When the fifty-four capital ships went down to the South Seas to carry out expeditionary operations, the arsenals gathered in the area around Nanjing, especially in the vicinity of the Central Manor, still began to be busy day and night, although it still took a lot of time to build a ship, and it was unlikely that there would be a substantial improvement within the year, but according to Xiao Xuan's calculations, there was still a lot of room for armament from the armor and mortars and even the shells that were not considered at the level of the relevant level and manufacturing requirements.

Because I don't know how much impact the movement, wind and waves, and even the pressure of firepower warfare will have on the team in the actual combat environment, the reliability of those fuses in actual combat will have as much as an impact, but in the deduction and estimation, only relying on the operations in the waters of Manila and adjacent areas, these are the most important things.

Li Yuan, who is in charge of the naval engineering department, organized some sharp-thinking trainees and even some experienced crew members to deduce that if the fleet carried some ships specially carrying personnel and supplies to accompany the voyage while it was on the way, let all these people board the main warship when it encountered the demand for high speed, and abandon the grain ships that transported personnel and supplies when necessary, so that a more favorable speed could be obtained in wartime, and this could be done when the firepower and other burdens of the ships themselves were not too light.

Of course, this will undoubtedly increase the risk of loss of personnel in naval battles, but it is acceptable relative to the outcome of a decisive battle at sea. If a main armored ship of about 4500 tons with a standard force of about 200 people is accompanied by a subordinate ship of about 200 tons with a crew of about 200 tons, at least 150 longitudinal propeller pedalers can be added in the case of imminent combat pressure, so that the power of the ship can be doubled when sailing. In this way, even in the absence of wind, the ship can maintain a speed of about five or six knots for a long time, and there is no need to weaken the armament and protection. If there is a condition to make appropriate use of the wind direction in wartime, these people can be able to exert a more favorable speed in a short period of time or maintain this speed for a long time, and the advantages in combat initiative are obvious.

Of course, this carries a certain risk in terms of provisions, but this risk is bearable, because according to the battle plan and expectations, the decisive battles at sea often take place in the vicinity of the port or the population area, both in defense and in the outing, because only on these routes near the port are the probability of the two sides encountering each other on the sea

At the same time, after testing and estimating, although it is inevitable to destroy some large ships in the enemy army, it is necessary to have a blasting projectile of about 500 catties to have a considerable effect, but not all enemy ships are such strong ships, even in the face of the opponent's ordinary style of capital ships, about 300 catties of blasting projectiles are enough. A more suitable blasting shell will have a wider killing area with the same firepower and ammunition consumption, and at the same time, it will also have another advantage: that is, it is very difficult for a heavy mortar gun weighing 500 kg to move and aim with multiple people, but the weight of 200 or 300 kg will be much easier to effectively adjust the aiming angle by three or four strong gunners under the appropriate gun mount arrangement, so it is also more practical.

In this way, according to the initial fire planning and preparation, each standard ship weighing an average of four or five hundred tons needed to be equipped with eight 300-pound body mortars to fire one-to-one weight projectiles, and the entire existing fleet needed to add at least 400 upper and lower mortars if the losses were not large when they returned.

In contrast, in order to reduce the burden, the light rifled guns, which have a limited lethal effect on the hull but are very expensive, seem to be less important, and should be arranged in some small ships that work together.

When Wang Yuan led the fleet to arrive in the area of Songjiang and Nanjing, and carried tens of millions of taels of silver worth of silver captured in the entire Nanyang campaign, as well as a lot of black powder and saltpeter of decent quality, Xiao Xuan finally breathed a sigh of relief. The fleet seemed to have almost encountered a serious storm at sea when it was on the verge of Fujian, and the role of the human propeller and the very experienced fishermen provided about two days had allowed the fleet to pass by the edge of the storm without danger.

Of course, what made Xiao Xuan even more excited was that this battle against Batavia was not full of difficulties and twists and turns like the naval battle near Manila, but obviously a relatively smooth battle. This battle also began to make Xiao Xuan make up his mind: it seemed that the opportunity to launch an expedition to the New World was available now, and it didn't have to wait until a few years later.

At the celebration banquet, Xiao Xuan personally asked Wang Yuan bluntly: "In your opinion, if you are in a relatively good state of rest. With a lineup of about 50 capital ships like this battle, how large can a Western fleet be able to fight and win at a cost that it can bear? ”

Wang Yuan was also a fairly quick thinker, so he replied: "If the size of the enemy's fleet is more than doubled, for example, 60 capital ships, 120 large armed merchant ships of several hundred tons, 300 small and medium-sized auxiliary ships, 50,000 maritime troops, and more than 100,000 tons of warships, I think it should still be able to deal with it." If there are more, if not to mention anything else, those heavy explosive shells that cost a lot of money may not be enough. And to face such a large-scale opponent, I'm afraid it's not a matter that can determine the outcome in a decisive battle. At sea, if a force with a clear advantage in the number of ships does not intend to go head-to-head with you, but goes around in circles, or avoids fighting after suffering certain losses, it will probably take a long time to find a fighter again... ”

At this time, Xiao Xuan handed over a rough list of plans, and said no longer cryptically: "If the fleet is fully armed according to this plan in the months before the winter of this year, and the relevant personnel are also trained to a certain extent, do you have the confidence to inflict heavy losses and blows on an opponent of this scale in a main battle at sea?" ”

Wang Yuan didn't say much at first, but after carefully looking at it for a long time and thinking for a long time, he said seriously: "If the rearmament is carried out according to this plan, and the personnel of the whole fleet are increased to 25,000 troops, then there is a possibility of inflicting heavy losses on the enemy fleet of 50,000 troops in a single battle at an acceptable price." The only possible surprise is that the enemy has trained a lot of forces of a similar size in advance according to our methods... ”

(End of chapter)