War on land, confrontation on the sea. This is an overview of what was later described as the war, Afghanistan is a landlocked country with no navy, and the two main protagonists of all confrontations in the Indian Ocean are the Imperial East African Fleet and the British Great Indian Fleet. At the beginning of 1878, the main force of the East African Fleet, eleven ironclads and twenty-nine cruisers, gunboats, were practically left without any available ships after being transferred to the Egyptian fleet. In the middle of the year, the first three Qin-class pre-dreadnoughts from the mainland (the capital ships of that era were still ironclad ships, but the shape of the Qin-class already had the low side of the ironclad ship, and the low pole became a flying scissor type and a high side, which was already similar to the shape of the pre-dreadnought and dreadnought, so it was called a pre-dreadnought, in fact, everyone can still think of it as an ironclad ship), and the arrival of the capital ship was the solution to the urgent need.

The current East African Fleet has 5 Qin-class cruisers, 3 Dongzhou-class cruisers (urgently transferred back from the Egyptian fleet after the start of the war), 6 Hangzhou-class cruisers, 6 Shaoxing-class cruisers, 6 Shangyu-class cruisers, and 5 gunboats. Looking at the strength of Britain, in 1878 the Great Indian Fleet of the British Empire had 27 armored ships and 33 unarmored ships. The armored ships of the British here include their 6 ironclad ships and 21 cruisers, and the non-armored ships are all wooden-hulled cruisers, which are not a real threat, and the new gunboats of this kind of ship empire can be accurate with one shot at a time.

Regardless of performance, the strength of Britain and China in the Indian Ocean is about the same, and even counting those unarmored ships, the British still have an advantage.

But where does the confrontation on the ocean begin? Since 1878, when Britain declared war on Afghanistan, the British Naval Staff essentially drew up a battle plan for the Chinese Empire for the first time, and of course the plan only applied to the navy. The Indian Ocean became an arena for the clash of the two world powers.

July 21, 1878.

Mumbai, located on the island of Salset off the west coast of Maharashtra, faces the Arabian Sea. Mumbai is a large city on the west coast of India and the largest seaport in India under British colonization. It is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. The word "Mumbai" is derived from the Portuguese word "Bom Bahia", which means "beautiful bay". At the beginning of the 16th century, the Sultan of Gujarat ceded the land to the Portuguese colonizers. In 1661, it was transferred to England as a dowry for Portuguese princesses, and after continuous dredging and filling, it became a peninsula and was connected to the mainland by bridges and causeways. Mumbai covers an area of 43,777 square kilometers and is located on the island of Saltett off the west coast of India, bordering the Arabian Sea. The average elevation in most parts of Mumbai is 10 to 15 meters, with the northern part of Mumbai being undulating, with the highest point of the city being 450 meters high.

In 1853, the railway connecting Mumbai and Tana was opened, which was the first passenger railway line in India. During the American Civil War, Mumbai became the world's premier cotton trading market, especially after the opening of the Suez Canal in recent years, Mumbai's urban status became more important, becoming one of the largest seaports on the Arabian Sea.

It is difficult for such a city to have real coastal defense, after all, the highest point is only 450 meters, and it is impossible to build any powerful forts, and in fact Mumbai is indeed an undefended virgin land in the eyes of the Imperial Navy's East African Fleet.

The British cruiser HMS Princess India, which was cruising off the coast of Mumbai, was now in a state of panic as lookouts spotted at least a dozen plumes of smoke in the sea to the west, meaning a fleet was approaching Mumbai from the west.

Captain James Black, who was a traditional British naval officer, was very dissatisfied with this, there was no way that this Dome cruiser was a new type of battleship that was launched at the beginning of the year, and these sailors who had just been transferred from the old battleship were not very familiar with it, and it would take time to run in! This was the first question that came to Blake's mind.

"Captain, it should be the East African fleet of the Chinese, what should we do? The Great Indian Fleet only arrived in Goa yesterday, and the Chinese will really find time! The first mate looked at the captain with a frown.

"Brooke, remember that you are the great British Royal Navy, if you are afraid at sea, then the result is destruction" Seeing the first mate nodded as if he didn't understand, Blake, who was the captain, continued, "China and the Empire are not at war, and in the absence of a formal declaration of war between the two sides, we can see this as a normal visit by the Chinese East African Fleet to the Indian colonies of the British Empire, if the other side really has a conspiracy, we must meet it like a warrior, so that we are worthy of this military uniform, isn't it?" But we can't be careless, and now I order to go and load the shells, and no one is allowed to fire without my orders. Let's go up and see what the Chinese want! ”

"It's the captain!" ……

"Bang bang!"

"Captain, they're fired! They fired! Looking at the first mate's frightened face, Captain Blake's mouth was about to twitch, "Are you a pig?" Shut up for me, that TM is a salute. ”

"The order was to replace the shells in the bore with a salute in return. In addition, send a flag to ask them where they are coming. Blake was as calm as the whole ship ordered......

"I think it's so scared that they can't figure it out." Dong Yongxiang, who was the operational staff officer of the fleet, smiled and looked at the fleet commander Wang Yongkang, who was always smiling, "They sent a flag to ask us what we were here for, how did we answer?" ”

"Routine cruise!" Wang Yongkang said with a smile.

"Understood!" Dong Yongxiang immediately understood that this was to avenge an arrow! ……

"Routine cruises? When the Indian coast needs the Chinese fleet to escort them, they are here to retaliate, after the 'Djibouti incident' I knew that the Chinese would not stop, and those stupid politicians should not let them mess around. ”

The so-called "Djibouti Incident" was a military operation in which the British Cabinet and the Admiralty issued a directive after the outbreak of the Anglo-Afghan War to demand that the Great Indian Fleet move westward to carry out armed intimidation of China's East African colonies. The fleet was originally planned to go to Mogadishu, but the fleet commander feared that the operation would completely anger the Chinese and turned north to the Red Sea to launch a so-called commercial escort near Djibouti.

However, in fact, according to the Suez Canal Navigation Agreement, which is a sub-treaty on the division of spheres of influence in the newly signed "Treaty of Egypt", the Red Sea is the sphere of influence of the Chinese Empire, and the signatory countries cannot enter the Red Sea at will without China's permission for capital ships (of course, cruisers and gunboats can be used as escort fleets for the merchant fleet). Even though this so-called escort incident did not cause any property damage to the Empire, Britain's obvious violation of the agreement made the Imperial Navy see it as a great shame, when the main force of the East African Fleet had already gone north into the Mediterranean, Wang Yongkang could only squat in Mogadishu in aggrieved terms, and now after replenishing the main force, Wang Yongkang decided to be ashamed.

In fact, before arriving in Mumbai, Wang Yongkang and his East African fleet had already walked around the Gwadar port in the north, and the defenders there were enough, his plan was to take the fleet from north to south all the way down the west coast of India, and wait for the Maldives to resupply in Mogadishu, of course, if you really think that he is here to retaliate, it would be too much to underestimate him, the purpose of this voyage is to speed up the run-in of the fleet, after all, these are new ships and sailors need to adapt, and second, he wants to obtain the hydrological situation of the West Indian coast for the future. The third is the so-called commercial escort in retaliation against the British fleet