Chapter five hundred and sixty seventh raid on Quping naval base
In the more than eighty kilometers from the estuary to the capital, not to mention a cruiser of only one or two thousand tons, even the armored ship Pingbo of more than six thousand tons can get in.
Even larger 10,000-ton ironclads can also enter if you are careful.
Well, the Jingzhou Shipyard, a subsidiary of the Jingzhou Machinery Bureau, built a 10,000-ton ironclad ship in the early years. After it was built, it was sent down the river into the sea.
Therefore, there is no problem at all when a large-tonnage warship enters the Mirror River!
Of course, after a large-tonnage warship enters the Mirror River, it has no mobility at all. If it is intercepted by enemy warships and land heavy artillery, it will be more troublesome.
In this regard, the navy is actually very worried that the enemy's main fleet will voluntarily abandon Quping Naval Base and retreat into Jinghe River.
But if something really happens, then even if you are worried, you have to fight into the Mirror River!
Because if the main force of the navy does not enter, relying on the twenty or thirty offshore and inland river gunboats will not be able to completely defeat the Jingzhou fleet and then take control of the Jinghe River.
The strength of the Jingzhou fleet is not weak, and it has a huge fleet of 10,000-ton ironclads.
Although this 10,000-ton ironclad ship was produced more than ten years ago, and the performance of the earliest ironclad ship has seriously lagged behind, it is still a 10,000-ton big guy!
At the same time, the Jingzhou fleet also has many other capital ships!
These main warships were previously parked at Quping Naval Base, the most important naval base of the Jingzhou Navy and Daheng Navy.
Duan Hongxiao and other naval generals hoped to arrive directly and block the enemy navy fleet in Quping Naval Base before the main force of the enemy fleet withdrew from Quping Naval Base.
For this reason, after the First Fleet completed its replenishment and left the port, in order to prevent the enemy from getting the news to evacuate first, they did not delay along the way and rushed directly to Quping Naval Base at the mouth of Jinghe River at high speed.
In order to further confuse the enemy fleet, they even carefully selected their departure time to ensure that they would arrive just outside Quping Naval Base at dawn the next day!
This is equivalent to gaining a night of covert maneuver time!
The fleet moved northward at high speed, and even at night, the fleet continued to move northward.
The commander of the First Fleet, Zhongqing Huang Xinggang, had dinner and rested shortly after nightfall. Not only him, but actually most of the officers and men of the First Fleet went to bed early.
However, by about five o'clock in the morning the next day, when the sky was still dark, most of the officers and men in the First Fleet had already gotten up and started to prepare for work.
The kitchens in each battleship have already begun preparing breakfast in advance!
The captains and main officers of each battleship have already appeared in the command cabin.
On the tall mast, there are not only lookouts, but also officers observing with binoculars.
Time gradually passed, the sky gradually turned white, and the sea turned from pitch black to gray.
The sun still hasn't risen yet, but the lookout soldiers can already search the sea far away through their telescopes.
On the Pingbo, the commander of the First Fleet, Lieutenant Commander Huang Xinggang, was meditating on the chart. People kept coming in and out of the combat conference room, reporting various data.
"Commander, we have entered the waters at the mouth of Jinghe River. We are still twenty-five nautical miles away from Quping. If nothing else happens, they will find us soon!"
Lieutenant Commander of the Navy Huang Xinggang stood up at this time, looked around and said: "Gentlemen, let's carry out the battle according to the planned battle plan!"
Soon, the steam steel fleet composed of nineteen battleships on the sea began to be divided into two. The armored ship Pingbo, the cruiser Luo Hai and five other higher-speed cruisers began to increase their speed to
The highest, sailing in the northeast direction at an average speed of fifteen knots, where is the mouth of Jinghe River and where Quping Naval Base is located.
The twelve older warships at the rear, which were slower, were moving at a speed of about twelve knots. This was already the maximum sustained speed that these old warships could run.
One after the other, the two fleets galloped towards the same goal!
As they continued to advance at high speed, even though the sky was bright, the patrol ships of the Jingzhou fleet on alert discovered them immediately!
But this is no longer important!
At this time, they were only more than twenty nautical miles away from Quping Naval Base. The first squadron led by Pingbo raced at the highest speed and could reach the outside of the port in an hour and a half!
In just one and a half hours, the other side didn't have time to make much response. If they were lucky, the other side's warships wouldn't even have time to leave the port.
Because it is impossible for a steam engine battleship to maintain fire all the time, but if a steam engine battleship wants to maneuver smoothly, it needs to maintain a relatively large steam pressure and needs a coal-fired boiler to make fire for a long time.
In other words, once the warship returns to the port and berths, it will take a long time to restart the coal-fired boiler after it goes out.
Of course, this kind of situation can only happen if you are lucky. Now is the time of war, and it is impossible for the other side's warships to be truly unprepared.
Sure enough, not long after, on the mast of the dome-armored cruiser Luo Hai at the forefront of the fast fleet, the lookout shouted: "There is a battleship ahead!"
After the lookout shouted loudly, the officer on duty on the lookout tower immediately stepped forward and leaned over the large monocular telescope to look at it. While looking at it, he said: "Report immediately, bearing 22, estimated distance is seven nautical miles."
, an unknown warship was discovered!”
Relevant news soon spread to the Pingbo at the rear, and Navy Lieutenant Commander Huang Xinggang himself climbed up to the command tower and observed with a telescope.
Although the distance is relatively far, the sky is already bright at this time, and there is no fog on the sea. In addition, the height of the command tower is relatively high, so you can still see it with a telescope. Even if you see only a blurry hull, you have rich experience.
Huang Xinggang could still tell at a glance that it was the Nanguang-class cruiser in the Jingzhou Fleet.
The reason why you can recognize it at a glance is because there is a cruiser of the same class, the Southern Star, in their mobile fleet!
The Nanguang-class cruiser is a new type of warship that has been in service in large numbers in the Jingzhou Fleet in recent years. The Yongchang 43 is the first ship to enter service.
Public information shows that Jingzhou has built and put into service as many as five ships. It is the main battleship of the Jingzhou fleet, with a displacement of about 1,500 tons. It is an unprotected cruiser with an iron-ribbed wooden hull. Because it was in service relatively early, it
They were originally equipped with front-loading smoothbore cannons, but it is currently unclear whether they have been replaced with new breech-loading cannons.
This ship has a special feature, that is, its speed is very fast, and it can run at a speed of fifteen knots under pure steam power.
It is worth noting that in the Battle of Shayang Bay last year, the Jingzhou Fleet sent a Nanguang-class cruiser to participate in the attack. In the end, it was killed by the unified fleet. In the end, one battleship escaped and was forced to
surrender.
The surrendered battleship was the cruiser Southern Star.
After capturing the ship, the Unified Fleet carried out repairs on the ship, and also upgraded and refitted the ship. The ship's gun layout was upgraded, the smoothbore guns were removed, and the new breech-mounted rifled guns of the Unified Army were replaced.
Nowadays, the cruiser Nansung in the Unified Army has a relatively small tonnage, poor endurance, and poor protection. However, with its high speed of 15 knots powered by pure steam engines, and after being equipped with new breech-mounted artillery, it has still become the most powerful cruiser in the Unified Fleet.
One of the battleships.
One of the seven battleships in this fast fleet is the cruiser Southern Star.
When Huang Xinggang and the others discovered a Nanguang-class cruiser in Jingzhou on the opposite side, the other party also discovered the fast fleet led by Huang Xinggang himself at almost the same time!
Soon, the ship began to accelerate and turn!
At the same time, messages began to be sent to the rear through semaphores, whistles, etc.!
Not long after, sirens sounded loudly in Quping Naval Base!