1825 My New Daming

Chapter 111 Using the way of the other, return the boat to the other

To the east of the Luzon Islands, on the Pacific Ocean, the night has gradually fallen, and a fleet of ten East India Company sailing ships is plowing white waves on the sea.

That's right, ten sailboats!And it's not a motor sailboat, but a large sailboat with full sails. This is the pinnacle of the British Empire's shipbuilding industry, and it is a ship type that can far leave the Ming Dynasty shipbuilding industry behind.

This type of sailboat is called the "East India Company Sailboat". It was originally ordered by the East India Company from the British shipbuilding industry to run the Ming-India-Europe route.Even though they are all full-sail sailboats, they have an astonishing deadweight tonnage of more than 8000 tons, and their full-load displacement can reach 47 to 6000 tons.Driven by as many as 20 sails with a total area of ​​more than [-] and nearly [-] square meters, the maximum speed of these sailing ships can reach an astonishing [-] knots or more!
And it is not manpower that is used to maneuver so many sails, but winches driven by small boilers and steam engines.Therefore, the number of crew required to operate such a large sailboat is only forty or fifty.

In addition, this type of sailboat has excellent seaworthiness, and it can sail in strong winds of level 9, which is simply a miracle in the sailing world!
On the right side of these ten miracles in the sailing world, there are also ten steam battleships, including two ironclad ships (one of which is the Sovereign-class "Revenge"), three dome-clad cruisers, and five torpedo boat destroyers.

The smoke from dozens of steam warships went straight up to the sky, looking very imposing.And above those big sailboats, although there was no black smoke from the steam boilers, there were ten pure white airships floating, being dragged forward by the big sailboats with ropes, which contrasted nicely with the black smoke from the steamships.

The setting sun sprinkled from the western sky, sprinkled on the white airship and sails, passed through the black smoke, and reflected on the sea, sparkling.Between the sea and the sky, if there is a murderous air.

On every ship in this fleet, the Union Jack symbolizing the British Empire is flying.And on those ten steam warships, the white flag of the British Royal Navy is even waving!

Although the Ming Empire possessed powerful southern and northern ocean fleets, there were no planes, no radars, let alone satellites, and there was a hidden radio, so the Ming Navy was not capable of operating in the vast Pacific Ocean to the east of the Luzon Islands. full control.

Besides, Ming has not declared war with Great Britain yet. Even if the fleet of the British Empire goes out of Malacca and crosses the Bashi Strait to visit Japan, as long as it does not pass through the territorial waters of the Ming Empire, the Ming Navy has no reason to stop them——Da Ming himself Didn't you also send a naval formation to Petersburg for a friendly visit a few days ago?On the way to Petersburg and back from Petersburg, they even crossed the English Channel!
On the "Revenge", the flagship of the British Royal Navy's escort formation, George Elliot, the formation commander who had just been promoted to brigadier general, was standing on the deck next to the 13.5-inch (343mm) main gun at the stern, holding on to the Looking up at the small airships being dragged forward by the East India Company's galleons, the corners of his mouth were slightly raised, looking very proud.Because these seemingly inconspicuous small airships will definitely start a new mode of naval warfare in the near future-airship bombing!
Although the airship was invented by Ming Dynasty, this kind of invention is something that can be seen at a glance. Of course, the British Empire, which also has an industrial civilization, can also be seen at a glance.

However, British rigid airships are still less interesting than Daming's rigid airships.At present, the UK cannot build an airship as big as the "Flying Dragon III", because the gasoline engine in the UK is not as good as that of Ming Dynasty, and the sealing of the hydrogen air bag is also a little worse.Therefore, large airships cannot be built, but small airships with shorter voyages and lighter loads can only be built.

But small also has small advantages, for example, it can be easily towed by ships, and it is not easy to be found compared to large boats, and it is not easy to be hit by ground and sea fire.

If you want to transport a large number of soldiers to airborne behind enemy lines or load many bombs to bomb enemy cities, large boats are definitely the best choice.But to use airships to sneak attack fleets parked in enemy ports, small boats are undoubtedly more useful.After all, the "small airship" of the British Royal Navy is actually not particularly small, and it can also be loaded with at least two 260-pound armor-piercing bombs (that is, the armor-piercing bombs of 8-inch naval guns and shore guns with a wooden tail) for air strikes!

Since the bombs fell from above the battleship, the ones hit must be the unarmored decks, superstructures or the top of the turrets. Even giant ships such as the Sovereign Class and the Hongwu Great Emperor Class cannot withstand a 260-pound bomb. The explosion of the armor-piercing bomb!

At this time, on the airships floating in the sky, the ropes used to connect the large sailboats were disconnected one by one, and then the propellers on both sides of the cabins of these airships suddenly started to rotate, pushing these airships forward together, forming a group in the sky. column.One after another, ten airships quickly passed over the formation of the British Royal Navy at sea, then turned in the sky ahead, and flew towards the head of the "Revenge" battleship one after another. , and lowered the altitude while flying.By the time these airships finally passed over the "Revenge", the altitude had dropped to a position less than 100 meters from the sea level.

George Elliot stared at these airships intently, and nodded in satisfaction when he saw that each airship had completed the simulated attack.His cousin, who originally served as an ordnance officer on another "Sovereign" class ship under the Indian Grand Fleet, is now transferred to his cousin to serve as the chief staff officer on the "Revenge". to his side.At this time, he whispered to his cousin: "George, these yellow-skinned monkeys are not stupid, they learn things very quickly, and they can control the airship well in such a short time. I just don't know if Japan will dare to go there." Enemy against the Ming Empire?"

It turns out that those who piloted the airship to carry out the simulated attack just now were overseas military officers sent by the Japanese Navy to the British Royal Navy’s Indian Fleet for internship. The Japanese Navy and the British Royal Navy have a long-standing cooperative relationship and have been sending naval students to the UK. The internship unit has always been the Indian Grand Fleet.

When Earl Nelson sent a formation to escort the East India Company's galleon to Japan, he dispatched all these overseas students to the formation commander George Elliott.

At the same time, Earl Nelson realized the great value of the airship, so he gathered all the airships owned by the Indian Grand Fleet, organized an airship bombing force, and changed a batch of armor-piercing bombs with 8-inch armor-piercing bombs.

After George Elliot learned that Nelson had started to form an airship bombing force, he immediately thought that he could send more airships to the Japanese. After all, the next game between Ming and Ying would inevitably take place in Japan.

Hearing his cousin's question now, George Elliot replied with a smile: "Of course Japan does not dare to be an enemy of the Ming Empire, but whether they will be an enemy of the Ming Empire does not depend on their daring or not, but on the strength of the Ming Empire." Do you want to suppress Japan! Da Ming is different from our Great Britain. She is the only great empire in the East, and she is almost the entire civilization of East Asia! Japan has always been on the edge of East Asian civilization. Although it has been cruelly exploited and suppressed by Da Ming, It was not suppressed by Da Ming. It’s not that Da Ming couldn’t do it, but she was unwilling to pay the corresponding price. And now, since Da Ming has decided to break with me, Da Ying, she will definitely suppress Japan before she breaks! Because only Japan can be suppressed. , East Asia will become monolithic! The resources and territories controlled by East Asian civilizations are not as many as our Western civilizations. If they cannot become a whole, then Ming will be at a disadvantage in the struggle with our Western civilizations. Japan, even if Knowing that your ultimate destiny is to be suppressed, you will do your best to resist!"

"Resistance? Why do you have to do your best to resist?" Charlie Elliot didn't quite understand, "It's futile."

"No, that's not in vain." George Elliot said, "Japan's resistance determines her value, and also determines her status after being suppressed by Ming Dynasty!

So the twenty airships we gave them (ten more were dismantled and loaded on galleons) and four hundred 260-pound armor-piercing bombs will certainly come in handy! "

(End of this chapter)