Off the coast of Malacca Port, the huge Indian Ocean Fleet of the Tang Dynasty was densely packed with warships, almost covering the entire sea surface. Among the many warships, many battleships were particularly conspicuous because they were large and clustered together.
There are nine battleships in the Indian Ocean Fleet, divided into three battleship squadrons. One of the nine battleships is not the largest battleship, the Guangdong, but it is flying the flag of the commander of the Indian Ocean Fleet, which is the flag of the entire fleet.
flagship.
The battleship Guangdong is not the largest battleship among the nearly twenty battleships of the Tang Navy. It is the battleship with the largest standard tonnage. It is the Liaoxi. The standard displacement of the Liaoxi has reached 1,580
Ton.
The battleship Guangdong has a standard displacement of only 1,400 tons. The reason why this ship can become the flagship of the Indian Ocean Fleet is naturally not because of its tonnage, but because it is a flagship from the beginning.
Designed.
Inside the hull, there are complete various combat conference rooms, cabins for relevant personnel of the headquarters, etc. In addition, the hull of the ship is also different from other battleships. That is, the overall design of the hull of the ship does not adopt the
The other battleships are equally generous and thick, but are more inclined to the cruiser hull design.
This also makes the ship's hull slender, faster, and more flexible!
In the Navy of the Tang Dynasty, the distinction between battleships, cruisers, frigates, patrol ships and other types of battleships was not based on tonnage or firepower, but on combat purposes.
Naturally, the warship designs used for different combat purposes are completely different, so this also led to the different levels of warships in the Tang Navy, both in appearance and interior, being quite different.
Battleships are used for fleet decisive battles. They attach great importance to protection capabilities and firepower, especially firepower. Therefore, when designing, they often use a wider hull to enhance the thickness of the side armor and enhance protection capabilities. At the same time, they are commonly used
Multi-layer decks are used to deploy more large-caliber artillery, but some of the speed, flexibility, and even the number of supplies carried have been abandoned.
As for the cruiser, its position in the Tang Empire Navy was to carry out ocean cruising, the flagship of the squadron, and when the fleet engaged in decisive battles, it served as the main battleship of the vanguard fleet, providing reconnaissance, fire support, etc. for the main battleship fleet.
Mission. Therefore, the design of cruisers of the Datang Navy often focuses on ocean seaworthiness, which can carry more supplies and can independently maintain long-term ocean voyages without relying on supplies from supply ships or ports. At the same time, they require higher speeds.
And flexibility, on the other hand, the protection capability and firepower have been partially weakened.
As for frigates, their position in the Tang Dynasty Navy was that they could do anything. This positioning does not mean that frigates are unimportant. On the contrary, they are very important, because frigates are used by the Datang Navy for daily ocean cruising.
Escorts are the main force in ordinary naval battles. At the same time, during fleet battles, these frigates will also be pulled onto the battlefield to form a huge escort fleet to participate in the battle.
Such mission requirements require that the number of frigates must be sufficient, and the construction, maintenance and use costs must be relatively low. At the same time, seaworthiness, speed, firepower, and protection must also be taken into consideration.
Perhaps the performance in all aspects is not outstanding, but there are basically no obvious shortcomings, and the most important thing is that it is cheap.
That’s why the Tang Imperial Navy was able to build dozens of frigates!
Offshore patrol ships, as the name suggests, are only used for offshore patrols. Therefore, their ocean navigation capabilities are very average, and their protection and ability to carry supplies are also relatively poor. However, their firepower is relatively powerful compared to its tonnage.
There are also a very large number of such offshore patrol ships. Basically, such offshore patrol ships can be seen in the coastal waters of the Tang Empire's mainland and overseas territories. Most of their tonnages range from 150 tons to 200 tons.
However, there are also a very few offshore patrol ships with relatively large tonnage, even more than 300 tons. Another characteristic of such large-tonnage offshore patrol ships is that they generally have strong firepower. Others are not so good. Most of them are deployed in important areas.
The port serves as the main defense force of the port.
Each ship type has a different mission and a different design.
The battleship Guangdong is obviously an exception, because this battleship is a new idea tried by the Tang Empire Navy, which is to have a main battleship with the firepower of a battleship and the speed and seaworthiness of a cruiser.
It has sex and battery life, and its protective capabilities can be reduced appropriately.
In the Datang Navy's vision, this kind of warship will be used to serve as the flagship of the squadron, leading cruisers on ocean cruises. During battles, they will lead the cruisers with powerful firepower, and the frigate fleet will act as the vanguard fleet.
Provides reconnaissance for the fleet and destroys the vanguard fleet of the enemy fleet.
And when necessary, it will accompany the battleships to participate in fleet decisive battles. After all, with a tonnage of 1,400 tons and 68 naval guns, it would be a waste if this kind of firepower does not participate in fleet decisive battles.
Under the guidance of this new idea, the Guangdong was built. Because it was originally designed according to the flagship of the main squadron, it has a complete command cabin to accommodate the combat personnel of the headquarters.
It is a pity that the strategic vision of the high-level officials of the Tang Dynasty for the Guangdong was not reflected!
On the one hand, because this ship has strong firepower and a large hull, it is relatively easy to live in, and it also has a complete command cabin, so it was used as a flagship by the First Fleet when it first entered service. During combat drills, the command
Officials often use this ship directly as a main battleship, rather than as the leader of a cruiser fleet as imagined.
On the other hand, the cost of building this ship is a bit high, even higher than a battleship of the same tonnage!
Especially after the installation of a steam engine, it was discovered that the overall cost of the Guangdong, that is, the cost of the previous sailing battleship era plus the cost of modifying the steam engine, was higher than that of other battleships.
This is because in order to allow the warship to achieve a higher speed, when refitting the steam engine, the designers of the Naval Ship Administration Department frantically installed a steam unit with a total horsepower of 800 horsepower on the Guangdong!
In order to achieve this 800 horsepower, the Guangdong uses six coal-fired boilers, two specially-made large three-cylinder steam engines, and uses twin propellers for propulsion!
This steam power solution is one hundred horsepower more powerful than the steam power system on the Jiangnan. In order to improve the steam engine strategy, the steam engines on the Guangdong were specially customized, and their steam pressure was higher than ordinary steam engines.
The steam pressure on warships is higher. Of course, although this has improved the strategy, it will have a greater impact on the life of the steam engine, requiring frequent maintenance and replacement of key parts.
Unless there are any special needs, this is generally not done. After all, warships are often used, and when performing missions, they are often at sea for several months. During this period, there is basically no effective maintenance, so for
The stability requirements of steam engines are extremely high.
If the Guangdong account is used like this, problems can easily occur.
However, even with this or that shortcoming, the Guangdong was still built, then refitted, and finally entered service with the First Fleet and served as the flagship of the First Fleet.
Now it is used as the flagship of the Indian Ocean Fleet!
At this time, on the Guangdong, the commander of the Indian Ocean Fleet, Admiral Chen Pengming, was standing on the observation deck on the main mast, observing the Malacca Port in the distance with the high-power telescope of the lookout soldier.
The port of Malacca is densely packed with all kinds of ships, including at least more than 30 medium and large ships of more than 300 tons. Although most of them are armed merchant ships, it has to be said that
, these days’ armed merchant ships are actually also battleships.
The Tang Navy itself also brought a large number of armed merchant ships to participate in the war. Although it was mainly responsible for transportation tasks, it was also a military task after all.
The same is true for the Portuguese. Their large number of armed merchant ships are also warships to a certain extent!
However, the most conspicuous among them are three battleships and six battleships with tonnage ranging from 500 tons to 1,000 tons!
These nine warships are different from those armed merchant ships. They are all professional warships, and the ship types of several of them are similar to those of the Tang Navy.
The Portuguese are not stupid. Over the past ten years, they have gradually discovered the benefits of Datang's new ship type. In fact, building this kind of ship does not require any special technical ability. It is more of a change in design concept.
, the Portuguese who could build Clark ships and Galen ships were also able to build Tang-style ships.
The Portuguese East India Company, which has been active in East Asia for a long time, built a large number of Tang-style ships, and its new warships in recent years generally adopt this design.
On the other hand, those battleships with more than 1,000 tons are still traditional Galen ships.
What has to be said is that the strong rise of the Tang Empire brought too many changes to the world, not only in China, but also in the surrounding areas and even around the world.
At least Portugal was deeply influenced by the Tang Empire. The rise of the Tang Empire and its emphasis on maritime trade made Portugal's East Asia-Europe trade larger, and therefore the profits gained were more generous, which also enhanced the Portuguese's national strength.
, more powerful than the Portuguese in post-space time.