Nan Ming Sun Never Sets

Chapter 309 A Navy That Doesn’t Build Big Ships
"It's really a beautiful warship." Fleet Commander Meng Hui stood on the front deck of the Zhiyuan very satisfied, watching several sister ships that were burning boilers and going out to sea.

From a technical point of view, the Zhiyuan-class domed cruiser is a cutting-edge warship than the flagship of the Ming Dynasty, the Donghai. It not only has a 210mm main gun, but also has a speed of 18 knots. East China Sea.

"Unfortunately, it is temporarily impossible for our navy to manufacture these beautiful warships on a large scale. In fact, our orders to shipyards are mainly military auxiliary ships. Our navy now has a coast guard team patrolling us. No country is our opponent, inspecting merchant ships and cracking down on unscrupulous pirates." Zhang Fengming, the captain of the Zhiyuan, said with a smile.

Zhang Fengming actually joined the navy recently. To operate a dome-clad cruiser like the Zhiyuan class, skilled sailors and officers are obviously needed, and Bai Mingxiu recruited directly from the system.

The Ming Navy is definitely in a stage of excess force, which is the same as the army with nearly 70 troops at this stage.Although the Ming Dynasty now has an extremely vast sea area, due to the advanced technology and organization, the Ming Dynasty Navy has basically cleared all the obstacles around it.

Small countries such as Japan and North Korea have little ability to go to sea. Among European countries, the Netherlands has been beaten away, leaving only Spain, Portugal and Britain. They are more or less honest. As for the pirate forces after the Zheng clan merged into the Ming Dynasty Restoration Army, The rest of the small pirates have basically been collected or wiped out.

At this time, the only major battleship under construction in the Ming Navy was the second ship of the Donghai class, Xihai.This is the case where the Ming Navy's military industry did not obtain all the blueprints of the East China Sea, and began to imitate it by relying on its own reverse engineering. There are certain difficulties, but Bai Mingxiu believes that it can be completed in the end.

Among the other warships, the Yongjin class is the most built, a 32-gun flying-shear sail frigate with a displacement of several hundred tons. Due to the optimization of the manufacturing process, this kind of ship is built extremely fast.And because it can be used in many occasions, whether it is participating in fleet operations, reconnaissance, escort and patrol, it is an excellent ship.Therefore, almost all the major shipyards in Ming Dynasty are manufacturing such small warships.Including what Bai Mingxiu bought from the system, the Ming Navy now operates as many as 46 Yongjin-class frigates.

Both are frigates. Daming Shipyard installed a steam engine and the outer shell was clad with iron, and launched the Xuzhou-class steam iron-clad frigate. Eight more have been built and purchased. The cost is 8% more than that of the Yongjin-class, but the combat power is also higher. powerful.

The frigate belongs to the third class ship according to the standards of the Ming Navy, and the big guys like the Donghai class belong to the first class ship.In the middle is the real main battleship, the second-tier ship.The second-tier ships now include 74 Ninghai-class 10-gun sailing warships, 50 Zhendong-class 8-gun sailing warships, and the 10 Polu-class steam iron-clad sailing warships (3000 tons) bought by Bai Mingxiu in the ultimate copy. Four Yangwei-class steam ironclad sailing warships (4200 tons) refitted from the first-level and second-level sailing battleships, and three of the most powerful Zhiyuan-class cruisers (2300 tons).

These second-tier ships are the main firepower exporters on the Ming battlefield.However, it is also because the Ming Navy lacks a powerful enemy, and the main operations are all low-intensity military operations, so the only military orders are given to the third-tier ships Xuzhou class and Yongjin class.The larger Ninghai class and Zhendong class are backward ship types that have been completely discontinued, and the newer Polu class does not have such a large demand. Bai Mingxiu bought a batch to cope with the dungeons, and it is impossible to continue manufacturing.

After all, Bai Mingxiu paid most of Ming's current military expenditures from the system, and the navy's budget also had to be carefully calculated, so expanding the number and meeting the needs of low-intensity naval battles and maintaining sea power was more important than building a huge decisive battle fleet at sea.

Meng Hui and others are also very aware of this, so they don't have many complaints.

Meng Hui led the fleet to leave Yongshu Island. When they left, Zhu Youlang's ship also left. Zhu Youlang expressed his condolences to the officers and soldiers of the Marine Corps and Navy, but His Majesty the Emperor found that although Our soldiers respected him very much, but they were not as enthusiastic as they thought.

The reason is very simple, because the soldiers of the Ming army are truly loyal and full of respect, and it is His Royal Highness the Crown Prince who has always fought with them.

Zhang Fengming and Meng Hui have opposite personalities. The commander is taciturn, but the captain is a talkative one.

"...His Majesty is actually a little pitiful. He wanted to encourage everyone enthusiastically, but as a result, everyone was not even as excited as when the several artistic song and dance troupes performed in our camp before we set off."

Meng Hui just said lightly: "Anyway, when the emperor goes to the capital, he should give way."

Zhang Fengming laughed: "That's true."

When their fleet sailed for more than half a day, they found two merchant ships one in front and one behind in the sea.

"Spanish ship." Although the sky was getting dark, Zhang Fengming still saw the flying flag through the binoculars.

Meng Hui said, "Exactly."

A group of warships of the Ming Navy approached the two Spanish merchant ships very quickly. The Spaniards were also very obedient and simply lowered their sails to stop the ship. This showed that they were very experienced and knew that their broken ships would never be able to outrun the warships of the Ming Navy.

Several small boats were put down by the Zhiyuan, and a captain of the Marine Corps personally led the team aboard the brig, which was not a small tonnage.

The captain of the merchant ship was a bald Italian without a right hand. He quickly found an interpreter and said respectfully: "Mr. With your arrival, we are willing to accept the inspection of the Ming Navy. Thank you to the Ming Navy for its strict discipline and fairness. You are the guardians of this ocean."

This Italian was obviously hired to serve Spain. This situation is very common in European colonial countries, especially on Dutch ships. There may be sailors of various ethnicities ranging from Swedes to Indians and Africans.In this day and age, the nautical world is probably the most international field.

The Italian is not too afraid of these Ming navy, because he has dealt with Ming people before.The Ming Navy is only conducting investigations, and will not even charge tolls or bribes.As long as no contraband such as slaves or opium was carried on board, there would be no problem.

But what the captain didn't expect was that the captain of the Daming Marine Corps said to him very seriously: "No, Mr. Captain, you made a mistake, since your ship is flying the flag of Spain, because at this stage, the Ming Dynasty There has been friction with Spain, so I will seize your ship and crew, and you will not be able to go anywhere until the war is over."

"What, war?!"

(End of this chapter)