Empire Conquest

Chapter 542 - 538: Gain and Loss

In many ways, the emergence of these ten-thousand-ton ships saved the Bulan Kingdom and the Alliance Group.

Over a year after the war began, the Bulan Kingdom had lost almost half of its merchant fleet, and due to the threat of submarines, maritime shipping efficiency had plummeted by eighty percent.

Fearing greater losses, the Bulan Kingdom had even prohibited merchant ships from setting sail on their own at one point.

It was precisely at this critical juncture that the Newland Federation began constructing ten-thousand-ton class merchant ships.

These were the "Freedom Ships" with an average sailing speed of about 10 knots, and the "Victory Ships," which had enhanced power systems, capable of sailing over 15 knots on average.

After the Newland Federation entered the war, the construction of both types of these giant ten-thousand-ton ships accelerated rapidly.

At its peak, an average of three Freedom Ships were launched every day!

To reduce construction difficulty, or rather to speed up the construction process, and because no one believed these merchant ships could survive several journeys along submarine-infested routes, both the Freedom Ships and Victory Ships employed simplified designs. As far as possible, designs reduced or eliminated unnecessary investments.

For instance, the Freedom Ships used triple-expansion steam engines and coal-fired boilers, and they were single-shaft propelled.

The Victory Ships switched to steam turbines but still used coal-fired boilers.

Actually, the most crucial adjustment was to the structural strength of the hull.

During design, the Newland Navy only required these ships to be able to sail normally for 5 years, and that it would be sufficient if they could sail for up to 10 years.

The reasoning was simple: according to the rate of losses in the great war, the average lifespan of a merchant ship was about 10 voyages, which is around 5 years.

Truthfully, nobody truly believed the war could last for 5 years.

Based on the previous great war, once in a state of total warfare, no participating country could persevere for 5 years.

If it did indeed persist for 5 years, even if not defeated by the enemy, internal turmoil would likely cause the government to collapse or even the country to fracture into pieces.

In the industrial age, the duration of large-scale wars generally did not exceed 5 years.

As a result, all Freedom Ships and Victory Ships were incredibly "fragile." The biggest advantage of this was the astonishing speed at which they could be built.

To date, close to 20 shipyards were involved in the construction of these merchant ships.

Of course, the related issue was that the consumption of resources such as steel was also astonishingly high.

Though the quality standards had been lowered, the steel used to construct the ten-thousand-ton ships was not reduced. A Freedom Ship required more than 4500 tons of steel, and a Victory Ship required about 5000 tons—roughly the same as a Treaty Type Light Cruiser and significantly more than a mass-produced Large Destroyer.

Steel consumption alone was a huge problem.

Even though the industrial strength of the Newland Federation was formidable, second only to the Liangxia Empire, and its steel output was not much less than Liangxia’s, the fact remained that nearly 20,000 tons of steel were needed every day to build merchant ships, which was a considerable burden not to be underestimated.

So, how much steel was left for building battleships?

Clearly, this was an issue that had to be considered.

No matter how grand Nizi’s ambitions were, he had to confront this reality.

In order to protect the maritime shipping lanes and to enhance the threat that Aus posed to the Liangxia Empire, a sufficient number of Freedom Ships and Victory Ships had to be built. Moreover, production of these merchant ships could not be reduced for the sake of battleship construction.

Apart from steel, there was no direct conflict between battleships and merchant ships.

As mentioned earlier, in order to lower construction costs, Freedom Ships and Victory Ships were designed to use as much mature equipment as possible. Since there was a higher requirement for speed, Victory Ships utilized steam turbines instead of the triple-expansion steam engines which had long been phased out by battleships.

As for fuel, there was no need to say more.

Unfortunately, due to insufficient steel production capacity, adjustments to the battleship construction program had to be made.

Nizi stressed that the construction of carriers and battleships must be guaranteed, so the only thing that could be sacrificed was the other main battle ships.

The first to be cut were, of course, the high-cost large cruisers.

Although just a few months ago, including Nizi, many navy generals still believed that large cruisers were the first choice to make up for insufficient anti-aircraft capabilities, by now, even Nizi had to admit that the "Alas" class large cruisers, which cost as much as 80% of the "Yihua" class but had significantly inferior combat capabilities, were indeed a wasted resource. They could even be considered a burden, and there was no need to continue their construction.

For this reason, Nizi also assured Rofuss that after the completion of the four already under construction, no more large cruisers would be built.

When discussing this issue, Nizi did not mention the Liangxia Navy.

The reason was quite simple: the Liangxia Navy was the first to build large cruisers, and instead of abandoning them due to the high cost, they actually increased the quantity being built.

Of course, this was because the industrial strength of the Liangxia Empire was much stronger.

Although, according to pre-war statistics, Newland Federation’s steel production in the years 98 and 99 of the New Calendar reached 94% and 96% of Liangxia Empire’s, the difference was minimal; a country’s war mobilization capacity was certainly not reflected in statistical data.

What’s more, the steel production of the Liangxia Empire had always been excessive.

Because the cost of labor was more expensive, during peacetime, the Liangxia Empire hardly exported any steel and used all the production domestically.

The result was that almost all the Liangxia Empire’s steel mills were working below capacity!

During the war, even without mobilization, the steel production of the Liangxia Empire could increase by about 40%.

As for the Newland Federation, which had always been a major steel exporter, the steel mills’ production capacities had been fully exploited, so the increase during wartime wouldn’t be substantial.

When it comes to large cruisers, it also had to do with the design philosophies of the two sides.

The large cruisers built by the Liangxia Navy were actually intended to replace fast battleships and provide direct anti-aircraft protection for carriers.

Their primary values lay in two areas:

One was to protect carriers, and the other was to command fleet anti-aircraft operations.

Other tactical benchmarks were seen as necessary but not pursued to exceptionally high standards.

The most representative example was the Liangxia Navy’s first type of large cruiser, which was equipped with naval guns directly introduced under patent from the Tiaoman Empire—280 millimeters in caliber.

Because they used what was readily available and the guns were the same as those used on the "Tiaoman" class armored cruisers, the production cost was very low.

Of course, their performance was not particularly outstanding either.

Moreover, as the Liangxia Navy had dedicated flagships, there was no need to use large cruisers as flagships, saving a significant amount of money on electronic equipment.

As for the armor protection, it was no different than that of a heavy cruiser.

Through a series of measures, the Liangxia Navy controlled the construction cost of large cruisers to about one and a half times that of contemporary heavy cruisers.

Of course, their displacement was also limited to within 25,000 tons.

Regrettably, the Newland Navy treated large cruisers as substitutes for fast battleships, requiring not only strong anti-aircraft combat capability but also not reducing other aspects.

For instance, the naval guns deployed were 12 inches, completely new research and development.

Because of the limited purchase quantity, the average cost of research spread over each unit made the price outrageously high.

Furthermore, all four "Alas" class were constructed to the standard of fleet flagships, equipped with a large number of communication devices, further driving up the construction cost.

Compared to the high cost, their performance naturally wasn’t noteworthy.

As Rofuss put it, the budget for purchasing four "Alas" class could build three "Yihua" class ships, so why not construct "Yihua" class?

The problem was, for the Newland Navy, the "Yihua" class was also too expensive.