The Mediterranean Fleet of the Da Chu Empire Navy relied on its long-range and powerful firepower to directly break into the entrance of the Dardanelles Strait, and then shelled the Ottoman forts on the shore from a distance of about two to three thousand meters.
There is also a Datong-class cruiser in the Mediterranean Fleet. The semi-armor-piercing projectiles fired by the six 150mm naval guns mounted on this class cruiser are very useful for dealing with primitive civil fort fortifications, and the firepower is basically covered. The fort was beaten to pieces.
Two Qingyang-class frigates followed behind to conduct shelling, and the effect was very obvious.
This kind of frigate, which has a full load displacement of more than 1,700 tons, is equipped with six 35-year-old frigates with a caliber of 120 mm and 28 times, and can run up to 18 knots, is currently the only frigate in the Great Chu Empire. Frigate of the main battleship.
Even the Anton-class frigates designed and built later are actually not as powerful as the Qingyang-class frigates... because the Anton-class frigates are actually a reduced version of the Qingyang-class frigates. In the past few years, the Navy felt that the new frigates were too expensive. , large-scale construction is a bit unbearable, and at the same time, because the Dachu Empire Navy actually has no actual maritime threats, the demand for seas is actually not very high.
Therefore, the construction of a batch of Anton-class frigates was reduced, with a displacement of only more than 1,500 tons, equipped with six 120 mm naval guns, but the speed was only 15 knots... proper miscellaneous and shore bombardment frigates.
It’s just that not many ships of this class have been built, mainly because as steam engine technology gradually matures, the price of the originally very expensive new triple-expansion steam engine has also begun to fall significantly. Therefore, after building a dozen Anton-class frigates, most of them The Chu Empire Navy has designed and built a new batch of Longchuan-class frigates, with a full load of 1,800 tons, equipped with newer, more powerful 41-type 120 mm thirty-fold caliber naval guns, and can run at speeds of ten Section eight.
This class of ship is being mass-produced and equipped to replace the earlier Baling-class frigates in service. The early models of the Baling-class frigates have been in service for more than ten years, and are equipped with front-mounted rifled guns, so they need to be gradually replace.
As for directly upgrading and replacing the breech-mounted rifled gun on the Baling-class frigate... This is not necessary, because the new breech-mounted rifled naval gun is very expensive, usually accounting for one-third of the cost of the naval gun.
This proportion refers to cruisers and battleships. As for frigates, the actual proportion is even higher.
Because the frigates of the Dachu Empire Navy are all miscellaneous, using the classification of battleships in the original time and space, in fact, the frigates and even quite a few cruisers built by the Dachu Empire are actually unprotected warships that do not even have key protection. , the outer steel hull and coal bunker serve as protection.
This also results in no armor cost. At the same time, if armor is not considered, the hull can be made more slender, which will require less power, thus comprehensively reducing the hull and power costs of the warship.
Therefore, for a considerable number of cruisers and frigates in the Dachu Empire, the shipboard weapon system is the main cost, followed by the hull and power.
Under such circumstances, if you upgrade an old warship to a new breech-mounted rifled naval gun, you have to consider whether it is suitable...
Obviously, the Baling-class frigates built in the early days were still using old double-expansion steam engines, which were obviously not worthy... The Baling-class frigates built in the early days had seriously aged after more than ten years of intensive use. Maintenance costs have increased significantly.
Therefore, to upgrade and refit them like this, it is better to build new frigates directly. These old frigates will continue to be used and be decommissioned and dismantled at the end of their service life.
However, as the Dachu Empire's shipbuilding technology improves, and as the cost of warships further increases, the subsequent warships are expected to have a longer service life, such as the Qingyang-class frigates with good workmanship and good performance. Twenty or even thirty years will not be a big problem, and some small-scale upgrades and modifications are also possible during the period.
The two Qingyang-class frigates in the Mediterranean Fleet are both battleships that have been in service for many years. They are in their prime years. The ships are in good condition and the crews are experienced. Although the artillery is said to be the earliest batch of breech-loaded rifles. The Type 34 120L25 naval gun in the naval gun series is still very powerful.
There would be no problem at all in fighting the Ottoman fort on the opposite side.
This is also a major feature of the use of naval guns in the ocean-going battleships of the Da Chu Empire. That is because there is no need to consider long-distance naval battles and there are no enemies to fight. Therefore, the ocean-going battleships that are mainly on duty overseas have to choose naval gun firepower. They mainly tend to have large calibers and a larger quantity at the same time, but they do not require a large diameter of the barrel, nor do they require a long range.
Anyway, they run directly to two to three thousand meters, and mainly bombard ground targets from a distance of about three to four thousand meters at most, using a 120mm naval gun with a caliber of thirty-four times, and a 120mm naval gun with a caliber of twenty-five times. Millimeter naval guns, in fact there is not much difference...
However, the manufacturing costs of the two are several times different.
Therefore, it can be seen that there is actually no great urgency in the Da Chu Empire Navy’s upgrade of naval guns. When the time is up and the cost comes down, they can be used... But don’t expect the Navy to use it when the technology is immature and the cost is very expensive. Just adopted it directly.
This is the same as the Navy continuing to use the 35-year-old 150L25 naval gun on the Huaiqing-class cruiser instead of using the 38-year-old 150L30 naval gun... The Navy feels that using new naval guns does not have much practical significance, but naval guns However, the cost has increased significantly, so it is better to continue to use the old thing.
Whether it’s naval guns or power systems, what the Navy means now is that they only need to be functional, but they have to be cheap and reliable.
It won't be like in the early years, when you see something with advanced performance coming out, you can't wait to equip it.
At that time, when the technology of front-loading rifled guns was not yet mature, and the cost of construction and use was high, the Navy used front-loading rifled guns on a large scale, but it paid a heavy price.
Of course, the huge cost at the beginning also brought huge advantages... With the front-loaded rifled cannon, the Dachu Empire Navy actually had the ability to comprehensively crush the smoothbore cannons of the indigenous navies of various European countries in terms of firepower.
Before that, everyone used front-loaded smoothbore cannons. The Da Chu Empire Navy could at most use steam engines to be more maneuverable, but if they wanted to fight, they still had to close the distance of two to three hundred meters and form a line with the indigenous warships. To Boom.
However, it was different after the front-loaded rifled cannon was used. The combat distance at sea was directly extended to more than one thousand meters, and the land artillery range reached the level of three to four thousand meters. This gave the Great Chu Empire Navy a far-reaching distance. The ability to send all the warships of the indigenous navy to the bottom of the sea from a distance.
With absolute advantages in maneuverability and firepower, the Da Chu Empire Navy is almost invincible in maritime operations. Even if it is close to the coastline and bombards the enemy's coastal defense artillery, it can safely bombard it three to four thousand meters away. It is completely Don't worry about the indigenous coastal defense guns threatening you.
This is also the reason why the cruisers and frigates of the Da Chu Empire are not equipped with armor... It is not that they cannot afford the equipment, but it is not necessary. When necessary, the Da Chu Empire Navy will still build protective warships.
For example, inland river gunboats that need to operate deep into inland rivers are basically equipped with armor, especially the 32-year-old shallow water gunboats. This thing is a warship with comprehensive protection, including waterline armor belt, deck armor, and turret armor. It looks small. But in fact, the protective capabilities are very strong. At least the indigenous smoothbore cannons basically pose no threat to this thing.
In addition, there are also special purposes, including the many large-tonnage offshore battleships attached to the Guards Fleet and the Navy's Yangtze Fleet, and the Navy's main ocean-going battleships. Both of these battleships are also battleships that adopt a comprehensive protection approach.
The main ocean-going battleship is the core of the entire navy. It is responsible for the strategic task of responding to possible future threats and being able to crush all enemies at sea and even along the coast when necessary. Therefore, when designing and building ocean-going battleships, other things are not considered too much. But try to balance the various performances as much as possible.
As for offshore battleships, this thing can block the Yangtze River estuary to prevent civil strife. At the same time, if necessary, it can also be deployed overseas to act as a strategic force for offshore bombardment. When necessary, offshore battleships can also be dispatched into large rivers if conditions are suitable.
Thousands of tons of offshore battleships entered the rivers, enough to crush all the dissatisfaction of the indigenous people.
The Navy has dispatched an offshore battleship to Europe, but it is still floating in the Indian Ocean and will not be used in the short term.
Although there are no large-tonnage offshore battleships, the Mediterranean Fleet can still destroy the enemy's coastal defense batteries with just a few ocean-going unprotected battleships, and then cover the landing of ground troops.
The next day, ground troops boarded ships and set off for the Gallipoli Peninsula, where they successfully landed under the cover of naval warships.
There was not even actual resistance from the Ottomans during the landing... The previous shelling had already knocked the Ottomans stupid.
They had tried their best to imagine improving the military strength of the Chu Empire, but when they actually faced it, they found that their imagination was still too poor. Chu's artillery fire far exceeded their previous imagination.
The various anti-gun fortifications prepared before seemed good, but in fact they were not of much use.
Under such circumstances, how could they have the guts to conduct any beach interception?
As a result, a marine battalion under the 6th Marine Regiment of the Dachu Empire successfully landed first, and then captured a small fishing boat port along the coast. They used this small port to meet the 53rd Marine Corps of the 27th Army of the Dachu Empire. Division 211th Regiment and auxiliary artillery and cavalry forces.
After a total of more than 5,000 troops successfully landed, they quickly swept through the remaining enemy forces on the peninsula.
Five days later, a new batch of reinforcements from a regiment of the 13th Division of the Fuso Corps also arrived on the peninsula and landed.
At this time, the Chu army had gathered tens of thousands of troops on the peninsula, half of them regular troops and half of their servants... By the way, the soldiers in the Fuso Army were all veterans of the Chu country for many years.
The Great Chu Empire successively recruited and established three divisions of servant armies in the Fusang area, namely the 8th, 9th and 13th Fusang Divisions.
In order to recruit and replenish the troops of these three divisions at any time in the Fusang area, which has only two to three million people left, the Chu people almost wiped out all the young Fusang natives on the Fusang Islands.
Of course, it was not forced recruitment, but they rushed over to serve as soldiers for the Chu people, because the servants of the Chu people were treated quite well. They had enough to eat and pay every day, and they also had trophies to gain from battles. .
What the top brass of the Chu army calls a low-cost servant army that doesn't cost a few bucks, but in the eyes of the natives, it is a high-paying job, and just having enough to eat is a good treatment.
The Thirteenth Fusang Division was officially formed in the 36th year of Chengshun, and was first sent to Bangladesh to perform tasks. In the 41st year of Chengshun, the division was transferred to Europe as one of the reinforcements and servants. Currently, it is The division is stationed at the Taranto military base at the southeastern tip of the Kingdom of Naples in the southern part of the Italian peninsula.
This force is also the main garrison force of the Chu Empire in the Mediterranean region and even the Italian Peninsula.
This time when fighting the Ottomans, it was natural to transfer a regiment from the nearby servant army to be used as cannon fodder.
The 13th Fuso Division was actually the 3rd Division of the Fuso Army at first. However, in order to facilitate the management of each servant army, the military gave each servant army a unique designation, and it was changed to the 13th Fuso Division.
The numbers of the servant armies are usually preceded by the main source of the troops, such as India, North Africa, Fuso, etc., followed by numerical designations in the order of formation time, such as the First Division, the Second Division, the Thirteenth Division, etc. .
With division-level numbers as the main units, subordinates are often organized into three infantry regiments, a cavalry battalion, an artillery battalion, and a baggage battalion.
However, sometimes not every servant military division fights as a separate division-level unit. Some servant armies are relatively small in number, so they are organized and fight in mixed brigades and mixed regiments.
After all, the Chu Empire's overseas territories are all over the world, and the Chu army is also fighting on a global scale. The scope of recruiting servant armies is also very large. Basically, the Chu army will have more or less indigenous people with a larger population and basic civilization. Fewer people are recruited.
There is no need to worry that these servant armies are not under control, because these servant armies often fight in remote places, and the weapons and ammunition used are also controlled by the Da Chu Empire.
An army that uses guns and artillery seems to have strong combat effectiveness, but once it loses ammunition supplies, its combat effectiveness will drop significantly. Even after being accustomed to using guns and artillery in combat, it is not accustomed to using cold weapons to fight hand-to-hand once there is no ammunition.
Therefore, the Chu army's use of servant armies was relatively unrestrained...the scale of use was also getting larger and larger, from the former Indian Army to the Fuso Army and the North African Army.
In recent years, the Chu army has recruited and formed the American Legion and the European Legion. It is worth noting that the soldiers in the American Legion are not actually the local indigenous people of the Americas, but are the alien population of the Americas just like the Chu people. Just Europeans.
Portugal and Spain left a large number of white immigrants in Central and South America... Because there were too many people, the Chu people could not accept them all, but divided them in various ways.
For example, young women of working age can stay and intermarry with immigrants from the Chu State of the New People's Republic of China, while young and strong men can be recruited to join the army, organized into American regiments, and directly dragged to fight in Africa, with the promise that they can be released after ten years of service. After naturalization, many of the remaining white immigrants went to African plantations to wait.
After many rounds of processing, the immigrants left behind by the Europeans could barely be dealt with.
This was the main source of the American Legion.
The European Legion is more pure. Like the Indian Legion, it recruits low-level European young men from the colonies to join the army, and then sends them to other places to perform tasks.
At present, the European Legion has recruited 40,000 to 50,000 people, organized into five divisions, and is stationed in Africa and India.
The Chu army likes to send servant troops to perform tasks in other places. For example, a large number of the newly established European legions were sent to southern Africa, India, America and other places for garrison operations.
The Indian Legion is widely dispatched to fight in Africa and Europe.
The Fuso Corps is currently mainly on duty in the Americas and Europe.
The North African Army was relatively small in number, with only one division, and was temporarily fighting in Europe.
Of course, the above-mentioned dispatches did not mention fixed examples. For example, the Indian Army has more than a dozen divisions, half of which are still fighting in India.
But on the whole, when the Chu army leaders dispatched servant troops, they preferred to dispatch them to other places.
It was under this circumstance that the 13th Fuso Division was transferred to fight in Europe.
After the landing operation, although this servant army still used the 23-year-old percussion rifle and the equipment was not very good, it could still easily win with better training and quality of soldiers, as well as greater advantages in weapons and equipment. Pass the Ottomans on the other side.
With the addition of this servant army, the regular army of the Chu people can safely play the role of supervising the battle team and providing fire support at the back, thus reducing casualties.
Although it is said that even if the regular army goes into battle in person, it is actually unlikely that there will be many casualties, but it can still save one person.
The empire is still relatively sensitive to the casualties of the regular army. Every year, civilian officials in the cabinet will use the casualty figures of the regular army to criticize the military for its huge military expenditures every year, but in the end, a lot of them are killed by the natives...
But the military is also very aggrieved... We are fighting with indigenous people in almost all countries around the world. Although there are no casualties in frontal combat, small-scale sporadic casualties are difficult to avoid!
Under such circumstances, one or two people were killed by a sneak attack in one place today, and one or two people were killed by the natives in other places tomorrow. At the end of the year, hundreds of thousands of troops were sent out to so many places around the world, and thousands of people were killed or injured in a year. normal.
But the cabinet just doesn't care about you...it's just about the death and injury of thousands of your people. This is also an important reason for the military to use servant armies on a large scale.
No one in the country cares about the casualties of the servant army... This way, the military can relax its hands and don't have to worry so much when executing operations.
Nowadays, these servants of Fuso's 13th Division are responsible for small and medium-sized combat missions in which the regular army may suffer casualties, especially some patrols, reconnaissance missions, etc.
The regular army and the servant army cooperated with each other. The Chu army's 10,000 men advanced very quickly. Within a few days, they occupied the entire peninsula, including the coastal defense fortress on the opposite bank of Canakkale. The Ottomans also deployed a coastal defense battery here. Woolen cloth.
After capturing this coastal defense fort, the ground forces prepared to conduct another landing under the cover of the navy. This time they landed on the southern shore of the Dardanelles Strait, with the main target being Canakkale.
The geographical location of this place is very critical. It is located in the middle hinterland of the Dardanelles Strait, and this section of the Dardanelles Strait is very narrow, only about 1,400 meters wide... At this width, the Ottomans used smoothbore cannons It can block the entire strait channel.
Such an important geographical location made this place not only a gathering place for industry and commerce, but also one of the most important naval bases of the Ottoman Empire.
It is worth mentioning that this place is also a historical city... because this place has another name, it is: Troy!
Yes, it is the place where the Battle of Troy broke out in Greek legend.
Thousands of years ago, the Trojans could rely on this place to hold on for ten years, but today, thousands of years later...if the Ottomans inside could hold out for three days under the fierce attack of the Chu army, then they could be called gods. Possessed.
Because this place still looks like an ordinary city, and there are no complete and thick advanced anti-gun fortifications... The Chu people's naval guns can directly blow this city to rubble in three days.
