At the same time that Tang President Bai Nan issued an ultimatum to Russia, the Tang Army stationed in Europe had already taken action. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoThe closest to Istanbul is the Don Army stationed in Dalmatia. Although Dalmatia is small in size and small in population, the Don Army has a base for the North Atlantic Fleet, an air base and two bases for marines. With the size of thousands of marines, Datang could not rashly launch a ground war against Russia, but the Datang Navy had enough strength to impose harshness on Tsarist Russia.

The Split Datang Naval Base is home to dozens of large and small warships of the Datang Navy, including the USS BC, the Siam-class battleships USS Burma and USS Vietnam, 2 Denver-class heavy cruisers, 2 Shenyang-class heavy cruisers, 4 Vancouver-class light cruisers, and 4 Switch-class frigates. With such a lineup alone, it is enough to be proud of the Tsarist Russian Navy.

The replenishment of the Tsarist Navy in Europe after the war was not very fast, and until now, its Black Sea Fleet ships were composed of only one heavy cruiser of about 11,000 tons and four frigates of two or three thousand tons. The rest are some small gunboats of tens and hundreds of tons, don't count on aircraft carriers and submarines.

The focus of Tsarist Russia's military development after the war was on the army, so the navy was relatively less resourceful, and the construction of large ships was relatively small, which could not be compared with Western European countries, let alone the Tang Navy.

The Datang Navy casually took out two heavy cruisers to clean up the entire Russian Black Sea Fleet, and two Siam-class battleships against them were almost an exaggeration. As for the USS BC, the only aircraft carrier with a full load displacement of 34,000 tons built in Datang, the main combat mission it carried out was not naval warfare, but an attack on land.

Before Datang decides to use troops against Russia on a large scale, Datang will use the navy to teach the Russians enough lessons.

It's not that the Russian army doesn't know that the strength of the Datang Navy is much stronger than theirs, so Tsarist Russia laid mines in the Bosphorus Strait and the Sea of Marmara. After learning of this situation, the Datang Navy immediately sent bombers to attack the Russian mine-laying boats, sinking dozens of small mine-laying ships in succession. The effect of the Russian army's minelaying was unfavorable, so it had to choose to continue laying mines at night. At this time, the task force of the Tang Navy had already passed through the Dardanelles Strait and entered the Sea of Marmara.

The Datang Navy also did not dare to relax too much, so the fleet directly brought out more than a dozen minesweepers with relatively large tonnage to accompany the operation, which also somewhat slowed down the progress of the fleet. The minesweepers did drop a lot of mines in the Sea of Marmara, and even got a few samples. The Datang Navy found that Russia's man-made mine technology was not up to par, either because there was a problem with the fuse, or the explosion power was small, and more than half of the mines could not be detonated normally. During the minesweeping operation, a Datang minesweeper suffered a little minor damage, but fortunately there were no casualties.

The Tang Navy, which entered the Sea of Marmara, immediately ordered carrier-based aviation to strike at the Russian forces in Turkey. The USS British Columbia aircraft carrier was responsible for the attack, and this ship was also built in this class, and the verification role was greater. Tried to use a comprehensive beveled flight deck instead of the previous Pengzhou-level straight deck, the use of a closed hangar, the setting of the elevator is more reasonable, and so on.

The BC was able to carry up to 90 fighters, and the Navy did not carry torpedo planes, bringing only fighters J-4 Hellcat and J-2 Dreadnought. In the war with the Turkish army, the Russian army only used less than 50 aircraft in total, and Datang surpassed them in the capacity of an aircraft carrier. What's more, Datang's air base in Dalmatia has a bombing division, equipped with bombers such as H-3 and H-4, which can directly cross over and fight.

Before arriving in the waters of Istanbul, the Datang naval aviation had already launched a strike against the Russian army. The bombing targets of the Datang naval aviation and air force are mainly deployed in the Russian military camps around Istanbul, and the formation of attack aircraft and bombers has carried out many strikes on the Russian army in Istanbul, and the Russian air force has also taken off to meet the battle, but the gap between the two sides in experience and equipment is very large, so except for the two planes in Datang that were shot down by ground air defense artillery, there are no other losses. And the bombing effect of the Tang Army was still very good, and the bombing blew up the Russian army. The Russian army has the ability to defend part of the battlefield and base, but because the size of the troops is too large and the distribution is uneven, there is no way to form any too reliable defense force.

The air defense training of the Russian army itself was also not qualified, and when the Tang Army bombed, many Russian soldiers did not know what to do, and finally stood there stupidly and were blown up. A wave of air strikes by Datang caused thousands of casualties among the Russian army, and to make matters worse, the chaotic army made it more difficult for officers to control the troops. Some Russian soldiers are very realistic, Datang is an opponent they can't beat, and now that Datang has made a move, then they will be in danger.

Although the Russian soldiers did not mutiny, they had obviously lost interest in fighting again, and if it weren't for the fact that there were still people above to support them, this old man would have withdrawn long ago. For the soldiers and officers, they killed people and robbed money, and it was time to go back and enjoy themselves. If the Tang Army is defeated at this time, it is obvious that what has been collected will be spit out again, which is reluctant.

Therefore, there are constantly reactions from lower-level officers, and the Russian army is unstable and wants to retreat back to Russian territory. It's just that such voices could not reach Moscow, could not reach the ears of Alexander I. In the eyes of senior officers and the tsar, although the Tang army is terrible, but such a troublesome day is to defeat a thousand people, as long as the Russian army can respond to air raids more flexibly and tactfully, then it may be possible to lose fewer points. As long as it can occupy Istanbul and the Byzantine region, Russia will be able to secure the fruits of victory, as well as an even more influential international position in the future.

Even the momentum of the Tang army did not feel that he could bring the Russians to their knees by means of bombing. While lamenting it, Bai Nan still very decisively mobilized troops in the European theater of operations to prepare for a strike on the Russian army. Bai Nan does not want a full-scale war with Russia, but there are still many ways to hurt Russia. Although it is not impossible that there is a possibility, that is, the Russians will force themselves to wear down with the Tang Dynasty, but Bai Nan believes that Russia's losses will be too great, and even Turkey will have problems itself. Therefore, the Datang military still implements the strategy of forcing back. (To be continued.) )