Empire Conquest

Chapter 477 - 473: The Great Benefit

Bai Zhizhan was very moved, but had no words to express himself.

All he could do was secretly rejoice that he was just a professional soldier and had not yet been involved in the power struggles.

Of course, this also explained one thing.

That was why Xue Yuanzheng had not sought him out after returning from the Fan Flame Ocean.

It must be said that at the very least regarding public and private matters, Xue Yuanzheng was very clear.

Although he had always valued Bai Zhizhan and considered him a trusted confidante, Xue Yuanzheng was not confused when it came to issues concerning the core interests of the Empire.

The ones who should least be disturbed at this time were the capable leaders, such as Bai Zhizhan and Lian Xusheng.

Whether it was negotiation or combat, maintaining military victories was crucial.

With a defeat, what was there to negotiate?

This was exactly why Xue Yuanzheng had not approached Bai Zhizhan. He only let Liu Changxun step forward and had Bai Zhizhan come to Puzhou after briefing the situation.

Upon learning of the causes and consequences from Zhao Yu, Bai Zhizhan was also clear about everything.

In fact, it was not the Song Family who had the upper hand, or rather, Xue Yuanzheng was trying his best to maintain the situation to avoid internal conflicts having a negative impact on the overall strategic situation.

Let’s not forget, it was a time of war, and the entire Empire was in a state of war.

To put it bluntly, the significant powers of the Empire were in Xue Yuanzheng’s hands, and apart from the Emperor, the Imperial Chief Minister could almost decide the life and death of all military personnel and civilians.

If Xue Yuanzheng were pushed to extremes, or if he felt there was no other way, he could make all those plotting against him disappear overnight.

Xue Yuanzheng had not done so, not out of misplaced compassion, but because it wasn’t necessary yet.

Speaking of which, the Song Family had almost no influence in the Imperial Army; thus, no matter how aggressive they were, they could not pose a substantial threat to Xue Yuanzheng.

In fact, this was also why the Song Family had never been able to achieve final success and surpass the Tang Family.

The method that Xue Yuanzheng used to maintain the situation was basically winning continuous battles.

According to Zhao Yu, as long as the Imperial Army kept winning and got closer to a total victory, the Song Family would not have any opportunity.

Only if the Imperial Army suffered a defeat could the Song Family seize an opportunity.

Once this issue was understood, everything became simple.

Because Zhao Yu did not drink normally and had no capacity for alcohol, both men did not drink, and after discussing serious matters, they went to rest separately.

After a whole day of hassle, Bai Zhizhan was indeed exhausted.

The next morning, Bai Zhizhan accompanied Zhao Yu to the port and boarded the carrier with the hull number 007 of the "province" class.

As expected, the ship was to be named "Pu."

However, according to the current naming conventions, the ship only had a hull number temporarily, and would be officially named after the delivery.

Today, this carrier would undergo its final test before delivery.

Of course, unlike in peacetime, only basic performance tests were conducted before the delivery, with many extreme performance tests scheduled for the military acceptance stage.

For the record, the ship had only undergone five sea trials before this.

It wasn’t that they were reluctant to burn fuel, but that time was extremely pressing.

Even for the final sea trial, they were only testing the auxiliary power systems and whether some large electronic equipment could function normally without prior setups.

As for the ship-borne aircraft take-off and landing tests Bai Zhizhan was concerned about, these would be carried out during the acceptance stage.

Strictly speaking, this was the first time Bai Zhizhan had been on board a "province" class large carrier.

Although he had been to Puzhou Shipyard multiple times before and participated in the research work on carrier construction several times, none of them were conducted on a carrier.

Moreover, he had just observed a small carrier yesterday.

The contrast between the two experiences was indeed striking.

In Bai Zhizhan’s words, in front of the "province" class, the several small carriers viewed yesterday seemed juvenile, not even on the same level.

After boarding the carrier, he could truly appreciate its advantages.

The most apparent was the division of the flight deck area.

Previously, on fleet carriers, the flight deck was not divided into fixed functional areas; it was only when necessary that the aeronautical service personnel temporarily set up relevant functional areas, such as areas surrounding the elevators, the forward catapult launch area, and the fault handling zones before and after the superstructure.

It was different on a large carrier.

On the flight deck, several distinct functional areas had been delineated with different color markings, among which the most important were the holding areas on both sides of the deck.

This was a major advantage of large carriers.

After leaving ample space for landing, several permanent ship-borne aircraft tying points could be arranged along the longitudinal axis on both sides of the flight deck.

The ship-borne aircraft parked at these tying points would not interfere with landing operations.

To put it plainly, the "province" class was still not big enough; the holding area on the left side was rather narrow, forcing the aircraft to be parked diagonally, which limited the number of parked aircraft.

A major benefit of having an additional holding area was being able to clear the deck, accelerating the dispatch speed in emergencies while still maintaining standby fighters.

Or, when recovering returning ship-borne aircraft, it allowed several fighters to remain in standby rather than having to clear the flight deck as on fleet carriers.

Simply put, the fighters in standby could directly taxi and take off from the rear of the deck.

In actual operations, if the pilots were already seated in the cockpit, it could save precious minutes!

These few minutes should not be underestimated.

During air defense operations, a few minutes were enough to execute an effective interception against an incoming plane group.

From previous fleet battles, it has been seen that a few minutes could decide the outcome of air defense combat and even the life and death of a carrier.

The second major benefit of a large hull was evident inside the hangar.

The "province" class was the first of the Imperial Navy’s carriers to have a top-hanging area set up inside the hangar.

Strictly speaking, it was actually the second.

Over a decade ago, the Imperial Navy had tested equipment for suspending ship-borne aircraft inside the hangar on the "Longjiang" class, but the results were unsatisfactory, riddled with numerous unresolved issues and very poor practicability, leading to its dismantlement after testing without being officially commissioned.

On the "province" class, the suspension method for ship-borne aircraft was only for emergencies, or more accurately, to carry some spare aircraft.

In fact, the design wasn’t aimed at carrying more ship-borne aircraft.

According to Zhao Yu’s early ideas, it was initially meant to accelerate the transfer speed of ship-borne aircraft within the hangar, increase operational efficiency inside the hangar, and reduce the intensity of operations.

Putting it bluntly, it was meant to reduce the burden on the service personnel.

However, in later operations, the service personnel discovered that it could be used to hang spare ship-borne aircraft, thereby increasing the carrying capacity of the aircraft.

Later on, in real combat operations, these hanging spots were often used to carry extra spare parts, enabling frontline repairs of damaged ship-borne aircraft.

The value of this, naturally, goes without saying.

In several recent battles, approximately half of the damaged ship-borne aircraft, due to being irreparable on the carrier, occupied valuable space on the carrier and had to be scrapped. Many of these aircraft dumped directly into the sea could have been repaired or were indeed worth repairing.

Indeed, just achieving a ceiling height of 5 meters freed the hands of the aircraft designers, allowing them not to overly emphasize the height of the ship-borne aircraft.

This alone had immeasurably great value.

As for other aspects of the performance of the "province" class, there was no need for doubt.