Off the coast of Malacca Port, the huge Indian Ocean Fleet of the Tang Navy is densely packed with almost the entire sea because of the large number of warships.

The Indian Ocean Fleet brought together nine battleships and was divided into three battleship detachments, one of which was the largest battleship among the nine battleships, not the largest battleship, but it was flying the flag of the commander of the Indian Ocean Fleet, that is, the flagship of the entire fleet.

The battleship Guangdong, among the nearly 20 battleships of the Tang Navy, is not the largest in tonnage, and the battleship with the largest standard tonnage is the Liaoxi, which has a standard displacement of 1,580 tons.

And the battleship Canton, with its standard displacement, was only 1,400 tons, and the reason why the ship was able to become the flagship of the Indian Ocean Fleet was naturally not because of its tonnage, but because it was designed as a flagship from the very beginning.

In addition, the hull of the ship is not the same as that of other battleships, that is, the overall design of the hull of the ship does not take the same width as other battleships, but is more inclined to the hull design of the cruiser.

This also makes the ship's hull more slender, faster and more flexible!

In the Datang Navy, the distinction between battleships and cruisers, frigates, patrol ships, and other types of warships is not based on tonnage or firepower, but on combat use.

For different combat purposes, the design of the warships used is naturally completely different, so this also leads to the different levels of warships of the Datang Navy, whether it is the appearance or the interior, the difference is relatively large.

Battleships are used to carry out fleet decisive battles, and pay attention to protection capabilities and firepower, especially firepower, so when designing, the hull is often relatively wide to strengthen the thickness of the broadside wood armor and strengthen the protection ability, and at the same time, multi-decks are generally used to deploy more large-caliber guns, and for speed, flexibility, and even the number of supplies carried, some of these are abandoned.

In the case of cruisers, the positioning in the navy of the Tang Empire is to be used for ocean cruises, the flagship of the detachment, and the decisive battle of the fleet, and as the main battleship of the forward fleet, providing reconnaissance, fire support and other tasks for the main battleship fleet. Therefore, the design of cruisers of the Datang Navy often focuses on ocean-going seaworthiness, can carry more supplies, and no longer rely on supply ships or port supplies, and can independently maintain long-term ocean-going voyages, while requiring high speed and flexibility, in contrast, the protection ability and firepower are partially weakened.

As for the frigate, the positioning in the Datang Navy is to do everything, such a positioning does not mean that the frigate is not important, on the contrary, it is very important, because the frigate is the main force used by the Datang Navy to carry out daily ocean cruises, escorts, and ordinary naval battles, and at the same time, when the fleet is in a decisive battle, these frigates will also be pulled onto the battlefield to form a huge escort fleet to participate in the battle.

Such mission requirements make the number of frigates must be sufficient, and the cost of construction, maintenance and use is relatively low, and at the same time, it is also necessary to take into account seaworthiness, speed, firepower and protection.

Maybe the performance in all aspects is not too good, 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, so their ocean-going navigation capabilities are very average, and their protection and ability to carry supplies are also relatively poor, but their firepower is relatively strong relative to their tonnage.

The number of this kind of offshore patrol ships is also very large, basically in the mainland of the Tang Empire and the coastal waters of overseas territories, you can see this kind of offshore patrol ships, most of their tonnage is between 150 tons and 200 tons, but there are also a very small number of relatively large tonnage, even up to more than 300 tons of offshore patrol ships, this kind of large-tonnage offshore patrol ships also have a characteristic is that the general firepower is strong, and the others are not good, most of them are deployed in important ports, acting as the main defense force of the port.

Each ship 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 Imperial Navy, that is, to let a capital battleship have the firepower of a battleship, and at the same time have the speed, seaworthiness and endurance of a cruiser, and the protection capacity can be appropriately reduced.

And this kind of battleship, in the Tang Navy's vision, this kind of battleship will be used as the flagship of the detachment, leading the cruiser to carry out ocean cruises, and when fighting, leading the cruiser and frigate fleet with strong firepower to act as the forward fleet, providing reconnaissance for the fleet, and defeating the forward fleet of the enemy fleet.

And when necessary, accompany the battleship to participate in the decisive battle of the fleet, after all, the tonnage of 1,400 tons, sixty-eight naval guns are placed there, and this kind of firepower will be very wasteful if it does not participate in the decisive battle of the fleet.

Under the guidance of this new way of thinking, the Canton was built, because it was originally designed according to the flagship of the main detachment, so it had a complete command cabin to accommodate the combat personnel of the headquarters.

It is a pity that the strategic vision of the top management of the Datang Navy for the Guangdong has not been reflected!

On the one hand, because of the strong firepower, the large hull, the living and living conditions are relatively good, and there is also a complete command cabin, so it was used as the flagship of the First Fleet when it was first put into service.

On the other hand, the cost of this ship is a bit high, even higher than that of a battleship of tonnage!

Especially after the installation of a steam engine, it was found that the overall cost of the Canton, that is, the previous era of sail warships plus the cost of refitting the steam engine, was higher than that of other battleships.

This is because in order to make this battleship achieve a higher speed, when the steam engine was modified, the designers of the Navy 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, six coal-fired boilers were used on the Cantonese, two special large three-cylinder steam engines, and twin propeller propulsion!

This steam power program, than the power of the steam power system on the Jiangnan is more than a hundred horsepower, in order to improve the strategy of the steam engine, the steam engine on the Guangdong is specially customized, and its steam pressure is greater than that of ordinary warships, of course, this is also done although the strategy has been improved, but the impact on the life of the steam engine is relatively large, and frequent maintenance is required to replace key components.

After all, warships are often used, and when performing tasks, they go to sea for several months, and there is basically no effective maintenance during this period, so the stability of the steam engine is extremely high.

It's easy to have problems like the Cantonese number.

However, despite this or that flaw, the Canton was built, then refitted, and finally entered service with the First Fleet, and served as the flagship of the First Fleet.

Now it is being used as the flagship of the Indian Ocean Fleet!

At this time, Admiral Chen Pengming, commander of the Indian Ocean Fleet, was standing on the lookout on the main mast, observing the port of Malacca in the distance with the high-powered telescopes of the lookouts.

The port of Malacca is densely packed with all kinds of ships, including at least 30 medium and large ships of more than 300 tons, although most of them are armed merchant ships, but it has to be said that the armed merchant ships of this year are actually warships.

The Datang Navy itself still participates in the war with a large number of armed merchant ships, although it is mainly a transportation task, but it is also a military task.

The same is true of the Portuguese, whose large number of armed merchant ships are, in a way, also warships!

But the three most conspicuous battleships and six battleships with tonnages ranging from 500 to 1,000 tons!

These nine warships, unlike those armed merchant ships, are all professional warships, and several of them are similar in size to the ships of the Datang Navy.

The Portuguese are not stupid, in the past ten years, they have gradually discovered the benefits of the new type of Datang ship, and the construction of this kind of ship does not require any special technical ability, but more of a change in design concept, the Portuguese who can build Clark ships and Galen ships can also build Tang-style ships.

The Portuguese East India Company, which has long been active in East Asia, has built a large number of such Tang-style ships, and its new warships in recent years have generally adopted this design.

However, those battleships of more than 1,000 tons are still the traditional Galen ship type.

I have to say that the strong rise of the Tang Empire has brought too many changes to the world, not only in the Huaxia region, but also in the surrounding areas and even the world.

At least Portugal was deeply influenced by the Tang Empire, the rise of the Tang Empire and the importance of maritime trade, which made Portugal's East Asian-European trade larger, so the profits were also more lucrative, which also made the national strength of the Portuguese more powerful than the Portuguese in later time and space.

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