Wei School's Three Good Students

Chapter 270 Modified Ship

It was the year 2105 in the Han calendar. After the start of spring, the Jianghe Daily devoted a full page and headline to extensively reporting on and following up on the "Dongzhu Robbery Case".

Xuan Chong had no idea what the people above were thinking; he was focused on tinkering with the light cruiser No. 023 that he had just acquired.

Xuan Chong measured the warship inside and out, and compared it with the latest generation of warships, thus understanding the design differences between the old and new warships.

Xuan Chong approached this with the intention of "drastically modifying" the characters. The essence of this "drastic modification" is cosplay!

In the past, a whole bunch of old equipment were released: 59 modified, 59 heavily modified, 59 heavily modified, and 59 super heavily modified. These designers who took over the old equipment actually had a "future war machine" configuration in mind for each modification, and then made the old equipment cosplay this equipment in their minds.

The PLA has used COS-style equipment for decades with a very clear purpose: to understand the functions of the original COS versions of the equipment they possess. This has led to a group of military commanders who understand the new equipment even better than the army across the ocean that "immediately got their hands on it."

This has led to jokes like: What does the US military know about American equipment? The US military is just a bunch of college students desperate to pay off their loans, money-making specialists, and rednecks brainwashed with madness.

After these past few months, Xuan Chong has figured out the characteristics of "stealth effectiveness." It involves turning the electric field into a thin, dense film that envelops the entire ship's hull.

Xuan Chong: "The exhaust pipes and observation masts of the old warships are too prominent. These illegal structures disrupt the balanced distribution of the electric field around the hull, making it impossible for the ionizing shields responsible for stealth to effectively cover the entire ship."

The decks of the new warships are clean, the turrets are diamond-shaped, and the hull is streamlined. The same power ionization shield layer, when attached to the diamond-shaped shield, will form an isolation layer with a thickness of half a meter but an extremely high electromagnetic density.

Old-fashioned warships, with their scattered poles, disrupt the electric field distribution, resulting in a sparse electric field layer used to shield signals. This layer is tens of meters thick, consumes a lot of energy, and is easily interfered with.

Having identified the elements of "concealment," Xuan Chong's team, equipped with mathematical thinking, donned shielding suits and measured the shield parameters. They also incorporated the magnetization parameters of the ship's steel into their calculations, summarizing a correlation formula.

…The flagpole was sawed off, and the flag was painted directly onto the side of the ship…

The waves were cleaved by the metal hull on both sides, and the bow did not bob up and down with the waves. Thanks to the protruding nose at the bottom of the ship, it was very stable when sailing through the waves.

Xuan Chong: "This Type 023 warship is not an undesirable option either, as it has excellent high-speed performance; this cruiser was designed twenty years ago, when electromagnetic stealth technology had not yet shown its full potential in actual combat. So this may have been a different ship design school at the time."

On the Lin Group's side, since Xuan Chong's resume submitted to the Imperial Ancestral Temple stated that he was "skilled in kinetic energy control," it was clear that the higher-ups had given this flawed warship to Liu Haoxing as a toy.

In the warship's control room, Xuan Chong found a box of the ship's initial design materials. The blueprints described the ship's speed at around thirty knots and the surge in wave-making resistance.

Xuan Chong glanced at the binding thread on the document. If it had been bound a long time ago, the thread should have been yellow due to oxidation, but it was white now.

Xuan Chong then realized that this was an assignment given to him by his superiors. — "The dragon appears in the field, the benefit lies with the superiors." In other words, he needed to find a field to cultivate so that his superiors would see his value.

However, Xuan Chong didn't want to follow the adults' ideas and get stuck in a rut. No matter how much the speed of this warship was modified, it was doomed in the current combat environment, inherently "unsuitable for future warfare."

The narrator suggests that perhaps the navy hoped Xuan Chong would achieve some success in his "water" career and then continue to climb the ranks. However, Xuan Chong still had some professional ethics!
Xuan Chong: War must be considered in light of battlefield conditions.

Xuan Chong tapped on the exposed hull ladder. "This needs to be modified. We need to add a conning tower to enclose it."

…Red painted circles covered the warships.

That evening, Xuan Chong began bustling about on and off the warship; the sailors beside him carried boxes, ready to mark the ship with markers as needed.

A month later, Xuan Chong organized a papering project for the entire ship; this involved using aluminum foil to smooth out some of the ship's protruding structures, especially the recesses between the funnels, which underwent a special outer shell treatment to make them appear smoother (similar to the hydrodynamic repair of a submarine's sail).
Through the Xuanchong Tuolin Group, they brought over welders from the large shipyard to encapsulate the overly protruding observation platform structure on the bridge.

It's reminiscent of the situation during the Sino-Czech Wars in the past, where tanks on the black soil of Eastern Europe were welded with various grilles.

This kind of modification is definitely problematic. For example, during navigation, the outer shell may resonate due to wind and waves, which could cause these decorative structures to detach.

Currently, it's in the trial period. Xuan Chong will use torques to stabilize these structures. Then, he'll record the results, and after the trial period ends, he'll add patches based on the findings.

Note: Torque can be absolutely rigid, so the capability reported by Xuan Chong is kinetic energy control. The people on Lin Group naturally assumed that Xuan Chong could multiply the power of the warship's engine. However, Xuan Chong twisted and turned in a completely different direction.

While Xuan Chong was working, the veteran sailors cooperated throughout. The situation, where older sailors often resisted new technology upgrades—a common occurrence on other older ships—did not happen on Xuan Chong's vessel.

Xuan Chong took on the responsibility of signing off on and commencing the new project. The credit went to the veteran employees who provided suggestions. Xuan Chong also ensured that every participant received a share of the bonuses and overtime pay.

Compared to some middle-level managers who "flatter their superiors," Xuan Chong, when leading troops, focuses on "understanding the situation below": he acknowledges hard work and doesn't dismiss it with a casual remark, nor does he shirk responsibility after failure. And when successful, he "does not keep the glory to himself."

Xuan Chong and the newly boarded crew members, armed with measuring tools, seemed to be meticulously (and utterly bored) measuring every detail of every compartment.

This prompted some of the older crew members to reminisce.

First Mate: "Weren't we always this spirited back then?"

Second Officer: "Yes, when we first boarded the ship, we even got into a fight over which grade of coal to load."

First Mate: "I hope this youthful spirit can continue. Although we are not on his side, we should try our best not to hold him back. It will be beneficial for everyone if he goes up."

…three months later…

In the latest round of military exercises, the Xuanchong Corps, acting as the blue defensive force, is intercepting a hypothetical invading fleet.

Even before the exercise began, the Xuanchong, this "basic" stealth warship, attracted considerable attention. In the conservative and traditional navy, such an old ship mimicking a new one is like a rural fashionista showing off in a big city.

At the start of the exercise, the ship where Xuan Chong was located was the focus of attention. However, on the battlefield, the electromagnetic shield of the Type 023 ship became exceptionally slippery after it was activated.

Thirty minutes into the exercise, Xuanchong, as the forward ship, was indeed not detected by the enemy's observation and aiming group. Therefore, the commander-in-chief ordered ship 023 to flank from the side, seize a position, and then activate the "magnetic storm equipment" to expose the enemy ship.

Xuan Chong's direct superior is a second-rank Zhenhai General. Sitting in his battleship, his fleet is currently represented by the character "大" (da) on the nautical chart. Xuan Chong is to the left of this "大". Now, after he issues his order, the "大" has changed to "犬" (quan).

In the general command room on the battleship, General Zhou Xu, who was Xuan Chong's direct superior, praised him highly: "If you're so capable, then let me show you what you're capable of."

…a single ship maneuvered out a large, sweeping line…

A propeller-driven fighter jet towed a target drone through the sky. These target drones were equipped with spark detectors, specifically designed to pinpoint the location of forward-deployed warships.

Inside the fire control room, Xuan Chong was coordinating the ship's firepower. Meanwhile, in the operations room, under the ship's optical observation and aiming system, the soldiers were busy drawing diagrams and making calculations. On the other side, Xuan Chong was cheating.

In the sky, from Xuan Chong's perspective, beams of solid and dashed lines were constantly converging; the protractor simultaneously supported three search beams—30 degrees (most dense and precise), 90 degrees (medium density), and 120 degrees (wide-area scan)—to lock onto multiple targets in the airspace. Xuan Chong's method already resembled a phased array. However, while a phased array emits electromagnetic waves, Xuan Chong's method radiates torque.

Due to the ship's electromagnetic stealth capabilities, the observers towing the target drone could only see the trail left by the Xuanchong ship on the sea surface; however, because the electromagnetic stealth effect was so excellent, the enemy fleet could not lock onto the ship during the exercise when reporting its approximate location. Therefore, the aircraft had to descend to a lower altitude and hover at low altitude to mark the location of the Type 023 ship.

This also means that the target drone also descended to a height of 800 meters, a height where it would be easily shot down.

On the 023 warship, after Xuan Chong confirmed that the target drone had touched the torque, he quickly calculated the angle that all the ship's anti-aircraft guns should be adjusted to. After reporting the parameters one by one, he began to fire a salvo at the target drone.

The pure steel projectiles from the four gun positions drifted out at a speed of one kilometer per second, and then precisely circled in front of the aircraft, forming a barrage distributed in the shape of ")".

From a distance, the airplane, shaped like a "+", crashed headfirst into the barrage of ")" characters, then shattered into pieces and disappeared like a mosquito exploding on an electric grid.

Because the target drone had not completed its circle, the enemy ships were still unable to determine the location of the Xuanchong ship.

Ultimately, after 45 minutes of the exercise, the attacking side had to scramble three destroyers to block Xuanchong's ship.

Then came the firing exercise between the two sides. Based on the results of the moving target practice, Xuanchong's side also performed well. As a result, three destroyers were damaged in the engagement, and the Xuanchong cruiser skillfully bypassed the enemy and completed its mission in the sixtieth minute.

The magnetic storm launcher deployed, causing aurora borealis to appear above the three enemy capital ships.

Although the outcome of this naval exercise was determined by the directing department long ago.

Even though the defending side won, the Xuanchong ship's excellence was still undeniable.

After the ship returned to port, it began to rest and repair, while the sailors on the bow began to paint the ship.

As modern naval vessels, they have fixed names in the official system of the Naval Office; however, this does not prevent captains from painting their beloved ships with different colors to give them nicknames within their circles.

Under the persuasion of his crew, Xuan Chong accepted the advice and agreed to give the ship a nickname.

Xuan Chong: When people have their own trump cards but don't want to show them off too obviously, they'll embroider something on their beloved items.

Xuan Chong had the sailors carry buckets of green, blue, and red paint, and within two hours they had completed the painting on the bow of the ship. It was a bird-eyed mantis shrimp.

…The second pair of mandibles are well-developed, like iron fists…

While the sailors were painting the ship, Xuan Chong was also examining his own warship.

The gun-firing system inside the light cruiser No. 023 has been marked with additional "markers" by Xuan Chong; the effective range of the main gun, which was originally ten kilometers, has been marked with more than four times that on the marks.

The "extra markings" on the gun position puzzled the warship's gunners, because even stray bullets couldn't travel that far; even with extended-range propellant charges, the gun barrel couldn't withstand such a high explosive rate.

However, only Xuan Chong knew this. This destroyer was already covered with torques. The gun barrel torque was connected to the engine room, so it could draw power from the engine room. Even after the shell was fired a thousand kilometers away, there were still lines of torque behind it. These torques were made up of dotted lines, which could deliver power to the shell in the form of sparse and dense waves.

This warship's main guns were capable of penetrating cruisers and severely damaging battleships.

Xuan Chong: Mantis Shrimp!
…The turning of the turret rollers was so beautiful…

Because he was so concerned about his warship, he neglected his sleep and meals; Xuan Chong declined his colleagues' invitations to a banquet and missed some "insider information".

Three days later, Xuan Chong was "suddenly" summoned to attend an internal naval meeting.

The meeting lasted half an hour, and the core message was that all ships must maintain a high level of combat readiness.

The Xuanchong's warships were older vessels, belonging to the reserve group; their main mission was to patrol the existing sea areas and protect cargo ships. About a third of the way through the meeting, the captains of the Xuanchong light cruisers were dismissed and left the room.

Xuan Chong eavesdropped on the rest of the meeting and heard the marshal emphasizing a series of precautions for long-range voyages. Clearly, this concerned matters related to long-range operations.

Those who stayed behind to continue attending the meeting were the heads of the heavy cruisers and battleships.

These pre-battle preparation meetings do not reveal the specifics of the task allocation for the large warships. The maneuver routes of those warships are decided in meetings of fewer than a dozen high-ranking officers.

Combat operations are, after all, large-scale events. During preparation, all departments should be notified to conduct routine oversight.

Xuan Chong, who was quite curious, looked at the "Southeast Maritime Map" in the hall and recalled the recent news that a serious conflict had broken out between the Han and Eastern Shu over the ownership of islands near the equator. It seemed that war was about to break out.

Could it be that the war we'll face during this time travel is a naval power struggle?
In the hall, just as Xuan Chong was thinking, he was found by his direct superior, Zhou Xu.

Upon facing his superior, Xuan Chong immediately stood up and saluted, then began with "This humble servant."

However, he was pressed into his seat as soon as he opened his mouth: "Haoxing, please sit down first."

Zhou Xu, a second-rank Zhenhai General, is the commander of the Xuan 4th Fleet. The entire Xuan 4th Fleet consists of ten warships, including five destroyers, one aviation cruiser (15,000 tons), and four multi-purpose frigates (800 tons).

The battleship in the exercise was not Zhou Xu's. His flagship was an aviation cruiser; however, this type of ship was not a light aircraft carrier carrying propeller planes. Currently, some of the bigwigs in Han have decided to pursue "airship" technology in aviation.

In naval warfare, stealth airships camouflaged as white clouds can detect aircraft from a range of 15 kilometers; while aircraft must be within a range of 3 kilometers to accurately spot airships. Furthermore, the long-barreled 88mm cannons (a high-tech version) carried by the airships can fire dozens of rounds at aircraft from a range of 10 kilometers.

An aircraft cruiser is a place that provides ammunition resupply for airships and a rest area for aircrew.

Compared to the 21st century, aircraft carriers are characterized by their asymmetrical angled decks and tilted island superstructures; the aviation cruisers in this dimension are characterized by their short, oval hulls with an Eiffel Tower-like structure in the center; inside the tower are elevators used to load and unload combat supplies and transport personnel.

Unsure of the exact nature of this world's aviation revolution, Xuan Chong, like military experts in the early 20th century of his previous life, cautiously predicted the future of the aviation cruiser, a new type of warship that had only existed for fifteen years.

Zhou Xu: "It's good for young people to work hard, but they shouldn't be too aloof."

This superior officer specially sent Xuan Chong a dinner invitation, which shows that Xuan Chong has been busy with combat calculations since joining the East Ocean Navy.

Zhou Xu hinted, "You'll rise very quickly in the future." (The subtext: "The process" is now in my hands.)
Xuan Chong said, "Thank you for your concern, sir." He accepted the invitation with both hands.

(End of this chapter)