The auditorium of the Military Advisory Office was crowded with people, and all the officers in blue-and-black navy uniforms could be seen as far as the eye could see. Everyone was well-dressed, their boots were shiny, their medals hung all over their chests, and their faces were bronzed by the sea breeze and glowed with excitement.

The Naval University was originally selected in Wuhu, but the new naval president Ma Han thought that Jiujiang was more suitable, and Chai Dongliang knew almost nothing about the navy, so naturally he would not raise objections, and he ordered people to redesign the drawings to speed up the construction progress, and strive to open the school within half a year.

Rear Admiral Mahan was bored, and Chai Dongliang could not let him be idle, so he asked him to give a speech to the officers of the navy in the Military Advisory Office. Ma Han is also a person, that is the world's top naval champion, and being able to listen to his class is definitely a rare opportunity for the officers of the Yangtze River Fleet.

Every officer put on the most decent military uniform and respectfully came to the Military Advisory Office to attend the lectures. In this era, English is a compulsory subject in the navy, and the command used on warships is basically English, and Asian countries are no exception, and China and the navy also use English on warships, so it is not a problem to listen to Mahan's lecture language.

Chai Dongliang, who was newly married for only three days, also sat in the auditorium in person, took out a hard-cover notebook like a primary school student, and listened to the lecture humbly.

"China has a long coastline, but it doesn't have a navy to match it, which has to be said to be sad, but it is also the harshest reality. It is impossible for China to wage war in the East and South China Seas at the same time in a short period of time, nor can it have the ability to win two naval battles at the same time. So, how should the Chinese Navy develop? I have only one opinion, concentrate your strength!

The great powers invariably wanted to gain advantage in China's open seas, and the threat to China's seas came mainly from the southeast, with the French trying to occupy China's Fujian, the French trying to gain special interests in Guangxi, and the British Empire needing to retain their hegemony in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River??? And since the establishment of the Beiyang Naval Division, the Chinese have put the main defensive direction in the north, trying to defend the capital with the navy.

The navy is a special branch of the armed forces, the navy only has offensive capabilities, and it can always become a tool for defense. If the navy is only used for defense, then the most powerful dreadnought-class battleship is not as good as an inactive battery, limited by space, and there is no kind of naval gun that can beat the shore defense artillery! The idea of using the navy as a defensive weapon is undoubtedly extremely wrong!

At the time of the First Sino-Japanese War, the training level of the Chinese Navy was not as good as that of the Yue Army, and there is no doubt about it, but is this the whole reason for the defeat of the Chinese Navy? If the same thing happens again, will China still be defeated? My opinion is, absolutely not. Like the United States, China has an extremely large landlock, and China has an advantage that the United States cannot match, that is, it has a population of 450 million??? Thank God that you have so much labor and resources, which is really a huge advantage that cannot be described in words.

The strength of the Chinese Navy was not very strong in the first place, but it belonged to the three naval divisions of Beiyang, Nanyang, and Guangdong, and the forces were scattered so that the enemy could break them individually. If I were the commander-in-chief of the Chinese navy, I would concentrate all my sea forces and fight a decisive battle, even if the whole army was annihilated??? Because in a decisive battle at sea, the winning side will also inevitably suffer heavy losses. If the three naval divisions of Beiyang, Nanyang, and Guangdong had been combined during the First Sino-Japanese War, the tonnage of the ships would have greatly surpassed that of the Japanese Navy, and even if the Combined Fleet of the Northern Fleet had been victorious, the losses would have been unbearable for the Chinese Navy.

At the same time, I will send a small fast fleet to harass the coastal areas of this country day and night??? Due to the narrowness of the territory and the lack of resources, the city is extremely dependent on imports, and any disturbance will make the ships of neutral countries dare not approach the city, resulting in serious resource problems and greatly affecting the industry of the city??? If the Chinese commander-in-chief had been more daring, using a fleet to surprise the Ogurihara Islands, and building semi-permanent fortifications there, and using guerrilla warfare to harass the sea supply lines for a long time, then the Chinese commander would not only have been defeated, but the industrial base would have been completely destroyed??? It will not be the Manchu political axe that seeks peace, but the person himself!

In the Russo-Russian War, it was not Russia's Baltic Fleet or the Black Sea Fleet that dealt the greatest blow to Yuben, but a "Puyan Fleet" from Vladivostok with only three cruisers??? Gentlemen, let us recall the results of the "Urayan Fleet": On 26 April, they sank the Kinshu Maru, a transport ship of the Kinshu Maru, and on 15 June in the Tsushima Strait, the 3,200-ton army transport ship Izumi Maru, and the 6,100-ton Hitachi Maru and Sado Maru, all the more than 3,000 men of the 1st Guards Reserve Infantry Wing on board sank to the bottom of the sea. During the Russo-Russian War, they made a total of six sorties, the first five of which were all in the Gulf of Tonkin, and the sixth of them left a terrible nightmare for the Russians to go directly to the Gulf of Tonkin, and in the five days beginning on July 20, they intercepted twelve ships of various kinds, and the native ships were sunk on the spot, and the rest of the German-British ships took them with them after they had stolen all their things. The losses inflicted on Yue Ben by the "Puyan Fleet" were far from being as simple as they appeared on paper, and the psychological damage it caused to Yue himself and the panic caused to the ships of neutral countries were far more than that.

The quality and training of the Russian navy are also far inferior to those of the Japanese army, which can be seen very clearly from the destruction of the Baltic Fleet and the Black Sea Fleet, but the success of the "Puyan Fleet" just shows how fragile an island country like the Pur Salt Fleet is.

China can still hold out for a long time even if its coastline is blocked, and once the sea transportation is cut off, it will lose at most two months??? Gentlemen, I believe you all understand that it is always easier to destroy than to build. Maintaining the safety of sea lines of transport is difficult, and it is fairly easy to disrupt it??? If it weren't for the fact that the "Puyan Fleet" had exposed its target in response to the Baltic Fleet, it would have been very difficult for me to annihilate it. In the vast sea, it is almost an impossible task to search for a few warships without any rules to speak of. Gentlemen, at the time of the Russo-Russian War, when rumors spread that the Baltic Fleet was about to pass through the Gulf of Tonkin, Osaka's industrial production was reduced by forty percent, and the supply of raw materials was reduced to less than half of what it usually was. It's just a rumor, and it has such a huge effect!

In the future naval battle, the possibility of a face-to-face decisive battle between the capital ships is very small, and that is the patent of the traditional naval power, the decisive battle of the battleship is not of great significance to a country like China, it is more important to compete with the national strength and strategic level of both sides, the purpose of the war is to destroy the enemy's strategic strength and war potential, blowing up a large military factory is far more significant than eliminating a thousand soldiers, and destroying the enemy's sea transportation line is more important than sinking ten warships of the other side! ”

The officers of the Yangtze River Naval Division listened with relish, and the huge auditorium was silent, only the rustle of pencils across the paper, and they greedily swallowed the essence of Mahan's theory into their stomachs like spring silkworms eating mulberry leaves, and then melted into their own blood.

Mahan verified his theory through vivid examples, and after analysis, everyone found that it was indeed feasible.

In this era, the British Imperial Navy was a model for the whole world, and the navy advocated the idea of "fighting when the enemy is fighting", even if the enemy is strong, even if he knows that he is invincible, he must bravely raise the battle flag and fight to the death with the enemy. In the First Sino-Japanese War, almost all the armies of the Huai Army fled without a fight, and although the Beiyang Naval Division was also rotten, only Fang Boqian escaped in the naval battle.

Chai Dongliang also listened attentively, he did not fully agree with many of Ma Han's views, such as concentrating troops must have an advantage over the army, but even if Ma Han served as the minister of Beiyang, he could not command the Nanyang and Guangdong naval divisions. Dividing the coastal defense forces into three can not only check and balance each other and prevent Li Hongzhang's family from becoming bigger, but also create countless official positions. In the final analysis, in the First Sino-Japanese War, the Qing Dynasty was not only defeated on the battlefield, but the complete defeat of the rotten political system.

But Mahan's words opened his mind, Chai Dongliang always believed that it was necessary to destroy in the naval battle, at least to defeat the combined fleet, but Mahan believed that even if the main ships of the Chinese Navy were completely wiped out in the naval battle, it would not be considered a fatal injury, as long as there were still a few fast ships that could continue to disturb the maritime transportation of the city, it could bring down the capital, so that the resource-poor island country's economy collapsed and the industry was paralyzed.

Victory on the battlefield does not mean winning the war, and this view inspired Chai Dongliang.

As a newly industrialized country, it has its most fatal weakness, and its survival can only depend on a large amount of sea transportation, and the shipping lanes are extremely long, which makes it particularly vulnerable to attack, and it is not difficult to isolate and wither it. At first glance, Mahan saw the Achilles' heel of the book, which was a dead end that neither the bravery of the soldiers nor the superb command skills of the officers could make up for.

And the most effective and inexpensive weapon to cut off the sea shipping of the book is not the majestic battleship like a hill, but the mysterious submarine!

Chai Dongliang finally figured it out, no wonder in the "Bethlehem Contract", the United States wanted to help the Qing Dynasty build a full 100 submarines. Submarines in this era are limited by the level of science and technology, and it is impossible to launch long-range attacks, such as a difficult task such as a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, but ambushing in the depths of the ocean, a pirate-like attack on the transport ship is a very effective weapon.

Thinking of this, Chai Dongliang felt that his mouth was suddenly opened, and China said that once a war broke out, using submarines to cut off the sea transportation line of the country could easily paralyze the domestic industry, and then launch an air attack with water aircraft carriers to completely destroy the industrial centers of Osaka and Yokohama??? There is no other way out than to surrender!

(To be continued)