On the morning of the 17th, the Ministry of the Navy, the Ministry of Finance, the General Administration of Military Industry, and the General Naval Staff held another joint meeting. The main topic of the meeting was to revise the shipbuilding plan.
Facts speak louder than any words. Xiang Xiaoqiang explained everything with iron-clad facts - so far, this aircraft carrier fleet has sunk one Japanese battleship (Hiei) and damaged one battleship (Nagato).
), destroyed two heavy cruisers (Nachi and Furutaka), sunk one light cruiser (Ryuta), and sunk
Five destroyers. In addition, 128 Japanese fighter jets, 40 bombers, and 3 transport aircraft were destroyed (both in the sky and on the ground). This is only the number directly destroyed by the Tianshu squadron, and does not include the Ming army in Taiwan.
Land-based aircraft chased and fought, resulting in 40 Okinawa Japanese fighter jets that ran out of fuel and crashed into the sea.
To achieve the above results, the Ming army paid only 16 fighter jets, 15 dive bombers, and 18 torpedo bombers.
Of course, it is very likely that we will encounter the Japanese fleet on the way back, and the results of the battle will be expanded. However, the Japanese army has also sent aircraft carriers, and the exchange ratio may not be so good.
There is no result more convincing than this. Everyone is impressed by the aircraft carrier. Although the meeting has to repeatedly discuss various details, calculate tonnage, project volume, budget, construction schedule changes, etc., it will take at least several days to reach the final decision.
, but at the beginning, basically everyone agreed to set the general tone: the original plan was to focus on battleships, but now it will focus on aircraft carriers.
However, there were fierce disagreements at the meeting. Some people were the "absolute aircraft carrier faction" and insisted on changing all the original plans of three battleships into aircraft carriers. They also advocated building one or two more aircraft carriers to allow the Ming Dynasty Navy to move from
The "battleship-centered navy" quickly transformed into a "aircraft carrier-centered navy."
Another group of people are the "relative aircraft carrier faction", who believe that even if the aircraft carrier is good, it cannot be so hasty as to cut off all the battleships at once. Although the aircraft carrier is good, it is a new thing after all, and it has only experienced one battle, so it will definitely not be enough.
There are many problems that have not been exposed. After all, battleships have been in the navy for hundreds of years.
The main force is mature, with mature technology, mature strategies, and mature tactics, including talent training and logistics systems. Now when you suddenly see something good, you immediately discard the old and replace it with the new. The risk is too great. They advocate that creating
Most of the ship plans can be changed to aircraft carriers, but at least one battleship must be retained.
This is not the only disagreement. Because the construction cost of a battleship is two to three times that of an aircraft carrier of the same tonnage, this means that every time a battleship is converted into an aircraft carrier, a huge budget will be saved. And now these budget savings
How to use it has also become one of the focuses of debate at the meeting. First of all, there are differences between the two departments of the cabinet: the Navy Department advocates diverting these budgets to build other types of ships. The "Absolute Aircraft Carrier School" advocates using it to build aircraft carriers.
The "relative aircraft carrier faction" advocates using it to build cruisers and destroyers.
The Ministry of Finance hopes that this money will be saved if it is saved. It is not easy to save some money. Since it is saved here, it should be used in other places where it is more needed. For example, allocate it to the Army, for example, use it in domestic construction.
etc.
The General Maritime Staff is also on the side of the Navy and wants these budgets to stay on the Navy. Because indeed, the primary enemy now is Japan, and the most important thing to deal with Japan is the Navy. Now that the importance of battleships has declined, then aircraft carriers and cruisers
and destroyers, all appear more important. In addition to building more aircraft carriers, there are also some controversies.
There is no dispute that more cruisers and destroyers should be built. Both of them are "universal ship types", capable of naval warfare, reconnaissance, patrolling, search and rescue, mine laying, temporary transportation, destroying the enemy's maritime traffic, and protecting one's own maritime traffic.
All have a lot of uses. For any country's navy, there are never enough cruisers and destroyers.
…
Different from similar meetings in the past, Xiuxiu was able to participate this time. Although she was only a captain, as a princess, her status was higher. More importantly, her current position is "Her Majesty the Queen's Naval Aide", which is
You can come and listen to the meeting openly on behalf of the Queen. Xiang Xiaoqiang is very interested in the shipbuilding plan, and specially arranged for Xiu Xiu to participate as "Her Majesty's adjutant".
When the meeting was adjourned at noon, Xiuxiu called Xiang Xiaoqiang and told him the status of the morning meeting and the opinions of all parties. Xiang Xiaoqiang thought for a moment and said:
"Xiuxiu, I was hoping that at least some people would advocate building more submarines, but now no one has mentioned the word submarine. You can listen again in the afternoon. If no one has mentioned it yet, I will talk to Xiong Dingming tonight and let him
Instruct the representatives of the Maritime General Staff to bring it up. Anyway, I live in the fortress now, and it is easy to find them... Just kidding, if you want to completely conquer Japan, you have to use a blockade. If you want to block Japan, how can you do it without submarines?"
Xiuxiu was startled, thought for a moment, and asked carefully:
"...Sir, blockade Japan? Who said we should blockade Japan?"
"Huh? No one said it?" Xiang Xiaoqiang was also stunned, and then said, "Well, then I have said it now: blockade Japan."
Xiu Xiu was stunned for a long time and was speechless.
Seeing that she was silent, Xiang Xiaoqiang asked:
"Hey, Xiuxiu, what's wrong with you?"
Xiuxiu took a deep breath and whispered:
"Sir, aren't we looking for an opportunity to seek an armistice with Japan now? Why do we need to block Japan again?"
Xiang Xiaoqiang smiled and said:
"Haha, this is just our wishful thinking. What if he doesn't make a truce with you?...At least he won't make an unconditional truce with you. Do you think so? He will definitely say: A truce is okay, but you have to let me keep something.
Japan is the most cunning in this regard. Once it sees an opportunity to take advantage of it, it will definitely
We will not let go of any opportunity to extort oil and blackmail. With the character of the Japanese, in the current war situation, they are far from taking the initiative to come to us for peace. And if we take the initiative to go to them, we will definitely be eaten by them.
Just like the Soviet Union comes to us now and is sure to be eaten by us."
Xiuxiu is a little dizzy:
"Then...submarine..."
Xiang Xiaoqiang said:
"Submarines are no better than warships. The construction cycle of submarines is very short. With Ming's shipbuilding capabilities, a large number can be built in a few months. Plus what we have now, we will send dozens or hundreds of submarines to the west of Japan.
A scattering along the Pacific coast...tsk tsk tsk, only
Only by attacking the Japanese on the battlefield and in logistics at the same time can we let them know the pain. Otherwise, it will be too futile for us to just rely on losing troops and generals on the battlefield. Even if we have recovered the entire Northeast by then, what will we do next? Enter
Not entering North Korea?
"If we don't enter Korea, Japan will still not necessarily kill us, and it will still be smelly and tough. If we enter Korea, we will face casualties several times higher than in Manchuria. Korea has been operated by Japan for decades. Needless to say, there are intensive fortifications. Korea
Japan has long regarded it as part of the mainland, and even many Koreans consider themselves Japanese. With the current ruthlessness of the Japanese army, how many people do you think we will have to die? So to subdue Japan, naval blockade is the kingly way."