The atmosphere in a special office in the Yamen of the Ming Military Department was extremely dull, few people spoke, and occasionally an official smoked a cigarette, causing smoke to be filled. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

This is the command center of the Ming Army in this war, with the Ministry of War taking the lead, the Army and Navy Staff Departments working together, the two directors of the Navy Department and the Army Department with the rank of Lang, Chen Ada and Deng Shicai as the coordinators, and the Ministry of War put forward strategic goals and strategies, and everyone cooperated with each other to determine the combat mode of the Ming Army in this war.

The feedback from the front line will also be transmitted back here step by step, where the information is summarized, sorted out and analyzed, and the general direction is adjusted, and the specific tactical arrangements are mainly completed by the officers on the front line.

In the dreary space, suddenly a few crisp dripping sounds were particularly harsh, everyone held their breath, and suddenly heard a cheer from the interpreter, "Win"!

A telegram that had just been translated immediately began to scramble in the hands of senior officials at all levels.

Chen Ada was very generous and did not rush to read it, but waited for the telegraph operator to copy the contents of the telegram, he quickly took a copy of the text, hurriedly read it, and showed a "rightful" expression on his face, but in fact, he was always uneasy in his heart.

He calmly walked out of the war room and rushed to the wartime cabinet headquarters next door, where the troika of the military department Shangshu, Shangshuling and the emperor were all working during the war, and at least one person was always at the post to make decisions in case of emergency.

At this time, it was daytime, and the three of them were here, Hurd and Mei Qizhao were discussing the map, and Zhu Jinglun was looking at a stack of casualty records that had just been counted, and his brows were furrowed deeply.

Chen Ada walked in the door, glanced at it, walked straight to Zhu Jinglun, leaned over and said softly:

"Your Majesty, win!"

Zhu Jinglun glanced up at Chen Ada, saw him bowing, holding a telegram in both hands, and took it, sure enough, it was the navy's battle report, this is the most important battle today, the navy's battle plan is too risky, Zhu Jinglun is not optimistic, I didn't expect them to win the bet.

But looking at it, it is absolutely wrong, the navy's plan is to use 30 of the latest capital ships to strangle the French 20 escort fleet, but in the battle report shows that the French warships as many as 42, although in the end it is said that more than half of the French ships were sunk, the rest of the rout, and the navy is pursuing, but this does not mean that they are not fighting with more and less, but with the inferior number of warships, they win more with less.

Naval battles are often nothing fancy, whether it is a highly regarded T-shaped formation or a one-word horizontal town, to put it bluntly, it is a cannon fire and bombardment, under normal circumstances, naval battles are relatively tenacious and tragic, because everyone is at sea, there is no way to retreat, so except for Fang Boqian in the First Sino-Japanese Naval Battle, who can escape with a battleship, naval battles are often endless, and one side is completely annihilated.

But that is the previous era of sail warships, the era of ironclad naval battles, there are not a few in the world, the naval battles of the era of ironclad ships in history, but not so cruel, because in addition to the naval battle between Japan and Russia, there is no naval battle with a total annihilation of the opponent, not even a record of sinking the main ironclad ship, although the Qing army was defeated in the First Sino-Japanese Naval Battle, but the two ironclad ships of Zhenyuan and Dingyuan were almost intact, because the artillery at that time did not have the ability to tear the heavy armor of the ironclad ship, the largest naval battle in the First World War, There is no record of battleships being sunk in the Battle of Jutland, and after the battle, the German navy retreated into the harbor and finally revolted to bring down the German Empire, and there was little fighting between them.

During World War II, although battleships were repeatedly sunk, at this time the era of cannon giants was over, and the stars of naval battles were replaced by aircraft carriers, and most battleships were mainly sunk by aircraft carriers. Head-to-head duels between battleships were rare, so the sinking record was naturally gone.

Now the main force of the Ming Navy is out together, with less victory and more victory over the French army, although it is worth celebrating, but if it also loses a lot, it is not easy to say what a victory, once the Ming capital ship in the Strait of Malacca is too heavy, the French left in Da Nang twenty ironclad ships, but it is the most powerful sea power in the entire East Asian region, after the First World War, the Ming lost the right to control the sea, perhaps in the naval battle of Singapore the Ming Navy tactically won, sank many French warships, but strategically lost, Ceded control of the sea to the French.

So Zhu Jinglun was very concerned: "How is the battle damage?" Thirty to forty-two, did Mo France transfer the fleet of Da Nang to the South Seas? Did the French guess that we would attack their troop carriers in the south, or did their intelligence agents hear the news? ”

If France also concentrated all its fleets in the South China Sea to fight a battle with the Ming Navy, and lost, then even if the Ming Navy could not gain sea supremacy, then at least the French Navy would not be able to run rampant in Chinese waters, which would be considered a draw. It's just that if the French army really mobilized all the warships to go south, there is a question that needs to be clarified, whether the French relied on guesswork, or coincidence, whether they hit by mistake, or did the French plant spies in the upper echelons of the Ming military establishment?

This is a very serious matter, although Hurd is British, Zhu Jinglun believes in his moral level, taking a step back, it is obvious that under Hurd's diplomatic activities, Britain is basically inclined to let the Ming win this war, and Hurd has no motive to leak the news to the French.

If it wasn't Hurd's leak, then who leaked it, could it be the captain of a warship on some front?

The battle situation has just come out, and the front line has not yet been counted, obviously Chen Ada does not know the specific situation, and hurriedly said that he will be the first to send the news as soon as there is news, and then go back to the war room to guard.

Zhu Jinglun waited anxiously for more than two hours before finally getting the specific statistics of the front line, which was a telegram sent back from the consulate in Singapore.

The great naval victory was a great victory in the true sense of the word, defeating the French escort fleet head-on, sinking six French cruisers and one ironclad ship. Three French cruisers were heavily damaged, almost all of the ten cruisers escorted by the opponent lost their combat effectiveness, and three ironclad ships of the opponent were severely damaged, one of which lost power and hoisted a white flag to withdraw from the battle, and the remaining two forcibly broke into the port of Singapore for refuge and were disarmed by the local British army.

After the French troop convoy tried to enter Singapore and was denied entry by the British colonial authorities, it retreated to the Strait of Malacca, escorted by twelve old cruisers escorted all the way from the mainland, and finally retreated in the direction of India, where France had several colonies such as Pondicherry.

In the Ming fleet, three ironclad ships were damaged and could not continue the battle, and the remaining seventeen ships basically maintained their combat effectiveness.

The French fleet that appeared in the rear of the Ming army at that time was nothing more than ten armored cruisers that had arrived from Saigon to receive them, and they did not know the plans of the Ming army, but only planned to take the troop convoy to Saigon for the sake of safety. The Ming army divided ten cruisers to intercept the French cruiser, and as a result, at the cost of four heavy losses, successfully blocked the French cruiser heading south, sinking two of them and damaging three.

The 20 main ironclad ships of France in Da Nang have never been mobilized, and they are still preparing for the Ming army's capital ships to attack Da Nang.

As for the forty-two warships of the French army mentioned in the previous intelligence, that is to include the escort fleet transferred from the mainland, but the extra twelve are all old sail steam warships, basically did not join the battle, and chose to escort the troop carriers back as soon as possible.

The situation was only now clear, and Zhu Jinglun breathed a sigh of relief.

"What about our fleet?"

The intelligence mentions that after the Ming fleet defeated the French fleet, the Ming naval fleet entered the Strait of Malacca to pursue enemy ships.

Chen Ada shook his head: "I have lost contact at the moment. ”

In this era, as soon as communication reaches the vast sea, it can only lose contact.

"Poor Kou Mo Chase, I suggest that after contacting them, let them return to the ship as soon as possible. Discuss it and see if it's appropriate. ”

Zhu Jinglun said that although the Ming fleet has won this great victory, but the damage is always inevitable, the iron armor is heavy, and it may be able to resist artillery fire, but after all, people are flesh and blood, and the casualties of officers and men are inevitable, because the fleet has not yet returned, the casualties are unknown, but in this kind of head-to-head duel, the losses are equally tragic.

Da Ming received information, the French army must have also received information, in Singapore is not only Da Ming's intelligence officers, there are also a lot of French spies, after getting these information, the French fleet in Da Nang will definitely move.

Don't beat the wolf with your front foot, and block the tiger with your back foot.

Singapore, Bukit Timah Hill, several British naval officer-like soldiers gathered, they witnessed the naval battle from beginning to end, recorded every detail of the battle, the smoke on the sea has cleared, and they are still discussing fiercely.

An officer said: "The sail warships are completely cumbersome, and our army will try to avoid mixing the sail warships with the capital ships in the future." ”

Another officer believed that there were other reasons for the defeat of the French army: "This is not the main reason, the main reason is the promiscuous type of French warships, and our army has the same weakness in this regard." ”

Most of these British officers were naval officers, and they came here to watch the battle, and they saw with their own eyes that the French warships were of different types, the cruisers ranged from 2,000 tons to 8,000 tons, the main ironclad ships were all new steam warships, and the cruisers generally had sails. These sail steamships with two or three masts could not match the speed of the ironclad ships, and there was already a disconnect in the naval battle, so that the Ming army seized the opportunity to penetrate the gap of the French army, isolate the ironclad ships from the cruisers, and then focus on attacking the cruisers with weak armor protection.

On the other hand, the Ming army, the capital ships were all new ships built before the war, and the old ships were all left on the mainland, although the number was not large, but they were all designed and manufactured according to the new British ironclad ships, there was not a single sail battleship, and the twenty ironclad ships were originally superior to the French fleet of ten ironclad ships and armored cruisers, and the victory was not surprising.

"Alas, this cannot be blamed on the French, who, like our own, need to protect their overseas territories. Therefore, the fleet needs to be mobilized all over the world, and although the steamship is good, France does not have bases all over the world, and it is really inconvenient not to install sails. So this is not to blame the French for having problems with their warships. ”

Another officer, although he was covering up the ugliness of France, could not hide his strong sense of superiority. Although Britain still had a large number of backward warships, they would never be used for combat, but only as an escort fleet for the colonial fleet. Britain's network of colonies spread all over the world allowed their all-steam warships to travel through the world without worrying about supply problems, and they could refuel coal everywhere. And France was already very passive this time, crossing the Suez Canal, refueling coal in Madagascar, and then after refueling India, after which they did not have a base all the way to Vietnam, and as a result, they were fully loaded with coal, which also greatly affected the flexibility of the battleship, and it was extremely passive in battle.

At this time, an officer smiled and shook his head: "You are all wrong. Don't you see the planks floating up the sunken French warship? ”

Everyone suddenly felt that something was missing, as if they had missed something, and they hurriedly held up their binoculars to look, and sure enough, they saw that there were wooden planks floating on the sea after the battle.

"Is it really a plank? Could it be that the French are still making warships out of wood! ”

An officer couldn't help but be surprised.