afterglow

Chapter 582 Taibai Venus and Nandina; Ask Zhou Taizhao to write a poem

Zhou Changfeng felt as if he had become the president of one of the top 100 companies in the future, and he would fly around the world every now and then.

He only stayed in Hangzhou for a night and a half, and after inspecting the Huifeng Factory and the Type 40 all-terrain multi-purpose vehicle, he immediately left for the Liaodong Peninsula.

金州海军造船厂是大明位列第三的造船基地，拥有300m船坞1座、240m船坞1座、244m船台2座，总计可同时开工五艘主力舰。

In addition there are some small slipways and dry docks.

This is a semi-official joint venture, with a few nobles holding more than half of the shares, the court holding a small share, and a few fragmentary shares belonging to private merchants.

As the plane begins to descend, when it breaks through the clouds, you can see the neatly planned docks, dry docks, slipways, gantry cranes, factories, and narrow-gauge railways in the factory area below.

The seven or eight destroyers and anti-aircraft cruisers under construction have already taken shape. The mighty battleship Xuande is undergoing a thorough overhaul in dry dock. She is much luckier than her sister ship Yongle, which is undergoing power system treatment surgery at the Jiangnan Navy Yard— —Cut out the power deck and armor box for replacement.

To the northwest of these large and small battleships, a huge armored aircraft carrier came into view. Her hull size was the same as that of the Xuande, but it looked larger because of the flight deck.

Half a quarter of an hour later, the plane landed safely at Airport No. 1 at the Jinzhou Naval Base.

Afterwards, Zhou Changfeng drove to the shipyard, surrounded by local officials.

"Your Excellency arrived unexpectedly, and I apologize for the delay in greeting you."

The receptionist sent by the shipyard was Cao Shengjun, the head of the Public Works Department, a senior engineer who seemed reliable at first glance.

Because not only is my hair thin, but my glasses are thick.

"It doesn't matter whether you are far away or not. If you don't do your job well, everything will be in vain." Zhou Changfeng looked at the battleships in the distance and replied casually.

The group then headed straight for the No. 3 dock - where the large armored aircraft carrier was located.

You may not feel anything when you look at the Mengchong giant ship from a distance, but once you get close, especially when you stand next to it, the pressure of the giant steel mountain will hit your face, so that your chest feels like a heavy pressure.

【Picture】

"When the reconstruction started last year, it was estimated that it would take another two years to complete, but since the war started, our factory has worked together to shorten the time. Now the outfitting work will be completed soon, and sea trials will be prepared next month."

Cao Shengjun introduced it like this, with a different kind of pride in his tone.

"Is it of guaranteed quality and quantity?" Zhou Changfeng repeated what he said at Huifeng Factory.

"The work is done according to the specifications." Another engineer replied categorically: "I work overtime, but I never cheat."

"That's good. The front line is a battlefield, and the rear is also a battlefield. I will give you credit."

"what?"

This unexpected surprise made the fellow shipyard employees very happy. No one had thought that there would be additional rewards before.

Zhou Changfeng couldn't help but think of the Shinano in history, a short-lived and unlucky battleship that was said to be born of despair and die of shame.

Because the top military officials strictly ordered the ship to be completed on time, Yokosuka Shipyard was forced to rush work day and night, and omitted a large number of secondary processes and time-consuming specifications, leaving many major hidden dangers, including watertightness testing.

As a result, the armored aircraft carrier with the largest tonnage was attacked and sunk by a US submarine just a dozen hours after its first sea trial. The super battleship, which the Japanese had high hopes for, sank to the bottom of the sea in vain.

At this time, Zhou Changfeng opened the car door and got out of the car, looked up at the aircraft carrier in front of him, and marveled: "Looking up close, it feels much bigger than Ziweiyuan."

Cao Shengjun, who got off the car together, said disdainfully: "Zhou Qianshi, the designed displacement of this ship is 40,000 tons, which is almost twice that of Ziweiyuan."

“How many planes can you bring?”

"More than seventy. This doesn't sound like much, and it doesn't match the size, but this ship is very strong and has excellent sinking resistance."

After Cao Sheng finished speaking, the engineer from before also said with great pride: "Looking back on what happened since the war started, American aircraft are simply unable to sink her. This ship is invincible in the world!"

Well... people who are so confident usually end up badly. Ships that dare to claim to be unsinkable seem to sink in the end.

Zhou Changfeng muttered in his heart.

The No. 3 and No. 4 Yongle-class ships were named Chang Geng and Qiming respectively, which actually refer to the same star - Taibaijin.

The No. 3 ship was built in Tianjin and the No. 4 ship was built in Jinzhou, so they were named according to "Qiming in the east and Changgeng in the west".

For this reason, the original Qiming practice aircraft carrier was renamed Taiyin.

The Qiming was the first aircraft carrier of the Ming Dynasty many years ago. It was rebuilt from a cruiser and was soon withdrawn from active service as a training ship.

Because they are based on battleships, the two modified aircraft carriers are essentially very different from ordinary aircraft carriers.

The foundations of both are very good. The underwater protection systems are both at the battleship level. Like the Yongle class, they use the full version of the Hu's underwater protection system (five-layer compartments) instead of the castrated version like other aircraft carriers ( three-layer compartment).

This is because the hull section of an aircraft carrier is not nearly rectangular like a battleship, making it inconvenient to arrange multiple compartments.

Hu's underwater protection system adopts a design in which the outer layer is filled with heavy oil, the middle layer is left empty, and the inner layer is filled with Daming's characteristic expanded asphalt. Even the castrated version has the ability to withstand an underwater explosion equivalent to 500kg of TNT, and the full version can even Resist 700kg level threats.

In fact, the Ming Navy spent a lot of money to test the effectiveness of this TDS four years ago. Even though the test sample was successfully destroyed with up to 1000kg of TNT in the destructive test, the sample still had some integrity.

What is the concept? It should be noted that even if the warhead charge of the US-made Mk13 aviation torpedo uses expensive Torpex explosive (150% TNT equivalent), it is only equivalent to about 450kg of TNT.

"This is really solid." Zhou Changfeng said.

"Well, considering this, even if the enemy plane hits the bomb, the known torpedoes are unlikely to cause effective damage. Judging from the US-made aviation torpedoes we captured, their power is weak and not worth mentioning." Cao Shengjun said disdainfully.

"What about the submarine attack?"

"Heavy submarine-launched torpedoes...the items captured are also not impressive, only five to six hundred kilograms of explosives."

"It's good. Now I'm not even afraid of things slipping through the net."

The overall configuration of the Chang Geng-class armored aircraft carrier is naturally a bulbous bow and a square stern. It follows the eight high-temperature and high-pressure boilers and four steam turbines used by the Yongle-class and has four-axis propulsion.

Its steam superheater can output superheated steam with a temperature of 420°C and a pressure of 35㎏/c㎡. The total power can reach 18 horsepower. When overloaded, it can have as much as 20 horsepower. Such surging power can allow the aircraft carrier to reach Top speed of 33 knots.

This power system takes up more space than the Richelieu-class battleships and consumes slightly more fuel, but it is still at a first-class level.

The flight deck of the Chang Geng class is undoubtedly paved with heavy armor, but its biggest feature is the obvious protruding bulge on the left side.

This sway is not the angled flight deck of later modern aircraft carriers. Its sway is not large. It is only designed to expand the deck area, facilitate take-off and landing scheduling, and park more carrier-based aircraft. Because it was modified from a battleship, the armored flight deck of the Changgeng-class armored aircraft carrier is not a strong deck. It is not integrated with the ship body and is not a load-bearing structure. It can be understood as an iron box with an iron plate on top.

The flight deck is a sandwich structure, with the lower layer made of 8mm thick mild steel, the middle layer made of 96mm thick B-shaped structural steel (high tensile steel), and the upper layer made of 48mm thick teak.

It is enough to withstand 1000kg armor-piercing aerial bombs thrown from a dive at an altitude of 500m.

Because it is inconvenient to make cuts on the armored flight deck to arrange elevators, only two large elevators are arranged one behind the other. The bow elevator is 12.8m × 12.8m and the stern elevator is 14.4m × 14.4m.

The elevator is also protected by 48mm thick high-tensile steel, which is 64mm thick and can withstand 250kg aerial bombs.

Although the armor lift weighs more than a hundred tons, because it is driven by a high-power three-phase motor, the actual operating speed meets the requirements.

As for the side armor, the Ming Navy believed that there was no need to pursue comprehensive protection and simply gave up.

The thickness of the side armor of the Changgeng-class aircraft carrier has dropped from 304mm of the Yongle-class to 128mm. It can only withstand the firepower of destroyers and is very reluctant to face light cruisers.

However, this is only paper data. In fact, neither the Ming army nor the US military has any means to effectively attack these two armored aircraft carriers.

Unless naval guns are used to attack the side armor of the two, this is obviously a small probability event.

该级舰弹药库基本沿用战列舰设计方案，储备有42枚航空鱼雷、500㎏航弹70枚、250㎏航弹620枚，另有航空汽油410吨。

It is worth mentioning that this class of ship has an open hangar, and only the bow is closed to ensure seakeeping. This is due to three considerations:

First, the open hangar helps improve the efficiency of sorties, and carrier-based aircraft can be warmed up in the hangar in advance.

Second, it can save some weight and lower the center of gravity a little.

Third, if a heavy bomb penetrates the flight deck and explodes in the hangar, the shock wave will flow out to the surroundings and will not "suffocate", thus reducing the damage.

In terms of carrier-based aircraft configuration, the maximum carrying capacity of this class of ships is planned to be 79 aircraft.

The hangar houses 16 fighter jets, 12 torpedo planes, 8 dive bombers (reconnaissance), and 16 dive bombers.

6 deck-tethered fighters, 4 reconnaissance bombers (reconnaissance), and 6 dive bombers.

In addition, two aircraft of each type are suspended from the ceiling of the hangar.

After learning from the experience of the US military, the Ming Navy followed suit and tried to increase deck tethering and hangar ceiling suspension, thus increasing the aircraft capacity.

至于舰载武器则平平无奇，总计有6座双联装128㎜高平两用炮、8座四联装38.4㎜高射炮、8座四联装20.8㎜高射炮、14门单装20.8㎜高射炮。

In addition, a domestic radar was installed on the ship for the first time after being finalized. It is a Type 40 air-to-air electromagnetic wave detector.

Zhou Changfeng couldn't help but wanted to go on the ship for a visit, and this request was naturally met.

The group then boarded the giant armored aircraft carrier, which was in its final stages.

"A spear alone is not enough, because it is impossible to hit every time. You also need a shield to defend yourself, let alone fighting alone."

As he spoke, he pointed to a cruiser under construction on a slipway in the distance and asked, "Is that an anti-aircraft cruiser?"

Cao Shengjun nodded and said: "Exactly, it was originally Xuzhou, but recently it was called Nandina."

The anti-aircraft cruiser was formerly called the Xuzhou class. In order to compete for the name of the ship, states from all over the country were competing.

However, after Zhu Lingjing officially took over the power, she went her own way. She ordered to rename it after "Nandina Bamboo", and the other ships under construction were also named after flowers.

For example, the two ships under construction at the Jinzhou Naval Shipyard are the Narcissus and the Rose.

In addition, the reason why the more than 300 frigates ordered were named after medicinal materials in the "Compendium of Materia Medica" was also her work.

Zhou Changfeng spread his hands and said, "Just spend it. Anyway...these two cruisers are indeed quite beautiful, graceful and slender."

Cao Shengjun beside him smiled slightly and introduced: "Everyone who built ships in the Ming Dynasty knows Mr. Qiu of Tianjin. There are no ships that are not good-looking in his works."

"Good-looking weapons are always good."

Zhou Changfeng suddenly thought of the classic saying once said by the veteran of Dassault Aircraft Company: "A good-looking airplane must be a good airplane!"

The Nandina-class air defense cruiser was born more than a year ago. With the destruction of Fleet A in Malaya, the Ming Navy realized that the status of the aviation force was beyond expectations, and accordingly it was necessary to have professional air defense warships to protect the fleet.

The naval treaty has long been burned to ashes by the flames of war, and cruisers are no longer classified as important or restricted.

The Nandina-class has a standard displacement of only 5400 tons and is equipped with four twin 4mm heavy-duty high-level dual-purpose guns arranged two at the front and two at the back. The gun's rate of fire is slightly slower, but its power is huge. Its damage radius to aircraft is much larger than the 136mm high-level dual-purpose gun.

This class of ships was consistent with the other Ming cruisers, without torpedoes, but equipped with two depth charge launchers and two depth charge rails.

The power configuration is four heavy oil boilers and two steam turbines (copied from the Wenchang-class destroyer), with a maximum power of 6 horsepower. Although it is only destroyer-level power, due to its small tonnage, the top speed can still reach 31 knots.

The biggest shortcoming is the short cruising range, which is only 14 nautical miles at a cruising speed of 6200 knots - this is a major shortcoming in the vast Pacific battlefield.

Generally speaking, this is an anti-aircraft cruiser that pursues quantity. Its performance is excellent, no less than that of the Atlanta-class, which is larger than her. Unfortunately, its legs are short.

The Ming Navy ordered 8 ships in the first batch in the "Draft Measures for the Wartime Expansion of Ships", and later placed an order for 16 more ships in the "Proposal for the Additional Construction of Ships in Wartime".

Standing on the flight deck, which can be called "vast", looking at the sea and sky in the distance, overwhelming pride suddenly surged into my heart!

The cold wind blew his clothes swaying and his hat was about to fly off. Zhou Changfeng quickly stretched out his hand to hold it up.

A naval general asked curiously: "It's strange to say that Zhou Taizhao is so knowledgeable, how come he won so many battles but didn't compose a poem to commemorate his victory?"

Zhou Changfeng coughed dryly and said, "Because I can't compose poetry."

Someone immediately waved their hands and said: "That's too modest. As long as we, who are from the army, have a strong momentum when writing poems, it is boring for literati to chew on words. The purpose of writing poems and lyrics is to express our inner wishes."

So everyone present started to boo, laughing and asking him to sing a song live.

Zhou Changfeng, whose hair was full of black lines, said tangledly: "I really don't know how to do it. Let's learn it later. If I want to compose a poem now, I can only quote two lines that I saw in the library when I was a child. It feels quite appropriate."

Everyone was staring directly at him, and there was only the biting and howling north wind in their ears.

Just listen to him reciting in a deep voice: "The four seas are churning with angry clouds and water, and the five continents are shaking with wind and thunder!"

(End of this chapter)