In the spring and February of the twenty-sixth year of Chengshun, the southernmost Hong Kong Island in Xin'an County, Guangzhou Prefecture of the Great Chu Empire was home to the largest naval base of the Great Chu Empire.
In the early years, it served as the main base and headquarters of the Nanyang Fleet. Later, the Nanyang Fleet gradually moved south, and the headquarters was established in Singapore Port, with Singapore Port, Cam Ranh Bay and other places as its main bases.
However, this does not affect the strategic position of the Hong Kong Naval Base, because it is still the largest naval base in the Chu Empire, with a large number of various warships parked all year round.
Not to mention other things, the number of battleships parked and maintained here alone remains at more than twenty all year round.
After all, this is one of the few ports with very good natural conditions on the mainland coast of the Chu Empire. Moreover, this is a purely military port. Unlike ports such as Guangzhou, Fuzhou, and Wusong, there are a large number of civilian ports nearby, which is very important to the navy. There is still some impact on tasks such as daily training.
This spring, the number of various warships in the Hong Kong Naval Base has increased. Not only more warships, but also a large number of transport ships.
This is because the Chu Empire has launched a war plan against the Indian Peninsula and is preparing to launch a large-scale offensive in the Indian region in order to completely drive many European colonists out of the European Peninsula.
In this way, it can not only monopolize the market of the Indian peninsula, but also further control and ensure the supply of cotton from the Indian peninsula.
It is worth mentioning that since the Chu Empire first imported cotton from the Indian Peninsula more than ten years ago, the amount of cotton imported from India to the Chu Empire has been increasing year by year. Today, imported cotton from India has accounted for a large proportion of the total. The Chu Empire imported more than 80% of its cotton. Although the absolute quantity of imported cotton was not as good as domestically produced cotton, it still accounted for a considerable proportion.
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Therefore, for the textile industry in the Chu Empire, and even for the entire industry, the supply of cotton from the Indian peninsula cannot be lost.
As the largest industry in the Chu Empire, the cotton spinning industry had a huge impact.
Once the supply of imported cotton is affected, it will not only be affected by the cotton spinning industry, but also a large number of upstream and downstream industrial chains that rely on the cotton spinning industry.
The textile industry plays a huge role in modern industry. It plays a role similar to that of a leading industrial industry. Without the textile industry leading the way, a large number of machinery, chemicals and other industries behind would have to be blinded.
Because this time the Indian strategy can be promoted smoothly, a large part of the reason is that the top leaders of the Chu Empire want to directly control the cotton producing area of the Indian Peninsula to ensure that the supply of cotton is not lost.
At the same time, by directly controlling cotton exports from the Indian peninsula, we can bypass second-tier dealers such as the Dutch, Portuguese and other European colonists, thereby reducing the cost of cotton imports and increasing our own profits.
To put it bluntly, it’s still about money!
In addition to economic factors, another major reason for promoting the implementation of India's strategy is military considerations. The Chu Empire has set its sights on the eastern coast of Africa and even South Africa.
If you want to enter Africa, you will inevitably face the Dutch.
In order to prevent the shipping lanes from being invaded by European colonial ships during the subsequent colonization of Africa, it was necessary for the Chu Empire to expel them first and eliminate threats on a series of routes in the Indian Ocean in advance.
The combination of many factors eventually led to the decision of the senior leaders of the Chu Empire to promote the Indian strategy.
To attack India, no... to be precise, we need to attack the colonies of European colonists entrenched on the Indian Peninsula!
This point must be made clear. The enemies targeted by the Chu Empire's attack on India this time were not the indigenous people on the Indian peninsula, especially the Mughal Empire.
It was the colonists from various European countries who were entrenched on the east and west coasts of the Indian Peninsula, mainly the Dutch and Portuguese, followed by colonists from European countries such as England and Denmark.
What the Chu Empire wanted was not to conquer the Indian Peninsula now, but to control and monopolize the foreign trade in the Indian Peninsula.
Therefore, those European colonists were the enemies of the Chu Empire, and the indigenous people on the Indian Peninsula were not.
In fact, in the past ten years, the relationship between the Da Chu Empire and the Mughal Empire has been good. The Mughal Empire exported a large amount of cotton to the Da Chu Empire, and the Da Chu Empire also supplied them with a large amount of weapons and equipment. , the scale of trade between the two sides is still quite large.
Of course, this is only temporary. When the Chu Empire completely controls the foreign trade of the Indian Peninsula, it will inevitably gradually increase the colonial area in the Indian Peninsula, and eventually control the Indian Peninsula through various methods such as differentiation, wooing, and war. area for final conquest.
The overall pace is similar to the original treatment of the Fuso area.
The Chu Empire first killed the Dutch and monopolized Fusang's foreign trade, then gradually infiltrated and controlled Fusang, and finally launched a large-scale war to completely turn Fusang into a puppet state and a dumping ground for industrial goods.
Today, Fuso is the largest arms exporter in the Chu Empire. The Fuso Arms Trading Company, formed by seven major arms companies, exports a large amount of weapons and equipment to many daimyo in the Fuso region every year.
From smoothbore cannons and matchlock guns to waist knives, spears and even military uniforms and tents and other messy military supplies.
In recent years, many daimyo in Fuso have been desperately trying to make money, and then turned to the Dachu Empire to import weapons and equipment, and then launched wars against the surrounding hostile daimyo. As for the Tokugawa Shogunate, they were defeated by the Dachu Empire's expeditionary force. After Gan fell, his main army was annihilated, and he signed a treaty that was humiliating and humiliating the country. He had already lost his strength, prestige and popular support.
In this way, the Tokugawa shogunate can no longer control the situation and prevent the famous families under their control from fighting. They themselves have to take care of themselves. They are licking their wounds and looking for weapons imported from the Chu Empire to form a new army. Otherwise, the Tokugawa family will It's going to end.
The senior officials of the Da Chu Empire were very satisfied with the way the Fusang area was handled. Since they had obtained a puppet state and a dumping ground for industrial products, and these famous people were still fighting every day, the weapons of the Da Chu Empire The export business is very profitable.
Therefore, in recent years, this model has been copied in other regions, such as in central and eastern Java, Borneo, Luzon Islands and even other places in the South Pacific Peninsula.
As weapons merchants from the Chu Empire continued to enter these places, wars often broke out in these places.
In the future Indian peninsula, the Chu Empire is also preparing to do the same.
After all, there are hundreds of millions of indigenous people on the Indian peninsula. Direct annexation is unreliable. It can only be played as a colony and used as a supplier of industrial raw materials and a dumping ground for industrial goods.
As for the Chu Empire dumping massive amounts of weapons and equipment on them, and then fighting their own wars, this has nothing to do with the Chu Empire.
Most of the time, the foreign policy of the Dachu Empire is relatively soft. As long as you don't affect my business, it will rarely interfere directly with the internal situation of indigenous countries.
After all, it makes no difference to the Chu Empire who becomes the indigenous king.
However, if the Indian peninsula was to be completely turned into an open market for the Chu Empire, those European colonists had to be driven away first.
For this reason, the Da Chu Empire military also made sufficient preparations.
We are preparing to gradually increase the number of troops to the Indian region to more than 50,000 people this spring. Some of the troops will be transferred from various places in Southeast Asia, and some will be transferred directly from the mainland.
The troops that were reinforced from the mainland were the 72nd Division, which was a standing second-class division originally stationed in Guangdong. It had some experience in landing operations and was relatively adaptable to tropical operations.
Because of this, a new batch of overseas garrison troops were finalized a few years ago and began to strengthen training in maritime transportation, amphibious warfare, jungle warfare and other projects.
The first batch of troops being used to reinforce the Indian region are now concentrated at the Hong Kong Naval Base, where they are preparing to take transport ships to India.
Along with the 72nd Division, there were more than 5,000 people from the Temporary Second Mixed Regiment of the Guards.
During foreign campaigns, the Guards dispatched troops of varying sizes to form mixed forces to participate in the war. This is also the tradition of the Chu Empire. It is mainly to allow the Guards who have been stationed in the Gyeonggi area for a long time to gain war experience through rotation. At the same time, it is also to solve the seniority problem of the Guards officers and soldiers.
How can I be promoted if I have no qualifications?
The 72nd Division and the Guards were temporarily organized into the Second Mixed Regiment, with a total of just over 20,000 troops. They were the first reinforcements sent by the Chu Empire to India this time.
In addition to these two troops, the Army is also deploying about 30,000 troops from various parts of Southeast Asia, Myanmar and other regions to reinforce India.
In this way, with the reinforcements of more than 50,000 people, plus the original strength of more than 8,000 Indian dispatched troops, it is basically enough.
After all, the strategic goal of the Chu Empire was only to expel those European colonists and seize their colonies. It did not mean to actually go deep into the hinterland of the Indian Peninsula and fight the local indigenous people, especially the Mughal Empire.
Therefore, these more than 50,000 people are almost enough. As for any more... there is no shortage of troops. The Dachu Empire Army has more than 1.8 million standing troops. The problem is that logistical supplies are difficult to solve.
Because in addition to the army, there is actually a huge fleet!
The fleet also needs logistical supplies!
Relying on sea transportation alone to maintain the supplies of more than 50,000 ground troops and a huge fleet along this way is already very difficult. Tens of thousands more would be really fatal.
In order to implement the Indian strategy, the Dachu Empire specially established three task forces: the First Indian Task Force, the Second Indian Task Force, and the Third Indian Task Force.
These three task forces all belong directly to the Indian Ocean Fleet and are typical mixed fleets for wartime operations.
The First Task Force and the Second Task Force were both composed of warships drawn from the previous Indian Ocean Fleet and South Ocean Fleet, while the Third Task Force was made up of warships drawn from the Empire's mainland Northern Fleet.
Today, a large number of fully equipped warships parked at the Hong Kong Naval Base are warships that directly belong to India's Third Task Force.
There are a total of twelve battleships, sixteen cruisers, and thirty-two frigates.
Moreover, these ships are either newly built motor-sail warships or motor-sail ships that have been equipped with steam engines.
In other words, these sixty battleships are all sail battleships. They will form an unprecedented steam battleship fleet!
For the smooth implementation of India's strategy, the navy of the Dachu Empire sent out all the advanced warships that looked after the family's wealth!
Among this batch of battleships, there is a very special cruiser. Not only is the tonnage of the ship larger, reaching 2,200 tons, but also because the artillery equipped on these two cruisers is rifled artillery.
The Busan cruiser was originally the fourth ship of the latest generation of Fengzhou-class large cruisers of the Da Chu Empire Navy. However, unlike the previous three Fengzhou-class large cruisers, which were still equipped with smoothbore guns, the Busan cruiser was nearing completion. Selected as a test ship, it is equipped with the first-generation front-loading rifled gun developed and manufactured by the Dachu Empire.
Because it was equipped with a front-mounted rifled gun, the cruiser Busan was extremely special in the navy of the Dachu Empire.
After all, this is the first warship in the Da Chu Empire Navy equipped with front-mounted rifled guns. Although it was only temporarily decided to modify it midway, rather than being designed for front-mounted rifled guns from the beginning, the ship still has great significance.
At this time, the cruiser Busan was moored at the berth of the naval base. Its huge tonnage of more than 2,000 tons, coupled with the design positioning of the cruiser, adopted a larger aspect ratio in pursuit of speed, making its hull length not only longer than The third-class battleships next door are much longer, even longer than the first-class battleship Kunming in the berth next door!
The Kunming first-class battleship was commissioned only in the 19th year of Chengshun. Its full load displacement reached more than 2,600 tons. It underwent extensive modifications last year and was equipped with a set of steam engines as auxiliary power.
Just looking at the hull, the Busan cruiser feels larger than the early first-class battleships, but it is smaller than the new battleships that have been in service in the past two years.
The first-class battleship Suzhou parked at the opposite berth has a full load displacement of 4,500 tons. It is equipped with a high-power steam unit and can achieve a speed of seven knots under pure steam power. The steam engine has a cruising range of 800 nautical miles. At the same time, It is equipped with more than one hundred large-caliber naval guns.
This battleship is a decisive battleship designed by the Naval Administration Department of the Dachu Empire for the new era of naval battles. It is used for decisive battles.
At the same time, this battleship is also the largest battleship in active service in the Dachu Empire. As for the larger Hantian-class battleship, the first ship Hantian has not yet been completed.
The first-class battleship Suzhou was completed and commissioned last winter. This time it went to India as the flagship of India's Third Task Force. This was also its first official combat mission after completing a series of sea trials.
Whether it is the battleship Suzhou or the cruiser Pusan, these represent the most cutting-edge naval power of the Chu Empire and the top industrial strength of the Chu Empire.
Whether it is the large steam unit on the Suzhou or the front-mounted rifled cannon on the Pusan, they all embody the top industrial strength of the Chu Empire without exception.
When these big guys are sent to India, it can also be seen that the navy attaches great importance to the war in India.
In this Indian strategy, the Navy plans to use large-scale actual combat to test the application tactics of steam engine warships that it has been struggling with for several years. At the same time, it also wants to know how powerful sail power is compared to pure sail-powered warships in actual combat. advantages, and how to better utilize these advantages.
In addition, I also want to test the performance of the front-loaded rifled gun in actual combat.
You must know that there is actually no large-scale equipment foundation for front-loading rifled guns. Again, the industrial strength is not enough, the cost of the front-loading rifled guns is too high, and the service life is too short.
The front-mounted rifled gun on the cruiser Pusan is a semi-finished product, with a service life of less than a hundred rounds...
However, in several previous tests, the front-loaded rifled artillery showed outstanding performance that the navy could not let go...
The accuracy of the front-loading rifled gun is far greater than that of the smoothbore gun. Especially in the sea moving artillery of 500 meters or even thousands of meters, the hit accuracy is still very high.
As for the front-loaded smoothbore cannon, when shelling at sea, it can only maintain a hit accuracy of two to three hundred meters.
The hit accuracy is higher, so that the enemy can be accurately hit at a longer distance during maritime operations. This is a huge advantage of rifled artillery over smooth-bore artillery.
In addition, there is a huge advantage that outsiders often overlook, that is, the shells of rifled artillery can be cylindrical, thereby obtaining more explosive charges than spherical shells.
The 150mm front-loading rifled gun equipped on the cruiser Pusan has a cylindrical howitzer shell with several times the charge of a spherical shell of the same caliber!
This is several times the difference in the charge, which also means several times the difference in explosion power!
In the live ammunition test, the explosive power of the cylindrical howitzer shell fired by the 150mm front-loading rifled gun was greater than the 250mm siege heavy artillery with the largest caliber currently in service in the Dachu Empire!
This huge advantage in charge allowed the Navy to choose to move semi-finished front-loading rifled guns onto warships even when faced with immature rifled gun technology and extremely low service life.
Although it is only experimental equipment, once it performs well in actual combat, the Navy may have to bite the bullet and replace it with front-loading rifled guns on a large scale.
The lower the barrel life, the lower the barrel. At worst, you have to go back to the port to change the barrel. If there is a fierce battle and the rifling is polished, it will be used as a smoothbore gun...
In short, compared to the Army, which is coy and hesitant about the high cost and immature rifled firearms, the Navy is much more radical.
This is understandable. After all, for the navy, a warship costs hundreds of thousands. After spending so much money, it doesn't care to spend more money to get better naval guns.
At the same time, warships do not fire often. They will only fire continuously when they are performing large-scale combat missions and encounter enemy warships, and the enemy will not give you the opportunity to fire more than a hundred guns...
According to the assumptions of many people in the Navy, although the barrel life of today's front-loaded rifled guns is very poor, there is no problem in surviving a high-intensity battle.
But the idea is just an idea, and the specific effect needs to be tried and tested in actual combat.
This is why the Pusan cruiser, a test ship, was also included in the Indian Third Task Force. It went to participate in actual combat experiments.
As more and more warships and transport ships gradually gathered at the Hong Kong Naval Base, a large number of crew members and ground troops gradually boarded the transport ships.
On February 19, the twenty-sixth year of Chengshun, it was finally time for this huge fleet to set sail.
