Outsiders, even Chinese, are most familiar with the Tang Dynasty's navy: these frigates, not the tall and powerful battleships, nor the cruisers with beautiful hulls, impressive force and speed.
Because large ships such as battleships are the backbone of the country and are regarded as strategic weapons by the navy. They are always ready for decisive fleet battles with enemy fleets and will not participate in ordinary daily patrol missions. From the perspective of outsiders,
If you don't see it, it's completely normal.
Even an 800-ton cruiser is not that easy to see. The number of cruisers is actually not many. There are only a dozen or so in total. Some of them serve as the core battleships of each squadron and are also the core battleships of each squadron.
The flagship, but also part of it, operates with the battleship fleet all year round, serving as a fast forward battleship during fleet decisive battles.
After years of development and innovation, the Navy of the Tang Dynasty has basically established a system that integrates local fleets and main fleets.
The main fleet is responsible for mobile operations and fleet decisive battles. It consists of the First Fleet, the Second Fleet, and the Third Fleet. These three fleets are the essence of the Imperial Navy, and the three fleets have a clear division of labor.
The First Fleet, with its headquarters located in Hong Kong, is currently responsible for mobile combat missions in all waters south of the Taiyuan Strait, that is, in the South China Sea. It consists of several battleships and cruiser squadrons.
The Second Fleet is currently mainly responsible for controlling mobile combat missions in all sea areas north of the Taiyuan Strait. This sea area includes the East China Sea, North Sea, Ryukyu, Fuso Coast, etc. Its headquarters is located in Wusong Port, and it also has a number of battleships and cruisers.
Squadron.
The Third Fleet is quite special. It is a preparatory training fleet. Most of the ships equipped are old ships and are used to train naval officers and sailors.
There are many local fleets. There are four local fleets: South Sea Fleet, East Sea Fleet, Yellow Sea Fleet, and North Sea Fleet. Overseas, there are three overseas high-sea fleets: Fuso Fleet, Luzon Fleet, and Bandan Fleet. There are also Pearl River Fleet and Yangtze River Fleet.
fleet, the three major inland river fleets of the Yellow River Fleet and the newly established Heilongjiang Fleet.
According to the relevant reform plan of the navy, the above-mentioned local fleets are responsible for patrolling, escorting, and small and medium-sized battles. As for decisive battles with the enemy's main fleet, it is naturally not their task.
At the same time, during wartime, superiors will temporarily allocate ships from these local fleets to join the two main fleets to participate in the war. However, this is only the deployment of ships, and it does not mean that the local fleets will be under the command of the three major fleets.
There is no direct relationship between the three major fleets and the local fleets, but they are independent units.
What is also interesting is that in addition to the navy's three main fleets, seven local fleets and four river fleets, there are also two very special fleets. One of them is naturally the army's maritime transport division, and its first maritime transport division
His name is very loud
The Army has been struggling with its maritime power for many years, but it has been strongly opposed by the Navy, and Li Xuan does not support the Army's establishment of an Army Marine Corps, so so far, the Army has only established the First Maritime Transport Division.
, and there are no professional warships, just armed transport ships.
However, the Army has never given up on building warships. Since it could not build ocean-going warships, it set its sights on inland warships. In order to support ground troops in combat, it established a large number of Army river and lake patrol boat units. In terms of functions,
There is some overlap with the navy's river fleet.
For example, in this Northeastern Campaign, in addition to the combat vessels of the river fleet dispatched by the navy, there were also the army's own river and lake patrol boat units in the Liaohe River.
This kind of chaos on the inland river warfare ships will probably not change for a long time. This is not only a dispute between the army and the navy, but also the result of Li Xuan's laissez-faire. Li Xuan needs the navy to build an inland river fleet to maintain it in rivers and lakes and other areas.
There is a certain military presence, and when necessary, we can go ashore to fight and maintain a balance with the army.
Balance is very important, and similarly, the existence of the Guards Fleet is also a product of this balancing policy.
In the early years, the Guards fleet only had a few river warships, but later, despite the strong opposition of the navy, Li Xuan assigned real warships to the Guards one after another, and they were the most advanced and powerful warships!
The Guards fleet is stationed in the exclusive port of the Guards in Jinling City all year round. It maintains one battleship, two cruisers, and four frigates all year round. Needless to say, its purpose is to defend the capital and protect Li at critical moments.
Xuan.
In this way, taking the lower reaches of the Yangtze River as an example, there are numerous official armed ships of various names, including the Yangtze River Fleet of the Navy, the First Patrol Boat Fleet of the Army Operations Department, and the Army Jiangnan Road and Jiangbei Road.
The patrol boat brigade under the garrison headquarters.
Then there is the Guards Fleet.
Next, there are armed ships of various law enforcement agencies, there are customs patrol boats used by the customs to combat smuggling, there are patrol boats under the patrol police, and then the tax inspection team also has armed ships!
In short, there are many types of armed river vessels on the Yangtze River, which looks quite confusing.
But it only looks chaotic on the surface. However, the ships of different organizations have different tasks and purposes. The Navy's inland river warships are tasked with controlling inland waterways and supporting ground troops in operations, while the Army's ships basically only use
To support ground troops in operations. The ships of law enforcement agencies are used to combat ordinary criminals and are not linked to military purposes.
Relatively speaking, armed ships along the coast are relatively pure. The coast also belongs to the sea. The Navy has a very tough attitude towards armed ships on any sea. In the early years, there were coastal patrol ships of the Navy. This was to control the security of the sea.
Mainly, there are also customs patrol boats, which are used to inspect and combat smuggling. At the same time, there are police patrol boats, which are to maintain maritime security. The Animal Husbandry Department of the Ministry of Agriculture also has relevant law enforcement patrol boats, which are to guide the investigation.
Fishing vessels hunt for fish, and at the same time, fishing boats from neighboring countries are prohibited from entering our own waters to hunt for fish. In addition, the Immigration and Reclamation Department also has related patrol vessels. This is mainly to prevent neighboring countries from smuggling into the country through sea, and then the tax inspection team also
Don't dare to be lonely...
In short, because there were no clear regulations in the early years, any relevant agency would set up some armed patrol ships to conduct patrols. Finally, the navy couldn't bear it anymore and went crazy. Then it found the Holy Emperor Li Xuan and asked to rectify all kinds of coastal patrols.
A mess of patrol boats.
Of course, the navy's idea at the beginning was that other agencies should stop messing with armed ships. Our navy is enough. However, the final decision of the Holy Emperor was to have nothing to do with the navy and directly set up a maritime patrol bureau.
It's called "sea patrol" for short, and all the messy law enforcement vessels are brought under the jurisdiction of this maritime patrol bureau.
The main functions of the bureau are to patrol the coast and investigate maritime smuggling, stowaways, fisheries, maritime crimes, etc.
However, because it is equipped with a large number of offshore armed patrol vessels, it also has the ability to maintain coastal security to a certain extent.
Therefore, this agency is directly under the dual jurisdiction of the Patrol Department and the Navy. It operates independently during peacetime and cooperates with the Navy to conduct military operations in coastal areas after receiving orders from the Holy Emperor during wartime.
Well, they are just cooperating, because strictly speaking, they are not part of the military, but just law enforcement agencies.
In this way, the law enforcement vessels in the coastal areas of Datang were unified under the name of maritime patrol to combat smuggling and other maritime crimes. At the same time, they also occasionally cracked down on pirates who dared to operate along the coast of Datang.
The law enforcement ships at sea have become simple and unified, but in the inland rivers and lakes, it is still chaotic. The army and navy, patrol police, taxation, and other agencies are constantly arguing. No one is willing to give up this power easily, and Li Xuan is also
With a balanced attitude, we do not want the army or navy to control inland lakes alone. Therefore, for a long time in the future, there will still be more and more various law enforcement vessels and military vessels in inland lakes, and they will be messy.
However, this situation is naturally invisible here in Heilongjiang, because here, there is only the navy for the time being, and the navy is naturally obliged to assume all river security and military tasks in the Heilongjiang Basin.
In terms of level, the Heilongjiang River Fleet is the same as the other three inland river fleets. They are all standard inland river fleets of the highest level. The commander of this fleet has the rank of rear admiral.
However, unlike the Yangtze River Fleet, which has four squadrons, more than 30 large and small inland river gunboats, and more than 50 various auxiliary inland river military vessels, the current Heilongjiang Fleet does not have a squadron, but all are under direct jurisdiction.
Because so far, there are only eight river warships that have come with the landing fleet, and there are only a dozen auxiliary ships. These river warships of the Heilongjiang Fleet are divided into two brigades, and the auxiliary ships are divided into three brigades.
Now, when the Changzhou frigate ventured to the river with several airborne armed transport ships, and then bombarded the enemy and Nurgan City, two groups of civil war warships from the Heilongjiang Fleet also accompanied it, in order to prevent
Enemy boats are approaching, especially fire ships and the like.
Whether it is the Changzhou frigate or several other armed merchant ships, they are all large ships of several hundred tons. Naturally, they have nothing to fear on the sea. However, now that they are in Heilongjiang, they are more afraid of attacking fire ships.
At this time, small and flexible civil war warships are needed to cooperate in the battle!
The largest of the two brigades is the flagship of the two brigades under the Heilongjiang Fleet. Its tonnage is only 120 tons. It has a shallow draft and is flexible, making it perfect for assisting the main battleships in combat.