Chapter 339: Aircraft Carrier

After occupying Mosul, Nan Yuanchao did not waste time and built new fortifications on the spot. After all, they went south not to seize Baghdad, but to attract certain Turkish troops for Kut's British army. (duk,)

Of course, it would be better if we could take Baghdad by the way. After all, this would be equivalent to occupying half of Mesopotamia and being able to contact the British completely. Unfortunately, this would be unrealistic. After all, the Turkish army in Mesopotamia also had more than 100,000 people, not to mention that there were nearly 300,000 Turkish troops on the Western Front. Even if Nan Yuanchao and Jiang Baili were willing to do so, they would be powerless...

After all, the most priority is to take care of the Caucasus after all, and the importance of the Caucasus to the coalition forces is obviously higher than that of the Townsend Division in Coute...

"How is the fortification repair?!"

That night, in the temporary headquarters in Moorsu City, Nan Yuanchao asked other generals this.

"It's okay. I have sent all the infantrymen of the engineering battalion and an infantry brigade, and sent people to mobilize the local people. However, during the day, the artillery troops were fighting too fiercely. Almost all the outer walls of this city collapsed. We can only arrange defense lines on the periphery of the city, and at the same time lay out a little with the remaining wreckage of the city wall..."

The generals of the infantry division who arrived later faced Nan Yuanchaodao like this.

"That's good..." Nan Yuanchao nodded. "Now the Turkish reinforcements are likely to be on the way north. Although the cavalry troops are trying their best to delay their speed, they cannot withstand the Turkish attack and attract enough troops for the British, and the defense line is not stable enough..."

The officers and generals who were doing this were very clear about this, so they all nodded.

At this time, the Turkish army, under the constant harassment of the cavalry, could only move forward at a speed. At this time, they already knew the fall of Mosul, but they had to continue to go north...

Envier Pasha, who was far away in Armenia, was also shocked when he learned that Mosul was attacked and had fallen behind, but then he was happy.

Because since the Chinese have already drawn troops to attack Mosul, they will definitely draw some out of their already small troops. In this way, their own attack on Armenia will obviously be more smooth.

but…

The fall of Mosul means that Baghdad's rear path is at risk of being intercepted. Moreover, as the third largest city in Mesopotamia, the upper reaches of the Tigris River, the loss of Mosul also made Baghdad in many inconveniences upstream of material transportation. When the Persian Gulf was blocked and Basra was captured by the British army, many of Baghdad's materials were transported by the Tigris River...

In this case, Envil Pasha was also in a dilemma.

Although according to common sense, the importance of the Caucasus region is definitely higher than that of Mosul, after all, it is the base of more than 100,000 Caucasus coalition forces. As long as it is blocked, it is equivalent to blocking the Chinese and Russians' way to go south. If it is not done well, it may even be able to attack Russia along the Caucasus. In history, when Russia collapsed, the Turks did this. Of course, how should they be vomited out after the defeat?

But Armenia is important, and Mosul is also very important. After all, it is the upper reaches of the Tigris River and an important channel for transporting materials to Baghdad. If this path is missing, Baghdad, without the Tigris River, will probably soon fall into the dilemma of scarcity of materials...

"A dilemma..."

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Just when Envil Pasha was in a dilemma far away in Armenia, Yan Guang did not have as much trouble as they were. After learning about taking Mosul, Yan Guang was naturally happy for Jiang Baili, but the most important thing for him now is to go to Fuzhou...

"Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau..."

This trip came to the Shipbuilding Bureau because there have been major breakthroughs in the Shipbuilding Bureau.

Of course, this breakthrough is not a battle cruiser or a battleship. In fact, this is no longer a breakthrough, because the two ships had entered the outfit stage a few months ago and are now installing internal facilities.

"President, it's already here, please get off the bus first..."

Just as Yan Guang was savoring the juice in the cup, the car door had been opened, and Yue Chang, wearing a black military uniform, was standing outside the door waiting for him...

"good!"

After nodding, drinking all the juice in the cup, pouring all the ice cubes into his mouth, and biting them to the military and political officials below, Yan Guang walked out of the special bulletproof car just produced by the automobile factory.

"Let's go in..."

"yes!"

After walking out of the car, the gate of Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau came to us.

However, even more conspicuous than the gate were rows of defense soldiers in black uniforms.

Of course, these are not surprising, but after entering the gate of the Shipbuilding Bureau, you can find more members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in black moving inside.

If all these can be explained as being because of Yan Guang's arrival, then on both sides of a half-docked ship platform in the Shipyard are covered by tall curtains, and there are still several destroyers patrolling in the Shipyard's outer port, which is very attractive...

"President, you are here..."

In the gate of the Shipbuilding Bureau, after seeing Yan Guang have arrived, Wei Han, who had been waiting for a long time, quickly came up to meet him.

Seeing Wei Han, Yan Guang also nodded politely.

"Old Wei, thank you for your hard work."

“Where…”

After the two of them walked into the Shipbuilding Bureau, Yan Guang said excitedly at the half-dock-style ship platform covered by a curtain in the distance.

"Old Wei, is that there..."

"That's right..."

Wei Han nodded and said.

“It’s there…”

At this time, Chen Zhaoqiang, the director of the Shipbuilding Bureau, also walked out from under the mantle.

To be honest, looking at Yan Guang's appearance, Chen Zhaoqiang and Wei Han didn't understand why he was so excited. In the eyes of Chen Zhaoqiang and Wei Han, the things inside the ship were not as exciting as the battleships installed in another ship.

However, since Yan Guang is the president and almost all the funds are provided by him himself, then...

Since he wants to be excited, let him be excited.

But to be honest, Chen Zhaoqiang and Wei Han still don’t understand why they built a warship well? They had to use a curtain cloth to enclose the entire ship? You should know that although this ship is half-docked, it would be a waste of their efforts to enclose the entire ship without exposing the things inside...

and…

In their opinion, rather than building such things, it is better to empty the ship and build another battleship. After all, this half-dock ship is built for the battleship...

Yan Guang didn't know what Chen Zhaoqiang, Wei Han and others were complaining behind him in his heart. In fact, even if he knew, he didn't care much, because he was completely attracted by the things behind the curtain...

"Finally made..."

He murmured softly, Yan Guang walked into the boat step by step.

In the half-dock type boat platform, a ship that is undoubtedly very strange is being constructed in the boat platform from the perspective of this era, and has entered a state of about to be completed...

This strange ship has only a huge size. Even if it is installed, its size is not much inferior to the "Baxia" class battleship with a full load displacement of more than 30,000 tons. It is a bit larger than the Yazi-class battleship with a full load displacement of more than 20,000 tons...

Of course, it is not because of the size of the ship, but because the deck of the ship is actually fully connected, with only an island-style building located on the right side of the ship's deck...

To outsiders, this ship is undoubtedly weird, but in Yan Guang's view, he is so excited...

"Aircraft carrier..."

That's right, this is the new aircraft carrier designed by engineers after several new docks and ship platforms of the Shipbuilding Bureau were built, Yan Guang proposed his own idea and designed by engineers...

This aircraft carrier with a displacement of more than 20,000 tons and a full load displacement of 23,000 tons is designed in appearance by Yan Guang based on the British Invincible class light aircraft carrier, so it has distinctive modern aircraft carrier characteristics in appearance. At the same time, the displacement of more than 20,000 tons is enough to allow this aircraft carrier to carry more than 50 carrier-based aircraft, giving it enough strike capability against ships...

"It's a pity that although it is equipped with the latest 250-horsepower new engine, the Air Force's latest domestic biplane can only carry two 10-inch light torpedoes. If you want to carry nearly 500 kilograms of 18-inch torpedoes, you need to make more efforts. Otherwise, the power of this aircraft carrier will be unparalleled at sea..."

When Yan Guang thought about it this way, he was somewhat regretful.

But this is also impossible, because this is the technological limitations of this era.

In terms of engines, due to Yan Guang's huge investment, domestic technology has caught up with the world's first-class both in aircraft engines and tank gasoline engines.

Especially for aircraft engines, the latest domestic engine has reached 250 horsepower, which is only 5 less than the "Eagle" engine produced by the British during the same period. However, the latest and stronger engines are already under development, so China has undoubtedly reached its peak like other countries in this regard.

As for the gasoline engine used in tanks, you can see the mountains in this regard...

Only in steam turbines, there is still some gap with foreign countries, but this gap is so small that it is insignificant. But Yan Guang also wants to thank this era, because some things in this era, such as heavy artillery, warships, etc., although there are some technical levels, they are not as good as those in later generations. They require extremely high requirements in any way, and it is easier to catch up.

Otherwise, just like in later generations, I would have been chasing for at least 20 years with just one engine...

And so far, I have just caught up with a little...

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There are still many people in the government who know about the production of aircraft carriers, such as Wang Yaowu, Song Dinghan, Xu Shichang and Cai E. But it is not surprising. After all, it is fine to hide it from outsiders for such a large ship, but it is absolutely impossible for their own family to hide it from it.

However, in addition to Wang Yaowu's absolute support for the production of aircraft carriers, only Sa Zhenbing supports Yan Guang at the top of the government, and this support is not absolute.

In fact, after the battle of Longkou Bay, Sa Zhenbing and many generals within the Navy had realized the important role of the aircraft. Some generals had even thought about what would happen if the aircraft was loaded onto warships?

But after all, just think about it...

For the naval generals of this era, aircraft are just a new thing after all, and the later stages of the Longkou Bay battle also proved that in the face of highly maneuverable warships, the hit rate of aircraft is not very high, and its survival is also worrying.

Therefore, the naval generals were willing to build a warship that could carry a large number of aircraft when the ship was free, but when they were not rich, they hoped to build more battle patrols or battleships.

After all, this is an era of big ships and giant cannons. For naval generals who pursue the idea of ​​big ships and giant cannons, it is more practical to build more battleships or battle cruisers. If it really doesn't work, it's okay to build more submarines. Recently, the submarine war launched by Germany has given a lot of inspiration to the naval generals.

At present, China's largest hostile force is Japan. If we use a large number of submarines to block the island country of Japan... Just thinking about it alone has made many naval generals drool...

Sa Zhenbing is the same as his generals. Sa Zhenbing also feels that aircraft carriers and other aircraft carriers are indeed worth a try, but their importance should be ranked behind battleships and battle cruisers. After all, China is not like Britain and the United States, and has enough large shipyards, so it doesn’t matter if you just have a shipboard.

Now, there are indeed many large warships in China. In addition to the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau, there are also newly built Guangzhou Shipyards, Shanghai Shipyards and Tianjin Shipyards. These newly built shipyards have the ability to build large ships, and are also building 10,000-ton Chaofeng-class cruisers...

However, because of Yan Guang's confidentiality, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Tianjin are also crowded with people, especially in places with many foreigners, the shipyard I chose in the end became the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau. Although there are many people in Fuzhou, there are always a little fewer people than the above three places.

Fortunately, fortunately, there was no aerial photography technology at this time, and if there was one, it would not be possible to rush into China like later generations. Otherwise, unless it was stuffed into a fully enclosed shipbuilding platform, it would basically not be kept confidential.

Because in recent times, large warships from Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau have been launched one after another, which is no different from dumplings. Foreign countries have also been very interested in the situation of the Shipbuilding Bureau. Therefore, when they saw that there was a ship platform in the Shipbuilding Bureau that was covered with curtains, they also felt very interested. The one with the deepest interest is probably Japan. After all, with the current construction speed of several major shipyards in China, it may not take much time to catch up with the Japanese Navy...

Unfortunately, because of the relationship between the Manbu and the garrisons around the Shipbuilding Bureau, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Military Defense Bureau, the Japanese have not yet discovered what is inside...

After all, under heavy protection, it is not easy to enter the Manbu. Moreover, the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau still implements an identity system. If you want to enter, you have to check your identity several times, especially the half-dock ship platform behind the Manbu. There is a battalion of more than 600 national defense forces defending...

but…

Because of the aircraft carrier, many naval generals and government officials still had some small conflicts with Yan Guang. The former was angry that an aircraft carrier with no idea of ​​the effect, occupying the position of a battleship or battle cruiser, while the latter was angry that building such an aircraft carrier with no idea of ​​the effect actually cost a 10,000 tons of cruiser. Although this money seemed to be Yan Guang's personal, after borrowing money from Yan Guang, many government officials seemed to have contacted Yan Guang's wallet with the national treasury, and then regarded it as their own money...
To be continued...