On the cruiser Busan, Rear Admiral Peng Zhixing stood on the command bridge.
At this time, the battleship under his feet was slowly leaving the port driven by the steam engine and the two steam engine tugs next to it.
At this time, hundreds of warships of various navies gathered in the Hong Kong Naval Base. Such a large number of warships gathered in the harbor, causing the harbor of this originally huge naval base to be extremely crowded. Without the assistance of steam engines and tugboats, only relying on It would be very troublesome to get in and out of the port with sail power.
Convenient entry and exit from the port was also a major role of steam engine power in early motor sailing ships.
The cruiser Busan is equipped with a large vertical two-cylinder steam unit produced by Guangzhou Machinery Company. The maximum power can reach 1,500 horsepower. It uses single-shaft propulsion. Although the power of the steam unit is higher than that of the 4,000-horsepower unit next door. The more than 2,000 horsepower on the multi-ton first-class battleship Suzhou is slightly worse.
But in terms of horsepower per ton, it far exceeds the first-class battleship Suzhou.
Coupled with the cruiser's unique large aspect ratio and arrow-shaped bow design, the Busan cruiser can reach considerable speeds under pure steam engine power.
If the sails are used together, the speed can even be further increased.
In terms of single-wheel speed, the cruiser Busan and its three half-sister ships are the fastest warships in the navy of the Da Chu Empire today.
During the previous sea trials, the maximum speed could reach 18 knots with smooth winds and smooth water, and the sails were used together.
Of course, this maximum speed has no practical value, because when a warship sails on a daily basis, it is rarely possible to obtain smooth sailing conditions, and it is even less possible to increase the steam engine to maximum power.
Even during daily navigation, the warships of the Da Chu Empire Navy basically did not use steam engines and only relied on sails to save coal...
During navigation, the steam engines on battleships are generally only used when rushing or when a battle breaks out. They are used to increase the speed of the battleship and avoid the influence of wind direction.
If the steam engine is turned on directly during ordinary navigation, the coal will be used up soon... Without coal, the steam unit will become a decoration.
Rear Admiral Peng Zhixing watched his many warships gradually leave the port and enter the predetermined route. He immediately ordered each ship to raise its main sail and use the majesty on the sea to sail slowly. After sailing for a while, He directly ordered the steam engines to be shut down to save coal.
At this time, the cruiser Busan had already left the naval base for some distance, and there were three half-sister ships near it with similar displacements, namely the other three Toyoju-class cruisers, Toyoju, Yingkou, and Toengju. .
To the left and right of the four Toyoshu-class cruisers, there are two formations of eight frigates, which belong to this advance fleet.
These four Toyoshu-class cruisers and eight frigates will form a separate forward fleet, with Rear Admiral Peng Zhixing as the commander of the fleet.
The eight frigates in the formation are also the most cutting-edge frigates in the Chu Empire Navy: Longchuan-class frigates.
This class of ship is the latest generation of large frigates in the Dachu Empire Navy, and it is also the first large frigate specifically designed for fleet ocean operations.
The designed full-load displacement reaches more than 860 tons. It is equipped with a steam unit, has a large area of sail equipment, and has considerable maneuverability.
At the same time, the hull design pays more attention to the seaworthiness of the ocean. Not only does it have a faster speed, but the living space for personnel is also far greater than that of previous small-tonnage frigates. Compared with the previous five- to six-hundred-ton frigates, it is more suitable for ocean operations.
Of course, limited by the hull tonnage and the pursuit of higher speed, the roll of this frigate is still relatively poor. It will be bumpy when encountering bad weather and wind and waves at sea... But there is nothing that can be done about it, little one This is true for ships of all sizes on the sea.
At the same time, the ship's firepower is not high compared to its tonnage of more than 800 tons. It is only equipped with twenty-eight naval guns, but the caliber of the naval guns is relatively large, and it is equipped with all 130 mm. Naval gun.
The main reason is that the tactical positioning of this kind of frigate in the fleet is not to fight the enemy's capital ships, but to be used for various auxiliary tasks such as reconnaissance, communication, and rescue.
To put it bluntly, he is just a handyman!
The classification of various warships in the Da Chu Empire Navy has never been distinguished by tonnage or firepower, but by combat use.
The type of ship responsible for fleet decisive battles is the battleship.
In the decisive battle of the fleet, it is the cruiser that uses speed to seize advantageous positions and provides fire support for the battleship fleet. In addition, it is also the cruiser that is responsible for ocean cruising, escort, colonial deterrence and other tasks in daily life.
During the decisive battle of the fleet, the frigates are responsible for tasks such as chores, reconnaissance, and search and rescue of people who fell into the water. In daily life, the frigates will also perform ocean cruising, escort, colonial deterrence and other tasks under the leadership of cruisers.
According to the positioning, even the cruiser Busan has a tonnage of more than 2,000 tons, which is larger than a large number of third-class battleships, but it is still just a cruiser.
The same is true for the Longchuan-class frigates. Even though their tonnage is larger than a large number of previous second-class cruisers, they are still just frigates.
This time when they went to India, the navy brought out a lot of new guys.
The battleships include the cutting-edge Suzhou, the cruisers include the Toyosu class, and there is even a test ship Pusan with a front-mounted rifled gun.
Even if it is a frigate used for miscellaneous purposes, there are also the latest Longchuan-class frigates...
What's interesting is that this kind of frigate is already the most powerful frigate in the history of the Dachu Empire's navy. However, the navy's senior officials are still dissatisfied with this kind of frigate and are planning to upgrade and modify this kind of frigate. The purpose of the modification is Zoom in further on the hull...
Those in the Navy believe that the hull of more than 800 tons is still too small, has poor ocean seaworthiness, and lacks firepower. It is more reliable to expand the tonnage to more than 1,000 tons.
Luo Zhixue rolled his eyes when he learned that the Navy wanted to expand the tonnage of the frigate to more than a thousand tons.
To put it bluntly, those in the Navy just want bigger and more warships... and when they do this, they often ignore, or deliberately ignore, the true strategic positioning of frigates.
This thing... is just a handyman. It is used daily to maintain the establishment, train officers and soldiers, highlight the presence of the Chu Empire's navy in the vast sea areas, and bully the natives who do not have an ocean-going navy.
What is needed is more and cheaper, not how powerful the performance is.
While the front leg is building frigates of more than a thousand tons, the rear leg of the Navy may have to build small frigates and patrol ships of several hundred tons in order to maintain its scale...
Moreover, this enlarged frigate of more than a thousand tons is not the ordinary cruiser currently being built by the Navy. All aspects such as tonnage and firepower are responsible for the Navy's needs for future frigates...
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Therefore, in Luo Zhixue's view, the Navy's expansion of frigates is just a matter of taking off its pants and farting. If it has the money, it can just build a few more cruisers.
However, although Luo Zhixue was speechless about this move of the Navy, he did not dissuade him... Anyway, the overall development path of the Navy is good, and the Navy's military expenditure is also limited. With so much money, they can do whatever they like. toss.
So the Navy wanted to enlarge the frigates, and after cutting the order number of Longchuan-class frigates from more than 30 to 24, Luo Zhixue didn't care about them.
In terms of military construction, as long as the general direction is correct, Luo Zhixue generally will not interfere too much with the ideas of military generals.
Anyway, the army and navy of the Chu Empire are now strong enough, and they have the capital to let them mess around. Whether it is a frigate or a cruiser, using the steam engine as a big killer can be invincible to the warships of those indigenous countries.
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After Rear Admiral Peng Zhixing led the forward formation to leave the waters of the Hong Kong Naval Base, it didn't take long for him to receive a semaphore order from the battleship Suzhou behind him.
The order required him to lead the forward formation, that is, the four Toyoshu-class cruisers and eight Ryukawa-class frigates, to provide early warning to the fleet, expel possible merchant ships, and prevent civilian ships from intruding into the huge fleet at the rear.
According to the order, Rear Admiral Peng Zhixing ordered the forward fleet to use the wind to sail at full speed, and the ships were spread out at certain intervals to form a fan-shaped search area with a total width of about 40 nautical miles, providing space for the many battleships and larger quantities of transportation in the rear. The fleets provide early warning, interception, and expulsion.
Avoid any potential enemy ships or civilian vessels from interfering with the large fleet at the rear.
You know, the fleet at the rear is quite large.
In addition to more than 40 ocean-going warships, there are also more than 50 various auxiliary ships of the navy, including troop transports, hospital ships, general supply ships, coal supply ships, communication ships and other auxiliary ships.
In addition to the ships directly under the navy, there are nearly a hundred merchant ships directly belonging to the Western Armed Trading Company, including more than forty armed merchant ships.
All ships combined exceed two hundred!
Such a huge fleet carries more than 20,000 army or Guards soldiers, as well as a large number of navy sailors and marines, as well as a huge number of various weapons and ammunition, canned food and other military supplies.
There were even several ships specifically carrying cement and steel bars, which were used for the subsequent construction of a series of military facilities in the military port on the island of Ceylon, especially the coastal defense forts.
In fact, this huge fleet was just the first batch of large-scale fleets released by the Chu Empire to the Indian region.
Prior to this, several fleets of varying sizes had actually been organized, loaded with various supplies. For example, a new heavy howitzer from a siege heavy artillery regiment of the Army had been shipped to Singapore in advance.
In the future, the Chu Empire will continue to organize a large number of transport ships from the mainland to continuously transport materials to Singapore, and then transfer them to the Indian Peninsula through Singapore.
On the surface, the entire cross-sea combat operation only had more than 50,000 ground combat troops, but in fact there were hundreds of various types of ships directly involved in this operation.
This does not include indirect participation.
Of course, although the number of ships seems to be very large...thousands of ships are scary, the actual transportation volume is not large, and it is far less than the scale of maritime transportation in later generations.
Because most of these transport ships have a carrying capacity of hundreds of tons, and there are relatively few with a carrying capacity of more than a thousand tons. There are only a few navy supply ships and a few very large armed merchant ships of the Western Trading Company.
Moreover, navigation in these ships still relies heavily on sails, and most transport ships do not even have auxiliary steam engines, which means that their sailing speed is slow, and it takes several months to go back and forth at a time.
The Dachu Empire seemed to have mobilized a large number of ships this time, but the number of people and materials transported would only be a matter of a few large cargo ships in the 21st century.
The current weak shipping capabilities have greatly restricted the Chu Empire's navy's overseas troop projection capabilities.
As for if the transportation capacity is not strong, then reduce the number of troops and send hundreds or at most thousands of people to fight like the Europeans... The Chu Empire cannot do such a thing. This is inconsistent with the war philosophy of the Chu people.
The Dachu Empire's war philosophy is to use more troops, more artillery, and more shells to drown the opponent... But it has never been a hobby to play with the enemy evenly matched, or even to have one's own forces at a disadvantage.
Even if the opponent is just a group of European irregulars who are still playing with matchlocks, the Dachu Empire still strictly follows its own war philosophy: sending 50,000 troops and enough combat weapons to sustain a high-intensity battle of more than 50,000 troops for more than half a year. Upper Indian Peninsula.
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Just when India's Third Task Force was dispatched from the mainland, the First Task Force on the Indian Peninsula had already begun preliminary preparations. Their warships were covered in Western Trading Company skins and were escorting merchant ships. Traveling to and from the east and west coasts of the Indian peninsula, they further collected information about European colonies, such as their military deployment and the whereabouts of their warships or armed merchant ships.
Although the Western Trading Company has collected information for many years before and has some understanding of some basic situations on the Indian Peninsula, a lot of the information is outdated, and the Da Chu Empire military needs to collect the latest information for backup.
At the same time, we are also actively contacting some local indigenous forces, especially the Mughal Empire, not because we want to get help from these indigenous people, but to prevent these indigenous forces from causing trouble.
In addition, it is also necessary to purchase some food, livestock and other materials locally as much as possible for the use of the army.
Although the huge transport fleet of the Dachu Empire can transport some food supplies from the mainland and Southeast Asia, if possible, it is best to solve the food problem locally on the Indian Peninsula, and then leave the precious maritime transport capacity to weapons and ammunition. Material supplies.
Maritime transportation capacity is limited, and every ton that can be saved is a ton. Moreover, transporting food all the way from Southeast Asia and other places to India for combat is nonsense no matter how you look at it.
Therefore, the Western Trading Company needed to first purchase and store a large amount of grain and livestock in the Indian Peninsula to facilitate the use of the army that arrived later.
Such a large-scale food purchase naturally requires dealing with the local indigenous forces. After all, tens of thousands of people can eat food for at least half a year and as long as one or two years. In addition, the military of the Great Chu Empire has always provided food. With generous food treatment, the amount of food required is quite huge.
Without the support of local indigenous official forces, it would be difficult to accomplish this through some private channels.
When the Western Trading Company began to make various preparations for the arrival of the follow-up army, the Dutch also smelled danger.
The main reason is that the behavior of the Western Trading Company in the past two or three months is not normal. It is normal to frequently travel to other European colonies for trade, but it is not normal to conduct various hydrographic measurements nearby.
It is also not normal for the Western Trading Company to purchase and store grain on a large scale. This amount of food has far exceeded the needs of the Western Trading Company's regular personnel on the Indian Peninsula. As for transporting it back to Nanyang or even the mainland... this is a waste of money. You can do this kind of thing, not to mention the various risks such as moisture that grains suffer during ocean transportation. The transportation cost alone is several times more than the value of the grain itself.
This is also the reason why the Chu Empire only imported food from the Nanyang region before and rarely imported food from India. Transportation was inconvenient and the cost was too high.
In the era of pure sailing, it was not suitable for ocean transportation and trade of food.
They are all engaged in high value-added economic crop products or other specialties.
The Western Trading Company's move to purchase and hoard large amounts of grain was obviously abnormal.
In addition, the Chu Empire's preparations for war in India are not actually top secret. They are even conducted openly in China. On the Indian side, the Western Trading Company is also an insider or even a collaborator.
In this way, the Dutch will learn some true and false news.
In the end, the Dutch concluded that the Chu people definitely wanted to make a move on the Indian Peninsula, but they were still unclear about the specific goals of the Chu people.
Maybe it was for the natives, especially the Mughals.
It may also be against a certain European colonist, it may be against the English, it may be against the Dutch, the Danes, and the Portuguese may all be targets.
However, no matter how imaginative the Dutch were, they never thought that the Chu Empire's target this time would be all European colonists with colonies on the Indian Peninsula.
Whether it is the Dutch, the English, Portugal, or Denmark, as long as they are European colonists, they are within the scope of the Indian strategy's attack.
Completely expel European colonists and occupy European colonies in the Indian peninsula.
Completely control and monopolize the foreign trade of the Indian peninsula, while avoiding damage to the maritime supply lines during subsequent colonization of Africa.
This is the goal of the Chu Empire and the goal of India's strategy this time.
The Dutch obviously did not expect that the Chu Empire would have such a huge appetite!
Also, it is difficult for them, a small country with few people, to imagine the ambition of a huge industrial empire with a population of more than 300 million, let alone how terrifying it would be to activate the war machine of such a huge empire!
And this was just a regular foreign campaign by the Great Chu Empire. The Great Chu Empire did not even allocate additional military expenditures for this, let alone conduct war mobilization... Even the production plans of those arsenals did not adjust, but continued. The normal production rhythm is maintained.
A mere Indian war and a few European colonists are not worthy of any mobilization by the Chu Empire!
Neither the Dutch, nor other Europeans, nor any other indigenous people could use their brains to imagine the horror of a centralized empire with a population of more than 300 million and complete industrialization!
