Episode 62 Target: The Paris Commune

Almost instantly, just eight hours after the Soviet Union declared war, it sank a 10,000-ton Soviet cargo ship, making a good start. Although it is only a boatload of potatoes, this efficiency of "attacking head-on at the first time" still shows the military prestige of the Ming Navy.

At present, the Zhengde detachment is speeding northward and releasing seaplanes along the way to expand the search area. The Chief of the General Staff of the Navy sent a telegram of commendation to the commander of the Zhengde Squadron, praising the first sinking as being very efficient and clean, although there were no twists and turns and suspense, which is exactly what the naval blockade and breaking engagement pursued. Hopefully, this smooth start will bode well for the battle ahead.

However, whether it is the General Staff of the Navy or the commander of the Zhengde fleet, they have not forgotten the reason for the Zhengde voyage. Supposedly, this was only a blockade and a sea-breaking engagement, mainly against freighters or tankers, and ordinary cruisers were adequate, but a battleship was sent for the main decisive battle.

Just as the main opponent of a fighter is a fighter, the main opponent of a tank is a tank, and the main opponent of a sniper is a sniper, so the main opponent of a battleship is also a battleship.

The Soviet Navy currently has three battleships, all of which are left over from the tsarist period and have been modernized.

One was originally named "Petropavlovsk", modified under the name "Marat", and is now the Black Sea Fleet.

One was originally named "Gangut", modified and renamed "October Revolution", and now the Baltic Fleet.

One was originally named "Sevastopol", modified and renamed "Paris Commune", and now the Pacific Fleet.

The "Paris Commune", which is now anchored in Vladivostok, was transferred from the Baltic Sea by the Soviet Union during the Ming Dynasty Unification War. This battleship "Paris Commune" was a potential opponent of the Zhengde detachment. The ship is equipped with 12 305 mm caliber main guns and 4 triple main gun turrets, all arranged on the longitudinal centerline of the hull. One main turret is arranged in the front and rear of the hull, and two main turrets are arranged in the front and rear of the chimney in the middle of the hull. This gun is a new large-caliber naval gun developed and produced in 1907 for the battleships of the "Sevastopol" and "Queen Maria" classes. The 305 mm gun has a total length of 15,900 mm and a barrel length of 15,419.5 mm (52 times the diameter).

The Sevastopol class was built with a crew of 1,126 people, including 33 officers, 30 naval cadets and 1,066 sailors. In 1916 it had increased to 40 officers, 30 cadets and 1,180 sailors.

The primary objective of the Zhengde detachment's patrol was to blockade the Soviet Union's maritime communications in the Far East, and the main targets were cargo ships and oil tankers. But the secondary goal was to sink the Paris Commune as soon as it left the port.

……

An investigation team from the security team has been dispatched to Lanzhou. Xiang Xiaoqiang felt very uncomfortable. On the one hand, he hopes that his judgment will be correct, so that he can dig out a big spy lurking in the upper echelons of the Ming army, and maybe even bring out a spy network. On the other hand, he wished he had been wrong. After all, Zhao Cunnian is such a high-level general, and his military talent is obvious to all. It was definitely the most disappointing thing to be when I joined and it really proved that such a person was a spy.

In recent days, the busiest departments in the cabinet have been the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of the Army. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is busy influencing the United States from various channels, trying to persuade the US Congress to amend the Neutrality Act, or at least to find a way around it. And the War Office was busy with the operation of the full-scale outbreak of the Ming-Soviet War. One of the departments closest to the People's Guard is the General Administration of Military Industry of the Ministry of the Army. That was Wang Hexiang's old unit, and the Ming Army's weapons upgrade was mainly responsible for the two units of the General Administration of Military Industry and the People's Guard's Armament and Training Department.

In the past two days, Wang Hexiang took the people from the Armament Training Department and ran around with the people of the General Administration of Military Industry all day long, testing the new Lightning-4 tank and evaluating the mass-produced "Goshawk" fighter...... And Xiang Xiaoqiang has never forgotten the "Qi Shunfa" automatic rifle.

But such a thing as an "automatic rifle" is no better than an aircraft tank after all. "Lightning-4" and "Goshawk", no matter how advanced, are always based on the old model. The "automatic rifle" itself is a new concept, an epoch-making revolution in weapons, and its significance is comparable to the birth of tanks in World War I. So after so long now, there are still many difficulties and problems.

And Xiang Xiaoqiang has always regarded this project as a treasure, not only is it not allowed to be made public, but he also controls himself and does not pay too much attention to it. Except for the core researcher in charge of the project, everyone else either doesn't know about it, or they just think it's a monster, a monster, and a different thing. And this state is the best state to ask for Xiaoqiang.

Wang Hexiang was very puzzled, and suggested several times that Xiang Xiaoqiang give up such a freak. If you really want to improve the light weapons of the Ming army, it is better to invest energy and develop the Ming Dynasty's own semi-automatic rifle, which is similar to the M1 Garand of the United States. Or modify the "Woodpecker" universal machine gun and get a simple and cheap version. In short, it is much more realistic, and it is much more cost-effective than investing time and hope in such a bottomless pit of "four dislikes".

"Hegong, hehe, you don't know anything......" Xiang Xiaoqiang grinned, lowered his voice mysteriously, and repeated the reasons he had said several times before, "You don't know, once this weapon is successfully developed and a version with good performance and suitable for mass production, it will be able to fully arm our Ming army...... At that time, I dare to say that with this gun, our Ming army will be the strongest army in the world...... Hehe, it's not an exaggeration at all. Let me tell you, this small gun will be able to eliminate three types of weapons in the future: bolt rifles, light machine guns, and large submachine guns. In the future, soldiers will be able to do all the work of these three guns with just one automatic rifle......"

Wang Hexiang has also listened to it several times. He didn't say anything, just smiled, shook his head, and said:

"Your Excellency...... Alas......"

……

The next day, at 3 a.m. on July 4, the Zhengde detachment sailed to the sea 50 nautical miles south of Vladivostok.

It can be said that when you get here, you basically enter the "outer ambush circle" that blockades the military port of Vladivostok. In the previous era of sailing ships, battleships or cruisers blockaded enemy ports, basically close to the enemy's eyelids, that is, directly drove the warship to a distance of only a few nautical miles from the opponent's coast, and then anchored, which was visible to the naked eye on both sides. But later, as the range of shore guns became longer and longer, the accuracy became higher and higher, and the blockade warships had to retreat again and again.

After the appearance of the torpedo boats, the main warships of the blockade fleet were forced to retreat and push again and again by these coastal boats, and finally, as they are now, completely withdrew from the coastal area visible to the naked eye and retreated behind the sea level. Instead, it was just to send destroyers who were not afraid of torpedo boats to reconnoitre, and then report the results to the capital ships behind.

Now, the Zhengde detachment is preparing to do the same. They were going to cruise slowly in the vicinity first, wait until dawn, get the fleet as close as possible to Vladivostok, stick to the edge of the threat circle of Soviet torpedo boats, and then send destroyers to reconnoiter and provoke by the way. It would be great if we could tease the Paris Commune.