Listen to George. When Yilu mentioned the airship, Prime Minister Robinson suddenly became interested and asked: "George, in fact, the airship is the real hole card of the Royal Navy, right?" ”

"Yes, but not all," said George. "The Admiralty believes that airships are only part of the real cards that the Royal Navy has in future wars. And the other part of this hole card is the world's number one merchant fleet in the British Empire! ”

"Merchant ships?" Robinson was stunned, "George, does the Admiralty want to establish an armed merchant army and use privateers to deal with the Ming Empire?" ”

"Prime Minister," said George. "Of course we should have a lot of armed assault ships...... The four camouflaged assault ships that caused the Battle of Kiyin Waterway are quite excellent weapons! ”

Robinson interjected, "Who do they belong to?" ”

"It should be Japan," said George. Yoshiro replied, "To be more precise, it should be the Satsuma Domain of Japan...... With the pitiful strength of the Satsuma Domain, if you want to build a regular navy, it is impossible to be the opponent of the Ming Dynasty, and it will even become a thorn in the side of the Tokugawa shogunate prematurely. But by building camouflaged assault ships, they did pose a threat to a behemoth like the Ming Empire. In fact, so far, the Ming Navy still hasn't captured those camouflaged attack ships!

It can be seen that the camouflage attack ship tactics of the Satsuma Domain were quite effective. Therefore, of course, we should follow suit, and the Admiralty should secretly build and refit a number of attack ships that can penetrate deep into the Pacific and the South Ocean islands to carry out operations to break diplomatic relations.

However, these attack ships can only play the role of harassment and diversion, and they are still unlikely to be the key to deciding the outcome of the war. Because they had no way to hit a convoy of transports escorted by cruisers, they could not cut off the logistics of the Ming army invading India or Australia. ”

"Oh, and how is a merchant ship supposed to be part of the Royal Navy's hole cards?" Robinson asked.

"Prime Minister," said George. "The Admiralty thinks we can convert some of the 10,000-ton merchant ships powered by coal-fired steam into airship carriers that can take off and land airships!" The British Empire owned and maintained the largest merchant fleet in the world, some of which were over 160 meters long, installed steam engines capable of producing 8,000 to 10,000 horsepower, and could reach speeds of up to 15 knots.

If we could design a 10,000-ton merchant ship with both a chimney and a bridge in the bow or stern, we would have set aside a huge space of 100 to 140 meters long for laying the deck of an airship. At the same time, we equipped these merchant ships with powerful steam engines that could reach speeds of more than 20 knots per hour, so that they could keep up with the naval fleet in wartime.

In peacetime, these 10,000-ton merchant ships are merely peaceful freighters used to transport grain, coal, iron ore or cotton. In wartime, all we need to do is lay a wooden deck on the cabin used to store grain, coal, iron ore or cotton, and with a little modification, it will be an airship mothership that can take off and land airships, a large airship! ”

It turns out that the British Admiralty also thought of an aircraft carrier! However, their aircraft carriers are not used to take off and land aircraft, but to take off and land airships. And it's not a small airship that takes off and lands, but a giant airship that is bigger than the Wyvern III!

Obviously, the burning of Nagasaki greatly stimulated the British Admiralty, so it decided to follow up with all its might, as the previous bombing of ships with airships was not satisfactory and could be effectively defended. But the power of dropping napalm into the city with an airship is a little scary.

Such a terrifying weapon, the British Empire must have!

It is necessary not only to have, but also to develop carrier-based airships that can be carried by airship carriers to follow the actions of the main fleet. And in the opinion of the experts of the British Admiralty, Britain has an advantage in the development of carrier-based airships that no other country has.

"Invincible Begins with Sacrificing to the Ancestors"

The UK is currently the world's number one maritime power!

George. "Because our colonies are spread all over the world, and countless large quantities of goods are shipped to our mainland every year, we can maintain more than 1,000 large cargo ships of 10,000 tons or more. We can 'hide' our airship motherships among these civilian ships...... In this way, we can easily have 100 or even 200 airship carriers in wartime!

Moreover, these airship carriers, which are 'hidden' in civilian ships, can completely not occupy the tonnage of warships...... If the Naval Armaments Treaty at Versailles would limit the total tonnage of the navy, the British Empire would have added 1 million to 2 million tons of paramilitary ships out of thin air! ”

That's amazing!

Because the total tonnage of the British Empire's navy is currently more than one million tons, the Admiralty will have a party to celebrate if the cap of 2 million to 3 million tons can be signed at the future naval armaments conference.

And the airship carrier plan proposed by Yilu on behalf of the Admiralty suddenly gave the British Royal Navy an additional 2 million tons of quasi-warships! Moreover, most of the cost of these 2 million tons of quasi-military ships can be borne by commercial companies, and the British government will give a small shipbuilding subsidy at most...... Even, the British government doesn't even need subsidies, and all the investment can be pushed to the Indians.

It's wonderful!

"Good! It's a great idea!" British Prime Minister Robinson pondered for a moment and said, "Can I understand that the capital ships of the Navy in the future will be armored cruisers of about 10,000 tons, and at the same time, we will hide 200 airship carriers among civilian ships as our trump card?" ”

"Yes, Prime Minister."

"Then do we need to build bigger, stronger battleships with more firepower?" The British Prime Minister asked again.

"Of course!" George. "Mr. Prime Minister, we also need a heavy battleship with a displacement of up to 25,000 to 30,000 tons, 6-9 14-inch or even 15-inch caliber guns, and a speed of more than 20 knots!" ”

"What? Are we really going to build such large battleships? Robinson was stunned, "George, didn't you say before that our main force should be a 10,000-ton armored cruiser?" ”

"Mr. Prime Minister," said George. Yilu smiled, "Our main force is indeed a 10,000-ton battle patrol, but ....... We still need some large-tonnage battleships to show off the glory of the Royal Navy. At the same time, these large-tonnage battleships could also be used to mislead the Ming into allocating the main financial resources and total tonnage to large battleships, thus ignoring the construction of 10,000-ton cruisers and airship carriers.

When war really breaks out, our fast patrol and airships will firmly grasp the initiative on the battlefield like the light cavalry in ancient times, and constantly destroy their huge, clumsy, and expensive capital ships by sneak attacks, luring the enemy, setting up ambushes, attacking logistics lines, and concentrating the main force to encircle and annihilate their small formations. ”

Robinson frowned: "How many large, clumsy, expensive capital ships do we need to build for this?" ”

"Prime Minister, the huge, clumsy, expensive capital ships of the British Empire will exist only on paper!" George. "What we really need to build are huge, high-speed battleships!" But in the name of building huge and slow battleships, we will mislead the Ming with false paper data, so that they will follow up and build such battleships. ”

Robinson thought for a while, and seemed to feel unreliable, so he asked Earl Nelson: "Your Excellency the Admiral, can we really defeat the Ming Empire with a small number of huge and high-speed battleships, a large number of armored cruisers, and 200 airship carriers?" ”

Earl Nelson smiled and said, "Prime Minister, then it depends on how you define defeat?" If you want the Royal Navy to attack the Ming mainland, land in Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Tianjin, and occupy and destroy their most prosperous cities...... Well, there is nothing the Royal Navy can do.

If you want to defeat an enemy who has come from afar on India, Australia, or North American soil, you must rely on long sea supply lines to sustain the war. Then we will win for the British Empire with a small number of huge and high-speed battleships, a massive number of armored cruisers and 200 airship motherships! ”