Empire Conquest

Chapter 593 - 589: Exchange of Needs and Supplies

The banquet was a great success, at least that’s what Zheng Jiangming thought.

In fact, it wasn’t until the banquet ended that Bai Zhizhan learned from Zheng Jiangming that the Tiaoman Empire had sent several Air Force generals to discuss cooperation with the Empire. Simply put, it involved exchanging things in which the Empire was interested for urgently needed equipment and supplies from the Tiaoman Empire.

Of course, this included radio-controlled bombs.

The main offering from the Empire in exchange was battleships.

Actually, this was also a previously agreed-upon cooperation project.

According to Zheng Jiangming, as a form of compensation, the Empire transferred two "Xu Sea" class ships to the Tiaoman Navy and provided them with supporting ammunition, such as 400 mm armor-piercing bullets, before their mid-term overhaul.

The reason was simple, the standard ammunition of the Tiaoman Navy differed from that of the Imperial Navy; it was not interchangeable, nor was there a need to specifically build a production line for it.

Additionally, with technical assistance, the Empire helped the Tiaoman Navy to build two "Xu Sea" class-developed fast battleships.

This mainly involved replacing them with the 380 mm naval guns of the Tiaoman Navy.

During their mid-term overhaul, the two "Xu Sea" class ships would also have the Tiaoman Empire’s naval guns installed.

However, the so-called assistance was merely the provision of "Xu Sea" class design blueprints. The so-called modifications were merely adjustments to utilize the standard equipment of the Tiaoman Navy.

Whether the Tiaoman Empire shipyards could build such battleships was now out of the Empire’s concern.

However, fast battleships were not the key focus.

After two years of negotiations, the parties finally reached an agreement on a cooperation project involving aircraft carriers, or rather, the Imperial Navy made concessions.

The Empire would provide the "Imperial Capital" class design blueprints to the Tiaoman Empire, and arrange engineers to modify the design according to the needs of the Tiaoman Navy.

Simply put, based on the "Imperial Capital" class, a tailored carrier fleet for the Tiaoman Navy was created.

Primarily, it meant enhancing the carriers’ seafaring capabilities to withstand the harsh weather of the North Sea and North Sunset Ocean, while moderately reducing other capabilities, such as the number of ship-borne aircraft.

Moreover, adjustments needed to be made to the flight deck and hangar dimensions to accommodate the Tiaoman Navy’s aircraft, such as the hangar height.

Other weapons, like high-altitude guns, would also utilize the Tiaoman Navy’s main equipment.

To put it directly, only the "Imperial Capital" class hull was used; almost everything else would be replaced.

In order to acquire the carriers, the Tiaoman Empire also spent a substantial amount.

Firstly, they provided the Empire with the design blueprints for the latest submarines and helped the Empire’s shipyards master the construction techniques for modern submarines.

Secondly, they provided radio-controlled technology and a batch of remote-controlled bombs for testing.

The focus was still on submarines, particularly the new batteries and the completely new power systems.

This included closed-cycle engines.

Interestingly, Dunz, who attended the banquet, had always opposed the idea of carriers.

The reason was simple, the Tiaoman Empire simply did not have the capital to develop a fleet, let alone compete with the powerful Liangxia Navy in distant waters.

Moreover, during the great war, the Liangxia Navy was sufficient.

Fundamentally, it still came down to national power.

Carriers were just a type of battleship, but to fully utilize the combat capability of a carrier, matching combat aircraft and escort battleships were needed.

To assemble this entire set-up was not as simple as just building a single carrier.

Take the Imperial Navy, for instance, in a carrier battle group comprised of 1 fleet carrier, 1 fast battleship or large cruiser, 2 heavy cruisers, 2 to 4 light cruisers, and 4 to 6 large destroyers, the cost of the fleet carrier only accounts for 20%. If nearly a hundred ship-borne aircraft and auxiliary vessels like fleet oil tankers are included, the proportion of the fleet carrier is even lower.

Clearly, without sufficient national power, a country cannot afford carriers!

This was why the Gaoju Kingdom and the Damman Kingdom heeded the advice of the Imperial Navy and funded the purchase of several light carriers from the Empire. These carriers were used by the Imperial Navy during the war and were to be transferred to the navies of the funding nations after the conflict ended.

Although the Tiaoman Empire was much stronger, forming several carrier battle groups was not so easy.

Certainly, the post-war international situation had to be considered as well.

In fact, this was the main reason why the Liangxia Empire had been unwilling to help the Tiaoman Empire build carriers.

As Zheng Jiangming put it, after finally defeating the Western Powers to become the global maritime hegemon, should we really support a new rival?

Unfortunately, there was no room for negotiation on this matter.

In the end, the Imperial Authority was forced to make concessions, trading fleet carriers for Tiaoman’s new submarines.

What was most important was that the Imperial Navy now possessed large carriers and was planning to build super carriers.

Retiring the fleet carrier or even phasing it out was simply a matter of time.

Compared to the Tiaoman Navy, the Empire’s submarines indeed had a significant gap, and acquiring technology from the Tiaoman Empire was one of the best options.

Apart from technology, the two sides needed to exchange materials as well.

Naturally, it was mainly Liangxia Empire providing assistance to the Tiaoman Empire.

This included many special commodities the Tiaoman Empire couldn’t obtain on its own but had great need for, such as quinine from the tropics.

Even though Tiaoman had followed Liangxia’s lead and stockpiled medicines like quinine through civilian channels for operations in tropical regions before the war even started, the war’s consumption far exceeded pre-war forecasts.

Fortunately, the Empire had already swept the southeast region of the Giant Continent and controlled the quinine-producing areas.

However, the most crucial commodity was actually oil.

Such negotiations couldn’t be decided by the military.

As Zheng Jiangming put it, when the Empire decided to send troops to Boss Bay, it was already negotiating and consulting with the Tiaoman Empire, the Raleigh Kingdom, and the Ter Republic.

This was also the principal contradiction within the Consortium Group.

Although according to the agreement, Boss Bay would be returned to the Ter Republic, the agreement also stipulated that the Liangxia Empire would unconditionally secure the oil extraction rights of Boss Bay.

That is, the Liangxia Empire was to distribute the produced oil.

According to the initial distribution plan proposed by the Imperial Authority, only about 35% of the production capacity was to be provided to the Allies after meeting its own needs.

Clearly, this was far from sufficient.

The Tiaoman Empire’s need alone took up 30% of the total oil capacity of Boss Bay, and the Raleigh Kingdom also had significant demands. The needs of the Ter Republic and other smaller nations like the Damman Kingdom had to be considered as well.

After tough negotiations, an acceptable outcome was finally reached.

The Empire got 60%, the Tiaoman Empire 25%, and the Raleigh Kingdom and Ter Republic each got 6%. The remaining 3% was distributed among other Allies.

Crucially, the Tiaoman Empire would unconditionally share coal liquefaction technology to alleviate the oil supply issue.

Furthermore, this agreement would automatically become void after the conquest of Baku.

What was most important was that the Tiaoman Empire promised to recapture the Romanian oil fields within a year and, afterward, reduce the scale of oil imports from Boss Bay.

Certainly, these were all high-level matters.