of the existence of battle cruisers, armored cruisers were even weaker and vulnerable, and countries have retired and dismantled a large number of armored cruisers, and only a few weak naval countries such as Soviet Russia, Turkey, Argentina, and Sweden are still using armored cruisers as capital ships.

The Chinese Empire had long ceased to build armored cruisers, and the only remaining thirty or so armored cruisers were captured from the Russian, British, and Japanese navies. These armored cruisers were used before the war as heavy cruisers of the Imperial Chinese Navy, serving as fleet escort and air defense missions. With the end of the Atlantic naval battle, the air defense battleships needed more the speed and firepower of the Typhoon-class heavy cruisers, which were known as the Chinese Aegis air defense cruisers, so these old armored cruisers died as soon as possible after the war, and all of them were decommissioned, and only a few British armored cruisers with better quality were converted into training ships of the sea training center to use.

In the Battle of the Atlantic, the performance of the Typhoon-class heavy cruisers of the Chinese Empire was worshiped by international naval military experts after the war, and various countries began to study air defense cruisers one after another, mainly referring to the design of the Typhoon-class heavy cruisers of the Chinese Imperial Navy.

The Imperial Chinese Navy could not sit idly by and watch the navies of Europe and the United States surpass the Chinese Empire in this regard, so the post-war reform of heavy cruisers was put on the agenda.

At this time, the Chinese Empire had 36 Aegis air defense cruisers, which meant four new aircraft carrier battle groups due to the successive commissioning of four war-built Wudangshan-class aircraft carriers. According to the standard of six Aegis air defense cruisers for each aircraft carrier battle group, the Imperial Chinese Navy needs to add 24 Typhoon-class heavy cruisers.

However, considering that European and American countries are developing similar air defense cruisers, the Chinese Empire is not in a hurry to build them, and the General Administration of Naval Ships is collecting information from various countries in this regard, and will wait until various countries have launched their air defense cruisers before making comparative upgrades.

In terms of light cruisers, the 122 Fengxian-class and Fengxian-class modifications in service in the Chinese Empire are still not outdated, and they can still meet the needs of light cruisers in the treaty era.

Due to the restrictions of the five-nation convention, countries attached great importance to destroyers after the war. Since the treaty did not limit the tonnage and number of destroyers, the threat of German submarines in a world war was huge, and Britain would have been surrendered by German submarines long ago if it were not for a large number of destroyers in service for anti-submarine warfare. For this reason, after the war, all countries paid special attention to the escort and anti-submarine tasks of destroyers, and at the same time, destroyers also had very good air defense effects, so all countries vigorously developed destroyers.

The Imperial Chinese Admiralty has received reports that naval engineers in Europe and the United States are enlarging the tonnage of existing destroyers and increasing the design of anti-submarine and anti-aircraft weapons in anti-submarine and anti-aircraft weapons in anticipation of bypassing treaty restrictions to compensate for the functions of light cruisers.

Therefore, the Imperial Chinese Navy has also increased its investment in destroyers in terms of funds and manpower, enlarged the hull on the basis of the most advanced rainstorm-class hunting ships, and installed more anti-aircraft artillery, anti-aircraft phalanx, high-rise machine guns and anti-submarine weapon systems.