"In addition, we also received intelligence that they are secretly developing and building a new type of warship.

"The level of secrecy surrounding this type of warship is unprecedentedly high, and discussions among insiders are often referred to as 'boo'.

"Instead of directly mentioning certain project codes or scheduled ship names...

"Generally speaking, except for the British, which is a special boo-boo warship, no other country has plans for a warship with a larger tonnage.

“That is still beyond the capabilities of most countries.

"Even their new target-type warships still lag behind our existing 40,000-ton warships in overall indicators.

"Not to mention new models using upgraded electroslag remelting processes."

Zhu Jingyuan was slightly surprised when he heard this and asked:

"Hush class... battleship? Do you know any other news about this kind of battleship?

"Based on the judgment of Ankang's technical and information personnel, what type of warship might this be?"

Zhu Jingyuan was a little surprised by this Hush, because the British in their previous life built a "Hush" class battleship before World War I.

The Hush class at that time was the "Valiant class large light cruiser", but later it was changed to an aircraft carrier.

The first two ships are brave and glorious, both have a length of 240 meters and a speed of 30 knots.

Light cruiser-level 76 mm armor, four battleship-level 15-inch (381 mm) guns.

The third ship called Fury was even more outrageous, equipped with two huge 18-inch (457 mm) cannons.

This is not even a battlecruiser, nor is it a large cruiser later in World War II, but a large cannon light cruiser.

In Zhu Jingyuan's memory, they seemed to be the crispy cannon ships with the largest difference in artillery and defense capabilities in history.

At that time, the British First Lord of the Admiralty Fisher traded speed and range for defense. The concept of battle cruiser, and under the constraints of stingy financial budget, he built a monster battleship in the name of light cruiser.

Fisher's battle cruise concept of "speed and range is the best defense" is certainly not wrong.

Because the ultimate realization of this concept was the later aircraft carrier.

If Fisher had been Lord of the Admiralty for a few more years, the Queen Elizabeth class would probably have carried out a 27-knot battle cruise.

If he had lived a few more years, he might have become a fanatical aircraft carrier fan.

According to Zhu Jingyuan's understanding, Nelson, the most famous British naval admiral now, has ideas closer to Fisher's.

It is also the logic of pursuing speed in exchange for defense.

The key is that now aircraft have matured and the idea of ​​aircraft carriers has appeared in the navies of various countries.

Now Nelson is likely to support the construction of aircraft carriers.

So, will the British Hush battleships in this world be aircraft carriers from the beginning?

When Zhu Jingyuan was thinking about it in his mind, Wang Lai on the opposite side directly gave a similar judgment:

“The judgment of our craftsmen and the information personnel of the Western Factory is that the British are most likely to be building a large aircraft carrier, and there is a lower possibility that they are building a larger-scale super battleship.

“However, whether it is a large aircraft carrier or a super battleship, it is impossible to directly reach the 60,000-ton level.

"The speed, standard and quantity of the 60,000-ton battleship and aircraft carrier projects we are steadily advancing will not be lower than those of the British.

"So we believe that there is no need to pay too much attention to this so-called peeing boat..."

After hearing this, Zhu Jingyuan nodded lightly:

"Without understanding our aircraft carrier design, you would never have thought that you could directly build a 40,000-ton aircraft carrier.

"The key is still the cost issue. Without absolutely reliable data support, it is impossible for their decision-makers to use the construction cost of a 40,000-ton warship to conduct such an experiment.

"Even if the navy and craftsmen no longer believe in this design, it is impossible for traditional decision-makers to follow the lead."

Wang Lai also fully recognized Zhu Jingyuan's judgment, and at the same time he very much wanted to ask, why can you two, the Ming Dynasty's Supreme Emperor and His Highness Prince Dashi, make such a decision?

Is it just because an aircraft carrier of this level is actually your own idea?

Zhu Zhongliang, who was standing next to him, had been listening. When he heard about the aircraft carrier, he finally couldn't help but interrupt:

"Now that there are aircraft all over the world, have all the countries in Europe and the West considered aircraft carriers?"

Wang Lai immediately reported:

"Yes, the navies of various countries in Thailand and Spain have studied the use of aircraft on ships.

“The most radical among them are the British, French, and Spanish, who have already conducted actual modification tests.

“The flight deck was laid on existing cruisers or large merchant ships and cargo ships, and a test aircraft carrier capable of launching and recovering aircraft was modified.

“However, the design is still very immature, and there are still many problems in the eyes of our craftsmen.

"All countries in Thailand and the West believe that we must also have an aircraft carrier design, so the countries that cooperate with us want to obtain information.

"However, His Royal Highness Prince Dashi has already issued an order. We have given a hush-hush order to all craftsmen and must not reveal any aircraft carrier-related designs to the Taixi people.

"Under such circumstances, by the time they figure out a more mature aircraft carrier design, our 60,000-ton aircraft super aircraft carrier will have combat effectiveness."
Chapter completed!