At the same time as the sound of sirens over the escort fleet of the Ming Royal Navy, the flagship of the British Eastern Fleet, the battleship "Empress of India", Arthur. Admiral Hood is also giving orders to form a team. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

At this time, the British Navy pursued a combination of horizontal and column tactics, a bit like the army in the era of line infantry. It is not necessarily a horizontal formation, but a flexible use of horizontal formations and columns, and a combination of light infantry, line infantry, artillery, heavy cavalry, and light cavalry. Tactics are very complex, and only a well-trained century-old navy like the British Navy can play them. If the Ming Royal Navy is like them, it will not be able to do anything.

In Arthur. Hood's orders rang out, and the powerful British Eastern Fleet was also divided into a battle team.

The first battleship detachment consisted of nine capital ships in a horizontal formation on the sea, with three "Empress of India" class in the center, and three "Ravage" class and three Victory class on the left and right.

The 2nd Battleship Detachment, three Minotaur-class battleships, was on the left flank of the 1st Battleship Detachment in columns.

The 3rd Panzer Cruiser Detachment, two Nelson-class armoured cruisers and two Barbarian-class armoured cruisers - these two armoured cruisers were classified according to British standards, and if they were in the Ming Royal Navy, they would have been classified as capital ships. Different from the standard of division according to tonnage and armor thickness, the standard for the division of British capital ships is cannon (number or caliber, which is also more confusing, the capital ships built in the early period are divided according to the number, and the later [one] [book] [read] novel ybdu.. then look at the caliber of the main gun). The Nelson class and the Brute class have an unladen displacement of about 7,500 tons and 8,500 tons, respectively, and the armor is thick, no less than the Saxon class. But the caliber of the main guns was only 10 inches and 9 inches. The number of secondary guns is also not enough. Thus became an armored cruiser. The main guns of these 4 bulky armored cruisers were also arranged on the central axis, so they also formed a column, located on the right flank of the 1st battleship detachment.

The above 16 battleships and armored cruisers were Arthur. The core striking force in Hood's hands. Although the Nelson-class and the Brute-class wore the brand of armored cruisers, in Admiral Hood's opinion, they could be used as capital ships. In addition to these three detachments, Hood had four more cruiser detachments in his hands.

The 4th armored cruiser detachment, consisting of four Orlando-class. With a displacement of 5,600 tons and a speed of up to 17 knots, it has 2 single-mounted 9-inch guns, 10 6-inch secondary guns, 6 6-pounder secondary guns and 10 3-pounder guns. These four powerful armored cruisers also formed a column, which was lined up on the right flank of the 3rd armored cruiser detachment.

The fifth armored cruiser detachment, consisting of six ships of the "Jewel" class, was USS Emerald, USS Garnet, USS Opal, USS Ruby, USS Tourmaline and USS Turquoise. The armored cruisers of this class are also somewhat unworthy of the name, not too big but too small, with a displacement of only 2120 tons. The speed was 14 knots, and the guns were 2 6-inch guns and 4 3-pounder guns. It's actually a light patrol. Somehow took on the title of armored cruiser. These six "Jewel" class ships also formed a column, which was replaced by Arthur . Hood was placed on the left flank of the 2nd Battleship Detachment.

The sixth protective cruiser detachment, four Leander-class, four Iris-class, these two protective cruisers are new ships that have only entered service in the past two years, with tonnage of 4300 tons and 3730 tons respectively, and a speed of 16.5 knots and 16 knots, the level of protection is comparable to the armored cruisers of the Ming Royal Navy, and the firepower is also extremely powerful, the former is used for 10 6-inch guns and 4 14-inch torpedo tubes. The latter was armed with 10 5-inch guns and 4 14-inch torpedo tubes.

The 7th Light Cruiser Detachment, 10 Marvel-class, also new ships that had just been launched, had a displacement of 1,700 tons, a speed of 17 knots, 4 5-inch guns, and 4 6-pounder guns. 2 machine guns and 4 14-inch torpedo tubes.

The 6th and 7th detachments, two "guerrilla detachments", now formed in columns to follow the 1st battleship detachment, and after the engagement, they would wander the battlefield in search of fighters.

(Note, because of the early emergence of the Besemer converter steel and rubber industries, and the emergence of scientific research institutions such as the Jason Central Laboratory and the Daming Royal Research Institute, the world's industrial and scientific and technological progress is now a little ahead of the original time and space. Ships are not the same thing as warships that originally used these names in history. ）

In addition to the above forty-four relatively new capital ships and cruisers, Arthur . Hood's Eastern Fleet also had dozens of old steam galleons, some of which had been sent out on missionary or escort missions. Now that the decisive battle of the fleet has not begun, it does not mean that the navies of both sides are playing soy sauce. In addition to small-scale contact battles with light steam warships, diplomatic break-up and escort operations are frequently carried out throughout the vast seas of the South Sea, the western Pacific, and the Indian Ocean. However, most of these tasks were carried out by steam galleons that took a back seat, because they were less dependent on coal than all-steam-powered ironclads, and therefore had a greater range of activities than steam ironclads - not all ports were supplied with high-quality thermal coal in this era.

Now, in addition to the steam galleons that left the port to carry out the mission, the remaining sixteen steam schooners were also replaced by Arthur. Hood took the battlefield and now formed two "gunboat detachments" under his orders to cruise the entire fleet at the end, and their task was to find an opportunity to sink the Ming transports after the decisive battle of the fleet began, so that they would not take advantage of the chaos and cross the Sunda Strait to Chittagong.

As the huge fleet slowly completed the marshalling and formation, Arthur. Hood also gave a loud order: "Hang out the flag, England hopes that every officer and soldier will fulfill their duties!" This is the flag that Admiral Nelson hung on the flagship Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1803, and this flag is also regarded as the soul of the British Navy!

"Enemy fleet!"

As soon as the flag was hoisted, a terrible siren suddenly sounded, and dozens of blue-black smoke columns rose into the sky on the northern horizon. The nerves up and down the British Eastern Fleet immediately tightened suddenly.

The new Chief of Staff of the Eastern Fleet, who was also the captain of the "Empress of India", Ray Murphy. Lieutenant General Aspen then took out his pocket watch and looked at the time.

"Admiral, it's 5:50 and we have at least 13 hours."

Naval battles in this era often lasted a long time because they did not have powerful armor-piercing blasting shells, but 13 hours was enough for two large fleets to decide the winner.

"Lei, the commander and captain of the Chinese are your former students, right?" Arthur. Hood lit a cigar and stared at the blue-black column of smoke in the distance. "What kind of people are they?"

"General." Aspen has served in the Ming Royal Navy for many years, serving as a military adviser and chief of staff of the fleet, and has also served as the vice principal and principal of the Royal Navy Military Academy. However, he never spoke highly of them. "The level of tactical training of the Chinese Navy cannot be compared with ours, and this may be the reason why they have always adhered to column tactics." Aspen smiled slightly contemptuously, "If they use the same complex formation as us, I'm afraid they won't be able to drive the battlefield and become a mess." ”

The column is indeed the easiest formation to maintain, just follow one by one, and drive the ships behind the flagship as you want, without worrying about chaos. The formation of horizontal formations and columns is much more complicated, and it takes a long time to practice just to keep different types of warships in a neat horizontal formation during navigation! The coordination of the horizontal column had to be practiced and explored for many years -- it was not enough to use the horizontal column to resist the column, the flexibility of the column always exceeded that of the horizontal column, and the simple horizontal column impact tactics could not deal with the enemy's column at all, and the British were not Beiyang naval divisions!

"So, we can defeat them?" Arthur. Hood asked again.

"Yes, tactically it is possible to win!" "But strategically...... What we have to compete with is not the quality of naval personnel, but the real national strength. (To be continued......)