Chapter 3: Huang Shui Navy
Between 1922 and 1923, there was only one major event internationally that had a wide impact, which was the Washington Conference.
The Paris Peace Conference was a conference of imperialist powers to temporarily redivide the spheres of influence, and the subsequent Washington Conference was a supplementary conference to make up for the uneven distribution of the Paris Peace Conference.
On May 10, 1922, the Washington Conference, which was originally scheduled to open on this day, did not start as scheduled. Representatives of countries such as the United States, Britain, France and China all arrived on time, but Japan's representative was late, reportedly due to bad weather during their voyage across the Pacific Ocean, so before the conference even began, Japan had already made a big show of force at the meeting.
Several representative countries have been playing a game of chicken, with each side waiting for the other to make the first move, showcasing their proud attitude and causing the conference to be delayed for 20 days until its official opening on June 1st. Apart from the US, which is hosting the conference, and China, which has been actively taking the lead, the reason why other representative countries are doing this is simple: many parts of this conference involve their own interests, so how can they not show off their high profile, flaunt their national prestige and attitude, and get a good share of the benefits?
"The United States was dissatisfied with the outcome of the Paris Peace Conference, uneasy about Japan's rapid expansion in the Far East, resentful of the Anglo-Japanese alliance, and eager to exert its influence on the international stage due to its growing strength. When US President Harding proposed the Washington Conference, many people naturally had this idea without needing any reasoning or investigation, as America's purpose was clear and direct, which was also the basis for the Beiyang government's hopes that this conference would solve some of China's problems."
The conference first discussed the issue of interests in the Pacific among the four countries, and on July 15, the opinions of various countries finally reached a consensus. Later, each country signed the Four-Power Treaty, also known as the "Treaty Relating to the Insular Possessions and Insular Dominions in the Pacific Ocean", which divided the interests of each country in the Pacific for a period of ten years. The treaty broke up the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, and Japan took the opportunity to propose that its territory included the southern part of Sakhalin Island, Taiwan, Penghu Islands, and other islands already controlled by Japan, which was recognized by the United States, Britain, and France.
The conference quickly began discussing the second issue, namely the limitation of naval armaments among nations. The shadow of the arms race before World War I still looms over people's minds, so the conference decided to restrict the multipolarization of naval power with a common treaty. As the five countries with the strongest power and influence in the world today, the naval powers of each country are especially important for world peace and must be restricted. However, in the discussion of various contents, the five countries pulled each other's hair and played tricks on each other. The United States, which dominated the conference, was determined to use this conference to shape its position as a world power, so it paid special attention to all aspects.
The discussion on the limitation of naval armaments was deadlocked due to differences in opinions among various parties, and the conference soon put this issue aside for further discussion. The Chinese issue was brought up for discussion, but Japan strongly demanded separate negotiations with China outside the conference. However, the US and UK had long been dissatisfied with Japan's strong stance, and although they agreed to hold talks outside the conference, they still played the role of mediators in the negotiations. Regarding the Shandong issue in China, China refused to accept the resolution of the Paris Peace Conference, and later a large-scale civil rights movement broke out in China, with many protesters targeting Japan. This conference was determined to resolve this issue once and for all; otherwise, the Chinese people would not be satisfied, and none of the major powers would benefit from it.
The Chinese delegation, including Shi Zhaoji, Gu Weijun and Wang Chonghui, put forward demands to the conference that were no different from those of the Paris Peace Conference, such as abolishing the Twenty-One Demands and canceling consular jurisdiction in China. However, Shi Zhaoji sent a special message to the conference, which was "to respect and observe the integrity of Chinese territory and the independence of its politics and administration, and to agree with the American demand for China to implement an open-door policy". After some discussion and contention, Britain and France forced Japan to make concessions, and China made certain compromises. The Chinese issue at the conference was thus resolved, and the conference quickly resumed discussions on limiting naval armaments.
On November 5, 1922, the United States, Great Britain, France, Italy and Japan reached a unanimous agreement on the issue of limiting naval armaments and signed a treaty commonly known as the Five-Power Naval Limitation Treaty, which was due to expire in 1932. The treaty stipulated that the total tonnage ratio of capital ships among the five countries was 5:5:3:1.75:1.75 for the United States, Great Britain, Japan, Italy and France respectively. The total tonnage ratio of aircraft carriers was similar, with the United States and Great Britain having the same ratio, holding 13.5, while Japan had only 8.1, and Italy and France both had a quota of 6.6.
Under pressure from the United States, the former British Empire, which once ruled over a quarter of the world's land area, had to yield and acknowledge the equality of US and British naval power. Of course, both the US and Britain also achieved their goal of limiting Japanese naval power. As a concession to Japan, all three countries agreed to maintain the status quo of naval bases in the western Pacific region. In other words, neither Britain nor the US would build new naval bases in this region. The signing of the treaty limiting naval armaments actually laid the groundwork for the next round of naval armament competition. However, for a certain period of time, the treaty led to a nearly twenty-year period of peace among the world's navies, which some people jokingly referred to as the "naval holiday".
On November 6, the conference signed the "Treaty Relating to the Principles and Policies to Be Followed in Matters Concerning China" (also known as the Nine-Power Treaty), which provided for respect for China's sovereignty and independence and territorial and administrative integrity; giving China complete opportunity to develop and maintain a stable government; applying various rights and powers to establish and maintain equal opportunities for all nations in China.
Of course, China's hopes and proposals for abolishing extraterritoriality, withdrawing foreign troops and police, restoring tariff autonomy, canceling spheres of influence, and abolishing the "Twenty-One Demands" did not achieve any substantial results. On the contrary, by relying on the help of Britain and the United States, it agreed to the principles of equal opportunities and open doors proposed by the powers, which not only failed to truly eliminate the various restrictions imposed by imperialism on China's sovereignty but also turned China from being monopolized by Japan into a situation where several imperialist countries jointly dominated. Of course, it forced the Japanese military to withdraw from Shandong and return Jiaozhou Bay, although China would pay a huge ransom for the redemption of the Jinan-Qingdao Railway, and Japan did not lose control over the railway. This can still be considered a small victory in the diplomacy of a weak country, even if the cost was heavy.
"From the Washington Conference, it can be seen that the world's major powers have not abandoned the idea of big gun-ism and giant warships. However, they have made certain restrictions on the tonnage of aircraft carriers... For the People's Liberation Army Navy, the most important part of the Washington Conference agenda is where the focus of naval disarmament lies. At the conference, countries still regarded battleships as the main force, and had no prejudice against aircraft carriers, clearly telling the navy that emphasizing aircraft carriers will become the mainstream of the times."
In 1910, an American aviator named Eugene Ely successfully took off in a Curtiss biplane from the USS Birmingham, a United States Navy light cruiser. After careful preparation, he successfully landed on the USS Pennsylvania, an armored cruiser, on January 18 of the following year. The ship had been fitted with a wooden platform 31 meters long and 10 meters wide for this purpose. He became the first pilot to take off from and land on a stationary ship, while the first person to make a successful flight from a moving ship was British aviator Charles Samson.
The first ship to carry out simultaneous take-off and landing operations for aircraft, and provide a runway was the British cruiser HMS Furious, which completed her conversion in April 1918 with a 70-meter-long flight deck forward of the superstructure amidships for launching aircraft. Aft, an additional 87-meter-long flight deck was installed, equipped with simple arresting gear for landing aircraft.
The first aircraft carrier with a flush deck was the British HMS Argus, which was converted from an ocean liner in 1918. It had a 168-meter-long flight deck and hangars below, with multiple elevators to bring planes up to the flight deck. On July 19, 1918, seven planes took off from the ship and attacked a German airship base at T?nder, Denmark, marking the first time an attack was launched from a carrier. In 1917, the British had also built the HMS Hermes, also known as "The Sportsman", which was designed to standard aircraft carrier specifications and featured an island superstructure on the right side of the flight deck with a bridge, masts, and smokestacks.
"For now, this is all the information we can get about aircraft carriers, but it's an undisputed fact that major powers are starting to pay attention to them. Given our current shipbuilding capabilities in the autonomous region, building battleships is feasible but doesn't meet our naval strategic needs. Light and medium-sized cruisers, destroyers, submarines, escort vessels, and gunboats, etc., can be built by mid-to-large-sized shipbuilding groups with sufficient capability to build world-class vessels. But when major powers have already started trying and making efforts on aircraft carriers, we can't fall behind..."
According to the plan, it is necessary for the navy to build an air force. The Supreme Command has agreed to our application and agreed to transfer some of the elite forces from the Air Force Aviation Department and some teaching forces from the Sichuan Civil Aviation College to establish our own naval aviation school in Haikou, Hainan Island. However, a piece of bad news is that the Air Force's application for the construction of the Air Force Engineering University and the expansion plan of the Air Force Aviation School have both been approved, and our future recruitment of aviation talents will be in direct competition with the Air Force...
Chen Shaokuan is a man who attaches great importance to aircraft carriers. Before he was promoted to Commander of the People's Liberation Army Navy, he had traveled extensively around the world and clarified his ideas about aircraft carriers in his mind. After taking office, he made every effort to promote the development of aircraft carriers, saying that he deceived or cheated others, but he actually played a trick on the China State Shipbuilding Corporation and the Air Force, and did not let them build many warships, but instead scrapped several decommissioned ships, which was done by the Air Force. In the end, it was the Navy that benefited from this, because through the efforts of these two parties, Chen Shaokuan had already obtained the experimental results that aircraft carriers would inevitably become the mainstream of the world's navies.
Chen Shaokuan was well aware that the navy at this time was not even comparable to the vanguard fleet of the powerful countries, and in order to meet Zhang Yu's requirements for near-shore defense, although it could not actively attack the navies of the powerful countries, at least it should be able to counterattack when the powerful countries invaded the autonomous region from the sea. Therefore, apart from emphasizing the development of underwater forces, Chen Shaokuan thought of air power, and in order to achieve the purpose of near-shore defense, apart from using small, fast and agile warships, submarines were a means, while aviation relied on a series of near-shore airports, which could also achieve the purpose, and would be more conducive to aircraft carrier operations in the future.
So for the People's Liberation Army Navy, establishing a future aircraft carrier development path has been solidified, while battleships are such terrifying large surface combatants that it is estimated they will be hard to enter their line of sight again.
Although the main naval powers of today's world are equipped with their battleships as the main warships and core forces of the navy, their main task is to use ship guns to annihilate enemy large combat ships at sea, and can also be used to suppress and destroy enemy shore-based targets. Whoever has a larger tonnage, more guns, larger caliber, stronger firepower, and thicker armor will win the decisive victory in the naval battle. In the Battle of Jutland that broke out in 1916, the British and German fleets launched the world's first steam battleship sea battle, with both sides deploying 68 main warships, and the German Navy ultimately won the victory due to slightly better performance of their warships.
The unprecedented grand naval battle made various countries begin to attach importance to strengthening their own concentrated defense, generally increasing the thickness of armor on the sides and decks of warships, while also improving speed. The Washington Conference restricted the naval armaments of various countries because it saw the strategic power of large surface warships, especially battleships. However, the ten-year restriction period was clearly only enough for various countries to recover from the last great war. What would happen after ten years, no one could predict.
However, it can be certain that as a new emerging force in the world's navies, the People's Army Navy wants to catch up with the strong ones, and it is obviously impossible and unreasonable to compete with the strong ones in terms of large ships. Time, money, talent, etc. may not be a problem, but in terms of strategic needs, the autonomous region clearly can't use those big guys, and having them will definitely attract attention.
On December 3, 1922, the Zhanjiang Naval University's short-term training ended, and the first batch of trainees began to receive the first batch of ships delivered by the China State Shipbuilding Corporation. The first ship delivered was a torpedo boat, which was 21.8 meters long, 4.9 meters wide, and had a draft of 3.6 meters. The fully loaded displacement of the torpedo boat was nearly 50 tons, powered by three diesel engines provided by the Yulin Power Company, with a total power of 3300 horsepower, allowing the boat to reach a terrifying top speed of 49 knots, with a combat radius of 150 nautical miles. Its main armament consisted of two 533mm torpedo tubes and two 20mm machine guns. Of course, when performing mine-laying or anti-submarine tasks, it could carry six small deep-water bombs or two sea mines.
Later, the patrol boat was accepted by the autonomous region's water police team. Since the navy had just been established, the unit was temporarily transferred to the navy. They were equipped with a steel all-welded high-speed patrol boat, equipped with twin 37mm cannons and two 12.7mm heavy machine guns, used for near-shore patrol and defense. After the establishment of the navy, they sought opportunities for naval personnel to have more training at sea, even if it meant serving as water police for daily patrols. More often, they would also practice on China's Far Ocean Shipping Group's ocean-going ships, reflecting the consistent determination of the navy to rise up through hard work and diligence.
It wasn't long after the 22nd, in October 1923, that a powerful shipbuilding group delivered its first batch of large warships to the navy. Although they were only destroyers with displacements of just two or three thousand tons, they were considered big ships by naval standards. During the Great War, the German and Italian navies had used unrestricted submarine warfare to devastating effect against the Allied powers, who relied heavily on large surface warships such as battleships and cruisers. Destroyers played a supporting role in these fleets, launching torpedo attacks at critical moments, but were not expected to escort convoys of cargo ships. However, it turned out that destroyers were up to this task, so the main direction of destroyer development around the world became increasingly focused on anti-submarine capabilities. The People's Navy also placed great importance on submarines as a sharp spear in warfare, and naturally also needed to grasp the shield of defense, with destroyers also emphasizing their anti-submarine abilities.
However, for the newly established navy, they themselves did not know what kind of warship to build, what performance it should have, and there were not many reference materials. The performance of destroyers in World War I was mainly reflected in their anti-submarine warfare capabilities. However, the navy also hoped that it could undertake the task of a main fleet for a certain period, although it could not compete with the battleships, cruisers, and other large fleets of powerful countries. At least, it should be able to cope with medium and small-scale naval battles. Therefore, there were definitely requirements in terms of endurance, combat effectiveness, and protective power. After synthesizing opinions from many parties, Zhongzhong Shipyard came up with a design plan. The navy, of course, did not know how to determine its correctness, so they let them build two ships first and let the troops use them. Practice is the only standard for testing truth. Whether it meets the actual needs of the navy can only be checked through practice. Therefore, after nearly a year of effort, the navy formally sent personnel to accept the two destroyers at Beihai Shipyard.
For certain purposes, two destroyers were named "Shichang" and "Zhenghe". The standard displacement of this type of destroyer was 2,900 tons, and the full load displacement was 3,400 tons. When Commander Chen Shaokuan got the technical plan, he said that if these destroyers were put in front of the powerful countries, they would be light cruisers. However, in the navy's plan, they were defined as destroyers. The dimensions were measured in meters, with a length, width and draft of 125 x 12 x 4.1. The 55,000-horsepower power system allowed the ship to reach a high speed of 34 knots, while cruising at 18 knots, the maximum range was 7,000 nautical miles.
And its armament is even more reflective of the Navy's emphasis on dual threats from air and underwater, with three twin-mounted 155mm main guns, four twin-mounted 40mm high-angle guns, and twelve 20mm machine guns. In the middle, there are two quintuple 533mm torpedo tubes, and at the stern, there is a deep-water bomb track, with a reserve of 120 deep-water bombs and 10 torpedoes. According to this data, this type of destroyer can fully meet the tasks of anti-submarine warfare, air defense, escort, reconnaissance, torpedo attack, and fire support.
The new equipment that entered the navy was a frigate, which is larger than a torpedo boat and smaller than a destroyer. The four Guangxi-class frigates were named after four cities: "Qinzhou", "Beihai", "Yulin" and "Laibin". The ship has a displacement of 1475 tons, a length of 91.3 meters, a width of 11.6 meters, and a draft of 2.9 meters. With 4300 horsepower, it can reach a top speed of 20 knots. There are 192 crew members on board. The ship is equipped with three twin 105mm guns, four twin 20mm guns, as well as deep-water bomb launchers and chaff dispensers. It can also be fitted with torpedo tubes according to the needs of the mission, and was added to the navy for coastal defense tasks.
However, the equipment received by the Navy is somewhat different. They are submarines known as sea killers. The German Navy's dreaded weapon is this type of weapon. Since August 1906, the first German ship "U1" was officially put into service, marking the beginning of the German Navy's emphasis on underwater equipment.
In 1904, the German Navy purchased three "Karp" class submarines from the Russian Navy. In 1906, its first domestically produced submarine, the U1, was launched. This submarine had a displacement of 241 tons on the surface and 287 tons underwater, equipped with a single 450mm torpedo tube. It had a range of 1536 nautical miles (2850 km) at 10 knots, and achieved speeds of 10.8 knots on the surface and 8.7 knots underwater. This was undoubtedly one of the most successful and reliable submarines in the world at that time. Even later models such as the U21 and U139, which served as ocean-going submarines, did not perform better than this type of submarine. In February 1919, a submarine of this type was prepared to be sent to a submarine museum in Kiel. Fortunately, it was purchased by the Chinese government through the American group and transported back to Hainan Island, where it was studied by a team of shipbuilding technicians with the goal of building China's own deep-sea submarines as soon as possible.
In November 1921, the experimental submarine completed by the China Heavy Industries Corporation under the instruction of the People's Army Armament Department underwent various technical tests. After Chen Shaokuan took over as the commander of the Navy, he paid more attention to the research on submarines, and its weapon system, which was also a 533mm heavy torpedo, was successfully researched during this period. In December 1923, just before the Great Kanto earthquake, naval submarine cadets completed their training on the hard-won "U1" submarine and received training from former German sailors. After much hardship, they finally boarded the submarine built by China Heavy Industries, a coastal warfare submarine that even the former German Navy envied.
There are three submarines equipped with the "A" level naval submarine squadron, this submarine is similar to another time and space German "U32" type submarine, main dimensions 64.5 x 5.8 x 4.4, displacement of 636 tons on the surface and 757 tons underwater, equipped with five 533mm torpedo tubes, one 88mm gun, and one 20mm machine gun, maximum speed of 17 knots on the surface and 8 knots underwater, surface endurance can reach over 3700 nautical miles (about 6910 km) when traveling at 12 knots, in testing this submarine's diving speed was half a minute, reaching a depth of 100 meters is very easy, and reaching a depth of 200 meters is not a problem either, a speed of 7.6 knots can travel underwater for two hours, while traveling at a speed of two knots, it can last around 130 hours, it can be said that this submarine is the current world's submarine king, of course, the navy will not easily reveal the secrets of this submarine, from receiving to arranging training, these three submarines are all carried out under extreme secrecy, exactly how good their performance is, even those who have come into contact with them, the former German and Italian navies, are not clear at all.
However, with torpedo boats, gunboats, frigates, submarines and destroyers, without mentioning their size, the navy led by Chen Shaokuan is obviously a brown-water navy, and its current scale cannot be called an army. It's even farther away from becoming a blue-water navy. Of course, there are two Chinese proverbs: "The beginning of everything is difficult" and "A good start is half success". With a strong industrial foundation as backing, the navy will eventually grow up if it keeps taking solid steps forward.
"There will be bread, and there will be milk." Zhang Yu often said this to Navy Commander Chen Shaokuan and Air Force Commander Jiang Yangying. Of course, for the navy, it means - submarines are already available, how far is the aircraft carrier?
