Empire Conquest

Chapter 478 - 474: Delivery

Zhao Yu had asked Bai Zhizhan to follow the carrier out to sea, actually hoping it would give Bai a chance to relax.

But who would have thought that Bai would really treat it as an inspection?

It was only half a day at most, and Bai spent most of his time inside the carrier, almost going down to the very bottom to check the ballast tanks.

It wasn’t until they returned to the port that Bai came up to the deck.

"How was it, satisfied?"

"Quite satisfied, but it’s not perfect."

"When is anything ever perfect?"

Bai smiled, while Zhao Yu had simply made a casual remark, not meaning to be taken too seriously.

"The construction application for the third batch was rejected again. According to the higher-ups’ intentions, they want to start building a new type of large carrier after the second batch is completed."

"Is the design finished?"

Zhao Yu sighed and said, "There’s been too little time, and there’s been a constant lack of designers. My idea is to just make some modifications to the existing foundation."

"If there’s really no other choice, that’s the only thing to do."

"A new carrier definitely needs to be developed, but we shouldn’t rush. Taking more time to lay a solid foundation won’t be a bad thing."

"Do you want me to step in?"

"No need for now."

Since Zhao Yu had said this, Bai did not insist on pursuing the issue further.

At that moment, the carrier docked at the pier.

Nothing happened that evening, and on the following day, the last day of February, Bai visited several key local officials with Zhao Yu accompanying him.

It was then that he truly understood just how powerful the Zhang family’s influence was in Puzhou.

When meeting with local officials in Puzhou, they first regarded Bai as the Prince Consort, and secondly as the Zhang family’s adopted son-in-law.

Let’s not forget, Zhang Xiaoqing was the Zhang family’s adopted daughter.

As for Bai’s status as a Navy Vice Admiral, few people cared about it.

There’s nothing strange about this; during wartime, it’s not unusual to find even Admirals are just cogs in the machine.

In fact, this was the aspect that Zhao Yu found most perplexing.

Given the distinguished war services Bai had rendered, not to mention promotion to Admiral, even if he had been exceptionally promoted to General, surely no one would dare to gossip.

What puzzled Zhao Yu even more was that Bai himself didn’t seem to care too much about his rank.

To use Zhao Yu’s words, by the end of last year, there were more than thirty newly promoted Army Admirals in the Empire, while the entire Navy had less than ten, all of whom were veterans.

This was enough to demonstrate that Zhao Yu was indeed an outsider.

In terms of attitudes towards military ranks, the Empire’s Navy and Army had completely opposite views.

The key was that the Navy’s officers directly commanded fleet operations, holding great authority, far surpassing that of Army officers in terms of decision-making power.

This easily led to a situation where the tail wags the dog.

The most typical cases were the Liu and He families.

To prevent powerful Generals from gaining too much clout, the Navy adopted a brutal approach: separating authority from rank.

As a result, those often in actual command were officers with lower ranks or less seniority in the military.

So, it wasn’t just that Bai’s military rank was low, the same was true for Liu Xiangzhen.

Even Chen Bingxun, the War God, was no exception.

Back when he was campaigning against the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom, Chen Bingxun wasn’t promoted until after entering East Capital Bay; before then, his rank was only equivalent to Major General.

Later, during the operation in the Fan Flame Ocean, his rank was equivalent to Admiral, and it was only equivalent to General by the time he attacked Jibu Fortress.

Only after dying in battle for his country was he posthumously promoted to Grand Navy Marshal of the Empire.

It was evident that as long as Bai Zhizhan continued to campaign abroad, he could only be promoted through the normal process.

As for other honors, such as aristocratic titles and honorary medals, he certainly did not lack any.

Precisely because of this, within just a few decades, the Imperial Navy had seen the emergence of hundreds of nobles, a third of whom held hereditary titles.

This was a distinctive feature of the Imperial Navy.

The total strength of the Army had always been several times that of the Navy, yet the number of Army nobles did not exceed that of the Navy and was obviously much fewer in relative terms.

By March 1st, the delivery ceremony for No.1 Ship and No.3 Ship of the "province" class took place at Puzhou Port.

On the same day, the transfer ceremony of No.2 Ship and No.4 Ship was held at Cizhou Port.

The event was very grand and lively.

However, it was only a transfer.

The most important task that day was naming the two carriers.

As for their formal commissioning, or entering into service, that was a matter for the future.

Even during wartime, they could only formally join the fleet after passing acceptance tests, and would only be considered officially in service once all officers and enlisted men were in place.

Following protocol, a celebration banquet took place on the flight deck of "Pu" after the ceremony had concluded.

By that time, it was already evening.

Although it wasn’t strictly necessary, Puzhou Shipyard still set off fireworks according to tradition, announcing that after more than two years of hard work, they had finally completed the construction of the world’s first large carrier, becoming one of the first shipyards in the world with such capabilities.

In reality, only two shipyards in total were capable of building large carriers.

The next morning, these two carriers left Puzhou Port and set sail for Mast Harbor.

Afterward, they would use Mast Harbor as their base to carry out acceptance tests in the Xu Sea before officially joining the fleet and allowing the accompanying officers and men to complete their basic training. After that, they would head for Nagiu Port.

All tests would be conducted at Mast Harbor so they could return to the shipyard for repairs promptly if any issues arose.

For this reason, Puzhou Shipyard and Cizhou Shipyard each retained a 50,000-ton floating dry dock to ensure they could provide timely after-sales service for the large carriers they delivered.

If all went well, by the end of June, including the two from Cizhou, all four large carriers would be combat-ready.

Of course, the key element was the shipborne air force.

Fortunately, this was the least of Bai Zhizhan’s concerns.

Over the past few months, Zhu Huasheng had stayed on the "Heng River," training pilots for four newly formed Shipborne Air Force Wings.

To expedite the training, Zhu Huasheng even commandeered a large mail ship that followed behind "Heng River" to provide living quarters and recreational facilities for the pilots, ensuring they were always in an ideal state and saved time traveling between the carrier and airfields.

The key issue was the intensity of the training, which was indeed very high.

This devilishly tough training regimen yielded excellent results.

Naturally, it also had much to do with instructors called in from other Air Force Wings.

By comparison, delaying the training of the fleet’s officers and men could be afforded.

To quote Li Mingbo, even if the recruits just sailed with the carriers for a few months, they would turn from fresh recruits into bona fide veterans.

On the main battleships, every department had several experienced veterans, usually the highly respected sergeant majors.

It was for this reason that on the afternoon of March 3rd, Bai Zhizhan took a transport plane to Jeju Island.

The island was already the Headquarter of the Imperial Navy Air Force, including the shipborne air force; nearly all Sea Air pilots had to complete their basic training on Jeju Island first.

Only after becoming genuine pilots were they eligible to compete for selection as ship-borne aircraft pilots.

Moreover, "Heng River" spent most of its time operating near Jeju Island, and even for rest and refit, it would dock at the ports of Jeju Island.

Bai Zhizhan went to Jeju Island to get a clear picture of the shipborne air force’s status.

In his own words, the timing of the attack on the Howay Islands and the amount of force to be invested were actually determined by the quality of the ship-borne aircraft pilots, that is, by the combat power of the shipborne air force.

As long as the shipborne air force was ready and strong enough, that was all that mattered!