The next morning, Yang Fan was woken up by a knock on the door.
He got up from the bed, covered the ladies with quilts, put on his clothes and walked out.
Xu Xiu said softly: "Sir, Su Yanjiao has arrived. We will anchor here and berth for half an hour. Do you want to go to the deck to take a look?"
Yang Fan nodded and walked onto the deck.
Although it is already late autumn at this time, the sea is already cold. However, Suyan Reef is located one hundred and fifty nautical miles east of Chongming Island. Its latitude is further south than Jeju Island, and it is still very warm here.
In the distance, six cruisers were patrolling and alert. The Royal Clipper was anchored next to the Suyan Reef.
Yang Fan looked carefully and saw that there was a large reef about four meters underwater. This reef still did not come out of the water at low tide.
But this reef is very important and is located at the center of the waters between China, Japan and South Korea.
Suyan Reef is oval in shape as a whole, with a length of about 1,800 meters from north to south, a width of about 1,400 meters from east to west, and an area of about 2 square kilometers. The average water depth in the surrounding waters of the reef is 50 meters, and the total height of the reef is 45 meters. The south and east sides of the main hill are steep.
, the north and west sides have a relatively gentle slope.
"We will arrange for people to build a lighthouse and a small dock here and put people on duty. This is where the route passes. And it is located in the middle of the southern exit of the Yellow Sea, which has certain strategic value." Yang Fan said to those waiting here.
Captain Lin Yuan said.
Lin Yuan quickly took out his notebook and recorded it.
After seeing this reef, the fleet turned around and sailed toward Jeju Island in the northeast.
At noon, the fleet had entered the western pier of Wuling Base on Jeju Island. The Jeju Island base fired salutes from the east and west forts.
Cao Wei, commander of the Jeju Island base, Mingyan, the general manager of the shipyard, and captains of each fleet were at the dock to greet him.
Chen Zuwang was transferred to the Vladivostok base and served as commander of the Sea of Japan Fleet.
The Japanese Sea Fleet currently only has early-built clippers of less than 1,000 tons and some lucky ships. They are mainly responsible for maritime transportation and protecting the Vladivostok colony.
In order to receive Yang Fan and his party, Wuling Base specially hardened a ground with cement and installed wooden villas on it. This kind of villa is an American and Canadian style pure wood villa imported by Yang Fan from modern times.
There is no shortage of wood in this era, as long as you have mature design drawings, it is very convenient to make wooden components.
This kind of wooden house can be built and moved into in a day or two as long as the wooden components are prepared in advance.
Donkey Dan and Mo Table each brought a cavalry battalion and set up tents around them.
At present, the navy has not set up a unified command organization. In fact, every ship is under the direct command of Yang Fan. The navy's current main warships are divided into two types, one is an 800-ton offshore patrol ship. It is responsible for offshore patrols, anti-smuggling,
Suppressing pirates, etc. In fact, what they do is the work of the coast guard.
The other is a 1,500-ton cruiser. This type of warship has been finalized and is being built in large quantities. This type of ship is a clipper ship with three main masts and one fore mast. It has a mixed sail rig. That is, it has a horizontal sail.
, also has longitudinal sails.
In terms of power, it is equipped with two triple-expansion steam engines with a total of 850 horsepower. It can burn coal, kerosene, gasoline, fuel oil and other fuels. In order to save fresh water, the steam engine is also designed with a condenser. In this way, it can be used once filled with fresh water.
Five thousand nautical miles.
Seawater cannot be used by steam engines because too much salt and calcium and magnesium ions in it will form scale and block water pipes.
The navy has now reached a certain scale, and Yang Fan plans to start dispatching cruisers to gradually eliminate the Western colonial forces in Southeast Asia.
In this process, captains with outstanding performance will be promoted to captains of a flotilla. A flotilla generally consists of three cruisers, three patrol ships, one supply ship, and one troop carrier.
So far, Yang Fan has 12 Beitang-class cruisers. Because these ships were developed and designed at Beitangkou Shipyard, they were named Beitang-class.
At exactly two o'clock in the afternoon that day, the ship review officially began.
The Royal Clippers anchored in the anchorage. A row of seats were arranged on the side of the ship. Yang Fan sat in the middle, and his wives sat on both sides. Other navy and army officials stationed on Jeju Island stood behind.
With the sound of a cannon, the ship review officially began.
Twelve cruisers, eleven offshore patrol ships, and seven early-built scissor ships passed the Royal Scissor in sequence and accepted Yang Fan's review.
The sides of the warship passing in the opposite direction were occupied by officers and soldiers in uniforms. They saluted Yang Fan. Yang Fan stood up and returned the salute to the warship passing in front.
Huangshan, Taishan, Qinling, Wuyishan, Nanling... cruisers passed one after another.
These cruisers are clipper ships equipped with one gun deck and low freeboard. In order to reduce wind resistance, these ships are relatively low, so they can only deploy one gun deck.
There are eighteen gun windows on each side of the gun deck, equipped with a total of thirty-six 203mm muzzle-loading main guns.
When maroon gunpowder is used as propellant, the cannonball uses 50-pound solid iron ball shells. The range is two thousand meters.
However, thanks to the development of technology, it is now possible to use pointed cylindrical shells. This kind of shells is heavier, has a large charge, and is a blooming bomb. There are also incendiary bombs added with white phosphorus, white sugar, aluminum powder, and magnesium powder.
It uses pointed cylindrical artillery shells with a warhead weighing 40 kilograms. It is loaded with fertilizer explosives. It has a blast fuse and a time fuse. The range can reach four thousand meters.
According to intelligence, the current navies of European countries in Southeast Asia are not strong. Their armies in various colonial ports generally only have one to two thousand, or even only a few hundred. The navy is mainly armed merchant ships, and there are few regular main warships.
Yang Fan looked at the powerful warships in front of him. They already have the strength to drive European countries out of Southeast Asia. If the Strait of Malacca and the Sunda Strait of Batavia are blocked, the colonists can basically be excluded from Southeast Asia. As for Argentina from Argentina
, the Spanish galleons from Peru only need to station a fleet in Batavia to block them.
Xiao Niangpi, Lin Yueru and others were excited as they watched the huge battleships sailing in front of them. They did not expect that in just over two years, the master had quietly developed such a large fleet.
Lin Yueru was thinking about the master's purpose in building such a fleet.
At present, after the failure of Longqing to open the sea, the trade along the southeast coast basically relies on smuggling. Yuegang in Fujian is the largest smuggling port. Silk from the south of the Yangtze River, porcelain from Jingdezhen in Jiangxi, and tea from the southeast are all shipped from here.
Could it be that the master is interested in the smuggling business?
With such a maritime force, the Yang family can indeed challenge the water overlords on the southeastern coast. At present, the largest force in Fujian, Nikolai Guan, has more than 30,000 people and more than a thousand ships. However, his
Although there were many ships, they were still not enough for the Yang family's navy.
This chapter has been completed!