The heavy rain that lasted for nearly half a month finally ended, and the sky
The accumulated clouds gradually dissipated.
On the vast South Atlantic Ocean, two fleets with vastly different sizes faced each other quietly, separated by several nautical miles.
In the northern part of the sea, there is a row of thick black smoke, consisting of four large ironclad ships and more than ten auxiliary ships, belonging to the Home Fleet of the Navy of the Republic of Brazil.
The Home Fleet of the Navy of the Republic of Brazil is a fleet formed on the basis of the original Atlantic Fleet of the Imperial Navy of Brazil.
Brazil was divided between the north and the south in 1879. At that time, the Brazilian Republican government realized the maritime threat posed by the northern regime and the Han Dynasty navy to itself, and began to purchase new warships to strengthen its maritime defense capabilities.
In 1885, two new battleships, the riachuelo and the achuelo armored cruisers ordered from the British Samuda Brothers shipyard, returned to the port of Rio de Janeiro via London, England.
The riachuelo and the achuelo armored cruisers are of the same class, with a displacement of 5,000 tons, a length of 93 meters, a width of 17.16 meters, a draft of 5.60 meters, an installed power of 4,500 horsepower, a normal pressure speed of 16 knots, cruising at a speed of 10 knots, and a range of
6000 nautical miles.
Both ships are equipped with 4 234mm breech-loading guns; 5.6 140mm 30x caliber single guns, 12 37mm rapid-fire machine guns and 5 356mm underwater torpedo tubes.
At the same time, due to the installation of composite armor protection on the deck, turret, command tower and other parts, the armored cruisers Riachuelo and Achuelo have more gunfire and speed advantages when engaging in decisive sea battles with old iron-hulled warships.
In the late 1880s, when many countries that relied on outsourcing channels for naval fleet construction were complacent when they saw the two- to three-thousand-ton ironclad ships lined up in their ports.
On the European continent, the standards for major naval warships of various countries have been raised from three to five thousand tons to more than eight thousand tons.
The battleship construction model and main weapons and equipment also evolved from iron-shelled iron-clad ships and breech-loaded guns to the era of armored battleships combined with main guns and rapid-fire guns.
Our naval strength was in urgent need of improvement, and to catch up with the accelerating technological update of naval battleships of the European powers, the government of the Republic of Brazil ordered another large cruiser in 1885 after acquiring two new armored cruisers.
The cruiser Aquita was put into service with the Navy of the Republic of Brazil in 1887. In 1888, it served as the flagship of the Brazilian Home Fleet. It was built by the British company Samuda Brothers.
The construction cost was 345,000 pounds, equivalent to approximately 1.24 million taels of Kuping silver.
The standard displacement is 5020 tons, the full load displacement is 5540, the ship is 85 meters long), 15.8 meters wide, and has a normal pressure speed of 15.8 knots. It can carry out long-range cruise at a speed of 10 knots, has a cruising range of 7200 kilometers, and has a crew of 297.
The cruiser USS Aquitaine is equipped with two twin-mounted 234mm turret guns, four 40mm 30-caliber single-mounted guns, 13 Hotchkiss 37mm rapid-fire guns, and five 356mm underwater torpedo tubes.
Three new armored cruisers with a displacement of more than 5,000 tons and one self-built ironclad with a standard displacement of 4,000 tons form the backbone of the Brazilian Navy's maritime defense.
He raised his monocular and stared at several majestic armored warships, then looked back at his three warships, one large, two small, and so on.
Xu Zhixuan, who serves as the captain of the 3,500-ton armored cruiser Pioneer, couldn't help but feel envious of his naval colleagues of the Republic of Brazil for a moment.
During the Paraguay War in 1868, the Brazilian Navy had four ironclad ships, and its overall naval strength ranked Brazil sixteenth in the world.
In 1879, on the eve of the division of North and South Brazil, the total tonnage of the Brazilian Empire and Navy increased to 39,000 tons.
The navy's comprehensive strength ranking has improved to thirteenth in the world.
During the ten years after the division of power between the north and the south of Brazil,
By selling minerals, railways and other interests to raise funds to order warships, the total tonnage of warships owned by the Republic of Brazil and the Empire of Brazil increased to 50,000 tons. Calculated purely based on the tonnage of naval ships, the total number of warships owned by the north and south of Brazil
, already close to Japan, the emerging naval power in East Asia.
On the other hand, the Han Dynasty, although the total tonnage of the navy reached 52,000 tons, and the tonnage of ships over 2,000 tons was close to 35,000 tons, there were only two core warships with a displacement of more than 5,000 tons, and a total of 12 ships with a displacement of less than 2,000 tons.
The Yongxing-class light cruiser has problems such as poor ocean shipping performance and insufficient firepower output. It is difficult for the main fleet to achieve its originally expected combat level during ocean operations.
Because of the early national defense strategy of land master and sea slave, although the Han Navy started early, it has never enjoyed the dividends of the country's economic development by leaps and bounds. After all, compared with the land area and resources controlled by the Han State, the Republic of Brazil, and the Brazilian Empire,
Word,
The Han State occupied about 80% of the plains and woodlands of La Plata. The two southern states that originally belonged to the Brazilian Empire, Uruguay, all of Argentina, and southern Chile were unified under one political power.
Going back twenty years, the three countries of Chile, Argentina, and Brazil, known as the three strongest countries in South America, have the ability to purchase ships on a large scale and engage in the South American naval arms race based on the land of just one country. Their land area spans the three countries, and they control
With more resources, manpower, and technology than any of the three countries alone, if the Han State invested the same proportion of funds, manpower, and material resources, there would be no reason for the Han State's navy to only maintain its current level.
He understood that at the current stage of the country, it was necessary for the land to dominate and the sea to follow, but as a naval officer, Xu Zhixuan still hoped that during his service, he could see the Han Navy cruise the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans as the water hegemon of South America.
The whistle blew, and several warships flying the red dragon flag formed a battle formation and galloped from the southern sea.
There are many chimneys and huge cannons! Seeing the main battleships of the Han Dynasty arriving, the Navy of the Republic of Brazil was the first to surrender.
The flagship Aquitaban armored cruiser in the middle of the queue raised its signal flag and slowly turned and sailed north. After receiving the evacuation signal, more than ten other warships of different sizes stopped the confrontation one after another according to the instructions, turned their bows and sailed towards the north.
"Cousin Shu, do you want to hang behind them and continue to follow them?"
Seeing that the warships on the opposite side were turning around one after another, Shen Shouchang, the deputy captain and navigator of the Pioneer, suggested.
"Forget it, further north is the sea area controlled by the Republic of Brazil. It is too provocative to approach directly at someone's doorstep and peek at the intelligence of the other party's ships."
Xu Zhixuan paused for a moment and decided: "The purpose of our trip this time is to collect the hydrological conditions of the offshore waters of Sao Paulo State and Rio de Janeiro State. Now we have not only completed the task, but also luckily encountered the opponent's navy's new warships going to sea for exercises, and obtained some information about the enemy. First-hand information on the water performance of the main battleships of the military has exceeded the task.
Taking the risk of irritating the Navy of the Republic of Brazil and continuing to follow the enemy would be more than worth the gain.
Brother Shouchang, there will be many opportunities to understand the performance of the opponent's warships in the future, so there is no need to dwell on this time."
"It's rare that the main force of the Navy of the Republic of Brazil is deployed. It's a pity that we couldn't seize the opportunity today to investigate carefully and speculate on the water performance of the armored cruisers of the Navy of the Republic of Brazil."
Shen Shouchang looked regretful and said: "However, today I got a glimpse of the real situation of the Brazilian Navy's home fleet. In particular, I roughly speculated that the speed performance of the second-class cruiser built by the Brazilian Republic itself is also very promising. reward. "
"A skinny camel is bigger than a horse. The Republic of Brazil inherited the main territory and industrial base of the Brazilian Empire. It is reasonable that they can build an ironclad with a standard displacement of 4,000 tons on their own."
"Yes, the Brazilian Empire is the earliest independent country in South America. They started industrialization earlier than other countries. If they had not been hit by the division of the North and the South, maybe they would have been able to complete the preliminary industrial construction if they had been given a few more years. .”
"The better the development situation of the Brazilian Republic and the Brazilian Empire is, the more unfavorable it will be to the future national strategy of the empire."
Thinking of the threat behind the Republic of Brazil's self-built ironclad, Xu Zhixuan put down the monocular telescope in his hand, turned around and told Shen Shouchang: "Brother Shouchang, after we dock and return to Hong Kong today, the management of the warship will be temporarily handed over to You are in charge. I am going to use the evening time to sort out and summarize the intelligence that I detected today, and then submit it to the Navy Department and the Naval Staff Headquarters tomorrow morning. I hope that General Chen and General Li of the two headquarters will see the report. After receiving the intelligence, it can arouse their attention and vigilance towards the Navy of the Republic of Brazil."
"Don't worry, cousin Shu, as long as I'm on board, there won't be any problems tonight."......
On the evening of the next day, Chief of the Navy Chen Sen and Chief of Naval Staff Li Han came to the palace together with the envelope submitted by Xu Zhixuan and the intelligence collected about the Navy of the Republic of Brazil.
"The Admiral Mandel, the first composite armored cruiser of the Brazilian Republic, was started at the Rio de Janeiro Shipyard in April 1884 and completed on January 10, 1889. It has a normal displacement of 4,000 tons and a full load displacement of 4,500 tons. It is 95 meters long and wide. 14 meters, with a maximum draft of 7.06 meters and a minimum draft of 6.20 meters. It is equipped with two steam engines with a power of 7,000 horsepower and a normal pressure speed of 17 knots.
Equipped with 4 152 mm breech guns, 2 120 mm 30 times caliber single guns, 8 47mm rapid-fire machine guns, and 5 underwater torpedo tubes...
The deck armor is 41 mm thick and the gun mantlet armor is 51 mm thick.
It took nearly five years to complete and cost 740,000 pounds, equivalent to 3 million taels of silver."
After reading the overall performance information of the Brazilian Republic's self-built armored cruiser word by word, Li Mingyuan smiled and said: "The Rio de Janeiro Shipyard has good technical reserves. Although it cost 740,000 pounds, it is also a country that can build a 4,000-ton armored cruiser by itself.
An amazing thing.”
"Your Majesty, after absorbing the experience of building Pioneer-class armored cruisers and Dingyuan-class battleships, the three major local shipyards have the ability to build 5,000-ton armored cruisers on their own. The Ministry of the Navy and the Naval Staff hope to obtain your Majesty's approval to provide the empire with
The Navy added two 5,000-ton armored cruisers to maintain its absolute superiority over the Navy of the Republic of Brazil."
Chen Sen and Li Han asked together as if they had discussed it in advance.
"The development of naval technology is changing too fast. Six years ago, 3,500-ton ironclads could be used as main warships. Now according to the standards of Western powers, 5,000 to 6,000-ton ironclads can only be classified as second-class cruisers. The local
Although the two Dingyuan-class ironclad ships were called battleships when they were first built, in the next few years, they may not be qualified to be called battleships."
In the 1890s, naval warships developed in the direction of armoring and large-scale. Especially between 1890 and 1900, warships with a displacement of more than 10,000 tons were launched one after another. Not only Britain, France, Russia and Germany
While the navies of the major European countries have 10,000-ton armored warships in service, even the Japanese Navy, a latecomer, has ordered several 10,000-ton armored warships.
When armored warships with a combination of armor and rapid-fire guns quickly became the mainstream at sea, iron-clad ships represented by iron shells and old-fashioned naval guns were facing the fate of being quickly eliminated. Four or five years later, when the fate of the Far East hegemony was decided,
When the naval battle broke out, the Zhenyuan-class ironclad ships of the same class as the Han Dynasty Navy's Chaoyang and Dawn had only been built for ten years, but they had already begun to lag behind the times.
Purchasing a complete set of design drawings, technology patents, and absorbing the technical experience of the other shipyards. In order to lay a local shipbuilding foundation, the Han Dynasty spent a lot of money and mobilized already scarce technical talents to learn ship design and construction technologies.
After ten years of introduction and ten years of learning, more than twenty years have passed. On the basis of German technology, Han's three major shipyards have initially established an overall shipbuilding system and cultivated a number of ship designers.
Build talent.
However, the Germans already had shortcomings and flaws in warship construction. Based on German technology, the ship technology mastered by Han also had some shortcomings. The Yongxing-class light cruiser had slow speed and poor ocean performance.
Poor quality is a typical manifestation of this shortcoming.
Therefore, after realizing the flaws and deficiencies in local ship technology, Li Mingyuan did not agree to continue to follow the German technical route and carry out a radical autonomous armored cruiser construction plan.
After the construction of the 3,500-ton Pioneer armored cruiser was completed, Li Mingyuan only allowed the construction plan of a reduced-type warship with a displacement of 2,400 tons based on the design drawings and technical specifications of the Pioneer-class armored cruiser. It was out of this consideration.
The independent construction plan for 5,000-ton armored cruisers is not yet mature, and based on the development of the situation in neighboring countries such as Paraguay, the Republic of Brazil, and Chile in the next few years,
Building a 5,000-ton ironclad ship by yourself requires a large capital investment, takes a long time, and is slow to produce results. It is far less beneficial than ordering more mature warships from other countries.
Regarding the long-term plan of the Han Navy, Li Mingyuan had already made plans in his mind. In the next five to ten years, he will still implement the naval development policy of ordering and importing from abroad, digesting ship construction technology as the mainstay, and local self-construction as a supplement.
As for the problems reported by Chen Sen and Li Han,
Instead, we can improve and enhance local shipbuilding technology by adding more warship ordering channels.
"The difficulty of building an armored warship is different from that of building an ironclad. In order to complete the construction of the Admiral Mandel, the Republic of Brazil spent nearly 5 years and spent three times the amount of funds equivalent to an armored cruiser of the same type.
The three major local shipyards have experience in building 2,400-ton armored cruisers. To build an armored cruiser of the same standard, the shipbuilding time and cost should be shorter than that of the Republic of Brazil. However, the technology used by the three major local shipyards comes from Germany, and the German armored cruisers have
The shortcomings and deficiencies also exist in warships built by local shipyards.
Therefore, in addition to absorbing and digesting German shipbuilding technology, the Navy must also try to increase and expand its channels for overseas ship purchase, and have more contact with shipyards in the United Kingdom, France, Austria-Hungary and other countries.
For example, Britain's dominance in South America has been provoked by the United States, and the relationship between the imperial government and Britain is currently at a relatively close stage. Then, using this stage, the two governments have a rare period of peace to send more people around to see if they can
We cannot think of a way to order one or two technologically mature armored cruisers from the UK."
Li Mingyuan sat in the top position, smiled and gave suggestions to the two of them: "You don't need to worry about the cost of purchasing the ship. After you come up with a suitable ship purchasing plan, you can propose it again and leave it to the Navy Department and the Naval Staff.
The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Finance will coordinate and resolve the issue."
"His Majesty is still thoughtful. After His Majesty said this, Director-General Li and I straightened out our thoughts. After we return, the Navy Department and the Naval Staff will come up with a ship purchase plan that satisfies His Majesty as soon as possible."
"It doesn't matter if the ordering price of warships is higher, but the design drawings and technical patents of warship construction cannot be sloppy. After deciding on the plan to order warships, it is best to buy them together with the warship design drawings and related technical patents.
, and we must try to obtain the consent of the other party's shipyard, so that they agree to start construction of an armored cruiser locally. Even if the construction cost is twice as high as that of the same warship, I can support you in agreeing."
"With your Majesty's support, Commander-in-Chief Li and I have confidence. Your Majesty can rest assured that the Navy Department and the Chief of Staff will conscientiously complete the tasks assigned by your Majesty and will not disappoint your Majesty and the people."
Chen Sen did not expect that Li Mingyuan was more thoughtful than the two of him. Li Mingyuan raised issues that the two of them had not noticed before. Therefore, after hearing Li Mingyuan's suggestions, he nodded in agreement.
"Preparations for ordering warships must be made as early as possible. The domestic situation in Paraguay is severe. I am not fully sure whether Paraguay's recent direction will affect the relationship between the mainland and the United Kingdom. Therefore, before the matter is under control, the purchase of ships must be made as soon as possible.
Plan to avoid long nights and too many dreams.”
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"In the Imperial Navy, the number of large warships with a displacement of more than 5,000 tons is insufficient. The number of warships with a displacement of more than 2,000 tons can temporarily meet the defense requirements of the mainland's offshore and inland waters.
Therefore, the construction plan of the Yongxing-class light cruiser with a displacement of 1,350 tons can be temporarily suspended. Currently, the twelve Yongxing-class light cruisers under the Navy's name, except for those stationed overseas to perform alert and defense missions, the other warships are assigned to the offshore alert fleet.
No longer assigned the responsibility for ocean combat missions.”…………