Volume 1: The Empire Awakens Chapter 25: Painful Lessons (Part 2)
After reading the information given to him by General Liao Hanxiang, Tan Renhao was not surprised. He was not even surprised by General Liao Hanxiang's private meeting with him.
"You already know the result. As for the other things, we don't need to talk about them."
General Liao Hanxiang looked very happy. "This time, Marshal Sajiting did not remove General Bei Yuming from his post, but I heard that after the First Fleet returned to Dagu, it was ordered to reorganize and its maritime training activities in the second half of the year were cancelled.
In addition, Marshal Sagittin has ordered the Navy Equipment Department to restart the design work of a new class of aircraft carriers.
If nothing unexpected happens, Marshal Sagittin will submit the construction plan of a new class of aircraft carrier to the cabinet government before the end of this year, and the construction funds for the new aircraft carrier can be approved as early as the first session of parliament at the beginning of next year.
Of course, the major fleets have not yet responded much to the expansion of the number of aircraft carriers, but this is a matter of time. "
Tan Renhao didn't say anything, but General Liao Hanxiang's meaning was already very clear.
In order to ensure the dominance of the Imperial Navy, and especially to cope with the powerful threat posed by the Japanese Navy, Marshal Sagittin has changed the original "big ships and big guns" approach and increased the emphasis on aircraft carriers.
However, this is still not enough, because the foundation of any navy is talent. Without sufficient talent, there will be no strong navy.
"Now, this is all I can tell you. You should know that you must not tell others what . Do you understand?"
Tan Renhao nodded immediately. The development of naval equipment is the most important secret of a country's navy.
Liao Hanxiang smiled and glanced at Tan Renhao.
"Your performance this time was very good, especially that report, which earned us a great opportunity for development. I have asked Chief of Staff Wu Xianyu to consider giving you an opportunity for an exceptional promotion."
"General, this is actually what I should do, and..."
Tan Renhao was secretly surprised. He had only officially joined the Imperial Navy for more than a month. He was afraid that in peacetime, no one would be able to get the opportunity for promotion so quickly.
Liao Hanxiang raised his hand to stop Tan Renhao from speaking.
"The credit should be recognized. Of course, it is also the credit of all officers and soldiers in the fleet. However, before you wear the rank of lieutenant, you still have to do one thing."
Tan Renhao frowned slightly. It seemed that getting a promotion was not an easy thing.
"Do you know the Qingdao Naval Arsenal?"
Liao Hanxiang took a piece of information and handed it to Tan Renhao.
"Right now, the engineers at this arsenal are testing three very important types of ammunition for us. One is a new type of aerial electric torpedo, and the other two are 250 kg and 500 kg aerial bombs respectively."
Tan Renhao flipped through the documents, which contained technical drawings of the three types of ammunition and related performance data tables.
This was much more detailed than the information he had obtained before, and it even contained many technical terms that Tan Renhao was not familiar with.
Obviously, this information came directly from the arsenal.
"In November, two months later, Marshal Sagittin arranged an opportunity for us to prove the strength of the Fifth Fleet."
Liao Hanxiang took out a cigarette, but this time he didn't give any to Tan Renhao.
"I've told you this before. How well do you know the Jiading heavy cruiser and the Dongting Lake battleship?"
Tan Renhao frowned slightly and quickly stated the main performance parameters of the two warships. He could almost remember the performance of all the main warships in the Imperial Navy.
The heavy cruiser "Jiading" is the sister ship of the Fifth Fleet's flagship "Yancheng". It was built at the end of the last war and is already 18 years old.
The "Dongting Lake" battleship is the first ship of the "Lake" class battleship that was built by the empire in 1297 of the Tang calendar (1915 AD). It is more than 20 years old.
Relatively speaking, the service life of these two battleships is not very long, but their performance is relatively backward, especially compared with the large number of battleships built after the war, they already seem a bit old.
"These two warships will be decommissioned next month. They were originally planned to be dismantled and sold as scrap steel, but now they have become our target ships."
Liao Hanxiang paused for a moment, and waited until Tan Renhao caught up with his train of thought before continuing, "Marshal Sajitin has given us this opportunity, and we cannot miss it.
You will go to the Qingdao Naval Arsenal tomorrow and be responsible for coordinating with the engineers there and supervising the finalization tests of the three types of ammunition.
I have only one request, that is, in two months, I want to see the two retired battleships sink in the smoke of torpedoes and bombs dropped by bombers, rather than being sunk by any other means, understand?"
Tan Renhao nodded quickly. General Liao Hanxiang's meaning was very clear. If the power of the three types of ammunition was not enough to destroy the "Dongting Lake" battleship, which had a displacement of 35,000 tons and had two lines of anti-torpedo armor with a horizontal armor thickness of more than 80 mm, then he must immediately let the engineers modify the three types of ammunition to increase their power to meet the needs.
"The plane takes off at 8 o'clock tomorrow morning. You should have a good rest tonight. Once you get there, you must make the most of every moment."
Liao Hanxiang stood up and said, "Second Lieutenant, if you need anything, you can ask now."
"General, can you let Hao Dongjue and Lieutenant Chang Jianxin go with me?"
Tan Renhao attaches great importance to these two colleagues.
"No, I asked Marshal Sagittin to approve your passage this time. Originally, the Naval Logistics Command should be responsible for this."
Liao Hanxiang smiled awkwardly. " However, you can contact them at any time by phone. I will prepare a dedicated line for you. Of course, you can also contact Ji Xiaobin, Wu Xianyu, and me at any time."
Tan Renhao nodded somewhat helplessly, because among the three of them, Hao Dongjue was responsible for aviation operations, and Tan Renhao's understanding of those torpedoes and bombs was not as thorough as Hao Dongjue's.
As he reached the door, Liao Hanxiang called him.
"Second Lieutenant, you will go to the finance department to get some money for your business trip. Don't treat yourself badly. There are several restaurants in serve very good seafood. Go and try some when you have time!"
Tan Renhao was stunned for a moment, then he started laughing.
However, he suspected that by then even his sleeping time would be squeezed out a lot, so how could he have the energy to try Qingdao's seafood?
