In order to conquer the northern part of the city, the army requested 200 millimeters of fire support from the navy.

Moreover, the army made it clear that it hoped that the navy would send the cruisers Pingbo and Luohai into the Jinghe River and arrive at the front line of Zhenbei City to provide fire support with 200 mm naval guns!

After the Navy heard the request, the commander of the First Fleet, Huang Xinggang, the Navy Lieutenant Secretary, his face turned black!

The army actually wanted the navy to send the Pingbo armored ship, which has a standard displacement of more than 6,500 tons, a full load displacement of more than 7,000 tons, and a draft of more than 6 meters when fully loaded, to provide fire support outside the north of Zhenbei in the middle reaches of the Jing River.

This is not nonsense, in terms of the size and draft of the Pingbo, there is no problem in entering the lower reaches of the Jinghe River to reach Jingshi, and even taking a little risk, if you use a light load, you can barely reach Fengyang.

But if you want to go deep into the middle reaches of the Jinghe River, it is basically impossible, and the water depth of the river section there is not enough at all!

Even if it is the cruiser Luohai, it seems to have a small tonnage, but this is still an ocean-going warship, and it is also a cruiser that pursues speed, so this ship has a slender hull and an extremely deep draft, and it is also very dangerous to go deep into the middle reaches of the Jing River.

Although the Jing River is the largest river in Daheng and the largest river in the central continent, with excellent navigation capacity, it is impossible to say that all river sections can meet the entry of large-tonnage sea vessels.

In the lower reaches of the Jing River, the section of more than 80 kilometers from the mouth of the sea to the Jingshi has the best navigation capacity, the average water depth can reach more than 10 meters, and the river channel is wide, which is enough to meet the needs of 10,000-ton sea ships or even larger tonnage of sea ships to sail in.

If you go to Fengyang, the navigation capacity can be maintained at a relatively high level, and the water depth of the main channel can be about eight meters.

However, if Fengyang goes up, the navigable capacity will begin to be greatly reduced, and in the middle reaches of the river in the area of Zhenbei City, the water depth of the main channel will be about five or six meters.

In this case, the large-tonnage capital armored ship such as the Pingbo armored ship could not go to Zhenbei City to provide fire support at all.

Even if a cruiser like the Luohai wants to enter, it will be very troublesome, because although the standard displacement of the Luohai cruiser is only 2,500 tons, the draft is extremely deep, and the draft is 4.7 meters when fully loaded.

When the ship enters the channel, it must always leave a rich water depth of 1 meter or even 1.5 meters, so as to ensure safety.

Therefore, from a security point of view, it is impossible for these two warships on the naval side to go to Zhenbei City to provide fire support.

But the request of the army side is also not easy to shirk!

The army has already said that if there is a railway in Zhenbei City, their army itself has 200 mm train guns, and it will not trouble the navy.

But it's not like there is no railway, and the navy is found only as a last resort.

What's more, some time ago, the army sent a division of troops to help the navy conquer the Quping naval base and help the navy solve a big problem.

On the naval side, the First Fleet has been blocking the Quping Naval Base for more than half a month, but the enemy fleet in the Quping Naval Base has never yielded, and the two shipwreck and blockage operations have not been successful, resulting in the First Fleet having to anchor outside the port for blockade.

In the end, the army sent an infantry division and a marine regiment formed by the navy to attack the Quping naval base from land.

And after seizing a number of high grounds, artillery was erected on the hill to directly threaten the enemy fleet in the harbor.

The threatened enemy fleet attempted to break through, but was re-blocked by the First Fleet led by Admiral Huang Xinggang.

At this time, after the end of the Battle of Jingshi, the generals of the enemy fleet were finally forced to choose to surrender!

The surrender of the enemy fleet this time not only allowed the First Fleet to completely end the naval battle at Quping Naval Base, but also freed up its hands to rest and replenish, and it could also be used for subsequent operations in other directions, which was of great significance.

Not to mention, after the surrender of the enemy fleet this time, it did not take extreme measures such as self-sinking, so that the navy successfully obtained all the existing warships in the combined fleet of the two states.

Among them, there are as many as thirteen ocean-going warships of more than 1,000 tons, including a 10,000-ton ironclad ship Endless Sea, although this Endless Sea is an old ship more than ten years ago, it has no power, no armor, and the hull structure is weak, and it is even difficult to replace it with large-caliber rear-loading rifled guns.

However, this is also a 10,000-ton ironclad ship.

In addition, the 12 ocean-going warships are good and bad, and the three Nanguang-class cruisers that deserve the most attention of the Navy are the three Nanguang-class cruisers, which are short in age and fast in speed, and can be of great use.

After capturing these thirteen warships, the strength of the Daheng Empire's navy increased significantly.

Some time ago, the army just helped the navy build a Quping naval base, and now they look back and say that they want your navy to do a favor, and the navy should not blindly refuse.

The Pingbo will definitely not be able to go, but the cruiser Luohai is barely able to pass, and it can barely pass if it is in light load mode.

In the end, the navy decided to let the cruiser Luo Hai run away, and before setting off, Huang Xinggang told the officers of the Luo Hai many times that they must be careful, but not to run the battleship aground.

At the same time as the cruiser Luohai was dispatched, the navy also sent five cruisers to go with it, all of which were warships of more than 1,000 tons with a relatively shallow draft.

Led by the cruiser Luohai, the fleet of five warships coordinated with the fleet went up the river, preparing to provide fire support to the army together with the Jinghe fleet.

Other warships of the Navy also have their own tasks, and some of them have been wounded in battle, and they need to be returned to the factory for repair, and by the way, the ship's guns will be upgraded to replace them with breezed guns, and they will be equipped with improved sextant rangefinders and other equipment.

At the same time, some of those that need to be overhauled will also be returned to the shipyard for overhaul, and by the way, they will be upgraded and refitted.

The warships in better condition will continue to carry out their tasks after replenishing ammunition and supplies, mainly continuing to go north and blockading the coastal waters of Gaoqing Prefecture and Ningwu Prefecture.

The other part is returning to the south, controlling and defending the southern seas, and recently the wind on the side of the Orissa Empire is not quite right, not to mention the strong control of the Kingdom of Danor and the Kingdom of Kassi, and there are also voices saying that they will send a fleet to interfere in the war of unification of Daheng.

To this end, the Pingbo armored ship will lead the remaining more than a dozen warships south to return to Nanfeng Harbor to guard the security of the southern seas and prevent the Olisa Imperial Navy from moving.

While the Navy is carrying out these operations, there is still a large-scale discussion within the Navy: What direction should the Navy develop in the future?

And this will have a direct impact on the Navy's future warship construction plans!