Little Luzon Bay.

10 years of peace, September 24, early morning.

Snow-white searchlights pierced the pre-dawn darkness, and countless Niutou military tractors (which were actually trucks, but looked and started with the same sound as old-fashioned walk-behind tractors) moved between the warehouse and the docks.

Amid the shouts and shrill whistles of the sailors, the booms on the dockside and the warships swung back and forth, constantly hoisting all kinds of supplies, even the Ssangyong carrier-based seaplanes, onto the aircraft-carrying warcruisers and aircraft carriers moored next to the pier.

Standing on the top of the bridge of the King of Shuzhong, looking at the various warships being prepared around him, even Zhuge Weidao, who could pinch and calculate, turned red with excitement, and returned from Brunei Bay to the Little Luzon Military Port, the meeting place of the Nanyang Fleet battle patrol detachment and the fleet directly under the HNA fleet, his spirit was extremely excited.

Although the most awesome battle cruisers, aircraft-carrying battle cruisers and aircraft carriers of the Ming Navy are a bit of a stitching monster. But they are still the most formidable warships and aircraft carriers in the world today!

The four "Zhongwang" class battle cruisers with a standard displacement of more than 20,000 tons, this "block" alone is the largest known warship and battle cruiser! Although they are dubbed "Battle Cruisers", this does not mean that the firepower and armor protection of this class of Battle Cruisers are not outstanding.

In fact, the 45-mm naval guns they used were the most powerful rapid-fire naval guns of their time. It was designed to fire at a "safe distance" of more than 7,000 meters, hit and sink a battleship of the "Hero" class!

The armor of the "Zhongwang" adopts a rather advanced key protection concept, with an armor box with a solid sloping main armor belt and a large armor deck as the main body to protect the most lethal parts of the ammunition depot and power zone. At the same time, an armored torpedo compartment was set up under the bow deck, and a large number of waterproof compartments and anti-mine barriers were designed at the waterline and below. The four main turrets and conning towers of the "Chungwang" class have also adopted a key protection design, protected by thick case-hardened armor steel!

In other parts of the "Chungwang" class, armor protection was used that was relatively thin and could only protect against fragments produced after the explosion of large-caliber shells, in order to minimize weight.

It is no exaggeration to say that the armor protection of this "Zhongwang" class is the best among the 20,000-ton warships and battle cruisers, and even if it is put into the future of 30,000-ton and 40,000-ton battleships rampant across the ocean, the "Zhongwang" class can also be used as a broken ship after upgrading the power system, and its hull design can continue to be used to build a 20,000-ton fleet aircraft carrier as long as it is slightly improved.

Speaking of aircraft carriers, although the aircraft-carrying battlecruiser is a bit "stitched weird", it is also suitable for use in the moment. After all, the current carrier-based aircraft only have a combat radius of about 100 kilometers, and if you take into account the time required to form a group, this 100 kilometers has to be discounted.

In the case that the carrier-based aircraft are all small and short-legged, the aircraft carrier cannot hide far behind. And if you want to move forward, you can easily be hit by the enemy's capital ship. Therefore, it is quite suitable for this aircraft-carrying battlecruiser to serve as the flagship and bodyguard of the aircraft carrier formation.

As for the other three "Liaodong"-class aircraft carriers built with the hulls of the "Nandao"-class passenger ships, although they are not as strong as the "Shuzhongwang" class, the construction cost is much lower, the time spent is much shorter, and the number of carrier-based aircraft carried is about the same as that of the "Shuzhongwang", which is currently 25 Ssangyong aircraft (hangar capacity).

And the new fleet aircraft carriers, based on the hulls of the Chungwang-class and Nandao-class, with larger hangars and direct access decks and island-style superstructures, have been tendered for design according to the order of Zhuge Weidao. It is estimated that in three or five years, Daming will have a real fleet aircraft carrier!

When the time comes, Daming will own the entire ocean!

When Zhuge Weidao was looking forward to the future, hurried footsteps sounded behind him, followed by a standing salute and a loud report.

"Chen Jian, the head of the battle patrol detachment, reports that the battle patrol detachment has been replenished and can set off at any time!"

"Lei Teng, the head of the first detachment of the first air battle, reports that the first detachment has been resupplied!"

"Wang Leiyong, the head of the second detachment, reports that the second detachment has been replenished!"

"Yu Tianzhu, the head of the three-part team, reports that the three-point team has been replenished!"

"Ling Zongjun, the head of the fourth detachment, reports that the supply of the fourth detachment has been completed!"

Zhuge Weidao turned around, looked at the commanders of the five detachments under his command, as well as Ma Xuchen, the chief of staff of the First Air Battle, Wang Wen, the chief staff officer, and Guo Xiaobao, the aviation staff officer, and then nodded heavily.

"First Air Force, let's go!"

Zhuge raised his arm for Dao, gave a military salute, and then gave the order to attack in the simplest words.

Four o'clock in the morning.

Amid the military salute and gaze of Major General Huang Shuren, chief of the Naval Air Force Airship Corps, who remained at the base in Little Luzon, the newly formed First Air Force slowly sailed out of Little Luzon Bay, and then disappeared into the sea and sky under the cover of the morning glow.

Home port of the South Sea Fleet, Brunei Bay.

At the same time as the First Voyage was departing from the Little Luzon Bay, Vice Admiral Guan Tianpei, the commander of the Nanyang Fleet, was already standing neatly in the command tower of the flagship Hongwu the Great.

The Hongwu Emperor has now been converted into a "Han Wu Emperor" class with 6 main gun turrets and 12 240 mm 45 times caliber cannons! Although the battleships of this class are not comparable to the four heroes of the Rakshasa Kingdom, and they are not as good as the four Zhongwang-class battlecruisers assigned to the First Voyage Battle, they are definitely a very cost-effective battleship.

Among them, the Hongwu Emperor is the general flagship of the Ming Navy, with luxurious and complete internal facilities, and is also equipped with a powerful communication command center. Sitting on this battleship, Guan Tianpei could command all the warbands, sub-fleets, and bases under the Ming Nanyang Fleet, and he could also get important enemy information from the reconnaissance airships in the sky in time.

That's why he didn't choose any of the four hero-level Taishan, Huashan, Hengshan, and Songshan in the fleet as his flagship.

"Junmen," Ge Yunfei walked to Guan Tianpei's side with the telegram he had just received at this time, "The First Air Battle has already set off!" They will maintain an economic speed of 15 knots and will cross the Lombok Strait after 100 hours. They will remain radio silent until they cross the Lombok Strait. ”

"Economic speed of 15 knots." Guan Tianpei sighed, "It's so fast! ”

"It's fast!" Ge Yunfei smiled, "It's a pity that we can't run at that speed, and we can only maintain a speed of 10 knots at most." ”

Guan Tianpei said with a smile: "10 knots is enough, and after 65 hours, we can also reach the entrance to the east of the Strait of Malacca!" He paused, "What about the South Sea Legion?" Can you get ready? ”

Ge Yunfei smiled bitterly: "The army is always not very good at doing things, not to mention that this time it will take the lead with 2 Japanese divisions." But after all, they have been preparing for many years, and they shouldn't be too stretched. ”

In this era, the army did not have any high-level mechanization, only digging pits, pulling barbed wire, setting up machine guns, and magnifying artillery to look at the earth, so it is not surprising that the navy does not look down on it.

Guan Tianpei said with a smile: "It's okay, the first shot of the attack on Malacca will be fired by our navy!" Spread my command to the main force of the South Sea Fleet, set off now, target the Strait of Malacca! ”

"Yes, Junmen!"

As Guan Tianpei's order was passed out by the light on the Hongwu Emperor, the main force of the Ming Nanyang Fleet, which had already heated up the boiler and started the main engine, suddenly woke up like a dormant giant beast.

Four hero-class battleships, eight Han Wu Emperor-class battleships, and twelve Haohan-class armored cruisers formed the second battleship squadron, the third battleship squadron, and the fourth armored cruiser squadron, respectively, and under the escort of a large number of second- and third-class cruisers and destroyers, they drove out of the bay. They were followed by an equally large landing party!

(End of chapter)