The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 889 Oh my, our advantage is not obvious!

San Francisco Bay, at noon on April 1882, 4, when Navy Colonel Luo Xinhua rode his horse to the Navy Pier, iron-gray warships were lined up in two columns in the harbor, with thick black smoke coming out of their chimneys and the roar of the boilers shaking the pier slightly, ready to set off at any time!

"The commander is here!" The officer on duty shouted, and the sailors who were carrying supplies and ammunition on the deck immediately straightened their backs, put their heels together, and raised their right hands to their temples. Luo Xinhua stepped quickly onto the gangway, his boots knocking on the steel plate with a crisp sound. He stood on the wing bridge outside the bridge of the Dinghai armored cruiser, and his eyes swept across the entire fleet:
The flagship Dinghai weighs 8000 tons and has six 6mm rapid-fire guns. If it weren't for its slow speed, it would be the most powerful "armored cruiser" in the world! The Dinghai's same-class ship Zhenhai - since they are of the same class, they are naturally almost the same.

Then there are the two "protected cruisers" "Sacramento" and "San Francisco". The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Navy called this type of cruiser "light cruiser". It has a displacement of only about 2000 tons, and the main guns are 2*3, a total of 6 150mm guns, which are indeed quite light. However, their speed is quite fast, and the combat cruise can exceed 20 knots.

Then there are four destroyers, "San Diego", "San Joaquin", "Marin" and "Colusa", all of which are "thousand-ton destroyers" of the same class!
Finally, there are three auxiliary ships, the coal carrier "Lake Tahoe", the supply ship "Clear Lake", and the ammunition ship "Pyramid Lake". They are all fast ships with a carrying capacity of 3000-5000 tons and a speed of up to 16 knots, which can keep up with the fleet's operations.

"Report to the commander!" Lieutenant Colonel Shen Moqing stood at attention and saluted, his Ningbo accent carrying a hint of tension, "The fleet is ready to sail and can leave the port at any time!"

He then handed Luo Yaoguo a copy of the telegram.

Luo Xinhua nodded, took the telegram and opened it. There was only one line of words on it: You can only contact the battleships after you arrive within fifty nautical miles of Hawaii Island.

He frowned slightly and handed the telegram to Shen Moqing: "Order, double columns leave the port, heading 265, full speed ahead!"

With the whistle blowing, the fleet slowly left the dock. The boilerman frantically shoveled coal, and the steam pressure gauge pointer quickly climbed to the strong pressure ventilation state. The propeller of the Dinghai stirred the sea water, the bow split the waves, and the speed quickly increased to 16 knots.

Luo Xinhua stood on the bridge and looked at the distant horizon through the telescope. He knew that this fleet was about to face the main force of the "Eastern America" ​​Pacific Fleet - not only several "Charleston-class" protected cruisers, but also "Constitution-class" cruisers with a standard displacement of more than 15000 tons and equipped with 305mm caliber cannons!
"Can we really win?" Shen Moqing asked in a low voice.

"Yes!" Luo Xinhua smiled. "If the commander is not sure, will he let me go aboard and serve as the squadron commander?"

"That's right!" Shen Moqing said with a smile, "You are the prince of Wu Palace!"

Luo Xinhua also laughed, but in his heart he had only a bitter smile: It was true that he was the eldest son of King Luo Wu, but the thing his playboy father lacked the least was probably a son!

Tianjing, Prince Wu’s Palace at Purple Mountain.

Luo Yaoguo, who was considered a playboy by his son, was sitting at his desk reading documents seriously. He wore glasses and his fingertips ran across the lead-printed data of the "1881 Taiping Heavenly Kingdom-British Industrial Comparison Report".

Crude steel output: 688 million tons, barely the second in the world, "foreign countries" first, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom second! Compared with the "first" in another time and space, it is really embarrassing! By the way, the British Empire today is not the "unbearable". In 1881, they also produced more than 300 million tons of crude steel, second only to the United States (more than 400 million tons) and Germany (400 million tons), ranking fourth in the world. Moreover, compared with five years ago, the output of the United Kingdom has also doubled. It belongs to the very hard-working Britain. It's just that others are working harder - now is the climax of the Second Industrial Revolution, and the powers are working hard and catching up!

Coal production: 4 million tons - this is too much, more than million tons more than the second place, the United Kingdom - that's as it should be. How many people are mining coal in China? How many people are mining coal in the United Kingdom? It's not worth bragging about.

Electricity: 100 billion kWh - this is indeed a lot, the kind of "China first, foreign countries second" first! However, the structure is not ideal, 90% of which comes from hydropower and 10% from coal-fired power - coal-fired power plants using coal-fired boilers and steam turbines. If this ratio is reversed, it would indicate that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's steam turbines are fully mature, but unfortunately they are not.

Oil: 100 million tons - what a surprise! Yumen Oilfield produced more than 80 tons, and Sakhalin Island produced nearly 20 tons.

"The advantages... aren't obvious." Luo Yaoguo muttered to himself as he sat there. The project listed under oil was shipbuilding, which was even less optimistic.

Although the tonnage of new ships delivered by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in 1881 had already ranked second in the world, the first was the British Empire!

Moreover, Britain had already mastered marine steam turbines and oil-fired boilers, while the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was still using triple expansion machines to burn coal. The "power package" of oil-fired boiler + steam turbine was still being endlessly tested!
"Prime Minister!" Zhao Liewen pushed the door open and walked in, his face solemn, "Urgent telegram from Hawaii! Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Eastern Federation of the United States!"

Luo Yaoguo stood up suddenly, and the sandalwood chair made a harsh sound as it scraped against the blue brick floor.

“The Americans took action?”

"Yes! The British conspired with them," Zhao Liewen said, "The British handed over the Diamond Hill Fort to the Americans!"

Luo Yaoguo took a deep breath and walked to the window. The whistle of the cargo ship on the Yangtze River pierced the clouds, but he only heard the roar of artillery fire in the distance.

The British wanted to drag the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom into the American East-West War! Moreover, they attacked the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's must-save-if Pearl Harbor was lost, shipping between the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the West Coast of the United States would be in big trouble.

"Send a telegram to Hong Renzheng, asking him to firmly defend Pearl Harbor! Pearl Harbor must not be lost!" Luo Yaoguo said, "Tell the Navy Department to release a Flying Eagle class. I'm going to Osaka, Japan!"

"Yes! Prime Minister!"

In the darkness of night, at the entrance of Pearl Harbor, the hull of the USS Pearl Harbor had tilted 15 degrees, and the deck was full of bullet holes and bloodstains.

Although this frigate is just an ordinary thousand-ton warship, it has withstood the test of actual combat. It has been hit by so many shells and is still able to stand at the entrance of Pearl Harbor.

The entrance to Pearl Harbor was very narrow and the water was relatively shallow. Even if a thousand-ton warship sank, other large ships would not dare to enter. Lieutenant Colonel Takano Sadayoshi stood on the bridge, with a piece of flesh cut off by shrapnel on his right arm, and blood dripping down his uniform. He gritted his teeth, grabbed the megaphone and shouted: "150mm guns - aim at the waterline of the Charleston, fire!"

"Boom!" The shell exploded on the side of the American ship, but only left a dent on the 102 mm Harvey steel armor.

"Damn it!" Gao Ye cursed, "Reload, try again!"

The 203mm main gun of the American protected cruiser "Charleston" slowly rotated, with the muzzle aimed at the "Pearl Harbor".

"Open fire!" Major General Brooke ordered coldly.

Boom boom boom.
Fierce rounds of artillery fire started, and 203mm shells whizzed in like crazy. After about twenty rounds, three shells hit the "Pearl Harbor" which was already unable to move. The first shell hit the bow and blew away the rapid-fire gun on the front deck; the second shell penetrated the bridge, and the communications officer Lieutenant Ueda was killed on the spot; the third shell hit the engine room, causing the steam pipe to burst, and boiling white mist instantly covered half of the ship.

"Captain! The engine room is damaged and the speed has dropped to 3 knots!" the chief engineer roared.

Takano wiped the blood off his face and looked at Major Nanyun: "Can you still fight?"

Major Nanyun's left arm had been blown off, but he still held the chart tightly with his right hand: "Yes! The 150mm cannon can fire one more round!"

"Okay!" Gao Ye grabbed the signal flag, "All ships - the last battle!"

After firing the last 150 rounds, the Pearl Harbor, whose engine room was destroyed, could no longer maneuver. Takano ordered, "Abandon ship!"

But Major Nanyun shook his head: "Captain, we can still delay for a while."

Gao Ye glanced at him and said, "Isn't it just a 1000-ton frigate? We will soon get more and bigger warships. In the future, I want to be the captain of a cruiser, no, a battleship! So, now, everyone abandon the ship and open the sea gate. The Pearl Harbor will sink at the entrance of Pearl Harbor."

"Yes, Captain!"

Following Takano's order, the thousand-ton hull of the "Pearl Harbor" slowly sank, completely blocking the entrance to Pearl Harbor.

Rear Admiral Brooke smashed the compass in anger on the Charleston: "Damn it, it sank in this position"

At the same time, the fighting between the two sides on the defensive position east of Pearl Harbor reached its climax.

"Attach bayonets!" shouted American Captain William McKinley, and his soldiers unanimously attached their bayonets in preparation for the final charge.

at this time
"Boom! Boom! Boom!" Three red signal rockets rose from the sugarcane field, exploding with dazzling red light in the night sky.

"kill!!!"

A deafening roar suddenly erupted in the sugarcane field!

Dozens of Shin-Yo warriors rushed out of the darkness with thousands of militiamen. Most of the Shin-Yo militiamen were Japanese immigrants who converted to Shin-Yo. Some of them had participated in the American Civil War and were recruited by Shin-Yo to serve as militiamen after settling in Hawaii. They were still busy planting sugarcane when the U.S. military suddenly landed at the port of Honolulu (controlled by the British) yesterday afternoon. But within a few hours, these people were mobilized, picked up old-fashioned muzzle-loading rifles, and rushed to the U.S. military positions like a tide!
"Board!" Heizaburo Otani held up a rifle and was the first to jump out of the sugarcane forest.

An American soldier outside was stabbed in the chest with a bayonet before he could react, and blood splattered on the sandbags at the 75mm gun position.

"Fire! Fire quickly!" Captain McKinley roared, but his order was drowned out by the shouts of the True Covenant warriors.

Bayonet against bayonet, rifle against rifle, bloody close combat broke out on every inch of land.

An American soldier had just stabbed a North Korean militiaman in the abdomen, and the next second he was shot through the head by Otani. The body shook twice and fell to the ground with a bang.

The US military's defense line began to waver. They had no advantage in close combat, while the True Jew militia rushed over like a tide.

"Retreat! Retreat!" Captain McKinley finally gave the order, and the American soldiers abandoned the wounded and retreated hastily.

The True York warriors did not stop their charge. They chased the fleeing American troops all the way to the vicinity of downtown Honolulu, until the 6-inch cannons on Diamond Hill began covering fire and they were forced to withdraw their positions.

That night, the U.S. Marines left behind more than three hundred bodies, and the True Creation Warriors also paid the price of more than two hundred people.

(End of this chapter)