Thankfully, the Suez Canal had not yet been opened, and the British, if they wanted to draw their main ships from the Strait Fleet on their home side or from the Mediterranean Fleet, would have to bypass southern Africa to reach China, and their voyage would not be much closer than the Russian Second Pacific Fleet reinforcement to the Far East during the Russo-Japanese War in 1905.

Crossing half the world was not a difficult task for the British Navy, and there were plenty of ports to resupply along the way, but it would take time.

In addition, the East India Fleet had just failed once, and the British had to examine the details of the naval battle at the mouth of the Pearl River before deciding what warships to send and what kind of fleet to form to the Far East.

In this way, it will take not a month or two, but at least more than three months, and if the British are more cautious, then it may be half a year before the British can successfully assemble a second large fleet to attack.

In other words, the Imperial Navy, after defeating the East India Fleet and forcing Liszt's fleet to return to Singapore, had at least three months of buffer time, and even more than half a year of rest and preparation time if the British delayed a little.

And these times are very important for the current Imperial Navy.

During this period of time, except for Lin Tongshu and others who had to continue to study various tactics and find tactics to defeat the fleet of the second British attack, the rest of the navy was not idle.

And in recent days, all they have to do is sort out yesterday's battle in detail.

Such a large-scale naval battle will have a significant impact on the subsequent development of the Chinese Navy and the global navy. Many of the problems exposed in the course of naval warfare will be given extreme attention and then improved.

In recent history. Every large-scale war is always followed by a military innovation. The Sino-British and French battles in Shanghai in 1858 directly caused a wave of rear-loading rifles to be put into service around the world, and spread out in front of the American Civil War.

The Crimean War made the global navy realize the superiority of ironclads, which began to be built, and reached a new peak during the American Civil War.

And yesterday's naval battle at the mouth of the Pearl River is bound to have a greater and more profound impact, because it was the first large-scale engagement between ironclad ships in the history of the world.

This engagement was not a sporadic artillery battle between offshore rivers like the American Civil War, but a large-scale fleet decisive battle. This kind of fleet decisive battle between ironclad ships is the first time in human history.

It will inevitably have a profound impact on the subsequent development of warships and naval tactics!

Let's not mention the impact of the Battle of the Pearl River Estuary on the British, and let's not mention what the British planned to do after they were defeated in the Battle of the Pearl River Estuary.

Let's just say that on the side of the Imperial Navy, the naval battle has just ended, and the next day the navy has been conducting a detailed study of the naval battle at the mouth of the Pearl River!

If we don't talk about the tactical theories that are too detailed, we won't be able to decide on them for a while, and we need to discuss them again.

But there was one thing that was quickly accepted and supported by the Navy. That is, to equip the battleship with ramming angles!

What was the fundamental factor that allowed the Imperial Navy to win in the Battle of the Pearl River Estuary? It was not the rapid advance of the first column and the destruction of the wooden battleship group of the British fleet, but the ramming of the Snail on the Resistance. The sinking of the Resistance through a lose-lose pattern completely laid the foundation for the victory of this naval battle, forcing Liszt to retreat on his own initiative.

At the same time in naval battles. The ability of naval guns to damage ironclad ships is very limited, and it is limited by technological development. It is impossible for the Navy to be equipped with naval guns of a larger caliber and longer barrel in a short period of time. It is also impossible to develop more advanced armor-piercing shells in a short time.

So if you want to improve the ability of a warship to sink an ironclad ship in a short period of time, especially when your own side is still in a weak position, what is the easiest and most reliable at the same time?

There is no doubt about it, ramming!

Historically, after 1866 and during the Sino-Japanese Naval War, the collision angle can be vigorously developed not because contemporary admirals like to play bumper boats, but because as the protection ability of ironclad ships is getting stronger and stronger, but the ability of naval guns cannot keep up, at least in the sixties to nineties, and even to the time of the Russo-Japanese War, in these decades, the protection and firepower of battleships have been unequal.

The development of naval artillery has always lagged behind the development of armor, when the howitzer used in naval artillery has matured and reliable, the wrought iron teak mixed armor of ironclad ships has become popular, and when warships began to use large-caliber ones, such as those twelve-inch caliber naval guns, warships began to use case-hardened armor again.

So much so that from the nineties to the early twentieth century, the tactic of washing the deck with a two-stage main gun appeared, but in the final analysis, it was because the naval guns and fire control system were not effective.

It was not until the advent of the hat-piercing shells and centralized fire control system that the firepower of the battleship surpassed the development of armor for the first time, so that a Jutland naval battle could be fought.

Not to mention things that are too far away, and the officers of the Imperial Navy cannot predict the development of warships in the coming decades, they only consider the actual situation at this stage.

That is, naval guns under the existing technical conditions cannot cause effective damage to ironclad ships, so how can you sink enemy ships?

With the precedent of the Snail crashing and sinking the Resistance, it is undoubtedly a feasible shortcut to equip the battleship with ramming angles and adopt ramming tactics.

Although this kind of behavior in history is redundant, in addition to the American Civil War and the Battle of Lissa, the collision horn has become a kind of decoration in the following naval battles, and there are many examples of sinking one's own battleship instead of sinking the enemy ship.

However, these are all things for the future, at least for the present, especially between the 60s and 70s, the collision angle still has a certain practical value.

Otherwise, the navies of all countries in the world in history would not have added ramming angles to their warships!

In addition to equipping warships with ramming angles, the navy has also drawn several other results through the study of the naval battle at the mouth of the Pearl River and the naval battle of Honolulu in front of it, that is, the sail system on the battleship can no longer bring advantages in the decisive battle of the fleet, but has become a burden, and although the sail system is destroyed, it will not affect the activities of the battleship, but it will bring a large number of casualties.

Therefore, the Navy has put forward a proposal to completely abolish the sail system and use steam engines for all subsequent warships!

When the Yandi had one mast destroyed, it simply dismantled the remaining masts when it entered the shipyard for repair, becoming the first purely steam-powered large ocean-going ironclad ship in the Imperial Navy.

However, after receiving the impact of dismantling the mast and losing the sail system, it will have a more serious impact on the endurance of the Yandi, relying on the steam engine, its endurance is only 2,000 nautical miles, if this endurance is to go out to the depths of the Pacific Ocean to fight, it will be greatly affected, but if it is only in the western Pacific region, especially in the domestic coast, Japan's coast and other places, then the problem will not be too big.

In any case, the Imperial Navy does not have enough ability to expand to the entire Pacific Ocean or to the Indian Ocean for the time being, and it is difficult to even reach the depths of the South China Sea.

Not only the Yandi, but also several other ironclad ships that had been seriously damaged were also dismantling the sail system one after another in the process of repair.

It is expected that after a month or two of these warships are repaired, then the large ocean-going ironclads of the entire empire will become a pure steam iron construction fleet, and they will say goodbye to the sails completely.

In fact, the Imperial Navy has a tradition of using pure steam-powered warships, the earliest Xingwu-class gunboat, which is only 80 tons of inland river gunboats, is a purely steam-powered inland river gunboat, and a series of inland river and offshore gunboats built by the empire are pure steam-powered.

Even the Zhenguang-class offshore ironclad ships and the Female Snail-class offshore ironclad ships are all pure steam powered, but their speed is generally low, the Zhenguang-class offshore ironclad ships only have a speed of eight knots, and the Female Snail class also has a speed of only eight knots, and the endurance is quite tragic.

If it was according to the original plan of the Navy, the first pure steam ocean-going ironclad ship should be an eight-year armored ship, but now due to the impact of the Battle of the Pearl River Estuary, the Navy directly dismantled the sail system on the six battleships of the Yandi class and the Pangu class.

Although the inevitable endurance will be greatly affected, the maximum speed will also be reduced, and it is impossible to run a high speed of 14 or even 15 knots.

But in a large-scale fleet decisive battle will not be affected much.

Because during the decisive battle of a large fleet, the fleet has to change its formation frequently, and regardless of the direction of the wind, sometimes the sails can even become a burden.

In the naval battle at the mouth of the Pearl River, in the course of the engagement, whether it was the British or the Imperial ironclad ships, the sail system was destroyed one after another or simply took the initiative to lower the sails, relying on pure steam power for maneuvering.

However, the plan to dismantle the sails is limited to some of the main warships used in the decisive battle, and some of the original wooden warships and some auxiliary warships such as reconnaissance cruisers will still maintain the sail system, after all, they rarely participate in the decisive battle of the fleet, and because the ship itself is relatively small, the endurance and speed requirements are relatively high, so the removal of the sail system will greatly reduce the endurance and speed, which is unacceptable to the Imperial Navy.

It's just that this also means that these wooden warships have been completely reduced to a marginal role in the navy. (To be continued.) )