The next morning, everyone went their separate ways, and Muller was mainly in charge of the work of the two Chinese aircraft carriers, and he accompanied by Colonel Sa to the aircraft carrier "Jiangsu" docked at the dockside.

The Qinzhou naval base has now become the only large naval base that the Chinese can control, which has a lot to do with the geographical location. Located at the tip of the semi-circular Beibu Gulf, the Leizhou Peninsula, Hainan Island, and Indochina Peninsula all serve as good screens and early warnings, making it difficult to be as vulnerable to Japanese attacks as other coastal areas of China.

In fact, the Japanese fleet currently has no plans to sail more than 2,000 kilometers at sea and venture to the new Chinese naval base for a long distance.

On two small islands in Qinzhou Bay, two small military airfields have been built in concrete to train pilots of carrier-based air wings, modeled after the flight decks of aircraft carriers. Although this kind of training is still very different from real ship take-off and landing, it is still very useful for training junior carrier-based aircraft pilots. The front and back and right sides of the airport are basically in the water, and if you are not careful during take-off and landing, the plane will still get planted in the water.

Muller watched an entire squadron of Islaya YL-34SK "Saker" fighters take off one after another on a concrete flight simulator deck in just 10 minutes aboard the Jiangsu, form a formation over the harbor, and then whizz across the sea and sky to the southern sea area for routine training.

It can be seen that the Chinese Navy has put a lot of energy into the training of carrier-based aircraft pilots.

The YL-34SK is a naval version of the Israya Saker fighter, which strengthens the landing gear and the structure of the fuselage, weighs nearly 400 kilograms more than the land-based fighter, and the maximum speed is reduced to 570 kilometers. Even so, the Sea Hunting Falcon is still the fastest carrier-based aircraft in the world and the main two-seat high-altitude interceptor of the Austro-Hungarian naval air force.

China's "Jiangsu"-class aircraft carriers are large surface ships of Chinese self-construction. The blueprint is an improved version of the "Attila the Huns", supplied by the Austro-Hungarian Navy. This is the first time that the Chinese have built a large surface ship of more than 10,000 tons, and they have chosen a standard displacement of 25,700 tons from the beginning. Although aircraft carriers were much simpler to build than battleships and heavy cruisers due to the lack of sophisticated weapons systems, the lack of experience and industrial technology made the construction progress much slower than that of industrial powers.

The aircraft carrier designers of the Austro-Hungarian Navy have always followed the British design style of wind and wave resistance, using a double-decker hangar design with a closed bow and stern. The length and width of the flight deck are larger than the hull, which is more conducive to improving the seaworthiness of the warship and the take-off and landing of aircraft under high sea conditions. The biggest difference between it and the "Hun King" is that the 127-mm long-range anti-aircraft firepower has been cancelled, and eight twin-mounted 90-mm anti-aircraft guns have been used as medium-range anti-aircraft fire, and at the same time, the number of short-range anti-aircraft guns such as twin and quadruple Islaya 40-mm anti-aircraft guns has been increased. This is also the experience of Austro-Hungarian Guò, which reduced or eliminated heavy anti-aircraft artillery to free up more space in the hangar to equip it with more combat aircraft.

Due to the use of a closed hangar. The number of carrier-based aircraft of the "Jiangsu" class aircraft carrier is only comparable to that of the Japanese Navy's "Soryu" class aircraft carrier with a displacement of 16,000 tons, and the number of carrier-based aircraft is 72, and most of the time it can carry 80 combat aircraft. However, due to the large displacement and the excellent watertight compartment design of Germany and Austria, its seaworthiness, protection level and sinking resistance are much higher than those of Japanese aircraft carriers.

Generally speaking, the protection design requirements of this class of aircraft carriers are required to be able to withstand the attack of three torpedoes or five 250-kilogram aerial bombs.

Part of the boiler of the power system of the "Jiangsu" class aircraft carrier is a high-pressure small water-tube boiler imitated by the Fujian Naval Shipyard, and the main engine is a reactionary deceleration steam turbine produced by Steyr Company, with a total power of 15,000 horsepower. It has a design speed of 31 knots and a cruising range of 8,300 nautical miles / 18 knots.

The "Jiangsu" class is called the main heavy aircraft carrier in various countries. However, the Austro-Hungarian Navy classified aircraft carriers with a displacement of less than 35,000 tons as medium-sized aircraft carriers. At present, the two warships have only completed the construction of their hulls and hangars, and the anti-aircraft guns, flight decks, deck facilities, and command tower facilities have not been installed, and they do not have any combat capability.

Unlike the Chinese Army, the Admiralty has been cooperating with the Austro-Hungarian Navy due to the four battleships, so all the carrier-based aircraft are equipped with the Austro-Hungarian Navy. The fighter was the "Islaia", and the dive bomber was the "Albatross" carrier-based dive bomber of the Bosa company, which won the title of "silent killer" because it was not equipped with a whistle like the German Stuka and was silent during the attack.

The torpedo machine uses the AF7 "Sailfish" produced by the Edrrich company. The biplane bomber features a wide aspect ratio wing with fixed leading-edge slats and trailing-edge flap technology for the main wing, a design that means it can take off at shorter distances. Its fuselage has a streamlined design, and the cockpit adopts a one-piece, long-curved glass cockpit, which ensures that both the pilot and the bombardier in the back seat can get a good view. Thanks to the 12-cylinder V-piston engine produced by the Imperial Standard Automobile Company in Linz, its power reaches 1100 hp, this biplane torpedo machine has a maximum speed of 345 kilometers per hour, a range of 1600 kilometers, and can carry a 1000 kg aerial torpedo or two 500 kg heavy aerial bombs at a time.

Although these are two medium-sized aircraft carriers with good performance, the Chinese can no longer complete their construction work, and the two large docks built at the Qinzhou Naval Shipyard will have to wait half a year before they can be put into service, but the problem is that the Chinese Navy does not have time.

Two "Zhenhai" class battleships need to go into the dock for repairs, and more importantly, they need to replace the power system and carry out anti-aircraft fire modifications, which is basically a major operation for the battleship, and at present, the Chinese simply cannot do this.

The Italians reacted much faster than normal five days later, and five days later, after the Austro-Hungarian experts and Chinese engineers had just completed the conversion of two battleships and the continuation of the two aircraft carriers, the Chinese side was notified that the Italian side agreed to the Chinese warship to enter the Italian shipyard for modernization and renewal work, agreeing, Mussolini also expressed his willingness to build new ships for the Chinese.

Of course, the purchase of ships still needs to be coordinated between Chen Shaokuan and Beijing, and at the same time, someone must be willing to provide financial assistance. Italian Foreign Minister Ciano said that the prime minister agreed with the Chinese side to issue war bonds in Italy, but the funds raised must be used to buy arms or other industrial products in Italy.

This is also good news for the Chinese, after all, they can raise more money to deal with the current war. (To be continued......)