The intelligence sent by Fangguan and Pierre was very accurate, and the Chinese intelligence network in Europe paid a bloody price for such information.
More than 200,000 pounds were spent on intelligence. Three intelligence personnel died and two were missing!
But all sacrifices are valuable. This list almost gives out the detailed data of the British Great White Fleet!
The total tonnage exceeds 230,000 tons, and the main guns are all 8-inch caliber. Among them, the main guns of Emperor Power and Queen have a caliber of 11 inches!
Xiao Letian had a detailed form at hand. The British were too proud. They were too proud to use the metric system to measure dimensions. They always used their own imperial measurements for design and production.
The 8-inch caliber gun is 203mm when converted to metric, while the 11-inch caliber is 279mm.
It can be said that in terms of firepower caliber comparison, the Chinese have a slight advantage but it is definitely not obvious. The other indicators such as armor, combat personnel, endurance, etc. also have their own advantages and disadvantages!
Tonnage, the biggest headache is tonnage. The tonnage of the British Navy is almost twice that of the Chinese!
One is 230,000 tons, and the other is 130,000 tons. The difference in strength in this battle is too obvious!
Xiao Letian knew very well that in the era of sailing battleships, the navy still had opportunities to take advantage of the situation. There were many examples of the weak defeating the strong with the small and the large.
But in the era of giant steel ships, this era of battleship bombardment, tonnage and firepower are the indicators of crushing!
It is difficult for ordinary people to imagine how terrifying the defensive capabilities of battleships of that era were. Thirty to forty centimeters thick steel plates were piled together and floating like mountains on the sea.
It is not uncommon for a naval battle to last for six or seven hours, but in the end even a main battleship cannot be sunk!
That is a super human shield, standing in front to resist firepower, and at the same time, it keeps pouring cannonballs! The two sides are grinding each other to death little by little!
According to Xiao Letian's previous life, the naval battles during World War I were all about plate-armored paladins, or paladins with defensive talents, grinding their blood against each other!
Sometimes a day of crazy bombing would only result in minor or serious injuries. Therefore, in an era before aerial bombs and missiles appeared, mankind had no choice but to take the path of tonnage supremacy.
You can only rely on numerical superiority to win. You, the Chinese, have eight battleships, and the British have twelve battleships to fight against you. Only in this way can you increase your chances of winning!
"Tonnage! Tonnage..." Xiao Letian dropped his pencil and paced back and forth in the tent, drinking half a cup of bitter and astringent black coffee in one sip.
"How to destroy it? How to destroy the British fleet? Use torpedoes? It's a pity that I have a collision torpedo in my hand now, and the electromagnetic torpedo has not been developed at all!"
"Damn it, if Tesla had been invited earlier, electromagnetic torpedoes would probably have been released earlier. If there was such a treasure, we might have been able to protect our troops!"
"But... the British are equipped with 21 destroyers... Damn it, the British naval experts may have guessed my back-up plan..."
Xiao Letian was right. The British had really guessed the Chinese's back-up plan, which was the torpedo speedboat brigade hidden deep in the Amami Islands!
Gordon once stayed at the Ryukyu Naval Base. He once saw a mountainside wrapped in camouflage nets. This is the Chinese killer torpedo speedboat base.
The original cave in the mountain was used, and then artificially exploded to expand it, turning it into a naval base hidden in the mountains. Many torpedo speedboats were hidden there!
These small torpedo boats with a displacement of only one to two hundred tons each carry two steam contact torpedoes, and they come and go as fast as the wind on the sea!
But their shortcomings are also obvious, that is, their defensive capabilities are too weak. The 4-inch secondary guns of British warships can easily destroy these torpedo boats.
Originally, according to Xiao Letian's plan, three teams of 24 torpedo speedboats were to launch a surprise attack or something. Even if the entire army was wiped out, as long as all 48 torpedoes were launched, three or four enemy battleships could be replaced!
As long as such a large piece of bloody flesh can be torn off a British person, even a British family with a great career will cry out in pain.
This is a huge blow to the enemy's morale!
However, the latest information sent by Fangguan made Xiao Letian's heart freeze. He did not expect that the British would actually bring 21 destroyers with them this time.
Before World War I, the tonnage of destroyers was very small, only seven to eight hundred tons. After World War I, destroyers of more than a thousand tons appeared! The largest tonnage is only 1,500 tons.
The manufacturing cost of this kind of warship is low. With the level of British shipbuilding technology, it is too simple to mass-produce this kind of small ship of 700 to 800 tons.
The destroyer is not big but its importance is not low. It is the personal guard of the main fleet. According to the Qing Dynasty, it is called a guard with a knife!
The main task of destroyers on the battlefield is those pesky torpedo boats. The torpedoes are fast and powerful. It is too difficult for battleships and cruisers to deal with these mosquitoes.
You have to use fast and flexible destroyers to deal with it, and fire small and medium-sized artillery of various calibers to protect the safety of the main fleet!
The rest of the naval battle is actually a battle between the main warships of both sides. The bombardment continues, even if it lasts for a whole day, until one side can no longer withstand it, the naval battle is over.
The fact that the British brought so many destroyers to Asia shows that the British naval staff had deduced Xiao Letian's intention to attack with torpedo boats.
It is indeed a powerful country with a navy that has been around for a hundred years. What kind of background is this? This talent pool? This naval shipbuilding capability? It is not something that emerging countries can compare with!
Just as Xiao Letian was rubbing his temples in pain, footsteps sounded outside the door, and Fatty Jin came again with the latest European intelligence.
"The head of state...the latest information from Europe has just been transcoded..."
Xiao Letian took it and read it again and cursed angrily in a low voice, "Damn it...why are these British people so difficult to deal with?" After that, he smashed the telegraph newspaper on the table.
There is only one sentence above: "The British fleet has comprehensively added mine protection nets, and all modifications have been completed before June 1st..."
"Lightning protection net?" Fatty Jin has never seen this kind of thing, but Xiao Letian's memory bank is not unfamiliar with this thing at all!
Before and after World War I, European countries generally added mine protection nets to their main warships. This thing had no black technology, it was just a few steel poles extending into the sea, and then hanging down a metal iron net!
Torpedoes or mines cannot hit the hull. Of course, this kind of equipment also has the disadvantage that once it is mounted, the speed cannot be guaranteed.
But the British are not that stupid. They will not hang up the net throughout the whole process. They can usually put away the mine protection net and then put it down before the naval battle.
When this kind of thing is combined with a destroyer, the Chinese torpedo boats become completely useless!
"Damn it... Our torpedoes don't have net breakers, let alone electromagnetic fuses... We can't break this situation! It's too late..."
