The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 353 Raid on the Dardanelles
On the same day, fighting officially broke out in Tashkent, southern India, the northwest Persian Gulf, and the eastern coast of the Mediterranean.

The Mediterranean Fleet directly commanded by Nelson and the Tianfang Theater Air Force directly under the charge of Tian Yiming also officially began operations at the same time.

During the war preparation period, the main fleet in the Mediterranean region, the main air force units in the Arabian theater, and part of the air force units in the Balkan theater were concentrated on Crete.

The naval base and several air force bases on Crete are already full.

Three days before the battle, all troops were ready, all warships were refueled and ammunition, and all aircraft completed the final round of maintenance.

The day before the battle began, the navy fleet's boilers were started in advance for preheating, and the air force's aircraft were refueled and loaded with ammunition for actual combat.

The aircraft groups responsible for reconnaissance, patrol and surveillance took turns patrolling the Aegean Sea to track and confirm the movements of the Ottoman fleet.

On the day the war officially broke out, after the combat order jointly signed by Nelson and Tian Yiming was issued, the troops that were ready to go immediately began to act step by step.

Compared with the Air Force, the Navy's movement speed was slower, so they were the first to weigh anchor and set sail at four in the morning.

The fleet maintained a speed of 50 kilometers per hour, taking a route as far away from the surrounding islands as possible, bypassing Ottoman patrol ships and heading deep into the Aegean Sea.

Then set off a large number of transport ships, carrying the army landing troops from the Tianfang war zone, responsible for capturing important coastal targets.

Both the Ottoman Sultan and the Grand Vizier believed that the Ming Dynasty would most likely officially launch the attack today.

Although the two did not believe what tactics the Ming Dynasty would adopt, they naturally arranged more patrol fleets in advance to patrol the Aegean Sea and the two straits.

However, these sailing patrol ships were of no significance to the Ming Navy, as they were soon completely destroyed by the Ming patrol aircraft fleet.

The Ming Navy fleet's navigation was not affected by wind direction and ocean currents, and could easily avoid these patrol fleets.

Silently crossing the entire Aegean Sea and heading straight for the Dardanelles.

However, as the naval fleet sails, a few warships will be left behind every certain distance to form a covering fleet.

The Air Force also arranged a corresponding cover detachment, which took off one after another and headed for the Aegean Sea shortly after the naval fleet set sail to cooperate with the cover fleet in combat.

Their mission was to destroy Ottoman patrol fleets and blockade the Aegean Sea, prohibiting any uncontrolled shipping entry or exit.

The end of the Ottoman Aegean patrol fleet, which had been unilaterally lit up, had come.

The Air Force can directly attack the Ottoman wooden ships, but it cannot ensure the complete destruction of the ships. The key is that the Air Force cannot land directly and cannot fully control the people on the ship.

Therefore, the Air Force must cooperate with the Navy, and both sides will officially launch the attack only after the cover fleet on the sea arrives at the scene.

Aircraft guide and suppress in the air, and warships attack and control at close range at sea.

On the sparkling sea, the Ming Dynasty's steel warships could always unilaterally discover the Ottoman wooden ships first.

Then they shortened the distance to less than one kilometer, fired a few shots to destroy the enemy ships, and finally got closer to rescue the prisoners.

Use loud speakers to tell them that they can surrender and will not be killed.

There must have been a large number of accidental deaths among Ottoman sailors, and many also escaped by diving or swimming.

However, it would probably take three or even five days for these escaped fish to get ashore alive and send the news back to Istanbul.

By that time, the war had already fully unfolded, and the actions of the Ming army no longer needed to be kept secret.

The covering fleet commander knew that he could not capture all of the other side's enemies.

The mission of the covering fleet is to cover the actions of the main fleet, but in theory it only needs to be kept secret for about a day.

For the officers and men of the Ottoman patrol boat, today's operation was a nightmare.

They had no confidence in their mission, and it was well known that the Ming Dynasty's navy was powerful.

They knew that once they encountered the Ming navy, they would inevitably lose miserably, so there was no need to even consider the issue of victory.

But they still couldn't imagine that they would lose like a dream.

They were clearly in their own country's internal waters, and they were clearly a patrol boat that had been prepared in advance.

But it turned out that the Ming Navy seemed to be local and knew the surrounding situation very well.

Instead, I felt like an intruder, completely in the dark about the battlefield.

He was unilaterally discovered by the Ming Navy and then unilaterally bombarded.

In the end, only one or two shells hit his own boat, and he was completely blown away.

His whole body felt like it was being cut by a knife, his heart was filled with boundless fear, and he fell from a high altitude into the sea.

He could see that his ship had been shattered into pieces and was burning.

The most dreamlike thing was the terrifying sound that echoed across the entire sea, as if a god was shouting loudly across the sea and sky:

"This is the Mediterranean Fleet of the Ming Navy. All Ottoman Navy officers, soldiers and sailors must surrender immediately. If you surrender, you will be spared. Otherwise, you will be killed without mercy!"

The officers and sailors of the Ottoman patrol fleet, whether they had been blown away, fell into the water, or were lucky enough to still be in the cabin, were still intact and healthy.

Facing this battlefield that was like a massacre between gods, and listening to the terrifying threats between the entire Tianhai, there was only one thought in my mind.

"I am willing to surrender. I don't want to die..."

Zhu Jianxuan himself actually did not realize that the huge role of the huge electric loudspeaker in this era could produce an effect most similar to the miracles imagined by ordinary people.

If this thing is used to play tricks, anyone who is not a fanatic with particularly strong faith may be shaken.

Ten hours after the operation began, the first main air force forces set off.

At the twelfth hour of the operation, that is, around four o'clock in the afternoon, the main air force and the main navy arrived outside the Dardanelles Strait at the same time.

The first direct battle in the Mediterranean finally began.

The Dardanelles is 1,200 meters wide at its narrowest point and 6,400 meters wide at its widest point, and is about three kilometers wide in most places.

The traditional artillery of this era was installed on fixed gun platforms on land. Its accuracy was slightly higher than that of sailing warships and could barely completely block the strait from both sides.

In recent years, the Ottomans have also built a large number of floating artillery batteries at sea, which are connected by chains and placed in wider areas of the strait to supplement defense.

Three horizontal iron locks were also prepared in several narrower places, and were placed on the sea surface with floating boats to control entry and exit of the strait.

According to the Ottomans' understanding, any army that entered the strait would be trapped here, and it would be impossible to pass through, let alone pass quickly.

Even if the enemy has the ability to destroy these defense facilities, they will have to prepare tools under the surrounding coastal artillery, and it will take a long time to actually open the passage, which will definitely result in heavy losses.

After Istanbul in the rear received the news, it could dispatch troops and ships to support and have enough time to evacuate. The key point was that they could not imagine what the current state of the Ming army was.

The Ming Air Force formed an attack group with 64 aircraft and a total of 32 ground-based attack groups and arrived over the Dardanelles Strait.

There is no way to unify the command of such a large fleet, nor is there any way to coordinate operations.

The missions of each attack aircraft group are separate. They all take off at the scheduled time according to the predetermined plan and attack the predetermined target at the scheduled time.

There is no way to change the target midway, and there is no way to adjust the battle plan midway.

But this was enough, as their enemies had no effective air defense at all, neither anti-aircraft machine guns nor fighter jets.

The Ming Air Force can almost unilaterally do whatever it wants.

Because its main task was to cooperate with the navy and the army in combat, the aircraft of the Ming Air Force were mainly small attack aircraft, especially those on the battlefield of the Dardanelles.

The aircraft groups participating in the operation arrived at the Dardanelles one after another and communicated with the fleet on the sea by radio to confirm the start of the mission.

Then they officially launched air strikes on the Ottoman troops around the Strait.

The main naval fleet left the aircraft carriers and a small escort fleet in the Aegean Sea, and all other main gunboats forced their way into the Dardanelles.

The Ottoman defenders in the fortresses, fortresses, and batteries on both sides of the strait, and the Ottoman defenders on the floating batteries and floating ships in the strait, finally began to experience this unprecedented, horrific and catastrophic battle.

Although they had been notified and knew that a major war might break out today, they were not fully prepared at all.

Because they took it for granted that the battle would first break out in the open sea.

In the southern part of the Greek peninsula, the southwestern part of the Asia Minor peninsula, and in the Persian Gulf and the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea.

They did not expect that the Ming Dynasty would directly cross the Aegean Sea and attack the Dardanelles.

Nor did they expect that the attack would begin with a super-large fleet of aircraft.

They soon encountered the same situation as the defenders of the Persian Gulf and Tashkent. All their open-air artillery positions were first directly overturned by bombs.

Castles with walls that were not thick or strong enough would be blown down directly, and open-air military camps and warehouses would be directly engulfed in flames.

There were bomb explosions, roaring flames, and people screaming and wailing everywhere. The originally quiet and peaceful world suddenly turned into the end of the world.

A large number of soldiers died on the spot, and more were injured, hit, and burned by shrapnel, fragments, and building debris.

The soldiers who were still alive no longer had any desire to fight and desperately wanted to escape from the area.

Only a few soldiers inside the fortress were still in a relatively safe environment. The explosion did not directly hurt them, but they were already frightened.

The Ottoman defense forces that had been prepared for several years were basically paralyzed after the Ming Air Force's attack began.

When the Ming Dynasty's main gunboats broke into the strait, they suffered almost no attack.

The floating artillery blocking the sea surface quickly rolled and sank into the water, burning, under the fire of the secondary guns of the Ming Navy gunboats.

The iron chains intercepting the sea surface, due to their enormous weight, need to be lifted up in sections by floating boats on the river so that they can barely remain on the sea surface.

Most of the floating boats were destroyed or set on fire, losing their buoyancy.

The iron chain on the boat sank rapidly, and the huge gravity of the iron chain turned into a pulling force, pulling out the fixed pillars on both sides.

The intercepting function of the iron lock across the river has also been lost.

Most of the main gunboats passed directly through the strait and continued across the Sea of ​​Marmara, heading straight for the city of Istanbul.

Before the defeated soldiers in the Dardanelles escape to Istanbul, block the Bosphorus Strait under the city of Istanbul and launch an attack on the city of Istanbul as soon as possible.

Only a small fleet was left to cooperate with the army on the subsequent transport ships to seize and control the artillery batteries, fortresses and other facilities on both sides of the strait.

Control the Dardanelles and the waterway to Istanbul. Do not allow the fleet entering the Sea of ​​Marmara to become isolated, otherwise Istanbul will not be captured.

The Ottomans had long been aware of the strength of the Ming navy, so in the years after deciding to become the enemy of the Ming, they built many fortresses on both sides of the strait.

In particular, several of them have been transformed into star-shaped fortresses, with stone brick walls and thick earthen defenses.

Even if all of the Ming Dynasty's naval artillery were rapid-fire cannons and were all loaded with trinitrotoluene, it would still be difficult to quickly and forcibly destroy these fortresses.

The most efficient way is to use aircraft and artillery to provide cover, rendering the fortress's artillery ineffective and allowing soldiers to break in from the ground and capture the city.

The Ming army is now equipped with submachine guns, which gives it a great advantage in street fighting and urban melee.

The Ottoman defenders had been stunned by the bombing of planes and artillery, and before they fully adapted to this new battlefield environment, they were almost like fish on the chopping board.

It was already past six in the afternoon and the sky over the Mediterranean had darkened.

The main naval fleet advanced in the dark in the Sea of ​​Marmara, destroying any ships it encountered along the way.

It doesn't matter whether the sailors on these ships can go back and report the news. They definitely can't run as fast as the Ming Dynasty's naval fleet.

When the main fleet arrived at the city of Istanbul, it was almost midnight.

The main fleet of the Ming Dynasty was the first to arrive at the city of Istanbul among all the combatants, troops and personnel from both sides.

All other personnel and all battlefield news have not been delivered yet.

So now the Ottoman Sultan, the Ottoman Grand Vizier, and all the generals, officials, soldiers, and civilians in the city are resting normally.

Although many of them knew that the war had begun, past experiences and inertia made them feel that the war was still far away from them.

So when the war just started, they could still continue playing music and dancing without paying too much attention to the war.

Until they were awakened by the terrifying howling, they still didn't know that the war had come.

It was not until dull explosions sounded around them and dazzling flames flickered that they vaguely realized that they seemed to be under attack.

The second main force of the Ming Dynasty's Eastern Theater Air Force and the second main force of the Balkan Theater Air Force arrived in Istanbul at midnight.

There were still a total of more than two thousand aircraft, divided into thirty-two attack groups, which took turns to launch a comprehensive bombing of the entire city.

Since the combat target is relatively far away from the air force base, Crete and Serbia are more than 700 kilometers away, and Istanbul to be attacked is also a big city.

Therefore, in addition to small attack aircraft, this attack group also concentrated all large and medium-sized bombers from the two war zones.

The city of Istanbul is like a sleepy person who is pulled out of the quilt while sleeping soundly, and then is blocked in the corner by a group of people and beaten and kicked.

(End of this chapter)