Empire Conquest

Chapter 631 - 627: Surrendering without a Fight

Four days later, at noon on April 23, northeast of East Ocean.

After circling a few times, the Liangxia Navy’s fighter jets shot into the high altitude and flew away to the west.

On the distant horizon, several masts had already appeared.

Although they were over 20 kilometers away, through binoculars one could distinguish that those were Liangxia warships, for only Liangxia Navy vessels would mount anti-air radar at the top of their masts. Judging by the size of the radar, those were definitely several battleships.

Because the radar antennas were too cumbersome, the radars on Newland battleships were installed on the rear masts or above the secondary bridges.

Staring at the departing fighter jets for a while, Spur couldn’t help but let out a sigh.

Even though he wasn’t the one who had given the orders, it was his responsibility now to issue them on his own.

On the flight deck of the "Ethe," accurately speaking, at the front end of the flight deck, dozens of ship-borne aircraft were neatly arranged.

Nearby, the four small carriers belonging to the 52nd Special Mixed Fleet were similar, with aircraft placed at the front end of the flight decks, which were in a state of recovery operation.

Because the front end of the flight decks was occupied, the ship-borne aircraft could not take off from the carriers.

Furthermore, the other warships in the fleet were also in "non-combat" status.

The main gun barrels of the large battleships were in a horizontal position, and they were covered with gun bloomers. The muzzles of the secondary guns all pointed backward and were also covered with gun bloomers. As for the high-altitude guns, the batteries were all in an open state, the gun barrels were horizontal, and the gunners were inside the battleships, with all nearby doors closed.

For ease of observation, the edges of the hatch doors were also painted a conspicuous yellow.

Thus, as soon as someone opened a hatch door and came out from the warships, the pilots of the reconnaissance aircraft could see them from over ten kilometers away.

Of course, all the warships had shut down all electronic equipment except for the short-wave radios, as required.

This definitely included the radars.

All these were done according to the demands of the Liangxia Fleet.

Spur knew that around the fleet, there were also several ship-borne reconnaissance aircraft dedicated to surveillance tasks, or possibly seaplanes carried by escort battleships.

The pilots on these planes were definitely using binoculars to monitor the warships on the sea.

Besides, those Liangxia battleships approaching from the west were all ready for combat, able to open fire upon receiving orders.

Should the Newland warships dare to make any rash movements, the main guns of those battleships would have their chance to demonstrate their might.

As expected, behind those Liangxia warships, dozens of ship-borne aircraft carrying torpedoes and bombs hovered at low altitude.

About half an hour later, the Liangxia Navy’s strike group arrived.

Leading the way were six "Nanzhu Sea" class fast battleships.

In fact, this was also the first time Spur had seen this kind of the most powerful battleship to date from such a close distance.

Even though in the 3rd Fleet, which Spur commanded, there were also six fast battleships, of which four "Nanda" class were recently commissioned, post-treaty-type fast battleships, the disparity between them and the Liangxia Navy’s "Nanzhu Sea" class was stark and unmistakable.

The most obvious difference was their size.

Next to the towering "Nanzhu Sea" class, the "Nanda" class simply didn’t look like battleships in terms of ship length, mast height, and the size of the superstructure.

Of course, the disparity wasn’t just in appearance.

Despite Spur’s proficiency in commanding air operations, he had served on cruisers for over twenty years before being heavily relied upon and becoming the Commander of the Special Mixed Fleet.

To put it simply, Liangxia Navy’s "Nanzhu Sea" class were the real post-treaty-type fast battleships.

If one must make a comparison, the "Nanda" class actually corresponds to the abandoned "Muddy Sea" class of the Liangxia Navy, still a Treaty Type Fast Battleship.

The main manifestation, in fact, lies in the design philosophy.

Treaty Type Battleships are most distinctly characterized during design by first determining the standard displacement, then, based on the available technology, the Navy defines specific tactical performance indicators, and after weighing and making trade-offs, detailed design proposals are put forth.

Due to the limited tonnage, it is impossible to achieve perfection.

As a result, Treaty Type Battleships will always have one flaw or another, giving an impression of something good but not flawless.

For instance, the Newland Navy’s "Beika" class, due to the need for achieving higher speeds, increased the hull length, leading to insufficient longitudinal stability, and causing severe bow wave when sailing fast, as well as potentially hazardous violent vibrations within certain speed ranges.

Moreover, the armor protection of the "Beika" class did not meet the standards of a battleship and was more akin to a battlecruiser.

The same design flaws are present in the "Nanda" class.

The difference is that in response to the issues exposed by the "Beika" class, especially its weak protection, the "Nanda" class went to another extreme, shortening the hull length as much as possible.

A Fast Battleship with a standard displacement of nearly 38,000 tons had a hull length comparable to that of a Heavy Cruiser of just over 10,000 tons.

The most significant issue that arose from this was not the speed of less than 28 knots, but the deck area being so narrow that not many High-altitude Guns could be deployed.

With a maximum speed of just over 27 knots, the "Nanda" class was destined not to be an ideal Anti-Air Warship.

It was precisely for this reason that Spur had the 4 "Nanda" class vessels form the 53rd Special Mixed Fleet, with the 2 "Beika" class vessels still providing air defense cover for the "Ethe" carrier.

Relatively speaking, the Liangxia Navy’s "Nanzhu Sea" class did not suffer from these problems.

Due to a significant increase in tonnage, the "Nanzhu Sea" class had a length of over 260 meters, not only with a speed of over 30 knots but also a huge deck.

Undoubtedly, the "Nanzhu Sea" class was designed to the standards of an Anti-Air Warship.

Of course, one cannot deny its formidable sea combat capabilities.

Whether it’s the 9 Main Guns with a caliber of 55 times 400 millimeters, the 8 double-barreled 130 millimeters secondary guns, or the 2 clearly purposed fire-control radars, all were superior to the "Nanda" class, even more powerful than the still-under-construction "Yihua" class, indeed the strongest Fast Battleships of the present day.

Crucially, there were as many as 6 of them!

Of course, there were actually 8, with the other 2 assigned to the Sunset Ocean Fleet.

In addition, the Liangxia Navy’s third type of Fast Battleship, the legendary "Mua Sea" class, had already begun construction, with the first batch amounting to a staggering 8 vessels.

According to the intelligence obtained by Spur, the standard displacement of the "Mua Sea" class exceeded 50,000 tons!

Without discussing specifics, just the tonnage alone is sufficient to overwhelm all existing Fast Battleships.

Another key point is, with comparable tonnage, the fighting power of the Liangxia Navy’s main combat vessels has always been the best in the world. It is fair to say they have always been chased and never surpassed.

Clearly, in a battle within visual range, the Fast Battleships remain invincible.

Not to mention anything else, just the immense pressure exerted by the 6 "Nanzhu Sea" class was enough to make officers and sailors of the Newland Navy feel suffocated.

The disparity between their Fast Battleships suffices to prove that the Newland Federation, even at its utmost, is no match for the Liangxia Empire.

The industrial gap between the two was not as small as many Newlanders imagined.

Simply put, even under full mobilization, the Newland Federation was only on par with the Liangxia Empire, which had not yet fully mobilized for war.

Should the Liangxia Empire mobilize fully, its industrial capacity could increase by at least 30%.

This disparity is fundamentally irreconcilable by any other means.

To be defeated by the Liangxia Navy is in no way an injustice.