"Damn the Indians, they didn't fix it at all, otherwise steam engines No. 3 and No. 4 wouldn't have completely broken down so quickly!"
"Major General, they actually repaired it... The No. 1 steam engine that was damaged by the Blenheim last time was the No. 1 steam engine. Now the No. 1 steam engine is still running."
"But why didn't steam engines No. 3 and No. 4 move? What's going on? They must not have carried out maintenance... I have said long ago that the repair and maintenance of battleships should not be left to the Hindustan Construction Company. , the workers there are all clumsy Indians!”
"Well...Major General, they did inspect steam engines No. 3 and No. 4, but only Steam Engine No. 2 did not have time to inspect."
"Has it been inspected? Then why is it broken? How long did it take?"
In the bridge of the armored cruiser Blenheim, Rear Admiral Thomas Cochrane, the commander of the battlecruiser division of the Second Indian Fleet, was furious at his chief of staff and captain of the Blenheim, Colonel Jervis.
This provoked this man who participated in the Napoleonic Wars, and later went to South America to help Peru and Chile gain independence. He also served as the Commander-in-Chief of the Brazilian Navy in Brazil and received the title of Marquis from the Brazilian Emperor, and then ran to Brazil again. The legendary rear admiral who supported the Greek War of Independence and did not return to the British Navy until 1828 was angry about two malfunctioning steam engines...
It should be mentioned that his flagship Blenheim was a Blake-class ship with a standard displacement of 8,500 tons. It was one of the three Blake-class ships that participated in the Battle off Goa. The ship was damaged in the battle that "forced the Ming Navy to seize the Persian Gulf". Several holes were opened, and a 210mm armor-piercing bomb penetrated into the No. 1 engine room and broke a steam engine.
After the Battle off the coast of Goa, this heroic armored cruiser was sent to the Hindustan Shipyard in Mumbai for careful repairs. It was towed out of the dry dock with a brand new look not long ago... At this time Rear Admiral Corcoran, who had just arrived in India and took office, fell in love with this beautiful warship at a glance, so he made it his flagship.
And this brand-new armored cruiser soon brought good luck to Major General Cochrane - he was appointed commander of the armored patrol detachment of the Second Indian Fleet and was ordered to command 12 armored cruisers!
But Rear Admiral Corcoran never expected that this large warship, which looked as beautiful as a new ship that had just been commissioned, would break down not long after it was used... The No. 3 steam engine broke down at first. Rear Admiral Corcoran led the armored patrol detachment to follow the main force of the Second Indian Fleet and was broken down on the way to the Ten Degree Strait. The No. 4 steam engine didn't last long and broke down early this morning!
The Blenheim, which broke down two steam engines in a row, lost half of its power. Even if the remaining two steam engines no longer break down, they can only maintain a speed of 12 or 3 knots at most... which is completely incomparable. The patrol unit!
"Rear Admiral, the Strait Fleet sent an urgent message... They have successfully lured the Ming Dynasty Fleet's armored patrol unit, and now there are 12 Haohan-class armored cruisers chasing the Strait Fleet! Lieutenant General Hood ordered us to go to the rescue immediately and communicate with the Strait Fleet The fleet is flanking the enemy formation!"
As soon as Major General Corcoran and Colonel Jervis entered the bridge, the communications staff handed over the telegram they had just received.
Major General Corcoran jumped up like a rabbit, snatched the telegram copy from the communications officer with red eyes, and seemed to be gritting his teeth and said: "Damn... we are going to attack soon, why is it broken?" Two steam engines?”
"Major General," Colonel Jervis said with a sad face, "Why don't you call the Blake over and you can take it to Malacca to join the war."
"No!" Major General Corcoran shook his head and shouted, "The Blake was also repaired by the Hindustan Shipyard...I can no longer trust these Indians!"
Nothing has happened to the Blake so far, but what if it breaks down on the battlefield?
"Call the Edgar over!" Major General Corcoran said, "I will take this armored cruiser to fight... Colonel Jervis, you continue to command the Blenheim, organize manpower to repair it, and repair it as soon as possible! "
"Yes, Rear Admiral!" Jervis didn't want to stay on the Blenheim, but he was the captain and it was his responsibility!
So he had no choice but to have someone flag down the Edgar and lower the launch, and then watched Major General Corcoran leave.
But at this time, he didn't know that the Blenheim armored cruiser he was riding on was a truly trustworthy ship...
...
"Report, Guan Junmen asked how long it will take for us to catch up?"
On the bridge of the Haohan-class armored cruiser Zhao Zilong, Chen Huacheng, a veteran in his fifties, pulled off his hat and shouted: "Tell Guan Junmen that our team is chasing at full speed and is expected to catch up in six hours." !”
Chen Huacheng is as anxious as Corcoran. He is currently leading a large formation consisting of 12 Haohan-class armored cruisers, 12 second-class and third-class cruisers, 12 destroyers and 24 torpedo boats, sailing in the Strait of Malacca at a speed of 16 knots. "Speeding forward" - Although the Haohan class has a maximum speed of 23 knots, which is the third fastest among the large ships currently owned by the Ming Dynasty Navy (the first fastest is the Shu Zhongwang class, and the second fastest is the Zhongwang class), but the The second- and third-class cruisers given to him were all "old ships", and it was not easy to maintain a speed of 16 knots.
The enemy they were chasing was now running at 10 knots - which was already very fast for a shallow-water heavy gunship. Even though the Ming Dynasty's "Island" class has a top speed of 12 knots, its economic speed is 8 knots. It is not bad to maintain 10 knots for long distances.
In other words, Chen Huacheng's fleet can only get closer to its opponent by 6 knots per hour, which is 6 nautical miles. Now there is still a gap of thirty or forty nautical miles between the two sides. It would be good to catch up in 6 hours.
Because they had been chasing for four hours before, six hours later, Chen Huacheng's team had chased 160 nautical miles northwest and was far away from the main fleet at the entrance to the Strait of Malacca.
Thinking of this, Chen Huacheng became a little worried, although the main force of the Indian fleet was far away in the Gulf of Oman. But... now the Minister of War of the Indian Empire is the Marquis Nelson!
"Pass my order," Chen Huacheng said, "Get ready for a night battle!"
"General Town, you mean a night battle?" The chief of staff of the team on the side was stunned. "Intelligence shows that the enemy's shallow-water heavy gunboats now also have radio stations... The enemy has 15 shallow-water gunboats, with at least 30 guns. If heavy artillery over 300 mm can be sighted and sighted uniformly and fired within 5,000 meters, we are no match."
The heavy firepower of the Haohan class is not strong. The foreign trade version only has two 240mm main guns. The one in Chen Huacheng's hand is the "enhanced firepower version", which uses twin 240mm guns on the bow and a single 240mm gun on the stern. Configuration, the 12 Heroes have a total of 36 240mm guns, which is indeed no match for the 30 heavy guns with a caliber above 300mm.
"Don't be afraid..." Chen Huacheng gritted his teeth, "We still have 24 torpedo boats... Each torpedo boat has 2 steam gas torpedoes. As long as we can take a risk and fight for a certain amount of time, Losing the formation approaching the enemy and covering the attack by the torpedo boats will definitely severely damage the old British fleet! As long as these 15 shallow-water heavy gunboats are destroyed, the Malacca Strait, which has been stuck in us for more than 100 years, can be won!"
