ps: Thanks to the students who gave tips and voted for support. The second semester of my junior year is coming to an end and my free time is limited. Please forgive me for not being able to update stably due to something else.
Xinjing Shipyard and Xinghe Shipyard are located in Xinjing and Xinghe County (Joinvia) respectively.
The two shipyards were originally two civilian shipyards established in early 1869 with shipbuilding equipment imported from Prussia.
In February 1872, two shipyards were upgraded and transformed into military shipyards, and one shipyard was moved from Xinjing to Xinghe County.
In April 1873, with the help of the technology of French shipbuilders such as Darman, Xinjing Shipyard successfully built a gunboat with a displacement of 760 tons. Three months later, Xinghe Shipyard absorbed the experience of Xinjing Shipyard and also built
A gunboat.
The two shipyards, Xingjing and Xinghe, share shipbuilding technology and build warships of the same class in a unified manner.
The research and construction of gunboats and small ironclads are carried out simultaneously. Gunboats with a displacement of less than 1,000 tons have lower technical requirements and can be built in a shorter time, while small ironclads with a displacement of over 1,000 tons have relatively high technical requirements and take six years to build.
Success is also within Li Mingyuan's acceptance range.
The first self-built small ironclad ship has met the technical monitoring standards. The number of ironclad ships in the Han Navy is about to reach six, and its strength has returned to the level before the second battle against the Brazilian Navy.
Among the six ironclads, excluding one self-built small ironclad with a displacement of 1350 tons, the two ironclads with a displacement of 3200 tons are still in the French Mediterranean shipyard and need to be sent by the Han Navy to receive them. The remaining three warships, one is
The large ironclad ship with a displacement of 627o tons was captured from the Brazilian Navy, and the other two were early medium-sized ironclad ships with a displacement of 3500 tons that were customized from the United Kingdom.
Drawing on the classification of warships in Western countries, Li Mingyuan initially divided Han naval warships into four classes: battleships, cruisers, light cruisers, and gunboats.
Warships with a displacement of more than 5,000 tons are classified as battleships.
The range of 2500 to 5000 tons is cruiser, the range of 1000 to 2500 tons is light cruiser, and the range of 1000 ton is gunboat.
According to the classification of warships by displacement, the Han Navy has a total of one battleship, four cruisers, one self-built light cruiser, seven self-built gunboats, nine gunboats, and 25 auxiliary ships, and 30 ships with a displacement of over
A thousand-ton wooden steam troopship.
The tonnage of gunboats is smaller than that of gunboats, and their displacement is generally around 200 tons. They are mainly used for inland river and offshore patrols, and have limited role in large-scale naval battles.
After the Xinjing Shipyard built the first gunboat, the Navy gradually replaced the gunboats with gunboats with larger tonnage and superior performance. Apart from some of the eliminated gunboats being arranged into the inland fleet, most of the remaining gunboats were arranged in the
It is close to transit points such as Natuna Islands, Songkhla, Kismayo, and Mtwara near the immigration route.
The immigration fleets from Nanyang initially docked at strongholds controlled by Britain, France, Portugal and other countries for material supplies. Later, as the number of Chinese immigrants increased, the trading strongholds established by Britain, France and other countries along the African coast were unable to provide supplies for the fleets.
Sufficient material supplies were available, so starting from April 1872, the immigration fleet first searched for suitable ports on the east coast of Africa, and then used muskets, tea and other commodities to buy the selected land from the local chiefs as a supply base for the immigration fleet.
.
Small gunboats have lost their use in South America, but in coastal areas of Africa, Chinese sailors stationed at transit points have played a significant role in relying on gunboats.
Waiting to board the armored ship for inspection in person, when Li Mingyuan was observing a row of gunboats docked in the port, Li Han introduced, "Your Highness, the last nine gunboats are scheduled to serve for four months and then retire from active service. Kismayo and Mthewa
The person in charge of La’s stronghold applied to the Navy, hoping to obtain six of the nine gunboats to support them against the local black pirates.”
"Half a year ago, they didn't report that five groups of small-scale black pirates were wiped out. Why are there new pirates there now?"
Li Mingyuan asked.
“Most of the pirates in the waters near the two places were cleared in the crackdown half a year ago.
However, a new group of pirates appeared in the waters of Kismayo a few months ago. Their number was much larger than the number of pirates that were initially suppressed. Moreover, the person in charge of the Kismayo stronghold reported that the new pirates had appeared
The weapons and equipment are more advanced than the local pirates. They not only have muskets and small artillery, but also a small gunboat.
The person in charge of the Kismayo stronghold believes that this group of pirates is probably active in the waters of Djibouti. They escaped the French operation to suppress pirates in Djibouti some time ago and dispersed to the waters of Kismayo."
"The speculation of the person in charge of the Kismayo stronghold is very reasonable. After the opening of the Suez Canal, pirates from areas around the east coast of Africa have flocked to the Red Sea. In recent years, more than ten merchant ships from various countries have been hijacked by pirates in the Red Sea every year.
ship."
The Suez Canal was the most strategically important man-made canal in the 19th century. Compared with the detour around the Cape of Good Hope in Africa, it was 55oo-8oo9 kilometers shorter from the European Atlantic countries to the Indian Ocean; 8000-1000 kilometers shorter from the Mediterranean countries to the Indian Ocean; for the Black Sea coast
, it was shortened by 12,000 kilometers.
Due to the important strategic position of the Suez Canal and the economic benefits of greatly shortening the distance between ocean-going ships, the Suez Canal has caused competition between the two major European powers, Britain and France, even before construction began.
In 1859, the Suez Canal was initially dug by a French company. Later, the British government used its strong national power to force the French government to share management rights of the canal with the United Kingdom. As a result, the British government gradually squeezed the French government's power in the Suez Canal.
After the Franco-Prussian War, it gained the leading right to manage canal affairs.
The Suez Canal was built at a huge cost by commercial companies supported by the French government. In order to maintain its expanding overseas interests and restore France's status as a major power in Europe, the French government turned to control the Suez Canal after being at a disadvantage in competing with the British for the management of the Suez Canal.
At the mouth of the Red Sea, military forces were deployed in key areas such as Djibouti to threaten Britain's control of the Suez Canal.
Under the guidance of this strategy, France first brought Djibouti into its sphere of influence and did not allow other countries to interfere. Then it regularly eliminated pirates in the waters near Djibouti and strengthened France's maritime control over the Red Sea outlet and the Gulf of Aden.
The French's actions against piracy will not harm Han's interests on the east coast of Africa. However, as the French government continues to strengthen its presence in places such as the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, the Italian colonial forces that are ready to move have a lot of influence on Kismayo.
big threat.
Although the Western powers have not clearly defined their respective countries' spheres of influence in Africa, according to the tacit understanding among countries, in Somalia and the Red Sea estuary area, Eritrea belongs to Italy's sphere of influence, Djibouti in western Somalia belongs to France's sphere of influence, and Somaliland in the north belongs to France.
The British sphere of influence. As for the central and southern parts of Somalia, the forces of Britain, France, Italy and other countries are intertwined and do not clearly belong to any one country.
To the north of Kismayo is Malka, which is controlled by Italy. In 1876, the Italian colonists in the Malka stronghold did not recognize the Chinese occupation of Kismayo, so they dispatched 400 Italian soldiers to attack the Kismayo stronghold.
The actual fighting in the Smayo conflict lasted less than a day. After the Italian army stormed the stronghold during the day to no avail, they were defeated by Chinese soldiers who came out of the city to attack at night. Twenty-one of the 400 Italian troops who went on the expedition died, and 45 were injured and captured.
There were over three hundred people.
The Kismayo conflict was the first battle between Han and Western countries. The Chinese soldiers in the Kismayo stronghold showed their due fighting capacity, but the performance of the Italian army was unsatisfactory.
After the battle in Kismayo, the Chinese troops in the stronghold took advantage of the lack of troops in Marka and took boats to occupy the local Italian stronghold overnight. Then in the subsequent negotiations, the Han Dynasty offered to return the captured soldiers and withdraw from Marka.
Under the conditions, the Italian government recognized the Han Dynasty's occupation of Kismayo.
Although he signed a formal agreement with the Italians, Li Mingyuan knew the Italians' idiosyncrasies in World War I and World War II, and never relaxed his vigilance against the Italians. The current Han government does not have the ability to occupy large areas of land in Africa, but
Several transit points near the immigration route are very important to the immigration operation, and Li Mingyuan will not easily give up the strongholds that Han has established.
Considering the problem of African pirates and the threat from Italy, Li Mingyuan felt that it was necessary to strengthen Han's military strength in its strongholds such as Kismayo and Mtwara.
"There is no need to wait until four months later. Six gunboats can be deployed to them now. Moreover, three months later, Kismayo will be supported by two gunboats and a hundred soldiers. Please remind them on my behalf of the operation to encircle and suppress pirates."
"We can't relax, I don't want a migrant ship to be sunk by pirates, and I also want them to pay attention to the actions of the Italians and not let the Italians take advantage of the loopholes and infiltrate their power into the Kismayo area."
