1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2671
With an order, the flagship Zhoushan opened fire first, shooting at several unmanned sailing ships floating on the sea several miles away.And the entire United Fleet also launched a battle formation, aiming the sideboard at the target and starting to pour firepower.The sound of rumbling guns spread along the sea surface, and could be heard even tens of miles away.

Although this simple target-shooting exercise method cannot fully simulate the actual situation of a sea battle, the scene is indeed lively enough, and this is exactly what upper-level figures like Li Yan expect to see in the military exercise.

For North Korea, the purpose of injecting huge military expenditures into naval forces for more than ten years is of course to build a maritime armed force with strong combat effectiveness.Even if the strength cannot reach the same level as the Haihan Navy, it is enough for Li Yan to be able to narrow the gap to the point where they can fight side by side at sea.

And how the combat effectiveness of a powerful fleet can be intuitively reflected in a short period of time, perhaps live ammunition shooting is an excellent way.Even if the viewers are purely laymen, the momentum of dozens of large and small ships firing together is enough to shatter any doubts. Strong ships and sharp guns are the last word.This is not anyone's fantasy, but the truth proved by the Haihan Armed Fleet's actual record in the past 20 years.

Li Yan very much agrees with this truth, as he understands that the level of combat power is directly linked to the intensity of firepower.He knew very well how Haihan blocked the coast of Liaodong with an armed fleet back then, and the frequent landing raids made Manqing miserable; and the cross-sea conquest of the Hirado Domain, Haihan relied on the fleet's equipment advantages to forcefully attack The Hirado Fleet, known as Japan's No. [-] navy, collapsed.

These battle examples all prove the importance of firepower. Li Yan also followed this idea in building the new navy army, pursuing the supremacy of firepower.It just made him regret that Haihan refused to export the most advanced breech-loading naval guns, so the artillery equipped by the North Korean navy was still the old-style breech-loading guns, with short range, low rate of fire, and relatively limited power. .

With this salvo, the difference in combat effectiveness between the ships of the two countries was immediately revealed.It took about three rounds of shooting for the Haihan Fleet to complete a round of shooting for the North Korean navy. If this was an opponent on the battlefield, I am afraid that they would have been beaten to death long ago.

Of course, if it wasn't for competing with Hai Han, then the firepower of the North Korean Navy would have been considerable. At least with the neighboring Manchus and Japan, they definitely don't have armed fleets with the same combat effectiveness.Even Daming, the past suzerain of North Korea, is no longer as good as North Korea in terms of maritime armament.This would have been 20 years ago, but it was a scene that Li Yan could not have imagined.

With the pouring of artillery fire from the United Fleet, several target ships were quickly and completely destroyed, and the broken bodies slowly sank into the sea.However, the exercise was not over. Immediately afterwards, the Zhoushan issued an order, and the fleet was divided into two groups to carry out an amphibious landing operation on a small island ten miles to the south.

The process of Haihan's expansion is inseparable from naval warfare, and amphibious landing warfare is also one of the special skills of the Haihan Army.From the early intervention in the Annan Civil War, to the subsequent large-scale operations aimed at expanding the sphere of influence from the south to the north, almost every foreign war will have a landing operation.

The combat experience of the North Korean Navy in this area is much worse. After all, the strength was not good before, so they could only do odd jobs behind the Haihan Fleet and be responsible for some logistics and transportation tasks. There is no turn for the North Korean army in amphibious operations. debut.Later, the new army was established, and after several years of operation, it gradually formed its combat effectiveness. However, at this stage, both the Qing Dynasty and Japan had surrendered to Haihan, and there was no target for North Korea to launch a landing war.

However, the North Korean new army has always been under the tutelage of Haihan. Since Haihan's military training particularly emphasized the importance of amphibious landing warfare, it is natural to follow suit.Although it seems that I have learned the skill of dragon slaying now, it may come in handy sometime in the future.

On the Zhoushan, Li Yan held up binoculars and looked towards the shore of the island. While observing the enemy's fortifications set up in advance on the island, he listened to Shi Chengwu and Wang Anguo's explanation of the landing operation.

The arrangement of the landing exercise is to attack the fortifications on an island preset by an enemy country. The area of ​​the uninhabited island as the preset battlefield is not too large, so when the fleet is divided into two pincers to attack, friendly troops can still be seen on the sea. s position.The chosen landing point was the two ends of a long beach, and the two fleets attacked one end each.

It is not difficult to lower the small boats from the troop carrier and let the soldiers equipped with muskets row into the beach. The real difficult part is to clear the beachhead and strike land targets with artillery fire, clearing the way for the landing force.

This tactic has relatively high requirements for the shooting accuracy of the shipboard firepower, otherwise it will not matter if the cleaning effect is not achieved, and it will be troublesome if it accidentally injures the friendly troops who landed.

However, the shooting angle adjustment of the old-style artillery is more troublesome, and the shooting range is short. A slight deviation in the angle may smash the shells on the heads of your own troops.If the sea conditions are bad and the wind and waves are strong, the risk will increase by a few points.

Therefore, in this exercise, for the sake of safety, it is the Haihan ships that carry out the firepower strikes on the shore, while the North Korean Navy is only responsible for the troop projection.

Although Li Yan really wanted to see his own fleet as the main force in the exercise, he also knew that this exercise subject was a bit out of line for his troops. If it was stronger, it might cause trouble, so in the end he did not oppose Haihan's arrangement.

But in order to show his military knowledge, Li Yan still took the initiative to ask: "If the enemy has set up heavy firepower fortifications like coastal defense batteries on the coast, is our fleet safe? Can the ship-borne weapons guarantee fire suppression?"

Wang Anguo replied: "It depends on the specific situation. Generally speaking, the range of the more common coastal defense guns in this period is only two or three miles away. If we want to ensure safety, we can keep the fleet's position within the range of enemy firepower." Then use Zhoushan's main guns to carry out unilateral strikes. But we are more likely to adopt a tactic that the fleet will approach the island shore, use intensive firepower to destroy the enemy's fortifications on the beach first, and let the infantry forcefully land on the beach to establish a beachhead. Then move forward step by step to clear those fortifications that are far from the beachhead."

Fearing that he might not understand, Shi Chengwu continued the topic and explained: "Our combat goal is to establish a beachhead. As long as we have a beachhead, we can transport the artillery ashore. The accuracy of launching an artillery attack from the shore will be far better than Shipboard firepower."

(End of this chapter)