Chapter 1287 The Empire's Aircraft Carrier (First Update, Please Subscribe)

In war, some countries provide ammunition, some countries provide food, and some countries directly provide blood and lives.

The first two add fuel to the flames, but the latter? They fight and kill in the name of freedom and country.

And the Ming Dynasty was undoubtedly the country that provided ammunition, added fuel to the flames, and continued to fan the flames.

In fact, the strategy of the Ming Dynasty was very simple - to take advantage of the resistance of the Boers and bleed the British little by little, making them bleed to death and exhaust their financial resources in South Africa. Even if they eventually occupied the Boer Republic, a weakened Britain would find it difficult to defeat the empire in the next war.

In fact, this war was the beginning of the British Empire's decline from the world's most powerful country to a third-rate empire. The so-called decline of a powerful empire is a long process, and this process often has a seemingly insignificant beginning.

The Ming Dynasty was full of confidence in the Boers, and this confidence came from Emperor Zhu himself. After all, in another world, the Boers had caused Britain to bleed heavily. In this world, with the support of the empire, although the Boers could not be said to have a strong military force, they had absolutely no problems with logistics. Therefore, even if they had to fight a protracted war, they would have no problem at all with the support of the empire.

Although the Ming Empire was determined to fight to the last Boer, it did not relax its preparations for war.

The Gulf of Penas, this bay located in the south of the empire is as peaceful as before. A flat-deck "Shenzhou-class immigration ship" is sailing in the bay. What is different from the past is that there are soldiers standing on this ship, and the railings on the side have been removed. On the flat deck, several biplanes are parked there in an interlaced manner. Standing on the deck, Lu Rende, as usual, is measuring the length of the deck with his footsteps. After walking to the front of the deck, he stared at the distant horizon, his lips slightly raised, and he talked to himself.

"That's definitely no problem."

"Will it work?"

When Lu Rende walked to the side of the plane, Cheng Bichen asked.

Although they had already conducted their first test flight on the deck of the "Yizhou" last year, after the successful test flight, they are now taking bigger steps. After ten months of continuous takeoffs and landings, the Imperial Navy finally has 8 pilots who can take off and land on the ship, and Lu Rende is the first aviation captain of the Imperial Navy.

"No problem. The aircraft carrier is sailing against the wind at a speed of 17 knots. Adding the taxiing speed during takeoff, there will definitely be no problem with takeoff..."

"I want more than just takeoff."

Cheng Bichen said.

"What I want is success..."

He said, pointing to the battleship in the distance with its turret removed.

"Successfully sank it."

Sink it!

This is exactly why they came here today and the purpose of this experiment.

"Please rest assured, Commander Cheng, we will definitely live up to your expectations!"

Cheng Bichen nodded slightly and said that for today, he, as the fleet commander, had gone to Zhongdu many times, from coordinating with the army to agree to transfer some aircraft to the navy, to coordinating with the Immigration Bureau to requisition the "Yizhou" immigration ship, and then spending tens of thousands of yuan to renovate the immigration ship. Compared with others, the renovation of the immigration ship is undoubtedly the simplest - in order to facilitate ventilation, its immigration cabin is designed to be semi-open, and the immigration cabin is also a frame structure. It is only necessary to move the container-type immigration cabins one by one, and a barely usable hangar will appear.

Although simple, the renovation project still took half a year...As for modifications such as installing Gatling guns, they were all small projects that were better than nothing.

However, the real problem is not the modification of the ship, but the training of the pilots. After all, taking off and landing the plane on the ship is an unprecedented test on the pilots' skills. Moreover, in the process of boarding the plane, they not only have to solve the problem of take-off, but also the problem of landing. Each problem is a new topic. In the continuous test flights, all problems are constantly being solved.

Today is the day when the world's first aircraft carrier conducts live-fire target training. Their target is the old battleship with its turrets and steam engines removed.

"Reload, reload..."

As the ground crew ran, bombs weighing 250 kilograms were hung on the racks under the belly of the aircraft.

"Brothers, are you ready?"

“Ready!”

The pilots responded one after another.

"team leader!"

Before taking off, Li Tianle shouted nervously. He was the captain's wingman. According to the combat plan, he was the second one to drop the bomb. If the captain made a mistake in dropping the bomb, he had to drop the bomb on the "target".

"Follow me and drop the bomb later!"

Lu Rende nodded at him and got on the plane. As the ground crew turned the propeller hard to start the engine, he waved and shouted to his comrades while wearing a flight cap.

"Follow me later!"

As the engines of one plane after another started, a deafening roar echoed on the deck. Amid the roar of the engines, Lu Rende's No. 1 plane first slid forward and then continued to accelerate. As he took off, Li Tianle stared at the captain's plane and shouted silently.

"Pull it up, pull it up, pull it up..."

After gliding for thirty meters, Lu Rende began to push the joystick hard, and after gliding for a few more meters, the plane finally took off slowly. When the plane flew to the end of the deck, the plane sank first, and then quickly rose.

Fly up!

One, two, three...

Soon, eight planes circled above the mother ship and formed a formation. Cheng Bichen, who was standing outside the bridge, held a telescope and looked at the planes in the sky. Perhaps because he was full of anticipation, he felt a little dry in his mouth and pursed his lips.

"Sir, they flew over."

Nodding, Cheng Bichen didn't say anything. He just watched the plane fly towards the target ship three nautical miles away. Although cannons could solve the problem at this distance, today's test was the first naval air raid in human history.

What is the effect of bombing warships with airplanes?

How much damage would a 250 kg bomb cause to a warship?

These are the questions he was eager to know. Only after obtaining these data could Cheng Bichen put forward his idea - to establish a long-range strike force mainly based on aircraft carriers. Of course, they are just a supplement to the Imperial Navy.

After all, those toy-like planes have many restrictions whether they take off or bomb. They can't fly if the wind is strong or the waves are big, and even the accuracy of the bombs is limited.

(End of this chapter)