Chapter 1288 The Empire's Aircraft Carrier Era (Second update, please subscribe)

War. Since the day when human civilization originated, human civilization has been inextricably linked to war, and the progress of war has also been driving the development of human civilization.

Just like naval warfare, from primitive canoes and stone swords and arrows, to later multi-sail warships and front-loading cannons, and now to ironclad warships and rear-loading cannons.

The repeated changes in naval warfare technology have not only changed the mode of naval warfare, but also changed the course of human history.

Now in this inconspicuous place, change has once again begun.

As the altitude decreased, the target became larger and closer. Although the base of the battleship's turret was hollow, it was still a complete battleship in Lu Rende's eyes.

When he was still several kilometers away from the battleship, Lu Rende dived directly. With a sharp whistle, a 250-kilogram bomb flew towards the battleship the moment it left the rack.

The black bomb whizzed in the air and rushed straight towards the target. The heavy bomb directly smashed through the deck and rushed into the cabin.

"boom!"

Accompanied by a loud explosion, the tail of the battleship was blown into a mess.

And this was just the beginning. Another seven planes followed suit and launched air strikes on targets on the sea.

For a moment, amid the violent explosions, the entire battleship was shrouded in thick smoke. In the explosion, the battleship seemed to be on fire, and flames rose into the sky. Although the battleship was still floating on the water after the continuous bombing, everyone could see it.

The battleship has "lost its combat effectiveness".

Air strike!

This is the real air raid!

"Sir, sir, this, this..."

"Is this true?"

When the officers were stunned by the scene before them, Cheng Bichen said seriously.

"This is real, I tell you, this... is the future!"

After he finished speaking, Cheng Bichen said directly.

"Count how many 'Shenzhou-class immigration ships' the empire has, and call the Navy Department to request that they be converted into first-class combat reserve ships..."

What is a Class I combat reserve ship?

This is the merchant ship combat readiness sequence established as early as the Nanhua period. If civilian merchant ships are listed as "first-level combat readiness ships", then when the situation is tense - that is, when the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issues an "orange alert", they must leave the ports of unfriendly countries and sail to the nearest friendly country ports as much as possible. This is to prevent important merchant ships from being captured and requisitioned by enemy countries during war, or even becoming a tool to attack their own country.

Since the "Shenzhou-class immigration ship" has such military potential, it must be listed as a "first-level combat reserve ship". Once a war breaks out, it can be requisitioned for transformation into an "aircraft carrier."

"It is also suggested that the Navy consider requisitioning the Shenzhou class currently under construction, and transforming it into an aircraft carrier, and draft a report on establishing a naval aviation force."

The flapping of butterfly wings is very powerful. In this world, the wings of butterfly inadvertently stir up storms again and again, directly changing the whole world.

As the world was about to enter the last decade of the 19th century, human science and technology, driven by the Ming Dynasty, had made rapid progress. From cars to airships, it was already very advanced compared to history.

This is the acceleration of global technological iteration brought about by the Ming Dynasty's use of advanced technology.

This acceleration affected not only foreign countries, but also unexpectedly the innovations within the Ming Dynasty.

"aircraft carrier……"

After receiving the memorial from the Navy Department, Emperor Zhu was stunned for a long time before muttering.

"The aircraft carrier is coming out..."

In fact, as the initiator of the "Shenzhou-class immigration ship", he certainly knew that the ship was more of a "quasi-aircraft carrier" than a merchant ship. Even when he proposed the concept of the "Shenzhou-class immigration ship", he had considered requisitioning it in wartime and transforming it into an aircraft carrier.

However, due to limitations in technology and confidentiality, this concept remained in the mind of Emperor Zhu and was never put into action.

But what about now?

The Navy successfully used the "Shenzhou-class immigration ship" to transform it into the world's first aircraft carrier, and even conducted an aerial target shooting exercise.

This is really a bit unexpected!

"Naval aviation, aircraft carriers..."

Staring at the navy's memorial and the photos attached to it, Emperor Zhu muttered to himself.

"The dreadnought has just been born, and the aircraft carrier has just appeared. Now the arms race in the empire is getting interesting..."

"Dreadnought" arms race!

Just like in the other world, in the face of powerful dreadnoughts, in order to ensure their own naval superiority, the navies of Britain, Germany, the United States and other countries began to build dreadnoughts. In response, the Ming Empire, France, Russia, and even third-rate countries such as the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Italy also began to build "dreadnoughts". At present, the arms race among countries in the world has entered a rather frenetic state.

Unlike in history, when dreadnoughts used 12-inch naval guns to create a craze, the Ming Dynasty directly used 14-inch "super dreadnoughts" to launch this naval technology revolution. Faced with the empire's powerful "dreadnoughts", the British were eager to build dreadnoughts with larger caliber main guns and increased armor protection. In order to catch up with the Ming Dynasty and regain its advantage in firepower, the Royal Navy has proposed developing 15-inch caliber main guns to counter the Ming Dynasty's 14-inch caliber main guns.

Of course, the proposer of this project was completely proud of the invention of the hydraulic press, which was also a technology from the Empire. However, Britain has not yet solved the problem of 14-inch naval guns. The first batch of dreadnoughts they built and designed were almost all equipped with 12-inch naval guns.

Regardless of whether Britain can successfully produce 15-inch naval guns, one thing is certain: the "dreadnought" competition is taking place in this world.

But what about now?

Before the dreadnought competition reached its real climax, the Imperial Navy had just received the bowl of dreadnoughts, but ended up smashing its own bowl. The speed at which the bowl was smashed was simply "outrageous".

“It’s a bit difficult!”

Emperor Zhu couldn't help but feel a little melancholy. Now that the aircraft carriers were built, it seemed that those toy-like planes and aircraft carriers without armored defenses did not seem to pose any threat to the fleet. Even in the next decade or so, aircraft carriers would only be auxiliary warships at sea, and naval battles would still be dominated by combat ships and fleet artillery battles. After all, based on the experience of another world, even until World War II, battleships were an important part of the fleet. Aircraft carriers needed battle fleets to provide corresponding protection.

However, since the Empire has seized this new peak in naval technology, it can maintain its leading level in naval technology.

"It seems that it is almost time to develop aviation!"

Emperor Zhu was referring not only to the air force, but also to aircraft carriers.

Real feeling!

When making this decision, an intuition suddenly emerged in Emperor Zhu's mind that perhaps these aircraft carriers would change the future to a great extent. He said that what would be changed was not just the combat mode of future naval battles.

It will even overturn the course of human warfare and everything that people are familiar with now. Of course, the most important thing is that it will bring victory to the Empire. Let the Empire win the future arms race, of course. At that moment, the whole world will realize that the ironclad giant ships they spent huge amounts of money to build are just a joke.

Those huge fearless swords are nothing but a pile of useless scrap metal...

After making the decision to develop naval aviation, Emperor Zhu once again looked through another briefing, which was a real-time war report from Africa.

The content of the battle report made Emperor Zhu, who was in a good mood, even more comfortable. He even whistled inadvertently and said quite proudly.

"This battle was fought beautifully!"

(End of this chapter)