Volume 1: The Empire Awakens Chapter 70: The Captain's Report (Part 2)
The plane first arrived at the imperial capital, where Nie Renfeng first met with the prime minister of the empire.
Tan Renhao did not have this opportunity. He followed several other naval officers in the negotiation team back to the Zhoushan Command.
However, what surprised him a little was that General Liao Hanxiang came to the airport to greet him in person.
"I heard that the negotiations this time were not going well?"
Tan Renhao nodded slightly, hesitated for a moment, and said, "The next round of negotiations will be held in Washington, but the specific time has not been determined. It seems that there may be no need for this."
Liao Hanxiang laughed. He also knew that Tan Renhao would not reveal more information to him without permission.
"But it doesn't matter whether we talk about it or not."
Tan Renhao let go of this awkward topic, "General Liao, I think that if a war breaks out, the Fifth Fleet stationed in Naha Port will be the first target of the Japanese Navy."
"What's the meaning?"
Liao Hanxiang looked at Tan Renhao with some confusion. The Fifth Fleet was not the most powerful fleet in the empire. It could even be said to be a weak fleet.
"Let's imagine how the war would break out. If it was like World War I, with both sides declaring war first, then sending fleets to fight for control of the sea, and fighting a few decisive naval battles, such as the Battle of Yashojima, to determine who would dominate the sea, how confident would Japan be of winning?"
Liao Hanxiang hesitated for a moment and said, "Almost zero."
"So, will Japan start a war in this way?"
Tan Renhao sneered , "If I were the commander of the Japanese Navy, I would definitely launch a surprise attack first, and at most issue a public declaration of war half an hour before the surprise attack, so that I would not be accused of fighting without declaration.
Under such circumstances, the Japanese Navy will definitely target our fleet first.
And when signs of war appear, we will definitely concentrate more fleets in the Western Pacific region.
If we follow the old thinking of World War I, we will send a main fleet to Naha.
However, it is unlikely to be from the Fifth Fleet, as the Fifth Fleet is not yet qualified."
"Then it can only be the First Fleet."
Tan Renhao nodded.
"At that time, the First Fleet will enter Naha Port as a threatening force, and will become the target of the Japanese Navy's main attack. If they send out an aircraft carrier fleet and cooperate with shore-based bombers, what are the chances of the First Fleet surviving?"
Liao Hanxiang was shocked and immediately said, "Then they are doomed."
That's enough for now.
Tan Renhao didn't say anything else.
He was just a small naval captain, and there were thousands of captain officers in the Imperial Navy.
All he knew were naval "oddballs" like Liao Hanxiang and Principal Nie Renfeng, who was no longer among the ranks of active naval generals.
His ideas had almost no influence on the Imperial Navy.
The power of the Imperial Navy was in the hands of Marshal Sagittin. Perhaps even Marshal Sagittin did not hold this power. It was the veteran naval officers who controlled the Imperial Navy.
Liao Hanxiang just sighed.
He was only the commander of the Fifth Fleet, not the commander of the First Fleet.
In addition, his background also made his position in the Imperial Navy very embarrassing.
He could give advice to Marshal Sagittin, but his influence on him was very small.
Marshal Sagittin might change his view on the Fifth Fleet and attach more importance to it based on some of Liao Hanxiang's words, but he would never modify the basic naval strategy that was directly related to the safety of the empire because of some analysis and judgment that Liao Hanxiang heard from a captain.
Two days later, Tan Renhao completed the report on the trip to Japan as instructed by President Nie Renfeng, elaborating in detail what he had seen and some of the issues he had considered.
This was also the only document he could hand over to the top naval officials.
Of course, he didn't know that Marshal Sagittin didn't even read his report, but threw it directly into the filing cabinet, and then rushed to the imperial capital to attend the imperial cabinet meeting convened by Prime Minister Xue Xiyue.
Later, Tan Renhao waited in Zhoushan for two days. He originally thought that Nie Renfeng would go to Washington to participate in the next round of arms negotiations and would take him with him.
As a result, all he got was a notice from the school asking him to return to the college as soon as possible to prepare for the final exam.
Tan Renhao did not waste any more "precious" study time.
After delivering a message to President Nie Renfeng, he immediately rushed back to the Chengdu Flight Command College to prepare for the final exam.
Later, Tan Renhao learned that the second round of negotiations scheduled to be held in Washington did not take place.
Just over a month after the Tokyo negotiations ended, Japan announced its withdrawal from the Matsue Treaty system and would no longer fulfill its commitment to limit naval armaments.
According to the provisions of the treaty, if one of the nine contracting parties withdraws prematurely, the treaty will automatically become invalid.
Therefore, with Japan's withdrawal from the treaty, the arms treaty that restricted naval development has become invalid.
Within a very short period of time, several countries came up with their own naval construction plans.
Japan remains the most active.
When the two "Soryu" class aircraft carriers were just beginning to be assembled, the construction of another two "Zuikaku" class aircraft carriers had already begun, and the number of "Yamato" class giant ships to be built was expanded to three.
The British Empire, the Kingdom of France, the German Empire, the Kingdom of Italy, and finally even the United States of America, which was not very enthusiastic about the arms race, all came up with their own naval expansion plans.
The Tang Empire also determined the construction plan of new main battleships for the navy in the middle of that year.
This plan was mainly aimed at Japan. In addition to the two new "Yangtze River" class aircraft carriers included in the design plan, the construction of four other new battleships was also put on the agenda.
There is no doubt that the Tang Empire Navy did not completely change its naval development concept centered on battleships, and aircraft carriers were still not the main force of the navy.
At this time, Tan Renhao was busy completing his studies at school.
Because he was delayed for so long, he had to seize every minute to catch up with his classmates who had more time to study than him.
If Tan Renhao did not have extremely rich aviation knowledge, perhaps he would not have been able to graduate from this school at all, let alone become the best among the trainees that year.
While Tan Renhao and his classmates were enjoying the comfortable life on campus, a new global war was brewing. The world, which had been peaceful for more than 20 years, was once again shrouded in the shadow of war.
