Saigon is the stronghold of French power in Vietnam. France's influence there was deeply rooted before 1859. Later, Lagrandier built the Norodom Palace, which became the administrative center of France in Vietnam.
But today, Commander Devillers who stayed at Norodom Palace was very dissatisfied. Because he received news that two patrol ships purchased by the Qing people from Italy had appeared in Guangzhou Bay, which made Devillers very
I am worried about the usefulness of these two warships. The main reason is that these two warships are too fast, reaching a speed of more than 18 knots. Those 13-15 knot warships commanded by General Guba feel ashamed.
Of course, what is even more hateful is the Italians. These young men who unified the country with the help of France dare to interfere in French affairs. They are simply desperate. Of course, this matter in Italy is not under his control. I believe the French government will make Italy regret it.
Sold to the Qing Dynasty two warships.
But now he must let General Guba deal with this threat.
"Your Excellency, General Gupo, I believe you have also seen that the Qing people bought two large armored cruisers from Italy. I heard that even the officers and soldiers on board are Italians."
Some thin Vice Admiral Gupa was even more aware of the threat posed by these two warships.
"Your Excellency, Commander-in-Chief, I will find a way to put these two lone wolves in a cage."
After getting the result he wanted from Guba, Devillers continued. "If you need anything, just tell my secretary and he will help you coordinate. I only have one request, which is to allow these two Qing ships to patrol without threatening
to Indochina and domestic connections. This will not only dissatisfy the government, but also dissatisfy many powerful people."
"Your Excellency, please wait for my good news."
Putting on the navy hat, Gu Bo turned around and left.
After leaving Norodom Palace, Guba immediately rushed to the port. His headquarters was next to the military port. Although he was confident in front of the commander, in fact, the two Venice-class patrol ships were not that easy to catch.
It was previously reported that the Admiralty had obtained the specific information on the installation and patrol of these two ships, and specially sent it to Gubo. It was only after understanding the specific performance of these two Venice-class ships that he had a headache.
It's fast, has strong firepower, and the armor is not weak. This was Bo Gu's first reaction after reading the Venetian-class information. Then he felt impressed and admired those Italian warship designers for being able to design such a balanced warship.
However, he had reservations about the design of the Venetian-class main guns in tandem. Because he had not fought against each other yet, he did not know why it was designed like this. Didn't this mean that there were two less main guns when attacking head-on?
?
However, although he admires the Italian design, his mission now is to sink these two Venice-class ships. Even if they cannot be sunk, they must at least lose their combat effectiveness.
In fact, Guba also had his own ideas. The original battle plan he reported to Paris was to use the experience of the last war with the Qing Dynasty to take Tanggu directly, threaten the security of the Qing capital, and force the Qing government to agree to France's conditions. However, Paris was not willing to do this.
The reason is that it will affect the interests of other countries in China and create enemies for France, so the red line drawn for it is south of the Yangtze River.
Faced with the red line given by Paris, Gupa was not upset. He planned to cut off the Qing Dynasty's sea routes and cause the Qing Dynasty to suffer unacceptable losses before forcing it to agree to France's conditions. Of course, Gupa had already chosen his target, and Taiwan was just in time.
Next to this route, taking Taiwan can threaten the Qing's waterways anytime and anywhere, and also allow our fleet to have a foothold here.
The previous attack on the Fujian Navy and the attack on the two Venice-class patrol ships all served this strategy.
However, compared with dealing with the Fujian Navy, it is much more difficult to capture these two patrol ships. However, no matter how difficult it is, it will not stop him from doing it alone. His many years of experience are enough for him to have various ways to deal with it.
For this reason, he returned to the headquarters and immediately summoned his deputy Lisby.
"I just met with the Governor, and he asked us to find ways to protect the safety of the waterway."
"Damn it, we wiped out the Fujian Navy, only to have two larger patrol ships appear. These damn Italians."
Risby couldn't help but complain, of course more about Italy.
That's right, the news that Italy sold two patrol ships to the Qing Dynasty has long been known to the public. The explanation given by Italy is that the transaction was completed before the outbreak of the war. The reason why it was delayed until now is mainly because of the Qing people.
To recruit sailors.
Anyway, in one sentence, I admit that I sold two ships to the Qing Dynasty, but this has nothing to do with me.
Of course, this is not what Gu Bo and others need to be concerned about. They now urgently need to understand the dynamics of the two Venice-class patrol ships.
But the difficulty now is to send the right ship.
Thinking of this Gubo and Lisby gives me a headache. Currently, there is no ship in the French fleet that can reach 18.5 knots. Only the communication ship Basval (18.1 knots) can barely keep up, but this is a ship of less than 1,000 tons.
The communication ship doesn't have many weapons on board, so it's a free gift. As for the other ships, the fastest is the 1,722-ton reconnaissance cruiser Jianbing, which only has a speed of 17.6 knots. It's not free of charge.
It's pitiful to say that the solitary French fleet, although its tonnage and scale looks scary, is just some old stuff from the 1960s and 1970s.
The guy with shell armor looks useless).
So it's not bad to bully the small ships of the Qing Dynasty, but it's a bit incapable of dealing with two ships that must be the crystallization of the navy.
"It seems that the only way to do this is to set up an ambush."
After studying for a long time, Gu Bo put down the pen in his hand and told the deputy beside him his plan.
"Setting an ambush is a good idea, but how do you get the other party to fall into the trap?"
The deputy also thought that setting up an ambush was a good idea, and also raised questions about how to get him into the trap.
"It's simple. Give the other party a bait they can't refuse. As long as they are tempted, there is a way to catch them."
Then Gupa said that he was preparing bait. "If you were the commander of the other side and heard that the enemy was sending a batch of military supplies to the front line, what would you do?"
"Of course I don't want the enemy to successfully complete the transportation of supplies."
Lisby also smiled when he said this. He knew that as long as the other party was tempted, he would step into a trap.
But before that, good planning is needed. To do this, Gupa needs to conspire with General Miller, who is in charge of commanding the army in Beiqi. After all, you cannot treat the enemy as a fool and suddenly transport a large amount of military supplies for no reason. Isn't this possible?
Does it make the prey confused?
Therefore, every once in a while, General Miller in Beiqi would make a high-profile announcement that he would launch a large-scale offensive against the Qing army to let the Qing know how powerful France was.
Subsequently, the French army began to become active on the Sino-Vietnamese border, and the Qing army's intelligence reports even described it as a huge crowd of foreign soldiers, trying to spy on our two countries.
This forced Zeng Guoquan, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi who was about to leave his post, to be very alert and ask the Qing troops stationed on the border to guard against the invasion of the French and barbarians.
Since the French army wants to prepare for the offensive, it needs sufficient military supplies. At present, North Vietnam's transportation is destined to be the most convenient by sea and water transportation. Therefore, under the escort of several cruisers and gunboats, a large number of cargo ships headed north under their protection.
