Empire Conquest

Chapter 616 - 612: Marching Out

Advancing on the Howay Islands was imperative, but the initial preparations remained time-consuming and laborious.

The main trouble still lay with the Battleships.

Soldiers could be inspired, rewarded, and driven, yet when the time came, battleships had to undergo maintenance and care, and any malfunctions had to be repaired.

Although the "Qinling" arrived at Nagiu Port before the Spring Festival and temporarily set up the headquarters of the Special Mixed Fleet there, it was only after the Spring Festival that other battleships began to arrive gradually.

As for the two large carriers, they only arrived at Nagiu Port after the Qingming Festival.

Such delays were not in line with Bai Zhizhan’s intentions but were limited by objective conditions.

When spoken of, it was because the two large carriers needed to return to the shipyard for their first comprehensive overhaul after commissioning and to undergo necessary modifications.

The most important and noticeable modification was replacing eight twin-mounted 130mm high-altitude guns and four quad-mounted 40mm high-altitude guns with twelve twin-mounted 80mm high-altitude guns. Although this reduced the long-range anti-air firepower and shortened the interception distance for enemy aircraft to within 10 kilometers, in actual combat, by the time the carrier’s high-altitude guns came into play, enemy aircraft were often already up close.

Long-range air defense was the task of the escort battleships.

Moreover, the distance between an anti-air warship and a carrier was generally about 5 kilometers.

Thus, what the carriers actually needed was medium to short-range air defense firepower, which was precisely the ideal combat range for medium-caliber high-altitude guns.

According to statistics by the Navy, in past battles, the large-caliber high-altitude guns on carriers contributed less than twenty percent in air defense combat, and the combat distance for intercepting enemy planes was often within 10 kilometers, precisely coinciding with the combat range of the 80mm high-altitude guns.

Besides the carriers, two "Nanzhu Sea" class Fast Battleships also returned to the shipyard for their first comprehensive overhaul after commissioning.

The two Fast Battleships also took this opportunity for retrofitting.

However, instead of replacing the 130mm high-altitude guns with the 80mm ones, they simply improved the high-altitude guns to fire new types of shells.

In addition, they removed the two quad-mounted 40mm high-altitude guns set at the stern and replaced them with two seaplane hangars.

As a result, the number of seaplanes carried increased from four to eight.

Actually, these changes were also made in response to the new fleet organization.

The 21st Special Mixed Fleet added two "Huai River" class Large Cruisers, assisting the two Fast Battleships in providing cover for the carriers.

When necessary, Fast Battleships could be drafted to form ground-to-air teams.

This would require greater searching and reconnaissance capabilities.

Clearly, the key was the newly added Large Cruisers.

Although the first batch of the "Huai River" class included only four, the second batch reached eight and sped up in the later stages of construction, commissioning only about two months later than the first batch and being integrated into the battle sequence with the first batch. The critical point was that all twelve Large Cruisers remained in the East Ocean.

As a replacement, the repaired "North River" and "Nanjing" were sent to Land Heart Sea, incorporated into the Sunset Ocean Fleet commanded by Liu Xiangzhen.

Because Large Cruisers could provide air defense cover for carriers, in actual combat, Fleet Commanders now had more and more flexible options.

However, the Navy Headquarters did not make any adjustments to the organization of the Special Mixed Fleet.

Whether to form a separate assault team was for the Fleet Commander to decide based on the actual situation.

Here, a very critical personnel change was involved.

After the Spring Festival, Bai Zhizhan received a Promotion Order signed by Liu Changxun, formally promoting him to Navy Admiral, serving as the Commander-in-chief of the Imperial Navy’s East Ocean Fleet.

As for the 21st Special Mixed Fleet, it was commanded by Li Mingbo.

Under normal circumstances, Bai Zhizhan still followed the twenty-first Special Mixed Fleet and took the "Qinling" as its flagship.

The main reason for this adjustment was not that Bai Zhizhan had made great military achievements and deserved promotion and commendation, but it was related to the size of the fleet.

After Bai Zhizhan’s return, there were three Special Mixed Fleets on the East Ocean side.

Before the year, the Navy Headquarter made adjustments, removing the "Longjiang" from the combat sequence to replace the "Heng River," which due to severe structural damage to the hull had long been overwhelmed, serving as an aviation training vessel. Thus, the Special Mixed Fleet commanded by Wei Jun was left with only two "Imperial Capital" class.

After that, the Navy Headquarter dispatched the forty-first Special Mixed Fleet, consisting of four small carriers, to the Fan Flame Ocean to take charge of the combat operations in the South Xuan region.

However, the size of the East Ocean Fleet had not decreased.

After the Spring Festival, the first four "province" class carriers were officially delivered to the Navy.

After completing the necessary tests, by the end of March they were formally incorporated into the combat sequence, forming the twenty-third and twenty-fourth Special Mixed Fleets, commanded by Li Jie and Jin Hong respectively.

By then, the East Ocean Fleet possessed four main battle mixed fleets, totaling six large carriers and two fleet carriers.

In addition, there were two other Special Mixed Fleets, each with four small carriers.

If needed, the fast escort carriers operating on the West East Ocean could be mobilized, potentially totaling up to twenty-two ships.

Counting all these carriers, they could carry more than 1600 ship-borne aircraft!

In addition, the escort battleships accompanying them could carry about 400 seaplanes.

On Transfer Island, there were several hundred shore-based air force long-range fighters and about 500 heavy bombers belonging to the Army’s Strategic Air Force.

This meant that the Imperial Navy could deploy over 3000 combat aircraft!

Even without considering the quality of the officers and soldiers, especially the abilities of the pilots, just a few thousand combat aircraft would be enough to overwhelm the Newland Army in the Howay Islands.

According to intelligence provided by the Sixth Bureau, the Newland Army had deployed less than 3000 combat aircraft in the Howay Islands.

Among these combat aircraft, a large portion was tactical aircraft from the Newland Navy. Those belonging to the Newland Land Air Force were also primarily tactical aircraft.

It wasn’t that the Newland Land Air Force lacked bombers, but on the Howay Islands, all of the large airfields capable of deploying heavy bombers had received special attention.

Moreover, the combat capability of Newland’s Air Force was much poorer.

The deficiency was not just in the aircraft, but also in the pilots.

The advantages of the Imperial Navy did not stop there.

If they could wait another two months, until June, they would receive 4 more large carriers and 4 more small carriers, as well as at least twenty fast escort carriers.

By then, the combat aircraft that could be deployed would exceed 4000.

In Bai Zhizhan’s view, this was completely unnecessary.

It wasn’t that more forces weren’t needed, but rather that continuing to delay would only decrease the relative advantage of the Imperial Navy.

If Bai Zhizhan were to decide, he would choose to launch an attack before the Spring Festival rather than waiting until after Qingming Festival because in March, the Newland Navy’s first large carrier, the "Ethe," would officially enter service. By April, in addition to several "Independent" class small carriers, three "Fenjin" class quasi-fleet carriers would be added. If they delayed until June, they would face even more Newland carriers.

Unfortunately, the Imperial Navy was in no way ready to launch an attack before the Spring Festival.

Even if they could assemble enough warships, they wouldn’t be able to obtain enough supplies by the end of the year, especially the fuel required for each battleship.

Therefore, after the Qingming Festival, once two large carriers had returned and the other several Special Mixed Fleets were ready, Bai Zhizhan issued the order to march.