To the east of the Luzon Islands, on the Pacific Ocean, night has gradually fallen, and a fleet of ten East India Company sailing ships is plowing white waves on the sea.
That’s right, ten sailboats! And it's not a motor sailboat, but a large sailboat with full sails... This is the pinnacle of the British Empire's shipbuilding industry, and it is a ship type that can leave the Ming Dynasty shipbuilding industry far behind.
This type of sailing ship is called the "East India Company Galleon". It was originally ordered by the East India Company from the British shipbuilding industry to run the Ming Dynasty-India-Europe route. Even though they are all sailboats with full sails, they have an astonishing deadweight tonnage of more than 8,000 tons, and a full load displacement of up to 11,000 tons. Driven by as many as forty-seven sails with a total area of more than 6,000 and nearly 7,000 square meters, the top speed of these sailing ships can reach an astonishing 20 knots or more!
What was used to maneuver so many sails was not manpower, but winches driven by small boilers and steam engines. Therefore, the number of crew members required to operate such a large sailboat is only forty or fifty.
In addition, this type of sailboat has excellent seaworthiness and can sail in strong winds of level 9, which is simply a miracle in the sailing world!
On the right side of these ten miracles in the sailing world, there are ten steam battleships, namely two ironclads (one of which is the Sovereign-class "Revenge"), three dome-armored cruisers, and five torpedo boat destroyers.
Dozens of steam warships emitted smoke rising straight into the sky, looking very imposing. In the sky above those large sailing ships, although there was no black smoke emitted by the steam boilers, there were ten white airships floating, being dragged forward by ropes by the large sailing ships, which contrasted with the black smoke of the steam ships.
The setting sun shines from the western sky, shining on the white airship and sails, passing through the black smoke, and reflecting on the sea, making the waves sparkling. Between the sea and the sky, there is a chilling air.
Every ship in this fleet flies the Union Jack, a symbol of the British Empire. And on those ten steam warships, the white flag of the British Royal Navy was dancing!
Although the Ming Empire has powerful southern and northern fleets, it has no aircraft, no radar, let alone satellites these days. There is still a radio hidden, so the Ming Navy does not have the ability to operate in the vast Pacific east of the Luzon Islands. Full control on top.
Moreover, the Ming Dynasty has not declared war with Britain. Even if the fleet of the British Empire leaves Malacca, takes the South China Sea and crosses the Bashi Strait to visit Japan, as long as it does not pass through the territorial waters of the Ming Empire, the Ming Navy has no reason to stop them - the Ming Dynasty itself. Didn’t we also send a naval formation to Petersburg for a goodwill visit a few days ago? On the way to and back from Petersburg, they even crossed the English Channel!
On the flagship "Revenge" of this British Royal Navy escort formation, the formation commander George Elliot, who had just been promoted to commodore, was standing on the deck next to the 13.5-inch (343 mm) main gun at the stern of the ship, holding his hand Railing, looking up at the small airships being towed by the East India Company's sailing ships, the corners of his mouth were slightly raised, looking very proud. Because these seemingly inconspicuous small airships will definitely open up a new mode of naval warfare in the near future - airship bombing!
Although the airship was invented by the Ming Dynasty, this invention is something that can be "understood at a glance". Of course, the British Empire, which also has industrial civilization, can also "understand it".
However, the British rigid airship is still less interesting than the Ming Dynasty rigid airship. At present, the United Kingdom cannot build an airship as big as the "Flying Dragon III" because the British gasoline engine is not as good as the Ming Dynasty, and the sealing performance of the hydrogen airbag is also a little worse. Therefore, large airships cannot be built, only small airships with shorter range and lighter load can be built.
But being small also has small advantages. For example, it can be easily towed by a ship, and it is not easy to be discovered compared to large boats, and it is not easy to be hit by ground or sea fire.
If you want to transport a large number of soldiers to airdrop behind enemy lines or load many bombs to bomb enemy cities, large boats are definitely the best choice. But when it comes to using airships to sneak attack fleets parked in enemy ports, small boats are undoubtedly more useful. After all, the "small airships" of the British Royal Navy are not particularly small. They can also be equipped with at least two 260-pound armor-piercing bombs (that is, armor-piercing bombs from 8-inch naval guns and shore guns plus a wooden tail fin) for air strikes!
Since the bomb fell from above the battleship, the unarmored deck and superstructure or the top of the turret must have been hit. Even giant ships such as the Sovereign Class and the Hongwu Emperor Class cannot withstand a 260-pound bomb. An explosion of an armor-piercing bomb!
At this time, the ropes used to connect the large sailing ships on the airships floating in the sky were disconnected one by one, and then the propellers on both sides of the airship cabins suddenly began to rotate, pushing the airships forward together, forming a formation in the sky. The column. One after another, ten airships quickly passed over the British Royal Navy formation at sea, then turned in the sky ahead, and one after another flew towards the bow of the "Revenge" battleship. , and it also lowered its altitude while flying. By the time these airships finally passed over the "Revenge", their altitude had dropped to less than a hundred meters above the sea level.
George Yilu watched these airships intently, and nodded with satisfaction when he saw that each airship had completed a simulated attack. His cousin originally served as an ordnance officer on another "Sovereign" class ship under the Indian Grand Fleet. Now he was transferred to his cousin to serve as chief staff officer on the "Revenge". Charlie Elliot didn't know when he had Arrived at his side. At this time, he whispered to his cousin: "George, these yellow-skinned monkeys are not stupid. They learn things very quickly. They can control the airship in such a short time...but they don't know Japan." Do you dare to become an enemy of the Ming Empire?"
It turns out that the people who just drove the airship to conduct simulated attacks were overseas officers sent by the Japanese Navy to intern at the British Royal Navy's Indian Fleet. The Japanese Navy and the British Royal Navy have a long-standing cooperative relationship, and they have been sending naval students to the UK, and these international students The internship unit has always been the Indian Fleet.
When Earl Nelson sent a fleet to escort the East India Company's galleons to Japan, he transferred all these international students to the commander of the fleet, George Elliot.
At the same time, Earl Nelson realized the great value of airships, so he gathered all the airships owned by the Indian Grand Fleet, organized an airship bombing force, and modified a batch of armor-piercing bombs with 8-inch armor-piercing bombs.
When George Elliot learned that Nelson had begun to form an airship bombing force, he immediately thought of sending more airships to the Japanese... After all, the next game between Ming and Ying must take place in Japan.
Now hearing his cousin's question, George Yilu replied with a smile: "Of course Japan does not dare to be an enemy of the Ming Empire, but whether they will become an enemy of the Ming Empire does not depend on whether they dare or not, but on the Ming Dynasty Do you want to suppress Japan! The Ming Dynasty is different from our Great Britain. She is the only great empire in the East. She is almost the entire East Asian civilization! Japan, on the other hand, has always been wandering on the edge of East Asian civilization. Although it was brutally exploited and suppressed by the Ming Dynasty, It was not suppressed by the Ming Dynasty... It's not that the Ming Dynasty couldn't do it, but that it was unwilling to pay the corresponding price. And now, since the Ming Dynasty has decided to break with me, Great Britain, then she will definitely suppress Japan before the break. ! Because only by suppressing Japan will East Asia become a monolith! East Asian civilization does not control as many resources and territories as our Western civilization. If it cannot become a whole, then Ming will be at a disadvantage in the struggle with our Western civilization. . And Japan, even if it knows that its ultimate fate is to be suppressed, will do its best to resist!"
"Resist? Why try your best to resist?" Charlie Yilu didn't quite understand, "It's in vain."
"No, it was not in vain." George Yilu said, "Japan's resistance determined her value, and also determined her status after being suppressed by the Ming Dynasty!
So the twenty airships (and ten more that were disassembled and installed on large sailing ships) and four hundred 260-pound armor-piercing bombs we gave them will definitely come in handy! "
