Volume 1: The Empire Awakens Chapter 15: Imperial Grudges (Part 2)
There was a brief silence in the room, and finally Tan Renhao broke the silence.
"Anyway, we have to do something!"
When Tan Renhao heard the news from Colonel Ji Xiaobin, his reaction was almost the same as Hao Dongjue's, but he did not show it.
"The colonel was very satisfied with our last report. He is ready to submit it to General Liao Hanxiang and then promote the new training plan. This time, the colonel gave us a much easier task, so we can't let the colonel down!"
"Okay, so what do we do?"
Chang Jianxin was much calmer than the other two.
Tan Renhao smiled and nodded at Chang Jianxin.
"We must first collect information about the Japanese naval fleet, prepare an analysis report on the fleet that may visit, and then come up with a plan outline for the friendship exercise. Someone else will be responsible for the specific exercise plan, and our task is to make preliminary preparations!"
"Japan has four fleets. Where should we start?"
The four Japanese fleets mentioned by Hao Dongjue are the Home Fleet, the Oriental Combined Fleet, the Southern Fleet, and the Southwestern Combined Fleet.
These four fleets are responsible for defense and combat operations in four directions: the Japanese mainland, the North Pacific region in northeastern Japan, the Pacific region in the south centered on Truk, and the Western Pacific region against the Empire.
The greatest threat to the empire came from its Home Fleet and Southwestern Combined Fleet.
"This is what we need to determine. First, we must determine which fleet is visiting, and then formulate a targeted exercise plan."
Tan Renhao sat down. "The colonel told me that the Southwest Combined Fleet is most likely to come, but we can't rule out the possibility of a temporary replacement with another fleet. What fleet do you think Japan will send this time?"
"If it is a targeted visit, then the Southwest Combined Fleet is the most likely target!"
Chang Jianxin frowned slightly, "At least, in nature, the Japanese Southwest Combined Fleet is very similar to ours. Both are fleets that focus on aviation operations. The first two fast fleet aircraft carriers built by Japan are in the Southwest Combined Fleet."
"Yes, if they only visit Naha Port this time and want to conduct joint exercises with us, then it is more likely that Japan will send the Southwest Combined Fleet!"
Tan Renhao didn't speak immediately, but he agreed with the two's views.
Since the end of the last war , after two rounds of arms negotiations, the world's nine major naval powers signed the Songjiang Nine-Power Naval Arms Limitation Treaty (abbreviated as the "Songjiang Treaty") in Songjiang, the empire.
The treaty imposed extremely strict restrictions on the armaments of the world's nine most important naval powers, namely the United States of America, the British Empire, the Kingdom of France, the German Empire, the Kingdom of Italy, the Russian Empire , the Persian Empire, Japan, and the Tang Empire, ranging from the number of battleships to destroyers, displacement, caliber and number of artillery, etc.
This also includes the emerging aircraft carriers.
According to the treaty, the Tang Empire, the United States of America and the British Empire could build three aircraft carriers with a total displacement of 120,000 tons, while Japan, the Kingdom of France and the Persian Empire could only build a total of 80,000 tons of aircraft carriers.
There are also strict restrictions on the specific displacement, geometric dimensions and number of aircraft carried by the aircraft carrier.
After the treaty came into effect, the six countries with the right to build aircraft carriers started building their own aircraft carriers one after another, and Japan was the most active one.
Two years after the end of the last war (before the treaty came into effect), Japan modified its first experimental aircraft carrier, the Hosho, from which it gained a lot of experience and improved its aircraft carrier technology.
Subsequently, Japan converted the Amagi-class battlecruiser under construction into an aircraft carrier.
According to the treaty restrictions, Japan already had more battleships (battleships and battlecruisers) than required, and the newly built Amagi class would face the risk of being completely demolished.
Therefore, Japan converted the Amagi and Akagi, which were still on the slipway, into aircraft carriers. However, a subsequent earthquake damaged the keel of the Amagi, leaving only the Akagi aircraft carrier.
However, the Akagi can only be regarded as a semi-experimental aircraft carrier. In the eight years after it entered service, it underwent three large-scale modifications and almost always stayed in the shipyard, with very little time even for sea training.
Based on the experience of the modification of the Akagi, Japan converted another battleship under design to replace the Amagi which was destroyed in the earthquake.
This is the aircraft carrier "Kaga".
Originally a Tosa-class battleship.
The construction of the Kaga started almost at the same time as the Akagi, but was completed a year later.
The two are very similar in appearance, but the displacement is slightly larger.
According to the treaty, the displacement of an aircraft carrier converted from a battleship or battlecruiser can reach 33,000 tons, while the displacement of a newly built aircraft carrier cannot exceed 23,000 tons.
The displacement of the Akagi and Kaga is close to 35,000 tons, while Japan announced it is 32,000 tons.
Including the "Hosho", Japan still has 8,000 tons of aircraft carrier construction left.
Under this circumstance, Japan decided to build a brand new small aircraft carrier similar to the "Hosho", but later found that building a small aircraft carrier was not worth the cost, so Japan still used the modification method and used the hull of the "Aoba" heavy cruiser with a displacement of more than 8,000 tons to modify a small aircraft carrier.
However, in the end, the aircraft carrier named "Long Rang" had a displacement of nearly 13,000 tons, not 8,000 tons!
It can be clearly seen that Japan has also experienced many twists and turns on the road to developing aircraft carriers, which is almost the same as the navies of other powers. In the absence of any experience, small steps and fast progress have become the main choice for countries to develop aircraft carriers.
It is also undeniable that Japan is still designing new aircraft carriers. As a top second-rate naval power, Japan uses aircraft carriers, a new naval weapon, as an important means to challenge the powerful Tang Empire to its west.
At least, at this point, the Japanese Navy did better than the Tang Empire's Navy!
All three of them knew that Japan’s four aircraft carriers were now all assigned to the Southwest Combined Fleet, which was an obvious provocation to the Tang Empire.
However, among the four aircraft carriers, the largest ones, Akagi and Kaga, have returned to the shipyard for renovation. Therefore, the one visiting Naha is the Southwest Combined Fleet, which currently only has two light aircraft carriers.
