UK, 10 Downing Street.
A very critical cabinet meeting on armaments is being held.
The protagonist of this meeting today is not Prime Minister George Canning, nor the new Lord of the Admiralty, Viscount Palmerston, nor Earl Nelson, who has just returned from India to take up the post of First Sea Lord. Instead, he has accumulated rich experience in naval battles. George Elliot, who had suffered defeats and failed air defense battles, as well as failed air raids and sneak attacks... Because he had rich and valuable experience in defeating battles, he was unanimously recommended by Earl Nelson and Viscount Palmerston to serve in the navy. Ministry Permanent Secretary.
The British cabinet secretary and permanent secretaries of various ministries are not ordinary "little secretaries", but high-ranking secretaries! Because the UK today implements a responsible cabinet system, the majority party in the House of Commons is responsible for forming a cabinet, and sometimes a coalition cabinet is formed. However, no matter what method of forming a cabinet, it is inevitable that laymen will lead experts. For example, the current British Lord of the Admiralty, Lord Palmerston, does not know much about the navy, so it is necessary to have a group of experienced professionals or career bureaucrats to assist him. The permanent secretaries of various ministries are responsible for leading these experienced professionals or career bureaucrats!
However, the power of the Permanent Secretary of the Admiralty is much smaller than that of the Permanent Secretaries of other ministries (excluding the War Department, of course).
Because the Admiralty also has the First Sea Lord and the Second Sea Lord, who are responsible for the command and training of the navy and have a great say in equipment and personnel issues. Moreover, the permanent secretaries of the Admiralty are all active servicemen, while the First Sea Lord is the highest-ranking British naval officer!
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Therefore, the First Sea Lord is the end point for the promotion of Royal Navy officers, and the Permanent Secretary of the Admiralty is just a step on their way up, so the Permanent Secretary of the Admiralty is replaced more diligently than the Admiralty Lord.
For George Elliot, who had been humiliated and suffered a huge defeat in Japan before, this was the last chance to save his career.
If he cannot assist in the post of Permanent Secretary of the Navy and coordinate with the Lord of the Admiralty and the First Sea Lord to formulate a naval expansion plan that satisfies all parties, then the Permanent Secretary of the Navy will be George Elliot in the Royal Navy. The last position in the navy.
And he will also become a sinner of the British Empire!
"The first lesson that Ji Yin's naval battle taught us is: firing accurately and firing quickly is more important than having a larger caliber! And if we want to fire accurately and quickly, we cannot choose a main gun with the largest caliber possible. In Sovereign Power It is too big to install a 13.5-inch main gun on a hull of less than 15,000 tons! As for the 16-inch front-loading gun on the Indomitable, it is completely, completely, completely obsolete. It is of no use in naval battles, and as soon as it fires Fortunately, the hull shook violently, making the usable 6-inch half-rapid guns unable to exert their power. Therefore, I suggest that the Sovereign-class 13.5-inch main gun be removed and replaced with a 12-inch or 11-inch main gun. Guns. At the same time, the Sovereign-class battleships also need to be equipped with as many 6-inch secondary guns as possible. They are very useful in naval battles.
The second lesson from the Ji Yin naval battle is: speed is better than protection! The advantage of speed does not lie in seizing the T-shaped position, but in choosing the right to engage. In the Battle of Jiyin Sea, the initiative of whether to fight or not to fight was always on the side of the Ming Navy... If they wanted to fight, they would fight. Just leave, and after leaving, you can come back and fight again. It can be said that you have the upper hand!
The third lesson from the Ji Yin naval battle is: the fleet’s air defense urgently needs to be strengthened! The airship is actually a very fragile weapon. It has a huge air chamber and is easy to hit...but only if we have weapons that can shoot into the air, and the effective range is far enough, and the shooting height is high enough. anti-aircraft weapons.
The fourth lesson from the Ji Yin naval battle is: the role of large long-range airships is very, very, very important! "
"Wait a minute," British Prime Minister George Canning suddenly interrupted, "Brigadier General, you just said that airships are a very fragile weapon."
"Yes, Prime Minister." George Elliot said, "But no matter how fragile it is, as long as we can't hit it, it won't fall from the sky on its own!"
"Can't hit? You mean dropping bombs at an altitude of 3,000 meters or higher? Does that make sense? Can it hit?"
"I don't know," George Elliot replied, "but I have a guess... a very well-founded guess!"
"Oh? What guess?" George Canning asked.
"I guess... they already have a radio station!"
"Radio station?" George Canning was stunned. "Can you send a telegram without wires?"
"Prime Minister," Viscount Palmerston answered after taking the question, "The Admiralty has provided funds to several experts or companies dedicated to developing radio stations a few years ago... However, considering that the Ming Dynasty Psychic Telecommunications has always been a leader in telecommunications technology, having invented the telephone and the wire telegraph, so it is very likely that it has developed wireless stations!”
"That's it..."
Seeing that the Prime Minister did not understand the seriousness of the problem, Lord Nelson, the First Sea Lord, further explained: "Prime Minister, as we all know, large rigid airships have long air control times and long flight distances. Many large airships can operate continuously Flying for 24 hours or even 48 hours, the flying distance can reach thousands of miles! If they have a radio station, they can promptly notify the fleet flagship and shore base of the location of the discovered target... This means The entire ocean, at least a large area of the ocean, will be under 24-hour uninterrupted surveillance by the Ming Navy!
In addition, an airship with a radio station can also conduct ballistic corrections for its own artillery during fleet battles... and can even command the entire fleet's main gun firepower to attack the same target in a unified manner! This will greatly improve the artillery's hit rate! "
"Ah, this is really terrible..."
As soon as George Canning said the word "terrible", there was a loud knock on the door of the conference room, and then the voice of Cabinet Secretary Harker: "Prime Minister, it's me, Harker."
"Come in!" Although he knew that Huck would do nothing good if he knocked on the door at this time, George Canning still let Huck in.
Huck quickly opened the door, walked up to the Prime Minister with a copy of the telegram, bowed politely, and said unhurriedly: "Mr. Prime Minister, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has just sent an urgent telegram from the Embassy in Japan. ... Nagasaki has been captured, our friend Shimazu Sairyo was buried in the flames, and as many as 70,000 to 80,000 people were killed or buried in the flames at the same time as him!"
"Wait..." George Canning quickly interrupted Huck, and at the same time took out a bottle of Ya'an tincture, took a sip to calm his shock, and then said, "Go on."
"Yes, Prime Minister," Huck continued, "According to the report of the Embassy in Japan, the coalition forces besieging Nagasaki took just one day to completely destroy and capture this fortress city that had been painstakingly built for many years!"
"One day? Impossible!"
"How can it be?"
"Absolutely impossible!"
Viscount Palmerston, Earl Nelson and George Elliot in the conference room all shook their heads together.
Huck looked at the three of them and smiled bitterly: "Earl, Viscount, Commodore... The impossible has happened! According to the report of the Embassy in Japan, more than a hundred airships of the Ming Dynasty Naval Aviation were in Thousands of incendiary bombs were dropped that day that could cause violent burning... turning the entire Nagasaki Castle into a sea of flames! At the same time, a flag symbolizing the personal conquest of the Emperor of Japan appeared on Yatsutendake outside Nagasaki Castle Opposite the main position, it greatly encouraged the attacking coalition forces. Therefore, the coalition forces immediately launched a general offensive after Nagasaki turned into a sea of fire. The panicked defenders were unable to resist at all... The defense line quickly collapsed, and Nagasaki Castle collapsed that night. Captured! Of course, what was captured was actually a large area of charred ruins, because Nagasaki no longer exists! And Japan... has also been completely controlled by the Ming Empire!"
Japan is completely controlled by Ming Dynasty!
Of course George Canning knows what this news means to the world right now? What did it mean for the British Empire?
George Canning, who was already sick, could not bear this blow. He became anxious and angry, and suddenly his vision went dark, and he collapsed on the throne of the Prime Minister!
