Episode 114 Submarine Strategy

On the evening of the 17th, Xiang Xiaoqiang invited Xiong Dingming to dinner in the officer's cafeteria in the fortress.

Xiong Dingming sandwiched the dish and nodded slightly:

"Well, you're talking about unrestricted submarine warfare, and I've thought about that too. But there are a few points, I don't know if you have considered it. ”

"Oh? Please speak. ”

"It is generally accepted that submarine warfare is a helpless tactic for a weak navy to deal with a strong navy. If the navies of the two countries are equal, they will generally focus on surface ship combat. Now that the strength of our Ming Navy and the Japanese Navy is comparable, why do we have to use a submarine strategy? ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang had already thought about this problem, and he smiled:

"Yes, my Ming Navy is indeed comparable to the Japanese Navy now. To say weak, it is also weak to a limited extent. But here we cannot only look at the comparison of the pure total tonnage and the number of ships, but also look at the purpose of both sides. Japan's purpose was originally to slam the Ming Dynasty and stole a large piece of benefits from the Ming Dynasty. Now, the attack has been frustrated, and the goal has probably become how to protect vested interests. Probably what the people in Tokyo were thinking in their minds should be to fight well on the battlefield now, so that they can be more advantageous at the negotiating table, and keep Manchuria and eastern Outer Mongolia, that is, the places we allocated to them before the war, without ceding land or paying compensation, and retreat with their whole body. ”

Xiong Dingming nodded, indicating that he agreed with his judgment on this point.

Xiang Xiaoqiang continued:

"And our goal is definitely not to be satisfied with expelling the Japanese army from Mukden Province, right? Invaded in vain? Then our Ming Dynasty has become a soft persimmon in the eyes of the world, anyone can come to fight, win the battle with their own interests, and there is no loss if they can't win. Our Ming Dynasty is not the kind of weak and small country that is in the bag, although people do not offend me, I do not offend people, but if we are invaded for no reason, we must make the other party pay the price. Our aim must at least be to get back Manchuria and Outer Mongolia, which had been allocated to Japan before the war, and then at least to make Japan pay us a large sum of money, which is the most basic thing. It's better to cut some more land, and give us a piece of North Korea, or let the Ryukyus ** or something. ”

Xiong Dingming also smiled:

"That's right, it's not an outsider anyway, so we have something to say, hehe. You must also be able to see that we were reluctant to give Japan such a large area before the war. It was nothing more than to draw Japan into the war, eliminate the Northern Qing Dynasty earlier, and reduce the casualties of the soldiers. To be honest, at that time, there was also a major enemy, the Northern Qing Dynasty, and at that time, I always felt that it was a good deal to carve up the land of the Northern Qing Dynasty with Japan, and to draw Japan into the war. But now that the Northern Qing Dynasty is gone, looking back, such a large piece of land has been given away, and it is unwilling. Hehe. Now that Japan is invading us on its own initiative, this is also giving us an opportunity to recover those lands. We are not fools, and we will certainly not drive Japan out of Mukden. ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang also nodded and smiled:

"Haha, Lord Xiong is the same as I thought. Maybe most of our high-level people in the Ming Dynasty think so. …… Therefore, the purpose of our Ming Dynasty is not to be like Japan, just to get out of the way. Our goal is precisely to prevent Japan from retreating in its entirety, and we are going to dig a big piece of meat out of Japan. In that case, it would certainly not be enough to drive Japan out of Manchuria and Mongolia. Japan will definitely not be reconciled, and he will definitely fight us to the death. If Japan is not completely subdued, let alone ceded land, even the reparations will not come. We have also established a long-term enemy in East Asia and will seek out trouble with us at every opportunity. This could be detrimental for decades to come. ”

Xiong Dingming asked:

"What do you mean by 'completely subduing Japan'?"

Xiang Xiaoqiang gritted his teeth and said quite ruthlessly:

"The blockade, coupled with non-stop bombing, strategic bombing, until Japan bent its knees and begged for mercy. Just blockades and bombings, the cost of our war is not high. At least compared to a large-scale land war, the cost is not high. In particular, there are far fewer casualties. The number of casualties in 10 naval and air battles is not as good as that in 10 battles in land battles. In the long run, we can afford it. ”

Xiong Dingming nodded, and then asked:

"So what does this have to do with the strength of the navy?"

Xiang Xiaoqiang says:

"If you just look at the total tonnage and the number of ships, then we are not much different from Japan. But our strategy is to blockade Japan. Since it is a blockade, it is necessary to surround this island country on all sides. The geographical location of the two sides determines that we can only blockade the western side of Japan, that is, the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean, more conveniently. If we want to block the eastern side of Japan, we must go through the dense chain of Ryukyu islands and fight in the Pacific Ocean. That's extremely inconvenient. ”

Xiong Dingming nodded and said:

"Well, I see what you mean. You mean, the position of the two sides is like that of Britain and Germany in the European war. Britain is an island country and is most afraid of blockade, so Germany wants to blockade Britain in every possible way. Britain was to the west of Germany, and if Germany wanted to blockade Britain, it would have to bypass Britain and fight in the Atlantic, which was further west than Britain. Yes, it's hard. Do you want to say that precisely because Germany's surface ship forces are inferior to Britain, it is difficult to win a head-to-head confrontation, and it is even more difficult to break through into the Atlantic, so Germany has adopted the method of submarine blockade. Well, where surface warships can't get through, submarines can easily get through. But...... Have you ever thought about the speed and field of view radius of the submarine? ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang sighed:

"To be honest, this is also the main drawback of the submarine. The speed is slow, the speed is generally only half that of a warship, and the hull is low, and the radius of the field of vision in the ocean is relatively small. But I think that the advantages of submarines can fully compensate for the shortcomings of submarines. The stealth of submarines is precisely able to overcome obstacles that are difficult for surface ships to overcome - at any point through the Ryukyu Islands and into the Pacific Ocean. It is not easy for us to get a surface warship into the Pacific Ocean now, and we have to go through a lot of trouble and prepare for an air battle. If it's a submarine, it's gone silently.

"And the biggest advantage of submarines is that they are low-cost, have a short construction period, and can be built in large quantities in a short time. As for the two major shortcomings of submarines - slow speed and narrow field of view, they can be compensated for by numbers. I think that if we put up a 'submarine net' on the east side of the Japanese archipelago and maintain those 1,200 submarines all year round, then ......"

Xiong Dingming interrupted him, it seemed that he was not mentally prepared, and said in astonishment:

"Lord Xiang, I heard you right, right? One or two hundred ships all year round? …… Have you calculated how many ships we need in total? ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang had been prepared for this question for a long time, and said lightly:

"Counting those who are resting at the base and those who are traveling between the base and the ocean, we only need about three hundred ships."

Xiong Dingming smiled incredulously:

"'Only' about 300 is enough? Xiang, you know how many resources this will take up from us, right? How many aircraft carriers and cruisers are going to be built for less, you know. ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang said next:

"Keep 150 submarines on the eastern side of Japan all year round, and at most a year, Japan will surrender. Surrender completely, we give what we want. Can it be done even if our surface ships are doubled? ”