The European Expeditionary Fleet of the Great Chu Empire sent more than a dozen warships to bombard Cadiz, reducing this port city that Spain had worked hard to manage for more than two hundred years since the Age of Discovery to ruins.
In particular, the two coastal defense forts on the left and right guarding the port were beaten to pieces. One of the forts was a new coastal defense fort built by Spain in the past ten years.
Since the rise of the Chu Empire, the large-scale use of explosive grenades by the Chu Empire has gradually spread throughout the world. Naturally, European countries also know that the high-explosive grenades launched by the Chu army's artillery pose a great threat.
Later, various countries also began to develop and use high-explosive grenades. Although they still used relatively primitive matchlock fuze grenades, they also posed a great threat to various traditional coastal defenses that only have the function of protecting against solid bombs.
Therefore, in order to protect the important port of Cadiz, Spain specially built a new type of coastal defense fort. Although the fort is still open-air, there are thick mounds of dirt between the forts, forming concave canals. Ring fortifications are used to prevent impact fragments and fragments caused by explosive grenades exploding at the fort position.
At the same time, there will be thick giant trees on the top for support, and the top will be covered with soil to protect against air burst shrapnel.
As for the enemy launching artillery shells that exploded directly on top of the gun position, and then collapsed the civil roof fortifications, there is nothing we can do... If we really want to truly defend against heavy artillery grenades, we have to use reinforced concrete. Covered semi-enclosed turret.
But buildings like reinforced concrete can only be built by the Chu Empire, but not by other countries.
Overall, the new coastal defense fort in Cadiz Port is considered to be the latest coastal defense fort with the best protection capabilities for contemporary European indigenous countries.
The Spanish also had high hopes for this and deployed dozens of various long-barreled shore defense cannons, including many 32-pound heavy cannons.
But this new coastal defense battery, which had high hopes, was fine when used to deal with attacks from other European countries... But when faced with the naval gunfire of the Dachu Empire Navy, it was still as if it was paper.
Even...the heavy front-loading smoothbore guns deployed by the Spaniards never fired once from beginning to end!
It's not that the Spaniards don't want to fire, but it's just that they can't reach it... When the warships of the Dachu Empire attacked, they always used rifled naval guns with a caliber of more than 150 mm to attack the fort five thousand meters away.
At this distance, the Spanish's 32-pound coastal defense heavy artillery can theoretically hit this far, but the accuracy is the same.
So from the beginning to the end, the Spanish coastal defense heavy artillery did not fire... They initially thought of waiting for the Chu people's warships to approach before opening fire, but the Chu people's warships did not get close!
By the time they tried to fire directly regardless of accuracy, and a blind cat hit a dead mouse, the new fort had basically been blown up to pieces.
If the powerful 200mm semi-armor-piercing weapon hits, one shot can basically wipe out a gun emplacement on the opposite side... But in fact, the threat of the 200mm front-loaded rifle is still limited. After all, this thing is front-loaded. , it is very troublesome to use a crane to load, and the rate of fire is very slow.
What really determines the outcome of the battle is the larger number of 150mm front-loaded rifled naval guns. Although these are also front-loaded, they can be loaded manually, so the rate of fire is quite good.
The high-explosive shells and semi-armor-piercing shells it fires are equally powerful, and can be used to deal with this relatively primitive civil fortification with perfect accuracy.
So after several hours of continuous shelling, there were basically no people left in this new fort.
After identifying the new fort that threatened the most, the Chu Navy destroyed the remaining old fort.
After the two forts in the south and north were destroyed, the Port of Cadiz completely lost the means to counterattack the Chu fleet. Then the Chu fleet became bolder and allowed a group of frigates to approach as close as two to three thousand meters. The left and right bombarded other targets in the port of Cadiz and covered the landing of the army.
It can be said that by the time the Army troops landed the 3rd Indian Division, Cadiz had already suffered heavy losses. If the Spaniards had not realized that the situation was not good and had withdrawn their garrison troops from the coastal port city early, Pushed into the hinterland, it is estimated that the Spanish defenders in Cadiz will be blown up alive by the artillery shells of the Chu fleet.
Artillery is the god of war. This sentence is not just said casually, but it can really change the situation of the battle with one blow.
As the Spanish defenders took the initiative to retreat, the remaining port city of Gasti was completely undefended.
When night falls, although it is not very convenient to fight at night, considering that the enemies have already taken the initiative to retreat, although there may be some remaining soldiers left in the city, it will not affect the overall situation.
The Army immediately dispatched an infantry regiment of the Indian Third Division to garrison the Cadiz port area along the coastline. However, in order to avoid unnecessary casualties and losses, it did not go deep into the city. It only occupied the dock and the port area where the dock was ambushed. .
As the Eighth Regiment of the Indian Third Division took control of the dock area in Cadiz, the Chu army's transport ships began to enter the harbor one after another and began to unload a large amount of supplies on the dock in Cadiz.
Although the conditions of the berths in Cadiz are not very good and it is difficult to dock large ships of several thousand tons, the problem of docking transport ships of about three to four thousand tons is not a big problem.
Transport ships of the three- to four-thousand-ton level are also the tonnage of the main transport ships in the Dachu Empire's navy.
For the Navy's transport ships, bigger is not always better. Being too big does not mean that the construction cost is too high... The technical requirements for transport ships are actually very low. In order to control the cost, the transport ships of the Chu Navy have no practical requirements. combat needs.
Many of them are even designed according to civilian ship standards. They generally use iron-ribbed wooden hulls and use sail power. The steam engines they are equipped with are often mature and cost-effective steam engines. The speed is generally not fast, and pure steam engine power can only last eight knots.
Sometimes, the cost of this type of naval transport ship is not even as high as those of civilian high-speed passenger ships... Civilian high-speed passenger ships are very valuable.
In order to ensure the speed of large ocean liners, many shipping companies equip these transoceanic liners with power units that are often at the level of warships... they can easily run more than ten knots.
The most representative one should be the Jiangnan luxury liner that was officially put into operation in the 32nd year of Chengshun. It has a full load displacement of tens of thousands of tons and a large number of power units packed in. Multiple units are used to output power in parallel. Under the propulsion of shaft twin propellers and using pure steam engine power, the cruising speed alone can reach 12 knots, and the maximum speed can reach 16 knots.
This speed is faster than most active naval warships!
The famous Jinzhou-class cruiser still uses a more technically advanced combined steam engine, but its maximum speed under pure steam engine power is only fourteen knots.
These days, the competition in terms of power among the top luxury ocean liners has surpassed that of the navy.
The luxury liner Jiangnan, which was put into operation five years ago, can run at 16 knots, and the several 10,000-ton ocean liner that other major shipping companies are competing with can basically reach the same speed.
But Jiangnan Shipping Company was very ambitious. When they saw that their competitors were catching up, they designed and built a new generation flagship early, and adopted a very special and politically significant ship name: Empire.
The Empire, an ocean-going luxury liner, has a full-load displacement of more than 14,000 tons... far exceeding the 10,000-ton capacity of the new Jinling-class warships under construction.
No expense was spared in stacking luxurious power units, with eight boilers and twin-shaft propellers, allowing the ship to operate at an operating speed of 16 knots. During its first voyage in the first half of this year, it monopolized the Pacific route. Fastest passenger ship speed.
This thing is also the largest ship in the Chu Empire so far, bigger than the battleship of the navy.
And because there is no need to consider protective performance like warships, the ships appear more slender and beautiful.
In contemporary terms, this luxury liner with a load of more than 14,000 tons cannot be said to represent the most cutting-edge technology of the Chu Empire. Although the battleship is smaller than it, its technological content is actually higher.
However, this is the giant oil tanker that allows the people of Chu to most intuitively feel the power and changes in the industrial era.
Countless dignitaries are proud of the riding experience.
The Empire made its maiden voyage this year. When it was traveling from Songjiang Port to Jinshan Port, the entire ship was full. More than 200 first-class tickets were booked early. Among them, the most expensive first-class suite with a view, the ticket price reached 1 Eighteen hundred Chu Yuan... That's it. You have to be a respectable person to book it, and Jiangnan Shipping Company will sell it to you.
If you don't have a certain status, I won't sell it to you even if you have money... because a lot of rich and powerful people are waiting to experience it.
Many first-class passengers and even second-class passengers took the Empire luxury liner on its maiden voyage... not even going to America for business or immigration, but purely for vacation.
Follow me along the way and back, purely for vacation.
This is also a new type of business for this kind of luxury liner in recent years... After all, you can't expect that a large number of wealthy dignitaries will travel in first class every time you go back and forth. No, the population of overseas colonies alone cannot support it... ...As for the local dignitaries, there are many, but they will not just run to overseas territories or colonies if nothing happens!
In order to develop more first-class passengers, many shipping companies have begun to attract passengers under the banner of overseas travel and vacation.
Of course, for these large shipping companies, the real profit point is not the so-called high-end passengers, but the large number of second- and third-class passengers.
They may travel between the mainland and overseas for work, family visits, immigration, etc. They are the main customers of major shipping companies.
Sometimes when returning, there are not enough passengers, so they will temporarily act as a cargo ship, using the huge warehouse to carry some goods back to the country, and at least subsidize some coal money.
However, luxury passenger ships of over 10,000 tons are actually relatively rare even in the contemporary Chu Empire. Jiangnan Shipping Company, which owns the largest number of large luxury passenger ships, only has four ships in total now, and other shipping companies basically only have one or two. The ship serves as the flagship.
Adding them all together, there are less than twenty ships in the country.
What really takes on the main role of offshore and ocean shipping are actually a large number of merchant ships of several thousand tons, which are cheaper to build and have lower operating costs.
Among them, the largest are three to four thousand tons... mainly ships of this level. The hull size is not too large. Many domestic shipyards have docks of this level that can be used for shipbuilding. As for docks with more than 10,000 tons, even 15,000 tons There are only a few large dry docks with a capacity of 1,000 tons in the country.
Unlike dry docks of four to five thousand tons, many medium-sized shipyards can also have them.
Civilian ships of this tonnage are also technically mature. They can either use iron-ribbed wooden hulls with more mature technology and lower costs, or they can use pure ships with more advanced technology, slightly more expensive costs, but better overall performance. Steel hull.
In terms of power system, the three major steam engine manufacturers basically provide mature and cost-effective double-expansion high-pressure small water tube boiler steam engines.
In addition, ships of this tonnage can still easily use sail-rigged hybrid power to reduce operating costs... Moreover, these days, the technical department of the Dachu Empire has begun to use steam engines as power to raise and lower sails, which also means using mechanical If the sail is powered, there is no need to prepare a large number of deck sailors as before.
This can significantly reduce manpower and reduce operating costs.
Therefore, the sail hybrid power is still very popular these days, even mainstream... Even many ships are said to be powered by pure steam engines. For example, Yingtian-class battleships usually use steam engines to sail.
But there are still several towering masts and spare sails... This is considering that once the steam engine fails, the ship needs backup power.
The reliability of steam in these days seems to be quite good, but it is common for problems to occur occasionally and the ship lose power.
Therefore, ocean-going ships either use sails as power, or use steam engines on weekdays, but still keep the masts and bring sails as backup... Otherwise, if the steam engine fails on the vast sea, then you can only wait for the passing ships to wait for it. Rescued... I was unlucky enough that no passing ship found me, so that would be very bad.
Only offshore ships and inland river ships are the only ones that have completely abandoned their sails... The sailing distance is short, and there are many ships passing by. If something breaks down, it is easy to send out tugs for rescue.
In fact, there is a more reliable and better-performing triple-expansion steam engine in the Dachu Empire, but that thing is still too expensive for the time being. At present, only the navy and high-performance luxury liners will use this thing at all costs, and other ordinary civilian ships will use it. Due to cost considerations, it is currently used sparingly.
Dry dock, power system and other aspects have resulted in a combination. Currently, the shipping industry prefers to use ships with less than 5,000 tons, mainly ships with a full load of 3,000 tons to 5,000 tons, which can well balance ship costs and operating expenses. As well as shipping costs, the price/performance ratio is very high.
Even the navy is no exception. All kinds of warships for combat naturally do not take these into consideration, but a large transport fleet cannot avoid taking into account some situations of civilian ships.
This has led to the navy's transport fleet being more inclined to use transport ships under five thousand tons due to cost considerations.
In addition to cost, there is actually another point that prevents the navy from equipping a large number of large-tonnage ships, and that is port restrictions.
Unlike where civilian ships go, there are basically mature and reliable port berths. When many transport ships of the Navy perform transportation tasks, there is no way to require suitable deep-water berths at the destination port every time.
Many times, some small ports in overseas colonies controlled by the Chu army did not have the conditions to berth large ships.
No deep water berths, no port lifting equipment, etc. exist!
This is also a transport ship of the Da Chu Empire Navy. It basically comes with its own hoisting equipment, but you can bring your own hoisting equipment. However, there is no way to solve the problem of deep water berths by yourself.
Therefore, the transport ships currently in service in the Navy, taking into account the needs of overseas deployment, generally have a small tonnage, with three to four thousand tons being the mainstream. There are even quite a few of one, two thousand tons or even hundreds of tons that are specially used for transit supplies in ports with poor conditions. tons of small transport ship.
Large transport ships of seven to eight thousand tons are often used as mainline transport ships, traveling between the mainland and large ports in overseas territories.
This is the case with maritime transportation in this European battle. The Navy has many large transport ships and some large civilian cargo ships called requisitions, which are actually hired.
It travels between the mainland and South African ports, transporting large quantities of goods.
After arriving at the South African port, some of the ships will unload their cargo and transfer them to transport ships with three to four thousand tons or even one to two thousand tons at the dock.
These smaller transport ships then carried these military supplies north along the west coast of Africa, and successively delivered supplies to the troops garrisoned in ports along the way, such as Ghana.
Recently, most small and medium-sized transport ships will arrive at the Port of Tangier, and some of the cargo will be unloaded directly. Some simply leave the cargo on the ship, and then move with the fleet to provide supplies at any time, and the rest will be shipped at any time. There was more loading and unloading in Tangier.
There are also large freighters that go directly to Europe... Some time ago, the Navy foolishly brought a requisitioned civilian freighter Jijiang to Europe.
In order to serve the big ship with a load of more than 8,000 tons, the Navy worked hard and laborious... loading and unloading was very troublesome.
After all the cargo was unloaded, the navy hurriedly ended the recruitment of the freighter Jijiang and told them to get out... The ship manager on board the freighter Jijiang was very sorry, saying that they didn't need it before leaving. It's so urgent. Their Indo-Pacific Shipping Company is dedicated to serving the country, so they can still stay with the Navy to respond to the call and help the Navy continue to transport cargo!
How dare the Navy keep them? While telling them to get out, they also blacklisted the Indo-Pacific Shipping Company: From now on, they will kill any broken ship that does not recruit their company.
The navy recruited the freighter Jijiang for several months... It repaired the power system on the Jijiang four times and replaced a lot of parts. It was almost necessary to replace the power system with a new one on the spot...
Big loss!
This cannot be blamed on the Indo-Pacific Shipping Company... It is originally a second-tier shipping company, focusing on low-cost shipping, and its ships are basically second-hand goods that have been eliminated at a low price.
Many of these cheap second-hand items are early steam ships.
As we all know, early steam engines generally had a lot of problems. If there were really any big problems, it wouldn't be a big problem, but the endless occurrence of various minor problems is very disgusting.
However, the Indo-Pacific Shipping Company can destroy it if it can... as long as the ship can run, it will continue to run, even if the steam engine breaks down, it doesn't matter.
First use the sail to hold it up. Although the sail speed is very slow, it is shipped cheaply. With such a small shipping fee, the cargo owner did not expect how fast the goods will arrive!
In shipping, you get what you pay for. If you want the goods to arrive faster, the price will be higher.
Many domestic tea trading companies will use high-speed luxury tankers of major shipping companies to transport tea to North America when new tea is launched... The speed is definitely fast enough, but the price is not affordable for ordinary goods.
For goods that generally do not require a long time, it is much cheaper to transport them slowly using Indo-Pacific Shipping Company’s broken ships.
As for the broken ships of the Indo-Pacific Shipping Company, the steam engines were basically broken in the middle of the journey, so they continued to run slowly with sails. When they returned to the port, they found a familiar cooperative ship repair company, eliminated some second-hand parts and replaced them with continued use...
As for replacing the main force with a new steam engine... what a barbarian joke, people with this kind of money might as well buy a new ship.
It's just that the navy initially treated these civilian ships as it required its own transport ships. It had to let old guys like the Yoshie maintain speed and move with the fleet... The Yoshie naturally couldn't hold on, and if something went wrong, if the navy didn't want to If a large amount of supplies on the ship are slowly floating on the sea, it is natural to send people to repair it.
After doing this a few times, the navy couldn't stand it anymore.
Therefore, the behemoth Jijiang, which seemed to be more than 8,000 tons, was quickly sent away by the Navy. At the same time, because there were basically no qualified large-scale deep-water berths in Europe, the Navy simply did not transfer its own large-tonnage transport ships.
Only some transport ships ranging from a thousand tons to three or four thousand tons are used to perform transportation tasks.
The transport ships currently docking at Cadiz Port are these small and medium-sized transport ships. However, even so, they were cautious when entering and exiting the port, and sailed honestly following the fixed channel that appeared in the previous measurement.
The port looks large, and a few berths can indeed berth ships of three to four thousand tons, but the depth conditions of most of the waters in the port are unknown.
If you run around rashly, you can easily run aground or hit a rock.
But at any rate, there are finally ready-made port berths available for loading and unloading supplies.
That night, the Chu army hoisted the divisional artillery battalion of the Indian 3rd Division off the shore, followed by an artillery battalion of the 53rd Division.
Not to mention that the artillery battalion of the 3rd Indian Division still uses front-loading smoothbore cannons, but this battalion of the divisional artillery unit of the 53rd Division is exclusively equipped with 75mm mountain guns.
This thing and the 75mm field guns that are still on the ship, a total of thirty-six 75mm mountain guns, eighteen 75mm field guns, these fifty-four 75mm caliber divisional guns Artillery was the main field artillery used by the Chu Empire to land in Spain this time.
If there is a large-scale ground battle with the Spaniards later, they will basically be relied on to provide fire cover.
After a night of continuous landing and transportation, one battalion of eighteen artillery pieces, together with the draft horses for pulling the cannons, and the accompanying ammunition had successfully landed ashore and were capable of combat.
