Qianlong: Qing Dynasty?What about my Daqing?

Inside the battleship Zhenwu.

This is the flagship of this Nanyang Fleet operation.

Zhu Yichi, who was wearing a navy combat uniform, looked slightly haggard.

After several days of sailing, the fleet has arrived at the Strait Governor's Mansion.

The former Free City of the Straits has now been renamed Xingzhou City, serving as the core city of the Ming Empire in Southeast Asia.

The Ming Dynasty mainly had three provinces and one city as its main administrative regions in Southeast Asia.

Lan Fong Province occupies the entirety of West Borneo.

As well as the Java Province with Batavia, the former core city of Dutch rule in Southeast Asia, now renamed Daya City as its core.

This city is naturally Xingzhou City.

As for other Southeast Asian islands, because they are located in the tropics and are difficult to develop, they are all temporarily under the management of the Nanyang Colony Governor's Office.

In the future, when the Han population is large enough to meet the conditions for establishing provinces and prefectures, administration at all levels of provinces and prefectures will be established.

After arriving in Xingzhou City, Crown Prince Zhu Yichi, who was the nominal commander-in-chief of this battle, received the latest intelligence: Britain dispatched a huge armored fleet from the mainland to strengthen their fleet strength in the Indian Ocean.

This made Zhu Yichi, who had never led an army in combat, a little worried.

"The other side has strengthened 12 ironclad ships, including three [-]-ton 'Warrior' class battleships. This will indeed bring some trouble to our operations, but please rest assured, Your Highness, I am fully confident that we can defeat the British." Human Indian Ocean Fleet!”

Zhang Bao, the governor of the Indian Ocean Fleet, stood at attention with a snap and said loudly.

Of course he wasn't bragging.

In fact.

There are some differences in the manufacturing concepts of warships between the Ming Empire and countries such as Britain and France.

Britain inherits the experience of the age of cannons and giant ships.

Strive for the caliber and tonnage of the cannon!

At the same time, it did not adopt the rotating turret, central axis layout and other artillery layout methods that are considered "too radical" by Western navies, such as the rotating turret and central axis layout commonly used by the Ming Navy - because the shortcomings of such a layout are obvious.

That is, the number of artillery that can be equipped is too small.

Compared with the British battleships that adopt the arrangement of artillery on both sides of the ship.

For battleships of the same level, the number of battleship guns of the Ming Empire Navy is less than half!
As the king of the sailing battleship era.

The British Navy is filled with a large number of old-school officers who firmly believe that "caliber and quantity are justice."

therefore.

The British built an [-]-ton giant ship using the latest technology, with a displacement larger than the Zhen-class battleship of the Ming Dynasty.

At the same time, the caliber of the main gun reached a terrifying 340 mm!

A real cannon ship.

However, the Ming Navy did not take the "Warrior" that the British spent huge sums of money to build seriously.

Because although the main gun of the Warrior class is larger in caliber and tonnage.

However, in terms of defense, main gun fire rate, and shell damage, the Zhen-class battleship has many obvious advantages.

The chemical industry of Ming Dynasty has always been ahead of the West.

even though.

Shells fired with trigger fuses cannot penetrate the armor of a battleship.

However, the damage to the deck and superstructure was still very large.

The Ming Dynasty Navy conducted experiments with solid armor-piercing projectiles: it is very difficult to sink an iron-clad ship with very strong defense and anti-sinking capabilities using armor-piercing projectiles.

At present, the armor-piercing bullets are basically solid bullets-that is, iron gada, which will not explode at all.

Even if it is completely penetrated, it will only be a hole about thirty centimeters in diameter.

It would take such a big iron ball to sink a huge armored ship.

Just thinking about it makes me realize how difficult it is.

and.The larger the caliber of the gun, the more difficult it is to load.

Therefore, the Ming Dynasty's Guangfu Emperor believed.

Since it is difficult to sink, then damage it!
Use high-explosive ammunition to pour as much firepower onto the deck of the opponent's warship as possible, damaging the opponent's deck and superstructure.

Therefore, the warships of the Ming Navy were equipped with a large number of rapid-fire cannons, while pursuing speed and shooting flexibility.

The British Navy's philosophy is the opposite.

They still hope to use more powerful and larger-caliber artillery in pursuit of sinking the opponent's warships.

This is also the source of Zhang Bao’s confidence.

In the experiments of the Ming Empire Navy.

Cannons like those of the British Navy reload too slowly.

He even doubted.

Can the opponent's 'Warrior' class battleship fire more than ten shells with one main gun during the entire engagement of a naval battle?

And now.

Let alone the cannon on rough seas.

The hit rate on land is not high.

therefore.

On the side of the Ming Navy, the "quick gun" theory has the upper hand - the young Ming Navy officers believe that it is unrealistic to pursue the pursuit of sinking an ironclad ship that can easily weigh thousands of tons, and the thickness of the armor of the current ironclad ship is here. If you want to penetrate armor, you need to equip a large-caliber artillery, which brings about another problem of artillery fire rate.

To sum up, the Ming Navy internally believes that naval warfare in the ironclad era should not aim at sinking.

Instead, high explosives are used to bombard the enemy's deck and superstructure, which will damage enemy personnel and weapons on the ship, in order to achieve the goal of making the enemy ship lose its combat effectiveness.

Based on this concept.

Only the Ming Dynasty Navy had a fleet of "Zhen" class battleships, "Hong" class armored cruisers, and "Wei" class frigates.

even.

Some more radical naval officers thought.

Town-class battleships were still too expensive and bulky.

It would be better to develop a new capital ship with fast speed, suitable armor, a large number of small-caliber fast guns, and low cost based on the Wei-class frigate.

But because this idea is too radical.

The Naval Staff Headquarters did not adopt it.

It is precisely because of such controversy.

Therefore, the Navy's shipbuilding plan is very conservative.

Only four of the main "Eighty-eight Fleets" were built.

As for the Wei-class frigates, quite a few have been built - after all, the Wei-class ships are cheap.

Although the Ming Empire was at its peak of national power.

But the navy is indeed a very money-consuming branch.

Especially in this era of very drastic technological changes in naval warships.

An ironclad ship that rashly invests a lot of resources into manufacturing will most likely become obsolete in a few years and become scrap metal at sea.
Compared with the conservativeness of the Ming Empire.

The British Navy seems to be very aggressive here.

After all, for Britain, sea power meant life.

The Portsmouth shipyard is already building several Warrior-class battleships at the same time.

"The British plan to use twenty Warrior-class battleships, coupled with some cruisers and destroyers, to control the Indian Ocean. However, they will soon understand that their Warrior-class is just a living coffin on the sea!"

Chen Huacheng, chief of staff of the Nanyang Fleet, said loudly.

Crown Prince Zhu Yichi saw that the two military chiefs of the Nanyang Fleet were so confident. He also nodded, and then said in a deep voice: "The North American War is imminent. We must completely drive out the British forces before the war. Indian Ocean!" (End of Chapter)