Empire Conquest
Chapter 80 - 76 Agony

Chapter 80: Chapter 76 Agony

Waiting was truly agonizing.

Although similar situations occurred during fleet exercises every year, where after launching an attack, one would patiently wait for the Plane Group commander’s battle report, never before today had Liu Xiangzhen felt so unbearably anxious, finding it impossible to sit down and rest even for a moment.

In the future, it might be said that this is a significant characteristic of shipborne air force and carrier operations.

But who would think that way now?

In order to calm down, which was really an effort to find something to do to distract himself so as not to worry, Liu Xiangzhen went to the Navigation Bridge.

Actually, when Liu Xiangdong was still the commander of the Special Mixed Fleet, the Navigation Bridge was Liu Xiangzhen’s den.

The Navigation Bridge is unique to carriers.

Because "Heng River" was among the first batch of carriers of the Imperial Navy and was converted from a battlecruiser, there was no experience to speak of, leading to many design flaws, such as the placement of the Navigation Bridge at the fore of the island structure, located above the Command Bridge and below the Navigation Bridge.

This position was obviously very cramped, and the field of view was not broad.

The two sister ships that followed, namely "Mo River" and "Ling River," made adjustments by moving the Navigation Bridge to the left side at the rear of the island structure and protruding about 1.5 meters above the deck. Although this affected the landing of ship-borne aircraft, the view was significantly improved.

Inside the Navigation Bridge, about a dozen officers and soldiers were busy.

At this time, the busiest were the officers and soldiers from the aviation department.

According to the regulations, ship-borne aircraft could only undergo basic inspections inside the hangar, then had to be sent up to the flight deck for refueling and arming operations. All maintenance and loading operations involving flammable and explosive materials had to be carried out in an open environment.

These regulations were established through lessons learned from blood and life.

More than ten years ago, in year 85 of the New Calendar, the "Sea Dragon" suffered an accident because the crew performed maintenance on aircraft inside the hangar in violation of regulations, leading to a buildup of gasoline vapors, which were ignited by a spark and killed dozens of officers and soldiers. Had it not been for the timely action of the duty first officer who closed the internal watertight passages and contained the fire, "Sea Dragon" likely would have sunk due to a major explosion in the fuel storage.

This incident prompted the Imperial Navy to establish aviation operation rules.

Moreover, there was a blessing in disguise.

Soon after, the Nanjiang Naval Ship Design Institute developed a highly advanced and, to this day, top-secret firefighting system for ships. The system works very simply by injecting high-pressure carbon dioxide gas into storage rooms for hazardous materials and pipes transporting hazardous liquids in the event of a fire aboard a warship, ensuring the areas remain in an oxygen-deprived state within 15 to 30 minutes.

Now, this system is used on all large warships, including carriers.

Furthermore, after the aviation operation rules were issued by the Navy, the four "Longjiang" class ships returned to the shipyard for their first retrofitting.

There was only one project: setting up aviation service stations on the flight deck.

Each service station was equipped with a refueling system and an ordnance loading system, each connected via pipelines to the fuel and ordnance elevators, linking them to the fuel and ammunition storage.

Simply put, any ship-borne aircraft could complete its pre-launch preparations at the service stations.

There were six service stations on the four "Longjiang" class ships, two behind the forward elevator and four in front of and behind the rear elevator, capable of servicing six aircraft at once.

However, usually only four of them could be used.

Mainly because the two service stations in front of the rear elevator were often occupied by aircraft on standby, which were seldom utilized.

Consequently, in newly built carriers, the positions of the service stations were adjusted, moving the two in front of the rear elevator to the middle of the flight deck. Though often underutilized under normal circumstances, they could play a significant role when the entire deck was launched.

Regardless, preparing over thirty ship-borne aircraft for takeoff would definitely require an hour and a half.

The reason the first round of the attack aircraft group could be prepared in less than half an hour was that the aircraft on standby on the flight deck could be used. At any time, these aircraft, which were on standby, were fully fueled and ready to take off after simple preparations.

Obviously, the preparations for the second round of attacks weren’t that simple.

Accelerating the pre-takeoff preparations and shortening the time between two rounds of attacks had always been a topic of intense study for the Navy Air Force.

Unfortunately, up until now, no truly effective improvement method had been found.

Soon, more than thirty shipborne aircraft were sequentially brought up to the flight deck. After a basic inspection, primarily warming up the engines, they were sent to the service stations in the order of torpedo attack aircraft, dive bombers, and fighters. After refueling and loading ammunition, they were arranged in the reverse order—first fighters, then dive bombers, and torpedo attack aircraft—from the rear to the front of the ship.

By this time, both sides of the flight deck, especially the left, had been cleared of personnel and material.

This was necessary because if an attack unexpectedly occurred, the aircraft laden with fuel and loaded with bombs and torpedoes had to be thrown off the carrier.

This too was a rule within the combat regulations.

The aircraft were expensive, but the carrier was even more so.

Moreover, manufacturing a few dozen aircraft took just a few months, whereas building a carrier required several years.

However, if an accident did occur, it was unlikely that anyone could manage it all.

Before they knew it, almost an hour had passed.

"Report to the Commander, preparation for takeoff is complete."

After Li Hengjia of the Second Shipborne Air Force Wing reported, Liu Xiangzhen did not delay any further; he issued combat readiness orders and then headed back to the Command Bridge.

Although both were Brigadier Generals, Li Hengjia had ranked higher than Liu Xiangzhen just a few days ago.

Luckily, this ace pilot, who had switched over from the Army Air Force with Li Yunxiang, was amiable and rarely quibbled with Liu Xiangzhen, who was a few years his junior.

It wasn’t that he lacked ambition, but having reached the rank of Brigadier General, he was already satisfied.

Besides, he was a few years older than Li Yunxiang, so even with a promotion, his prospects were not bright.

In his own words, approaching his late forties, he had little left to aspire to. Doing his duty well and honoring the uniform he had worn all his life was enough for him.

After returning to the Navigation Bridge, Liu Xiangzhen did not immediately issue an order to deploy.

It was no surprise, up to now, they hadn’t received Zhua Huasheng’s report, indicating that the first group of shipborne aircraft had still not located the Mobile Fleet.

Where was the Mobile Fleet, and what were they to attack?

If Zhua Huasheng and his team didn’t find the Mobile Fleet, they would have to adjust their tactics, removing torpedoes from some of the torpedo bombers parked at the front end of the flight deck and fitting them with auxiliary fuel tanks to perform reconnaissance missions. They hoped to locate the Mobile Fleet in the afternoon and then organize an attack.

The crux was, if the distance was indeed too great, the attacking shipborne aircraft would not be able to return.

Deploying one meant losing one!

Using the long-wave radio to contact the rear could expose them, so unless discovered by the enemy’s reconnaissance aircraft, they had to maintain radio silence.

Without the radio, there was no way to request Liu Xiangdong to send more shipborne aircraft.

Even though he was anxious, he had to be targeted in his actions.