1825 My New Daming

Chapter 296 Hood vs. Guan Tianpei (please subscribe, ask for a monthly ticket)
At the entrance to the east of the Strait of Malacca, there are actually countless islands and reefs, which "block" the not-so-open waterway to the point where there is only the area between Temasek Island and Batam Island in the north, the narrowest of which is less than 10. Kilometers of waterways are completely unimpeded.Since Batam Island originally belonged to the declining Dutch, they could no longer enjoy the good food of the International Trade Node, so Temasek Island became the gateway and pearl of the British Empire in the East.

However, this situation changed after Ming Dynasty ceded Batam Island and Bintan Island a few years ago.The area of ​​Batam Island is comparable to that of Temasek Island, while Bintan Island is larger than Temasek Island.The two islands are only connected, and the closest distance is less than 8 kilometers. There are scattered islands in the middle that can be used as a "strength". When encountering an infrastructure madman like Daming, it is good to develop it, and I am afraid that we will not be able to snatch the oil and water of Temasek Island. ?

So after Daming took these two islands, he started the big infrastructure construction, and it has only been about two years now.Batam Island and Bintan Island have already erected many forts, military ports, watchtowers, barracks, warehouses, and built airship fields (airports) and reservoirs in the open areas of the islands.

The Nanyang Fleet also deployed a minesweeper brigade on Batam Island. In addition to laying mines, it also continued to conduct channel surveys to the south and west of Batam Island, and soon found several "giant ships" that could pass [-] tons. the waterway.

However, in order for these waterways to play a safe and effective role in wartime, it is best to send troops to land on the surrounding small islands, build outposts, radio stations, and lighthouses, and then deploy some torpedo boats and gunboats to patrol back and forth. It would be more appropriate to use a cheap beggar's version of the battleship (shallow water heavy gunship).

After taking these islands and opening up the waterway, the large fleet commanded by Guan Tianpei can freely enter and exit the Strait of Malacca outside the coverage of Temasek Island's cannon fire.

As long as the main force of the Nanyang Fleet can freely enter and exit the strait, it can surround Temasek Island from the sea, and send the landing force to any beachhead that can land on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula west of Temasek Island-the small coastal port on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula. There are many, if you take one at random, the Nanyang Fleet will be able to transport the troops of the Nanyang Corps of the Ming Army currently deployed in Pattani to the back of the British and Indian defense line, and the British and Indian defense line will collapse completely.

Oh, by the way, these islands favored by the Ming Nanyang Fleet are all assets of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.But now the Dutch don't intend to get involved in the war between the Chinese and the Indians. After all, neither the "English father" nor the "beautiful brother" of the Indians came to an end. Why are the Dutch so stupid?
Moreover, the Dutch's own Belgian brothers are still fighting for independence during this time, which has already made the French king very anxious-the Dutch territory Belgium is fighting for independence.This is because it was the Bonapartists who fought for independence in Belgium. They wanted Napoleon II to be the king of Belgium. During this time, Louis XVII wanted to send troops to help the Dutch maintain their territorial integrity, but the army under him was not A "true Bonapartist" is a "spiritual Bonapartist"!
In desperation, Louis XVII had no choice but to negotiate with Nicholas I, and wanted to use the French navy to pull tens of thousands of bear soldiers to Belgium to help the Dutch maintain their territorial integrity. Now the Dutch quit, and the Netherlands is divided or not. What's the matter with France and Rakshasa?Why do they interfere?After the intervention of France and Rakshasa, is the Netherlands still an independent country?

Therefore, King William I of the Netherlands asked Britain and Prussia for help, wanting them to stop the collusion between Rakshasa and France in order to resolve the Belgian crisis peacefully.

In short, the Dutch can't even handle the affairs of their homeland, let alone the affairs of the Dutch East Indies. Therefore, after the Dutch government learned that the main force of the Ming Navy's Nanyang Fleet was dispatched, they very cooperatively declared their neutrality. , and all the Dutch islands at the eastern entrance of the Strait of Malacca were designated as war zones.Let Daying and Da Ming fight casually there, anyway, the Dutch don't care.

Regardless of the Dutch, it is of course impossible for the British and Indian troops in Malaya to divide their troops to guard so many islands. They have a total of 10,000+ troops, and they are already a little bit defending a series of strongholds on the Malay Peninsula and the two fortresses of Temasek and Malacca. It's too tight, and it's definitely not enough to divide the troops to guard the island.

Therefore, the British and Indian troops stationed in Malaya seemed to have to watch helplessly as the Nanyang Fleet of the Ming Navy dispatched marines to seize the small islands at the entrance of the Strait of Malacca one by one.

Before this series of small islands were captured one by one, the main force of the fleet led by Guan Tianpei was cautiously in the waters south of Batam, west of Lempang Island and Galang Island.

"Military Gate, the airship has spotted the British-Indian fleet!"

On Guan Tianpei's flagship Hongwu Emperor, the chief of staff of the fleet, Ge Yunfei, took a telegram from the communication staff officer, glanced at it and shouted: "There are a total of 15 shallow-water heavy gunships, 20 third-class cruisers, destroyers or small gunboats. , has sailed out of Temasek’s naval base, and is sailing northwest along the Malay Peninsula. It seems that it is about to withdraw to Penang Port.”

"What are they going to do?" Guan Tianpei, who was standing on the edge of the chart platform and watched the staff inserting small sun and moon flags symbolizing the Great Tomorrow Dynasty on the small islands on the map, thought for a while, then Already have the answer, "They must want to let us enter the Strait of Malacca, and then send shallow water heavy artillery ships and torpedo boats to attack when we land on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula!"

The Strait of Malacca is in a windless zone, with calm seas and narrow terrain, which is not conducive to the activities of large surface fleets, but is conducive to the activities of ships such as shallow water heavy artillery ships and torpedo boats.

If 15 shallow-water heavy artillery ships and a group of torpedo boats were suddenly killed when the Ming army organized a landing, it would be a lot of fun!

Ge Yunfei said: "Junmen, our formation of island-level shallow-water heavy gunships has not arrived yet, why don't we send out patrol units and bring torpedo boats to chase after them!"

Of course, Daming also has cheap and high-quality "beggar's version of battleships" such as shallow water heavy gunships.Moreover, Daming's shallow-water heavy gunships are a bit better than Daying's shallow-water heavy gunships-Daying's shallow-water heavy gunships are at best the "beggar's version", while Daming's shallow-water heavy gunships are at least the "youth version".Among them, the most representative one is the "Dao" class shallow-water heavy artillery ship named after the small island owned by Ming Dynasty.

The design of the "Island" class draws on the ideas of the "Four Heavenly Kings" in Japan next door, and is divided into the "Island 320" type that uses the "face" to attack people and the "Island 12" type that uses the "butt" to fight against the enemy.Moreover, they are larger and stronger than the British shallow-water gunboats. They generally have a standard displacement of seven to eight thousand tons. They are equipped with double-mounted 8mm heavy guns, and their power in offshore combat is quite amazing.The disadvantage is that the speed is too slow, the fastest can only run to 16 knots, and the economic speed is only [-] knots.Therefore, the fifth heavy artillery fleet, composed of [-] "island" class ships assigned to the Nanyang Fleet, is still on the way slowly!

"Give orders to Chen Lianfeng!" Guan Tianpei immediately made a decision, "Let him lead the fourth armored cruiser team to attack and then give an order to the airship base on Batam Island to send a few more airships to search the sky over the Strait of Malacca, beware of fraud !"

"Yes, Junmen!"

Contrary to the expectations of Guan Tianpei and Ge Yunfei, the veteran of the Nanyang Fleet, Rear Admiral Chen Huacheng, led the 10th Armored Patrol Unit with 1500 armored cruisers as the main force, and carefully left the temporary anchorage south of Batam Island. When passing through a pile of small islands, embarking on the journey of chasing the British and Indian fleet.Near the Ten Degrees Strait, about [-] kilometers away from the eastern entrance of the Strait of Malacca, a huge British-Indian fleet composed of hundreds of ships of various types, like a group of monsters lurking and waiting for their prey, is waiting for the Straits Fleet Telegram!
(End of this chapter)