Just when the Belgian Front of the Republican Coalition was making rapid progress and threatening the entire territory of the Netherlands, the reinforcements of the Tang Navy were also in place. www.biquge.info It's just that due to the increase in scale, the commander of the North Sea Fleet is no longer Captain Duan Qing, but the commander of the Atlantic Fleet, Li Xianhua.

Li Xianhua was in his early fifties, and he was also a naval officer on the Qilianshan, and he came with the battleship Hawaii. In all fairness, the command level of this fleet commander is not necessarily better than that of the younger Duan Qing, who grew up on the Tang Dynasty warships, while Li Xianhua and these people still have a lot of characteristics of naval operations before the crossing. Although Li Xianhua does not have much practical experience, he is old enough and relatively stable, and he will not make any mistakes.

Duan Qing still participated in the battle as the captain of the cruiser Jingyuan, and he sighed at this time: "The British are still too cautious, if they take the lead in attacking us before Commander Li comes, and surround us in the harbor, this battle is still fought, and now that our main fleet is in place, and with the cooperation of the French Navy, the British are no longer playful." ”

In fact, Duan Qing also wished to go with the British, and the British did not think that they would be able to successfully capture Duan Qing's fleet at all. After all, the speed of Duan Qing's fleet was more than 20 knots, and the British couldn't stop Duan Qing if he wanted to go, so the British could only passively prepare for a decisive battle at sea.

The Anglo-Dutch fleet has expanded its fleet to 22 ships, including three capital ships, namely the Warrior, the Resistance and the Revenge. All three battleships had a displacement of about 10,000 tons and had heavy guns of more than 12 inches. The second ship of the Sovereign class, the Revenge, was even equipped with 14-inch naval guns.

The Don-French fleet outnumbered the Anglo-Dutch fleet, with a total of 29 warships. Among them, the main ships of the Tang Army are 1 Hawaiian-class battleship and 2 Dingyuan-class cruisers. Although the 5,000-ton Pinghai-class cruisers have a total of 6 ships this time, and they also carry 203 mm naval guns, they are embarrassed to call themselves capital ships on this occasion, after all, the British also have 7 cruisers of about 4000-6000 tons with 12-inch naval guns. The flagship of the French, the Shanyue, and another Makigetsu, are new self-made cruisers with a tonnage of more than 7,000 tons, and their overall performance is similar to that of the Pinghai class, and they belong to the second-class capital ships.

In terms of the comparison of the data of the capital ships, it is obvious that the Tang and French fleets are slightly inferior, and the three battleships of the British are still very deterrent. The Datang Navy also brought two heavy cruisers of more than 8,000 tons to make up the number, and the caliber of the ship's guns was also insufficient. Of course, considering that the British Warrior-class battleships were still traditional two-sided guns, the actual firepower output was limited. Moreover, in terms of armor performance and sailing speed, it is not comparable to the Datang ships, so the actual gap is limited.

Datang has a total of three battleships in active service, and the latest Australian-class battleship is completely larger than the British Royal Navy's Battleship No. 1, which is much stronger in any performance, but Datang did not put it into use.

All the ships that Shikoku participated in the war were all new warships above the steam ironclad battleship, and there were no old-fashioned sail warships. On paper, the British fleet can even compete with the Tang fleet, which shows the rapid development of the British Royal Navy for more than ten years. Although the Royal Navy is a steam ironclad ship, it is a thing of two eras with warships such as the Dingyuan-class and Hawaii-class, and the Datang Navy only stretched out a finger without holding a fist. But the strength of the British Royal Fleet is already beyond doubt.

It is not surprising that Datang has set aside a small part of its finances as defense spending, and then used 40% of it for naval spending. On the other hand, the British, nearly four-fifths of their national revenue was used to develop the navy, so it was normal to be able to build a fleet that could fight the Tang Army. The British almost tightened their belts and gnawed grass and bark to build six battleships. I have to say that the approach of such a large capital ship is actually very strategically correct.

At least Li Xianhua, Duan Qing and the others, at this time, were full of distress when they saw the three capital ships of the Royal Navy overwhelming the tonnage and artillery of the three capital ships of the Tang Dynasty.

Duan Qing had a cold face and said, "Go back and call everyone to write a blood book on it, when will our Datang Navy's equipment be inferior to people?" We want battleships too! ”

Political Commissar Liu Yuan smiled bitterly: "That's obviously two different things. Everyone knows that although the caliber of the guns of the heavy cruisers of the Tang Dynasty is smaller than that of the capital ships of the British Royal Navy, the range and power are actually greater, and the British still have a lot of things to eat in terms of military technology, and the range of their 14-inch heavy guns is only similar to the range of my Datang 130 mm frigate-level main guns (about 13,000 yards), which is enough to explain the problem. ”

Duan Qing said sharply: "Even the battleships of our navy rarely fire at a distance of 13,000 yards. ”

Datang's naval guns with a range of more than 300 mm are more than 20 kilometers away, and they did not fire at this distance before, because there is no need, and the enemy does not have weapons with this range. Moreover, even if Datang has the fire control level in the early Cold War, the hit rate at this distance is a pitiful 5%. Once within the range of 15,000 yards, the Datang battleships and cruisers have entered the most comfortable attack range, and the hit rate can reach an astonishing 20% or more (it is not surprising that the actual high hit rate of modern naval guns is scary, otherwise there would not be such a thing as a Chinese frigate gunner hitting an anti-ship missile at high speed with 76 guns, and the target of the anti-ship missile can be hit, let alone a big ship). Therefore, the current combat manual of the Datang Navy still requires that it enter the effective shooting boundary within 15,000 yards.

Liu Yuan said: "Battleships, I don't think Shangfeng plans to play for many years, our first aircraft carrier has been launched and is waiting to be delivered, although the battleships will definitely be built in the future, but the number will not be very large." ”

As a senior naval officer, Duan Qing naturally understands the long-term route of naval development in the Datang Navy, which is listed as top secret, which is actually another historical reality. It's just that how many hot-blooded men in the Navy love the giant ship cannons, and they are not sensitive to the aircraft carrier that lacks the beauty of violence.

Duan Qing said: "I don't care, before I retire, I must be the captain of a battleship." ”

In fact, Duan Qing's wish has a great chance of coming true, he can serve in the Navy for at least 20 years, and the Navy will complete the construction of two Australian-class battleships this year, and then start the construction of a new generation of Siamese-class battleships in full swing, and place an order of 6 ships, basically each fleet can be divided into more than 2 battleships, Duan Qing's hope as the commander of the second-class fleet is also huge. (To be continued.) )