The howling sea breeze rolled up the seawater, making the two Jinghai-class ships seem to have turned into rag dolls thrown into the sea, and the bow of the ship was lifted by waves several meters high from time to time and then sank rapidly, swaying violently Even the old sea wolf vomited and was happy. (Full text reading, all in. (.i. Want. Wen. Learning Network)

The summer hurricanes in the southern hemisphere made people suffer enough, but the large amount of seawater rushing onto the deck made the entire warship seem to be cleaned, and the duty officer even hugged the basin and said that he could save a lot of physical strength.

Ning Xiaochuan kicked the noisy guy away, grabbed the handrail and walked to the porthole, he didn't care about himself, but about the three huge partners behind him.

Two Kunlunshan-class oil-water supply ships and one Zhoushan-class ammunition supply ship.

With the Chinese Navy from the former multinational weapons, to the gradual regularization of the present, naval logistics has become the focus of construction, even more than the investment in capital ships, plus a large number of capital ships have successively used heavy oil as fuel, the previous way of relying on coal ships to replenish is being eliminated one after another, plus special oil and water supply ships have become a much-needed gap.

China is now not short of oil, after the oil wells in Kuwait began to work, the Gulf of Mexico oil, Australian oil and Saudi Arabian oil transferred from the Mexican railway have greatly exceeded the current oil consumption in China, but in this regard, the emperor is very strange, has been asking to strengthen oil reserves, for which Lin Yongxiang ordered thirty super-large ships in one go, specially used for oil transportation in several places, but the problem is that oil tankers are not supply ships, their speed is slow, lack of special pumps, It is necessary to rely on the special equipment in the dock to supply the warship.

Under these circumstances, the navy specially built two large oil and water supply ships, that is, the two Kunlun Shan and Taishan, which had just been launched and had a full load displacement of 15,000 tons.

Compared with oil tankers, the Kunlun Shan-class oil and water supply ships are much more advanced, "not only can each ship transport 6,000 tons of heavy oil at a time, but also can carry 1,000 tons of fresh water, plus the cold storage that has been set up, it can also carry about 50 tons of food."

In terms of equipment, it is also completely in accordance with the standards of the navy, in addition to having two single-mounted L47/130 mm naval guns, "it is also equipped with eight twin millimeter rapid-fire machine guns, and advanced steam turbines and oil-fired boilers are also used in power, so that the speed has reached the naval standard of 16 knots, which can be deployed for a long time with the capital ship, and six high-power special oil pumps are also installed, in addition to the first installation of a boom crane, which can directly transport some small items to the warship through a long boom.

Although the Zhoushan-class ammunition supply ships have been modified from various types of cargo ships captured over the years, they have also been carefully selected, "all of them have the capacity to carry 4,000 tons of various types of ammunition at the same time, and they have also been equipped with weapons and power to meet the navy's increasingly important speed requirements."

It was with these two levels of three supply ships, which the emperor called a naval multiplier, that Ning Xiaochuan dared to accept this mission and led the Ninghai and Zhenhai across the Indian Ocean to attack the huge Russian expeditionary fleet.

But who would have thought that he had just resupplied off the coast of Western Australia and encountered such a big storm after crossing the Indian Ocean, which made him very worried, because if the supply ship was already the heart of this mission, "without them, even if they crossed the Indian Ocean, I am afraid they would have to abandon the mission immediately and return home."

At the beginning of the design of the Jinghai class, the large endurance was emphasized, in fact, it is not only it, the warships at all levels of the Chinese Navy are extremely calcular, and the endurance can even be given up for this purpose, because the Pacific Ocean is too vast, and Hua has a large number of overseas bases, so compared with many short-legged warships in Europe, Hua can be said to have caught up with the United Kingdom, which is known as the lord of the seven seas.

After upgrading, the current Jinghai-class has a endurance of 12 knots/1000 nautical miles, and it is about 7,000 nautical miles from Luzon to South Africa in a straight line, so if there is no supply ship, the warship will not be able to go unless it is a warship such as a special reconnaissance ship that uses coal, otherwise no fuel warship can go, because coal burning is still the general trend "The colonial ports of the African coastal countries only have coal, and there is no drop of heavy oil supply capacity."

And even with a supply ship, the fuel consumption of each ton had to be carefully calculated, because it was impossible for the formation to sail in a straight line" and it was impossible to maintain an optimal speed of 12 knots all the time, and if it was estimated that after crossing the Indian Ocean, the Russians would also run away, so the cruising speed had to be increased, which in turn led to a rapid fuel consumption.

It's a pity that because the navy had to make every effort to guarantee the funds of the eight capital ships, only two Kunlun Shan class were built, otherwise it is estimated that the eight Jinghai will be killed, because according to calculations, under the old section, the endurance of the Jinghai class will drop to 6000 nautical miles, and if it is increased to 20 knots, then the endurance will be directly reduced to 3500 nautical miles, so each Kunlun Mountain can only guarantee one Jinghai-class long-distance attack.

At this moment, after encountering a big storm, the fuel consumption has increased a lot more than normal, so he will be so worried, especially when he sees the two Kunlun Mountain supply ships up and down in the waves, the worry in his heart is strong, if he loses one, it is estimated that he will have to go home immediately.

The important thing is that such a long-distance voyage and severe weather are also a severe test of power, for light cruisers that need speed, every steam turbine is extremely precious, fortunately, Hua's shipbuilding capacity has finally matured with the strong support of the emperor, and the steaming turbine has gradually matured, so the five warships have survived the storm as they wished, and when the sea surface returned to calm after three hours, the worry in Ning Xiaochuan's heart finally disappeared.

"Did you get a message from the Golden Eagle?"

"Report to the captain, no signal has been received. ※※※※※I'm going to ※※※ net ※ (5) ※ (1) ※ Ο※ ΝΕΤ※※" The communications officer immediately shook his head.

"Order the ships, cancel the radio silence."

On the endless sea, it is very difficult to locate, especially the Indian Ocean is almost an open sea, lacking the dense islands of Great Xia, and it is impossible to set up a midway relay station, which makes positioning more difficult, so Ning Xiaochuan took the initiative to cancel the radio silence after thinking about it, and continued to order: "Communication, use the long-wave radio station to contact the Golden Eagle as much as possible." ”

"Sailing, five degrees on the left side, down to 12 knots, start calculating distance, pay attention to fuel consumption."

"Power" turns off power groups one and four, inspects the boiler and steam turbine, and after half an hour rotates to inspect the other side. ”

"Guns, notify the ships to check their equipment" An hour later, an escort maneuver was conducted. ”

After several years of training, Ning Xiaochuan has become more calm, and the irritable and impulsive destroyer with foul words seems to have disappeared from the ship, all because the navy has been taking advantage of opportunities such as exercise training and patrols over the years, and let the commanders of each ship serve as formation commanders for a certain period of time, so that the growth rate of their new generation of officers is very high, which also meets the needs of the larger and larger fleet.

With his order, "the squadron was immediately busy, the observers quickly climbed the high mast, the rangefinder on the roof of the bridge began to turn, and the gunner's jacket was quickly pulled apart.

This kind of exercise will be carried out many times during the voyage, if it is not for the previous storm some arrows, it is estimated that he will also let everyone out to adapt to the climate, do not think that this is just a simple tactical training, in fact this kind of exercise is often regarded as a regulator to mediate the boring life on the ship, so that the sailors can always be in good condition.

Therefore, many people laughed at the harsh management methods adopted by Vice Admiral Roger Sterwin in the fleet, but the navy thought that this was very necessary, as a demoralized fleet, which was attacked and lost a destroyer as soon as it went out, and could not even guarantee supplies in a long-distance attack, if it did not use some extraordinary means, it was estimated that it would fall apart directly without fighting.

On the blue sea, the two Jinghai ships continued to maneuver and maneuver "to practice the tactics of maneuvering and covering the detachment of the convoy after the escort encounter with the enemy's attack, and at this time the communications officer had already walked to the side with a telegram: "Report, the Golden Eagle has been contacted, and they say that the Russian fleet has arrived in Madagascar twelve days ago, and yesterday they also sent divers to carry out underwater operations, it is estimated that the bottom of the ship is cleaned, judging from the signs and progress" It is expected to leave in three days. ”

"Divers clean the bottom of the boat?!" This news made the officers at all levels in the bridge cry and laugh, and probably only the Russians had such imagination: "You must know that this kind of operation can only be done in the dock, and you regret it" Catch shells and drink?

Ning Xiaochuan smiled bitterly, and the navigation staff officer next to him had already raised his head from the chart table: "We are still two thousand four hundred nautical miles away from Madagascar, and if we follow the speed of 20 knots, it will take four days." ”

"It won't take four days." After Ning Xiaochuan thought about it, he quickly walked to the chart, pointed to Decomoros at the northern tip of the narrow island of Madagascar, a sneer hooked up at the corner of his mouth, and said: "Roger Stewinst will definitely continue to go north after resting for three days, with their nervousness, they will definitely not go to the open sea, but will choose to go through the Strait of Mozambique, so we can wait for him here." ”

With Ning Xiaochuan's heavy fingers, the exercise immediately came to an abrupt end, and the two Kunlunshan-class supply ships immediately approached the Jinghai ship, and several thick metal pipes were quickly connected and crossed between the two ships.

Although it is much simpler to replenish heavy oil than to replenish coal, it is not as fast as imagined, mainly because the viscosity of heavy oil is very high, and it is necessary to dredge the oil pipe with lubricating oil every ten minutes.

Two hours later, when the three thick oil pipes were retracted, the two Jinghai-class ships suddenly increased their speed to 25 knots like chicken blood, and quickly disappeared below the sea level, while the three supply ships also began to slowly sail towards the African coast after they were packed.

North of the Mozambique Channel, a large fleet moves slowly.

In the officer's cabin of the flagship, Alexander III, Roger Winster locked himself in the cramped cabin, immediately stripped off his polite disguise, and slammed his hat on the table.

He could not understand why, when Eastern Siberia had fallen, and Britain and France were beginning to think about how to deal with China and Russia, his dear Tsar, despite the reality, still allowed himself to continue to the Far East.

God, how I wish he had said, "Forget it, come back." ”

But now there is no turning back at all, and I don't know that the bastard of the Admiralty published an article in the newspaper anonymously entitled "The Russians Will Not Necessarily Win", in which he counted the number of cannons of the First Expeditionary Fleet in detail, and not only said the unspoken rule that "you can't go to war without twice the strength", but also quoted the country that invented the Hua Shi battleship and believed that Russia would lose the war.

It's okay for you to publish anonymously, but don't let the emperor see it, and it turns out that His Majesty the Great Tsar thinks that there are indeed too few cannons" So all the warships in the Baltic Sea with naval guns were sent to form the Second Expeditionary Fleet, and even the two old ships of Nicholas I and Alexander II were sent, and later four large gunboats of the Gunlin subclass were also brought in, because they each had two 203-mm naval guns installed on them.

God: "Can those old, old, small, little guys move?"

Fortunately, probably Britain also thought it was too cruel to let these old guys go more than 10,000 nautical miles, so they opened the Suez Canal, but even then, the Second Fleet led by Nebogatov had to go a distance of more than 6,000 nautical miles, could they move?

This news made him cry and laugh, what is the use of this second fleet? Even the First Expeditionary Fleet, known as the world's third largest fleet, "collected artillery for more than ten minutes and only sank a small British fishing boat. Even the sailors were found temporarily, and they didn't know how to take care of them when they fought!

But what's the use of complaining at this moment? If you want to blame it, you can only blame your own mouth, why do you have nothing to do with that suggestion? Not to mention the actual thing, I also put myself in, and now in order to wait for Nebogatov, "I had to delay on the island of Madagascar for half a month."

When Roger Stevester was sad and almost wanted to wipe his neck, he suddenly remembered a knock outside the door, so frightened that he hurriedly sorted out his military uniform, put on his hat, and looked in the mirror to confirm that he had regained his polite appearance. ”

"Report, Kamchatka sent a message asking for permission to abandon 150 tons of low-quality coal" to increase the speed. ”

"What!"

Roger Stevest almost jumped, how could it be the thorny Kamchatka again? Last time, because they dragged down, they sent a telegram that they were attacked, and they had to beat up a few small fishing boats for half a day, and there was a farce of bombardment against each other, and then they almost fought with the British Navy first, and now they dare to throw away the precious coal!

Although low-quality Japanese coal does not burn steam and can only produce smoke, it is also extremely precious" There are still thousands of nautical miles away from the entrance to the Red Sea in the round, and in case you can't refuel the coal in the middle of the round, do you want to burn seaweed?

Isn't it just a "maintenance worker" with more than 100 "maintenance workers" who are known as elites in various industries? He is the commander of the fleet, and even the capital ships are only cleaned up, and he can't even deal with a few idiots who have been reading books for a few more years?!

"Go tell them to throw the rebels down first!" Roger West is on fire, your sister! If you want to throw away such precious coal, even if it is inferior, it is an act of rebellion!

After blasting the communications officer away, Roger Stevester seemed to feel the need to go up to check on the situation, so he immediately walked to the deck, but before he had taken two steps, a rumbling explosion suddenly sounded in his ears.

"Something's wrong!"

Roger West roared and rushed into the bridge, and before the officer could report, he saw two huge warships firing at him in the distance.

"Enemy attack!"

A terrible alarm sounded, this time it was definitely not the eyes, the figure in the distance of about 10,000 tons, it must be the enemy's capital ship!

Roger West didn't expect the Chinese Navy to appear here, so he hurriedly gave the order to open fire, but the vice admiral, who only had experience in the sailing era, forgot that he was not a few warships, but a huge fleet of different speeds and sizes.

In order to achieve full fire, all ships maneuvered and maneuvered, striving to exert the firepower of the whole ship as soon as possible, but the commander did not say to turn the rudder to that side! So the ships began to maneuver according to their own ideas.

On the Ninghai in the distance, Ning Xiaochuan and the officers were all dumbfounded, this is the world's third fleet? The chaos is not as neat as the patrol boats of the National Guard.

Roger West was also stunned by the scene in front of him, remembering that he did not have a formation, so he immediately revised the order, and the fleet began to gradually get in order.

But this time was a waste of a few minutes, although the caliber of the twelve K152/152 mm naval guns was a little lower, they were not vegetarians, not to mention that the shells were all filled with Tm!

Rumble!

A shell accurately hit the Russian destroyer Agile, which had a displacement of only three hundred tons, and was dragged halfway around the world by the capital ships of the fleet, and the little guy who had just cut the cable and was ready to meet it at this moment, before he showed his agile side, was directly penetrated by a 152-mm high-explosive shell through the thin hull deck of the iron sheet" and exploded in the torpedo compartment.

The violent explosion nearly tore the destroyer to pieces, and it quickly sank to the bottom of the sea without even firing its guns.

This scene suddenly made the Russian sailors nervous, and almost all the shells were dumped, but the problem was that at this moment, the two Jinghai-class ships were 15,000 kilometers away from them, "Even the strong Borodino-class battleship's main gun has a large range of only 14,000 meters."

Countless columns of water burst up thousands of kilometers away, making Ning Xiaochuan frown, although this kind of attack was not even harassment, but it was too dense, and it had already affected the gunner's observation line.

"Fifteen degrees on the right side, keep a distance of 16,000 kilometers."

"Order the Zhenhai to distance itself from our ship."

"Guns, don't waste shells, lock on to the target, shoot at the horns, hurry!"

After the order was issued, the two Jinghai-class ships immediately began to maneuver, and at the same time, the Zhenhai, which was delayed, took the initiative to distance itself from the Ninghai, and the gunnery officer of the Ninghai also quickly locked on a cruiser in front of the Russian fleet and issued an order to gather fire.

Horn firing is one of the cruiser shelling tactics that the navy has explored in recent years, because the cruiser does not want to rely on the battle line like the battleship, and often conducts artillery battles in maneuver, and the distance is long, so the hit rate has always been very low.

Inspired by the radio triangulation method, several gunnery non-commissioned officers created this method of angular firing, "that is, to let the two cruisers themselves open a certain distance, and then keep them in a triangle with the target, so that due to the difference in distance and firing angle", the two ships hit a target when the shell enters the angle of entry, and it is easy to cover the stroke.

If the number of cruisers is large, then through this method, using radio guidance, can simultaneously concentrate artillery fire on one or more targets from several points, so that the coverage and hit rate of shells can be greatly improved.

Moreover, according to the experience of long-range shelling over the years, "the Navy has found that once the shelling distance exceeds 12,000 meters, the falling angle of the shells will gradually become steeper", and the horizontal armor of the target is almost always attacked, and if it is extended to 20,000 meters, then the shells will almost vertically fall on the opponent's deck.

However, although the Jinghai-class naval guns have a range of 21,000 meters, the weight of the 152 mm shells is not enough, so the trajectory will be deflected due to wind speed and other reasons, and it is not suitable for vertical strikes, so Ning Xiaochuan chose to keep the range and distance of the place to continue attacking.

The Russian cruiser that was targeted by the two ships from different directions was the Vestrana, a Russian-built Azov-class second-class protective cruiser, to put it bluntly, in addition to a thin layer of dome armor, there was almost no protection ability, and it was impossible to concentrate on the bombardment of 24 152mm naval guns in the low grade.

A minute later, when six rounds of shells exploded around him in a row, the captain of the Westrana finally noticed that something was wrong, and immediately turned the rudder to prepare to return to the back of the capital ship, and Roger Steve West at this moment he found that although the speed of the other party's warship was very fast, the power was a little worse, and immediately ordered three Poltava-class second-class battleships with higher speed to move forward.

But at this moment, when the first Petropavlovsk and Vestrana-class ships of the Poltava class were about to stagger, four shells in a row accurately hit the rear bridge of the Vestrana, and the violent explosion immediately overturned the deck and spread to the boiler room below deck.

The violent boiler explosion brought a large amount of hot steam, several Russian sailors who did not have time to escape were scalded into cooked meat in the blink of an eye, and the explosion also caused a large hole of three meters on the port side, and the sea water began to pour into the hull along the large hole, and a large amount of coal accelerated the sinking front, and when the Petropavlovsk hurriedly put down the boat to go to the rescue, the cruiser with a displacement of 2,100 tons had already flipped on its side.

A cruiser, a destroyer.

Under ten minutes of rapid firing, there were 40 shells, and only such a small result was achieved, which was indeed not a good achievement, but the shock to the Russian fleet was huge, and it was obvious that Vice Admiral Roger Stewest was not very familiar with the Chinese fleet, otherwise how could he be unprepared for the Jinghai class, which was in the limelight in the war with Japan? If it were someone else, he would definitely shrink the dinghy immediately, and then let the thick-skinned capital ship in front, build a line, and then use the high-speed approach of the small destroyer.

"Lay mines, let's go."

Looking at the three large capital ships galloping towards him, a sinister smile flashed at the corner of Ning Xiaochuan's mouth and he gave an order.

A minute later, the two Jinghai-class ships each began to push 30 mines into the sea, these mines are small timing mines that the armament department has just made, and a mechanical detonator similar to a clockwork is installed on them, although it is a little smaller, but the advantage is that it can be maneuvered to lay mines, and after laying them for a certain period of time, there is no effect, and the torpedoes will automatically explode and will not affect the entire route.

According to Tang Xiao's words, this is a kind of yin thing that is specially used for busy waterways, but it will not destroy the waterways!

Five minutes later, the two Jinghai-class ships that had quietly completed the minelaying suddenly accelerated, drew a huge arc in front of the Russian fleet at a speed of up to 10,000 knots, and quickly disappeared into the Indian Ocean.

Looking at the two Chinese warships that were leaving at such a high speed, Roger Stewest was dumbfounded, and had to watch the other party leave and order to shrink.

But the torture doesn't seem to be over yet, although the three Poltava-class ships are lucky, it doesn't mean that others are lucky!

When the fleet stopped advancing and began to retract, the Itus, a Russian transport ship that had been temporarily sheltered during the artillery battle, was caught up with the waves of mines when it rushed back to the fleet, and the huge explosion directly tore the 5,600-ton freighter to shreds, and as for the large amount of ammunition and supplies loaded on it, it also sank to the bottom of the sea.

The sailors watched the Itus sink to the bottom of the sea, almost dumbfounded, but they didn't know that the ordeal had just begun.

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