On July 28, the twenty-sixth year of Chengshun, after a long period of repairs, the more than 20,000 reinforcements that arrived at Gohe City in India from the mainland had completed their rest.
Even the horses that the cavalry troops lacked were urgently purchased from nearby indigenous armies at a high price.
Today, these ground combat forces already have combat effectiveness.
At the same time, many warships of the navy that came from afar have also undergone simple maintenance. Although there is no way to carry out in-depth maintenance in Gohe City overseas, simple maintenance is still possible. At the same time, the fleet also has the navy's own machinery. Engineers and the various steam engine raw materials and equipment they carry.
Some minor problems with the steam unit can also be solved on the spot.
After the renovation was completed, the Army, Navy and Guards also began formal operations to arrange the combat plan previously coordinated by the Army and Navy.
They will be divided into three groups at the same time, with Gohe City as the center to launch attacks on various European colonies on the east coast of India.
All the way to the north and all the way to the south, both of which were aimed at conquering the European colonies on the east coast of India.
The third route is somewhat special. They are not attacking the Indian Peninsula itself, but the island of Ceylon across the sea from the southernmost tip of the Indian Peninsula.
This place is also the most important island in the Indian Ocean. It happens to be stuck in the middle of the Indian Ocean, and it is also across the sea from the Indian Peninsula. This geographical location is destined to become a very important strategic location.
In the sixteenth century, the Portuguese obtained permission from the local indigenous kingdoms under the pretext of trade and began to establish a colonial stronghold on the island, namely the city of Colombo.
Later, the Portuguese continued to infiltrate and expand the island of Ceylon, and frequently broke out wars with the local indigenous forces. There were victories and defeats in this process, but overall the Portuguese had a certain advantage.
After entering the seventeenth century, the Dutch began to unite with the local indigenous people and then entered the island of Ceylon. It happened that during this period, the Chu Empire also entered the Nanyang region and provided certain support to the Portuguese through trade.
But later, as the Chu Empire plotted Malacca, the Portuguese signed a treaty with the Chu Empire after the defeat of Malacca, and were finally able to redeem a large number of captured soldiers, and then transferred these captive soldiers to Ceylon to continue the war. The Dutch and local natives fought.
However, the Portuguese were trapped in the independence war between the mainland and the Spanish, and could not receive support from the mainland. In the end, the Portuguese were defeated.
The Dutch succeeded the Portuguese and became the largest and only foreign colonizer on the island of Ceylon.
The defeat of the Portuguese on the island of Ceylon actually meant the complete defeat of their colonies on the east coast of India. In just a few years, their few remaining colonial strongholds on the east coast of India were lost to the Dutch. The people and the Chu people divided it up.
Today, the Portuguese have only a few colonial strongholds such as Goa left on the Indian peninsula, and they have completely lost the strength they had a few decades ago.
However, after the Dutch replaced the Portuguese, they also had a difficult relationship with the local indigenous people, because the indigenous people demanded that the Dutch return the occupied Portuguese colonies.
Naturally, the Dutch would not do it, even though before the war they did promise to return some of the Portuguese colonies to the local indigenous kingdom, the Kandy dynasty.
But like any colonist, they had no intention of keeping their promise.
In the eyes of these colonists, the so-called agreement with the indigenous people is just a piece of straw paper. If it is useful to them, they can keep it. If it is not useful to them, it will be ruined... Well, the Great Chu Empire did the same thing.
However, the Great Chu Empire prides itself on being a state of etiquette, and would often sign new agreements with the natives to replace the old ones... If the country was to be destroyed, it would have to seriously find the natives and then sign an agreement to cede territory or merge. protocol.
Of course, sometimes you can't find anyone to sign a new agreement, so naturally you have to give up.
The Dutch are obviously not a country of etiquette. After they expelled the Portuguese, they directly tore up the agreement with the Kandy Dynasty, directly forcibly occupied many Portuguese colonies on the island of Ceylon, and even continued to expand.
Naturally, the local indigenous people could not defeat the Dutch, so they could only retreat to the island mountains and ask for help from the outside world again.
This time, the person they asked for help was the Chu Empire!
According to conventional principles, the Great Chu Empire would agree to the Kandy Dynasty's request for help. After all, the Great Chu Empire was also preparing to attack the Dutch and capture the strategic location of Ceylon.
But... the Da Chu Empire did not agree!
Why?
The reason is very simple.
The army of the Da Chu Empire never fought for the natives, not before, not now, and never in the future.
The Dachu Empire fought against the Dutch on its own, and taking over Ceylon was its own business and had nothing to do with the local indigenous people.
Not to mention that the Chu Empire's strategic target on the island of Ceylon was not just a coastal place such as Colombo, but the entire island of Ceylon.
A strategic location like Ceylon Island was the core location for the Chu Empire to control the entire Indian Ocean and surrounding areas. Such an important place was absolutely not allowed to have a group of uncivilized indigenous people nearby.
How can I allow others to sleep soundly on the side of the couch?
That doesn't make sense.
The Dachu Empire is planning to take over the entire island of Ceylon, and then directly turn this place into a direct overseas territory, and start large-scale immigration, preparing to turn this place into an integral part of the Dachu Empire.
The local Dutch and the Kandy Dynasty are all targets that need to be eliminated!
If you understand this, you will understand why the Chu Empire did not agree to the Kandy Dynasty's request for help.
Even the 31st Squadron of the Third Indian Task Force of the Great Chu Empire has escorted a huge transport fleet and more than 8,000 ground combat troops southward, preparing to land on Ceylon Island.
When the huge fleet of the Dachu Empire arrived at the Port of Colombo on the Island of Ceylon, it frightened the local Dutch and the indigenous people out of their wits...
That was a huge fleet of more than a hundred ships!
Looking at this huge fleet will make the Dutch feel that the scale of their previous war with the Portuguese for Ceylon was like playing house.
In the past, when the Dutch and the Portuguese were fighting for the island of Ceylon, especially for Colombo, the two sides actually used only a few dozen ships. There were usually only a few ships transporting reinforcements at a time, and the transport force was often only a few hundred people. .
That's right, there are at least a few ships, no more than a dozen ships, and hundreds of ground troops. This is the war between the vast majority of contemporary European colonists, and even the size of the fleet and the force they use when fighting the local indigenous people. It's about the same size.
By the way, the previous Western Trading Company was almost like this. When carrying out military operations, they often used a few ships, a dozen ships, hundreds, or less than a thousand troops.
However, the Great Chu Empire is not those European colonists, and the army and navy of the Great Chu Empire are not Western trading companies!
Therefore, the Chu Empire directly sent nearly a hundred ships in one go, including more than thirty ocean-going battleships alone, accounting for most of the main force of the Third Task Force.
The huge Suzhou participated as the flagship.
There are more than 8,000 ground troops, mainly composed of more than 5,000 people from the 2nd Mixed Regiment of the Guards, the 8th Marine Battalion of the Navy, and the 3rd Battalion of the 27th Heavy Artillery Regiment of the Army.
The main task of the Army's 3rd Battalion of Heavy Artillery was to build and deploy coastal defense artillery in Colombo after the ground forces captured the city.
To put it bluntly, the third battalion of heavy artillery is a coastal defense artillery unit, and is equipped with medium and large-caliber long-barreled coastal defense artillery.
Of course, these artillery can also be pulled out to participate in the siege when necessary.
Compared to the European colonists' small fight with a few ships and hundreds of people, the Chu Empire brought nearly a hundred ships and 8,000 ground troops in one go. This battle scared the Dutch out of their wits.
This reminded them of the disastrous defeat in Batavia a few years ago.
At that time, the Chu people also wanted to do what they are doing now. They directly pulled hundreds of ships and tens of thousands of troops. As a result, the Dutch, who were superior to the natives, were beaten to the ground and finally had to surrender obediently.
After losing the Spice Islands and the city of Batavia, the Dutch East India Company's power was greatly reduced, and it had no choice but to move the company's headquarters to Colombo.
But what they didn't expect was that just a few years later, these damn Chu people were coming to kill them again.
Just looking at the nearly a hundred huge ships in the harbor, the Dutch were desperate.
There was no point in resisting in despair. The Dachu Imperial Navy directly blocked the port with more than twenty ships, and did not give any Dutch ships a chance to leave the port to disrupt the landing.
The next landing was a matter of course. Numerous transport ships docked at the shore, and then began to use small boats to transport troops ashore. At the same time, many warships ventured close to provide land fire support at any time.
The Dutch had also fought against the Chu Empire, and had experience in the Battle of Batavia. They knew very well that once the Chu people landed successfully, there would be no more fighting, because the city of Colombo was strong. They couldn't withstand the overwhelming artillery fire from the Chu people.
For this reason, they chose to take the initiative!
More than a hundred cavalry, more than 800 infantry, and more than 2,000 recruited indigenous servants came out, trying to nip the Chu army's landing in the cradle.
However, as soon as they arrived at the beach, they were covered by firepower from multiple warships of the Da Chu Empire Navy!
Although the combat distance between warships these days is only two to three hundred meters, this distance specifically refers to the dynamic combat between warships.
In dynamic versus dynamic mode, the hit rate of naval guns is very limited and the effective range is also very long.
But this does not mean that the long-barreled, large-caliber naval guns on the battleships can only fire two to three hundred meters away.
In fact, when performing land bombardment, these naval guns can maintain an effective range of several hundred meters even if they are affected by the rolling of the ship's hull and their shooting accuracy is not very good.
Especially when launching grenades, you don't need to consider too precise a hit like solid artillery shells. You only need to roughly hit the enemy array.
As a result, seven or eight warships took the risk of running aground and approached the shore. The subsequent land bombardment directly stunned the Dutch who ran out and tried to snipe on the beach.
Dense and continuous shells exploded overhead or around them... It didn't take long for the Dutch to suffer heavy losses.
After finally reaching the beachhead, they found that the first batch of hundreds of soldiers from the Chu army to land had formed a complete line and even pulled out several light artillery pieces.
The 115mm light howitzers equipped by the Chu army are very light, and the 115mm light howitzers of the landing troops are mountainous models that can be disassembled, transported, and assembled on the spot in front of the formation.
Even if there is no lifting equipment or even a pier, just use a small boat to land on the beach, and then wade into the water and rely only on the soldiers to resist.
As the landing soldiers fired intensive volleys of guns, the Dutch who were still using matchlocks and spears could no longer withstand it and retreated. As for the indigenous servants, they had been bombarded by large-scale naval guns before. , was so frightened that he collapsed. No matter how hard the Dutch tried to drive him away, it was useless and he ran away directly.
A burst of naval gunfire and a volley of gunfire from hundreds of leading landing troops directly ruined the Dutch's beachhead sniper plan.
Immediately afterwards, the Dutch did not give up and tried to let the fleet in the port rush out, and then directly sabotaged the Chu army's landing from the sea.
After all, they still have a lot of warships in the Colombo port, including five warships, in addition to a dozen armed merchant ships.
Strictly speaking, these more than twenty warships or armed merchant ships can provide hundreds of artillery pieces. If placed in the Indian Ocean, they are already a quite large maritime force.
However, when they rushed out of the port, they discovered that the warships of the Da Chu Empire Navy on the opposite side did not maneuver according to the wind direction as they knew. Instead, they completely ignored the wind direction and forcibly turned and maneuvered, gradually moving behind them. List the prefix t in front.
More importantly, they discovered that one of the large Chu warships was breaking away from the queue while blowing white smoke, and started bombarding when it was still 700 to 800 meters away from their own side.
At first, the Dutch thought that the quality of the Chu sailors on the opposite side was not very good, but they actually opened fire at a distance of seven or eight hundred meters.
What's the use of firing at such a long distance? It's just a waste of ammunition. If this kind of thing were done on the Dutch fleet, the captain would dare to throw the gunner who fired at such a long distance directly into the sea.
But... what shocked them was that the Chu warship on the opposite side actually hit them when they were seven or eight hundred meters away.
When they watched the superstructure of a battleship ahead of them explode, and then the sails burst into flames, they were all stunned.
Is the Chu Manzi opposite him just so lucky?
But Rear Admiral Peng Zhixing on the command bridge of the cruiser Pusan put down his binoculars and smiled!
"This front-mounted rifled gun is really easy to use. It can accurately hit enemy ships from a distance of more than 600 meters."
Just looking at this bombardment, Rear Admiral Peng Zhixing could already imagine that when the battle reports were sent back to China, the navy's top brass would immediately start a wave of replacement of front-loaded rifled guns.
What are the problems of limited barrel life and high price? It can accurately hit the enemy warship at a distance of more than 600 meters, and the shell is so powerful. Just one 150mm shell hits the enemy ship and directly kills a large number of people. The enemy's deck and superstructure crews even destroyed the enemy ship's sails.
Such a large effective range and explosive power were enough for Navy leaders to ignore other shortcomings of front-loaded rifled artillery and begin to equip this new artillery on a large scale.
Once the Chu Empire's navy is equipped with such front-loaded rifled guns on a large scale, it will be able to fight against these European barbarian warships without even having any numerical advantage. It can directly defeat the opponent's fleet with a single ship.
Because the warships of the Da Chu Empire Navy also have steam engines... When the sails are used together, they can completely ignore the wind direction and perform steering maneuvers at will. At the same time, the speed is greater than that of pure sail warships.
The high speed, flexible maneuverability, coupled with the large range and power of the front-mounted rifled gun, make it possible to use kite flying tactics to destroy the warships in the enemy fleet one by one.
While Rear Admiral Peng Zhixing is thinking about the future, other officers and sailors on the cruiser Busan are maintaining high-intensity operations.
The steam engine on the battleship was already running at full power, pushing the cruiser of more than 2,000 ships to sail at a speed of eight knots. Because the wind direction was not very good, and when the steam engine was running at full power, the two chimneys sprayed out The smoke flow would interfere with the sails, so the cruiser Pusan simply lowered the sails and sailed only with pure steam engine power.
This is also the first time that the main ocean-going battleship of the Dachu Empire Navy uses pure steam engine power to propel the battleship into combat.
However, this is only the first time for a large-tonnage ocean-going battleship. In fact, the Navy has already used pure steam power for inland river gunboats. Not to mention other things, in Western Siberia, the Yenisey River Fleet often uses pure steam power. Steam-powered river gunboats conducted operations.
Driven by the huge power of the steam engine, the cruiser Pusan maintained a certain course and aimed its broadside at the Dutch fleet.
The twelve 150mm front-loaded rifled guns on the sides opened fire on an armed merchant ship on the far right side of the Dutch fleet!
With the rumble of cannons, a shell hit the Dutch armed merchant ship. The violent explosion of the 15mm shell directly destroyed a large number of their superstructures and caused the main mast to break... and the explosion also caused The large number of ropes in the sail, the canvas torn and even caused a fire.
For pure wind sailing boats, once the sail is knocked off, the power will be completely lost. This is no different from a dead fish on the sea.
After paralyzing the second enemy armed merchant ship, the cruiser Pusan turned its guns and continued to bombard the third enemy ship.
This is a professional Dutch battleship with a displacement of more than 1,200 tons. In fact, ordinary colonial companies do not have a battleship of this tonnage. However, because of the continued threat from the Chu people, the Dutch only mobilized domestically. This large-tonnage capital ship came to reinforce the Dutch East India Company.
It's just that this seemingly powerful sailing battleship in the eyes of the Dutch only lasted for five minutes on the Pusan... During these five minutes, it was hit by three shells in a row.
If three solid cannonballs were hit, it would be nothing for a battleship of more than a thousand tons. But the problem is that the Dachu Empire Navy does not like to use solid cannonballs in naval battles, but prefers to use grenades.
The purpose of the battle is not to sink the enemy ship, but to destroy the enemy's sails.
Therefore, after being devastated by three grenades, although the three main masts of this huge battleship were fine, the ropes and sails on the sails were completely destroyed.
It also turned into a dead fish floating on the sea!
Immediately afterwards, the cruiser Busan targeted the fourth Dutch warship!
And during this process, not to mention the Dutch, even the navy of the Dachu Empire themselves were dumbfounded when they saw this scene...
Vice Admiral Kong Liangping, the commander of the Third Task Force on the battleship Suzhou, looked at the Pusan in front, which single-handedly defeated the entire opposing fleet with one blow, and then looked at the four idle battleships and a dozen cruisers behind. Frigate...
He was speechless!
According to this rhythm, I am afraid that our main fleet, which is well prepared, will have to become spectators... because the battle has been finished by the cruiser Busan and its family.
Now he finally knew why before the war, Major General Peng Zhixing insisted on applying to take the Busan to fight first...
It seems that Major General Peng Zhixing had expected this scene today!
However, this is good, the Pusan showed its prowess, and it further proved that the combination between steam engine and front-loading rifled gun has strong potential.
When this battle is over and I write a battle report, it is also time to vigorously explain to my superiors the huge tactical and strategic role of the front-loaded rifled gun.
With the front-mounted rifled cannon, when the Da Chu Empire Navy faces those indigenous navies in the future, it can even dispatch a few warships at will to defeat the opponent.
This is very useful for the Da Chu Empire Navy, which has a limited overall scale and cannot grow infinitely, but needs to control more and more sea areas.
Nowadays, the Chu Imperial Navy’s plan of 600 ocean-going battleships sounds like a lot, but the Chu Imperial Navy also needs to control a lot of sea areas!
The Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and the Atlantic Ocean will be added in the future, and then some other marginal seas and so on.
How many ships are needed for this place, how many ships are needed for that place, and all these things add up to a lot.
In addition, warships cannot always perform missions, but some will be on the road and some will be in port for maintenance.
This means that of the 600 ocean-going warships in the Dachu Empire's navy, the number of warships that are in daily mission status is only two-thirds, and sometimes only one-third.
Only when carrying out any major strategic mission can more warships be mobilized by maintaining and arranging warships in advance, such as this time's Indian strategy.
In normal times, it is actually difficult to mobilize a large number of warships!
This means that the Chu Empire seems to have 600 warships, but it is not enough if it wants to control the global waters.
At least Vice Admiral Kong Liangping feels that the current warship performance is not enough.
After all, most warships are too small and have limited endurance.
At the same time, the speed is too slow, making it difficult to reach hot spots in time.
The firepower of smoothbore naval guns is limited, and the firepower advantage of a single ship is limited. Let alone scorn, in fact, even the current Suzhou battleship seems to be huge, but in a real fight with the Dutch warships, it can only be fought within two or three times. Shooting at each other from a distance of a hundred meters...
Under mutual bombardment, there will naturally be losses. It is impossible to hang enemy ships from a distance like the current cruiser Busan.
Three enemy ships were paralyzed, but he was still fine... At a distance of more than 600 meters, the Dutch warships didn't even have a chance to fire.
Among these three major problems, there is no good solution to the problem that the speed is too slow. We can only wait for the continued breakthroughs in steam engine technology and strive to allow the warship to have a speed of more than ten knots or even more with pure steam engine power as soon as possible.
As for the problem of too small hulls, the Navy has gradually solved it by enlarging warships. However, due to the cost of shipbuilding, the Navy cannot go too far in enlarging the hull. A frigate of more than 800 tons is almost enough. , if it is larger, it will be very difficult.
But regarding firepower, Vice Admiral Kong Liangping now sees a solution: replace the smoothbore cannon with a front-loading rifled cannon!
With steam engines and rifled cannons, you can kill the indigenous barbarians just by using kite flying tactics!
He is very much looking forward to this future!
But that's all in the future. As for now...what else can we do? The battle is over for the Busan, so let's rest early.
After losing many warships at a long distance, the Dutch were not fools. When they saw that the situation was not right, they began to retreat back to port.
In the process, the cruiser Busan followed up and knocked off the sails of an armed merchant ship.
Ever since...this naval battle ended in such an anticlimactic manner.
However, although the naval battle is over, its impact is huge...
Because in this battle, the cruiser Pusan killed three enemy ships with one blow before the main fleets of both sides came into contact with each other, and killed another one during the pursuit. Then the four Dutch ships that lost power had to surrender.
Front-mounted rifled gun, become famous in one battle!
