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Facing the Army's request, Chen Pengming also knew that the Army's request could not be refused. After all, he could not really sit back and watch the Portuguese dismantle all the artillery in the fleet and move it to the strong Malacca Castle.
In that case, when the army attacks the city later, there will definitely be heavy casualties. By then, the army's top brass will probably go crazy, and the government and the public will be in turmoil. I don't know how many people will join him and ignore the overall situation!
It is very possible to even expand the target of the attack to the entire navy and say that the navy is selfish, thus undermining the overall strategic situation of the navy!
After all, although the competition between the Imperial Army and Navy is fierce, His Majesty seems to be sitting back and watching the Army and Navy compete with each other, but this is all done without affecting the overall strategy of the Empire.
Today's Battle of Malacca is the first time since the founding of the Tang Dynasty that the army and navy have cooperated in such a large-scale battle. This battle is not only a key battle for the empire to completely control Nanyang, but also a message to the government and the public.
One message is that although the army and navy have accumulated competition, they still consider the overall situation. At critical moments, both the army and the navy can put aside their prejudices and cooperate with each other for the global cause of the empire.
Regardless of the reason, the Battle of Malacca has attracted the attention of both the government and the public. Almost every few days, or when the situation changes significantly, a special fast communication ship will deliver the news back to the country.
In order to establish a fast connection between Malacca and Jinling City, the Tang Dynasty Navy and the Postal Department cooperated and established a fast communication channel from Jinling City to Malacca.
From Jinling City to Shanghai, the information transmission in this section will be delivered by train transportation of letters. Since the large-scale use of trains, it has also replaced the express letter transmission business of the Post Office to a certain extent.
After all, the speed of trains can now reach 30 kilometers per hour. Even if the time for adding coal and water is included, it only takes one day to reach Shanghai from Jinling City, and this speed is already faster than three years ago.
Improved by three times!
This is not to say that the running speed of trains has increased threefold. In fact, the running speed of trains today is still between 30 kilometers and 40 kilometers.
When the train speed cannot be increased temporarily, the railway company shortens the overall time by saving the time of adding coal and water.
To this end, they specially designed a larger-capacity coal and water carriage, so that the train can continue to run longer distances without adding coal and water midway, and at the same time, they continue to improve the speed of adding coal and water at the train station.
, using a large number of mechanical equipment to speed up the speed of adding coal and water to the train.
Through such continuous improvements, the Railway Corporation as a whole has shortened the one-way time from Jinling City to Shanghai from the previous two days to less than one day.
In addition, the current railway company is still considering whether to use night running to further improve the speed and efficiency of train operation. However, the risk of running at night is too high and uncontrollable, so it is only considered and not
Dare to really implement it.
After three years of continuous improvement, it is now possible to set off from Jinling City at dawn and arrive in Shanghai at dusk!
The increase in train speed has also greatly shouldered the Postal Service's transportation tasks along the Jiangnan Railway. The speed of running more than 300 kilometers in one day is faster than the 500-mile express service of the Postal Service.
From Jinling City to Shanghai, messages were delivered by train, and from Shanghai to Guangzhou, letters were transported by express mail ships under the Postal Service.
From Guangzhou to Malacca, letters are transported through the navy's own fast communication ships.
Regardless of whether it is a fast mail ship of the Postal Service or a fast communication ship of the Navy, they actually refer to the same type of ship. They are both clipper ships equipped with steam engines and using new longitudinal sails. This kind of ship uses steam engines.
And in the case of tailwind, the maximum speed can reach more than 20 knots, and even the average speed can reach more than 15 knots.
In the world today, there is no such ship that can run faster than it.
Of course, this kind of ship is also famous for being bumpy. It is normal for an ordinary person to lose half his life on this kind of ship.
Through trains and fast communication ships, the news about the Battle of Malacca could be quickly transmitted back to China. Although it still had to be delayed for many days, it was at least much better than the previous months of being able to get the news.
If he, Chen Pengming, messes up, Jinling City will know the news in ten days and a half, and the outcome may not be much better by then.
In addition, although Chen Pengming is an admiral and the commander of the Indian Ocean Fleet, he is also the military affairs supervisor in Southeast Asia and other places, creating better landing and siege conditions for the army. This is his and the navy's responsibility that cannot be postponed.
Besides, being able to let the army sue the navy is something that makes a naval general very happy!
He immediately nodded and said: "Please rest assured, the Army, our Navy has gathered a large force in Malacca today. Naturally, we will not let clowns like the Portuguese hinder the Army's operations smoothly."
Immediately, Chen Pengming ordered a squadron to quickly approach the port and prepare to bombard the Portuguese fleet in the port.
At this time, he was not ready to swarm into the port and fight the Portuguese. He just wanted to contain the Portuguese.
Therefore, it is only the Second Mobile Squadron that performs this task. This is a mobile fleet composed of one cruiser and five frigates. The strength is not large, but it is enough to prevent the Portuguese from doing anything.
act rashly.
As the Second Mobile Squadron raised its sails, rushed into the port with black smoke, and then began to bombard the Portuguese fleet in the port with artillery from a distance.
It also announced that the Battle of Malacca had officially begun!
Although the Tang Navy has gradually installed steam engines on most of its capital ships and converted the pure sail warships into sail warships, this has not greatly affected the tactical development of the Datang Navy in recent years.
On the one hand, the time for using steam engine battleships is still too short. Even counting from the 19th year of Xuanping to the 22nd year of Xuanping, it has only been three years. In these three years, the navy has been
While refitting, I was testing the tactics of using steam battleships.
However, due to the short time limit, and the fact that today's steam engines are still not powerful enough, most sail warships equipped with steam engines are actually difficult to rely on steam engines to sail at high speeds alone.
Generally speaking, if you want to obtain a relatively normal speed, you still need to rely on sails and steam engines as assistance, and use both sails and sails to increase the speed.
If steam engines were simply used, most modified warships would only have a speed of about four or five knots, and this speed would be too slow even for contemporary naval operations.
The speed of pure sailing warships is faster than this. Even if it is just an average speed, it can reach about six or seven knots. If there is a tailwind, it can even reach more than ten knots.
Because the Tang Dynasty Navy currently uses steam engine power more for auxiliary purposes. For example, when the wind is downwind and sails are used as the main power, the steam engine is used to further increase the speed.
In addition, what is more important is to use steam engine power as the main power when there is light wind, no wind or simply the wrong direction to seize a more favorable wind direction and position.
This is the current main application of steam engine power by the Tang Navy. As for relying solely on steam engine power for daily navigation and combat, steam engine technology has not yet reached this level.
Even the Jiangnan battleship, which was designed from the beginning as a steel steam battleship, would not work even if it was built from the ground up.
At the same time, there is also a huge technical limitation that current artillery technology is still stuck in the era of sail warships!
The naval guns equipped by the Tang Navy today are actually not much different from the naval guns equipped by the Portuguese and Spanish. They are all very typical front-loading smoothbore guns.
Although the Tang Dynasty relies on advanced steel technology and processing capabilities, it currently uses steel to forge artillery on a large scale, especially large-caliber naval guns that consume huge amounts of copper. Currently, iron-cast artillery is basically used.
Only the Army's nine-pound and five-pound field guns continue to be cast in bronze in order to ensure the life of the barrel and other properties.
However, this does not fundamentally change the performance of the artillery. Compared with more than ten years ago, the current artillery has improved accuracy and its effective range is also higher, but it is extremely limited.
Five hundred meters is almost the limit of the distance for naval artillery battles. Artillery fire beyond this distance will basically not pose any threat to the enemy's moving warships, and it is basically impossible to even splash water on the enemy.
Although there have been innovations in artillery shells, and grenades have begun to be used on a large scale, this is also limited. At most, it only increases the power of the artillery shells. But in fact, the traditional solid shells, chain shells, grape shells and other large-caliber naval guns
The types of ammunition are quite impressive for the wooden battleships of this year.
The limitations of artillery technology and steam engines also led to the fact that the tactics of the Tang Dynasty Navy did not change much in the past ten years or so. During combat, they still relied on ships to form battle lines, and used broadside artillery on the battlefield.
Attack the enemy ship from a distance of about three hundred meters.
And it is still difficult to completely sink an enemy ship. Most of the time, we rely on killing the enemy's physical strength and destroying the enemy's sail system, or simply letting the enemy ship set fire to force the enemy ship to lose its combat effectiveness. As for those who want to fight in the battle,
At that time, it was quite difficult to completely sink an enemy ship through shelling.