The old city of the Ming Dynasty, the Forbidden City, the Qianqing Palace.

In the study of the emperor's bedroom, Emperor Zhu Zhongliang and Emperor Zhu Jianyan, father and son, sat and chatted.

Zhu Zhongliang held a big teacup and asked his son very casually:

"You've almost read through the last chapter of the ancestors, right?"

Zhu Jianyan replied quite seriously:

"Erchen has already copied it once, read it carefully three times, and basically memorized the content of the last chapter."

Zhu Zhongliang took a sip of tea:

"So, you know why I didn't support the massive construction of old warships in the first place."

Zhu Jianyan nodded lightly and said:

"Because Emperor Shizu confessed, the future master of the ocean is aircraft carriers, and gunboats will be eliminated sooner or later."

Zhu Zhongliang said with a smile:

"So how to decide next year's shipbuilding plan, you also have the right idea."

It's almost the end of the year, and all the yamen in the Ming Dynasty have begun to prepare for next year's budget.

Among these budgets, Zhu Zhongliang is most concerned about the budget for the construction of ships in the navy.

However, he has retired, so he will try not to interfere with the decisions of the court as much as possible.

However, he can use his influence to influence his son's way of thinking to move closer to him......

When Zhu Jianyan heard this question, he reported the situation quite seriously:

"The continuous testing of the Dreadnought and the Dinghai has basically demonstrated the naval combat mode of the new era.

"The old type of battleship has been collectively referred to as the former dreadnought by the Military Aircraft Department and the Governor's Office, specifically referring to the former battleship of the Dreadnought.

"The Military Aircraft Department, the Ministry of War, and the Governor's Office all believe that the old former dreadnoughts and armored cruisers should be completely replaced with dreadnought warships and aircraft carriers.

"The replacement of cruisers and destroyers has begun, and the plan for the replacement of capital ships has finally been largely determined.

"The new ships are gradually replacing the former dreadnoughts and armored cruisers in a two-to-three ratio of four ships per year.

"Among the new warships, the number of battleships and aircraft carriers will temporarily maintain a ratio of four to one."

Zhu Zhongliang listened to the previous report, and nodded slightly from time to time, he roughly understood these situations, or could understand them.

The tonnage of new warships has expanded significantly, and the cost of a single room has also directly doubled.

Combined with the current high-speed growth of the financial situation and the overall trend of the world becoming more peaceful, it is relatively reasonable to set the ratio of new and old ships to 2 to 3.

But when I heard the last sentence, I was immediately unhappy:

"The ratio of battleships to aircraft carriers is four to one? Four battleships with one aircraft carrier? Shouldn't it be the other way around? ”

Zhu Jianyan immediately went on to explain:

"The combat plan formulated by the Military Aircraft Department and the Governor's Office is to use battleships as the main force of operations, and every four ships as a fleet.

"Each fleet is equipped with one aircraft carrier, which serves as a reconnaissance and early strike force.

"The actual combat capability of such a fleet may be close to four traditional capital ships plus four armored cruisers.

"Erchen thinks this plan is quite reasonable......"

Zhu Zhongliang blew his beard:

"Don't you know that the future master of the sea is an aircraft carrier, so shouldn't you build more aircraft carriers now......?"

Zhu Jianyan faced his father, who was a little excited, and explained a little helplessly:

"According to Jingyuan, isn't it time yet......

Zhu Zhongliang immediately tried to convince his son:

"Even if it hasn't arrived yet, it's coming soon, and the current aircraft are developing too fast.

"The latest aero engine produced in the mechanical laboratory in Jingyuan has a power of more than 1,000 horsepower.

"Mounted on an attack aircraft, it is enough to carry 800 kilograms of torpedoes for attacking surface ships.

"According to Jingyuan, the current aircraft carrier is just not good at dealing with some special situations.

"So with aircraft carriers as the main force, it is enough to build a small number of battleships to deal with these situations.

"So the ratio of aircraft carriers to battleships should be pulled at least to two to one, or even three to one.

"It can be used in two to four aircraft carrier formations, with one or two battleships in each formation."

Zhu Jianyan also tried to convince his father:

"Father, no matter how fast it is, it will take several years, and it will take time for laboratory products to be put into mass production.

"So in fact, Erchen's plan is actually to build more battleships before the combat capability of the aircraft carrier is completely stable.

"There are enough new warships to prop up the combat forces of the fleet and replace the old ones.

"After a few years, when aircraft carriers and aircraft are more mature, more aircraft carriers will be built.

"The final ratio of the number of battleships to aircraft carriers will eventually fall to about one to one suggested by Jingyuan."

Zhu Zhongliang was suddenly a little unhappy, and said loudly with a straight face:

"You're right, but I'm sixty-seven this year, and I won't be able to go out in a few years.

"By the time the aircraft carriers and battleships you build reach one to one, I will be gone.

"Anyway, you kid just changed the law and didn't make me comfortable......"

Zhu Jianyan suddenly couldn't hold on:

"Father's anger, the son has absolutely no such meaning, this is all the advice of the Military Aircraft Department and the Ministry of War."

After Zhu Zhongliang retired, he also began to be willful, and seemed to be even more angry:

"Do you listen to what they say? Are you an emperor or are they emperors? ”

Zhu Jianyan was immediately sprayed and couldn't answer:

"It's all the son's fault, the son's minister shouldn't listen to their slander, or else, let's just make it one to one now?"

Zhu Zhongliang replied with a straight face:

"It's pretty much the same, a big ship like an aircraft carrier can be used for decades.

"First build the ship, use it for training and exercises, explore and verify the combat method.

"In the future, there will be newer, bigger, stronger aircraft, which can be directly replaced at any time.

"If you only have planes and no aircraft carriers, where will you use them?"

Zhu Jianyan suddenly realized at this time that his father seemed to be playing himself just now.

But what Daddy said also makes sense.

It takes time for aircraft to mature, and it takes time for aircraft carriers to build.

But the aircraft is being replaced much faster than the aircraft carrier.

Changing an aircraft carrier for an aircraft is much simpler than changing a battleship for a main gun, and it's almost the same as changing a ship gun for a new shell.

Therefore, it is indeed feasible to build the aircraft carrier first and use it, and then continuously upgrade the aircraft.

None of the people in the Military Aircraft Department and the Governor's Mansion have read the Ancestors' Testament, and they can't predict what will happen in the future.

Their judgments are all based on existing experience, and they tend to make conservative choices.

They will not put the future of the Ming Dynasty on any new weapon that has not been verified in actual combat.

If the new weapon does work well in the end, testing the new weapon while continuing to produce the old weapon is just a waste of money and productivity.

If the new weapons prove to be unreliable, if the old weapons are abandoned now and the new ones are fully switched to, the result could be a total collapse of the army's combat effectiveness, which in turn could lead to the overthrow of the world.

Between these two scenarios, the vast majority of military staff officers will choose the latter.

Sun Tzu said: Those who are good at fighting in the past are invincible first, and then they can be defeated by the enemy.

You can't win against yourself, but you can win against the enemy.

In layman's terms, it is to make sure that you don't lose first, and then think about how to win.

Under this guiding ideology, the military's decisions tend to be conservative in the vast majority of cases.

The staff officers did not dare to rashly believe that aircraft carriers could become the main force in the fleet.

After all, there are still people who support the whole cruiser fleet, and even the whole destroyer fleet.

Most of the time, they add new elements to the existing mature battlefield mode to simulate new tactics.

It is basically impossible to jump out of existing tactics and directly plan a completely new tactic.

The emperor who holds the ancestor's testament also makes this choice, and he must also be cautious enough.

At the same time, Zhu Zhongliang took another sip of tea, then sighed and said:

"In a few years, I really won't be able to walk, so I want to go out for a walk while I can still move."

Zhu Jianyan said something else:

"Haven't you been out every year now, and haven't you just come back this year?"

Zhu Zhongliang looked up and looked outside:

"I want to go to Mozhou to see Jingyuan ......"

Zhu Jianyan was taken aback:

"Mozhou is too far away......"

Zhu Zhongliang directly waved his hand to stop his son's words:

"According to our arrangement, Jingyuan will go to Yinzhou in the next two years, and it will be even farther away from home than now.

"In the next two years, I will go to the Tiannan Continent, and in the next two years, I will be responsible for managing Korea, Japan, and East Xianbei.

In other words, in the next six years, he will not return to his homeland, and he will have to train overseas.

"By the time he returns to his homeland, I will be seventy-four years old, and I will probably have gone to see my ancestors.

"So I thought about going to Mozhou to have a good chat with him while I was still in good health."

Zhu Jianyan was also silent when he heard this, and he didn't know how to persuade his father.

Zhu Zhongliang has already stood up directly:

"It was decided, I had to leave as soon as possible, as soon as possible, so that I could stay there for a few more days.

"It just so happens that the four new ships under construction are now also time to be launched, and I can stop by for the launching ceremony.

"I went straight to the Dreadnought, the most defended ship in the world at the moment.

"The key is that the interior is decorated in the style of a luxury hotel, which can be used as a ship for my outgoing visits."

Zhu Jianyan was a little speechless for a moment, the luxury hotel-style decoration that Zhu Jingyuan asked for at the beginning was originally intended to be used after retirement.

Unexpectedly, it has only been in service for a year now, and it has not even been incorporated into a special combat fleet, so it was directly used by my father.

And it seems to make perfect sense.

The latest cutting-edge warship in service in the world, the capital ship with the best interior decoration, is just worthy of the identity of the emperor.

Can you also use the whole car as a travel car?

Zhu Zhongliang doesn't have any job now, and there are a large number of dedicated caregivers, who can basically walk as he says.

The Intrepid has just completed a round of testing and inspection, and is currently parked at the Golden State Guard Base awaiting new orders.

Zhu Zhongliang took his wife and set off the next day, first by train to Tianjin, and then by boat from Tianjin to Jinzhouwei.

Three hundred kilometers of sea and land, less than ten hours to arrive.

Zhu Zhongliang rested for one day at the Jinzhou Acropolis, and the next day went to the Jinzhouwei Shipyard to participate in the launching ceremony of two high-speed battleships.

The 40,000-ton cutting-edge high-speed battleship designed by Zhu Jingyuan was named the Fearless, so it is collectively referred to as the Fearless type.

The first two ships of the same type to be built started at the same time in the first month of the first year of Ankang, and after a year and ten months of construction in the dock, it is finally time to be launched.

The launch of the battleship is almost equivalent to the completion of the construction of the house itself, and the subsequent outfitting is almost equivalent to decoration.

Some of the renovations were completed simultaneously during the construction process.

Some shipyards and warships have a large scope of simultaneous decoration during the construction process, and some have a small scope of simultaneous decoration.

Some of them were launched without turrets, and some were actually almost finished.

The two different modes of dock construction and slipway construction will also affect the magnitude of the synchronous decoration during the construction process.

The shipyard's deployment plan for the dock and slipway, and the shipyard's construction habits, will also affect these data.

If you are in a hurry to build another ship on the slipway, you will launch the current ship as soon as possible and move it to the dock to continue construction.

If you are not in a hurry at all, you can even build it in the dockyard until it is completed, launch it and start sea trials directly.

So the gap between different ships, construction cycles and service times, and various time periods, can be very large.

However, in general, the normal construction period of a 40,000-ton battleship, plus the test time for the performance and reliability of the equipment, will take a total of about three years.

Almost two-thirds of the construction cycle has passed, and it is expected to be delivered to the Navy by the end of next year.

When Zhu Jingyuan first began to design, he only named the battleship with full main gun technology verification and the first target exploration battleship as Dreadnought and Dreadnought respectively.

After the design of the target battleship and aircraft carrier was completed, Zhu Jianyan considered the cost problem and placed two orders for the aircraft carrier and the battleship at the same time, and the second ship was not named immediately at that time.

Now that Zhu Zhongliang has come to participate in the launching ceremony of the two battleships of the Fearless type, he has continued the format of the first two battleships and conveniently named the second ship of the Fearless type "Wu Yu".

The two ships that are now launched also have some differences from the original design.

Mainly due to Zhu Jingyuan's promotion, the fully enclosed three-dimensional spray combustion small water tube oil-fired boiler was officially adopted, and the power density of the power system increased significantly beyond the initial estimate.

Neither of the two Dreadnought battleships actually built used the most radical double-decker boiler arrangement originally envisaged.

Only 16 new boilers were used in a single layer, and the total power was directly piled up to 160,000 horsepower.

A dreadnought battleship with a full load displacement of 40,000 tons is designed to run 30 knots, but it only takes between 12 and 130,000 horsepower.

Now with a total power of 160,000 horsepower, it is expected to increase the speed to more than 32 knots.

After the update of the power system design, there was a greater margin in the tonnage of the hull, and the designers also made minor modifications to the armor design.

The thickness of the main armor on the side was further increased from the original plan of 280 mm to 300 mm.

Together with some other design adjustments, it is expected that the actual water discharge after completion will be slightly more than 40,000 tons.

After the launch of the two battleships of Fearless and Fearless, there were no large battleships under construction at the Jinzhouwei Shipyard.

Fearless and unjustified were all started at the beginning of the first year of Ankang, and no capital ships have started construction for 22 months now.

Zhu Zhongliang faced the person in charge of the shipyard who was a little worried, and revealed a little "insider" information to him.

Tell them that the emperor has decided that there will be an order for two capital ships next year, and that regular construction may begin.

Let the shipyard keep the maintenance of workers and equipment, and be ready to start building more new ships.

The shipyard steward was relieved to receive reliable information.