Chapter 112: Comparison of the Strength of the Two Fleets

"It seems that the Dutch and the Portuguese have made a bloody investment this time, and they will not give up until they recapture the East Indies colony!" Huang Sheng, who was sitting next to him, said with a smile.

"Yes, the size of this fleet has exceeded the combined Far East fleets of Britain and France! This shows the great determination of the two countries!" Huang Kuan, who was sitting next to him and also came to Huo Shansheng's dinner, said with a smile.

"Well, it seems that the Dutch are not stupid, they also know the greed of Britain and France for the colonies of the East Indies, and this time they sent such a huge fleet to the Far East, obviously not for us, but to prevent Britain and France from taking advantage of the fire to rob!" Huo Shan thought about it and said, although the famous general-class destroyers of the Huo Jiajun Navy are very good, far surpassing the warships of the same class in European countries at this time, but the Huo Jiajun Navy, which has been kept secret, did not expose these advanced warships to the eyes of other countries, so at this time, the Netherlands, Portugal, including Britain and France, and even Germany, which was hidden in the shadows like a poisonous snake, thought that the Huo Jiajun's navy was still a weak navy dominated by the captured Portuguese and Dutch East India Colonial Fleets!

"Huo Feng, let's talk about the warships of the combined fleets of the two countries specifically, I think everyone is very curious!" Huo Shan then asked.

"Yes, young master! This time, the joint fleet of the two countries has eight ironclad ships, the flagship of which is the Dutch 'Seven Provinces Alliance' ironclad ship, with a displacement of 6,350 tons, with two 280mm front-loading rifled guns! Eight 150mm speed shè guns, with a speed of 13 knots! In addition, it is the flagship of the Portuguese Navy, the 'Queen Maria' ironclad ship, with a displacement of 5,000 tons, two 240mm front-loading rifled guns, five 152mm speed shè guns, and a speed of 13.5 knots! Then there are the two 3,500-ton ironclad ships of the Dutch, the 'Jewel' and the 'Grand Duke', with two 210mm front-loading smoothbore guns, four 150mm speed shè guns, and a speed of 14.3 knots! Then there are the Portuguese's 3,000-ton ironclad 'Royal Charles' with two 210mm front-loading rifled guns, eight 75mm speed shè guns, and a speed of 15 knots! The remaining three ironclads are all Dutch 2,550-ton ironclad ships, the 'Turquoise', 'Prince' and ' The Oranch has two 180mm main guns and six 75mm secondary guns, and has a speed of 15.8 knots! The above is all the ironclad warships of the expeditionary fleets of the two countries, with a total tonnage of 29,000 tons!"

As soon as Huo Feng's words fell, there was a 'hissing' gasp sound in the spacious study, and Huo Yu, a guy who couldn't bear the loneliness, said directly: "Good guy, it's just that this ironclad fleet together has surpassed the total tonnage of all our navy warships! How can this battle be fought?"

Most of the people in the hall didn't know much about naval warfare, they only roughly judged the victory rate of the enemy and us from the tonnage of the ships, and now when they heard that their navy was so inferior to the enemy, they couldn't help but change their faces at the moment!

Looking at their melancholy appearance, Huo Shan smiled faintly, naval battles are not something that can be won just by the large tonnage of the battleship and the thick barrel of the gun! Speed and protection are also very important indicators, and those front-loading heavy guns that can only be fired once in four or five minutes, and the effective range is less than five thousand meters, Huo Shan did not take them to heart! Moreover, coupled with the slow speed of these warships, in Huo Shan's eyes, they are like iron coffins floating on the sea! For the Huo Jiajun naval fleet, which has already sailed at a speed of more than 20 knots, they will not pose much threat to the Huo Jiajun's navy except for waiting to be sunk! Of course, although the Huo Jiajun has obvious advantages and it is not difficult to achieve victory, after all, the warships are controlled by people, and in the complicated sea, the difference in experience may make the young Huo Jiajun navy pay some price!

"Huo Feng, is your navy sure to win against them?" asked Huo Shanshen calmly.

Hearing the young master's words, Huo Feng suddenly stood up from his seat, and assured in a serious and loud voice: "Young master, our navy will definitely be able to completely annihilate the combined fleet of the Netherlands and Portugal this time!"

"Okay, I believe you!Let's talk about the rest of the battleships!" Huo Shan said with a smile after waving his hand to make him sit down!

In addition to these eight ironclad battleships, the remaining twelve ironclad battleships include the 4,560-ton 'Sovereign', the 3,860-ton 'Dolphin', the 3,560-ton 'Princess', four 2,560-ton battleships 'Amsterdam', 'The Hague', 'Utrecht', 'Breda', two 1,850-ton battleships 'Porto' and 'Oja', three 1,560-ton battleships 'Groningen', 'Tilburg' and 'Almere', except for 3,860 tons The Dolphin, the 3,560-ton 'Princess' and the two two 1,850-ton battleships 'Porto' and 'Oja' belong to Portugal, and the remaining eight warships are all in the Royal Netherlands Navy fleet! The twelve warships have a total tonnage of 30,690 tons, and their speed is basically less than 15 knots, the caliber of their guns does not exceed 240mm, and the main guns and auxiliary guns of each battleship do not exceed 12!" The remaining 23 gunboats, with the exception of one Dutch 'Barracuda' with a capacity of more than 1,000 tons, were all small warships of about 600 tons! The total tonnage was about 15,000 tons! However, they were much faster than the previous ones, reaching an average of 17 knots!"

After he finished speaking, there was a moment of silence in the spacious study, and everyone was thinking about how to defeat such a powerful fleet!

"Huo Feng, when you said it just now, I roughly calculated that the combined warships of the Netherlands and Portugal are 74,690 tons, right?" Huang Sheng put down the pen in his hand and asked with a frown!

"Yes, Prime Minister!74,690 tons, that's right!"

"So what is the total tonnage of our naval warships now?" Huang Sheng then asked.

Hearing this, Huo Feng frowned, the size of the naval fleet has always been a high secret of the Huo family's army, he didn't know if it was appropriate to say it at this time, he immediately looked at Huo Shan, who was sitting in the crowd, and didn't reply until he saw the young master nodding: "Our warships mainly come from two aspects, the new destroyers built by ourselves, and the warships that captured the Dutch and Portuguese fleets in the East India fleet! There are nine of them, each with a full load of 2,380 tons, a total of 21,220 tons! The large warships of the East India warships of the two countries after the conversion mainly include the "Haixun No. 1", "Haixun No. 2" and "Haixun No. 3", except for the Haixun No. 1, which is more than 4,000 tons, the other two warships are about 2,000 tons, and then plus the 17 maritime frigates with a displacement of 800 tons ~ 1,000 tons after our refit, the total tonnage of the warships converted from the captured warships of the two countries is about 24,000 tons! Combined, the total tonnage of our navy ships is 45,220 tons!"

"So there is still a gap of nearly 30,000 tons between us and the Netherlands and Portugal in the total tonnage of warships!" Huang Sheng said with a worried face.

Hearing the teacher's words, Huo Shan couldn't help but pout, in later generations, the displacement of the 'Yamato' exceeded the total tonnage of the combined fleets of the Netherlands and Portugal, so he was not at all surprised! And he was also confident that he would defeat these old men with his new warship!

However, now in the living room, except for a limited number of army insiders who know something about the navy, Huo Long, Huo Feng, and other people in the living room are a little lost confidence in the second phase of the war of the Huo family army because the scale of the combined fleet of the two countries far exceeds their own!

However, naval warfare, including warships, is a very complex system, and it is still difficult for these insiders who know nothing about the navy and naval warfare to understand that the tonnage and muzzle of battleships do not determine the victory of naval warfare!