To be honest, the solution that Emperor William, Marquis Nelson, and George Elliot came up with was okay, because Britain's shipbuilding capabilities are not weak. After all, her colonies are many and far away, and she also owns the largest commercial ship in the world. The team has long controlled the bulk of world shipping. Therefore, the UK can now complete the entire construction of a Victory-class battleship from laying the first keel to outfitting in one year, and it can also ensure that there are no major problems in the sea trials.
This skill has reached its peak. Let alone the current New Ming Dynasty, if the World Factory in another timeline were to do it, it would be impossible to complete a large ship with a full row of more than 20,000 tons in one year.
In addition, British shipbuilding steel and armor steel are not much worse than those of Ming Dynasty. Although Britain's steel production is only about 15% of the Ming Dynasty, because Britain's shipbuilding scale is large, their steel plants mainly serve shipbuilding and invest a lot of energy in various ship steel products, so the technical level is not Under the colleagues of Ming Dynasty.
In terms of armor steel, the current research directions of both sides are actually the same, which is to try every means to increase the hardness of armor steel - as long as the armor steel is harder than the warhead of armor-piercing bullets, it can theoretically be "invulnerable". The path to increasing hardness is nothing more than adjusting the formula of alloy steel and improving the smelting process. To put it bluntly, it is trial and error and resource allocation. The former requires a sufficient professional team and continuous attempts of various solutions. The latter requires a large enough territory and rich enough resources of non-ferrous metals and rare metals. The two sides are obviously evenly matched in these two aspects. Although the number of engineers and technical workers in the UK is far less than that of the Ming Dynasty, it can still ensure the demand in a few key areas. At the same time, both the Ming Dynasty and Great Britain are large enough.
Therefore, both sides are now proficient in the smelting technology of high-strength armor steel similar to "Harvey Armor Steel", and have also begun to research more complex deep diminishing hardening technology. Given the capabilities of the two countries in this area, a breakthrough is only a matter of time.
As for artillery technology, the gap between the two sides is not big, but Ming Dynasty has a better machinery industry, so they can produce better naval gun servo systems and can rapidly fire large-caliber artillery faster.
However, the technical ceiling of large-caliber artillery is obvious. Going above 400 mm does not make much sense, and 300 mm-level rapid-fire cannons have already passed the test on both sides. The progress of the development of larger-caliber rapid-fire cannons will not be much different between the two parties. After all, the British could also overcome the shortcomings in the mechanical industry by making the artillery's servo system larger.
The only thing that leaves the British with nothing to do is the gap between oil-fired boilers and steam turbines... Therefore, the configuration of giant ships, cannons, and slow speed cannot be said to be the most suitable for the British, but at least it is the best choice under the current circumstances. , at least allow Daying to continue to resist.
To complete the adjustment in the direction of capital ship development, the British must try their best to buy time for themselves with the lives of others! As for the Ming Dynasty, although they didn't know the British plan, they also knew that they couldn't give the British too much time... They had to take advantage of the fact that the battleships in their hands were still "very fragrant". , try to expand your advantage on the battlefield as much as possible.
The only obstacle that prevents them from achieving this goal is Tammasik Fortress, because in the entire Malay Peninsula, only Tammasik Fortress is still in the hands of the British.
...
"Brother Shenshan, how is the situation?"
At the Malacca Military Port Pier, Zhuge Weidao, who had just got off the Shu Zhongwang, saw Major General Zheng Guoxian, the chief of staff of the Nanyang Army, who came to greet him, and hurriedly inquired about the progress of the war.
It is already the first month of the eleventh year of Taiping. Due to the existence of the defense line in the Johor Strait, the Malay Peninsula Campaign has come to a standstill since a few days before the New Year. Even though the Johor Strait is only one kilometer wide, it is not easy to get across, and a forced crossing must be launched. Battle! This requires preparing a large number of ships and mobilizing a sufficient number of artillery and troops.
It is impossible to complete the mission under any circumstances with just two lightly-armed Japanese divisions plus an equally lightly-armed Japanese independent brigade, so the subsequent heavy-armed troops must be moved forward. The heavy-armed troops included artillery belonging to 2 Japanese divisions and 1 Japanese independent brigade, and an infantry corps of the Ming Army, designated as the 10th Army of the Ming Army - this army was stationed for dozens of times in Pattani and Songkhla. In 2008, they had a large number of mules and horses that had adapted to the tropical climate, and they were also equipped with 210 mm-caliber heavy howitzers that could bombard British military strongholds!
As for the 120mm caliber and 155mm caliber howitzers, there are more. Each of the three divisions it belongs to has a large "reinforced artillery regiment", and the army also has a heavy artillery brigade!
Just look at the organization list of this army and you will know that this is an army prepared for World War I! This kind of firepower can be used to fight the Battle of Verdun, but this time, the main force that can fight Verdun has no chance to make meritorious deeds. Because as soon as the Japanese invaded, the British and Indian troops collapsed all the way! The planes were running so fast that they could hardly catch up, not to mention these "World War I infantry" who were marching slowly pulling heavy howitzers?
However, the 10th Army of the Ming Dynasty, which finally "caught up" with the enemy in the Johor Strait, was not busy launching an attack, because Lieutenant General Mu Zhongjun, who also served as the commander of the 10th Army, inspected the frontline terrain and studied the "Wuzhong King's Art of War" After that, it was decided to adopt the approach of "attacking the city from the bottom and attacking the heart from the top"... and also wanted to open a gap in the captured Indian soldiers and attack their hearts. He also assigned this seemingly easy feat to Zheng Guoxian and asked him to take the army's intelligence elites to the prisoner of war camp in Malacca City to capture the hearts of the people.
Malacca City was also the logistics transfer center for the Allied Forces of Tomorrow and Japan. During this period, Zhuge Weidao's First Air War moved back and forth between Penang and Malacca City, performing tasks such as guarding and covering transportation.
This time, he got off the ship for the first time and landed on the territory of the Malay Peninsula - this will soon be the Straits Province of the Ming Dynasty!
Now that more than 99% of the Malay Peninsula has been liberated, there is only one Danmasi Island left... Experience from another timeline tells Zhuge Weidao that Danmasi Island is very easy to win. . But Zheng Guoxian's answer surprised Zhuge Weidao.
"No! Those Indians are unwilling to surrender."
Zhuge Weidao asked in surprise: "What? Refusing to surrender? Why did everyone end up in a prisoner-of-war camp if they refused to surrender?"
"Taozi, that's not surrender," Zheng Guoxian said dumbfounded, "that's non-violence and non-resistance!"
"Non-violence and non-resistance?" Zhuge Weidao was stunned again and again, "What is this? Who said it?"
"Of course it was said by Indians," Zheng Guoxian said. "At first, it was said by an Indian second lieutenant who was captured by the Japanese. Later, for some reason, all the prisoners said so."
Zhuge Weidao stopped, looked at Zheng Guoxian and asked: "Who did you arrest? Is his surname Gandhi?"
Zheng Guoxian was stunned, "It seems that his surname is Gan. But those Indians are like this, they just want to lie still!"
"Then they are not afraid that we will kill them all?" Zhuge Weidao glared.
"Kill them all?" Zheng Guoxian looked at Zhuge Weidao in surprise, "Taozi, how did those Indians offend you? Why are you so angry? Our dynasty is going to conquer people with virtue, so how can we kill prisoners? "
Zhuge Weidao remembered that the current Ming Empire is very reasonable. The captured prisoners cannot be killed or beaten, and they must be well fed and fed... The prisoners of the British Royal Navy captured before, Now they are living a comfortable life on Batan Island.
Those Indian Asans are used to lying around, so it’s normal that they don’t want the Ming Empire to liberate them.
But... Zhuge Weidao thought about it and found a way.
"Holy Mountain," he said to Zheng Guoxian with a smile, "I have a way to do this. We, the Zhuge family, are the best at attacking people's hearts!"
