Empire Conquest

Chapter 479 - 475 Publicity Work

"Clearly, the situation at Jeju Island had turned out to be much better than Bai Zhizhan had anticipated.

Due to ample time and the availability of enough trainer aircraft, the training speed of the ship-borne aircraft pilots had actually been faster than previously estimated.

As Zhu Huasheng had said, the pilots who had passed the graduation assessment were enough to form six Air Force Wings in the highest standard configuration: two ship-borne aircraft to three crews.

Of course, there were problems.

These pilots who had just completed their training were all inexperienced or, to put it bluntly, too green.

The solution was also simple, disperse them to various Shipborne Air Force Wings, where seasoned veteran pilots would act as the core to form new Wings.

For this reason, Zhu Huasheng proposed that Shen Pu be brought back as soon as possible to reorganize the Wings.

Bai Zhizhan did not delay and immediately sent a telegram to Shen Pu from Jeju Island, asking him to come to Jeju Island with a group of core pilots to select rookies.

Afterward, Bai Zhizhan went to inspect the situation at the grass-roots level.

During this period, the Naval Aviation School organized several flight performances.

While observing the flight performance, Bai Zhizhan put forward a very meaningful suggestion: the school should establish a special opposing force, with the experienced veteran pilots rotating back to act as instructors, passing on real combat experience to novices through opposition.

As a result, those rookies who had just graduated from the aviation school could gain some valuable experience before going to battle.

Perhaps this experience wouldn’t make them aces in their next engagement.

But with this experience, they might survive their first battle or have a narrow escape after being shot down for the first time.

When they soared through the blue skies in their battle eagles again, they would become the masters of the sky!

Indeed, there wasn’t an ace pilot in the Imperial Navy who hadn’t been roughed up, with all aces growing from surviving rookies.

The key point was, this was a suggestion made by Bai Zhizhan.

Although Bai Zhizhan was not a pilot, nor could he fly a ship-borne aircraft, he held an incomparable exalted status within the Navy Air Force.

Additionally, the Imperial Navy’s top ace had come to Jeju Island, following Shen Pu.

Yes, it was Wei Chengwen.

According to official data released by the Imperial Navy, his number of confirmed kills had reached 37, 33 of which he had achieved alone in aerial combat.

It could be said that his luck wasn’t very good.

In January, Wei Chengwen’s father had gone to the Navy Commander’s headquarter to request marriage and family visitation leave for him, saying it was to ensure the Wei Family lineage would continue.

The reasoning was compelling, since the Wei Family had already been passing down through single heirs for three generations.

At that time, Wei Chengwen wouldn’t agree to anything.

It wasn’t that he looked down on the marriage prospect but rather that he had already received news that the Fleet would soon be dispatched, and it was a critical time for manpower.

Who would have thought, the matter escalated to Liu Changxun, and even the propaganda department paid close attention to it.

Liu Changxun clearly did not care about one single pilot; what he saw was the number one ace of the Imperial Navy Air Force, who had not yet married!

This immediately brought pressure down the chain.

As a result, Li Mingbo issued a command, giving him a month’s long leave to marry back in his hometown, and ideally, to also handle the matter of continuing the family line.

Less than three days after Wei Chengwen left, the Fleet set sail, beginning the expedition to the Fan Flame Ocean.

If Wei Chengwen hadn’t been delayed by the important matter of continuing the family line, his kill count might already have exceeded 40.

It was during this opportunity that Wei Chengwen thoroughly drilled a new batch of fighter pilots who had just graduated, and also made dozens of bomber and torpedo bomber pilots understand one thing.

No matter how well-performing bombers and torpedo bombers were, they were no match for fighters!"

To ensure fairness and to let the novices realize how formidable the aces were, Wei Chengwen flew the "Typhoon," while the rookie piloted the current best shipborne aircraft.

It was through this performance-oriented opposition training that the viability of Bai Zhizhan’s proposal was proven, and the Imperial Naval Aviation School subsequently organized a special opposition training squadron, composed entirely of veteran pilots, and later periodically invited pilots from the front-line units to serve as guest instructors.

Busy until March 9th, Bai Zhizhan finally returned to Puzhou.

He did not go directly back to the Imperial Capital because he had to attend the handover ceremony of two Fast Battleships.

These two Fast Battleships, built alongside the first batch of "Province" class, were originally scheduled to be delivered on March 1st. However, a flaw was discovered in the shipyard’s testing of the Main Gun, specifically a problem with the design of the ammunition feeder, which prevented loading at certain elevations.

As a result, the ships had to be sent back to the shipyard for modifications.

Fortunately, it was only a minor issue, and it had already been fixed.

Initially, Bai Zhizhan wanted to have Li Jie preside over the handing over ceremony.

Unfortunately, Li Jie was preoccupied with setting up the Special Mixed Fleet and could not be there.

Li Mingbo was still busy in Lion Spring City and couldn’t help either.

As for the media, the Empire’s press clearly placed more importance on the Fast Battleships.

Of course, this was also related to strategic deception.

On the day of the handover, Puzhou port was packed with people.

Probably to enhance the propaganda effect, with the consent of the Imperial Navy Headquarters, Puzhou port specifically opened a dock on the opposite side of the harbor to allow the public to closely observe the two towering gargantuan ships. The Navy also specially arranged a detachment of the Imperial Guard Army to maintain order at the scene.

The ceremony was conducted with great pomp, attracting many people’s attention.

Of course, purely in terms of visual impact, Fast Battleships indeed appeared much more imposing than carriers.

Not to mention anything else, just the three sets of nine 50-caliber 400-millimeter Giant Guns gave the citizens, watching across the bay, an immense sense of confidence.

It seemed as if there was nothing in the world that could withstand the shells fired by these Main Guns!

According to the reports of the Imperial News Agency, these were the world’s strongest Battlehips.

If carriers were excluded, this statement would not be wrong.

As an upgraded version of the "Xu Sea" class that broke through treaty restrictions, the "Nanzhu Sea" class surpassed the Fast Battleships of other Great Powers that were already in service in every aspect.

To say, the "Prime Minister" class, which weighed a few thousand tons more, was a whole level above in comprehensive combat capability.

Measured by overall performance, among other nations’ Fast Battleships, perhaps only the "Yihua" class of the Newland Navy could subdue the "Nanzhu Sea" class.

Regardless, the two "Nanzhu Sea" class were extremely formidable.

Of course, this was also related to the fact that they were already equipped with all High-altitude Guns as per requirements at the time of delivery.

Even the two "Province" class ships had only been equipped with large-caliber High-altitude Guns and some quadruple 40-millimeter Machine Guns at the time of delivery.

As for the numerous 20-millimeter Machine Guns, they were all installed incrementally after entering service.

In actual combat, small-caliber High-altitude Guns could be increased or decreased according to the situation.

As small-caliber anti-aircraft guns did not require specialized gunners and there were surplus officers and soldiers on each Battleship, the Navy placed no restrictions on the number of small-caliber guns, leaving the decision to the Captain. As long as proper arrangements could be made, any Battleship could install as many as requested by the captain.

The special ceremony for handing over the two "Nanzhu Sea" class was more for propaganda purposes.

Not to mention, on that day alone, the Imperial Navy received over 5 million Gold Yuan in war donations, many of which were designated for the construction of Battlehips.

Of course, Bai Zhizhan took this opportunity to make a public appearance.

Now, he was a war hero of the Imperial Navy and the Emperor’s Prince Consort.

In the eyes of many civilians, Bai Zhizhan was the fairy tale’s Prince Charming on a white horse.