On September 26, the thirty-seventh year of Chengshun, after being captured by the Chu army for more than a month, the city of Cadiz no longer looked like a traditional European small town in the past.
After the Chu army landed and took control here, they quickly carried out large-scale infrastructure construction in the area.
The initial construction works are mainly focused on port facilities, including deep-water berths, installation of steam hoisting equipment, warehouses in the port area and other major facilities.
Incidentally, they also briefly repaired the coastal defense forts that had been destroyed before by the Spanish. However, they did not continue to use the old smoothbore guns left by the Spanish. Instead, several ships completed their cruise combat missions and prepared to escort merchant ships. The warship returned to South Africa and temporarily dismantled two 150 mm and six 120 mm front-loading rifled guns, as well as multiple No. 75 mm front-loading rifled naval guns disassembled from naval transport ships. .
While these warships were escorting the merchant ships back home, the 27th convoy consisting of four frigates and one cruiser had already arrived at the Port of Cadiz and joined the European Expeditionary Fleet combat sequence.
The ships deployed by the Dachu Empire Navy for overseas operations do not always perform missions overseas, but adopt a rotational duty model.
This is mainly the reason why overseas areas generally lack the technical capabilities to repair and maintain new warships. Even the South African Port, a relatively large port, has relatively weak technical capabilities. It can do some simple major maintenance and emergency repairs, but some In-depth maintenance and repairs, modifications are more difficult.
Therefore, many warships serving overseas basically have to return to the mainland for in-depth maintenance after serving overseas for a few years, and then bring them back to China to replace them with a batch of new recruits.
Therefore, the service process of a warship of the Da Chu Empire is often carried out at home for maintenance and repair. After the ship receives a large number of new recruits, the officers are actually also newly sent... They will undergo simple training in the local waters.
After several months of training, when the new officers and soldiers on board the ship have been trained and adjusted, the warship will form a combat formation with many other warships, usually a cruiser leading several frigates.
This formation is usually the Xth Escort Squadron. Generally speaking, a few ships are fixed to make them more familiar. These warships will act collectively as a team from the beginning of training and go to perform overseas missions.
The current organization of the Da Chu Empire Navy is very different from that in earlier years. In the 32nd year of Chengshun, the Da Chu Empire Navy conducted a military-wide organizational adjustment and re-formulated a new organization model.
The Naval Headquarters includes the Naval Staff Department, the Naval Military and Administrative Department, the Naval Logistics Department, the Naval Ship Administration Department and other departments directly under the Navy.
There are also four major administrative fleets...namely, the Home Fleet, the Pacific Fleet, the Indian Ocean Fleet, and the African Fleet.
Among them, the local fleet, with its headquarters set up at Wusong Naval Base, is responsible for local coastal defense, military training tasks, and a comprehensive fleet of the military strategic reserve.
Therefore, the local fleet is quite complex, including the most advanced battleships, cruisers, and frigates, as well as second- and third-tier backward battleships, and a large number of professional training ships.
The responsible sea area does not mean that it is only China's mainland offshore waters, but the entire Western Pacific sea area, from the Bering Strait in the north to the Malacca Strait in the south, and even the Australian waters are the sea areas responsible for the mainland fleet.
The Pacific Fleet is headquartered in Jinshan Port, Jinshan Prefecture, North America. It is said to be the Pacific Fleet, but it is actually responsible for combat missions in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Because there are no enemies in this area, its strength is relatively weak.
The Indian Ocean Fleet has its headquarters in Colombo, Ceylon Province. The fleet is responsible for the entire Indian Ocean. Its combat areas range from the east coast of Africa to Malacca and north to areas controlled by the Ottoman Empire. It is relatively powerful.
The African Fleet... The headquarters was established in the Port of Cape Town, South Africa, under the jurisdiction of the Governor of South Africa. In the early days, Giandou was only responsible for blocking the Strait of Good Hope and protecting the South African area of Cape Town Port. Later, it gradually moved north to the west coast of Africa. Now its tentacles are even deeper into European Region: The European Expeditionary Fleet is directly under the African Fleet.
In view of the fact that the African Fleet's scope of activities has expanded to Europe, and it will need to undertake most of the combat missions in the Atlantic Ocean in the future, the Imperial Navy's top brass is preparing to rename the African Fleet the Atlantic Fleet.
It is worth noting that because the four major fleets are all administrative fleets, not combat fleets, they are mainly responsible for strategic planning, port facility construction, fleet management and other tasks.
As for actual combat and training tasks, they are actually handled by fleets at a lower level, such as the First Fleet, Second Fleet, and Third Fleet within the jurisdiction of the Home Fleet.
These three fleets are actually the Beiyang Fleet, Yangtze River Fleet, and Preparatory Training Fleet before the reorganization... The reason why there is no Nanyang Fleet is because the Nanyang Fleet, one of the main forces of the three major fleets in the past, has evolved into the Indian Ocean Fleet after it went south. The number is long gone.
The first fleet is the essence of the Chu Empire's navy. It is equipped with the latest battleships, cruisers, and frigates. It is the absolute main force of the Chu Empire's naval decisive battles... Of course, this is just an imaginary mission. In fact, most of the time the battleships in the First Fleet are used as battleship museums in various local ports for people to visit while waiting for the ships...
Although the Second Fleet has a very early designation, it is actually an offshore and river fleet... The combat target of this fleet is not foreign enemies from beginning to end, but potential rebel forces in the country, such as the Guards and the Army. Therefore, they are equipped with a large number of offshore battleships and shallow water heavy artillery ships, with the Yangtze River as the main operational area.
The private slogan was that once the Army or Guards rebelled and His Majesty faced a crisis, they would rush all the way along the Yangtze River to escort him.
Therefore, the Second Fleet is also the only one among many naval main combat fleets that has a large-scale Marine Corps. It is equipped with two divisions and more than 30,000 Marines stationed at Wusong Naval Base all year round. It was said to protect the Wusong Naval Base and avoid invasion by foreign enemies... But the internal combat plans of this Marine Corps were all aimed at launching an attack in the direction of Jinling.
This is also the reason why the Second Fleet is so ranked, second only to the First Fleet, which is the absolute elite of the Navy. The Navy attaches great importance to the Second Fleet.
The Third Fleet has nothing useful. It is a pure training fleet and serves as a reserve force. In addition to professional training ships, the attached ships are all older and backward warships. These old warships are also responsible for training the navy. There are also a number of decommissioned and sealed warships that are responsible for the mission of the officers and soldiers, and they are also under the jurisdiction of the Third Fleet.
When necessary, these second-line old battleships and even mothballed battleships in the Second Fleet will be reactivated and go to the battlefield as a reserve fleet.
In addition to these three fleets, there are several regional offshore garrison fleets in the mainland fleet that are responsible for daily patrols, escorts, and coastal defense tasks in the region, such as the North Sea Fleet in the northern seas, the Fuso Fleet in the Fuso Sea, and the southeastern waters of the mainland. The East China Sea Fleet, the South China Sea Fleet in the southern seas, the Malacca Fleet in the Malacca Sea and other places.
Under the mobile fleet and regional garrison fleet, there are actual combat units at a lower level, namely battle fleets, cruise fleets, escort fleets, offshore fleets, patrol fleets, inland river fleets, transport fleets, etc... By the way, the navy The Marine Corps also falls into this tier.
A battleship fleet is generally equipped with four battleships, which are assigned to each main fleet to serve as the main combat force. For example, the Eighth Battleship Squadron under the European Expeditionary Fleet has two Yingtian-class battleships and two Suzhou-class battleships.
Cruiser fleet, this kind of squadron is also mainly equipped with four cruisers, but there are not many dedicated cruiser squadrons in the Dachu Empire. Currently, only two cruiser squadrons are attached to the First Fleet of the Home Fleet, specifically to cooperate with The battle fleet in the First Fleet operates, providing forward reconnaissance, roundabout flanking and other combat missions for the main decisive battle fleet.
The frigate fleet is the main component of the Dachu Empire's navy. It is usually composed of a cruiser leading several frigates, ranging from three frigates to four frigates, depending on the situation.
This kind of escort fleet is widely found in various overseas waters and undertakes major combat, escort and other tasks.
The current main combat fleets of the European Expeditionary Fleet, in addition to the Eighth Battle Fleet, are six escort fleets. The combat formation that went to Portugal before was the 37th Escort Fleet of the Dachu Empire Navy.
The offshore fleet, patrol fleet, and inland river fleet, as the name implies, are all responsible for offshore and inland river operations. The offshore fleet is more special because it is only available in the second fleet under the home fleet, that is, the first offshore fleet, The Second Coastal Fleet contains thousands of tons of offshore shallow-water battleships, a total of eight offshore battleships.
The patrol fleet is generally not assigned to the main ocean fleet, but to the regional garrison fleet. It is mainly equipped with offshore patrol ships and is mainly responsible for offshore patrol, rescue, escort, port guarding and other tasks.
The ship types of the inland river fleet are very complex. Most of them are inland river gunboats with very shallow drafts. However, in some large lakes, they are also equipped with some traditional warships with relatively deep drafts. However, they are still included in the inland river fleet, and their ship types are ten. They range from small gunboats of a few tons to gunboats of hundreds of tons. They are widely distributed in China and in various regions such as Siberia, Southeast Asia, India, and North America.
Basically, there are these inland river gunboats in every territory of the Great Chu Empire. Because the expansion and colonization of the Great Chu Empire, their activities basically rely on the coast and rivers, so the inland river gunboats constitute the overseas military of the Great Chu Empire. An integral part of strength.
By the way, the Second Fleet seems to be carrying the designation of the Second Fleet. At first glance, it seems to be an ocean combat fleet, but it is actually a serious inland river fleet. The main area of activity is in the Yangtze River Basin and the Yangtze River Estuary area. , not to mention going to sea, not even going to other places, just staying in the Yangtze River.
The regional administrative fleet responsible for strategic and administrative affairs, the ocean-going or regional garrison fleet responsible for specific operations, and the ship fleet or marine corps that constitute the basic tactical unit. The above three levels together constitute the naval command system of the Da Chu Empire Navy.
Countless battleships and marines of the Great Chu Empire operate under this system.
Under this system, coupled with the need for maintenance and retirement of naval officers and soldiers, there will be a situation where a fixed combat formation composed of several warships will accept officers and soldiers on board after the warships have been maintained... ...The ordinary soldiers among them are basically new recruits, but these officers and soldiers have actually been trained on the training ship for at least several months by officers and senior non-commissioned officers before boarding the ship.
Take the 27th escort fleet that just arrived at the port of Cadiz as an example.
They are composed of one Jinzhou-class cruiser and three Baling-class frigates... After completing their duties, these four warships returned to China for in-depth maintenance, and then were accepted by new officers and soldiers, and then carried out in formations. Two months of adaptive training.
After the adaptive training was completed, their twenty-seventh escort fleet received orders to go to Cadiz, Europe, to join the European Expeditionary Fleet under the African Fleet.
To this end, they sailed all the way from the mainland to Cadiz in Europe, and also performed transportation escort missions along the way... Along with them, there were dozens of naval transport ships and civilian merchant ships loaded with various goods.
This process of ocean navigation is actually a process of ocean training, with live ammunition training and other subjects included in the process.
After several months of sailing and arriving in Cadiz, the ocean navigation training and even the live-fire training are basically completed, and they basically have sufficient combat effectiveness.
Because at this time, the newly enlisted sailors on the battleship... can no longer be said to be recruits, because they have completed nearly a year of high-intensity training under the leadership of officers and petty officers, and have become serious soldiers. An old sailor of the Eight Classics.
After arriving in Cadiz, the 27th escort fleet will perform missions here and is expected to stay in the European waters of Cadiz for more than half a year.
Half a year later, the merchant ships will be escorted back to the Port of Cape Town, South Africa. After arriving at the Port of Cape Town, the warships will undergo basic maintenance at the local military dock, while the officers and soldiers will begin their vacation locally.
After the maintenance was completed, the officers and soldiers boarded the ship again and drove the warship back to Europe to continue its mission.
Such a round trip, depending on the situation of the warship, the entire mission may take more than a year, but it may also take more than two years.
About two years later, the hull condition of the warship was no longer in good condition. The ship repair yard in South Africa could no longer complete in-depth maintenance. At the same time, the officers and soldiers on the ship had been in service for more than three years. ...According to the four-year service period of naval officers and soldiers, they will all have to retire in a few months.
At this time, the Twenty-seventh Escort Fleet will embark on the journey back home, and will also perform escort missions along the way. It will also go to India, West Asia and other places, and may also detour through the Atlantic Ocean and take the Pacific Ocean back home.
There were stops and starts along the way, and after returning to China a few months later, this round of warship deployment career was completed.
Officers are promoted and transferred, sailors are retired and promoted to petty officers.
Then the Naval Military and Administrative Department will transfer a number of officers and non-commissioned officers to form a new team based on the situation, and then add new recruits to the training ship for training.
After a few months of training, the new team will go to receive the warships that have completed in-depth maintenance and modifications.
Warships will also begin a new round of overseas deployment.
Generally speaking, taking into account the maintenance of warships, the service life of sailors, etc., the warships of the Da Chu Empire Navy are deployed overseas in a cycle of three to four years.
Calculated this way, in fact, during the service life of a warship, it has been erected and served for sixteen years, so it has only been deployed overseas four times... During these four overseas deployments, except for maintenance time and sailing time, it is actually used to perform tasks. The time is only about ten years.
Then because warships need to be deployed in rotation, there will inevitably be a situation like this: when you have a warship on duty, there will be a warship floating on the sea heading to the mission area or returning home for maintenance, and another warship is undergoing maintenance at home. or modified.
This means that you must have three warships to ensure that one warship can perform combat missions in the war zone at any time.
Why is the navy so expensive...the ocean-going navy is even more expensive! That's why.
The navy is a service that cannot be built quickly and needs to accumulate and maintain combat effectiveness in peacetime...The army can quickly expand its scale in a short period of time and maintain a certain combat effectiveness.
But the navy is not that good. The construction time of those warships often takes several years... and the training of naval officers and non-commissioned officers is also based on ten years.
It is easier for ordinary sailors, but it is difficult to ensure combat effectiveness without more than half a year or even a year of training.
Even though the maintenance cost is high, the navy's warships need maintenance... which means that the attendance rate is very low.
If you want to ensure a certain attendance rate in the war zone, you have to double or even triple the number of warships... which is equivalent to doubling the cost.
This series has led to the fact that the navy is really expensive and cannot be afforded by ordinary countries.
Even though the Chu Empire was so powerful and its naval military expenditure was so large that the natives could never dream of it, it was very difficult to control the huge Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean, and now the Atlantic Ocean.
This is also the reason why the Da Chu Empire Navy has been emphasizing reducing costs when building ships over the years, while at the same time enhancing ocean seaworthiness and endurance as much as possible.
I just want to build a warship at a lower cost. At the same time, when this warship is deployed overseas, it can also have a long range and relatively comfortable seaworthiness, so that when the warship is deployed for combat, it will last longer and have a wider range of activities. Large, thus increasing combat effectiveness, thereby reducing the number of warships and personnel deployed overseas, and reducing the overall cost of overseas deployment.
In order to control costs, the Navy even abandoned the three traditional elements of warships: firepower, maneuverability, and protection...
As for firepower, a rifled cannon is enough. Anyway, a rifled cannon is enough to hit the natives.
As for maneuverability... just have a steam engine that can run about fourteen knots. Anyway, steam engine power has a huge advantage over the pure sail power of the indigenous people. As for running faster, there is no need at all!
For protection, just get some steel plates and put them on. Anyway, the solid ball shells fired by the indigenous smoothbore cannons on the opposite side can't penetrate it.
The Imperial Navy of the Great Chu Empire doesn't even need the three major elements of a battleship...it's all about reducing costs!
As a result, many new warships that were built were nondescript from the perspective of original time and space.
The most typical one is undoubtedly the latest 'Huaiqing-class cruiser'...it is called the latest cruiser, but its actual combat capability is beaten by the Datong-class cruiser of the previous generation!
However, the top brass of the Navy are very satisfied with this... because this thing is cheap.
When the Navy built the Datong class, they thought it was good in all aspects, including firepower, protection, and maneuverability. However, when it came with a cost of more than 600,000 yuan, and the price continued to increase, the Navy couldn't stand it anymore. !
After some competition among the top brass of the Navy, at least two dozen and twenty-four Datong-class cruisers were originally planned to be built. After only eight ships were ordered, subsequent orders were canceled and replaced with orders for new cruisers.
For new cruiser orders, the Navy has only one requirement: to make them as cheap as possible... Otherwise, the Navy will not be able to maintain a scale of 600 ocean-going battleships.
So, after some thought, the designers from the Ship Administration Department came up with a Datong-class diving version...
The maximum speed was suddenly reduced from eighteen knots to fifteen knots, which was only one knot faster than the frigate.
At the same time as the speed dropped drastically, the price of the power system was cut by half.
These days, every increase in speed requires a huge amount of money. The speed requirements have been lowered, and the power cost can be reduced by several percent at once.
The naval gun directly abandoned the 150mm 30x breech-loading rifled gun newly developed by Jiangnan Weapons Company, and continued to use the existing 150mm 25x breech-loading rifled gun.
Not to mention the new naval guns, the number has also shrunk, from eight to six.
Not only the main gun was cut off, but the secondary gun was also cut off... The 75mm secondary gun felt useless to the Navy. It was too high to be low and the price was too expensive, so I simply replaced it with a 55mm single-barreled rapid-fire Cannon (the so-called rapid-fire cannon with a gun mount directly fixed to the hull and hard to resist recoil, very popular in the 1870s and 1980s), and some 35mm multi-barrel rotating rapid-fire cannons produced by the Guangdong and Guangxi Arms Company.
I can’t say that the price of this firepower system is directly reduced by 50%, but it is at least reduced by more than 30%.
Not to mention protection, the Da Chu Empire Navy found that regardless of the armor, it was basically of no practical use.
Because the indigenous navy or coastal defense artillery could not hit the warships of the Chu Empire Navy at all.
What kind of armor belt is needed? Just get a steel plate hull, and then get some coal tanks and that's it.
And this is not some dome-armored cruiser from later generations... There is no raised dome armor in the middle. This thing is just a steel plate hull plus a coal tank, a serious unprotected cruiser.
Power, firepower, and protection have all been greatly weakened at an epic level. Even when building the hull, a large amount of civilian ship craftsmanship and materials were used to save costs.
To put it bluntly, this thing is only a little more expensive than those rear-mounted naval guns, and the others are cheap or shrunk goods.
Compared with the same level, this is no longer as simple as shrinking, but diving...
Finally, the price of the so-called latest generation Huaiqing-class cruiser is also a huge drop. It does not cost one million, nor does it cost more than 600,000 for the Datong-class cruiser. With only 420,000 Chu Yuan, you can have a ship with a full load of 3,000 yuan. A cruiser that can travel around the world and defeat the indigenous people of the world!
This price makes the Qingyang-class frigate next door, which has only over 1,600 tons and is a low-cost frigate, still cost more than 300,000 yuan, burst into tears: Brother, did you pick the wrong opponent?
