Inside the battleship Zhenwu.

This is the flagship of this operation of the South Ocean Fleet.

Zhu Yichi, who was wearing a navy combat uniform, had a slightly haggard face.

After several days of sailing, the fleet had arrived at the Governor's Palace in the Straits Strait.

The original Strait Free City, now renamed Xingzhou City, is the core city of the Ming Empire in Southeast Asia.

In Southeast Asia, the Ming Dynasty mainly has three provinces and one city as its main administrative region.

The province of Lae Fong occupies the whole of West Borneo.

and the province of Java, with Batavia, the core city of the former Dutch rule in Southeast Asia, now renamed Daya City.

This city is naturally Xingzhou City.

As for the other islands in the South Seas, due to their tropical location, it was not easy to develop, so they were all temporarily placed under the administration of the Governor's Office of the South Sea Colony.

In the future, when the Han population is large enough to meet the conditions for establishing provinces and prefectures, they will be administered at all levels in the establishment of provinces and prefectures.

After arriving in Xingzhou City, the crown prince Zhu Yichi, who was the nominal commander-in-chief of this operation, received the latest information: Britain sent a large ironclad fleet from the mainland to strengthen their fleet strength in the Indian Ocean.

This made Zhu Yichi, who had never led troops to fight, a little worried.

"The other side has strengthened 12 ironclad ships, including three 8,000-ton 'Warrior' class battleships, which will indeed bring some trouble to our operations, but please rest assured, Your Highness, the ministers are completely sure to defeat the British Indian Ocean Fleet!"

Zhang Bao, the governor of the Indian Ocean Fleet, stood up one by one and said loudly.

He's certainly not bragging.

In fact.

There are some differences between the Ming Empire and Britain, France and other countries in the manufacturing concept of warships.

Britain inherited the experience of the era of cannon giants.

Strive for the caliber and tonnage of the cannon!

At the same time, it did not adopt the "too aggressive" artillery layout that was "too aggressive" in the eyes of the Western Navy, such as the rotating turret and the central axis layout that are now commonly used by the Ming Navy, because the shortcomings of such a layout are obvious.

That is, the number of artillery that can be equipped is too small.

Compared to the British battleships, which had a layout of artillery on both sides of the ship.

For battleships of the same level, the number of battleship guns in the Ming Imperial Navy is more than half less!

As the king of the era of sail battleships.

The British Navy is full of officers of the old school who firmly believe that "caliber and quantity are justice".

Therefore.

The 8,000-ton giant ship built by the British with the latest technology has a displacement larger than that of the capital ship of the Ming Dynasty.

At the same time, the caliber of the main gun reached a terrifying 340 mm!

A real cannon giant.

However, the Ming navy did not take seriously the "warriors" built by the British at great expense.

Because although the caliber and tonnage of the main guns of the Warrior class are relatively large.

However, in terms of defense, rate of fire of the main guns, and the destructibility of shells, the Zhen-class battleships had many obvious advantages.

Daming's chemical industry has always been ahead of the West.

Although said.

Shells with a triggered fuse could not penetrate the armor of the capital ship.

However, the damage to the deck and superstructure is still very large.

The Ming Navy has done experiments with solid armor-piercing shells: it is very difficult to sink ironclad ships with armor-piercing shells to bombard ironclad ships with very strong defense and anti-sinking capabilities.

At the moment, because the armor-piercing bullets are basically solid bullets - that is, a tiegada, they will not explode at all.

Even if it is completely penetrated, it is only a hole about 30 centimeters in diameter.

To sink a huge ironclad ship with such a large iron ball.

Just thinking about it knows how hard it is.

And.

The larger the caliber of the gun, the more difficult it is to reload.

Therefore, the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty believed.

Since it's hard to sink, let's hurt!

Use high-explosive ordnance to pour as much fire as possible onto the decks of opposing ships, damaging the decks and superstructures of the opposing ships.

Therefore, the warships of the Ming Navy were equipped with a large number of rapid-fire guns, and at the same time pursued speed and firing flexibility.

The British Navy, on the other hand, had the opposite philosophy.

They still hope to use more powerful and larger caliber artillery to pursue the sinking of the opposing enemy's warship.

This is also the source of Zhang Bao's confidence.

In the experiments of the Ming Imperial Navy.

Guns like those of the British Navy were too slow to reload.

He even doubted.

The opponent's 'Warrior'-class battleship, in the entire course of a naval battle, can one main gun fire more than ten shells?

And now.

The cannon is not to mention on the bumpy sea.

None of the hits on land are high.

Therefore.

On the side of the Ming Navy, it is the "fast artillery" theory that has the upper hand - the young Ming naval officers believe that it is unrealistic to pursue the sinking of ironclad ships that are often thousands of tons, and the current armor thickness of ironclad ships is here, and if you want to penetrate the armor, you must be equipped with large-caliber artillery, which brings another problem of artillery rate of fire.

To sum up, the Ming Navy believes that the naval battle in the era of ironclad ships should not be aimed at pursuing sinking.

Instead, bombarding the enemy's deck and superstructure with high explosives will injure the enemy's personnel and the weapons on the ship, so as to achieve the goal of incapacitating the enemy ship.

Based on this philosophy.

The Ming Navy has a fleet of "Zhen"-class battleships, "Hong"-class armored cruisers, and "Wei"-class frigates.

Even.

Some of the more radical naval officers believed.

Town-class battleships were still too expensive and bulky.

It is better to develop a new type of capital ship with fast speed, suitable armor, a large number of small-caliber guns, and low cost on the basis of the Wei-class frigate.

However, because the idea is too radical.

The Naval Staff Headquarters did not take it.

It is precisely because of such controversies.

Therefore, the shipbuilding plan of the Navy is very conservative.

The main "88th Fleet" was built only four.

As for the Wei-class frigates, quite a few have been built - after all, the Wei-class ships are cheap.

Although the Ming Empire was at its peak.

But the navy is indeed a very expensive service.

Especially in this era when naval warships are in a very drastic technological change.

It is very likely that the ironclad ships, which have been built with a lot of resources, will become obsolete after a few years and become scrap metal at sea

Compared to the conservatism of the Ming Empire.

The British Navy, on its part, made a lot of drastic moves.

After all, for Britain, sea power means life.

The shipyard in Pusmouth is already working on several Warrior-class battleships at the same time.

"The British planned to control the Indian Ocean with twenty Warrior class battleships, paired with a number of cruisers and destroyers, but . It will soon become clear to them that their warrior class is just a living coffin on the sea! ”

Chen Huacheng, chief of staff of the Nanyang Fleet, said loudly.

Seeing that the two military commanders of the Nanyang Fleet were so confident, Crown Prince Zhu Yichi also nodded, and then said in a deep voice: "The North American war is imminent, and we need to completely drive the British forces out of the Indian Ocean before the big war!" (End of chapter)