I want to be emperor

Chapter 727
On July 26, the 28th year of Chengshun, after a long period of renovations, the more than 2 reinforcements who arrived in Gehe City, India from the mainland have been rested.

Even the horses that were lacking in the cavalry unit were urgently purchased from the nearby indigenous army at a high price.

Today, these ground combat forces are already capable of combat.

At the same time, the many warships of the navy that came from afar have also undergone simple maintenance. Although there is no way to carry out too in-depth maintenance in Gehe City overseas, simple maintenance is still possible. At the same time, the fleet also has its own machinery. Engineers and the raw materials and equipment of various steam engines they carry.

Some minor problems with the steam unit can also be solved on the spot.

After the refurbishment was completed, the land, sea, and guards also started formal operations, arranging the combat plan previously coordinated by the army and navy.

They will divide their troops into three groups at the same time, and attack the European colonies on the east coast of India with Gehe City as the center.

All the way to the north and all the way to the south, both of these routes are to conquer the European colonies on the east coast of India.

The third route is a bit special. They are not attacking the Indian Peninsula itself, but attacking Ceylon Island, the southernmost tip of the Indian Peninsula across the sea.

This place is also the most important island in the Indian Ocean region. It just happens to be stuck in the middle of the Indian Ocean, and it also faces the Indian Peninsula across the sea. This geographical location is destined to become a very important strategic location.

In the sixteenth century, the Portuguese obtained the permission of the local indigenous kingdom under the pretext of trade and began to establish a colonial stronghold on the island, that is, 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 the process, but overall the Portuguese had a certain advantage.

After entering the seventeenth century, the Dutch began to unite with the local aborigines, and then entered the island of Ceylon. It happened that during this period, the Great Chu Empire also entered the Nanyang region, and provided certain support for the Portuguese through trade.

But later, as the Great Chu Empire conspired against Malacca, the Portuguese signed a treaty with the Great Chu Empire after the defeat in Malacca, and finally were able to redeem a large number of captured soldiers, and then transferred these captured soldiers to Ceylon Island to continue fighting The Dutch and the local natives fought.

It's just that the Portuguese were trapped in the war of independence between the native and the Spaniards, unable to get support from the native, and eventually 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 colony on the east coast of India. People and Chu people carve 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 decades ago.

However, after the Dutch replaced the Portuguese, they also had a bad relationship with the local aboriginals, because those aboriginals demanded that the Dutch return the occupied Portuguese colonies.

The Dutch naturally didn't do it, even if they did promise before the war that they would return some of the Portuguese colonies to the local indigenous kingdom, that is, the Kandy Dynasty.

But like any colonist, they had no intention of keeping their promises.

The so-called agreement with the natives, in the eyes of these colonists, is just a piece of scrap paper, if it is useful to them, they will keep it, and if it is not useful to them, they will just lose their ass... Well, the Great Chu Empire did the same.

However, the Great Chu Empire claims to be a state of etiquette, and often signs new agreements with the natives to replace the old ones... If it is to destroy the country, it must be serious to find the natives and sign an agreement to cede territory or merge protocol.

Of course, sometimes it is impossible to find someone to sign a new agreement, so naturally it can only be done.

The Dutch are obviously not a state of etiquette. After they expelled the Portuguese, they directly tore up the agreement with the Kandy Dynasty, directly forcibly occupied many Portuguese colonies on Ceylon Island, and even continued to expand.

Naturally, the local aborigines couldn't beat the Dutch, so they could only retreat back to the mountainous area of ​​the island, and at the same time ask for help from the outside world again.

This time they are asking for help from the Great 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 planning to fight the Dutch, and also wanted to take down the strategically important Ceylon Island.

But... the Great Chu Empire did not agree!
why?
The reason is very simple.

The army of the Great Chu Empire never fought for the natives, never before, not now, and never in the future.

The Great Chu Empire fought the Dutch themselves, and it was their own business to take Ceylon Island, and it had nothing to do with the local natives.

Not to mention that the strategic goal of the Great Chu Empire on the island of Ceylon is not just a coastal area such as Colombo, but the entire island of Ceylon.

For the Great Chu Empire, a strategic location like Ceylon Island is the core location for controlling the entire Indian Ocean and its surrounding areas. Such an important place is absolutely not allowed to have a group of uncivilized aborigines beside it.

How can you allow others to sleep soundly on the side of the couch.

It doesn't make sense.

The Great Chu Empire is planning to take the entire Ceylon Island, and then turn this place directly into an overseas territory directly, enter and start large-scale immigration, and prepare to turn this place into an inseparable part of the Great Chu Empire.

Whether it is the local Dutch or the Kandy Dynasty, they are all targets that need to be eliminated!

After understanding these, you will understand why the Great Chu Empire did not agree to the Kandy Dynasty's request for help.

Even if the 31st Squadron of the Indian Third Task Force of the Great Chu Empire has already escorted a huge transport fleet and a ground combat force of more than 8000 people, it is ready to land on Ceylon Island.

When the huge fleet of the Great Chu Empire arrived at the port of Colombo on the island of Ceylon, it frightened the local Dutch and the natives...

That is a huge fleet of more than 100 ships!
Looking at this huge fleet, the Dutch will feel that the scale of the war between themselves and the Portuguese for the island of Ceylon was like a play.

When the Dutch and the Portuguese were competing for Ceylon Island, especially Colombo, the two sides actually used dozens of ships, and there were usually only a few ships for a single transport of reinforcements, and the transport force was often only a few hundred. .

That's right, there are as few as a few ships, no more than a dozen ships, and hundreds of ground troops. This is the war between the vast number of contemporary European colonists, and even the size and force of the fleet they used when fighting the local aborigines It's about the same size.

By the way, the previous Western Trading Company is almost the same. When carrying out military operations, there are often a few ships, a dozen ships, hundreds, and no more 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!

So the Great Chu Empire directly sent nearly a hundred ships over, including more than 30 ocean-going warships alone, accounting for most of the main force in the third task force.

The huge Suzhou even participated as a flagship.

The ground force is more than 8000 people, mainly composed of more than 20 people from the Second Mixed Regiment of the Guards, the Eighth Marine Battalion of the Navy, and the third battalion under the No.[-] Seventh Heavy Artillery Regiment of the Army.

The task of the Army's [-]rd Heavy Artillery Battalion is mainly to build and deploy shore defense artillery in Colombo after the ground forces captured the city of Colombo.

To put it bluntly, the third battalion of heavy artillery is a coastal defense artillery unit, and all of them are equipped with medium and large-caliber long-tube coastal defense artillery.

Of course, these artillery can also be pulled out to participate in the siege when necessary.

Compared with the few ships of the European colonists and the small fights of hundreds of people, the Great Chu Empire pulled nearly a hundred ships in one breath, and [-] ground troops came over. This battle directly scared the Dutch.

This reminded them of their fiasco in Batavia a few years ago.

At that time, the Chu people also wanted to do what they are doing now, and directly pulled hundreds of ships and tens of thousands of troops to come. As a result, the Dutch, who were superior to the natives, were beaten out of their asses and had to surrender obediently in the end.

After losing the Spice Islands and the city of Batavia, the power of the Dutch East India Company was greatly reduced, and it could only move the company headquarters to Colombo.

But what they didn't expect was that in just a few years, these damn Chu people came to kill them again.

Just looking at the nearly a hundred huge ships in the harbor, the Dutch are desperate.

And the resistance in despair is meaningless. The Great Chu Empire Navy directly blocked the port with more than [-] 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. Many transport ships docked on the shore, and then began to transport troops ashore with small boats. At the same time, many warships ventured closer to provide land fire support at any time.

The Dutch also fought against the Great Chu Empire, and they also had experience in the Battle of Batavia that year. They knew very well that once the Chu people were successfully landed, there would be no need to fight in the future, because the city of Colombo was strong, He couldn't bear the overwhelming artillery fire from the people of Chu.

For this reason, they chose to take the initiative!
More than 100 cavalry, more than 800 infantry, and more than 2000 recruited indigenous servants were killed, trying to kill the Chu army's landing in the cradle.

However, as soon as they arrived at the beach, they were covered by the firepower of many warships of the Great Chu Empire Navy!
Although the combat distance between warships these days is only 300 meters, this distance specifically refers to the dynamic combat between warships.

In the action-to-action mode, the hit rate of the naval gun is very limited, and the effective range is also very far.

But this does not mean that the long-barreled large-caliber naval guns on the battleship can only shoot two to 300 meters away.

In fact, when performing artillery strikes on land, even if these naval guns are affected by the roll of the hull, the shooting accuracy is not very good, but they can still maintain an effective range of several hundred meters.

Especially when launching grenades, you don't need to consider too precise hits like solid shells, you just need to hit the shells roughly on the enemy array.

As a result, seven or eight warships approached the shore at the risk of running aground, and the subsequent land bombardment stunned the Dutch who ran out and tried to snipe on the beach.

The dense and continuous shells exploded above or around the head... It didn't take long for the Dutch to suffer heavy losses.

After finally reaching the beach, it was discovered that the first batch of hundreds of soldiers who landed by the Chu army had already laid out a complete line, and even pulled out several light artillery pieces.

The 115mm light howitzer equipped in the Chu army is very light, and the 115mm light howitzer of the landing force can still be disassembled and transported, and it can be assembled on the spot before the battle.

Even without any hoisting equipment, or even a pier, just use a small boat to land on the beach, and then wading through the water can only rely on the soldiers to resist.

As the landing soldiers fired a dense volley of guns, the Dutch who were still using arquebuses and spears couldn't stand it and retreated. As for the indigenous servants, they were covered by naval guns when they were bombarded on a large scale. , was already frightened and collapsed, no matter how the Dutch drove them away, it was useless, and they just ran away.

A burst of naval artillery bombardment and a round of gunfire from hundreds of pioneer landing troops directly broke the Dutch beachhead sniper plan.

Immediately afterwards, the Dutch did not give up, trying to let the fleet in the port rush out, and then directly destroy the landing of the Chu army from the sea.

After all, they still have a lot of warships in the port of Colombo, a total of five warships, and more than a dozen armed merchant ships.

Strictly speaking, these more than 20 warships or armed merchant ships can also provide hundreds of artillery pieces. In the waters of the Indian Ocean, they are already a considerable sea force.

However, when they rushed out of the port, they found that the warships of the Great Chu Empire Navy on the opposite side did not maneuver according to the direction of the wind as they knew, but completely ignored the direction of the wind and forcibly turned to maneuver. The T prefix is ​​listed in front.

More importantly, they found that one of the large warships of the Chu people was leaving the queue with white smoke, and started shelling when they were 800 meters away from their side.

At first, the Dutch thought that the sailors of the Chu people on the opposite side were of poor quality, so they opened fire at a distance of 800 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 placed 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 frightened them was that the Chu people's battleship on the opposite side actually hit them when they were 800 meters away from their side.

They were all stunned when they watched the superstructure of a warship in front of them explode, followed by the sails igniting a fire.

Chu Manzi on the opposite side, is he lucky?

But Rear Admiral Peng Zhixing on the command bridge of the cruiser Busan put down his binoculars and smiled!

"This front-loading rifled gun is really easy to use, and it can accurately hit the enemy ship at a distance of more than 600 meters."

Just looking at this shelling, Rear Admiral Peng Zhixing can already imagine that when the battle report is sent back to the country, I am afraid that the high-level navy will set off a wave of refitting front-mounted rifled guns immediately.

What is the limited lifespan of the barrel and the high price? Accurately hit the front of the enemy warship at a distance of more than 600 meters, and the shell is so powerful. Just a 150mm shell hit the enemy ship and directly killed a large number of enemy ships. The deck and superstructure personnel even destroyed the sails of the enemy ship.

Such a large effective range and explosive power are enough for the high-level navy to ignore other defects of front-loaded rifled artillery and begin to equip this new artillery on a large scale.

Once the Great Chu Empire's navy is equipped with such front-loading rifled guns on a large scale, it will be able to single-handedly challenge the opponent's fleet without any numerical advantage when facing these European barbarian warships.

Because the warships of the Great Chu Empire Navy also have steam engines... With the use of sails, they can completely ignore the wind direction and turn at will, and at the same time, the speed is higher than that of pure sail warships.

With high speed, flexible maneuverability, and the large range and power of the front-loaded rifled gun, it is completely possible to use kite flying tactics to destroy the warships in the enemy fleet one by one.

While Rear Admiral Peng Zhixing was thinking about the future, other officers and sailors on the cruiser Busan were maintaining high-intensity operations.

The steam engine on the battleship has been running at full power, pushing the cruiser of more than 2000 ships to sail at a speed of eight knots, because the wind direction is not very good, and when the steam engine is running at full power, the smoke from the two chimneys The airflow would interfere with the sails, so the cruiser Busan simply lowered its sails and sailed only with pure steam engine power.

This is also the main ocean-going warship of the Great Chu Empire Navy, and it is the first time that a pure steam engine power is used to propel a warship for combat.

However, this is only the first time for a large-tonnage ocean-going warship. In fact, the navy has already used pure steam power to fight on inland river gunboats. Apart from other things, in West Siberia, the Yenisei River Fleet often uses pure steam power. Steam-powered river gunboats for combat.

Driven by the huge power of the steam engine, the cruiser Pusan ​​maintained a certain course and aimed its side at the Dutch fleet.

The twelve 150mm front-loading rifled guns on the side fired at an armed merchant ship on the far right in the Dutch fleet!
With the sound of rumbling guns, 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 sail A large number of ropes and canvases were broken and even burned.

As for pure sailing ships, once the sails are knocked out, they will completely lose power, which is no different from a dead fish on the sea.

After the cruiser Busan paralyzed the second enemy armed merchant ship, it turned its guns and continued to shell the third enemy ship.

This is a professional warship of the Dutch, with a displacement of over 1000 and [-] tons. In fact, ordinary colonial companies do not have battleships of this tonnage. However, because of the continuous threats from the Chu people, the Dutch were transferred from China. This large-tonnage battleship was used 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 5 minutes on the Busan... During these 5 minutes, it was hit by three shells in a row.

If it was hit by three solid shells, it would be nothing to a battleship of more than 1000 tons, but the problem is that the Chu Empire Navy does not like to use solid shells in naval battles, but prefers to use grenades.

The purpose of combat 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 finished.

It also turned into a dead fish floating on the sea!
Immediately afterwards, the cruiser Busan aimed at the fourth Dutch warship!
And in this process, let alone the Dutch, even the Navy of the Great Chu Empire was dumbfounded watching this scene...

Vice Admiral Kong Liangping, the commander of the Third Task Force on the battleship Suzhou, looked at the Busan, which singled out the entire fleet with a single blow, and then looked at the four battleships and a dozen cruisers that were doing nothing behind. Frigate...

He is speechless!
According to this rhythm, I am afraid that the main fleet that is waiting for it will have to become a spectator... because the battle has been finished by the cruiser Pusan.

Now he finally understands why before the battle, Major General Peng Zhixing insisted on applying to take the Busan to the battle first...

It seems that Major General Peng Zhixing had expected this scene again!
But this is also good, the Pusan ​​has shown its prowess, and it has further proved that the combination of steam engines and front-mounted rifled guns has great potential.

After this battle is over, when I write my own battle report, it is time to vigorously explain the huge tactical and strategic role of front-loading rifled guns.

With the front-loading rifled guns, when the Great Chu Empire's navy faced those indigenous navies in the future, they could even dispatch a few warships at will to beat the opponent.

This is very useful for the Great Chu Empire Navy, which has a limited overall scale and cannot grow infinitely, but needs to control more and more sea areas.

The current plan of [-] ocean-going warships of the Great Chu Empire Navy sounds too much, but there are also many sea areas that the Great Chu Empire Navy needs to control!
The Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and the Atlantic Ocean will have to be added in the future, and then some other marginal seas and so on.

How many ships are needed in this place, and how many ships are needed in that place, all these things add up to be too many.

In addition, it is impossible for warships to perform missions all the time, but some of them will be on the road, and some will be in a state of maintenance in the port.

This means that among the [-] ocean-going warships in the Great Chu Empire's navy, the number of warships that are on missions in daily life is no more than two-thirds when there are more, and even one-third when there are fewer.

As long as major strategic missions are being carried out, more warship forces can 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 Great Chu Empire seems to have [-] warships, but it is not enough to control the global seas.

At least Vice Admiral Kong Liangping feels that the current warship performance is not enough.

After all, the tonnage of most warships is too small and their endurance is limited.

At the same time, the speed is too slow to reach the hot spots in time.

The firepower of the smoothbore naval gun is limited, and the firepower advantage of a single ship is limited. Let alone the sling, in fact, even the current battleship Suzhou seems to be huge, but it can only fight the Dutch battleship at 300. Bomb each other at a distance of meters...

Under the bombardment of each other, there will naturally be losses. It is impossible to fight with the enemy ship hanging from a distance like the current cruiser Busan.

I have already paralyzed three enemy ships, but I have nothing to do... At a distance of more than 600 meters, the Dutch warships did not even have a chance to fire.

Among the three major problems, there is no good solution for the slow speed. We can only wait for the follow-up steam engine technology to continue to break through, and strive to make the warship have a speed of more than ten knots or even more pure steam engine power as soon as possible.

As for the hull being too small, the navy has gradually solved it by enlarging its warships. However, due to the cost of shipbuilding, it is impossible for the navy to enlarge the hull too much. A frigate of more than 800 tons is almost enough. If it is bigger, it will be very difficult.

But for the firepower, Vice Admiral Kong Liangping now sees the solution: replace the smoothbore gun with a front-loading rifled gun!
With a steam engine and a rifled cannon, just playing kite-flying tactics can kill those native barbarians!

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 of Busan is over, let's rest early.

The Dutch were not fools after losing many warships in a long-distance connection. Seeing that the situation was not right, they began to retreat back to the port.

In the process, the cruiser Pusan ​​followed and destroyed the sail of an armed merchant ship.

So... 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 Busan killed three enemy ships with a single blow before the main fleets of the two sides came into contact with each other, and another one was killed during the pursuit. Then the four lost power Dutch ships had to surrender.

Front-loading rifled gun, fight to fame!
(End of this chapter)