Chongming Island!

As the largest island in the mouth of the Yangtze River, the island has been controlled by the rebels for the past three years. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 infoIn the last three and a half years, Chongming Island has undergone tremendous changes, two years ago a large stone dock was built here, and at the same time, a Dutch port engineer directed thousands of sappers to build a new port here, which was once a small port replaced by a stone new port.

The successive construction of shipyards and ports made Chongming Island from an island in the heart of the river to the most important base of the Yangtze River Fleet of the Righteous Army. Loaded with officers and sailors, the warships departing from Wuchang arrived in Chongming, where they sailed out to sea for training at sea, where they would eventually join the Nanyang Fleet in Guangzhou Bay or the Beiyang Fleet in Xiangguan and become true naval officers.

It was not until last year, with the graduation of 160 naval officers from the Whampoa Naval Academy, that this situation changed, but even in any case, 80 percent of the sailors still need to make the transition from the river to the sea.

One step at a time, perhaps the Navy can be described in such words.

Although on the surface of the past three years, the Rebels' maritime strength has not expanded too much, and it is more focused on strengthening training and improving combat effectiveness, especially after the delivery of the four warships purchased from the British, plus the three warships of the captured US Far East Fleet have been repaired and delivered to the navy.

For the Rebel Fleet, which has 16 warships suitable for ocean voyages, its fleet seems to be sufficient, especially since it also has as many as four ironclads that are not equipped with other navies, although these four ironclads are river gunboats, they still have great advantages over wooden-hulled warships.

In the past three years, while strengthening naval training, the Navy has been engaged in more hardware construction, such as the expansion of the Huangpu Shipyard, the construction of the Guangzhou Bay Naval Base, the construction of the Chongming Shipyard and the port, and of course, more importantly, the cultivation and training of naval officers and men.

The navy has always been a systematic project, and it cannot be built overnight.

"Toot ......"

In the sound of the whistle, a warship slowly sailed into Chongming Harbor, which was a sail steamship of less than 1,000 tons, and it was vaguely obvious that it was a wooden-hulled ship.

This is a warship that has just returned to the harbor from a long voyage.

"Why are there so many ships?"

Before the "Chuyang" training ship entered the harbor, standing in the stern of the ship, he saw warships moored on the trestle in the harbor.

"Canon, Canon, Yueyang, Yueyu ......"

Looking at the warships in the harbor, I was surprised to find that the entire South China Sea Fleet seemed to be coming!

The "Yuezi class" is different from the "Chuzi class" and "Hunan class" that were reconstructed from merchant ships, and the seven "Yuezi class" are all warships, three captured from the US Navy, and four purchased from the United Kingdom.

"The entire South China Sea Fleet is coming?"

"Nothing is going to happen, is it?"

For the more than 100 officers and men on board the "Chuyang," who have just completed their nine-month ocean-going training, they have been conducting ocean-going training in the North Pacific for the past nine months, and they have been battling the monstrous winds and waves in the North Pacific.

Of course, more importantly, they need to show the Russians the presence of China's maritime power, which last year turned their attention to the East once again with the end of the Crimean War. Over the past two years, the rebel fleet has cleared all of its coastal fortresses in the Far East.

However, this did not stop the Russians from throwing themselves to the East again. In fact, the question of the Far East is now a remnant of the Crimean War, and in the armistice negotiations the French did not insist on their original demand - to negotiate on the Far East. In other words, the Directory was betrayed by Britain and France at the negotiating table. They did not support the Shogunate's occupation of Kamchatka and elsewhere.

It is for this reason that the Navy has set up the Beiyang Detachment to be stationed in Xiangguan and Beihai (Petropavlovsk) as a deterrent to strength, although Russia, which has now suffered heavy losses in the Crimean War, does not have the strength to send their troops to the Far East. But everyone knows that the shadow of war will always hang over there, so the Navy will use the North Pacific Sea Area as the main training sea area to deal with future wars.

"That's ......"

Suddenly, Li Yundi noticed that there was a somewhat small warship moored next to the "Yuefeng", but its appearance was clearly different from other warships. It protrudes from the mass of a two-thirds platform with a chimney between the two masts.

The warship's appearance looked somewhat strange, as it did not have a shangsail on the bow.

"Newly procured warships?"

In the confusion, the "Chufeng" slowly entered the port, and after entering the port, all Li Yundi's doubts were answered, and the reason why the Nanyang Fleet was all transferred north was to avoid the outbreak of the plague at that time.

"When you leave, the plague in Guangdong and Hunan provinces has just broken out, and our side doesn't know about it at all. The plague infected almost the whole of Guangdong, in order to avoid the plague causing damage to the navy, the Ministry of War ordered the fleet to be transferred north to Chongming, just at that time, the Beiyang Detachment had just been established, and there were only two warships suitable for navigation in Chongming, considering the environment here, it was also necessary to strengthen the defense......"

Welcoming his subordinates home, he said that he had now been promoted to commander of the Yangtze River Fleet.

"So even though the plague is over now, the Nanyang Fleet is still stationed here!"

"Oh, I see!"

nodded, and finally understood the reason, but when he nodded, he only heard it say.

"Of course I know, it's just a superficial reason!"

"Why is there any other reason?"

"You'll know in a moment, go, the Admiral wants to see you!"

Zhang Di did not answer his friend's question, and after explaining his intention, he took him to the vicinity of the strange-looking warship, and when he got closer, he saw the "Fenghai" written in English on the stern of the ship.

"This is the new capital ship of the South China Sea Fleet - the cruiser "Fenghai"! ”

"The cruiser "Fenghai"?

Looking at the warship in surprise, Li Yundi asked rhetorically.

"The tonnage seems to be a bit small, it doesn't seem to be more than 2,000 tons, Yueyang is a big guy of 2,100 tons, and there are ......"

Before he could finish speaking, Zhang Di interrupted him.

Of course, it is undoubtedly more appropriate to call him the "Fenghai" ironclad cruiser! ”

"What!"

Ironclad cruisers!

These five words came into Li Yundi's ears, and he only looked at the warship in horror, and then he noticed that there was a huge gun room in the stern, and a canvas hung down from the window of the gun room.

"Ironclad cruisers?"

"Yes, ironclad cruisers that can sail to the sea! And a real ironclad cruiser! It's not the same as using old ships to add a layer of iron armor in the past! Its original blueprint was an ironclad! ”

As he spoke, he accompanied him to board the warship from the gangway, obviously the sailors on the gangway had received orders, and the two did not go through the process of requesting boarding and waiting for approval, but boarded the warship directly.

The hull of the "Fenghai" class warship is an all-metal structure, and the hull material is mainly made of 50 mm thick armor, and there is a simplified armored deck at 1 meter below the waterline to protect important parts such as the engine room and ammunition depot, but although the thickness of this armored deck is only 25 mm, the steel armor used in its armor is far more solid than the iron armor, and the 10 mm steel armor is equivalent to 12.5 mm iron armor. In addition, in order to increase the survivability of the warship, a number of coal bunkers are set up on the side of the warship and above the engine room, relying on the coal pile to provide some protection......"

Standing on this warship, Zhang Di's tone was full of admiration for it.

"Don't look at its tonnage, it is only more than 1,800 tons, but its designer, that is, Mr. Shi Si, the chief engineer of the Whampoa Shipyard, arranged for it two large-caliber breech guns, which were installed in the two canvas-enclosed gun rooms in the bow and stern of the ship. It is an artillery produced by the Hanyang Arsenal, with a caliber of 10 inches, a body barrel of 26 times the diameter, a shell weighing 363 kilograms, 100 rounds of ammunition for each gun, the maximum shooting elevation angle of 10 degrees under normal circumstances, the maximum shooting depression angle of 3 degrees, the effective firing range of 8000 meters, when the extreme shooting elevation angle is 15 degrees, the firing range can reach 12000 meters, the power can be described as quite amazing, it can be regarded as the most powerful artillery in the world at present, and the use of solid bullets at a distance of 3000 meters can shoot through 14-inch thick steel plates......"

"Oh my God!"

The commander's words made his eyes widen and look at the warship with incredible gaze. As the captain of a naval ship, he naturally knows very well what a 363-kilogram high-explosive bomb means to a warship, and for any warship in the world, it means destruction.

"Doesn't that mean that no warship in the world can withstand its shelling!"

"That's right! Now since it is the most powerful warship in the world, it can also sink it with one shot, of course, according to Mr. Shi Si, our target is not those wooden hulled ships of the Napoleonic period, and fighting with them is simply bullying people, our target is now the ironclad ships being built by Britain, France and other countries, and the shells fired by the ten-inch giant breech-loading guns can guarantee that in the next ten years, the naval fleet will be invincible! ”

It's no secret that the British and the French are building ironclads, in fact this is a lesson that the Crimean War can teach other countries, and the Rebels were, to some extent, the first to adopt ironclads. It's just that none of the four ironclads have the ability to sail to the ocean.

“…… With a speed of 16.5 knots and a speed of 5,000 nautical miles at 8 knots, the new power equipment is not only the world's first true ironclad, but also the first warship that can sail entirely on a steam engine. ”

After saying these words everywhere, Zhang Di was about to open the door of the commander's room, looked back at Li Yundi, and said in a calm tone.

"Ironclad, this is the future of the Navy! When the wheel of history turns, no one can stop the progress of history, and now ...... We're going to witness history! ”

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