One day at the end of October 1883, the location was the headquarters of the French Second Expeditionary Force in Da Nang, Vietnam.
Rashilde, commander of the French Second Expeditionary Force, said to the middle and senior generals below:
Now our army is fully equipped and ready to go. The main purpose of inviting you here is to talk about our army's next military operations. According to intelligence, the North Vietnam Chinese Loyal and Brave Army is extremely powerful.
Their navy has more than 20 giant iron-clad ships with sufficient logistics supplies. Among them are two capital ships, which far exceed our country's most advanced iron-clad ships.
The weapons and equipment of the North Vietnamese Loyalty Army Army are also more powerful than those of our army. They have extremely high combat effectiveness and are temporarily invincible to our army.
My opinion is to seize the Qing Dynasty's important coastal areas such as Taiwan and Fujian, and use force to coerce the Qing government to disband the North Vietnamese Loyal and Brave Army. Judging from historical experience, the Chinese in the Qing Dynasty are relatively foolish and loyal. If we seize
If the Qing Dynasty is defeated, then the loyal and brave army of North Vietnam will no longer be a threat, and they will defeat themselves without attacking.
Generals, what do you think?
The Gallic roosters were discussing in a lively manner below, but generally speaking, no one wanted to have a face-to-face confrontation with the North Vietnamese Zhongyong Army, because their victorious general Guba was actually ambushed to death by the Zhongyong Army. This is
The direct reason why they feared the Zhongyong Army.
After the Battle of Zhiqiao, France urgently ordered General Guba to come to the rescue. General Guba was a French naval vice-admiral and a veteran colonial army general. He had commanded many wars of aggression in the French colonies in North Africa and Central Asia.
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He has rich experience in commanding modern wars and is an important vanguard of the French navy in showing off its power in the world. The French have high hopes for victory in General Guba.
But such a Guba, who had rich combat experience and was known as France's ever-victorious general, died in battle under the gunfire of the loyal army. This fact is something that no one in the French army wants to believe, and it is also unbelievable.
France's navy is known as the second largest in the world. At that time, France already had 38 ironclads, 9 coastal defense ironclads, 50 cruisers, gunboats, and 60 torpedo boats, with a total tonnage of 500,000 tons.
With such a powerful naval force at their back, the Gallic Roosters were still under the leadership of their ever-victorious general Guba when they fought against the Zhongyong Army. Thinking about it, the Gallic Roosters looked at the world's navies today, except for the traditional naval power of Britain.
, who else can compare with one of them?
Even their old enemies, the German Navy and the Gallic Roosters, never paid attention to them. However, the Gallic Roosters' naval fleet fell down on its own strengths. In naval battles, no matter what the reason was, they could not be eliminated.
The fact that the expeditionary force failed.
It also reflects from the side that the Chinese, whom they used to despise so much, have now become capable of disdainful of any naval fleet in the world. This is a problem that the Gallic Roosters, and even the United Kingdom, the world's most powerful navy, must face up to.
France's aggressive approach this time is actually internally strong on the outside and weak on the inside.
In the previous confrontations with the Zhongyong Army, the French fleet in Cochin China was completely wiped out. For this reason, the new French cabinet also passed a bill to increase naval military expenditures and began to manufacture large quantities of ironclads domestically to supplement the deficit of the naval fleet.
of the gap.
When France was selecting naval generals at home, Major General Rashilde volunteered and proposed his own expedition plan to China. In this plan, Rashilde proposed the strategic concept of using the corrupt Qing Dynasty to contain the loyal army.
He devised two schemes within the scheme;
The first plan was to use the French expeditionary navy as the main force to launch attacks on Lushun, Weihai, Nanjing, Wusongkou, Fuzhou and Xiamen at the same time, catching the Qing government by surprise and giving it a full time lag.
The second plan was to lead an expeditionary fleet to attack Keelung and Tamsui, Taiwan, which were weakly defended by the Qing Dynasty, use Taiwan as a foothold, blockade the coastline of the southeastern coast of the Qing Dynasty, and then open a second battlefield along the southeastern coast of Fujian and Taiwan.
By forcing the Qing government to sign a surrender document, disbanding the Zhongyong Army, and killing key members of the Zhongyong Army, the crisis in North Vietnam can be resolved, and Vietnam, China, and the Qing's Taiwan, coastal Fujian and other places can be easily obtained.
Although Rashilde is a master of naval theory and has no practical experience, but with the lessons learned from Guba, the new French cabinet discussed and approved Rashilde's second plan.
And uncharacteristically, he chose Rashilde, a young naval admiral with no actual combat experience, to lead the French Second Expeditionary Force. Napoleon was not born to fight, not to mention Rashilde's usual performance.
It’s perfect!….
The military conference in Da Nang, Vietnam, finally unanimously approved Rashilde's proposal to first attack Taiwan and then make the next step after capturing Taiwan.
One early morning, in a certain sea area west of Yongxing Island in Xisha, a small swelling suddenly appeared. Its shape was a bit like the back of a large shark. If you have military knowledge, future warship enthusiasts will see
When you see it, you will be surprised that this is not the surface periscope of a submarine!
Yes, this is indeed a submarine using a surface periscope. This submarine is Tian Ergou's flagship submarine A1. Recently, Tian Ergou has been basically patrolling this sea area.
Their main purpose is to detect the military intelligence of the Second French Expeditionary Force.
Ever since the troops of the Gallic Roosters began to gather in Da Nang, Tian Ergou's mind has been tense. However, the instructions from the Zhongyong Army's combat headquarters made it clear that they must not attack the French.
The mixed fleet of the Japanese army carried out an ambush.
Tian Ergou was very confused. He finally waited for the opportunity to fight, but he was not allowed to attack. Could it be that the Gallic Rooster is an ally of the Zhongyong Army? What a joke, he is still an ally! Thank God if the two armies do not stab each other with bayonets.
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Although he cannot ambush the French fleet, it does not mean that Tian Ergou will be careless. He has brought enough fuel and ship-borne ammunition. Everything can be unexpected! It is better to be careful!
In the middle section of the A1 submarine, on the non-pressure water command bridge, Tian Ergou ignored the drizzle of seawater brought in by the lifting and lowering of the periscope, stretched out his hand to wipe the water on his face, and then put his eyes close to the periscope.
The observation window started to observe.
I don't know how long it took, but Tian Ergou suddenly discovered that there was a large black shadow in the southwest. He hurriedly adjusted the angle and observation focus of the periscope.
His heart skipped a beat, because from the perspective of the periscope, he clearly saw a large number of warships. Although he could not see very clearly due to the height and distance, Tian Ergou knew; these were his
During this period, the target we were waiting for was the Second Expeditionary Force of Gallic Rooster, a mixed fleet.
Seeing Tian Ergou's expression, the submarine observer next to him was extremely anxious. However, the commander was observing, and he could not step forward to grab the position! Although Commander Tian was very talkative, it did not mean that when he was doing serious things,
It’s also very casual, I’d better wait and see!
As the distance between the two sides got closer and closer, Tian Ergou began to adjust the height of the periscope. If someone was observing this sea area at this time, they could only vaguely see a dark shadow that flickered in and out of the waves.
The warships that come here to perform search missions will not observe in such detail.
After the two sides got closer, Tian Ergou counted them carefully; there were a total of 26 mixed warships, nearly 30 transport ships, and several ironclad warships. Tian Ergou estimated that they exceeded the 7,000-ton class. These warships were all the same color.
The flag of France is flying - blue, white and red striped flag.
Through careful observation, Tian Ergou concluded that the French mixed fleet was heading towards Taiwan.
So he began to shrink the periscope and ordered: Order the communications team to telex to Taiwan and the headquarters, Ghost A1, to report that the Gallic Rooster Fleet was discovered on Yongxing Island, heading northeast, targeting Taiwan, with 26 mixed warships and transport ships
There are only 29 ships, and the average speed is about 13 knots. Please prepare Taiwan for combat.
It is expected that the Gallic chickens will arrive at the Taiwan Basin area around 10 a.m. on November 3, 1883, and will request instructions from the combat headquarters.
In the communication cabin of the submarine, a radio transmission sounded. When the radio waves reached Taiwan, Liu Mingchuan began to get busy, doing various preparatory work before the war.
At this time, Liu Mingchuan was full of confidence. He had been joining the Zhongyong Army for some time, and he was basically very familiar with the weapon configuration of the Zhongyong Army.
With the current military weapons, Liu Mingchuan felt that he despised all invading enemies in his heart. He no longer looked like he was in the ranks of the Qing Dynasty. At that time, his troops had crude weapons and often lacked supplies. When fighting against the enemy,
, most of the officers and soldiers went into battle shirtless, armed with swords and spears.
At 11 a.m. on the 3rd, the Gallic Rooster Fleet was discovered in Keelung, Taiwan. Seeing the dark warships approaching, Liu Mingchuan, who had been prepared for a long time, felt excited because he could finally show off his skills.
Although Zhou Yu had ordered not to damage enemy ships, firing a few shots with the 403mm cannon felt very comfortable, right?
When all the enemy ships were close to the coastline, about 18,000 meters away, Liu Mingchuan ordered to use 250 kilograms of extended-range bombs. The first and second columns measured the range at 19,000 meters, and the third and fourth columns measured the range.
Seventeen thousand meters away, concentrated fire and artillery fire in the direction of the enemy.
The fish ships are ready for battle, and the battleships are on fire and on alert.
The gunners who had been prepared for a long time were busy for a while. After correcting the elevation angle, they couldn't wait to fire the shells they had been waiting for for a long time at the enemy ship.
One of the shells, as luck would have it, fell on the deck of one of the warships in the fleet, destroying one of the enemy ship's main guns on the spot. Fortunately, it was not an armor-piercing shell, otherwise it would most likely damage the main gun turret.
The ammunition depot below was destroyed.
Damn it, why don’t you have eyes? Did you send 19,000 meters or 17,000 meters? Don’t you know the content of the order?
This unlucky gunner was scolded by the commander, but he didn't dare to tell the difference. He had obviously corrected the elevation angle, so how could such an unexpected situation happen? What a fucking ghost! He was so depressed that he vomited blood in his heart!