In the summer and July of the twenty-sixth year of Chengshun, the Indian peninsula.
The Indian governor of the Great Chu Empire ruled Gehe County, a small port city located on the east coast of the Indian peninsula. In the 16th year of Chengshun, it was established by one of the predecessors of the Western Trading Company: the Nanyang Armed Trading Company. A small port city occupied just near the mouth of the Godavari River.
Through the Godavari River, one can penetrate deep into the hinterland of the central region of the Indian Peninsula. At the same time, this place is located just in the middle of the dynamic coast of the Indian Peninsula. Therefore, when the Nanyang Armed Trading Company was in the 16th year of Chengshun, it was here and the local The indigenous people negotiated, first built a business store, and then expanded the area through concessions.
Later, through a small war, the local indigenous people were directly forced to sign a permanent lease treaty, and the port itself and hundreds of square kilometers of surrounding land, mainly the land on both sides of the river mouth, were permanently leased to the Western Trading Company.
This kind of permanent concession is actually no different from directly ceding territory.
Later, the Great Chu Empire established Gehekou County here and formally established local administrative rule. Although this place was not the first colony of the Great Chu Empire on the Indian Peninsula, it was the first colony of the Great Chu Empire on the Indian Peninsula. A place where county level administration is established.
Later, the Chu Empire established the Governor of India. The Indian Governor was based here, responsible for the administration of the Chu Empire's 20 large and small colonies in the Indian Peninsula and West Asia. It was also responsible for the exchanges with the Indian Peninsula, West Asia, North Africa and other regions. affairs.
At the same time, this is also where the headquarters of the Indian Dispatch Force of the Dachu Empire Army is located, and the headquarters of the Indian Ocean Fleet of the Dachu Empire Navy is located here.
After becoming the governor's residence of India, Gehe County also ushered in greater development, bringing together many administrative officials and immigrants from the Chu Empire, as well as garrison personnel from Western trading companies and the military.
In order to ensure the strategic security of this area, the Indian dispatched troops of the Chu Empire's India stationed more than 3,000 troops here all year round. In addition, the Western Trading Company also had more than 2,000 armed employees stationed here.
It is also an important naval base of the Indian Ocean Fleet.
Today's Gohe City has a total of more than 60,000 soldiers and civilians. It is the most populous colony of the Chu Empire in the Indian Peninsula. Relatively speaking, the number of personnel in other places is smaller.
Today, the Chu Empire ushered in a very special and huge fleet in the most important colonial city on the Indian Peninsula!
Early in the morning, people near the port saw many ships appearing on the sea in the distance, and some people who were familiar with ships could tell from a distance that these ships were not merchant ships, and they were not even commercial ships. It's not an armed merchant ship, but a specialized warship.
And it is a battleship of the Da Chu Empire!
The warships of the Chu Empire, except for some of the warships built in the early days, the warships built later, even if they were just sailing warships, were very recognizable and were very different from European sailing warships.
First of all, the hulls are generally more slender than European sail warships of similar tonnage. This is because the warships of the Chu Empire paid more attention to speed and maneuverability, and generally used a large aspect ratio to build warships.
But more importantly, the warships of the Chu Empire generally have low superstructures. Some cruisers that place great emphasis on speed even use flat-deck hulls.
Unlike European battleships of the same era, they often have taller superstructures.
This is not to say that the battleship design of the Chu Empire is better, but the result of different choices of naval battle tactics.
Although the European navies of the same era also used naval guns for bombardment during wars, due to the limited range and power of naval guns, large-scale boarding battles still occurred in many cases.
In a broadside battle, the battleship's height advantage is very important.
However, because the Da Chu Empire Navy paid more attention to the role of naval guns, it has been pursuing the direct use of naval guns to destroy enemy ships in naval battles for more than ten years. Well, it is not to sink, but to destroy, so that the enemy loses its combat effectiveness.
The reason for this is even because the naval guns of the Dachu Empire Navy have better technology, longer range, higher hit accuracy, and greater power.
The most critical thing is that the naval guns of the Da Chu Empire Navy use new grenades on a large scale. These explosive grenades can cause devastating blows to the superstructure and sails of enemy ships.
Relying on grenades, the Da Chu Empire Navy was confident in destroying the enemy's sails in naval battles, and at the same time killing a large number of enemy ships' effective forces on the decks and superstructures.
Under such circumstances, the Dachu Empire's navy was naturally more inclined to equip more naval guns instead of raising the superstructure.
To equip more naval guns, the center of gravity of the ship must be lowered, so too tall a superstructure cannot be built.
With the same tonnage, the warships of the Da Chu Empire carry more artillery than the warships of their European counterparts, and it is also because of this.
The aspect ratio and low or even no superstructure are important features of many pure sail warships before the Chu Empire.
But the warships of the Dachu Empire Navy that came today are different from the pure sail warships in the past, because these warships actually have a towering chimney on their hulls.
Some knowledgeable Chu people in the port knew that this was a steam battleship, but those who had never seen a steam ship were a little surprised.
Although steam ships are quite popular in the mainland of the Chu Empire, they are still relatively rare overseas.
This is because the Da Chu Empire Navy had not deployed steam battleships to the distant Indian Peninsula in the years after the steam battleship interview due to coal supply, steam engine failure rate and other factors.
The steam battleship ran to India, and even coal was difficult to replenish, and it could not be repaired if it broke down.
Even in the Nanyang region, the navy of the Dachu Empire was not deployed much in the early years, and was only used in small quantities in the Spice Islands War.
That is to say, in the past two years, the technology of steam engines has gradually matured. At the same time, coal warehouses have been built in some major overseas naval bases, coal has been hoarded, and coal has been mined and purchased from overseas colonies and indigenous countries. This has increased the number of coal reserves. Increased the scale of overseas dispatch of steam engine warships.
However, before the implementation of the Indian strategy, it was still limited to Fuso and the Nanyang region. As for India, no steam-powered warships had been dispatched before.
The steam warships that people see today are the first steam warships of the Chu Empire Navy that have appeared in the Indian Ocean.
It is normal for those Chu people who have lived in the colonies of the Indian Peninsula all year round to have never seen a steam battleship.
But while they were marveling at these steam warships, black spots appeared one after another on the sea in the distance.
That's more ships!
A huge number of ships spread almost across the entire sea, with no end in sight.
In contemporary times, apart from the Dachu Empire Navy, there is no other force that can organize such a large scale and own steam ships on the east coast of the Indian Ocean.
To be precise, this is the Third Indian Task Force of the Great Chu Empire that came all the way from the mainland. They were ordered to reinforce India from the original direction, and would later join the Indian Ocean Fleet and become a wartime task force under the Indian Ocean Fleet. , to implement the Indian strategy.
On a two-story building of the Indian Ocean Fleet headquarters in the port, Zheng Sen, wearing an eighteen-year-old naval officer's uniform and a commodore's collar badge, looked down at the bay in front of the port.
"The first few frigates should be Longchuan-class frigates." Zheng Sen said while looking at the other admirals around him.
A middle-aged naval colonel next to him put down his telescope and said: "It's the Longchuan-class frigate. It has a single smoke, a large aspect ratio, a displacement of eight to nine hundred tons, but only more than 20 cannons. It's a Longchuan-class frigate, that's right. !”
"This frigate is good, but its firepower is a bit weak!"
Zheng Sen smiled and said: "Frigates are only used to perform secondary missions. Weak firepower is acceptable. It is easier to carry out ocean missions with such a large hull, but it is much better than the previous five or six hundred ton frigates. !”
At this time, another naval officer on the side said: "Look, the Toyoshu-class cruisers are coming too, and four of them are coming together!"
After hearing this, Zheng Sen also picked up the telescope and continued to look towards the harbor. Four cruisers appeared on the distant horizon. At the same time, he said: "The Toyoshu-class cruiser is worthy of being the first-class cruiser of our navy. This size is earlier than ours." The first-class battleships in recent years have become larger, with a displacement of more than 2,000 tons, tsk tsk!”
"Not only the Fengzhou class, but also our Suzhou battleship is here. It is a big thing of more than 4,000 tons. Those European barbarians will probably turn around and run away when they see our Suzhou!"
Sure enough, Zheng Sen saw a giant figure appearing among the large number of ships behind him. It was the largest warship currently in service in the Da Chu Empire: the Suzhou.
It is also the first ship of the Suzhou-class battleship. Its full load displacement of more than 4,000 tons makes it the undisputed overlord in the entire Pacific and Indian Oceans.
"Without our Suzhou, even the Toyosu-class cruiser is enough to crush those European first-class battleships in terms of tonnage!"
At the same time, the development of the navies of European countries was far inferior to the navy of the Great Chu Empire. When the Great Chu Empire began to build batches of first-class battleships of more than 2,000 tons more than ten years ago, the so-called first-class battleships of a group of European countries still remained. Between 1,500 tons and 2,000 tons.
This tonnage belongs to the category of third-class battleships in the Da Chu Empire Navy.
The main force of the European navies is mainly exported third-class battleships of one thousand tons or even smaller fourth-class battleships.
Neither in terms of tonnage nor firepower. Of course, this is just a gap in performance, but there is no qualitative gap.
Strictly speaking, the large number of third-class battleships that had been the core naval equipment of the Dachu Empire's navy for a long time were a smaller number of more powerful first-class battleships of more than 2,000 tons, which were better in performance than the battleships of European navies. But it did not widen the generation gap.
You use third-class battleships of 1,400 to 500 tons, and others use third-class or even fourth-class battleships of about 1,000 tons. In fact, the fight depends more on the tactics of both sides and the quality of the officers and soldiers.
As for grenades, your Dachu Empire Navy has grenades, and others also have grape bombs, chain bombs, arson bombs and other types of ammunition that are somewhat inferior in performance.
These seemingly inferior artillery shells can still cause a lot of damage to the wooden sail warships of the Da Chu Empire Navy.
Moreover, the Dachu Empire's navy was limited by the supply of ship rib wood, so that the number of main battleships was actually never increased.
For a long time before, the Dachu Empire's navy had a very embarrassing situation, that is, it could not build a large number of warships even if it had money.
This is also the reason why the Da Chu Empire Navy had long proposed a plan for one hundred third-class battleships, but it has never been realized.
It just doesn’t have that much qualified ship rib material available!
At the same time, this is also the reason why the Chu Empire Navy built large-tonnage ships very early... The ship's rib materials are limited, and the number of large-tonnage warships that can be built is limited, so the performance of the single ship should be improved as much as possible.
That's why we created a first-class battleship with more than 2,000 tons.
By the time the battleships of the Da Chu Empire Navy completely widened the gap with European countries in terms of quality and quantity, that was after the appearance of iron-ribbed wooden hull ships.
After steel replaced wood, the Chu Empire could completely ignore the use of wood when building ships, especially the special ship rib wood.
At the same time, the better performance of steel materials can also allow the ships of the Da Chu Empire Navy to be built larger.
Starting from this time, the Dachu Empire still built a batch of first-class battleships of about 3,000 tons, and a large batch of third-class battleships of about 1,7800 tons.
In the end, the number of battleships exceeded one hundred!
And now, not to mention, the Suzhou of more than 4,000 tons has been built, and steam engines are used on a large scale.
In terms of mobility, the warships of the Da Chu Empire Navy are already different from the warships of European countries.
In addition, in terms of firepower, although the naval guns are still smoothbore guns, the larger tonnage results in a single ship having dozens or even hundreds of unified large-caliber naval guns, which can also greatly crush warships of the same level in European countries.
At this time, the Dachu Empire's navy dared to say that it had a crushing advantage against the navies of European countries.
This was also an important reason for the Chu Empire Navy to launch the Spice War a few years ago!
It is also an important support for launching the Indian strategy now.
Without a superior navy, it would be a futile Indian war, hoping to completely drive the Europeans out of the Indian peninsula.
After Brigadier General Zheng Sen and others watched for a while in the headquarters, they soon began to head to the dock along with other military and political officials in the city, preparing to welcome the arrival of the Indian Third Task Force and the army generals in the fleet.
At the same time, it is also necessary to arrange pier berths, berth, and load and unload personnel and materials.
The Third Task Force that came this time and the large number of transport ships it escorted totaled more than 200 ships. In addition to those departing from the mainland, there were also dozens of transport ships joining them in Malacca on the way.
The arrival of such a large fleet requires a lot of work.
After all, the port terminal in Gohe City is limited in size and cannot accommodate this huge fleet.
Not to mention that Gohe Port has already welcomed the arrival of the Indian First Task Force. As for the Indian Second Task Force, it is not here, but in Chittagong Port in the north.
In terms of strategic deployment, the Second Task Force is responsible for the northern waters of the Bay of Bengal. It is mainly responsible for protecting the safety of maritime transportation in the Bay of Bengal and intercepting ships from other countries.
The First Task Force is responsible for the protection of maritime transportation lines in the central and southern waters of India's east coast, and supports the operations of the Third Task Force to a certain extent.
As for the Third Task Force, that is the core main fleet in India's strategy. This fleet will be the main force in combat and will only appear on the battlefield, ready for decisive battles with enemy fleets at any time.
Instead of being responsible for daily defense patrols and protecting maritime transportation lines.
This arrangement was made because the battleships of the First Task Force and the Second Task Force were all pure sail warships. Many of them were old ships with relatively weak combat effectiveness and belonged to the second-line fleet. , the Third Task Force is the main first-line fleet of the Dachu Empire Navy.
It took a long time for the huge Third Task Force and the transport fleet to coordinate their approach and arrange for some ships to dock.
And because there are no high-horsepower steam tugs in the Go River Port, large-tonnage ships can only rely on their own power to enter and exit the port. This is nothing for those new or modified warships assisted by steam engines, but for those carrying a large amount of supplies As for the transport ships for army soldiers, it is more troublesome.
It is necessary to carefully enter and exit the port, and then some ships are unloaded at the berth, while the troop transport ship is simply moored outside the port and directly connected and transferred by small boats.
As for a large number of warships... I'm sorry, the port capacity is limited, and there are no remaining berths for them to use. Therefore, they can only anchor directly in the harbor and arrange for navy sailors to go ashore in turns to rest and relax.
As for you talking about fighting...
How could a newcomer start a war so quickly? The navy itself had nothing to do, but the army and the Guards had lost seven to eight points of their combat effectiveness after a long journey on the sea. They would not have to rest on land for ten and a half days. I can't get over it even after a month.
Moreover, the Army and the Guards also encountered a major problem, that is, the large number of war horses and draft horses they carried suffered large-scale attrition during the sea transportation.
Army Colonel Miao Shengrong of the 72nd Cavalry Regiment under the 72nd Division had a grimace on his face from the moment he stepped ashore!
Before his cavalry regiment set off, he had already considered the possible attrition of war horses during long-distance shipping. For this reason, he specially brought one-fifth of the war horses with him. At the same time, he arranged for these war horses to ride on the transport ships with the largest tonnage. A large number of people are arranged to take good care of it.
But what he couldn't accept was that even so, the horses under his command suffered a large number of attrition... For some reason, horse plague broke out while on the road, and a lot of horses fell ill.
】
By the time they arrived at Gohe Port, there were only more than 400 intact war horses left.
You know, he brought more than two thousand war horses!
The more than 400 horses left now are not enough for each of his cavalry.
The 72nd Cavalry Regiment is the iconic standing second-class light cavalry regiment of the division. Before the war, it was strengthened and supplemented according to the standards of the first-class combat readiness division.
The entire cavalry regiment has four cavalry posts, each with more than 200 cavalry, and the total number of cavalry is just over a thousand.
According to the configuration of a single rider and two horses, there are a total of two thousand war horses, including more than a thousand Hexi horses, and a thousand main war horses, which are Liaoxi horses. This thing is actually a cross between a Spanish horse stallion and a Liaoxi horse mare. The final product is a very good war horse.
The average shoulder height can reach 1.5 meters, with beautiful body shape, strong explosive power, moderate endurance and moderate feeding.
Relatively speaking, it is taller and more explosive than the other main war horse in the Chu Empire, the Hexi horse, but its endurance is lower and it is more troublesome to raise.
Although it is more troublesome to raise and its endurance is not outstanding, the height and explosive power of this kind of war horse still make it an important war horse in the army of the Dachu Empire. In the early years, it was only distributed to heavy cavalry. Now it is also used by heavy cavalry. Issued to a small number of light cavalry units in Class A combat readiness units.
Even in the entire empire, there are not many such war horses in service. There are only more than 10,000 horses in total, and some of them are still used as horses for generals and messengers.
By the way, the horses used by the Chu Empire's messengers have always been top-notch war horses... and they are given priority. All heavy cavalry and generals' mounts have to be moved to the back.
For a period of time, the Guards even used a small number of precious Jinling horses as messenger horses... However, these were too expensive and difficult to maintain, and the use of Jinling horses had to be cancelled.
This also made Jinling horses completely disappear from the military field and became the playthings of the royal family and the powerful. Currently, there are only a few horses in stock, only more than a thousand.
Luo Zhixue's royal carriage uses Jinling horses with a shoulder height of more than 1.6 meters.
As a kind of war horse specially bred for cavalry, the Liaoxi horse is relatively expensive to raise, but its adaptability to the climate is still good. As long as the food can be guaranteed, there will basically not be any big problems.
I thought it could be brought to the Indian Peninsula for combat use, but I didn't expect that a large number of troops were lost due to illness while on the road.
Well, now, the cavalry under his command don't even have horses... This is a crappy cavalry battle!
Therefore, after landing, he found local friendly forces and asked them to help find ways to build war horses...
However, horses are easy to find, but specially bred and trained war horses are not easy to find. Especially the war horses of the Chu Empire have higher training requirements than the war horses of the ordinary army.
After all, the Chu army used guns and cannons as weapons on a large scale, so livestock such as mules and horses also needed to undergo gun adaptability training to prevent mules and horses from running around due to the sound of gunfire during combat.
And this kind of adaptability needs to be obtained through long-term training.
In a hurry, you can't find many such war horses on this side of the Indian Peninsula.
Not to mention this kind of war horse that can withstand the sound of gunfire, even ordinary war horses are not easy to handle. The only way is to find local indigenous people to purchase them.
The local indigenous people also have their own troops, and naturally they also have war horses. You can also spend money to purchase a batch from them.
After some searching, the Indian governor's office spent a high price to urgently purchase more than a thousand local Indian war horses, also known as Marwar horses, from nearby indigenous official forces.
This horse is a war horse from the local indigenous country...it was pulled directly from their military camp.
After the 72nd Cavalry Regiment obtained these war horses, they began emergency adaptability training... At least they had to make these war horses adapt to the sound of gunfire.
Otherwise, when you go to the battlefield and hear the dense rumbling sound of guns and artillery that is unique to the Chu army's battle, you don't know where you will run!
While the Chu army was resting and preparing for war at Gehe Port, several other European countries on the Indian Peninsula also felt the coming storm!
Those Chu people have tens of thousands of troops stationed at Gehe Port and hundreds of ships of all kinds. Even fools know that they are here to fight...
It’s just that they don’t know who the Chu people are going to fight yet!
Naturally, these European colonists didn't know that the Chu Empire was going to fight all of them...
Regardless of whether there is a threat or not, just deal with it now to save yourself from being an eyesore in the future!
