[236] 82 without a ship

With the occupation of the whole country by the revolutionary army, while preparing for the possible coastal landing invasion by Britain and France, preparations for the establishment of major military regions were also in full swing.

According to Yao Fan's instructions, the country was divided into 10 major military regions, namely Beijing, Shenyang, Jinan, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Lanzhou, Chengdu, Wuhan, Kunming, and Fujian.

The Wuhan Military Region, one of the 10 major military regions, was later abolished by New China, and the establishment of the Fujian Military Region was specially set up by Yao Fan in consideration of strengthening the defense cooperation and ties between Fujian and Taiwan.

With the Russian Empire frantically massing troops on the border, the world's main event of 1877, the Tenth Russo-Turkish War, was about to begin.

The British and French seemed to sense something, and suddenly began to slow down the pace of their build-up in Hong Kong, keeping only more than 15,000 colonial infantry in Hong Kong. But at the same time, it has strengthened maritime patrols, and any ship that hoists the five-star red flag will be regarded as a target, and the Royal Navy, which dominates the world, has engaged in piracy.

Yao Fan was a little sorry to receive this news from the Guangzhou Military Region, and he had hoped to destroy the confidence of the British Empire on land in the Far East through another land battle, thus opening a breakthrough for peace talks. Who would have thought that Britain and France would not move and only use the navy to harass.

"The construction of the Navy is going to be accelerated!" Yao Fan ordered at the Central Military Conference.

"Chairman, at present, the work of reorganizing the three major fleets from the four major naval divisions has been basically completed, with the Beiyang Naval Division reorganizing the North Sea Fleet with 5 warships, the Nanyang Naval Division reorganizing the East China Sea Fleet with 6 existing warships, and the Fujian Naval Division and the Guangdong Naval Division reorganizing the South China Sea Fleet with 27 warships.

In addition to the technical backbone of the three fleets, all the political work cadres are all new, and the General Political Department is confident in the current fighting style of the three major fleets after the reorganization! Li Jun, director of the General Political Department, said.

"To tell the truth, our General Staff Department is not familiar with naval warfare, and at present, on the basis of retaining most of the generals of the Manchu Shimizu Division as instructors of the Naval Academy, we are studying the naval drill and combat outline issued by the chairman. The navy has a lot of different branches of the armed forces and is highly technical, so in order to train qualified officers, I think we can try to hire a few foreign instructors. Luo Qiren, director of the General Staff, said.

"At present, we are mainly improving the construction of naval training facilities on land, and as for the procurement and trial production of warships, we must come step by step. The three fleets should base themselves on the construction of bases and military ports, and with the assistance of dock engineers invited by the Comintern from Germany, they should hurry up the construction of large-tonnage docks. Yao Fan admonished.

"At present, the construction of the dock at the Qingdao base under the Jinan Military Region has been completed the fastest, two 500-ton docks have been repaired, and another 1,000-ton dock has been half completed. At present, there are comrades at the Qingdao Naval Base, who have dismantled the naval guns on the old warships left over from the Manchu Qing Dynasty and directly went to the 80mm recoilless gun squad and machine gun crew to patrol the sea. Gui Bajian, commander of the Jinan Military Region, said.

"I agree with this idea, which is in line with the idea of fighting bayonets at sea put forward by the chairman. It's just that at present, there are only 200 Type 82 80mm recoilless guns in our army, all of which are used in port defense, and they can't be called up for a while. Besides, the ship was bumpy, and I was afraid that the recoilless guns would not be accurate after they got on the ship. Zhou Si, director of the General Armament Department, said.

"The closer you get, the more accurate you are, I've seen the 82 no exercises, one shot can collapse the city wall, I think it's better to replace all the garrison artillery in various ports with 82mm mortars that our army currently has a large number of reserves, and free up all the recoilless guns on board." He Shichengdao, director of the General Logistics Department.

"I agree with Comrade He Shicheng's opinion." Gui Ba, commander of the Jinan Military Region, said.

Yao Fan thought about it for a while and said: "Gui Ba, you are the first batch of artillery in our army, and now you are also the principal of the Qingdao Artillery School, since you are sure to replace the recoilless gun with a mortar for the port defense, then you can study it and come up with a charter."

Gui Ba said excitedly: "I have studied this issue with the technical backbone of the artillery school, and we feel that with the current needs of the country, about fifty mortar battalions of coastal defense artillery should be set up, deployed in various coastal military districts, to carry out the exclusive defense of port points, and replace all recoilless guns." Put all 200 recoilless guns of our army on the warship, and fight to the death with the British at sea!

The advantage of the mortar battalion as a port defense is that it can attack and defend, and the use of No. 6 charge can hit 4660 meters, which is much farther than the 2000 meters of the 82 type 80mm recoilless gun, and the 27 guns of a battalion can be concentrated to form a cover, which can effectively improve the hit rate of sea targets, even if the opponent lands, the mortar battalion can also flexibly and maneuverably transfer the position, and cooperate with the army to kill the enemy landing force.

As for the 82 none, once on board, it can use grenades to attack within 2,000 meters, and armor-piercing shells can be used when it is close to 500 meters, which is in line with the strategy of fighting bayonets at sea put forward by the chairman. ”

Seeing that Gui Ba was right, Yao Fan clapped his head and said, "Then do it!" Select a batch of battleships and let the 82 non-artillery squads of the garrison troops in each port come on board. ”

Gui Badao: "Chairman, I'm worried that our artillery is all landlubbers, and after the comrades of these artillery squads get on the boat, once they get seasick, it may affect their combat effectiveness." ”

Luo Qiren, director of the General Staff, said: "No one is born with water, practice well for a while, and sooner or later he will not get seasick." ”

Yao Fan said: "At present, in order to quickly improve the combat effectiveness of the navy, this can only be used. Whether it is easy to use or not depends on practice to test. I ordered that the four headquarters should immediately make arrangements for the priority of choosing fast warships, first arming six to ten, going to the mouth of the Pearl River or the Yangtze River, and fighting with the British warships that regularly come to harass them. ”

"Yes!"

"Although the commander of the navy has not yet been decided, the commanders of the three major fleets cannot but be appointed, and I would like to announce now, taking into account all factors, Deng Shichang will be the commander of the North Sea Fleet, Ye Zuqi will be the commander of the East China Sea Fleet, and Ye Fu will be the commander of the South China Sea Fleet. As for the political commissars and directors of the political departments of the three fleets, the General Political Department has already selected the most capable team configuration, so I will not repeat it.

In short, the peculiarities of the Navy determine the configuration of the leadership team, and the front-line captains and fleet commanders give priority to the cadets of the shipyard school. At the same time, we must all the more promote military competence with political competence, and all political cadres should go down to the fleet and warships to mingle with the sailors, and do everything possible to establish soldiers' committees on each boat and recruit party members.

……………………

After eating Li Hainiu, which is Ji Dongyun's wedding wine, after his daughter's full moon, Yao Fan traveled back to 2013 again.

During the last time Yao Fan crossed over, the three-headed deliberative mechanism composed of the Central Military Commission, the General Office of the Central Committee, and the Council of Ministers of the Government Council worked well, so Yao Fan was more at ease when he left this time.

According to Yao Fan's instructions, a total of ten warships were dispatched for this battle of land artillery.

The North Sea Fleet under which Deng Shichang was the commander was all dispatched, and the five warships of Caojiang, Meiyun, Haijing, Tai'an, and Weiyuan were all the belongings of the North Sea Fleet.

On the Caojiang with a displacement of 950 tons, the four 160mm naval guns with a total ammunition weight of more than 200 tons were all dismantled, and in their place, twelve 80mm recoilless gun squads were arranged on a 55-meter-long hull, and each recoilless gun squad was reduced to four people for the needs of the ship, in addition, the ship was equipped with 10 Type 81 light machine gun crews.

The Mae Yun with a displacement of 578 tons dismantled all three guns of one 160mm and two 120mm, plus ammunition, and lost more than 100 tons, ten gun squads were arranged on a 53-meter-long deck, and six two-man machine gun crews were arranged.

The Haijing, with a displacement of 1,358 tons, the Tai'an with a displacement of 1,258 tons, and the Weiyuan with a displacement of 1,268 tons, were not modified, but only reduced their ammunition load, and each carried six 82 gunless squads and six machine gun crews.

According to the plan, the North Sea Fleet will go south to Shanghai and take the opportunity to fight with the warships harassing the British at the mouth of the Yangtze River.

Deng Shichang is 28 years old this year, and it is time to show his edge.

Ye Zuqi, who also graduated from the Mawei Shipbuilding School in Fujian, is 29 years old this year, and he has just been appointed commander of the East China Sea Fleet, and he is full of ambition and wants to leave his name in the naval history of New China.

The East China Sea Fleet was also dispatched, and two of the six warships were refitted, namely the 730-ton Surveying Sea and the 572-ton Jingyuan.

In addition, the remaining four warships of the East China Sea Fleet, like the North Sea Fleet, also carried six to ten recoilless gun squads and about ten machine gun crews.

At the mouth of the Yangtze River in March, a fierce battle of bayonets will take place at sea.

A total of 11 warships of the North Sea Fleet and the East China Sea Fleet took turns to patrol the mouth of the Yangtze River for about a week, and finally discovered the British warships.

This is the main force of the Chinese fleet of the Royal Navy, the "Chinese fleet" with the light battleship "Ellecourt" of the fourth rank as the flagship, and the commander is none other than Baron Griggin.

After losing six ships in the Battle of the Yangtze River, Griging blamed all the fault on Colonel Cox, who was already dying. At present, the Chinese fleet has 9 warships, in addition to the fourth-class battleship Alekautte, there is also a fifth-class battleship, two sixth-class battleships, two wooden gunboats, and three steam-turbine sailing ships.

Since the three steam-turbine galleons were mainly used for the supply and transportation of coal and fresh water, and carried a small number of naval guns, each with only four guns, the combat effectiveness was negligible, and only six British warships could withstand a battle.

According to the Anglo-French agreement, the royal "Chinese Fleet" was responsible for blockading and harassing the Yangtze River estuary, while the French pulled the Far East Fleet stationed in Vietnam to Hong Kong, and together with the East India Fleet, was responsible for blockading the Pearl River Estuary and the coast of Guangdong.

After discovering the British battleship flying the rice flag, Deng Shichang immediately ordered: "Send a report to the East China Sea Fleet, tell us the direction of our position, and tell him to leave the port immediately to respond!" ”

Deng Shichang's palms were slightly sweaty, and he couldn't help but be nervous in the face of the world's No. 1 navy.

Almost at the same time, Baron Griging also spotted the North Sea Fleet, and after looking through a fine monoculars made of brass, Baron Griging ordered: "Send a flag to those pigtailed guys, if they don't surrender immediately, the Royal Navy will sink them all!" ”

After saying that, Grigin gave the order again: "All battleships open their guns and prepare to destroy the enemy ships!" ”

At this time, the distance between the fleets of the two sides was about fifteen kilometers.

Deng Shichang ignored Grigin's flag words, he just desperately commanded the five warships of the North Sea Fleet to seize the upper hand, for the recoilless guns whose range was weaker than the enemy's naval guns, only by approaching the opponent could he have a chance to kill the opponent. For these steam engine and sail hybrid wooden warships, seizing the upper hand meant being able to get as close as possible to each other after the start of the fight.

In the face of the North Sea Fleet, which was desperately trying to seize the upper hand, Griggin's command was clear-sighted.

"The three supply ships of Virgilant, Cleopatra, and Manuel turned back to the rear, and the rest of the ships followed the Eilecourt to seize the T position."

There is no doubt that Grigan intends to inflict a severe blow on the North Sea Fleet with T-position tactics. 、

Griggin judged that the opponent's preemption of the upper hand was undoubtedly a desire to quickly approach the battle, and Griggin was fully confident in the firepower of the Royal Navy warships.

"These five sailing ships are ridiculous, and two of them are not equipped with naval guns! The deck is full of people, is it because they don't die fast enough? ”