Nan Ming Sun Never Sets

Chapter 595

Compared with the Western Qing Empire, as a continental country, the Ming Dynasty has actually spent more on the navy than the army over the years. In some years, the navy's budget was even larger than the army's.This is something that can’t be helped. Daming controls the five continents of Xia, Europe, Africa, the United States and Australia. The total maritime trade accounts for nearly [-]% of the world’s total. It has huge maritime interests, and these need the protection of the Ming Navy.

So in these years, the speed of the Ming Navy's replacement of warships can even reach a ship every three or four years, that is to say, a brand new warship with the best technology will be decommissioned by the navy after three or four years of service. Replace with newer ships.

This kind of wasteful behavior has also been questioned and criticized by many people.However, the Ming Navy still regards ensuring that the Ming Dynasty has the largest maritime power and is the most competitive as its first principle, and is constantly updating warships.

Compared with the Ming Army, the Ming Dynasty Navy is an existence without challenges.Although Xiqing is strong, its navy is basically trapped in the narrow Black Sea and Baltic Sea.Xiqing built some battleships with a large tonnage, but they couldn't be compared with Ming Dynasty.

The ship construction of the Ming Navy is more obsessed with verifying technology. In the first few years, it was building battleships and cruisers, and now it is mainly focused on building aircraft carriers.As for small ships, Ming Dynasty has actually made some progress in recent years.

The Yongjin-class and Xuzhou-class during the circumnavigation period have been in service for about ten years. The Ming Dynasty Navy began to equip the 1800-ton Fubuki-class frigate. After building more than 20 ships, it was launched by the Navy Ship Technology Research Institute. The self-designed 2600-ton Jinan-class frigate has been built since 1684, and more than 50 ships have been built in four years.

It can be said that the frigate is the slowest type of ship to be replaced by the Ming Dynasty Navy. In actual operations, the Ming Dynasty now needs these ships with small tonnage and capable of performing a variety of tasks.

"...The Jinan class, although it is built more and faster, our navy still lacks. The Atlantic Fleet needs at least [-] light ships, and it has to perform missions in North America, the North Sea of ​​Europe, and the Mediterranean Sea. The state of the gap. And because of anti-piracy and escort issues in the Indian Ocean, we need more light ships." Wang Kai made a heartbroken expression.

However, Zhang Huangyan immediately exposed him: "Many of your low-intensity missions are assigned to the coast guard. Although your light ships have not been strengthened, the coast guard's Indian Ocean Squadron has continuously incorporated 30 ships in recent years. Ships over 1000 tons, 10 ships over 3000 tons. The navy is used to spending extravagantly, and will not live a life of careful planning. Your capital ships are replaced every three or four years, which consumes too much budget. Your Majesty They are all dissatisfied. Now that the war is about to start, Commander Wang, you say that you don’t have enough ships, which is really unacceptable to the cabinet.”

Zhang Huangyan's words are a bit heavy, but it is clear that the cabinet has been suffering from the navy for a long time. After all, in recent years, the navy's krypton gold consumption has become more and more terrible, and the cabinet feels that the eyelids are jumping too much.Let’s not talk about the Shanghai-class battleships that have just been built, but just say that the navy suddenly had an “idea” and said that the battleships are outdated. Let’s change to new toys and build an aircraft carrier. We have 12 Liaoning-class (Essex-class) ships in one go. , almost made the cabinet vomit blood and die.

Today, the Ming Navy has 28 battleships, 12 aircraft carriers, 7 battlecruisers, 16 heavy cruisers, and 24 light cruisers. This scale of first- and second-class ships has cost Ming a lot of money.And these ships are not considered to be replaced. They are now either used as training ships or as some ships in the ship reserve.

The navy kept saying that these large ships hoped to be used as a reserve fleet in the future, and if any major war happened in the future, they would be unsealed and put into service again.But at that time, some people believed it, but now no one believes it.Because economically, instead of unblocking the old warship, it is better to build a new warship with better technology.

Especially during the years when Wang Kai was the commander of the navy, the navy took a lot of money from the cabinet, and it was mainly used for large-scale construction.

Seeing that reasoning was useless, Wang Kai began to play tricks again: "But, Zhang Kui, the navy is indeed facing a lot of pressure. We plan to transfer the capital ships in the Indian Ocean region, and even the local capital ships to the Atlantic Fleet. In addition, in the current situation, when the Jinan class and the Fuxue class are facing the small pirate ships in the Arabian Sea that come and go like the wind, they also have the posture of shooting mosquitoes with cannons. Poor can do nothing The poor navy still has to equip us with ships."

Zhang Huangyan was not in the mood to argue with Wang about this, and finally directly sent Wang's expenses to the emperor's old son.

The emperor is actually one of the culprits of the navy’s kryptonite construction in recent years, but now the cabinet is very rigid, and unreliable plans will never be approved. There are also people in the Ministry of War who want to check and balance the navy that uses funds indiscriminately, so Wang Kai has nothing to do In the end, he could only find Bai Mingxiu, the initiator of the naval construction, to make a small report.

"Going to fight pirates, you don't need a particularly big ship. You think the Jinan class is too big?" Bai Mingxiu browsed through Wang Kai's report, with a question mark on his face.

It stands to reason that the Jinan class is the most suitable ship for these tasks. It has a small tonnage, relatively strong self-sustaining ability, and strong firepower.

However, as the commander of the navy, Wang Kai thinks about optimizing the force: "Frigates can actually play a greater role in the fleet, and our frigates are sent to Europe, so it's okay to single out cruisers. Xiqing has been making frequent moves recently. I I am worried that their Black Sea Fleet may break through the Bosporus and prepare to enter the Mediterranean."

Hearing what he said, Bai Mingxiu's face turned serious: "The Black Sea Strait is an important node guarded by the navy. I remember that you have installed a large number of coastal defense guns. Are there any problems with the defense here?"

When the Ottoman Empire collapsed, the Ming army attacked all the way, and finally stopped at the Turkish Strait, facing the Western Qing Empire across the Bosporus Strait, the Marmara Sea and the Dardanelles.The Ming army stationed here were mainly marines and garrison regiments, as well as vassal troops, who built a large number of fortress artillery and completely blocked the Black Sea Strait.Over the past few years, the Black Sea Fleet of the Qing Army repeatedly tried to enter the Mediterranean Sea from the Black Sea, but as soon as they came, the Ming Army announced an exercise and began firing artillery at sea, which made the Qing Army ships dare not cross the strait to enter the Mediterranean Sea.

Wang Kai replied earnestly: "The Black Sea Strait is very narrow. If the Qing army really made up its mind, they could carry out a landing operation, invade the side of Asia Minor under our control, and then seize control of the Strait."

In fact, Bai Mingxiu was deeply skeptical about this. Although the Ming army in Uskudar opposite Yijing did not have many troops, it was well-equipped, with a large number of fortifications and the natural moat of the Bosporus Strait. I don't think the Qing army will easily launch an offensive on this place.

More importantly, even if the Black Sea Fleet comes out, what can it do?The Ming Navy firmly controls the sea power in the Mediterranean.

(End of this chapter)